Do I need to be paying monthly for ppc work

[dawn123]

My seo guy did a lot of work on my campaigns at the start, now it's ticking over nicely. He does some seo, but nothing tremendous and it's slow stuff. I'm getting charged 250 per month plus clicks of 30 per week. I could do with dropping it and going ad hoc, but I don't want to piss him off as he's worked really well for me. Just seems to me that he doesn't really have to do that much these days

Thoughts?

 

[PPC_Matt]

Well, as someone that's worked for a few different agencies (mostly large ones!) you'll find that lots of smaller clients don't get that much time spent on them. However, I've also found that many agencies have clients that make them no money at all - if anything they lose a lot of money over-servicing them.

£250 might be a lot for you, but for PPC work that'll get you about 3 hours a month of his time. If he's spending time monitoring the campaign, adding some negatives and ensuring you're in targeted positions then he's earning his fee. He may have even spent more time than what he was getting paid for early on setting everything up as well... So, it could be a little cruel to drop him now.

If you don't feel you're getting value maybe talk to him and ask what he's doing?

 

[Ammon]

Search marketing is typically an ongoing process. It is never 'finished', even if its just on-site SEO of content that will never change, there's every chance that further tweaks will be needed sometimes, and that things can still be improved. When you add in off-site SEO and PPC stuff, you immediately hit areas where there is considerable ongoing work even just in keeping an eye out for click-fraud, changing bid strategies of competitors, etc.

There are some companies who avoid retaining an SEO or agency month-on-month and prefer to do everything on fixed cost, fixed scope projects, but I have never, in 18 years, seen one doing well. (I'm not including companies that have ongoing in-house SEO staff and outsource only fixed-cost projects, of course).

If you are capable of managing the ongoing refinements, monitoring the PPC campaign daily, adjusting the bids, etc then you will count as that in-house SEO and could probably cease the monthly contract by puting in the hours yourself.

To be honest, it sounds like you have a very minimal commitment to SEO, as £250 per month is a very small amount. That's like 2-3 hours of work out of every 30 days you are paying for there.

SEOs fall into two very different camps. There are the cheap SEOs, and there are the good SEOs. If your SEO is good, the reason it will be going slowly is because you are not paying the going rate for even one day of work per month at £250. None of the firms I really trust even do a half-day at a rate that low.

Now, if the results are good, keep on with it. The old saying "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" applies to contracts too.

If you cancel the ongoing work, and you are wrong, your rankings and/or conversions fall, well, that SEO may never want you back as a client later. Other reliable companies might be wary of taking you on too. You'd seem a bit flakey and uncommitted. One of those bosses that always second-guesses the experts and tries to save money even at the expense of wrecking things. Now, I'm not saying that's what you would be, but its a risk you could be seen that way.

If the SEO has been begging you for the commitment to do more, (asking for more hours in the budget, etc), then seriously consider listening to that expert you hired, and do a short term trial at a higher commitment to speed things up.

 

[TotallySport]

are you getting sales through you PPC, and does it cover the £250 plus clicks?

 

[dawn123]

Thanks for the replies.

I'm very happy with the work he's done. I think my problem is he doesn't supply me with any reports so I don't know how I'm ranking (other than seeing my site a little higher)

It's a wordpress site, and I think the seo is quite easy - please put me straight if this is not the case though.

I don't want to offend him by asking him at this late stage in the day for a breakdown of what he does, so it's helpful to know that 250 would only pay for 3ish hours, that sounds about right.

Any more tips and honest advice welcome

 

[Digipas]

the 1st apparent question should be asked is whether you have got any better and cheaper solution to compare with the services he provides?

if you don't have one, then don't risk it.

if you do have one, and the 250 quads you spent does earn you a profit, then why donot you keep it running in parallel? it may not be as good as you expect, but it does make you money in smaller scale. at least it is something DO working for you.

I'm actually looking for one myself, I have got a working solution as lucky as you do.

 

[directmarketingadvice]

My seo guy did a lot of work on my campaigns at the start, now it's ticking over nicely. He does some seo, but nothing tremendous and it's slow stuff. I'm getting charged 250 per month plus clicks of 30 per week. I could do with dropping it and going ad hoc, but I don't want to piss him off as he's worked really well for me. Just seems to me that he doesn't really have to do that much these days

Thoughts?

Are you saying you're only getting 30 clicks a week? If so, how much are you making (ignoring PPC management fees) from those 30 clicks?

(Don't answer explicitly, just ask yourself.)

It's hard to do a lot of ongoing management on an account that's fairly static at 30 clicks a week. So maybe £250 a month is a bit much.

Steve

 

[Ammon]

directmarketingadvice it looked a lot more like they are paying 250 per month for management and SEO, and 30 per week (circa 120+ per month) for the actual clicks. Certainly that's how I read it, but the lack of any currency symbol does make it somewhat unclear.

 

[fisicx]

If they aren't telling you what they have done how can you be sure they are doing anything? If it's wordpress they should be constantly tweaking the pages, navigation and so on.

Confused about the 30 clicks thing. Are these for adverts?

 

[dawn123]

Sorry, I should've been clearer. 30 pounds a week on clicks (max spend £5 per day)

 

[Cynic]

Depends how you run your business, SEO should supplement your inbound marketing NOT be the sole source of traffic. It's a long term investment and to opt now would be throwing months of implementation away.

 

[fisicx]

Sorry, I should've been clearer. 30 pounds a week on clicks (max spend £5 per day)

That's not SEO that's just adwords.

And if they were any good at their job they would be reducing your Adwords spend (or getting you more clicks for the same money).

But you do really need to get a report from them to find out what they are doing. I suspect it's not very much.

 

[Digipas]

the adwords CPC you need spend anyway, no matter who else take over your seo service, you cannot avoid that cost. however, an excellent service can spend all your money more efficiently.

 

[Ammon]

Hi.. According to me if you cancel the ongoing work, and you are wrong, your rankings and/or conversions fall, well, that SEO may never want you back as a client later. Other reliable companies might be wary of taking you on too. You'd seem a bit flakey and uncommitted. One of those bosses that always second-guesses the experts and tries to save money even at the expense of wrecking things. Now, I'm not saying that's what you would be, but its a risk you could be seen that way.

That's brilliantly put. Wish I'd thought to say that.

 

[amac]

Think less about spend and more about optimization would be my advice. Spend will change over-time right, but you must make sure you're in control of the ROI from online advertising.

 

[PrestonLad]

I can't understand why you pay someone 250 quid a month, get no reports, and feel uneasy about asking what they are doing for the money.

 

[dynamic08]

Its £250 you are paying for expertise.

When I charge private clients they are paying for my "15 odd years of learning" not the few hours I spend on projects.

That is the problem with small business owners...