How do I choose a PPC agency?
Choose a PPC agency by how it ties spend to revenue rather than clicks. Ask who owns your ad accounts, how they report on cost-per-acquisition and ROAS, how often they test, and who actually runs your account day to day. Avoid long lock-ins and vague "impressions" reporting. A good partner treats your budget like its own money.
Start with account ownership: you should own your Google Ads, Meta, and analytics accounts, so you keep the data and history if you leave. Then judge reporting. A serious agency reports on cost-per-acquisition, ROAS, and pipeline, and doesn't lean on impressions or click-through rate alone. Ask who touches your account day to day, because many shops pitch with experienced people and hand the work to someone junior. Ask about testing too: how often they test ad creative, landing pages, audiences, and bidding.
Watch the contract and the incentives. Month-to-month or short terms signal confidence; year-long lock-ins protect the agency more than you. A percentage-of-spend fee can reward bigger budgets over better returns, so pair it with clear performance targets. Get a real audit of your current account before you sign, and check that they understand your sales cycle and margins, because a profitable cost-per-lead for a $50 product is very different from one for a $50,000 contract.
Gigde runs PPC to make money for you: you own your accounts, reporting maps spend to leads and revenue, and testing is continuous. Since 2019 we've helped brands generate 50,000+ leads and 65% better ROI by aligning paid media with the rest of the funnel. See how we work at /services/paid-ads, then email contact@gigde.com or request a free growth plan.
| Criterion | What good looks like | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Account ownership | You own the ad accounts & data | They keep the account hostage |
| Fee model | Transparent flat or clear % of spend | Hidden markups on media |
| Metrics | Profit, ROAS, incrementality | Clicks & impressions only |
| Channel fit | Recommends channels for your goals | Same playbook for everyone |
| Testing | Structured creative & bid testing | Set-and-forget campaigns |
Questions people also ask
How much does PPC management cost?
PPC management is usually priced one of three ways: a percentage of ad spend, a fixed monthly retainer, or a flat per-project fee. Percentage fees are commonly tiered as budgets grow; project fees cover setup and audits. Your media budget is separate and goes straight to Google or Meta. Cost depends on spend, platforms, account complexity, and creative and testing needs.
How do I improve my ROAS?
Improve ROAS by fixing the whole path from click to checkout, including the ad. Tighten audience targeting, cut wasted spend on poor search terms and placements, sharpen creative and offers, and raise landing-page conversion rates. Make sure conversion tracking is accurate so the platform optimizes toward real revenue, and move budget to your highest-margin, best-converting campaigns.
Insist on owning your accounts and data
The first non-negotiable is ownership. Your Google Ads, Meta, and analytics accounts should be created under your own credentials with the agency granted access, never the other way around. This matters because your account history, the conversion data, audience lists, and machine-learning signals the platforms accumulate over months, builds value over time, and if the agency owns it you lose all of it the day you leave and hand your successor a completely blank slate. Ask directly during vetting: if we part ways, do we keep the accounts and the data? A confident, client-first agency answers yes without hesitation. An agency that wants to hold your accounts is protecting its retention numbers. Ownership also lets you audit spend independently and verify that what you are billed matches what actually ran, so from the first month you are not dependent on the agency's own reports and dashboards.
Judge them on revenue metrics and testing, not clicks
The reports an agency chooses to lead with reveal what they actually optimize for. A serious PPC partner talks about cost per acquisition, return on ad spend, and downstream pipeline or revenue, the numbers that decide whether the channel is profitable. Be wary of anyone who fills dashboards with impressions, click-through rate, and vague engagement, because those are easy to inflate and rarely tie back to money in the bank. Ask how often they test, and what: ad creative, landing pages, audiences, and bidding strategies should all be tested on a regular schedule instead of being set once and left alone for months. Also confirm they understand your margins and sales cycle, since a profitable cost per lead for a low-priced product looks nothing like one for a high-ticket contract with a long close. An agency that asks about your unit economics before quoting a fee is paying attention to whether you make money on the clicks it buys.
Check who runs the account, and read the contract
Many shops win business with a polished senior pitch, then quietly hand day-to-day execution to a junior you never met in the meeting. Ask exactly who will touch your account each week and request to meet them before signing anything. Then read the contract for what it protects: month-to-month or short terms signal an agency confident it can earn your renewal through results, while long lock-ins mainly protect the agency. If they charge a percentage of ad spend, understand that the incentive rewards bigger budgets rather than better returns, so pair it with explicit performance targets. Always get a genuine audit of your current account before committing, because it shows how they think and whether they found specific opportunities in your account or only generic advice. Gigde runs paid media against profit, with regular testing and reporting tied to revenue; see the approach at /services/paid-ads and request a free growth plan at contact@gigde.com.
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