Should I use a PPC management company?

[MetalMan390]

I recently acquired a website that sells a membership to it's member's area, which is how it makes money, $20 a pop. With the right advertising, the previous owner claimed it made a profit of around $3000 last month after advertising. He sent me some of the keywords and such but I'm new to PPC and there is just way too many variables for each ad for a newbie a like me to be successful. I made one ad and the first day I made $100, but since then the sales have been between $0 and $60 per day, with about 5 other ads I have tried since. My ads are on yahoo marketing, soon to merge with microsoft adcenter, with whom I have set up an account as well.

I have been thinking about using a PPC management company to get me started. The way I figure, I am wasting so much money on making crappy ads and using bad keywords and bids that it would be worth it to pay someone. Right now I'm only spending about $10-$20 a day because I want to test what works and what doesn't without wasting too much money, but ideally with GOOD advertising I would like to spend around $1000/mo or more IF things are set up properly and making good money.

I was wondering what you guys think... is it worth it? It's very expensive, but considering the potential to dial in my ads and get everything optimized, it sounds like a good idea. I don't really want to have to pay someone several hundred a month to manage the account, I was thinking that I could pay someone to set up all my ads, keywords, bids, etc and get the ball rolling and let it ride, see where that does. Then, if sales aren't where I'd like them to be, either pay the monthly management fees or maybe at this time I will have learned by watching which ads are working with which types of bids and keywords, etc and possibly be able to do it myself.

So basically, I want to know if you think hiring a PPC management company is a good idea for someone like me, if they will even do a set up without becoming a regular paying monthly customer, and if there is anyone on this board that is knowledgeable and willing to do this kind of work for a decent price.

[Social-Media-Marketing]

Originally Posted by MetalMan390

I recently acquired a website that sells a membership to it's member's area, which is how it makes money, $20 a pop. With the right advertising, the previous owner claimed it made a profit of around $3000 last month after advertising. He sent me some of the keywords and such but I'm new to PPC and there is just way too many variables for each ad for a newbie a like me to be successful. I made one ad and the first day I made $100, but since then the sales have been between $0 and $60 per day, with about 5 other ads I have tried since. My ads are on yahoo marketing, soon to merge with microsoft adcenter, with whom I have set up an account as well.

I have been thinking about using a PPC management company to get me started. The way I figure, I am wasting so much money on making crappy ads and using bad keywords and bids that it would be worth it to pay someone. Right now I'm only spending about $10-$20 a day because I want to test what works and what doesn't without wasting too much money, but ideally with GOOD advertising I would like to spend around $1000/mo or more IF things are set up properly and making good money.

I was wondering what you guys think... is it worth it? It's very expensive, but considering the potential to dial in my ads and get everything optimized, it sounds like a good idea. I don't really want to have to pay someone several hundred a month to manage the account, I was thinking that I could pay someone to set up all my ads, keywords, bids, etc and get the ball rolling and let it ride, see where that does. Then, if sales aren't where I'd like them to be, either pay the monthly management fees or maybe at this time I will have learned by watching which ads are working with which types of bids and keywords, etc and possibly be able to do it myself.

So basically, I want to know if you think hiring a PPC management company is a good idea for someone like me, if they will even do a set up without becoming a regular paying monthly customer, and if there is anyone on this board that is knowledgeable and willing to do this kind of work for a decent price.

I think it's a terrible idea for someone with no PPC experience to manage a PPC ad campaign. As you said it is a complex beast. Most who try with no experience just end up burning through cash with little to show for it when they are done.

You can find Google Adwords Certified Partners at Google if you need someone to manage your campaign and you don't have personal references.

If your long term goal is to manage it yourself, you could pay someone to do it while you learn. You can get a lot of information here https://adwords.google.com/support/a...s&ctx=go&hl=en.

[tryinhere]

the very first thing is if the person claims to be / have made xyz using ppc then ask him to export the campaign he used for that website to a csv file, then using editor / upload the campaign to your account.

now if he / she is on the money then everything will work out of the gate. / my guess is you may get the i canceled / deleted the campaign ? / hope not

/ happy to chat if you do need a hand moving forward / drop a pm or skype / cheers

[MetalMan390]

Originally Posted by tryinhere

the very first thing is if the person claims to be / have made xyz using ppc then ask him to export the campaign he used for that website to a csv file, then using editor / upload the campaign to your account.

now if he / she is on the money then everything will work out of the gate. / my guess is you may get the i canceled / deleted the campaign ? / hope not

/ happy to chat if you do need a hand moving forward / drop a pm or skype / cheers

the person did send me their ads, but apparently he didn't do it right. when i open the file in excel it appears that most of the info is missing, some keywords and a lot of random numbers in the columns. so it's pretty much useless. it's an xls file though. i emailed him and asked that he use the template that yahoo provides for saving ads (csv file), but he hasn't responded, so now i have to figure this out on my own.

[reitdude]

Yes, it is definitely worth it to hire a professional AdWords campaign management company if you are serious about online advertising. Just don't pay too much. The value is that they will help you achieve a higher Google Quality Score which will 1) lower your ppc, 2) increase conversions, and 3) display your ad more often and higher in search results.

Best deal I've found is with a company called EZlocal (Google them)... their minimum plan is $95/mo and goes up depending on what coverage-area you want - but they do an awesome job!

[Lucid]

Agree with SMM, most who try burn money because they don't have experience. If you don't have experience, you'll spend money to learn. Either on-the-job training or learning courses or hire an expert. You might save yourself some by getting an expert.

In my opinion, the deal should have included the PPC data. In fact, I would have asked to see it before finalizing the deal. I'm curious too why someone would sell a site claiming it made $3 grand a month. Sounds fishy.

But yeah, if you're not successful, a look by a professional should get you on a better path.