Why hire a PPC consultant?

Hiring a PPC consultant can help you make sure your paid advertising money is well-spent. A PPC pro will be able to provide you with a comprehensive analysis of your campaigns and help you identify areas of improvement. They will help you optimize your campaigns and ensure you're on top of the latest algorithm changes, trends, and developments in the industry.

A PPC consultant can also help you develop and execute your long-term strategy for success. With their knowledge and expertise, you can maximize your campaigns' effectiveness and minimize your costs. 

Hiring an experienced PPC specialist is often much more cost-effective than trying to do it yourself or hiring multiple in-house employees. A PPC professional can chip in when needed and help you avoid wasting money on ineffective strategies or ad campaigns.

To summarize, the benefits of hiring an experienced PPC consultant are: 

• They are usually cheaper than hiring an agency or a full-time employee
• They have more experience and have worked with tens or even hundreds of clients
• They can down to key metrics and hit campaign goals faster
• They can integrate well with your internal team
• They can improve your campaign management over time
• They can grow your sales and traffic without the learning curve
• They can work on a variety of customer acquisition channels (Amazon PPC, Bing Ads, Google Ads, search ads, native ads, etc.)

What does a PPC consultant do?

Essentially, a PPC consultant guides you on efficiently running your PPC campaigns. They're seasoned paid advertising professionals with many years of experience working with PPC platforms like Google Ads (previously known as Google AdWords), Bing Ads, and Amazon Ads. They run and manage ads on both search engines and social media platforms.

They'll work with you to create comprehensive campaigns tailored to your business's needs. They'll also give you advice on how to optimize your campaigns for a:

• Higher click-through rates (CTRs)
• Lower cost-per-click (CPC)
• Lower cost per action (CPA)
• Higher conversion rate

Additionally, they can lend their expertise to train your in-house PPC experts. Although this does not replace courses and training, it can help your in-house marketing experts be more proficient. 

Here are some of the responsibilities a PPC specialist can cover.

PPC audit

The first thing that any experienced PPC specialist would do is conduct a thorough PPC audit. They are going to look at all of your existing campaigns, advertising costs, audience targeting, advertising budget, creatives, and conversions.

If you're running Google Ads, they will likely look at your ads and Google Analytics data. If you're running social media marketing campaigns they will use those platforms for analysis. The goal is to get a complete picture of what you've done so far, what worked, and what hasn't worked, and to get a better understanding of your marketing goals and how those affect your business decisions.

Campaign creation

A PPC expert can help you set up your account and create campaigns to target the right audiences with the most relevant ad copy. Hiring someone with experience to do this will help you target your audience more accurately (and, thus, make your advertising campaigns more efficient). Although a PPC consultant cannot promise to nail the right targeting from the get-go, they can track and adjust campaigns as needed.

Keyword research

Keyword research is essential to developing paid search campaigns that work. Your PPC advertising expert can help you find the best, most relevant, and least costly keywords to bid on in your search PPC. They can also help you research negative keywords to avoid having your ads shown for irrelevant searches.

Bidding strategy

PPC bidding strategy is a science in its own right. Your PPC pro will use their expertise to help you develop a bidding strategy to maximize your ROI and minimize costs. They can also use the data they collect from other campaigns to perform continuous bidding optimization and ensure you're getting the best bang for your buck.

Optimization & reporting

As mentioned, a PPC marketer can also help you constantly track and analyze data to optimize your campaigns for better performance. They'll provide regular reports and make suggested changes moving forward. 

How much does it cost to hire a PPC consultant?

The cost of hiring a PPC consultant varies, depending on their experience, track record, and your specific needs. If your ad spend is between $5,000 and $10,000, you can get a PPC expert for as little as $1,800/ month. If your ad spend is more than that, the cost of a PPC specialist will grow incrementally. This is less than the average price of an advertising agency.

How to hire the perfect PPC consultant

If you want to hire the perfect PPC consultant or Google Ads expert, you need to make sure you have a good process in place. Here's a suggestion of what this could look like:

1. Find the perfect candidate on Mayple

Mayple matches businesses and marketing professionals so that you can find the right PPC consultant for your business. We assess each customer according to their needs, industry, and business stage, and help them find the best PPC expert in a matter of days.

