Are PPC Management Fees Ever Worth It? How to Decide

For brands investing heavily in paid search, paid social, and other PPC channels, the costs of management services can seem exorbitant. The set-up fees, monthly retainers, ad spend commissions and other expenses quickly add up. But are expensive PPC management fees ever really justified? How can you analyze whether agency or freelancer costs truly align with the value being delivered?

We’ll explore how to objectively weigh the ROI of ppc management services to determine ideal partnerships and fee structures for your organization.

Assess Whether Specialized Skills Are Needed

For simple accounts, general digital marketing agencies may suffice to maintain basic campaigns. But complex, high-spend accounts often benefit from niche PPC expertise.

Do you require advanced capabilities like multi-touch attribution modeling, predictive budget optimization using machine learning, dynamic creatives powered by customer data platforms, or other emerging capabilities?

Specialist PPC-focused agencies invest heavily instacked technical teams to support innovation. The expanded expertise may merit costs for capability-driven programs.

Compare Time Investment for Desired Results

Managing PPC with any sophistication requires significant time even if done in-house. How much do you realistically need to spend to achieve your targets?

Whether conducting keyword research, producing new creatives, reviewing reports, implementing optimizations or managing billing, workload adds up. For small businesses, doing it yourself is likely fine. But for bigger brands, the hours required to manage complex PPC well may justify the cost of external teams.

Audit Overall Platform Expertise

Generalist in-house marketers often lack the platform expertise power users possess. PPC specialists focus intensely on mastering the ever-changing complexity of Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook, Amazon, and more.

Familiarity with all campaign levers, advanced settings and latest platform capabilities comes from years of focus. Lacking command of the tools’ potential can severely limit performance. Specialists bring mastery.

Assess Realistic Testing Bandwidth

Proper ppc advertising management requires continuous testing and optimization. But brands often don’t dedicate time for adequate experimentation internally. Specialists center testing rigor into their services.

If you know you can’t properly A/B test ad variations, landing pages, targeting, bids, and other elements, lacking iterative optimization will hinder campaigns. Focused testing resources could provide a worthy investment.

Evaluate the Current Campaign Health

If your current PPC campaigns are optimized and hitting targets already, third-party management fees are tougher to justify. But inefficient, stagnant or under-performing accounts present an opportunity.

Auditing campaign structure, targets, creatives, landing pages, bidding and more can diagnose areas for optimization. If your PPC clearly needs a refreshed strategy, specialist help proves worth the costs.

Don’t Underestimate Proper Management Bandwidth

Owning a successful PPC at scale takes considerable, undivided focus. For enterprise brands juggling PPC alongside other priorities, the bandwidth required for proper management often gets shortchanged.

Spread across many stakeholders, campaigns easily veer off track. Dedicated outsourced teams provide the focus and scale in-house teams lack. If attention is divided, outsourcing concentration could bring focus.

Compare Proposals to Internal Resources

When evaluating partners, request specifics on proposed optimizations, management workflow, advisory services, reporting, and team backgrounds. Contrast what they bring against realistic in-house capabilities.

Have them walk through how they would refine underperforming campaigns or expand into new platforms. The more apparent their added value, the more sensible the investment.

Standardize and Vet Pricing Models

Pricing models and fee structures run the gamut from commissions and bonuses to flat monthly fees and hourly consultative rates. Understand the true costs and how incentives align to your goals.

Require case studies and client references to substantiate results matching proposed rates. And look for flexibilities like scaling fees based on spend tiers. The value must be well-evidenced before committing budget.

Maintain Visibility Through Account Access and Reporting

Many brands relinquish all PPC access when outsourcing, losing visibility. Insist on access and real-time reporting to maintain autonomy and transparency.

With dashboard access, change logs, annotated highlights, and scheduled reviews, you retain ownership while benefiting from specialists’ efforts. Reporting visibility ensures alignment.

Typical PPC Management Fees to Expect

Average PPC agency management fees often land in these ranges:

• Setup Fees: $500 – $5,000+
• Monthly Retainers: $1,500 – $10,000
• Yearly Retainers: $12,000 – $120,000+
• Management Fee Percentages: 10-20% of ad spend
• Minimums: $1,000 – $5,000 per month
• Ad Spend Commissions: 10-25% of spend

Scrutinize proposals against complex needs, historical spending, and campaign volumes to contextualize fees against the required workload.

Partners Must Be An Extension of Your Marketing Goals

The ideal PPC partner provides strategy, acts as a testbed to fuel in-house innovation, and delivers deep specialization you lack internally. Their fees should correlate to concrete added value toward your business objectives.

If a provider is simply handling implementation but not advancing your digital maturity, capabilities, and insights, the costs likely outweigh the benefits. Look for partners who fill obvious gaps.

When PPC Management Fees Align to Expanded Capabilities and Proven ROI

For overburdened in-house marketers juggling generalized skill, PPC management fees in exchange for purpose-built expertise, rigorous optimization, and expanded capabilities can make sense.

The investment pays dividends when paired with the right partner actually enhancing your digital marketing sophistication. However, forcing a third party for commodity implementation alone burns money.

Evaluating scenarios where focused bandwidth warrants costs come down to an honest assessment of internal readiness, campaign trajectory, and partner fit. But blindly overspending on support your team could provide rarely makes sense. Apply the insights in this guide to make PPC agency decisions optimized to your needs.