Devising an Effective Client Strategy
PPC can be a hugely beneficial and effective part of a client strategy. However, knowing how to successfully work with clients to implement it takes a lot of communication and understanding.
PPC Analyst, Chloe, talks through how she approaches client strategy to drive growth and improve account performance, whilst working towards specific client objectives.
There are a number of questions we ask ourselves and our clients when coming up with an effective strategy to drive performance:
What are the clients’ objectives? What are they expecting to see from testing a new strategy?
In order to develop an effective strategy, the first step is knowing what clients want to achieve from their PPC activity. There might be some methods that have proved successful in the past for them, but PPC experts can advise on something better suited to the client’s desired goals.
What does the budget look like?
New or additional activity requires budget, which, if the client isn’t willing to increase, has to be removed from an area that is currently performing well. In this situation, it’s important to assess whether the new activity is more important than what is currently performing well. Is the client willing to sacrifice performance by shifting budget into new areas?
Will a new client strategy affect how performance is presented?
Introducing new activity into an account can have a huge effect on account performance, depending on what it is, and the channels being used. For example, YouTube activity can tank the overall view of ROI – however, this kind of strategy is used for brand awareness, so ROI is less important when looking at this activity.
How quickly is the client hoping to see results?
Everybody wants quick results, but it’s important to set expectations when it comes to the implementation of a new strategy. There’s a number of different factors that might affect how quickly results are seen, including the client’s industry, and the amount of data being fed into the algorithm.
How can a specialist agency drive a successful client strategy?
The way we operate – focusing on one specialism only – is rare within our industry, and we do so for a number of reasons, two of them being that it’s what we’re best at, and it’s what we love to do.
One of the benefits of being a specialist agency is that knowledge sharing is immense and fast-paced, and dealing with challenges is so much easier when surrounded with fellow specialists, who may well have experienced a similar challenge in the past.
There’s also an additional importance for ourselves to remain up-to-date and aware of ever-changing products, ways of working, betas, machine learning, and best practices to be able to correctly and effectively advise clients on how they should approach their strategy.
Our consistent work with partners such as Google and Bing means that we have access to representatives that help us to provide clients with tailored industry insights and trends, competitor benchmarks, and advice to drive growth and meet goals during peak periods.
These benefits, when it comes to client strategy, are hugely useful and can help us to better guide and advise clients on how they can utilise different strategies to best get them to where they want to be, and ultimately, assist them in growing their business.
Communication is key
Communication is key, but it’s important to adapt communication methods to fit the individual needs of every client. Some prefer weekly phone calls and frequent email communication, and others might opt for bi-weekly video calls and more detailed monthly updates.
Every quarter, we strategise in-person with clients, and we don’t shy away from the learnings that can be harvested from testing and introducing new activity into an account. This way, we can present findings to clients and work closely with them to discuss how we can improve performance further, and the opportunities that might be available to them to do so.
Case Study: Enesco
By working closely with our client, Enesco, on their strategy since February 2022, we’ve managed to help them to increase YOY revenue and sales by 117% and 108%, respectively.
Having previously worked with a full-service agency, Enesco were keen to rebuild and maintain ROI, which had fallen to just 1X in the two months prior to Circus taking over account management.
By adapting our approach to suit the client and working closely with them to create a client strategy that we expected would deliver their desired ROI of 3X, we saw a steady increase in performance, and ended last year on an average ROI of 4.9X – a 390% increase in their ROI position when they began working with us, and an ROI 63% higher than was expected.
Read the full story on how we implemented this client strategy here.
Ultimately, the biggest tip behind successfully devising an effective client strategy is communication with your clients, and ensuring that everyone is on the same page and aware of expectations to work seamlessly together to deliver strong results and continue to develop a high-performing strategy.
