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Sunday, September 30, 2018
Saturday, September 8, 2018
What Is Lead Quality And How To Measure It
Want to know the secret that generates more revenue from email marketing?
Many marketers assume that driving more leads can help them generate more sales and revenue. While increasing the size of your email list should be a top priority, your leads are worthless unless they’re qualified enough to make a purchase.
Driving more qualified leads is the secret to generating more revenue from email marketing.
In this article, we’ll show you everything you need to know about lead quality and how to measure it.
What Is Lead Quality?
Lead quality is a factor that allows you to identify how likely your prospects are to become your paying customers. The higher the quality of your leads, the more likely they become your customers.
Exact measurements of lead quality may vary depending upon your lead generation strategy and the products you sell. However, there are a few methods to determine whether a prospect is right for your business.
Some of them are:
- People download your lead magnet that is part of your marketing or sales funnel.
- Visitors contact your sales team to ask pre-sale questions.
- Leads browse through various product pages or pricing page, meaning they could be thinking of doing a business with you.
- How to Measure the Lead Quality?
1. Download Tracking
Tracking downloads on your website is easy with MonsterInsights. All you need to do is to install and activate the MonsterInsights plugin. File download tracking works out of the box without any further configuration.
To find how many times visitors download your lead magnet, simply look at your events report in Google Analytics.
how to measure lead quality with download tracking
For more details, read how to track and view file downloads in Google Analytics.
In addition to measuring lead quality in Google Analytics, you might also want to tag or segment your qualified leads in your email marketing tool.
Identifying the quality of your leads is an essential step in lead nurturing. This way you can send emails that are more likely to be opened and engaged.
Read 50 smart ways to segment your email list like a pro.
2. Pre-sale Query Form Submission
To track presale query form submission, just install and activate the MonsterInsights Forms addon. If you’re using WPForms, you can even automatically add your users to your email list by including a checkbox to your contact form.
3. Important Pages visit
By setting up Google Analytics goals, you can track whether your visitors are browsing through important pages on your site. By visiting important pages on your site, your visitors are showing an interest in your offer, which makes them qualified.
And once identified a lead as qualified, you can target them onsite and offsite to show personalized marketing messages.
Below are a few ways you can target your qualified leads on various marketing channels.
Onsite retargeting: With OptinMonster’s onsite retargeting feature, you can show personalized marketing campaigns using popups, slide-ins, floating bar, etc. to your qualified leads that are proven to convert.
Remarketing: Target your qualified leads on Facebook through remarketing campaigns to convert them into paying customers.
That’s it!
We hope this article gives you some insights into tracking the quality of your leads.
If you liked this article, you might also read how to find your most profitable email campaigns.
And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more Google Analytics tutorials.
https://www.monsterinsights.com/how-to-measure-lead-quality/
Are You Getting the Most You Could Be from Your Email List?
Let’s start out by facing a tough reality: many small businesses — even the most successful ones — aren’t getting the most they could be from their email list.
It’s not that they’re not working hard or seeing good results. In fact, for many, email marketing is already their biggest driver of new and repeat business.
But there’s one thing that many small businesses aren’t doing that could help take things to the next level.
Luckily, adding that one thing to your email marketing strategy is a lot easier than you might think.
It starts with understanding a term you may have heard before — segmentation.
Segmentation is the process of organizing your contacts into different groups with the goal of targeting them with content or offers that are relevant to their needs or interests.
Rather than sending the same message to your entire list and hoping the right people see it, segmentation makes it easy to create emails that you know specific groups of contacts will be interested in — improving the chances of them opening, clicking, and acting on the content and offers you send out.
Still not using email to market your business? Give Constant Contact a try for FREE!
Why is segmentation important?
Did you know that 39% of marketers who segmented their email lists experienced higher open rates; 28% experienced lower unsubscribe rates; and 24% experienced better deliverability and greater revenue?
One of the biggest reasons people ignore emails or unsubscribe from email lists is because the content they receive isn’t relevant to them.
Think about your own experience — wouldn’t you be much more likely to pay attention to an email if it were designed with your needs and interests in mind?
