Outsourcing Google AdWords management?

We are investors in Trada (http://www.trada.com) and this is exactly what they do. They use a unique crowdsourced approach where they have numerous "optimizers" helping with every campaign. You only pay on a performance basis, so rather than paying some sort of agency fee to a black box, you get a bunch of help from a variety of experts.

There's numerous PPC Management agencies, which typically charge 10-15% of ad spend, usually with a minimum of $2500+ per month. Some may also charge a setup fee to get started.

I wouldn't outsource this task to India, that's for sure. You want someone who will provide weekly reports, get on the phone with you, make suggestions on landing page optimization, etc.

About the last part of your question: "If I give them my account info to manage the ad, how do I make sure they do not change the budget per day or mess up with my credit card?"

Google has created a service made for professionals to run AdWords campaigns for clients that lets the clients the control of the budget and credit card. It is called "My Client Center".

See some info here: http://www.google.com/intl/en/adwords/myclientcenter/

What is Google My Client Center -> http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=7725

So I would recommend you make sure to use this rather than give full control of your Google AdWords account to the outsourcing service.

About outsourcing service, as mentioned above, there are consultants at oDesk: http://www.odesk.com/users/?q=adwords

This sounds like a small project. Some outsourcing sites we've heard about that are ideal for small projects would be freelancer.com, elance.com, and odesk.com. I believe these sites have project management features as well as payment options for security, although I am not 100% sure. Just be critical and cautious before signing up and you should be okay.

Try Trada! It sounds like it would work for what you want.

From the Trada website:

Run your campaign in Trada. Trada is a crowdsourced marketplace where you can run your PPC campaign, leveraging the skills of more than 500 certified paid search experts. An average campaign in Trada runs 6500 keywords and 110 ads. Plus, it runs on three ad networks: Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

You can use Google's Partner Search to find a certified Google AdWords expert. https://adwords.google.com/professionals/search/?hl=en

This way, you know that you are working with someone who has expertise in AdWords.

Does it really need to be offshore outsourcing? I am not sure if it is allowed to post direct links here, try with www.webbizideas.com. They are a US-based company that provides marketing services for very honest pricing with fantastic results.

We have been working with them for three years now and they worth every penny we spent (and we are outside of US!).