Choosing a paid search agency
We are one, so treat this accordingly. But the questions below are the ones we would ask if we were hiring, and most of them are uncomfortable for agencies to answer — including us.
Most agency contracts pay for activity, not outcome
A twelve-month minimum, a percentage-of-spend fee and a monthly report full of impressions is a business model, not a service. It rewards spending more and changing little, and it removes the one thing that keeps an agency sharp: the possibility that you leave.
The alternative is not a magic method. It is a shorter commitment, a flat fee, and reporting that leads with cost per qualified enquiry — so the number that decides whether we are worth keeping is the same number you care about.
- 1Who owns the Google Ads account and the conversion data — us or you?
- 2What is the minimum term, and what happens to the account if we leave?
- 3Is the fee a percentage of spend, and if so why?
- 4Show me a search terms report you acted on last month
- 5What does one conversion actually mean in this account?
If an answer needs a follow-up call, that is the answer.
What a paid search agency should be doing for you
None of this is exotic. It is simply the work, done on a schedule.
Reading the search terms every week
Not monthly, not quarterly. The queries your budget is being matched to change constantly, and this is where the waste lives.
Defining a conversion you would defend
If the agency cannot tell you what a conversion means without checking, the bidding algorithm has been optimising toward something nobody chose.
Saying when a channel is the wrong fit
Some businesses should not be running paid search at all — the intent is not there, or the margin will not carry the click price. An agency paid on spend will never tell you that.
Connecting ad clicks to closed revenue
Offline conversion imports where the sale happens on the phone, so the platform learns from customers rather than from form fills.
Leaving you better off if you leave
Account, tracking, audiences and campaign history stay with you. A handover should take an afternoon, not a negotiation.
Writing plainly
If a report needs a glossary, it was written to be impressive rather than useful.
Small, senior, month to month
The person auditing your account is the person running it. There is no junior handover after the pitch, because there is no pitch team. We work on a rolling monthly basis with a flat fee, which means the case for keeping us has to be remade every month. That is the intended pressure.
If what you actually need is organic search, or both, start with the comparison — it is an account of when each channel is the wrong answer.
Working with an agency, answered plainly
Is an agency better than hiring in-house?
It depends on spend and complexity. Below a certain budget an in-house generalist splitting their week across five jobs will underperform a specialist who sees fifty accounts. Above a certain spend the reverse becomes true and you should be building a team.
What if we already have an agency?
Then a second opinion costs you nothing but the awkwardness. Our free Search Review is a written account audit; plenty of them conclude that the incumbent is doing fine. You can also run the nine checks yourself in an afternoon.
Do you take clients in any industry?
No. We decline work where we cannot see a plausible route to a return, and where the category is regulated in ways we do not understand well enough to be useful.
How much of your fee is software?
Very little. Most of the tooling that matters is inside Google Ads and Search Console. Agencies with large software line items are usually reselling dashboards.
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