Paid search management is a great component of your marketing to outsource or delegate to a specialist. The field moves fast, so even without other responsibilities, keeping up with campaigns on a daily basis and all the developments in the technology and market environment is very demanding. When your time is already at a premium, finding a qualified agency can make a world of difference. Here are some questions to help you choose how to resource your online advertising needs.
Where is your business going?
Is this the right way to get there?
The reason you’re looking to run PPC campaigns in the first place is because you need to achieve certain business results—but is it actually the best way to get where you need to go right now? Particularly if you’re driving a new initiative or running ads for the first time, it’s important to take a step back and make sure you’re not trying to buy a horse to win an air race, because someone will likely try to sell it to you anyway!
Some red flags to watch out for:
- Your target search niche is very small, or so new that no one’s searching for your product.
- You haven’t evaluated the competitive landscape
- Your website isn’t prepared to make effective use of the traffic you’ll be sending
It’s important to set expectations realistically. For example, if you’re trying to make a big break into the auto insurance market with a couple grand per month, you’re going to need some combination of very deep pockets and an outstanding value differentiator. On the other side of the coin, you can’t usually lean a major growth initiative on a target segment drawing only a handful of searches every month.
This can actually be a great task for an agency or experienced freelance consultant to address, but if you’re still at this stage make sure you’re being honest with yourself and them. Be ready to pivot to another channel, and make sure there’s a well reasoned backing for any promises of results you receive.
What kind of working relationship do you want?
In my experience, finding the right cultural fit is one of the most important things to consider when hiring out. Even if a deal looks good on paper, if you’re not on the same page and excited to work together, a cheaper fee or glossy list of credentials is going to lose its shine very quickly.
How do you actually plan to work?
Both sides of the table tend to start rolling out the idealism and HBR buzzwords during a request for proposals, but it ultimately works out a lot better for everyone if you keep it strictly realistic. Is your company large and methodical, or a scrappy team testing new ideas and patching holes every other hour? These situations demand very different skills and approaches from an agency to be successful, and if expectations are skewed to start, someone will wind up unhappy.
What do they need to be ready for?
Likewise, make sure to get a proper answer to this question from the agencies you’re considering. Just like in any hiring process, behavioral interviewing is going to be your friend. Need rapid responses and creative energy? Have a blunt or demanding teammate they’ll need to work with? Ask for examples of how they’ve succeeded in these kinds of situations in the past.
Are you looking for a bold experimenter or an obedient Igor?
Look for the full scope of success
Success in paid search is about much more than tweaking spreadsheets—you'll need to create a cohesive and functional user experience from end to end, and that means some serious work on landing pages, ads, conversion rate optimization, data analysis, and selling the ideas to make it all happen. Before starting a new project, ask these questions:
- What will it take to turn around new ad copy?
- What kind of input will you be getting from your agency on new or improved landing pages? Whose job will it be to get them created?
- What relationships might need to be cultivated between in-house stakeholders and external partners for the most effective communication and results when marketing messages or site changes are involved?
Don't forget to factor in your plans for SEO, either—paid search is playing on the same field, and you'll want to make sure the two are working together smoothly. If you're also looking for an SEO partner, consolidating the two to a single agency often leads to more and better collaboration.
Think long term
Last, but certainly not least, don't forget to ask where you see yourself in a year or two, and make that a part of the conversation. Are you aiming to bring the work in-house eventually, or will this stay outsourced for the foreseeable future? A good agency will be ready with a plan to help on-board or even help train a future replacement, and definitely won't hold your account or data hostage.
Scale is an important part of the long term picture too. If you're growing quickly into a rich market and could reasonably expect to double, triple, or 10x the scale of your campaigns in the near future, make sure you share your intent and find a partner who will be prepared when the time comes.
Nice post anthony.It has served me quite helpful.
Absolutely right, the PPC agency should become 'part of the team', fully understand the business goals. The world is full of the sales pitch, glossy figures and broken promises. For example, if the goal is lead generation PPC shouldn't stop there. If the sales team aren't converting those leads there is a signal there's a problem either with the team or the lead. The PPC player IMHO needs to show they understand the process and requirements through to the finish line in order to get the best genuine results for the business rather than their target of leads. So don't just accept budget >> avg CPC >> clicks >> leads and an unrealistic flow chart of growth. Great post.
Hi Anthony,
i quite agree with James point. we must need to look into the case studies. As it will help to determine and it will also make it easy for any business owner to decide.
