Introduction
Most PPC agencies will tell you they're data-driven. They'll say they optimize for ROI. They'll promise transparency and results.
And then three months later, you're staring at a dashboard you don't understand, watching your budget disappear into campaigns that "need more time to mature."
Here's what nobody tells you: the difference between a great PPC agency and an expensive mistake comes down to the questions you ask before you sign the contract. Not after you've already committed. Not when you're reviewing the first month's performance and realizing something feels off.
The problem is that most businesses ask the wrong questions. They focus on pricing and promises instead of process. They accept vague answers about "proprietary strategies" instead of pushing for specifics. And they end up with an agency that talks a good game but can't actually deliver.
2026 has made this even more critical. Between AI-powered bidding, Google's ongoing privacy changes, the death of third-party cookies, and platform algorithms that seem to shift weekly, PPC isn't what it was even two years ago. Your agency needs to be operating at a completely different level now.
This guide walks you through 20 questions that separate the real PPC experts from the pretenders. These questions will make some agencies uncomfortable. That's the point. The right agency will welcome them because they know their answers prove their worth.
Use these questions in your next agency interview. You'll know within 15 minutes whether you're talking to someone who can actually grow your business or someone who's just good at selling agency services.
Let's start with what actually matters.
20 Questions to Ask a PPC Agency in 2026 (Before You Waste Your Budget)
These 20 questions are organized to help you evaluate every critical aspect of a potential PPC partnership. Start with the first few, and you'll quickly get a sense of whether you're dealing with real expertise or polished sales talk.
The agencies worth your time will have clear, specific answers. The ones you should avoid will dodge, deflect, or give you marketing speak. Choosing the wrong PPC agency in 2026 doesn’t just waste ad spend — it costs months of lost pipeline. This guide helps B2B SaaS teams, founders, and growth leaders evaluate PPC agencies in an AI-driven, privacy-first advertising landscape.
Take notes as you go through these. The patterns in their answers will tell you everything you need to know.
Agency Experience and Expertise
1. What is your experience with businesses in my industry?
Some agencies claim they can handle any industry because "PPC principles are universal." That's technically true, the same way a cardiologist could technically perform brain surgery because "medical principles are universal." You still wouldn't want them doing it.
Industry experience matters because every sector has different buying cycles, customer behaviors, compliance requirements, and competitive landscapes. A B2B SaaS company selling to enterprise clients operates nothing like an e-commerce brand pushing impulse purchases. The keywords are different. The ad copy that converts is different. The entire funnel is different.
When you ask this question, listen for specifics. A good agency will talk about challenges unique to your industry. They'll mention competitor strategies they've seen. They'll reference industry-specific metrics they track. If they give you generic answers about "understanding your target audience," that's a red flag.
And if they don't have direct experience in your industry? That's not automatically disqualifying, but they need to explain how they plan to get up to speed and what similar industries they've worked in.
2. How long have you been managing PPC campaigns?
Experience matters, but not in the way most people think.
An agency that's been running PPC campaigns since 2010 might sound impressive. But if they're still using the same strategies from 2010, they're going to burn your budget. The PPC landscape has fundamentally changed. Manual bidding strategies that worked five years ago are now actively hurting performance. Ad formats have evolved. Attribution models have been rebuilt from scratch.
What you're really asking here is: have they evolved with the platform changes, or have they been left behind?
Listen for agencies that can talk about how their approach has changed over time. They should mention specific platform updates that forced them to adapt. They should acknowledge that what worked in 2022 doesn't work in 2026. If they're still talking about broad match keywords and manual CPC bidding like it's cutting edge, run.
Newer agencies aren't necessarily worse. Sometimes a team that's been doing this for three years is more current than one that's been coasting for fifteen.
3. Can you provide case studies or client testimonials?
This seems obvious, but most businesses don't dig deep enough here.
Any agency can show you a case study with impressive numbers. The question is whether those results are relevant to you. A case study showing how they scaled an e-commerce brand from $50K to $500K in monthly revenue sounds great. But if you're a B2B company with a six-month sales cycle, that case study tells you nothing about whether they can help you.
Ask for case studies from businesses similar to yours. Similar industry, similar budget, similar goals. And then ask follow-up questions about those case studies. What was the starting point? How long did it take to see results? What challenges did they hit? How did they overcome them?
Testimonials are nice, but they're easy to cherry-pick. What you really want is a conversation with a current or former client. A good agency will be happy to connect you with references. A mediocre agency will make excuses about NDAs and client confidentiality.
4. How do you stay updated with changes in the PPC landscape?
If an agency can't answer this question in detail, walk away.
