Questions to Ask an Ad Agency

“What should you ask an ad agency that you are about to hire to manage your pay-per-click accounts?”

Not everyone has the time to learn how to properly manage their PPC accounts. Even those of us in the industry often look to off load the busy work of bid management and account reporting onto an ad agency. But what should you be asking these agencies? More importantly, what answers should you be looking for?

Who will be handling your account?

Often the person you speak with is a sales person and or a high level SEM consultant. It is important to know if you will have an account manager that over looks your account, and how many people are on your team.

Best Answer: An account manager, a bid adjuster, and a creative team that handles the ad copy, and landing page creation.

Is there a limit on the amount of account changes in a month?

Most, if not all, ad agencies use a 3rd party bid management tool to monitor and manage the multiple accounts they are responsible for. They are charged on the amount of campaigns and actions. Often that cost is passed on to you. If your accounts activity goes over a certain amount, they may charge you extra. It is important to know those fees up front, and often that isn’t disclosed unless you ask for that information.

Best Answer: No extra charge, or even better, no limit on the amount of changes.

Does the Ad Agency have a contract you must sign?

Many ad agencies will want you to sign a contract. Ask about the duration of their contract, and what fees are associated with early cancellation. Most contracts are in place for fair reason, but the agencies with contracts that extend past 6 months are ones to watch out for.

Best Answer: Contracts between three and six months are common. Watch for contracts that extend past a year. Cancellation fees that exceed the cost of one month of maintenance and monitoring often signify that the agency may have problems keeping clients that they sign.

Do they handle the creation of new landing pages and are there extra fees for their creation?

Not all ad agencies will handle the creation of landing pages. A good question to ask the ad agency is if they handle this in-house, and what are the fees for the creation of new landing pages. Ask to see some examples of the pages they have made.

Best Answer: There is nothing wrong with extra fees for landing pages, as long as the quality is there to back it up. As mentioned above, ask to see some examples.

What is the process of campaign improvement?

There is always room for improvement in PPC campaigns. What works this year may not work the next year. Competition changes, new challenges surface, and the needs of your target audience can vary by each quarter. That said, too much change at once can make it hard to nail down what to attribute the weaknesses or strengths in a campaign are. Ask the agencies what their plan of action is.

Best Answer: A good sign that they know what they are doing is if they have a staged process, with a review of the changes at the end of each month. Nailing down the key word list should be first, with refinement of ad copy second, followed by optimizing the landing page, then repeat.

What improvement goals do they target, and what is the time frame for those to be met?

The main reason to hire an ad agency in the first place is not only the convenience of having professionals looking over your ad spend, but the promise of improvement over time. What metrics do they plan to improve, and what time line do the expect to see these improvements.

Best Answer: Increasing your quality score in Google Adwords, lowering your average CPA, and improving your CTR are among the most important. Stay away from ad agencies that only focus on increasing your traffic and impressions. This typically means they will turn on the display network (aka content network), leave your keywords set to broad match, and pour gasoline on your money.

Closing thoughts on hiring an ad agency, or a SEM professional to manage your PPC accounts.

When it all comes down to the end of the quarter, you have to look at your ROI. Did the money you spent hiring a professional bring you a return greater than you could have achieved on your own is the way most people look at this scenario. I say thats a good place to start, but also take into consideration the money that they saved you, and the time you have to focus on new projects and products.

Did I miss a critical factor when interviewing for an ad agency? Perhaps there are better answers to the questions I’ve already laid out?

Let me and your fellow readers know in the comments section below!

Google AdBloopers

RealEstate.com why are you showing 1000’s of Portland homes for Camas Real Estate? Don’t you know Camas is in Washington and Portland is in Oregon?

Here is and example of a damn good Ad brought to you by Google’s extended content network on ActionVillage.com. Who ever is running this ad for AllPredatorCalls.com is doing a great job. ActionVillage.com is selling a Ghillie Suit for $79.95 while AllPredatorCalls.com is running an ad for $69.95. I’d send a thank you note to ActionVillage. 😀

MSN Docs; Competition for Google Docs?

MSN has announced an open beta for their Microsoft Office Live Workplace. The idea behind the new service came from millions of Office users requesting access to their files via the net.

Could this be due to Google Docs ability to share your personal work with a group or collaborate on a project together, regardless of your OS over the internet? Well if that was what sparked the idea, Microsoft sure buggered it up.

Do You Know How to Dance?

Google Shows Halloween Spirit Early

While Google’s home page has yet to change for the Halloween festivities, I did notice a change in their Street View icon. There is now a Witch in place of the marker that is used for navigating around Street View’s available streets.

If you have not used Google’s Street View, now would be a great time to give it a try. Not only can you see your house from street level, you can also see your neighbors! I have used it before when I was looking for a hotel to stay at in San Diego. Instead of searching for “San Diego Hotels” in Google, I went to the map for San Diego, used the street view, and picked the best looking hotel that was near the water. That awesome hotel by the way was the Omni Hotel in San Diego.

Google Bigger Than Coca-Cola?

That is what was reported this morning over the stock report.

Google has grown larger than, not only the popular soda company, but IBM as well. They aren’t done yet.

As most of you know, Google purchased YouTube. With the upcoming placement of ads in the videos, Google is set to make a very large profit. YouTube has such a wide range of exposure, it will be interesting to see how Google manages the ads.

I hope that in an attempt to keep the ads relevant to the content, Google will be improving their ability to properly index video.