4 signs of a great PPC agency

Advertising on a pay-per-click (PPC) platform search engines such as Google seems like a no-brainer considering the revenue returns. Google reports that businesses make an average of US$2 in revenue for every US$1 spent on the search engine’s AdWords platform — so why aren’t all online businesses who advertise there experiencing explosive growth?

Ads that are slapped up on Google with no research or strategy behind the keywords and copy will fail. Ads that aren’t constantly monitored, tested, and optimized will never improve, and businesses might keep repeating mistakes that are hurting their ad campaigns. Sometimes the business is to blame for a faulty PPC strategy, but maybe it’s the agency they’re working with that is damaging their ability to succeed with PPC.

Before committing to a PPC agency to help you with your digital advertising strategy, consider these four requirements that should be met before businesses sign on the dotted line.

1. The PPC Agency Builds Ads to Maximize Profits

Don’t be fooled by agencies that pledge to optimize your strategy to get you the best cost per acquisition (CPA), return on investment, or any other term that can quickly be turned into a three-letter acronym. There’s only one word to focus on: profit.

Agencies that solely manage PPC to maximise CPA may be cannibalizing their efforts, suggests Disruptive Advertising. By becoming more efficient, campaigns may shrink, which reduces profits. PPC agencies should be focused on getting the best customers for your business, not just cutting the costs of how much it takes to get each customer. A well-rounded strategy may include some element of improving CPA numbers, but it should be holistic to dive into a business and determine the metrics to focus on to best maximize profit.

2. The PPC Agency Continually Tests and Optimises

According to AdWords Certified inbound marketing expert David W. Vidal, if the PPC agency you’re working with is not monitoring your ad campaign(s) at least once per week, they’re failing you.

Areas the PPC agency should continuously be working on include:

• Identifying opportunities for keyword expansion
• Optimising ads, including experimenting with calls to action
• Eliminating keyword searches that are not relevant to your business
• Improving bidding strategy

The agency should also commit to making recommendations to keywords within your landing page to make sure they’re aligned with the PPC strategy. All testing and optimizing will be preceded by the agency getting to know your business and its goals thoroughly to make expert recommendations, including audits of current strategy. As campaigns progress, optimizing should not solely come with recommendations of increasing your ad budget. Other forms of testing, which should be constant, should dictate strategy first.

3. The PPC Agency Provides Clear Analysis Reports All Key Stakeholders Can Understand

Everyone in the business who has a hand in the advertising strategy should be able to understand the strategies being employed by the PPC agency and how they’re affecting the online reputation and digital sales of the business. From the CEO to the marketing intern, anyone reading the reports by the PPC agency should clearly understand:

• Goals of ad campaigns
• Strategies used to achieve them, including copy and keywords, times of posting, and testing variables
• Recommendations for future campaigns

Clear communication between your business and the PPC agency ensures you feel confident getting any questions you have answered and feel assured that working with the agency is a wise investment for the business. Reports should be frequent — and as frequent as you dictate them from the agency.

They should go beyond the generic information that can be gleaned from any typical PPC management account, such as clicks, conversions, average cost per click, top keywords, and average ad position. The PPC agency should customize reporting to best fit your business needs. They’ll alert the business when strategies need to be quickly changed. They’ll be transparent about their methods and will strive to continually improve the results they deliver.

4. The PPC Agency Acknowledges Current Needs but Prepares You for the Future

While the PPC agency should take immediate goals into consideration and work to satisfy those, the agency should be your trusted partner in planning long-term to stay ahead of the competition. The agency should be aware of PPC ad trends, such as the possibility of Google video ads in search results and the exponential rising of increased value in mobile ads on smartphones and tablets. The agency should proactively offer ideas for months ahead to get your business thinking about the future now.

Testing now to optimize for the future helps businesses anticipate their industry needs and what their customers want. PPC agencies that work with top experts in the PPC industry can help your business build a better path toward long-term PPC strategies that works with other aspects of your digital strategy, including content marketing campaigns and website design. The PPC agency should be an integral part of your business’ digital marketing department’s strategy, which is why it’s crucial for it to align with overall business goals online and off.