9 Questions to Ask a PPC Management Company in Australia Before You Sign
To choose a PPC management company, ask every provider on your shortlist the same nine questions and compare the answers in writing. The questions cover who owns the ad account, how conversions are tracked, what the monthly report shows, who writes the ads and what the contract locks in.
PPC (pay-per-click) is advertising where you pay each time someone clicks your ad, most commonly through Google Ads, Google’s advertising platform. A PPC management company plans, runs and adjusts those campaigns for you, for a fee on top of your ad spend.
Star Digital Marketing is a full-service digital marketing agency in Spring Hill, Brisbane, that works as an outsourced marketing department for small and medium businesses across Australia. We get asked these questions as a PPC management company ourselves, so our own answers are at the end.
How do I choose a PPC management company in Australia?
Choose the PPC management company whose answers you can understand, check and hold it to. A pitch shows you how an agency sells. These nine questions show you how it works.
Ask them before a proposal arrives, and ask for the answers by email. If an agency has let you down before, written answers are also your record of what was promised.
Questions about ownership and tracking
1. Who owns the Google Ads account, me or the agency?
You should own the Google Ads account, and the agency should be given access to it. The account holds your campaign history and performance data, which is what a new provider would need if you ever moved.
Google Ads lets an agency connect to an account you own through a manager account, which is one login an agency uses to work across several client accounts. At the time of writing, Google Ads Help explains how access levels and manager accounts work. Some agencies build campaigns inside an account they own. That can be a legitimate way to work, so ask what you would keep if you left.
2. How will conversions be tracked?
Conversions should be tracked before any money is spent, and you should be told exactly what counts as one. A conversion is an action you care about, such as a phone call, a form submission or a booking. Conversion tracking records which clicks led to those actions.
Ask which actions will be counted, how phone calls are measured, and who checks that tracking still works. Tracking collects visitor data, so privacy obligations may apply to your business. The OAIC’s Australian Privacy Principles are the place to start, and your own adviser can tell you how they apply.
Questions about the work
3. What should a PPC agency report on each month?
A monthly PPC report should show what you spent, how many enquiries it produced and what each enquiry cost. Cost per enquiry, also called cost per lead, is your ad spend divided by the number of enquiries.
Ask to see a sample report. For example, a report showing $2,000 of spend and 20 enquiries tells you each enquiry cost $100, which you can compare with what a customer is worth to you. A report that leads with impressions (how often your ad was shown) can’t tell you that. Ask what was changed during the month and what is planned next, too.
4. Who writes the ads?
Ask who writes the ads and the landing pages, and whether more than one version is tested. A landing page is the page someone arrives on after clicking your ad. The words on the ad and on that page decide whether a click becomes an enquiry, so this is a writing job as much as a technical one.
5. Who manages my account, and how often?
Ask for the role of the person who will work in your account and how often they will review it. Search behaviour and competitors’ bids change, so an account needs regular attention to stay efficient. Ask who your one point of contact will be as well.
6. Can a new agency take over my existing account?
Yes, a new agency can take over an existing Google Ads account if you own it or can get administrator access to it. Ask whether the agency will review what is there before changing anything, and whether it expects to rebuild or to refine. An account’s history has value, so a rebuild should come with a reason.
Already running ads and thinking about switching? Call 1300 859 066 or email sales@stardigitalmarketing.com.au and ask us to look at your account before you decide.
Questions about money and the contract
7. What does the fee cover, and how is it calculated?
Ask whether the fee is flat, a percentage of your ad spend or a mix of both, and what is billed on top. Setup, tracking, landing pages and reporting are sometimes included and sometimes extra. Our guide to what PPC management costs in Australia explains the three fee models.
If you’re weighing an agency against a marketing hire or a set of freelancers, compare the whole cost, including your own time spent coordinating them.
8. What are the red flags in a PPC agency contract?
The clauses to read twice are the minimum term, the notice period, who owns the account and the work, and any promise of results. None of these is automatically a problem. The risk is signing without knowing what they say.
Clause | What to ask | Why it matters |
Minimum term | How long am I committed, and what happens after that? | Ad campaigns take weeks to optimise, so some commitment can be reasonable. You should know its length before you start. |
Notice period | How much notice do I give, and in what form? | It sets how quickly you can leave if the work isn’t paying for itself. |
Ownership | Do I keep the account, the data, the ads and the landing pages? | Without them, a new provider starts from nothing. |
Results | Is any ranking, lead number or return guaranteed? | Results depend on your market, budget and starting point, so treat a guarantee with caution. |
9. When would you tell me not to run ads?
A PPC company worth hiring can describe a situation where it would advise you not to advertise. Ads rarely help if your website doesn’t convert the visitors it already gets, or if your margins can’t absorb what a click costs in your industry.
Ask about capacity as well. If you can only take on a few more customers a month, the campaign should be sized to that, so you don’t pay for enquiries you can’t service.
Want straight answers to all nine? Book a free strategy call and quote, or call 1300 859 066. The call runs 30 minutes with no obligation, and you get a written action plan to keep whether or not you go ahead.
How Star Digital Marketing answers the nine questions
We’re happy to be measured against this list. Here is how we answer each one.
- Ownership. You own your ad accounts, analytics, domain and website, and they stay yours if we part ways.
- Tracking. We set up conversion tracking before any spend goes out.
- Reporting. You get a short plain-English monthly summary in enquiries and dollars: what we did, what it produced and what’s next.
- Ads. Our copywriting team writes the ads, and we test more than one version.
- People. You have one team and one point of contact, and we review accounts weekly. You can read who leads the agency and how we work.
- Takeovers. We review what is there and tell you what’s working before we change anything.
- Fees. We tailor the work instead of selling bronze, silver and gold packages, and you can take one service or several. The quote follows the strategy call.
- Contract. Our minimum term and notice period for PPC management.
- Honesty. We say so when something isn’t worth doing, and we ask how many more customers you can handle before we suggest what to spend.
Because the same team runs SEO and content for our clients, ad data shows which keywords convert, and those get priority in SEO.
Put the nine questions to us
The first conversation is diagnostic. We ask what a customer is worth, how many more you can handle and where your enquiries come from now. If you already run ads, ask for an account audit when you book.