Adwords Consultant?

[PMichaud]

I have been building several fairly successful sites over the past year or so, and I have the budget now to get into Adwords, but I'm a little lost. I "get" adwords, I've run a couple baby campaigns, but I know that it's going to be a big learning curve to get real results, and I'm just not interested in spending the time to learn it.

So I want to hire someone to manage things for me--both set up and ongoing management--but I'm not sure where to find the good providers, how much they should be charging, how much I should expect to spend, or anything like that. Some searching pulled up really old threads (from 2004 and 2007) about pricing, but that's just one aspect.

I'm at the stage where I don't know what I don't know. I want to know what I don't know so I can hire someone good and get the results I want. Where do I start?

[LucidSW]

Like any other major buying decision, you have to do some research and interview potential managers.

Where to find. There are a few of us posting here: myself, Netmeg, Dave Davis and a few others which seem very competent so you may want to PM them.

You could always do a search on Google for "adwords management" and see many listings as well as ads. I get a lot of work from freelancer sites such as eLance so you may want to post there or even on Craigslist.

Fees. These depend on each person or company. Majority seem to charge a percentage of spend. I know of others charging an amount or percentage of the sale. I normally charge based on size of campaign regardless of spend but open to other forms of compensation. I know, it makes it hard to compare.

But what you want in the end is good value for the service given. If you hire someone from India charging $5 per hour, is that better value than someone charging $30?

You have some experience so ask questions. Example: what are the different match types? I just took over a campaign where only broad matches were used and all in the same group. This from a so-called Adwords expert. And the client said the previous manager just disappeared, haven't heard from him in several weeks. So be careful.

[netmeg]

(I'm not taking clients at the moment; I'm full. But there are lots of us around. If you want to pm me some idea of what you need, I can send some good people your way for you to talk to)

[RhinoFish]

there are many bad PPC consultants, strive to get a personal referral for one.

[PMichaud]

Thanks for the replies guys, I appreciate it.

Paying a percentage of sales sounds ideal to me because it protects me from my own ignorance in this area, lol! % of buy seems risky because it creates a perverse incentive for the consultant to spend my money, so that would take a real relationship and established trust, which I don't have right now.

Anyway, thanks for the insight, I have a few PMs to send out, I think!

[RhinoFish]

most consultants charge a % of spend, which i see as perverse.

if your consultant makes a % of sales and you cap their spend, they should be properly (not perversely) motivated to squeeze as many sales as possible out of your allowed budget / spend.

[netmeg]

I personally don't know anyone who would do PPC work as a percentage of sales - there's too much out of their control. For example, I could drive tons of reasonably priced traffic to an offer or landing page that doesn't convert - and not get paid. PPC leads the horse to water, but the landing page and offer are what makes him drink.

[PMichaud]

That's true Meg, but what if the page is already converting? Wouldn't it be reasonable to say that if the traffic driven there by PPC is as targeted or more targeted than the organic traffic that's currently buying, that the consultant will get paid, and he'll be incentiveized to drive quality traffic?

[hulahoop]

I am also looking for a consultant and I don't know what are the criterias that I should be looking for in a consultant. So is it by % or per hour or etc?

How much is onsite and offsite work? I want to know how much investment in terms of time (especially onsite) as it would require my time and effort too.
I am trying a mini campaign now with a coupon - I haven't done one in perhaps 4 to 5 years! I am not getting much luck. Perhaps 1% ctr at most 2% overall. My quality ranking changes daily from 7/10 to 5/10 and sometimes to poor at 4/10. I am really confused.

Thanks

[netmeg]

That's true Meg, but what if the page is already converting? Wouldn't it be reasonable to say that if the traffic driven there by PPC is as targeted or more targeted than the organic traffic that's currently buying, that the consultant will get paid, and he'll be incentiveized to drive quality traffic?

I'm just saying, I don't know of anyone who works that way. That's not saying they're not out there, but I haven't run across one yet. Personally, I charge by the hour.

[RhinoFish]

"I personally don't know anyone who would do PPC work as a percentage of sales"

Perhaps we'll meet someday. :-)

[BlackHatters]

There are a few PPC agencies that work on a CPA deal, or work through affiliate netwroks spending PPC budgets on a comission basis. It means that they have an incentive to actually do a decent job when it comes to finding relevant traffic as they are based on performance and are also heavily involved in on page conversions.

[PMichaud]

Who are they? How would I contact those?

[netmeg]

Unfortunately, WebmasterWorld is probably not a good place to look for this, as there is a strong anti-promotion and no-links-allowed policy here. That has advantages as to the quality of the posts, but disadvantages for what you need.

You could try the AdWords Help forum.

[AdWordsAdvisor]

Who are they? How would I contact those?

Unfortunately, WebmasterWorld is probably not a good place to look for this, as there is a strong anti-promotion and no-links-allowed policy here. That has advantages as to the quality of the posts, but disadvantages for what you need.

You could try the AdWords Help forum.

It is actually counter to the posting guidelines of the AdWords Help forum to either ask for or offer assistance outside of the forum. The same "anti-promotion" notions prevail there, too.

So, I'm afraid that forum is not a viable option either.

AWA

[RhinoFish]

G has a page of pro's you can search here:
adwords.google.com/professionals/search/

G should add a search field for types of arrangements offered... cpa, %spend, flat, one-time fixer fee, etc.

if you do search there now, the results list a lot of info about the consultants, lacking a personal referral to someone, i'd suggest starting there.