Running a successful PPC campaign is about a lot more than the cost per actions you’re paying for or the keywords you target. You need to make sure you have an experienced agent operating every aspect of your campaign. Otherwise, your chances of beating out competitors and capturing your audience are slim.
If you’re in the process of choosing a PPC agent to take on your online advertising initiatives, take your time. You want to be sure the person you hire to do this work really knows what they’re doing.
Here are 9 things you can do to trust that you’re making the right choice.
1. Identify Your Most Immediate Needs
Before you start comparing one agent’s qualifications versus another’s, identify what you’re looking to get out of this partnership. It doesn’t matter how prepared someone is to take on your PPC campaigns if you can’t provide them with a bit of direction.
Everything boils down to what you hope to accomplish out of your ads.
Are you looking to boost sales with repeat customers? Do you need to increase the amount of new revenue you’re generating each month? Maybe you’re undergoing a rebrand or expanding your product offering.
Whatever it is that you have set your sights on as a business, your PPC campaign needs to fall right in line.
2. Search for Agents Who Have Experience Working with Similar Businesses
The best PPC agent for you is someone who has already helped companies achieve goals similar to those you’re trying to reach. This should be one of the first things you bring up when contacting potential candidates.
Talk to them about their PPC experience in broad terms. Then, get into the details of what verticals they’ve operated in and the industries they’re most comfortable with.
3. Check Whether or Not an Agent Is Certified
As you’re discussing a candidate’s PPC accomplishments, double check if they are PPC certified.
Far too many companies make the mistake of assuming an agent is PPC certified. In truth, there are some people who will try to claim they’re a PPC professional without the credibility to back it up.
4. Consider How Involved You Want to Be
Once you’ve gotten the major details out of the way, start thinking about what you want your work relationship to be like with a new PPC agent.
Do you want to be involved in every decision that goes into your campaign? Would you rather take a more hands-off approach and let an agent take care of everything?
There are pros and cons to each option. But, you have to set clear expectations about the professional relationship you’re building before you move forward.
5. Ask How Often an Agent Will Run Page Tests
Even if you don’t want to be involved with your campaigns at all, you have to ask this question. An agent that runs frequent page test is always better than one who doesn’t. Page tests give marketing professionals the ability to gauge what’s working and what isn’t.
More importantly, they show just how much effort an agent will put into creating successful campaigns for you. Some agents rely on software to handle clients’ campaigns; they basically set PPC initiatives to autopilot. You want someone who is going to be paying close attention to every single detail.
6. Discuss Reporting Cycles
Just as you should discuss page tests, you need to talk about reporting cycles.
This is how often you can expect to receive an update on how well your campaigns are doing. You can choose whether you’d like reporting cycles to run bi-weekly, monthly, every 2 months, or per quarter. Either way, it’s best to talk about this upfront before you choose your PPC agent.
7. Clarify How Success Will Be Measured
PPC reports are compiled from many different pieces of information. When you look over all your marketing results, you will see payments and engagements measured in various forms. Some common PPC measurements include:
- site traffic
- number of clicks
- clickthrough rates
- cost per actions
- volume of conversions
You should be focusing on cost per actions and/or volume of conversions. If an agent is stressing number of clicks or site traffic, they may not be the best choice.
8. Talk About How Payments Are Broken Down
Remember, a big part of PPC is making sure that your money goes to the right place. You need a thorough understanding of how each dollar adds up in building your campaign.
Take a second to see if you’ll be penalized for late payments or if you’ll have to pay extra for certain services. If you’re still not sure how all your payments are broken down, check an agent’s terms of service and privacy policy.
9. Think Long Term
No matter what your goals are or who you choose to help you achieve them, you have to think long term. The cool thing about PPC is that you can make instant changes to your campaign whenever necessary.
But, all of the tweaking you do and new campaigns you run all have to add up to a common goal. Keep your eye on the long-term initiatives you’re trying to achieve and you’ll be just fine.
Meet Your Ideal PPC Agent
Already started your search for a PPC agent? Have you talked to some impressive candidates, but you’re not sure how to narrow down your options?
Use the tips above and the right choice will become crystal clear.
In fact, you’re closer to finding your ideal PPC agent than you think! All you have to do is click here to contact us today and discover everything our PPC agents can do for you.