7 Ways to Prep a Google Ads Agency to Manage Your PPC Account

Starting a basic Google Ads account is not difficult in the least bit. With a bit of research and a credit card, you can get account going pretty quickly.

However, maintaining an effective Google Ads account can be time consuming. Many small and mid-size businesses lack the resources and skills, so it's often better handled by a PPC (pay-per-click) ad agency.

So how do you go about working with an agency to make your Google Ads (formerly AdWords) marketing efforts successful? These things will all take place after you've talked to the agency about budget/fees. Many agencies will charge you their management fee based on a percentage of your Google Ads spend. After you reached an agreement, here are some things you might have to do:

Setting up Google Ads With Your New PPC Agency

1. First you need your account.

The initial Google Account itself can be set up by you, or the agency. The easiest way to do this is to go to Gmail, create a free Gmail account, then with your new account credentials visit ads.google.com/home.

• You'll be asked to verify your email address.
• You'll choose your billing currency
• You'll choose your time zone.
• They'll ask you to get started. ... This is where you can hand it over.
  
  

2. In the upper-right corner, you should see a 10-digit number -- send this to your agency.

They can then request access to manage this with their "My Client Center" account. You'll have to approve this, but they will surely be able to navigate you there.

Now you hold the key to the master account and they can manage that account easily for you.

3. Determine what the ultimate outcomes should be from your initiatives.

Having goals in mind, will allow the agency to build the account to meet those goals.

4. Make sure the agency knows what you're all about!

They won't be able to build an account without knowledge of your company, product, or services.

• Have a brainstorming session with the agency
• Send/give them an initial list of keywords you think your target audience might search for
• Tell the agency about your target audience ... where do they live, what is their knowledge level, what interests do they have, how old are they, are they men or women?

5. A good Google Ads campaign should have good landing pages.

If you can create landing pages for the account, get the details of what they should be from the agency. If the agency is going to build the landing pages for you, get them access to your website through either a CMS login or FTP access if you don't have a CMS.

6. Add the agency to your Google Analytics account so it can integrate Ads.

Here they can also set up to track conversions and it will also help them build-out your account because they can see what keywords already generate traffic and what those visitors do on your website.

7. If you haven't already, set up billing.

Many agencies will have the Google Ads account fees billed directly to your credit card. You'll likely be choosing post-pay by Credit Card. Give the agency a call if you need some help with this. Also, make sure you ask them about a promotional code. I'm sure they have some laying around!

8. Review the agency's work.

Do this before it goes live.

You have a login to the account -- use it to review keywords, ads, landing pages, bids, etc.

9. Launch and get continual updates from the agency.

You might have agreed on a reporting schedule. If so, don't dread getting the report -- look forward to it. Hopefully the agency will have good news to report. Based on sales, conversions, etc. ... you might already know how it's going.

Mutual Expectations for Months 0-3

This isn't an all-inclusive list, and some of it may be obvious, but it's always helpful to know ahead of time what you might be asked to do or what you should expect from an agency.

To learn more about what to expect from a new agency-client marketing relationship, check out the free resource below. Make sure both sides will work together like peanut butter and jelly!