If you are looking to hire a Google Manager, you need to know what you are getting for the money you invest in managing your advertising campaigns.
Some Google Ads Managers run set and forget campaigns which means you may not be getting the best results for the management fee you are paying. If you are concerned about quality and what to get the most value from your advertising spend and management, it is worth understanding what to look for when selecting the best Google Ads manager.
So before you commit to using a Google Ads Manager, here are some questions you can ask before you hire them to ensure they meet the right criteria for your business.
- Are they a Google Partner?
- Does your Google Ads Manager provide data on the performance of your campaigns?
- Have they had a discussion with you about your business and your goals?
- Do they do the work in house or do they outsource the management of your Google Ads campaigns?
- Do they provide you with access to your Google Ads accounts?
- Are they up to date with new Google Ads Features ?
- Do they monitor your campaigns regularly?
- Do they provide recommendations, insights and advice?
- How often do they check that links in ads are active and working?
- Who owns the data – you or them?
1. Are they a Google Partner?
Google Partners take exams every year to ensure they stay at the top of their game. Past successes do not guarantee future success and you want to ensure that the company you work with has a commitment to best practice.
The Google Partners or Google Premiers Partners badge recognises companies that excel with Google’s products and that meet best practices.
As an added benefit, Google Partners are invited to some Google training programs that other service providers are not.
Using a Google Partner can give you confidence that your agency is up to date with all Google Products, experienced and has happy customers.
2. Does your Google Ads Manager provide data on the performance of your campaigns?
A requirement of being a Google Partner is that anyone providing Google Ads services reports on costs, clicks and impressions on a monthly basis.
At Swoop Digital, we send monthly reports that focus not only on providing basic data but also data on the things that are important to you i.e. phone calls, sales and number of leads generated. We also include recommendations & insights on what can be done to improve performance.
Our reports are delivered as PDF files every month. We toyed around with the idea of having online dashboards but we found after talking to many clients and prospective clients, they rarely looked at their online reports and preferred a PDF format.
TIP: Ask your agency why type of reports they send and what information is included in them. Are the reports online and dynamic or are they physical reports like PDFs.
3. Have they had a discussion with you about your business and your goals?
A key part of getting the most from Google Ads is understanding your business goals and objectives. From there, your account manager can work out a measurement plan based on your goals and set up conversion tracking that accurately records your business goals.
Measuring performance is a critical part of understanding the return you are getting from your investment.
Results can be measured by:
- Ensuring Google Analytics is on your website and goals are set up in Google Analytics and imported into Google Ads.
- Google Ads conversion tracking is installed on your website to track things such as phone calls, form submissions.
- Feeding information back from your CRM to determine lead quality.
4. Do they do the work in-house or do they outsource the management of your Google Ads campaigns?
It’s quite common for some agencies to use freelancers – either in Australia or overseas, or outsource the Google Ads management to another agency. Often the agency you are dealing with are not actually managing your campaign.
Sooner or later, as the freelancers workload gets busier, quality is often compromised. And that is not good for you.
If they do outsource the Google Ads management process, how do they ensure quality control?
TIP: Ask your agency if their team is located in the same building as the sales team?
5. Do they provide you with access to your Google Ads accounts?
Some agencies do not provide you with access to your Google Ads accounts. That means you will never be able to really scrutinize their work to see if they are delivering you value. And if you ever leave, you won’t have access to the data so a new agency can see what was and wasn’t performing.
Now if the agency is paying the invoices on your behalf, that might be fair and reasonable. However, if you terminate the arrangement, you should still be able to get access to your account at the end of your contract.
We believe in providing all clients access to their account.
6. Are they up to date with new Google Ads Features?
Every year, Google roll out new advertising features. The list of changes are endless – from new ad formats, new ad extensions, different bidding & targeting strategies. In fact, some things are released without any formal announcements.
Unless you have been living under a rock, you may have noticed that ads are getting bigger and bigger – pushing organic search results further down the page. Using an agency that keeps up to date with these new features is important.
TIP: Ask your agency how they keep up to date with the latest changes? Does Google invite them to training programs? Do they read industry blogs?
7. Do they monitor your campaigns regularly?
Google Ads is not set and forget. This is because, ads participate in an Auction and the number of competitors competing in an auction can change daily!
Managing a Google Ads campaign involves regularly adjusting bids, adding negative keywords, writing new ad copy, monitoring your landing pages are working, monitoring your budget and ensuring your conversions are still working. The aim is to make continual improvements to optimise performance of your campaign.
