Summary Pay-per-click (PPC) advertisements definitely perform better than other online advertising strategies. Do you know 50 percent of the visitors coming to an online retail store via PPC ads are more likely to buy than the visitors coming via organic search? 75 percent of the visitors clicked on search ads because the ads served the information they were looking for. These reasons – and there are a lot of others – prove that PPC is gaining momentum and the advertisers are raking in lucrative return on ad spends. But hey, are you one of these advertisers? No? Well, in that case, you are lagging behind your competitors. And, most probably, you are losing out on online sales and valuable customers. But since you have arrived here, you are definitely on the right path. Even if you have ZERO knowledge about PPC advertising, you can still launch PPC campaigns to promote your business. How? By hiring PPC consultants. But the problem is that you don’t know how to identify the best PPC agency that understands your business. No issues! We are here to help you in identifying the best PPC advertising companies. You just need to read this guide on how to choose a PPC agency. Let’s begin. Please Find Below Steps to Choose Best PPC Agency. Table of Content What is a PPC Agency? Why you need a PPC agency? The FIRST Step – List your Requirements The SECOND Step – 20 Questions that You MUST Ask The THIRD Step – Finalize a PPC Agency What is a PPC Agency? Before we discuss what a PPC agency is, let us look at what a PPC program is. Pay-per-click (PPC) or Cost-per-click (CPC) is an internet advertising model. Wikipedia’s definition states: “Pay-per-click (PPC), also known as cost per click (CPC), is an internet advertising model used to drive traffic to websites, in which an advertiser pays a publisher (typically a search engine, website owner, or a network of websites) when the ad is clicked.” It is one of the most cost-effective advertising models because you will pay the price ONLY when the visitor takes action. Once the visitor lands on the landing page, the successful conversion is your responsibility. With PPC, you can target a specific group audience interested in your offering. You can also ensure higher engagement rates by placing a higher bid and maintaining a high quality score. And who will assist you in the process? A PPC agency! For those who don’t know – A PPC agency, also known as a PPC company, is an entity responsible for managing PPC campaigns on behalf of the advertisers. So, let’s assume, you are an advertiser who wishes to promote a newly launched e-com store selling tea & related products. You can hire a PPC agency that will be responsible for promoting your offerings via the PPC model. Thus, the agency ensures your business reaches the right set of audience. PPC advertising agencies specialize in managing and optimizing ad campaigns. That’s why you need to partner with an agency to successfully run your marketing campaigns. There are various other reasons to hire a pay-per-click advertising agency. Let us briefly discuss these. Why you need a PPC agency? “Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” – Helen Keller If you want to grow, you must collaborate with one of the PPC advertising companies that have an in-depth expertise in PPC advertising model, and also understands your business. You need a PPC agency for the following reasons: Only SEO is not enough SEO can bring in visitors who want to know about your product or service. But PPC brings in visitors who want to buy your product or service. The difference lies in the buyer persona and the conversion rate. PPC has a greater influence on these two attributes than SEO. You cannot do it Alone Stick to doing what you are best at. If you ask a fish to climb a tree, it will obviously fail. So you should not attempt to initiate a PPC campaign because you cannot do it. Collaboration with the agency is your best way out. From your side, you can provide them with the requisites such as data, a set of objectives, and important metrics. You are a New Player in the Block If you have just registered your online presence, you definitely need traction as quickly as possible. You must invest in all types of online marketing strategies, especially PPC advertising. This is because, with PPC, you can create a pool of loyal customers in the shortest time period. Create Brand Awareness Online marketers know the tactics and strategies that work for a brand in a particular industry or business. The PPC advertising companies have prior experience, and therefore, they can apply proven strategies to boost your business’s online presence. You need Experts PPC consultants are seasoned professionals who have the experience of managing numerous campaigns. They know what works and what doesn’t. Moreover, a pay-per-click advertising agency will take care of the complete PPC campaign, right from planning to implementation. You want Maximum ROI A PPC agency knows the tactics to generate maximum ROI. They know what templates resonate with the audience. Whether you are aiming at generating leads or selling a product; an agency will use the right set of keywords to highlight your business. The In-house team will be Expensive For smaller businesses, an in-house team of one or two PPC professionals will be enough to manage campaigns. But for larger enterprises, it is advisable