Google Ads

[lpm2023]

Hi

New member here. Currently considering whether to take over the running of my google ads account. Currently paying a company to manage accounts for 2 websites as well as Bing Ads for one website. I have been with them for years, the last 6 months I have really not been happy with the level of service we are receiving. 80 percent of our website traffic is through PPC campaigns so as you can imagine it is quite concerning. I have raised this with them on multiple occasions but still not massive amounts of improvement. I am now at the stage where I genuinely think I could do a better job at running the campaign. Has anyone been in this situation before? If so is there any software you used or did you just do it via the google ad control panel. Thanks

 

[HFE Signs]

It really comes down to your understanding of the PPC platforms, if you have enough historical data you should be able to streamline your accounts. But, remember in the world of PPC things are forever changing and even a good efficient account requires several hours of work/checking each month.

 

[lpm2023]

It really comes down to your understanding of the PPC platforms, if you have enough historical data you should be able to streamline your accounts. But, remember in the world of PPC things are forever changing and even a good efficient account requires several hours of work/checking each month.

Thanks for that, that's part of the problem really. I find myself having to constantly check what they have done, then if there is a mistake they can take a week to sort it. They were excellent at first but I think now they have expanded and possibly have larger clients with much larger spends who they have to dedicate more time to.

 

[HFE Signs]

Thanks for that, that's part of the problem really. I find myself having to constantly check what they have done, then if there is a mistake they can take a week to sort it. They were excellent at first but I think now they have expanded and possibly have larger clients with much larger spends who they have to dedicate more time to.

I think it's fair to say that most people who manage their own accounts lose more money than if they were paying a professional to do it for them. Maybe give someone else a chance to manage the account for you.

 

[Fagin2021]

The short answer is that it's a lot harder to self-manage a Google Ads account nowadays and a lot easier to lose money trying to do so.

Can you be more specific about the problems you are having with your account - preferably with a couple of examples.

 

[HFE Signs]

The short answer is that it's a lot harder to self-manage a Google Ads account nowadays and a lot easier to lose money trying to do so.

Especially with all the automatic bidding - don't get me started on that one again

 

[fisicx]

@lpm2023 - this company doing you Google ads, have they built, optimised and refined your landing pages? If not then you need to stop right now. The landing page is the most important part of the advertising triumvirate (keywords, ad copy, landing page).

 

[fantheflames]

Thanks for that, that's part of the problem really. I find myself having to constantly check what they have done, then if there is a mistake they can take a week to sort it. They were excellent at first but I think now they have expanded and possibly have larger clients with much larger spends who they have to dedicate more time to.

A week is a very long time. Does sound like you need to find a smaller operation or an individual that values your business.

PPC does need to be constantly monitored. How much can you do yourself or prepared to learn?

 

[lpm2023]

@lpm2023 - this company doing you Google ads, have they built, optimised and refined your landing pages? If not then you need to stop right now. The landing page is the most important part of the advertising triumvirate (keywords, ad copy, landing page).

Hi

So no they company doing the ads just use landing pages which are already there. They have never had any input or made any suggestions as to the pages on the site.

 

[lpm2023]

A week is a very long time. Does sound like you need to find a smaller operation or an individual that values your business.

PPC does need to be constantly monitored. How much can you do yourself or prepared to learn?

Its my main annoyance to be honest. I understand that things might not always be perfect first time over. I can do bits myself. They way I look at it is that I would rather learn and be able to do it properly myself than rely on a company to do a mediocre job.

 

[estwig]

Hi

So no they company doing the ads just use landing pages which are already there. They have never had any input or made any suggestions as to the pages on the site.

They gotta go, they are crap at what they are doing.

The ad and the landing page have to be very tightly tied together, you can't do one without the other. Every change to the ad, I do hope your constantly refining and improving the ads, requires the landing page to be changed too.

 

[fisicx]

Hi

So no they company doing the ads just use landing pages which are already there. They have never had any input or made any suggestions as to the pages on the site.

Which is why it’s not working as well as it should. Each advert needs a dedicated landing page optimised for the advert. Unless they are doing this they are just burning your cash.

 

[thinkfast]

Hi

So no they company doing the ads just use landing pages which are already there. They have never had any input or made any suggestions as to the pages on the site.

In digital marketing (SEO, SMO, PPC etc) no one can say that i am expert because you will see many changes time to time and have to change strategies / plans accordingly.

May be in starting there will be low competition and so result was more better than current.

As you are saying that more than 80% traffics are coming from Google Ads it means you are using only PPC not other services to increase online branding and popularity. Nowadays online people are going smart, they check many things like what is reputation of this brand / website? how popular is this? etc etc.. So, in case of online business there are many things, need to analyse to get that why results are effecting.

You should ask once to your service provider that let me know reasons, which are effecting clicks or traffics in compare of past online.

 

[fantheflames]

Its my main annoyance to be honest. I understand that things might not always be perfect first time over. I can do bits myself. They way I look at it is that I would rather learn and be able to do it properly myself than rely on a company to do a mediocre job.

Sounds like to me you'd benefit more from investing in software to help you improve your PPC performance while you learn how to do the job yourself.

 

[estwig]

Sounds like to me you'd benefit more from investing in software to help you improve your PPC performance while you learn how to do the job yourself.

Any suggestions would be appreciated?

 

[fantheflames]

Any suggestions would be appreciated?

You want PPC Management software.

The grader comes to mind by Wordstream.

SEMrush is very good for landing pages too.

Adalysis is great and has a free, no credit card trial.

I'm aware Google does this, but not sure how good they are with this. Block bots as well with Lunio.

Spyfu is amazing. Have used before!

There's plenty of others, can't think of anymore at the moment.

