Jumpfly pricing can be on the higher end in the PPC management industry, when compared to other options like smaller PPC shops and PPC freelancers. Although larger PPC companies may feel it is necessary to charge the fees they do to run their business, it is NOT necessary for you to pay them in order to get excellent PPC services.
Why is PPC pricing for larger PPC agencies more expensive than some alternatives?
In my opinion, overhead costs play a big role in this.
Employees: Many of these larger PPC companies (like with any large company in any industry) have costs at a level that smaller PPC shops simply don’t have. For example, they have employee costs to cover. Any business owner with employees knows that the costs associated with having employees is not cheap. Especially when you throw in employee healthcare costs.
Rent: Finding rental space for a company does not come cheap. Companies that require commercial space to run their company have an added expense that many companies and freelancers simply don’t have.
Marketing: In order to cover these costs and make a profit, most larger PPC companies have pretty descent sized marketing and sales budget. These companies typically need to have a very strong sales and marketing strategy in place, in order to bring in new clients at a high frequency. This can include a myriad of sales and marketing tactics, which require resources.
To clarify, non of this is unique to the PPC industry. Many industries have their fair share of large and small companies. Generally speaking, larger companies have higher operating costs than smaller companies. In order to stay in business, they have to cover these larger costs. Often times, this can result in charging service fees that may be higher than those companies who have smaller operating costs.
Jumpfly Review of Pricing Chart
This is what they charge at the time of this writing.
Note: I check pricing from time to time and update as needed. Please let me know if this chart is no longer the same as what they show on their website.
That is fairly expensive, in my opinion. To others it may be just fine and worth it.
I personally vet each client and offer a custom price for each client. I don’t simply put them all in the same tier solely based on how much they spend.
Why consider a smaller PPC shop?
You can get PPC management help that is just as good – and in many cases even better – for a fraction of the cost.
Why?
Again, smaller PPC companies tend to have smaller overhead costs, relative to larger PPC agencies. They don’t have dozens of employees, large costs for rent and they don’t require an extensive marketing and sales team to keep their business afloat.
Therefore, they simply don’t need to charge high PPC management fees to effectively produce great results for their clients. Now, they can charge fees that are comparable to the larger agencies and that is their right to do so.
Experience
The experience level of the person who actually works on your account is important. Regardless of the size of a PPC company, experience levels vary.
For example, I have been managing PPC campaigns for almost a decade now; not simply overseeing them. I’ve been “getting my hands dirty” analyzing and making changes in client accounts for that long.
When working with large PPC agencies, you’ll want to make sure you know the experience level of the person who will be making the actual changes in your PPC account. It is possible that some of the employees working on accounts at the large PPC agencies may not have the level of experience you require for you PPC account. Experience levels can range from people in the process of being trained to good PPC managers with years of experience.
Generally speaking, employees with relatively higher levels of experience who have shown the ability to perform at relatively higher levels, tend to cost more. These employees tend to earn higher salaries, earn bonuses, earn promotions into management positions, or they move on to “bigger” opportunities.
Why does this matter?
It matters because there can be an experience gap between different employees who may be doing the actual work on your PPC account. As previously mentioned, it’s typical for employees who have garnered enough experience and proven their worth, to move up in the company to a higher paid position where they don’t necessarily make the actual changes in your account. Heck, perhaps they even decided to get a higher paid position with another company or chose to venture out and start their own company. This is why it is important to know the experience level of the person making the actual changes in your account.
One example of a large PPC agency’s structure is to have lower level employees do the actual work on your account. They report to an account manager who oversees your account along with other accounts. Nothing wrong with that. The experience level of the employees who make changes in your account can vary from having very little Adwords/PPC-specific experience to having many years of experience. Some of these employees may not be Adwords certified, but may be required to get their certification at some point during their employment.
To further illustrate this, below is a screenshot of a typical job opening at Jumpfly for a PPC account manager assistant:
Make note of the highlighted section that reads “By choosing a career at JumpFly you will work with, and be trained by in house industry experts.” The person working on your account may be getting trained by another employee. Is that okay with you?
Along with understanding the experience level of the person who is making changes to your account, it would be wise to ask if they are Adwords certified.
According to the job posting, these are some of the employees that will most likely be doing some of the work on various PPC accounts. You can read the job posting and decide for yourself on how you feel about it.
Final Note
The point of this post is not to bash large PPC agencies. They can do good work for clients and have a good reputation. Large PPC agencies were once small and grew, which would be difficult to do if they consistently provided poor PPC services.
The main takeaway is that you don’t have to pay these types of PPC management fees to get excellent service and results. You can get access to highly qualified PPC managers at a lower cost by choosing smaller PPC shops and freelancers. Instead of paying those higher fees to your PPC management company, you can use those dollars for your actual ad spend budget or invest them in other areas of your business.
If you want to reach out to me to discuss PPC management and get a free Adwords audit, then please email me at nick@growmeo.com or fill out the form here. I would be happy to chat with you about partnering together.
