The concept of pay per click advertising — most commonly referred to as PPC — is simple. It’s a form of Internet advertising in which you, as a business, only pay each time your ad is clicked on, regardless of how many times it’s viewed. Pay per click search engine advertising, in particular, is seen as a way to bring in high volumes of site traffic by having a link to your site placed in the paid results section of search engine results pages.
Actually getting your links placed appropriately and strategizing so that they bring in as many leads as possible, however, is a time-consuming and technical process requiring nearly constant attention. For that reason, most businesses actually see a higher return on investment by paying for professional PPC advertising management. How can you choose the right PPC agency to handle your campaigns, though, when so many people online claim to be pay per click specialists? Here are five questions you can ask prospective PPC marketing services to find the right one:
- Can You Explain Your Keyword Research Process?
Keyword research is one of the most important parts of setting your campaign or campaigns up for success. You’ll want to make sure the company you choose does extensive research, includes negative keywords, and looks at both short and long-tail keywords to bring in the audience you’re looking for.
- How Do You Reduce Excess Spending?
It’s very easy to overspend on PPC if you’re not careful. The ideal response to this question will include something about monitoring your campaigns, eliminating low-performing keywords, and ensuring you’re not spending to reach audiences unlikely to actually become clients or customers.
- Do You Optimize Landing Pages?
When it comes to successful PPC advertising management, landing pages are almost as important (some might even say more important) than the ads themselves. That means you’ll want to work with a company that knows how to optimize them and regularly performs split testing to make sure your landing pages lead to as many conversions as possible.
- What Kind of Success Metrics Do You Use?
You can’t know if you’re meeting your goals if you haven’t set metrics for those goals. Ideally, the company you choose will be able to explain what their metrics are, as well as how they relate to your business success (e.g., measuring conversions and not just clicks).
- How Will You Help Me Beat My Competitors?
The answer you’re looking for here will include two elements. First, you’ll want to make sure you’re working with a company that keeps tabs on your market so they can work on getting you to the top of it. And second, you’ll want to make sure the company can give you examples of how it has helped other businesses like yours be successful in the past.
What other questions would you recommend anyone considering PPC advertising management ask? Share your suggestions in the comments.
