I have been working for close to two months to try to find the right partner for managing AdWords campaigns. I spent quite a bit of time talking with Yodel and WebVisible, and in the end determined that neither one is the best partner for us.

In the process of talking to close to one hundred of your peers over the last year, there were only a handful of instances when I’ve heard about success with AdWords to the degree that companies were sticking with it and investing more. In talking with a number of SEM (Search Engine Marketing) consultants, there’s a range of opinions on expectations of success. Most see the bigger challenge in getting quality leads – ones that are worth your time to follow up with.

I am not going to go forward with AdWords campaigns until I find the right company or individual to team up with. There will be enough learning and risk for this effort even in the best of circumstances. I want to minimize the impact of learning on the job on your budget. There will inevitably be some of this due to the ever-changing and intricate specifics of IT services marketing, but I at least want a seasoned pro working closely with us out of the gate.

The campaigns will be straightforward

 Minimum commitment - $500 per month for 3 months.

• All Inclusive – in addition to being managing the media spend for the keyword clicks, it will include all the website-side landing pages and analytics.
• Exclusive territory – at least in the initial phases I don’t want to manage competitive campaigns (defined as focused on the same primary local keywords). It’s possible there could be some overlap on broader keywords such as states. We’ll review this on a case-by-case basis with full disclosure. While on a practical level the amount of keyword placement inventors available far exceeds anyone’s budget to bid on, it all it just adds a level of complexity to manage campaigns in a way that’s fair and equitable. I don’t know if we’ll feel different about this down the road, but for now it’s exclusive.
• Media Buying and Fees – While the amount might fluctuate from time to time as things normalize, our typical fees will run 15%-20% of the budget. This means if you have a $500 budget, $425 will go to actual click purchase, $75-$100 will go to Pronto for campaign management. We will set up and manage the campaigns out of our central Google AdWords account and bill you monthly based on actual clicks. In the case of AdWords campaigns, the budget is the maximum you’ll spend, and the actual amount spent could be less based on click performance.