PPC Agency RFP Template: Copyable Brief, Scorecard & Example

A PPC agency RFP template is a standard request-for-proposal document you send to prospective advertising agencies so they respond to the same business goals, scope, measurement requirements and commercial questions. Instead of comparing polished sales presentations, you can compare evidence and documented commitments.

This free, copyable template includes a buyer preparation checklist, a seven-step evaluation workflow, questions to send to agencies, a weighted selection scorecard, a completed B2B SaaS example and a KPI dashboard framework. You can paste the RFP into a document, replace the bracketed fields and use it without submitting a form.

If you are new to paid advertising, start with what PPC means and how it works. This guide assumes you have decided to evaluate external management and need a consistent procurement process.

What to Prepare Before Issuing a PPC Agency RFP

Good proposals depend on the quality of the brief. Collect these inputs before contacting agencies. Where the data is missing or unreliable, label it as a gap rather than guessing.

• Business goal and decision owner: Specify whether the priority is qualified demos, sales opportunities, ecommerce orders or another outcome. Name the executive who can approve a vendor and the people who will score proposals.
• Ideal customer and markets: Define buyer roles, company sizes, priority industries, exclusions, countries, languages and relevant sales-cycle details.
• Current advertising scope: List platforms, account status, existing campaigns, top offers, conversion actions and the support needed for search, remarketing or paid social.
• Budget and constraints: State expected monthly media spend separately from management fees; note budget flexibility, internal resources and launch timing. For SaaS planning, use the B2B SaaS paid media budget framework to distinguish spending capacity from acquisition goals.
• Performance baseline: Provide a recent, dated period for spend, valid leads, sales-qualified leads (SQLs), opportunities and closed-won customers, where trustworthy. Identify missing data and attribution delays.
• Analytics and CRM setup: Identify your ad accounts, analytics tools, CRM, lead qualification rules, offline conversion imports and reporting owners. The guide to connecting ad spend to pipeline explains why the handoff between marketing and sales matters.
• Assets and dependencies: Note who controls landing pages, creative, website changes, product messaging, customer lists and approvals.
• Governance: Confirm who owns the ad accounts and data, expected security reviews, billing currency, applicable tax requirements, procurement deadlines and termination rules.

Do not send customer-level CRM records, passwords or confidential audience exports to bidders. Share aggregated performance and provide controlled access only after appropriate agreements and permissions are in place.

A Seven-Step Workflow to Evaluate PPC Agencies

Step 1: Agree on the decision criteria

Bring marketing, sales or RevOps, finance and procurement together. Distinguish mandatory conditions from weighted preferences. For example, retaining advertiser account access and receiving an itemised fee schedule may be mandatory, while presentation style should not determine the result.

Step 2: Document the account’s current condition

Review conversion tracking, campaign goals, search-term relevance, landing pages and lead quality before requesting performance promises. The Google Ads audit template and scorecard gives buyers a consistent way to describe existing issues. Ask agencies to identify what they cannot diagnose without access.

Step 3: Define a testable scope

Separate strategy, account build or repair, ongoing management, creative, landing-page work, conversion tracking and CRM integration. Ask each agency to indicate what is included, excluded, dependent on your team or quoted as an optional extra. Define the outputs you expect during the first 30, 60 and 90 days.

Step 4: Issue one RFP to all shortlisted vendors

For a manageable private selection, an initial shortlist of three to five suitable agencies is a practical starting point, not a procurement requirement. Give everyone the same core brief, submission deadline and opportunity to ask questions. Share material clarifications with all bidders to preserve comparability.

Step 5: Score written responses before sales calls

Use the weighted scorecard below. Require reviewers to cite a proposal page, work sample, methodology or contract clause for each rating. Mark unsupported claims as unverified, and apply mandatory checks before comparing total scores.

Step 6: Validate the finalists

Ask finalists to walk through an anonymised or permissioned account diagnosis, a sample report, a realistic 90-day plan and a relevant client example. Confirm who will actually work on the account, whether work is subcontracted and what can be verified through references. Our guide to choosing a B2B PPC agency covers the broader fit assessment; the RFP here documents the bids and decision.

