What Is A PPC Agency And What Can It Do For You?
Let's start with the basics. What is PPC? They are paid ads you can publish anywhere in the digital world, including social media platforms, search engines, online stores, online directories, and websites. Contrary to other ads, you only pay every time someone clicks on your ad and is directed to your website or landing page. If you don't have an internal marekting team or if you lack the expertise, you're bound to need some help with your pay-per-click ads. A PPC agency manages these campaigns, and if you're wondering how to choose the right one, you are at the right place. Some management agencies focus solely on making PPC ads, while others provide other services like social media promotion, SEO, and web design. Typically, when you enlist the help of PPC experts, they do market research to identify your target audience, main competitors, and relevant keywords and phrases. They create the ad copy, design the visual elements, and spread the ad across the web. Also, they manage your bids and keep track of your PPC marketing strategy, optimizing it whenever they see fit.
But how do you find agencies that offer the services you need? It's simple. You Google them. Researching each of them is time-consuming and laborious, but it's definitely worth your sweat. Keep reading to find out why PPC is one of the smartest and most valuable promotion tools for any business. As a bonus, learn more about what eLearning Industry has to offer you with its niche PPC platform.
How To Evaluate And Choose The Right PPC Agency
Ask For Recommendations
So, how do you choose a PPC agency that serves your needs? Investing time in researching the plethora of agencies available is crucial to identifying your ideal collaborator. You may create a list of companies that appear successful and legitimate and assess their PPC ad services. You can also turn to your network for recommendations. We don't mean that you should ask your colleagues and friends if they know of any good digital marketing agencies. It's best to visit industry forums, social media groups, and other relevant communities where professionals can share their experiences. After you've completed your list, start analyzing each agency based on expertise, reviews and testimonials, reporting capabilities, and case studies. Remember that even if you find the perfect company, your success will be limited unless you've set your objectives. Your collaborator will also have an easier job helping you if they know what your goals are.
Analyze Their Expertise
When you start assessing a PPC agency and its expertise, you might notice that they've worked with big names in different industries. However, don't stick to the surface and dive deeper. Have they worked with other similar companies, and what results have their strategies reached? Request case studies to ensure their claims are accurate and that their past campaigns were triumphant. Top PPC agencies won't have an issue sharing their performance metrics with you, including click-through rates, conversion rates, and return on ad spend. Additionally, you can visit their websites and assess their thought leadership by reading published articles and watching relevant webinars. And don't shy away from messaging them and asking them more detailed questions.
Services
How many services does your PPC agent offer? Can they handle all the steps involved in creating and handling a promotional campaign? For instance, you may need an agency that can do both the graphic design of your ad and write the copy. A company that provides only copywriting services won't be much help to you. Also, which channels do they use to proceed with their PPC marketing? You want your ad to be shown on as many channels as possible, so a company that utilizes both Google ads and social media should be your target. Furthermore, some agencies, like eLearning Industry, offer other services, too. From SEO to link building and 360 inbound marketing, you should choose someone with many areas of expertise.
Check Their Qualifications
Marketing teams that have deep expertise in PPC campaigns should be able to prove their claims. Before collaborating with a B2B PPC agency, ask them if their seasoned professionals have industry certifications from Google and Microsoft. You must know whether they are experts in handling Google Ads and other important platforms. Other qualifications you may look for are LinkedIn ads, Microsoft advertising, and Meta Blueprint. You may also ask them how often their team members go through training so they stay updated regarding industry news. Remember that a decorated team doesn't have to lie or exaggerate, as their accolades are proven through customer reviews.
Mobile Optimization Abilities
Statistics show that 53% of clicks or search ads happen on mobile phones. This means that you need to choose a PPC agency that is expert at handling mobile ads as well as desktop ads. Mobile accessibility is crucial, and the best PPC advertising companies know how to combine it with search and social algorithms. So, when you book a meeting with them, ask a few questions that will help you understand their level of expertise. Do they know how to mobile-optimize ad copy and display ads? Do they utilize bid modifiers for mobile phones? Also, you should ask them for mobile-specific performance metrics of their previous campaigns.
