Choosing the right PPC marketing agency can be as time-consuming as developing the strategy itself. To create a successful pay-per-click campaign, you need a specific set of skills and knowledge.
As online advertising is an ever-evolving arena, it requires constant education. Attempting a PPC campaign without expertise can waste a lot of money, energy and time on advertisements that do not reach your target audience, gain traction or drive enough conversions.
Pay-per-click advertising, when done properly, can enhance brand awareness by over 80% while increasing sales, traffic and leads. Thus, choosing the right PPC marketing agency is extremely important for your business.
5 Things to Look for When Choosing a PPC Agency
1. Values Data, Analysis and Results
What makes PPC exciting is that it gives you the opportunity to directly tie the revenue you generate to your ad expenditure. So, analytics and data are crucial to its success. A great PPC digital marketing agency understands how to make use of numbers to formulate new ideas for improved ROI.
The agency will use their knowledge about your target audience to create campaigns that offer high yields. Additionally, the agency will be aware of the importance of data collection and data sharing. However, if you are not sure if your chosen PPC marketing agency fulfills this requirement, you can gauge it by asking the following questions:
- Will they share results and data actively with you?
- What tools do they use to measure vital PPC metrics?
- Do they offer independent access to reporting and analytics?
- What do they include in the reports?
It should include:
- Clicks
- Cost-per-click (CPC)
- Click-through rate (CTR)
- Cost-per-thousand impression (CPM)
- Quality Score
- Number of Conversions
- Conversion Rate
- Cost per Conversion
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS)
2. Has a Proven Record of PPC Clientele
The entire process of building, setting up, launching, optimizing and monitoring a PPC campaign is somewhat similar across all verticals. Nevertheless, there are specific features unique to every industry.
When a PPC digital marketing agency has an understanding of your niche, they will create ad copies more effectively – those that target the right firmographics and demographics while resonating with your audience. They can help you set realistic goals and make strategic suggestions.
Read what customers have to say about their experience with a PPC agency. Also, you must know that while some agencies focus greatly on B2C or B2B, there are others that specialize in a specific niche or multiple niches.
3. Has Adequate Knowledge of SEO
Good traffic is what drives your website and your business. That said, you will not just want any traffic, but traffic that is targeted and gets converted to sales, right? So, we recommend finding an agency that is also proficient at organic SEO. Successful SEO experience demonstrates an agency’s competency targeting audiences and producing headlines and meta descriptions that register with those audiences, two abilities that are a must for any PPC marketer.
Thus, make sure that the agency you settle on has a strong knowledge of SEO. For instance, local search is an important aspect of PPC marketing and it is not something that you can ignore when it comes to driving traffic into a physical location.
Whether you provide services or sell products, it is important that you stay visible in search results. Apart from this, the fastest way to see a high ROI is by using high purchase intent keywords.
Irrespective of your goals, the PPC agency must be able to derive the purpose of your campaign and choose the right keywords to be targeted. Thus, choose a PPC marketing agency that has a basic understanding of SEO and its nuances.
4. Has a Transparent Pricing Policy
It is important for you to be aware of the money that you spend on PPC marketing services. You need to make sure you know what you are agreeing to and that the agency can match your goals. Enquire about the pricing policy of the agency you plan to work with. Make sure they answer all your queries and offer you a pricing policy that is transparent and has no hidden costs. There are agencies that might quote a certain amount when you start off and end up presenting a different bill to you.
Reading a few reviews from past customers might be of help, but make a list of questions or concerns that you might have for the agency and communicate them before moving forward. A good PPC digital marketing agency always has a transparent pricing policy.
Some common pricing models used by PPC agencies are:
- Charging hourly
- Flat rate pricing
- Performance-based pricing
- Percentage of ad spend management fee + percentage of ad spend
- Milestone-based pricing
5. Effective and Aligned Communication
You need to establish your ways of communication with an agency before beginning your partnership. Every PPC marketing agency has its own means of communication. It is important to ensure that they align these techniques with yours.
While some agencies plan monthly meetings, some have a dashboard portal to review their performance. Settle on a common method that meets your requirements and is convenient for your business.
Enquire about the agency’s communicative process, their point-of-contact, and their response time to queries. Also, find out if you get along with their representatives and if you’re comfortable with their collaboration. When it comes to strategizing, communication is key.
Take the Time to Find the Best PPC Agency
Take your time to evaluate all the options that you have when choosing the right PPC marketing agency. It can be a tedious process, but given the fact that it can be the key to your digital success, it is vital that you settle for the right match. Invest your effort and time in learning about your options and choose the ones closest to your goals.
