Doing Adwords for others

Going into business

[CharlieII]

Hi there...I've been running my own adwords account for a couple of years and really enjoy the work. So I thought I should go into business and set up on my own and create/manage adwords accounts for clients. So I thought I'd ask if any of you have done the same thing, and if so, do you have any tips? Can you direct me towards any helpful resources? And do I need to be Google certified before I start? Have you made any mistakes that others could avoid...and do you enjoy it?! Sorry about all the questions!

Any help would be really appreciated...

[Mark_A]

I have managed adwords for clients whose website I had created and whose online promotion I was doing. But to my mind, the beauty of adwords is that clients can get stuck in themselves. There are however jobs in web agencies for adwords people.

[PayMePerClick]

There are jobs EVERYWHERE. Not only in agencies but in small, medium, and large sized businesses. Many companies hire in-house SEO and Paid Search associates. Some of those same companies have in-house people AND still have SEO and Paid Search agencies both working hand-in-hand.

Starting your own consulting firm or agency would be difficult without any testimonials or solid client base to start off with. Otherwise, you could be any joe-schmo and no one would pay you money to manage their PPC. You'd also be better off focusing on one certain niche within a larger industry. IE: small boutique luxury hotels on the east coast instead of all hospitality/hotels around the country/world.

[DiscoStu]

I used to do some freelancing PPC. Usually did like $1000-$1500 for the setup and then 10-15% of adspend, but I've done other payment structures too (rev share etc)

[CharlieII]

Thanks for your comments everyone...all very helpful indeed. I've got another couple of questions which I'd appreciate some guidance on:

1) Is there an industry 'standard' pricing model...eg, $500/mth management fee for campaigns under $10k/mth...and 5% of spend for projects over $10k/mth?
2) How do you get around the issue of billing? Do you request your fee plus monthly campaign fee up front? Or take the risk and charge them at the end of the month with another 28 days to pay? (ouch!).
3) DiscoStu...quite interested in the rev share model...how did that work? Which model do you prefer?

Many thanks in advance!

[idolw]

from a customer's point of view I want the PPC specialist to try to understand my business. This has not happened when I tried to work with some agencies and now we have hired a person to do it for us full time. The results started to be positive and we can spend more and make paid traffic more important to our company.
I believe the reason for failure of work agencies was because they simply have limited time. They hire people to admin the customers' campaigns and such admin has say 5 customers to look after (I guess way more than that). That's under 2 hours per customer per day. How can they try to think about our business, ask questions and work for success? Instead they'll speak to us using some "smart" words about "influence, growth, brand, blahblah" which does not make sense when a CPC campaign is in question. And of course they say "we must test all the time" With CPC you must break even first and think about increasing scale and branding campaigns later. Of course you must test but not all the time.
But that requires the agency to work on success fee and they simply cannot afford it in most cases.

I believe you can be a successful CPC manager when you want to understand customer's business and spend time with them, understanding how it can work for them. In fact, you will probably end up as their in-house PPC manager at least at the start.
Now, the question is: can you afford such investment? Can your custome afford such investment?

Another possible way to go is to base on people's lack of knowledge and try to sell them clicks with a margin. Say you go to a business and offer them 1000 targetted clicks to their site for $1500. If they accept it you try to get CPC at under $1 and all you make is yours.
That way of doing business does not sound to be very rewarding in terms of human ambition but I heard it works in terms of money.

[LucidSW]

> 1) Is there an industry 'standard' pricing model

There's all sorts of pricing models. It's up to you. But have a model where you'll make money. If you charge $500 setup fee and I have an ecommerce site with 100 different products, will that be worth it to you? I say no, that's why I charge based on the size of a campaign. It really comes down to an hourly fee but disguised as "I'll manage your campaign of x products this way for $x".

> 2) How do you get around the issue of billing?

Since I've been burned a couple of times, I now ask for at least a part of the fee up front. It depends on how comfortable I feel with a new client. My latest suggested half right away and I was going to suggest the same. Others, I ask for two months in advance. It just depends. If you use a service like eLance, you ask them to fund the escrow account before starting. This way, they prepay and you know the money is in there ready to be released.

3) Rev sharing model. Again, many ways to do this. I would still ask for some money up front however. And I'd sign a long term contract too.

You've got to spend time to learn a client's business. Sometimes that's easy, other times hard. Are you the type of person ready and willing to learn new things? Would you be lost if I wanted you to sell statistical data analysis software for example? At first yes, but you'll have to understand what this product is and does in order to do a good job.

[netmeg]

ALL my accounts use the customer's credit card (or they're invoiced direct if they've passed the credit check) No exceptions.

[CharlieII]

Thanks all...sounds like it's a case of looking for the right clients where I feel I can really get under the skin and understand their business as well as their goals.

netmeg...and how do you deal with your fee...do you ask them to pay in advance?

[netmeg]

Originally I think they pay a deposit, or I get a credit card number. I haven't taken on a new one in so long it hasn't been an issue.

[CharlieII]

OK...thanks!