While you may have people who read and act on every email you send out, if you’re not taking the appropriate steps to segment your audience, it’s likely that you already have potential customers or donors who are tuning you out.
If you’ve never segmented your list — one of the questions you may be asking is “how can I get started?”
The good news is that Constant Contact makes it super easy to segment your contacts.
Segments allow you to create customized groups of contacts using campaign engagement, contact information, and list memberships. Segments can be saved to use for later campaigns and refreshed in real time to update the list of contacts that meet your selected criteria.
But before you can start organizing contacts into different groups, you’re going to need some information to work with.
If you’re like a lot of businesses, the amount of information you have available may be limited to name and email address.
But there are also details like: job title, company, address, birthday, interests, and purchase history, which could be used to your advantage.
How can you find the information you need? Here are a few quick ideas:
Use what you know
If you’re brand new to segmentation, you may want to start by creating a list of your most loyal customers or supporters. Even if you don’t have a ton of information about your contacts, you should be able to quickly scan your list and recognize a handful of names.
You can add a tag for VIPs, or create a separate list and send them exclusive offers to reward them for their loyalty.
Update your sign up process
Much of the information you need to segment your list, can be available right from the moment people sign up.
While you may only want to require people to give their name and email address, you can also add optional fields like address or company name.
You can also provide options for the type of content they want to receive and let new contacts opt-in to different lists right from the start.
Use a survey
An online survey is a quick and efficient way to collect information from your email contacts.
You can provide multiple choice questions to help gauge people’s interest around a particular product or service, and can also provide open-ended questions for people to fill out their own information.
Host an event
Events are a great opportunity to collect additional information for your contact list.
You can collect information when interacting with attendees face-to-face, and also use an online registration tool to collect important details before the event.
You can also create a separate list for people who attend your events, and send follow-up emails and invitations to future activities.
Use your reports
You can see which contacts are opening your emails each month, and export a list of people who have clicked on a particular link.
This is a great way to identify your most active readers, and can also be used to learn more about the content or products your audience is most interested in.
If you see a group of contacts clicking through to learn more about a particular product or to read a piece of content, you could then create a separate list and follow up with more information or an offer that’s relevant to them
With the right information, you’ll be ready to start segmenting your list!
Take some time to think about the different groups of contacts you have on your list.
Consider things like:
- Location: Do you have groups of contacts that live locally and others that visit from out of state?
- Customer Status: A lot of the people on your list will be customers, but you may also have a sizeable audience of potential or new customers, as well.
- Interests: Use your click-through data to create interest-based lists.
- Questions/Needs: Use survey data or questions you’ve received in-person to group contacts, and follow up with more information.
- Length of time on your list: Creating a separate list for new contacts is a great way to engage people right from the start.
- There are plenty of ways you can use segmentation to get more from your list.
- Remember that growing an effective email list isn’t just about adding names and email addresses to your database.
These are people who have opted-in to receive updates from your business. It’s your responsibility to offer an experience that meets their needs and inspires them to take action.
https://blogs.constantcontact.com/segment-email-lists/
Attribution Models for Marketers: The Definitive Guide
We would like to think that a visitor finds your blog or clicks an ad, and immediately converts into a sale or lead.
Unfortunately, that is rarely the case.
Today, people will visit your site several times prior to converting. They'll find your blog post, return directly a week later, and click a retargeting ad the next day. Then, they will finally convert!
So which marketing channel gets credit? Was your blog responsible for the new sale? Or was it your Facebook Ad?
When trying to show clients the value of each marketing channel, it can be difficult. With multiple touchpoints in the buyer journey, each channel plays its part.
These are the questions at the heart of attribution models.
What are marketing attribution models?
Attribution modeling is a framework for analyzing which touchpoints, or marketing channels, receive credit for a conversion. Each attribution model distributes the value of a conversion across each touchpoint differently.
A model comparison tool allows you to analyze how each model distributes the value of a conversion. There are six common attribution models: First Interaction, Last Interaction, Last Non-Direct Click, Linear, Time-Decay, and Position-Based.
