How To Evaluate A PPC Agency: 4 Questions To Ask Before Hiring

Google Adwords, Google’s Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising is all about attracting more customers to your business. Right now there are many PPC agencies competing for businesses to choose them to manage their Google Adwords campaigns. However you should only make the decision to work with an agency which will assist you in creating a clear PPC strategy to drive additional visitors to your website, increase leads and deliver a measurable return on investment (ROI).

So here are 4 questions you should ask to establish if your PPC Agency will be successful in providing you with the expert advice, support and results that you need.

1)      Do they have a clear PPC strategy for you?

A good PPC agency should sit down with you and establish the main objectives you want to achieve and outline a strategy to achieve this success. They should focus on a strategy that is tailored towards achieving your business goals, taking in to account your industry, your target market and your existing online assets (your website, blog, videos etc.). Agencies should be able to explain their keyword strategy – ask how they will go about their keyword research and how they will monitor the results.

In creating your strategy, your PPC Agency should also be reviewing your offers and landing pages with you. Have they asked you to create new pages or change existing pages? Have they asked you about your offers? This is vital to write ads that have a high click through rate and high conversion rates to achieve the desired results for your business of an increase in website visitors and leads at the lowest possible costs.

Additionally they should also be able to explain their ad copy strategy – who will write the ads and how will they be optimised? How will they manage the ads on an on-going basis? 

Finally, a good PPC agency will be structuring your campaign in a logical way with multiple campaigns and ad groups, and will be taking advantage of all the tools at their disposal. So ask how they are using ad extensions, display advertising, and remarketing. What’s their strategy for mobile (smart phone) users?

A good PPC agency will be able to answer these questions, and communicate their strategy in a way that makes sense and relates to your business objectives.

2)      Do they clearly explain their Service Fees and your PPC Fees?

Your PPC Agency will normally charge you a specified fee for their services which will include assisting you with the creation and monitoring of your PPC Campaigns – in other words, an account management fee. You will also need an ad budget to pay for the clicks themselves - these relate to the cost your business pays every time someone clicks on your adverts in search engines.

You can specify the maximum you are willing to pay for the click-trough’s from your adverts to your website, the costs per click begin from 4p per click upwards depending on the popularity of your phrases. For more information about the costs of Google Adwords, read our article What Does Google Adwords (PPC) Cost?

Make sure they fully explain to you what these costs will be – some agencies will charge one flat fee which includes their costs AND the PPC ad spend too. In these cases it is not always clear how much of your budget is actually being spent on the clicks themselves – it is better to have a clear, transparent cost structure so you can see exactly what you are getting for your investment.

Before starting a campaign, you should discuss the ad spend budget (and agree a cap per day, per week or per month) and also a maximum cost per click budget.

3)      Do they clearly explain how your PPC campaign success will be measured?

The success of your campaigns should be tracked through a series of Google Analytics Reports provided to you by your PPC Agency. The PPC Agency should then spend time with you explaining the results in detail and how to plan future campaigns successfully. The Reports should include a range of results such as visitors generated from search engines and keywords, how many people click through to your website.

Are they talking to you about conversion tracking? The number of site visitors who converted into leads and sales for your business has to be measured in order to get the best results from any campaign. A good PPC campaign should include a statement defining the campaign goals you wanted to achieve at the start and whether they were achieved through the campaign. One of your goals could be to try and increase sales of a particular product. A good PPC Campaign should also include recommendations and plans for your future campaigns. This will achieve the maximum success for your business.

4) Will you have regular contact with an Account Manager at your PPC Agency?

It is important firstly that you have a primary contact at your PPC Agency so you can ask questions at different stages of your PPC campaigns. You will want someone who has a deep understanding of Google Adwords itself (For example, JDR are a Google Engage Agency).

You should also expect your PPC Agency to contact you regularly via phone and through meetings so that they can explain your results and plan future changes. This will give you the exact guidance you need to understand how well your campaigns are performing. Additionally your PPC Agency should advise you on other online services they offer that could further boost your business success. This allows you to plan your future strategies for your business successfully.

We offer a Google Adwords Review, which assesses your current PPC activity, and how it can be developed for the future to increase your website visitors, enquiries and sales. One of our experts will be happy to discuss with you further developments for your PPC Advert Campaigns, at any time. To get your PPC Review go to http://jdrwebsites-co.sites.hubspot.com/get-a-free-google-adwords-review or call our office 01332 982247 and find out how we can help.

Article by Laura Morris-Richardson