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What Does a PPC Agency Do? The Work, Stage by Stage

A PPC agency sets up and runs your paid advertising. It makes the tracking count real enquiries, builds the account around what people search for, writes and tests the ads, then keeps reading the data to cut waste and report on what the spend produced. You pay the platform for clicks and the agency for that work.

Prabhu SolutionsPublished 8 October 2026Last reviewed 8 October 202615 min read

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What does a PPC agency do, in the order the work happens?
What is PPC management?
What does a PPC agency do first: tracking and account structure?
How does a PPC agency research what to bid on?
What gets built before the ads go live?
What does ongoing PPC optimisation involve?
What should a PPC report actually show?
Who owns the Google Ads account?
What does the PPC agency fee buy, and what does it not?
What decides how much a PPC agency charges?
When should you not hire a PPC agency?
How can you tell whether your PPC agency is doing the work?

What does a PPC agency do, in the order the work happens?

A PPC agency does five jobs in order: it makes sure tracking records real enquiries, structures the account around what people search for, researches and builds the campaigns, optimises them by reading the data and cutting waste, and reports on what the spend produced. The sequence matters, because each stage depends on the one before it.

That order is the thing to hold on to when you compare agencies. Many pitches open with a keyword list and a new campaign, which is only the third stage. The work that decides whether your money is well spent happens before the build and after it. This article walks through each stage as a list of tasks, because tasks are what you can check, then covers who owns the account, what the fee does and does not buy, and when hiring an agency is the wrong move.

Search is covered in more depth on our PPC management service page, and the wider offer across search, shopping and social sits under paid advertising.

The point
Search is covered in more depth on our PPC management service page, and the wider offer across search, shopping and social sits under paid advertising.

What is PPC management?

PPC management is the ongoing running of pay-per-click advertising, most often Google Ads Search campaigns. It covers what is tracked, which searches are paid for and which are blocked, how ads are written and tested, how bids and budgets are set against real outcomes, and whether the page that receives the click can turn it into an enquiry.

Pay per click means exactly what it says: you are charged when someone clicks your advert, not when it appears. Every search triggers an auction, and the platform decides which ads show and in what order. The platform will spend your budget faithfully whether or not the traffic is any good. Management is the human judgement applied to that spend: which of the searches that triggered your ads were never going to buy, whether the conversion count means what it says, and whether the page deserves more traffic.

The same discipline applies on other platforms, but the job changes. Advertising on Meta or LinkedIn works on audiences rather than searches, which is why paid social advertising is treated separately, and why we compare the two in paid social vs Google Ads. Online shops add a product feed, which is the subject of Google Shopping management.

The point
Advertising on Meta or LinkedIn works on audiences rather than searches, which is why paid social advertising is treated separately, and why we compare the two in paid social vs Google Ads.

What does a PPC agency do first: tracking and account structure?

Before any ad is written, the agency defines what counts as an enquiry, makes the platform record exactly that, and decides how the account will be organised. Tracking comes first because every later decision, human or automated, is judged against it. Structure comes next because it decides how much control you have over budget.

Define the conversion in plain terms. A submitted form, a call over a sensible length, a booked appointment, a chat that reached a person. Softer signals such as a page view are kept separate so they do not train the bidding.
Build and link the tags. Usually through Tag Manager, with Google Ads and GA4 connected, and one source made primary for each action so the same enquiry is never counted twice.
Test every conversion with a real enquiry. Submit the form, make the call, and watch it arrive in the account. A tag that fires on every page load looks like success on the dashboard and ruins the bidding.
Respect visitors' consent choices. The tags must behave according to whichever choice a visitor makes. What the consent banner says is a decision for whoever is responsible for your data protection, not for the agency.
Plan how outcomes after the enquiry will be recorded. Which enquiries became customers is the most valuable signal an account can learn from, and it needs somewhere to live, which is the job of a CRM built around your sales process.
Separate brand from non-brand. People searching for your company name convert readily and cost little. Mixed with everything else, they flatter the account and hide what it costs to win a customer who had never heard of you.
Separate campaigns by offer and margin. Budget is set per campaign, so a profitable service and a marginal one should not share a pot.
Set location, language, device and schedule for how the business actually operates, including the location option most accounts leave on its default.
For an inherited account, audit before touching anything. Ownership, conversion actions, search terms and settings are reviewed first, because the history is worth keeping and many accounts need tidying rather than rebuilding.

