Is my ad management company doing a good job or am I being taken for a ride?

[AdzwithaZ]

It sounds reasonable that you would be concerned and for sure they could be more proactive, so you would be right to tell them that you expect more.
With regard to the changes in the ad account being only fortnightly:
If you are only paying them $500 per month then you probably aren’t spending a bunch on ads and there won’t be a wealth of performance data on which to act, or statistically significant test results…

[Dimethyltriedtospell]

It’s worth mentioning that their ad management has shown some positive results. My cost per click (CPC) has gone down by 12 cents compared to my previous campaign managed by another company. Additionally, my sessions/clicks have decreased by around 15%, but my total sales have increased by 4%.

However, I should also point out that I reduced the price of my product from $49 to $40 when they took over my ad management. So, it’s hard to say if their success is solely due to their efforts or the change in product price. It would be great to hear more opinions on whether I should stick with them or consider finding a new ad management company.

[dilarez]

You’ve come to the right place. Everyone here is better than your agency.

[fathom53]

At $500/month, you won’t be getting a high touch service to begin. Having said that, if anyone you pay is not doing what they promised. You should just stop working with them. Actions speak louder than words. Lack of communication says a lot.

[TTFV]

The lack of promised deliverables and no contact for the first two months, plus the inability to book a meeting is enough to fire them. These are critical things!

I wouldn’t get too excited about the late call on it’s own, but in conjunction with the other issues indicates they lack proper controls and processes to manage their client accounts.

Typically with a new account like yours, there should be a ton of changes over the first week or two and then less activity as they get into a regular optimization schedule. Every two weeks is a bit lax for most accounts unless you’re spending very little. AT $800, that’s very little so I wouldn’t get excited about this cadence.

There are many different ways to evaluate agency performance. If your campaigns are crushing it, that is something you need to consider. But the incremental improvement you’ve stated below isn’t anything too great.

Based on the lackluster customer service alone, I’d make a change.

[msfrizzzzzle]

Making changes every 2 weeks isn’t necessarily a red flag as you wouldn’t want to upset the bidding strategies learning process. However, if you are on manual CPC then it doesn’t really matter. I would ask them what the long term strategy for the account is to get a better idea of the changes they are making. Especially as it relates to conversions and bid strategies. Do they plan on implementing offline conversions? Also, what do your quality scores look like? Are there any landing pages or ad relevance below average?

It’s nice that your CPCs are going down but anyone can do that (e.g. just lower bids) the real value you should expect from them is improved CVRs and lower CPAs.

Are they running or plan to run any A/B experiments? Are they staying on top of your search queries and negative keywords? Did they organize the campaigns into a better structure? Any audience targeting layered on? Remarketing audiences setup? Enhanced conversions/1P enabled?

Happy to take a quick look at the account to give you a better understanding. And do not want/need any compensation.

[Solid-Lychee4618]

The broken promises are a concern but not a deal breaker. That can be addressed. Where I’d look is to the revenue generated by your ad budget. If you’re in retail, you likely need a minimum ROAS of 5 to break even. If you’re in software or manufacturing, it’ll be lower, maybe as low as 2 or 3. You should be able to see for yourself in Google Analytics to make sure the numbers in your Google Ads are right. This company is either succeeding or failing in producing results. It’s easy to check. If they are close, I’d give them some time. If they are not measuring revenue at all, then I’d find someone else fast.

[stevehl42]

Are you getting any sales/leads from the campaign they’re managing? If you are then I’d say yes, they’re doing their job. It does sound like they’ve done a horrible job managing expectations. Also, it’s a little odd that they’re not sending weekly/monthly reports on the campaign’s KPIs.

[Jazzlike_Award5363]

Honestly, $500/mo is not going to buy you that much personalized attention or Facetime unless you hire someone from overseas (India, LATAM). Also, high-touch and lots of campaigns changes doesn’t necessarily means better management.

IMO, What really matters is if they are bringing value to you business.

What is the value you’re getting in return from those $500 ? Increased revenue coming from your PPC campaigns? Insights you’r leveraging on your business strategy? Training and knowledge?

Marketing services are an investment, and you should evaluate as such.

[fakerrre]

Simple question.

Does your ads bring your enough money to cover your 500 + 800 aud investment?

[landed_at]

You got scammed though as others have said it wasn’t much to pay. Still.

[LaheyPull]

You’re getting duped. You’re a dream client for them at $500/mo because you’re paying your bills, not bugging them, and don’t know enough to know if you’re getting value or not. But they have other clients that are squeaky wheels for them, who are getting the majority of their time and service.

Guarantee someone is just checking off a task of “Change ad copy” every two weeks or so and that’s all the thought they put into your brand.

Should you expect to have a senior with crazy experience for $500/mo? No, probably not. But you might be able to find a pretty good freelancer for that much. No reason to pay an agency at that rate because they for sure are managing 30-50+ other clients.

The things that all client agency relationships should have built into them are:

– Recurring update on results and what actions they’ll be taking (not necessarily a crazy report, but something saying here are the results and here’s what we’re doing to improve and why)

– Clear line of communication to the person managing your account or in charge of your account

– Recurring opportunity to talk directly with them and ask questions.

​

Big red flag that you don’t have any of that and they aren’t making many changes.

[Common_Exercise7179]

Are your results shit, you do not mention these in your post.

[Ahmad_Shahzad]

Your first measure should be the ROI against the spend you are doing including the fee. If you’re getting leads then it’s completely fine. As an agency, they’ll hardly give you personalized attention and preference because you’re not among their top clients. The second measure (if you’re not getting leads) should be to know if they have any plan or strategy around your account- if they do and give you evidence then you should not be worrying too much. However, if they don’t then it’s probably the time to move on before burning more bucks.

My suggestion would be to hire a freelancer instead of an agency- because they are more likely to give better attention to your account and are more likely to bring results. But make sure they are experienced and not newbies- otherwise, they can make it even worse.

[Tom-Thumb-Houston]

It sounds as if your account is being ignored and forgotten because you are “out of sight, out of mind.”
A huge red flag is the fact that you did not hear from them until you called. How much longer would it have been had you not contacted them?

I’m sure that you have access to your advertising account. Look into the account yourself to see what, if anything, has been done. Just make sure not to make any changes to the account, though. iirc, Google Ads has a history tab in which you can see all changes made to the account in chronilogical order. My guess is you will not see any changes to your account in the last two months.

It sounds like you are not getting much in sales for your extra $500 per month. You may be better off to apply the $500 into your ad spend.