Adwords Management by Commission

Is percentage of spend the only option?

[CainIV]

Hi all.

I have been involved in Google Adwords for a long time and although I have accreditation, etc, Adwords is one channel that I do not have time for with clients, as my focus is on other channels in marketing.

In my searches for a very qualified professional, I have only found companies and individuals that work on a % of spend model.

Has anyone in this forum heard of commission based Adwords professionals, with added pay per performance?

[RhinoFish]

they're definitely out there, keep looking.

or perhaps, approach some who appears to pitch % of spend and ask to negotiate a performance model.

[tchale430]

I would say % of spend is still the most common of several models and hybrids.

The model doesn't matter - you are probably gonna get what you pay for. The best cost whether it be fees or commissions ;-)

If the offer is a great percentage from someone that really has there stuff together - who wouldn't want scalable income as a cut for their services.

If it is a small percentage on a dog of a project. Sounds like a consult for an hourly fee, why assume the risk if you are an AdWords ace, makes no sense.

It's advertising, not resurrection.

Very situational - but there are more "AdWords Specialists" shingles going up every second, if you look hard enough you can strike any type of deal you like - with whom is the question. Hard to tell the hard core experts from wannabes if you are just looking at the website etc.

-T

[tchale430]

Don't you love it when someone misspells something like "has there stuff together".

So igorant ;-)

-T

[CainIV]

Thanks guy for the feedback.

[LucidSW]

The vast majority of managers use a percentage of spend. In fact, I know of only one - myself - that doesn't do this but I'm sure they are out there. FWIW, I normally charge by the landing page but am open to other forms of compensation.

[Kate82]

Any good ones will be open to negotiation as long as it is clear that they can recover the cost of their time spent managing the account. Never be afraid to ask, just be nice about it. A good manager will understand and work with you to make the best situation for you both.

FYI there is a major agency that only works with Fortune 500 type e-commerce clients - AdLucent - they work only on a pay per performance model and make it work very well.

[Dave_Davis]

We're not taking clients at the moment so I think I can safely post this without it seeming like a pitch.

In the past year, we have tested various models but have found that the one that "seals the deal" as well as generates the most revenue for us is the pay per performance model.

Because we have so much experience in affiliate marketing and we are effectively the only affiliate for that client (not even competing with the client themselves) it can be incredibly rewarding for both parties. Of course, there are rules to be set in place for lower "commissions" on branded terms etc. but we have found it works very well.

One of the best parts about this billing model is that it keeps the agency working harder, trying to drive up conversions and down costs and limiting the risk to the client from the get go.

I think you'll find a lot more moving to this model in 2010.

[CainIV]

Hi Dave. Thanks for your insight.

This was exactly our thinking as well. Pay per performance, when done fairly and on a large scale, means everything benefits.

Percentage of spend doesn't make the contractor committed to overall results unless they want to be.

[Dave_Davis]

Exactly, and it eliminates many dodgy vendors making up reasons to increase the spend.