More than two and a half decades ago, AT&T’s marketing campaign “You Will” came up with the world’s first online advertisement. It was a banner ad on Hotwired magazine live for three months for a cost of $30,000. The click-through rate of this ad was 44%. This ad laid the foundation of modern digital advertising.
Today, advertising services and products on search have become a common practice for businesses. However, they need a competent digital marketing agency to get the best results. There are 8,450,000 results for “Right PPC agency” and 6,000,000 results for “Expert PPC agency” on Google.
Clearly, the Internet is a real jungle for businesses looking for a reliable PPC service provider. Perhaps you, too, are in the same situation. To help you, below are the best tips for choosing the right PPC agency in 2022.
Characteristics of A Great PPC Agency
What makes a PPC agency great or worthy to hire? These are the major characteristics you need to look for.
Data-Driven
A reliable PPC agency is data-driven and cares about the return on your ad spend (known as ROAS). The agency should observe all of your campaign data and make smart decisions on making your campaigns better. Here are the key performance indicators (KPI’s) that they must share and explain during the project’s monthly reporting:
- Clicks
- Cost per click (CPC)
- Cost per conversion/Acquisition (CPA)
- Cost per thousand impressions (CPM)
- Quality Score
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Conversion Rate (CVR)
- Average position
Takes Ownership of Your Objectives
Clients choose their PPC provider because they believe that they will achieve their objectives at the best price and with the best service. What is the point of paying an agency if they can’t really help you achieve your goals?
Therefore, the right agency understands and takes ownership of its client’s objectives. It will not hide behind excuses and will be happy to brainstorm with you to find the best solutions when things become more difficult.
The right agency will measure its success on the indicators that really matter to you and deliver a turnkey PPC campaign that meets your aspirations.
Realistic in its Advice
Taking ownership of the client’s objectives does not mean saying “yes” to everything. It’s easy to find such agencies. Although convenient, such docile PPC service providers are often not beneficial to your business.
The agency should enlighten you in your projects to make the best decisions and put all the chances of success on your side. The agency’s role is to be critical and tell you where the greatest difficulties will be and if there is another more effective approach to achieve your goals.
Masters Certain Platforms But Not All
There are too many different technologies & tools in the e-business world. Even an agency with thousands of employees could not claim to be an expert in every platform or niche. An agency can only have advanced skills on certain platforms. So, stay away from the providers telling you they can work with anything.
Good in Communication
Doing quality work is good, but the agency should also be able to create and explain a report that a client can understand. It is frustrating to invest money in your marketing and not receive updates on how it’s impacting your business. So, your chosen agency must value easy-to-understand reporting and set up a time-to-time communication with you on the campaign. An experienced PPC agency will first listen to you by asking smart questions about your goals, understand your expectations and then present a cohesive marketing strategy to achieve those goals.
Has Testimonials That Resemble You
The saying “Birds of a feather flock together” is true when choosing a PPC agency service provider. If you are a small enterprise, do not knock on the door of the big agencies. You will not get good service because small businesses are uninteresting for such agencies.
On the other hand, if you are a big business and hire a freelancer, you won’t get satisfactory results either. Because it is not feasible for a single person to deliver a large volume of work, unlock complex challenges, or even adapt the communication with you (follow-up meetings, sessions for training or support, etc.)
So, which agency you should go for?
The digital agency that is ideal for you will have references that –
- Of equivalent to your brand
- Of the same sector as you
- Who shared the same problem as yours
- And who are satisfied with their services
Learning All the Time
Always learn. Always be curious. It is this characteristic that differentiates an expert PPC agency from others. PPC platforms like Google Ads are constantly evolving. Five years ago, what was seen as good practice may have become inefficient now. The digital agency worthy of the name knows that its skills always need to be up-to-date, so it trains its teams every then and now.
Should be a Google Partner
Agencies that are Google’s premium partners should be in your top consideration. Such agencies have appropriate training to help you budget, create and optimize Google Ads. So, working with these agencies rather than others will be more beneficial for you.
Above all, the good agency will want to do everything to ensure that its partner succeeds as if the project is theirs.
Choosing The Right PPC Agency For You
There is considerable competition in this market, so you should carefully consider each of your options. Before evaluating agencies to choose the best one, ask yourself:
- What budget do you have?
- How much are you willing to invest?
- What results do you hope to achieve?
When you have these answers, then proceed with:
Inquire And Meet The Work Team
Agencies specializing in PPC Ads would be nothing without those responsible for your campaigns. This is why it is so important to carefully analyze the work team that makes it up. Whether in person or virtually, a face-to-face meeting can help you determine if the chosen team matches your expectations. It’s about knowing who is behind the business, so you know who is going to run yours. Also, this will help you know the experience level of the people you are going to work with. They should be experts in the field.
Examine Their Specialization
For your search engine advertising to be truly effective, you must study the sector in which the agency specializes. Keep in mind that campaigning for an online store is not the same for a local business or info product. Therefore, it is essential that you examine whether the agency you are reviewing has experience in your niche or not. Best are those agencies that handle PPC campaigns for businesses similar to yours.
