Managing a Pay-Per-Click Campaign is Not for the Faint of Heart (or the Already Swamped Business Owner)

Pay-per-click (PPC) campaigns are likely the most deceptively difficult forms of digital marketing available to advertisers. The platform itself appears user-friendly – just plug in a few relevant keywords, create some ads, connect them to your website, then sit back and watch the new clients flood in, right?

Not exactly.


The struggle for search engine dominance is brutal and unforgiving. The digital landscape is continually changing, with new updates to both the paid and unpaid search algorithms emerging at breakneck speeds. Fail to keep up with the latest changes and you can find yourself at the bottom of the pile thanks to penalizations from Google.


PPC and Search Engine Optimization (SEO) are two sides to the same search marketing coin. Both rely heavily on website quality metrics including user-friendly design, mobile usability, and content that matches what a visitor is searching for. PPC is faster than SEO at producing results. Unfortunately, PPC is also a fantastic way to waste a lot of money very quickly if the account is not set up or monitored properly. The wrong close match variant can devour a campaign budget faster than a toddler can completely destroy a room when left unsupervised.

It is best to leave this type of campaign to the experts who have deep knowledge of the inner workings of the PPC platform. It may be very tempting to ditch the professionals and do it yourself to avoid the extra cost of hiring a PPC manager to oversee your account. However, if you are truly considering launching and running your own PPC campaign, here’s why you really shouldn’t.

1. Your Ad Copy Could Fall Flat


Every word you put online has value, especially when it comes to your ad copy where space is limited. Even if you are an amazingly talented writer who can create powerful content that resonates with your target audience, you may struggle with generating the type of content a customer needs to see in an ad to entice them to click on your ad.


Furthermore, you are competing with millions of other advertisers, many of whom are experts in search marketing with an understanding of how to strategically position the right ads in front of the right people at the right time to achieve positive results. The expert will also have the time to dedicate to A/B testing of ad copy to ensure the campaigns continue to bring in a return on investment.

2. Keyword Research… It’s Complicated

Do you know all the terms that someone could use to find your business? Although we are sure you know some, you may not know which keywords to use to gain the best placement. This is important because choosing the wrong keywords or the wrong match types can suck up your budget with useless clicks.


PPC experts are skilled in choosing the most suitable terms for your campaign. They also tend to use multiple tools to help optimize your account to increase lead generation. Because PPC visitors are more likely to make a purchase after clicking an ad than they are from finding your page in organic search results, a poorly targeted campaign is a costly mistake.

3. It Only Looks User-Friendly

We know Google claims PPC is user-friendly, PPC is a complex and often misunderstood subject that requires intimate knowledge of the platform and technological talent to correctly implement. There is a vast difference between knowing what PPC means and understanding the minutiae of running a successful campaign. For example, the Google Ads dashboard headers look something like this:


If you are confounded by the terms and numbers on your PPC dashboard, that’s ok because that is why the experts are here to help run your campaign correctly. Comprehending the many moving parts in a PPC campaign is critical to effectively running a successful campaign. Simply knowing the terms involved in PPC is not enough, you must know how each element affects the others to efficiently run your campaign.

4. It’s Not a One and Done Task

Simply put, running an effective PPC campaign takes a lot of time and effort. As a business owner working hard to find ways to generate revenue for your company, we know that time is not something you have in abundance. Although the creation and management of an account break down to a series of continually recurring tasks that play into the whole, each task is time-consuming and requires dedicated frequent attention.

Therefore, if you are not ready to start writing massive checks to Google every month with no return on your investment, you must have the time to dedicate toward A/B testing of ad copy, keyword research, audience targeting, search term reviews, and landing page optimization. A professional PPC expert will have the time to dedicate to these tasks and, thanks to prior experience, will know how to appropriately manage their time to ensure your campaign is bringing you, new customers.

5. Practice Makes for More Perfect PPC Campaigns

Obviously, nothing is guaranteed or 100% perfect all the time. However, experienced PPC managers not only have the extensive technical expertise to properly build and run a successful campaign, but they also have likely run the gauntlet of the mistakes that can happen in a campaign and thus know how to avoid them.

An expert will be able to come in with a knowledge of what works and what does not work in an effective campaign so you will get the most bang for your buck. They’ll understand how to create your campaign to focus on the right of consumers for your business, which is a crucial skill that cannot be gained overnight or even in a week or two. It takes practice to find the best ways to target your intended audience and that is something that an experienced PPC professional has plenty of.


Although you can certainly set up a Google Ads campaign and run it yourself, if you truly want to see a return on your ad spend, do yourself and your company a favor and hire an expert.