By analyzing each attribution model, you can get a better idea of the ROI for each marketing channel.
There isn't necessarily a "best" attribution model. You may choose one as your primary attribution model for reporting and analysis. Different factors, like business goals or buying cycles, can make one model better than another.
Attribution modeling is an analysis tool. Don't limit yourself to one and stick with it. Compare performance under each model to understand the importance of multiple touchpoints in the customer's journey.
Let's look at an example.
Currently, your default reporting is based on a last interaction model (more on each type below.)
You look at your analytics and only see a few leads from organic blog traffic. You're evaluating if you should keep investing in the blog. How do you prove the value of the blog?
You navigate to Google Analytics attribution comparison tool and view your conversions under the first interaction model.
Under a First Interaction model, the conversion value of your organic traffic shoots up! You realize that your blog visitors comeback to your site after clicking a retargeting ad. Then they sign up or purchase.
Under the Last Interaction model, the retargeting ad received all credit for those leads.
By comparing multiple attribution models, it's easier to understand how two (or more) marketing channels work together to generate conversions, so you can assign a conversion value to each channel.
Attribution models are useful, but they're also one of the more complicated topics in marketing.
In our complete guide to attribution models, we'll walk through the primary attribution models and when to use them. Let's get started on each type of attribution model.
What are the different types of attribution models?
1. Last Interaction Attribution
Last Interaction Attribution is also referred to as "last-click" or "last-touch." As the name implies, this model gives 100% of the credit to the last interaction your business had with a lead before they convert.
For example, a visitor finds your website through organic search. A week later they see a Facebook Ad and click the ad. Later that day, they go to your website directly and make a purchase.
The direct traffic, in this instance, gets all of the credit for that purchase. 100% of the value is assigned to that last interaction.
This is the default attribution model in most platforms, including Google Analytics. If you are looking at standard conversion reports in Google Analytics, you're seeing each goal attributed to the last interaction your customer had with your business.
Pros & Cons:
Last Interaction attribution is the simplest to implement and evaluate.
It is also often the most accurate. Digital marketing today is scattered. People may access from multiple devices, clear cookies, or use multiple browsers. This makes it difficult to track their entire journey.
However, you can always be certain of their last interaction prior to converting.
The downside is that this model ignores everything that happens before the final interaction. Many of the interactions and touchpoints prior to that last-click will be just as important.
This model may be a good fit for you if you have a short buying cycle. If there aren't many touchpoints prior to converting, only tracking the last one will give you a good idea of your strongest channels.
You will also find this model especially helpful if your sales funnel is wide at the top, but narrow at the bottom.
2. First Interaction Attribution
First Interaction is similar to Last Interaction, in that it gives 100% of the credit to one click/interaction. First Interaction (also called "First-Click") gives all of the credit for a conversion to your business' first interaction with the customer.
For instance, if a customer first finds your business on Pinterest, then Pinterest gets all of the credit for any sale that happens after that interaction.
It doesn't matter if the customer found you on Pinterest, then clicked a display ad a week later, and then went to your site directly. Pinterest, in this example, gets the full credit.
Pros & Cons:
The main appeal of using First Interaction attribution is how simple and straightforward it is. However, this model ignores the effects of any potentially important marketing channels that at a later point.
This model is also helpful if your industry has a short buying cycle. If there is a tendency to convert customers immediately, then their first touchpoint is especially important. Or, if your main business goal is bringing in new top-of-the-funnel customers, First Interaction is a great model for evaluating each channel.
3. Last Non-Direct Click
The Last Non-Direct Click Model is a bit more helpful than a standard last-click model. 100% of the value is still assigned to a single interaction. But, with last non-direct click, it eliminates any "direct" interactions that occur right before the conversion.
Direct Traffic is when anyone goes directly to your site by manually entering your url or clicking a bookmarked link. So this visitor already knows about your company.
How did they learn about your company? What prompted them to go to your website directly? By eliminating direct traffic in a last-click model, you can better assign value to the marketing strategy that led to the conversion.
