How to Choose the Right Google Ads Agency in 2025
Updated on 13/12/2024 at 12:42 pm
Google Ads is one of the most powerful tools for driving targeted traffic, generating leads, and increasing revenue. However, choosing the right Google Ads agency to manage your campaigns can make or break your success. A good agency will optimize your ad spend, create effective campaigns, and continually improve performance. On the other hand, the wrong agency can waste your budget, deliver poor results, and damage your brand reputation.
This blog delves into the top five red flags to watch out for when selecting a Google Ads agency and provides actionable insights to ensure you find the perfect match for your business.
1. Lack of Transparency in Reporting
Transparency is the cornerstone of a successful client-agency relationship. If an agency is unwilling or unable to provide clear, detailed reports, it’s a major red flag.
What to Look For:
- Access to Accounts: Reputable agencies will grant you full access to your Google Ads account. If an agency insists on keeping control or refuses to share login credentials, it may be trying to hide something. In fact, we always recommend that the business owner has full ownership of the Google Ads account.
- Performance Metrics: A trustworthy agency provides regular reports on key performance indicators (KPIs), such as click-through rates (CTR), cost per click (CPC), conversions, and return on ad spend (ROAS). If reports are vague or filled with irrelevant data, consider it a warning sign. To add to these, we frequently report on profitability metrics like LTV/CAC, POAS etc.
- Billing Transparency: Always ensure the agency separates media spend (your ad budget) from their service fees. Bundling these costs can make it difficult to discern how much of your money is going toward actual ads versus agency fees.
Examples of What Transparency Looks Like:
- Interactive Dashboards: Live dashboards using tools like Google Data Studio or Tableau allow you to track campaign performance in real-time.
- Detailed Reports: Weekly or monthly reports that include insights into campaign performance, challenges, and proposed solutions.
- Separate Invoices for Spend and Fees: Transparent billing ensures you know how much is going toward Google Ads versus agency management.
Why Transparency Matters:
Without transparency, it’s impossible to gauge whether your campaigns are on track or whether adjustments are needed. A transparent agency fosters trust and ensures accountability, enabling you to make informed decisions that align with your business goals.
2. Unrealistic Promises
Beware of agencies that promise instant results, guaranteed top rankings, or an incredible ROI with little effort. While Google Ads can produce quick wins, sustainable success requires strategy, optimization, and time.
Examples of Unrealistic Claims:
- “We’ll get you on the first page of Google overnight.”
- “Expect 200% ROI in the first week.”
- “Our proprietary methods guarantee success.”
Why Unrealistic Promises Are Red Flags:
These promises are often made to secure clients without delivering results. Agencies that offer these guarantees may cut corners, focusing on short-term wins (often at a higher cost) while neglecting long-term growth.
What to Look for Instead:
- Detailed Roadmaps: A trustworthy agency will outline realistic timelines, including a learning phase for gathering data and optimizing campaigns.
- Customized Projections: Agencies should tailor performance expectations to your budget, industry, and competitive landscape.
- Case Studies: Evidence of past success, such as case studies and client testimonials, can provide insight into their ability to deliver realistic outcomes.
Why It Matters:
Effective campaigns are built on strategic planning, thorough testing, and gradual optimization. Any agency that claims otherwise may lack the expertise or commitment to deliver sustainable results.
3. Overemphasis on Vanity Metrics
Vanity metrics like high impressions, clicks, or CTRs may seem impressive, but they often lack meaningful impact if they don’t lead to conversions, sales, or revenue. A good agency will focus on business-critical KPIs that directly align with your goals.
Why Vanity Metrics Can Be Misleading:
- Clicks Without Conversions: A high number of clicks may indicate interest but doesn’t guarantee that users are taking meaningful actions.
- Irrelevant Traffic: Large impressions may result from poorly targeted campaigns that fail to reach your ideal audience.
- Misaligned Goals: Agencies focused on vanity metrics often prioritize low-cost traffic rather than high-value leads or sales.
KPIs That Matter:
- Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): The amount spent to acquire a new customer.
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Revenue generated for every dollar spent on ads.
- Conversion Rate: The percentage of users who take a desired action, such as making a purchase or filling out a form.
Examples of Effective Reporting:
- Reports comparing CTR to conversion rates and revenue metrics.
- Insights into user behavior post-click, such as bounce rates or time on site.
- Recommendations for improving landing pages to increase conversions.
4. No Customization or Strategy
One-size-fits-all approaches rarely work in the dynamic world of Google Ads. A good agency takes the time to understand your business, audience, and goals before crafting a tailored strategy.
Signs of Poor Customization:
- Generic ad copy that fails to reflect your brand voice.
- Campaigns structured without consideration for your specific audience or goals.
- Lack of market research or competitor analysis.
What a Good Agency Will Do:
- In-Depth Research: Conduct research into your industry, audience demographics, and competitors.
- Segmented Campaigns: Develop campaigns tailored to specific customer segments and buyer personas.
- Custom Ad Creative: Craft ad copy and visuals that align with your brand values and resonate with your audience.
Why It Matters:
Customization ensures campaigns resonate with your audience and stand out from competitors. It also prevents wasted spend on strategies that don’t align with your goals.
5. Lack of Ongoing Communication and Support
Google Ads requires constant monitoring and adjustments. If an agency is unresponsive or lacks consistent communication, it can lead to missed opportunities and wasted ad spend.
What to Expect From a Good Agency:
- Regular Check-Ins: Weekly or bi-weekly meetings to discuss performance and strategies.
