Questions to Ask a PPC Client
These questions to ask a PPC client are for agencies, freelancers and in-house paid search managers meeting a new or prospective advertiser. They run in the order a discovery call and onboarding tend to go: what a lead or sale is worth to the business, the budget, the ad accounts and their history, conversion tracking, the ads and the pages behind them, then reporting and approvals. If you only have half an hour, stay in the first two groups, because no campaign can be judged later without a target cost and a budget to hold it against.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Goals
What made you decide to start paid search, or to change who runs it, right now?
Why ask it
A new product, a slow quarter, a rival's ad sitting above their name or a parting with the last agency each sets up a different first month. The trigger also shows how patient they will be. A client reacting to a bad quarter wants numbers fast, so say on this call what the first few weeks can and cannot show.
What is the one action you want someone to take after clicking an ad?
Why ask it
Every click is paid for whether or not anything follows, so the account needs one main action to bid toward: a call, a form, a booking or an order. If they name four, ask which they would keep if only one could be counted. That one becomes the primary conversion and the rest are tracked as secondary.
Who is your ideal customer, and which inquiries do you wish would stop coming?
Why ask it
Search ads are aimed at what someone types more than at who they are, so turn the description into things that show up in a search: a trade or job title, a home or a business address, the size of the order, words like 'emergency' or 'wholesale'. The unwanted half is just as useful. Renters calling a firm that only works for owners point straight at the wording and exclusions to add.
What can you afford to pay for one lead or one sale and still be glad you got it?
Why ask it
This is the target cost per lead or per acquisition, in the client's own words. Plenty of clients have never set one, so a blank here is normal: work it out with them from margin and close rate. A figure borrowed from a competitor or an article should be tested against their own numbers before anyone bids to it.
What is left from a typical sale once the cost of delivering it is taken out?
Why ask it
Revenue per sale overstates what there is to spend on ads. A product that sells for $200 and leaves $40 after costs cannot carry a $60 cost per sale on that order alone, however healthy the return on ad spend column looks. Where margins differ a lot between product lines, get them separately, because that decides which campaigns are funded first.
Out of every ten leads, how many become paying customers?
Why ask it
Close rate turns a cost per lead into a cost per customer: two in ten at $50 a lead is $250 a customer, and that is the figure to set against margin. Check which leads the rate describes. Owners often quote the rate for referrals, and strangers who clicked an ad usually close less often.
What is a customer worth after the first sale: repeat orders, a renewal, a maintenance contract?
Why ask it
A business with repeat buyers can pay more for the first order than the margin on that order suggests. Get a rough figure and how long it takes to arrive. Money that comes back over three years does not help an owner who needs the ads to pay for themselves this month, so ask which of the two they are.
How long does it usually take to get from a first inquiry to a paid invoice?
Why ask it
A business that closes in a day can judge a campaign within weeks. One with a three-month sales cycle pays for the clicks long before it sees the revenue, so agree which earlier step, a booked consultation or a quote sent, will count as the sign of a good lead until sales arrive. Check too how far back each platform will credit a sale to a click, since a slow one can fall outside it.
Which products or services should the ads sell first, and which would you rather not pay to advertise?
Why ask it
Budget spread across a whole catalog is thin everywhere, so the first half gives you the campaign order. The second half finds the lines that are low margin, out of stock or already booked solid. Those become your first exclusions.
How many more leads or orders could you take in a month before something gives?
Why ask it
Capacity is a ceiling on spend. A two-person firm that can fit in eight new jobs a month has no use for forty leads, and an unanswered lead costs the same as an answered one. When they are already close to full, the brief is better customers at the same volume.
What happens to a lead in the first hour after it arrives?
Why ask it
Have them describe yesterday's leads, not the policy. A form that lands in a shared inbox checked twice a day will make any campaign look poor. If follow-up is slow, say before launch that it will show up as a high cost per sale, and agree who on their side is going to fix it.
Budget
What is the monthly ad budget, and is that spend alone or does it include our fee?
Why ask it
If they say $3,000, find out whether that is what reaches the platforms or what leaves their bank account. A management fee, call tracking and a landing page tool taken out of the same figure can leave far less for clicks, and any forecast has to be built on what is left. Put the media amount alone in the proposal, as a daily figure, since most campaign budgets are entered by the day.
