Three questions to ask a Google Ads manager before giving them your budget

Contents (9 sections)

• Question one: what exactly happens if the test does not work?
• Question two: what do you count as success?
• Question three: who owns the account, data, billing access, and exit path?
• The fourth item is not a fourth question
• A five-minute interview scorecard
• Green flags and red flags
• A credible answer sounds like this
• How to run the interview
• What to do next

Before you hire someone to manage Google Ads, ask three questions.

Not about how many years they have been in business. Not about how many dashboards they can show you. Ask what happens when the numbers are bad, what they count as success, and whether you can leave with your account and evidence intact.

The person’s job title does not answer these questions. An agency, freelancer, in-house operator, or specialist can run an honest account or hide behind activity reports. The test is the operating standard, not the category, which is also why the DIY-versus-managed decision is a separate question from this one.

Question one: what exactly happens if the test does not work?

The answer should contain four items. The first three of them are a fixed test budget and an end date: the spend cap that bounds the downside, the fixed test period that lets outcomes mature, and the decision date that forces a decision. Named once here, then used plainly for the rest of the page.

A fixed test period is not a guarantee of profit. It is a bounded way to learn what the advertising is buying and whether the evidence justifies more spend. The fixed test period guide covers how the length is set for a given service and sales cycle.

Ask what happens if the problem is not the ads. A credible manager should be willing to identify tracking failure, missed calls, slow response, poor qualification, unavailable capacity, weak landing pages, out-of-area demand, or an offer the market does not accept.

More budget is not a diagnosis.

Follow-up questions for the first interview

• What does the media budget include, and what is your management fee?
• Who approves a budget increase?
• What can be changed without my approval?
• What would make you pause the campaign?
• What information do you need from my staff each month?
• What is the first date on which you expect to make a continue-or-stop recommendation?
• If the data is incomplete, will the verdict say that plainly?

If the answer has no date and no dismount, it is not a plan. It is an invitation to keep spending.

Question two: what do you count as success?

Ask the manager to define the complete path.

Ad interaction

A click or a call from the ad, recorded with campaign and date scope.

Enquiry

The person called, submitted a form, or sent a message.

Qualified enquiry

The request matched the service, location, customer, and capacity.

Booked job

The owner or staff confirmed an appointment or dispatch.

Completed job

The work was delivered and recorded.

Revenue confirmed

An amount the owner confirms, not an amount the platform estimates.

Estimated profit

Applied at the owner's stated margin and labelled as an estimate.

Clicks, impressions, CTR, and cost per lead can be useful diagnostic measures. They are not the business outcome. A form can be spam. A call can be a wrong number. A lead can be outside the service area. A booking can cancel. Revenue can be recorded without proving profit.

Google recommends choosing conversion goals that align with the lead journey, including actions such as qualified lead, converted lead, booked appointment, or request for quote. Google also supports importing phone-call conversions so advertising can be connected to important calls and other valuable actions when the call information is tracked. My own boundaries for what may and may not be claimed from those records are written out in the attribution standard.

Ask what each metric means

Then ask the question that separates the two: “Which of these numbers is in your monthly report, and which one does Google Ads optimise toward?”

The answer may reasonably differ by account maturity. A new account may begin with calls or forms while the CRM connection is repaired. The important point is that the manager names the limitation and has a path toward better evidence.

The local-service measurement standard

For a local-service business, the report should eventually answer:

• What did the advertising cost, with media and management fees clearly separated?
• Which calls, forms, and messages came from the campaigns?
• Which enquiries were qualified?
• Which became booked jobs?
• Which booked jobs were completed?
• What revenue did the owner confirm?
• What is the cost per booked job?
• What contribution or margin does the owner say a typical job produces?
• When did estimated profit at that margin cross cumulative spend, if it did?

The final question matters. Revenue crossing spend is not automatically payback. Profit must be estimated using the client’s stated margin, and the report must say whose margin it is.

Ask to see a sample report

Do not accept a report title as proof. Ask for a redacted sample and look for the date range, the service and location, the spend, the conversion definitions, the search or campaign source, calls and forms separated where possible, the qualified and booked stages, the revenue evidence boundary, the owner’s responsibilities, notes about missing or unverified data, and a decision or next action.

A report that ends at “leads generated” may be technically polished and commercially incomplete.

Question three: who owns the account, data, billing access, and exit path?

Google states that a client account still owns its data and can remove an owner manager by unlinking. Google also explains that owner manager accounts can have broad administrative and data-access privileges. Ownership and access are related, but they are not the same thing. Know which permissions are being granted and why.

The owner-control checklist

The owner does not need to edit campaigns every day. The owner does need to retain control of the assets that explain what the money did.

“Everything is on our infrastructure” may be operationally convenient for the manager. It is not a sufficient answer for the business owner. Ask what remains yours, where it lives, and how it is returned.

The fourth item is not a fourth question

The three questions need one required follow-up:

“Show me the cap, the decision date, and the evidence you will use.”

