A physio clinic owner posted on Reddit with a worry. They’d used the same Google Ads agency for six years. Ad spend was about £1,850 a month. The agency took 20% on top, roughly £370.
The owner went into the account’s change history. The agency had hardly touched anything in months.
“Is my agency scamming me?”
If a mate showed me that, here’s what I’d tell them.
The change history won’t tell you
At face value, no, that doesn’t prove you’re being ripped off.
The change history only shows changes. It doesn’t show competitor research. It doesn’t show someone pulling data, weighing up a change, checking it, and deciding against it. Good work often looks like nothing happened.
It cuts the other way too. Some agencies make lots of small changes as busy work. It makes the account look busy and justifies the fee.
So ask a simpler question first. Are the results good? Are you happy with them?
If yes, that’s probably why there are so few changes. It’s working. A small account also has fewer things worth changing. And the agency might be waiting on you. Maybe for ad copy feedback, or some missing information.
That said, I’d expect some changes most weeks. Things like:
- Negative keywords added from the search terms
- Ad copy updated
- New keywords tested
- A new campaign type or bid strategy tested, if volume and budget allow
- Losing assets, like weak image extensions, paused and new ones added
The red flags that matter
None of these prove you’re being ripped off. Each one is worth asking about.
You don’t own the ad account
If the agency owns it, you can’t leave and take your data with you. Years of data on what works is worth its weight in gold. Lose it and the next person starts from scratch.
Fees hidden inside the ad spend
This usually goes with the agency owning the account. You pay one monthly sum and they split it.
I’ve heard of plenty of owners paying £2,000 a month. They think it’s £500 in fees and £1,500 in ads. In reality it’s the other way round.
Another version: the agency chases cheap, low-quality clicks. It hits the click numbers you expect and keeps the difference.
The fix is simple. You pay Google directly, from your own account, and the agency invoices separately for its fee.
Reports full of clicks and impressions
A report of clicks, impressions and click-through rate tells you nothing about your business. You need leads, qualified leads, quotable leads, quote values and sales.
A good freelancer or agency raises this with you. They connect to your CRM and automate a monthly report you can both see. That depends on you sharing the data, of course.
The salesperson disappears
You speak to someone great on the sales call. You sign up and never hear from them again. Your account goes to a junior with 20, 30 or 40 other accounts. They can give yours a little time each week.
A contract you can’t get out of
A 6 or 12 month tie-in doesn’t automatically mean trouble. But it’s a common habit of the agencies you’d want to avoid. I don’t use them.
Three questions to ask your agency this week
You don’t need to understand ad copy, campaign structure or bid strategies. These three questions go from what people searched to the jobs you won.
Ask for the last 90 days. A longer range gives a fairer picture.
1. Send me the search terms that got clicks. You want each search term with its clicks and impressions. Some are hidden for privacy reasons, so you won’t see them all. You’ll see enough.
2. Explain simply what we count as a conversion. Is it forms, calls or both? If calls, is there a minimum call length? Can I see the numbers that called? Are there recordings and transcripts? Can each form be traced back to the campaign that sent that visitor?
3. How many of those leads reached our CRM, and which were quoted and sold? This one needs your own records. Some of my clients won’t share CRM access, and that’s where the trail stops.
A decent agency can pull these together quickly. If they can’t, they should have a very good reason.
Vague answer to question two? Read why Google can report 50 leads when you got none.
When to get an independent audit
Not the first time something feels off. That can just happen. You raise it and get an answer. It might be a bit of a fob-off, or it might be genuine.
If it happens again soon after, get a second pair of eyes on the account. Even if nothing’s wrong, you’ll know you’re not missing opportunities.
An independent Google Ads audit checks all of the above. It’s done by someone with no reason to protect the current setup.
How to leave cleanly
You should know from day one whether you own the account. Do you have admin access? Do you pay Google directly, or does the agency?
If you decide to move, put your own email address on everything as an admin:
- Google Ads
- Google Analytics
- Lead tracking and call tracking
- Any spreadsheets holding your lead data
- Google Tag Manager, if it’s been used
Before handover day, check you can actually log in to each one. Then remove the old agency. Then decide what’s next.
Comparing what you pay with what you get? See what Google Ads costs a small UK trade business. It covers what each price level should include.