How to Choose a Google Ads Agency: 12 Questions to Ask Before You Sign

To choose a Google Ads agency, first make sure you own the account and the data, then find out who will actually manage your campaigns, how the agency gets paid, what you will see every month and what hard evidence it can show. A serious agency answers all of this clearly, and in writing, before you sign.

The 12 questions below form a checklist you can apply to every proposal you receive, including ours. They are grouped by theme, with the answer you should expect and the warning signs to watch for.

Key takeaways

• Your Google Ads account, Google Analytics and tracking should be in your name, with admin access for you.
• Ask for the name and seniority of the person who will manage your account, not just the salesperson.
• Compare pricing models (flat fee or percentage of spend) and read the exit terms.
• Insist on reporting built around conversions and their cost, not clicks.
• Screenshots of real accounts beat promised results every time.

Account and data ownership

1. Who will own the Google Ads account?

There is only one right answer: you. The account should be created in your name, with your payment method, and the agency should access it through its manager account (MCC). If the agency creates and bills the account itself, you may lose the history, conversion data and learning built up over time the day you switch providers. That history has real value, because it is what makes automated bidding strategies work well.

2. Who will own tracking, Google Analytics and Tag Manager?

The same logic applies to your Google Analytics 4 property, your Google Tag Manager container, your Merchant Center account if you sell online, and your audience lists. Ask to be an administrator on each of them. An agency that will not give you these permissions is building your dependence on it.

Who really does the work

3. Who will manage my account day to day?

In many agencies, an experienced salesperson closes the deal and the account is then handed to a junior who is new to your industry. Ask for the person’s name, how long they have been working on Google Ads, and whether you will be able to speak with them directly.

4. How many accounts does each specialist handle?

This question reveals how much time your account will really get. A specialist juggling a very large client list cannot review your search terms every week. There is no universal ideal number, but the answer should be clear and owned.

5. Can I talk directly to the person optimising my campaigns?

A go-between slows everything down. A new offer, a stock-out or a change in opening hours should be reflected in your campaigns the same day, not the following week.

Pricing and commitment

6. How do you get paid?

Two main models exist, each with its own logic:

Ask one more simple question: is your ad budget paid directly to Google from your own account? If the agency pays Google and re-bills you, ask for the breakdown, because a margin can hide inside media spend. At Adsflow, management starts from $850 per month excluding set-up, your ad budget is not included, and the Google Ads account stays yours.

7. How long is the commitment, and what happens if I leave?

A short initial commitment is reasonable: it takes time to install tracking, launch campaigns and gather enough data to optimise. Traffic and first leads usually arrive within days, while meaningful optimisation builds over 30 to 90 days. Be wary, though, of 12-month fixed contracts that renew automatically. At Adsflow, there is an initial 3-month commitment, then no commitment at all. Above all, ask what you keep when you leave: accounts, access, containers and history should all stay with you.

Reporting, access and measurement

8. Which metrics will I see, and how often?

Impressions and click-through rate measure activity. What matters to your business is conversions (calls, form submissions, sales), what they cost and, ideally, what they are worth. Ask for a real sample report. Our clients get a dashboard they can check around the clock and a 30-minute monthly call with their specialist.

9. How quickly do you respond?

A reply within 24 hours is a reasonable standard, and it is the commitment we make at Adsflow. Get it written into the proposal: it is a concrete commitment, unlike “a team that listens”.

10. How will you measure conversions?

An agency that asks nothing about your tracking will optimise blind. Expect a precise plan: which actions will be tracked (calls, forms, purchases), how phone calls will be measured, how cookie consent will be handled, and whether sales closed offline can be fed back into Google Ads.

Proof

11. Can you show me real accounts?

Anonymised screenshots of real Google Ads accounts, showing the period, the number of conversions and the cost per conversion, are worth more than any “10x ROI” in a brochure. That is why we publish screenshots of accounts we manage today, numbers included.

A word on the Google Partner badge: it shows that an agency meets thresholds set by Google for managed spend, certifications and account optimisation score. It is a baseline of seriousness, not proof of profitability. The optimisation score in particular can be raised by applying Google’s recommendations, which do not always serve your margin.

12. What will you do in the first 90 days?

A good agency describes a concrete plan: an audit of your existing account, campaign structure, keyword and negative keyword choices, tracking setup, a launch date, then the rhythm of optimisation and testing. At Adsflow, the complete setup goes live within 7 days. If the answer stays vague (“we will optimise”), treat it as a warning sign.

Red flags

• A guaranteed top position, or guaranteed figures, before any audit.
• A Google Ads account created in the agency’s name, with no admin access for you.
• Media spend that flows through the agency with no breakdown of what Google actually receives.
• A long commitment with automatic renewal and exit fees.
• Reporting limited to impressions, clicks and click-through rate.
• No questions about your margins, average order value or capacity to handle leads.
• Unverifiable testimonials and no screenshots of real accounts.

To see how we answer each of these questions in practice, visit our Google Ads agency page, where our method, pricing and scope are laid out.

To go further, compare Google Ads agency pricing models, see when managing Google Ads yourself is the right call and weigh up the freelancer option. And before you sign, review your account with our Google Ads audit checklist.

Put us to the test with a free audit

The best way to judge an agency is to watch it work on your own account. Adsflow offers a free audit of your Google Ads campaigns, carried out by one of our four specialists, with no salesperson involved. You leave with a clear diagnosis and concrete recommendations, whether or not you decide to work with us. Book your free audit.