For companies reliant on paid search and social for lead generation and sales, PPC spending quickly balloons into the millions. But simply throwing a budget at external management agencies without aligning costs to concrete value leaves money on the table.
How can you objectively assess whether your current agency or freelance relationships equate to suitable ROI and impact or if you are overpaying for underwhelming results?
Benchmark PPC Performance Over Time
Does your PPC seem stagnant, even after years of working with the same agency? Rather than assuming they are optimizing campaigns to their maximum potential, critically evaluate account performance trends over the partnership.
- Are conversion rates, click-through rates, quality scores, and other metrics showing positive momentum or just flatlining?
- What about website traffic, inbound leads, and sales driven specifically from paid channels?
- How have agency actions directly moved the needle on performance?
If the data shows consistent improvement, your agency is likely delivering. But lagging or declining numbers signal oversight needed.
Analyze Agency Reporting Rigor
Do the reports you receive take a superficial view of standard metrics or provide actionable analysis into optimizations made and high-level strategic takeaways?
Reports focused solely on clicks, CPCs, impressions, etc. demonstrate programmatic management rather than strategists actively boosting performance. Robust analysis is expected.
Audit Campaign Structure and Organization
Review account structures, naming conventions, label systems, ad groups, and other organizational factors. Do they follow platform best practices or appear hastily set up?
Ensure adherence to structure recommendations from Google and other channels rather than just what’s convenient for the agency. Campaign hierarchy impacts results.
Evaluate Campaign Innovation Cadence
Look at new initiatives launched over the past year. Have they implemented any cutting-edge tactics ahead of competitors? Or do they manage your accounts reactively, only adopting new features months after release?
Proactivity shows commitment to innovation. Lagging adoption of new ad formats, bidding levers, tracking, etc. reveals a status quo mentality.
Verify Usage of Advanced Analytics
Does your agency actively leverage tools like Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Optmyzr, Swydo, Kenshoo, and more to inform optimizations? Or do they rely solely on default platform dashboards?
Sophisticated analytics and modeling drives enterprise-grade management. Lacking these capabilities severely limits potential.
Challenge Recommendations Against Alternative Approaches
Occasionally probe agency recommendations to understand the rationale against alternative actions. Gauge their strategic justification beyond taking their advice at face value.
For example, if they pause poorly converting keywords ask about the potential negative impact on relevance, first-page bid estimates, future reactivation scenarios, and more. Thoughtful reasoning confirms sound judgment.
Review Account Security and Access Policies
Every agency should provide clients visibility through dashboard access rather than fully opaque management. Ensure you have real-time access to view campaign data.
Also, verify security protocols are extensive for protecting accounts and avoiding rogue access. Lacking access and security protections are red flags.
Contrast Support Volume with Contract Terms
Audit actual monthly hours of support against contracted minimums. Are you receiving all promised strategic, optimization, reporting, and account management support?
Under-delivery indicates overcommitment spread across too many clients. You shouldn’t be shortchanged.
Interview Specialists Across Disciplines
Meet individually with strategists, campaign managers, designers, writers, analysts, and other talent instrumental in your accounts. Gauge their grasp of your industry, products, competitors, and unique business challenges.
Ensure they have the vertical expertise expected rather than just general ppc advertising management knowledge. Specialization matters.
Require Proof of Ongoing Education
Ask what annual conferences, events, certificates, or training programs your agency specialists attend to stay current. Stagnant skills raise the risk of outdated or inaccurate management.
Continuous PPC education is mandatory with constant platform and algorithm shifts. Beware stale tactics.
Validate Firsthand Expertise
Don’t just take stellar case studies as proof of expertise. Ask to shadow campaign managers live as they optimize accounts and uncover insights. Or have creatives walk through their ideation process for a new campaign concept.
Observing work firsthand provides tangible evidence of skills in action beyond hype. If they hesitate, it could signal deficiencies.
Calculating True Cost and Value Alignment
With all factors above validated to your standards, compare expected costs for similar caliber management done internally. Factor both hard costs like labor and retainers as well as soft costs like missed optimizations and capabilities.
If a proven agency is delivering significant ROI unreplicable internally, high fees shouldn’t cause alarm. But if their value adds are not tangible, costs likely outweigh the benefits.
Scrutinizing ppc management services value thoroughly allows for determining optimal partnerships, fees, and scopes. Settling for mediocre management while overpaying wastes the budget. But the right agency at the right price delivers incredible ROI. We hope these tips empower you to optimize your relationships for maximum impact.
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