Solved: Difficulty Differentiating Between PPC Agencies

Hi there,

Thanks for reaching out! I had a read through your message and I completely get it. The world of PPC agencies is a proper maze, innit? Everyone's got a flashy website and is claiming to be the best, promising you the world on a silver platter. It's incredibly tough to figure out who actually knows their stuff and who's just good at selling themselves. Been in this game for a long time and I've seen both sides of that coin more times than I can count.

So, you're looking for a reliable way to sift through the noise and find a partner who can actually help your business grow. Let me give you my honest thoughts on how I'd approach this, based on what we see works and what is often a complete waste of time and, more importantly, money. Think of this as the exact process we'd use ourselves if we were in your position, trying to find someone we could trust with our ad spend.

We'll need to look at their track record first...

Right, first things first. Forget the sales pitch, the slick presentations, and all that surface-level guff for a minute. The absolute first filter you need to apply is a hard look at their case studies. And I don't just mean a page with a load of impressive-looking logos on it. That tells you very little. You need to see proper, detailed breakdowns of work they have actually done. What you're looking for here is concrete proof, not vague promises. Anyone can say they can get results; very few can actually show you how they did it.

The most important thing here is relevance. It's all well and good if an agency got a 1000% Return On Ad Spend for a subscription box client, and we've done that, but if you're selling complex B2B software, that achievement is almost completely irrelevant to you. The strategies, the audiences, the platforms, the messaging – none of it will translate. You need to look for specific experience in your niche, or at the very least, a very similar one. This is non-negotiable.

For example, we've run quite a few campaigns for B2B SaaS companies. The way you target and speak to a Chief Financial Officer on LinkedIn is a completely different universe to how you sell a new fashion item on Instagram or Pinterest. For one B2B software client, we were generating leads with specific decision makers at a cost of about $22 per lead on LinkedIn. For them, considering the lifetime value of a single client, this was a fantastic result. For another, a very niche medical job matching SaaS platform, we managed to get their cost per user acquisition down from an eye-watering £100 to just £7. That's a specific, measurable result that came directly from understanding their very specific market and their unique challenges. That's the kind of detail your looking for.

You also have to be realistic. A good agency will manage your expectations, not just tell you what you want to hear. Results from one client, even in the same niche, dont guarantee the same for you. Market conditions change, competition increases, and your own offer and website play a massive role. If they start promising you a specific ROAS or a guaranteed number of leads before they've even seen your ad account or website, that's a massive red flag. In paid advertising, there are no guarantees. It's about testing, learning, and optimising based on real data.

So, when you look at their case studies, ask yourself:
-> Have they worked with businesses like mine before?
-> Are the results they're showing specific and believable? (e.g., "5082 Software Trials at $7 cost per trial" is a good, specific metric. "We increased brand awareness" is not.)
-> Do they explain a little about the 'how'? They dont have to give away all their secrets, but is there some insight into the strategy?

If you can't find this on their website, don't be afraid to ask for it. If they can't provide it, they're probably not the right fit.

I'd say you need to get them on a call...

Okay, so let's say you've found a few agencies that have a decent track record and seem to have relevant experience. The next step, and arguably the most important one, is to get them on a call. A website can be carefully crafted, but a conversation reveals a lot. This is your chance to do a 'gut check' and see if their expertise is real or just marketing fluff.

We offer a free initial consultation for this very reason. It's a chance for a potential client to see how we think, get some genuine, actionable advice on their current strategy, and get a feel for what it would be like to work with us. Any decent agency should offer something similar. It's a two-way street; they're interviewing you as much as you're interviewing them to see if it's a good fit.

During this call, pay close attention to the questions they ask you.
-> Are they asking insightful questions about your business model, your customers, your margins, your sales process, your customer lifetime value? Or are they just waiting for their turn to talk and launch into a generic sales pitch?
-> A good partner wants to understand the nuts and bolts of your business. A salesperson just wants to close a deal.

You're looking for signs of genuine expertise. Do they give you some initial thoughts or ideas that make you think, "Ah, I hadn't considered that"? Do they challenge any of your assumptions in a constructive way? They should be able to talk strategy, not just tactics. They should be talking about your business goals, not just about click-through rates. If all they talk about is their "secret formula" or "proprietary system," be very wary. There are no secrets, just solid principles, deep experience, and hard work.

And as I mentioned before, be on high alert for anyone who makes concrete promises. Phrases like "We guarantee you'll be on the first page of Google" or "We'll double your revenue in three months" are massive red flags. A true expert knows the number of variables involved and will speak in terms of probabilities, strategies, and expected ranges based on their experience, not certainties. They'll be honest about the potential challenges and the time it might take to see results. It's a much less exciting pitch, but it's an honest one.

