White Label PPC – Is it Right for Your Agency?
White label services have been around for a long time. Whether you’re selling a physical product or a digital service, the principle is the same. The product or service you provide comes with a ‘white label’ that the seller can brand and sell as their own.
As you might imagine, white labelling digital services can be an effective way for marketing agencies to scale their operations without having to hire extra staff. However, though the concept might sound relatively foolproof, the reality is far from it.
The key to the success of any white labelling activity, including white label PPC, is in the quality of the white label partner you choose to work with. Get that right, and you’ll be able to scale your agency, charge good monthly retainers and rest safe in the knowledge that your clients’ accounts are being properly managed. Get it wrong, however, and you could cause yourself a lot of stress and end up losing money.
In this article, we will explore the core principles of using a white label PPC service so you can decide whether it’s the right option for your agency. We will also touch on some key considerations, should you choose to go down this route, to help you select a reliable and trustworthy partner.
White Label PPC: an introduction
The basic principle behind white label PPC services is that Marketing Agency A wants to provide Pay Per Click services to their clients. They either don’t have the in-house expertise or the resources to offer these services, so they use a white label provider – Marketing Agency B.
Marketing Agency B then acts as the outsourced PPC department for Marketing Agency A, anonymously providing services under the brand of Marketing Agency A. Marketing Agency B then charges a fee to Marketing Agency A, who add a percentage mark up and charge it to their clients.
The system works well. Both Agency ‘A’ and ‘B’ make money, the client receives a good service and Agency ‘A’ hasn’t increased their overheads at all.
Who does it work for?
There are a number of different situations in which using a white label PPC service might work for an agency. Here are some of the most common scenarios:
- An agency already offers PPC services but is growing rapidly. They can’t handle their increasing workload, but they aren’t ready to make another full-time hire.
- An agency already offers PPC services and have been using freelancers to deliver them. However, the freelancers regularly let them down, which has led to tension with clients.
- An agency provides web design (or any other digital marketing service) and they have clients asking them for PPC services.
- A one-person agency or consultant wants to scale the number and size of their clients and offer a ‘full service’ without hiring any staff.
In each of these cases, using a white label PPC provider is much more financially viable than hiring a full-time member of staff.
Remember, when you rely on another agency to provide your service, you only pay for the exact services you receive each month. Also, you will never be paying for anything that doesn’t result in revenue. On top of all this, there’s no sick pay, no extra tools to buy, no additional office space, no pension or PAYE…the list goes on.
How to make it work
So, how can you make sure that the white label PPC service you choose works for you and your clients?
- You must have at least a basic knowledge of PPC and how it works. The agency who provides your white labelled service won’t ever have any contact with your clients. This means that you will need to be the main point of contact during both the sales and support phases. To do this effectively, you need to know what you are selling to them.
- You need to support your clients. There is a big difference between selling a white labelled service and a reseller. The service you are buying isn’t something you can just charge a markup for and not have any involvement in. Your clients will still need support from you. If you neglect this, the service won’t work.
- You must choose a reliable provider. To ensure that your service works in the long term, you need to choose a provider you can rely on. This means they need to have the expertise you need, the systems to deliver the service consistently and the in-house resources to ensure an unbroken service for your clients.
- The pricing needs to work. You need to make money out of any white label arrangement you enter into. This means you need to be able to add a healthy markup to whatever the white label PPC provider charges you each month. If the white label provider is too expensive, your services may then be too expensive and will not deliver value to your clients.
- You should enter into a ‘partnership’. Though you will have some contractual obligations with your white label provider, the best security you can have is to build a healthy working relationship with them. Do this, and they will do everything they can to help you out when you need them to – even if they don’t have to. Believe us, this is important.
- Make sure they can scale. You should always prepare for success. If the process goes well, you’re going to want to sell more PPC service to more clients. However, in order to do this with confidence, you need to know that your white label provider can handle it. Could they take on five new clients per month? What about per week? You need to ask this question and feel happy with the answer.
There aren’t many agencies out there offering reliable white label PPC services. However, if you are able to find a good one, it can open the door to a whole new area of business for your agency. It can often also provide the solution to many of the growing pains that agencies spend a couple of years getting to grips with. Find the right supplier, and you can leapfrog over these.
Online Scientists is a marketing agency based in the UK. We specialise in PPC and CRO services. We also offer all our services on a white label basis. If you would like to know more about how we can help your agency scale their PPC operations, or to introduce it as a new service for your clients, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.