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Introducing the PPC Ponderings Podcast. Delivering a thoughtful, investigative take on key PPC themes. Learn More.

The PPC Easy Button you've been searching for

This is a different sort of PPC Program. It's more product, than service.

Sometimes, simple done well is the best solution. That's ZATO's SMB Program.

We have carefully looked at every angle to reduce our agency overhead so we can still invest top-tier PPC work into your accounts, but at a rate smaller businesses can actually afford!  How have we done this? It’s not magic, it’s math. We investigated every area of typical agency overhead cost, and made each of them more efficient with automation and simpler campaign structures- resulting in the ability to offer expert PPC management at affordable prices.

Keep in mind, the SMB Program is not a traditional PPC agency service, so make sure you understand the difference!
You Own the Data & the Account
With the ZATO Small Budgets Program, we believe that account ownership is 100% your right.
No Contracts (Month-to-Month)
We prefer to do business with people because it’s mutually beneficial. Not because we’re holding you hostage.
Daily Eyes on your Account
We look (with human eyes!) at every single account, every single business day.
Trouble-free Trouble-shooting
We monitor and seek a solution when your Google Ads account breaks. One less thing for you to worry about!
Monthly Reporting
We send an automated monthly report 8 days into the month that includes account KPIs & graphs.
Advanced PPC Expertise
When you hire us, you're hiring paid search people. Period.

Finally, a great product for Small Budget PPC!

ZATO has been around since 2011 (with a rebrand somewhere in there), and one of the most consistent things we have seen is that starting PPC business budgets have remained the same, while costs have risen (both platform costs and agency fees) making it more difficult for small budgets to benefit from great PPC management.

But that was then.

What has changed?

The reality of PPC, is that machines are getting smarter. While some consider this to be a concern, or even threat to their jobs and businesses, we at ZATO see this as an opportunity. Advances in machine learning have improved ad testing, bidding, overall recommendations and automation processes so we are able to offer services at lower rates than before. Simply put, we are able to successfully rely more on automation in our SMB Program… and pass along that savings to the consumer (you!).

In the SMB Program, we focus on three primary things: 

  1. Setup - You need an expert who understands how best to set up a Google Ads account, what assets work well, how to find the right audiences, how to ensure your conversion tracking is set up well, how to set up a product feed to send Google the right targeting signals, and how to build all of that into the right campaigns! You need to properly get the train on the right tracks, pointed in the right direction. 1-Time Setup Fees are a total of $1200 (this includes an $1000 Account Build Fee and a $200 Conversion Code Audit and Fix Fee)
  2. Optimization - You need an expert who understands the right adjustments to keep the account humming along. You also need someone who stays up to date on the many changes Google implements, ready to adjust tactics along with those changes. You need to ensure the train locomotive is humming along on its way to the right destination.
  3. Trouble-shooting - Things inevitably go wrong. Stuff breaks down. You need an expert who can quickly notice there is a problem, identify the source of the problem, and begin the path to resolving the problem. Even with automation, someone has to monitor the product feed, campaigns, assets, and Google changes. You need someone who can get the train back on the right tracks and started again, quickly.

Your New Small Budget PPC Program Awaits

A few ways our SMB Program is different from traditional agency services:

  • Invoicing (automated)
  • Contract Building (automated)
  • Communication (email only, 2 biz day replies)
  • Reporting (automated)
  • Account Building (30 day initial setup timeline)
  • Ongoing Management
  • Ad Testing
  • …& More!

