The number one rule of outsourcing PPC Management: always own your account!

Once again we’ve had a run of AdWords advertisers get in touch with us as they are unhappy with their current PPC Management agency only to find that they don’t even own the AdWords account that they are paying the PPC Agency to manage for them.

It’s annoying to see that PPC Agencies operate like this in 2013 still but they seem to be able to justify to unwary clients that the agency owns the Adwords account instead of the client. No doubt the last thing in the client’s mind is that their relationship with the PPC Agency might deteriorate to the point that they cease working with them and the ‘ownership’ of the AdWords account will be an issue.

Many clients just don’t even think about it, many others don’t even realise it’s an issue that could cause them a fair amount of hassle and expense later when they try to leave their current ppc agency. There are many reasons for an advertiser to wish to keep an existing PPC Account such as historical data (what worked and what didn’t, when and why), as well as the good Quality Scores, Click-Through Ratio Histories etc. so it’s a real issue for most clients when they are faced with trying to start from scratch again with a fresh account.

The client has in effect already paid the previous PPC agency to find out what works and what doesn’t. Their money has been spent gathering the data and once the client gives notice to terminate to the PPC agency sometimes they find out that they don’t own the account and the current ppc management agency is going to keep it and not give the client the account or even access to get any data out of there.

We have had potential clients literally in tears when it sinks in that they are being held over a barrel and made to choose between starting from scratch or staying with a PPC agency that they’ve lost faith in. Once these agencies know that the client is looking to leave they often get quite awkward and vague regarding data or helping the client move away, as well as notice periods, fees etc. If the merchant is lucky they may be able to come to some arrangement to ‘buy’ the AdWords account from the ppc agency. (rare but we’ve seen it happen) If not then it truly is a choice of starting from scratch or being blackmailed into staying with the current ppc agency.

Starting from scratch won’t be easy. The new ppc agency will have buy the knowledge in, they’ll have to find what works and also what doesn’t and the client will be paying for that, but a good ppc agency will still be able to make things work and get a client back to a healthy position, but it may take some time and run at a loss for a while.

Moving forward any good PPC Agency will ensure that their clients own their accounts and that they are set up in their name and the client has the passwords and full access and that the client (subject to notice periods) can leave at any time with the PPC Account that they have paid the agency to manage for them. A good ppc agency will not blackmail or hold a PPC account over a client to try to keep them on the books, they should add value or be prepared to let the client leave, no excuses.

If you are a client and you don’t own your PPC account then you should at least push for full access to it, and download a copy of the account (and stats) for safekeeping each week or so via AdWords editor so if the relationship sours you at least can move forward with real data.

If you don’t own your AdWords account and can’t get access to it then you really should seriously consider how damaging it could be to your business if your current ppc management agency relationship broke down or they ceased trading etc. and how it would affect you. We have spoken to merchants with AdWords accounts they don’t own  driving millions of pounds per year in sales that are not open to be accessed by them in any way, with zero visibility into which keywords work/don’t work etc. and this is a real danger to any business that relies of AdWords sales.

Take a look at Google’s Third Party Compliance Guidelines here that all reputable PPC Agencies follow