If you have a large PPC cam­paign with lots of prod­ucts or offer­ings, things can get com­pli­cated pretty fast, and that’s when many com­pa­nies choose to call in PPC experts. To get the best return on your adver­tis­ing spend, you need really good advice on design­ing the cam­paign, seg­men­ta­tion, bud­get­ing, geo-targeting and a host of other con­sid­er­a­tions. With­out thor­ough plan­ning and good exe­cu­tion, you run the risk of spend­ing a lot, but not get­ting a lot in return.

We run lots of PPC cam­paigns and talk to lots of cus­tomers about their PPC needs. Based on the many con­ver­sa­tions we’ve had with mar­keters about PPC, we’ve cre­ated this list of 6 key areas you could ask about when you’re look­ing at hir­ing a PPC agency.

ASK ABOUT EXPERIENCE

• Obvi­ously you will want to know about the agency’s expe­ri­ence, so ask them about clients they have worked with where they had great suc­cess, and why they were suc­cess­ful. Ask for exam­ples that match your ver­ti­cal or indus­try, or the size of your media spend, to get an idea of how well they know your kind of busi­ness.
• Ask them about client cam­paigns that did not work out too well. How did they han­dle it? What was the res­o­lu­tion? If the agency claims they’ve never had a dif­fi­cult account, you might won­der just how much expe­ri­ence they have really had.
• Ask for references.

ASK ABOUT SERVICES

• Ask if they can you help you with PPC strat­egy, tac­tics, and man­age­ment. How com­pre­hen­sive is their ser­vice? How much do they expect you to do? If you have a cur­rent PPC account, or had one in the past, be will­ing to let the agency look at your account to see what changes they would rec­om­mend and how they would approach it.
• Can they inte­grate PPC with your SEO and offline mar­ket­ing activ­i­ties? What about cross-channel, dis­play, mobile, and other adver­tis­ing?
• Make sure you under­stand what is not included, too.

ASK ABOUT REPORTING

• What kind of report­ing will they pro­vide, and how often?
• Ask what they would mea­sure. How does their answer align with your company’s mar­ket­ing objec­tives? Will they mea­sure results all the way through from ini­tial clicks to busi­ness con­ver­sions?
• Ask to see exam­ples of the kinds of dash­boards and reports they would pro­duce for you.

ASK ABOUT TECHNOLOGY

• What are their capa­bil­i­ties to inte­grate report­ing with other plat­forms you use? This could be crit­i­cal for e-commerce sites.
• Do they use bid man­age­ment tools or other rel­e­vant technologies?

ASK ABOUT PEOPLE

• Ask who, exactly, will be work­ing on your account, and what is their expe­ri­ence.
• Can the agency work with your design agency, or in-house design team?
• Ask them to explain the value you will get for the price they charge. How will they help you spend your bud­get effectively?

ASK ABOUT PROCESS

• Ask them to explain their approach to redesign­ing your exist­ing PPC ad cam­paign, if you have one.
• Ask them to describe their day-to-day approach to man­ag­ing PPC cam­paigns.
• How quickly do they respond to phone calls or emails?
• How long will it take to see the results you want?

What ques­tions should the agency ask YOU?


Biography / Resume : Karl joined Mediative’s service delivery team in 2008. A year later, he moved to the company’s research department where he conducted online surveys, eye-tracking studies, one-on-one interviews and usability testing. Most recently, he transitioned to the marketing department. Before Mediative, Karl worked in sales and marketing. In 1997, he caught the digital bug and became the original “webmaster” for Roland Canada Music. Around the same time, he began teaching the relatively new topic of Internet marketing to college and university students. Karl’s insatiable curiosity and drive to get to the core and substance of every situation has served him well in his various roles at Mediative.