“Kirk and ZATO Marketing are my & Credo's first thought when approached by someone looking for Google Shopping help. Kirk has proven himself over and over to be a humble and helpful resource who is truly the best at what he does, and a world class human to know. I'm not an advertising expert myself, so when I have questions Kirk is my go-to and should be yours as well."
- JOHN DOHERTY, FOUNDER & CEO, GETCREDO.COM
“ZATO gave us the best SEM/SHOP audit we’ve gotten from any outside firm. It was insightful, thorough, actionable, and delivered in a clear professional way. We were able to implement their recommendations within months and saw significant improvements.”
– CONNOR MACDONALD, CMO, THE RIDGE
"Kirk is my industry go-to person when it comes to Shopping Ads. Whether I have a client looking for help with their shopping campaigns, a lead looking for someone seasoned, creative, and trustworthy to possibly work with, or if I have a question myself, Kirk is always helpful and willing to have a conversation."
– AKVILE DEFAZIO, PRESIDENT, AKVERTISE, INC.
"Kirk is one of the most talented and experienced Google Shopping experts that I know. I’ve had the privilege of viewing several of Kirk’s presentations at conferences as well as numerous other content pieces that he’s produced online - all chock full of actionable e-commerce expertise."
– AMY BISHOP, FOUNDER & OWNER, Cultivative MARKETING
“Kirk is a highly intelligent and charismatic individual that I had the pleasure of working with while I was ZATO's Google rep. His skills in regards to AdWords and especially E-commerce are top notch. He goes above and beyond for all of his clients and truly cares about doing great work. Strongly recommend if you're looking for a PPC master.”
– STEVEN NEIGUT, AGENCY SUPPORT AT GOOGLE

What to expect with our Small Budget Program

Working with ZATO is simple and straight-forward. We connect with you to get to know you and verify whether we'd be a good fit and provide detailed specifics on how we could help your business. We then send over a look at a typical SMB plan for how we see PPC Management at a strategic level.

Custom Account Set-Up

ZATO learns your business through your application answers and our research, and then we build you a Paid Search account in Google Ads optimized for your audience. We use smart tools and our industry-leading knowledge to identify the best keywords and audiences to target.

We're not stamping this account from every other account we have, we're actually analyzing your keywords and creating a custom setup just for you.

This takes 30 days to complete, and includes a conversion audit so we can magically turn it into a conversion-friendly account! We then push it live after the setup is completed (or in 30 days, whichever comes first), so after setup, your account is rip-roaring and ready to roll.

Setup Fees are a total of $1200: 
- $1000 1-Time Setup Fee
- $200 Conversion Code Audit and Fix Fee

The Daily Glance

We look (with human eyes!) at every single account, every single business day. No exceptions.

Part of our process is to get eyes on the most important KPIs on your account on a daily basis just to ensure no craziness is going on. This is the best way we have found to eliminate account surprises and respond quickly when they unfortunately, but inevitably occur.

Google change something that jumps your CPCs? We’ll identify and act rapidly because of this, and we have saved our clients thousands of dollars in troubleshooting and solving issues rapidly.

Email Support

No phone support is included with this product, however Email support tickets are included in the Small Budget Program, but please expect up to 2 business days response time so we can service all accounts well.

Support included with the SMB Program covers only the following 3 parameters:

(1) strategic information you provide in the Onboarding Questionnaire (which we've crafted so we learn a bit of what we most need when managing an account), as well as ongoing strategic changes.

(2) any major business changes that occur that would impact PPC marketing (things like new products, website issues, conversion code issues, etc fall into this)

(3) unique budget and goal KPIs. For instance, what monthly budget should we be hitting, and what is the profit we are aiming at for which you would see the account as successful?

Ongoing Optimization

Here's the secret to how we can offer our expertise at such low cost but still keep the expertise; we’ve utilized our decades of shared experience to create account management efficiencies, so the time we humans devote is spent on the most important things, and we automate the rest.

Add to that a healthy dose of smart automation and you have a recipe for success!

Monthly Reporting

We send automated monthly reports designed for your account that ensure the most important KPIs are in front of you. This allows you to keep up on account changes and stay informed!

As a note, these reports are KPI-only. We only include custom takeaways and account touch-bases in our traditional PPC Program for accounts spending more than $15K/month.

We’ve helped loads of businesses of all sizes excel with Google Ads
- join amazing brands like these and stand out online.
Billed Monthly - No Contracts
$1,000-$6,999/mo in Google Ad Cost
$500
agency fees per month,

$1200 (1-Time) Setup Fee Required
Get Started
Billed Monthly - No Contracts
$7K-$14,999/mo in Google Ad Cost
$1000
agency fees per month,

$1200 (1-Time) Setup Fee Required
Get Started
Billed Monthly - No Contracts
$15K/mo & Up in PPC Cost
Custom Quote
agency fees per month
Get Started

Common questions about our Google Ads Small Budget Program

Zato PPC Experts - Team Photo
Request a Free Strategic Look
What do you mean by “We use automation...”?
In this program, we utilize software such as Opmtyzr (for management and reporting) to identify key opportunities for us to make the most important changes in an account. We believe this successfully marries the two crucial aspects to managing PPC in 2021 & beyond: smart human-led, machine automation. Automation for those easily repeatable areas of an account, but always with human oversight and accountability to ensure the account is always heading in the right direction.
What does communication in the small budgets program look like?
No phone support is included with this product, however Email support tickets are included in the Small Budget Program, but please expect up to 2 business days response time so we can service all accounts well.

