Until this point, agencies offering PPC management services have had little in the way of regulation on budget and management cost transparency.

Under the new guidelines outlined by Google, PPC management companies will now be required to be upfront about budget spending and the exact results from campaigns:

If you work with another company to manage your AdWords campaigns, you should be able to find out how much of your advertising budget (cost) was spent on AdWords, how many times your ads appeared (impressions) and how many times users clicked on your ads (clicks).

ineedhits are proud to one of the Google AdWords companies that already provide this level of transparency for their clients. It helps them understand budget allocation and more importantly gives them an honest representation of their campaign success.

However there are quite a few operators in the industry that will be forced to review their reporting and cost management practices.

Companies such as ReachLocal and Yodle have received criticism for their lack of transparency - with advertisers unsure exactly how much of their budget is going towards Google clicks vs management costs.

Managing small budget PPC campaigns is definitely challenging - ineedhits can vouge for that; but its critical that clients see where their money is being spent.

Googles new policy will ensure all small business advertisers have access to this level of campaign transparency. While I welcome the forced transparency, it doesnt provide answers to all the important questions and issues?

What do you think about the change:

• Is this transparency going to help reduce churn through partners?


• Will the transparency help advertisers achieve better campaign results?


• What else would you like to see enforced from PPC service providers.