Google Ads agency red flags — and what you can actually verify
Most advice on "how to spot a bad PPC agency" is opinion — one agency's blog post telling you what another agency does wrong. Some of it is useful, and we cite it below with names, dates, and a disclosure of who's selling what. But underneath the opinions sit things that aren't opinion at all: Google Ads' own documentation defines who can own an account, what each access level lets a user do, and how conversion tracking works. This guide separates the two — what you can check against Google's own pages, and what practitioners say from experience.
What you can verify before signing
These aren't red flags by themselves — they're facts checkable against Google's own documentation, independent of what any agency tells you.
| Criterion | How to check it | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Your own access level | Ask what access level you get. Google defines five tiers — Email-only, Billing, Read-only, Standard, Admin — and only Admin-level users can grant, change, or revoke another user's access. | Google Ads Help, "About access levels" |
| Who owns the account | Ask whether the agency built the account (owner by default) or was only linked to an existing one (not owner by default). "A client account can only have one owner." | Google Ads Help, "About ownership" |
| Whether it runs under a manager account (MCC) | "A manager account enables you to link and manage multiple separate Google Ads accounts from one location" — the normal agency mechanism, not itself a red flag. | Google Ads Help, "About manager accounts" |
| Whether you can move the account yourself | "You need to log in with Admin access to the current paying manager account in order to transfer your client account." Once submitted, "the new agency will have 7 days to approve or deny the request." | Google Ads Help, "Transfer to another agency" |
| Whether the outgoing agency can move it for you | The previous agency can initiate a "Change Who Pays" transfer; the account must link to the new manager within 7 days or ads stop. Flagged by Google as still in beta. | Google Ads Help, "Transfer an existing client account" |
| What happens if you unlink | Requires Admin access. "The individual account won't lose its own account campaign history or access to any Google Ads features." Monthly-invoice billing stops if the outgoing agency was the paying manager. | Google Ads Help, "About unlinking" |
| Whether conversion tracking actually exists | Ask to see the conversion actions created, and confirm a Google tag is installed — both concrete, checkable facts. | "About conversion measurement", "Set up web conversions" |
None of this means lacking Admin access, for example, makes an agency bad-faith — that inference is ours to draw, not Google's. But every row above is checkable yourself, independent of any sales conversation.
Red flags, and what's actually behind them
The items below come from named practitioners with a stake in the answer — most run or sell to competing agencies. Treat them as informed, not neutral.
Guaranteed results
Jack Goldsmith, founder of the UK PPC agency Social Surge, writing on the agency's own blog (published 9 July 2026), is blunt: "Nobody can guarantee rankings or ROAS. Guarantees are a sales tactic aimed at people who don't know that." Goldsmith runs a competing agency built on flat-fee, no-lock-in management — his red-flag list describes exactly what his own service claims to avoid.
No account ownership or admin access
The same Goldsmith post: "Some agencies run your advertising inside their ad accounts, or grant you a filtered dashboard instead of real platform access." His conclusion — "[y]ou should own your ad accounts, and you should have admin access to them" — lines up with the verifiable ownership and access-level facts in the table above.
No conversion tracking set up
Linda Puchyr, writing on the JumpFly Digital Marketing Blog (published 10 December 2021), lists "Conversion Tracking not Set Up" as the first of 11 named signs a client needs a new PPC agency. JumpFly is itself a PPC agency implicitly pitching a switch; the article is also nearly five years old, so its more tactical items (ad formats, extensions) may be dated even where structural ones like tracking still hold.
Vanity-metric reporting
Jay Kang, writing on the Swydo blog (published 10 June 2026), defines the problem: "Vanity metrics are numbers that go up reliably but don't change a single business decision." He adds: "Followers, impressions, traffic, opens, page views — they make the report look impressive while the client's revenue line stays flat." His estimate: "Most agency reports in 2026 fail that test on at least three rows." Swydo sells reporting software, so the piece has a vendor angle. Goldsmith frames the same test more bluntly: "If your monthly report leads with impressions, reach, clicks or 'engagement', ask yourself one question: can I pay my suppliers with any of those?"
Long contract lock-ins
Goldsmith again: "Six-month and twelve-month minimum terms are sold as 'commitment to the strategy'." His read: "An agency on a 12-month lock-in gets paid whether it performs or not; its retention team is its legal department." Fair or not in every case, it's worth asking directly: what happens if you want out in month two?
Percentage-of-spend without disclosure
Addressed in full below — a structural incentive question, not just a checklist item.
What Google itself says about guarantees
Google's own Advertising Policies name "Guaranteeing top placement in Google Ads or organic Google Search results" as a prohibited claim. The broader rule: "You must not use false or unrealistic claims to entice customers, especially when suggesting results that are improbable or cannot be guaranteed." A separate policy page adds: "If you guarantee certain results, you're required to have a clear and easily accessible refund (money-back) policy." And: "Testimonials that claim specific results must include a visible disclaimer stating that there is no guarantee of specific results and that the results can vary."
Scope matters: this policy governs what an advertiser may say inside a Google ad itself — not what a salesperson can promise on a call or in a proposal. It's the closest on-point official statement available: Google won't let an agency run an ad claiming guaranteed top placement, even though the same claim sometimes gets made off-platform.
