Maybe the most difficult thing to admit for a PPCer is that rarely (never?) do great PPC tactics themselves scale a business… though poor ppc tactics can absolutely prevent a business from scaling (or scaling as fast as it could).
So what DOES actually scale a business then?
What actually scales a business are things like:
- fantastic creative/video
- a PDP that actually SELLS to the potential customer landing on the site
- the right product positioning
- the right product pricing
- smartly done promotions
- well-planned & executed inventory management
- wise cash management (esp around budgeting to the right channels)
- Etc etc.
See a common theme there? All of those levers are owned by the brand. You, the brand operator, are the super hero here!
The brand operator has far more ability to scale a brand with good decision making and execution than does the Google Ads agency.
I think more businesses would be more successful with Google Ads if they stopped trying to scale the channel itself (and thus spent endless time and energy and money “tweaking things” or “finding the perfect PPCer” and spent more energy time and dollars on solving the above problems.
I know that’s weird coming from a PPCer but I dislike being expected to solve a problem I can’t, so think it’s a worthy topic.
Final big caveat: once again I'll clarify as I did in the above:
- I absolutely agree that a poor PPCer can literally harm a brand with bad tactics and account optimization decisions!
- I absolutely agree that a poor PPCer can hinder a brand from scaling as rapidly as it could (if all the right levers I noted earlier are set) with bad tactics and account optimization decisions!
So to be very clear, I'm not saying there is no impact to your brand between a good or bad PPCer. You still need someone who understands the best way, to get the most efficient growth possible in your account... but I maintain that the primary scaling levers are within the brand operators' grasp, not the PPC operators.
What do you think? Agree/disagree? Why or why not?
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