But I also have a client who is interested in hiring me to launch a campaign for them, because they lack the time, staff and inclination to figure out how to do it themselves. However, I'm not sure if I feel confident enough to undertake this on their behalf, or instead, give a recommendation, take my middel man cut and be on my way. So I am wondering if anyone knows of any "experts" out there, who, for a fee, will do the AdWords leg work for others. No kits or books - actual consultants. Thanks!
As far as actually asking for names and contacts, those posts only go in the commercial exchange forum.
Feel free to limit this discussion as to how to pick a consultant (qualities to look for) etc instead of specifics.
Thanks.
Experience. How long have they been working with ppc and do they have certifications or training? Keep in mind that many of the best do not have formal training or certifications but just have a talent for getting the most out of AdWords. Ask hard questions and see how they answer them.
References. Find out if they make promises they can't keep and see if they communicate with their clients. In general, are their clients happy with their services?
Check their work. Ask for at least two or three websites that they do services for. Do some obvious searches and see how those websites do in Google AdWords. Are the ads creative? How is positioning? If you have questions about what you find...ask the consultant...some clients are on limited budgets and will not have high positioning.
Get solid pricing before you get started. Is it by the hour, by the number of AdGroups, by the number of terms? Be wary of those who take a percentage of your spending...that means that the more you spend, the more they make and they may not keep your best interests in mind as they set up or manage your account.
Find out exactly what you will be paying for. What does "set up" include? What does management mean? I knew a company that had hundreds of AdWords "management" clients and the only management they did was send a monthly report and bill their clients every month and that company only made changes IF the client made a specific request. If there is not a constant amount of "tweaking" (testing new ads, bid adjustments, monitoring budgets, splitting off terms into new campaigns, etc.) then it's not "management".
Things to look for in an AdWords consultant:
They do not advertise their services in their first ever post on a forum in contravention of that forum's TOS.
The ideal way to pay them would be based on cost per conversion and traffic (basically they become an affiliate marketer), rather than a flat fee or a percentage of gross advertising dollars spent. Anything else and they're likely to send tons of untargeted traffic or ounces of targeted traffic.
I would suggest you do some experimenting on your own so you can get a baseline reading, and then set up some kind of trial period before turning things over to somebody else.
I've deleted several posts in this thread.
A discussion about what to look for in an adwords consultant/firm for the posted to make an informed decision is acceptable.
Blatant promotions/URL drops are against the TOS and will be deleted without notice. If someone sees a firm that needs to resort to tactics that don't follow the TOS, I think that says enough about what other TOS's/Best Practices they might not follow in spending your money.
There is no such thing as "official Google adwords consultants".
Yes there is. The're called Q-GAPs :)
[adwords.google.com...]
[edited by: eWhisper at 1:54 pm (utc) on July 26, 2005]
[edit reason] Fixed URL [/edit]
How many adwords clients have they served?
Do they offer testimonials?
What is their client's average spend and total spend range?
What is their billing procedure?
Do they use 3rd party or inhouse tools?
Do they give you access to any of these tools?
What sort of reports do they send?
What is the reporting interval?
Do they make recommendations / create targeted landing pages?
Do they set up split tests on regular intervals to not just manage bids, but to optimize your conversions?
Do you receive a dedicated rep?
Is your communication with that rep through email or phone? (i.e. do you get a rep's phone number).
Will they take your ad copy / keyword recommendations and just add them to an account to make you happy -- or do they use them & test them so they're making decision on numbers, not psychological factors to keep you happy?
Do they measure content targeting different than search?
Does their offer sound like a promise that no one can keep? (aka 50k hits for $25/month SEO offer)
Are they offering to keep you in position 1, or offering to find out what converts for you?
After your first phone conversation - do you trust them?
Ask them a couple off-the-cuff difficult questions and see if they can answer them.
Often, the agency is using their own credit card (or Google payment terms) in the account. Giving account access to an advertiser could result in the advertiser changing the password, upping budgets, etc. Based on the agency/advertiser contract - the agency might not be able to collect these funds and thus don't give these advertisers direct logins. Thus, it's a monetary liability issue to give these advertisers logins.
However, to compensate, sometimes they'll give them logins to an in-house platform to pull reports (and since these reports are often API based - they are identical to AdWords).
Then there are clients who are using their own credit cards, or already have an AdWords account. In this case, if I had an adwords account, went to an agency and they told me I couldn't keep access to it - I know I'd be walking away.
Often it comes down to trust.
You are trusting an agency to spend your money.
If you don't trust them enough to ensure you're going to get reports, have to look over their shoulder, etc - should you be doing business with them?
