Running your own Google AdWords campaign can be a very expensive lesson to learn. Most people don’t realize that, while it is a simple concept, millions of dollars of research and testing goes in to maximizing AdWords. Most people don’t know that there is a certification course Google offers to set the experts apart from the hacks. If you know your AdWords the certification is not particularly hard, but chances are that most people running their own campaigns would fail the certification miserably.
Most people also don’t realize what they are up against when they decide to run an AdWords campaign. All of the big reputable campaign management companies utilize some sort of campaign managing software. Rather than dozens of keywords and a few ads, they will run thousands of keywords and hundreds of ads. Not only do they run an order of magnitude larger campaign, but they also do A/B testing and real-time analysis to determine which ad and keyword combinations result in the most ROI. There simply is no way a business owner can hope to compete with that type of technology and still have time to run a business. Or eat, drink or breathe for that matter. That doesn’t even include call recording and analysis for the visitors that pick up the phone once they get on your site. All of this can be yours for an average of 15% of your ad buy.
The fact is that any reputable PPC management company has far more resources and expertise than a business owner making their first foray into online marketing. You wouldn’t want the PPC guy working on your water heater any more than you would want your plumber working on your PPC campaign.
At the end of the day, it turns out that people do click on those links. It also turns out that the best ads get the best clicks and return the best revenue for your investment. If you are not marketing online, then now id the time to start. In our increasingly connected world online advertising will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. Would you rather beat your competition to the punch and start pulling in the online buyers now, or would you rather play catch up when everyone else is already there?