to hire an agency if you want maximum ROI and minimum hassles. The expense of maintaining an in-house team can be an expensive affair. Outperform your Competitors How can you stay behind when your competitors are utilizing every aspect of PPC advertising to drive traffic and revenue? Before it’s too late, collaborate with any of the PPC advertising companies to beat your competitors and become the top shot in your industry. Improve conversion rates Organic traffic or social media traffic must be bringing in traffic and conversions for you. But are you able to meet your targets? PPC campaign can attract the targeted audience and direct them to the landing page optimized for higher conversions. The FIRST Step – List your Requirements A PPC agency can run advertising campaigns but it cannot run your business. You are the boss of your business. It’s your duty to collect, organize, and furnish necessary information to run PPC campaigns. The following steps will help you in listing your requirements. What’s your goal? Do you know more than 80 percent of small business owners say they don’t keep a track of their business goals? And this is the reason why 77 percent of the business owners are not able to fulfill their vision for the company. It is important to define goals and at the same time, set up metrics to measure the progress of PPC campaigns. The goals can be: Selling products/services Generating leads/subscriptions Creating brand awareness Outperforming competitors on search engines You can further attune these goals to fulfill the company’s vision. For example, the goal can be achieving the target of selling products worth $100,000 in the next 3 months. What are the metrics? You have established the goals and laid down the objectives. But how do you plan to measure progress? Metrics, or key performance indicators (KPIs), is the answer. The metrics help you in measuring the progress of PPC campaigns. You may list your set of metrics or let the agency identify these. Some of the most tracked metrics are: Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) Return on Investment (ROI) Customer Acquisition Costs (CAC) Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) Average Deal Size Product Margins Click-through-rate (CTR) What’s your target audience? Google receives 5.6 billion search requests per day. Which ones are relevant for your business? You must identify the right set of audience to ensure maximum engagement. A PPC agency can assist you in mining search results and trimming down the audience. For example, if your business sells CRM software, you will target individuals working in the CRM industry. You may set a geographic location, let’s say India. You may set the age group, let’s say 30-50 years. Following a similar pattern, you can identify your target audience. What’s your budget? Your PPC budget decides the scope of a PPC campaign. If you have a generous budget, you can target a large set of competitive keywords. The greater the bid, the higher will be the position of the ad on search engines. Keep in mind that your PPC advertising should comprise of ad spend budget and PPC consultant’s fee. Moreover, the number of clicks is directly proportional to your budget. When you adhere to these aspects, you will be able to allot a suitable budget for the PPC campaign. The SECOND Step – 20 Questions that You MUST Ask Now you know what you actually want to achieve with a PPC campaign. The time has come to scout the best pay-per-click advertising agency. How will you do it? Ask these questions to determine which PPC agency can fulfill your requirements and produce maximum ROI. Let’s begin. Do you offer a free PPC audit & consultation? A free audit or consultation is an opportunity for the first interaction between you and the pay-per-click advertising companies. Most of the agencies offer a free consultation because they want to convert a lead (here, it’s you) into a customer. Moreover, a free consultation will assist you in restructuring your requirements and assessing the impact of PPC campaigns on your business. The expert suggestions will guide you to restructure your goals and objectives. Therefore, ask for a free consultation. And if they don’t offer a one, you can pay a nominal fee, but only after assessing the credibility of the service provider. Who owns the data? Transparency is utmost important. The agency should share all the relevant details pertaining to the privacy policy, terms of service, use of data, and so on. A PPC campaign is all about data. You must know who owns the data. For example, you hire a PPC consultant to generate leads for your SaaS product. The agency must clarify that the right of ownership of data belongs to you. They are not authorized to use it without your permission. Any breach of conduct will result in legal actions. What if I plan to change the agency? It is possible that the collaboration between you and the agency doesn’t work. In this case, you may plan to hire another PPC agency. Now the question arises about the exchange of information. Is the agency ready to transfer data and credentials or not? Since an AdWords account is already functional, will the agency transfer it to you or not? You must ensure that the agency supports a seamless transfer process so that you don’t face any problems. How do you maintain transparency? Do you have access to complete