Guide
The short answer: judge incentives, not promises
What to verify before you sign with any Google Ads agency, and why structure beats claims as a filter.
By Martin Genesse, Founder, Director of StrategyReviewed by Nathanaël Morin[CONTENT NEEDED: publication date]12 min read
Every agency claims ROI, so claims are worthless as a filter. Structure is the filter. To choose a Google Ads agency, verify five things before signing:
- The agency specializes in Google Ads rather than treating it as one of ten services.
- You own the ad account and pay your click costs to Google directly.
- The pricing model does not reward higher spend. A flat retainer beats percent-of-spend.
- There is a named, documented management methodology you can inspect.
- Conversion tracking (GA4, Google Tag Manager, Enhanced Conversions) is fixed before any budget scales.
These checks hold whether the firm calls itself a Google Ads agency or a performance marketing agency. Labels change. Incentives do not. Pass all five and your budget is structurally protected, whatever results follow. Fail one and no promise can compensate for it.
An agency paid a percentage of your spend gets a raise every time your budget grows, whether or not your leads do.
Why incentives predict behaviour
In our intake assessments, we find the pricing model explains most of what an account looks like after a year. Percent-of-spend models drift toward budget growth. Volume-counting models drift toward cheap inquiries. Neither is malicious. Both are structural.[1]
The deeper checks (ownership clauses, notice periods, what counts as a "lead" in reporting) each get their own guide: what to demand in your agency contract and how to audit your account for wasted spend.
Next: the five criteria in order, each with a plain-language test you can run on a first call. Start with ownership and pricing. They are contractual, and the hardest to undo after you sign.
The Selection Framework
Five criteria, applied in the order that protects you
Verify five things before you sign: real Google Ads specialization, an account you own, pricing that aligns incentives, a methodology with a name, and tracking verified before spend. Apply them in this order. Ownership and pricing are contractual, and contract mistakes are the only ones you can't optimize your way out of later.
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Specialization depth: Search, PMax and Demand Gen fluency
Ask which campaign types they manage and how bidding differs across them. A Google Ads specialist answers in specifics: Search, Performance Max, Demand Gen, target ROAS. A generalist answers in services.
→ specialist vs. generalist, compared in full below -
Account ownership and pricing: eliminate here first
Two tests, both written into the contract and both irreversible once signed. The ad account sits in your name, with click costs paid to Google directly, so your history survives if you leave. And the fee is a flat retainer, not a percent of spend that rewards spending more.
→ contract terms and pricing models, each broken down below -
A named methodology you can audit
"Continuous optimization" is not a method. Ask what their process is called, what happens at each stage, and on what cadence. If it can't be written down, it can't be inspected.
→ what good management looks like, worked example below -
Measurement before money
Before any new budget moves, conversion tracking gets verified: what counts as a conversion, whether it fires once, and whether it ties back to real revenue. Scaling spend on broken tracking optimizes toward noise.
→ the free consultation runs this exact check, live on your account
Criterion 1 · Specialization
"360° agency" can be a warning label. Here's the test.
The Quebec and Canada market is splitting into two camps: 360° generalists that sell every channel under one roof, and pure-play shops that run paid search all day, every day. Boutique performance shops have been taking share from generalists by outperforming them on direct response and ROAS. Here is how to tell, row by row, which kind of performance marketing agency you are actually talking to.
| The question to askspecialization test | 360° generalistGoogle Ads is one line item | Pure-play specialistGoogle Ads is the whole practice |
|---|---|---|
| Where does Google Ads sit in the business? | One service among many. Your campaigns compete for attention with everything else the agency sells. | It is the entire practice. The whole team works inside the platform, nothing else dilutes the focus. |
| Who touches your account day to day? | Media buyers who rotate across channels and clients. Your file often lands with the most junior person. | People with daily platform fluency across Search, Performance Max and Demand Gen.First-call test · ask who logs in daily |
| How is bidding managed? | One task on a long multi-channel checklist, often left close to default settings. | Bid strategies like tROAS are tuned to what a lead or sale is worth to you, not left on autopilot.First-call test · ask which bid strategy and why |
| What lands in your monthly report? | Activity: impressions, clicks, tasks completed this month. | Outcomes: cost per qualified lead or ROAS, the numbers that connect to revenue.First-call test · ask for last month's CPQL or ROAS |
| Which model is winning right now? | Still wins brands that want every channel handled by a single partner. | Boutique specialists have taken share in this market by beating generalists on direct response and ROAS.Market signal · Quebec & Canada landscape |
| When is it the right fit for you? | When Google Ads is a small slice of your marketing and you need one accountable partner across everything. | When paid search is your main growth lever and every wasted click comes off your bottom line. |
Honest caveat: a generalist is not a bad agency, it is a different tool. If you genuinely need one throat to choke across five channels, hire one. This guide is for buyers whose growth lever is paid search. And full disclosure: IMG Media is a pure-play shop, so apply this same test to us on our model.
Criterion 2 of 5
You own the account and pay Google directly, or you don't sign
Get this one wrong and leaving your agency means starting from zero. An agency that holds your Google Ads account holds your data, your campaign history, your Quality Score, and your exit. No-contract terms are the structural tell here: an agency that expects to be judged on monthly results has nothing to lock you into. Run three tests before you sign anything.
- The Google Ads account lives in your own Google account, not the agency's
- Click costs go straight to Google on your billing, never bundled into an agency invoice
- You can walk away any month and keep every campaign, every conversion, all of your history
Criterion 3: Pricing Model
Pay a flat retainer, so results are the only way an agency keeps you
Follow the incentive. A percent-of-spend agency earns more every time your budget grows, whether or not your results do. A flat retainer decouples the agency's revenue from your media budget, so the only reason to recommend more spend is that it works. Demand this standard from any agency you evaluate, including us. Our pricing models guide has the full flat-fee versus percent-of-spend cost breakdown.
