Google Ads Expert Agency in the USA: How to Choose One, and What They Should Fix in Your Account First

Rule one: you own the account

Before anything else, the Google Ads account should be in your name, on your payment method, with the agency given access. Some agencies run clients inside their own accounts so that leaving means starting from zero. That is not management; it is a hostage arrangement. The same goes for Google Analytics, Tag Manager, call tracking numbers and landing pages.

Ask who owns each of these before you sign. An expert agency will say "you do" without hesitation.

The five places money leaks

1. Conversion tracking. Counting page views, button clicks or duplicate form fires as conversions makes Smart Bidding chase the wrong thing. Primary conversions should be real leads, calls over a set duration or purchases, ideally with values. See our enhanced conversions guide.

2. Search terms. Broad match and AI Max expand into searches you never meant to buy: jobs, DIY, competitors, free. A weekly search terms review with shared negative lists is basic hygiene. The new AI Max search terms report makes this easier.

3. Location settings. The default "presence or interest" option shows ads to people merely interested in your area. For local services, use "presence" only.

4. Network and channel defaults. Search partners and the Display Network attached to Search campaigns often bring cheap, low-quality traffic. The new channel prioritisation controls let you cap them.

5. Automated assets. Google now adds automatically created assets and, from October 2026, automated promotions for some accounts. Check what is running in your name.

AI Max, Performance Max and how much control to keep

Google's automation is good at finding conversions; it is not good at knowing which conversions make you money. Performance Max and AI Max work well when they receive qualified-lead or revenue signals, a clean product feed for e-commerce, brand exclusions, negative keywords and URL exclusions, and a budget large enough to learn.

For lead generation with modest budgets, a well-structured Search campaign on exact and phrase match, with tight negatives and call extensions, often beats Performance Max. For e-commerce with a good feed, Performance Max and Shopping usually do the heavy lifting. An expert decides per account rather than following whatever Google recommends this quarter. See our earlier guide to PMax for lead generation.

What the first 30 days should look like

Days 1 to 7: audit and tracking. Review account structure, conversion actions, attribution settings, search terms from the last 90 days, location and network settings, automated assets and landing pages. Fix tracking first, because every later decision depends on it: primary conversions should be leads, qualified calls or purchases, with enhanced conversions switched on.

Days 8 to 14: stop the leaks. Add negative keyword lists, tighten location targeting to presence only for local services, cap or remove low-quality networks, review automated assets, and pause campaigns that spend without converting. Most accounts see wasted spend fall in this fortnight alone.

Days 15 to 30: rebuild what matters. Restructure Search campaigns around services and intent, write ads that state the offer and the reason to choose you, add call and location assets, and set bidding to the conversion that matters. For e-commerce, clean the product feed and segment Shopping or Performance Max by margin. Agree the reporting format and the monthly review rhythm.

After the first month, the work becomes steady optimisation: search terms weekly, ad and landing page tests, bid and budget changes based on qualified outcomes, and a clear monthly plan. If an agency's first month looks like "we launched some campaigns", that is not management.

Questions to ask before you hire

Who will actually work on my account, and how many accounts do they manage? How do you define a conversion for my business? How often do you review search terms? What will you change in the first 30 days? How do you report, and on what metric? What does it cost, and is the fee tied to my ad spend? Can I see an example report?

A good answer is specific and slightly uncomfortable: it names what is probably wrong in your account. A bad answer is a promise of a cost per lead before anyone has looked at your data. We will not quote one, because anyone who does is guessing. Our guide on choosing an agency has more questions, and how to audit your own ad account lets you check first.

Mistakes we see in almost every audit

Brand campaigns bidding on the business name at high cost with no competitors present. Call extensions running 24 hours a day when nobody answers after 6 pm. Ads sending every click to the home page instead of a page for that service. Smart Bidding switched on with fewer than 15 conversions a month, so the system has nothing to learn from. Ad schedules and locations copied from a template that has nothing to do with where the business works. Each is easy to fix, and together they often account for a fifth or more of the spend. None of them needs a bigger budget, only someone looking at the account every week.

Google Ads costs differ hugely by state

Google Ads is an auction, and US states are very different auctions. California, New York, Illinois and New Jersey sit at the expensive end, with Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and Newark among the costliest metros for service keywords. Texas and Georgia are mid-cost overall but vary sharply between metros. Florida has high costs in real estate, legal and healthcare around Miami, Orlando and Tampa. Lower-cost states such as Ohio or Tennessee let a modest budget cover several metros properly. Each state page on our site describes its auction, and each of our Google Ads location pages covers that state. Home service businesses can start from our lead generation pages.

Frequently asked questions