Seattle is an expensive place to buy clicks. The metro is thick with software companies, healthcare systems, trade contractors and professional services all bidding against each other, and the local talent market means agency salaries are high, which shows up in retainers. None of that tells you whether a given shop is any good. Paid search is unusual among marketing services in that the evidence is unambiguous: an ad account holds a complete record of what was spent, what it bought and who touched it. A buyer who insists on seeing that record before signing, and on owning it afterwards, avoids most of the ways this category goes wrong. What follows is how the work is actually scoped, where the money leaks, and the specific questions that thin a shortlist fast.
How paid search retainers are priced, and why quotes differ so much
Three pricing shapes dominate and they are not comparable on their headline number. The first is a percentage of ad spend, which is simple but rewards the agency for raising your budget rather than your return, and quietly becomes expensive once spend grows. The second is a flat monthly management fee, which is easier to plan around and puts the incentive in a better place, though small accounts often find the floor uncomfortably high. The third is a hybrid with a base fee plus a smaller share above a spend threshold. Ask every candidate which shape they use, what the minimum monthly fee is, and what the minimum term is, then rebuild all three quotes at your actual expected spend before you compare anything. Seattle proposals also vary on what sits inside the fee: landing pages, conversion tracking setup, call tracking, creative production and feed management are sometimes included and sometimes billed separately, and a cheaper quote that excludes landing pages is not cheaper. Buyers who look at seo and ppc services together should get the two priced on separate lines even when one supplier does both, because bundled reporting is where paid brand clicks get folded into organic results and both look better than they are.
What genuinely moves results in a Seattle account
In rough order of how often it turns out to be the constraint: whether conversion tracking measures a real business event rather than a page view or a button click, whether the account separates brand searches from non brand searches so you can see what you are actually buying, whether negative keywords are maintained rather than set once, whether landing pages match the promise in the ad, and only then whether bids and creative are being tuned. Most underperforming accounts fail on the first two. If everything is counted as a conversion, including someone clicking a phone number twice, the optimisation algorithm is being trained on noise and no amount of clever bidding fixes that. The FTC's guidance on online advertising and marketing is a reminder that the claims in the ad itself carry legal weight, so an agency writing aggressive copy on your behalf is writing it with your name on it. Ask who approves ad text before it goes live, and get that answer in the contract rather than in an onboarding email.
Ownership, access and the questions that thin a shortlist
The single most expensive outcome in this category is discovering the agency owns the ad account, the conversion tracking, the call tracking numbers or the landing pages, and that leaving means starting again with no history. Insist the ad account is created under your own billing and your own administrative access from day one, and that you keep administrative rights throughout, not view access. Then ask four questions that take one reply each and remove more names than any amount of chemistry in a pitch meeting: what is the smallest engagement you accept, what is the minimum term and the notice period, who specifically will be in the account each week and how many other accounts do they hold, and what happens to everything you built if we part ways. Ask for two current client accounts in a comparable vertical and, if a candidate will not show a live account structure even with names redacted, treat that as the answer. A firm that manages accounts well is usually pleased to show you one.
Reading the report you will get every month
Monthly reports in this trade are often designed to be reassuring rather than informative. Two habits make them useful again. First, insist the report splits brand and non brand, because bidding on your own company name produces cheap clicks and flattering cost per acquisition figures that would largely have arrived for free. Second, insist on absolute numbers next to the ratios: spend, clicks, qualified enquiries and cost per qualified enquiry, with qualified defined in writing before the first month. A report showing a falling cost per conversion while conversions are also falling is describing a shrinking account, not an improving one. Ask for direct read access to the ad platform and to your analytics property so you can check a number without asking anyone. Any supplier who resists that is protecting a number rather than a client, and in a market where clicks cost what they cost in Seattle, that resistance is worth more than a rate card.
Questions people ask about ppc firm seattle
What should a Seattle business expect to pay to manage a paid search account?
It depends far more on account complexity and spend than on the city. A single service line with one geography is a fraction of the work of a multi location account with feeds and several languages. Ask each candidate for their minimum monthly fee and their minimum term, then rebuild every quote at your real expected spend so percentage fees and flat fees can be compared on the same basis.
How long before a new account settles down?
Assume the first few weeks are learning and correction rather than results, particularly if conversion tracking has to be rebuilt. A candidate promising immediate efficiency gains in week one is usually planning to bid on your brand name, which produces good looking numbers quickly and adds very little. Judge the account from the point where non brand data is stable.
Should the same firm handle paid search and organic search?
It can work well and reduces friction over shared landing pages and tracking. Insist on separate scopes, separate line items and separate reporting, so that neither can borrow credit from the other. If a supplier refuses to price the two independently, you cannot tell what either is worth.
Is a local firm actually better for a Seattle account?
Only where local knowledge is part of the product, for example a trades business whose service area boundaries and seasonal demand a local team already understands. For a software or ecommerce account the buyer is nationwide and location matters little. Weigh it below account access, ownership terms and who is actually doing the work.