Pay-Per-Click (PPC) Advertising
PPC advertising is perhaps the most effective digital marketing strategy on the planet. But for lots of businesses, PPC can feel like a flop.
Why is that?
Maybe your conversion tracking isn’t set up properly, or your bidding strategy is out of whack, or your landing pages take too long to load. Honestly, there could be a million answers to this question — but the solution is the same:
It’s time to partner with a kick-ass PPC management agency.
PPC Management: When It’s Time to Scale
By now, you know PPC marketing should be the right move for your business. You have the budget and a solid biz model that can handle the growth. Maybe you’re even working with a PPC agency right now!
(We won’t tell.)
But it might be time to hire a (new) digital marketing agency if:
- You’re ready to scale and improve performance
- You plateaued with your existing efforts, or agency, and need an upgrade
- You tried to manage ad campaigns in-house but it takes too much time or resources
- Your internal marketing team is doing great — but could use additional horsepower to level up
- You had a disappointing experience with ads management before but are ready to try again (with a more ROI and performance-focused agency)
- You’re an established company or entrepreneur looking to expand and grow revenue, and Google Ads is your next step
If this sounds familiar, we need to talk.
Power Up Your PPC Management
You spend too much time and energy on your business to let just anyone handle your PPC marketing.
You need a partner who can deliver results like these:
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7х
Increase conversions up to 7X (Direct TV)
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2x / 3x
Double lead quality (Datadog) and nearly triple lead volume
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500%
Increase revenue by more than 500% (686)
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30 Million
Create campaigns that reach 30 million people
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2x
Double new clients (New Century Financial)
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80%
Increase month-over-month return on ad spend (ROAS) by 80% (Swimsuits Direct)
Results are everything
HawkSEM in 90 seconds
ConversionIQ: Our Not-So-Secret Sauce
Hungry for results? Wait ‘til you try ConversionIQ.
ConversionIQ is our proprietary marketing platform that connects all your marketing tools — like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, social media channels, Hubspot, and Google Analytics — onto one easy-to-navigate dashboard.
You can see the full picture of your marketing efforts: Your account performance, what your team is doing each day, along with all your other online advertising metrics, in one place. Then, we use that insight to make crazy-effective optimizations.
Here’s how ConversionIQ looks in action:
Prior to ConversionIQ, many of our lead generation clients drove a high volume of low-quality leads. Using the full picture provided by ConversionIQ, we saw that although certain keywords converted at high volumes with a very low cost per lead — it was actually the long-tail, low-volume keywords that drove most of the revenue.
With that information, we overhauled the campaigns and properly allocated those budgets to maximize ROAS
Overall, lead volume went up 2x, cost per acquisition was down over 40% and lead quality improved 60%.
Our ecommerce clients on the other hand, like Nike and Verizon, drove a healthy volume of revenue — but their new customer acquisition costs were higher than customer lifetime value with little growth in net new customer numbers.
ConversionIQ enabled them to scale campaigns, optimize creative assets, and focus on more profitable customers. We uncovered situations where, although there were spikes in new customers, the order values were low and not leading to repeat purchases. We optimized the campaigns leading to a drastic increase in lifetime value while improving ROAS by 109%.
PPC Management Services: What You Should Expect
Look, not every PPC agency is going to be spectacular.
And while we’d love to partner with you here at HawkSEM, we want to make sure that, if you don’t choose us, you still end up with a reputable agency that won’t take your money and run.
Let’s briefly unpack what you should expect from an agency:
- Strategy
- Campaign setup
- Optimization
- Regular reporting & communication
- A strong partnership
Strategy
We begin our working relationships with a full, in-depth PPC audit of your current (or past) campaigns. If you don’t have a PPC campaign running, an account manager should still be able to do a thorough analysis of your website, other marketing channels, and opportunities.
In this early stage, our PPC experts are already hard at work getting to know everything there is to know about your brand, including:
- Target audience and demographics
- Competitors and industry
- Business goals
- Which channels to utilize, such as Google Ads (previously AdWords), Bing Ads, or Amazon
- The types of ads (i.e. campaign types) you should use within those channels, such as Search, Display, Video, Shopping, or Performance Max
- Optimizations you should make to your website, content gaps you may need to fill, and assets you might need for your campaigns
- The key performance indicators (KPIs) you’ll use to track the success of your campaigns — think click through rate (CTR), cost per conversion (CPC), and return on investment (ROI)
- Which keywords to target and avoid with keyword research
- How you prefer to communicate and work together going forward
PPC Campaign Setup
Once we have a full strategy in place that you approve, it’s time to build those PPC campaigns. If we outlined every step of the process, we’d be here all day; so here’s a painfully brief overview of what goes into campaign setup:
- Conversion tracking
- Well structured and organized ad groups with relevant keywords
- Appealing ad copy
- Negative keyword lists
- Publishing optimized landing pages with strong calls to action (CTAs)
- Bidding strategy and budget
This is also about the time that we connect all your marketing channels inside ConversionIQ.
Optimization
“Optimization” is a jargony way to say data-informed improvements. As soon as your ads are running across your network of choice, we track every appearance, click, and conversion. Within a week or two, we use that information to:
- Review and refresh your ad copy, assets, and formats
- A/B test ad copy
- A/B test keyword variations
- A/B test landing pages
- Keep negative keywords list up to date
- Make website improvements
- Tweak the bidding strategy and budget
- Incorporate ad extensions
- Improve Quality Score
- Try long-tail keywords that are more intent-based
- Try new match types
- Check languages and locations
This process is just as in-depth as strategy and setup, but it’s a recurring practice. You can read up on exactly what goes into paid search optimizations here.