2. Questions to ask during the interview

Asking the right questions is essential when hiring a PPC specialist. Here are some questions you should ask them

General PPC advertising experience

• What is your professional experience in PPC advertising?
• Do you have more experience in B2C or B2B marketing?
• How do you optimize PPC campaigns to improve ROI?
• How do you measure the impact of PPC advertising on overall business goals?
• How do you ensure that PPC campaigns align with a client's digital marketing strategy?
• How do you determine the target audience for a PPC advertising campaign?
• How do you create ad copy and landing pages that drive conversions? How do you increase the Quality Score and landing page experience?
• How do you handle A/B testing and experimentation in PPC campaigns?
• How do you incorporate retargeting and remarketing into PPC campaigns?
• Can you explain your approach to budget allocation and bidding strategies in PPC campaigns?
• How much PPC agency experience do you have? (this is important for larger businesses)

Types of PPC advertising

• What is your experience running paid social media marketing campaigns?
• Do you have experience running Google Shopping campaigns?
• What types of Google Ads / Google AdWords campaigns have you run in the past?
• Have you worked with Bing Ads? Amazon PPC? Display ads?

Past projects / clients

• Can you provide examples of successful PPC campaigns you've managed in the past?
• How do you determine the best keywords for a PPC campaign?

Advanced PPC experience

• Describe advanced PPC strategies you've used in the past
• How do you deal with ad fatigue?
• How do you approach competitor analysis for a Google Ads campaign?
• How do you approach international PPC campaigns and address language and cultural differences?

General marketing knowledge

• How do you deal with ad fatigue?

Communication and reporting

• What is your communication process like with clients during a PPC campaign?
• What reporting metrics do you use to measure the success of a PPC campaign?

3. Skills assessment

To ensure you're hiring the right person, it's important to test their skills - both the PPC-related and soft skills. Run a quick multiple-choice quiz test to assess their general knowledge of PPC channels, how they work, and how they manage multiple projects at once. Doing this will help you determine if the marketer is a good fit for the level of experience you need in your company.

4. Test assignment

Finally, present your candidate with a real-life test assignment (maybe even something related to your business or industry). Examples of test assignments include:

• "Run a keyword analysis for a campaign for a shoe company and come back with 5 suggested keywords for our ad group."
• "Perform an in-depth competitor analysis and list out the top 5 competitors in our industry."
• "Write an ad copy for a PPC campaign to target women's shoes."
• "Our target audience largely consists of 20 to 25-year-olds with an eye for detail and an inclination towards aesthetics. Which PPC platform would you consider for a campaign -- and why?"
• "Analyze an ongoing PPC campaign and list out the changes you'll make to improve performance."
• "We are currently running a Google Ads campaign with a CPC of $1.2, which is way over our industry average. What are your first suggestions to achieve a lower cost per click?"
• "We are running a Google Display campaign with a very low conversion rate. How would you suggest we improve our assets to increase the conversion rate? 

Hiring in-house versus a freelancer PPC expert

Knowing whether to hire in-house, freelance, or consultant PPC experts can make or break your PPC marketing campaigns. Depending on your budget and needs, there are pros and cons to both hiring in-house and working with freelancers or consultants. Here are some of the things to consider:

• Hiring in-house is a good option if you have a large budget and must oversee recurrent, complex PPC campaigns. It's also beneficial if you need someone to collaborate closely with your in-house marketing team members (with content marketing, social media, or email marketing specialists, for example).
• On the other hand, freelancers and consultants can be a great option if you have smaller budgets or need search ad campaigns managed on a one-time basis. They often have more specialized knowledge in PPC channels and can be hired quickly without a long-term commitment.

Keep in mind that many times, there's a difference between freelancers and consultants. A freelancer will do the work in exchange for an hourly or project-based fee, whereas a PPC consultant will provide expert advice, strategies, and approaches to improve your campaigns. Understanding the differences is important if you want to hire the right service provider for your business.