Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

You can do this without an agency, but it will take longer and probably cost you more. I'd suggest you pick up a copy of:

Ultimate Guide to Google Adwords, by Perry Marshall and Bryan Todd. (Amazon link: https://bit.ly/dmlZeH )

The book explains how this works and what you need to do.

And you can have your brother-in-law build your web site too. You could ask the same question about car repair or home maintenance. Do you do your own taxes or go to a professional that lives and breathes tax laws? The tasks all seem simple on the surface, however everything has evolved to a science - at least a distinct body of knowledge / tips / tricks / information sources. You need that special tool, or that little fact that would have saved countless hours or precious dollars.

Are you ever sure that you did it right. Do you (others) have time to learn a craft what others have spend years perfecting. I admit its not brain surgery, but few people who go at it alone get it right unless they work at it diligently.

Can it be done - yes. Will it be as effective - maybe in many months of study, refinement, wasted time and money. Will a person(s) be focused on supporting your needs and know how to do it effectively to validate your hypothesis?

To do your "advertising" - do you have the specialists that can write good ad copy? Advertising is a full time orchestrated symphony of interconnected disciplines that all need to be tuned and play together to capture the prospects attention. You need a team focused on the target, tracking the data, and making timely improvements. Do you think the ad agency is sitting there thinking "Gee - can we train our own IT people?"

As Mr. Goodman indicated - you'll pay more in total costs of wasted money (ad budget), wasted labor (people's time), wasted opportunities (ineffective ads), etc.

I have AdWords clients that "tried it on their own" and now have me manage their accounts - they set up their account wrong, they paid too much for clicks for months, and they have little idea how to improve their account after their initial "perceived success". Now they have better targeting, more effective keywords, their accounts are set up to function better and glean useful marketing information from their data.

Call if you wish to discuss further.

Bob