15 Questions Every University Should Ask Their PPC Agency About Their Campaigns
October 27th, 2025 by
Key Insights
- Many universities rely on a PPC agency, but most campaigns aren’t built to connect ad spend directly to student enrollment outcomes.
- A strong Google Ads agency should track meaningful conversions, such as inquiries, applications, and campus visits — not just clicks.
- Ongoing PPC management, post-launch optimizations, and negative keyword strategies are essential to avoid wasted ad spend.
- Transparent reporting, real-time dashboards, and CRM integration should be standard for any higher ed paid advertising campaign.
- Search Influence combines PPC advertising with search engine optimization (SEO), delivering a full-funnel strategy tailored to higher education institutions.
Universities invest heavily in paid search and display advertising to reach prospective students. Still, not every PPC agency delivers the transparency and strategy required to connect those campaigns to enrollment outcomes. Too often, agencies measure success in clicks or impressions, failing to show how those digital marketing efforts translate into inquiries, applications, and enrolled students.
This blog provides 15 questions higher education leaders can use to evaluate their current Google Ads agency or PPC marketing company. These questions go beyond surface-level performance metrics and focus on alignment with institutional goals, proper campaign management, and integrating PPC with broader digital marketing strategies.
By setting the right expectations, you’ll quickly see whether your PPC advertising campaigns are optimized for today’s competitive, AI-driven search environment or your budget is stretched thin without producing results.
Questions to Ask Your PPC Agency
1. How do you align PPC campaigns with our enrollment goals?
A PPC agency should align campaigns with university enrollment goals by connecting paid search strategies to inquiries, applications, and enrollments.
In higher education marketing, this means campaigns must be tied directly to the admissions funnel, not just surface-level metrics like clicks or impressions. Campaign management should include keyword research, ad placement, and bid strategy that align with institutional objectives and admissions cycles.
One of the most important measures of this alignment is higher education cost per inquiry (CPI). In our 2024 study created in collaboration with UPCEA, Higher Ed Marketing Metrics Research Report: What Gets Measured Gets Managed, we established the first industry-wide CPI benchmark for professional, continuing, and online (PCO) education, finding an average CPI of about $140. This benchmark gives universities a precise reference point for evaluating whether their campaigns are efficient compared to peers.
We design PPC campaigns around your enrollment goals, prioritizing CPI and cost per enrollment. This ensures that your ad spend drives measurable student recruitment outcomes and aligns with industry best practices.
2. What conversion actions are you tracking?
An effective PPC agency should track conversions tied to student recruitment, including form fills, calls, campus tour sign-ups, and event RSVPs.
Tracking these actions provides actionable insights into whether PPC ads produce conversions that matter. Without accurate conversion tracking, PPC campaigns can’t show how ad spend supports enrollment objectives.
We connect conversion actions directly into CRM systems, tying campaign management to the admissions funnel. By aligning pay-per-click advertising with key performance indicators (KPIs), we help universities measure ROI in ways most PPC agencies overlook.
3. How do you optimize campaigns post-launch?
Strong PPC agencies optimize campaigns after launch by running ongoing A/B tests, refining negative keywords, and adjusting bid strategies to improve performance.
Post-launch optimization includes keyword research, ad copywriting, and monitoring ad groups across platforms like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and the Google Display Network. Without continuous updates, PPC costs rise, and wasted ad spend becomes unavoidable.
At Search Influence, we use Google Analytics and other performance tracking tools to refine PPC management services weekly. By monitoring ad placement, web traffic trends, and audience targeting, we keep campaigns efficient and focused on producing qualified student inquiries.
4. What role does AI play in our paid ads strategy?
Modern PPC agencies should use AI to enhance paid search campaigns through smarter bidding, predictive audience targeting, and automated ad creation.
AI can improve bid management and ad placement, but without human oversight, it risks inflating PPC costs and generating irrelevant traffic.
Our approach combines AI-powered campaign management tools with human expertise in higher education marketing. By balancing automation with strategy development, we maximize ad spend efficiency, reduce wasted ad spend, and ensure PPC ads produce conversions tied to business goals.
5. How do you integrate SEO and paid ads?
A strong PPC agency should integrate paid ads with SEO to maximize visibility on search engines and strengthen digital marketing strategies.
Paid search campaigns and search engine optimization work best when combined, creating a consistent presence that supports both immediate conversions and long-term visibility.
At Search Influence, we unify PPC marketing with SEO services to deliver a comprehensive digital marketing plan. By aligning paid and organic strategies, universities gain a competitive advantage, capture more web traffic, and improve online success across online platforms.
6. Can you show us real-time performance dashboards?
A transparent PPC agency should provide real-time dashboards integrating Google Ads, GA4, and CRM data.
These dashboards allow higher ed leaders to monitor campaign management without waiting for monthly reports, ensuring ad management aligns with enrollment goals.
We create custom dashboards highlighting cost per inquiry, campaign performance, and other key performance indicators. These tools give universities immediate visibility into PPC performance and help them quickly adjust their digital marketing efforts.
7. How do you feed PPC data into our CRM?
Effective PPC agencies should integrate PPC data into CRM systems to connect clicks with inquiries, applications, and enrollments.
