Knowing how to charge your clients and how much to charge for PPC management is a mystery to both veterans and newbies offering PPC services to clients. This blog is going to elaborate on some of the most popular payment agreements for PPC management so you can decide what is best for your agency!
What Does PPC Management Look Like In 2022
Pay-per-click advertising management in 2022 is becoming increasingly popular as a form of income for both freelancers and agencies. It is easy to learn how to promote brands on platforms such as Facebook Ads and Google Ads, however staying up to date on the latest trends for these platforms and tinkering to learn what works best in terms of getting the most conversions for as little spend as possible, is something that takes time and practice. Something many brands just do not have.
That is why so many freelancers are learning how to manage PPC campaigns or brands, either as a side hustle or full-time job, so that they can alleviate this headache for less experienced brands who want to use paid advertising techniques to bring in more leads and ultimately, attain new customers/clients.
Where this becomes difficult for PPC experts, is knowing how to charge your clients and how much to charge them for the work that you do. Is it best to charge based on the number of hours you have worked, or based on the performance of the ads you create? This is what this blog is going to elaborate on so that it is a little easier for you to decide what is best for your agency setting.
How Qualified Are You?
Before we dive into the different ways that you can charge your clients as a PPC expert, it is important to determine what level of experience you have first.
Naturally, if you have a lot of experience running ads on Facebook and Google with a large portfolio of success stories, you should be able to charge a premium rate for the digital marketing campaigns you produce and manage for new clients. Conversely, while you are still building that portfolio, it may be best to choose a payment agreement that favors the client so that it is easier for them to put their trust in you.
Some tips for getting more experience, or at least more credibility for the services you are offering is to obtain certificates in PPC such as the Google Ads certification that allows you to display a badge on your website, or your own ads that confirms you as a certified Google Partner, something that will be sure to make new clients put their trust in you easily.
Payment Agreements
Hourly Rate
This seems like a natural way for many PPC marketers to start charging their clients as it is easy to show exactly what the client is paying for. Clients love pay-per-hour agreements!
One of the issues with this payment agreement is that if you are a fast worker, you are negatively impacting your own profitability, as someone who is able to perform the same service as you, but works at half the pace, gets double the payment. Once again, this payment agreement will result in a happy client because a short turnaround time, that has a smaller effect on their marketing budget, is always a win-win for them.
Performance
It is possible to charge the client based on their desired outcome for running PPC ads. For example, you can charge a client for X number of leads resulting from 1 month of running Facebook Ads.
While this works well for clients because they know exactly what they are paying for, this is a huge risk for PPC experts because goals not met due to unrealistic client expectations or variables out of your control, can affect your credibility with the client, and may even result in them refusing to pay you for a service you were unable to meet expectations on.
Flat Fee
Charging one amount upfront may seem like a good option for PPC marketers, and for many it is the right payment agreement for their situation. However, what this payment agreement fails to consider is that not all brands and their PPC advertising needs are the same.
Charging the same flat rate to two separate clients, who each have separate expectations and work in completely different industries, could result in you feeling like you are working a lot more for your money for one client than the other.
You will also need to gauge beforehand how long, and how much work it will take to set up effective ads that meet client goals, which can be difficult for new PPC marketers especially. This highlights the importance of correctly onboarding your client with the right briefing questions.
Percentage
This payment agreement involves you charging a certain percentage of the total ad spend of the client. An example may be that you charge 10% of the client’s PPC spend, meaning that if they spend $1000 on ads, they will pay you $100. This payment agreement works well for you, as the PPC marketer are covered for any extra work you need to do with an increase in client ad spend.
In Oviond we have a feature that allows you to incorporate this PPC management fee into the total spend of the client. Take a look at our PPC markup feature help center article to find out more.
Combination
Many PPC marketers in 2022 are deciding to rather use a combination of the payment agreements listed above, instead of just picking one and sticking to it.
An example of this is using an hourly rate to set up ads for a client, and once the ads are set up, charge a flat fee for monitoring and evaluating ad performance. This means that you will be adequately compensated for the amount of work you have done on the client account, and still set up a recurring income for monitoring ads that will naturally take up less of your time than creating ads in the first place.
Considerations
Before you pick one of the payment agreement methods above and send one of your clients an invoice, it is important to take note that there are a couple of caveats that may influence what is right for your agency setting.
Firstly, being able to provide a single service to your clients, such as PPC marketing on Google Ads only is extremely limiting to your potential. While Google Ads is the largest Search Engine Marketing platform on the web right now, it is definitely not the only option available to you and sometimes not even the most cost-effective. Microsoft Advertising for example can be an incredibly effective alternative. If you are able to recommend to your clients that for their specific needs, Microsoft Ads or Facebook Ads may be more efficient in attaining quality leads for the same ad spend, then it may be worth using the performance-based payment agreement as it could result in a bigger management fee for you to profit, or even the same profit as the Google Ads alternative, but for half the work! And this could help in creating a happier client too!
Another consideration is to first figure out how much income you require in order to keep your company operating and cover your expenses. A flat fee may work well for bringing in a regular cash flow, which can be important in the early stages of your business. However, you may not receive the potential amounts that a percentage-based payment agreement could result in.
Wrapping It Up
As you are reading through the payment agreement options, there may already be an option that stands out to you and screams success for your business. And if that is not the case, it is important to take note that it is possible to be successful with any of the payment agreement options listed above, and may even be worth testing our different options to see what works best for you and your business.
But this isn’t all the PPC information that we have to offer, take a look at our Oviond blog to find out more about Pay-Per-Click advertising and how you can use it to grow your business.
