How do you charge your Adwords clients?

I'm beginning to wonder how other Adwords providers go about this?

I use the TOS agreement when client signs up on my website, bill them monthly in advance, and deposit 80% into an account that I retain ownership of. I've started to notice some legal disputes over this wherein the client account gets overturned and is stripped from the agency in court. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I'm wondering if I should give full control to the client from the start and risk them outsourcing management once I've perfected the account?

Would love some input on this..

Thanks

I charge a 20% commission on the budget and keep the entire process transparent. At times, I will use the clients account itself and manage the campaign.

so far, so good!

WHATITDO said:

I'm beginning to wonder how other Adwords providers go about this?

I use the TOS agreement when client signs up on my website, bill them monthly in advance, and deposit 80% into an account that I retain ownership of. I've started to notice some legal disputes over this wherein the client account gets overturned and is stripped from the agency in court. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I'm wondering if I should give full control to the client from the start and risk them outsourcing management once I've perfected the account?

Would love some input on this..

Thanks

Click to expand...

WHATITDO said:

I'm beginning to wonder how other Adwords providers go about this?

I use the TOS agreement when client signs up on my website, bill them monthly in advance, and deposit 80% into an account that I retain ownership of. I've started to notice some legal disputes over this wherein the client account gets overturned and is stripped from the agency in court. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I'm wondering if I should give full control to the client from the start and risk them outsourcing management once I've perfected the account?

Would love some input on this..

Thanks

Click to expand...

This approach has several possible setbacks - not only the one you've already mentioned but you will also end up having many accounts with the same billing information, possibly leading to Google starting to investigate it (as you're only allowed to have one account, unless an exception is granted).

I would suggest you to give you client full control (like most agents do) and just provide quality service so that they wouldn't feel the need to cancel. Sure, some of them will still cancel but that's something you'll have to live with.

Whatitdo,

Your approach seems unorthodox. As mentioned by other members, you are better off leaving ownership of the accounts to your clients and then just managing them. I understand that then they could just walk but really if you are providing good service, why would they? Then there is the issue of having too many accounts under the same billing and account owner name. That just doesn't look natural.

Also, if you are losing in court, perhaps its time to take a different approach.

Maybe you can find some more ideas here,

http://www.managed-ppc.co.uk/adwords-help-blog/adwords-management-agency/

Best,

Shawn

Thanks for the input guys. As for Google caring, as long as you make them lots of money, they don't.

Providing good service comes at a very large cost to the client. I'm not paranoid about the client leaving me because I don't provide superior service. A lot of industries, once you've babied the account to perfection over many years, you sometimes become unappreciated and looked on as more of a cost than an asset. Though starting fresh with a brand new account, the money they lose would is unspeakable. All I'm saying is, if you're the reason behind their success, is it really that wrong to protect your investment?