So you've decided to hire a PPC management agency (or consultant), but you're not sure where to start or how to evaluate experts against one another. If you're reading this article, you're off to a good start. That's because you've decided to do some research on what you should be expecting (always a good move), and we're about to share the most important questions to ask before hiring any PPC experts - agency or consultant.
Experience, experience, experience
What kind of experience does the agency or expert have in not only managing PPC campaigns, but driving results? The reason you're reaching out to an agency is that you want results better than what you can achieve on your own, and ideally, you want your investment to pay off.
What's the plan of attack?
You want to hire an agency with a solid plan of attack. What keywords will they target, what are their goals for click-through rates? You're looking for more than a trial-and-error campaign when you're forking over your hard-earned dollars for an expert advisor.
If you're seriously considering hiring an agency or consultant, it's not unreasonable to expect a full proposal complete with a breakdown of the strategy and tactics which will be used. Keep in mind that agencies won't want to give away their secret sauce for a potential client who may simply take the strategy recommendations and urn with them, but you can expect to receive a framework of how the campaign will work and what the steps will involve.
Have they evaluated your current campaign?
This question is extremely important in evaluating a potential agency or consultant: If they attempt to provide their plan of attack without ever having seen your current campaign, they're probably using a cookie-cutter approach. The problem with this strategy is that a cookie-cutter approach doesn't work equally as well for each cookie (you!).
Be sure to provide your final candidates with the information they need to assess your current PPC efforts (if any) so that they can develop a custom campaign and identify target areas of improvement.
Reporting and analytics
There are all kinds of PPC analytics tools on the market, in addition to the built-in analytics offered by Google AdWords and similar platforms. But if your company isn't in the digital advertising vertical, it's a possibility you won't be familiar with all those terms or understand what those figures mean.
Find out whether the agency offers any kind of reporting - in easy-to-understand, layman's terms - to help you comprehend exactly what's happening and how the campaign is working to your advantage.
How will you be kept up-to-date on your PPC campaign?
Yes, you want reports. And you want them in easy-to-understand language. But you also need to know how frequently you'll be receiving those reports - and in what timeframe you should expect to see an improvement in your results.
Of course, depending on the level of traffic you're currently receiving, the market saturation and a number of other variables, you can't expect results overnight. But it's good to know - going in - what your expectations should be and how quickly you should be seeing results.
What budget will be used?
If you've been handling your company's PPC efforts on your own without any prior training, it's quite possible you're familiar with the frustration of meeting your daily budget early in the day. What about all those afternoon shoppers? You're missing out on a great deal of business by using up your entire budget without hitting all the important dayparts for your market.
Ask the firm what their recommendation is for a daily, weekly or monthly budget. If what they recommend is more than what you're prepared to spend, find out if there are ways to reduce the total spend in order to hit key times throughout the day or important days of the week for your industry.
Sometimes, the answer is that you do need to spend more, but you need to be realizing a return on the investment in order to sustain that level over a longer period of time. Hiring the right PPC management firm can make that possible Best PPC Marketing Agency.
Finally, are you talking directly with the person who will be managing your account?
It's not uncommon for larger PPC management firms to have gatekeepers who handle bringing on new business. At the stage at which you're pretty confident you'll be using a particular firm, you'll want to speak directly with the person who will be handling your account.
There's a good chance you'll be in regular contact with your account manager, so you'll want to be confident that this person is someone you can have a positive working relationship with.
Outsourcing delicate processes like PPC management can be tricky, but asking the right questions to find the best match for your company will help you realize long-term satisfaction. Knowing what to expect in terms of actions, results and reporting in advance will diffuse any frustrating misunderstandings and set the foundation for a lasting relationship.
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