That is a good point, I should not have created a sweeping generalization like that. For the most part what I meant to say was that – when more than one person works on an account information tends to get lost. Now there are probably talented agencies out there with very good documentation and collaboration skills, however a large percentage of the time I do not see this.

One of the major issues I see from agencies is that they are not set up properly for transparency into an account. Main reasons being 1. There is more than one person working on the account so no one person is fully accountable, 2. Account structure is usually poor due to lack of documentation, 3. They don’t fully understand what the goals are for the client and are mostly focused on generic reporting, 4. They get lazy and stop testing.

Great list though!

As Alan pointed out tracking methodology – It is very important if advertising in Shopping Engines bcoz, some shopping engines doesn’t provide you tracking mechanism, you will have to rely on third party – Google Analytics sometimes may not give you the accurate results.

Also ask for the holiday season plannings. I was going through a similar thing on ehow and found two interesting articles I would definitely like to share,
http://www.ehow.com/how_4542395_improve-search-engine-marketing-strategies.html
http://netelixir.com/semfreshideas.html?4

I’ve been thinking about the same concept with the SEM company I work for, DragonSearch, and would have to agree on nearly all of your points. I think it’s very important to identify key components, like you have done, for your own company in order to not only fulfill current client satisfaction but improve your services.

Andy

You don’t have web analytics
You don’t get monthly reports
You don’t talk to your rep on a monthly basis or more
You only see impressions and clicks in reports
You’re landing pages have not changed
Your cost per click seems outrageously high

One thing you might also want to ask a potential PPC agency is what tracking solution they would like to adopt. Google Analytics may be the most popular, but depending on the extent of your other marketing activity (SEO, display, email, social media, offline), a more advanced solution may be necessary for more accurate conversion attribution.

Especially agree with your 8th point – testing. I think that question alone is enough to separate the reputable, professional agencies from the ’set-and-forgets’. It’s often only in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th months that a PPC campaign can really start to improve, so a clearly defined testing strategy is essential.