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“I know my industry better than anyone else.” “I have been doing this for years now and no one will be able to set up a campaign better than me.” “No one else will know what it is I’m aiming for.” While similar thoughts might be running through your head, the truth is that agencies will grow to know your industry inside and out due market trends and similar campaigns run in the past. Some agencies are even exclusive to certain verticals, working specifically in your field.

So, how does hiring a PPC agency generates a high ROI for your business? First of all, agencies have one goal in mind – keep happy customers by providing results. Their sole purpose will be helping your company survive and grow in a vicious market, where everyone else is working to reach the same goals, generate enough leads, close sales, or bolster interest in their brand. You know the saying, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” This is totally applicable to online marketing. While it won’t take years for it to work, you do need a decent amount of data to start seeing results, identifying trends, and showing potential customers why you are the perfect fit for them.

Let’s say you sell high-quality apparel for kids at a great price, but you are just starting your business. How can you compete with other brands that have been on the market longer, already have followings, and a strong base of loyal customers? If we went back in time before the internet was involved in consumer buying decisions, it would have been as easy as distributing fliers, generating interest and bring customers into your store. Today, customers need to know what your product can bring to the table, hear what other people say about your product, and determine what makes your product stand out from the competition. That’s why is so important to get specialists in the industry, supporting you through this journey and setting your business up for success.

But as a business owner, not a marketing expert or sales representative, online marketing can become overwhelming. Now that the spray-and-pray marketing days are over, it’s best to seek advice on how to aim for the on-the-go market. You won’t have to worry about trends, trying out things, and hoping they work. And, in most cases marketing without a foundation or knowledge just doesn’t work. Having an agency at your disposal gives you wide access to tools, strategies, and knowledge that you have not even considered as a key component to the success of your campaigns. So, here are the top five reasons partnering with an agency generates a high return on your PPC investment:

1. Cost Savings Over Hiring an Internal Staff   

According to Glassdoor.com salary tools, an in-house marketing manager’s average salary is $80,673. But, that’s not the only hire you need to make. You also need to hire additional support to cover all other areas of marketing, including web designers, content writers, copywriters, social media managers, and graphic designers. That could easily add up to an extra $250,000 in salaries without including benefits. When benefits are factored in, you have an average of $330,673 for a full team of experts.

Additionally, if you want to aim for a perfect execution of an online marketing strategy, there are software applications required to ensure that your initial strategy is actually working. Most of these software applications require an annual subscription paid upfront or a payment covering a percentage of your PPC campaign budget.

Let’s look at agencies in contrast. The industry standard for an engagement start is about $500 per month or $6,000 annually, prices that already include all the team members needed for successful marketing. In most cases, this also includes call tracking, feed management tools, analytics, designers, and marketing experts. That can save your business nearly $324,000 if you hired a full team or $74,685 if you only hired a marketing manager.

2.    Access to Beta Features

This is a benefit exclusive to engaging as an agency that is a Google partner. If you have been running an AdWords campaign, you’re likely used to getting Google notifications about new features. Did you know that these campaign-changing features start as Beta programs available to a handful of agency users? Most of the time, these features can be tested up to a year before they become available to the rest of the advertisers.

There are a number of huge advantages to having access to Beta features, including the change to get familiar with the changes before they happen and being one step ahead of your competitors. And I can guarantee from personal experience that when it comes to implementing the new features, clients are excited to see the results, and love gaining a competitive advantage in their marketplace.

3. Access to Expert Strategic Planning

Any successful strategy has to be well planned. If you think you can just improvise any digital marketing strategy and be successful, you’re not likely to meet your marketing goals. One of the most dangerous things any marketer can do is to assume.

While it’s important to apply lessons from successful strategies in the past, you must also be on the lookout for any new trends or changes on the horizon. Implementing the same strategy over and over will not yield the same results. Because data is always changing and evolving, we are constantly making regularly scheduled adjustments to even the most minuscule aspects of our marketing campaigns.

For example, let’s look at the evolution of the “near me” search term. In 2015, we saw a large spike in search terms related to local lead generation including the phrase “near me.” So, for plumbers, we saw the search terms evolve from “plumbers” and “plumbing services” to “plumbers near me” or “plumbing services near me.”

Seems unorthodox, right? Typically, we are taught to use 1-3 worded keywords. Now, we began to see that in certain cases, using keywords with four words could increase click-through and conversion rates. This threw a wrench into our previously established best practices. Thankfully, we were able to spot this trend and begin working it into our strategies to the benefit of our clients.

It’s important to always include in a client’s plan the ability to be flexible, evolving in accordance with changing search trends. As a business owner, you know the exact terminology that pertains to your products or services. But, you must always keep in mind that potential clients are searching for your products or services based on their own knowledge. Thus, it’s imperative that we remain adaptable.

As an agency, we get first access to search trend information directly from Google, in addition to information and training on new tools and Beta features before the general public. This helps us stay a few steps ahead and provide the most up-to-date strategies and implementations for all our clients.

Additionally, our team is constantly expanding their digital marketing knowledge through regular training from Google, Bing, and our other partners. We are always evolving our marketing strategies, and applying new lessons to the knowledge we’ve gained in our company’s seven years of digital marketing research.

4. No Training Required

Hiring a marketing expert is just part of the job when it comes to PPC. Or, if you are doing it on your own, building the campaign with the help of blog posts or Google representatives is just one side of the coin. You also have to learn how to identify best steps you can take to improve performance, install tracking properly to gauge your revenue generation efforts, and so on. This requires hours and hours learning and implementation. And because this is an evolving market, what you learn today could be obsolete tomorrow.

Agencies are always in the loop on new features and updates. This extends beyond the PPC world to other market trends, too. An agency expert can tell you how are users looking for you nowadays, identify what devices they used to find you, pinpoint the time frame users in a specific vertical take to complete their purchases, and more. Ongoing training is crucial to the success of a marketing campaign, and these trainings are often part of agency goals to keep up with the pace. Instead of enrolling in PPC expert blogs, getting notifications from Google, calling them for clarification, and determining how new changes really impact your account, agencies already know how to navigate all of these obstacles.

5. Short-Term Efficiency

Pay-per-click can be a short-term strategy since you will be able to see results quicker than other marketing options out there. Not only will you be able to get faster results, but you can continue implementing changes to achieve even better results. You can identify the unique selling proposition you can provide to catch the audience’s attention, and also boost conversions once this has been identified.

In a matter of days, you can identify the best campaign for your budget and goals, like ones focused on seasonal sales or a new product or service launch. Agencies have experience in these topics and are able to implement the right approach with no delay. Not only will you have a fast turnaround on your request, but you can also trust that a well-planned strategy is behind it, based on your location, industry, budget, etc.

When you are considering forging and partnership with an agency, keep these benefits in mind. Though these aren’t the only benefits you’ll reap, it’s important to consider them as you make this important business decision.

Doing your homework is important, too. While there are great agencies out there and great in-house market experts, not everyone is a good fit for you or your needs. So, check your options, do the research, and once you find your perfect match, get ready to save cost and generate impressive results.