Choosing who runs your paid search is mostly a decision about incentives and access, not about creativity. The management fee is the small number on the invoice and the media it directs is the large one, so a slightly better operator pays for a slightly higher fee within weeks, and a badly structured agreement can quietly cost more than the whole retainer. This page sets out the four things worth settling before any contract is signed: how the fee is structured, who owns the accounts and data, what gets reported, and what Google itself actually says about ad quality, which is more modest than most sales decks suggest.
Fee structure decides whose side they are on
Three structures dominate. A flat monthly retainer against a written scope is the easiest to audit and the easiest to leave. A share of ad spend pays the provider more when your costs rise, which is precisely the wrong incentive in a rising auction and creates an unspoken reason to recommend bigger budgets. A performance fee tied to conversions sounds ideal but depends entirely on how a conversion is defined, and definitions drift toward whatever is easiest to count. Whichever structure you choose, get it in writing along with the minimum media budget the provider considers viable for your category. An underfunded account gathers too little conversion data to optimise, which produces a disappointing quarter that looks like poor management when it was really underfunding.
What Google actually says about ad quality
Quality Score is the most oversold metric in paid search. Google describes it as a diagnostic tool measured from 1 to 10 at the keyword level, calculated from expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, each graded above average, average or below average against other advertisers whose ads appeared for the same search over the previous ninety days. Google states directly that Quality Score is not a key performance indicator, that it should not be optimised or aggregated with other data, and that it is not an input in the ad auction. That is a strong claim from the platform itself, and it reframes the metric as a place to look when a keyword underperforms rather than a target to chase. A provider building a monthly report around Quality Score movements is reporting on a diagnostic instead of on the business.
Ownership, tracking and the exit
Insist that the ad accounts, the conversion tags, the analytics properties and any first-party audience lists sit in entities your business owns, with the provider granted access. Providers who run campaigns inside their own manager account can take years of account history with them, which raises the cost of ever switching and is sometimes the real product being sold. Ask how conversions are defined and tracked, and check that a conversion means something a salesperson would recognise rather than a page view or a click on a phone number that nobody answered. Then ask about notice periods and what happens on the last day: who removes access, what documentation you receive, and whether campaigns keep running. These terms decide what a bad choice costs, and they are always easier to negotiate before the first invoice.
Reading a provider's evidence
Ask for two anonymised account reviews rather than a case study slide, and read them for structure: how campaigns are segmented, how negative keywords are managed, how budgets are allocated across match types, and whether the landing pages were part of the work. Ask which platforms they actually operate day to day rather than which logos appear on the site, since search, shopping, social and connected television are different disciplines. Ask who is on your account, by name and seniority, and how many other accounts that person carries. Google's own advice on responsive search ads recommends running at least two responsive search ads with good or excellent ad strength per ad group, which is the kind of concrete operating detail a real practitioner will discuss easily and a reseller will deflect.
Questions people ask about ppc provider
Should I pay a flat fee or a share of ad spend?
A flat fee against a written scope is generally cleaner, because a share of spend pays the provider more as your costs rise. If a share model is unavoidable, cap it, review it quarterly, and make sure the reporting is on cost per qualified enquiry rather than on spend.
Is Quality Score the metric to optimise?
Google says it is a diagnostic tool, not a key performance indicator, and that it is not an input in the ad auction. Use it to find keywords whose ads or landing pages are weak, and judge the account on cost per qualified enquiry instead.
Who should own the Google Ads account?
Your business, with the provider granted access. Account history and conversion data are valuable and take a long time to rebuild. Agree this before work starts, because migrating an account away from a provider who owns it is far harder than granting access on day one.
Should the provider also handle landing pages?
Ideally yes, or at least test them, since Google names landing page experience as one of the three components behind Quality Score and most wasted budget is lost after the click. If landing pages are excluded, ask who owns that work, because someone has to.