B2B Web Strategy Blog - eMagine

When outsourcing your PPC, it’s still best to remain involved

November 6th, 2008 Posted by: Matt Roche

My team manages Pay Per Click (PPC) campaigns for a number of B2B clients, and of course we’re always gratified when new ones choose to outsource their programs to us.

A few clients, however, seem to operate as though there was some mystical connection between outsourcing and hand-washing (as in the Pontius Pilate story):  so that once they let go, they feel they never need to worry about this subject ever again.  And as long as the monthly results look OK, we may actually never hear from them again.

What is the danger in this?  It’s simple:  as smart and trustworthy as we believe we are, we don’t claim to be omniscient;  and in particular, there’s no way we’ll ever understand your business as well as you do.  And even though the numbers look good, there’s at least some chance they could be improved by some better business understanding.

I was reminded of this issue on reading Todd Miechiels’ blog post, The Danger of Blindly Trusting your B2B Pay-Per-Click Campaign to the “Experts”.  As Todd points out, even though we consultants have a wider and deeper understanding of how the search engines work and how the pay-per-click landscape is evolving, we generally can never
have an in-depth understanding of every industry. No discovery form or data-gathering process in the world can catch all the subtleties and nuances of a particular company.

So while we experts are doing the fancy stuff like ad testing, landing page optimization, bid adjusting and keyword expansion, it’s just possible that some glaring oversight may be costing the client money or lost opportunity.  It could be a particular search phrase that’s active, but is simply not at all on target for your market.  Or it could be a sentence in your ad copy concerning a product feature or benefit that’s not really accurate.

Fighting the disconnect…
Todd suggests asking your outsource provider for a few simple reports:

• One listing all of your ad creatives.  Then simply scan through it to make sure they are accurate for your brand or your product/service.  Don’t worry about whether the ad copy seems like the best ever;  if your vendor has been doing their job, they’ve split-tested many different variations to get to this one.
• Another showing all of your search phrases along with the money that’s been spent on each phrase, and the conversion rate and/or time on your site. Try to spot any lines indicating that you’re spending money on phrases that either aren’t converting, or visitors are bailing from your site within a few seconds.

The moral here is that the right model is more of a partnership:  the consulting firm contributes their technical knowledge and Web marketing know-how, while the client brings their deep understanding of the nuances of their business and industry.  And both parties exercise a level of vigilance to eliminate those deadwood phrases that are consuming budget but generating little or no return.

Outsourcing your PPC program can save you boatloads of time and generally produce better results;  but it will always work best when you stay engaged with your provider.

Entry Filed under: B2B Web Strategy, PPC