Bringing your agency into your circle of trust is a big deal. You trust them with large amounts of money to make decisions with your best interest in mind, but are they? Below are five items to see if your agency is on top of things and has your best interests in mind.
Track Account Work and Performance
As with any other progress-driven account in business, you should have at least a weekly report that gives new statistics with descriptions of what these numbers define, and a detailed outline of a plan to either continue as is or implement solutions. If your agency refuses this courtesy (or worse – never even mentions it) this is a big red flag for your bank account.
Guaranteed Results
This is a surefire way to tell that your agency is full of it. Nobody can guarantee results in PPC marketing, but we can project the likelihood of lots of successful conversions. They should, of course, be able to project that you have a good enough campaign running to make a difference in your online sales, but guaranteeing specific results is a dead-end that will only leave you wanting.
Requesting Offline Data
If your agency isn’t asking for this information, then it is likely that they really don’t care whether anything comes from the clicks they generate as long as the lead happens. They should be asking you (the client): after the PPC has caused someone to click, what happens next? If they fill out a lead generating form, are they a good lead? How many people turn into repeat customers? How many people end up coming into a physical location or making a phone call? Most of this information is privy to (only) the business – but a good PPC manager will be interested in the “real world” conversions that their ads are generating.
Read more in the full white paper: 27 Signs You Need a New Agency »
No Ad Copy Testing In Place
This is a HUGE red flag, as testing is one of the only ways of trial and error that allow the AM to see what works and what doesn’t for your particular account. While some keywords may have worked well in the past, the nature of your account might make it so that these keywords don’t work as well now. The preferences of the audience may have changed. The demand may have changed. Without testing, you will not be able to tell if one kind of ad could lead to more conversions than what you are currently using, and could cost you a lot of money.
Limited or NO Understanding of Your Attribution
If your agency can’t explain to you where your conversions are coming from, especially if you have a limited knowledge of your own attribution, it is almost certain that your account (and conversions) will suffer. For example, if you can see that you aren’t receiving a lot of clicks in one metric, you may want to pause it so that you won’t lose money. A good account manager will be able to tell you whether this metric is still generating leads or not – if they don’t understand your attribution, then it is likely that they will do whatever you say without researching it first.
