How to Choose a Google Ads Agency

Google Ads management ranges from genuine strategic partnership to someone logging in once a month to check the account hasn’t broken. Here’s how to tell the difference before you sign anything.

Ask what they optimise toward

A good Ads partner optimises toward your actual profitable outcomes — leads that convert, revenue, or margin — not just clicks or a low cost-per-click that looks good in a report but doesn’t translate into real business results.

Ask how often the account is actually touched

Some agencies set up a campaign once and leave it running with minimal changes. Ask specifically how often bids, targeting and creative are reviewed and adjusted, and what would trigger a change outside the normal schedule.

Ask about transparency into spend

You should be able to see exactly where your budget is going — which campaigns, which keywords, what the agency’s management fee is on top of ad spend. If the fee structure is unclear or the reporting is vague about where money actually went, that’s worth pushing on.

Ask how they handle underperformance

Campaigns don’t always work immediately. Ask what happens when a campaign underperforms — do they diagnose and adjust, or keep running the same thing while collecting the management fee regardless of results.

Ask whether they understand your category’s constraints

Some categories — legal, healthcare, certain retail verticals — carry advertising restrictions or unusually high costs per click. An agency that doesn’t already know this about your category before the pitch may not be the right fit for it.

Ask if they’ll tell you when Ads isn’t the answer

Sometimes SEO, not Ads, is the better investment for a given goal, or a business isn’t ready for paid spend yet. A good partner will say so, even if it means less short-term revenue for them.

Ask about lock-in

As with SEO, be wary of long lock-in contracts. A partner confident in their work should be comfortable with a shorter initial commitment.

Read our How to Choose an SEO Agency for the equivalent framework on the organic side, or use our Google Ads ROI Calculator to model what a campaign needs to return.