Can an SEO company manage pay-per-click campaigns?

Some SEO companies do, and others leave paid search to specialists. The skills overlap in keyword research and understanding what searchers want, but running paid campaigns is separate daily work, so judge a company’s PPC service on its own rather than assuming its SEO ability carries over. If the campaigns run on Google Ads, Google’s own rules for companies that manage advertising for clients give you a useful checklist: how the management fee is disclosed, how ad costs are reported, and what account information you are entitled to.

A separate service to evaluate on its own

Managing a paid search account means structuring campaigns and ad groups, writing and testing ads, setting bids, choosing keywords and adding negative keywords to stop spending on irrelevant searches, advising on landing pages, and tracking conversions so you know what a click is worth. It is continuing work. Ask whether the company does it in-house or passes it to another firm, who will run your account day to day, and how often that person reviews and changes it. A company that subcontracts paid search can still serve you well, but you should know who is doing the work.

Google’s rules for companies that manage your ads

Google’s transparency requirements for third parties set out what a company managing Google advertising on your behalf owes you.

On fees, Google states: “If you charge a management fee (separate from the cost of Google Ads or AdWords Express), you must clearly inform customers. At a minimum, inform new customers in writing before each first purchase and disclose the fee on all customer invoices.” On reporting costs, it says: “When sharing Google advertising cost data with customers, report the exact amount charged by Google, exclusive of any fees that you charge.” A company can also meet the reporting requirement by letting you sign in to your Google advertising account to see the figures yourself. And Google requires companies to provide “the customer IDs for their Google Ads or AdWords Express accounts when requested.” The reason it gives is that advertisers should be able to “contact Google directly with concerns about a third-party partner.”

Companies that mainly serve smaller advertisers have one more obligation. If 80% or more of a company’s customers spend less than $1,000 USD a month on Google Ads, Google requires it to share Google’s “Advertiser guide: Working with third parties” with all customers who buy these services. If you are a smaller advertiser and have not seen that notice, ask for it.

These rules turn into simple questions: is the fee stated in writing and shown on each invoice, are ad costs reported exactly as Google charged them, and will the company give you your customer ID?

Keep the account in your name

Google Ads gives different users different access levels. Google’s table shows that Standard access can edit campaigns, while adding or removing product links, linking the account to Google Analytics to import conversions, giving other people access, changing access levels, and unlinking manager accounts are among the tasks limited to Admin access. A company may also ask to link your account to its manager account; Google notes that admins of a linked manager account can manage your campaigns, and that if the manager account has ownership, they can also edit user access, managers, and product links in your account. The arrangement that protects you is an account owned by your business with at least one Admin login under your control. Within that, give the company the access its actual tasks need: Standard covers day-to-day campaign work, while tasks such as setting up conversion imports may need Admin rights or an Admin on your side to complete them, and any manager account link should be one you can see and remove. If the campaigns run from an account the company controls instead, your campaign history and settings depend on its cooperation when the engagement ends.

Where paid and organic search meet

Running both channels with one company makes sense when the two are actually connected. Google Ads includes a paid and organic report that shows how your ads and your unpaid results appear for the same searches. Google says it can help you “use the organic results to identify new, potentially valuable keywords”, and that to use it “you’ll need to link that Search Console account to your Google Ads account.” Ask a company offering both whether it uses this report, and how findings from paid campaigns, such as which searches lead to inquiries, will shape the SEO work.

Before you hire for paid search

Ask whether paid search is managed in-house, who will run your account and what their paid search experience is, how the management fee is set and whether it is separate from your ad spend, how often campaigns are reviewed, which conversions the reports will show, and whose name the Google Ads account will be in. If a company only does SEO, that is not a flaw. You can hire a separate paid search specialist and ask the two to share data.