Question 1

What should my monthly budget be to start?

Accepted Answer

Generally, a $2,000 monthly startup ad budget allows us to gain enough data to make optimizations within the first month.

A budget that is too low doesn't offer enough data to see what’s working and what’s not.

On the other hand, exorbitant ad spend puts you at risk of overspending in areas that don't provide good results.

Our solution? We test every Google advertising channel (such as search, display, [GSP](https://selftaughtmarketing.wordpress.com/2015/12/10/what-is-gsp/), and Shopping) to see how each performs and influences other campaigns within the account.

Then, we reallocate ad spend to the higher-performing campaigns.

Question 2

Is my branded campaign stealing all my traffic from organic search?

Accepted Answer

In some instances, yes.

If you have a good organic ranking and good organic traffic, branded campaigns can steal your organic traffic. The way to subvert this is to bid very low ($0.05 per click) so it's not costly.

**But, the pros far outweigh the cons:  **

First, **running a branded campaign protects your brands from competitors**.

The first four spots on the Google search engine results page are all Google Ads listings. So, competitors who bid on your name can show as the first listing.

And because the highest you can rank organically is #5 on the page, all your organic traffic in this case would end up **seeing your competitors first**.

Let’s keep in mind that the #1 spot on Google has an average 20% click-through rate. So, competitors who bid on your name can be detrimental to your brand.

Suffice to say, **you should always want to be #1 on Google for your brand name**.

Next, running a branded campaign gives us the ability to see what keyword a user searched to get to your site (before leaving and coming back to search your brand name next).

This allows us to bid efficiently on keywords that introduce your brand to the masses, and also brings them back to the site to convert.

Question 3

When can I submit information about special offers we have?

Accepted Answer

It's best to let us know about 72 hours in advance.

For lead generation, it's very simple to update ad copy; but, for eCommerce, any special offers have to be approved by Google Merchant Center before they can be used. And approval typically takes about 2-3 days.

Question 4

Do you do Bing search campaigns?

Accepted Answer

Yes!

Typically, we wait until we have maxed out Google Ads. But in some cases, if your target audience is older, Bing can be a great channel to reach them.

Bing has about 10% of the traffic compared to Google, but it is very inexpensive and full of high-quality leads.

Question 5

What is PPC?

Accepted Answer

That's a great question that deserves a great answer. [Read more here](https://sol8.com/what-is-ppc/).

Question 6

What is the $1,000 e-commerce start-up fee for?

Accepted Answer

We don’t like charging a startup fee. But for eCommerce clients, that fee covers necessary costs:

First, we have to rebuild and optimize your data feed — i.e. the massive data file that tells Google Merchant Center what products you want to advertise from your site. We do this using [DataFeedWatch](https://www.datafeedwatch.com/).

This usually means we have to do quite a bit of “cleaning,” in the ways of updating and adding product names, prices, images, descriptions, attributes, and much more. The reality is, most websites do a poor job of explaining all details of the products, so we rebuild it to have the most accurate and relevant data possible; this way, Google can do the best job at targeting users based on that information

Once this cleaning process is complete, we integrate with Google Merchant Center. ([GMC](https://support.google.com/merchants/answer/188924?hl=en) is a tool that uploads your product listings into Google Shopping, Google Product Ads, and Google Commerce Search).

This is about when we rope in a Tag Implementation team to set up modified cart value conversion tracking and build out dynamic remarketing.

All this is to say:

Building an eCommerce campaign is extra complex.

Configuring [DataFeedWatch](https://www.datafeedwatch.com/) is time consuming. Conversion tracking is more difficult to set up. And this is all further complicated the more products a business has.

In fact, many Google Ads agencies refuse to work with eCommerce businesses because of this extra work.

We, on the other hand, love the challenge.

You can read more about why there is a startup fee in our blog [here](https://sol8.com/why-is-there-a-1000-startup-fee-for-ecommerce-campaigns/).

Question 7

I Googled a keyphrase for my campaign but I don’t see my ad—why?

Accepted Answer

A: Ultimately, the answer depends on your unique campaign—but there could be a few potential reasons for this:

**You are in a competitive industry and/or have a limited budget**:
In this scenario, there are two options for bidding:

1. You can bid to be at the top of the page (in which case you may spend your entire budget on one click per day)
2. You can opt for more selective bidding, resulting in more leads

Setting a lower budget allows only the right people to find you, instead of paying a lot of money to claw to the top of the page.

**You have other keyphrases that have proven to convert**
After running a campaign for some time, data shows us which keywords perform the best. If an ad doesn’t appear for a specific keyphrase, chances are it hasn’t converted as well as others—and more money is spent on those proven successful keyphrases instead.

**Low search volume**
Sometimes, a keyword has low search volume altogether. In this case, ads are ineligible to be shown until search traffic increases.

**Where did you Google from (physically)**?
It could also be a regional issue. If you’re out of town—where your ads are turned off—they won’t appear from a Google search.

