Your Google Ads Agency Sends You Reports. That Doesn't Mean It's Working.

A CMO at a B2B manufacturing company came to me because she knew she needed an expert in PPC, but she'd been running the Google Ads herself in the meantime.

The CMO was not running ads because she thought she was great at it. She felt she was good enough to do the work and didn’t have full trust in hiring t out. But, because she was juggling ten other things, the ads were running, and nothing was visibly on fire.

This client, sells industrial machines to manufacturing plants.

This is a sophisticated product, long sales cycle, specific territories. She knew enough about Google Ads to set things up and keep them moving. What she didn't have was time to actually watch the account.

I came in as a Google Ads strategist only. No daily management, no execution but rather just a second pair of eyes to look over the ad account.

Within the first session, I found it: the Display Network was checked inside a Search campaign. One box, accidentally left on, quietly serving ads to people browsing websites instead of people actively searching for industrial equipment. That single setting had burned $4,000. Because this account also did not have conversion tracking.

Over the next three months, I rebuilt the campaign structure to match their actual sales territories, tightened match types, and applied best practices that weren't complicated but just hadn't been done.

In turn, this client had their best year of business. Record leads.

This wasn't heroic work in Google Ads.

I was just making sure that all the targeting in Google Ads was in alignment and the proper signals were being fed back to the platform.

It was what happens when someone like myself who knows what to look for actually looks in the Google Ads account.

The people most vulnerable to this situation are exactly the ones you'd expect to be fine: smart, capable people who fill multiple roles and know enough to be dangerous. They set things up. They understand the basics of Google Ads. But they don't have the bandwidth to watch the account closely or audit their own work and so the small, expensive mistakes run undetected for months.

If any part of that sounds familiar, keep reading.

What You Are Actually Paying for When You Hire An Agency To Run Your Google Ads

Agencies are sometimes good at scale. They have teams, tools, and processes built to manage many accounts at once. That's genuinely valuable when your situation matches that model.

But it also means that unless you're spending at a level that earns you a senior account manager's attention, your account is probably being handled by someone junior. Not incompetent necessarily but limited and taking direction from a senior like myself. This is someone who executes tasks rather than thinks strategically.

Someone who, when you ask "should we be running Performance Max or lead gen campaigns?", gives you a confident answer that's actually just the agency's default.

Here's what it feels like when this is happening to you:

You can't get a direct conversation with the person actually in your account. The answers you get are vague — you ask why volume is down and you get "we're monitoring it." You're not sure if they're optimizing for the right conversion. You get a monthly report that looks fine, but the phone isn't ringing any more than it was and again you aren’t sure what they are doing but you know its something. You have a nagging feeling that someone is doing optimizatons in the account, but you have no idea what or why — and asking feels like not trusting the process.

That feeling is information. It usually means you're getting task management, not Google Ads or PPC strategy.

What a Paid Search Consultant (like myself does)

A consultant doesn't replace your in house team or agency or manage your campaigns day-to-day. What I do is come in with a specific problem and solve it or I or build the strategy your internal team or agency should have been executing all along.

Here's what that looks like in practice.

One client came to me because their lead volume had dropped. In a 60-minute call, I found the issue: they'd tightened their target CPA too aggressively, and the algorithm had run out of room to find leads. One strategic adjustment and volume came back.

Another client was getting leads consistently but the wrong ones. Unqualified buyers burning their sales team's time. We added a single qualifying question to the contact form. Costs went up short-term. Lead quality improved significantly. As the algorithm normalized around the new, better conversion signal, costs came back down. That client was very happy.

Neither fix was complicated. But you have to know where to look, and you have to understand why the problem is happening — not just that it is.

That's what a 60-minute Google Ads consulting call is: you come with a specific problem, I diagnose it, and you leave with a clear answer and a next step. Not a report. Not a 90-day roadmap. An answer. And I record the call for you and share it.

