As a company that has managed over six million dollars in advertising for our clients in 2019 alone, we’re very well aware of the dos and don'ts when it comes to choosing a social PPC agency and have decided that in light of the coming holiday, we’re going to share some spooktacularly incredible tips for choosing the perfect social PPC agency for your business.
Summary
- What is a Social PPC Agency?
- Before You Choose a Social PPC Agency
- The Perfect Social PPC Agency: Do They Exist?
- #1 They Love to Share and Utilize Data
- #2 Well-Seasoned Agencies Make Great Partners And the First-Party Data Sources Scoop
- #3 Mobile Optimization is Key
- #4 They Know Where Your Products or Services Belong
- #5 Their Ad Copy Skills are on Fire
- #6 Making More Money Isn’t Their Only Goal
- #7 They’re Covering All the Bases
- What Questions Should I Ask Before Hiring a Social PPC Agency?
- Working With a Social PPC Agency: The Ins and Outs
Despite how much money brands and businesses are already spending on their advertising efforts, each year it continues to rise, with an emphasis on social media platforms.
Yes, PPC through Google is great, but unlike social PPC, your products aren’t going to be front and center 24/7 the way they are with social PPC.
So by putting the emphasis on the platforms where your services and products are always front and center, you’ll be far more likely to make sales. Common sense, right? Right.
However, while choosing where to put your ads might seem like a walk in the park, actually choosing a social PPC agency to help you pull it all together and execute is a whole different ball game. After all, choosing a social PPC agency often means:
✅ Trusting a stranger with your money for ad spend purposes,
✅ Trusting in a stranger’s process for making money back,
✅ Not knowing whether they’ll understand your product well enough to market it effectively,
✅ Having to find a balance between trusting their process and knowing when to pull the plug,
✅ STRESS.
The amount of money that businesses are spending on PPC campaigns isn’t a joke and also isn’t happening for no reason.
It’s happening because there are explosive possibilities within the realm of social media advertising campaigns and today, we’re going to take the burden of choice off of your shoulders, help you pinpoint red flags and help you find a team who will help you find the answers and ultimately MAKE YOU MONEY.
Are you ready?
Let’s get started.
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What is a Social PPC Agency?
Social PPC is a form of digital marketing and advertising called “Pay-Per-Click” advertising that is specific to social media channels.
Every ad can be tailored and targeted to users based on demographics, location, interests and more, which make social PPC campaigns particularly useful and successful when executed properly.
A Social PPC Agency is an agency that specializes in putting your services and products in front of customers using the pay-per-click method so that you don’t pay unless someone clicks on your ad.
A social PPC agency is an incredible tool in your arsenal for a variety of reasons, a few being:
💻 They know everything there is to know about PPC advertising and will get you a lot more bang for your buck,
💲 They can actually SAVE you money in the long-term because they know exactly what tactics to use for the best profits, have in-house graphic designers and professional copywriters and are often trained and equipped to A/B test every ad for best results,
📈 Perhaps most importantly of all, you’ll be able to get detailed reports of exactly where your money is going and coming from for better ad optimization and future improvements.
Know This Before You Choose a Social PPC Agency
So before you dig into all the fun and fear associated with choosing the perfect social PPC agency, you have to first get real about your goals and what you’re hoping to achieve through social PPC advertising.
Having a clear picture of what you want to achieve is the first step to actually achieving it, because if YOU don’t know what you want, there’s no way in hell someone else will.
So long before you’re making calls, receiving proposals or heaven forbid signing deals, have a discussion with your team and gauge expectations.
You can’t expect too much too soon, but you also need to expect something more than nothing because that wouldn’t be right. Believe me. It wouldn’t.
Social PPC isn’t a magic fairy that comes in and makes you money immediately. Sometimes you have to lose money to make a significant amount of money, so don’t forget that in the hiring process and the weeks following because giving up too soon is oftentimes worse than never starting.
If you’re not sure what kind of goals you need to make in order to be successful in the world of social PPC, some great places to start would be:
🎟 Adding qualified leads to your sales funnel or increasing the number already there,
🤑 Making more sales, (and consequently more money!)
📢 Building brand awareness
🔉 Increasing your followers
🙌 Promoting specific products or services
Another question you’ll need to carefully consider is just how involved you want to be in the process.
