New York runs the most expensive paid search auction in the country across most commercial categories, and the practical consequence is that errors here cost money at a rate they do not elsewhere. A loose keyword set, a borough you do not serve, or a phone nobody answers after six will drain a budget in days rather than months. Everything about buying paid search in this market follows from how little margin for slack the click price leaves.
The boroughs are separate markets and so is the commute
Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island have different competition, different costs and different customer behaviour, and a plan that buys New York City as one unit is buying five markets at the price of the most expensive. Somebody in Bay Ridge will not travel to Midtown for a routine service. Segment by borough and by neighbourhood where the business justifies it, and watch which segments actually pay rather than assuming the densest one does.
Negative keywords are the largest single lever here
At these click prices, the searches that were never going to buy are not a rounding error, they are the difference between a campaign that works and one that does not. That means somebody has to read the actual search terms every week and exclude aggressively: research queries, job seekers, wholesale enquiries, competitor names, other cities with the same street names. Ask how often search terms are reviewed and by whom, and treat a monthly answer as inadequate in this market.
The fee model changes the advice at this spend level
A percentage of spend gives the agency an interest in a larger budget, which matters more when clicks are expensive and the budget is large. A flat fee removes that and creates an interest in less agency time. Neither is wrong; what is wrong is not knowing which you have bought. Ask what the agency would recommend if the right answer were to halve the spend, and notice whether that recommendation costs them money.
Answering the phone is part of the media buy
In an expensive auction the cost of an unanswered call is the full cost of the click that produced it, and in this city a large share of clicks arrive outside conventional hours. Before increasing a budget, establish who answers, how fast, and what happens at nine in the evening on a Sunday. It is the least glamorous optimisation available and at these prices it is frequently the largest.
Own the account, and own the conversion history
The bidding systems learn from your conversion history, which means that history has real value and is the thing you most want to keep when you change agency. Create the advertising account under your own ownership and add the agency as a manager. Agencies that insist on holding the account inside their own are asking you to leave the most valuable asset behind when you go.
Questions people ask about ppc company nyc
How much should a New York business budget for paid search?
Start from what a customer is worth and what proportion of clicks convert, then work backwards to what you can pay per click. In this market a budget too small to buy meaningful data in a narrow segment is usually worse than not running at all.
Should we target all five boroughs?
Only the ones you serve, and separately. Blending them means the most expensive borough sets the price and you cannot see which ones actually produce customers.
Does the agency need to be in New York?
No. Local knowledge of neighbourhoods and travel behaviour helps with segmentation and can be conveyed in a conversation. Judge the method first; the address is a tiebreaker.
What is the fastest way to cut waste in a new account?
Read the search terms report and exclude everything that was never a customer, then tighten geography to what you actually serve. Both are settings rather than strategy and in this auction they usually recover more than any creative change.