March 27, 2025
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You're ready to invest in PPC ads, but picking the wrong specialist could drain your budget faster than you can say "wasted clicks." Bad PPC management doesn't just cost money. It costs you leads, sales, and months of lost momentum. The good news? Most underqualified specialists reveal themselves early if you know what to look for. Here are five warning signs that should send you running.
PPC advertising isn't cheap, but it works when handled properly. According to Statista, global search advertising spending is projected to reach $351.5 billion in 2025. That's a lot of money changing hands, and a lot of opportunity for the wrong person to mismanage yours.
The stakes are real. A skilled PPC specialist can turn your ad spend into a growth engine. Research from WebFX shows that businesses typically earn $2 for every $1 spent on PPC campaigns. But that 200% ROI only happens when someone knows what they're doing. Hire the wrong person, and you're essentially lighting money on fire.
Let's break down the warning signs.
"I'll get you to position one on Google." "I guarantee a 300% return in 30 days." "You'll double your leads within the first month."
Run. Run fast.
No legitimate PPC expert can guarantee specific results. PPC operates like an auction, and your performance depends on dozens of variables - your competitors' bids, your industry, seasonality, your landing page quality, and more. Anyone promising exact outcomes either doesn't understand how the system works or is willing to say anything to close the deal.
What good specialists do instead:
This one's non-negotiable. If a PPC specialist sets up campaigns in their own account rather than yours or refuses to give you full access, walk away immediately.
Your ad account should live under your business's Google or Meta account, with you as the owner. Experienced PPC professionals, like Victor Serban, make transparency a core part of how they work with clients. That's the standard you should expect. Your specialist gets access to manage it, but you retain full control and visibility at all times.
Without access, you can't see what's actually happening with your money. You can't verify that your budget is being spent correctly or check performance metrics yourself. If the relationship ends, you risk losing all campaign data, optimisation history, and audience insights.
Ask any PPC candidate this question: "How will you track conversions?" If the answer is vague or unclear, that is a serious problem.
Conversion tracking is the foundation of successful PPC. Without it, you're flying blind. You can see clicks and impressions, sure. But clicks don't pay your bills.
A qualified specialist will discuss conversion tracking in your first conversation. They'll ask about your goals, explain how they'll set up tracking properly, and make sure the technical pieces are in place before spending a dime on ads. This ensures your budget is measured against real outcomes.
“Trust me, I have done this before” is not good enough. Any PPC specialist worth hiring should be able to show proof of performance through case studies, client testimonials, or anonymised data.
When reviewing their track record, look for specifics. Not "I increased conversions" but "I reduced cost-per-acquisition from $45 to $28 over six months." Also, pay attention to industry relevance. Managing PPC for a local plumber is different from running campaigns for a SaaS company.
Questions to ask when reviewing their experience:
No case studies? No references? No specific metrics? That's a red flag waving directly in your face.
Here's a subtle but critical warning sign: a PPC specialist who jumps straight to tactics without understanding your business first.
Good PPC isn't just about keywords and bid strategies. It's about understanding who your customers are, what problems you solve, and what success actually looks like for your company. A specialist who doesn't ask about your ideal customer, your competitors, and your goals is going to build campaigns based on assumptions rather than strategy.
If someone simply quotes a price and promises to get started right away without asking detailed questions, they are treating you like a transaction rather than a partnership. A professional will clarify the working arrangement upfront, including whether they operate as freelancers or contractors, and take the time to understand your business before proposing a strategy. This creates alignment from the start.
Now that you know what to avoid, here is what to look for in a qualified PPC specialist. These principles, when building a marketing team, apply across roles and help set clear expectations from the beginning.
PPC advertising operates like a live auction where performance depends on many factors you can't control, such as competitor bids, industry changes, and seasonality. Because of this, guaranteeing a specific outcome is unrealistic and a sign that the specialist may not fully understand the platform or is being dishonest.
If a specialist runs campaigns from their own account, you lose all transparency. You can't verify how your budget is being spent, and if you part ways, you lose all your valuable campaign data, audience insights, and optimisation history, forcing you to start from scratch.
Conversion tracking measures the actions that matter to your business, like sales, form submissions, or phone calls, that result from your ads. Without it, you are only measuring clicks, not actual business growth. It is the only way to accurately calculate your return on ad spend (ROAS) and make profitable decisions.
A skilled specialist will ask about your business goals, ideal customer profile, profit margins, main competitors, and what you consider a successful outcome. Their goal is to build a custom strategy that aligns with your business, not just to apply a generic template.
Ask for case studies that show specific metrics, such as a reduction in cost-per-acquisition or an increase in ROAS over time. You can also ask to speak with a current or past client as a reference to hear about their experience directly.
You're ready to invest in PPC ads, but picking the wrong specialist could drain your budget faster than you can say "wasted clicks." Bad PPC management doesn't just cost money. It costs you leads, sales, and months of lost momentum. The good news? Most underqualified specialists reveal themselves early if you know what to look for. Here are five warning signs that should send you running.
