There?s an old phrase in Latin that is sometimes referenced by military strategists. The phrase is ?amat victoria curam? ? which (roughly translated) means Victory Favors Careful Preparation.
I mention this because I?d like to use this article to talk about the preparation any forward-thinking business owner (or marketing manager in a firm) would make to choose a Google AdWords reseller. Obviously, we could be talking about anyone who can manage any pay per click campaign, but I?m going to focus on Certified Resellers for Google AdWords for the purposes of this article.
Here we go.
If you?re in the business of marketing or advertising, you already know that new prospects are the greatest resource for new and future sales. You may also know that search engine marketing advertising (pay per click or PPC) spending reached $16.6 billion in 2010, and it shouldn?t surprise anyone that Google dominates the paid placement advertising market. Other advertising mediums, by comparison, are suffering.
The reason that PPC is so popular is that the market demands it. The evidence can be summed up in two separate words: relevancy and timing.
The example is this: PPC marketing will absolutely put advertisements directly in front of someone who is actively searching for information about those products or services. When they see a Google AdWords ad, it is because they are researching or shopping for products or services that are defined specifically by the keywords that your PPC manager has selected to best fit the campaign goals.
And it is as simple as that.
But, not everyone is an expert in Developing Campaign Goals, Driving Traffic, Measuring Results, and Optimizing ads for Better Performance. In an agency environment, you may not have time to build and staff an AdWords-savvy department. So, the judicious business owner or marketing manager goes to the experts. You want someone experienced, talented, capable, accredited, sure.
But in a landscape dotted with search engine marketing reseller groups, whom shall you choose?
Again, Victory Favors Careful Preparation.
Google hires and staffs their departments with some of the brightest people on Earth. And they take their AdWords program very seriously. Therefore, they have developed a Reseller Partner Program, a Certification Process, and have outlined a Third-Party Policy for their Paid Search Resellers. Google actually has a link on their main AdWords page that speaks directly on the topic of working with a third-party partner. This is where you can easily start to gain enough information to make an informed decision about hiring a PPC reseller to care for your campaigns.
Here are the Top Five Tips for Selecting a Third-Party AdWords Reseller Partner for a Pay Per Click Campaign.
1. Do some research and select a company that displays a Certified Partner or Authorized Reseller badge on their website. What you?re looking for is a square blue and white badge that displays the words ?Google AdWords Certified Partner.? If the Google AdWords reseller you?re inquiring about is genuine, you should be able to click on the badge and be taken to a Google Certification Program page where you can see their Google Certification Status, company details, what AdWords programs they support, and a listing of other related services.
2. Choose one partner. Even though you may choose to switch partners at the dance, you can only dance with one at a time. Reason is: the search engine results pages at Google won?t display more than one ad for any given business at a time. If you?ve contracted with more than one paid search reseller partner, you?ll quickly find that it?s difficult to measure their competencies against each other.
3. Get informed. Yes, you may be in the market to hire a Google AdWords reseller and understanding AdWords at an advanced level can take time, but it doesn?t take much time to learn the basics. Review the “AdWords basics” section. Understanding AdWords will help you make more informed decisions with your third-party partner.
4. Side with experience. If you find a company that actively manages hundreds of AdWords accounts for agencies, then it?s a sure bet that they?re experts in Google AdWords. Listen to what they have to say.
5. Plan to evaluate your ad performance. The indisputable goal of any AdWords campaign is to ring the cash register somewhere. A return on investment is the number of new sales that are seen coming in through the door. Take time to measure the incomes and outlays each and every month. If you see a problem trending, ask questions. A good AdWords reseller is glad to speak to any of your concerns and should have answers ready ? because they too are victorious when prepared.