Apart from that, Google have been known to automate changes in your account and this is not always in your best interest. One of those things that they automate is ad copy. This means that sometimes your messages are not in line with you brand.
While there is a setting to turn this off, not many people managing their own campaigns know about this and its quite possible this could slip through the cracks if your campaign is not regularly being checked..
TIP: Ask your Agency how often they will look at your campaign.
8. Do they provide recommendations, insights and advice?
New campaigns can be tricky and can take a bit of time to get right. This is particularly true for new campaigns.
A good Google Ads manager will review the results you are getting on regular basis and make changes to your campaign to improve it. They will also either contact you or write recommendations in the monthly reports they send to you.
While some of these changes are campaign related and easy for your Google Ads Manager to implement, others are less easy. For example, some recommendations might be related to your landing page. Therefore, it’s important to take action on some of these recommendations so you can get a better return on your investment.
Remember, your Google Ads Manager has often worked with multiple businesses, sometimes in the same industry and they may have some insights from working across a breadth of industries.
9. How often do they check that links in ads are active and working?
It’s common for links to stop working on a website. There are a few major reasons:
- The hosting account is experiencing downtime
- The hosting account hasn’t been paid
- You’ve changed some URLs on your website
- You’ve recently redesigned your existing website
While, it would be great if you could let us know of any website changes in advance, the reality is that it’s common to forget. This could mean that ads pointing on specific pages on your website stop working.
Therefore, it’s good practice for an agency to have a link monitoring system in place to check broken links.
TIP: Ask your agency what processes they have in place to check broken links.
10. Who owns the data – you or them?
Earlier we talked about getting access to your Google Ads account. Even worse, some agencies set up Google Analytics in their name and don’t give you the right permissions to own your website data.
While there are some ways around this, it can be annoying – particularly if you have new staff members and want to add them into Google analytics and you can’t.
TIP: Ask your Google Ads if they give you full admin access to both your Gool
Are you thinking about outsourcing the management of your Google Ads campaigns?
If you are an Australian business owner or marketing manager, here’s some reasons to choose Swoop Digital to manage your Google Ads campaigns.
We’ve been a Google Partner since 2011.
We were one of only 18 Google Partners when we first become a Google Partner and in 2016, we become a Google Premier Partner. Therefore you can can be reassured that we meet best practices, undertake regular training and that we can be trusted. We committed to helping our clients get the best results from their Google advertising.
No lock in contracts
We don’t lock you into short term or long term contracts. While we hope you don’t leave us, you are free to leave us at anytime – just give us 30 days written notice.
Transparent
We disclose all fees. We keep your Google Ads spend and our Google Ads management separated. This is so you know what you are being charged by us and what you are being charged by Google. Our fees are not hidden in your Advertising Spend.
Access to your data
You retain 100% ownership of your Google Ads and Google Analytics account. While we need access to manage your accounts effectively, our premise is that you should be free to add whoever you want to the accounts, whenever you want.
Proactive management
We regularly manage your campaign. Apart from checking your budget and URLs at least daily, we also review the keywords weekly and ad copy at least monthly. Out monthly reports are not just about data, they also provide insights and recommendations to help you stay on top of your game.
Responsive communications
We return all emails and phone calls superfast. No waiting for days for a response. So if you need any urgent changes such as your campaigns being paused or some ad copy tweaked, it will actioned quickly. We also stay in touch to ensure you are getting the right results and to make recommendations to improve things.
Over 25 Years Marketing Experience
Carol has worked in marketing for over 25 years, working for major fast moving consumer goods companies. She started working in digital marketing way back in 2014 when she worked on the Birds Eye website. Google Ads is the perfect fit for Carol’s combined skills of data analysis, writing and creativity.
Experienced team
Our Google Ads managers are Google Ads certified and sit exams every year to ensure they are fully conversant with best practices.
Up to date
Swoop Digital dedicates time every week to stay up to date not only with Google Ads, but all things digital. This ensures the team understand how to use new features and how they might benefit our customers. We have regular conversations with Google Account managers regarding our customers campaigns to ensure all campaigns are working to their peak.
Brand safe
We ensure all ads are placed on websites that are deemed “brand safe.” We don’t send traffic to sites that are not a good fit for your brand – such a sexually explicit or gambling sites. You can be assured we have the experience and expertise to block your ads from showing in unsavoury websites.
No jargon
While we know the ins and outs of Google Ads intimately, we know you may not. So we aim to speak in plain and simple English and eliminate any jargon.
Want to discuss your options?
We’d love to work with you to achieve your goals and make the most of the opportunities that Google Ads can offer.