Your PPC Agency is responsible for multiple ad platforms above but their main job is to find and convert your audience with targeted ads across the ad funnel.

• Your PPC agency should have developed an ad strategy that is built around finding your target market online. This might mean they have to go out of the box of Facebook and Google ads.
• Your PPC agency should have ensured that you have built a marketing funnel using both (TOF) Top of funnel marketing and (BOF) Bottom of funnel marketing.
• Your PPC agency should have already developed an ad budget based on the metrics of how your website converts traffic right now.
• Your PPC agency should be optimizing on a weekly basis based on where in the ad funnel a potential client is falling off. Adjustments should be made and tested with statistically significant data. This includes your landing page from the ads.
• Your PPC Agency should be keeping your creative fresh and new and focused on the part of the funnel it needs to drive.
• Your PPC agency should have set up all of the metrics to be able to track your success and meet with you on a monthly basis to evaluate what is working and not working.  Set up of the platforms is often the definition of success for some and not others.

While PPC agencies may define it in a multitude of ways, here is how we define PPC.  PPC in its simplest form is an acronym for “pay per click”.  Sometimes you hear is called in the marketing world SEM or Search engine marketing.  Some even call it Google Adwords which is now Google ads. The last one really is the biggest player in the market but they are not the only one besides Google ads are much more than pay per click anymore.

In this form of marketing, your ads are shown most often in search results but also in many other places and you are paying to receive a click to your website and or another place such as a landing page.  Although we feel in most cases your website should function as a landing page and have these factors.

It wasn’t till 2000 that pay per click was first introduced by Google Adwords which is now Google ads.

So while PPC is usually associated with Search engine marketing, Google Adwords or Google ads, and sometimes Bing ads.  It is actually much larger than that.  As we stated above pay per click or PPC agencies work to develop ad strategies and divide your ad budgets between many platforms. There are several types of ad platforms for both the Top of the Funnel, those who do not know you, and the Bottom of the funnel or remarketing, those who do know you.  Almost all ad platforms have a remarketing component within the platform. We have divided those up below.  Your PPC agency will work to get to your targeted ads by driving qualified traffic with multiple platforms.  Omnichannel marketing with ads is just as important as with your overall marketing to develop funnels.

Many ad platforms are listed in multiple categories because depending on how you PPC agency develops your strategy they could be considered at multiple stages of the buying cycle. As you can see there are many less platforms at the bottom of the funnel, making it the most expensive place to play without traffic and ads  upstream.

It absolutely works! Where you see PPC agencies fail is in the lack of data analysis and set it and forget automated reports. It takes weekly action and optimization for every platform that you have.  Outside of the funnel that exist in your entire marketing their are funnels within each platform.  Each of these metrics needs to be studied on a weekly basis to see where your potential buyers is not moving to the next step.  Each week these optimization are made at the place of failure of moving to the next steps.  It’s a rinse and repeat step.  These go all the way to the landing page and conversion optimization that happens on your website. Depending on your funnel you could also need follow up from email marketing. But no matter what Ads do not work in vacuum and a strong SEO and content marketing plan is also needed.

Choosing an ad agency to handle your PPC marketing can be difficult, because who do you trust? Here are some items we think you should look at.

• Have they made case studies of their work? We are not fans of this, if we wanted to make ourselves look good with a case study we can do that.
• What does everyone else say, what are their reviews? Here are our reviews.
• Have they won any marketing awards? Here are our marketing agency awards.
• Do they drink their own Kool-aide with marketing? Do they have marketing content, weekly shows, podcasts, and more?
• Do they have packages or individual packages?
• Do they give you a strategy before they even review your data?
• Do they understand the importance of data-driven solutions?
• Do they have automated reporting or do they meet with you to strategize and understand what is important with your business to develop marketing solutions?
• Do you get along with them?
• Take our quiz on whether you need a new Digital Marketing Agency.