*butts in* I have to say that I disagree on the benefit of the Case Study in selling PPC. I detail my reasoning in full over on the PPC Hero Blog: https://www.ppchero.com/why-the-case-study-needs-to...
The short of it is that Case Studies are cherry picked data and set too-high expectations from the start since every PPC account is unique. I prefer to establish trust in the agency/individual as a brand (becoming an authority in PPC through blogging/speaking, utilizing current clients as recommendations, etc), rather than using the Case Study to sell.
That was a nice post to read and lot of information to grasp, i have also found something little similar which can further take this topic to the next level here: https://www.techmagnate.com/blog/maximize-your-online-marketing-return-on-investment. Looking forward for your reviews on this and how much you agree on this topic.
What about case studies from relevant niche specific business or even testimonials from 3 or 4 past customers with numbers you can call. Also you could look into asking a list of technical paid search questions. And finally you want to know who will be the fixed account manager on the account so many PPC companies switch AM's. Overall I thought this post could go into more detail tho it is a good starting point.
I completely agree. I worked for an agency that was pretty successful in there PPC management business model that is similar to what you have shown. Thanks for sharing!
Nice post . It has done much to help. Thanks!!!
you´re right Alberto!! this great content helps a lot
These days with services like Wordstream, do you really want to pay someone a premium on top of an already outrageous amount per click to "manage" your campaign?? These days, if you employ an SEO company on an ongoing basis, they'll typically setup and manage your PPC account for free or at a very reasonable charge. Let's face it adwords is already expensive (depending of course on your industry). Why pay someone a lot more who might give you very marginal benefits at best?
I end up taking over a lot of accounts where the client must have had a similar mindset about PPC. It's ridiculously fun and easy to double or quadruple the revenue from what they were making when the account wasn't properly managed.
Good to ask your agency wha their process is, what and how will they send reports. How do they view digital marketing and how do they work with other channels for a brand.
Nice article. It provides a lot of valueble information when it come to choosing a good ppc agency.
PPC is such a minefield! Thanks for this
It's always important to get their short-term and long-term strategies!
Good Article, nice to read, great information too
Good article, I think Interviewing the potential PPC agency is the most important step in the selection process. You can start by examining which agencies are the best fit in terms of budgetary expectations and the total overview of services offered under that agency’s management. There are agencies that specialize in every budget range imaginable and most will gladly describe the budget range that they’re best suited for. In addition, every agency should be able to provide an overview of the services included in your monthly management fee, which can further help you refine your list of agency candidates. Good Luck!!
Thanks Anthony, many people (at least in Spain) doesn't trust on this type of agencies, so this is a great post for them. If you want to get PPC results, yo must trust on a qualified agency
HBR buzzwords??
Harvard Business Review. Come to think of it, that turn of phrase was a little ironic. =)
You makes some great PPC points. I have been doing the PPC game since all keywords were a nickels and dimes. you don't want to know what some the keywords go for now 40.00+. I remember doing a campaign for DISH and I had a Mandatory Corp ad to follow.. so on my own dime I showed them what a real ppc pro can do.
screen shot >. https://www.adwebdesigns.com/pay-per-click.htm The top ad version is our suggested PPC ad. The bottom was the mandatory ad sent from the corporate office. In less than 4 hours I had the total support of the corporate office and exceeded their ROI expectations.
You need to have companies trust you especially when you spending a lot of their money.
I love using PPC to get good insight on what converts and using that data for SEO.
lol had to check on first page on Google for oldest PPC Company
dang I am old
We just happen to be in the market for a PPC company. We are about to sign on the dotted line, so this article was perfectly timed.
Along with your list, some of the things that we looked for also included:
I believe we found a great agency that happens to be local. However, this is coming out of a less than stellar relationship.
Great article!
Search payment need not be the substitute for anything. From my point of view, it should be a complement to our strategies for getting leads. For the purpose of paid search, PPC is best for when you are starting because you do not pay for showing the ad, only pay for each click that customer makes on your page.
In addition to our PPC Team, we train and certify all of our account managers in Google AdWords. This helps our AM’s create a solid connection between our PPC team and our clients, and also allows us to offer advice and recommendations as clients consider entering the PPC field.
Nice post anthony i appreciated you for this info as PPC campaigns are work like key factor in business.
Interesting stuff! Thanks for sharing.