Tbh, if someone asks us for references or to speak to one of our current clients after they've already seen our detailed case studies and had a free, in-depth account review with us, it often signals to us that there's a fundamental lack of trust. And a partnership without trust is doomed from the start. Your research and that initial consultation call should give you 95% of the confidence you need to make a decision.

You probably should understand their thinking...

This part is a bit more abstract, but it's what separates the good agencies from the great ones. You want a partner that thinks strategically about growth, not just one that knows how to push buttons inside an ad platform. Their approach to the fundamentals of marketing is what will ultimately determine your success.

For instance, how do they define your target customer? So many agencies start with sterile, demographic-based profiles like "Companies in the finance sector with 50-200 employees." This tells you absolutely nothing of value and leads to generic, ineffective ads that speak to no one. We believe you must define your customer by their pain. You need to become an expert in their specific, urgent, and expensive nightmare.

Your ideal client isn't just a job title; she's a person dealing with a problem that keeps her up at night. For one of our clients, their ideal customer wasn't just a 'Head of Engineering'; she was a leader terrified of her best developers quitting out of frustration with a broken, inefficient workflow. The ads we ran for them didn't talk about features; they talked about retaining top talent. That's a message that resonates on a completely different level.

A great agency will push you on this. They'll force you to dig deep into the psychology of your buyer. Once you've isolated that 'nightmare', they'll know exactly where to find those people – the niche podcasts they listen to, the industry newsletters they actually read, the online communities they're active in. That intelligence is the blueprint for the entire advertising strategy.

Another area where strategic thinking shines through is the 'offer'. The most common failure point we see in B2B advertising is a terrible offer. The "Request a Demo" button is probably the worst offender. It's high-friction and low-value. It presumes a busy decision-maker wants to schedule time in their diary to be sold to. It's arrogant.

A top-tier agency understands that your offer's only job is to deliver a moment of undeniable value—an "aha!" moment that makes the prospect sell themselves on your solution. For a SaaS company, this could be a genuinely free trial (no card details needed). Let them use the product and see the value for themselves. For a service business, it could be a free, automated tool or a high-value piece of content. For us, it's that free 20-minute strategy session where we audit a company's failing ad campaigns and give them real advice. You have to solve a small, real problem for free to earn the right to solve their bigger problems for a fee.

You'll need an agency that gets the numbers right...

Finally, a truly strategic partner talks about the numbers that matter. They won't just focus on vanity metrics like clicks or impressions. They'll want to get straight to the heart of your business economics. The real question isn't "How low can my Cost Per Lead go?" but "How high a Cost Per Lead can I afford to acquire a truly great customer?" The answer to that lies in calculating your Customer Lifetime Value (LTV).

Let's do a quick, simplified calculation. You'll need three numbers:

1. Average Revenue Per Account (ARPA): What's a typical customer worth to you each month? Let's say it's £500.
2. Gross Margin %: What's your profit margin on that revenue after accounting for the cost of goods or services? Let's say it's 80%.
3. Monthly Churn Rate: What percentage of customers do you lose each month? This is critical. Let's say it's 4% (meaning the average customer sticks around for 25 months).

Now, the maths is simple:

LTV = (ARPA * Gross Margin %) / Monthly Churn Rate
LTV = (£500 * 0.80) / 0.04
LTV = £400 / 0.04 = £10,000

In this example, each customer you acquire is worth £10,000 in gross margin to your business over their lifetime. This number changes everything. A healthy ratio of LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) is often cited as 3:1. This means, with a £10,000 LTV, you can afford to spend up to £3,333 to acquire a single new customer and still have a very healthy business.

Suddenly, a £250 lead from LinkedIn doesn't seem so expensive, does it? If you know your sales team converts 1 in 10 of those leads into a customer, you could pay up to £333 per lead and still be on track. This is the kind of maths that unlocks aggressive, intelligent growth. An agency that doesn't ask about these numbers is just playing a guessing game with your money. An agency that helps you figure this out is a true strategic partner.

I've detailed my main recommendations for you below in a table to try and make this whole process a bit clearer.

I know this is alot of information to take in, but choosing an agency is a big decision, and it pays to be thorough. Doing this homework upfront can save you thousands of pounds and months of frustration down the line. It's not just about setting up some adds and hoping for the best; it's about finding a partner who understands how to use paid advertising as a lever for genuine business growth.

Ultimately, you're looking for a team that can provide insights you might not have thought of and can take over the complex implementation and optimisation process for you, ensuring that every pound you spend is working as hard as it possibly can to grow your business.

If you'd like an experienced pair of eyes to take a quick look over your current situation and give you some unbiased, straightforward advice, we'd be happy to help. We could hop on a free, no-obligation 20-minute strategy session where we can dig into your goals and see what opportunities might exist. It might be the most valuable 20 minutes you spend on your marketing this month.

Hope this helps you cut through the noise.

Regards,

Team @ Lukas Holschuh