It’s not a bad question to ask. Why not just do PPC on my own and forget the agencies?
You might think you can save money this way. Occasionally some people do.
If you asked how much does PPC cost and found out it was starting in the hundreds of dollars for an agency to help you, you might think a DIY solution is a good way to go.
There’s a lot of YouTube videos, tutorials, and you can even try to sign up for Google AdWords Certification courses.
But I would like you to consider two reasons why when you ask “how much does PPC cost” you should really be asking “how much will it cost me to do PPC badly?”
How Much Does PPC Cost When Done Poorly: Two Unexpected Costs
You might try to save money by managing ads yourself. Fine.
Let’s say you have a budget of $2,500 a month. Your average cost-per-click (CPC) is $2.10 since you aren’t really clear about how to optimize for better performance.
You pour hours each week into trying to figure this thing out, spend your budget, and at the end of the month have 1,190 clicks and 24 leads with a 2% conversion rate. Not bad, eh?
But do some math. You spent about $108 dollars per lead. How many leads turned to sales? How much are your sales actually worth? Did you really save money, or lose it?
You check with a friend in the same industry who hired an agency and find out they got about $0.90 for CPC, over 2,700 clicks, and a 5% conversion rate, and ended the month with 139 leads. They only spent $18 per lead too. Ouch. Your $2.10 CPC doesn’t look so good anymore…
You realize that your friend only spent a few hundred dollars for an agency to optimize their account, and didn’t have to spend hours each week working on the ad platforms like you did.
You also realize that your friend got more than $3,300 worth of leads/clicks compared to your equivalent account performance.
You lost time and money, and probably barely broke even on sales from those leads.
A Tale Of Two Businesses – Our PPC Infographic
Our infographic gives a good contrast between two business owners who approached PPC differently.
One simply asked “How much does PPC cost” and then fixed on the dollar amount to try and keep it as low as possible. He failed, actually, and it cost him not just money but time as well.
The other asked “How much does PPC cost me when I do it badly” and then realized that hiring an agency got them MORE for their money, and saved them a lot of time too.
When you ask “how much does PPC cost” will you also ask how much it can cost you when it is done badly? I hope so. If you’d like our Google Partner Agency to help with managing your PPC you can find out more here or just contact us directly on our site.