Finding the right agency can make a significant difference to your business. The right marketing partner should do more than just manage your accounts. Just like at Starlight Digital, your agency should take the time to understand your goals, spot opportunities for growth and continually optimise your campaigns to improve performance.
We know that businesses are continuously changing. Your budgets may grow, targets evolve, new products get launched and the expectations you set for your paid media can naturally become bigger.
Sometimes, the agency that was right for your business two or three years ago simply isn’t the right fit anymore. So, how do you know when you’ve outgrown your current PPC agency? Here are five signs to really look out for.
1. Your PPC strategy hasn’t evolved with your business
Your business probably looks very different from when you first started working with your old agency. And your paid strategies should evolve alongside that change.
If your campaigns are still following the same structure, targeting the same audiences and using the same approach they were several years ago, it may be time to ask whether you’re getting everything you could from your advertising spend.
Our PPC strategies aren’t something that gets set up once and left alone. We regularly review, test and adapt based on performance and changes with our clients.
If you’re struggling, ask yourself this: When was the last time your agency suggested a significant change to your PPC strategy?
2. You’re getting reports, but not real insight
There’s a big difference between reporting on PPC performance and actually explaining it.
You shouldn’t have to decipher a spreadsheet of clicks, impressions and conversions to understand whether your campaigns are working. At Starlight, our specialist team provides dedicated account management, with one-to-one meetings that provide clear reporting and regular updates. We show you what’s happening right now, why it’s happening and what we’re doing to enhance it further.
If your monthly reporting feels like just a collection of numbers rather than a smooth conversation about performance, you may have outgrown the level of support you really need.
3. You’re the one bringing ideas to the table
Your agency should be proactive. That doesn’t mean they need to recommend a new campaign to you every week just for the sake of it. But it does mean that they should be actively looking for new opportunities to improve your results.
Perhaps you’ve noticed quite a few competitors appearing above you in the search results. Maybe you’ve identified a product that could benefit from a new paid promotion. Or you’ve been wondering whether Microsoft Ads or paid social could play a role in your strategy.
If you’re consistently the person suggesting what to test next, it could be a sign that you need a more proactive partner.
Our phrase: Always on. Always optimising. Always ahead. – isn’t just a catchy tagline. It reflects how we approach every account. We’re constantly moving and being actively involved in our client’s PPC performance, rather than waiting for them to tell us what needs attention.
4. Your agency only talks about PPC
Your paid search performance can be influenced by a variety of factors including your website, landing pages, SEO, socials, pricing, competitors, etc. This doesn’t mean that your PPC agency needs to manage every part of your digital marketing if you don’t want them too. But it does mean that they should understand how PPC fits into the bigger picture.
For example, if your campaigns are generating plenty of relevant traffic but conversions aren’t really following, only increasing your advertising budget may not be the answer. There could be opportunities to improve other aspects such as the landing page, messaging, targeting or the entire conversion journey.
As your business scales, you may need an agency that can look beyond the campaign dashboard and understand how your different marketing activities work together.
We find that the best results come from a mix of data, strategy and a clear understanding of your wider marketing picture. This allows us to make more informed recommendations and ensure your paid search activity is working towards your goals.
5. Your unclear on your ROI
Perhaps the biggest warning sign for a business is when you don’t feel confident that your PPC investment is being properly managed. You should know what your agency is working on, why they’re doing it and how those activities contribute towards your goals.
That doesn’t mean you need to know every single optimisation being made inside your account. PPC itself can get pretty complex, and that’s what you’re paying your agency to handle on your behalf.
But you should have confidence that someone else is taking the wheel to make those informed decisions on your behalf. This is why we have such a specialist team at Starlight Digital, bringing together different areas of expertise to keep improving performance.
If you’re regularly wondering what your agency actually does between reporting calls, that’s worth a conversation.
But outgrowing your agency doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve done a bad job
It’s important to remember that outgrowing an agency isn’t necessarily a reflection of poor performance. The agency might have been exactly what your business needed when you started working together.
Perhaps you originally needed someone to get your Google Ads account set up and generate leads. A few years later, you might have a significantly larger budget, more ambitious growth targets and a need for a much broader paid media strategy.
But the important question now is whether your current PPC agency is capable of supporting where your business is going next.
What should you look for in your next PPC agency?
If any of these signs sound familiar, don’t automatically assume you need to switch agencies tomorrow. Start by having an honest conversation with your current partner and ask them what they think the biggest opportunities could be in your account. Ask what they would change if they had a larger budget. Ask what changes or developments in the wider PPC landscape could impact your campaigns.
And if you’re looking for a new agency, look beyond any promises of big click rates and fast results. Instead, look for a partner that understands your commercial objectives, communicates clearly and has a range of digital marketing services that might support your strategy in the future.
As a Google Premier Partner, Starlight Digital provides partnered expertise across Google Ads, as well as Microsoft Ads, Amazon Ads and paid social and SEO, giving our clients a wider range of support behind each campaign.
Think your PPC strategy could be doing more? Get in touch with us to arrange a free marketing audit and discover where your next opportunities could be.
