7 Signs Your Google Ads Agency Is Underperforming

Most businesses don’t leave a bad Google Ads agency because they can’t tell whether it’s actually bad. Here are seven red flags that reliably separate an agency optimising for your profit from one optimising for its own retainer — and what good looks like instead.

1. They can’t explain your conversion tracking

If your agency can’t clearly tell you how conversions are tracked and whether server-side tracking is in place, they’re likely optimising on incomplete data — which means wasted spend you can’t see.

Good agencies treat tracking as the foundation, not an afterthought.

2. They charge a percentage of your ad spend

Percentage-of-spend fees reward the agency for spending more of your money, not for making you more profit. As you scale, you pay more for the same work.

A fixed fee aligns incentives — it’s how our fixed-fee Google Ads for small businesses works. See how UK Google Ads pricing actually works.

3. You never speak to the person running your account

If every conversation goes through an account manager relaying messages to a team you never meet, decisions are slow and context gets lost.

You should be able to reach the person actually in your account.

4. Reporting is vanity metrics, not profit

Reports full of impressions, clicks and CTR — but silent on cost per acquisition, ROAS or actual revenue — are designed to look busy, not to prove results.

Ask for cost per lead/sale and return on ad spend. If they can’t show it, they may not be tracking it.

5. You’re locked into a long contract

Long lock-in contracts protect the agency, not you. Confidence looks like a willingness to earn your business month to month.

This is exactly why we work with no lock-in — see how we work.

6. Nothing in the account has changed in months

A healthy account is never “finished”. If the same ads, keywords and bids have run untouched for months, you’re paying a management fee for monitoring, not management — and your competitors are testing while you stand still.

Ask when they last added negative keywords, tested a new ad, or restructured a campaign. Specific recent changes signal real work. Vague answers signal a set-and-forget account on autopilot.

7. They won’t show you the search terms report

The search terms report shows exactly which queries your money was spent on. An agency reluctant to share it is often hiding wasted spend on irrelevant searches — the clearest single piece of evidence of whether your budget is working.

You’re entitled to see where every pound goes. A confident agency walks you through the search terms, the negatives they’ve added, and what they’re cutting next. Reluctance here is a red flag on its own.

Frequently asked questions