information? Do you know what’s happening with the PPC campaigns or you just know about the results? As a client, you are entitled to know everything that affects your business. Ask the agency whether they are willing to share every bit of information or not. For example, the company should prepare and share complete report stating the information related to ad spends. Similarly, you should know about the results, whether a campaign was a success or a failure. Tell me about your agency. You can’t judge a book by the cover but you can certainly judge it after reading the introduction, preview, and the first few pages. You can’t really gauge the credibility of the PPC agency by merely browsing the website. Ask the agency to share information related to their founders, their journey, their accomplishments, failures, and so on. Dive deeper by asking about case studies, their approach, work culture, the team of professionals, range of services, and so on. Which industries or businesses have you worked with? Every business has its own particular set of challenges and opportunities. When you are looking for pay-per-click advertising companies, check out if they have prior experience of working with a similar business or not. For example, if you look at the screenshot below, you will see the agency has worked with companies in businesses like e-commerce, education, consumer goods, legal, healthcare, and so on. Can I have a look at the client portfolio & testimonials? Client portfolio and testimonials determine whether an agency is capable of handling PPC campaigns or not. Never proceed with a company that doesn’t have a client portfolio or recommendations. You cannot gauge their credibility and therefore, things may turn out sour for your business. Have a look at the client portfolio and testimonials posted on the website of SocialSEO. A credible PPC agency, like this one, will be willing to share their work with you. However, in some cases, confidentiality issues may arise. In this case, the agency may ask you to directly contact the client. Can you show some case studies to supplement your expertise? Case studies yield unforeseen insights about the PPC company. For example, a PPC campaign may have produced a 500 percent ROAS for a business. If you read the case study, you will learn about the strategies used by the agency, such as retargeting and quality score improvements, to generate excellent returns. Sometimes, the pay-per-click advertising agency doesn’t publish case studies on their website, maybe because of confidentiality issues or they don’t have any successful case studies. In any case, ask them to show the results of the previous PPC campaigns. What PPC advertising services do you provide? PPC advertising is not just confined to Google AdWords. You should ask about numerous other PPC advertising services that the agency provides, such as: Google AdWords LinkedIn Ads Bing Ads Mobile Advertising Facebook Ads Retargeting YouTube Ads and many more… Twitter Ads Further, you should dig in and ask about their focus areas, such as: Competition analysis Keyword research A/B testing Bid modifications Geo-targeting Conversion tracking Bid optimization and many more… What about reporting & analytics? The PPC agency you hire is accountable to you. You must ensure that the agency submits reports on a periodic basis. The reports must contain every bit of information related to the campaigns, emphasizing on every metric. In addition to reports, ask the agency to give you access to the analytics platform, such as Google Analytics. As a business owner, you should know about the performance of the campaigns. What metrics/KPIs do you measure? The metrics indicate the performance of PPC campaigns. It’s important to identify the appropriate metrics or indicators that will showcase the actual performance of the campaigns. Ask the agency about the metrics they consider to optimize PPC campaigns. Most of the pay-per-click advertising companies rely on a common set of metrics comprising: Click-through-rate (CTR) Bounce rate Quality score Conversion rate Cost per conversion Impressions and clicks Search impression share And many more… How will we communicate? Communication can make or break partnerships. If the agency fails to communicate with you on a regular basis, you will not be able to optimize PPC campaigns for the best results. You should ask the PPC agency about how they communicate throughout the process. You may ask about: Preferred mode of communication – email, video calls, one-to-one meetings Frequency – how often we will meet, let’s say, once in a fortnight or a month Dedicated account manager – the one who will be the point of contact between you and the agency Tell us something about your PPC team. The advertising is not just about PPC experts capable of running successful PPC campaigns. There is a dedicated team that ensures seamless operations – a team that comprises of copywriters, graphic designers, video creators, project managers, social media experts, and others. Ask the pay-per-click advertising agency about their team members, cumulative professional experience, and about their achievements. This will assure you that your advertising campaigns are in safe hands. What accreditations and awards have you won? A credible agency will surely have won a couple of awards for its accomplishments. Browse the agency’s