Google Ads Consultant vs Agency: Which One Is Right for Your Business
Agency or freelance consultant for Google Ads? There's no universal answer. Here's the honest breakdown with the criteria that actually matter.
In this article
There’s a question I get asked almost every week: “What would you recommend — an agency or a consultant?”
And the honest answer is: it depends. But not on what most people think it depends on.
It doesn’t depend on the size of your company. It doesn’t depend on your budget. And it certainly doesn’t depend on who has the most impressive portfolio or the most polished presentation.
It depends on something far more concrete: who is going to sit in front of your Google Ads account on Monday morning, what level of experience they have, and how many other accounts they’re managing at the same time.
I’ve worked inside agencies. I’ve been the consultant people call when something isn’t working. I’ve audited accounts that had been in the hands of five-person teams for months, with nobody able to tell you what was actually going on. And I’ve also seen agencies do excellent work with large budgets and complex projects.
This post isn’t an attack on agencies. It’s an analysis of when each option makes sense, using real criteria — not the ones sold to you in a commercial proposal.
The real question you should be asking
When someone tells me “I’m evaluating agencies”, the first thing I do is reframe the question.
The question isn’t “agency or consultant?”. The question is: who will manage my account day to day?
It sounds like the same thing, but it isn’t. When you hire an agency, you’re not hiring the director who gave you the presentation. You’re hiring an account manager who is probably handling between 15 and 40 active accounts simultaneously. Someone who might have two years of experience, who rotates between clients constantly, and whose incentives are very different from yours.
This isn’t a criticism. It’s the operational reality of how most mid-sized agencies work. And understanding it completely changes how you should evaluate your options.
Google Ads management requires sustained attention. Getting the campaigns set up well at the start isn’t enough. You have to read the signals, adjust bids, spot anomalies, test new creatives, review audience segments, and interpret algorithm changes. That’s done by a person, not an agency. And that person matters.
How an agency works from the inside
I’ll be direct here, because there’s very little transparency about this.
A typical digital marketing agency works like this:
The sale is made by someone senior. The director, the founder, the head of paid media. That person knows what they’re doing, understands the industry, has real case studies. They’re the ones who convince you.
The execution is handled by someone junior. Once you sign, your account moves to an account manager or a specialist who is working their way up. They’re not bad people, but their experience is limited and their workload is high.
Turnover is constant. Agencies have a high staff turnover rate. It’s common for the person managing your account in January to no longer be there in March. That means someone new has to get up to speed on your business, your history, and your accumulated learnings.
Margins push towards standardisation. For an agency to be profitable at €1,500–€2,500 per month per client, the time they can dedicate to you is limited. That pushes towards standard processes, templates, and less real personalisation.
The fee doesn’t reflect the ad spend. An agency charging 10–15% of budget on €3,000/month in spend takes home €300–450. With that, the actual time they can give you amounts to a few hours per month. The economic incentive doesn’t always align their interests with yours.
None of this is dishonest in itself. It’s a business model. But you need to understand it before you sign.
What a freelance consultant does differently
An independent Google Ads consultant works differently. Not out of virtue, but because of structure.
Direct access. When you have a question, you speak to the person managing your account. There’s no account manager in between, no ticketing system, no waiting for the monthly meeting. That speeds up decisions and reduces errors from missing context.
Deeper specialisation. A freelancer typically works across fewer accounts and often specialises in one channel (Google Ads, Meta Ads) or one type of business (e-commerce, B2B, local services). That specialisation has real value when it’s applied to your account.
No agency overhead. You’re not paying for the structure, the offices, the sales team, or the intermediary margins. What you pay goes towards managing your account.
Continuity. Your account is managed by the same person for months or years. That builds accumulated knowledge which has enormous value — and which gets lost with an agency every time the account manager changes.
Aligned incentives. A freelance consultant’s business depends on renewals and word of mouth. Their business is built on results and long-term relationships. Their interests and yours point in the same direction.
What a consultant doesn’t have: their own multidisciplinary team. If you need design, copy, web development, and SEO coordinated together, a single person can’t cover everything. They may have a network of collaborators, but that’s not the same as having everything under one roof.
Direct comparison: agency vs consultant
| Criteria | Agency | Freelance consultant |
|---|---|---|
| Price (monthly management) | €1,500–€5,000+ | €600–€2,500 |
| Who manages your account | Account manager (may change) | The consultant, always |
| Access and communication | Scheduled meetings, account manager | Direct, more agile |
| Ads specialisation | Variable (depends on the team) | High (if well chosen) |
| Scalability of services | High (SEO, creative, web…) | Limited without collaborator network |
| Team turnover | Frequent | No turnover |
| Account transparency | Variable (some don’t share access) | Full access, always |
| Accumulated knowledge | Lost with turnover | Grows over time |
| Minimum commitment | 6–12 months typical | Generally more flexible |
| Ideal for | Large budgets, multi-channel | SMEs, B2B, mid-range budgets |
By business type: when each option makes sense
Startups and SMEs with under €5,000/month in ad spend
With budgets below €5,000 per month, the agency model rarely fits well. The fee a decent agency charges represents a high percentage of your investment, and the time you receive in return is scarce.
What you need at this stage is someone who knows your account well, who can talk to you when something comes up, and who isn’t spread across 30 clients. A consultant who specialises in SMEs makes more economic and operational sense.
Small accounts managed well by a senior profile outperform small accounts managed poorly inside a large agency. The size of the provider doesn’t compensate for a lack of attention.
Growing e-commerce that needs a multidisciplinary team
If you have an e-commerce business that’s scaling and you need to coordinate Google Ads, Meta Ads, email marketing, SEO, and creative production in an integrated way, an agency with a full team may make sense. The complexity justifies the structure.