How does a PPC agency research what to bid on?

Research means finding out what people actually type when they want what you sell, what each kind of search is worth to you, and who else is bidding. It should produce themes of search, each with a likely intent, rather than one long keyword list. The aim is to decide what is worth paying for before paying for it.

The sources are ordinary ones: Google's own keyword planning tool, the words your customers and sales staff use, the enquiry records you already hold, the search terms in any existing account, and the results page itself, read as a customer would. Good research separates searches by what the person wants. Someone typing a service plus a town is nearly ready to enquire. Someone typing a question or the word “free” is not, and paying for them is how accounts leak money.

Research can also end the engagement. If hardly anyone searches for what you sell, or each click would cost more than a customer is worth, an honest agency tells you before building anything. When demand is thin, organic content or another route may be a better first spend, and SEO or PPC sets out how to reason about that choice.

The point
If hardly anyone searches for what you sell, or each click would cost more than a customer is worth, an honest agency tells you before building anything.

What gets built before the ads go live?

The build produces campaigns, ad groups, ads, assets and the pages they point to. Each ad group holds one theme of search, each ad repeats that theme in different words, and each theme lands on a page that answers it. Nothing goes live until the tracking has been tested and the pages have been checked on a phone.

Campaigns and ad groups. One tight theme of search per ad group, with match types chosen deliberately rather than left on whatever the interface suggests.
Starting negative keywords. Lists built from the research, organised by type, such as jobs, free and DIY, the wrong product and the wrong place. They are expanded later from real searches, not copied from another account.
Responsive search ads. Headlines and descriptions that offer genuinely different angles, so the platform has something to choose between, plus the sitelinks, call assets and callouts that suit the business.
Landing page decisions. Use an existing page, change it, or build a new one. A dedicated page for each main service usually beats the homepage, because it can repeat the searcher's words and offer one next step. Where a page has to be built, that is website development and is scoped as such.
Bidding and budget. A method matched to the conversion data the account really has. A new account with few conversions gives automated bidding too little to learn from, so early control is often manual or click-based.
Policy and claims checks. Adverts must be accurate and within platform rules. In regulated sectors, your own compliance lead signs off what can be said; the agency does not decide that for you.
A launch check. Tracking tested, pages loading, budgets set, location and language correct, and the right people invited to the account.

What does ongoing PPC optimisation involve?

Optimisation is a set of repeating decisions about money: reading the searches that triggered ads, blocking waste, checking tracking still fires, testing ads, adjusting bids and budgets against enquiries, and keeping the landing page in step. How often each is needed depends on the spend and how fast the market moves. The tasks stay the same.

Read the search terms report. The actual searches that triggered your ads, ordered by cost. Add negatives for what was never going to buy and promote the good ones into their own keywords. This is the highest-value task in the account and the one the platform cannot do for you.
Check spend against budget. Is a strong campaign limited by budget while a weaker one is not? Is any day's spend unusually high, and why?
Confirm that tracking still works. Site updates, plugin changes and edits to a consent banner break tags without announcing it. A sudden fall in conversions is usually a tag problem before it is a market problem.
Test and retire ads. Replace weak assets, write new angles, and treat the platform's asset ratings as a rough indication rather than a verdict.
Review targets against outcomes. If bidding is set on conversions, check that the target still reflects your margin and the quality of enquiry, not last season's assumptions.
Look for patterns by device, location and time, and adjust only where the data is strong enough to justify it.
Deal with disapprovals, policy warnings and account notices before they stall a campaign.
Judge Google's recommendations on their merits. Some are sensible. Others raise budgets or widen targeting in the platform's interest, so auto-apply settings are checked rather than trusted.
Ask what the enquiries turned into. Without that feedback the account optimises for enquiries that merely look like customers. Where the page is leaking visits, conversion optimisation usually pays back before more budget does.
Record what changed and why, so that results can be read against decisions.

What should a PPC report actually show?

A useful PPC report leads with enquiries and cost per enquiry by campaign, then shows what was changed and why. Clicks, impressions and click-through rate are diagnostics, not results. If a report cannot connect spend to enquiries, and enquiries to what they became, it describes activity rather than outcome.