Pros & Cons
As I mentioned above, eliminating direct clicks makes this a more insightful model than last interaction. However, it still assigns 100% of the value to one interaction. If your customer had 4 touchpoints prior to that last non-direct click, it's completely ignored.
4. Linear Attribution
With a Linear attribution model, you split credit for a conversion equally between all the interactions the customer had with your business.
For instance, a customer finds you on Instagram, signs up for your email list and later clicks an email link. The next week they go to your site directly and make a $120 purchase.
There are 3 touchpoints in this situation. Each touchpoint gets 33% of the credit, or a $40 conversion value attributed to the channel when the purchase was made.
Pros & Cons:
Linear attribution gives you a more balanced look at your whole marketing strategy than a single-event attribution model does.
However, this means it also assigns equal importance to everything. Some marketing strategies are more effective than others, and this model will not highlight the most effective strategies.
If you want a nuanced attribution model that's straightforward and easy to explain to clients, linear attribution might be a good choice for you. It's a great way to demonstrate how each channel does have value.
5. Time Decay Attribution
Time Decay attribution is similar to Linear attribution - it spreads out the value across multiple events. But unlike, Linear attribution, the Time Decay model also takes into consideration when the touchpoint occurred.
Interactions that occur closer to the time of purchase have more value attributed to them. The first interaction gets less credit, while the last interaction will get the most.
Pros & Cons:
If relationship-building is a big factor in a business' success, using Time Decay attribution can be a helpful way to conceptualize that.
Keep in mind that this model minimizes the effect of top-of-the-funnel marketing techniques. You may want to use a Time Decay attribution model when you're dealing with a particularly long sales cycle, such as for expensive B2B purchases.
6. Position Based Attribution
The Position Based attribution model (also called U-shaped attribution) splits the credit for a sale between a prospect's first interaction with your brand and the moment they convert to a lead.
40% of the credit is given to each of these points, with the remaining 20% spread out between any other interactions that happened in the middle.
For example, if a prospect first makes contact with your business through a Google search, looks at your Facebook page, and later signs up for your email newsletter, the first and third touches each receive 40% of the credit, and the Facebook visit receives the remaining 20%.
Pros & Cons:
Position Based is a strong attribution model for many business types that have multiple touchpoints prior to a conversion. It gives at least some credit to every interaction. But, it gives a stronger weight to your two most important interactions: the first time a customer found you and the interaction that prompted a conversion.
Bonus: Custom Attribution Models
Do you know a particular weight or valuation you want each touchpoint to have? Do you have a very specific funnel that you want to evaluate?
You can create custom attribution models in Google Analytics. A custom attribution model lets businesses give a custom amount of weight to whatever touchpoints they think are most important.
Pros & Cons:
A custom attribution model provides the most nuanced look at what's getting you sales. However, it can be difficult to create, and this type of model requires a lot of data. Businesses that have a long buying cycle and plenty of data on hand are the best candidates for using a custom attribution model.
Where to Find Attribution Model Reports in Google Analytics?
Google Analytics uses last interaction attribution by default. However, you can compare different attribution models in your account. You'll find this tool under "Conversions" > "Attribution" in your account.
By comparing each model, you can see the value each channel delivers under different attribution models. You can use their default channel groupings, or if you are customizing your links with UTM codes, click "Source" to see the value assigned to each source you are tracking.
In the above example account, direct traffic was attributed with 2,234 conversions with last interaction attribution. Under first interaction, that drops to 1,408 -- a 40% decrease!
By looking at both models, we can understand the value of the other marketing channels that led to the direct traffic and conversions.
Marketing Attribution Model Infographic
Attribution models are complex to use and understand. To help simplify it, we created an infographic that you can save and share.
marketing attribution model infographic
Let us know what you think in the comments! What attribution model do you use when analyzing your marketing campaigns?
https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/marketing-attribution-models
5 of the Best Tools to Build Your Email List Online
You know how to build your email list in store.
You’ve even gotten pretty good at collecting contacts during events, with tools like Text-to-Join and the ListBuilder tablet app.
What about your website and social channels?
