Do You Need To Hire A Professional AdWords Manager?

In the past month or so, I’ve come across quite a few AdWords campaigns that weren’t up to snuff. The reason? These campaigns were managed by business owners who weren’t 100% familiar with Google’s system, and their inexperience and lack of knowledge led to some pretty big gaps in their AdWords campaigns (not to mention a lot of wasted funds).

Seeing this reminded me that there’s not much money to be saved “self-managing” your Google AdWords campaign. Still, business owners choose to self-manage their AdWords accounts every day. Based on my conversations, a lot of the people that I’ve helped didn’t know that they needed help in the first place.

So, here’s a list of questions a business owner or manager can ask themselves to figure out if they can save money hiring a professional AdWords manager:

1) Are you getting any results? If the answer is “no”, you should give me (or another AdWords Professional) a call. The fact is that AdWords works (really, really well in fact). If your AdWords campaign isn’t generating business, chances are good that you’re missing something.

2) Did you watch all the Google AdWords videos? There are two steps to becoming an AdWords expert. 1) Learn everything about Google’s system. 2) Practice everything you learn. I’ve attended both of Google’s AdWords workshops (basic and advanced), I’ve been to multiple conferences (Search Engine Strategies, Affiliate Summit, etc.), and I’ve managed hundreds of thousands of dollars in ads. I’ve also read just about everything on Google’s website about AdWords. While you don’t have to have my experience to be effective, you most certainly do have to have the basics down.

3) Do you know the difference between the content network and the search network? Google AdWords allows you to target advertisements towards specific keyword searches (the search network) as well as targeting ads to relevant content (the content network). The search network usually has the best ROI, and the content network can be a HUGE waste of cash if it’s not managed correctly. If you’re not aware of the differences between search and content, it’s time to hire a pro.

4) Are you paying less than $2 for a click? If the answer is ‘no’, you’re either advertising in a very competitive segment or you have a low ad quality score. Either way, it’s time to bring someone on board to help you.

5) Can you track the results from any of your AdWords ads? If you know what ads are working (and how well), you’re a step ahead of everyone else and you might not need help. However, if your eyes glaze over when you read “conversion tracking,” well, it’s probably time to call in a pro.

As a general rule, I charge a very small AdWords management fee (just 10% of your monthly spend) and I usually don’t need much time to “tune-up” an AdWords account. Considering that I can often dramatically boost results and/or cut costs, I’m proud to say the service I provide is usually more than covered by the savings and/or results I generate.

In any case, regardless of whoever you hire to manage your AdWords account, unless you can answer “yes” to all of the questions above it’s time to consider professional help.