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I want to offer PPC campaign management services to future clients but I'm not sure what the best way to handle payments to and registration at the PPC engines is.
Do you get your client's to register with AdWords say, with their own credit card of course, then get them to give you their login details - or do you manage all your clients' accounts from one master account and then invoice them for any clickthrough and management charges at the end of the month??
Ta in advance for any advice,
theboyduck
not saying this is the best way to do it but is another idea.
I currently set up a new campaign for each client, which is becoming a pain already.
Would like to hear what solution you go for.
Dino.
In terms of billing for our services, we normally charge a percentage of the monthly spend, taken from the clients monthly report, invoiced in arrears.
If we have a client that has never used PPC we will set up the account for them, and offer them the choice of using their payment facility or ours. The important thing to have here is a written contract relating to who is going to do what and when things will get paid. One benefit of using our facility is it helps to boost the turnover if you have a decent client spend.
By setting up a seperate account, the client can look at the figures themselves. If everything was under our account it would get messy to show results and reports.
One thing we make sure of is that all correspondence relating to the account (e-mails etc.. come to us, if it's important we forward it on to clients, but if they get the e-mails and you are writing the ads if an ad is declined or pulled there is no pont in the client getting it.
I view the provision of PPC no different than the supply of any other product. We deliver the product, the client pays us if we deliver what we say we would. But that contract is so important.
Regarding payments, we bill our clients seperately (through 2checkout.com).
Dino_M is talking about the Overture's partnership opportunity. If you can achieve sales of $5000 per month plus, you can sign up.
Ashwin
When you say "percentage for managing bids", do you mean percentage of client's monthly ad budget? I know a number of PPC mgmt companies using this pricing model.
But I feel that there will be a clash of interests between the clients and the PPC management company. Because the PPC company makes more money if the clients spend more. So rather than try to maximize clients' ROI, listing/bid management companies tend to maximize the clients' monthly budget!
Or does this business depend of "faith"?
Our pricing model depends on a combination of number of keywords to manage, number of AdGroups (if it is Google AdWords account mgmt) and yes, clients' monthly ad spend.
Any other good client friendly pricing models around?
Ashwin
This does involve trust on my clients part. They need to know that I won't run their bids up just to make more money. If I were to do that I wouldn't have them as a customer for long because they would be losing money. We usually try to find a cap for the bids that I can't exceed and I always try to look for the most cost effective bid below that number.
I am, by no means, an expert on this though. I only do this for a couple of clients who begged me to help them. It is not a part of something I normally do but if it helps the customer and makes me money in the process, what the heck.
We use the clients credit card for click budget, and bill them separately for management - that way we don't have unnecessary inflation of our turnover i.e. reduces tax - well, thats how our Accountant explained it I think.
Managing a PPC campaign or account for a client is about adding value. Whatever your charging structure, whether it's a fixed fee or a percentage base or something else if the client is getting no benefit of using our service over and above what they could do themselves then what's the point.
Just on niche keywords and deep content links and tracking we more than justify the fees we charge. When you add in the time savings, bid gap management, tactics, analysis, copywriting, education it's a powerful service and more companies are realising that after the initial "fun" of running PPC wears off it's actually quite boring for them to manage.
Don't get me wrong I want all of my clients to spend a lot of money on PPC, but if they were getting a ROI of say 50% on their own I want them to get at least double that after taking account the money they pay us. In most cases we earn our money from squashing over bidding, so which is better paying us to manage it or paying it out on wasted clicks and managing it themselves ?
That is where it pays for itself.
The adwords system does prevent penny by penny over bidding. It does not prevent just plain over bidding by firms that don't have their ROI figured out. Branding is another matter.
A client who has never signed up for PPC management services before is going to ask lots of questions though. May think twice before signing up.
Anyway, I don't understand the logic behind this pricing model. How will it matter if your client is spending $5000 per month or $10000 per month? Your actual workload remains more or less the same.