 

[flaxtrade]

Hi

New member here. Currently considering whether to take over the running of my google ads account. Currently paying a company to manage accounts for 2 websites as well as Bing Ads for one website. I have been with them for years, the last 6 months I have really not been happy with the level of service we are receiving. 80 percent of our website traffic is through PPC campaigns so as you can imagine it is quite concerning. I have raised this with them on multiple occasions but still not massive amounts of improvement. I am now at the stage where I genuinely think I could do a better job at running the campaign. Has anyone been in this situation before? If so is there any software you used or did you just do it via the google ad control panel. Thanks

Hi there,

80% traffic share is quite high for paid media [ you would probably aim for a 50%/50% split to protect sales growth]. It sounds like you would benefit from growing organic channels to save costs in the future and use more automation.

You *might be able to run a well-optimised account by yourself with the help of automation, but this really depends on your market, frequency of business changes [ i.e pricing, competitors, other] account size and spend. The less dynamic the industry/business - the easier it gets to DIY.

 

[makeusvisible]

Hi

New member here. Currently considering whether to take over the running of my google ads account. Currently paying a company to manage accounts for 2 websites as well as Bing Ads for one website. I have been with them for years, the last 6 months I have really not been happy with the level of service we are receiving. 80 percent of our website traffic is through PPC campaigns so as you can imagine it is quite concerning. I have raised this with them on multiple occasions but still not massive amounts of improvement. I am now at the stage where I genuinely think I could do a better job at running the campaign. Has anyone been in this situation before? If so is there any software you used or did you just do it via the google ad control panel. Thanks

Coming from an agency perspective, but I'll try to be impartial.

Firstly, the service you are getting..... it would be good to know how it is you feel they are letting you down. Is it that the performance has dipped and revenue dropped? If so, I would be asking them for some reporting on the conversion rates against the spends. You cant run a solid Google Ads campaign without understanding conversion rates..... tracking those month on month should lead to understanding why and what part of the campaign is underperforming.

A lot of this depends on your spend...... but given the timing, I would be asking them if they have implemented any major changes recently? If not, I'd be asking them why they haven't implemented performance-max. You can read what performance max is, and if it's relevant to you here.

Then I'd be having a look in your Google Ads account, and view the activity logs. You should be able to see every action taken on the account, so at least you can grasp how many changes they have made given the slump.

My wife works in our little agency.....she sits a couple of desks away from me, and all she does all day is Google Ads. She talks about Google Ads a lot.....I hear a little of Google Ads videos and podcasts, and I hear her on the phone talking to Google support several times per week. She sometimes reads Google ads blogs in bed before going to sleep! I've worked in this industry a long time.... I wouldn't dream of managing a client's Google Ads budget myself, because unless you're doing all of the above, you're not going to stand much of a chance. Google can literally make changes that tank accounts and destroy budgets overnight, and unless your ear is firm to the ground, the chances of being able to run a campaign properly are limited.

Again...trying to play devil's advocate, I would say that not every campaign works. But Google Ads generally costs a lot of money, so the one thing you need from a failing campaign is data, and a solid grasp of what isn't working and why.

Hope that helps.

 

[CharlesAllEars]

Hey,

Google Ads boffin here. Not touting for business, I work in a large one, just joined this community to listen, hence the username, but if there’s any help I can be then why not.

In a previous recent role I bought a complex Google ads account in-house and successfully managed and optimised it for around 3 years. 2-4k per day, 300 campaigns (an oddly large number due to geo targeting challenges - won’t get into that).
Totally agree many of the above responses. Of course, your landing page, keyword relevance, user experience, call to action are hugely important. Talking broadly because I don’t know your product/audience/market.

- if your agency have been managing your account for a while, unless your products are changing, or your audience/location targeting are changing, then there should be very view mistakes that can be made, only improvements (optimisation). The account must be stable and must have some good historical data. They should have at least set the account up well, if they had bringing it in house is easier than you think. If they haven’t set it up well, then you need it out of their hands asap.

- depending on your spend. You can be assigned an account strategist for a bi-weekly meeting. They can be useful to help get the account stable, and it’s that stability that’s key to bringing it in house. Careful though, they can be quite junior and can suggest optimisations that are risky - one suggested trying a ‘maximise for conversion’ bidding strategy in a city, where I had a few broad match keywords live - result was 2 clicks for £430. Anything too experimental it goes over their head and I think beyond support their job is to grow your account.

- they’ll also hook you up with the tag team to help guide your through tag manager and help you monitor your conversions. This is quite complex to start…but they are great. Do remember though, you don’t have go right down this rabbit hole, it can be important for further optimisation. But long before this you can be happy with your spend, your traffic, your click to call conversion rate and ROI, quite simply

- With regards to account structure and set up, they key things are your keywords and you’re bidding strategy. Everything else is just your ad capsules and extensions (careful with the dynamic/responsive serving options they often get it wrong!) just create your ads (headline, description, display url) how you would like to see at them at the top of Google, for each ad group and let them settle, the location targeting, the audience demographics. Thats all common sense stuff and easy to navigate to in the ad centre.

- the most risky area, where the most wastage usually occurs, is in the keyword strategy. I struggle to think of a case when setting any keywords to ‘broad’ match is a good idea. It nearly always results in rubbish traffic that doesn’t convert but you pay the same for every click…ghastly.

- a brilliant place to start is set all your keywords to EXACT MATCH...and just put ooodles and oodles in there. Like literally very exact phrase want you want to be found for, load the whole lot in and don’t even bother with phrase match. If you’re a high bidder on your keywords (just put in your max bid for a good click e.g £4.00) and you watch it fly!

Anyway, I guess my point is, if it has performed ok before, then the data is in there and I would bring it in-house. Jump onto support before you tell the agency and they’ll help the handover.

Hope it helps!

Charles


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