How did you arrive at that budget figure?
Why ask it
A budget worked back from a sales target is one you can discuss. One that is whatever was left over, or what the last agency asked for, is an opening bid. Divide it by the target cost per lead in front of them: if it buys ten leads a month, learning will be slow, and it is kinder to say so today.
Is this budget for search ads alone, or should it also cover shopping, display, video or social?
Why ask it
Clients say 'PPC' and mean anything from one search campaign to every paid placement they have heard of. Pin down which platforms and formats are in scope, because each one added thins the money behind the others. On a small budget, propose one channel done properly and name the result that would earn the second.
If the ads hit your target cost per sale, would you spend more, and how much more?
Why ask it
Here you learn whether the budget is a cap or a test. An owner who would double it at a profitable cost wants a number confirmed, so the plan should go after that confirmation first. With a fixed pot, fund the campaigns with the surest return and leave the experiments for later.
What have you spent on ads in the past year, and what came back?
Why ask it
Even a rough total with a rough result gives a baseline cost per lead to beat. When they know the spend to the dollar and have no idea of the return, measurement is your first job, ahead of any new campaign.
Whose card or invoice pays the ad platforms, and who hears about it when a payment fails?
Why ask it
When an agency's card pays, the agency is in effect lending the client money, and the billing records sit with the wrong party. The client's own payment method on the client's own account avoids both. A declined card pauses every campaign at once, so get the name of the person who can fix billing the same day, and check that the platform's payment emails go to an inbox someone reads.
How long will you fund this before deciding whether it works?
Why ask it
Agree on a review date, and on what will be judged that day, before any money goes out. A new campaign needs time and a stock of conversions before its bidding settles, and how long depends on this account's budget and volume, so give your estimate for them and not a rule of thumb. Anyone expecting a verdict in two weeks should hear that now.
Account history
Do you already have ad accounts with Google, Microsoft or anyone else, and who owns them?
Why ask it
Ownership first, login second. The account should belong to the business under an email address it controls. If a past agency ran the ads inside its own account, find out whether it can be transferred or the history exported, and ask the agency and the platform how that works, since it varies.
Can you invite us as a user or accept a manager account link, so no password changes hands?
Why ask it
The major ad platforms let an owner grant access by invitation, which means the client can remove you in a click and the change history shows who did what. Send the exact steps and your account ID right after the call. Request the level the work needs, and explain yourself if that includes billing.
Who has run the ads before, and why did that end?
Why ask it
'We never saw a report' is a request for visibility, and 'the leads were junk' is a tracking or targeting problem you will inherit. If the owner ran the ads personally, ask which parts they want to keep an eye on. Leave the previous manager's competence out of it until you have read the account.
Which campaigns or keywords do you believe have brought in real customers?
Why ask it
Write down the belief before you open the account, then compare. Where belief and data agree, leave those campaigns alone in your first round of changes. Where they part, bring the search terms report to the next call and look at it together.
What have you tried in paid ads that you would not pay for again?
Why ask it
Get specifics and dates: display, a broad match experiment, a competitor campaign, a video push. A channel dropped after two weeks on a small budget was never really tested, and you may want it back. Say so openly, because quietly relaunching something the client ruled out is a quick way to lose the account.
Has an ad been disapproved or an account suspended on any platform?
Why ask it
You need this before opening a new account or copying old ads across. Ask what the notice said and whether the matter was closed. Each platform writes its own policies and appeal process, so read the current rules for the client's industry there and do not lean on what was allowed last time.
Do you bid on your own brand name, and whose ads appear when someone searches for you?
Why ask it
Run the search together on the call. Brand clicks tend to be cheap and to convert easily, which flatters the account average, so settle now that brand will be reported on its own line. Owners often hold a firm view on paying for their own name; hear it before you build.
What else is sending people to the site right now: social ads, email, mailers, radio, a trade show?
Why ask it
Other channels raise branded searches and can make paid search look better than it is, or worse when they stop. Find out who runs each one. Two people retargeting the same visitors with different offers is easy to prevent once you know about each other.
Has a platform rep suggested changes, and are any recommendations set to apply automatically?
Why ask it
Platforms contact account owners directly, and not every suggestion suits a small budget. Agree that nothing is applied until whoever manages the account has looked at it. Then open the recommendations settings in the first week and see what has been switching itself on.