Are you doing everything you can to build your email list online?
The good news is there are a ton of easy-to-use apps and tools that can automate this process for you, letting you get back to other parts of your business.
Looking to learn more list growth tips? Join us for a FREE webinar: How to Ask for Email Addresses, Anywhere. Can’t attend live? Register anyway and we’ll send you a recording.
Once you set up these list growth tools, many of them will run continually on their own.
Ready to get started? Check out these five ways to build your email list online.
1. LeadPages
LeadPages makes it easy to create landing pages to drive engagement on your website and grow your email list.
Like good email design, a great landing page provides a simple call-to-action and can be viewed on any device.
LeadPages follows these best practices with plenty of pre-designed templates to get you started fast.
Build email list online -- leadpages
Plus LeadPages’ integration for Constant Contact makes it easy for you to automatically sync your new website leads directly into your Constant Contact email marketing account.
Learn more about LeadPages here
2. MailMunch
MailMunch helps grow your list by converting website visitors into subscribers and customers. MailMunch provides beautiful opt-in forms that allow you to catch visitors before they leave.
They have a variety of forms like Popups, Top Bar, and Scroll Box — all of which are optimized for mobile devices and integrate with Constant Contact, so your leads go directly into your contact list.
Build your email list online -- MailMunch
MailMunch comes with analytics so you’ll be able to eliminate assumptions and test designs that get visitors engaged.
Here’s how you can get started with MailMunch
3. Neat
Do you have a stack of business cards on your desk but haven’t had time to upload them into your account?
Neat’s scanning software eliminates manual data entry and digitizes your business cards in minutes.
Build your email list -- Neat
Neat has a variety of integrations that automatically send your new business card leads into a database of your choice, including Constant Contact.
Check out how Neat can work for your business
4. Join My Mailing List Facebook App
The Join My Mailing List App lets you collect email addresses easily from your Facebook business page that will automatically be added to your Constant Contact account.
It takes just a few minutes to get set up and you can customize the form with your logo and an introduction to let your audience know what they’ll receive.
Build Your Email List Online -- Facebook JMML
Set up your Join My Mailing List now
5. Constant Contact Forms plugin for WordPress
Add a sign-up form to your website in minutes. With the Constant Contact Forms plugin, you can create a form that automatically matches the theme of your WordPress site.
All forms are mobile-optimized and you can customize the fields your subscribers are required to fill out.
Choose which email list you’d like your new contacts to be added to and you’re good to go!
constant-contact-wordpress-form-example
Learn more about the Constant Contact Forms plugin
Looking for more tools to grow your email list?
Get ready to grow your email list quickly and easily.
We’ll show you how in our new webinar: How to Ask for Email Addresses, Anywhere. Can’t attend live? Register anyway and we’ll send you a recording.
And be sure to visit our Apps & Integrations Page for a full listing of our integrations — including integrations with Outlook, QuickBooks, and more. Search by your business needs to discover integrations that can work for you!
https://blogs.constantcontact.com/build-your-email-list-online/#
Scale Adwords Management Using Automated Rules
Ah, the age old question every agency owner has to answer… How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?
The answer is so obvious. A woodchuck would chuck all the wood he could chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.
So how does this tongue twister apply to advertising agency owners like us? Let’s make a comparison...
You start out on your own, chucking wood and selling it outside of a local campground. You are profitable and, because you’re ambitious, you want to grow. You chuck as much wood as you can but soon realize the more time you spend chucking wood, the less time you have to sell it. Which is more important? Chucking or selling? Both.
Since you’re a savvy entrepreneur, you hire your first jr. woodchuck. But how much wood can this woodchuck chuck?
Your woodchucks wood chucking goal: 250 pieces/day.
Week 1: Although your woodchuck’s processes are slow, he goes beastmode and chucks 500 pieces of wood!
Week 2:After a week of chucking non-stop, he gets tired, pulls a hammy and his girlfriend breaks up with him. 100 pieces.
Week 3: He get’s better but still fluctuates between 150 - 200 pieces/day.