The key is choosing carefully: look for an agency that’s transparent about who manages each channel, gives you full access to your accounts, and has a real track record with e-commerce in your sector. Don’t settle for a generic portfolio.
B2B with a long sales cycle
B2B has its own logic in Google Ads. Cycles are long, conversion volumes are low, and lead quality matters far more than volume. That requires a very different kind of management to e-commerce.
I’ve seen generalist agencies damage B2B accounts by applying the same logic they use with their e-commerce clients. A consultant who specialises in B2B knows the right levers: intent-based targeting, remarketing strategies for long cycles, CRM integration to optimise by real lead value rather than generic cost per lead.
Large business with multiple markets or channels
A multinational with a presence in several countries, tens of thousands of euros in monthly spend, and a need for coordination across markets needs a structure that an individual consultant can’t provide. Here the scale justifies the agency — or better yet, an in-house team with external support for specific needs.
The signs your current agency isn’t working
There are clear signs. Some are obvious. Others you normalise until someone from outside points them out to you.
You don’t know who manages your account. If you’ve had two or more different account managers in the last six months, that’s a real problem. Every change means weeks of lost context and avoidable mistakes.
You don’t have access to your own campaigns. If the agency manages from its own Google Ads accounts and you can’t log in to see the data, that’s a red flag. Your data, your history, your audiences are yours. Always.
The reports look great but don’t answer questions. A 15-page report with colourful graphs that doesn’t explain why ROAS dropped in February is useless. If you can’t ask a follow-up question and get a concrete answer, something is wrong.
Proposals never arrive unless you ask for them. If you always initiate communication, if you never receive a new test or an unprompted analysis, the account is on autopilot.
Results have been flat for months and nobody has a hypothesis. You can’t always improve. But there should always be a hypothesis, a test running, an explanation with context. Silence isn’t management.
You’re being charged for tools you’ve never heard of. Some contracts include fees for third-party tools that the client never sees or uses. Ask for an explanation of every line you’re paying for.
What to ask before hiring
Whether you’re evaluating an agency or a consultant, these questions will quickly separate those who know their stuff from those who just present well.
For an agency:
- Who will manage my account exactly? Ask for the name, their experience, and how many accounts they’re currently handling.
- What happens if that person leaves the agency? How do you manage the transition?
- Do I have owner-level access to my Google Ads account from day one?
- What proportion of the fee goes to active management hours versus overhead and tools?
- Can you show me results from clients similar to mine — not just CTR figures?
- How do you measure success? Do you optimise for cost per conversion, ROAS, pipeline value?
For a consultant:
- How many accounts are you currently managing? There’s no magic number, but more than 10–12 active accounts at the same time starts to be a signal.
- What is your specialisation? A profile that’s too generalist can indicate limited depth in each channel.
- How do you structure reporting and how often will we be in contact?
- What tools do you use, and who pays for what?
- Can I speak to a current client as a reference?
- If results don’t improve within 3 months, what process do you follow?
Anyone who avoids giving concrete answers, who steers towards generic success stories, or who asks you nothing about your business before making a proposal — those are signals.
Honest conclusion
There’s no universal answer. There is the right answer for your situation.
With a budget below €5,000–€8,000 per month, or if you’re in B2B with a complex sales cycle, a freelance consultant who specialises in Google Ads will probably get you better results than a mid-sized agency. If you’re scaling with a large e-commerce and need to coordinate several channels, a well-chosen agency may be what makes sense.
What never works is hiring whoever presents best, without knowing who will actually manage your account day to day. That’s the decision that costs you most in the end.
I’ve managed accounts that had gone through three agencies in two years with no sustained improvement. In every one of those cases, the problem wasn’t the budget or the sector. It was the lack of real attention and continuity.
If you’re evaluating options right now, a 30-minute call can give you more clarity than weeks of comparing proposals.
We’ll review your current situation together — what’s working, what isn’t, and what kind of management makes most sense for your business right now. No pressure, no sales pitch.
Frequently asked questions
When is a freelance consultant better than an agency?
Below €5,000–€8,000/month in ad spend, agency retainers typically consume a disproportionate share of the budget. Also when the sales cycle is long or the product is technical (B2B, SaaS, professional services): a consultant who spends time understanding your account will outperform a junior rotating between 20 accounts at an agency.
How do I verify a consultant’s actual experience before signing?
Ask for temporary read-only access to past accounts (with anonymised data if needed) and review the change history. Ask about cases where something did NOT work — a consultant who only shows wins doesn’t have a rigorous process. Verify certifications (Google Partner, Google Ads Search Certified, CXL) on the official websites, not just logos on their page.
What’s typically included in a monthly consultant retainer?
Active campaign management (bid, keyword, audience and creative optimisation), monthly reporting with concrete recommendations, weekly search-term analysis, direct email or call access. What’s NOT usually included: creative design, landing-page copywriting, technical development. Those are additional scoped projects.
Does a consultant work in agency accounts or only in my own account?
A serious consultant always works in your account, not in an agency account. If they say “we’ll create the account for you”, ask who the legal owner is. Agency accounts mean that if the relationship ends, you don’t take the conversion history, audiences or Smart Bidding data with you. That portability is one of the structural advantages of working with a freelance.
How do I transition from agency to consultant without losing data?
Request administrator access to your Google Ads account (not an invitation as a user into their MCC). Verify that conversion tags are installed on your own GA4 and GTM properties, not on the agency’s. If they use an agency account, request a full export of the history before closing the contract — it’s your contractual right in most jurisdictions.
Could your ad campaigns
perform better?
30 minutes to review your situation and tell you exactly what I would change. No pitch, no sales proposal.