How long should I give a PPC agency to get results?
Give a new PPC agency about three months before you judge it. Ads can bring enquiries within days, but Google needs a few weeks of conversion data to bid well, and the agency needs time to cut wasted search terms and test ads. By month three, cost per enquiry should be trending down.
Week one: campaigns live, tracking tested, first clicks and calls. Month one: search terms reviewed, negative keywords added, budget moved towards what works. Months two and three: ad tests, bid strategy changes and landing page fixes.
If month one brings no tracked enquiries at all, ask why straight away. Broken tracking, a weak landing page or the wrong keywords are fixable, but only if someone spots them.
A month-to-month agreement makes the three-month test fair on both sides: you can leave if it is not working, and the agency has to earn the fourth month.
Useful pages
This is one part of a bigger picture. How to choose a PPC agency in the UK covers costs, pricing models, ownership, contracts, tracking and red flags in one place.