What to Look for in a PPC Agency: A Guide to Maximizing Your ROI

Ah, pay-per-click advertising. A cornerstone of digital marketing for most businesses.

It's critical for success and can drive tremendous success when executed correctly.

But, with so many agencies out there, it can be difficult to know which will get you the results you need.

That's why we're here to provide you must-know criteria for choosing the best PPC agency to ensure you maximize your return on investment.

With this guide, you'll be able to power through the research and selection process easily, thanks to our detailed explanation of what to look for in a PPC agency.

So, slide down into your seat, buckle up and get ready for the ride. We're about to take you on a tour of the criteria that all effective, successful PPC agencies must embody in order to make sure you're getting the best return on investment.

Let's get started!

The Services Offered by PPC Agencies

When choosing a PPC agency, it is important to consider the services they offer. While some offer “one-size-fits-all” approaches, others specialize in specific strategies that can produce better ROI.

Some of the services you should look for when hiring a PPC agency include keyword research, ad creation and optimization, as well as landing page design and testing.

When evaluating the services offered by an agency, you'll want to be sure that they have a thorough understanding of your target audience and the right tactics to reach them.

Additionally, you should look for agencies that have experience producing successful campaigns on various platforms such as Google Ads, Bing Ads and social media channels.

Many PPC agencies also offer additional services as part of their packages or as à la carte offerings.

These may include budget management, ongoing analytics review and tracking, campaign expansion into other channels, bid optimization and automated data entry or reporting. All of these services can help improve performance and maximize ROI.

Having a comprehensive understanding of the services offered by a PPC agency is key to making an informed decision about which one to work with.

Once you've identified the best candidate for your project, it's time to move on to the next step: optimizing your campaigns for maximum return on investment.

Campaign Optimization

When it comes to optimizing PPC campaigns, a competent agency will be able to make sure that processes are systematically in place and that campaigns remain effective and efficient.

Optimizing campaigns involves understanding how your ads are being served, what devices are being targeted, and where the traffic is coming from.

A qualified agency should have experience in things such as A/B testing ad copy, targeting different keywords, scheduling advertisements, and refining budget allocations across campaigns.

Furthermore, they may even attach tracking code that allows you to measure user engagement and conversion rates.

In short, their job is to make sure your ads are doing their best at converting potential customers into actual customers. Campaign optimization is important because poorly optimized campaigns can lead to massive wastage of time and money.

Furthermore, it’s also important to make sure that you are targeting the right people with your message; an experienced agency can help you narrow down demographics so that the advertising dollars spent reach their intended audience.

It's important for any business looking for a PPC agency to ensure the company has a track record of both successful campaigns with continued optimization over time.

There isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach to campaign optimization - what works for one business might not work for another - but it’s important to keep trialing new tactics in order to keep one step ahead of the competition.

An informed PPC professional will be able to provide insights into improving current campaigns as well as offering suggestions for new ones tailored specifically for your goals.

Having a reliable partner that understands the intricacies of campaign optimization can lead to lower costs per acquisition and improved ROI – which makes finding the right agency incredibly important.

As such, after researching their services offered, businesses should look into each PPC agency’s ability to maximize their clients’ campaign performance through rigorous optimization practices.

With the right optimizations in place, your campaigns will be well placed towards achieving success quickly and cost effectively.

Now that we have discussed what services agencies typically offer as well as campaign optimization, let's move onto a slightly more technical aspect of working with PPC agencies: keywords & bids management.

Keywords & Bids Management

Keywords and bids management are two components of PPC campaigns that can often be overlooked but play a major role in the success of any campaign.

When it comes to keywords, the agency will analyze search queries to determine what keywords are most relevant for your product or service and which ones are currently trending.

They will also identify negative keywords, which help to further refine the reach of your ad. The agency should also have an approach to testing keyword variations in order to continuously improve results.

When it comes to bids management, an effective PPC agency should use algorithmic-powered bid optimization tools and strategies – such as Enhanced CPC (eCPC) and Target CPA – to make sure that you’re getting the most bang for your advertising budget.