Tracking
What does the account count as a conversion today, and when did anyone last test it?
Why ask it
Open the conversion settings side by side if you can. Views of the contact page, a tag installed twice and a 'conversion' that fires on every visit are common finds, and automated bidding chases whatever it is told to count. Send a test lead yourself before trusting any historical figure.
How many of your leads come by phone, and can you tell which calls came from an ad?
Why ask it
For many service businesses the call is the sale, and an account that only counts forms sees half the picture. Ask whether call tracking is in place, whether staff ask callers how they found the business, and whether swapping the number shown on the site would cause trouble with listings or print.
Where does a lead end up: a CRM, a booking system, a spreadsheet, somebody's inbox?
Why ask it
Wherever it lands is where you will learn which clicks became customers. If the source, or better the click ID, can be stored with each lead, sales can be matched back to keywords later. Get the name of whoever administers that system, because you will need a favor from them within the month.
Can you tell us, each month, which leads were worth having?
Why ask it
A cost per lead that looks fine can hide job seekers, students and people outside the service area. Set up a routine that survives a busy week, even a list marked good or bad. What comes back turns into negative keywords, and into offline conversions where the platform and the client's systems allow it.
Is analytics installed on the site, is it linked to the ad account, and who has admin rights?
Why ask it
Three answers, and the third is the one that holds things up. Linking the two lets you see what paid visitors do after the click, but the link has to be approved by someone with enough rights on both sides, and each tool sets its own level. When the admin turns out to be a web designer from four years ago, start the recovery now.
Who can add or change tags on the website, and how long does a request take?
Why ask it
Tracking fixes are the first thing you will need and the first thing to stall. A tag manager you are allowed to publish in is fastest. A developer with a two-week queue means the launch date is theirs, so file the request the day the agreement is signed.
Do you keep a list of past customers and leads, and how was permission to contact them collected?
Why ask it
In an ad account a list does two jobs: it keeps existing customers out of campaigns meant to find new ones, and on some platforms it can be used to reach past buyers again. Whether it may be uploaded depends on the platform's terms, the client's own privacy notice and the law where those customers live. That call belongs to whoever handles privacy at the client, so ask who that is, and leave the list out until they answer.
How does the site ask visitors for cookie consent, and who decided how it is set up?
Why ask it
Consent choices change what the ad platforms can measure, and the rules differ by country and state. This is not yours to advise on: ask who at the client is responsible, how the banner is configured and whether the tags respect a refusal. Tell the client plainly that reported conversions may then be partly estimated.
If you sell online, does each order's value reach the ad platform, and who keeps the product feed up to date?
Why ask it
This one is for stores only. Without values the account cannot tell a $20 order from a $400 one, and return on ad spend becomes a guess. Ask how quickly a price or stock change reaches the feed, since a mismatch between feed and site is a common reason products get disapproved.
Ads and pages
What would a customer type into a search box on the day they need you?
Why ask it
Have them answer fast and write down the exact words, trade terms and misspellings included. Owners tend to give the industry's name for the service, while customers search for the problem: 'water coming through ceiling', not 'roof membrane repair'. Treat the list as a starting set to test against keyword research and the search terms report, because what an owner imagines people type and what they do type are often two different lists.
Which searches should never trigger your ads?
Why ask it
Owners know their false friends: the roofer who does not do repairs, the software that shares a name with a band, the service people expect for free. That list seeds the negative keywords on day one. It is cheaper than discovering each term by paying for its clicks.
Where do you serve customers, and are there places you would turn work down from?
Why ask it
Location targeting is built straight from this, so get a list of towns, ZIP codes or a radius and not the word 'local'. Probe the edges. The far suburb they will drive to for a big job but not a small one can take a lower bid or be left out.
When is your busy season, and during which hours can someone answer the phone?
Why ask it
The season tells you when the budget should swell and when it should rest. The hours set the ad schedule for call campaigns, because an ad that rings an empty office at nine at night has bought a voicemail. Find out what becomes of a Saturday inquiry too.
What is the offer: a price, a free quote, a trial, a discount, a deadline?