Adjacent to this — but about organic search, not paid ads — Google's Search Central guidance for businesses hiring an SEO states: "No one can guarantee a #1 ranking on Google." It adds: "If they guarantee you that their changes will give you first place in search results, find someone else." That page is about organic SEO, not Google Ads — don't read it as Google's position on paid-search guarantees specifically.
Why clients leave agencies
Two independent surveys look at why client-agency relationships end — neither PPC-specific, both general-agency, so read as directional context, not Google Ads data.
Digiday Research surveyed 73 client-side marketing executives (published 13 May 2019, seven years old). Headline finding: "77% of 73 client-side marketers said underperforming or low-quality campaigns was a key reason why" they ended an agency relationship. Cost mattered too — "forty-five percent of respondents said they left agencies for a cheaper alternative" — and so did billing: "twenty-six percent of marketers ended agency work due to hidden fees," and "29% due to overbilling."
Setup® surveyed more than 300 marketers on both the agency and client side (published 20 February 2024). It found a structural disconnect: clients rank "Dissatisfaction with value" and "Dissatisfaction with delivery" as their #1 and #2 reasons for ending a relationship — but agencies rank those same two reasons 8th and 9th least important, instead believing budget cuts and leadership changes (which clients rank 4th and 8th) drive departures. Agencies and clients often disagree about why a relationship failed, even after it has.
The incentive question: percentage-of-spend billing
A percentage-of-ad-spend fee ties agency revenue to spend, not necessarily to performance. Sagapixel's own pricing page — itself an agency — states it plainly: "They want you to increase your ad spend so that their revenue goes up," warning that "this model can lead to a PPC manager becoming complacent over time" and that "you run the risk of having someone unmotivated to get the most out of your account."
John Doherty, founder of the agency-matching marketplace Credo, makes the same argument independently, in an article last updated 17 July 2023: "Incentives are misaligned from the jump. This rarely leads to a longlasting client-agency relationship." He continues: "As a business owner, you're incentivized to maximize every dollar of your spend and to spend as little as possible. As a digital agency, the goal is to get your clients to spend more, even if it may not in their best interest." Credo profits from matching clients with agencies generally, not from this pricing model specifically — a more independent take than a competing agency's own blog.
Fair counter-argument: a percentage model scales the fee with account size and complexity, so a large, fast-growing account isn't stuck on a flat fee sized for a smaller one. That explains why some agencies still choose and disclose it upfront — it doesn't remove the incentive conflict Sagapixel and Doherty both describe.
Questions to ask on the first call
Each of these maps directly to a criterion above that you can independently verify afterward:
- What access level will I have — and what does that tier actually let me do?
- Will you build the account from scratch, or link to one I already own? Who is the owner by Google's definition?
- Is my account linked to your manager account (MCC)?
- If I want to leave, can I initiate the transfer myself, or does it require you to act first?
- Is conversion tracking already set up — can you show me the conversion actions and tag directly, not just a screenshot?
- Is your fee flat, percentage-of-spend, or hourly — and if percentage, how do you handle the spend-incentive conflict?
- What's the minimum contract term, and what happens if I want out early?
- How many rows on your monthly report tie to revenue or leads, not just clicks or impressions?
How we handle these
We're a small, founder-led remote team, not a large agency — said plainly so nothing above reads as more than it is. On the specific points this guide covers: campaigns run in an account you own, with admin access staying with you. Pricing is published in full, flat by plan (from €349/month), no percentage-of-spend, no markup on ad spend. Every plan is month-to-month — no long lock-in. Conversion tracking and Tag Manager setup are included, not an upsell. Reporting is a monthly PDF built around numbers that move a business, not impressions alone. None of this is a guarantee about outcomes — it's a description of how the account and relationship are structured, verifiable against the checklist above. Background on the track record behind these numbers is on the about page; for the full pricing breakdown, see our Google Ads agency pricing guide. To ask these questions directly, our contact page has the details.
Frequently asked questions
Is it normal for an agency to run my account inside their own manager account (MCC)? Yes — that's Google's standard mechanism for agencies to "link and manage multiple separate Google Ads accounts from one location." What matters is who owns the underlying client account and what access level you personally hold.
Can I take my account with me if I switch agencies? Yes, in most cases. Unlinking "won't lose its own account campaign history or access to any Google Ads features," though monthly-invoice billing stops if the outgoing agency was your paying manager.
Does Google allow agencies to guarantee results? Google's advertising policy prohibits "guaranteeing top placement in Google Ads or organic Google Search results" as a claim made inside an ad. That governs ad copy, not a sales call — but it signals Google itself treats the claim as unreliable.
Is a percentage-of-ad-spend fee always a bad sign? Not automatically — it scales the fee with account size, and some agencies disclose the trade-off openly. The documented concern, from both Sagapixel and Credo's John Doherty, is the built-in incentive to grow your spend regardless of performance.
What's the single most useful thing I can check before signing? Account ownership and your own access level — both defined precisely by Google ("A client account can only have one owner," tiers from Email-only to Admin) and both things you can ask to see, not just be told about.
Sources: Google Ads Help and Google Advertising Policies Help (evergreen pages, retrieved 2026-08-05); Social Surge (Goldsmith, 9 July 2026); JumpFly (Puchyr, 10 December 2021); Swydo (Kang, 10 June 2026); Digiday Research (13 May 2019, n=73); Setup® (20 February 2024, n=300+); Sagapixel and Credo (Doherty, updated 17 July 2023). See also our pricing guide or explore more strategy guides.