All of a sudden, you have increased your sales process but your fulfillment is slow and your employee is underperforming.
Is there a smarter solution?
Let's say that instead of hiring a woodchuck, you went to Costco and bought a woodchucking machine. This woodchucking machine claims it has 50 horsepower and can chuck 500 pieces of wood per day, everyday, comes with a one year warranty.
Is the comparison obvious yet? As ad agency owners, our wood is advertising campaigns. The more advertising campaigns an employee can manage, the more profitable they will be and the more scalable your business will be.
The problem is, there is a point of diminishing returns. If one account manager has too many accounts then some of those will be neglected. Happens every time.
Here at adMind, we manage all paid traffic channels, but depending on your business model you might just manage AdWords, Facebook or a combination of both (or even offline). This article is geared towards AdWords automation to both increase productivity and reliability of account management.
First, let's make a very important distinction between automated rules and automated bid strategies.
Automated rules; Perform the same tasks that a human account manager would perform, but through automation, for free.
Automated bid strategies; Control bids to minimize CPC, hit a Target CPA or ROAS. Put away your Texas Instruments calculator, spreadsheets and don't even try to mess with the bids manually. You won't win.
The most common automated rules that we use on a daily basis are for keywords and display placements.
Things to consider:
Client’s budget; How much do they have to spend on ads and how much for management?
Client’s CPA; if the client is in a vertical where conversions are very expensive then you must be extremely careful with your targeting choices. More expensive conversions mean more money required to get statistically significant results.
As a general rule of thumb, you want to begin with a test CPA of about 3x the value of your clients Target CPA. If you have a list of 100 keywords and a target CPA of $10, then you need $3,000 in order to accrue a significant amount of data across each keyword. Why? Because $30 x 100 KWs = 3000, that's why. Now imagine if your client’s CPA was $100. You really need $30K before you start to see the light.
Search
At the campaign level, click on automation > change rule for keywords > pause keywords when > then, if your Target CPA was $10 your rule would look like this.
adwords automation
It’s fairly obvious, but this will pause a KW that got $30 in traffic without a single conversion. You want to choose all time because some KWs may be low volume. This does not eliminate the need for adding negative KWs to avoid further waste, but it does help lend a helping hand in your client’s account.
Display
If you want to win with display then you have to eliminate low-quality placements as quickly as possible. Since you should start out using the maximize clicks bid strategy, AdWords will automatically begin allocating more of your budget to wherever is generating clicks for the lowest CPC. If you’ve ever ran a display campaign before then you know you will get tons of clicks for but if none of those convert then nothing matters.
We recommend automatically eliminating placements with a spend 3x your clients target CPA and performance below their Target. You use essentially the same rule as you did with search, but apply it to placements. To do so, click on a display campaign > Display networks tab > Placements > Automate > Pause placements when...
scale adwords 2 Remember, we are talking display here and there could potentially be thousands of placements or even tens of thousands. In order to be more efficient if your client’s budget is small then you might want to do this on the topics level or even display keyword level.
Automated rules are not perfect, but they save us hundreds of hours per month and make our clients campaigns more successful, quicker, with lower management costs.
There are dozens of rules like this you can apply to any aspect of your account. Be creative. Just think, if I were the account manager what would I do when I open my client’s AdWords account? What would I look for? What would I change if the numbers were above or below a particular metric.
Happy optimizing!
https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/scale-adwords-management
How Much Should You Charge for PPC Management?
As a rockstar marketer (agency, consultant, freelancer, or otherwise), you've got to be a renaissance scholar: skilled and learned in many things. You've got to offer what your clients need. And in 2016, that most definitely includes pay-per-click (PPC) management.
The PPC marketing model works remarkably well, and Adwords is the godfather of that family. Just how much control does it have? A lot, controlling a full 33% of all online ad revenue…$38.6 billion in 2014 alone, and it accounts for roughly 95% of Google's total revenue. So yeah, it seems to be doing okay (if by "okay" we mean billions in ad spend, billions in revenue, and a huge market share).