The report shows	Why it matters	What it can hide if it is the only thing shown
Enquiries and cost per enquiry, by campaign	It is the number your business actually lives on, and by campaign it shows where money is working.	An account average, which lets a cheap brand campaign carry an expensive generic one.
What the enquiries became	Cheap enquiries that never turn into customers are not cheap.	Nothing, if it is shown. But it needs your sales records, so a report without it usually means nobody asked.
Search terms and what was blocked	It proves somebody is reading the searches your money went on.	Absence is the warning sign. An agency that cannot show it is not reading it.
Changes made, and the reason for each	Results can be read against decisions, and you can query anything unexplained.	A long list of small edits can look busy while the real problem stays untouched.
Clicks, impressions and click-through rate	Useful diagnostics for ads and structure.	Everything. A rising click count with flat enquiries is a cost, not a result.
Impression share and competitor overlap	Context for whether budget or competition is the limit.	A reason to chase someone else's bids, which is rarely worth doing.

Who owns the Google Ads account?

You should. The account ought to be registered to your business, with your own payment method on it, and the agency invited in as an administrator or manager. Then the campaign history, conversion data and audience lists stay with you if you part company. An agency that runs everything in its own account keeps that history when it leaves.

Ownership is practical, not philosophical. Years of search term data, the structure that took time to refine and the conversion history that bidding learns from are all assets. If they sit in the agency's account, starting again means starting with nothing. The same applies to the surrounding pieces: the tag container, the analytics property, any call tracking numbers and the landing pages. Check that each one is in your name, or at least that you hold administrator access to it.

Be wary of the arrangement where the agency buys the media and invoices you for it. You cannot see what each click cost, and the margin on the spend is invisible. On our own paid accounts, as set out on the paid advertising page, the account is registered to your business and you pay the platform directly. Prabhu Solutions is registered at 14 Chester Rise, Oldbury, B68 0SS, and you can read more about how we work.

The point
Be wary of the arrangement where the agency buys the media and invoices you for it.

What does the PPC agency fee buy, and what does it not?

The fee buys the agency's judgement and labour: building the account, reading the data and acting on it. It does not buy the clicks, which you pay to the platform, and it cannot buy demand that does not exist. Anything outside the account, such as the page or your sales follow-up, needs to be scoped separately.

Area	The fee buys	The fee does not buy
Tracking	Definition, build and testing of the conversions the account learns from.	A tidy site. Broken forms or a site that blocks tags have to be fixed at the source.
Media	Decisions about where the budget goes and where it stops.	The clicks themselves. That is a separate payment to the platform.
Results	Work, judgement and an honest read of the data.	A promised number of enquiries or a fixed cost per enquiry. No one can responsibly name those before seeing your market.
Landing pages	Assessment of the page and a specification for what to change.	A new page, unless it has been scoped as a build.
Demand	Capturing searches that already exist.	People who are not searching for what you sell.
Sales follow-up	Feedback to the account on what enquiries turned into, if you supply it.	Answering the phone. An enquiry that waits days is lost to whoever replied first.
Creative	Text ads and assets built from what you provide.	Photography or video, which a different supplier may be needed for.

What decides how much a PPC agency charges?

Fees follow the amount of work, not the ad budget alone: how many offers need their own structure, how much tracking must be built or repaired, how contested the searches are, how many regions or languages apply, whether pages need work, and whether the account is inherited. Media is paid separately.

How many offers need their own structure. Ten services with different audiences take more building and tending than one.
The state of tracking. Building from nothing is one job. Unpicking duplicate and inherited conversion actions is another, and often takes longer.
How contested the searches are. More competitors mean more testing and more careful targeting. The price of a click is set by the auction and belongs in the media cost, not the management fee.
Geography and language. Several regions or languages multiply campaigns, ads and pages.
Page work. If pages must be written or built, that is website work and is scoped separately from the campaign.
The fee model. A fee that is a percentage of spend rises when you spend more, even if the workload does not. A fee tied to scope stays put while spend changes. Ask which you are being offered and why.
Sourced market ranges, with the dates and sources they came from, are collected in our Google Ads management cost guide, because a number without a source is worth very little.