Step 7: Approve the statement of work and handover plan

Reconcile the winning proposal with the contract, statement of work, fee schedule and access matrix. Record deliverables, acceptance criteria, review dates, notice periods and an exit plan. Do not assume that promises made in a presentation become binding unless they appear in the signed documents.

Free Copyable PPC Agency RFP Template

Copy the full section between START and END into your RFP document. Replace the fields in square brackets, remove irrelevant options and send the same version to every bidder. It is a working marketing procurement template, not a substitute for legal or security review.

================ START OF COPYABLE PPC AGENCY RFP ================

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL: PPC AGENCY SERVICES

RFP reference: [ID]
Issued by: [Company and website]
RFP contact: [Name, role, contact channel]
Date issued: [Date]
Clarification deadline: [Date and time zone]
Proposal deadline: [Date and time zone]
Planned decision: [Date]
Target start date: [Date]
Proposal validity period: [Number of days]

1. COMPANY AND BUSINESS CONTEXT

What we sell: [Product, category and value proposition]
Ideal customers: [Buyer roles, industries, employee ranges, exclusions]
Sales model and cycle: [Self-serve / sales-led / hybrid, typical duration]
Priority markets and languages: [Countries, regions, languages]
Primary business challenge: [What needs to improve and why]
Internal stakeholders: [Marketing, sales, RevOps, finance, security]

2. GOALS, BASELINE AND BUDGET

Primary success outcome: [Definition, e.g. sales-accepted opportunities]
Secondary outcomes: [Qualified demos, SQLs, purchases, etc.]
Reporting period for baseline: [Dates]
Known baseline: [Media spend, qualified leads, opportunities, key caveats]
Measurement gaps: [Missing fields, tracking defects, attribution limits]
Monthly media budget: [Amount and currency; include country/channel split]
Agency fee budget, if disclosed: [Range or request an open quote]
Target performance or decision thresholds: [Targets, assumptions and validation date]
Expected contract period: [Months or pilot period]

3. REQUIRED SCOPE AND DELIVERABLES

Platforms in scope: [Google Ads / LinkedIn Ads / Meta Ads / other]
Geography and language coverage: [Details]
Account work needed: [Audit / new build / restructure / ongoing management]
Required workstreams: [Keyword and audience strategy; ad testing; budget and bid management; negative keywords; creative; landing pages; tracking; CRM integration; reporting]
Explicit exclusions: [What is out of scope]
Client-owned work: [Approvals, design, development, CRM configuration, etc.]
Required launch conditions: [Tracking QA, approvals, audience policies, budget sign-off]
30-day deliverables: [Audit, measurement map, prioritised fixes, initial plan]
60-day deliverables: [Campaign changes and documented test results]
90-day deliverables: [Performance review, pipeline reconciliation, next-quarter plan]
Required reporting cadence: [Weekly operational / monthly business review]
Acceptance criteria: [Evidence needed to accept each deliverable]

4. REQUIRED AGENCY RESPONSES

Please answer each question directly, identify assumptions and attach relevant evidence.

A. Diagnosis and strategy
A1. What are the three most important problems or opportunities you would investigate first?
A2. What information do you need before recommending budget changes?
A3. How would you prioritise channels, campaigns, audiences and landing pages?
A4. What circumstances would make you recommend delaying or reducing spend?

B. Execution and optimisation
B1. Describe your first 30, 60 and 90 days, with deliverables and named owners.
B2. Explain how you manage search terms, exclusions, bids, experiments and creative reviews.
B3. What will your team deliver, and what must our team supply or approve?
B4. What is your escalation process for tracking failures, disapprovals or overspend?

C. Measurement and business outcomes
C1. Define the conversions you would optimise towards and how you would validate them.
C2. Explain how ad platform activity will connect to CRM-qualified leads and opportunities.
C3. Provide a sample dashboard showing spend, lead quality, opportunity stages and data caveats.
C4. Explain attribution assumptions, conversion lag, deduplication and how disputed data will be resolved.

