Every business goes through that early stage when everything has to be handled in-house: the owner is the customer support rep, they deal with procurement and partners, and PPC marketing and SEO are in their hands too.
That can be fine at the start, but when does the point come where certain activities – such as marketing – are better left to the professionals? Is this even a mandatory step, or can you grow without it?
In this post we talk about PPC campaigns: we go through what it takes to manage your Google Ads and social media campaigns yourself. In light of that, you can decide whether it's worth keeping all of it in your own hands.
PPC marketing: what exactly does this term mean?
PPC is short for "pay per click" – essentially an umbrella term that covers the online ad types where you have to pay the platform operator for the clicks your ad receives.
This field is extremely complex, because it includes, among others, Google, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn ads, and the banners that appear on websites fall into this category too. Since each platform works based on a different algorithm, you'll need different settings to achieve the right results.
Managing ads yourself: let's see whether it's worth the hassle!
If you feel you have enough motivation to learn, we won't talk you out of it. You do have to reckon, though, with the process not being easy, and you may have to cope with financial losses too.
Mastering the entire PPC field professionally takes an extremely long time, so it's better to start with one chosen platform: as we mentioned, every platform works with a different algorithm, so different background knowledge is needed to manage them.
Once you've learned the necessary material, the next step is to try yourself out in practice too: this means testing various ad strategies. This step can't be skipped, because real knowledge is acquired through practice. You'll probably have to deal with the losses of unsuccessful campaigns, and you also have to reckon with the fact that running them requires constant monitoring.
Marketing is constantly changing
If you insist on doing your marketing yourself, you have to be prepared for lifelong learning: the world of ads is constantly changing. The platforms' algorithms are reshaped from time to time, so even specialists have to keep updating their knowledge.
On top of that, you have to reckon with technological progress. AI is a great example of this, and it's already having a huge impact on marketing. (If this topic interests you, you can learn more about it in our article on the future of digital marketing.)
Professional ad management carries the lowest risk
PPC marketing specialists deal with this day in, day out, so their knowledge is up to date, and their experience is enormous too – with them, the money spent on ads will definitely pay off.
We don't want to dampen your enthusiasm, but we recommend you think carefully about whether you really want to spend your energy and time learning the marketing trade. PPC marketing isn't a field you can master in a single afternoon, and don't forget that there's a huge amount of money at stake.
If you want to play it safe, it's better to entrust all of this to a professional agency: it's best if specialists manage your ads from the very first minute, because that way you definitely won't burn through your money for nothing.
If you have any more questions about the topic, we're happy to help. Get in touch with us, and we'll talk through everything on your mind!