When you're developing your online business, you wonder how to promote it in the easiest way. You have certainly heard of SEO, so you know that it takes time to position a website. If you need fast results your choice would definitely be Google Adwords. Everyone still calls them that, even though in 2018 the official name changed to Google Ads and that's what we'll call them here. Setting up an account is fairly straightforward, but is running a campaign yourself a good idea? When is it a good idea to run a campaign yourself and when should you go to an agency. What are the benefits of each solution.
Google Ads - what is it?
Google Ads is simply the advertising system of the well-known company Google LLC. Google AdWrods was launched on 20 October 2000 and has been the company's primary source of revenue ever since. Google LLC does not provide exact results from certain sources, but it is known that around 2010 it was around 95% of the company's revenue. Google Ads covers search results on Google.com, as well as on friendly websites, i.e. those that have Google AdSense installed. The administration panel offers endless possibilities and options, thanks to which we will be able to tailor our adverts to customer queries.
The system was designed to allow the advertiser himself, i.e. the person wishing to advertise on Google, to create and edit the ad. However, when creating Ads, Google from the very beginning envisaged the possibility of creating companies that would specialise in creating adverts and it was with such companies in mind that the programme was created. Google Partner - Unfortunately, the financial thresholds are constantly being raised making the programme heavily elitist and increasingly unpopular. The requirements from 2021 onwards are around PLN 30,000 net monthly budget. Coming back to the topic, practically anyone can set up an AdWords account in a few moments, set the payment option and start creating campaigns.
Many of the campaigns we see every day on the search engine have been created by advertisers. Is this a good solution and should we go down this road?
AdWords Express
Mention should also be made of a service that has thankfully ceased to exist and that was Google AdWords Express. This was a service that was supposed to bring the possibility of creating adverts even closer to every user, even the least advanced. Perhaps evolving into a tool for amateurs, it unfortunately became a money-making tool for Google. The criticism that rained down on the product resulted in Google putting the project out so characteristically.
Where will my advertisement appear?
The well-known saying that one picture sometimes replaces 1,000 words works perfectly here and we simply paste it here. Not all our customers know where their adverts will appear so it is important to show this. Please note the caption ADVERTISEMENTS most users do not even know that these are not natural google.com search results.
The most important question - Will I be able to create a Google Ads campaign myself?
For sure! As we have already mentioned, the system is set up so that the easiest functions are on top and anyone who is just starting out can create their own campaign and publish their ads on the first pages of Google's search engine. However, it should be borne in mind that not every ad that is displayed brings financial benefits to the advertiser, and it is important to be aware that by bypassing the advanced advertising functions we often result in ads not reaching the right people.
When creating online adverts for many years and getting to know new clients and listening to their stories, we observed that those who ran their campaigns themselves and used the advertising system for a shorter time were much less satisfied with the results. This was usually the basis for their search for an advertising agency. This is not the rule, however, and there are some people who, with 6 advertising sense, were able to have good results using AdWords Express - but these are exceptions. The effects of such campaigns were not measured so it is quite difficult to compare them with our results. We also encounter model campaigns in which agencies can do little to contribute or improve.
Google Ads campaign yourself - You can, but when?
As we've written before, Ads is not SEO or website optimisation so not everyone needs to use a professional company with Google Partner status. If you are really thinking of running a campaign yourself, whether for financial reasons or because you want to test yourself we will show you some options that we would be able to support.
Small budget / Too small
We always view advertising budgets in months. If yours is around PLN 400 - 500 per month, you are unlikely to be able to afford an agency. Even the smallest agency commissions oscillate around 300 - 400 PLN net, which doubles the cost of the campaign. In such a case, we recommend spending 4 hours watching even the simplest training on YouTube and creating a campaign yourself.
It is a different matter if you want to invest PLN 500 in advertising a single event, e.g. the second term of a winter semi-college two weeks before it starts - here there is no time to learn and it is certainly better to invest even a large sum and make sure that the event will be profitable.
Local business
If you are the owner of a small local business, your campaign is unlikely to require constant monitoring and changes, and your competitors are rather hard on newspaper advertising a Google Ads campaign is also for you. We are talking here about micro businesses such as a cobbler's shop, a gardener or a parquet flooring company. We can certainly say that this is more about service companies. In this case, you should also deepen your knowledge based on free training and then optimise your campaign to those few phrases perfect for your business.
You are advertising yourself in various fields and are satisfied with the results
This is potentially the simplest thing. You have been running your campaigns yourself for years and have been happy with the results. Let's not lie to ourselves with a budget of £2,000 for advertising on agency commission alone, you save around £8,000 a year. However, this situation requires you to spend a certain amount of time, which you might as well spend on growing your business. The problem, however, lies in satisfaction with the results, very often measured by eye. We pay PLN 2,000 for advertising so that our sales on the shop increase. The questions we often ask our clients are: by how much turnover on the shop is increasing, how many new customers have you gained, is turnover increasing based on the old customer base or new customers, how much have you actually earned, are your customers returning to the shop, etc. Measuring results cannot be based on a subjective feeling of satisfaction about the fact that sales on the shop are increasing in case you spend £3,000 on advertising on the internet you have to be sure that this money is well invested.
