How to choose a Google Ads agency (I have run two)

I have been on every side of this. I have run Google Ads accounts as a freelancer in Manly for fifteen years, I founded an agency in Hamburg and another on Mallorca, and before any of that I sat in agency pitches as the client. Here is how I would choose, if I were choosing today.

1. Ask who does the work

The person who pitches to you is rarely the person who logs into your account on a Tuesday. Ask by name. Ask how many accounts that person looks after and how long they have been doing it. A freelancer’s answer is easy: it is me, and you can count my clients on two hands. An agency’s answer should be just as specific. If it is vague, the account will be run by whoever is free.

2. Ask how they are paid

There are three common models, and the model shapes the advice you get.

• A percentage of ad spend. The agency earns more when you spend more. That is a conflict of interest sitting in the middle of every budget conversation, and it rewards growth in spend rather than growth in results.
• A flat monthly fee. Agreed up front, independent of spend. The agency’s incentive is to keep you as a client, which means results. This is how I work in Manly and how pmax, my agency in Mallorca, works: the fee is agreed before we start and is never a share of the media budget.
• Performance only. Sounds ideal, and usually means the agency cherry-picks easy accounts and walks away from hard ones. Treat with caution.

Whatever the model, ask for the fee in writing next to the expected ad spend, so that you can see the two numbers side by side.

3. You own the account. Full stop.

The Google Ads account should be created in your name, with your billing details, and the agency should work in it through a manager account that you grant access to and can revoke. If an agency wants to run your ads from an account it owns, walk away, however good the pitch. When the relationship ends you would lose the account, the conversion history the bidding has learned from, and the data on what has worked. I have inherited too many accounts that had to start from zero for exactly this reason.

The same goes for Google Analytics, Tag Manager and your Business Profile. Yours, with the agency as a user.

4. Ask what the report will say

Ask to see a real monthly report for another client with the name blacked out. If it leads with impressions and clicks, the agency is reporting activity. If it leads with enquiries, bookings, sales and what each one cost, the agency is reporting results. Then ask whether you will have your own login to the account, so that you can see the same numbers whenever you like. The answer should be yes without hesitation.

5. Certifications are the floor, not the ceiling

The Google Partner badge means the agency has certified staff, meets a minimum level of managed spend and applies Google’s recommended practices. I hold it and wrote about what it takes. It tells you an agency is real and competent. It does not tell you the agency is right for you, and it does not tell you who will run your account. Check it, then move on to the four questions above.

6. The contract

Month to month after a short initial term, with thirty days’ notice, is reasonable. Twelve-month lock-ins are not, unless there is a build phase that genuinely takes that long to pay back. Make sure the contract says the account, the data and any landing pages built for you are yours when you leave.

Questions to ask on the first call

• Who will work on my account, by name, and how many other accounts do they run?
• How are you paid, and what will my total cost be at my expected ad spend?
• Will the Google Ads account be in my name?
• Which conversions will you track, and how will I know what a lead costs?
• Can I see a monthly report you have sent someone else?
• What happens to the account, the data and the landing pages if I leave?
• What would you do in the first thirty days, and what would you expect to see after ninety?

Red flags

• Guaranteed results, positions or a cost per lead before they have seen your account.
• The account will live in the agency’s name.
• A percentage of spend with no cap and no results target attached.
• No conversion tracking in the plan, or tracking that is “coming later”.
• A twelve-month contract for a small budget.
• Nobody will say who does the work.

Freelancer or agency?

Honestly, it depends on the size of the job. For a small business on the Northern Beaches with one market and one language, a freelancer who answers the phone is hard to beat, and that is what I do here. For several countries, several languages or a budget that needs more than one pair of hands, an agency makes sense, which is why I built two of them. The four questions do not change either way.

Questions people ask

Sources

1. About Google Ads manager accounts, Google Ads Help
2. Google Partners program, Google
3. How pmax charges: flat monthly fee, never a percentage of spend, pmax