4 Things to Keep in Mind When Hiring a Google AdWords Consultant
If you have tried to open a Google Adwords account, you also know it is an extremely robust and dynamic marketing tool that has the ability to increase traffic to your online business, as long as the campaign is set up correctly. If you don’t set up your PPC campaign correctly, you will lose money instead of increasing sales. This is the reason why many online businesses rely on Adwords consultants. However, you need to choose your Adwords consultant with care, as the right consultant can boost your online sales while an incorrect choice will not be able to show any measurable ROI even in the long run.
So, here are 4 things you should keep in mind when hiring a consultant.
1. Always Hire a Google Certified Consultant
When hiring an Adwords consultant make sure he or she is a certified Google Adwords Partner. A consultant, who is a member of the Google Partners program, will have an edge over a consultant who isn’t. This will help your PPC campaigns tremendously, as you can rest assured knowing that the consultant has passed the certification exam and has sufficient on-the-job experience to offer you the right expertise and advice.
2. Request for a Free Assessment
If you are already running a PPC campaign, request the consultant for a free assessment. Not only will this help you evaluate the consultant, you also will get to know him or her better. A good consultant will make time to talk to you and understand your business. He or she also will be able to answer your questions in layman’s terms and give you an outline as to how your PPC marketing budget will be spent. If the consultant can help make recommendations to improve your current campaign and you feel comfortable with him or her, you know you are on the right track.
3. Understand the Ownership of the Account
Be wary of an Adwords consultant who does not allow you to retain ownership of the Adwords account. You should work with a consultant, who is willing to let you retain ownership, so that you can log into the account and check what is happening and make any change you see fit. If you have multiple Adwords accounts, the consultant should create a My Client Center (MCC) account where you can view all the accounts under one roof. The Adwords consultant will be the account manager and hence, have the authority to make changes to the account and generate reports, but not have authority to view your credit card details. As the account manager, the consultant will be able to monitor your AdRank and quality scores and test keywords and phrases, landing pages and wording of the ads. The results should be carefully analyzed and adjustments should be made to optimize each campaign to ensure optimum ROI.
A good Adwords consultant will monitor and analyze Google Analytics and Adwords data to ensure your PPC campaign is performing optimally. He or she also will make suggestions to help improve your website, so that more visitors to your site get converted to leads and/or sales.
4. Have a Clear Picture of the Deliverables
Make sure you sit with the consultant and figure out what the deliverables will be. You should make it a point to measure success of a campaign with the help of conversions. Again, sit with the Adwords consultant and decide what the conversions should be. They can be a sale, registration, download or even a filled form.
The consultant should not be averse to using Google Analytics to help understand the performance of the Adwords campaign as well as your website. Hence, it means the consultant should have full understanding of Google Analytics and how to install the code for it. Once this is done, the Adwords consultant will be able to monitor which keywords, landing pages and ads have the best ROI.
