So you’re a new advertiser, and you’ve been assigned a Google Ads representative.
And you couldn’t be more delighted.
You’re excited to have someone who can answer questions and brainstorm strategy with you.
Before you know it, your new Google rep is offering you all kinds of advice. They even offer to optimize your account for free. How nice!
But before you allow your Google rep to “manage” your account, there’s something you should know: your Google rep is actually a salesperson by another name.
Your Google Ads Rep Works for Google, Not You
Your Google Ads rep isn’t on your payroll.
I’m sure he/she is a very nice person. But they still work for Google.
That’s not to say they’re out to “get” you or rip you off.
But anytime they need to decide between something that helps Google or helps you… you can guess which way the decision will go.
I know this sounds cynical. But it’s rooted in experience.
In the many, many years my team and I have been managing Google Ads for our clients, we have yet to hear good things after a Google rep “helped.”
Sometimes it’s so bad, I can log in to a new client’s account and see the fingerprints of Google reps all over it.
And not in a good way.
Can’t You Just Follow Recommended Settings?
So if you can’t rely on your Google rep, what are your options?
Because going it alone isn’t recommended either.
Google makes it extremely easy for new advertisers to sign up and start advertising immediately.
But they’re also good at making default and recommended settings that are great for Google but not great for you.
You can also get your account suspended in record time if you don’t know what you’re doing.
We described the dangers of accepting all of Google’s recommendations in this article.
In it, we looked at four Google recommendations to achieve “100% optimization.”
Of those four recommendations, two had some potential, one looked iffy, and one was bonkers.
Considering that one bad setting can throw your whole account out of whack, this is scary.
This doesn’t mean that Google’s recommendations are useless. In fact, some of my team members like to use them as a way to double-check that they haven’t missed anything.
But this only works if you really, really know what you’re doing—because about 50 to 75% of the time, Google’s recommendations are bunk.
Google Does Little to Foster Confidence
It also doesn’t help that Google has a bad habit of springing nasty surprises on advertisers—surprises that also catch Google reps unaware.
As a recent example, Google has started auto applying its recommendations without warning.
The change was announced in January 2019… but then nothing happened.
Until a few weeks ago that is, when some advertisers found themselves opted into settings that were automatically adding new keywords to their accounts, causing them to blow through their budgets.
These sneaky little changes (with potentially devastating impacts) do little to foster confidence in Google or its reps.
So What ARE Your Options?
So back to your options.
In a best-case scenario, you could choose to work with a reputable agency.
If having an agency manage your accounts isn’t within your budget, ask about other options.
At Group Twenty Seven, for example, we offer consulting and audit services as well as PPC partnership services.
We may be able to work out an arrangement that helps ensure you’re not led down the garden path by your Google rep… while also staying within your budget.
And even if you do nothing more than bring in a PPC pro to audit your account every few months, it’s still way better (and probably cheaper) than putting yourself in the hands of your Google rep.