Without CRM integration, pay-per-click advertising cannot be tied to real ROI, making campaign management incomplete.
We connect PPC advertising directly into admissions CRMs, enabling universities to attribute web traffic and inquiries to specific ad groups, platforms, and campaign strategies. This level of integration provides actionable insights for optimizing PPC budget allocations.
8. What certifications does your team hold?
Certified PPC experts should manage higher education campaigns with credentials in Google Ads, Google Analytics, and Meta platforms.
Certifications prove technical expertise, but higher ed experience ensures that knowledge translates to enrollment outcomes.
Our PPC experts hold platform certifications and apply them directly to higher education campaigns. We deliver PPC management services that outperform generalist marketing agencies by combining industry expertise with advanced platform knowledge.
9. How do you ensure our budget is spent efficiently?
A reliable PPC agency should maximize budget efficiency through negative keyword strategies, pacing adjustments, and cross-channel ROI tracking.
Inefficient campaign management leads to wasted ad spend, inflated management fees, and poor alignment with business objectives.
Our team focuses on reducing PPC costs by lowering the cost per qualified inquiry. We monitor bid strategy across Google Ads and programmatic advertising to ensure ad spend is optimized across online platforms. This approach helps universities avoid wasted ad spend while boosting enrollment ROI.
10. What reporting cadence and metrics do you provide?
A PPC agency should report on enrollment-focused metrics such as inquiries, applications, cost per lead (CPL), and cost per enrollment (CPA).
Reporting should include actionable insights, not just clicks and impressions, to show how PPC advertising supports student recruitment.
We provide monthly and quarterly reporting built around the KPIs that matter most in higher education. Our reporting connects paid search and paid media performance directly to student recruitment goals, ensuring transparent and accountable campaign management.
11. How do you handle audience targeting for higher ed?
Higher education PPC agencies should use precise audience targeting strategies, including geo-targeting, demographic segmentation, and program-specific ad groups.
Effective ad management also requires compliance with platform policies while reaching students most likely to apply.
Our campaign management uses advanced audience targeting techniques across social media marketing, search engine marketing, and remarketing campaigns. With years of higher ed experience, we ensure ad placement reaches qualified students while staying compliant with advertising regulations.
12. What’s your approach to ad creative and testing?
A strong PPC agency should continually test ad creative to improve engagement and drive conversions.
This includes responsive search ads, video ads, ad copywriting, and programmatic advertising designed to boost inquiries. Campaigns should evolve with student behavior to maintain a competitive advantage.
We run ongoing ad creation and testing cycles, using actionable insights from ad platforms like Google Ads, YouTube ads, and social media advertising. This process ensures PPC ads produce conversions and align with student search intent.
13. How do you stay ahead of AI and platform updates?
PPC agencies should proactively adapt to AI advancements and ad platform updates to maintain effective campaign management.
Search engines and online platforms frequently roll out updates that affect ad placement, bid strategy, and audience targeting.
Search Influence monitors how AI affects paid ads in real time, adjusting strategy development across Google Ads, search, and social media platforms. This proactive approach keeps universities ahead of competitors and prevents wasted ad spend.
14. How do you prove campaign ROI to university leadership?
A PPC agency should prove ROI by tying PPC campaigns to student enrollment outcomes through clear attribution.
Reporting must connect ad spend to inquiries, applications, and seats filled, providing leaders with actionable insights.
We create enrollment-focused ROI reports highlighting cost per inquiry and enrollment. By connecting PPC performance to business goals, we make it easy for university leadership to see the value of their paid advertising campaigns.
15. What’s your experience with higher education institutions?
PPC agencies with higher education experience can better manage enrollment seasonality, compliance, and admissions cycles than generalist agencies.
Higher ed campaigns are complex and require specialized knowledge in paid advertising, remarketing campaigns, and digital marketing strategies.
Search Influence is a higher ed marketing agency with years of experience managing PPC campaigns for universities. Our industry expertise helps institutions boost sales of their academic programs, allocate PPC budgets strategically, and achieve online success through comprehensive digital marketing.
Solve Your Higher Ed Marketing Puzzle With SEO and Paid Digital Ads
SEO and paid ads together improve student recruitment results. Universities that integrate search engine optimization with PPC advertising maximize their limited budgets and create a consistent presence across online platforms.
Our white paper demonstrates how SEO and paid ads work hand-in-hand to:
- Capture students actively searching for programs
- Maximize limited budgets through smarter campaign management
- Deliver real-time outcomes that can be optimized mid-campaign
- Drive action at every stage of the admissions funnel
- Attribute the source of your most valuable prospects
- Prove ROI with measurable results tied to enrollment
Ready to See If Your PPC Agency Measures Up?
If these 15 questions leave you uncertain about your current campaigns, you may not be getting the most from your ad budget. Most PPC agencies focus narrowly on clicks or impressions, but universities need a partner that understands how digital marketing strategies drive enrollment.
Search Influence blends AI-driven paid search with proven SEO strategies, offering universities a strategic partner for campaign management that reduces wasted ad spend and increases inquiries.
Download the white paper today to see how SEO and paid ads work hand-in-hand to drive measurable impact for universities.