A lot of our clients let go and allow us to work our magic without a second thought. However, others might want to be involved in every nitty-gritty detail, from what area we will be targeting to what keywords we’re including.
Your level of involvement is entirely up to you. Our clients, no matter how hands-on or hands-off are invited to a weekly meeting for update, which we imagine is a pretty standard practice no matter who you’re working with.
If you have a good understanding of what you WANT from an advertising effort made on your behalf, you’ll have a much easier time communicating those expectations to your social PPC agency of choice.
The Perfect Social PPC Agency: Do They Exist?
Probably not, although we like to think we strive for perfection in everything that we do.
However, there are some things you’ll want to look out for that are definite deal-breakers when it comes to whether or not you should be working with a particular social PPC agency.
So what should you keep your eyes open for?
#1 They Love to Share and Utilize Data
If there is ANYTHING you want from a social PPC agency, it’s that they love to consume, share and utilize data in their social paid advertising efforts.
The very best social PPC agencies know how to use numbers for effective ad campaigns. It’s that simple. If they can’t show you or explain WHY they know what they’re doing works, you shouldn’t be working with them.
And if you’re not sure whether or not they’ll be data-sharing with you, providing reports or providing access to the ad dashboards, here’s some great questions to ask BEFORE signing off with them.
- What tools or services do you use to measure essential social PPC metrics?
- Do you regularly and actively share data and results with your clients?
- Will I have independent access to my social paid ads analytics and reporting?
- Are regular reports included with the offer you have presented to me, or is this a separate cost?
Sometimes you can find answers to these questions on the potential agencies website, but not often. Hence why asking questions is so valuable!
#2 Well-Seasoned Agencies Make Great Partners (And the First-Party Data Sources Scoop)
If you’ve been in social advertising for any length of time, you’ll know that the longer you’re in advertising, the more information you’ll have about your buyer. This information is commonly referred to as “first party data” and it is a crucial tool if you are hoping for limitless growth.
But what if you’ve never participated in social PPC advertising? What then?
Enter a well-seasoned agency who works with clients on a regular basis.
Whether or not YOU have data is beside the point. As a social PPC advertising agency, we have stored data that will give us a pretty good leg-up when it comes to finding a system that works for your brand.
Sure, it’ll take tailoring, testing, optimizing...everything a typical social media advertising campaign would require, but the difference is that we’re that much closer to having a solid answer and knowing exactly what will work when it comes to YOUR brand and getting that target ROi.
#3 Mobile Optimization is Key
If your potential candidates can’t optimize your ads for mobile, you’re in trouble.
Over half of ad clicks come from mobile devices, which means if your first priority is not mobile optimization, you’re going to be losing lots of potential revenue.
Creatives, social advertising copy, size...one is not more important than the other and they all deserve equal attention when it comes to optimizing your products perfectly. And this is why hiring a social PPC agency who knows how to optimize for mobile and WHY it’s important is so vital.
If you’re not sure, it’s a good idea to ask for a sample of what a mobile ad would look like. You’ll want to look out for:
📲 Images that are not sized properly,
🗨 Words that are too small to read/cut off/etc,
📷 Blurry images,
🎥 Short, to-the-point videos,
💬 Easy-to-follow ad text.
If they’re on the ball when it comes to mobile optimization, it’s much more likely that you’ll get fast, reliable results, so it’s definitely something to keep in mind when choosing a social PPC agency.
#4 They Know Where Your Products or Services Belong
A good social PPC agency should know what social media channels your products and services belong on and where they don’t.
Maybe you already have an idea of what platforms your content works best on, or maybe you have no idea. Either way, any agency you’re considering should be able to tell you what platforms you’ll do well on and which you should stay away from.
#5 Their Ad Copy Skills are on Fire
If they don’t have good copy writing skills, the only thing we can tell you is run.
By far the best way to get a high ROi and a low cost-per-click is to have ad copy that is on fire.
And when we say on fire, we mean copy that will make your customers stop scrolling, click the expand button, (when applicable) and stop to check your product out and click that landing page.
If their copy skills suck, it means you won’t get the results you deserve and you should move on.
#6 Making More Money Isn’t Their Only Goal
Money: it’s fabulous. Money coming in is by far one of the best ways to measure your success, but if the emphasis is only on the money and not on growing your brand awareness and your following, they’re doing something wrong.
