1) Click Fraud.
We see click fraud every single day. Normally, Google, Yahoo and MSN do a decent enough job at detecting click fraud. Do you know if you are being hit? How do you report it? Do you know what to look for? How do you go about getting a refund? Fraudulent clicks effect almost every PPC campaign. An online marketing agency can work with you using proprietary and third party solutions to detect, report and get refunded for click fraud.
2) They Know Their Engines.
Most established PPC management agencies know all the major PPC networks. They work with them every day. It’s their business. They know the intracies of each system (Yes, there are some differences!), they know works and can write good copy, get high click through rates and improve your overall essential metrics.
3) Keyword Research.
Bidding on the same keywords as your competition is like running the same ad in a magazine as your competition. You have to rely on your ad copy to attract visitors and differentiate you from the rest. A good online marketing company will have their own resources and keyword research tools that you may have never heard of to expand your keyword portfolio and bring in more qualified leads/sales using keywords that your competition do not know about.
4) Experience.
Pay Per Click networks such as Google, Yahoo and MSN are bridging the gap between PPC and SEO by integrating Quality Scores into the mix. Landing page quality score optimization is very much like SEO. A solid understanding and implementation of the concepts of SEO, landing page relevancy and quality score is no longer an easy task for the average marketer. An online marketing agency does this every day and can quickly identify problem areas.
5) Contacts.
Let’s face it. Even the most seasoned experts run into problems sometimes. An established Pay Per Click Management company should have quality contacts, be it representatives with the search engines themselves, bloggers or business contacts. An outsourced PPC marketing agency will have the resources to find answers to problems FAST rather than waiting for boilerplate support replies.
6) Cross Pollination.
PPC Management firms can “cross-pollinate.” Strategies and tactics that work for one client can often work for many. Ideas that work in one industry can be adapted and applied to in others.
7) Bleeding Edge.
They can also determine which of the new tools and programs that Google and Yahoo introduce are appropriate for you. The announcement of preferred CPC made a big splash in terms of news but has been very quiet since (because it’s not that great — we’ve tested!).
8) Changing PPC Landscape.
They aren’t going to “set it and forget it.” The landscape is always changing and your account needs to change with it. New advertisers are entering the space, existing advertisers are becoming better businesses (and getting harder to compete against), and Google and Yahoo are constantly refining their PPC programs to generate the most relevant results. Most accounts that we’ve taken over from clients have an amazing amount of “low hanging fruit” because they’ve hardly been touched since the accounts were set up.
9) Time.
They can save you time on two different fronts. You not only won’t have to manage the accounts yourself but you don’t have to keep up-to-date on the various trends. And, with that free time, you can focus on other high-ROI activities that will help your businesses grow.
10) Peace Of Mind.
They can offer relief and peace of mind. It’s a huge benefit knowing that your PPC campaign is being run professionally — that it’s working as it should *and* that you don’t have to worry about it!
Hat tip to Barry Schwartz of Rusty Brick/SEroundtable for some ideas and thanks to Patrick East of PPC Hero for numbers 5-10.
So what have I missed? What are the other benefits that you have found in letting a PPC management agency run your campaigns? What reasons would you have for choosing a PPC managment agency?