I think basically it is about the presence of and confidence in your abilities, the propensity to engage with complexity and above all the risk-profile of your boss . But PPC in-house,like love, can happen for you if you truly believe in it. Here is how...
1. Review your agency's work. You know, you may actually be one of the lucky few! Maybe your agency is already more in love with your traffic than you yourself are. Maybe they cry over every rejected ad-copy and clap and rejoice over high CTRs. Maybe they raise a toast everytime a new experiment succeeds. If that is what you got, boy you are in luck!! Then you need to take a different course of action which I will cover in a later post. For now, just write a nice emotional email to your account manager and sleep tight.
2. So this means #1 doesn't apply to you and you are one of those guys who keep one eye open on their agency all the time. But then that is not right! You should keep both open if you are suspicious. Your word of the day is "Reviews". And planned ones. Don't ask dumb questions like "Hello, why is the CPC so low today? Is it good for us?". I am working on basic tenets of a PPC review and I am saving that for later. But do thorough reviews with your agency and involve analytical and business people from your side as much as possible. Know what they are doing, do a four-eyes on them (not like a cop silly, but to help them) and try to provide inputs they can use - continuously. You can definitely use some kind of PPC activity tracking sheet to make sure the process is well-structured and reproducible.
3. You reach #3 when your reviews tell you that something is wrong. Something is wrong when you are able to find out too many silly mistakes in the way the account is being managed. You know, something like a more than 10 Adwords-101 mistakes per account is a sure recipe for disaster. Or when you give suggestions and they are not heard right. Or when the agency goes into a suddenly defensive posturing as if they are the SS and you are raising a middle finger at the Fuhrer. Assuming you are a manager and not some sissy-made-manager-by-boss-grace, you would know when your agency is screwing you. Don't give up on them though. You know you were sleeping as well all this time. First give them the comfort that you still trust in them. Then structure a rehab camp with well defined timelines and ask them to follow up. If they don't, God help them... coz we are going to #4 now.
4. Start hiring. Yes! Before doing anything else with the agency, start hiring big time. Believe you me, not being an agency, hiring PPC guys could be a tough cookie for you. Take help from anyone you know in the PPC industry (psst... don't start asking your agency guys!!). Focus on analytical talent and a love for grunt work first, focus on business knowledge second. But get at least half as many guys as work for you at the agency. Do that double time (and remember to pay them well).
5. Start tracking. Remember that web analytics team that sits in the corner on the 4th floor? They are your new best friends!! Call them. Order Pizza. Check on their childrens' latest art work. Then ask them to start tracking traffic and conversions at the keyword level within your in-house analytics system (Did I hear you saying "we don't have one"!!!.. I seriously hope not). Many people are going ga-ga about data driven management these days... and I know many sissies love to call themselves a numbers person these days... but beyond the faff, there is the hard reality that PPC management just cannot work without numbers. There is no other way to do it. So get your numbers right. (And yeah, publicity time --> I would cover PPC analytics in a later post as well). I will make sure I put in a post on PPC tracking at some point of time because I think it is an involved subject by itself.
6. Start migrating slowly. Pick the smaller pieces. The assumption is there are more than 2-3 pieces. If you don't have smaller pieces, carve them out of the bigger pie. For example, if you are in the shoe business, politely request the agency that you would like to manage the high-heels campaign from next month. Let your new hires get some processes into place for managing these teenie-weenie accounts. Ask your analytics team to start producing daily reports that the PPC folks ask for. Can you hear the faint drum-beats in the distance now?
7. Involve other stakeholders. Once you have assured yourself that (a) this is the right decision (b) it is not a wrong decision and (c) you are ready to do it, call a meeting. Involve everyone you think will be fingering you for this choice in the future. And really, for this decision, believe me you should never trust just yourself. Ask everyone whether they think this is the right thing to do; ask them what risks they see . Maybe after all this work, someone smarter than you will show you the light and you would realize it was nothing but the effect of seeing BraveHeart more than 5 times. If you realize you were just trying to be a hero and had overseen a few important practical aspects, throw the sword and go back to hug the agency guys once again. Remember - an honorable exit is a luxury in duress.
8. But if you have buy-in, boy it's party time!!! Start planning for phasing out the rest of the accounts. I know you are too excited right now to even read the rest, but just one last thing
9. Don't forget your agency was watching your back all this while. Do have a "real" conversation with them about this. Ask for their opinion. If they are true professionals (and have other bigger clients) they would honestly tell you how good or bad your choice is. Actually, no agency would call this a good choice. They might as well just tell you how bad or how crazy your choice is.Never mind, shake hands before you say GoodBye. Because, tomorrow if your big in-house stack of cards tumbles over, you would be back to the table with these guys. Make sure only contracts end, not relationships.
10. Set SLAs for yourself. And make sure you have quantitative as well as qualitative ones. I have seen many a folks live and die by CPC, CTR, CPS, CPA and C-what-not, and not give a damn about the aesthetic aspects of PPC. A real person sees your ad, clicks on it and lands on your site. Your guest's experience should be a good one. Make sure you put yourself in the customer's shoes and ensure he likes what he sees and clicks upon. And more about PPC SLAs in (yes you got it)... a later post.