Check on Their Clients
Another aspect that you cannot ignore is the clients with whom the specialist agency works or has worked. You need to assess whether they campaigned for large or small businesses.
If the agency has worked with large companies, it gives them a better reputation, but the costs are probably higher. The previous point will also help you here, as you need to see if the clients are from your industry or a similar industry.
Study Their Case Studies
Some agencies have a special section on their website showing their successes. In which they highlight the strategies they have carried out with each company and the results obtained. With the case studies, you can have a clearer view of what you can achieve if you hire them. This will get you more information to make the decision about hiring their service.
Check Their Reviews on Different Platforms
If you want to be truly sure that you are making the right decision, you need to seek advice from other customers. In this case, the testimonies are very important to consider. However, you need to know where to look for them because clearly, the agency will not place reviews on its site that could harm it. In this case, run a search on Google and see the client’s reviews about the agency.
These opinions are generally more impartial than those they have on the website. But we must also be very careful that it is not false testimony with the intention of discrediting the agency. The best thing to do is read multiple reviews and form your own point of view.
Ask The Costs of The Service
When you are looking for a Google Ads agency, one of the key things to consider is the cost of the service. What are the management fees, the minimum monthly payments, and the minimum amount to invest? For prestigious brands, this is not a big deal, but it is for small businesses on a budget. Please note, the best price is not always a guarantee of success.
See The Work Procedure of The Agency
You also need to know the work process of the agency. Many opt for personal meetings with the client, while others use technology and contact them online. They will likely send you a form to better understand your business and customers. It is good to know if the agency will regularly report campaigns or periodically.
This is a key point because it lets you know if it is practical to continue with them. Knowing the working process, you have a clear vision of what they will do and in what phases and when you are going to have results discussions. This is the most important thing in this step.
Questions to Ask From A Google Ads Agency
When doing interviews with your potential PPC agencies, be sure to put together a list of questions. The more questions you can ask about past performance, the more you will have a clear idea of an agency’s skills and ability to perform. An honest agency will have nothing to hide.
Here are some sample questions to ask when choosing a PPC company:
- What is the agency’s experience in PPC project management?
- How much do their services cost, and for which deliverables?
- How many employees do they have?
- What type of services do they provide?
- Since how long have you been working in the industry?
- Do you have Google-certified professionals?
- What are your work and reporting strategies?
- Is the agency technologically advanced?
- Can you work in a team with other agencies?
For an optimal meeting, brainstorm various questions with your team and the company’s leaders. While your team may have questions about strategy and reporting, your decision-makers may have questions about price and return on investment (ROI).
Why You Should Use PPC Advertising
Many business owners invest a lot of money in their online marketing but lose a lot of it trying to figure out the specifics. PPC helps to achieve this goal by:
PPC is Measurable And Traceable
Using Google Ads in combination with Google Analytics allows you to monitor and measure your PPC campaigns easily. You can track your campaign’s results and statistics (number of impressions, clicks, conversions) in real-time. Also, when you create PPC campaigns and follow up to the conversion to using Google Analytics, you can compare the amount spent to what you have generated.
PPC Campaigns Are Customizable
With PPC campaigns, the keywords, ads, targeting, and sites are customizable according to your goals and budget. As a result, you can make changes to your campaign at any time, even if it is online.
PPC target a Specific Audience
With PPC, you can track your target every step of your sales funnel. For example, people who:
- Visited your website once or twice
- Are located in a specific geographic area
- On sites related to your keywords
- With similar interests
- Of same gender and age group
- Searching for the same queries
By combining these different targeting criteria, your content has a better chance of meeting the right audience. You will be able to reach both your potential customers and those who do not know you yet.
Learn How to Work With a PPC Ad Agency
You now know the aspects you need to evaluate before choosing a Google ads agency. But you should go through these recommendations that will be helpful when working with the company you have hired for this service:
Provide them with the necessary information: No agency will send you a contract without first understanding your weaknesses. They will likely ask you to fill out an application form to determine your goals and requirements. Then the team will contact you to hear your vision to find ways to make it happen.
Listen to them: The agency will offer you best practices for positive results once they analyze your business and campaign requirements. The agency will request access to your website, social networks, relevant software, analysis tools, among others. There will be several meetings to make strategic recommendations.
Contract: You will receive a contract, along with the agency’s project deliverables, fees, and other things, before starting the campaign.
Introduce them to your team: You should introduce the external team to your internal staff. You have to align your internal team with the agency. The idea is that the two work in sync to maximize results. There should be regular communication between the agency and the internal team.
Remember, what you want is for the agency to align with your business’s values and culture. Be sure to feel comfortable with the agency. You should feel comfortable asking questions, expressing concerns, etc. If not, you may not be able to develop a long-term partnership.
Final Takeaways
To sum up, when wondering what to look for in a PPC agency, look for the following:
- Evidence of successful past performance
- Strong transparency and reporting
- A responsive agency
- Niche expertise
- Ownership of your goals
- Measurable results
Finally, before settling with an agency, take their offers and evaluate several of them. Compare at least three to make the final decision. Let us be one of those three. We are certified specialists in Google AdWords and have been advertising for the last ten years.
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