At my company, we have a bid from a highly recommended SEO firm to manage our adwords campaign for $1000 a month. It appears they'd spend about 10 hours to 20 hours a week at first -- after that, I am not sure how much time they'd invest.

The firm comes highly recommended and is a leader in the SEO field.

Is this a good price? They want at two year minimum contract (!).

And can they SAVE you at the very least their cost per month on your adwords spend, or can they increase your profits from the adwords campaigns by $1500 a month?

I would find out what they plan to do after the initial 10 to 20 hours per week. PPC campaigns need regular work to continue being effective. If they're going to do very little after the first few months and keep charging for the next 2 years, it might be worth looking around a bit - they might even offer a more competitive quote if you've had better offers.

I heartily agree with what chrishirst said - what guarantees are they giving you?

Great questions/insights. Thanks!

Think of how much your company could make if you collected a toll for every user of the golden gate bridge! I know the owner and he wants to sell.

If they can offer you a measurable result guarantee either in terms of increased opt-in subscriptions or number of sales, then they are worth using them. Otherwise, can simply not know...

Are you at least getting your ROI (return on investment) back? It does not necessarily depend what the budget is, could be $10 could be $1000, the important thing is are you in profit?

The answer to your question depends very much on what niche or market your website/business targets.... $1000/mo sounds about on target for an SEO campaign.. Can you tell us the SEO company?

Originally Posted by stevenlw

At my company, we have a bid from a highly recommended SEO firm to manage our adwords campaign for $1000 a month. It appears they'd spend about 10 hours to 20 hours a week at first -- after that, I am not sure how much time they'd invest.

The firm comes highly recommended and is a leader in the SEO field.

Is this a good price? They want at two year minimum contract (!).

2 years is a long time lock in. You need to have a pull off clause if the performance target is not hit.

Thanks.

Originally Posted by stevenlw

At my company, we have a bid from a highly recommended SEO firm to manage our adwords campaign for $1000 a month. It appears they'd spend about 10 hours to 20 hours a week at first -- after that, I am not sure how much time they'd invest.

The firm comes highly recommended and is a leader in the SEO field.

Is this a good price? They want at two year minimum contract (!).

First of all, generally speaking SEO companies don't make great SEM/PPC management firms. Just like SEM/PPC/Ad Agencies don't typically make great SEO companies. They require very different skillsets.

Secondly, most PPC management contracts have an early out. Personally, I think 2 yrs is a LONG time to be stuck with someone who might turn out to suck. I would get that reduced to 1 year or at a minimum have the ability to try them on a pilot basis for 90 days at which point you can decide whether to go forward or not.

Most PPC management firms spend a little time working your campaigns/ad groups in the beginning but once they have it setup and working, a couple months in it typically gets put on auto-pilot w/ very few changes made going forward.

I manage my adwords account and see what keywords are working best and for what ad campain. I see a lot of companys out there charging a lot to deal with adwords and it is a scam. I also had a credit for $75 and it was used up in about 3 days,then of course I had to pay the remaining it went over. I did not even get 1 customer through all my clicks so that is when it made me do research and find it out for myself. Now I learned how to do it and not cost so much.