Jon Miller posted an interesting article on The 5 Secrets PPC Agencies Don't Want You to Know. Aside from a headline that was similar to something I’d expect to see in a woman’s magazine, he made some pretty good points. I found myself agreeing most with:

Agencies will never understand your customers and your business as well as you, especially B2B firms that sell more complicated products and services.

HOWEVER, there are plenty of companies who have extensive technical offerings. They use consulting firms and ad agencies that do phenomenal jobs. So maybe it’s the 80/20 rule.

Very detailed products and services often require enhanced insight into a company’s industry. If you are unable or unwilling to do your homework, then you shouldn’t accept the business. My litmus test is that if you can’t find demand on keywords that you feel are relevant, then a blinking red light should be going off.

However, for the most part, I disagree with the premise. So in response to Jon’s post, here are 5 ways for building successful paid search relationships with clients:

1. Choose the right goals

A strong agency/client relationship starts with setting realistic, but aggressive goals. You don’t need to explain in detail of your exact plan to meet those goals, but an overall strategy goes a long way.

2. If you can’t improve their existing performance cost effectively, then help with a different project

I’ll probably get a lot of flack for this one, but it’s fairly important. When we talk with prospects about earning their business, one of the steps is looking at what they are currently doing for a paid search strategy to see what kinds of improvements can be made. If our strategies will not help them, we don’t offer it. So I can definitely see Jon’s point with this one. It’s my opinion that too many companies bring on clients for the sake of having them versus truly being able to help them.

3. Make your money the old fashioned way, earn it

We’ve discussed using a performance model for billing, and Web Diversity has had success. I think it makes some sense, and in many cases, it is more profitable that billing on percent of spend. Our media buying department has become extremely aggressive with online channels in requesting that they deliver leads on a performance model, so PPC could be the same way. Obviously, this is dependent upon your prospect’s business model and site usability.

If anyone has positive or negative feedback on this one, I’d love to hear about it.

4. Incorporate landing page consultation and usability

It doesn’t take a genius to drive traffic. You have to be somewhat intelligent to drive relevant traffic. But since we’re looking for performance and conversion, it makes sense to provide landing page/micro site recommendations (best practices, pricing comparisons, etc.). This includes measurements before and after recommendations.

5. Rework, Review, Rebuild

Customers want and need tools to help them make better decisions. A paid search campaign can drive relevant traffic and lucrative conversions. However, a Web site that offers product/service-centric tools will also create link-driven traffic and a more informed customer. Here are some examples:

• Office furniture: The customer knows the room dimensions, help them design the room with your furniture and plan it out. A conversion point could be emailing a finished design plan (complete with your furniture) to a local dealer.

• Home theater systems: Compatibility can be an issue. Build a resource that provides information on which brands work best with others.

• Auto parts: There are thousands of sites that sell car parts, but a video archive tied to individual parts that show you how to install them yourself would be valuable.

If your existing paid agency is not adapting any/all of these tactics, then maybe Jon has a point.