Who manages your Google Ads budget is often a decision that comes before choosing which agency to hire: should you work with an agency, hand it to your own in-house team, or go with a freelancer? Each offers a different balance of cost, control, expertise and speed — and the right answer depends on your brand's size, budget and internal capacity. In this article we compare the three models and clarify which one makes sense for you.
Note: If you've decided to go with an agency, we cover how to choose the right one — evaluation criteria, questions to ask and red flags — in a separate guide: Choosing a Google Ads Agency. This article focuses on the step before that: the management-model choice.
- Evaluating a Google Ads agency should look at business understanding before technical skill — every agency that runs campaigns can manage Google, but not all of them understand your sector and conversion logic.
- Promises like "guaranteed ROI", "results in the first month" or "hand over the account to us" are red flags; trustworthy agencies know that results require context, time and data.
- Account ownership is critical: your data belongs to you. When you change agencies, your historical campaign data must not disappear with them.
- The freelancer vs. agency decision should be based on budget scale, workload variety and growth pace — the answer is different for everyone.
- Measure a good agency by three metrics: real conversion cost (CPA), revenue contribution and strategy transparency. Click volume alone is meaningless.
What Does a Google Ads Agency Do?
On the surface, a Google Ads agency sets up and manages campaigns — but this definition only describes the technical layer of the work. The real business value goes far beyond technical setup.
Comprehensive Google Ads management includes the following layers:
- Strategy and campaign architecture: Audience segmentation, the right combination of campaign types (Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen) and budget allocation. Wrong architecture produces poor results even with great content.
- Keyword management: Not just targeting high-volume terms, but managing buyer intent, negative keyword lists and long-tail opportunities together.
- Conversion tracking and measurement: Managing conversions, not clicks. Without this, no optimisation is meaningful.
- Bidding strategy and optimisation: Knowing when and how much autonomy to give smart bidding algorithms, and when to take manual control, requires genuine expertise.
- Ad copy and creative: A/B testing, responsive search ad optimisation, message-intent alignment.
- Reporting and strategic direction: Turning data into business decisions — using the report, not just reading it.
As the budget you manage grows, each of these layers becomes more important. A simple Search campaign may suffice for a small local business, while a missing layer at national or international scale can lead to serious losses.
Agency, Freelancer or In-House?
The right choice among these three options depends on your budget, sector and growth pace. There is no standard answer, but some basic distinctions make the decision easier:
Agency
An agency is more appropriate when multiple areas of expertise are needed (Search + Shopping + Performance Max or different market/language combinations), when budgets need to be scaled, and when strategic consultancy is expected. An agency's value comes with team depth: if one person is sick or leaves, the process should not stop. That said, an agency relationship requires management cost — clarifying expectations, brief quality and periodic strategy reviews must be factored in.
Freelancer
Makes sense for narrow-scope, fixed-budget work, or when you want to work closely with a single expert. Generally more flexible and without agency overhead. Where the risk concentrates: capacity limits and sustainability. As budgets grow or multi-platform needs emerge, managing with a single person becomes harder.
In-House
An in-house team makes sense for businesses with high daily ad spend, where product knowledge is critical and continuous campaign setup is required. However, hiring a Google Ads specialist does not cover all expertise layers; strategy, data analysis and creative usually require separate capacity. The hybrid model — in-house operations plus agency strategic consultancy — is a setup large brands frequently choose.
6 Criteria to Evaluate the Right Agency
Evaluating an agency does not start with the proposal. Before the proposal, look at these six criteria:
1. Campaign architecture understanding
Look at the campaign structure in the agency's first proposal to you. An agency that only suggests "search campaign + display retargeting" has most likely not studied your sector thoroughly enough. A good agency will talk about business goals, the conversion funnel and seasonality when explaining campaign architecture.
2. Conversion tracking and measurement clarity
You should be able to ask which conversion actions they will track, how they will report and what the success metric will be in the first meeting. "We'll report clicks and impressions" is insufficient. The real metric must be tied to the business goal: cost per customer, return on ad spend per order, cost per form submission.
3. Sector experience and verifiable case references
Every sector has different search behaviour, conversion funnel and competitive structure. Managing ROAS-focused Shopping campaigns in e-commerce is very different from optimising patient acquisition in the healthcare sector. The agency having case references — with numbers — in your sector or a close category is an important evaluation criterion.
The case studies in İlegra's success stories contain real results obtained from Google Ads management in different sectors (e-commerce, health, local business). When evaluating an agency, request this type of verifiable data.
4. Budget management understanding
Understand how the agency manages your budget: is it tied to spending targets or outcome targets? What do they do about daily budget optimisation, campaign pause decisions and budget overruns? The ratio of your budget to the agency management fee should also be examined: some agencies calculate management fees as a percentage of spend — this structure can create an incentive to inflate budgets.
5. Account ownership and data transparency
This criterion is arguably the most critical. Which Google account does the Google Ads account sit on? If the agency is working as a sub-account under their own MCC (Manager account) and your campaign history leaves with them when you part, the data you accumulated over years is in the agency's hands, not yours. The account sitting on your Google account with the agency receiving access is the standard structure.
