Run Your Google Advertising Like a Pro Without an Agency
At the start of 2019 I found myself in a very strange situation. The company in charge of running our Google Advertising campaigns completely stopped communicating with us. There was no ill feelings toward each other, there was just zero communication. No email replies, no phone calls. Nothing. We got totally ghosted by a company we were paying a fair amount of moolah to work for us. The only person that eventually reached out to me was the companies accounts lady who said the team apologised and they would be in touch. Weird. I still don’t have an answer to what happened. After giving them ample enough time to salvage our work, I began the journey of finding a new solution to running our Google Advertising.
In my mind we had two options:
Find another agency to work with.
Find a software base solution that we would manage. Surely there was something out there.
Disclosure:
Before pushing on I thought I would give you an insight into our teams capability when this was unfolding. We live and breathe marketing and especially digital marketing. We have a vast knowledge in running profitable ecommerce stores on Shopify. Implementing Facebook & Instagram strategies, building engaged profitable email lists and using digital tools in general.
We also have nothing to do with WordStream outside of working with them on our accounts.
Option #1 = Find Another Agency:
After initial meetings with a few local agencies we weren’t completely sold that forking over $1,000’s of dollars a month to manage our company accounts was the best ROI for us. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for paying professionals to go to work and do what they do best. But from the pitches I had given to me, I just wasn’t convinced. I even had one gentlemen tell me “how specialised Google advertising management had become”, in an attempt to try & reduce the confidence I had in my own team to execute our own campaigns. From this process I found the business we would consider if we went down the agency route again.
Finding the right agency to work with is always a challenge. They need to be an extension of your team. They need to understand your brand and it’s requirements as good as you do to be effective. They need to be up to the play with your latest campaigns, seasons, product launches and promotions. Achieving this takes a lot of work, on top of what you are paying them. Resulting in even less budget for your ad spend.
Option #2 = Source a Digital Solution:
My next option was to try and find a digital solution to run our AdWords. After getting my Google on, reading a ton of business pages and customer reviews, I narrowed it down to a tool that could possibly work for us. The pricing was within budget and the feature set sounded promising. The site is called WordStream www.wordstream.com
WordStream takes what is quite a confusing interface on Google and creates clear actionable tasks for you to improve your Google advertising. WordStream also has the ability to manage your Facebook ads if you are not familiar with using Facebook for Business.
When you have multiple channels connected to the platform such as Google & Facebook, it can create blended results based on your combined marketing efforts.
The transition to this platform was made easier by the fact that all of our AdWord campaigns had been setup, but in saying this, with the help of the WordStream team starting from scratch would not be a huge ask.
After careful consideration we decided to go with WordStream
You Don’t Know What You Don’t Know
One of the biggest wake up calls for us once signing up with WordStream was finding out that we had been paying our agency to do almost nothing for months. They had got our accounts up and running to a point where they were profitable which we were happy about, but we had no idea how much better they could be with further fine tuning and attention.
The Big Kicker with WordStream is that there is an option to sign up to their Advisor program. What this gives you is two 30 minute conference calls a month where you get to pick the brains of an account manager. The account managers know their stuff, they work day in and day out on Google Advertising campaigns with 1000’s of clients. During our time with WordStream we have had two different account managers and they have both been extremely knowledgeable and helpful.
Running your own Google Advertising campaigns can be quite daunting and having these advisors available to call twice a month or email at any time for advice is worth its weight in gold. It takes away all guess work. All calls are booked with your account manager weeks in advance, ensuring that you dedicate time to managing your accounts. To get the most out of these calls it pays to go into them with your latest questions at the ready.
This Is Not A ‘How To’
This blog has not been written as a ‘how to’ create effective Google Advertising campaigns. It has been designed to bring you up to speed with what your options are when deciding to invest into the management of your Google Ads.
What I can tell you: When I first started with WordStream, I had a basic understanding of how to run Google Ads. I now feel extremely comfortable running our campaigns. The amount of best practice tips and tricks you learn along the way is so valuable. Having a trained professional to lean on as needed gave me the confidence to cut the umbilical cord with a traditional agency.
Conclusion:
The combination of your intimate knowledge of your business and its products mixed with the intuitive WordStream platform and advisor coaching will setup you up with the best chance at success with your Google Advertising.
Getting your Google Advertising to run effectively and drive profitable growth into your business takes time to manage whether you commission an agency or go with a digital platform such as WordStream. There is no ‘Silver Bullet’ to success.
I can tell you from our experience with WordStream that it has been very successful for us in driving sales. In saying that, if you don’t have the time or you just aren’t interested in taking the reins yourself this may not be for you.
Hot Tips:
Having control of your marketing channels will make your team and marketing stronger.
You will pay for what you don’t know.