10 essential questions to ask your PPC agency
Outsourcing your business activity to an external agency is a great way of ensuring that you’re keeping on top of your brand’s progress. More often than not (we hope!) you’re satisfied with the service that you receive.
SEO marketing, in particular, can be costly to outsource, so you always want to be certain that you’re dealing with expertise. Furthermore, you’re investing a great deal of trust that business gains will be received as a result of a cast-iron marketing strategy.
PPC marketing can be extremely time-consuming due to the level of attention that it requires. While its trial-and-error nature can be rewarding in the long term, for the duration of any campaign it’s a waiting game. However, when done efficiently, PPC is one of the best ways to reach your target audience through demographics, location and device, and is excellent value for money as you can choose how much to spend.
It might be that you’re looking at PPC agencies at the moment, or perhaps you’re already working with one. Either way, this article aims to ensure that you’re receiving the service that you require, and that begins with asking the right questions.
Here are our top recommendations:
Is PPC right for my business?
Great place to start! We once had an enquiry from a client that wanted to run a few Google ads, but after digging through their keywords, and researching their target audience and competitors, we realised that PPC ads weren’t right for them. As a B2B company, targeting by job title on Linkedin proved to be a much more powerful strategy.
PPC can be hard-going for B2B’s as keywords tend to apply to one-man bands, homeowners, domestic services and the general public. It can also be extremely costly.
While we could have easily set up a PPC campaign for them and gained a decent flow of traffic, our objective was to obtain genuine prospect traffic as opposed to high volumes for the sheer sake of it.
Are we bidding on our own brand name?
If so, ensure that your brand name (and its variations) is separated from other words so it stands out. Bearing in mind that the searcher was looking for you in the first place, it probably comes as little surprise that brand names convert more successfully and have a higher click-through rate. If ineffectively split out on reports, success can be exaggerated. There are several benefits to bidding on your own brand name, but it can be costly with non-buying searches.
Can I see the Search Terms report?
Search Terms and Keywords differ slightly. Keywords are what you want to bid on, the Search Terms report is a list of search items that visitors have utilised to find you. If your Search Terms result fails to match the keywords in your account, it means that the search terms listed may differ from your keyword list. If your targeting and negative keywords are sub-standard, you’re at risk of spending a lot of money on irrelevant Search Terms.
Can I see the conversion breakdown?
Okay, let’s imagine that your PPC agency sends you an end of month report that highlights 1000 conversions. You’re massively impressed but don’t have time to delve more deeply as you’re inundated with work. Plus, you don’t need to based on the results, right?
Wrong! What you may not realise is that 90% of these conversions are clicks from social icons. If you were seeking clicks from social icons, that’s absolutely fine. Job done! But if you were interested in genuine leads, not so great. (For the record, we’ve personally witnessed this on a real account where ‘page views’ were a listed conversion!)
What performance metrics will you put in place?
Assessing PPC performance is a complex process, but agencies should be able to make it fairly straightforward for you. They should be able to advise which KPIs and metrics align with your goals and measure success (or failure). Such transparency in reporting allows you to assess performance, compare results and determine overall progression with ease.
What channels do you focus on?
Whatever your industry and offering, your agency must have a specialised and solid understanding of your chosen platforms. While there is no right or wrong marketing channel, there are those that will work more efficiently for your business, as well as those that will amount to very little. It’s always best to ask them during the early stages so you’re fully informed of their capabilities.
What is our strategy for running ad copy testing and optimising ad copy as a result? How do we review and optimise our data feed?
Do you have tools for competitor analysis and Automation?
Knowing the tools utilised by your agency is essential. A combination of different tools is even more so as you’ll receive different insights and save time. Some of the best PPC tools are Optmyzr, Opteo, Wordstream PPC Advisor SEMRush and Spyfu and if your agency is using the likes of these it is indicative of the fact that they are up to date with current trends.
Do you have similar accounts that you have managed successfully?
The number of successful clients that an agency has is a testament to its credibility. It’s also good to know how many years of experience they have as evidence of their overall knowledge base. If they know your particular industry, they should be able to predict your audience’s buying behaviour with relative ease. Ask your PPC agency to provide examples or case studies of similar experiences. It’s always better to play it safe from the outset.
How we can help
As experts within the field of digital marketing, we have the required expertise to assist you with your PPC campaign or answer any questions you may have. Besides the aforementioned, there are numerous additional questions that we can recommend to ensure that you receive a well-rounded and thorough service.
