PPC account review process - my version

Last week Distilled published a very comprehensive flow chart regarding the PPC account review process. The chart itself contains all the necessary steps for checking an account but however I have comments on the starting point. The problem I see is that everyone is focused on the technical side of the things and seems to forget about the product and the consumer needs it satisfies.

The logical first step for me is get to know the product (service), its features, pros, cons, why users get it and how they use it. Then continue with the searcher’s intent, then everything else.

This is especially valid if you sell complex products or services which are not popular among the general public. Let’s take for example the remittance industry – market estimated at $30 billion. We all know about Western Union or Moneygram but now imagine you have to take over a campaign for Ikobo or Xoom or Moneybookers or PayPal. They all offer international money transfers but if a normal WU fee is say $10, the same fee with Moneybookers is €0.50, same for PayPal. Now do you see the problem?

You have to advertise Moneybookers/ PayPal and compete with WU and Moneygram when your target CPA is 10 times less than them but still you target the same or nearly the same keywords. That’s why in order to be successive you have to carefully examine the product you’re going to sell in order to discover all ways round that you can use to promote it. It’s true that the low price helps a lot but working on a very thin margin always requires perfect knowledge about the product.

Now you see why I don’t trust agencies much – they mainly look at the technical side thus the chances of unreasonably high CPA increase a lot. Just there’s a type of companies and products that need an inhouse person in charge. In fact agencies are only good for mass and known products. For the rest you need a dedicated person which is always cheaper to have on board.