That belongs under question one. It stops the interview from becoming a discussion of values that never reaches the contract or the operating document.

The written agreement should state:

• Media budget and management fee separately.
• Approval rules for increases.
• Included work and excluded work.
• Access and ownership.
• Tracking responsibilities.
• Reporting schedule.
• Client confirmation required for booked jobs and revenue.
• Cancellation and notice terms.
• What happens to the account, tags, pages, and data at exit.
• The date and evidence for the first verdict.

No contract length guarantees performance. A short contract can still hide bad access. A month-to-month arrangement can still report only leads. Read the actual terms, and if you want the trade-offs of the term itself, I have written down what month-to-month costs me and what it does not protect.

A five-minute interview scorecard

Score each answer from 0 to 2.

A score is not a hiring decision. It is a way to stop a confident presentation from replacing due diligence.

Green flags and red flags

A certification can verify that someone completed a certification program. It cannot verify your booked-job economics, your account ownership, or anyone’s willingness to tell you to stop spending.

A credible answer sounds like this

“We will define a service area, acceptable job types, and a booked-job event before launch. The test has a written media cap and a decision date. I will report spend, enquiries, qualification, bookings, and any revenue you confirm. If your margin is on file, I can label estimated profit at your stated margin. If the data stops at revenue, I will say so. You keep the ad account, tracking, analytics, call data, and CRM records. My access is removable, and the exit process is documented.”

That answer does not guarantee that the advertising will work. It tells you how the person intends to find out.

How to run the interview

1. Ask question one and write down the four items

   Cap, decision date, evidence, decision rule. If any is missing, ask again in plainer words before moving on.

2. Ask question two and mark the rung

   Find out where the monthly report stops on the ladder from ad interaction to estimated profit, and which conversion the account optimises toward.

3. Ask question three and go asset by asset

   Use the owner-control checklist. Ownership, access, and exit are three different answers.

4. Ask for the redacted sample report

   Check it against the measurement standard rather than against how good it looks.

5. Score the eight tests

   Then read the total as a prompt for a second conversation, not as a hiring verdict.

6. Put the answers in the agreement

   A verbal standard that never reaches the operating document is not a standard.

I count conservatively: each call and form once, and nothing I cannot show.

Your one-page monthly report

The ledger you should be shown, before you hire

Money out Media spend and management fee, shown separately, for a named date range Plus setup, landing-page, call-tracking, and software costs, and the rule for what can increase without your approval.

Measured outcomes Activity, then evidence: clicks and calls, qualified enquiries, booked jobs you confirmed, completion records, confirmed revenue Estimated profit only at your stated margin, and labelled that way. Unverified lines named as unverified.

Decision Continue, repair, reduce, expand, or stop On the decision date inside a fixed test budget and an end date, against the evidence agreed before launch.

This is the difference between managing an account and managing the return on the money inside it. A manager who cannot produce this before the engagement starts is unlikely to produce it afterwards. I count conservatively: each call and form once, and nothing I cannot show.

What to do next

Those three questions are The Three Money Questions, and they work on me too. Ask them here first: start a conversation or ask for a free review, and hold the answers to the same standard this article just set.

Questions owners ask

Should I hire an agency, freelancer, or employee?

The category does not answer the risk question. Compare the person's process, evidence, access controls, fee structure, capacity, communication, and exit path. An agency, freelancer, in-house operator, or specialist can each run an honest account or hide behind activity reports.

What should a Google Ads manager report every month?

At minimum the report should separate spend from activity and define the progression from enquiries to qualified enquiries, booked jobs, completed work, and revenue the owner confirms. It should identify missing data instead of smoothing over it.

Is cost per lead a useful metric?

It can help diagnose the front of the funnel. It should not be the final measure for a local-service business. A cheaper lead is not necessarily a cheaper booked job.

Should the client own the Google Ads account?

The client should understand and retain practical control of the account, data, billing, tracking, and exit process. Google says the client account owns its data and can remove manager ownership by unlinking, while an owner manager may have broad administrative and data access.

What access should I give a Google Ads manager?

Give the minimum access required for the work, understand the distinction between ordinary account access and manager-account ownership, and keep at least one business-controlled administrative path. Review access whenever the relationship changes.

How can I tell if a Google Ads manager is hiding poor performance?

Ask for the definitions, source records, date range, conversion stages, booked-job confirmation, fee and media separation, and a written verdict rule. If the report ends at impressions, clicks, or unqualified leads, it does not yet answer what the money bought.

Is month-to-month automatically safer?

No. Month-to-month can reduce contractual lock-in, but it does not fix poor tracking, unclear billing, account ownership, or weak reporting. Read the terms and test the exit path.

What if I do not have a CRM or reliable booked-job records?

Start with the evidence you can verify, label the gaps, and create a lightweight monthly reconciliation process. The manager should not claim a deeper result than the available evidence supports.