Google AdWords – D.I.Y. Versus Agency Management

Kiwis, on the whole, love to get stuck in and give it a go, a gung-ho, do-it-yourself attitude which is especially present among business owners. While DIY can save you some money at first, and give you a sense of achievement in completing a task yourself, there is a point at which it can be detrimental to your business.

Why would I pay an agency for AdWords management if I can just do it myself?

Running an AdWords campaign can be a great way for your business to generate new leads. The friendly folks over at Google love to encourage SMEs to creating their own campaigns by touting how simple AdWords advertising can be.

However, Google will obviously talk up the ease of AdWords management because you are practicing this completely new skill set with your own budget – the risk is all on you!

A poorly set-up campaign and improper account management sees many businesses throwing away their money, and not really knowing it. Think of AdWords as a game, you will only win if you level up.

Having a campaign set up and tracked by an experienced Search Engine Marketing (SEM) professional will allow your AdWords budget to be used much more efficiently and get your more relevant leads, for less money.

The Devil’s in the Detail

Like any specialised field of expertise, AdWords has a number of subtle nuances often overlooked by newcomer. These subtleties can be the difference between loss and gain. These may include things such as:

• Incorrect GEO targeting resulting in NZ campaigns accruing costs from worldwide visits or other relevant locations
• A poor keyword match type strategy which has your ads showing for completely unrelated searches
• Poorly written ad copy and absence of ad extensions resulting in a low click-through rate (CTR) and expensive clicks

These are just a few examples of the more intricate aspects of PPC that are learnt through experience and investment of time.

Invest your time into what you do best – your business

As we mentioned above, the way to win the game of AdWords is by levelling up. But ask yourself, do I have the time to level up? Or will my time be better spent working on my business?

In most cases, it is the latter. We are not saying you couldn’t become an AdWords whiz in time, but as a SME owner, you probably have a million other things on your plate.

You, the reader of this article, are pretty awesome (I mean you did make it ALL THE WAY to the end of our article), but sadly, we can only be awesome at so many things. Treat your personal skill set like your Marmite – never spread yourself too thin.