**From here, you have a couple options to get to the bottom of why you aren’t seeing your ads:**

1. Check out the “Ad Preview Diagnosis” tool in Google Ads. If an ad isn’t showing, this should tell you why—or, it may tell you that your ad is, in fact, showing up in Google search results, but you just haven’t seen it yet. 
2. Still feeling uneasy? [Just reach out](https://sol8.com/contact/). We can give you the reason why you aren’t seeing your ad; but chances are, there is a strategy behind it—and we’re happy to go over it with you.

Question 8

What are my resources as a Solutions 8 client?

Accepted Answer

When you become a Solutions 8 client, you are assigned an entire marketing department team *for less than the cost of a part-time employee.*

## Your team is made up of: 
##

1. A dedicated client manager
2. Specialist and backup specialist
3. Strategist

![Screenshot (3).png](https://malcolm-en-gb.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/instances/MpD6OKc9u8/resources/hWCrjP5XYm/Screenshot%20%283%29.png)

Question 9

Can You Join Our Company Slack Channel?  (...Or Other Communication/Project Management Channels)

Accepted Answer

We take communication seriously. **And that’s why we don’t join external client communication channels or project management applications** (like Slack, Ryver, Asana, Basecamp, or TeamWork). *Here’s why:* ## 1. Juggling channels is inefficient Each of our client managers may work with dozens of clients at a time. So you can imagine that joining every client’s Slack channel would get a bit *noisy*; not to mention each client uses a different platform type, which would result in a lot of clutter. ## 2. We have rock-solid processes inside our own agency From onboarding to account setup to ongoing management, our communication processes are about as efficient and streamlined as it gets. We have automations and purposely-redundant methods in place to ensure each client account is managed with the sharpest eye. Which brings us to our final point: ## 3. Limited access and workflow Each client is assigned a powerhouse team dedicated to their account: a client manager, a specialist, a *backup* specialist, and two strategists. To provide the best service, client managers frequently rope a specialist or strategist into conversations with the client. However, **if a client manager joins a client's external communication channel, it is nearly impossible to rope in those other team members**—and it is similarly clunky to forward client information out to the rest of the team. With our communication systems, we can move efficiently, tie automations to our emails, and allow access to our entire team. ## We prioritize frequent and *meaningful* communication We try to set clear expectations early on regarding our time and yours. While adding your client manager to your internal Slack channel might seem like the best way to reach us, our policy to stick with internal communication processes actually results in **more availability to speak with you and higher-quality communication**. As always, we’re happy to chat with you about any questions or concerns. Reach out anytime.

Question 10

Why Do You Bill According to Approved Advertising Budget, Not Ad Spend?

Accepted Answer

*The “approved monthly ad spend” is a budget set by the Advertiser. Solutions 8 bills according to the approved budget regardless of the actual ad spend.*

Let’s take a moment to explain this line in our PPC Agreement.

## It sounds simple: set a budget, spend the money, increase traffic.
But the truth is, a whole lot of work goes into spending money effectively in Google Ads. In fact, Google often limits the amount of money you can spend on any given campaign. This means we have to do extra work to find new avenues for your ad spend in order to fulfill your budget.

So, let’s say we created three campaigns for your business and your approved budget is $10,000.

***What happens if Google limits us to $2,000 on each campaign?***

Well, with $4,000 left in the budget, we get to work.

## The work behind the ad spend.
With money left over in the budget ($4,000 in this example), our team of strategists get to work to find new opportunities and pockets of traffic. What does this look like?

* Conducting additional keyword research
* Testing new bidding strategies
* A/B testing new campaigns
* Building different channels like YouTube and Display to expand outreach
* Creating new ad copy

## Traffic is inventory. 
To visualize this spending challenge, let’s pretend that instead of asking us to purchase traffic for your site, you’re asking us to purchase apples—$10,000 worth of apples, to be exact.

We go to the nearest grocery store and purchase all the apples they have. But, we could only spend $6,000 (I know, that’s a lot of apples).

Now, we have to drive to every other grocery store nearby—maybe hours away or at tiny farmers markets—in order to spend the remaining $4,000.

Whether we hit our goal budget or not, the effort it took to drive around and find every apple possible was just as difficult (if not more difficult) as spending the full budget in one grocery trip.

To take this analogy another step further, this chase gets more difficult if the product is more obscure, like passion fruit or horned melon.

## We’re not going to let your budget stay at an attempted threshold.
Overshooting your budget doesn’t benefit either of us.

If we have a difficult time meeting your requested ad budget in our first month together, we may give it another go—but we’ll never let your budget stay at a hard-to-match goal for long.

## Basing our fees off the ad budget rather than spend holds us both accountable.
I’ll close with this:

Billing according to your ad budget enforces appropriate expectations by both parties. This keeps you from overspending and keeps us from depleting our resources chasing traffic inventory.

Additionally, there will be no surprises in your monthly billing; this keeps us from the meticulous nickel-and-diming that leads to management nightmares on both ends.

Have any other questions? We’re here to help!

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