You have developed a killer website and drafted an effective marketing strategy to generate leads and drive sales.
So what next?
Considering paid advertising offers a 200% ROI, it’s a no-brainer that your marketing strategy should incorporate the same.
“But I have no idea where to start with Google Ads – in fact, I don’t know where to begin at all!”
Well, even if that’s the case, you still have nothing to worry about.
You can hire a pay-per-click consultant (PPC) who can enhance your paid advertising campaigns by offering a unique set of skills coupled with experience and expertise.
Choosing the right consultant, however, can be challenging if you don’t know what to look for in a PPC expert.
I’ve created this handy guide to help you find the best PPC consultant for your business – one that can manage your campaigns, keep up with continuous algorithm updates, and deliver results.
Let’s start with how a PPC consultant can help you grow your business.
5 Ways a PPC Consultant Can Help Grow Your Business
What is the primary reason that people hire PPC consultants? Maximizing business performance.
People who run online businesses question the need for launching pay-per-click campaigns, and whether it’s the right thing to do.
We have to clear one thing out before we talk about the benefits of hiring expert help – it IS worth it!
That said, let’s take a look at what a good PPC consultant can do to help you grow your business.
#1. Thorough Market Research and Plan of Action
A PPC consultant can be your go-to when you‘re unable to do market research, execute the right type of strategies, or launch successful marketing campaigns that help you achieve your business objectives.
Additionally, you can also make critical mistakes when you work without experience – something that can cost you significant money or achieve zero results.
On the other hand, there are other solid reasons why you should hire a professional.
A PPC consultant will prioritize your marketing campaigns and think of the intelligent implementation of paid marketing tactics that can enhance campaigns. You’ll also get better and more relevant marketing strategies to drive your online sales.
In the end, you‘ll have better pay-per-click management that will give you more exposure in search engines.
#2. Precise Targeting for Higher Conversion Rates
A savvy PPC manager can be very beneficial for your business.
With their help, you can be sure to make smarter decisions when it comes to PPC, which can lead to spending less and getting more conversions.
Plus, PPC experts can analyze your data and make necessary adjustments that can lower your cost per lead for a higher ROI. Adequate PPC management allows you to leave the hard stuff to the professionals so you can focus on those conversions.
As for conversion rates, they can use their experience and expertise to implement tactics such as using precise keywords and put your sales team in contact with quality leads. All the efforts are targeted towards a specific audience in your niche that can be niched down according to location, gender, age, interests, and of course, keywords.
Audience targeting should always be strategic and carefully executed. It’s the only way to avoid wasting your money on paid campaigns – something that a PPC expert can help you with.
The best part is all this requires minimal effort on your part, and even on the PPC consultant’s, due to their specialized knowledge.
#3. Compelling Ads That Actually Convert
Make no mistake, writing attention-grabbing ad copy is only an easy task on the surface. In fact, knowing how to create a PPC ad can have a massive impact on the ad’s click-through rate.
You need expert help to create a truly artistic strategy to attain ad campaign success. A PPC consultant is well versed in the know-how to create an effective ad copy that appeals to your target customer and can relate to their interests. They can also use the necessary keywords for optimization to rank higher in search engines.
So with the help of a professional, not only will your ad get more exposure, but you’ll also experience an increase in your conversions.
#4. Years of Experience
Experienced PPC professionals have worked with a wide range of clients, and their expertise can greatly contribute to your successful advertising campaigns. These experts possess innovative skills and knowledge to keep your ads up to date with the latest web trends, which can be the key to driving your paid campaigns.
For those who are worried about the cost of hiring a consultant, your main concern should be the time wasted trying to learn Google or Amazon on your own. Going into PPC without prior knowledge can lead to unsatisfactory results. Even if you take the time to learn the basics, you’re not going to have the skills of a seasoned PPC consultant.
PPC professionals also have a deep understanding of bid management, which can significantly benefit your campaigns. They will dedicate their full attention to your projects and ensure that you set the right bid amount based on order value, ACoS goals, and conversion rates.
#5. Time-Saving
Even aside from the learning process and moving to the day-to-day, pay-per-click marketing can be equal parts challenging and time-consuming, especially for those who aren’t experts.
A PPC professional can help you launch and monitor all your ad campaigns, along with making minor adjustments that could potentially boost your sales. Also, when you turn the work over to these consultants, you’ll be able to focus on other aspects of your online business.
How to Get Started With a PPC Consultant
If you haven’t worked with a PPC company before, it’s hard to know what to expect.
From hiring the right PPC consultant to holding meetings up until the final launch – you need to draft a roadmap that explicitly illustrates your end goal as well as milestones to stay on the right track.
Below, we have streamlined the details of every phase to help you understand what to expect when working with a PPC consultant.
Hiring the Best PPC Consultant for Your Business
The first step here is to find the right PPC consultant to get started in your paid marketing journey. And the best way to go about this? Research and look at the credentials of respective candidates.
There are two ways to go about this. You can use online hiring platforms like Freelancer, Upwork, and Reddit, where you’ll post a detailed project description along with the requirements. You can then choose a freelancer profile from the applied candidates.
If you plan on recruiting seasoned consultants – something which we highly recommend – you’ll have to fill up an inquiry form and then schedule a discovery call.
Whatever your marketplace of choice, determining the abilities of the prospective candidate remains the same. Ask the prospect the following questions to understand whether they are the right fit or not:
- Are you Google-certified?
- Do you offer a free assessment?
- Who will own the account?
- Will you provide ongoing management of the account or solely look after the setup?
- How do you measure success, and what are the deliverables?
- Are you familiar with Google Analytics?
