7 Questions To Ask Before Hiring a PPC Management Company

“We hired a ppc expert…” or “We just finished working with a PPC guru…” are usually the beginnings of a bad story. Almost everyone out there has been burned by a self-proclaimed expert when it comes to paid ad management.

In fact, good, honest paid ad management is extremely difficult to come by.

Why is that?

PPC has long been a buzzword, attracting many people to the industry. And there is a low barrier to entry. Anyone with internet and a computer can start buying PPC ads. This has led to a space that is incredibly over-crowded with “experts.”

Couple this with the fact that most patrons looking for paid ad management are uneducated in the space and you have the perfect storm. Without background knowledge in PPC, it’s difficult to weed through the potential consultants to figure out who the true experts are that you should be working with.

And if you hire the wrong person, the results can be detrimental. Not only will you waste a lot of money, but you’ll end up being fed incorrect results, making it hard to diagnose how your campaigns are really doing.

Often this is not intentional on the part of consultants. Inexperienced people just often look at the wrong metrics. They are not focused on specific goals for their clients and so they stick to vanity metrics like impressions and clicks, not recognizing the importance of quality and conversion.

So, before you hire a PPC manager, here are 7 questions you should ask to make sure that you get it right.

1. What is your relevant experience?

PPC is not PPC is not PPC. Pay per click advertising ranges across a slew of platforms and channels, so make sure that the experience of your potential ad manager is consistent with the platform(s) that you plan on using.

Also look for experience working with your company (and budget) size. Managing a thousand dollar budget is very different than managing a million dollar budget. So find someone that has worked with your budget size and try to gauge where you will fall on their client priority list.

2. Can they do creative or just management?

And what is included in the fee? Some PPC ad managers do just that. Manage the ads, monitoring them on a daily basis and adjusting budgets. And that may be all that you need. But more likely than not, you’ll want a manager that can help with creative and ad writing as well.

3. Are they tactical or strategic?

Along the lines of being able to speak into creative, you may need an expert in strategy that can speak into messaging as well as your promotional calendar (unless you have this expertise within PPC yourself). Do you want a PPC manager that waits for you to tell them what to do? Or one that is proactive and is going to help set the strategy?

4. Will they provide feedback to inform other areas of your business?

This may be more than you think you want, but PPC results provide a lot of insight into what is working (and what’s not working) within your business online. Find a PPC manager that is skilled and experienced enough to influence other areas of your business based on what they see.

5. Do they have industry expertise?

Perhaps your industry isn’t one where industry specific expertise is necessary. But many industries are highly niche and you need in depth knowledge in order to effectively write messaging and manage ads. At least make sure your ad manager has expertise in B2C if you are a consumer facing business (or B2B if you are a B2B business).

6. Are they data driven?

Being focused on the right metrics in PPC ad management is key. Your PPC ad manager should figure out what your business goals are and then determine what PPC metrics are most important in order to determine success and growth for you. Make sure your potential PPC expert focuses on quality traffic and conversion, not just inflated clicks.

7. Do they have the necessary technical knowledge to troubleshoot?

Related to being data drive, you’ll need a strong analytics and tracking implementation to determine how well your campaigns are really doing. Make sure your PPC ad manager can implement the necessary conversion pixels, diagnose tracking problems when they arise, properly tag campaign URLs, and set up conversion funnels.

How does Metacake structure PPC management?

We’re certainly not the only quality PPC managers out there, but here’s how we structure our engagements so that you know what to look for!

First, we learn about your business and your goals in order to strategize and figure out what metrics are key to measure success.

Then we provide all of the creative services necessary to create your ads including ad design, message development, and technology implementation (which includes everything from analytics implementation to building out custom landing pages).

Then our experienced team executes and manages your PPC campaigns with care.

Finally, we analyze the success of campaigns, focusing on the key metrics set out at the beginning of the engagement, to provide feedback on future campaigns as well as other areas of your business.