Questions to ask your PPC agency (and what a good answer sounds like)

The short answer: ask what they count as a conversion, how they know your leads are any good, and what they'd cut if your budget got sliced in half. A good PPC agency answers all three with your numbers, on the spot. A bad one talks about impressions, clicks and how "the algorithm is still learning."

It's that time again: the recurring call with your PPC agency that can feel like talking to a toddler. If you're not dreading it because of shitty results, no direction and answers that make no sense, give your agency a high five. You found a good one.

If you've been on the client side like me and sat through some painfully bad PPC performance calls, keep reading. Over my career I've hired and managed 15 different paid media agencies, at Vail Resorts, Orderful and Ninety.io. We were spending a lot on ads every month, paying high management fees on top, and my executive team wanted results. What I got was a lot of long explanations about why my campaigns weren't working. Those were excuses in disguise, and they never came with a new idea.

Fast forward about ten years and I'm on what's considered the agency side. Turns out a lot of my clients didn't know what to ask to judge their paid agency. So I sat in on some brutal calls and asked the hard questions for them.

Here they are, with the answer you want to hear and the one that should make you nervous.

Before you hire a PPC agency

1. Who runs my account, and who will I actually talk to?

Good answer: straight names and roles. Who builds and optimizes your campaigns, and who's on your calls. Those don't have to be the same person. What matters is that whoever's on your calls knows your account cold and can answer a question without "let me check with the team." At Demand Beacon, you talk to me, and I know what's going on in your account.

Red flag: a senior person wows you in the pitch, and you never see them again after you sign. Your calls get handed to someone who can't answer anything off the top of their head. I've had this happen more than once, and it's the most common way agencies disappoint.

2. How do you charge, and what does that fee actually cover?

Good answer: a real number or percentage, in writing, plus a plain list of what's included: builds, landing page reviews, reporting, fixing conversion tracking. Ours is on our services page, because you shouldn't have to sit through two calls to find out what something costs.

Red flag: the price only shows up after two calls and a proposal. Or they charge a percentage of ad spend and can't explain why raising your budget helps you and not just their invoice.

3. Who owns the ad account and the data if we break up?

Good answer: "You do." Your Google Ads account, GA4 property and Google Tag Manager container are in your name. The agency gets manager access. That's it.

Red flag: the account lives under the agency's manager account and they can't hand it over. Leave, and years of conversion data and testing history walk out the door with them.

4. Can you show me results for a business like mine?

Good answer: a case study with real numbers and a client you could actually call. When we rebuilt Google Ads for Base Mountain Sports, rental conversions went up 260% and rental ads returned 807% on ad spend, in a year when travelers were watching every dollar.

Red flag: a wall of logos with no numbers. Or numbers with no business attached.

5. How long until we know if this is working?

Good answer: an actual timeline. Usually tracking gets fixed in the first few weeks, the account gets rebuilt in month one, and by month three you know your real cost per lead. That's why we ask for three months on paid ads.

Red flag: "Google needs time to learn," with no date attached. Or the other extreme: a promise to double your leads in 30 days. Nope.

On your next performance call

6. What are the goals for Google Ads in our business?

Good answer: they can recite your goals back to you without digging through their notes. Selling more product, getting leads for your sales team, building awareness, driving traffic: whatever it is, it should ladder up to a bigger goal you and your leadership team set. (Still deciding whether Google Ads fits your business at all? Here are five ways to tell.)

Red flag: the goal is "more clicks." Or the goal they describe isn't the one you gave them. (Yes, this happens.)

7. What are you counting as a conversion?

Good answer: they open the conversion goals in Google Ads and walk you through exactly what's tracked, which conversions count toward bidding and which ones are just being observed.

Red flag: a page view, a button click or a scroll is getting counted as a "conversion." A conversion is whatever your agency told Google Ads to count. Count the wrong thing and Google gets really, really good at finding people who do the wrong thing. Make sure you agree with what's on that list.

I'll shout it for the folks in the back: CONVERSION TRACKING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING.

8. How qualified are our leads, and how do you know?

Good answer: leads are tagged and flowing into your CRM, and your agency looks at which campaigns and keywords turned into actual customers. Bonus points if they send closed or qualified leads back into Google Ads so it bids for buyers.

Red flag: they've never asked. Are people calling from your ads looking for a job, or for your service? A good agency is dying to know.

9. Why are you running these campaign types?

Good answer: a reason tied to your goal. Something like: "Search catches people already looking for you, so it gets most of the budget. We limited Performance Max to these products because it kept spending your money on your own brand name."

Red flag: "It's best practice." Every campaign type is built for a different goal and shows up in a different part of Google's network. An agency that thinks past the default playbook is an agency that's working for you.

10. Why are you using this bidding strategy?

Good answer: it fits your goal and your data. Smart Bidding (Maximize Conversions, target cost per acquisition and friends) needs a decent pile of accurate conversions to learn from. With a small budget or sketchy tracking, a simpler setup usually wins until the data's there.

Red flag: they can't name the strategy. Or they've switched it every few weeks, which restarts Google's learning period every single time.

11. Which metrics matter most to our success?

Good answer: cost per conversion, return on ad spend, lead quality and revenue from closed deals, all tied back to question 6. And they live in a report you can open whenever you want, without being a GA4 or Google Ads expert. We use Looker Studio for exactly this.

Red flag: if your agency only talks about impressions... run.

12. If you lost half our budget tomorrow, what would you cut first?

Good answer: an instant, specific answer: the campaigns, keywords or locations with the worst cost per qualified lead. This is my favorite question. It tells you fast whether they know where your money is working.

Red flag: a long, awkward pause. Or "we'd reduce everything proportionally." Yikes.

If your agency can't answer these

A good PPC agency answers these with your numbers, tells you something's broken before you find it, and never makes you feel dumb for asking.

If yours can't answer them, or you don't love the answers, it's time for a second opinion. Tell us about your Google Ads account. I read every note myself. You can also see how we run paid ads.

Want a quick check on your site while you're at it? Our free SEO and AEO audit takes about 15 seconds.

FAQ

What should I ask a PPC agency before hiring them?

Ask who runs your account, who you'll talk to on calls, how they charge, who owns the ad account and data if you leave, and to see results for a business like yours. Get the account ownership answer in writing.

How do I know if my PPC agency is doing a good job?

Look at cost per qualified lead, return on ad spend and revenue over at least three months. A good agency can explain every change it made and what it did to those numbers.

What is a reasonable fee for PPC management?

Agencies commonly charge a flat monthly fee or 10% to 20% of ad spend, usually with a monthly minimum. Demand Beacon's pricing is on our services page.

When should I fire my PPC agency?

When they can't tell you what they count as a conversion, won't give you ownership of your ad account, or keep reporting activity instead of results after three months. Get your account access sorted first, then make the switch.