5 Things Your Google Ads Agency Isn't Telling You

If you pay an agency to manage your Google Ads campaigns, you probably trust they're doing the right thing with your money. And in many cases, they are. But there's important information that rarely appears in monthly reports — not because agencies are dishonest, but because their business model isn't always aligned with yours.

This isn't a broad criticism of agencies. It's a guide to help you, as a business owner, know what to ask and what to watch.

1. How much of your budget is being wasted

In an active Google Ads account, between 20% and 40% of spend goes to irrelevant search terms. This is completely normal and expected — Google Ads is that imperfect. The problem is that this data rarely appears in the reports your agency sends.

A serious agency identifies these terms and adds negative keywords every week. But if they're not doing that work regularly, your money keeps funding searches that will never convert. Ask directly: how much are we spending on non-converting terms? How often are search term reports reviewed?

2. Why your metrics actually changed

Agency reports often say things like "CPA increased 15% this month." What they often don't say is why. Was it increased competition? A drop in quality score? A keyword that started capturing irrelevant traffic? A landing page that started loading slower?

Knowing CPA went up is useless if you don't know the cause. An agency that gives you the number without the explanation leaves you unable to make decisions. Always demand the diagnosis, not just the result.

3. Which campaigns are driving the results in your report

Almost every account has brand campaigns (your own name) and generic campaigns (competitive terms). Brand campaigns have very low CPA and easy conversions — you're basically capturing people who already know you. Generic campaigns are the hard ones.

When the report says "average CPA €12 and 90 conversions this month," how many of those conversions come from your brand campaigns? If the answer is 60 out of 90, the real number of conversions the agency is generating is 30, at a much higher CPA.

Always ask for results broken down by campaign, separating brand from non-brand. It's the only way to evaluate real performance.