Is Your PPC AgencyWasting Your Budget?

Joe Khoei, SalesX

#SEJThinkTank

Joe KhoeiCEO, SalesX

● Obsessed with Internet Marketing since 1998

● Formal background Industrial Tech & Business Administration

● 3 Years Quality Engineering & Process Development

● 10 years Enterprise Software Sales & Finance

● Running SalesX since 01-01-2010

● Shake Me Awake Answer: Create Business Value

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• Who is this for? What will you learn?

What’s the problem?

• Compared to PPC the most

complicated Swiss watch is like a

child’s toy (need tech chops)

• It applies to multiple elements in

your business (need biz chops)

• There are tons of things to hide

behind (need ethics / transparency)

• Challenges the status quo (could

need reengineering)

Is Your Agency Making You a Hero?

Technical Ability

● Class C License vs. NASCAR vs. Formula1

(AW Certified vs. UI agencies vs. Script Pros)

● AdWords alone has 45+ features

● F1 level minimum account maintenance

contains 25+ different functions

● Pit crew is at least 5 people on tap

● On top of that you need big brother to monitor

your KPIs, progress, and resource allocation

with active alerts on an hourly basis

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Sorry, Vacheron Constanin

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Business Acumen

● Business Value, pinned down

● More than just “Increase Direct Income”

○ 19 dials, definitions, and calculations*

● Let’s do the math: 47 x 26 x 19 = 23,218

● When your PPP is not your PPP (Example)

● .˙. 80/20 is insufficient; go for 96/4 or better

* https://sites.google.com/a/salesx.com/salesx/home/selling-on-business-value

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Reporting Transparency

● Problem: Subject to Interpretation

○ Solution: Design to Match Internal Metrics

● If unable to, then find out why?

○ Data won’t allow it? Tech chops

○ Unsure what you mean? Biz chops

○ Management disallows it? Conflict of

Interest (avoid like the plague)

● Between Google Data Studio and AdWords

Scripts you can make the data do the Tango,

the Mamba, and the Merengue

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Reporting Transparency Example

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Business Process Alignment

● La Presse 1836 vs. Hot Wired 1994

○ 181 vs. 23 ∆ = 158 years

● WoM vs. Web

● Business Process Reengineering

● Grown men weeping (Example)

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Business Process Alignment Example

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Extraordinary Results

● Leveraging Internal Winnings

● Reconsider resource allocation

● Much to gain; 10% down, 90% to go

● Get out of the weeds

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Summary

To achieve the upward spiral your agency must:

● Tackle an increasingly complex technical

landscape

● Mesh it with your Business Value Dials of

choice

● Report on it the way your company consumes

information

● And coach you through the intricacies of

Digital

What am I saying?

Get The Experts To Do Expert’s Work

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Poll Question

What is keeping you from increasing your PPC spend?

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Thank You!Joe Khoei

CEO, SalesX

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Aaron LevySr. Team Lead, Elite SEMaaron@elitesem.com

Aaron has been in digital for over a decade, starting when he was “given the

keys to the car” and ran PPC for DuPont as a college junior. Over the course

of his career, Aaron has developed internship programs, created education

programs and built teams from the ground up.

Now a Sr. Team Lead at Elite SEM, he oversees a growing team across North

America (affectionately known as Team RumHam) who manage digital for

some of the largest brands in the world.

In addition to his duties as a STL, Aaron’s a sought after international speaker,

an adjunct instructor at Drexel & University of Vermont, and has been

shortlisted for marketer of the year by Search Engine Land. He moonlights as

a golfer, hockey player, cyclist and claims to be the industry’s top chef.

What happens when results plateau?

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Understanding the WHY

• Ask your partners to unpack the results you’re

seeing and understand what’s happening in the

landscape.

• Figure out the role of the business vs. the

market when it comes to plateauing results.

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Explore the role of other channels

• Unpack the root cause of the plateau, are you

finding a lack of brand search volume? Maybe

it’s time to boost your display efforts

• Finding that PPC efforts have soared at the

cost of other channels? Maybe it’s time to re-

evaluate your proportion of remarketing spend.

• Lack of new customers? Perhaps its time to

figure out where people heard of your brand

first and re-invest your money there.

