6 Compelling Reasons to Outsource PPC in 2021
By: George Denby
Tags: PPC Marketing, Search Engine Marketing, PPC

When you decide to run a pay-per-click advertising campaign, you have a critical choice to make: should you outsource PPC or do it in-house?

At Genius Marketing, we believe outsourced PPC management is the best solution for most companies.

The most compelling reason is that when you outsource PPC, you get access to a team of experts with a proven track record.

Agencies run campaigns using the latest tools and techniques to bring in sales without you having to do a thing.

Better campaigns help you earn faster, and you’ll avoid wasting money on ineffective ads.

There are some situations where staying in-house is a good idea. Consider this if you have a PPC expert on your team, or if your budget is so small that it doesn’t make sense to hire an agency.

But everyone else should at least think about outsourcing their PPC advertising.

Here’s why:

1. PPC Agencies Are Full of Expertise and Experience

When you outsource ads, you get access to experienced PPC experts without having to hire one yourself. You’ll have a professional team to create high-performing campaigns for your business.

These teams typically have:

Knowledge of different PPC ad platforms.

An understanding of the best strategies to use to achieve different goals.

Expertise around how to get the best return on ad spend.

A history of PPC ad success.

Access to great copywriters who can write effective adverts.

A team of designers who build great-looking ads and landing pages.

Technical experts who can set up tracking on your website.

Think about how much it would cost to hire a team with this type of expertise. It’s unattainable for most small or medium-sized businesses.

They will carry out an in-depth audit of any existing PPC campaigns, and bring some fresh ideas to the table.

Yes, you could save a bit of cash by getting your marketing intern to run ads in their spare time. But this is rarely the best way to build your business.

2. Outsourcing PPC Can Be Cost-Effective

Business owners are often hesitant to outsource PPC due to the extra cost compared to doing it in-house.

The amount you spend includes the cost of paying a PPC team to run your campaigns and the price of the ads. As a business owner, it’s only natural to consider whether you should add these expenses to your budget.

The good news is that outsourcing PPC advertising to the right agency can be a cost-effective way to run a campaign:

You’ll save on labor costs. You’ll get better results from the same budget. You’ll bring in sales faster.

Let’s first look at labor costs.

If you do in-house PPC, someone on your team must take the time to run your campaigns. This will distract employees from the tasks you hired them to do. If the person isn’t a PPC ad expert, you won’t be using them effectively.

The alternative is hiring a specialist to run your campaign. This is expensive, and risky if you’re new to ads and don’t know if you will get a return.

Beyond managing the campaign, there are many other labor costs associated with PPC ads. You’ll have to find someone to:

Write persuasive ad copy.

Create eye-catching images or designs.

Build landing pages that convert.

Look at the ad below for LinkBuilder.

Our team designed the ad, wrote the copy, and then created the landing page. We also spent time testing multiple versions of the ad with different creative elements to find the most effective one.

We’re lucky because we have a team who can perform these tasks. If you don’t, finding someone can be expensive and time-consuming.

Hiring an agency gives you instant access to all the above expertise. The agency fee covers all the extra costs.

Ineffective ads are expensive.

The cost of clicks adds up, too.

If you don’t know what you’re doing, you’ll soon blow your ad budget as you learn what works and what doesn’t. It could be weeks or months (and thousands of dollars) before you get an effective system in place.

Problems you could run into include:

Targeting ads at a general audience includes people who may click on your ad, but are unlikely to buy from you.

Unprofitable ads that have a high cost per click but low conversion rates.

Not only will your ad spend be high, but you’ll be missing out on sales due to ineffective campaigns.

Again, you can avoid this by outsourcing your PPC to an agency.

You’ll Start Making Sales Faster

PPC campaigns are an excellent way to start building sales straight away. The results come much faster than other digital marketing forms like SEO — if you know what you’re doing.

There is an element of trial and error in all campaigns, even those run by PPC management agencies. But experts know how to focus on what works quickly. They have vast experience using PPC networks to achieve different marketing goals.

