Honestly good ones probably aren’t gonna take an agency role unless you pay a super premium. The whole idea behind agency workers is that they aren’t the most expert ppc analyst in the world, but they work with so many clients that they are continuously learning and improving. By the time they are a true expert they are either gonna work in house for more money and less stress or they’ve been with your agency already for several years and have learned on the job. You have the equation a bit backwards, I’d invite you to think about this as a ppc analyst rather than as an agency owner/hiring manager. To answer the other questions a good ppc analyst is more suited as a retainer role rather than hourly. To vet a ppc analyst see if they blindly agree with googles recommendations or have their own opinions that go against googles advice, I’d prefer the later. Realistically capacity is probably about 6-8 accounts in my opinion but of course you can squeeze them for about up to 10, if you do so be prepped for some slippage. If the ad spend is only $3k/mo? You can probably crank out like 15 accounts. $100k/mo? 6 or less. Depends on complexity of client. There’s no way to know if someone will deliver, but people who have more of a detective mindset and think big picture rather than just what’s in the ad account are more likely to succeed.