Navigating Pay-Per-Click (PPC) marketing requires a strategic approach and expertise. The right PPC advertising agency can make or break your online presence, influencing your reach, conversions, and overall business success. Having served clients in NJ and across the US since 2007, we know a few things about what works and what doesn’t. We champion the success of businesses and hate seeing owners bamboozled by flashy presentations and quick talkers. When choosing the right PPC advertising agency in NJ and beyond, there are a few key things to look for to ensure you’re hiring the right people.
Choose a PPC Advertising Agency That Ensures You Own Your Accounts and Data
Transparency is critical when it comes to any relationship. With the array of platforms involved in digital marketing, it can be tempting to have an agency own your account and manage everything. Some agencies even insist on it. While it may make your life easier in the short term, you can find yourself in trouble when your relationship with the agency ends.
Often, these agencies set up your account and own all the assets, data, and analytics from the ads. When the relationship ends, they refuse to hand over the keys because your account is intertwined with their account and other clients, leaving you with no historical data. Your data is gold—it holds insights into customer behaviors, preferences, and the success of your campaigns, and without it, your next agency will have to start from the beginning.
A reputable agency will prioritize granting you full access and ownership of your accounts and data while granting themselves access through their own account. This setup allows you to access and monitor everything, owning your account and data if the relationship ends. You don’t have to be actively in the account analyzing and editing data and campaigns, but having access is vital to reducing potential issues in the future.
Key Takeaway
Ensure that your chosen PPC agency doesn’t withhold access or control and grants you the freedom to analyze, modify, and retain your valuable data.
Choose a PPC Advertising Agency That Helps You Develop SMART Goals
Before the first campaign is created, before the first keywords are researched, the agency you hire should work closely with you to establish Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals. These goals will help the right PPC agency understand your business objectives and craft campaigns aligned with these targets. SMART goals usually look something like “Increase new business leads from Paid Search by 20% within three months.”
Whether your goals are enhancing brand visibility, driving leads, securing more video views, or boosting sales, a clear understanding of your goals ensures that every campaign is purpose-driven and results-oriented. Having short-, medium-, and long-term goals in mind allows the PPC advertising agency to build campaign strategies that drive success. With measurable results, there’s no gray area about whether a campaign was successful; the data never lies.
Key Takeaway
The agency’s process should include the development of SMART goals to guide efforts and measure success.
Choose a PPC Advertising Agency That Values Analytics and Data
Analytics and data speak volumes in digital marketing. An adept PPC advertising agency values analytics and uses available data to drive decision-making and strategy. Good agencies double down on what is working and adapt what isn’t. Great agencies will proactively identify the trends and underlying reasons for success and replicate those to reduce the possibility of a less successful campaign.
Starting from an understanding of your business’ audience and personas, the right PPC agency won’t rely solely on intuition but will harness the power of data from various sources to refine strategies, optimize campaigns, and generate continued results. Across the board, from tracking conversions and monitoring click-through rates to visualizing how users engage with your landing page or form, a data-centric approach guides the best agencies to make informed decisions and continuously improve.
Key Takeaway
The agency should value and utilize meaningful data and analytics to inform decisions, optimize campaigns, and drive performance.
Choose a PPC Advertising Agency That Leverages Local Search
For businesses targeting local audiences in New Jersey or elsewhere, the importance of local search cannot be overstated. A skilled PPC advertising agency understands the nuances of local paid search, leveraging geotargeting, localized keywords, and more.
If you’re a local business with a storefront or defined service area, you don’t want to be wasting money advertising outside of where your customers are. It seems straightforward enough, but we’ve seen accounts wasting money on clicks in states where the business didn’t operate. Ensuring that geotargeting is implemented correctly to include the areas you serve or excluding areas you can’t is crucial to getting the most bang for your buck.
Likewise, you could miss out on conversions if you aren’t optimizing campaigns for keywords, including local search terms! While there’s no need to go overboard and rebrand your business as Best PPC Agency Near Me (spoiler: that doesn’t necessarily help you rank higher), optimizing for terms like city or neighborhood names and other location-based keywords can help secure coveted paid search placements.
Key Takeaway
The right PPC marketing agency will leverage local search to optimize conversions from nearby users and exclude areas you don’t serve to reduce wasted spend.
Choose a PPC Advertising Agency That Focuses on Conversion Rate Optimization
Clicks and reach matter, but conversions matter more. If an agency isn’t focusing on Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) to maximize the impact of your campaigns, you could be missing out on significant success! CRO involves meticulously refining landing pages, A/B testing ad copy and creative, optimizing call-to-action buttons, and streamlining the user experience to convert more clicks into valuable leads or sales. A relentless pursuit of higher conversion rates and better ROAS and ROI is a hallmark of a top-tier agency.
Key Takeaway
A high-quality PPC agency will not just focus on the ads, but also on optimizing the landing page and messaging through testing to optimize your conversion rate.
Choose a PPC Advertising Agency That Integrates With Your Marketing Ecosystem
No marketing can exist in a vacuum. A holistic marketing ecosystem that integrates your messaging across various channels is vital to your success. The right PPC advertising agency won’t operate in isolation but strategizes to synchronize PPC efforts with your broader marketing ecosystem. Whether aligning PPC campaigns with social media strategies or ensuring consistency across multiple platforms, integration amplifies your brand message and strengthens overall marketing effectiveness.
Whoever you choose for PPC management should understand the importance of collaborating with internal teams and stakeholders or another agency to integrate with the marketing ecosystem and leverage all available pieces to bring success.
Key Takeaway
The right PPC agency will collaborate with internal teams and others to ensure their campaigns align with other marketing efforts.
Conclusion
Choosing the right PPC Advertising Agency for your business can be daunting. Your PPC partner should possess technical expertise and share your vision and commitment to success. When searching for a PPC agency, you should prioritize agencies that uphold transparency, data-driven decision-making, and a tailored approach to meet your unique business needs and goals.
Remember, the right agency isn’t just a service provider but a strategic partner invested in your success. Take the time to research, ask pertinent questions, and evaluate their track record before making this critical decision. With the right PPC agency, you’ll unlock new heights of online visibility, engagement, and conversion that propel your business forward.
