AdWords management agency: what you are buying, the fee models, and the clauses to settle first

An AdWords management agency builds and runs your Google Ads account: campaign structure, keywords and negatives, bidding, ad copy and assets, conversion tracking, landing page recommendations and reporting. Settle three things before the work starts, because they matter more than any tactic. You own the Google Ads account and everything in it. The fee model is written down, along with what it rewards. And the agency states in writing which metric it is accountable for, measured in your systems. Google renamed AdWords to Google Ads in 2018, so an agency still using the old name is simply using the word buyers search for.

Last verified: 09 October 2026

What the work actually is

Ask any prospective agency to describe the first ninety days in this shape. A good one will recognise it; a weak one will talk about strategy instead.

• Weeks one to two. Audit the existing account, fix or rebuild conversion tracking, agree the definitions of a conversion, map products or services to campaigns, build the negative keyword list, set the account structure.
• Weeks three to six. Launch or restructure, with tight match types to start, then widen deliberately. Write several ads per group. Get search term reports flowing and mine them weekly.
• Weeks seven to twelve. Bidding strategy settled against real conversion volume, budget moved to what converts, landing page changes requested with evidence, and the first full report that reconciles with your own sales data.
• Ongoing. Search term review, negative list growth, creative testing, budget pacing, seasonality, and a monthly review that leads to decisions rather than a slide of charts.

Fee models, and the bias in each

Model	How it works	What it quietly rewards	Use it when
Percentage of spend	A share of monthly media spend	Spending more	Spend is large and stable, with a cap written in
Flat monthly fee	A fixed retainer for an agreed scope	Efficiency, and sometimes under servicing	Most accounts, with a defined scope and hours
Hourly	Billed time	Hours	Audits, one off projects, overflow work
Flat fee plus performance bonus	Retainer with an upside tied to an agreed metric	The metric you chose, so choose carefully	Conversion tracking is solid and the metric is yours
Percentage of revenue	A share of tracked sales	Attribution arguments	Ecommerce with clean tracking and agreed attribution rules

No model is wrong. The problem is an unnamed model: a percentage of spend with no cap, or a performance bonus on a metric the agency defines and measures. Name the bias out loud in the first meeting and the relationship starts honestly.

The five clauses to settle before you sign

• Account ownership. The Google Ads account is created under your billing and your ownership, and the agency is granted access to it. If an agency insists on running your campaigns inside an account they own, you leave with nothing: no history, no learning, no search term data.
• Asset and data ownership. Ad copy, creative, feeds, landing pages, tracking configuration and reports are yours on exit, in editable form.
• Who does the work. The name of the person on your account day to day, how many accounts they carry, and who covers them on leave.
• Notice and handover. A notice period you can live with, plus a written handover: account structure notes, naming conventions, current tests and the negative list.
• Reporting definitions. What counts as a conversion, which attribution setting the report uses, and how the figure will reconcile with your CRM. Agree this before the first report rather than after an argument about it.

Ten questions that separate the good from the plausible

• Show me a search term report from an account you run, with the client details removed. What did you do with it last week?
• How do you decide between manual and automated bidding on a new account?
• What will you ask my developers for in the first month?
• How do you handle conversion tracking when the sale closes on the phone, weeks later?
• What would you switch off first in my current account, and why?
• Which of my products or services do you expect to be unprofitable in paid search?
• How many accounts does the person managing mine look after?
• What does your monthly report contain, and what decisions did last month's version lead to for another client?
• How do you tell the difference between a bad ad and a bad landing page?
• What would make you tell me to reduce my budget?

That last question is the most revealing. An agency that has never recommended a budget reduction is being paid to grow spend.

Warning signs worth walking away from

• A promised position, a promised cost per click, or a promised number of leads before anyone has seen your account. Treat any guaranteed placement claim as a red flag, since nobody controls the auction.
• Refusal to give you administrator access to your own account.
• One campaign containing everything, with broad match keywords and no negative list.
• Conversions counted loosely, so page views, clicks to call that never connected and form opens all appear as leads.
• A percentage of spend fee with no cap and no scope.
• Reports that show impressions and clicks but never cost per acquisition.
• No mention of landing pages, which is where half of paid search performance is decided.

Agency, consultant or in house

Option	Strongest when	Watch for
Agency	You want a team, cover during holidays, and several disciplines in one place	Junior staff on the account, and fee models tied to spend
Independent consultant	Spend is moderate and you want the senior person doing the work	Single point of failure, limited capacity at peak
In house	Paid search is a core, permanent channel with enough spend to justify a salary	Hiring and training time, and the cost of one person working alone
In house plus a consultant	You want control and a senior second opinion	Agree who decides what, in writing

This page covers choosing and managing the agency relationship. For the mechanics of the account itself, see PPC management done properly. For an individual rather than a firm, see Google advertising consulting, and for what drives the bill, see Google Ads cost.

What people ask about AdWords management agency

Is AdWords the same as Google Ads?

Yes. Google renamed AdWords to Google Ads in 2018. The product is the same lineage, and agencies still use the old name because buyers still search for it.

What does an AdWords management agency charge?

Fees are set by the model rather than by a market rate, which is why quotes look so different. Ask every agency to quote on the same basis, with the scope, the named people, the hours and any cap written down, then compare the total cost of ownership rather than the headline fee.

Should the agency own the Google Ads account?

No. Create it under your own ownership and billing, and grant the agency access. That way the campaign history, the learning and the search term data stay with you when the relationship ends.

How long before I can judge the work?

Ninety days for a clear read on most accounts, with the first signals inside a month. Judge the first month on setup quality, tracking and search term hygiene; judge the third on cost per acquisition against a defined conversion.

What minimum spend makes an agency worth it?

Work it backwards from the fee. If the management fee is a large share of total spend, the maths is against you, and a one off audit plus in house running is the better buy until spend grows.

Can one agency do both paid search and SEO?

Many do it well, and there is a real advantage in sharing query data and landing pages between the two. Ask who leads each discipline and insist on separate reporting, so a weak channel cannot hide behind a strong one.

Paid search ends where the assistant begins

An AdWords agency is paid to win the auction. A growing share of buyers ask an assistant before they type into the search box, so no auction runs and no ad is shown. Your account structure and bidding strategy do not matter in that moment; the written record of what your business does does. Treat the ninety day scorecard as covering paid search only, and add a second one for the assistants. AI Knows Us can supply it by asking the questions, recording who is named and listing the pages behind the answers.