Questions to Ask When Hiring a B2B PPC Consultant

Compared to B2C PPC, B2B is a high-stakes game. After all, you are not looking to win over buyers but rather to gain new contracts.

How do you reliably generate leads for your business?

The best course is to outsource. Hire a B2B PPC consultant to take care of the tedious work. PPC is using digital marketing to its fullest. This means social media, email, content marketing, and more.

Give yourself the best chance of success by hiring only the best PPC consultant. Here are seven must-ask questions.

1. How Familiar Are You with My Products or Services?

Digital Authority Partners said a consultant must know how to advertise your business properly to get the best possible results. To do this, they should also know about your business, products, and services and how these work.

Think of PPC ads as recommendations. They aim to attract customers with a good hook. However, you cannot make a compelling ad if you do not know anything about the product or service.

The consultant must make a convincing recommendation. Otherwise, your business would not be appealing to potential clients. Working with them may be challenging down the road if they cannot give a satisfying answer. See how well they know the industry you work in before deciding.

2. How Will You Make My Business Stand Out?

This can serve as a follow-up to the previous question, or it can also stand on its own. Your goal with advertising is to have as many eyes on your business as possible. If your business does not stand out, your entire ad budget could go to waste.

Ask the consultant for their portfolio. See if the quality of their previous work is up to your standards. It is a preview of what your ads might look like in terms of design and quality.

3. What Will You Do to Address Competitor Ads?

Part of boosting your business’s online visibility is working around competitors. A good PPC consultant will know how to avoid or counteract competing ads. Whether or not other companies use aggressive marketing tactics, optimal results will come from outshining them.

Simple fixes like focusing on different keywords, going all in on a catchy tagline, or having better ad bid strategies can pay off significantly. Homing in on your area with location targeting is another good tactic to edge out the competition.

How they plan to address competitors depends on how well the consultant understands your business, target market, and industry.

4. What Types of PPC Ads Do You Specialize In?

There are several types of PPC ads available. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Every ad type also works best on different platforms.

For example, display ads can appear just about anywhere that has space. On the other hand, video ads are best used on social media platforms such as YouTube.

Here are some standard ads used in PPC:

• Display ads: These appear anywhere from blogs to websites to apps. Signing up with an ad network allows you to target specific demographics better.
• Search ads: Ads on search engines are typically simple, but you can decorate them with images, videos, reviews, etc., to be more substantial.
• Social media ads: Each platform has a unique system for advertisements that include distinctive features optimized for user experience.

Expertly coordinating ad type, product, or service, and the platform takes a lot of skill. A good PPC consultant can tailor everything to your needs and preferences.

It is also important to know whether or not the consultant can do remarketing or retargeting for you. PPC is good for short-term lead generation. However, leads are not always acquired on the first ad interaction. A follow-up remarketing ad can greatly improve PPC effectiveness.

5. Who Will Be Handling My Company’s Account?

While it is straightforward that PPC consultants will be the account manager for your PPC campaign, they are still only one person. You need to know who else will be involved in your account and to what extent.

Establish whether:

• they have an in-house team that helps them, or if they outsource work
• they use marketing automation or do everything manually
• what they or their team each specialize in

The chain of command might also affect cost and turnaround. For example, if anyone on the team is in another time zone, it may cost less but cause delays or communication difficulties. If they work independently, they may have other clients that sometimes keep them busy.

Keep this in mind when meeting with a consultant for the first time.

6. How Do You Compute Cost-Effective Spending?

Cost-effectiveness is one of the main reasons for outsourcing PPC. Consultants help you cut costs by keeping your employee count and overhead costs low. However, other factors determine optimal spending.

According to Microsoft, these are some of the major factors that affect your advertising budget:

• Advertising goals or what you want to accomplish through PPC
• Target audience or where and for whom the ads are made and run
• Operational costs or the amount used in running the campaign (salary, software, etc.)

Ask the consultant how they determine the optimal ad budget and if they provide a detailed breakdown for reference. Request full transparency to avoid potential misunderstandings or miscommunications down the line.

7. What Is Your Payment Model, and What Are Included?

Every consultant will have a preferred payment structure for their services.

Here are the four usual payment models:

1. Hourly rate
2. Percentage of ad spend
3. Fixed-rate
4. Performance-based pricing

Each one has different implications for the quality of services you receive.

For example, a quick turnaround will significantly lower costs if the bill is hourly. Meanwhile, there is a large incentive to make effective ads for performance-based payment.

Before you hire a consultant, clarify their terms of service. Regardless of the model used, the outcome has to benefit both parties. The consultant should receive fair payment, and you should receive quality leads and service.

Summing Up

Investing in PPC is a quick way to generate leads. It also packs all the tools you need to succeed in business. SEO, keyword research, and market research are all vital parts of a good PPC campaign.

It is a lot to manage and may even be costly when done on your own. Consider reaching out to a PPC consultant.