It’s fast, frequently highly effective and impressively measurable, but is PPC (Pay Per Click) marketing best conducted in house or by a specialist agency?

As with most things in life, there are pros and cons to both options. Should you choose the Quattro Formaggi or the Fiorentina pizza, for example? Or, should you take home an adorable new kitten or a worthy old rescue cat in need of love? The in house PPC vs agency PPC debate is no different.

While in house PPC can be very responsive to new developments within your business, it’s also entirely under your control. PPC delivered by an agency, on the other hand, is often more cost-effective and may give you access to more specialist skills. Right now, the average PPC salary stands at £42,500 ($53,000).

In house PPC can be costly and time-consuming. Over in the agency camp, outsourced PPC can be somewhat disconnected from the realities of your business. So which option should you choose? The answer usually lies in the kind of business you operate, the resources you have available and the goals you are pursuing.

To help you find the right balance for your business, we’ve flagged up some of the major pros and cons of in house vs. agency PPC.

In House PPC

For larger companies with a dedicated marketing on online department, bringing PPC in house probably feels like the most natural choice – and for good reason. With the right team behind your PPC campaigns, you can constantly fine-tune effective ads which accurately reflect your product or service.

The Pros

• Communication:  Have a quick question about a campaign? Want to raise a small qualm? Need a fresh promotion publicised pronto? Having an in house PPC team means you can simply saunter to their corner of the office and clarify with a quick chat – much easier that badgering your PPC agency over the phone or chasing them up with endless emails. Communication is a key concern for businesses considering any outsourced service, often needing to be weighed up against enhanced expertise.
• Accountability:  Although PPC agencies which don’t perform won’t last long, there is more accountability when it comes to failure and success amongst an in house team. An in house arrangement allows you to have intimate knowledge of the individuals working on your PPC, and their precise responsibilities. Fantastic performances can be rewarded and less-than-perfect results can be raised to continually improve your PPC returns.
• Brand knowledge:  Who knows your business and your brand better than you? Certainly not an external agency. Although good agencies do go the extra mile to get to know their clients intimately, they can’t be there everyday “on the front lines”. Whether it’s a brand overhaul, fresh promotion or new target market, an in-house team will be in the know.

The Cons

• Expertise:  For smaller businesses, especially, hiring in a dedicated and experienced PPC specialist is often out of the question. SMEs will often need to hire a digital marketer with PPC as a skill, rather than taking advantage of the skill-set of a dedicated PPC specialist.
• Affordability:  Depending on your particular requirements, hiring a dedicated PPC staff member may be more costly than outsourcing your PPC needs to an agency.

Agency PPC

When you’re shelling our cash for clicks, you want to ensure that every ad you place achieves the greatest possible ROI when it comes to clicks and even conversions. Agencies which offer PPC as a key service are often at the top of the game when it comes to best practice and new developments, allowing you to get more benefit from each click. The number of businesses choosing to outsource PPC (and other digital marketing services) is on the rise, illustrating the usefulness of this option.

This table from Econsultancy’s State of Search Marketing Report reveals why organisations choose to outsource paid search.

The Pros

• Expertise:  Agencies providing specialist PPC services are often the best informed and the most skilled when it comes to running effective campaigns, ensuring you get the most “bang for your buck” (minus the agency fees, of course). With dedicated specialists, agencies are usually the first to get on board with new techniques and tools, ensuring your PPC is as powerful as possible.
• Little black books:  Any decent PPC-providing agency will have close contact with account managers at Google and often other search engines too – helping them stay at the top of their game and deliver the benefits to you, especially if any problems should arise. They’ll also have close contact with the rest of the digital marketing world, keeping your campaigns up to date. Many agencies providing PPC will also offer an array of digital marketing services, giving you plenty of room for fresh approaches and expansions.
• Affordability:  Depending on the extent of your requirements and the skill of any potential new in-house staff, the agency route could work out cheaper for businesses (although not in every case). Small businesses with modest needs may find they get much more “PPC juice” from an agency than they would from an in house marketer who doesn’t have extensive PPC experience.

The Cons

• Communication, accountability & brand knowledge:  Just as these are in house strengths, they’re also agency weaknesses. Agencies aren’t right there, on site with you, which makes communication slower and less effective, reducing personal accountability for account managers. An agency’s knowledge of your business is never going to be as detailed as an in house staff member’s.
• Responsiveness:  Less effective communication, along with the agency model, can also mean that an outsourced PPC team can be less responsive to your requests. Whether you need figures to show your CEO tomorrow or need to make an urgent alteration to an ad, it may take more time to reach a PPC agency than an in house team member.

So which option is right for you? If you’re looking to run the best possible PPC campaigns, outsourcing to an established , PPC agency with a reputation for delivering great results may be the best route. If you have a limited budget, or need your PPC to be highly responsive, taking on a marketer with PPC skills might be the more affordable choice.