6. Contract flexibility and exit terms
If long-term commitments are not matched by performance guarantees, the risk is one-sided. A reasonable agency can propose a short trial period or month-by-month rolling terms. Clarify exit terms and the account transfer process before signing a contract.
8 Questions to Ask in the First Meeting
The first agency meeting is actually an evaluation interview — and asking good questions is as important as the answers you receive. If you want to see how the agency thinks, ask these questions:
- "Do you have a similar client in our sector, a case study you can share?" — An answer starting with "the data is confidential, but..." is normal; completely avoiding giving numbers is worth noting.
- "How do you design campaign architecture — where do you start?" — The right answer should start with "I need to get to know you, I need to understand the target audience, the product and the conversion funnel."
- "Which conversion actions will you track and what will the success metric be?" — An agency that cannot give a clear, measurable answer to this question cannot tie campaign optimisation to a clear goal either.
- "Which account will the Google Ads account sit on, what happens to the data if we part?" — The answer "the account belongs to you" should come without hesitation.
- "How do you use Performance Max campaigns, what is your signal strategy?" — This question tests technical depth. "We let it run automatically" is not enough; they should be able to speak about asset group management and signal setup.
- "How do you calculate the management fee — is it a percentage of spend or a fixed fee?" — Understanding the structure is necessary for you to assess incentive alignment.
- "How often and in what format will you report, and who presents?" — The "who presents" question matters: automated dashboard or human interpretation?
- "What is your protocol in case of an unexpected budget overrun or underperformance?" — Crisis management approach is as important as normal process performance.
Red Flags: Which Promises Should You Distrust?
Promises sell in the Google Ads market. When the following phrases are heard, caution is warranted:
- "We guarantee results in the first month." — Google Ads campaigns enter a learning period; the algorithm takes time to collect data and optimise. A "guarantee" of first-month results either points to an artificially defined success metric or carries an unrealistic promise.
- "Hand the account over to us, you don't need to worry about anything." — A brand that hands over the account and is not involved in strategy carries both dependency and data ownership risk long-term. Thinking with the agency is far healthier than leaving everything to them.
- "We'll beat your competitors and get you to first position." — Paid search ranking is determined by real-time auction and depends on many factors. A "first position guarantee" is technically impossible; whoever says it is either misleading you or doesn't know what they're saying.
- "Let's start with a very low management fee." — Always ask whether there is a "but we'll take X% of spend" clause underneath. Some agencies keep the entry fee low and apply a high spend percentage.
- "We'll lower your click cost." — A low CPC is not a good goal; what matters is cost per conversion. If CPC drops while conversion rate also drops, there is no real progress.
How to Measure Agency Performance
After you start working with an agency, performance evaluation should be based on the metric framework you built at the start. Instead of building from scratch, clarify these three layers before you begin:
Layer 1: Campaign metrics
Click-through rate (CTR), quality score, conversion rate, CPA and ROAS are the basic indicators at campaign level. These metrics measure the agency's technical performance. But they are not sufficient alone; they must be connected to the business outcome.
Layer 2: Business metrics
Ad-attributed revenue, number of new customers acquired, customer lifetime value (LTV) and the ratio of ad spend to total revenue. This layer measures the agency's contribution to the business goal. Some data may require CRM integration — plan this with the agency at the start.
Layer 3: Strategy and progress
Look beyond the monthly report: is the agency developing the campaign structure over time, interpreting data and offering strategic proposals, or just sharing a standard metrics table? Strategy transparency assessment is particularly decisive in long-term relationships.
Choosing the right agency is not a one-time decision but an ongoing evaluation process. At İlegra, we manage Google Ads by keeping account ownership with the client and working with monthly strategy meetings — because we believe your data and growth should belong to you. If you'd like to discuss your situation, get in touch with us.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Google Ads agency charge?
Google Ads agency management fees are determined as a fixed monthly fee or a percentage of ad spend. In the fixed monthly model, fees vary by scope and account size. In the percentage model, the agency takes a set portion of your monthly ad spend — question whether this structure creates an incentive to inflate budgets. In both models, request a transparent contract and a clear scope definition.
How do I evaluate a Google Ads agency?
Look at six criteria: campaign architecture understanding, conversion tracking clarity, verifiable sector experience, budget management approach, account ownership transparency and contract flexibility. Focus on framework and process understanding, not numerical promises.
Should the Google Ads account be with me or with the agency?
The account must sit on your Google account. The agency receives access through their own MCC (Manager Account). If the agency opens a sub-account under their own MCC and your historical data leaves with them when you part, this is unacceptable. Always ask: "if we part, does the account stay with me?"
When does a Google Ads agency deliver results?
Campaigns start with an algorithmic learning period — typically 4-8 weeks. The first month is a meaningful optimisation period; consistent results are generally visible from the second and third months onward. Be cautious of agencies promising "guaranteed results in the first month."