Bye for now folks !!!
1. Review your agency's work. You know, you may actually be one of the lucky few! Maybe your agency is already more in love with your traffic than you yourself are. Maybe they cry over every rejected ad-copy and clap and rejoice over high CTRs. Maybe they raise a toast everytime a new experiment succeeds. If that is what you got, boy you are in luck!! Then you need to take a different course of action which I will cover in a later post. For now, just write a nice emotional email to your account manager and sleep tight.
2. So this means #1 doesn't apply to you and you are one of those guys who keep one eye open on their agency all the time. But then that is not right! You should keep both open if you are suspicious. Your word of the day is "Reviews". And planned ones. Don't ask dumb questions like "Hello, why is the CPC so low today? Is it good for us?". I am working on basic tenets of a PPC review and I am saving that for later. But do thorough reviews with your agency and involve analytical and business people from your side as much as possible. Know what they are doing, do a four-eyes on them (not like a cop silly, but to help them) and try to provide inputs they can use - continuously. You can definitely use some kind of PPC activity tracking sheet to make sure the process is well-structured and reproducible.
3. You reach #3 when your reviews tell you that something is wrong. Something is wrong when you are able to find out too many silly mistakes in the way the account is being managed. You know, something like a more than 10 Adwords-101 mistakes per account is a sure recipe for disaster. Or when you give suggestions and they are not heard right. Or when the agency goes into a suddenly defensive posturing as if they are the SS and you are raising a middle finger at the Fuhrer. Assuming you are a manager and not some sissy-made-manager-by-boss-grace, you would know when your agency is screwing you. Don't give up on them though. You know you were sleeping as well all this time. First give them the comfort that you still trust in them. Then structure a rehab camp with well defined timelines and ask them to follow up. If they don't, God help them... coz we are going to #4 now.
4. Start hiring. Yes! Before doing anything else with the agency, start hiring big time. Believe you me, not being an agency, hiring PPC guys could be a tough cookie for you. Take help from anyone you know in the PPC industry (psst... don't start asking your agency guys!!). Focus on analytical talent and a love for grunt work first, focus on business knowledge second. But get at least half as many guys as work for you at the agency. Do that double time (and remember to pay them well).
5. Start tracking. Remember that web analytics team that sits in the corner on the 4th floor? They are your new best friends!! Call them. Order Pizza. Check on their childrens' latest art work. Then ask them to start tracking traffic and conversions at the keyword level within your in-house analytics system (Did I hear you saying "we don't have one"!!!.. I seriously hope not). Many people are going ga-ga about data driven management these days... and I know many sissies love to call themselves a numbers person these days... but beyond the faff, there is the hard reality that PPC management just cannot work without numbers. There is no other way to do it. So get your numbers right. (And yeah, publicity time --> I would cover PPC analytics in a later post as well). I will make sure I put in a post on PPC tracking at some point of time because I think it is an involved subject by itself.
6. Start migrating slowly. Pick the smaller pieces. The assumption is there are more than 2-3 pieces. If you don't have smaller pieces, carve them out of the bigger pie. For example, if you are in the shoe business, politely request the agency that you would like to manage the high-heels campaign from next month. Let your new hires get some processes into place for managing these teenie-weenie accounts. Ask your analytics team to start producing daily reports that the PPC folks ask for. Can you hear the faint drum-beats in the distance now?
7. Involve other stakeholders. Once you have assured yourself that (a) this is the right decision (b) it is not a wrong decision and (c) you are ready to do it, call a meeting. Involve everyone you think will be fingering you for this choice in the future. And really, for this decision, believe me you should never trust just yourself. Ask everyone whether they think this is the right thing to do; ask them what risks they see . Maybe after all this work, someone smarter than you will show you the light and you would realize it was nothing but the effect of seeing BraveHeart more than 5 times. If you realize you were just trying to be a hero and had overseen a few important practical aspects, throw the sword and go back to hug the agency guys once again. Remember - an honorable exit is a luxury in duress.
8. But if you have buy-in, boy it's party time!!! Start planning for phasing out the rest of the accounts. I know you are too excited right now to even read the rest, but just one last thing
9. Don't forget your agency was watching your back all this while. Do have a "real" conversation with them about this. Ask for their opinion. If they are true professionals (and have other bigger clients) they would honestly tell you how good or bad your choice is. Actually, no agency would call this a good choice. They might as well just tell you how bad or how crazy your choice is.Never mind, shake hands before you say GoodBye. Because, tomorrow if your big in-house stack of cards tumbles over, you would be back to the table with these guys. Make sure only contracts end, not relationships.
10. Set SLAs for yourself. And make sure you have quantitative as well as qualitative ones. I have seen many a folks live and die by CPC, CTR, CPS, CPA and C-what-not, and not give a damn about the aesthetic aspects of PPC. A real person sees your ad, clicks on it and lands on your site. Your guest's experience should be a good one. Make sure you put yourself in the customer's shoes and ensure he likes what he sees and clicks upon. And more about PPC SLAs in (yes you got it)... a later post.
Bye for now folks !!!
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