Paid search ad campaigns are working business assets. Ad campaign management will boost the return on the asset while lowering risk. If a campaign is important to your business, then some form of monitoring and campaign management will likely be beneficial.

The question becomes what degree of management, and that varies depending upon the environment the campaign operates in, and the stage of development of the campaign.

Some ad campaigns can be run without active ad campaign management after post-launch optimization, that’s an autonomous or”unmanaged” campaign. It can work in some circumstances but typically it’s not the best approach. That’s because when campaigns run unmanaged, an advertiser is exposed to additional risk and potential downsides. Another significant issue is that the advertiser may miss out on optimization opportunities and shifts in the market.

Many of our ad campaigns are at some point configured with automated bidding, which reduces hands-on management time going forward.  We also monitor campaigns with alert tracking.

So it is not uncommon for us to build (especially, smaller) campaigns, then after a couple of months let them run largely unattended, except for monitoring and occasional adjustments.

Automated bidding will deliver better performance for many campaigns.  It also greatly reduces the amount of time campaign managers need to spend on a low-level repetitive activity: adjusting keyword bids to meet changing market conditions and campaign internals (e.g. Quality Scores).

However, even automated bidding requires some periodic oversight.  Today’s machine-learning-based automated bidding provides campaign managers with a sort of “slow-motion” form of bid control.

Most campaigns will benefit from some degree of active campaign management.  It is a low-intensity activity for us in most cases and allows us to spot and correct issues before they become a problem.

Because of the opportunities we spot to enhance the performance of campaigns over time, active campaign management increases the total value advertisers derive from their campaigns.

So for all but the simplest accounts in slow markets, we consider some form of campaign management a “no brainer”.

Let’s rephrase the question as “can we manage the campaigns at some point after launch, or should we have them managed?

Accumulating the understanding to operate PPC campaigns is not a matter of learning how to operate the controls in response to what you see.

In a car, you turn the steering wheel left and the car goes left; you apply the brakes and the car begins to stop. There is cause and effect. With digital ad campaigns, on the other hand, the relationship between cause and effect can often be a bit murky.

Changing a setting or configuration may have an unanticipated impact on another aspect of a campaign or group of campaigns. Making an adjustment based on a single assumption that turns out to be false, can lead to confusing setbacks.

Much of what seems intuitive, turns out to be in opposition to what should be done to achieve a better result. If you lack a clear understanding of one aspect of a campaign or account, most likely you will make changes that lead to unexpected or frustrating outcomes.

Experienced paid search managers learn different ways of thinking and acting with campaigns, taking advantage of the ability in campaigns to measure the impact of any adjustment or change. Almost every assumption can and should be tested, before assuming it to be true. Many times, “the obvious” will be shown to be untrue.  This is more difficult to learn and consistently do in practice than it might first appear.

What to do, have someone manage our PPC campaigns forever?

No, of course not.  We advise reframing the question.  It becomes:

“What is the most profitable and time-efficient way to ensure these campaigns are operating at peak efficiency, making the best use of my ad spend, considering alternative uses of our time”?

Having veterans watch over your campaigns doesn’t need to be expensive. In fact, it should deliver a return on the modest cost. PPC campaign management, for many accounts, is a specialized skill that requires a lot of time and experience to become proficient with.  That is unlikely to be the best use of a business person’s time if they have other responsibilities.