In-House Vs. Agency PPC Management

It’s the age old question asked when considering employing a third party to take over your businesses marketing – ‘Why pay someone else to do what I can do myself?’

I know my KPIs and products best…

Any agency worth its salt is going to take its time to understand your business, but as long as you can provide the agency with this information then it is worth remembering that whilst you will always know your business best, agencies will always know marketing.

Given that digital is such a fast evolving landscape it is important that you stay up to date with the latest developments and your agency will do this for you.

Second to this agencies are trained professionals that have the experience and industry knowledge required to effectively manage all accounts regardless of industry or product. The key objectives for any agency is results - across all accounts there will be benchmarking and refinement that is focused on driving clients ROI.

Time scales…

PPC is often reactive or subject to industry changes, this is what makes it such a fast, effective medium.

Agencies will always analyse seasonal trends when working across accounts, but if the reason you have never let go of your account is because you fear you will no longer be able to be as proactive at reacting to timely events then fear not.

There is no reason why letting an agency manage the account should slow down your process, if anything it will speed it up as agencies will always be on the lookout for opportunities, meaning you are able to free up time that you previously put into managing your adwords.

Agencies always push for me to spend more money….

True agencies will sometimes advise clients to spend more money, but only when there are opportunities being missed on an account.

The total transparency that you receive by using correct tracking across your adwords activity means that an agency will only push for more money when they can directly correlate it to more profit for your business. Therefore you will always have someone looking out for new opportunities in the market for your business.

If you are not going to take advantage of this then chances are your competitors will.

It’s too expensive…

Paying someone to manage the account means less money spent on traffic and therefore less conversions. Not true.

We recently took over an account that had historically been managed in-house, the account had suffered from neglect both due to time constraints in-house and a lack of technical knowledge, meaning it wasn’t performing to its full potential.

Whilst the client was reluctant to outsource we proved in our first month that by completely reviewing and updating the account we were able to bring in conversions to the client at a reduction of 52% on the previous month. The client significantly profited from letting an agency work on the account – even after the addition of a management fee.

And finally…

Inevitably there are a large number of factors to consider when looking for a new supplier for your business, but when it comes to relinquishing control of your adwords account it can often work in your favour.

If you are nervous about any areas of the decision it is worth talking to a few agencies and gauging which one could work best for your business. Keep your eyes peeled for our guide to choosing the right digital agency.