Reporting & Communication
This part is especially important.
Whoever you choose to take on your PPC campaign management should be transparent, communicative, and send over regular reports that are easy to understand. Not only that, but make sure they report on the KPIs that matter to you.
How often do you want to communicate? Do you prefer to have check-ins via email or phone call?
If you set proper expectations up front when it comes to how you’ll connect, how frequently, and what performance metrics matter most to you, you’ll be able to set a solid foundation that’s slated to succeed.
A Strong Partnership
At the end of the day, your agency should feel like a partner in your business and match the culture you work so hard to instate.
You should feel like you can trust the team you’re working with and be confident that they’re capable, transparent, and honest with you.
Lastly, trust your gut. An agency might look great on paper, but if you get a bad feeling during your consultation or a meeting, it may be time to communicate this misgiving or reassess
How to Choose Your PPC Management Agency
Once you know the big factors to look for in a PPC agency, you can move on to the nitty gritty: like which services you want to use. Some agencies just offer paid search, while other full-service agencies can take on a range of digital marketing tasks.
This can include:
- Social media marketing (creating effective organic posts on the top social media platforms)
- Paid media (creating campaigns for LinkedIn Ads, Facebook Ads, etc.)
- Amazon ads
- Website design
- Remarketing and retargeting
- Content marketing
- Specific industry expertise (such as SaaS or e-commerce)
- Shopping ads and feed management
- Email marketing
- Performance display
- Landing pages for lead generation and increased conversion rates
- Search engine optimization (SEO) for organic rankings and brand awareness
Pro tip
Be sure to ask for case studies as proof of success.
Meet The Team
Does PPC Management Fit Into Your Digital Marketing Strategy?
Speaking of multiple marketing strategies…
Whether you already have a digital marketing plan in place or you want to grow your advertising strategy in the future, the right agency can use PPC as a unifying bridge across your online marketing channels.
Here’s how:
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PPC and search engine optimization (SEO)
These two marketing strategies go hand in hand. Search engines prioritize fast, easy-to-navigate websites with high-quality content (which is why PPC and content marketing go together so well, too). The stronger your SEO, the stronger your chances of getting those desirable ad placements.
What’s more, PPC ads are all about identifying what your target audience searches for, and how they search. Understanding the keywords they use, the websites they peruse, and the type of content they consume directly benefits your PPC strategy.
We could go on (and on). You can learn more about how SEO and PPC work together here.
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PPC and email marketing
Email marketing ain’t nothin’ without a solid list of email addresses. And PPC advertising can funnel those contacts into your list a whole lot faster. That’s where the magic of email marketing takes over.
Conversely, those email lists are virtual gold for more targeted remarketing PPC campaigns.
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PPC and social media marketing
Whether paid social or organic, social media marketing is one of the best ways to get users to notice you — and earn their trust. While users take to Google for high-intent research, many also take to brand’s social profiles to skim reviews and customer images.
The major players like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok all offer a unique platform to connect with audiences in ways other digital marketing channels can’t. Think of this as another golden opportunity to test your offer and narrow in on more effective messaging.
Notice a theme? Each marketing channel offers the chance to do further testing (i.e. A/B testing your calls to action, offers, lead magnets, and landing pages) and spread a consistent message.
Building on top of an already-sturdy foundation can make your marketing plan thrive. Which is why it’s a good idea to invest in a digital advertising agency that specializes in not only PPC services — but also SEO, email marketing, and social media marketing.
At HawkSEM, we offer digital marketing services have industry experts in every digital marketing field to ensure our clients have a strong, consistent
PPC Management Pricing
When it comes to looking for the right PPC agency, there are several pricing structures you’ll probably see along the way. Most often, you’ll see:
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Flat fee
The flat-fee model means you pay a one-time fee each month — no surprises.
Some agencies use a tiered flat fee model. For example, if your PPC budget is $5,000, then their flat fee may be $500. However, a bigger budget leads to a price increase (i.e. if your budget is $10,000, then their fee may be $1,000). Some agencies may require a set up fee, too.
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Percentage of ad spend
This pricing model works on a commission basis, where agencies get a percentage of your monthly ad budget. This percentage might range from anywhere from 10%-20%. Some higher-level PPC experts may also charge around 30%.
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Performance-based fees
A performance-based fee is when agencies only ask you to pay them for the leads they bring you. Sounds good, right? Hold up. It’s easy for these agencies to focus on quantity over quality, so be extra thorough in your interview process to ensure you’re working with a reputable agency.
Each pricing model has its benefits and drawbacks.
No matter which you end up with, it’s important to have a crystal clear understanding of what services you’re paying for and if you’ll need to pay for or hire additional resources or tools down the line. And don’t be afraid to ask about any “hidden” fees!
We make things happen …but don’t take our word for it:
CSUN
Patch Of Land
Google Partner
Google Premier Agency
The bottom line
Partnering with a PPC management agency can help your online marketing get to the next level. But it requires a hefty load of research upfront to ensure you choose the right one.
Ready for the final pitch? We’ll make it quick.
HawkSEM is in the top 3% of agencies in the country according to Google’s Premier Partners network, and was hand-selected as a Microsoft Advertising Partner. Not only that, but we have a 98% retention rate, and our clients average a 4.5X ROI.
Are we a match made in marketing heaven? Let’s chat about your goals to find out.
Request a Free Consultation
No BS, just results. Average clients see a 4.5x ROI
- Dramatically improve ROI
- Outperform the competition
- Increase conversion volume
- Better track ROI
- Reduce cost per acquisition
- Improve lead quality