Honesty and transparency are vital parts of the relationship between agency and client. At EKG, we make it a point to keep our clients updated on everything that is occurring in their pay-per-click (PPC) accounts, whether it be good news or bad. Rather than trying to sugar-coat the bad news, our team ensures that clients are given the full story. That way we can combat issues together as a team. Doing so ensures that trust exists in the relationship.
In order to keep clients in the know, we create monthly reports to make sure that clients can see the performance trends and changes. Depending on client preferences, we also send out weekly reports and/or set up calls to discuss performance and plan of action moving forward. These reports include all the normal data points (traffic level, CTR, number of sales, revenue, etc. broken down at the account, campaign, and product level) and how they fluctuate week-to-week. Our team will also include lists of every change we make, recommendations for the account or website, and new opportunities applicable to the account in question. This not only keeps clients updated but also gives our team and the client the opportunity to work together to fish out areas that have room for improvements or brainstorm new ideas. For many of our clients, client input is necessary to ensure that traffic stays relevant, to confirm that we are choosing the right key terms to target the right audience, and that money is being allocated across the account correctly. While we are PPC and internet marketing experts, we aren’t experts in every one of our client’s fields. This is why honesty, trust, and teamwork between agency and client are necessary for the growth and success of our PPC accounts.
We also take it one step further and make sure that clients have access to their accounts, which is not always the norm. Many agencies will actually refuse account access to clients, leaving them in the dark and unable to check if changes are actually being made. To play devil’s advocate here, there is one giant plus to denying access to clients. Without access, clients are unable to log into their accounts and make poor account decisions or incorrect changes without notifying the account manager. While this is a risk, one that we have experienced ourselves, our team finds the advantages to allowing access to outweigh the advantages of denying access. To protect ourselves though, it is imperative to explain why making changes without first having a team discussion can be harmful to performance. Leave the management to the experts but create an environment that allows ideas and information to flow freely. When this line of information and communication stays open, we are able to transform client ideas into something that translates well into the world of PPC.
