The 60-second definition
Good Google Ads management, defined in five checkable clauses
If you read nothing else on this page, read this. Every clause below is something you can open your own account and verify, today, with or without your agency in the room.
By Nathanaël Morin, Partner, Director of TechnologyReviewed by Martin Genesse, Founder & Strategy Director[CONTENT NEEDED — date]12 min read
Good Google Ads management means conversion tracking is verified before budget scales, campaign types are matched to the job they do, bids target a return figure, the landing page is managed as part of the campaign, and results are reported as cost per qualified lead and ROAS, not clicks.
Unpacked, that single sentence gives you five standards:
- Tracking comes before spend. GA4, Google Tag Manager and Enhanced Conversions are verified before any budget decision is made on top of them.
- Campaign types are chosen for the job they do. Search captures demand that already exists, Performance Max scales feeds and assets, Demand Gen creates demand that doesn't exist yet.
- Bidding aims at a return target (tROAS), not at a vague promise of "optimization."
- The landing page is inside the campaign's scope. The page your paid traffic lands on is part of the work, not your problem.
- Reporting speaks in business numbers: cost per qualified lead, ROAS, revenue. Never clicks dressed up as results.
If the tracking is wrong, every other decision in the account is a guess made with confidence.
Why this definition holds up
Notice what's missing: opinions. None of these clauses asks you to trust anyone. Each one is observable in the account itself, which is exactly why claims like "results-driven" can't substitute for it. Anyone can say results. Not everyone can show verified conversion actions, a tROAS target, and a report that opens with cost per qualified lead.
These five clauses are the spine of the MaxV™ bench, the management standard the rest of this page expands one section at a time. Hold any account against it, including the one an agency is running for you right now, and you'll know within an hour whether it's being managed or babysat.
Next: why the monthly report, on its own, can never tell you whether you're getting any of this.
The Problem
A polished report can sit on top of wasted spend
If you judge your account by fast replies and a tidy monthly PDF, you are measuring service, not performance. The default metrics in those reports track activity. They can all climb while qualified leads and revenue stand still. The fix is not to hunt harder for what is wrong. It is to hold the account against a clear standard of what right looks like.
- Clicks and impressions move whether or not revenue does
- Report polish proves effort went into the report, not the account
- Responsiveness tells you the agency is attentive, not that the spend is working
The MaxV™ Bench
Five standards a well-run account meets
These are checkable, not a matter of trust. Hold any agency's work against them, standard by standard, including your current one. [CONTENT NEEDED: official MaxV™ stage names, count and order from IMG Media]
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Tracking is verified before budget scales
Before your spend grows, GA4, Google Tag Manager and Enhanced Conversions are installed and tested, so every conversion your money buys is actually counted. You see what the budget produces from the first dollar, not after the fact.
→ no budget scales on unmeasured guesswork -
Campaign types matched to intent, bids tied to a return target
Search captures buyers already looking for you. Performance Max scales your product feed and assets. Demand Gen creates demand where none exists yet. Each one bids to a target ROAS, a return figure you can point to, never "optimization" with no number attached.
→ every dollar has a job and a return target -
The landing page is part of the campaign
Conversion work on the pages your ads send traffic to sits inside the MaxV™ methodology, not on a separate invoice. Your campaigns and your pages improve as one system, because a strong click on a weak page is still wasted spend.
→ the same clicks convert more often -
Reporting speaks in business numbers
You read cost per qualified lead, ROAS and revenue, not clicks and impressions. If a report can't tell you what a lead costs and what the spend returned, it isn't reporting performance.
→ you can tell good from bad without taking anyone's word for it
Side By Side
Set-and-forget vs. managed to a standard
You don't need expert knowledge to tell a babysat account from a well-run one. Hold both against the same five standards and the difference shows up row by row. Nothing on the left is a caricature. It is ordinary market practice, and it can hide behind a very polished monthly report.