To the layperson, success in a PPC campaign can be a complete mystery. It can happen, but they often have no idea why, and would be hard-pressed to replicate it. Mistakes are commonplace. That's where you come in.
As a PPC manager, you avoid the pitfalls and use every successful best practice out there. You squeeze maximum results from each campaign, from each ad group. You polish, refine, and improve, day in and day out. And for that, you expect and deserve to be paid.
But how should you determine your pricing, and how much is fair?
The Candidates: Payment Models
Let's get this out of the way from the get-go: PPC management is not and should not be cheap. It can run anywhere from $250-$1500 per month on average. In can get much, much higher. In this sphere, the maxim that you get what you pay for has never been more accurate. Anyone can charge $100, slap together something that will never do anything, and spend that money on string-in-a-can and hacky sacks (or something else equally silly).
But you're a professional. And your payment structure options are many.
Candidate #1 – The Flat Fee
This one is tricky to pull off in your early days as a PPC deity, as it requires a bit of experience to determine the likely time and effort each account will need. Once you're able to accurately estimate, though, it does bring in a steady and reliable paycheck…always the same amount regardless of the fluctuating workload. You can always revisit your price if the client drastically changes budget or requirements.
Candidate #2 – The Hourly Rate
This is considered a recipe for poverty within the freelance community. The prevailing wisdom is to always work by project and never by hour. Clients often love this model, though, as it's easy to see a direct correlation between how much work you're doing for them (the number of hours you bill), and the cost to them (those hours multiplied by the hourly rate). That said, you're basically penalizing yourself if you work efficiently and reduce the amount of time you spend on each campaign. Try an online hourly rate calculator to give yourself a ballpark figure if you're curious.
Candidate #3 – The Percentage of Ad Spend
This is the industry norm, with bigger agencies charging anywhere from 15-20% of total ad spend. Smaller operations might fall between 10-15%, with an account minimum to cover costs. This model does "punish" the client for increasing their budget, though, and doesn't consider individual account difficulty (spending a lot in an "easy" industry or niche vs spending a little in a more competitive one…you'll be working much harder for less money).
Candidate #4 – The Performance Based Fee
Sounds good in theory – you're rewarded for your hard work and success – and clients LOVE it – they pay much less or nothing if you don't deliver the goods – but it typically doesn't translate to the real-world. As the PPC manager, you're not in control of everything that plays a part in the ultimate success of a campaign. It could work if you had total control over sales, leads, landing pages, checkout, and the sales funnel from top to bottom…but you don't.
Candidate #5 – The Hybrid
Some marketers favor a smaller percent of total spend, plus a base fee for certain repeatable tasks like weekly reports. Others determine their hourly rate, estimate the hours involved for a particular account, then charge that as a flat fee. There's guesswork involved, and some of us are not comfortable with that.
There's a lot to consider. The trick here is to analyze the pros and cons for each candidate as you would when casting a political vote: choose the best fit for you. The percentage model is the most popular, but that doesn't automatically mean it works best in every situation. You're a unique flower.
Even after you decide on a price model, there's no magic dollar figure that you should be charging. There are considerations. A checklist, if you will. Hit them all, and you're able to charge more.
The Considerations: Take a Long, Hard Look in the Mirror
In selecting your price, you need to look at your situation from every angle. Stand your service in front of a full-length mirror (metaphorically speaking) and scrutinize every flaw and shortcoming. Make a list of its best features.
What exactly are you providing? Initial consultation, set-up, analytics integration, keyword research and selection, copywriting, bid management, ad scheduling, reports (weekly, biweekly, monthly)? Does your service include search term reports, ad performance analysis, restructuring existing ads and creating new ads (groups and campaigns)?
It's all about cost to value ratio. Your clients will spend more if you give them more. So, what else have you got up your sleeves besides Adwords?
Who Do You Think You Are ?
Consider your background and experience.
- How long have you been doing this?
- What evidence of success can you provide?
- Are you Google certified (Google Partner for Analytics and/or Adwords)? Are you an Accredited Bing Ads Professional?
- Do you have dozens of glowing recommendations?