PPC changes constantly. Google releases updates that fundamentally alter how campaigns perform. New ad formats appear. Privacy regulations shift targeting capabilities. Performance Max replaces Smart Shopping. Broad matches become actually useful. The list goes on.
An agency that isn't actively learning is an agency that's falling behind, and you're paying for their education on your dime.
Good answers include specific examples. They might mention following industry experts, attending conferences, being part of beta programs, running their own test campaigns, or having dedicated time for platform training. They should be able to tell you about a recent platform change and how they adapted client campaigns in response.
If they give you a vague answer about "staying current with industry trends," that's not good enough. Press them on specifics. What's the last major update they implemented? What blogs or resources do they follow? How do they test new features before rolling them out to client accounts?
The best PPC agency is almost nerdy about this stuff. They get excited talking about new beta features they're testing. That's who you want managing your campaigns.
PPC Strategy and Approach
5. How does your PPC agency build a strategy from scratch?
This is where you separate the order-takers from the strategic partners.
Bad agencies have a template. They plug your business into their standard process, swap out a few keywords, and call it a custom strategy. Good agencies actually think about your specific situation.
When you ask this question, you want to hear about discovery. They should ask about your business model, profit margins, customer lifetime value, sales cycle length, and competitive positioning before they even think about campaign structure. If they're not asking these questions, they're not building a real strategy.
A solid answer will walk you through their process step by step. They'll explain how they audit your current performance, analyze your competitors, identify opportunities in the market, and align campaign goals with your business objectives. They should talk about how they prioritize channels, decide on campaign types, and set realistic benchmarks.
If they immediately start talking about keywords and ad copy without understanding your business fundamentals, that's a problem. Strategy comes before tactics.
6. What is your approach to keyword research and targeting?
Keyword research isn't what it used to be, and your agency needs to know that.
With Google pushing broad match and automated bidding, the old-school approach of building massive keyword lists with exact match modifiers is outdated. But that doesn't mean keyword research doesn't matter. It just matters differently now.
Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) now account for over 90% of impressions on Google Search, according to recent SEMrush analysis. Also, advertisers using RSAs with proper ad strength see up to a 20% lift in conversions.
A good agency will talk about search intent, not just search volume. They'll explain how they identify commercial intent keywords versus informational ones. They'll discuss negative keyword strategies to prevent wasted spend. And they'll mention how they use audience signals and first-party data to guide keyword targeting in automated campaigns.
Watch out for agencies that claim they'll target "thousands of keywords" right away. That's usually a sign they're not being strategic about it. The best campaigns often start with a focused set of high-intent keywords and expand based on actual performance data.
Also ask about their approach to search terms reports. Google has limited what we can see in search terms, so agencies need to be creative about understanding what queries are actually triggering their ads. If they're not regularly reviewing and refining based on search terms data, they're flying blind.
7. How do you structure ad campaigns across different platforms?
This question reveals whether they actually understand the nuances of each platform or if they're just running the same playbook everywhere.
Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok... they all work differently. The audiences behave differently. The ad formats are different. The bidding strategies that work on one platform often fail on another. An agency that treats them all the same is leaving money on the table.
A strong answer will include platform-specific strategies. On Google, they might talk about separating branded and non-branded campaigns, using Performance Max strategically, and structuring search campaigns by match type or intent. On LinkedIn, they should mention the higher CPCs and the need for precise audience targeting. On Meta, they'll discuss creative testing and the importance of the learning phase.
Also listen for how they decide which platforms to use. Not every business needs to be on every platform. A good agency will recommend the platforms that actually make sense for your audience and budget, not just the ones they're most comfortable managing.
And ask about cross-platform strategy. How do they handle attribution when someone sees a LinkedIn ad, clicks a Google search ad, and converts three days later? How do they allocate budget across platforms? These are the questions that show whether they're thinking holistically or just managing campaigns in silos.
8. What role does audience segmentation play in your strategy?
If they say audience segmentation isn't important, end the conversation.
Modern PPC is built on audience data. Google's shift toward automation and AI hasn't made audiences less important. It's made them more important. Your audience signals guide the algorithm. Your first-party data gives you an edge competitors don't have. Your customer segments determine which messages resonate.
A good agency will talk about layering audiences onto campaigns, not just relying on keyword targeting. They'll mention using customer match lists, website visitors, engaged users, and lookalike audiences. They'll discuss how they segment by purchase history, engagement level, and position in the funnel.
For B2B clients, they should talk about account-based marketing tactics, targeting specific companies or job titles. For e-commerce, they'll mention dynamic remarketing and customer lifetime value segmentation. The specifics will vary by business type, but the principle is the same: treating all users the same is a waste of money.