We have discovered that communication is something that can make or break a client, agency partnership. If communication revolves around frantic, nitpicking of KPIs and constant-questioning of agency decisions… that’s not a relationship that will last, since there is no trust. The reason we can offer such low fees in the SMB program is because we make sure the majority of our valuable, human (not algorithm!) time is spent managing the account rather than talking about it. In that sense, we’ve found it helpful to limit communication in the SMB program to support email tickets that are responded to by our SMB team within 2 business days. This allows you to still have questions answered, but allows us to ensure we are able to best service all accounts we are tasked to manage.

Support included with the SMB Program covers only the following 3 parameters:

(1) strategic information you provide in the Onboarding Questionnaire (which we've crafted so we learn a bit of what we most need when managing an account), as well as ongoing strategic changes.

(2) any major business changes that occur that would impact PPC marketing (things like new products, website issues, conversion code issues, etc fall into this)

(3) unique budget and goal KPIs. For instance, what monthly budget should we be hitting, and what is the profit we are aiming at for which you would see the account as successful?


What can we expect in terms of reporting and key takeaways?
We send an automated monthly report each month that includes account KPIs and graphs (in accordance with your account goals and how you measure success). Unlike our main PPC Program, however, this does not include key takeaways or custom updates.  

This Program is a lower cost option for clients who don’t mind not knowing all the inner workings of the account and just want to affordably hire the experts to manage it while getting updated on KPIs so they can still be fully aware of program performance.

Who is the Google Ads for small budgets program for?
We purposefully did not name this the “Small Business” program, but the Small Budget program. We understand there are a variety of reasons why an account may be a smaller budget size…regardless of the size of the business itself! Because of that, many projects, local businesses, or national ecommerce brands who aren’t yet able to scale up to larger PPC budgets can find value in this program, though we always work with every prospect to determine fit before beginning. It truly is a great program for a business that wants to invest a lower amount into Google Ads before scaling up, or even the business that just wants to have a solid PPC agency on their accounts…even if you have no future plans to scale dramatically. It’s Google Ads for the Smaller Budget!
Do you help with Google Analytics, Bing Ads or other account questions in this program?
In order for us to keep this program as affordable as possible, it is for Google Ads only. We need to keep our internal processes as streamlined as possible for both task management, switching costs, and communication variables. This means we focus solely on your Google Ads account. The one exception to this is Google Merchant Center for Ecommerce shops. Because Google Merchant Center is required for Google Shopping Ads, ZATO will assist in getting things set up in GMC in Ecommerce Accounts, for an additional one-time setup fee.
Does my business own the Google Ads account & data?
With the ZATO Small Budgets Program, we believe that account ownership is 100% your right. You as the advertiser are paying for the valuable data that you are receiving, as well as our work to get the account setup (that’s why we charge a setup fee and we begin management after setup is completed), and that means we believe you own the Google Ads Account and Data, period.

“WHAT, doesn’t that mean you can cut ZATO’s access at any time and leave?!”

Yes, but that’s why we believe we can keep your business because of our great account work… not because we’re holding your account hostage over your head. We prefer to do business with people because, you know, it’s mutually beneficial. Not because we’re holding you hostage.
Does ZATO offer ad design, business consultation, or other assistance?

The SMB Program is a product that is solely around managing Google Ads well and reporting on those KPIs. Any other aspect, Google Display Ad design, YouTube Video creative etc, is the responsibility of the client. ZATO may at times have a referral for various aspects, but does not actively manage anything else for a business other than the Google Ads account and KPI reporting.

Request a FREE Strategic Look

Not sure if ZATO's Small Budgets Program is right for you? We send you a strategic look at how we manage accounts so you can see our process for SMB account management and how we think about building and managing your PPC account.
Thank you! Now, help us get to know your business by completing our Discovery Questionnaire (click here).
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