Hiring and working with agencies to manage your Pay Per Click (PPC) accounts has never been easy. While sometimes it can lead to deep agony and tremendous frustrations, other times it can also be great. It’s really all depends on you!
If you are a business whose online marketing holds the biggest stake in driving revenues, at some point you will consider running PPC activity. The reasons for this are diverse and may include the following: Testing keywords that can be used in SEO channels, the need to start seeing immediate results, or because PPC is a core channel for your business from launch to growth.
First Things First
It may be the first time you recruit a PPC agency, or you have long ago stopped counting how many times you have been through this process.
Perhaps you are already managing large-scale marketing operations with a PPC group under your wing. In such a case, you may be considering beginning an activity for a new test product and you don’t want to take the focus off of your in-house group. In other cases, you may simply want to challenge your existing in-house teams or agency performance.
In all of these cases, you may consider whether to run the activity in-house or through outsourcing by hiring a third-party agency.
The In-House - Outsource Dilemma
It is very tempting to recruit an in-house PPC manager as soon as an activity begins. The upsides are clear: You build the knowledge inside, you get the synergetic effect by having all stakeholders under the same roof, and you get full and undivided attention on your Pay Per Click accounts.
However, there are some risks associated with starting your first PPC activity in-house, especially when your business success is heavily reliant on the performance of this channel.
When Should You Consider Hiring a PPC Agency?
A rule of thumb that worked for me is that up until your business PPC activity requires a fully-fledged PPC team in place, you should seriously consider starting with hiring an agency.
The rationale is that you don't leave your channel hanging by a thread. And this is probably the most important reason: You don’t want to base such a crucial channel that requires a relatively high portion of your spend with a new in-house recruit. You never know how good and motivated he/she is until he/she starts working. And even if he/she is a star, you never know when he/she is going to leave you because of a better offer for a salary that is 50% higher than what he/she earned with you. So, in short, you want to assure continuity.
Other key elements: The PPC world is a breathing and living creature that changes and evolves per platform (e.g. Google, Bing, Facebook, etc.) with which you run your campaigns. Each requires, at the very minimum, ongoing adjustments but in most cases each requires a fully independent strategy, and that take time and focus. All of these eventually require more than one person, if you want to outperform yourself on a monthly basis and then your competition.
Also, with an agency, you will get the community value: While some individuals are more analytical, others are more into utilizing the platform features to the maximum, and still others are more into strategy and creativity. This provides you with a good mixture of capabilities that you usually don't get in a single-man show.
Through the years, I have literally met or interviewed over a hundred agencies in Europe and North America and then have hired and worked with a decent few of them. This has allowed me to gain some fundamental insights and guidelines that I have gathered and shaped over the years.
It’s important to follow some guidelines for selecting and managing your PPC agency partner. No less important though is to calibrate your own expectations from your agency, both in terms of performance and relationship.
On-Boarding an Agency: Interviewing, Screening, Selecting
General Guidelines
Look for agencies that see the potential of making money with/from you (it’s OK), but then a hungry agency that will fight for getting your business rather than adding then becoming yet another account on the portfolio.
Interview at least three agencies, relevant to your business.
Don’t be afraid to hire agencies overseas. Through your network, investors or conferences, you will be able to get good recommendations or leads. Sometimes, the ones close to you are not the best in your field or best-suited to your needs.
Ask the agency to run an account review for you as part of the offer: If they want you, they will fight for your business. You will learn a lot from it regarding how much they want you and how professional they are.
Look for synergies: do they have the SEO/social marketing services you need? Found it? Great - this will save you precious time and will improve yield and Time-To-Performance. But, beware of confusing SEO-oriented agencies offering “also PPC” under the cover of synergy -- they may conceal a hook to additionally pull money from you but have no speciality in it. Look for experts in the field you need. For instance, you wouldn't order fish in a grill bar, unless it's an exclusive gourmet restaurant, where you know every dish they make will be a great.
Experience
The agency should have managed at least one big account similar to yours.
Look for an agency specializing in your business vertical, or at least similar to your business vertical. Move from the inside out. Say you are a B2C footwear business, then you should look for an agency with exact experience in that. Didn’t find one? Then look for an agency with experience in CPG, then in eCommerce, etc.
Agency Size and Team
The agency should have at least four account managers in their PPC team. At least half of them should be with the agency for at least 12 months. Anything less than that, and you risk hiring an agency that is volatile and may expose your account to multiple handovers and non-continuous management of your account.
Irrespective of the agency size, interview all of them. CEO/VP (if possible), PPC head and, most importantly, your assigned account manager and his direct boss. These are the ‘make or break’ people.
Cross Check
Ask for references. Get the agency to give you two accounts that they manage in verticals that are similar to yours and whose budgets are similar to yours. Ask about quality, professionalism, level of engagement, communications and stability.
Search through your network and online. Look for managed accounts that are no longer with them and find out why they left. See if any of the concerns and benefits they experienced align with what you can take or expect to have.
Seal The Deal: What To Pay Attention To In The Agreement
Ask for dedicated account manager time on your account Anything from 20% to full time -- according to your business needs. In some cases, it may reflect in the pricing, but sometimes it’s worth it. If you have done proper scouting and have looked for the best match, they will want your business and will invest the time needed in your account.
Fees are important but not a matter of life and death You may prefer to pay more as your performance and transition cost will be significantly greater. But paying more is always easy, so be smart about it. Make sure the first 3 month are lower costs or do tiered fees per budget increase and goals. See if specific platforms require different fees structure. If you can afford it, offer a bonus scheme for reaching outstanding goals.
Termination clause Pay attention to this, so you get out in a timely manner and that they won't disappear on you. The most sensitive area to put extra focus on is the first few months.
Handover As it’s almost always bound to happen, the handover is essential for making sure that the business keeps performing, or at least takes the minimal hits possible due to a transition.
Reports Ask to receive at least bi-monthly reports during the first three months, and then on a monthly basis. You will want to agree in advance on the content and get an example of a report you will receive.
Meetings Hold weekly meetings during the first month. Then bi-monthly meetings for the following 3 months, followed by monthly meetings thereafter.
I hope some of these tips will be useful in your next PPC agency on boarding process. In my next post, we’ll cover what the keys are to managing your hired PPC agency.
Comments