You don’t want a short-term fix, you want a long-term fix, which means growing your ORGANIC following and building brand awareness into your campaigns.
My team and I do a series of ads with different goals. Some are for sales, some are pure follower campaigns and some are just for brand awareness.
Each campaign is tailored to the objective so we can get YOU the most bang for your buck. Or, as it’s commonly referred to in the social media marketing world, a fantastic Return-On-investment.
#7 They’re Covering All the Bases
If you’re looking to be TRULY successful, social PPC isn’t enough.
The businesses who have no social media presence but advertise on social media aren’t playing to win, they’re playing to get by. And in a fast-changing, fast-growing landscape of movers and shakers, this isn’t enough to be successful.
Yes, social PPC is a great way to get your brand name out there, get sales and get more followers, but it’s important to couple your social PPC campaigns with a full-blown social media strategy that allows you to empower your team to grow with a future-forward mindset.
Without a full package, you’re basically taking two steps forward and one step back. If you want to see real growth, it’s important to cover all the bases.
What Questions Should I Ask Before Hiring a Social PPC Agency?
You’ve found some great potential social PPC agencies, but you’re not entirely convinced they’re the right fit and you’re not sure how to narrow them down.
In this case, it’s a good idea to ask questions before you get too far into the negotiation process, so we’ve put some together below.
“How do you decide what keywords we should focus on?”
“What tools do you use to make the most of your social PPC efforts?”
“Can you show me a strategy for a business similar to mine?”
“What do the results typically look like in the first few months for an industry like mine? Can I see examples?”
“What metrics do you rely on for deciding whether or not an ad is performing well?”
“What platforms do you typically advertise on?”
Working With a Social PPC Agency: The Ins and Outs
There is nothing more annoying to a client than dealing with a social PPC agency who doesn’t know what they’re doing and vice versa.
Whether you’re completely unsure of what to expect when it comes to advertising on social media or have been disappointed in the past, it’s important to follow a few basic guidelines for working with a social PPC agency.
#1 Be Clear About Your Expectations
There is no such thing as reliable two week results. At a minimum, a social advertising team needs at least a month to evaluate and find out what works for YOU.
So if you feel like you need to be seeing results faster or are disappointed with the way things are going, it’s important to communicate effectively so that you and your team can be on the same page and disappointment can stay at a minimum.
#2 Provide Information Where Possible
Have you worked with a social paid advertising team in the past? Maybe you’ve worked with a social media advertising freelancer, or even tried your hand at social PPC for yourself.
Even outdated information can be a powerful tool for a social PPC agency and can give them a leg up in helping you get faster and more reliable results, so putting together a report from past first-party data or information about your audience’s behaviors and attributes can be an excellent way to jumpstart your new partnership.
#3 Choose a Single Point of Contact
Keep the conversation flowing and avoid miscommunication by establishing a single POC with your social PPC agency of choice.
This doesn’t mean you can’t have a team working hand-in-hand with an ad expert or an account manager, it just means that information, approvals and reporting needs to be with a single point of contact to avoid unnecessary confusion.
For instance, if our ad experts and account managers know exactly who to pose a budget question or copy question to, we’ll be able to get a response and get things rolling faster than if we’re going back and forth not knowing who to ask for what and when.
#4 Ask Questions and Be Open-Minded
As a social PPC agency, I can confirm that it is incredibly important to ask questions when you have them and to be open-minded about what a social PPC agency might want to do for your advertising efforts.
Remember, you’re hiring a social PPC agency BECAUSE they know what they’re doing, so let them do what they do best and don’t try to micromanage the process. As long as you’re getting detailed reports and you’re seeing long-term progress, trust the process and look out for results.
We’re the Social PPC Agency Solution You’re Looking For!
Providing value, creativity, innovation and RESULTS as a social pay-per-click agency is the name of the game for me and my team.
We don’t just search until we find a solution, we continue to improve and find new and improved ways to give you bigger and better ROIs, lower CPCs and detailed reports so you can watch the improvements in real time.
You’ll be able to work side-by-side with our incredible creative team to find copy, images, videos and graphics that speak to your audience, as well as get in on the action with our social paid advertising managers and experts to get a good handle on where your brand is going long-term.
Looking for long-term social PPC results? We’re the social PPC agency you’ve been waiting for! Get in touch with our creative experts HERE or chat with our representatives NOW using our handy chat feature! 🎉
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