Handing over control of your Google Ads account or hiring a company to create you a new PPC campaign that will increase your business enquiries is something that for many, take a lot of research, hunting around and ultimately trust, as with so many agencies and companies now offering Pay Per Click, you really are not going to be limited by choice.

In fact, a Google search for local PPC experts will usually deliver a wealth of local and national firms, which for some means more choice and therefore is a good thing, but for others, just increases the amount of time it will take to actually find and employ the right company. By the time you have compiled your shortlist, got some prices, looked at campaign proposals and then made your decision, it can be weeks before you finally hire the right company to work with.

So, if you are currently on the search for a solid PPC company to employ, here are some of the key questions you need to be asking to make sure you do end up with the right company to work with.

Experience / Success

You should always ask about the kind of campaigns that the proposed agency have completed before, some idea of what they are running at the moment and also if they are AdWords certified and a Google Partner. If they are a partner then they will be measured on their account quality and will have to have completed exams and have to have spend requirements, so this can be a good gauge of how successful they have been previously and also help you to understand the level of detail they will enter into your campaign. Success is a hard one to judge, but if they have a lot of ongoing accounts and have a good level of online reviews, then this can help to form part of your decision making process.

Level Of Reporting

If you are a client that likes a good report, then make sure you are going to get them, as unless specifically asked then it is not always assumed that the client will want them. There are two aspects to this in terms of you should never just assume they are included and you should also make it clear regarding the level of detail needed in the report, as if you just want key outlines or you want a full analysis, then this needs to be discussed. I make sure I find out what kind of reports are required, if any, then tailor my approach to make sure the client receives what they need, but this is not always the approach of every agency.

Campaign Approach

Ask how the agency approaches a campaign and try to get a feel about how they will approach your campaign. Will they ask you lots of questions, how will they structure their campaign, how will they discover the keywords to use, will they run competitor research and many more questions you will want to get answered. The more questions you ask, the better for you at this stage, and it can also give the agency a good idea about the level of service you require and also to understand more about your aspirations and goal successes for the campaign.

Monthly Optimisation

Do not just assume that a monthly management fee is included in the price, as unless you ask for this service or unless the agency offer a quote for it, you might just be paying for a campaign set up and once this is completed, the assumption that ongoing work is happening could be the wrong one. If you need a monthly management contract then make sure you ask for a price for this, so that once your campaign goes live it does not get forgotten about and under performs, which can so often happen unless your campaign has some monthly TLC.

Account Ownership

This is something that you simply must check as I have come across this so many times now and it is virtually impossible to solve later down the road. Find out who actually owns your AdWords account, as if the agency owns the account then if you choose to move on, you will probably lose all of the history and campaign successes, which would be a major hindrance when you have to restart your efforts again. I always set campaigns up in the name of the customer and with their details, so that should they ever decide to move on or bring their management in-house, they have a wealth of history and do not have to start all over again.