- Dedicated Account Managers: A single point of contact familiar with your campaigns and business goals.
- Proactive Updates: Notifications about significant changes, such as algorithm updates or campaign issues.
Why It Matters:
Consistent communication ensures alignment, builds trust, and allows for quick resolution of challenges. A lack of support can leave you feeling disconnected and uncertain about campaign progress.
6. Performance Max vs. Standard Shopping
A smart agency knows how to leverage both Performance Max (PMax) and Standard Shopping campaigns. While PMax campaigns utilize automation, Standard Shopping offers more control over audience targeting and bidding.
How a Good Agency Balances These Campaigns:
- Standard Shopping for Control: Focuses on specific products or segments to attract relevant traffic at a lower CPC.
- PMax for Scalability: Uses automation to maximize conversions and ROAS across multiple channels.
- Unified Insights: Combines data from both campaign types to refine strategies and allocate budgets effectively.
Example of Effective Use:
An e-commerce client using Standard Shopping to drive awareness while leveraging PMax to retarget users with high purchase intent.
This is often referred to as the feeder strategy (popularized by John Moran of Solutions 8). We need to understand that this approach will depend on the level of budget and industry. It will not be equally effective always. Our experience shows that for smaller budgets, this may not have an equally effective outcome. That is because when your budget is smaller, it is better to focus on anything that will convert more easily. So going after the lowest hanging fruit with your entire budget makes sense. That said, new customer acquisition is critical from the point of view of any business of any size.
7. Bid Strategies for Maximum Impact
Selecting the right bid strategy is critical for achieving your campaign goals. A good agency knows when to use automated strategies like Target ROAS or manual approaches like Enhanced CPC.
Examples of When to Use Each:
- Target ROAS: Ideal for e-commerce campaigns focused on profitability.
- Maximize Conversions: Best for lead generation campaigns with specific CPA targets.
- Manual CPC: Useful for gaining granular control in high-competition markets.
That said, there are situations where we will take different approaches with regard to bid strategies as well. When the AOV doesn’t vary much, choosing Maximize Conversions as the bid strategy should augur well. Target Impression Share is very useful when running branded search. The reason for that is obvious – you want to maximize impressions for the traffic that already knows your brand.
Manual CPC is useful when you don’t have too much variation in conversion rates by time of day or day of the week or locations or demographics. These variables can complicate matters. Bid adjustments are a thing of the past anyway. Human intelligence cannot compete with smart bidding strategies. You will have to rely on automated bid strategies in order to fully capture the variations at such a granular level. But if you are confident after analysing your data that such granular variations don’t occur, then Manual CPC is a viable option. It gives you much more control over the bids, at a keyword or product level (In case you are using Standard Shopping).
See the whole point is that you have to be profitable. And profitability in Google Ads is very closely tied to the CPC.
8. Budget Pacing and Scaling
Effective budget pacing ensures campaigns maintain optimal performance without overspending.
Best Practices:
- Gradual Scaling: Incremental budget increases to prevent algorithm disruption.
- Seasonal Adjustments: Allocating higher budgets during peak seasons and scaling back during slower periods.
- Monitoring Trends: Adjusting budgets in response to market conditions, such as increased competition.
We have our own in-house tracker using Google Scripts. This helps keep track of the projected versus actual monthly spend for all clients for all campaigns. This is a very complex task as you might already understand. That’s because we are constantly changing the daily budgets of different campaigns, adding or removing some campaigns, so on and so forth. Projecting spends in such a dynamically changing environment is hard, but we have figured it out!
9. Accurate Forecasting and Analytics
Forecasting helps set realistic expectations for campaign performance.
How a Good Agency Forecasts:
- Historical Data Analysis: Using past performance to predict outcomes.
- Scenario Planning: Modeling results under different budget scenarios.
- Continuous Adjustments: Updating forecasts based on real-time data.
As discussed in the last point, how well they can forecast is a tell-tale sign of the quality of an agency. They should not rely only on basic linear models but should focus on advanced regression techniques. This gives room for incorporating complexity.
10. Advanced Tracking and Analytics
Modern tracking solutions like server-side tracking and POAS tracking provide more accurate insights into campaign effectiveness.
Benefits of Advanced Tracking:
- Server-Side Tracking: Minimizes data loss due to privacy restrictions or ad blockers.
- POAS Tracking: Focuses on profitability by measuring profit generated from ad spend.
- New Customer Revenue Tracking: Differentiates between new and returning customers to optimize acquisition strategies.
These 3 form the basis of the contemporary system of advanced tracking. Without these, you will be shooting in the dark and ending up wasting ad spend. While server side tracking ensures your data is always up-to-date and accurate, POAS and new customer tracking helps get a clear picture of how many net customers you are adding every month for profitability. “Predictable, profitable and sustainable growth” is the mantra we follow at Oxedent.
Conclusion:
Choosing the right Google Ads agency can make or break your business’s advertising success. By staying vigilant for red flags like lack of transparency, unrealistic promises, and poor communication, you can identify an agency that aligns with your goals and delivers sustainable results.
Key Takeaways:
- Ask about transparency, KPIs, and reporting processes.
- Look for a partner that values long-term growth over quick wins.
- Ensure the agency customizes strategies based on your business goals and audience.
If you are looking for an agency that can deliver results fast, Oxedent is willing to help as long as you meet our qualifying criteria. If you are just starting out with no historical ad spend at all, we may not be the best fit. Otherwise, book a call now and let us be the architect of the next chapter of your brand story.
This article was written by Biplab Poddar
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