Before You Inherit the Account

A Strong Client Relationship is Built by Setting Proper Expectations

When inheriting a pre-existing pay-per-click account, it is of the utmost importance to set clear, realistic expectations before any work begins. If a client is coming to you to manage their PPC campaign, they must not be generating the results they need. This is why they are looking for a new PPC manager: they want to take their performance and results to the next level. However, you need to make sure that the next level is realistic and achievable.

In order to set the proper expectations and goals for the PPC account, you can ask a series of questions that will help you gain the most information about the client and the campaign. Here are some questions that can help you drill down and get the information you need to set yourself up for success:

• Can you provide details of the account’s historical performance?
• What have been the results of your PPC campaign thus far?
• Why have these results not been satisfactory?
• Describe the results you would like to achieve through the campaign.
• What tactics have you (or your previous PPC manager) employed to optimize the account?
• Which of these tactics have worked and which have not?

You need to ask these questions in order to get a clear picture of where the PPC campaign has been and where it needs to go. When asking a client to describe what they want from their campaign, a common response is “to make more money by spending less money.” Who doesn’t want that? If your client doesn’t have a clear picture of what exactly they need from their PPC campaign in order to gauge success, you need to paint this picture for them.

A PPC campaign is only a small part of the big picture. If you are going to help your client determine how PPC can grow their business, you first need to understand how PPC fits into their business as a whole. To close the loop from click to sale, you should ask these questions:

• What is your sales cycle (instant, days, weeks, months)?
• Tell me how your sales process works from lead to close.
• Are there any variations/exceptions to your sales process?
• How do you qualify your leads?
• What is your average sales/lead value?
• Are there any other external factors that would positively or negatively effect lead/sales generation?

By interviewing your client and running a series of historical reports within the account (which we’ll discuss later), you will have a clear picture of where the PPC campaign has been and how it can enhance your business.

Now it’s time to set realistic goals for the campaign going forward. How do you determine which goals are realistic, which are aggressive, and which are unachievable? As a PPC management expert, this will be up to you to determine. How quickly and aggressively can you optimize and expand this campaign?

Your client will appreciate your honesty when you tell them what to expect from your services. You should construct a goal system for the first 6 to 12 months. These goals should be formulated with an end result in mind: arrive at the performance level that your client needs from their PPC campaign. If it will take 6 months to get the campaign to this level, make this clear up front. Create a detailed but flexible time frame. Also, you need to compose a narrative on how you determined this time frame and why it is realistic.

If you take the time to gather as much information as possible about the client, their PPC campaign, and their goals, you will set yourself up for success from day one of managing their account.