5 Things to Consider Before Hiring a PPC Manager

You may be considering implementing a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising plan to help drive traffic to your website. You may not be comfortable doing it in-house and are considering hiring an agency, but you need advice about what to look for in a PPC agency.

Before hiring a PPC agency, there are at least five things you’ll need to consider. Entrusting your paid search strategy to an agency is an important decision that can make or break your advertising budget.

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1. Transparency and Reporting

Transparency means that the agency will keep you informed by providing reports and conferencing, as needed. It means that they’ll be open about what they are doing on behalf of your company. Additionally, the agency should explain its metrics to measure the ad campaign’s success. 

You need to receive regular reports, either weekly or monthly. Find out if the agency will send the reports to you as an email, a PDF, or a video report. It’s important to know what kind of reports your PPC agency will provide and that they include the information you want and need. 

The reports need to be relevant to your business and your goals. They also need to be written in a way that you understand. A report with acronyms and statistics doesn’t do you any good if you don’t know what they mean.

You need to know that you are getting value for your ad budget and that they are effectively executing your PPC strategy. However, you are responsible for setting the campaign’s parameters, such as deciding which products and services to push.

 Your PPC campaign should be able to switch gears, changing the keywords and geography if necessary. The agency needs to adapt as consumer preferences change, seasonal changes occur, or your company introduces new products.

2. Setting Goals and Expectations

It’s essential to set your goals and expectations for working with a Chicago PPC agency from the beginning. Be sure that you’re setting clear, realistic goals and expectations; the agency needs to have a clear understanding of why you’re employing them. Your goals need to be more than simply getting more clicks and traffic to your website, or you want to sell more stuff.

Be prepared to know how much you’d like to increase sales by next month, or by the end of six months. By setting your marketing goals clearly from the beginning, you’ll be more likely to achieve your business goals, and your ad campaign will have greater success.

Once the work begins, keep an eye on your ad campaign’s progress and performance. Be prepared to correct the course as needed. You can’t reach your goal without setting a few ground rules. Before you commit to hiring a PPC agency, ensure that they understand your goals and expectations.

3. Understand That Strategy is Different From Goals and Expectations

Devising an effective digital advertising strategy is what your digital agency does. It’s why you’re hiring them. Your agency needs to understand your goals and expectations to create an effective plan for your business. 

Ask about their general strategy and how they will tailor it to your business. Not every strategy marketing works the same for every type of business. The strategy should be specific for each advertiser and each industry. For example, the plan for a travel website would be very different than one for a music company. 

The same is true for advertising in various regions and demographics. Selling in Chicago requires an entirely different strategy than selling in Salt Lake City. 

There are many things that your agency needs to look at before they recommend a strategy, propose a budget and a start date for your ad campaign. Discuss their plans for the continued development of your PPC advertising strategy with the agency. Ask what tools they’ll use to monitor the performance of your campaign and how they will adjust the campaign as it evolves.

4. Can You Give Them Access to Your Accounts?

To optimize your ad campaign fully, they’ll also need to enhance your website and create specific landing pages. That means they’ll need to be an admin on your WordPress, or other website developing a program, to access the backend of your website. They’ll also need to access your Google analytics search console. They may need admin access to your website to get into the backend and help further develop landing pages. 

Ask if they’ll analyze the historical data and ongoing trends before creating an advertising strategy. Analyzing this data will give them what they need to understand your business and set a plan.

Before settling on an agency, research the agencies’ backgrounds. You want to know if they have worked with any business similar to yours and with what programs and platforms they have experience.

5. Pricing 

Whatever Chicago PPC agency you choose needs to have a good return on investment (ROI); it doesn’t make sense to spend money every month on an agency that is not bringing in the amount of business you want.

Some charge an hourly rate. Other agencies require a monthly retainer fee, while others take a percentage of the money spent on ads. You need to know the pricing upfront and decide if you think the additional sales generated by a professional ad campaign will be worth it. Remember that it can take a few weeks to see results from any ad campaign. 

Also, find out if they have a minimum amount you’ll need to commit to spending. If the agency has a very high minimum rate, it may not work out for you. An agency that works on a percentage may be better suited for your company.

Also, look at any commission pricing structure because that plays a significant role in how much you’ll spend. Hiring an agency that costs you more than your potential profit won’t work. You need a positive ROI.

Choosing a PPC agency is an important decision. It’s imperative to avoid jumping into a contract with what seems, superficially, to be a great agency, only to find out later that they cannot meet your needs. You need to ask some critical questions, weigh the answers, and make an informed decision.