When is the best time to onboard a pay-per-click (PPC) consultant? The answer can dramatically change the course of your digital marketing efforts.
You could be wasting money if you get one prematurely. But you could hemorrhage cash while playing catch-up if you hire a PPC specialist too late.
This blog post answers the question by listing the best times to call for PPC help. This guide aims to make you feel more confident with your decision-making, help you pick the best people to handle the job, and get the most out of your PPC campaigns.
5 Times You Should Work with a PPC Expert
As your online marketing plans grow, you may have to decide if you want to hire a PPC consultant. But that idea can be both intimidating and overwhelming. Below are signs that you need to work with a PPC expert.
1. You Do Not Know PPC
The first and most obvious time you need a PPC consultant is when you do not know anything about it.
That is fine! Not everyone can be an expert in everything, including digital marketing.
But you should also realize that you cannot learn this strategy overnight or experiment with your company’s money.
If building a campaign from scratch hurts your head, you should consider outsourcing it to someone who lives and breathes this stuff. The right person (or agency) can help you in the following areas:
- Create ad groups and copies relevant to your products or services.
- Set up conversion tracking to measure your success
- Help you find the right keywords to target
- Fine-tune tactics if you have any
- Stay updated on trends and policies to keep your campaigns compliant
2. PPC Results Are Underwhelming
You cannot expect to win all the time. But if your losses outnumber your wins, perhaps you should get some help.
According to Digital Authority Partners (DAP), an underperforming campaign could be for any of the following reasons:
- You are not hitting the ideal return on investment (ROI). In other words, your ad spend is too high, and your conversions are too low. Probably, your quality scores are tanking, driving up your costs.
- Your campaigns are not relevant to your target audience. They might be interested in what you are selling, but you are not using the right language or targeting them on the correct platform.
- The ad quality is poor. A subpar ad is often the result of a bad copywriter or not investing enough time in creating high-quality visuals.
A PPC agency brings in experts to help you identify your problems and offer solutions. Also, they can run the whole campaign for you so you can focus on other parts of your business.
3. The Business Is Getting Bigger
Scaling a business is when you are growing so rapidly that your original marketing strategies cannot keep up. If you are in this boat, it might be time to outsource PPC to an agency or consultant who can help you expand your reach without breaking the bank.
They can assist you in the following ways:
- Handle huge budgets wisely. Digital ad spending will experience double-digit growth this 2022. To get a piece of that pie, you need someone who knows how to handle thousands or even millions of dollars for paid ads.
- Develop cross-platform strategies. The pandemic has driven people online, so you now have to reach them across different devices and platforms. A PPC consultant can help you target users on desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets.
- Localize your campaigns. If you are a brick-and-mortar business going global, tweak your ads for each location. A PPC expert can help you target the right people in the right places without making cultural blunders.
4. You Want to Diversify Your Traffic
Generating traffic from different sources is essential for two reasons:
- You are not putting all your eggs in one basket.
- You can compare the quality and quantity of leads you get from each source.
The best way to acquire them is through organic online marketing techniques such as search engine optimization (SEO) and social media. But these can take months or even years to show results.
Meanwhile, PPC can give you an immediate ROI and grow your business fast when done right. How? Let us count the ways:
- It puts your ads in front of people already interested in what you are selling. An expert can launch ad campaigns that target the right keywords and use relevant language to increase click-through rates (CTRs).
- You can match the ad with user intent. Buyers go through the so-called sales funnel, representing their journey from leads to customers. You can customize your campaigns according to the various stages.
- PPC also analyzes lead and customer data. Are you targeting the right people? Who are those seeing and reading your ads? Your data can answer these questions. And depending on the results, you can adjust your campaigns to refine traffic-generation techniques.
5. Google Updates Hit You Hard
Google is always changing its algorithms. Sometimes, these updates can wreak havoc on your campaigns if you are unprepared.
For example, the search engine gives users more control over personalized ads. It might mean you should work harder on personalizing and targeting copies.
You might experience a drop in traffic and conversions, which can be devastating for you if you rely on Google Ads for leads.
If you do not have the time to read Google’s news releases or attend digital marketing conferences, it might be a good idea to outsource PPC to someone who is always in the loop. They can help you make sense of these updates and find ways to work around them.
Further, the best PPC agency is:
- Gets certified. A Google Ads certification means two things: your team knows the job and are allowed to publish even sensitive ads, such as healthcare, on the network.
- Harnesses new technology to automate and improve your campaigns. The ideal agencies continuously invest in the latest PPC software, first-party data, and even artificial intelligence (AI) to save time and make your ads more relevant to users.
- Uses data-driven decisions. It always tests ad copies, landing pages, and targeting options to improve your chances of succeeding online.
Summing Up
PPC advertising is a complex online marketing technique best left to the experts. These are people with experience, certification, and knowledge that help them personalize your ads, maximize your budget, track performance, and deliver optimal results.