website to know about the awards and recognition. Don’t just stop at the awards, have a look at the reviews as well. You will find reviews on platforms like Glassdoor and Clutch. In addition to these, accreditation also depicts the credibility of an agency. Most of the credible pay-per-click advertising companies are accredited under Google Partner and Bings Ad. Check out for the badges on their website. Is there any minimum budget requirement? What pricing model do you follow? If you wish to spend $500 on PPC advertising, most of the agencies will not take up your work. The PPC agencies have minimum budget criteria. For example, some agencies may ask you to spend at least $5000 per month or $10,000 per month. When you are talking about the budget with the agency, ask about the pricing model as well. It is possible that their pricing mechanism may not suit yours and vice-versa. The following pricing structures are most evident in PPC advertising: Fixed-price Fee – A flat fee is charged irrespective of the advertising budget Hourly fee – The agency charges you on an hourly basis A fixed percentage of the budget – The fee varies according to your budget Do you outsource projects? Outsourcing projects to countries like India and Indonesia is a common norm amongst online marketing companies. It helps them in saving time and costs. However, for you, it may be a compromise on the service quality and data security. Before you sign the contract, you should know about the agency’s mode of operations. Whether they have an in-house team or they outsource tasks to third-party service providers. In some cases, like content writing and graphic designing, outsourcing is acceptable. However, an agency cannot outsource the complete project without your permission. What tools and technology you rely on? Pay-Per-Click advertising companies use tools to optimize PPC campaigns for better performance and results. If you want to know about the tools and software that the agency uses, you can discuss it with the agency. For example, they must be using a keyword research tool like SEMrush or MOZ. Some of the agencies use inclusive tools, such as Optmyzr, that helps them in managing every aspect of a PPC campaign. Is there a minimum lock-in period? It takes time when it comes to PPC advertising. It can take a month or two to identify the exact keywords and adverts that actually converts well. Hence, most of the agencies will ask you to wait for around 4-6 months to witness the desired results. However, this doesn’t mean that you have to sign a fixed-term contract with the agency. You can collaborate on a monthly basis. This will be purely based on a performance basis. You will not be bounded by contractual terms. Most of the agencies are comfortable with monthly cycles rather than long-term contracts. However, it is advisable to ask about the contract legalities before fostering a partnership with the agency. The THIRD Step – Finalize a PPC Agency You have listed your requirements and you have compiled a list of credible pay-per-click advertising agencies based on your questionnaire. Now it’s time to finalize a PPC agency. Let’s do it. Make a list of Probable Candidates You have the list of credible agencies. But since you have to choose one, you need reasons to trim down the list. The best way is to match your requirements with the agency’s offerings. If there are too many mismatches, you can straightaway strike down an agency. For example, if the agency charges a fixed percentage of the budget and you prefer a flat fee, you can strike this down. If the agency is an expert in SEO but not in PPC, you can strike this down. Similarly, you can consider other factors to finalize a list of pay-per-click advertising agencies. Compare Agencies Once you have identified PPC agencies that fulfill your requirements, it’s time to compare their offerings to select the best amongst the best. What are the parameters that you must consider while comparing PPC agencies? Have a look at them: Consultation report – compare who provided the best insights Range of Services – Google AdWords, Facebook advertising, and so on Pricing as per offered services Accreditations, awards, testimonials, client portfolio Online presence on search engines and social media Level of expertise & cumulative experience Project methodology Use of metrics/KPIs Use of tools and software Terms of service Finalize the Best Candidate Since you have scrutinized and compared the pay-per-click advertising agencies, now you are in a position to finalize the BEST agency that fulfills your requirements and offers expert services at the best price. You don’t have to sign fixed-term contracts but opt for performance-based contracts. Even if the partnership doesn’t work as per expectations, you can always consider another agency. If the agency is not capable of attaining objectives within the given time frame, you can hire another one. After all, you have already done your research and therefore, you know who the best candidate for your work is. Conclusion We did our best to create this comprehensive guide on how to choose a PPC agency. We tried to cover each and every aspect related to PPC advertising agencies. But if you feel we have missed anything, feel free to share your views with us. And if you want to give any suggestions, we are listening! Share your thoughts in the comment section.