The lifecycle of a PPC campaign

No two campaigns are exactly alike, but all campaigns go through three distinct phases. Each phase requires different tools, skills and level of effort. Here is how I describe each phase. 

Phase 1: Start-up

The Start-up phase is devoted to building a solid foundation for the process that will be used to develop and manage your campaign. It requires that I gain a certain amount of knowledge about your company, your markets, your products and/or services, as well as your objectives. Think of me as the newest member of your sales and marketing team. 

Deliverables for the Start-up phase include, but are not necessarily limited to:

• Developing our relationship by discussing your goals, objectives, timeline and budget

• Assessment of your web site for the purposes of search marketing

• Assessment of your competitive landscape from a PPC perspective

• If applicable, an assessment of your existing AdWords account (settings, campaigns, ad groups, keywords & ad copy)

• Keyword research, ad group building and ad copy creation

Phase 2: Development 

When the initial campaign is launched, default bid prices are used which amount to little more than a guess as to what the bid price should be in order to receive the desired ad ranking for each keyword. It’s simply not practical to research bid prices for hundreds or even thousands of keywords prior to launch. Each keyword is unique and is actually a “market” unto itself. Therefore, until the keyword is actually searched on and your ads receive "clicks", you can't be sure where your ad will appear in the ranking or how much you need to bid to obtain the rank that is appropriate.

It is an iterative process and the two most important factors are 1) how much traffic your campaign receives and 2) how much time I have to work on it. The time I allocate to working on a campaign is largely determined by your ability to make decisions and get things done that are out of my control, usually related to making modifications to your website. Have you ever heard the phrase "you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink"? Well, I lead the horse to water, but your website is what makes them drink!

There are many factors that determine how long it takes before all the important keywords in a campaign settle into their desired ad rank. Besides adjusting keyword bid amounts, a competent campaign manager continues to research new keywords, identify new competitors and tests new ad copy. The development phase can last anywhere from a few weeks to several months. It depends on how extensive the campaign is and what the website owner is willing to do to improve the performance. More of my time is required in the early stages of development and assuming nothing else changes, the effort begins to drop off until the campaign becomes mature.

Phase 3: Mature 

The mature phase is when the campaign manager and the client feel all the relevant keywords have been identified, the ad copy is as good as it’s going to get and there are relatively few outside factors affecting the campaign’s performance. There will always be some outside influences which affect the campaign; competitors come and go, competitors change their bids, search engines change their algorithms, etc. However, when your campaign is managed professionally, minor corrections are handled transparently and you are notified if anything significant needs attention. 

Fees & charges

The cost to create and manage your campaign is based solely on the time I spend working on your project ($100/hr), not your monthly ad spend or the number of keywords or some arbitrary fee. Although the number of products and/or services you have has a direct bearing on the work required to set up and manage your campaign. If you will be implementing a PPC campaign for the first time, it is entirely possible that my monthly consulting fees will be greater than your click charges. For some additional insight, please read my article titles How much will it cost.

Please understand that PPC does not work for every product, every business or for every website. If you have no previous PPC experience, our objective is to determine as quickly and inexpensively as possible, whether it will work for you and your business. If I can save you from spending hundreds or even thousands of dollars in click charges that deliver poor results, then I will have provided you with good value for your money.

Regardless of the condition of your existing campaign, the process begins with a retainer fee equal to ten hours of consulting ($1,000), with the understanding that you may cancel my service at any time and any unused portion will be returned without question. All payments are made using Paypal. What is actually accomplished during the initial ten hours can vary depending on many factors. There will be regular communication as we move through the process and I will keep you appraised of the number of hours used and the number of hours remaining on the current retainer.

If you do not have an existing PPC campaign, then the start-up process will take longer. On the other hand, if you have an existing campaign, the start-up process will be minimal and we can get right to work identifying areas of opportunity. 

My consulting fees are in addition to the monthly click charges you pay directly to the search provider: Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc. You establish your own accounts with the search provider and I simply work within your account. You set the daily budget for click charges, which can be changed at any time. You can see everything I do in the account by simply using the "Change History" report. The process is completely transparent.