Why ask it
An ad has room for one reason to click, and 'quality service' is not it. Ask what they can truthfully attach a number or a date to. Then check the page makes the same promise, because a visitor who cannot find the offer they clicked on leaves.
Why do customers pick you over the other names on the results page?
Why ask it
This becomes headline copy, so push past 'experience' to things a searcher can verify: a response time, a price shown openly, a specialty, a warranty they honor. If they are stuck, read five recent reviews together and note what people thanked them for.
Which competitors' ads do you keep seeing, and what do they promise that you cannot match?
Why ask it
Their list is the company your ads will keep. If a rival leads with a lower price or free delivery, the client's ad needs another reason to be clicked, and this is the moment to ask what it is. Raise bidding on competitor names here as well, since some owners want it badly and others will not hear of it. The platforms have their own rules on putting another firm's name in ad text, so read those before writing any.
Are there claims, words or prices we must not put in an ad?
Why ask it
Regulated fields, franchises and licensed trades often carry limits, and the platforms add restrictions of their own for some categories. Ask who in the business signs off on wording, and read the platform's current policy for that industry yourself. What is allowed depends on the place and the provider, so do not assume.
Who approves the ad copy, and which photos or video are we free to use?
Why ask it
Copy that waits a week for approval cannot be tested at any useful pace. Agree on a turnaround, and get the approver to react to three sample headlines now so you learn their taste early. For images, confirm the business has the right to use them in advertising, not only on its site.
Where do your ads send people today: the home page, a service page, or a page built for the campaign?
Why ask it
Type in the address the ad points at and open it on a phone while you talk; do not click the live ad, which costs them money. Judge whether the page repeats what the ad said and whether the next step is visible without scrolling. A home page with six menus asks a paid visitor to do the navigating.
Who can build or edit a landing page, and would we be allowed to?
Why ask it
Three workable answers: you build on a page tool, their developer builds from your brief, or the site's own editor is opened to you. Each has a different cost and speed, so it belongs in the quote. 'Nobody can touch the site' is worth knowing before you promise a test in week two.
What does the inquiry form ask for, and when did someone last fill it in on a phone?
Why ask it
Fill it in during the call. Twelve required fields, a dropdown that will not open or a thank-you page that never loads accounts for many a bad cost per lead. Before trimming fields, ask sales which ones they truly need, since a shorter form tends to bring more leads and vaguer ones.
Reporting
What belongs on the first line of the report: leads, cost per lead, sales or return on ad spend?
Why ask it
Clicks and impressions are easy to report and nobody's goal. Put the number they choose at the top beside the target agreed at the start, and keep the layout the same each month so a change stands out. If they choose return on ad spend, confirm whether they are thinking of revenue or profit.
How often do you want to hear from us, and who else will read the report?
Why ask it
A weekly note suits the first month, when things move fast and the client is nervous; monthly is usually enough after that. The second reader matters as much. A finance lead who gets the report forwarded wants spend against budget on one line, and will not sit through a keyword table.
Which changes can we make without asking, and which need a yes from you first?
Why ask it
Draw the line before the first change. Bids, negatives and pausing a losing ad normally sit with the manager, while new offers, budget increases and new pages normally need approval. Put the list in the agreement with an expected reply time, and cover the urgent case: may you pause a campaign that is plainly burning money and report afterward?
Who is our day-to-day contact, and who has the final say on budget?
Why ask it
They are often two people. The contact answers questions about stock, hours and offers; the budget holder decides whether you continue. Meet the second one at least once before the first review, so your report is not the first they have heard of you.
Three months from now, what would make you say this is working?
Why ask it
Set the answer beside the target cost per lead from earlier in the conversation. If the two differ, the one just spoken is the one you will be judged by. Send it back in your follow-up, in their words, so both sides have agreed to the same test.
What have you been promised about paid search that you would like us to confirm or correct?
Why ask it
Top position, instant leads and a fixed cost per lead are the usual three, picked up from sales calls. Hearing them now lets you say which you can stand behind. Never match a promise you would not put in writing.
From PPC discovery call to first campaign
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before you get on the call
Search the way their customer would
Type the client's main service and their brand name into Google and Bing from an ordinary browser. Note which advertisers appear, what each ad promises and whether the client shows up at all. Leave the ads unclicked, theirs and their rivals', since every click is billed to someone. Reach the landing pages by typing the address instead.