- Do you keep up with new developments and trends in the PPC arena?
- If you're new to the PPC game, you can't very well charge the same as an established expert.
Just Google It ?
We often incorrectly believe "search" is synonymous with "Google". Heck, we use the term "google" to mean look something up online. But that search engine is not the only show in town.
It is the biggest. Adwords boasts over one million advertisers, and Google gets in excess of 100 billion search queries each month. But does that mean it's the best?
Google controls about 67% of the paid search market in the U.S. compared to Bing at 18%. So it's a no-brainer which network to use, right?
No. As always, it depends on your criteria. Google gets you more impressions, yes, but the Yahoo Bing network can cost up to 70% less per-click, and because of their smaller market share, you're not competing with as many others for those clicks. That's important for many businesses.
The Google vs Yahoo Bing debate isn't going to be resolved anytime soon. And that's okay. There's room for both…and you should be recommending both to your clients. Better for them, better for you. If Bing Ads and Yahoo Gemini are part of your stable of services in addition to "just" Google, you can charge more for that.
Let's Get This Party Started
The cost of launching a PPC campaign from scratch is very front-end heavy. It takes a lot of time and energy to get it out of the gates.
If you swoop in and do the heavy lifting from day one, you should consider your set-up fees. You can either charge a hefty launch fee, or you might waive that initial cost to get the ball rolling and bringing in steady income.
Clients generally prefer a lower up-front charge in exchange for a higher ongoing/monthly fee. There's less risk for them, as the real management cost doesn't kick in until the campaign is (hopefully) doing its thing and bringing in revenue. You, however, may find yourself only breaking even (or even losing money) at this stage, but can look forward to higher profit margins once the campaign is running smoothly. Can you afford to wait it out?
For existing campaigns, you may be called in to take over, in which case you'll start with a PPC audit. What exactly does that include (campaign settings, ad groups, keywords)? How long will it take you? Are you going to charge for it, or roll it into the monthly management fee?
Be VERY clear about what your clients get, and what they don't get (perhaps offering a wide variety of add-ons they can opt for down the road). The add-on menu works at fast food joints for a reason…different people want different things.
Goal! Goal! Goal!
Of course, no campaign will accomplish anything without clearly defined and identified goals. So, what are they? And does your price ultimately work within your ideal client's budget? Go after smaller fish at first, but remember that they have smaller wallets, too.
Determine Your Minimum Worth
The Tools of the Trade Whether you're a high-falutin' agency with dozens of employees, or a lone ranger on the plains, you have business expenses. List them.
Software and subscription services like Google Analytics, Wordstream, Optimizely, SEMrush, Clicktale (heat maps, session replays, conversion analytics, advanced insights, management tools), or Crazy Egg…to name just a few that may be in your marketer tool belt
Office space
- Internet connection, landline or mobile phone service
- Employee salaries (if any)
- Your own marketing
- Personal expenses
And on and on and on…(there's never a shortage of expenses)
Whatever you charge, you need to pay your bills. So be sure you know how much is enough, and what the industry supports for someone with your credentials (whatever they are) and experience (whatever it is). Look around. Compare yourself. Are you doing everything the major players offer, or are you a more budget-friendly option? Both have their value.
Bottom line? Successful businesses understand that they must spend money to make money, and they understand that a well-run PPC campaign can make them money. People are willing to pay for that…if you know what you're doing. Do you? If you're emphatically nodding your head right now, then don't be afraid to ask for what you deserve. PPC management is not frivolous, nor is it a luxury. It's a modern business necessity. On average, businesses make $2 for every $1 they spend on Adwords.
Top-flight management providers can demand top-flight fees. The best are providing a robust service that includes Adwords, the Yahoo Bing Network, and Facebook Ads (or some other paid social platform). The best can do it all (but don't necessary bundle everything together). The best ask the right questions and have the right answers. The best are ready to deal with whatever the industry throws at them. Are you?
Can you deliver increased traffic? Higher conversions? And a solid ROI? Then you should be paid for that handsomely
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https://agencyanalytics.com/blog/how-much-to-charge-ppc
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