Client side or agency?
Posted by Peter Gould on Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 in Clients, Google Adwords
When working in PPC, which side of the fence is best to work on, client or agency?
Having recently made the transition from client to my first agency role, it’s clear that both have their own mutual benefits. Ultimately it comes down to personal preference.
In my previous role, the client’s industry was all things power tools, hand tools and fixings. By the end of my time there, I knew all there was to know about power tools – a saw to you and me is just a saw, but to a builder it can be a hacksaw, a mitre-saw, a cut-off saw, a ripsaw…. (I could go on!). But that’s the key in any client-side role – expertise in your field and knowing every little detail about your customer’s needs.
When it comes to constructing a PPC campaign, you have the advantage of using this wealth of knowledge to hunt out the long-tail, where an agency has to start from scratch, building and developing their keyword list over a period of time.
Reporting directly to the MD of the company is also a major plus. Feel like you need a higher budget? No problem. Put your argument together and take it straight to the top.
So why move agency side?
For me, PPC was the most interesting part of my previous role, but also one of the smallest areas in terms of time I was able to devote. In any client-side e-commerce role, it’s quite rare to find someone employed solely to look after the company’s PPC (unless we’re talking huge multinationals). For me, there were many aspects to the job; sales, customer service, marketing, analysis and content management amongst many others. You feel as though you are constantly fighting a losing battle to try and commit valuable time into an Adwords campaign (and this often has to be made up outside of working hours!). Inevitably, in this type of ‘rushed’ environment, you are limited on how responsive you can be to changing conditions.
Making the move over to an agency is like entering a whole new world of PPC. Being able to devote the majority of my time into the PPC campaigns makes an incredible difference, the obvious initial reason being that the increased working hours put into campaigns are always going to offer a more in-depth approach. Keyword lists can be expanded and assessed, new adverts tested on a regular basis, competitor activity reviewed consistently and more time can be spent analysing reports. I have found as a side-benefit, and one that probably can’t be taught, that spending so much time on the PPC campaigns now, I find it much easier to identify patterns and hence to detect potential problems before they turn into serious ones.
I suddenly have diversity, and it feels great! One minute I’m working on a campaign for men’s formal shirts, the next it’s concrete garages, and then estate agents in Central London. Each campaign has a completely different market to understand, with different customers to target. Variety really is the spice of life.
But the best part about working in an agency now is that I’m now surrounded by people who live and breathe PPC (we’re an exciting bunch – promise!). This industry is all about knowledge and experience, which is something an agency can offer in abundance.
In my client side role, my knowledge of PPC was primarily self-taught, and my development was in my own hands. In an agency, my development is paved out for me, and I am surrounded by experts that are happy to pass on their wealth of knowledge (I can see their heads getting bigger as they read this!). If Google decide the change the rules overnight, you can guarantee I’ll know about it straight away. Previously, I always felt like I was playing catch-up.
So is client-side or agency best? For you, I can’t tell you the answer – there are pros and cons to both sides, and only you can decide which suits you best. But as for me, I feel like in 6 weeks, I’ve learned more than I could in 6 years in my previous role, and that tells its own story.