Email the look-it-up questions first
Margin, close rate, last year's ad spend and the name on the billing profile are not things an owner carries in their head. Put those in an email a couple of days beforehand and say that rough figures are fine. The call can then go to the questions under Goals and Reporting that need a conversation, and you avoid forty minutes of 'I would have to check'.
Ask for a look at the account, with read-only access
A prospect with an existing ad account can usually grant view access in a few minutes. With it, questions under Account history and Tracking stop being general: you can ask about the campaign that spent the most last quarter by name. Make it clear you will change nothing until there is an agreement, and keep to that.
Find out who holds each number
The owner knows margin, whoever takes the calls knows what happens to a lead, and the person who built the site knows where the tags are. One contact rarely has all three. Ask whether the other two can join for ten minutes each, or get their names so the open items have somewhere to go.
During the conversation
Do the arithmetic where they can see it
Take their own figures and work the chain through on a shared screen. Say a job leaves $400 after costs and one lead in four becomes a job: break-even is $100 a lead, so the target has to sit below that to leave a profit. A $2,000 budget at $60 a lead is about 33 leads and about eight jobs. A client who watched the target being built will defend it later, where one who was handed it will question it.
Money first, mechanics second
Goals and Budget sit ahead of Tracking and the ads themselves for a reason. An owner will talk about margins and capacity with energy and will fade quickly once the subject is tags. If the technical person is only free at the start, take the Tracking group then and come back, but do not let the hour end without a target cost and a budget.
Look at the real thing together
Whenever an answer could be checked on screen, check it: the conversion settings, the form on a phone, the search for their own name. People describe their setup as they remember it being built. Seeing it takes a minute and replaces a guess with a fact you can both point at.
Note problems, do not diagnose them live
You will spot things within minutes: a broad keyword, a home page as the destination, a conversion that counts page views. Saying 'this is wrong' on a first call puts the client or their last agency on the defensive and commits you to a fix before you have seen the whole account. Write it down, and bring the findings back in order of what they cost.
What the answers should change
No target cost means your first deliverable is one
When a client cannot say what a lead may cost, do not start with keywords. Start with a one-page calculation from their margin, close rate and customer value, get it agreed, and build to it. Without that page, every monthly report turns into an argument about whether the number on it is good.
A budget too small for the goal
Divide the budget by a realistic cost per click for their terms to get a number of clicks, then take the share of those you expect to convert. If the result is a handful of leads a month, say so, and narrow the plan: one service, one area, the hours someone answers the phone. A thin budget concentrated in one place can be judged. The same money spread over everything they sell cannot.
Broken tracking outranks new campaigns
If the Tracking answers show that conversions are miscounted or calls are invisible, the first weeks belong to fixing that, and the proposal should say so with a date. Launching on bad data teaches the bidding the wrong lesson and leaves you reporting numbers you do not believe yourself.
Reasons to pass on the account
A few answers are worth declining over: an account the client does not own and cannot recover, a demand for a promised cost per lead before you have seen any data, an owner who will not share margins yet expects you to answer for profit, or a product the ad platforms restrict that the client wants advertised anyway. Turning the work down at discovery costs an hour. Finding out in month three costs a reference.
Onboarding, once they say yes
Put the agreed numbers on one page
Target cost per lead or sale, monthly spend, the primary conversion, the review date, and which changes need approval. Send it within a day and ask for a reply that says yes. That page is what you open at the first review, and it settles most disagreements before they start.
Chase access as a single checklist
List everything in one message with a name beside each item: ad accounts, analytics, the tag manager, the landing page editor, the CRM administrator, the billing contact. Access that arrives in six separate threads over three weeks is the usual reason a launch date slips, and a checklist shows the client exactly which item is theirs to move.
Save a baseline before the first change
Export the past year of campaign, keyword and search term data, screenshot the conversion settings, and note the date. Once you start editing, the old state is hard to reconstruct. The baseline is also the only fair answer when someone asks, six months on, whether things are better than before you arrived.
Run one lead through from click to inbox
Warn the client, then submit the form and call the tracked number yourself. Watch the conversion register in the ad account, the lead arrive wherever leads go, and someone respond. Mark it as a test so it is not counted as a sale. Any step that fails here would have failed silently for a paying click.