Having an agency that can create a CPC strategy is essential for success in competitive sectors including real estate, ecommerce, and lead generation. If you know how to manage a CPC campaign on Adwords, you are still missing opportunities in places like Shopzilla and other comparison shopping engines. Sites like Business.com also have CPC functionality, which can be very useful for B2B sites that are looking for more customers. In several cases, the cost-per-click from these other sites can be much lower, convert at a higher rate, and show fewer competitors than a click on Google Adwords.
What should you look for in CPC management? First of all, you will want to know what the fee is for managing CPC, since fees are generally based on volume. From you own company perspective, you want to know that the management fee is going to be less than what you would pay a person to do the same task, and that having experienced CPC management will represent a value in excess of the cost. At Web.com Search Agency, our CPC management provides value to clients by way of improved ROI, professional experience, and the use of reporting/management tools that make customers more efficient.
Improving the efficiency of a CPC campaign takes time, so that should be part of the expectation of any new client. It is necessary to research new keywords, write ad copy, test competing ad versions, and monitor end-user behavior to determine the best possible conversion sources. Even with two very similar lines of business, customers may react very differently to offers and ads in Google, or on a shopping engine. A continuous level of human interaction with your cost-per-click campaign will produce efficiencies, even when automated bidding tools are used. After a few weeks, you should be noticing an improvement in CPC results, which can further be refined over time as more information is gathered, and your account manager finds additional opportunities for traffic growth.
As an added level of service, your CPC agency should also be advising you on ways to improve conversion on your site. It does not make sense to send traffic to a website if there is not a direct benefit in the form of more sales, leads, phone calls, or visibility. Conversion optimization and advice on best practices can significantly increase the profitability of any paid marketing campaign, and simultaneously can improve the response rate you get from other forms of web traffic.
However you generate CPC traffic to your website, the advantages to having an agency manage your campaigns are numerous. First of all, an experienced CPC campaign manager has a level of knowledge that is unavailable to in-house marketing personnel. Second, an agency is going to be aware of trends, changes, and efficiency improvements that may affect even the smallest online marketing account. Third, agencies are able to leverage bid management tools, proprietary automation systems, and software that creates efficiency on a scale that is unavailable to most companies who manage PPC bidding on their own. As a result, an agency can often employ client-based tactics that leave competitors wondering why a certain site always has better rankings, or is able to compete for keywords that would otherwise be cost-prohibitive.
Tags: cpc management, cpc marketing
