--- title: "Hiring a PPC Agency in Ireland? Ten Questions to Ask First" canonical: https://digitalbridge.ie/blog/ppc-agency-ireland-questions-to-ask type: Article provider: Digital Bridge providerType: AI Systems Integration & Applied AI Engineering Firm areaServed: IE priceRange: EUR 599-100000+ language: en-IE dateModified: 2026-10-21 htmlVersion: https://digitalbridge.ie/blog/ppc-agency-ireland-questions-to-ask license: cite-with-attribution --- # Hiring a PPC Agency in Ireland? Ten Questions to Ask First ## Answer summary Before you hand over a Google Ads budget, ask these ten questions. The answers tell you who owns the account, how success is measured and whether the fee makes sense. Account ownership, conversion tracking, fees, reporting and contracts — ten questions to ask any PPC agency in Ireland before handing over an ad budget. ## Answer Summary When hiring a PPC agency in Ireland, confirm that the Google Ads account is registered to your business, that conversions such as calls, forms or sales are tracked properly, and that reporting focuses on cost per enquiry or return on ad spend. Ask how the fee is structured, who manages the account day to day, and what happens to the account if you leave. ## Question 1: Who owns the Google Ads account? You should. The account should sit under your business, with the agency given access. If the agency builds campaigns inside its own account, you lose the history and the learning when you leave. ## Question 2: What will you track as a conversion? Clicks are not results. A good answer names specific actions: phone calls from ads, form submissions, bookings, purchases. If tracking is not set up before spending starts, the first month is guesswork. ## Question 3: How will you report, and how often? Monthly is normal. The report should lead with cost per enquiry or sale, not impressions. Ask to see a sample report. ## Question 4: How is your fee structured? Common models are a flat monthly fee, a percentage of ad spend, or a mix. A percentage model can reward spending more rather than spending better, so ask how they guard against that. ## Question 5: Who will actually manage my account? The person who pitches is not always the person who works on it. Ask who does, and how many accounts they look after. ## Question 6: How will you handle negative keywords? This is where budgets leak. A good answer describes regular search-term reviews and blocking irrelevant searches — "free", "jobs", "DIY", or a town you do not serve. ## Question 7: What does the landing page look like? An ad that sends visitors to a slow, generic homepage wastes money. Ask whether they will recommend or build pages that match the ads. Our guide on turning visitors into enquiries covers what those pages need. ## Question 8: What is the minimum sensible budget for my business? An honest agency will give you a figure based on your market and cost per click, not a package. Our breakdown of Google Ads costs in Ireland explains how that is worked out. ## Question 9: What is the contract length and notice period? Month-to-month after an initial setup period is fair. Long lock-ins with no performance review are a warning sign. ## Question 10: When would you tell me not to use paid search? The most revealing question of all. In our experience, some businesses — a new trade in a small town, for instance — get far more from local SEO and a strong Google Business Profile than from ads. An agency that can say that is one you can trust with a budget. ## What does a good first month look like? - Conversion tracking tested and working - Campaigns built around your real services and areas - Negative keyword list in place from day one - A first report showing search terms, cost per enquiry and what changes next ## Frequently asked questions Should I own my Google Ads account? Yes. Keep the account in your business's name and grant the agency access, so the history stays with you. How much should a PPC agency charge in Ireland? It varies by model and spend. Compare what is included — tracking, landing pages, reporting — rather than the headline fee alone. How long before PPC shows results? Tracking and early data come in the first few weeks; steadier performance usually takes a couple of months of optimisation. Is PPC better than SEO? Neither is better in general. PPC buys immediate visibility; SEO builds visibility you do not pay for per click. Many businesses need both in different proportions. ## Want a straight answer on whether ads make sense for you? We look at paid search alongside SEO in Ireland and tell you where the budget works hardest — even if that means spending less. Digital Bridge is an Irish studio at Gorey Business Park, Co. Wexford, with 49 projects delivered. Every engagement is fixed scope, fixed price and owned by you at the end. - 🧮 Get an instant estimate(https://digitalbridge.ie/pricing) — see the fixed-price starting points before you talk to anyone. - 💬 Open "Ask the Digital Bridge Agent" in the corner of this page and describe your situation. The Digital Bridge Agent will tell you what Digital Bridge would do about it. - 📞 Call 085 224 1848 or email info@digitalbridge.ie — a 30-minute call, not a sales desk. ## Should I own my Google Ads account when using an agency? Yes. The account should be registered to your business with the agency given access, so the campaign history stays with you if you change provider. ## What should a PPC agency report