n-PPC Questions PPC Clients will Ask (& How To Answer Them).

A few months back, I wrote a post on things that I wish I knew when I began my career in PPC. ….was a vast topic and I touched on the subject of surprise business consultants in addition to PPC consultants.


A client may ask you a question about PPC that is not related to it

This seemed like an area other PPCers had also experienced. It seemed like a good idea to explore this topic further, answer some of the most frequently asked (and sometimes most difficult) questions about clients’ businesses and offer insight on how I approach answering them.

9 questions that your PPC clients should ask

Here are nine questions that I am frequently asked as a PPC professional. I want to share my answers.

These answers may not be perfect. These are simply the things I have found to be most effective for my clients over time. They also keep me moving forward.

1. What budget should we have?

As my time passes, this topic is becoming more common. Previously, only small businesses asked me about their advertising budgets. But, larger companies are asking similar questions. This one is easier with some of the platform planning tools.

Google Keyword Planner is an keyword research tool that allows you to estimate the overall cost of keywords and geographical areas. You can also use the LinkedIn audience creation tool to estimate size and CPCs based on your parameters. This will give you an idea of how much you could spend. You can also view your budget in Google Ads to see your actual and projected spend, based on your daily budget.

These tools should be used as a guide. These numbers are a starting point. These tools have not suggested a spend, but I told my clients that this is what the budget had to be. This is simply not possible. Sometimes, the estimated cost is too low or too high.

Beyond potential, realistic performance expectations are another consideration. Clients will often have targets for the number of leads and revenue that they want their campaigns to generate. I work with clients to set realistic CPA and ROAS goals. Then, I reverse engineer the budget.

If you want to generate 100 leads per monthly and your CPL target is $200 you will need at least $20k per month. Anything less than that is simply unrealistic.

2. Who should we target?

My clients always hear me tell them that you understand your business, and both have a good idea of the advertising channels. I always tell people who they should target when they ask me.

Who are your target audiences

Please give me a persona. What age are they? What is their address? What companies do they work for? What are their weekends like?

Although not all these questions may be relevant to every type of business, we can benefit from more information.

No matter what they say, I take these characteristics and do targeting research on the ad networks. These characteristics can I be found on LinkedIn? Snapchat? Google? Facebook?

Depending on the information I find, my response is often a list of targeting options for a variety of channels. This then serves as the starting point to create a multi-channel or Cross-channel approach to customer generation.

3. Who are our competitions and how can they be distinguished?

The Competitors in PPC may not be the same as regular market competitors. My clients often ask me this question to find out about their market competitors. However, this is not where my value lies.

Instead, I will discuss what makes a PPC rival. These are companies you’re bidding against to get the attention and clicks from your target customer.

Search can reveal a variety of brands selling the same products/services as you, or people who are looking for the wrong product/service. Your advertising should be tailored to the people you find. These competitors are identified using a few tools that I use.

First, I use the Auction Insights to see if there are search campaigns in progress. These domains are bidding against your company on a regular basis. This can be a great way to find people to research further on. In other cases, you might also want to review your keyword list in case you discover that some of the brands aren’t relevant for your company.



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Second, I use the keyword tools such as SpyFu and SEMRush. These tools are not perfect but can identify keywords that brands are bidding on. They also give you ideas for keywords to target and avoid based on their competition.

Whatever the number of competitors, I always try to provide insights on keywords, ads copy, calls-to-action, landing pages, and landing pages for the top 5-10 competitors. This gives my clients an idea of what their competition is in the SERPs.

4. Do we need to focus on expanding our customer base, or on servicing existing customers?

Although there is no right or wrong answer, I ask about customer turnover. You should work to retain the customers you already have, before you try to find more. If you don’t, you will lose customers down the road.



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However, it is very easy to focus on existing customers while running a business. You can’t influence new customers if you don’t build a pipeline to future customers.

Even if retention is a priority, it’s hard to say you shouldn’t do any prospecting. You won’t be able to provide a service for users if you don’t implement a retention strategy.

5. Do we need to expand into new markets?

While I love it when companies are looking to expand, it is important to ensure it is worth the effort.

First, I look at demand. Does there exist enough search volume? Are there sufficient target audiences to support increased coverage of their services? Although I would love to find benchmark statistics regarding performance, this information is often very rare.

Next, you need to review the business fundamentals.

If these factors are in line with the green light for expanded coverage, I will suggest a controlled trial. You will target the audience that has the highest performance in current locations, or is the most compatible with the new ones. The campaign will be time- and budget-restricted.

It is important to consider your budget and time constraints. It is important to make sure that your test allows for optimizations and has sufficient budget to allow the new area to perform. It is important to get approval on these pieces in order to show that this area is worthy.



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6. Is it a good idea to expand our product and service offerings?

We PPC pros can assist with geographic expansion in the same way as geographical expansion.

Are there existing products/services that are in demand or do we need to create them?

Is there a similar practice in other countries? What would be the cost- and quality-wise comparison?

Sometimes, I have seen huge demand for a product/service, but my client was unable to deliver at a level that beats the competition in quality or cost. You will likely need to outperform an existing company on at least one of these. It might not be in your best interests to expand if you are unable to do this.

The SWOT analysis template might be useful.

7. Do we need to have a holiday sales this year?

Based on my experience with brands, holiday Sales are typically designed to achieve two things. They can either meet annual revenue targets or acquire customers at a lower price with the expectation they will return later. Holiday sales are not meant to be the best time of the year for ROAS performance.

When asked this question, I always ask what the main goals are for a sale. What are they trying achieve? To determine if their goals are achievable, they should create estimates of how they will perform during the holiday period.

You can do this using some planning tools, but it is best to use historical performance if possible. Look back at the holidays in the past. What happened to the status quo? What did they do to stay the same? Do you think they can achieve their holiday sales goals? Or will they undermine the campaigns?

8. Which areas do you feel are performing well? What could you do to improve them?

This question, in my opinion, is almost impossible to answer from other perspectives than a campaign perspective.

You don’t likely know what customers like about their products or services. However, you can gain insights into which ad messages and calls-to-action or which keyword groups are getting the most attention, volume or engagement-wise, to give you some direction.

Look at all the components of your account. What campaigns/products/services are getting the most volume? Which has the highest CTR Which countries have the highest conversion rates? Which has the highest ROAS?



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Based on the performance of your client, you may be highlighting an area that is performing well for them. This could give them a place where they can focus on growth.

9. What brands do you enjoy engaging with most? What could these same practices be applied to your company?

This one is actually a bit more difficult, as it’s largely opinion-based. This question is hard because I am constantly looking for brands I like that are achieving specific goals.

It’s a good idea, however, to look at the ad libraries and see what type of ads high spend brands are running.

Personally, I like to check out the Facebook Ad Library as well as the TikTok ads Inspiration section. Other options, such as MOAT, can be used to help you locate display ads companies.

It doesn’t matter from whom you get the information, it is always better to show examples than talk about the ads. Visuals are a great way to show clients what you mean. They’re also easier to share with your creative department as direction for future campaigns.

Conclusion

Nearly every PPC professional I have spoken to agrees that we can be an additional business consultant for our clients beyond our normal PPC duties. I hope that by highlighting my answers to these questions (which you will find are often process-based or research-based) you can feel confident in taking on this role and continuing to provide additional benefits for your clients.

The post 9 Non PPC Questions Your Clients Will Ask (& How To Answer Them) was first published on WordStream.

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