When it comes to pay-per-click advertising (PPC), the concept seems pretty simple. You write a short ad, bid on keywords and watch the calls come in. Right?

Not as simple as it sounds.

PPC advertising can be your largest lead generator; however PPC campaigns actually require a great deal of time and knowledge to get the best results out of your budget. Although it may be tempting to try your hand at this type of online marketing (especially since Google claims it’s as easy as “$5 dollars and 5 minutes of your time”), you should be aware of the differences that an experienced search marketing agency can make in orchestrating a successful PPC campaign vs. a marketing loss.

Here are 5 reasons why hiring an agency is a safer bet than trying it yourself:

1. PPC campaigns take time. Operating a Google Adwords campaign is time consuming. The primary goal of online marketing is to reach a large, targeted audience, while maximizing your budget and tracking results. To accomplish this, you need to research your target, stay on top of your keyword bids, and change ads that aren’t working. While, yes, you can sign up for an Adwords account in 5 minutes, that’s about all you can do. Setting up your PPC campaign and maintaining your account is a completely different story. A lot of time goes into researching and choosing appropriate keywords, writing various PPC ads, grouping your ads, setting limits and rules for your campaign, monitoring results, and other factors to make your PPC advertising successful. Investing time and consistently adjusting your ads to reach your optimal target is essential to running a successful PPC campaign. An agency has the expertise and dedicates the time to do this effectively.
2. An agency understands that Adwords is just one part of a larger puzzle. Google Adwords is one stepping-stone on the road to effective online marketing. Unfortunately, what many businesses don’t realize is that a PPC campaign works best when paired with a well designed, search engine optimized website, and strong online marketing and social media campaigns. Any agency worth their salt will point out where you can make some improvements on your site and optimize landing pages to ensure that your site captures the right target audience and gets the best quality click-throughs for your budget. More importantly, they want to ensure that your website or landing pages have what it takes to convert PPC traffic into leads, phone calls and sales.
3. Being Adwords certified makes a difference. Ensuring your campaign runs smoothly requires a fundamental understanding of Google Adwords. Anyone can set up an account, but understanding the proper techniques to get the most out of your PPC budget requires an individual or agency that is Adwords Certified. There’s a reason Google has a certification process that requires hundreds of hours worth of studying and training. Setting up and managing a PPC campaign isn’t as simple as it may seem at first glance.
   There are numerous factors that need to be considered and researched before creating a PPC campaign for your business. For instance, did you know that your campaign can be set up to be active only during your company’s hours of operation? Did you know you can set up negative keywords that you don’t want to show up for, so you don’t waste clicks? Did you know you can set up “call per click” so that people searching on their mobile phones can call your business instantly by clicking on your ads? Someone who is Google Adwords certified can set up your PPC campaign and customize it to help you reach your marketing and business goals, maximizing your budget from day 1. Creating PPC advertising campaigns without the proper understanding of what you’re doing may result in a lot of click-throughs that amount to minimal results and a waste of your marketing budget.
4. Agencies are in the online marketing loop. Google is constantly making changes to Adwords and Analytics. (Almost annoyingly so). Part of the job of a Search Engine Marketing Analyst is staying up- to-date with the latest changes, methods, techniques and products involved in creating effective PPC advertising. We read search engine articles, follow search engine marketing forums, we blog and chat with other search engine experts. Basically, we live and breathe Google and the search engine world. We know the best ways to make your ads sing and attract results!
5. Free up time to work on your business. An agency allows you more time to concentrate on your business, while they focus on maximizing your online marketing results. An experienced online marketing agency will most likely gain you better results than you could achieve on your own, and they’ll make it their job to ensure your PPC campaigns are constantly being monitored and improved. A good search engine agency will also keep you in the loop with regular Analytics reports, so you’ll always feel in touch and in control of your marketing spend.

If you haven’t tried PPC yet or have had a bad experience with it, let Eden analyze your previous PPC campaigns and show you how you can get better results. Call Eden Advertising & Interactive at 1-800-844-0106 for a FREE PPC consultation.

Make it a New Year’s marketing resolution to include PPC in your online marketing mix, and take the steps to do it right from the beginning!

If you have any questions or comments about PPC advertising or Google Adwords, feel free to comment below. Has PPC been effective for your business? Have you tried it yourself? Did you work with an agency? What do you recommend?