Can I Manage Google Ads Myself?

Can I Manage Google Ads Myself?

The quick answer is, Yes, you can. You can create a google ads account and set up an advert that’ll be up and running fairly quickly. But ask yourself, how well can you manage Google Ads? Do you understand the intricacies of:

• Identifying key reports that will give you the most insight into your campaigns?
• Are you comfortable interpreting the data in your account and knowing what actions to take to optimise your campaigns?
• Can you explain key Google Ads data such as Ad Rank, Search Impression Share, Quality Score, or Interaction Rate?

If you do, then you probably don’t need to read on, and I’ll bid you a good day. However, if those things seem a little foreign to you then perhaps you should consider outsourcing an expert to Manage google ads for you.
Can, would, or do you service your own vehicle? Or if you employ people do you do your own employment contracts? And do you do all of your accounting with the aid of an expert in their field?
Again if this is something to consider. Having an Expert manage google ads for you will ultimately give you the best opportunity to see measurable, tangible results – and a positive ROI.
If you choose to manage Google Ads yourself, whilst it may seem easy to get started, it is virtually impossible for a novice user to know whether or not they are getting the best results possible, and there are a lot of parts to a successful campaign.

Managing Google Ads

Managing a Google Ad account is not simply looking at the reports once a month and making a couple of random tweaks. It’s about knowing exactly what’s happening in the account day to day. And then being able to dedicate time each week to check key reports. It’s also important to understand how to research ppc keywords, costs per click, and even the user’s search intent. Then there is the landing page each ad directs the user to. Is it optimised for user experience, is it even relevant?

Google is pretty smart – we all know this. But an expert in Google ads will make calculated adjustments and apply new opportunities to maximise traffic, conversion, and ultimately revenue.

In competitive industries, like law firms, travel, and tourism, or Finance and insurance to name a few – this requires daily check-ins and adjustments to bids strategies, for example, just to maintain the ad position and level of traffic to the website.

A lot can happen in the space of a month. Google Ads is definitely not a “set and forget” platform, so don’t be tempted to think that a profitable campaign will remain profitable without any intervention from you. It’s likely that it’s taken months, maybe years, to get it to a profitable state, and it will continue to require work and time to keep it profitable.

You Can Lead a Horse to Water…

You may have heard the saying ‘you can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink’. This also applies to Google Ads. And in particular your website. Imagine the information (or content) on your website is the water. Once you lead your prospects to said water, you need to ensure they find what they are looking for. Simply put, what do you want those visitors to do once they get there? And how easy is it for them to drink – or take that action – How will you make them stay longer? How will you convert them into contacts and then customers?

And if they do convert, what is your lead nurturing process or strategy?

These are all relevant questions to be thinking about and if possible answering before you even set up the Google Ad account.

Why you shouldn’t Manage Google Ads yourself

On more than one occasion I have heard from clients who tried to manage Google Ads on their own. And all too often, have made a complete mess of it. They end up spending thousands of dollars and have no idea if they got any ROI from it.
We’re all human, and with digital marketing being such a minefield, we understand the attraction to manage Google Ads yourself.

Google encourages you to have a go, with their ‘easy’ AdWords Express offer that pops up with every Google service you sign up to.
It seems by doing it yourself you will save on agency fees.
There are so many companies offering SEO and Google Ads services. They hail from who knows where around the world at seemingly cheap rates. (if you’re like me you get at least a few emails a week in your inbox)
All the Google Ads companies claim to be “experts”
Yellow Pages have sale reps selling Google Ads every time you want to talk about how expensive their adverts are.
It’s really hard to know who you can trust and at least if you manage your digital marketing yourself, you’re the one in control right?

If you have tried outsourcing to digital marketing companies before you may have had a bad experience. Unfortunately, as marketing companies, even the honest ones, often get tarred with the same brush, or worse we inherit the distrust or the baggage the client carries with them from the previous firm.

There are still a number of reasons you’ll see better results using a certified expert to manage Google Ads and should avoid trying to do it yourself –

1. Being found in ways you don’t want to be
2. Showing the Search Results in the wrong locations
3. Being found for the wrong keywords
4. Appearing for negative searches
5. It’s always Changing

Get a professional to Manage Google Ads for you

Like the references above in the first section, about vehicle servicing legal contracts and accounting practices, there are some tasks or jobs we don’t (or shouldn’t) do ourselves. Factors like not having the time, resources, or expertise to do them as well as they need to be done all contribute here..
Some people may ‘have a crack’ at certain tasks (probably) to save money, some may just enjoy learning or doing it themselves. When it comes to digital marketing and Google Ads, it all depends on how much time you have to learn and keep up-to-date with the ever-evolving changes.
It’s a well-known fact that time is our most valuable commodity – in fact, the one thing on earth we can literally never obtain or acquire is more time. Smart people understand that swapping money for (other people’s) time is an investment – after all, we can always get more money – but we can never get more time!

The Damaging Effects of upsetting Google

We see this so often. To save money, people sacrifice their time to create their own templated websites. Often they try to do their own SEO and manage Google Ads themselves too. Months down the track, they give up in frustration and ask for help. Or worse – they deduce that digital marketing doesn’t work! The trouble is that on the internet, some things last a long time. A website that has been penalised by Google or damaging SEO practices can take months (or more) to put right.
If you’ve tried to manage Google Ads yourself, we understand you’re probably just trying to lead your horse to water. But you may be just getting led down the garden path…
You could actually be doing or already have done some lasting damage that will take time to put right. If you’re spending a bunch of money on Google Ads but not getting results, or even worse, you have no idea if you’re getting results at all – the best advice we can give you is, STOP! Talk to someone who understands and get yourself back on track.