How To Tell If Your Google Ads Agency Is Just Going Though The Motions

There's a specific feeling that comes with being under-served by an agency, and it's worth naming clearly so you can recognize it.

You feel like you can't get a straight answer. You ask a direct question and get something that sounds strategic but doesn't actually tell you anything. You've stopped asking because the answers aren't useful.

You don't know who's in your account. You talk to an account manager, but you suspect the actual work is being done by someone you've never spoken to — someone newer, less experienced, working through a checklist.

You're not confident about the basics. You're not sure if you're running the right campaign types. You don't know if your conversion tracking is capturing real signal. You don't know what they're actually optimizing toward.

The reporting looks fine, but the business doesn't feel it. Green numbers in a dashboard, flat results in reality.

None of this means your agency is bad. It may mean your account isn't large enough to get the senior attention it needs — and that a different engagement model would serve you better.

Who Actually Needs A Google Ads Consultant Vs An Agency

I'll be direct here, because I think it matters.

There are businesses that genuinely belong with a full-service agency. If you're running a high-volume e-commerce operation with a complex promotional calendar — sales cycling on and off, multi-channel coordination between Google and Meta, a CRM integration that requires dedicated technical resources — an agency with a full team is probably the right fit.

Same for enterprise clients that need executive-level buy-in across departments and a formal media plan across multiple platforms.

For most other businesses? A consultant tends to be the stronger choice.

I wrote a long post about this the other day as to why agencies are hurting so bad right now and it is because Google Ads is actively removing the execution layer.

B2B SaaS companies. Manufacturing businesses. Therapists and healthcare practices. Local service providers — law firms, HVAC companies, contractors. These aren't situations that require a full agency team. They require someone who understands paid search deeply and can build a strategy that fits how the business actually sells.

The honest version of the question isn't "consultant or agency?" It's: does my situation require a team, or does it require expertise?

If you're not sure, that's actually a good sign you need a diagnostic conversation before making any commitment.

The Moment Google Ads Clicks (no pun intended) For My Consulting Clients

The thing clients say to me that I love most is some version of: "This feels almost too easy."

They're not in the account every five minutes second-guessing something. They're not tinkering to feel in control. The phone is ringing. Leads are coming in. And they understand what's happening in their account well enough to trust it.

That's not luck. That's what it looks like when the strategy is right, the structure is sound, and the account is optimized for actual business outcomes instead of platform metrics.

The goal of working with me is not to create dependency. It's to get your account to a place where it runs the way it should — and where you understand it well enough that you're not constantly wondering if something's broken.

And I love the work that I do here.

What It Costs to Work With Me As A Google Ads Consultant

Paid search consulting isn't a commodity. Pricing reflects experience, scope, and the expected return — not hours on a clock.

The Focused Consulting Call — $350

Sixty minutes on your specific problem. Most clients leave with a clear answer and an action step they can implement immediately. This is the lowest-risk way to find out if something fixable is happening in your account.

Paid Search Audit — $750

A comprehensive review using my personal framework. You get a full picture: what's working, what's wasting budget, and the exact path to better ROI. Best for businesses that need to understand the full account before making changes.

Account Build & Team Training

My flagship engagement: I build the strategy and account structure, then train your internal team to execute it. Best for businesses with real growth potential that want to own their paid search long-term rather than outsource it indefinitely. Pricing varies by scope — typically $5,000–$15,000 but I do a custom quote for this training.

One thing worth saying plainly: I've seen businesses spend $300/month on "management" and lose $3,000/month to settings that should have been caught in week one.

Cheap help costs more.

Where To Start

If you read through those agency red flags and recognized something — or if the CMO story hit closer to home than you expected — the next step is simple.

Book a Focused Consulting Call. Sixty minutes, $350, your specific problem. We'll figure out what's actually happening and what to do about it.

If you'd rather start with a full account review, the Protective PPC™ Assessment is the right move.