Also ask how they collect and use first-party data. With third-party cookies disappearing, agencies that aren't helping you build and leverage your own audience data are setting you up to fail in the next few years.
Optimization and Performance Tracking
9. How do you track and measure campaign performance?
This question should be straightforward, but you'd be surprised how many agencies fumble it.
The agency will probably mention metrics like CTR, CPA, and ROAS. That's fine, but it's basic. What you really want to know is whether they're tracking metrics that actually matter to your business, not just vanity metrics that make reports look good.
A strong answer goes beyond the standard metrics. They should ask what success looks like for your business. Is it lead volume? Lead quality? Customer acquisition cost relative to lifetime value? Revenue? Market share? The metrics they prioritize should align with your actual business goals, not just what's easy to report on.
They should also explain how they track the full customer journey, not just the last click. With most buyers touching multiple ads before converting, last-click attribution is basically useless. Ask how they handle attribution across touchpoints and how they account for assisted conversions.
How do they track wasted spend? How do they identify underperforming campaigns? How do they measure opportunity cost? An agency that only wants to show you the wins is hiding the losses.
10. What kind of reporting and transparency do you provide?
Reporting is where a lot of agency relationships fall apart.
Some agencies send monthly reports that look impressive but tell you nothing. Charts and graphs everywhere, tons of data, but no actual insights. You're left wondering whether your money is being spent well or just being spent.
Ask exactly what their reports include and how often you'll receive them. Weekly? Monthly? Real-time dashboard access? What metrics are highlighted? How do they explain variances in performance? Do they just show you the numbers, or do they tell you what the numbers mean and what they're doing about them?
The best agencies provide tiered reporting. You get high-level summaries for quick reviews and detailed breakdowns when you need to dig deeper. They highlight what's working, what's not, and what they're testing next. They don't hide behind jargon or bury bad news in footnotes.
Also ask about account access. Will you have view-only access to your own ad accounts, or will they keep everything locked down? Transparency means you can log in and see exactly where your money is going anytime you want. If an agency resists giving you access, that's a massive red flag.
11. How do you handle A/B testing for ads and landing pages?
Testing separates good agencies from great ones.
Anyone can launch a campaign. The real skill is in systematically improving it over time. That requires constant testing: different ad copy, different headlines, different calls to action, different landing page layouts, different offers.
A solid answer will include their testing framework. How do they decide what to test? How do they ensure tests are statistically significant before making decisions? How long do they run tests? What's their process for rolling out winners and killing losers?
Watch out for agencies that claim they "constantly test" but can't give you specific examples. Real testing is structured and documented. They should be able to walk you through a recent test they ran, what they learned, and how it improved performance.
Also ask about landing page testing. A lot of agencies will optimize ads all day but ignore the landing page, even though that's where most conversions are won or lost. If they don't have a process for testing and improving landing pages, or if they claim "that's not our responsibility," you're leaving money on the table.
12. How do you optimize campaigns over time?
This is where you find out if they're actively managing your campaigns or just letting them run on autopilot.
Launching a campaign is easy. Continuously improving it is hard. You want an agency that's in your account multiple times per week, not just when it's time to send a report.
A good answer will cover multiple optimization tactics. They'll talk about adjusting bids based on performance, expanding into new keywords that are converting, cutting keywords that are wasting spend, testing new ad variations, refining audience targeting, and updating negative keyword lists. They should mention how often they make these optimizations and what triggers changes.
Ask about their response time when performance drops. If your CPA suddenly spikes, do you have to wait until the next monthly call to find out why? Or are they catching it within hours and already working on a fix?
Also ask about how they handle seasonal changes, market shifts, and competitive pressure. Your industry probably has busy and slow periods. Competitor activity fluctuates. Economic conditions change. An agency that doesn't proactively adjust for these factors isn't really optimizing.
Data, Tools, and Technology
13. What tools and technologies do you use to manage PPC campaigns?
The tools an agency uses tell you a lot about how sophisticated their operation is.
At a minimum, they should be using the native platforms (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta Business Manager). But if that's all they're using, they're working harder than they need to and probably missing opportunities.
Ask about their tech stack. Do they use bid management platforms? Analytics tools beyond Google Analytics? Competitive intelligence tools like SEMrush or SpyFu? Call tracking software? Heat mapping tools for landing pages? A good agency has invested in tools that give them an edge.
Some agencies load up on expensive software and pass those costs to you without actually using the tools effectively. Ask them to explain how each tool improves your campaigns specifically. If they can't connect the tool to a tangible benefit, it's just overhead.