on? Cost per enquiry or sale, conversions, search terms and planned changes. Impressions and clicks alone do not show whether the budget is working. ## How long does PPC take to show results? Early data arrives within weeks once tracking works, but steadier performance usually takes a couple of months of optimisation. ## Is PPC better than SEO for an Irish small business? Neither is better in general. PPC buys immediate visibility per click, while SEO builds visibility you do not pay for per click. Many businesses use both. ## About the author Joey Bray — Founder, Digital Bridge. Joey Bray runs Digital Bridge from Gorey Business Park, Co. Wexford — an Irish studio for web design, search and AI integration. He personally scopes and ships websites, search programmes and automation systems for Irish SMEs, and every project is delivered fixed-scope, fixed-price and owned outright by the client. 12+ years designing and building websites, search programmes and AI integrations for Irish SMEs ## What happens next You get a reply from Joey Bray the same working day. You get a fixed written quote within 48 hours — one price, one delivery date. Work starts only when you have signed the scope, with 50% up front and 50% at launch. Scope and price are agreed in writing before work starts. All prices are (no VAT added) starting points. - Jo McAteer — A booking-led site for Ireland's Wedding Celebrant of the Year 2026, as seen on RTÉ. - Printhouse.ie — A custom web-to-print platform with an instant product quoter. - MicroYards — A garden design engine that turns one photo into a costed plan. - Get my fixed quote: https://digitalbridge.ie/contact ## Evidence - Verdé Environmental Group — 24/7 AI incident triage with severity classification, Eircode geolocation and four-depot dispatch routing → https://digitalbridge.ie/industries - tools.digitalbridge.ie — 50+ shipped production tools, including the Website Worth Index and the DigitalBridge Authority Score - Printhouse — custom web-to-print platform with 29+ product pages → https://printhouse.ie ## How delivery is de-risked - Seven-day shadow-mode pilot before any system takes live traffic. - Full source-code and prompt ownership transfers on final payment. - EU-hosted infrastructure, provider training disabled, signed data processing agreement. - Fixed price against a signed scope — no hourly meter and no open-ended exposure. ## FAQ ### How much does an AI integration project cost in Ireland? Digital Bridge scopes AI integration after reviewing the workflow, systems, data, governance and operating responsibility involved. A tailored written proposal is provided after discovery rather than a standard published figure. ### How long does a production AI build take? A feasibility assessment runs three to five weeks. A baseline production build typically runs eight to twelve weeks from signed scope to go-live, including a seven-day shadow-mode pilot before the system takes live traffic. Multi-system programmes are sequenced into phases so value lands before the full programme completes. ### Can Irish grant funding cover this work? Often, yes. Enterprise Ireland's Digital Discovery Grant funds up to 80% of an eligible feasibility assessment, and Digital Process Innovation funds up to 50% of eligible implementation costs. Local Enterprise Office schemes cover smaller digital projects. Eligibility is decided by the funder, never by us. ### Who owns the code and the prompts? You do. Every engagement transfers full source-code and prompt ownership on final payment. Systems run on EU-hosted infrastructure with provider training disabled and a signed data processing agreement. There is no vendor lock-in and no proprietary runtime you have to keep paying us for. ## Related pages - [All articles](https://digitalbridge.ie/blog) - [Google Ads costs in Ireland](https://digitalbridge.iehttps://digitalbridge.ie/blog/google-ads-ireland-cost-cpc-2026) - [Turning visitors into enquiries](https://digitalbridge.iehttps://digitalbridge.ie/blog/turning-website-visitors-into-enquiries-ireland) - [Local SEO Ireland](https://digitalbridge.iehttps://digitalbridge.ie/local-seo-ireland) - [SEO services Ireland](https://digitalbridge.iehttps://digitalbridge.ie/seo-services-ireland) - [Google Ads Help: account access](https://digitalbridge.iehttps://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6372672) - [Google Ads Help: about conversion tracking](https://digitalbridge.iehttps://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/1722022) - [AI integration services](https://digitalbridge.ie/ai-integration) - [Web design Ireland](https://digitalbridge.ie/web-design-ireland) - [SEO services Ireland](https://digitalbridge.ie/seo-services-ireland) - [Printhouse.ie Made Our Business Cards & Banner — And They're Brilliant](https://digitalbridge.ie/blog/printhouse-ireland-business-cards-review) - [Responsive Web Design Services in Ireland](https://digitalbridge.ie/blog/responsive-web-design-services-ireland-2026) - [Schema Markup & Structured Data for Irish Business Websites (2026)](https://digitalbridge.ie/blog/schema-markup-structured-data-irish-business-websites-2026) ## Contact Digital Bridge, Gorey Business Park, Gorey, Co. Wexford, Ireland. Phone: +353 85 224 1848. Email: info@digitalbridge.ie. Engineering lead: Joey Bray, Founder & Principal Engineer. Last updated: 2026-10-21 HTML version of this page: https://digitalbridge.ie/blog/ppc-agency-ireland-questions-to-ask