Now if your client wants to increase the number of keywords from 50 to 100, then you can increase the charges without raising eyebrows since you will have to manage more keywords.
More Keywords = More Work = Higher charges
Higher the client spending = Almost no change in workload = Why increase the prices?
Ashwin
Higher the client spending = Almost no change in workload = Why increase the prices
If a client is spending $10,000 generally they will be in a hyper competitive arena where changes take place regularly on bids, often the gaps can be quite large (look at the gaps on "serviced office"). So the workload is normally much greater as the bidding will change regularly and often around the clock.
Two scenarios typically happen.
1.We reduce the spend they make to deliver the same volume of traffic with a higher conversions rate because of deep content/copywriting. Result for client = increased ROI.
2. We deliver more targeted traffic for the same money, this is usually brought about by increasing the number of keywords bid upon by, generally, 100% + so generally if they are bidding on 100 we will find another 100+ that will deliver value. Result for client = increased ROI.
Sorry if this post sounds a bit like an advert.
A client who has never signed up for PPC management services before is going to ask lots of questions though. May think twice before signing up.
I would expect them to ask questions, happy for them to ask, delighted to refer them to clients who get benefit, have some compelling figures for Google Adwords Select, Overture (UK and US) and Espotting.
I agree you need to educate the clients on what they can expect. kapow mentioned about not over-bidding on Google but as Mike_Mackin pointed out credit card cardiac arrest can happen if you choose the wrong keywords or agree to pay more than you should or you write crummy ads and don't get a good CTR.
In terms of billing for our services, we normally charge a percentage of the monthly spend, taken from the clients monthly report, invoiced in arrears.
I dare say there is a big variance in % charged, but would people mind sharing what actual % figures they charge please.
Some PPC mgmt companies using the above pricing model don't keep the percentage constant. They have a "slab rate" like -
Monthly spend below $500, percentage -> 15%
Monthly spend between $501 to $3000, percentage -> 10%
Monthly spend above $3001, percentage -> 5%
[Ignore the dollar figures. That was just to give you an idea]
The ppc mgmt company I referred to in my previous post was using this rather complicated model.
If the monthly ad spend is, say, $7000 per month, then the PPC mgmt company rakes in -
15% of $500 + 10% of ($3000 - $501) + 5% of ($7000 - $3001) = $525
Ouch! Lots of math - It is a head spinner!
An good Adwords ad looks after itself. What is a monthly management fee for? - modifications?
For most of my listings, AOL accounts for over 45% of the traffic delivered by AdWords. Isn't that surprising?
Our standard tariff is 15% of the monthly expenditure, but it's not cast in stone and in some instances we have charged more and in others less. For Google, we are still altering the pricing, because if your max bid is say 50 cents and you can get the same traffic and results for 45 cents by adjusting the ads or the keyword format then it's got to be better than just saying that your happy to pay $15 and let Google have all the control.
But if our clients want to negotiate the deal then that's fine too, better to have 10% of $10,000 a month than 15% of nothing.
Generally, our setup fee will be equal to the monthly billing fee.
For example -
If we quote $100 per month to manage our clients' campaigns and when the client signs up on, say, Sept. 25th -
Sept. 25th - A charge of $100 on the credit card (Initial setup fee)
Oct. 25th - A charge of $100 (Fee for the services rendered between sept. 25th and oct. 25th)
Nov. 25th - Another charge of $100 (fee for services rendered between oct 25th and november 25th).
If the client decides to cancel on, say November 20th, he/she has to pay for the services rendered for the whole month.
We feel this is more client friendly.
YES
A BIG flat fee up front.
This usually includeds landing page building as well - priced per page.
Is it same for all clients? How do you arrive at the figure?
Assuming the client has a target market it might range from $250 to $2500. There are always exceptions. We don't do non-target or Mall sites.
The fee covers KW research, setup and strategy.
