I passed the Google AdWords Qualified Professional exam Dec 26. I have a full-time job in Internet Marketing and a couple of clients part-time.
If you have 5 minutes, could you please answer two questions? Any feedback is appreciated!
Profile/Metrics
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Client: Customer A
Their clients: B2B and B2C
Market: USA and Canada
Type of business: Bricks and mortar - manufacturer
Product: Custom-made consumer product
Product price: $4,000 to $15,000
Marketing mode: Google Search, Google Search Partners, Google Content Network
# of Campaigns: 2
# of Adwords Groups: 42
# of Keywords: 900
Search CTR: 6.4%
Conversion Rate: 4.4%
Cost/Lead: $21
Leads/Sale: 14
Time Frame: Jan 1-15, 2009
Question 1: Rate My Performance
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0. Don’t Know
1. Very Bad
2. Bad
3. Average
4. Good
5. Very Good
Question 2: What Should I Charge Per Hour?
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0. Don’t Know
1. $0-$40
2. $41-$60
3. $61-$80
4. $81-$100
5. $101-$120
6. More than $120
Thank you!
I passed the Google AdWords Qualified Professional exam
Congrats, bottomline! And, welcome to WebmasterWorld...
Profile/Metrics
-------------------
Client: Customer A
Their clients: B2B and B2C
Market: USA and Canada
Type of business: Bricks and mortar - manufacturer
Product: Custom-made consumer product
Product price: $4,000 to $15,000
Marketing mode: Google Search, Google Search Partners, Google Content Network
# of Campaigns: 2
# of Adwords Groups: 42
# of Keywords: 900
Search CTR: 6.4%
Conversion Rate: 4.4%
Cost/Lead: $21
Leads/Sale: 14
Time Frame: Jan 1-15, 2009
I doubt you'll be able to elicit feedback that's all that helpful with the information provided... key questions would better reflect your performance: a. profitability of your campaign, b. solid campaign foundation - tightly knit ad groups, ad copy, geographic segmentation, B2B/B2C strategies, etc., c. quality score levels - and plans to sustain/improve these levels, d. strategies for further growth - keyword expansion, optimization, etc.
Not that you should necessarily share this info here (I wouldn't!), but I think these are key pieces of information by which to rate an SEM's value.
My experience with customers is they don't care about the technical info you're outlined (except ROI of course!). I do care because they affect ROI.
I struggled with how much info to share publicly. I spent Nov+Dec doing a revamp so ad groups have related keywords, campaigns are geographically segmented, etc. The account is more profitable by an order of magnitude, as measured by ROI/ROAS, compared to six months ago. I inherited the account from an agency.
Current quality score ranges between 7 and 10, with a median of 8 and an average of 8.1. Work needs to be done here, and many other places.
I'm reasonably confident my copy is good as over the years, I've been self-employed as an editor, taken journalism courses, attended ad copy-righting workshops, and so on.
So many variables, and so little time :( Thanks again for the feedback!
i think that #2 (41-60) would make the most sense considering the limited info i have.
My experience with customers is they don't care about the technical info you're outlined (except ROI of course!).
You are right in this statement, but it's usually these types of details that separate the good SEMs from the bad. So, it's another challenge for those paying attention to these details to somehow communicate the layman's versions of these concepts to the client.
It will help that you can communicate the connection between specific actions and strategies to performance improvements. It will also help if another agency or consultant approaches your client. If they manage to explain concepts that you haven't covered in their pitch, your client may think they're missing something by working with you.
It covers one state and a dozen keywords, each in its own ad group, phrase match, with appropriate negative keywords. He doesn't understand why his ads aren't at the top of the SERPs as sponsored links. Quality score is 8, there are 4 proven ads per keyword, and an optimized, dedicated landing page for each keyword. Landing pages are laden with calls to action.
He will be paying an order of magnitude more per click. He looks only at one search engine (Google) in one city in one state. The city and state have horrible demographics compared to his target demographic; I've done my homework.
I'll let the mini-campaign run a couple of weeks and it will allow me to educate him. It will bring to light some poor business decisions he has made, which I have brought up before and will bring up again, delicately. We have a good relationship and throughout my career, my philosophy has been that I'm paid to tell clients what they need to know, not what they want to hear. This approach has served me well. Definitely, his ego is tied up in all this.
Definitely don't want other agencies scooping my clients. If anything, should be the other way around :)
I've given some thought as to what makes a good SEM versus a bad SEM, and I respectfully disagree, at least on some points.
My thoughts on the difference between a a good SEM and a bad SEM..
A good SEM speaks the language of business, knows what the company's strategy is, who its customers and prospects are, knows what is the total marketing strategy (brand, messaging, USP, VOC) in print, TV, radio, newspaper, and Internet, knows where SEM fits in and aligns with the mix, and sits with senior management in strategic business decisions. She is connected intimately with the business.
A bad SEM speaks geek to business people, doesn't take the time to learn company and marketing strategy, doesn't align SEM with bigger marketing strategy, and has no input on strategic business decisions. He finds out about them after the fact, is disconnected from the business, and lives in his own isolated bubble of cool technology, neat jargon and fellow SEMers.
I've lived on both sides of the fence: business for 15 years, IT for 13 years. IT has a well-deserved reputation as being arrogant and has been slowly outsourced, downsized, etc. since the dot-com bubble bust.
For sure, SEM is not IT, but during hard times like now, a business looks at all major areas of business (marketing, sales, administration, customer service, IT) for cost savings. A good SEM proves her value to the business in business terms: leads, sales, conversion rate, cost per lead, ROI/ROAS, etc.
That said, I agree that a good SEM has to explain clearly in layman's terms what he does. Because business people wonder, what exactly is it you do? These days, you've got one shot at saying it right.