| The standard to checkfrom the MaxV™ bench | Set-and-forgetcommon market practice | IMG Mediamanaged to the MaxV™ bench |
|---|---|---|
| Is tracking verified before spend? | Tracking is assumed to be fine. Budget scales on top of conversion data nobody has actually tested. | Tracking is verified before spend. GA4, GTM and Enhanced Conversions are confirmed working before budget scales. Standard 1 of the bench. |
| Is the campaign type matched to the job? | One campaign type is stretched across everything, whatever the buyer's intent. | Each type does its job: Search captures existing demand, Performance Max scales feeds and assets, Demand Gen creates demand.MaxV™ standard 2 · campaign fit |
| What are the bids aiming at? | "Optimization" happens, but nobody can name the return figure the bids are working toward. | Bids aim at a return target. tROAS ties every bid back to a figure your business set, so you can ask for it and check it.MaxV™ standard 3 · return-target bidding |
| Whose problem is the landing page? | The landing page is the client's problem. It sits out of scope, or gets quoted as a separate project. | The page your ads pay to reach is managed as part of the campaign, inside the methodology, not as an upsell.MaxV™ standard 4 · landing page in scope |
| What numbers land in your report? | The report leads with clicks, impressions and CTR. Business impact is left for you to infer. | You get business numbers: cost per qualified lead, ROAS and revenue. The figures a real decision rests on.MaxV™ standard 5 · business-number reporting |
| How do you verify any of this? | You take "results-driven" on trust. There is no published standard to hold the work against. | MaxV™ is named and published. You can hold any account against the five standards above, including the one run for you. |
The decisive difference is the last row. Every agency claims results. A named standard lets you check the claim, row by row, in your own account, today. See how the MaxV™ model works for the full picture.
Proof · Named accounts, verified numbers
Three accounts, three numbers, one standard
Comairco · HVAC manufacturer and distributor
Cost per qualified lead down 39%. A number like that only exists when the account reports in business numbers. Count qualified leads instead of clicks, and a 39% drop becomes something you can see, check, and hold an agency to.
Beautysense · Beauty eCommerce
ROAS up over 300%. That is what bidding to a return target produces: the account is managed against the return figure itself, so when performance moves, it moves the number the store actually lives on.
Hitchweb · Auto parts eCommerce
Revenue up 25% year over year. Revenue is the business-number standard at full strength. The account is judged on what the store banks, not on traffic, and the year-over-year figure is the receipt.
Headline number
-39%Comairco's cost per qualified lead. Operator-verified and named with permission, like every figure on this page.
Also on the record: Entreprises MST, qualified leads up 3x under the same standard.
Proof · In a Client's Words
Excellent service. A professional, responsive and highly competent team. Our Google Ads landing pages have been performing much better since we started working with them.
Judging an Agency
The questions buyers ask before trusting anyone with their account
Is a Google Partner badge enough to trust an agency?
No. The badge is a baseline trust signal, not proof of good management. IMG Media holds current Google Partner status and will tell you the same thing: judge the work by the five standards above, because the badge does not tell you whether tracking was verified before spend or whether bids target a return figure.
Should the agency be responsible for the landing pages?
Yes, for paid traffic. The destination is half the campaign, so a page nobody manages caps what any bidding strategy can do. Inside MaxV™, pages and campaigns are optimized as one system, and clients notice the difference: one reviewer reported her Google Ads landing pages "have been performing much better" since the work began.
Does the pricing model change how an agency behaves?
Yes. A flat retainer removes the incentive to inflate your ad spend, because the agency earns the same whether your budget grows or shrinks. A percentage-of-spend model rewards bigger budgets, not better results. The full breakdown is in flat retainer vs. percentage of spend, compared.
Who should own the Google Ads account?
You should, along with the conversion data inside it. If you ever change agencies, your history and your learnings leave with you. See who should own your Google Ads account for the contract terms to check.
How do I know this standard actually produces results?
Check the named accounts. Under MaxV™ management, Comairco cut cost per qualified lead 39%, Beautysense grew ROAS 300%, and Hitchweb grew revenue 25% year over year. Each number exists because the standard behind it (verified tracking, return-target bidding, business-number reporting) made it measurable in the first place.
My agency's reports look fine. How do I check for myself?
Report polish is not performance, so look past it. Hold your account against the five standards on this page, then run the checklist in how to audit your account for garbage spend if anything fails the test.
Written by the People Who Run the Accounts
Nathanaël Morin
Partner · Director of Technology, IMG Media
Nathanaël owns the measurement side of every account at IMG Media, a current Google Partner agency that manages Google Ads only: Search, Performance Max and Demand Gen. He builds the tracking stack this page describes (GA4, Google Tag Manager, Enhanced Conversions) and verifies it before budget scales, the first standard on the MaxV™ bench. A client review, translated from French, describes his work as "very professional, with an approach squarely focused on expected results." [CONTENT NEEDED: years managing Google Ads accounts, certifications, notable account scale]
Next Step
Hold your account against the bench
You now have the standard. Put your account next to it. A Google Ads specialist walks through how your tracking, campaign types, bid targets, landing pages and reporting hold up against the five MaxV™ standards, so you know exactly where you stand.
Get a specialist's read on my accountNo commitment · no sales script · current Google Partner