Back to Growth
Convert6 September 2026

Google Ads Agency London: What to Look For Before You Hire One

By John JB Russell

TL;DR

Choose a Google Ads agency on evidence, control and commercial alignment rather than pitch polish. Look for dated account results, clear search-term and negative-keyword processes, transparent pricing, account ownership and a defined way to measure leads or revenue.

Google Ads Agency London: What to Look For Before You Hire One

Hiring a Google Ads agency in London is easy. Hiring one that will improve commercial performance without adding unnecessary complexity is harder.

The useful question is not whether an agency can launch campaigns. Most can. The question is whether it can show how it decides what to spend on, what to stop paying for and how it connects account activity to leads, sales or revenue.

If you are comparing agencies, start with evidence. Digital Womble publishes dated Google Ads results and case studies rather than relying on generic claims. The examples include conversion growth, lower cost per conversion, lower CPC, stronger CTR and revenue-linked results where tracking supports the claim.

Ask for evidence from specific time periods

Whole-account averages can hide what actually changed. A useful case study should tell you the before period, the after period, the metric that changed and the intervention that happened between them.

That does not mean every case needs a ROAS headline. If revenue tracking is incomplete, CPC, CPA, conversion volume, search-term quality and spend efficiency can still be valid evidence. What matters is that the agency does not pretend a metric proves more than it does.

See the Google Ads agency results page for examples of bounded, dated performance claims.

Find out who actually manages the account

Many agencies sell with senior people and deliver through junior account teams. Ask who will make day-to-day decisions, who reviews search terms, who owns negative-keyword decisions and who you speak to when performance changes.

Digital Womble's Google Ads management service is built around senior-led management, flat-fee pricing and client-owned accounts.

Ask how search terms are controlled

Google Ads performance is not just about finding more clicks. It is also about refusing to pay for demand that is unlikely to become revenue.

A serious account process should include regular search-term review and a deliberate negative-keyword framework. That means excluding irrelevant jobs, free searches, wrong locations, consumer demand against B2B offers, informational queries and other poor-fit traffic before it absorbs meaningful budget.

If you already have an account, the £395 Google Ads Account Review is designed to identify those issues without making changes first.

Understand the agency's pricing incentive

Percentage-of-spend pricing is common. It is not automatically wrong, but it means the agency earns more when the media budget grows.

Flat-fee management removes that particular incentive. The commercial conversation can then focus on whether additional spend is justified by demand and conversion performance rather than whether a larger budget increases the agency fee.

You can see Digital Womble's current Google Ads management pricing.

Check who owns the account and data

You should own the Google Ads account, conversion history and accumulated learning. If a relationship ends, the data should remain yours.

Ask this before signing, not after.

Decide whether you need a review or management

If an account is already running but you are not sure what is wrong, management may be premature. A read-only review can identify waste, structural problems, tracking risks and landing-page misalignment before you commit to ongoing work.

If the problem is clear and you want someone accountable for implementation, management is the next step.

For existing accounts, start with the Google Ads Account Review. For ongoing execution, see Google Ads Management.

The shortlist test

Before hiring a Google Ads agency in London, ask five questions:

  1. Can you show specific, dated client results?
  2. Who will actually manage my account?
  3. How often do you review search terms and negatives?
  4. Do I retain ownership of the account and data?
  5. How will you decide whether more spend is justified?

If the answers are vague, the relationship will probably be vague too.

If you want an evidence-led starting point before choosing management, book the £395 Google Ads Account Review.

#Google Ads#Agency#London#PPC

Next step for an existing Google Ads account

Find the waste and upside in your own account before committing to management.

The £395 Google Ads Account Review is read-only. We inspect search terms, negative keywords, CPC, conversion efficiency, visibility constraints, structure and landing-page alignment, then return a prioritised action plan. No campaign changes are made during the review.