A Paid Search Contract Should Separate Budget, Access, and Approval

Which channels and work should the contract define?

The contract should name the channels, campaign types, locations, landing pages, and day-to-day tasks the agency will handle. “Paid search management” can mean campaign setup, keyword research, copy, bidding, budget monitoring, conversion setup, reporting, or only selected tasks. The healthcare SEO transition guide discusses continuity and ownership questions that can affect a healthcare search program. The paid search contract pillar is the exact topic this companion develops into a control checklist.

List what the agency will not do. Website rebuilds, ongoing organic SEO, call center staffing, admissions qualification, creative production, privacy assessment, and legal review may sit outside a paid media contract. A vendor may coordinate with another provider, but the contract should say who owns each handoff and whether that coordination is included. This prevents campaign management from being confused with all the work needed to convert a click into a conversation.

Specify the client’s role. Name who supplies approved service facts, reviews ad copy, approves landing page changes, owns billing, and can make budget decisions. If several departments must review an ad, name the escalation owner and allow time for those decisions in the schedule. A contract that assigns all duties to “client” without naming an owner may leave approvals stuck while the agency continues to charge an ongoing management fee.

State how change requests are handled. A new location, campaign, audience, page, call tracking pool, or conversion event can add work and affect measurement. The agency should estimate the change, explain dependencies, and obtain the needed client approval before proceeding. A short written record can include budget effect, timing, owner, and acceptance check. Do not treat a mention in a meeting as enough authorization for a spend or live campaign change.

Set a clear boundary between marketing activity and clinical or admissions decisions. The agency can manage campaigns and report the actions it observes. But it should not decide whether a person is eligible for a service or promise a given outcome. The provider owns the actual service facts and how inquiries are handled. That division should appear in the scope and in the landing page review process. This helps prevent ad language from creating expectations the program has not approved.

• List included channels, campaign tasks, landing pages, and clear exclusions.
• Name the client owners for facts, creative approval, billing, and budget decisions.
• Require written approval before expanding scope or changing live spend.

How should the contract separate fees, media spend, and accounts?

Show agency fees separately from advertising budget, setup costs, creative work, call tracking, landing page work, and third-party tools. State who pays each provider, where invoices appear, and who may approve an increase. A percentage-of-spend fee should say which spend is included in its calculation. Clear separation lets the provider compare proposals and see whether an apparent low service fee depends on extra costs elsewhere.

Define budget authority at the action level. The contract can specify a monthly ceiling and any daily guardrail. It can also specify the person who can approve a change and what the agency does when a platform suggests more spend. Avoid a general clause that lets the vendor adjust budgets “as needed.” The client should know if a change is a suggestion or an approved action. The agency should also keep an auditable change record.

The provider should understand who owns the advertising account and billing relationship. Prefer a client-controlled account with named, role-based access where the platform supports it. The contract should name which account will be used and who can invite or remove users. It should also name how the client can keep access if the relationship ends. If an agency uses a managed account structure, explain what data, history, and assets can be transferred. Also explain what remains with the agency.

Clarify ownership of campaign assets. Ad copy, keyword lists, negative keyword lists, audience settings, landing page content, conversion definitions, and reports may have different transfer terms. State which materials the client can export and in what format. Third-party software or licenses may be nontransferable, so list those exceptions before launch. The handoff should not depend on a former vendor’s personal login or on an undocumented spreadsheet stored outside the client’s account.

Specify what happens when a payment is late, a card fails, or a platform pauses delivery. Name who receives the alert, what work continues, and whether campaigns are paused or left unchanged. The contract should not let uncertainty create unapproved spending. A clear rule helps the client separate platform billing from management fees. It also reduces the chance that a service interruption is mistaken for a strategic decision.

• Show management fees, platform spend, setup charges, tracking, and outside costs separately.
• Set a budget limit and name the person approved to change it.
• Keep the client’s account access and campaign history available at handoff.

Who reviews ads, landing pages, and tracking changes?

Assign duty for reviewing ad statements and destination pages. The client should supply approved service descriptions, locations, contact routes, and other material facts. Google Ads maintains a healthcare and medicines policy, and its current terms can change. The agency can name policy concerns and manage submissions within the agreed role. But the contract should not promise approval or certify that the provider meets every applicable requirement.

Review ad copy and the landing page together. A concise advertisement can create an expectation that the destination must answer. Check that the page describes the relevant service correctly, has a clear next step, and does not promise admission or a result. State who can approve a final version and how a rejected or restricted ad is handled. If the page itself needs rewriting, check whether that work is included or requires a separate estimate.