If this is your situation you can continue to run the campaign yourself. However, we would point out that you should consider putting it in the hands of an experienced agency for a while. We know from experience that our clients notice the positive aspects of cooperation when it comes to Google Ads and usually stay with us. This is not only due to the fact that they do not have to remember about running out of money in their account, but we contact Google Ads support on their behalf which is a considerable convenience. In the event that you feel that the agency is unable to raise the results of the campaign, you can always go back to handling the account yourself.
Your company has an employee responsible for Google Ads
Here the issue is simple if you spend hundreds of thousands a month on advertising and you have qualified staff to handle this part of your business then it is certainly not your problem. If you haven't already then it is probably best to create a position or team within your company rather than hire an agency. Such a person(s) will be better introduced to the company, its specifics and its needs. We probably don't need to say that for this to work, such a person can't be a part-time IT person or “the boss's daughter who knows how to go online”. A Google Ads account with such a budget should be managed by someone who has already run campaigns and can boast an extensive portfolio. In our opinion, an amount of 50,000 per month for Ads is a borderline amount. Below this amount, it is much better to outsource the campaign to a specialist agency, either because of the lower monthly cost or other expenses associated with hiring an employee.
Advantages of outsourcing a campaign to an agency?
Significantly higher profits
Advertising created by an agency such as ours will be constantly monitored and improved on an ongoing basis. Our employee will, for example, block keywords every day that do not increase your profits - imagine taking 15 minutes every day to log into your account and check this. In all the cases we have encountered, the advertising has produced much higher profits than the advertising created by our clients. Sometimes we got better results than our competitors.
Saving time
Your time is of the essence. We often hear this, but the importance of these words is rarely realised. In our experience, companies grow faster not just because our advertising has better results than their own. Usually, the reason a company grows faster is because the person who was responsible for everything until a certain point finally has the time to focus on their job and growing the company. Ask yourself, do you have that much time to delve into the rules, options and opportunities offered by Google Ads? What about updates and calling customer service? Even if you do, your knowledge at the start will not be comparable to that of someone who, “has been at it“ for years and deals with the subject 8 hours a day.
Many years of experience - often gained on your competitors
Although we treat each campaign individually, based on the activities of the competition or simply on many years of cooperation with similar companies in the sector, we are able to determine at the outset what a given campaign should contain and what we need to do for its effects to be satisfactory.
Reporting of results
The campaign handling company will better analyse and optimise the campaigns in order to achieve the goals set for them even better. In the reports sent to our clients, we are able to show the actual profits that our adverts bring them. Sometimes increasing the budget from 6,000 PLN to 10,000 PLN per month does not give the right results in which case, for example, we suggest other forms of advertising such as mailing, newsletters or advertising on Pinterest. Remember that Google Ads is the basic form of advertising on the Internet, but not the only one. It is best to check this immediately than to invest years in advertising that does not bring results.
Better use of the budget
An agency like ours, because of our many years of experience, will suggest a budget suitable for your campaign at the start, if the budget is limited we will suggest dropping certain keywords or groups of people that will not bring you an adequate return on investment. We always strive to make the best use of your budget and not just so that your profit is maximised - an adequate return on investment is the basis for remaining an official Googler's Parnetter.
Costly mistakes - don't pay for them
Don't waste time and money learning from your mistakes, especially as very often both are missing. Sometimes this type of experimentation can put your company at risk of losing the image you have been building for so long. Of course, everyone has the right to make mistakes. Usually, when we test the effectiveness of several solutions in our client's campaign, one of them always has worse results, which we can see from the smaller effects - especially when compared to the better solution. Remember that an experienced agency does not make basic mistakes, it knows what the rules of the game are, what works in a given industry and what will definitely not work.
When improving our customers“ campaigns or taking them over from competitors, we see that more than once or twice a few tens of percent of the budget is aimlessly ”burned through'. What's more, a skilled eye can quickly discover that an advertising campaign has no chance of success right from the start - which further protects you from ads that are doomed to failure in advance.
Final question - who should I entrust with running a Google Ads campaign?
It is always a good idea to check the company you are about to start working with, especially when it comes to advertising. Of course, it is quite important to have certificates, but these should not be overestimated either. Having a certificate from a Google certification centre is essential. If you don't have any certification at all, it means that the agency doesn't know its stuff and will learn from you, or that it will act a little more prudently and actually subcontract the work.
Google Partners certification means that the agency has theoretical knowledge and uses AdWords on a daily basis. However, this certification will not guarantee that campaigns will be run correctly.
Google Partners Premium certification (there are about 20 of these companies) means that you can fully trust this agency because they meet Google's stricter requirements on a day-to-day basis in terms of both the quality of their campaigns and the amount of expenditure they manage. However, you should tread quite carefully with such companies and only choose if your budget is large enough.
One thing to always remember, the commission to the service provider will be a reflection of the time the agency intends to spend on your campaign. If someone promises you golden mountains for £200 a month, consider how much time they will spend on your campaign or what class of specialist they will be. Does the commission have to be high? Of course not. Using our agency as an example, I can say that the amounts for handling a simple campaign start at around PLN 400 and depend on the amount of budget the client has. It is known that a campaign with a budget of a dozen or a few dozen thousand usually requires much more work and the commission will be a few percent of the budget.
