Reading a PPC proposal and its reports

Proposals are written to persuade, so they rarely line up. One leads with results, another with process, a third with a price. Your job is to translate them into the same shape, and then to read the reports in the same way once work starts.

Put proposals in one table

One row per item, one column per agency:

• Platforms in scope, and what is excluded.
• Who builds and changes the campaigns.
• The fee, how it is calculated and how often it is charged.
• The advertising budget, and who controls it.
• What counts as a conversion, and how it is tracked.
• The minimum term, the notice period, and what you receive if you leave.

A blank cell is information. It means the agency has not yet decided, and you will decide it with them later.

Fee, ad spend and the budget

Keep the agency’s fee and the money that goes to the advertising platform as separate lines. Then ask how the budget is controlled. Google calls the average daily budget an average: on some days spend may fall short of it and on others exceed it, and for most campaigns the daily spending limit is two times the average and the monthly limit is 30.4 times it^[2]. That means a proposal that says “AED X a day” is describing an average. Ask for the monthly figure in writing, and ask how you will be told if spending runs ahead.

This site does not give typical prices, because I have no source I could stand behind and a number I cannot source would only anchor you.

How success is defined

You choose what Google Ads counts as valuable, such as a purchase, a sign-up or a phone call^[1]. A form submission, a click to call and a completed sale are all possible conversions, and they are worth very different amounts to your business. The data can also feed bidding strategies such as Maximize Conversions, target CPA and target ROAS^[1], so a poorly chosen conversion does not only distort the report, it can steer the spending. Ask which actions are counted, and whether they are primary or secondary.

Reading the reports

• Can you trace each figure to your own account? If not, you are trusting a summary.
• Is the comparison made against a period before the agency started, with the same definition?
• Does the report separate enquiries from qualified enquiries and from sales?
• Does it say what will change next month, and why?

Common mistakes

• Comparing a fee that includes ad spend with one that excludes it.
• Reading a badge as a recommendation. Google’s guidelines say the Partner badge cannot imply that Google endorses the company^[3].
• Believing a promised result. Google’s advertising policy bars ads that entice with an improbable result^[4]. It is a rule for ads, not for agency pitches, but it is a fair test of a pitch.
• Accepting a headline number nobody has defined.

When you have the table, enter the answers in the scorecard. The method around it is in how to choose a PPC agency in Dubai. If you would like a second opinion on a proposal, I offer a free ads audit, and I say plainly that I sell the services it leads to.