Criterion 4: Methodology
A method you can inspect beats a promise you can't
"We optimize continuously" is a vibe, not a method. A real method has named stages, defined tactics, and a cadence you can hold the agency to. MaxV™, IMG Media's documented methodology, shows what that produces: cost per qualified lead down 39% for Comairco, ROAS up over 300% for Beautysense, revenue up 25% year over year for Hitchweb. Ask any agency for the same level of detail before you sign.
Our Google Ads landing pages perform much better since we started working with them.
What a documented method shows you, in order
- Named stages, so you know what happens and when
- Defined tactics: Search, Performance Max, Demand Gen, tROAS bidding
- Landing pages for paid traffic, built inside the method
- A working cadence you can hold the agency to, week by week
Criterion 5: Red flags
You can spot wasted spend from outside the account
Four signals show before you ever sign. No conversion tracking audit before money moves (GA4, Tag Manager and Enhanced Conversions never verified). Reports full of clicks and impressions but never cost per qualified lead. An agency that resists screen-sharing the live account. Broad match left running unmanaged. The way to know for certain is a live screen-share audit of your own account, which is exactly what the free consultation delivers.
First-Call Checklist
10 questions to ask before you sign
Ten questions, grouped by what they actually test. An agency built on the right structure answers all ten without flinching. Ask us every one on a free consultation; you get the answers on a live screen-share.
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Start with ownership and exit
1. Who owns the Google Ads account, me or you? 2. What happens to my data and campaign history if I leave? 3. What is your contract term? These answers are contractual and irreversible. A wrong answer here ends the call before you waste a dollar.
Questions 1 to 3 · Ownership and contract
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Then follow the money
4. How do you bill, a flat retainer or a percent of my ad spend? 5. What metric sits at the top of your monthly report? 6. Can I see a live account, anonymized? Pricing shapes incentives, and the top-line metric tells you what the agency really optimizes for.
Questions 4 to 6 · Pricing and reporting
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Finish with method and people
7. Show me your methodology document. 8. Which campaign types will you run on my account, and why? 9. How do you verify conversion tracking before spending my budget? 10. Who works my account day to day? "Continuous optimization" is not an answer. A real method is named, written down, and open to inspection.
Questions 7 to 10 · Method and tracking
Proof · Free to Leave Any Month, Stayed Ten Years
IMG Media has supported us for over 10 years. Impeccable service, great integrity, always listening and always ready to act.
Before You Shortlist
The selection questions that decide whether your budget is safe
How much does a Google Ads agency cost?
It depends less on the number and more on the model. Agencies price one of two ways: a flat monthly retainer, or a percentage of your ad spend. Percent-of-spend ties the agency's revenue to how much you spend, which rewards a bigger budget whether or not it performs. A flat retainer decouples the agency's fee from your media budget, so the only way it keeps the file is results. See flat retainer vs. percent-of-spend pricing, the full breakdown before you compare quotes.
Is "Google Partner" enough to pick an agency on?
No. Google Partner status verifies that an agency holds current certifications and meets Google's platform standards. That makes it table stakes, a minimum bar, not a differentiator, since many agencies clear it. Use it to eliminate the uncertified, then apply the five criteria on top: specialization, account ownership, pricing model, documented methodology, and tracking-first management. For the record, IMG Media is a current Google Partner; more on the team and credentials at about us.
Should I hire an agency or run Google Ads myself?
Run it yourself if you have the time to learn conversion tracking, bid strategies and campaign structure, and your budget is small enough that mistakes are cheap lessons. Hire an agency when the cost of wasted spend and your own hours exceeds the cost of management, which usually happens as budgets grow and campaign types multiply. Either way, the same rule protects you: the account stays in your name and you pay Google directly, so the DIY-or-agency decision is always reversible.
How long before I should expect results from a new agency?
Honest answer: it depends on the state of your conversion tracking and on Google's bidding algorithms, which go through a learning period after significant changes. A competent agency spends its first weeks verifying that tracking is accurate before it scales budget, because optimizing on bad data just automates waste. Be wary of any agency that guarantees results by a fixed date; the learning period is a property of the platform, not of the agency's promises.
Can I switch agencies without losing my campaign history?
Yes, if you own the account. When the Google Ads account is in your name, switching is just revoking one agency's access and granting another's: the campaigns, conversion data and learning history all stay with you. If the agency owns the account, you start from zero and the learning period resets. Check this before you sign anything; here is what to demand in your agency contract.
What actually happens on the free consultation?
You get a live screen-share audit of your own account, not a sales pitch. That means a tracking check, a verification of wasted spend, and a review of whether your campaigns align with your business goals. There is no minimum spend to qualify and no contract afterward; the account is yours and stays yours either way. It is the fifth criterion of this guide, applied to your data instead of ours.
Who Wrote This Guide
Martin Genesse
Founder · Director of Strategy, IMG Media
Martin leads strategy at IMG Media, a current Google Partner agency that manages Google Ads exclusively (Search, Performance Max, Demand Gen) and created the MaxV™ methodology referenced in this guide. The agency runs the flat-retainer, no-contract model this page tells you to demand of any agency, with client relationships running 10+ years on those terms. [CONTENT NEEDED: one-line bio for Martin Genesse, years in Google Ads and notable account scope]
Put the criteria to work
Run the audit on your own account, free
A free consultation that runs Criterion 5 live on a screen-share of your actual account: tracking check, wasted-spend verification, alignment review. Apply the framework before you talk to any agency, including us. Flat retainer, no contract, and you keep your account either way.
Show me my wasted spendNo contract · no minimum spend · you keep your account either way