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Top paid marketing FAQs (2021):
- When should i add paid marketing
- Do i hire in-house or outsource?
- If i outsource, is a freelancer better or an agency?
- How do I know who's good?
A compilation of 100s of hours w/ founders to save you from making their mistakes.
- When should i add paid marketing
- Do i hire in-house or outsource?
- If i outsource, is a freelancer better or an agency?
- How do I know who's good?
A compilation of 100s of hours w/ founders to save you from making their mistakes.
So you've either established your organic audience already or you want to start with paid marketing right off the bat, questions around how to hire and start off on the right foot with paid marketing are the most common among founders. Here's a breakdown of some do's and don'ts.
The right time to add paid marketing as a growth engine: https://twitter.com/EleanorKalina/status/1381977985671127043?s=20
If I want to start with paid, do I hire someone right away?
No. Getting your hands dirty and learning on your own is crucial considering this is a cash burning effort and being ignorant about it is reckless. This will save you 10x what you invest so don't skip this.
No. Getting your hands dirty and learning on your own is crucial considering this is a cash burning effort and being ignorant about it is reckless. This will save you 10x what you invest so don't skip this.
It will also prevent you from being played, when you hire or outsource. And trust me, if there's 1 thing that every performance marketer knows is that most people don't know sh*t about what you're doing so you can basically say anything and spend anything.
Last point on this, promise! you won't be able to recognize a con if you're inexperienced. The agencies that I've worked with that wasted the most amount of money were flashy, fancy, 'cool' big-name agencies from LA and NY with huge teams and impressive decks.
I'm ready to hire. Should I hire in-house or outsource:
To answer that, let's break it down into a few questions about your business:
1. What is your marketing core competency?
2. What is your paid marketing expertise level?
3. How much risk are you willing to take?
To answer that, let's break it down into a few questions about your business:
1. What is your marketing core competency?
2. What is your paid marketing expertise level?
3. How much risk are you willing to take?
1. What's your marketing core competency?
If you have creative, copy and product marketing in house, you can outsource the actual mechanical work of paid ads (targeting, advertising, attribution, analytics).
If you have creative, copy and product marketing in house, you can outsource the actual mechanical work of paid ads (targeting, advertising, attribution, analytics).
1. (cont'd) - If you don't have creative / copy / product marketing in house, this means you have to include that as part of the service you're getting - which shifts the weight towards an agency vs freelancer or in house.
2. What's your paid media expertise?
If you have some experience or anyone on your team has - you can afford to hire in house and know that this person will be well managed and audited.
If you don't have experience - you won't be able to audit an employee.
If you have some experience or anyone on your team has - you can afford to hire in house and know that this person will be well managed and audited.
If you don't have experience - you won't be able to audit an employee.
2. (cont'd) when you haven't managed paid media experts before, what you want is:
- An easy way out so you can migrate to another professional quickly if things go south.
- Someone who's updated on the latest news/changes in any algorithm.
Both can't be achieved in-house.
- An easy way out so you can migrate to another professional quickly if things go south.
- Someone who's updated on the latest news/changes in any algorithm.
Both can't be achieved in-house.
3. How much risk are you willing to take:
When you're early stage - you want 1 goal out of your paid marketing: *alignment of interests*. That means, that paying someone a salary no matter how good/bad performance is that month, is a big-co kinda game. Not yours.
When you're early stage - you want 1 goal out of your paid marketing: *alignment of interests*. That means, that paying someone a salary no matter how good/bad performance is that month, is a big-co kinda game. Not yours.
3. (con'd) - align expectations with your paid media person or team by constructing a rev share model. If you are inexperienced and can't audit their quality of work, THIS IS THE ONLY WAY to make sure you're working with a well experienced team / individual. Don't fall for traps.
Freelancer or Agency?
Agency pros - can provide 360 services.
Cons - their structure weighs heavy on your cost. There's an account manager, a creative manager, etc etc. A lot of noise for not enough output.
Freelancer pros - agile, small, quick.
Cons - missing capabilities.
Agency pros - can provide 360 services.
Cons - their structure weighs heavy on your cost. There's an account manager, a creative manager, etc etc. A lot of noise for not enough output.
Freelancer pros - agile, small, quick.
Cons - missing capabilities.
How do I know who's good?
Speak directly with one of their current or previous customers and understand what multiples of ROAS or CAC/LTV they reached & how long that took to get there. Don't buy into what they put on their website. This will always be their best case scenario.
Speak directly with one of their current or previous customers and understand what multiples of ROAS or CAC/LTV they reached & how long that took to get there. Don't buy into what they put on their website. This will always be their best case scenario.
How do I know who's good #2?
Their portfolio MUST include a significant portion of your geo and category. Often, this is your hack to gaining paid marketing granular expertise. E.g, I once took a fairly "average" agency because it had UK focused ed-tech experience.
Their portfolio MUST include a significant portion of your geo and category. Often, this is your hack to gaining paid marketing granular expertise. E.g, I once took a fairly "average" agency because it had UK focused ed-tech experience.
Mistakes to avoid! #1
Do NOT hire an agency if your funnel is not fully self serve. If you're using a sales team, you'll be giving your paid marketing agency KPIs such as signups or leads. This will result in sh*t leads because they'll be going for quantity. Hire in house.
Do NOT hire an agency if your funnel is not fully self serve. If you're using a sales team, you'll be giving your paid marketing agency KPIs such as signups or leads. This will result in sh*t leads because they'll be going for quantity. Hire in house.
Mistakes to avoid #2 (forgive me)
If you're early stage, you're better off not hiring a performance marketer coming out of a big co. They're not hungry, they haven't been accountable for their performance in years and if they were good enough - they'd be making big $ freelancing.
If you're early stage, you're better off not hiring a performance marketer coming out of a big co. They're not hungry, they haven't been accountable for their performance in years and if they were good enough - they'd be making big $ freelancing.
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