This ensures that you’re not overspending on non-performing keywords and that you’re getting the best ROI possible. Additionally, experienced PPC specialists may choose to adjust bids manually based on past performance when needed.

At the end of the day, finding an agency that can effectively manage your keyword selection and bidding strategy is essential if you want a successful PPC campaign with maximum ROI.

With a good agency on your side that understands how to implement these tactics, you’ll be in a prime position to drive more sales through PPC.

And speaking of driving sales, let's take a look at some of the key benefits one can experience by working with a capable PPC agency.

Building a Relationship with the Agency

Building a relationship with the agency you choose to work with is essential to ensure maximum ROI on your PPC efforts.

It’s important to establish clear expectations and to be on the same page in terms of goals from the start. An agency should be willing and excited to build a long-term relationship with you based on open communication, transparency, and trust.

Partnering with a full-service PPC and/or paid media agency will help you better optimize campaigns, increase your budget and migrate new facets of spend over time.

By forming a good relationship with an agency that can provide such services, you not only can secure better results for yourself, but also get guidance on emerging digital channels such as Connected TV, OTT and more.

However, it is important to remember that agencies are limited by their resources – many times they cannot take on additional projects due to workload or resource constraints.

At the end of the day, it should be mutually beneficial for both parties. If an agency doesn’t meet your needs or underperforms, it might be best to part ways rather than invest further in a subpar working relationship.

The next step in maximizing your ROI when working with an agency is understanding analytical results & reporting. The right analytics serve as a reliable indicator of how successful (or unsuccessful) a campaign has been.

Whether Google Ads Analytics, A/B Testing or multivariate testing for advertisements, getting a deep dive into results helps understand what works best for each campaign to improve conversions and generate more revenue over time.

Spending time analyzing data will enable you to make data-driven decisions which are far more likely to result in success than decisions based off of assumptions or gut feelings.

Strategies & Tactics to Reach Goals

Now that you have a better understanding of the analytical results and reporting an agency can provide, it is time to look at their strategic and tactical approaches for achieving marketing goals.

The best PPC agencies will employ a variety of strategies and tactics to reach the client's desired objectives.

Depending on your business goals, budgets, target audiences and market, they may suggest different methods.

The most successful PPC agencies will use targeted keywords specifically related to your services or product offerings, organizational structure and customer personas in order to attain the desired outcome.

This means narrowing down the search capabilities so potential customers find your site when they type in specific phrases or terms.

A top-tier PPC provider will also utilize retargeting to keep your brand visible to high converting visitors who left without making a purchase, allowing for more opportunities for conversions at a lower cost.

Using these techniques in combination with other strategies such as remarketing ads, display ads, videos ads and social media campaigns are what sets the best agencies apart from the rest.

The debate around strategies & tactics largely comes down execution versus experimentation. For example there are those who prefer executing proven tactics while other advocate experimenting with novel or cutting edge approaches.

Execution plans focus on deploying well-known baseline practices such as keyword segmentation campaigns, using bid modifiers to refine bids, optimizing landing pages and using retargeting ads that have been effective in producing ROI in the past.

On the other hand, experimentation plans tend to involve testing new methods such as incorporating technology like machine learning into optimization efforts or trying out untapped channels for outreach and branding opportunities.

People who believe in execution argue that it is a more efficient approach because it makes use of existing resources like data from previous campaigns and established norms within the industry that have already been proven to produce desirable qualities like higher click through rates (CTR) or longer session times on websites.

Those who favor experimentation view it as an innovative way of exploring all options a specific campaign has available and thus could even lead to breakthroughs in effectiveness - key benchmarks such as CTRs may be improved compared to established methods.

My advice is simple: Use both tactics - combine execution with experimentation as much as possible. Explore new avenues while taking advantage of existing ones;

this will allow you gain maximum return on investment while minimizing costs associated with ad spend increase in less targeted areas. Try running small experiments initially then replicate successful outcomes in larger scale projects accordingly;

this provides a way of learning first-hand what works best for your particular needs without wasting resources on too ambitious undertakings or overly conservative practices.

Common Questions and Answers