particleman - 1:58 am on Feb 27, 2009 (gmt 0)

I'll chime in. I run our campaigns for several sites. Although I don't do it for clients, I do it as my job. So not that much different.

The story I wanted to share though was based on a call we got a few month ago from surprisingly the yellow pages. They were touting an adwords pay per click managmenet service. I played along and listened to the guys talk. I was very skeptical about it. Basically he found a broad match keyword I had overlooked somehow searching google and led to the phone call about their service. Basically he got me to share what we were spending a month and did a quote for us. They actually start a new adwords account and run it for you, "optimizing it". I had a hard time finding value in this service, but I could see where it would be useful for someone that didn't know anything about adwords. Pricing it seemed to be 10%-15% on top of what we were spending a month, and I really wasn't clear to what level they would monitor the results.

My opinion I have done some consultations for people about adwords to get them going, but I think there is a good market for this type of service. You will just have to be crystal clear on the incredible cost that come with adwords if you let it. Although there is usually good returns too! I would be sure to setup conversion tracking so your customers can see the results of their campaigns. Adwords should do sufficient reporting.

If I were to do this on an ongoing basis I would charge a flat fee based on the size of the adwords setup, that would include research and setting up the account. Then agree on a monthly fee to monitor the account and cooridinate adjustments with the client on a weekly or monthly basis. Maybe a 30 minutes phone call every 2 weeks or something to discuss sales and keyword tweaks.