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Welcome to the ineedhits Search Engine Marketing blog, where we share the latest search engine and online marketing news, releases, industry trends and great DIY tips and advice.
Google has unveiled a small change to its policy for agencies that manage AdWords 
campaigns, but this “little” change could have a profound impact on the industry and advertisers.
Until this point, agencies offering PPC management services have had little in the way of regulation on budget and management cost transparency.
Under the new guidelines outlined by Google, PPC management companies will now be required to be upfront about budget spending and the exact results from campaigns:
If you work with another company to manage your AdWords campaigns, you should be able to find out how much of your advertising budget (cost) was spent on AdWords, how many times your ads appeared (impressions) and how many times users clicked on your ads (clicks).
ineedhits are proud to one of the Google AdWords companies that already provide this level of transparency for their clients. It helps them understand budget allocation and more importantly gives them an honest representation of their campaign success.
However there are quite a few operators in the industry that will be forced to review their reporting and cost management practices.
Companies such as ReachLocal and Yodle have received criticism for their lack of transparency – with advertisers unsure exactly how much of their budget is going towards Google clicks vs management costs.
Managing small budget PPC campaigns is definitely challenging – ineedhits can vouch for that; but it’s critical that clients see where their money is being spent.
Google’s new policy will ensure all small business advertisers have access to this level of campaign transparency. While I welcome the forced transparency, it doesn’t provide answers to all the important questions and issues?
What do you think about the change:
Rene is the marketing manager of ineedhits.com - a global search engine marketing company. He also leads the marketing for Gooruze.com - a web 2.0 style community for online and digital marketers. Rene has been in the industry since 1997 with much of that time spent helping businesses embrace the best of the internet and digital world. Top 10 Listing! Get more targeted visitors to your site! No click fees! Find Out More Here | 1000+ Guaranteed Visitors Get thousands of guaranteed website visitors to your site in 30 days! Get Started Here |
I am surprised that this has not been done for clients as a ‘normal’ business accountability practise. I am even more surprised that any business would simply give another business ‘carte-Blanche’ to do PPC in this way without properly accounting for the money spent on their behalf.
But I also see Google has had to do this to protect their own product!
By Jan - August 10, 2010
I would be interested in seeing what companies do provide better accountability tracking than ReachLocal. To my knowledge, no one provides a more detailed report and allows clients to access this report 24/7.
By J - August 10, 2010
Every company deserves to make a profit, if a company with expertise in ADwords has to charge fees for doing this why is it anyone’s business. Here at Yodle we make a 75% markup on the click but we get results.
By Robert - August 10, 2010
I can tell you from being in the on-line marketing field that it is quite the norm to see anywhere from 60% – 90% markup.
By Josh - August 10, 2010
Josh, Robert, and J,
If you are charging 60%-90% uplift on the clicks, and you are confident you are still providing value to the customer… why not disclose it to them?
Regards
ClayBy Clay Cook - August 13, 2010
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