D. People and proof
D1. Name the proposed strategist, hands-on account manager and escalation owner.
D2. State the team's expected capacity, meeting cadence and any subcontracted work.
D3. Provide one relevant, permissioned or anonymised case example with context and limitations.
D4. Provide references or a practical alternative that can substantiate the proposed work.

E. Governance, privacy and continuity
E1. Confirm how our business will retain appropriate admin access, billing visibility and its historical account data.
E2. Specify the permissions the agency needs and how access is removed on exit.
E3. Describe handling of CRM/customer data, security controls, approved tools and incident escalation.
E4. State whether third-party AI systems or subcontractors will receive our business or customer information.
E5. Provide a handover inventory covering accounts, creatives, conversion setups, dashboards and documentation.

5. PPC MANAGEMENT PRICING RESPONSE

Please itemise all fees using the same currency and time period:

- One-time discovery, setup or migration fee: [Amount and included work]
- Monthly management fee: [Amount or calculation basis]
- Percentage-of-spend fee, if applicable: [Percentage, spend base and minimum]
- Creative and landing-page work: [Included / fixed / hourly / excluded]
- Analytics, CRM and measurement work: [Included / separately billed]
- Third-party software, licences or contractors: [Itemised]
- Advertising platform spend: [Billed directly to advertiser or other stated arrangement]
- Reporting and meetings: [Included frequency and extra charges]
- Taxes, billing currency and currency conversion: [Treatment]
- Optional services, change requests and overage rates: [Details]
- Three-month and six-month total estimated cost: [Breakdown and assumptions]
- Contract term, review points, notice period and termination costs: [Details]

6. TIMELINE AND SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS

Submit: [PDF / document / spreadsheet] to [Contact or portal]
Maximum response length: [Page limit, excluding evidence]
Required attachments: [Scope, fee schedule, 90-day plan, dashboard sample, staff plan, references]
Question process: [Submit by date; shared clarifications]
Shortlist interview window: [Dates]
Procurement conditions: [Security, confidentiality and legal review as applicable]

7. EVALUATION METHOD

Submissions must first pass mandatory checks for transparent pricing, account access, data protection, named responsibilities and reporting feasibility. Eligible proposals will then be scored on:

- Business understanding and diagnosis: 20 points
- Measurement and CRM connection: 25 points
- Execution plan and experimentation: 20 points
- Delivery team and verified evidence: 15 points
- Commercial clarity: 10 points
- Account governance and risk controls: 10 points

Our organisation may request clarifications before making a decision. No performance outcome is guaranteed solely by submitting or accepting an RFP.

================ END OF COPYABLE PPC AGENCY RFP ==================

PPC Agency Due-Diligence Checklist

Use these checks as pass/fail conditions before scoring a proposal. A high weighted score should not override a critical failure.

• ☐ The fee schedule separates media spend, management fees, setup work, third-party costs and taxes.
• ☐ Named delivery owners, responsibilities, response times and subcontracting are disclosed.
• ☐ We retain appropriate administrator access, billing visibility and an agreed exit process.
• ☐ The agency supplies a workable plan for conversion QA and CRM lead-quality reporting.
• ☐ The scope defines deliverables, exclusions, internal dependencies and acceptance criteria.
• ☐ A 30/60/90-day plan includes measurable actions without guaranteed results or fabricated forecasts.
• ☐ Case studies or references have enough context to evaluate relevance and limitations.
• ☐ Security, privacy, contract length, termination and handover conditions are reviewable.

Where a vendor cannot satisfy a critical condition, request a correction or exclude the proposal. Document the decision rather than silently lowering the weight of the failed item.

Weighted PPC Agency Evaluation Scorecard

Have each reviewer assign 0 to 5 for every category, based on written evidence: 0 = missing; 1 = weak; 2 = partially supported; 3 = adequate; 4 = strong; 5 = clearly evidenced and relevant. Use the same definitions for every vendor.

