If you have considered PPC, you are one step closer to delivering a successful inbound marketing strategy. The buzz around PPC is not surprising considering the endless benefits your business can enjoy if you incorporate this long term investment.
Now, I know you’re thinking about that million dollar question: How should I manage my PPC?
Put simply, you have three options to manage your PPC:
- In-House
- With a freelancer
- With an agency
Choosing the most ideal option for you is easy if you know the benefits and disadvantages of each. In this post, we will break down the key aspects you need to know before you make your own decision.
Option 1: In-House
Aka the ultimate control. If you want to have full power over your marketing efforts, this is your best choice.
Managing your PPC in-house has its perks. This type of management has real-time accountability and a higher level of brand knowledge since these employees work right under your roof. These employees have a huge advantage of understanding your business and how operations should run. Additionally, they have invested so much interest in your company that their sole focus is the overall success of the organization. And don’t forget, walking down the hall to talk to your PPC team is much easier than trying to call someone in hopes of reaching them at a good time.
Of course, in-house PPC also has its disadvantages. Be aware that this option may cost you. If hiring in-house, you may have to spend some time training your employees to perform the necessary work. Not only this, your employees may not be fluent in PPC and may experience a serious learning curve. This could mean months and months of extra work to research techniques and then implement PPC correctly. Another disadvantage of managing PPC in-house is the isolation and limited opportunity of being surrounded by experts in the field. In-house employees will not be able to receive the professional knowledge that may be necessary to implement PPC and they may have a greater difficulty staying up to date on industry trends.
Option 2: Hiring a Freelancer
This is a good option for your business if you are looking to hire an individual to take full responsibility of your PPC project.
A freelancer would be in charge of completing your PPC campaigns and is a great way to manage PPC campaigns if your business is a small or a start-up. This is a great option if your company does not want to dive into a huge chunk of your budget and if your business is looking to cut costs. Additionally, freelancers can offer a deep understanding of the industry and allow for flexible schedule to work when it is best for your company. Not only this, freelancers can have a direct communication with your business.
Unfortunately, hiring a freelancer to manage your PPC may have some downsides. Freelancers are often not efficient in balancing their time between clients so be sure to have a strong process in place. Do so by fully understanding their availability and the communication process. Additionally, keep in mind that you may need to hire more than one freelancer. If a project requires landing page design and development, or other more complex needs, the freelancer many not be able to juggle all of those tasks. With this being said, costs can easily increase as you find the need to hire additional freelancers so try to coordinate amongst them to avoid a management nightmare.
Option 3: Hiring an Agency
Hiring an agency can be your best option if you want to leave the hard work to experts whose sole purpose is to manage PPC accounts. An agency which specializes in PPC can fully immerse itself in your business and result in well-managed campaigns.
Not only can an agency dedicate more time into your projects, it can also provide collective knowledge and resources that you may not have known that you needed. Agencies often have access to private beats that freelancers and in-house teams will not have visibility to. Their strong relationships within their industry can allow your company to access more platforms and gain more insights.
Additionally, agencies have access to regular advanced training, so they are always aware of the latest trends and tactics. This type of knowledge allows agencies to support more complex needs should your project require it, such as landing page design, conversion rate optimization, or lead nurturing campaigns to convert more PPC clicks into customers.
Hiring an agency can be a great benefit to your business because your campaigns would be run under like-minded individuals who are efficient and can collaborate to provide your company with a complete integrated approach to your marketing strategy.
With the multitude of benefits of working with an agency, keep in mind that you will need to pay attention to your communication process. Hiring an agency may mean that you need to take a bit more time to communicate your wants and needs while preparing your agency to be up to speed with your goals and operations. In order to avoid this, look for an agency that will go above and beyond to meet your needs and will always have an open line of communication.
So what’s ideal for your business?
This decision is ultimately up to you. To make the decision process a little easier, you must consider your budget, the level of expertise you desire and the amount of ROI you want to enjoy. Taking your business to the next level may seem like a hard task but preparing to dive deeper into PPC campaigns is a step in the right direction. If you have any questions about taking your PPC campaigns to a further level, reach out to one of our experts and we can chat with you at your best convenience.