Tracking should be described with enough detail for the provider to understand what is measured. Name conversion events, call tracking, form events, analytics or tag tools, and the party that configures each one. A covered provider can use HHS guidance on online tracking technologies for its own review. The guidance is not a blanket answer for every technology or page. The client’s privacy and legal owners should assess the actual data flows.

Do not place sensitive inquiry details into routine ad reports or tickets. The contract should say what the agency receives and how it is protected. It should also say how long it is kept and how access is removed. A campaign can often be monitored using aggregate or de-identified events, but the client’s approved privacy owner must decide what is suitable. A vendor label such as “conversion tracking” does not establish that a setup is safe for a given organization.

Build a safe test process before campaign launch. Define how a test click, form submission, or call will be identified so it does not appear as a real inquiry. Verify that the landing route, phone link, and conversion event behave as planned, then keep evidence of the check. Separate testing from approval to run or spend. A passing test proves only the observed behavior under the test conditions, not every downstream system.

• Name who reviews ad claims, destination pages, platform policy, and privacy questions.
• Document each conversion event and separate test activity from real inquiries.
• Keep sensitive details out of routine campaign reports and support tickets.

How should reporting, renewal, and exit terms work?

The reporting section should define dates, sources, metrics, and decisions. Separate impressions, clicks, spend, calls, forms, and any client-defined inquiry categories. State whether data comes from the ad platform, analytics, call tracking, or a client system, and what attribution limits apply. A call click is not the same as a completed conversation, and a form count is not an admissions result. Reports should say what changed and what the agency suggests next.

Agree on how often the agency and client review the plan and who attends. The meeting should cover completed work, remaining approvals, budget, policy or tracking issues, and proposed changes. The agency should not treat a report presentation as approval to increase spend or change a campaign. Written follow-up should name decisions and the person who made them. If the client has no approval, the existing approved setup should remain within the contract limits.

Define what happens when a campaign is paused or a material issue appears. The contract should say who can stop delivery, who receives notice, what investigation is included, and how reactivation is approved. A privacy concern, wrong destination, rejected ad, or billing problem may require different action. The contract should provide an escalation route while avoiding any promise that a platform will resolve an issue within a specific time.

Renewal and termination terms should include notice, final invoice, access removal, and transfer of campaign assets. State what happens to active campaigns, landing pages, tracking numbers, and data when the relationship ends. The client should know how to assume control and which vendor dependencies remain. If a tool cannot be transferred, name it and describe a practical replacement path before the provider relies on it.

Use one campaign as a proposal test. Ask the agency to show its scope, budget approval, ad review, landing page check, tracking map, reporting example, and exit handoff. A credible vendor can explain how each step is written and where the client must decide. That walkthrough can reveal whether the price reflects real work and whether controls match the provider’s needs. It can also reveal whether the relationship can end without losing access to the account.

The contract should address a period when campaigns cannot run. A platform restriction, an expired payment method, a client request, or a destination-page issue may require a pause. Define who can pause delivery, how quickly the client is notified, what costs continue, and who approves restart. Do not let a pause be mistaken for permission to move the same budget elsewhere. A dated record helps the client reconcile what the platform charged with what the agency reports.

If multiple vendors share the landing page or tracking setup, record the handoff between them. Name who requests a change, who reviews the destination, who tests the conversion event, and who confirms the campaign may resume. A tracking vendor cannot approve ad copy, and an ad manager cannot confirm a privacy decision for the client. Naming each owner makes the process easier to follow when a concern crosses technical and marketing boundaries.

The client should also receive a change history for campaign settings that affect cost or reporting. At a minimum, record the affected campaign, setting, prior and new values, date, request or rationale, and approver. The contract can specify which routine changes are already approved within an agreed budget. It can also specify which require advance approval. This gives the client a way to reconcile performance reports with real account changes. It also makes it easier to investigate an unexpected increase in spend.

The client should know how the agency treats work that is prepared but not launched. A draft campaign, approved creative, and active campaign have different financial and operational states. The contract can name when setup fees are earned, what client decision is still pending, and how unused media budget is handled. A status report should never imply that a campaign is live when it remains a draft or is paused.

• Separate campaign activity from inquiries and organizational outcomes in reports.
• Require approval records for budget changes, creative updates, and reactivation after a pause.
• Define account, data, and asset transfer before renewal or termination.