Criterion	Weight (points)	What evidence earns the score	Agency rating (0-5)
Business understanding and diagnosis	20	Buyer insight, constraints, prioritised diagnosis	___
Measurement and CRM connection	25	Qualified-conversion definitions, QA plan, pipeline reporting	___
Execution and experimentation	20	Named 90-day deliverables, testing and budget control	___
Team and verified evidence	15	Named operators, relevant work and reference context	___
Commercial clarity	10	Itemised fees, exclusions, change and exit terms	___
Account governance and risk	10	Access rights, security process, handover obligations	___
TOTAL	100	Score only proposals that pass mandatory checks	___

For each row, calculate: weighted points = (agency rating / 5) x criterion weight. Add the six results for a score out of 100. Keep an evidence column in your actual scoring sheet and record why reviewers disagreed. A score is a decision aid, not proof of future campaign performance.

Completed B2B SaaS RFP Example (Hypothetical)

The following is a fully fictional procurement case. The business name, financial figures, targets and proposals are illustrative inputs, not market averages, OneMetrik results or agency commitments.

Example company: MeridianOps, a fictional sales-led IT operations SaaS platform.

Offer and ICP: A SaaS subscription with an illustrative annual contract value of $18,000, marketed to IT directors and operations leads at organisations with 50-500 employees.

Markets and platforms: United States and India, English language, Google Search as the required channel. LinkedIn Ads may be proposed as an optional, separately priced test.

Current spend and baseline: Monthly Google Ads media spend of $12,000, comprising $9,000 in the US and $3,000 in India. Over the last fictional 90-day period, $36,000 in media spend generated 84 submitted demo forms, 24 sales-qualified leads and 9 sales opportunities. The baseline media-only cost per SQL is $36,000 / 24 = $1,500. Sales-stage definitions and offline conversion imports need validation.

Procurement goal: Select a partner to repair conversion measurement, improve lead quality and produce a repeatable quarterly pipeline report. A provisional planning scenario is 30 SQLs and 12 opportunities in a 90-day period at the same $36,000 media budget. That implies $1,200 media spend per SQL and $3,000 media spend per opportunity if the scenario is achieved. These are internal illustrative objectives, not forecasts or guaranteed outcomes.

Required scope: Baseline audit; keyword and exclusion review; two priority landing-page recommendations; conversion QA; CRM stage mapping; weekly optimisation notes; monthly pipeline reporting; documented 30/60/90-day plan. The client retains production responsibility for approved landing-page changes.

Commercial response: Quote monthly management fees, one-time measurement setup, optional landing-page production, software costs, taxes and three- and six-month total costs separately from platform media spend. Confirm billing currency and US/India scheduling coverage.

Mandatory checks: The advertiser keeps suitable Google Ads administrator access and billing visibility; proposed data access is documented; pricing is itemised; and a named delivery team and CRM measurement plan are supplied.

Filled decision scorecard: Two fictional agencies submitted eligible proposals with the following supported ratings.

Criterion	Weight	Agency A rating	Agency A points	Agency B rating	Agency B points
Business understanding	20	4	16	5	20
Measurement and CRM	25	5	25	2	10
Execution and testing	20	4	16	4	16
Team and evidence	15	3	9	4	12
Commercial clarity	10	4	8	5	10
Governance and risk	10	5	10	3	6
TOTAL	100		84		74

Example decision: Agency A ranks higher because the submitted measurement and governance evidence better addresses MeridianOps’ stated problem. The team should still confirm references, scope and contract terms before selection. If either agency failed a mandatory condition, the proposal would need remediation or exclusion regardless of its numeric result.

How to Adapt the RFP for Your Business

Keep the core submission format constant, but change the outcomes, workstreams and weights to match the buying problem.

• B2B SaaS with long sales cycles: Prioritise CRM-qualified leads, opportunity creation, cohort timing, lead rejection reasons and sales-team feedback. Avoid judging a provider solely on low cost per form fill.
• Ecommerce: Request purchase-value validation, return/refund handling, contribution-margin assumptions, creative production capacity and feed or catalogue responsibilities. Revenue and profit guardrails matter more than demo metrics.
• Local lead generation: Define a valid call or enquiry, serviceable geography, appointment quality, duplicate handling and call-recording permissions where lawful.
• Multi-country or enterprise programmes: Add currency, language, approval workflows, data residency, vendor security, cross-border billing and country-specific performance segmentation. A US/India brief may need different market-level budgets, working-hour coverage and tax treatment.
• In-house team seeking specialist support: Request clear responsibility boundaries for strategy, implementation, account access and knowledge transfer instead of pricing a full outsourced retainer.

