PPC
Top 10 Key Questions to Ask Before Hiring a PPC Agency
Pay-Per-Click advertising is helping many businesses to get substantial leads & sales. PPC ads are effective to target the bottom of the sales funnel to get quick results, and that’s why most of the online businesses consider it or about to get it on. You need to pay for the PPC campaigns to show your ads in search engines result pages and well-optimized ad campaigns offer handsome ROI.
As you are reading it, you are also enticed by the benefits of the PPC ads and looking for an expert or PPC agency to handle your ad things.
However, if you don’t hire the right PPC management agency, you end up losing your money. The baseline is money and time, and a wrong agency can risk both.
The question is how to find the right PPC agency or expert for your online business?
You will need some questions to get the answer to the above question. You can test the reliability of a PPC ads agency with these questions that you must ask before hiring a PPC agency.
Q1. Are You Certified for Paid Ads?
Search engines like Google and Bing offer courses for PPC experts, and one needs to pass the test in order to get the certification. If your PPC prospect is Certified, then he has the knowledge to handle your PPC campaigns.
However, you can’t scale the reliability with this only. It only shows that that particular individual has spent substantial time and passed the exam, ensuring his knowledge. It’s not always mandatory that your ideal PPC candidate should have the certificate because he might be so good that he has lots of clients and can’t find time to pursue the certification course.
Still, consider the candidate who has a certificate, because the tests are not that easy and a one with ample knowledge can pass the test.
Q2. Do You Offer Free Assessments?
When you interview your PPC management agency, you can ask the agency representative for a free assessment. Most PPC management services always approach you with a complimentary report about existing or new ad campaigns. Although, if they don’t then you ask them for one to analyze their efforts and seriousness.
Q3. Who Will Have the PPC Account Ownership?
PPC ads need Adwords or Bing ad accounts to create and manage the ad campaigns. For your business, you should have the account ownership to keep track of the things. You can set up a different setup for the PPC experts to access the account. From your account, you can give him manager access. You can set up different credentials for the manager, and they can only manage your campaigns. Your credit card details will be accessible by you only. So, ask who will own the account and don’t give the ownership ever.
Q4. Will You Provide Ongoing Management of the Account?
If you want to manage your account by yourself, you must disclose it to the expert and let him know that you only need the instructions.
If you need regular support, then your PPC agency must have the proper direction and process of managing accounts on a daily basis. You can also ask them about the process they support you. They need to monitor your campaigns regularly to optimize the campaigns for the best performance.
One should analyze both analytics and AdWords in order to examine all over performance and suggest the required changes. A good agency also suggests some website changes to better handle user persona and boost conversion rates.
Q5. Who Will Handle Your PPC Campaigns?
Sometimes it happens that PPC companies have too many clients, and they can’t give suitable time to your account. So, ask for the dedicated person who will manage your campaigns so that you can approach him directly whenever you need something.
You should also ask how many accounts are managed by that particular guy. You can consider one with 15-20 or fewer ad accounts. If they don’t assign a specific person for your account, then you need to think. Consider the one who can promise dedicated time and person for your PPC campaigns.
Q6. What is Your PPC Process?
The PPC process of your prospective expert lets you know their marketing approach. The answers should include your business analysis, market analysis, user intent research, user pain points research, conversion action for you, target audience research, etc.
If he/she talks about their process only and doesn’t ask about your business information, then it’s a red flag, and they might not deliver what you are seeking.
Many agencies talk about different tools and their advanced strategies, but they can’t deliver the results without knowing your business.
Consider the one who talks about your business instead of theirs all the time.
Q7. Do My Business Need PPC?
There are many types of generating leads online. PPC is not the only option, and some businesses can earn the business without paid ads.
Every business has different needs, and depending on your situation, it’s possible you might thrive without considering paid marketing.
So, know if your business needs the PPC or not.
If you want to reach more customers and spread brand awareness in a short time, then PPC is your cup of coffee.
Q8. What is the Fee Structure of PPC Advertising?
There are PPC agencies that will charge you a percentage of your ad spend, and the rest works on a flat fee. It’s good to have flat fee agencies if your ad budget is high because the percentage of your budget will cost you extravagantly. On the other hand, with a low budget, a high flat fee isn’t feasible, as well. So, make the decisions according to your budget.
Additionally, if you are short on budget and need the PPC services, you can also consider an audit and initial account and campaign setup. If you see some profitable results, then you can spend more on professional advertising services.
Q9. Do You Have Any Relevant Experience?
There are many PPC agencies that come up every day, and you should consider the one with experience. It’s not like that all the new companies aren’t reliable, but it’s a plus point to have some experience.
If they have some experience, then you should ask for case studies and client results that you have achieved. Furthermore, you can also approach the particular client to get feedback on the services.
Also, consider the agency’s retention rate like how many clients were and are there and how much time the client stays with the agency. If there are more clients for a long time, that means the agency is reliable.
So, go drill down some client information to scale the reliability.
Q10. Is There Any Contract?
You should be very careful before signing any contract because many PPC agencies make you sign annual contracts, and you can’t discontinue the services if you don’t like it. So, to not be stuck in a situation like this, ask for the contracts and tenure policies.
There are some agencies that offer monthly services and allow the flexibility to move. If the rest is fine, but they ask for an annual contract, then try to negotiate. The reason behind the good retention rate of your prospective agency might be this contract thing. So, don’t sign annual contracts.
You should have the freedom to stop the services whenever you feel like.
These are the top 10 key questions to ask before hiring a PPC agency. These questions let you know a lot about your PPC services and whether you should hire or not. Only correct PPC optimization can help you get the desired results. So, hire the right PPC management agency to uplift your business to new heights.