Also, ask about their reporting and dashboard tools. Are they building custom dashboards in Google Data Studio (Looker Studio)? Using third-party reporting platforms? How do they aggregate data from multiple sources to give you a complete picture?
And don't forget to ask who pays for these tools. Some agencies include tool costs in their management fee. Others charge them separately. Know what you're paying for.
Also read → PPC Spy Tool Guide 2026: Find Competitors PPC Keywords
14. How do you use data to drive decisions and optimizations?
This question separates the agencies that talk about being "data-driven" from the ones that actually are.
Everyone claims to be data-driven these days. It's become meaningless. What you want to know is how they actually use data in their decision-making process, not just that they look at data sometimes.
A strong answer will include specific examples. They'll talk about analyzing search terms data to find new keyword opportunities. Using audience insights to refine targeting. Reviewing time-of-day performance to adjust bid schedules. Studying geographic data to allocate the budget more effectively. Looking at device performance to optimize mobile vs. desktop strategies.
They should also mention how they use data to inform creative decisions. What headlines get the highest click-through rates? What offers drive the most conversions? What pain points resonate with different audience segments? Good agencies use performance data to guide their messaging, not just their bids.
15. Do you use AI or automation to manage campaigns?
The right answer here isn't "yes" or "no." It's "yes, strategically."
AI and automation have transformed PPC, but they're not magic. Smart bidding strategies can optimize better than humans in many cases. Automated campaigns like Performance Max can find conversions you'd miss manually. Dynamic ad insertion can personalize creativity at scale.
But automation without strategy is a disaster. Google's algorithms optimize for what you tell them to optimize for, and if you set it up wrong, they'll efficiently drive terrible results.
A good agency will explain how they use automation strategically. They'll talk about when they use automated bidding versus manual control. How they set up conversion tracking to guide the algorithms correctly. How do they provide the right signals and audience data to help automation work better? When they intervene manually and when they let the system learn.
They should also be honest about automation's limitations. It's not suitable for every campaign type or every business stage. Some campaigns need more human oversight. Some need more data before automation can work effectively.
Be wary of agencies that are either completely anti-automation ("we do everything manually for better control") or completely hands-off ("we just let Google's AI handle it"). The best approach is somewhere in the middle: using automation where it works, maintaining control where it doesn't, and constantly testing to find the right balance.
Also read → AI PPC Management: Automate & Scale Paid Search Efficiently
16. How do you handle conversion tracking and attribution?
You can have perfect campaigns, brilliant ad copy, and a flawless strategy, but if you're not tracking conversions correctly, you have no idea what's actually working. And yet, conversion tracking is where so many agencies drop the ball.
A good answer will cover the technical setup. They'll talk about implementing conversion pixels, setting up Google Tag Manager properly, configuring server-side tracking if needed, and ensuring all important actions are being tracked (not just the final sale, but also leads, calls, form fills, and other micro-conversions).
They should also discuss attribution models. With Google moving away from last-click attribution, how do they measure the contribution of different touchpoints? How do they handle cross-device conversions? What about offline conversions if you have a sales team that closes deals after leads come in?
Ask about their QA process for tracking. How do they verify that conversions are being recorded accurately? How often do they audit tracking to catch issues? What happens when tracking breaks (because it will break at some point)?
And here's a critical one: ask how they handle iOS privacy changes and the loss of third-party cookies. Conversion tracking has gotten harder, and agencies need strategies to work around these limitations. If they're not talking about first-party data, enhanced conversions, and privacy-compliant tracking methods, they're behind the curve.
Budget, ROI, and Expectations
17. How do you determine and manage PPC budgets?
Budget conversations reveal a lot about an agency's priorities.
Bad agencies ask what you want to spend and then find ways to spend it. Good agencies ask about your business goals, profit margins, and customer lifetime value, then recommend what you should spend to hit those goals.
The right answer starts with questions, not recommendations. They should want to understand your average order value, profit per sale, sales cycle length, and competitive landscape before suggesting any numbers. If they're recommending a budget without understanding your unit economics, they're guessing.
They should also explain how they allocate budget across campaigns and platforms. Not all campaigns deserve equal spending. Some will drive immediate ROI and should get more budget. Others are testing grounds and need smaller allocations. Geographic markets perform differently. Audience segments convert at different rates. Budget allocation should reflect these realities.
Ask about their approach to scaling. When campaigns perform well, how quickly do they increase spend? What signals tell them it's time to scale versus time to cut back? The best agencies are aggressive about scaling winners and ruthless about cutting losers.
