Hiring a PPC Agency? Don’t Skip These Essential Questions!

James Dooley: So if I am looking to hire a PPC agency to actually bring more leads or bring me more sales for my business what would you recommend that I ask them? Guest: So the first thing I'd ask by PPC agency um would be previous experience so case studies um to show that they've done the PPC account in that industry. I think the main reason for that is because you can quickly start to understand they'll know what the buying intent keywords are um can then start to already probably got a negative keyword list and already know quite a bit with regards to C crowd and stuff like that. James Dooley: Yeah so you you would be asking them like more case studies and maybe even testimonials and stuff like that right? Guest: Okay I would probably ask them like what kind of tools they're using so um a big part to PPC is obviously um split testing different landing pages and and making certain that you're just trying to incrementally increase the conversion rate so if say for example your website is converting at 2% how can we push that to 3%? What tools are they using? Are they using VWO um are they even using any tools at all to to actually split test all of that? Um because then over time obviously the more split testing that you do you can tweak certain colours you can tweak certain contact form designs um or if say for example you're in e-commerce store you can potentially remove certain elements from your cart page and that will obviously impact your conversion right? James Dooley: So that's one thing that I would be wanting to know like what kind of tools they're using yeah? For sure obviously you've got like Hop Jar and Optimizely as well um as VWO all great tools to check on conversion rate optimization. If you improve the conversion of the website obviously the CPL leads then going to come down all the CPPC conversions going to come down and you you're going to look better as a PPC agency so yeah that's a great shout. Um the next one would be costs and prices so like what actual account management fee they charging? Guest: MH so it could be anything from 10 to 30% of the normal averages probably say around 15 to 20% is average so if someone's spending £10,000 a month they'll probably look to maybe charge 1,500 um in in fees um but then I just want to check what they are paying because if they are paying 20% I want to make certain they are an absolute expert of what they're doing because it is relatively high to add 20% on on top of what you're already paying in ad spend and so I'd want to know that and then obviously then work out to feel is this good value for this agency that I'm using? James Dooley: Yeah that's so that that that's that's a good shout. One thing that I would also be looking at is if they run PPC themselves for their own agency because um if if they can obviously do it for themselves and generate their their own inquiries then that's all also another um good starting point? Guest: Yeah for sure and then like you said just general branding sometimes just looking at the brand and going do they look like a legitimate company? Like are they good? Like you said I mentioned about the testimonials and the case studies and stuff like that but sometimes just the feel of are these going to be around like are they're going to hang about and be helping us all the way through? Because growth is never linear it's always up and down it's a roller coaster and especially when you first start a campaign there's going to be tough times there's going to be a lot of click fraud and um negative keywords that need loading in so I'd say adding to it is do you get an account manager? Like it sounds so tedious but like having someone to pick up the phone to to moan at or say why are we not doing this or you think we should try this and and being able to bounce ideas off someone I've got this image do you think this might work with this? I've got this video do you think this that might work? You want to keep split testing ideas not just obviously split testing the website but also split testing the different ads of what can be around? James Dooley: Yeah definitely and then um one thing that you obviously touched on is the pricing of like how much they actually charge another thing to bear in mind is that a lot of PPC agencies they charge for like an account activation or like an account setup fee um and that's also important and then you just also want to potentially go and watch a couple PPC videos and and just understand the lingo cuz if if they're talking to you about CPC and you just don't know what that is that's that's they're able to just like lie to you um it's it's not something that um happens often but again there are a lot lot of cowboy PPC agencies so just be aware of that um but away away from like the actual setup fees and stuff like that is there anything else that you would ask? Guest: Um that's to start with there would be the main questions I'd be asking a PPC company is is the track record the testimonials the case studies um the prices and then from there then I'll be looking to compare one PPC agency against another to see who I think would be best value and it's not because best value doesn't mean the cheapest like the big the main one I'd want to know is how many other businesses have they managed to scale and grow in a similar market to what I'm in so I can understand like some might be brilliant at eCommerce as a PPC agency so might be brilliant at lead generation so I'd want to try to find the best PPC agency that's good for my type of industry I think that's the most important part that I would be looking for? James Dooley: Yeah definitely and then what one other thing as well is if you're watching this video you're probably wanting to grow your business now PPC might not be the actual optimal solution to grow your business you might need SEO you might need Facebook ads you might need a hybrid approach um so even before hiring a PPC agency what you might want to do is hire a fractional CMO um if you do want that both myself and James are available so head over to fatrank.com and fill in the form and we'll be able to guide you a lot more with what would actually be a lot more suitable for your business um we obviously deal with a lot of um companies so we can tell you straight off the bat if PPC is actually worth well doing or if maybe potentially you should actually double down on lead generation or SEO so the link is down below.