7 Questions to Ask Prospective Pay Per Click Managers Before Hiring Them

Pay per click is great! But it's so much work.

You can't or don't want to manage all your own pay per click campaigns? Understandable. It requires a specific skill set and you have to stay on top of it.

But how do you find a good pay per click (PPC) professional? What questions do you ask ahead of time to make sure you get the right consultant?

I do this for a living... so I can tell you from the inside what's required.

7 Important Pay Per Click skills and characteristics:

* Obsession with metrics and split-testing * Good copywriting skills * Strategic, process-oriented thinking * Organization, attention to detail, reports to client * Having the adwords qualified marker helps, because it shows you can pass the test and are willing and able to spend a small amt of money to get it * Ability to do custom work on landing pages is nice too- quicker turnaround for what's needed * Track record of positive results

7 Questions to Ask Pay Per Click Management Candidates

1. How do you work with metrics? What do you look for? What are numbers do you aim for in CTR, CR and ROAS? 2. What kind of copywriting and sales writing experience do you bring to the table? 3. How do you think through the advertising process for clients (from prospect to sale) in terms of your PPC campaigns? 4. How many split tests do you run and how do you keep track of them all? 5. Are you an adwords qualified individual or company? 6. Can you do HTML, CSS, javascript and graphics for custom landing pages where it would be optimal? 7. What results have you achieved for other companies? Who can I talk to about it?

The 7 Kinds of Answers You'd Like to Get to Those Questions

1. Monitor the stats that Google provides and any others we can gather from client sites. Increasing click through rate (CTR) by split-testing ads is important to lower cost per click (CPC) and thus increase return on ad spend (ROAS). Improving product page conversion rate (CR) is also important to increase ROAS. Good target numbers: CTR 3-10%, CR 3-8%, ROAS 5:1-10:1

2. Have written for the web, particularly to increase sales. Have communicated about a variety of topics- experience turning jargon into everyday language. Direct marketing experience a huge plus.

3. The right keywords are the crucial starting point. Target audience, general category, brands, industry jargon and more must be investigated to find all possible words customers use to try to find you. Reviewing keywords in terms of closeness to buying decision (as opposed to information gathering searches) helps decide which ones to use or bid higher on. Ad must reach customer mind and pull them through click to landing page. Landing page must reflect the specific words/ideas in the ad that stimulated them to click. Landing page must also turn this interest into buying desire and ask for sale.

4. Optimal to run 2 ads split-testing per adgroup until you plateau above 5%. This includes checking all minor variations on best ad. Inspiration for new angle (big idea) should be tested at plateau points. AdWords will save previous ads but not date ranges tried- diligent recording of tests and results in excel clarifies what has worked and hasn't. Good reference for future tests.
Tip! The main benefit of Pay Per Click advertising, compared to relying solely on organic SEO, is that PPC ads can be live in a matter of minutes. With your website up and running, and armed with a credit card, you're on your way to advertising on the web's top search engines in no time.

5. Yes.

6. Yes.

7. Should have started campaigns from scratch and achieved positive ROI, desired ROAS. Should have optimized campaigns to much higher ROAS.

Brian B. Carter, MS is a San Diego e-business, copywriting, and adwords consultant. He's an AdWords Qualified Individual who achieves exceptional results for his clients.