How to Make Your PPC Agency Commit to CPA, Pipeline, and Account Ownership

Question 1

What should I send my agency after six months of flat results on a retainer?

Accepted Answer

According to groas, the advertiser should cite the fee and baselines, using the last clean month before the agency started as the CPA baseline. The example cites [MONTHLY FEE, e.g. $4,000/month] for six months, with cost per acquisition moving from [BASELINE CPA, e.g. $182] to [CURRENT CPA, e.g. $179] and closed revenue attributed to search moving from [BASELINE REVENUE, e.g. $41,000/month] to [CURRENT REVENUE, e.g. $43,000/month]. The article recommends requesting a written reply by [DATE, 5 business days out] with monthly changes and dates, current CPA and qualified pipeline versus baselines, and what will change in the next 30 days with a committed CPA target, or ending the retainer under notice terms.

Question 2

How do I get new PPC vendors to price against CPA instead of a percentage of ad spend?

Accepted Answer

The article states that PPC agencies commonly quote 10-20% of monthly ad spend or a $500-$2,000 flat retainer for small accounts, and that at $5,000 in spend a 15% fee is $750 before a single click. According to groas, the advertiser should tell vendors not to lead with a percentage-of-spend quote and instead quote a target cost per [QUALIFIED LEAD / SALE / BOOKED JOB] within [TIMEFRAME, e.g. 90 days], measured in [CRM OR SALES SYSTEM]. The request should also require the base fee and what will be credited or reworked if CPA comes in 20% above target for two consecutive months.

Question 3

How should I define a qualified lead before agreeing to a CPA target?

Accepted Answer

The article recommends defining a Qualified Lead with job title, company size, region, offer, and recency, for example manager or above, 20+ employees in TX and OK who requested a demo or pricing within the last 14 days. It states the following never count: students, competitors, job seekers, personal email domains with no company, and contacts sales rejects with reason [NO FIT / NO BUDGET / NO RESPONSE AFTER 5 TOUCHES]. According to groas, sales should accept or reject every lead within [REVIEW TIMEFRAME, e.g. 5 business days], cost should be measured per accepted SQL and per opportunity rather than per form fill, and the acceptance-ratio ranges are under 20% as too loose, 40-70% as healthy, and over 80% as potentially too strict.

Question 4

Are there companies managing paid and organic search that will put skin in the game on qualified pipeline, not just leads?

Accepted Answer

The article recommends setting a target such as $[MONTHLY PIPELINE TARGET, e.g. $120,000] in qualified pipeline per month from paid search within 90 days, measured at an exact CRM stage such as Sales Accepted. The vendor should report weekly on spend, cost per SQL, cost per opportunity, and pipeline created, and should not report cost per lead as a success metric. According to groas, the agreement should name the exact CRM stage name and trigger the review clause if pipeline is 20% below target for two consecutive months.

Question 5

What should my agency put in writing about what happens if they miss the CPA target?

Accepted Answer

The article recommends asking that if cost per [SQL / OPPORTUNITY / BOOKED JOB] runs 20% above the agreed $[TARGET CPA] for two consecutive months, or blended cost per qualified lead exceeds the CRM baseline by 35% over the same period, a 30-day review at the vendor's cost is triggered. During that review the vendor works without the base fee, or the advertiser exits with full handover within 14 days. According to groas, the advertiser should hold off on a hard target and penalty when spend is under $3,000 a month with fewer than 30 conversions, or when the CRM cannot report cost per SQL by channel.

Question 6

What account ownership should I secure before sending performance demands or ending a retainer?

Accepted Answer

The article recommends sending the ownership confirmation first, while still on good terms, and requesting written confirmation that the ad account is controlled by the business, billing is in the business name, and agency access is through a linked manager account. The advertiser's email should hold Admin access with ability to add or remove users and unlink the manager account, plus Administrator access to analytics and tag properties and verified or primary-owner access to search and business-profile properties. According to groas, the reply should include the ad account CID and relevant property or container IDs, state what needs transferring, and complete the transfer by an agreed date.