18. What is your approach to bidding and bidding strategies?
There's no one-size-fits-all bidding approach. The right strategy depends on campaign maturity, data volume, business goals, and competitive intensity. A brand new campaign with limited conversion data needs a different approach than a mature campaign with thousands of conversions feeding the algorithm.
A strong answer will cover when they use different strategies. Target CPA for lead generation campaigns when you know your acceptable cost per lead. Target ROAS for e-commerce when profit margins vary by product. Maximize conversions when you're trying to gather data quickly. Manual CPC when you need tight control in competitive markets or when testing new campaigns.
They should explain how they set initial targets and adjust over time. If they're using Target CPA bidding, how did they determine that target? Is it based on your actual business metrics or just an arbitrary number? How often do they adjust targets as performance improves?
Also ask about their approach to competitive markets. When CPCs are high and competition is intense, some agencies just bid higher and burn through the budget. Better agencies find angles competitors miss: long-tail keywords, different match types, audience layering, geographic targeting, time-of-day adjustments.
19. How do you ensure a positive ROI for our PPC campaigns?
This question reveals whether they understand your actual business or just manage ad platforms.
A good agency doesn't just optimize for ROAS inside Google Ads. They optimize for profit in your business. Those are not the same thing. You can have a great ROAS and still lose money if you're targeting the wrong customers or ignoring lifetime value.
Listen for whether they ask about your business metrics. What's your profit margin? What's the customer lifetime value? What's your sales cycle? How much can you afford to pay to acquire a customer? If they're promising ROI without understanding these fundamentals, they're making it up.
A solid answer includes multiple layers of optimization. They're constantly cutting underperforming keywords and campaigns. They're scaling what works. They're testing to find better approaches. They're tracking metrics beyond just ROAS, like customer quality and repeat purchase rates if applicable.
They should also be honest about timelines. Positive ROI doesn't happen overnight, especially for new campaigns or competitive markets. It takes time to gather data, optimize, and scale. Be very skeptical of agencies that guarantee specific ROI numbers or promise immediate profitability.
And ask what happens when ROI isn't positive. Every campaign hits rough patches. Good agencies have a process for diagnosing problems and fixing them. Bad agencies just blame external factors and keep doing the same thing while your budget disappears.
20. What can we expect in terms of results and timelines?
This is where agencies either set realistic expectations or overpromise to close the deal.
Honest agencies will tell you that PPC takes time. New campaigns need a learning phase. Google's algorithms need data to optimize effectively. You need to test different approaches to find what works. For most businesses, expect 30-60 days before you see meaningful patterns, and longer for B2B companies with extended sales cycles.
A good answer outlines what success looks like at different stages. In month one, they're setting up tracking, launching initial campaigns, and gathering data. Months two and three are about optimization: cutting what's not working, doubling down on what is, testing new approaches. Month four and beyond is about refinement and scaling.
They should also be clear about what factors affect results. Your industry's competitiveness matters. Your budget relative to market CPCs matters. The quality of your website and offer matters. Your sales team's ability to close leads matters for B2B. If any of these factors are working against you, PPC will be harder.
Be very cautious of agencies promising specific results. "We'll get you a 5x ROAS in 90 days" might sound great, but it's often a red flag. Legitimate agencies set expectations based on industry benchmarks and your specific situation, not made-up guarantees.
And ask about the worst-case scenario. What if campaigns don't perform? How long do they test before recommending changes? At what point do they suggest PPC might not be the right channel for you? An agency willing to have that conversation is more trustworthy than one that promises the moon.
Conclusion
You now have the questions that separate real PPC expertise from polished sales presentations. Use them. Don't skip the uncomfortable ones, and don't accept vague answers wrapped in industry jargon.
The right agency won't be rattled by these questions. They'll welcome them because they know their answers demonstrate real capability. The wrong agency will dodge, deflect, or try to move the conversation back to pricing and timelines before you've established whether they can actually deliver.
Here's what to do next. Send these questions to the agencies you're considering before your first call. Their written responses will tell you a lot. Then use your conversation to dig deeper into anything that seems unclear or generic.
Pay attention to how they answer, not just what they say. Do they give specific examples? Do they admit what they don't know? Do they ask questions about your business before proposing solutions? These patterns matter more than any single answer.
And remember: you're not just hiring someone to run ads. You're choosing a partner who will directly impact your revenue and growth. A bad PPC agency doesn't just waste your ad budget. They waste months of opportunity while your competitors are gaining ground.
Want to see what answers to these questions actually look like from an agency that knows what they're doing?
Book a demo with our PPC experts at Revv Growth. We'll walk you through our approach to each of these questions with specific examples from campaigns we've managed. No sales pressure, just a real conversation about whether we're the right fit for your business.
.svg)
.webp)