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Be willing to invest in new

technology.

• Bid management technology can help you (or

the agency) automate the simple things.

• Make a time investment in Scripts. Isolate

under or high performing language strings (n-

grams) over a long period of time.

• Invest in CRO. If you can lift conversion rates by

just a hair (5-10% lift) your plateau is gone.

“

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The most dangerous phrase in the language is

we‘ve always done it this way

Grace HopperRear Admiral, USN

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Re-evaluate Old Tests + Budget Alignment

• A test that failed in 2015 could succeed with flying colors today.

• Evaluate the role of audiences (customer match, similar audiences, in market + more)

to see which fit your old efforts and your new business.

• Consider a NOW | NEW | NEXT budget to encourage innovation and continual testing.

70% 20% 10%

When to fire and how to hire an agency

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It's EXPENSIVE to fire an agency.

Firing should be your last resort!

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Analyze the agreement.

• Do you have an out clause?

• Elite has a 2 day out clause, many have a 30

day out clause but for larger contracts, it may

be a much longer term.

• Plan accordingly! Know that if you have an

annualized contract you’ll need to have your

research done at just the right time.

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Do your research before you

pull the plug

• Don’t sell the house before you have a new place to live.

• Give potential partners access in the sales process, but

unless the relationship is out of control, do your best to

keep it hidden from the existing agency.

• If you throw them into a panic you’ll likely see a weird

interruption in service along with executives poking their

head in trying to make things right.

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Give enough notice to get your job done

• A month’s notice to the existing agency is probably too much. Two weeks

is likely fine

• Get access to all of your accounts if you don’t have them already. It’s rare

for an agency to hold accounts hostage.

• Collect all reports, test documents and long term presentations for the new

agency. The new team may not use them, but they can’t hurt either.

• Unlink old tools and terminate access, but give them time for billing done!

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Leave on a Positive Note

Evaluate + Select a New Partner

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1: Develop a common

criteria for evaluation

• We put a scorecard together for those of you

who are shopping, evaluating transparency,

relationship, expertise and fit.

bit.ly/agencyevaluation

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2: A bridge between Expertise + Experience

• The people who you speak with must demonstrate an ability to do their job well.

• You’re not paying for amateurs. The agency should have a POV on industry changes.

• Does the team have relevant experience in your industry?

• A team of experts, a team of interns or something in between?

• Years of experience may not be the best proxy for a skilled PPC manager

• Focus on identifying how the agency tests, reacts + plans

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Poll Question

How do you hope for an agency to “pay for itself?”

1. Results – their improved performance

should cover their fees.

1. Time savings – I’m paying them so I don’t

have to do it.

1. A hybrid – Results should be a little better

and I should invest a little less time

1. Agencies are money grubbing scum

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3: Evaluate your idea of value

• Is the agency high or low touch? Which do you

prefer?

• How does the agency measure success? Do

they report on their metrics or business

outcomes

• Decide ideal communication cadence, and who

you call if there’s an emergency. Is the agency

willing to be available, or are they off limits?

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“If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail

Abraham Maslow

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4: Understand the technology suite

• Make sure the agency’s technology of choice

supports your marketing goals.

• Nobody wants the same car forever –

understand how often the agency evaluates

technologies and whether they take a test drive.

• Get an idea for how the agency monitors

competition, both of yours and of their own.

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5: Secure a cultural fit

• Cultural fit is the most important aspect of a relationship. Your new team must be

passionate, proud and motivated.

• Make sure the new structure works for you. Be it a single person or a dozen, you

know how they’re motivated and how they interact with your business.

• Ask to meet the team or someone like them. Most agencies won’t hold bandwidth,

but get to know people who will actually do the work.

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6: Find pricing that works for everybody

• Don’t beat up the agency too bad in the negotiation

process. Remember, it’s all give and take.

• Align contract terms with business needs. A snappy

out clause is nice, but it goes both ways.

• Ensure there’s some form of performance incentive.

Be it percentage of media spend, a reward for good

performance or something else entirely, keep

everyone motivated!

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Find People You’ll LoveTo Work With

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Thank You!Aaron Levy

Sr. Team Lead, Elite SEMaaron@elitesem.com