Companies that know the value of PPC (pay per click online marketing), through Google AdWords, Bing and Yahoo Search, have to then decide how to have a winning campaign and who to have create and manage that marketing initiative.  Hiring an employee to work these strategies has as a benefit in-house control through the existing marketing department, but the disadvantages must be considered.  Hiring comes with the normal HR workload, costs and headache, and employees require benefits, hardware, desk space etc.  So many companies find contracting out the work to specialty companies much more efficient and affordable.

But what do you pay a consulting company to work your campaigns?
Options typically include large, expensive agencies that are very knowledgeable and effective– but agencies can charge an average of 10-14+%.  And as a result, they have to be able to cover that cost on top of your marketing goals.  Another disadvantage is that small and medium companies feel like their lost with agencies, “small fish in a big pond” syndrome.


But most organizations that don’t consider themselves “tiny businesses”, also shouldn’t go the least expensive route of single managers, who though they have no overhead and therefore the cheapest fees– professionalism, expertise, and experience can lack.  And additionally, like the in-house hiring option, a single manager comes with only a single perspective, where most PPC pros would argue that multiple viewpoints, and multiple brains are where the real comprehensive strategy lies.  No single person can drive a large ship, and that metaphor applies.  Teamwork and team disagreement produce the soundest strategies for medium and large budgets.

So working with agencies is clearly the best option for long term PPC success– assuming you can afford their management fees.  That is why smaller agencies like Insider-Search.com exist with a goal to provide large agency results, at affordable fees (7% max) with small company customer service and accessibility.