Campaigns managed by non-experts will be slower to produce results — if they ever do.

3. Outsourcing to a PPC Agency Helps You Get a Positive ROI

You should always aim to get a positive return on ad spending. You want to earn more money per customer than it costs to bring them in.

It’s possible to see a positive return from PPC ads, but it isn’t easy. Targeting the wrong people or using ineffective offers will see your cost per conversion soar, making it tough to generate a profit.

PPC management agencies know this, and they also know strategies to get the cost per acquisition down. They’ll dig deep into the data to see what works and what doesn’t. They have the experience and knowledge to adapt quickly to these findings.

Most agencies use a pricing model that takes a percentage of overall ad spend. At PPC Genius ours is as little as 12%. You can find out more about our standard PPC costs here.

When you consider staffing cost savings, the price of tools, and more effective campaigns, it’s easy to see how you could generate ROI despite the additional cost of hiring an agency.

4. Agencies Stay On Top of Trends

PPC is a relatively new field, and the most effective strategies are continually changing. What works one month may not work in another as trends change and costs per click fluctuate.

For example, in 2019, Instagram added stores that let users check out directly from within the platform. It became possible to direct users to these stores using ads.

In March 2020, pay-per-click costs dropped due to COVID-19, before soaring later in the year (in the U.S. at least) during the presidential election.

There are also technological changes to keep ahead of. Tweaks to Apple’s iPhone operating system coming in early 2021 are likely to affect Facebook PPC campaigns.

Other changes include the increasing prominence of video ads, the potential introduction of Facebook group ads, and adjustments to targeting options.

You probably weren’t aware of these factors — but if you outsource PPC, your campaign manager certainly will be.

They will have been working hard to put in place strategies that ensure sales keep coming.

It can be hard to stay up to date with these trends if you do PPC in-house. Do you have time to manage your business, run a PPC campaign, and check the latest trends? Probably not.

5. Cutting-Edge Tools Will Power Your Campaigns

There is plenty of PPC software available to increase the effectiveness of PPC campaigns. But the cost of these tools will soon add up if you run ads in-house.

One of the most popular PPC tools is SEMRush. It’s a really useful tool that allows campaign managers to research keywords and competitors, track your PPC ads’ position, and more.

But it starts at $119 per month, and costs quickly rise as you add more features and users.

And that’s just one example of a tool. There is also software available for:

Ad Optimizations: MagicX

MagicX is an ad optimization platform that works on the most popular PPC networks. It contains features for creating audiences, launching ads, optimizing bids, and scaling your campaign. It starts at $49 per month.

Campaign Management: Wordstream

Wordsteam has features that make it easy to manage your different PPC accounts, manage bids, identify and research keywords, track conversions, and optimize ads. The software starts at $49 per month.

Building Landing Pages: Unbounce

Unbounce is a landing page builder that lets you create great-looking, effective landing pages to use in your campaigns. It starts at $80 per month.

And there are many other tools you can use. You also have to spend time getting up to speed with what these products do. This is no mean feat when you have other tasks at hand.

You don’t need PPC management tools to run a campaign. But not having access to them will typically make your campaigns less effective.

PPC management agencies already pay for the best software available. They use the tools daily when running campaigns for clients, and they know how to get the most from each one.

6. PPC Management Lets You Focus on What You Do Best

While Facebook and Google Ads (formally AdWords) make it seem easy to start a campaign, creating an effective one that brings in customers at low cost is complicated — especially if PPC isn’t your area of expertise.

Managing your PPC campaign is tough work and there’s a lot of moving parts involved. It’s easy to burn through a ton of cash and mistakes will be rife for beginners.

The additional burden of running a campaign will tear you away from the things that matter, whether that’s focusing on other parts of your business or your precious downtime.

Unless you’re willing to make a significant time commitment, be wary of starting a PPC campaign on your own.

Only Outsource to the Best Agencies

The above benefits only count if you choose the right agency to manage your PPC campaign. You need to look for a trustworthy team with expertise and a proven track record of results .