There are many technical questions you can ask to make sure your perspective Google AdWords agency knows what they are doing, but these are the most important questions to ask.
How are you going to decide what keywords I should use to advertise?
Choosing the right words to advertise is the foundation of a successful AdWords campaign. A skillful AdWords analyst will ask you what you think people are entering when they are looking to buy your product or service. She will start the keyword research process from there and come up with sets of targeting keywords. Ideally, she will present you her recommendations to review and ask for your input. It’s easy to waste money on keywords that are too broad or not properly geographically targeted, in the case of local businesses, so it’s important to have two sets of eyes to review this.
How are you going to measure the performance of my campaign?
If the foundation of AdWords is keyword selection, the cornerstone is conversion tracking. AdWords allows you to set up conversation tracking to accurately measure form completions, phone calls, or purchases on your site that result from your AdWords advertising. These conversions can help you establish what your cost per conversion is and determine if your investment in AdWords working. It also lets you see data about each conversion, including exactly what the user searched for. If the company you are interviewing can’t confidently discuss conversion tracking, you should continue looking for a better agency.
Are you a Google AdWords Partner?
Google AdWords Partners are agencies whose employees pass annual certification tests and maintain management of their clients’ sites to Google’s standards. However, Partner status alone does not guarantee that an agency is going to be best of breed. While you can be assured that a Google Partner knows what features and settings are available in the Google AdWords dashboard, it doesn’t measure the business skills of the individuals managing your account or if they understand your enterprise well enough to devise and mange an effective PPC strategy.
Before you drop a portion of your advertising budget with an agency, be sure they can answer these questions. Wasting money on an ineffective PPC campaign happens all the time, but it’s avoidable. As always, if you have any questions about AdWords, or anything else, we’re here.
