As a small business owner, your marketing budget is probably limited. You know you need to advertise but you also need to get the most out of your budget.
But making sure you optimize your campaigns can be tricky and time-consuming. You’ve likely considered a PPC audit to provide you some insights.
Inside This Post
Without the right knowledge and experience, it can be difficult to understand how Google Ads works and how best to use it to get the best results.
I covered how a custom PPC (Pay Per Click) audit can help you improve your ad performance and profits in a previous post.
In this post, we’ll go into the pros and cons of the two most common ways to have a Google Ads audit done on your account. And I’ll spill the tea on two ‘dirty little secrets’ in the ads world.
Pros and Cons of Hiring an Expert vs. a Third-Party Automated Service
When it comes to getting the most bang for your buck out of your Google Ads campaigns, an audit tailored to your business by a real-life human, with expertise, will provide the most value.
There are pros and cons to hiring a Google Ads specialist vs. a third-party audit service, like Wordstream’s free PPC audit tool and it’s important to consider these before making a decision on which is best for your business.
The Pros – Hiring an Expert for PPC Audit Services
The main advantage of hiring a Google Ads specialist to audit your account is the personalized nature of the audit.
A professional PPC audit is (or should be) customized to your unique business goals. As such, it will provide highly specific insights to make sure you’re getting the best performance out of your ads.
An expert can also spot potential problems with your ads, tech setup, or campaign structure. This can save you time, money, and effort in the long run.
A seasoned ads expert will also be able to translate all the Google-y data into meaningful insights, in non-Google-y speak.
Because insights are only valuable if they’re actionnable, right?
The Drawback of Hiring a Google Ads Expert
The main drawback of hiring an experienced Google Ads specialist to perform a PPC audit is the cost.
A customized audit includes strategy discussions into your business goals and an audit plan built to address those goals, it will understandably cost more than a free third-party service.
However, when compared to the potential losses from ineffective campaigns, the cost of an expert audit is well worth it.
My years of working in ad accounts helped me save a local plumbing company BIG money right off the bat by slashing irrelevant traffic, something they weren’t even aware of prior to the audit.
A customized audit package starts to look like a very worthwhile investment when you consider the savings it can provide long-term.
Free third-party audit services are generally too high-level for the average business owner to make sense of, and with no support to help guide you, it becomes a useless PDF saved to your downloads folder.
Dirty Little Secrets in The PPC Audit World
Free isn’t so free when we’re talking about data privacy and dodgy business practices. Here are two ugly but common things to consider when weighing your options for a PPC audit.
Data Privacy Concerns
An often overlooked, but MAJOR drawback to third-party free PPC audit tools is privacy and data security concerns.
The cost of a “free” PPC audit is complete and total access to your marketing data by third-party software.
It’s important to make sure you’re comfortable with the terms and conditions of how your data will be used before proceeding with a “free” audit. Not to mention the onslaught of annoying marketing emails and phone calls you’ll get after the free report is delivered.
The old adage “you get what you pay for” rings very true here.
Dodgy Business Practices
When I was starting out in the ads world I learned a lot about common business practices in the space. One in particular stands out and I’m going to address it head on.
Some agencies and ad managers will charge you good money to run your account through a free PPC audit tool, only to copy and paste that free content into a fluffy branded PDF report you just paid real dollars for.
That never sat right with me.
And it’s one of the biggest reasons why I designed my Google Ads audit process to be collaborative, transparent and tailored to meet your business needs. No two businesses are the same and neither are my PPC audits.
Related Post: Considerations When Hiring A Google Ads Expert
Getting The Biggest Bang for Your Buck
In today’s digital world, having a powerful and successful Google Ads campaign is more critical than ever before. But you might be feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by the complexity of the Google Ads platform.
Having a Google Ads specialist audit your account and campaign performance is your cheat code to better results and fewer headaches. You’ll get deeper insights into your ads so you can take actionable steps to improve your results.
Need Help?
Let’s work together to create a profitable Google Ads strategy that works for YOUR business. I’ll even perform a free, real-life human, mini-audit on your account. Book a quick call and let’s smash some goals.
LET’S CONNECT