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>Hire a cheap agency – $5k/mo is achievable, especially if they're just managing channels and creative, and not throwing in 'value add' services like landing pa

>Hire a cheap agency – $5k/mo is achievable, especially if they're just managing channels and creative, and not throwing in 'value add' services like landing pages and SEO strategy. what does this mean ?

parentheses 4y ago
I felt that this was vague too. Clarification would be nice
- james_impliu 4y ago
  I work at PostHog, but didn't write the article. I'm guessing what we meant here is that we use a small, flexible agency that manages our paid ads. We didn't want any "optimized" landing pages or other stuff, we just wanted _any_ spend here to go on generating some relevant traffic (since often we think conversion rate optimization is harmful for brand/word of mouth, especically with a technical audience who in the long run respect companies that give you all the info up front etc, and we can do the other bits like SEO research). We spend $5k/month with them + give them a monthly spend to do 99% of the work so we don't try to build any paid ads core competency in house. Continuously we've been trying to move spending from here to more organic content, and just leaving spend on the highest conversion paid campaigns (like our own brand name... which sounds stupid but it is broadly accepted as cost effective to boost CTRs for high intent traffic on Google's first page).
  - rishabhkaul1 4y ago
    So is your "actual" ads spend in addition to the $5K that goes to the agency as their fees? Or does $5K include ad spend (money paid to google etc)
    - james_impliu 4y ago
      the former - we've gone anywhere from $0 to about $40k/month, averaging somewhere in the middle
jahewson 4y ago
Running ads is a sophisticated business. You have to understand the platforms you’re using, the targeting tooling, the audiences you want to target and to do so in a way that won’t just blow your budget instantly in the wrong place. You also need “creative”, i.e designs for ads that will be effective for your chosen medium(s) and audience(s). After that you need on-the-fly analysis to redirect money to the most effective places. All this work is usually done by ad agencies, who do a fixed amount of work for you each month on a retainer.
bluehatbrit 4y ago
My interpretation is: pay someone to run your ads for you rather than doing it yourself. Keep the cost low and avoid their attempts to up-sell as the return on those services are low. Not the author though so can't be completely sure, I agree it's a bit of a weird sentence.

parentheses 4y ago

I felt that this was vague too. Clarification would be nice

james_impliu 4y ago
I work at PostHog, but didn't write the article. I'm guessing what we meant here is that we use a small, flexible agency that manages our paid ads. We didn't want any "optimized" landing pages or other stuff, we just wanted _any_ spend here to go on generating some relevant traffic (since often we think conversion rate optimization is harmful for brand/word of mouth, especically with a technical audience who in the long run respect companies that give you all the info up front etc, and we can do the other bits like SEO research). We spend $5k/month with them + give them a monthly spend to do 99% of the work so we don't try to build any paid ads core competency in house. Continuously we've been trying to move spending from here to more organic content, and just leaving spend on the highest conversion paid campaigns (like our own brand name... which sounds stupid but it is broadly accepted as cost effective to boost CTRs for high intent traffic on Google's first page).
- rishabhkaul1 4y ago
  So is your "actual" ads spend in addition to the $5K that goes to the agency as their fees? Or does $5K include ad spend (money paid to google etc)
  - james_impliu 4y ago
    the former - we've gone anywhere from $0 to about $40k/month, averaging somewhere in the middle

jahewson 4y ago

Running ads is a sophisticated business. You have to understand the platforms you’re using, the targeting tooling, the audiences you want to target and to do so in a way that won’t just blow your budget instantly in the wrong place. You also need “creative”, i.e designs for ads that will be effective for your chosen medium(s) and audience(s). After that you need on-the-fly analysis to redirect money to the most effective places. All this work is usually done by ad agencies, who do a fixed amount of work for you each month on a retainer.

bluehatbrit 4y ago

My interpretation is: pay someone to run your ads for you rather than doing it yourself. Keep the cost low and avoid their attempts to up-sell as the return on those services are low. Not the author though so can't be completely sure, I agree it's a bit of a weird sentence.