When should you not hire a PPC agency?

Do not hire one when nobody searches for what you sell, when a click costs more than a customer can repay, when your website cannot convert a visit, when you cannot answer the enquiries you already get, or when the budget is too small to learn from. In each case the constraint is elsewhere.

Nobody searches for it. Search captures demand that exists. If the category is new, the money may do more good where people discover things.
The sum does not work. If each click costs more than the customer eventually pays, no skill changes the arithmetic. Work it out before you spend.
The website cannot convert. A slow or confusing page wastes every click. Fix it first, because better pages multiply the value of every click that follows.
You cannot follow up. Leads that wait days are lost whatever the campaign did.
The budget is too small to learn from. A handful of conversions cannot separate a good ad from a lucky one. A one-off account review and a careful self-run programme can be wiser than a retainer.
One person would do. A freelancer or an in-house hire suits a small, stable account, and freelancer, agency or in-house sets out how to choose.
You are unsure which of these describes you. That is a reasonable thing to ask a supplier before anything is signed, and you can ask us to look at your situation.

How can you tell whether your PPC agency is doing the work?

Check four things inside your own account: the search terms report shows irrelevant searches being blocked, the conversion actions count real enquiries, the change history shows deliberate edits, and the billing and administrator details are yours. If none of that can be shown, the reporting is describing activity rather than results.

What to check	Where to look	What good looks like
Ownership	The account's billing and access settings.	Your business and payment method, with the agency listed as a manager.
Conversions	The conversion actions list.	A few clearly named actions, each firing once per real enquiry, and a test enquiry that proves it.
Search terms	The search terms report, sorted by cost.	Mostly searches you would be glad to pay for, with a visible record of what has been blocked.
Changes	The change history.	Deliberate edits that line up with notes you have been given, and no unexplained auto-applied suggestions.
Structure	The campaign list.	Brand separate from non-brand, and campaigns split by offer rather than one heap.
Questions you can still ask	Our guide to choosing a PPC agency.	Specific answers about who works in your account and what happens if you leave.

Questions people ask about this

What does a PPC agency do day to day?

Mostly small decisions about money. It reads the search terms that triggered your ads, blocks waste, checks the tracking still fires, tests new ads, adjusts bids and budgets against enquiries, and keeps notes on what changed. The platform handles the auction itself; the agency decides what is worth paying for.

Is PPC the same thing as Google Ads?

Not quite. PPC is the payment model, where you pay per click. Google Ads is the biggest platform that sells it, and Microsoft Advertising, Meta and LinkedIn sell it too. When people say PPC agency they usually mean search advertising, with Shopping and social sometimes included.

Does a PPC agency write the ads and build the landing pages?

It writes the ads and assets as part of the work. Landing pages vary: some agencies only advise, others build. Ask which applies before you sign, because the page often decides whether clicks become enquiries. If a page must be built, expect it to be scoped separately from the campaign management.

Do I pay the agency or Google for the ad spend?

Ideally you pay the platform directly, from your own account and payment method, and the agency invoices only for management. That way you can see every pound and the account history is yours. Be cautious of agencies that buy the media and bill you for it with the margin hidden.

Can a PPC agency promise me a set number of enquiries?

No honest agency can. Results depend on how many people search, what competitors bid, how well your page converts and how quickly you reply. An agency can promise what it will do, which is the work and the reporting, and it can tell you when the arithmetic does not look workable.

How is a PPC agency different from an SEO agency?

PPC buys visits and stops when you stop paying. SEO earns visibility in the organic results and builds more slowly. Different skills drive each, though they share keyword research and landing pages. Many businesses end up using both, and some agencies, ours included, run SEO alongside paid work.

Can I run PPC myself instead of hiring an agency?

Yes, if the spend is modest, the offer is simple and you can read a search terms report regularly. The risks are drifting settings and the platform's steady nudges to spend more. A one-off review of a self-run account is often enough, and it costs far less than a standing retainer.

What should I be able to see in my own ad account?

Your billing details, the full list of conversion actions, the search terms report, the change history and every campaign. If an agency limits you to a summary, ask why. Read-only access to all of it is reasonable, and being an administrator on the account should be a condition of working together.