Working with the right agency for PPC services can help you reach the right audience, increase conversions, and maximize ROI. Here’s how to choose the best PPC agency for your business.

Have your pay-per-click (PPC) ad campaigns plateaued — or failed to get off the ground at all?

A PPC agency can help.

By strategizing, building, managing, and optimizing custom campaigns, these PPC experts can help you reach your target audience, boost your return on investment (ROI), and free up your time for other channels.

The caveat? You need to choose the right PPC agency for your unique business needs.

In this guide, we’ll walk you through 5 steps to find and hire the right PPC marketing partner for your business.

two women discussing ppc service

Whether it’s a percentage of your overall marketing budget or based on past ad spend, you should have a ballpark in mind for what you can spend with a PPC company. (Image: Unsplash)

How to choose the right PPC agency

Choosing the right PPC agency means finding a partner with the expertise, transparency, technology, and processes to turn ad spend into measurable business results.

Here are our top tips:

1. Identify your goals and objectives

Before you begin your digital marketing agency search, determine what you want your PPC campaigns to achieve — whether that’s building brand awareness, generating more qualified leads, fueling your pipeline, increasing conversions, or improving revenue.

From there, identify the metrics that will help you measure success, such as:

  • Cost per acquisition (CPA)
  • Return on ad spend (ROAS)
  • Conversion rate
  • Cost per lead (CPL)
  • Click-through rate (CTR)
  • Revenue
  • Lead volume and quality
  • Impression share

Your goals should also reflect your target audience, including factors like location, demographics, and where customers are in the buying journey.

The more specific you can be about your objectives, the better chance you have of partnering with a PPC service agency successfully.

2. Establish a budget

Before reaching out to any PPC agencies, determine how much you’re prepared to spend on paid advertising.

Your budget will depend on factors like your industry, competition, goals, and the PPC platforms you advertise on, such as Google Ads or Bing (Microsoft Advertising).

Having a range in mind can help agencies determine what’s realistic and recommend the most cost-effective PPC strategy.

Keep in mind that working with an agency typically involves two separate costs:

  1. Ad spend paid to the online advertising platforms
  2. Agency management fees

PPC management typically costs between $1,500 and $10,000 per month as a flat-fee model, or 10% to 20% of your budget as a percentage of ad spend model.

Budget questions to ask potential agencies:

  • Is the budget adequate to achieve our objectives?
  • Is PPC the best solution for our goals?
  • Will our funds be better spent on different channels?
  • Are there more effective solutions that align with our budget while increasing ROI?
  • What deliverables are included?

Discussing questions like these with each PPC agency you interview can help you decide which will work best for your business.

3. Look for proof of success and relevant experience

Identify agencies with a reputation for success. A good PPC agency will have certifications, such as Google Premier Partner or Microsoft Advertising Partner status.

Additionally, the right agency will have experience with your industry specifically.

Check reviews, client testimonials, and case studies they’ve published that could be relevant to your industry or goals.

Ask for examples of successful landing pages, ad copy, keyword research, search ads, campaign reports, and case studies that demonstrate results such as improved ROAS, lower CPA, increased revenue, or higher-quality leads.

woman walking and talking on the phone at ppc agency

Before partnering with a PPC service agency, you should discuss what your expectations are in terms of communication. (Image: Unsplash)

4. Verify communication and transparency

Before partnering with an agency for campaign management, you should discuss what your expectations are in terms of communication style and reporting.

Ask how often you’ll receive regular updates, who your main point of contact will be, and how frequently you’ll meet to discuss campaign performance and strategy.

Look for an agency that provides transparent, data-driven reporting that prioritizes the KPIs that matter most to your business.

5. Prepare strategic questions to ask potential PPC agencies

When you schedule a virtual or in-person interview with a PPC service agency, make the best use of time by having a handful of specific questions ready.

Digital marketing expert Rob Harrison says these additional questions may provide even more insight:

  • Do you build and run everything through our PPC ads account? Do we own all the property you create for us?
  • Will I have an assigned account manager, and do they have agency resources to support them?
  • Do you have a high turnover of employees that would lead me to re-explain my business to someone new frequently?
  • Can I meet the team or a sample team of people I might work with before signing up?
  • How do you measure success with your clients who are in a similar space as us?
  • Which PPC platforms do you specialize in (such as Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, LinkedIn, or Amazon Ads)?
  • What metrics will you use to measure campaign success?
  • How do you approach conversion tracking and attribution?
  • How do you determine whether the leads or conversions you’re generating are high quality?
  • How do you use AI and automation to manage and optimize PPC campaigns, and where does human oversight come in?
team discussing ppc agency

There are certain red flags that you should pay attention to during your PPC agency search. (Image: Rawpixel)

Red flags to look for when choosing a PPC agency

There are certain red flags that you should pay attention to during your search.

Let these serve as warning signs that you may not want to continue discussions with this particular service agency.

The agency retains ownership of your accounts or data

Before signing with a PPC agency, confirm that your ad accounts, campaign data, landing pages, and creative assets will belong to your business.

“If [an] agency says you can use their ‘seasoned ads account,’ [they can] hold you hostage by owning your data and ads information,” cautions Harrison.

“If you ever try to leave them, you will have to start from scratch on data collection. Make sure to have everything built and run through your own ads account.”

Your Google Ads account should be set up under your business, and you should maintain full administrative access, while granting the agency the permissions it needs to manage your marketing campaigns.

That way, if you eventually switch agencies or bring PPC management in-house, you retain your historical campaign data and assets.

Poor communication or transparency

Pay attention to how an agency communicates during the sales process.

Slow or inconsistent responses along with vague answers about pricing, strategy, or how your campaigns will be managed can signal problems down the road.

Transparency also extends to how an agency talks about its competitors. “If the agency openly bashes or slanders other agencies, that’s usually a bad sign,” says Harrison.

Overpromising results

If an agency isn’t forthcoming about backing up its claims with facts or numbers, you may have trouble establishing trust.

Similarly, “if the agency you are interviewing guarantees your money back if you don’t hit XYZ or says they can get you fully optimized in the first weeks: red flag,” says Harrison.

“Those money-back schemes are to get you in the door. All marketing has learning phases, and no one has a magic pill to skip those steps.”

Not focused on business outcomes

Harrison adds that agencies that praise aspects like clicks, impressions, and general traffic may not be able to help you get qualified leads or purchases, which is what you actually need to succeed.

Other red flags to look out for? Poor retention, a sub-par or disjointed online presence, negative reviews, and any results or rates that sound too good to be true, given the company’s size and bandwidth.

The bottom line

The right PPC advertising agency will do more than manage your ad spend.

Look for a partner that understands your business goals, has a proven track record, communicates clearly, provides transparent reporting, and ties campaign performance to meaningful business results.

Take the time to compare agencies, ask the right questions, and watch for red flags before signing a contract.

Looking for a PPC partner? 

HawkSEM combines experienced PPC strategists with proprietary technology to help clients earn an average 4X ROI.

From paid search to search engine optimization (SEO) to paid social media marketing, our full suite of services can support your entire digital marketing strategy.

Reach out today.

This article has been updated and was originally published in July 2019.

Caroline Cox

Caroline Cox

Caroline is HawkSEM's senior content marketing manager. Through more than a decade of professional writing and editing experience, she creates SEO-friendly articles, educational thought leadership pieces, and savvy social media content to help market leaders create successful digital marketing strategies. She's a fan of reading, yoga, new vegetarian recipes, and paper planners.