Adwords Consultant FAQ's

Do you specialize in certain types of sites?

I have managed a wide variety of Adwords accounts representing millions of dollars of Adwords advertising spending.

As a professional Google Adwords consultant, I primarily deal in extremely competitive markets where other consultants have tried and failed to be profitable. After all, if managing Adwords accounts in competitive markets was easy you could just do it yourself and you would not be here today. Right?

Most of my adwords management clients spend $5,000-25,000 per month on Adwords advertising. Many operate in markets where keyword click costs in the $3-25 range are more the norm than the exception. I actually prefer to deal in these very tough markets because it is more challenging and it sets me apart from less experienced Adwords consultants.

My preference would be to generate sales leads for high end financial products such as structured settlements, mortgages and insurance.

But I have also managed Adwords campaigns for very diverse clients. Some examples include executive coaches, attorneys, digital cameras, professional photography studio equipment, purebred cattle breeders, Mercedes auto parts, asset security labels, medical supplies, military uniforms and specialized online stores where Adwords advertising efficiency is critical to their profitability.

No matter what you are marketing online, my primary goal is to minimize your average cost per desired action, whether that be a sales lead, order or opt-in.

I won't accept your Adwords account unless I think I can manage it profitably for you. Give me a call for a free, no obligation evaluation. You have nothing to lose and a lot to gain (assuming your site is not included in the next answer).

Are there types of sites you don't manage?

Absolutely. Here are several I don't even consider:

In addition, I can not accept the following sites because it does not make good business sense for either of us.

Finally, I rarely take clients that are setting up a new Adwords account or have an Adwords budget less than $3000/month. Click here to learn why.

Also, since I charge a very low, flat monthly management fee it does not make good business sense to manage accounts where you have thousands of unique products to promote. So I don't, unless you are willing to pay an appropriate fee. Optimizing a very large online store is a full time job so you should hire a full time Adwords account manager.

Why don't you quote a flat setup fee like most of your competitors?

There are three things that people buying online hate to pay:

I know I do. I can't help you with the first two but here's my perspective on Adwords setup fees from both sides of the fence.

From Adwords advertiser's point of view, they present a financial barrier. Who wants to pay hundreds or thousands of dollars for an an Adwords setup fee when the product or service you are marketing may not work out as you expected?

But I also understand why other Adwords management consultants charge up to $6300 up front to set up your Adwords account.

Even for a relatively small Adwords account, I typically spend 12-20 hours on extensive keyword research, ad writing etc. before a single keyword bid is ever placed.

Properly setting up an online store with hundreds or thousands of products can take a massive amount of time to create extremely targeted keywords and ad groups. It is not uncommon to have up to 15 ad groups for a single product, each targeting a unique selling feature.

My initial Adwords account setup fees are tailored to your specific needs. They could be zero if your Adwords account structure is in reasonably good shape and you already have your products or services loaded. This happens often. When your Adwords account needs a major overhaul up front or you have many products or services to add I will either quote you a fixed setup fee or an hourly rate.

Why do you require a minimum Adwords budget of $3000/month?

Well, it's not because I'll make more money from you. I won't. It's so I will lose less.

It's strictly a business decision so I can continue to offer a low, flat monthly management fee to my Adwords clients

After analyzing all of the Adwords accounts I have managed I found that my setup time is about the same for a small account (spending wise) as it is for a larger account Further, my daily Adwords management time for a very small account (say spending $630/month) is actually much higher than a larger account. That's because it requires a higher degree of tweaking to maximize traffic within extremely small daily budgets. There is also much more hand holding with less experienced Adwords advertisers who lack the funding and willingness to make changes to their web sites to improve their sales conversions.

Based upon my Adwords account research, I found that I have virtually no turnover for Adwords accounts spending approximately $3000/month or more. This policy is not cast in stone so if you have a good case for future growth, I'll listen.

Likewise, I rarely now take clients that are brand new to Adwords advertising. That's because they usually have unrealistic expectations based on Google hype and ebook gurus who have no actual experience managing Google Adwords campaigns in extremely competitive markets.

I prefer prospects who have experienced the “agony of defeat” and the harsh realities of managing an Adwords account in tough markets. They have an entirely different mindset and appreciate the time and skill required to make Adwords campaigns profitable in these tough markets.