SEO Knowledge
If you want to hire an agency that is going to transform into your personal PPC hero, SEO must be in their talent portfolio. No one will visit your website or social media profile, purchase your product, or sign up for your newsletter if they can't locate your online domain. Therefore, PPC agencies should know how to conduct keyword research to identify the most popular, high-volume ones. Ask them which tools they use to do their research and what their strategy is. How do they calculate and measure the performance of every keyword or phrase? Depending on their answers, you'll understand whether they know what they're doing. For example, they should know how to reverse engineer competitor keywords and rank higher on Google.
Examine Their Communication
To determine which is the best PPC company for your needs and requirements, you must assess their communication style. How do they feel when you ask them questions and send feedback? If they pretend to care but take too long to answer vaguely, they are probably not your match. You need an agency that listens attentively and acts swiftly upon your comments and thoughts. They should offer regular updates regarding your campaign and inform you about any improvements they make. Ideally, you want a PPC agency that offers real-time data, insights, and audits so you never miss a beat. In other words, communication and reporting are inseparable.
Transparency
This is an extension of good communication, as transparency and honesty help you understand all the steps your PPC firm takes to achieve great results. You want to know what you are paying for and how your agents try to reach your objectives. If their website does not show prices for each service, you should ask them directly. You may require a price breakdown so you know what to expect when the final bill arrives. Additionally, they should be transparent regarding your campaign's metrics. You need to have access to performance results weekly, if not daily, and decide whether you need to make changes. Surely, they are responsible for that, but you can offer your valuable opinions.
Pricing
So, how do you choose a PPC agency that serves your pockets? First, you should set your budget. How much money can you spend daily or weekly on a promotional campaign? After you've made your decision, you can start browsing the market for viable solutions. It's best not to go with the cheapest option just because you won't spend much. Also, don't overspend on PPC campaigns thinking that your ROI will skyrocket. Ask your collaborators for their estimations and expert opinions, and, if necessary, allocate more of your marketing resources to PPC ads. Most companies charge either a flat fee or a percentage of your ad spend. Do not forget to account for your ad spend apart from your agent's pricing.
4 Characteristics Of Successful PPC Agencies
1. Flexible, Performance-Based Advertising
Do you want accurate, specific, and measurable financial results in a short amount of time? This is where performance-based advertising comes into play to give your product listing ad the utmost value. By taking advantage of all your channels, your marketers make every single dollar count, making a serious effort to increase ROI. Your goals may be anything from increasing sales to boosting retention to enhancing customer loyalty. eLearning Industry offers such services and measures first and last click, linear, time decay, and position-based attributions.
With first-click attribution, marketers credit the first channel that attracted a buyer as the most important touchpoint, as it successfully fostered brand awareness. On the other hand, last-click attribution chooses the last channel a buyer visited before making a purchase as the most important one. With linear attribution, credit is given to the various channels a customer has interacted with. It could be email marketing, SEO, or social media posts. Time decay calculates the importance of each step. For instance, the first interaction with a social media post may score 15%, while the last touchpoint before a purchase always scores the highest. Lastly, position-based attribution, also known as Google Analytics 4, credits the first and last click with 40%. The rest 20% is attributed to the rest of the touchpoints.
For better results, adding a conversion pixel is key.
2. Transparent Geo-Bidding
Another characteristic you should look for when you try to choose a PPC agency is geography-based bidding. It refers to modifying your ad bid depending on the location and customers' behavior and intent to purchase. For instance, when you place an ad in a few states in the US, you may notice that customers in California are more interested in your product. Your marketers can increase the price of your solution since there is clearly a bigger thirst and customers are willing to pay extra. Similarly, you can decrease bids in states that decrease your overall CTR and ROI. However, make sure that you don't promote an ad all over the US, so you can limit your click spend and focus on areas that appear to be drawn to your listing. Before making any adjustments to your bids, you should wait 30–60 days until you get accurate results.
Seasoned PPC agents typically measure the performance of bids monthly or quarterly and make adjustments as they see fit. Adding large markets, such as New York and Chicago, to your geo-bidding list is crucial to gaining extra visibility. Awareness is also fostered by doing Search Engine Optimization and adding local terms to appeal to specific clients. If you have different locations, you should add various phone numbers and addresses that buyers can contact to ask questions.
3. Measurable Results
What is another service the best paid search agencies should offer? Measurable results include many metrics. Sales revenue and growth, cost per lead (CPL), conversion rate, lifetime value of a customer (LTV), return on marketing spend (ROMS), and return on advertising spend (ROAS). Let's also not forget about lead-to-customer ratio, marketing cost per acquisition (MCPA), click-through rate (CTR), cost per click (CPC), sales team response time, website conversion rate, and MQL-to-SQL ratio. Keeping track of all these metrics may seem overwhelming, and it sometimes is for inexperienced marketers. You don't have to implement all of them at the same time, immediately after publishing your ad.
