Five Questions You Need To Ask Any Firm Managing Your Pay-Per-Click Campaign

By Chris Behan

Choosing the right firm to manage your pay-per-click (PPC) campaign will most certainly be the difference between success and failure. The PPC market has become congested with so many firms, both large and small, that making the right decision has become difficult to say the least.

The following are five questions to ask any firm that you may already be working with, or are about to engage:

1. Do they limit the number of clients they will manage in any one category and area?

   This is an extremely important question to ask. If the firm is willing to serve an unlimited number of clients in any one category, this is bound to create a giant conflict of interest.
   
   Here’s why: like any business owner or marketing director, you will want your site listed at or near the top. To accomplish this, you’ll need to spend more on PPC than other companies in the same category. Your competitors will be doing the same in their attempt to achieve top listings. If your competitors are using the same PPC firm as you are, this essentially creates bidding war amongst your PPC firm’s own clients. Remember, PPC firms charge a percentage of everyone’s spend. The more you and other clients spend, the more money the PPC firm makes. That’s quite a business model!

2. How will the campaign be managed?  

   Some of the larger firms use software programs to manage their clients’ campaigns, but there is no software program in the world that can properly manage a PPC campaign. There are simply too many variables to take into account. Your target market, specific geographies, current competition, seasonal trends, and other factors need to be discussed, addressed, implemented, and monitored at all times by experienced professionals.
3. How do they measure results and gauge success?

Measuring results when it comes to PPC is essential. Most firms will certainly want to track traffic, online sales, form fill-outs, and even phone calls by using unique phone numbers specifically for PPC campaigns.

However, a truly engaged PPC firm will go the extra mile to understand the nuances of your business. This helps the PPC firm better target the customers that offer your company the greatest return on investment. The PPC firm should have frequent meetings with you to discuss new business that originated from the campaign, and to help determine the quality of the customers they are delivering to your site

4. What keywords will they target?

Before we discuss keywords, let me remind you that PPC firms are paid to spend money. Many firms approach this task by buying as many keywords as your budget allows, but this may not be the best strategy. Your PPC firm should begin by targeting the keywords that narrowly describe exactly what your company offers, and where your company offers it. Only after those keywords prove to be successful converters should the firm begin to expand into broader keywords. Buying too many keywords too quickly is a recipe for blowing an ad budget.

Also, if your company already ranks highly in organic listings for your corporate name, don’t let the firm buy that keyword. It may be a complete waste of money, and many PPC firms are notorious for pointing to results that you would have had anyhow.

5. What management fee are they taking?

This may be the single most important question to ask any firm. Do not work with a firm that cannot answer this question. It is estimated that most major firms take between 40 and 50 percent of their clients’ total PPC budgets as their management fee, which significantly reduces the actual spend with search engines.

Clearly, there are a lot of things to consider when choosing a PPC firm. I hope this information has armed you with better information to use in your decision-making process. By asking the above questions, you’ll be poised to choose a PPC company that can rapidly deliver traffic and sales to your website. The alternative might be spending a lot of money quickly, and having nothing to show for it.

About the Author
Chris Behan is the President and Chief Optimization Officer of Socius Marketing, Inc. (www.sociusmarketing.com), Tampa’s top-ranked search engine optimization company, which provides Internet marketing services to small, medium, and large businesses looking to expand their online presence. With offices in Tampa and Atlanta and clients across the country, Socius Marketing is one of the largest, and fastest-growing online lead generation firms in the United States.  Specializing in organic, white-hat search engine optimization, Chris has more than 11 years of Internet marketing experience and has helped hundreds of companies generate leads online. Chris can be reached at chris@sociusmarketing.com or by calling (813) 282-8300. – Offices Rocky Point, Tampa