If you pay an agency to run your Google Ads, you should be able to answer three questions without opening a single report. What does a lead or a sale cost me? What did they change last month, and why? Are my ads only showing for searches that could turn into customers? If you can't answer those, it's worth finding out, whatever the results look like.
You don't need to understand Google Ads to check any of this. You need access to your own account and about ten minutes. These are the eight things I'd look at first if you asked me whether your agency is any good, roughly in order of how much they tell you.
Google moves things around in the Google Ads menus fairly often. The locations below are right at the time of writing; if something has moved, the search bar at the top of Google Ads will find it by name.
1. Do you actually own your account?
Sign in at ads.google.com with your own email address. In the left-hand menu, go to Admin, then Access and security.
Good sign: your own business email is listed with Admin access, and the agency is connected through its own manager account.
Warning sign: you can't get in at all, or the account was set up under the agency's email. If you parted company tomorrow, you could lose the account and its history, which is years of data about what works for your business, paid for with your money.
If you don't have admin access, ask for it. A good agency will set it up the same day without any fuss.
2. Are they reporting leads and sales, or clicks?
Look at the last report they sent you.
Good sign: the first thing you see is what a lead or sale cost you, how that has moved over the last few months, and how it compares with what a customer is worth to you.
Warning sign: the report leads with impressions, clicks, click-through rate or "reach". Those numbers show activity, not results. Clicks are what you pay for. Customers are what you're paying for.
3. Are the conversions real?
In the left-hand menu, go to Goals, then Conversions, then Summary. Note how many conversions Google Ads recorded last month. Now compare that with the real enquiries or sales you received from the ads: emails, calls, form submissions, orders.
Good sign: the numbers are in the same ballpark, and the conversions listed are things that matter, like form submissions, phone calls and purchases.
Warning sign: Google says you had far more conversions than you actually received, or the conversions are things like page views, button clicks or "engaged sessions". Sometimes the same enquiry is being counted twice.
This is one of the most common problems I find in audits, and one of the most expensive. Google's automated bidding chases whatever you tell it counts as a conversion. If that's the wrong thing, it gets very good at buying the wrong thing.
4. What searches are you actually showing up for?
Go to Campaigns, then Insights and reports, then Search terms. Set the date to the last 30 days and sort by cost.
Good sign: nearly everything on the list is something a potential customer would type.
Warning sign: searches for jobs, free versions, DIY guides, other companies' phone numbers, or things you simply don't sell. I've seen ads for "PPC agency" show up for "get paid to click".
Google has widened how loosely it matches ads to searches over the last couple of years, so this report needs checking more often than it used to. Every account should have a long and growing list of negative keywords: words that stop your ads showing for the wrong searches. Ask your agency how often they review this report. Weekly is normal for a new or changing account.
5. Is anyone actually working on it?
In the left-hand menu, under Campaigns, open Change history and look at the last three months.
Good sign: a steady stream of changes, such as negative keywords added, budgets and bids adjusted and new ads tested, and an agency that can tell you why they made them.
Warning sign: weeks or months with nothing, or only automatic changes made by Google itself.
To be fair, a well-run, stable account doesn't need daily tinkering, and fewer changes isn't automatically bad. But you're paying a monthly fee for someone's time, and this is where you can see whether that time is being spent.
6. Is your money going where you think it is?
Two things to ask about, rather than dig into yourself.
First, whether your search campaigns are also showing on Google's Search Partners and Display networks. Both are switched on by default and both take budget away from Google search itself. There can be good reasons to use them, but your agency should be able to give you one.
Second, if you have a Performance Max campaign, ask how much of its spend goes on people who were already searching for your business by name. Those people were going to find you anyway. Performance Max is very good at taking credit for them.
7. Are they just accepting Google's recommendations?
Google constantly suggests changes to your account, and gives it an "optimisation score" based on how many you've accepted. On the Recommendations page, check the auto-apply settings.
Warning sign: auto-apply is switched on for things like budgets, keywords or bidding. Many of Google's recommendations raise your spend or loosen your targeting. A high optimisation score tells you how many suggestions were accepted. It doesn't tell you whether the account is well run.
8. Can they explain it in plain English?
This one needs no login. Ask your account manager: what's our cost per lead, what did you change last month, and what are you trying next?
Good sign: a clear answer in two minutes, without jargon, including what hasn't worked.
Warning sign: a wall of acronyms, or "the algorithm needs more time" every single month.
What a good agency looks like
Plenty of agencies do this well, and it's worth recognising when yours does. The good ones asked what a customer is worth to you before they set any targets. They tell you when things go badly, not just when they go well. They push back when you ask for something that would waste money. And they're happy for someone else to look at the account, because they've nothing to hide.
What "not good enough" doesn't mean
A few things aren't your agency's fault. Costs per click have risen in most industries. A new account takes weeks to settle. Many businesses have quiet months. And no agency can fix a website that doesn't turn visitors into enquiries, although a good one will tell you if that's the problem.
One bad month isn't a verdict. A pattern over several months, with no clear explanation, is.
If you're still not sure
This is the question I get asked more than any other. I recently audited the account of a care provider whose agency was running their ads. They got an honest assessment: credit where it was due, and a clear list of what to change. No pitch, and no pulling the agency apart to make me look good.
That's what a health check is. I go through your account before we speak, then talk you through what I found, biggest issues first. If your agency is doing a good job, I'll tell you.
Quick questions
Will my agency know I've been looking?
Looking around your account doesn't change anything, and Change history only records changes, not who viewed what. If you have your own login, you can look whenever you like.
How long should I give a new agency?
Two to three months is fair for results to settle on a new account. Access, honest reporting and real conversion tracking should be right from week one.
Should I tell my agency I'm getting a second opinion?
That's up to you. A confident agency won't mind, and the findings are useful to them too.