When you start measuring your PPC campaign's performance, you can optimize your pay-per-click ad, boost your ROI, and fix mistakes. Your marketing team can implement new tactics efficiently when they know which aspects of your promotion are not working properly. You may also track your email marketing performance, as many purchases derive from clicks on your CTAs and landing pages.
4. Detailed Analytics And Reporting
Choosing the right PPC agency means that you try to find a collaborator who knows the difference between analytics and reporting. Reporting allows marketers to summarize specific KPIs and present them to stakeholders. These reposts feature visual aids to help everyone understand marketing results more easily. They can be done automatically and regularly. In addition, you can create ad hoc reports based on specific issues that need to be examined and tackled soon. Dashboards are usually utilized to present data to interested parties, as they offer both visualization and accurate percentages. But how and where does a PPC marketing agency gather its data? Results can be collected from transactional operational systems, supply chains, and CRM applications. The next step involves adding this data to a repository. After you gather all KPIs in the same pool, you can start creating reports and visualization boards.
On the other hand, analytics go way beyond summarized data and try to answer crucial questions like "why," "how," and "what's next." Looking at past results and customer behavior patterns helps PPC agencies make informed decisions regarding the future. The process of gathering data is practically the same as reporting, as data is stored in a repository, too. However, marketers don't only create visualizations and dashboards with it. They may go a few steps further by providing augmented results through the use of AI applications, automated Machine Learning, and predictive analytics. Last but not least, you may add trigger alerts to all your systems.
eLearning Industry's Basic Vs. PPC Listings
Here at eLearning Industry, we offer a variety of marketing solutions, including basic and PPC listings. What is the difference between the two, and is it worth spending the extra dollars? The answer is yes. But let us explain why. Free product listings are very easy to create, adding your company profile, features list, case studies, and reviews. They enhance visibility by exposing your brand to thousands of potential buyers worldwide. Some more enhanced directories give you access to a management portal so you can modify your listing according to your needs. Basic listings boost your SEO, elevate your credibility, collect buyer reviews, and extend your reach. Yet, there is one serious drawback. Many free directories don't allow you to include backlinks to your website. As a result, you miss out on the chance to direct leads to your website or landing page. Thankfully, on eLearning Industry's PPC platform there's a way to activate a link to your website!
That's why upgrading to a PPC listing is necessary and one of the most cost-effective digital marketing solutions. Instead of being buried at the bottom of a directory, you can stand out and beat your competition thanks to premium placement. Not only that, but you can insert CTA buttons with links leading to your website, landing page, or online store. Powerful CTAs like "Free demo" or "Free trial" stick with customers. Moreover, PPC listings include a flexible geo-bidding system and adaptability thanks to performance metrics. Last but not least, PPC directories like ours allow you to enter your Personal Account Manager, where we offer personalized guidance. There is no need to go through it all alone when we can help you out.
Key Takeaway
Navigating the digital advertising landscape can be daunting, but a savvy PPC agency can be your guiding star.
These agencies specialize in pay-per-click campaigns, boosting your visibility and driving targeted traffic to your site. To find the right partner, seek recommendations, scrutinize their expertise, and evaluate their services, qualifications, and SEO knowledge. Ensure they excel in mobile optimization and maintain transparent communication. Look for performance-based strategies, clear geo-bidding practices, and a commitment to measurable results, complete with detailed analytics and reporting.
By choosing a flexible and transparent PPC agency, you can achieve your marketing goals with confidence and clarity.
Now that you know how to choose a PPC agency, do you feel ready to dive into the deep waters of digital marketing? Your collaborators should not only be experienced in the field but also know how to stay ahead of the curve and innovate. The landscape keeps evolving and changing, and those who stay stagnant are destined to fail. That's why you should team up with someone like eLearning Industry who knows so much more than creating and managing your PPC ads.
We also offer SEO link-building services and targeted banner ads and popups that expose you to large audiences. If your email marketing lacks expertise, we can help you with that, too. Or maybe you are looking for 360 inbound marketing to increase the number of corporate training buyers. Whatever the case, we can help you achieve your marketing goals.
