Is Your Google Ads Management Company Really Looking Out For Your Best Interest?
Google Ads management companies are a dime a dozen which makes it hard to decipher between the good companies and the bad companies.
Just do a Google search for “Google Ads Management Company” and Google will serve you over 430 million results!
So how do you decipher between the good and the bad?
In this article we are going to touch on some of the red flags to look out for when researching Google Ads management companies.
Red Flag #1 – Don’t Get Held Hostage
We see it all the time and this is the biggest mistakes you can make and is one of easiest traps to fall into.
Letting a Google Ads management company set up your Google Ads account under their name seems logical. After all, if you are new to the Google Ads platform it can be a little overwhelming and intimidating.
However, if you let a Google Ads management company set up your account, they own it!
This means that if you are unhappy with the results they are getting for you, they can hold your account hostage and require you to pay a fee to transfer your account to a new company. Heck, most of the time they don’t even give you access to your Google Ads account, they just deliver you with some pretty generic reports that list a bunch of keywords, click through rates and cost per click data.
There is so much more to Google Ads than any report can deliver. In order to truly analyze how your Google Ads are being managed you MUST have access to your account.
So How Do You Set Up A Google Ads Account?
Setting up your Google Ads account is actually super simple. All you have to do is sign into your Google account and then head over to Google Ads.
At this point there is no need to create a campaign or really doing anything! All you really need to do is enter the credit card you want to use to pay for your Google Ads.
After you have done your research and found a Google Ads management company you want to work with, all you have to do is grant them access to your Google Ads account.
To grant access to your Google Ads account all you have to do is click the “TOOLS” icon in the top right of your Google Ads account and then click “Account access”. From there, you simply invite users by email address.
Once you have granted access to your Google Ads account, your Google Ads management company can do all the heavy lifting of setting up the rest of your account and creating new campaigns and ads for you.
Red Flag #2 – Complacent
So your Google Ads campaigns got of to a great start. Your Google Ads management company must be doing a great job for you!
However, months have gone by and nothing has really improved, and maybe even got a bit worse. We see this all the time.
Basically, this means that your Google Ads management company is doing nothing more than sending you their fancy reports that can easily be manipulated. Furthermore, if you don’t have access to your Google Ads account you have no way of knowing what they are doing in your account.
However, if you do have access to your Google Ads account you have away to holding your Google Ads management company accountable.
We have shown this little secret to a number of clients who were spending top dollar and they became irate after they learned little to nothing was ever being done within their Google Ads account.
Here is how you hold your Google Ads management company accountable.
Step 1: When you log in to your Google Ads account, if you scroll to the bottom of the menu on the left had side you will see a tab called “Change History”.
Step 2: In the top right hand corner select the date range you want to see all the changes made to your account during that time period.
That’s it! You are now going to see everything that was done in your account. If you see a big fat 0 that means nothing is being done. Sadly, we see that big fat 0 way too often!
Red Flag #3 – Negatives
Bidding on the right keywords is only half the battle! Adding negative keywords is the other half of the battle.
The English language is very complex and one word can have a hundred different meanings. Therefore, you need to keep an eye on the search terms being used to display your ads.
Depending on your search volume, your Google Ads management company should be adding 1 to 100 or more negative keywords to your account on a weekly basis, especially at the beginning.
Your Google Ads account gives you all the information you need to find and add negative keywords. Follow the steps below to learn how to do this.
Step 1 – Search Terms
Navigate to your “Keywords” tab in the menu on the left side. On the top menu click “Search Terms”. You should now see a list of the keywords that triggered one of your ads to display. Scroll through the list of keywords you want to exclude from searches and make a separate list on your notepad.
Step 2 – Upload Your Negative Terms
Navigate to the “Negative Keywords” tab on the top menu. Click the big blue “+” button and paste your list of negative keywords from your notepad and save. That’s it!
Ready To Take Control Of Your Google Ads Account?
There is so much more to Google Ads to look out for besides the 3 red flags mentioned in this article. However, if your Google Ads management company fails to give you access to your account, fails to make consistent changes or doesn’t add negative keywords to your account, run!
Have you had a bad experience with a Google Ads management company? If so, please let us know what red flags you saw in the comments below.