But don't get me wrong. If you do try to manage your own Adwords campaigns in these very competitive markets you could get an expensive education in a hurry. Don't wait too long to seek help from a qualified Adwords professional. It takes me just as long to setup an established Adwords account as a brand new one because I usually start from scratch in either case. Plus Google will penalize your efforts heavily if you have a poor account performance history which will make it difficult to recover.

When in doubt, call me today. I'll give you the straight scoop within 20 minutes whether I can help you or not. Believe me, there is no incentive for me to persuade you. If there is not a good match, we will both live to regret it.

What are your payment options?

I accept Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express and PayPal.

Monthly Adwords management fees are charged in advance on the first day of the month and continues until terminated by you. There is no long term commitment required. You can stop at any time without penalty. Basically, I must earn your trust every single day to continue our good business relationship.

Partial months are prorated (based on 30 day months). Charges begin on the day you authorize me to proceed and end on the day you notify me to terminate. Upon termination, any unearned fees will be promptly refunded to you.

You are responsible for paying the search engines directly for traffic to your site.

How will I know how my Adwords campaign is going? Any Reporting?

All search engine advertising accounts are set up in your business name.

Just log in to your Adwords, Yahoo or MSN account to check your current stats and reports in real-time. You won't have to wait for an out of date, month-end report offered by other Adwords consultants. You can see exactly what I see at any time. Therefore, I do not provide any additional reports.

If you use Google Analytics (It's free) you will have full access to your conversion data and other crucial reports to help you better manage your site.

In addition, you can contact me at any time to discuss your Adwords campaigns. You'll have my toll-free number and personal email address. Each goes directly to my desk. Well, it's not actually a desk. It is a high tech Adwords management command center.

Will I have a personal Adwords account manager?

Have you ever hired an attorney, web developer, or contractor based on their reputation and experience?

Later, you find out your work is being handled by a junior partner, intern or unskilled laborer, even though you are paying the premium fee commanded by the expert.

I'll bet you have.

But not here. When you hire me, you get me. Without the premium fees. Nothing is outsourced to underlings or foreigners as is common with other Adwords consultants.

Will I need to make changes to my web site?

The short answer is no. That's the beauty of Adwords advertising.

But just because you don't have to doesn't mean you shouldn't.

In order to track your ads and actions (highly recommended) you will need to add a few lines of tracking code to some of your pages.

By optimizing your bids and keywords over time, I can usually substantially improve your conversion rate (sometimes by as much as 630%). But we will reach a point where you will have to make improvements to your landing pages in order to achieve further gains. And the sooner the better.

You may want to make a new landing page for each major product or service and test variations of your pages to improve your sales conversion rate. These are the cheapest areas to concentrate on (as opposed to spending money to send traffic to poor performing pages) and can yield the greatest returns.

Do you offer an Adwords conversion tracking service?

I definitely recommend you install the Adwords conversion tracking code. It's free and simple to install. Plus it helps us know what is working so we can fully optimize your Adwords campaigns.

For additional web site metrics, you can install Google Analytics which is also free.

Do you have a guarantee?

I will do my best to send you very targeted traffic at the lowest possible cost.

But since I only have control of one side of a two-sided transaction, I can not guarantee your PPC ad campaign will be profitable.

Your ultimate success will depend on your sales conversion rate, average gross profit per order, your ability to generate repeat business through follow-up marketing, your pricing and the quality of your products and services. These factors are out of my control.

That's why I recommend you start slowly and track all traffic until you can establish your conversion and profitability numbers.

What I can guarantee is your satisfaction with my Adwords management services.

I have no long term contracts and you can stop at any time without penalty. I'll prorate and refund any unearned fees promptly.

Before I start, I will call you to discuss your business, products and services to make sure I have a clear understanding of your Google Adwords advertising goals before proceeding.

I will only accept a new Adwords account if I think...

I want happy, long term Adwords management clients. If you don't make money, we both lose.

Do you offer ppc management services other than Google Adwords?

Yes, I also manage Yahoo (Overture) and Microsoft Adcenter (MSN) accounts. Both require an additional management fee.

In addition to being an Google Adwords Qualified Professional, I am also a Yahoo Sponsored Search Ambassador. These are the two industry standard certifications for ppc managers.

I recommend that we optimize your Google Adwords account first and then move your best performing keywords to your Yahoo Account. This can take 2-4 weeks or more to get adequate conversion tracking data to make reliable decisions.

MSN's AdCenter potential traffic is still relatively small for most online businesses.

I do not recommend any other ppc search engine other than Google Adwords, Yahoo Search Marketing and MSN AdCenter.