Outsourcing PPC Management

This being the case, I think you should rather wait and save up until you have the budget to give it a proper go. Said budget should of course consist of money you can afford to lose.

I would imagine that what you would get from a cheap freelancer would not be much better than what you could do yourself after spending a few hours reading about PPC.

In most markets, things are so competitive these days that quick keyword research and campaign setup will not cut it: you have to learn the market yourself, that is where the value is, but it takes time and you will also throw money away at things that will not work (that's why you need a reasonable budget).

Back when I started out, I learned PPC by myself. Patience is key, I think an unbelievable number of people have failed in Internet marketing simply because they were not willing to take the time to save up enough money to be able to start a proper business.

Before you set up any campaign, read up on all the basics of how AdWords/BingAds/Facebook or whatever you want to go at works, just to avoid the worst newbie mistakes like using broad matches in AdWords.

If this sounds like work that's because it is. There are still amazing Internet businesses out there to be had, but they require that you dedicate time and money to break into a market.

Hope some of this helped.

You could start by testing on smaller networks first to see how your products convert to keep your costs down initially before you jump in the deep end. Smaller networks like ours will help with getting your campaign up and running at very little cost if not for free.

1. Should I outsource my campaign creation? I don't have so much money that I can hire a company, so would a cheap elance / fiverr gig be any different from what I can create on my own?

Definitely, what an expert can create and what you can do, will always be different, however nonetheless if you spend time, you can make a good ppc campaign. However gradually with experience you will start making things better and then you will realize that it's the job of a pro, however if you are short in budget, there is no harm in doing it yourself.

2. Should I get someone to manage my campaign or would I get the same results if I did it myself?

Mentioned above.

At least $500 for your PPC budget, but $1000 would be much better. Wait until January as things are unstable over Christmas and you can't trust the data you collect.

Any keyword where you are around break-even is good because with further optimization of ad copy and landing page you can probably make it profitable.

Look tossing away a high number for starting budget is easy for anyone, but it often scares the guy trying to get started with PPC.

To Define your target testing budget, you have to take several things in account such that
-

1. how many keywords you want to start with ?
2. whats your Avg conversion rate (you should know , if not for info products take 2% as a general idea if the landing page is well)
3. whats the avg CPC for the niche you are . In this example lets take 75 Cent a click (You haven't mentioned your keywords so i am not sure, taking just a dummy value for the sake of calculation). Other experts are welcome to argue that the CPC can be much different then Avg but until you know the excact CPC from a live campaign for that keyword Don't bother please.

now, let's say you want to test a small market with 500 Clicks (Yeah your niche can be very broad but its good to test with a very small set of keywords and find the winners and then test more and more instead of spending 1000$ on 20K Keywords. )

Cost for 500 clicks : - 375 $ (500X .75)
Number of Sales - 10 (2% of 500)
Revenue - 470 $ (47X10)

Now it shows you will probably make profit but to achieve this there is 2 conditions -

1. the CPC has to below 75 Cent
2. The conversion rate has to be 2% .

If any of them is not as mentioned above, You might lose in the first try but it will give you a pretty good indicator what might be wrong and then consulting with a PPC Professional to help optimize further will bring you profitable.

Now this is the time we should talk - YOurself vs a PPC Company/Freelancer.

Spend sometime learning Adwords (it's easy to start , expertise is needed in optimization phase) and create your campaign yourself. Group your niche keywords very tight in adwords.. You know who can do it better, You or someone outsider ? ( This is coming from a guy who Do adwords consultancy for as a service). Yes I prefer at least the initial creation from the next part. others might have their own views. its just how i prefer but happen rarely.

A PPC company is no different than someone on freelancer site with verified certain credentials and experience. the benifit over freelancer is that you will OWN your account and you will know what's going on, in most cases a company will try to keep you in dark.

2. Should I get someone to manage my campaign or would I get the same results if I did it myself?

This part is tricky, A professional can always get a better result then you but no harm in paying someone for his time and asking him to suggest changes (Look over) instead of doing it. You can try to understand why he suggested certain changes and learn from it. A professional should not have any problem doing it as long as his time is getting valued (Paid).



Sorry you asked the question to people who already outsourced their campaign and I am not one of them, I am a Professional who do deals with adwords all day long, for myself as well as as a Consultant. If you like to see authenticity, PM me and I can show my Official Google partner Association - that means I have achieved certain performance threshold which is above average.

PS: Small tip to save around 20% of your budget - Bid -90% (minus 90) on mobile device. The clicks from mobile will not make any money for product sales. Disable it

Call the current number on the AdWords homepage. If you are a first time user you are eligible for a free campaign build, they will do a mini consult and build you something. They want you to agree to a large budget to start with, thats okay because you can change it at any time. This will give you a nice starting point and a campaign that is ready to go.

if you can dedicate 1-2 hours per week with PPC you can manage it. Make sure you review the campaign keywords and ads are to your liking after they build it!

Good Luck!