If you’re looking for a web marketing agency to manage your PPC and SEO, or even build or rebuild your web site — or at least landing pages — check out 180Fusion.
If you’re looking for an experienced independent consultant — particularly one who doesn’t want to waste your money, won’t take work he can’t do, and generally doesn’t like to jerk clients’ chains — read on.
Most of my consulting work in digital marketing is in PPC. Here’s what I normally charge for some basic services — but these rates may go up or down, depending on account size and complexity, travel requirements, and other factors.
New Advertisers
Initial Consultation ($150) — For a business considering Internet marketing. We explore your products and business model, consider the suitability of your existing web site, and discuss some of the possibilities, prerequisites, and likely costs of getting serious about Internet marketing. We meet by phone or in person — preferably in person — for an hour or so, then I prepare a brief memo with notes and recommendations.
Web Site Analysis ($300) — Analysis and evaluation of your current web site, with an eye to digital marketing. Recommendations to improve landing pages and user experience generally, build trust, enhance professionalism, etc. In short, the object is to have a site that is likely to produce the results you will expect from PPC and other digital marketing.
Small Google AdWords Account Setup ($500) — Once you have a site that is likely to succeed with Internet marketing, it’s time to set up your Google AdWords account, with campaigns, budgets, ad groups, ads, keywords, and other essential features, tailored to your goals, your products, and your markets. (My preferred practice is to set up and optimize Google AdWords accounts, then move into Bing Ads — which is relatively easy to do, from a well-developed AdWords account.)
Other services are available — and lots of things are negotiable.
Current Advertisers
Basic Account Evaluation ($150) — I will spent an hour looking at key features and performance indicators in your account, looking for major issues and opportunities, then report my findings.
Small AdWords or Bing Ads Account Audit ($300) — This is a useful service whether you’re running your own PPC or have someone else running it. A second opinion and a second pair of eyes can help you eliminate waste, detect new opportunities, and exploit new and improved features. I will evaluate dozens of aspects of your account, your metrics, and the site and pages to which your ads point. I will report opportunities to eliminate waste, and improve revenues and ROI, and suggest strategies and best practices for ongoing management. The audit and reporting typically take 3-5 hours and can be done offsite. Someone familiar with the business and the account needs to be available for questions for all or part of the first two hours.
Medium AdWords or Bing Ads Account Audit ($500) — (See description above, but it takes a little longer.)
PPC Account Management ($80 / hour, sometimes discounted) — I’ll spend an agreed-upon number of hours during a week or month managing your account, over a short term or on an ongoing basis, so you don’t have to do it — or so you at least don’t have to do it all. Unlike some consultants and agencies, I never lock you out of your own accounts.
PPC Account Restructure ($300-$1000, depending on scope) — I’ll restructure your account to align it with best practices, allowing better management, eliminating waste, and making it easier to exploit growth opportunities. Precisely how this is done depends on your goals — branding, lead generation, e-commerce, or a combination of these — but in every case the object is to make management and measurement easier, to allow you to improve your ROI and grow your business.
Writing / Editing of Online Content, Marketing E-mails, etc. ($80 / hour, discounted in some circumstances) — I write quickly and cleanly, with an eye to producing text that is not just grammatical and informative, but easy and inviting to read — so readers will read it. I can quickly edit existing text to serve the same ends. (Experience in marketing helps, but I’m also a former — and occasional — college writing teacher.) Better writing increases the likelihood of readers doing what you want them to do — whatever that is.
Again, other services are available — and lots of things are negotiable.
Things You Don’t Want Me to Do
. . . because I don’t do them efficiently or well. However, I know people who do.
- Web page design — I consult but prefer not to build. Ideally, we use your web designer and programmer.
- Graphic design — I consult and can evaluate, but I don’t create well.
- Web site construction — I know HTML, CSS, XML, etc, but most of my programming experience is in middle-tier business logic and back ends which deal with databases, not customer-facing user interfaces. I can help you design and build a web site that will serve your marketing goals well, but the actual building is best left to specialists.
- SEO — Some search engine optimization principles apply to work we may do together on landing pages and purchase funnels, but generalized SEO is best left to others. It’s easy to get the wrong people doing it, so that it’s ineffective or actually harmful, and I can help you find white-hat SEO help and avoid the black-hat variety that will cause you trouble down the road. But I’m not my own first choice as SEO guy, and I shouldn’t be yours.
If you wonder about any of this, or about things I haven’t mentioned, or feel the need to negotiate, please let me know. (Leave me a comment here with your contact information — which I won’t expose — or contact me through LinkedIn, and I’ll send you my contact information. I’m not crazy about exposing my business e-mail and phone number to the Wild and Crazy World Wide Web. I get enough spam as it is.)
References are available upon request.
And rates and other details are subject to change.