It’s best to look for consultants who possess the Google Ads Certified Partner designation since they are likely to understand the latest trends, techniques, and technology that are relevant in the world of PPC advertising. Scaling Google Ads using a PPC consultant is a great way to increase your ROI without needing more manpower.
A thorough understanding of account setup and management, analytics and reporting, and optimization in areas such as video, search, and mobile advertising, are also crucial.
Remember, it’s your money, and the prospective PPC consultant should respect that and be willing to clear any doubts.
Have a Discovery Session
The PPC consultant’s main responsibility is to gather as much information as possible about your business goals and what you’re seeking. That’s why the discovery and onboarding process is incredibly important for any new PPC project. They want to ensure they have a clear understanding of your objectives and what you’re aiming for.
Here are a few key points that your meeting should cover:
- Your budget, which includes monthly ad spent
- Goals you wish to achieve through your PPC campaign
- What are the USPs of your business when compared to your competitors
- Landing page optimization tactics to increase conversions
- Detailed observation of your target audience that includes platforms to use, shopping trends, and location
Take this chance to share everything you have with your PPC consultant – even if it doesn’t feel relevant. The consultant must be aware of your expectations and budget.
Planning and Testing
After understanding your business, target audience, and marketing goals, the next step is to plan the upcoming campaign. In addition to this, defining critical metrics and KPIs are essential as well.
The consultant may run a small, inexpensive pilot campaign to test different aspects, such as audience segments, copy, and execution. This can give you key insights about the preferences of your target audience and a deeper understanding in general of how to proceed forward.
The Final Execution
Finally, it’s time to launch the complete campaign!
The execution of the campaign can be customized to fit your specific needs, whether it’s a short-term, long-term, or ongoing effort. Throughout the campaign, the consultant will provide consistent feedback and detailed reports, covering every aspect of the campaign, including the final results once it’s concluded.
Keep in mind that monitoring the results and adjusting the budget are all part of the campaign process. The consultant will leverage the insights gathered, along with your valuable feedback, to enhance the ad strategy and achieve better outcomes.
However, it’s important to note that if the consultant doesn’t offer management services, their role will be limited to setting up the account initially. Be sure to make the decision before you sign on whether you just need that initial consultation or long-term support.
Measuring the ROI of PPC Consulting Services
What’s the point of launching a PPC campaign if you cannot measure the return on your investment?
Is your campaign strategy correct? Are the ads effective in generating leads and sales for your business? Is it profitable? – these are important questions that you need answers to.
The only way to determine the success of a campaign is to measure the ROI.
That said, there are various KPIs, which is why you need to have an efficient tactic in place to choose the relevant ones. For this purpose, you need to figure out the following:
- Understand the goals of your campaign – whether you want more click-throughs, more leads, or higher sales. The ultimate goal, of course, is to increase conversions and reduce CPA. But there are other things you should consider as well, such as monitoring impression share and the effectiveness of your ads in generating clicks (CPR).
- You can even consider setting SMART goals to measure the overall progress and success of your goal.
- Figure out what success means to you and then define it to your consultant.
- Monitor the KPIs closely and then reevaluate if there is still any discrepancy.
The following are the most crucial PPC KPIs that you should consider:
- The average click-through rate (CTR)
- The quality score of your ad content
- The impression share that tells you how many people have seen your ad
- The average cost-per-click (CPC)
- The conversion rate
- The cost for action/cost per conversion
- The average position of your ad
Tracking ROI is a dynamic process with no one-size-fits-all rules to follow. Make sure you choose your KPIs after setting realistic goals for your business, which, in turn, can help you achieve your goals.
4-Point Checklist For Finding the Right PPC Consultant
If you’re still wondering how you can hire the best PPC agency or consultant for your company who has the necessary understanding and expertise to deliver results, here’s a quick checklist to make things easier for you.
#1. Experience in Driving Results
You’ll find several PPC consultants claiming to be the best and how they can help you achieve your goals.
But do they really have the expertise and experience to back their claims?
Figure out whether the consultant has previously worked with clients in your niche and is aware of how your business ecosystem, your competition, and your audience work. The idea here is to fast-track your campaign strategy, creation, and management processes.
#2. Knowledge About PPC Best Practices and Tools
PPC can be a very complicated process, which is why you need a consultant that has the knowledge to keep up with the latest practices.
Having access to the right PPC tools is also important. Essential aspects like analytics and reporting and intent-driven keyword selection, along with first-party data sources and strategic partnerships, work together to enhance the efficiency of campaigns.
Find out the tools that the consultant uses, whether it’s Google Analytics, Certified Knowledge, Excel, or Adalysis.
#3. Diverse Client Portfolio
Examine the companies on the prospective consultant’s portfolio. You‘ll be surprised at how useful this can be to detect whether they are the right fit for your business or not.
You see, a good PPC consultant should always demonstrate hands-on experience and have a diverse clientele. This equips them with a better understanding to create effective paid campaigns that appeal to your target audience, irrespective of their thought process and ideologies.
#4. Testimonials From Past Clients
Testimonials help gain a sense of the caliber of the businesses that have trusted them in the past.
By going through what past customers have said about their services will give you an idea about their professionalism and whether they are capable of providing a comfortable and satisfactory working experience.
Conclusion
PPC marketing is a complex world that requires expertise and strategic planning. It’s crucial to have experienced consultants by your side who can design and implement well-crafted marketing campaigns to not only achieve your business goals but also minimize losses.
By hiring a consultant, you take the first step towards securing positive returns on your investment and building a loyal customer base. It’s important to seek out someone who is seasoned and has a proven track record of delivering exceptional results.
Want somebody seasoned and enjoys a stellar reputation when it comes to delivering results? Get in touch with experts from my agency, NP Digital, here.