How Do I Know If My PPC Agency Is Doing a Good Job?

Start With Results, Not Reports

The most important question is simple: Is the business growing because of paid ads?

If you’re generating more qualified leads, more sales, or more revenue from paid search than before the agency took over, and that performance is trending in the right direction, the agency is probably doing useful work.

But results alone don’t tell the full story. An account can perform well for a period due to favorable seasonality, competitor pullback, or market tailwinds, not agency skill. And an agency can dress up mediocre results with polished reports. So results matter, but they need context.

Signs Your Agency Is Doing a Good Job

1. They can explain what changed and why Good agencies don’t just report on numbers. They tell you what changed since last month, why they made the changes they made, and what the expected impact was. If the answer to “what did you do this month?” is always vague, something is wrong.

2. They proactively identify problems before you do A strong agency catches issues before they show up in your results. They’ll flag a spike in your CPC before you see your lead volume drop. They’ll notice when a new competitor is bidding aggressively on your brand terms. Reactive agencies wait for you to complain; good ones stay ahead of it.

3. Your Quality Scores are trending up over time Quality Score is Google’s assessment of your ad relevance, expected CTR, and landing page experience. Improving Quality Scores over time generally means better ad placement at lower cost. Ask your agency for a Quality Score trend report. If scores have been flat or declining for months, the account isn’t being actively optimized.

4. They’re running tests Active PPC management includes continuous testing: ad copy variations, landing page experiments, audience segments, bid strategies, new campaign types. If your agency has never mentioned a test they’re running or results they’re measuring, that’s a passive account, not managed work.

5. Conversion tracking is clean and accurate Conversion tracking is the foundation of everything. If conversions are being tracked incorrectly (counting form views instead of form submissions, missing mobile conversions, double-firing events) the entire optimization strategy is built on bad data. A good agency audits this at onboarding and periodically thereafter.

6. They know your business goals, not just your campaign KPIs Great agencies understand what a conversion is actually worth to your business. They know whether you care more about lead volume or lead quality, whether there’s a seasonal push coming up, what your best products or services are by margin. If your agency only ever talks about CPC and CTR but never about your business outcomes, the relationship is too shallow.

Red Flags to Watch For

Hiding account access: You should have full owner-level access to your own Google Ads account at all times. If your agency resists giving you login credentials or controls the account under their own MCC in a way that restricts your visibility, that’s a serious problem. When the relationship ends, you’d have nothing: no conversion history, no audience data, no campaign structure.

Reporting metrics that don’t connect to revenue: Reports full of impressions, clicks, and click-through rates without any mention of conversions, cost per lead, or ROAS are a deflection. Vanity metrics are easy to make look good. Business metrics are harder to hide.

No negative keyword management: The search terms report will tell you what searches actually triggered your ads. If you pull it and see irrelevant, low-intent, or completely off-topic searches, and those terms aren’t being added to a negative keyword list, your budget is being wasted passively.

Account hasn’t been touched in weeks: Google Ads dashboards show change history. If you look at your account’s change history and see no updates, no bid adjustments, no new ad tests for the past 2–4 weeks, that’s a set-it-and-forget-it account. You’re paying a management fee for minimal management.

They can’t explain the strategy: “We’re optimizing your campaigns” is not a strategy. A good agency can articulate: what campaign types they’re running and why, what their bidding strategy is and what it’s targeting, what they’re testing, and what the 90-day plan looks like.

Questions to Ask Your Agency Directly

You don’t need to be a technical expert to ask these questions. Any competent agency should answer them clearly:

• “Can you walk me through what you changed in our account last month and why?”
• “What’s our current cost per conversion, and how has that trended over the last 6 months?”
• “What ad copy tests are currently running?”
• “What are our Quality Scores, and are they improving?”
• “Can you show me our search term report? What searches are triggering our ads?”
• “Do we have full admin access to the Google Ads account?”
• “What’s the plan for the next 90 days?”

Good agencies will answer these without hesitation. Evasive or vague answers tell you something important.

A Simple Self-Check

Pull up your Google Ads account (you should have access) and check:

1. Change history: How many changes have been made in the last 30 days? Is there evidence of active management?
2. Search terms report: Are there obvious irrelevant searches? Are negatives being added regularly?
3. Ad variations: Is there more than one active ad per ad group? Are any tests running?
4. Conversions: Are conversions being tracked? Do the numbers align with what you’re actually seeing in leads or sales?

If you don’t have account access, request it immediately. If the agency refuses, that’s your answer.

When to Consider Switching

If multiple red flags are present, results have been flat or declining for more than 3 consecutive months with no clear explanation, and conversations with the agency feel evasive, it’s time to evaluate alternatives.

Before switching, request a full account handoff: campaign data, conversion history, audience lists. A reputable agency will provide this. An agency that tries to hold your account data hostage is not acting in your interest.

If you want a third-party opinion on whether your current account is being managed effectively, request a PPC audit. We’ll give you an honest assessment, no sales pitch required.