If the main decision is the cost and scope of an engagement rather than which vendor should receive a formal bid, consult the separate PPC management pricing and fees guide. It covers pricing models in depth, while this RFP standardises how vendors respond.

PPC Measurement Dashboard: KPIs to Require After Selection

Specify each KPI’s definition, source, owner and reporting interval in the contract or reporting appendix. The agency should distinguish advertising-platform conversions from sales-accepted records and explain attribution limits.

KPI	Definition or calculation	Source	Review cadence
Media spend	Amount charged by ad platforms in period	Ad accounts and billing	Weekly/monthly
Valid leads	Submitted contacts meeting agreed validity rules, after spam and duplicates	CRM and lead QA	Weekly
Sales-qualified leads (SQLs)	Leads accepted under documented sales qualification criteria	CRM lifecycle fields	Weekly/monthly
Media cost per SQL	Ad media spend / attributed SQLs for a consistent period	Ad spend + CRM	Monthly
Sales opportunities	New opportunities meeting agreed stage and attribution rules	CRM opportunity records	Monthly
Media cost per opportunity	Ad media spend / attributed opportunities	Ad spend + CRM	Monthly
Pipeline created	Total value of newly attributed opportunities, with stated attribution model and deduplication	CRM	Monthly/quarterly
Tracking QA status	Validated conversion events, broken integrations and unresolved data gaps	Tag manager, ad platforms, CRM	At launch and after changes

A useful dashboard also displays the date range, market, channel, currency, conversion lag and any material changes to definitions. Separate campaign efficiency from fully loaded acquisition economics: media cost per SQL is not the same as company-wide customer acquisition cost (CAC). Review closed-won revenue using mature sales cohorts rather than treating a newly created opportunity as booked revenue.

Common Procurement Mistakes and Validation Checks

Choosing the lowest monthly fee without comparing scope. One quote may include tracking, testing and reporting while another bills those separately. Request a consistent three- or six-month total-cost view, including media spend and all known additional charges.

Using unverified conversions as the selection baseline. Ask agencies to check duplicate form events, spam leads, missing offline stages and conversion lag before proposing a precise cost-per-lead improvement. Require a measurement repair plan where the data is unreliable.

Giving the agency exclusive control of the ad account. The buyer should preserve appropriate direct access to its existing advertiser account, records and billing, while granting the agency the permissions it needs. Google explains how linked client and manager accounts operate in its official Google Ads manager-account guidance. Verify the actual access and ownership arrangement before signing; manager-account administrative ownership is a specific permission and is not automatic on linking.

Accepting generic case studies or guaranteed pipeline promises. Ask for the starting conditions, time period, spend level, attribution method and the operator’s specific role. A compelling result without context is not comparable evidence.

Failing to verify who does the work. Confirm named staff, senior oversight, subcontractors, account load, escalation contacts and handover obligations. The people on the sales call may not be the delivery team.

Ignoring security, geography and exit conditions. Do not transfer passwords or identifiable CRM data during bidding. Check the proposed handling of first-party data, permitted tooling, country-specific billing or tax requirements, termination notice and deliverable ownership with the appropriate internal reviewers.

For vendor discovery, a B2B PPC agency comparison can help build an initial shortlist. Use the same independent RFP criteria for every bidder, including agencies featured in comparison lists.

PPC Agency RFP FAQs

Final Takeaway: Compare Evidence, Not Presentations

A useful PPC agency RFP makes your business problem specific, invites alternative strategies and forces proposals into a format the buying team can evaluate fairly. Use the copyable brief to collect bids, the checklist to enforce non-negotiable safeguards, the scorecard to compare evidence and the KPI dashboard to test delivery after onboarding.

For readers who want to understand the scope of external support, OneMetrik’s PPC Management Services describes ongoing campaign management, while the Google Ads Agency page covers the search-advertising service. This tutorial is a neutral buyer resource, not a quote or a recommendation to select any particular provider.