With Google Ads management services, you pay a management fee on top of your ad spend, and results are measured by the number of inquiries and the cost per inquiry. Before you hire, settle three things: what counts as a result, how much the fee is and what it covers, and what you will be shown in the reports. If the page the ad leads to is weak, results will not grow no matter who manages the ads.
Management costs come in two parts: ad spend and management fees
The cost of Google Ads management splits into two parts: the ad spend you pay to Google, and the management fee you pay the agency. Ad spend is the total you pay each time an ad is clicked, and it is the same whether or not you work through an agency. The management fee is what you pay the agency for setup, optimization and reporting.
If you lump these two together, you will compare quotes incorrectly.
| Cost | Paid to | What it covers | How it is determined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ad spend | Ad clicks and similar | The monthly budget cap you set yourself | |
| Management fee | The agency | Setup, optimization, analysis, reporting | May be a percentage of ad spend, a flat amount, or another structure |
| Upfront cost | The agency | Initial planning and setup | Varies by company |
Fee structures differ by company: a percentage of ad spend, a fixed monthly amount, performance-based amounts and so on. With a percentage, the fee rises as ad spend rises. When you receive quotes, assume the same ad budget for each one and line up the totals side by side.
What a Google Ads management company does, in five parts
The work an agency actually handles falls into these five areas.
- Planning. Deciding who to reach, with what wording, and which page to send them to.
- Setup. Configuring keywords, ad copy, budget, locations and scheduling.
- Tracking setup. Making inquiries and phone calls countable as results.
- Day-to-day optimization. Removing terms that do not convert and expanding those that do.
- Reporting. Explaining how the numbers moved and what comes next.
Of these, item 3, tracking setup, makes the biggest difference to results. If no one has defined what counts as a result, the agency has no target to optimize toward. Decide up front what a result means for your business, such as a contact form submission, a tap on the phone button, or a completed booking.
Ad management does not end once everything is set up. After delivery starts, you look at which search terms triggered your ads and which terms are wasting money, and you adjust almost daily. Management that only checks in once a month piles up wasted ad spend.
Measure results by the number of inquiries and the cost per inquiry
These four numbers are enough to judge ad performance.
- Impressions. How often the ad was seen.
- Clicks. How much interest it drew.
- Number of results. Inquiries, calls and other business outcomes.
- Cost per result. Ad spend divided by the number of results.
Start from number 4. Even with plenty of clicks, ad spend is wasted if none of them turn into inquiries. Conversely, even with few clicks, if results come in and the cost per result works for you, the management is doing its job.
Whether a cost per result is high or low depends on your profit margins. Before you hire, work out whether the profit you earn from one customer exceeds the cost of acquiring one result through advertising. Start advertising without this calculation and you will not even be able to tell whether it is working.
Why ads alone will not grow your results
However skilled the management, results will not grow if the page the ad clicks through to is weak. Advertising is a system for bringing visitors in. Whether those visitors apply is decided by the page.
A common mistake is sending people who clicked the ad to the company's top page. The top page is built for everyone, so someone drawn in by the wording of an ad cannot immediately find the information they were looking for. Preparing a dedicated landing page that matches the content of the ad changes the application rate.
Ads and pages have to be improved together. When the numbers look bad, work out whether to fix the ad wording or the page, then address them in order. Some services let you hire out ad management alone, but the better the landing page, the more likely the ads are to produce results.
Six things to check before you hire
When you talk to an agency, ask about these six points.
- What counts as a result, and whether they will help you define it.
- What the fee covers and how much it is, and what happens if ad spend increases.
- Whether your company can hold administrator access to the ad account.
- When reports arrive, which numbers they include and in what format.
- Whether they explain what they will fix when the numbers are poor.
- The minimum contract period and the procedure for ending the contract.
Point 3, administrator access, is easy to overlook. If your company holds administrator access, you can review the ad history yourself. It also makes the handover much easier if you change agencies.
Common failures with Google Ads management services
The budget is too small to gather usable numbers
If ad spend is too small, you get too few clicks to tell what is working. Estimate up front how many results you want per month and how much ad spend that requires.
No agreed definition of a result
If clicks are your only target, you will attract people who never turn into inquiries. Define results in the language of your business.
Drawing conclusions after a few weeks
Ads do not reach their best state the moment you launch them. Data builds up as the ads run, and accuracy improves through repeated adjustment. Agree with your agency from the start on how many weeks to wait and which numbers to judge by.
The ad wording and the page content do not match
The ad says “free consultation,” but the page says nothing about it being free. Gaps like this cause people to leave. Connect your ads and pages with the same wording.
What to keep in-house and what to outsource
You do not have to outsource everything. Here is a rough guide to the split.
| Task | Best handled in-house | Best outsourced |
|---|---|---|
| Setting goals | Decide your business outcomes and the budget you can spend | Help turning goals into numbers |
| Ad copy | Convey the strengths of your products and services | Writing copy that matches the terms people search for |
| Day-to-day optimization | Review the results | Adding and excluding terms, adjusting bids |
| Reporting | Understanding what the numbers mean | Compiling the numbers and proposing improvements |
Our approach to ad management
Our ad management is built around creating and refining the landing page alongside the ads. We gather the words your readers use, compare different angles, and improve the campaign while checking the numbers every day. Reports are delivered monthly. Pricing varies with the size of the budget and the scope of the work, so we provide a quote.
How the first three months of management go
Knowing what happens after you hire makes the numbers easier to read.
- Month 1. We set up tracking and configure the ads. Once delivery begins, we check which search terms triggered them.
- Month 2. We remove terms that do not convert and expand those that do. We run multiple versions of the ad copy and compare the response.
- Month 3. Based on the data so far, we review how the budget is allocated. If the landing page needs changes, we make those at the same time.
It is normal for results to be unsteady in the first month. Do not judge the quality of the management on month one alone. If the report explains what was changed and what will be tried next, things are on track.
What to check in your agency's reports
When you receive the monthly report, check the following.
- How the number of results and the cost per result moved compared with the previous month.
- Whether the movement is explained. Not just the numbers, but which changes to the ads produced them.
- Whether it states what will be done next month.
- How wasted ad spend was reduced.
A report that is nothing but tables of numbers tells you nothing about the work behind it. Ask for reports that include explanations and next steps.
How to decide the wording of your ads
The quality of your ad copy directly affects results. Whether you write it yourself or hire an agency, decide the wording in this order.
- Search the terms your customers would use and see the results for yourself.
- Read the competitors' ads that appear and note which words come up most often.
- Pick one strength that is unique to you and that competitors are not mentioning.
- Put the search term in the ad headline and the strength in the description.
- Run several versions and keep the ones that get the best response.
FAQ
It depends on your profit margins and how many results you are aiming for. There is no one-size-fits-all figure. We decide it together during our meeting, based on your situation.
Results sometimes appear as soon as the ads go live, but in most cases a period of gathering data and making adjustments is needed. We agree on the timeline for judging results with you at the start.
Yes. By granting administrator access to your existing account, all the delivery data up to that point carries over.
Yes, we accept ad management on its own. That said, the better the landing page, the more likely the ads are to produce results.
We take on management work that improves ads and pages together
With Google Ads, results change depending on how you define success and on the page the ad leads to. After hearing about your current situation, we will tell you what to fix in the ads and what to fix on the page.
