Google Ads consulting
An independent Google Ads consultant, for when you need a senior opinion more than another vendor
Consulting for companies that run Google Ads in-house or through an agency and want someone with no stake in the retainer to look at the account, set the strategy, or fix the parts nobody owns.
What a Google Ads consultant does that a manager does not
Management is the weekly work inside the account. Consulting is the layer above it: deciding what the account is for, how it should be structured, what to measure, and whether the people running it are doing the right things. Most companies buy management and get no consulting, because the person running the account has neither the seniority nor the incentive to question the setup they inherited.
I offer Google Ads consulting in three shapes. All of them are delivered by me, in writing and on calls, and none of them require you to move the account.
Strategy and structure
How budget should split across Search, Shopping, Performance Max and YouTube; how campaigns should map to margin, service line and geography; what a realistic cost per customer is given your auction. Delivered as a written plan your team or agency can execute.
Second opinion on an agency or freelancer
You suspect the account is under-managed but cannot prove it. I review the account, the reporting and the invoices, and tell you plainly what is being done well, what is not, and what to ask for. The audit is the formal version of this.
Advisory for in-house teams
A standing monthly or fortnightly session with the person who runs your ads: reviewing changes, unblocking decisions, and building the judgement that courses do not teach. Often called Google Ads coaching; it is closer to a fractional head of paid search.
The problems that usually bring someone to a consultant
- The numbers do not agree. Google Ads reports one conversion count, GA4 another, the CRM a third, and nobody will say which one is real. Until that is fixed, every optimisation decision is built on sand. This is where I start, every time.
- Clicks are cheaper and leads are worse. The account is being optimised towards a metric that is easy to move rather than the one that pays the bills. Usually a conversion action problem, sometimes a bidding strategy problem, occasionally both.
- Spend went up and revenue did not. Broad match and Performance Max expand happily into demand you were already capturing for free, including your own brand. Exclusions and structure fix it; more budget does not.
- The agency report is three pages of green arrows. Impressions up, CTR up, CPC down, and the sales team quietly hiring a second SDR to qualify the leads. A consultant with no retainer to protect reads that report differently.
- A new market, product or platform. Launching in Canada or the UK, adding Shopping, moving from lead forms to booked calls. The decisions made in the first month set the cost base for the next year.
How consulting is priced and delivered
Consulting is either a fixed-price piece of work with a defined deliverable, or an hourly advisory arrangement for teams that want a standing session. Hourly is the right model here and the wrong model for ongoing management, because for management it makes you hesitate before asking a question, which is exactly when accounts drift. The pricing page covers the reasoning.
- Scoping. The form, then a short call if needed, to understand the account, who runs it and what decision you are trying to make.
- Access and review. Read-only access to Google Ads, GA4 and Tag Manager. I read the account the way an auditor reads a ledger: search terms, conversion actions, change history, invoices.
- Written deliverable. A document, not a slide deck. Findings ranked by financial impact, each with the fix, who should do it and how to check it worked.
- Walkthrough and follow-up. One call to go through it with you or your team, and a check-in a month later to see what moved.
Consulting across platforms
Google Ads is where most of the money and most of the mistakes are, but the same questions apply to Meta Ads, Microsoft Advertising and LinkedIn Ads, and to the split between them. A paid search consultant who has never run paid social will always recommend more paid search. I run all four, which makes the budget allocation advice worth something.
Questions people ask before hiring
What is the difference between a Google Ads consultant and a Google Ads manager?
A manager does the weekly work inside the account. A consultant decides what the account should be doing, checks whether it is, and advises the people who run it. I do both, but consulting can be bought on its own without moving the account.
Can you consult on an account my agency runs, without replacing them?
Yes, and it often makes the agency relationship better, because you arrive at the next review with specific questions. I will tell you if the agency is doing a good job; plenty are, and I have no retainer to win by saying otherwise.
Do you offer Google Ads coaching or training?
Yes, as recurring advisory sessions with the person or small team running your ads. It is practical and account-specific rather than a course: we work on your campaigns, your reports and your decisions.
How much does Google Ads consulting cost?
Fixed price for defined deliverables such as a strategy document or an audit, hourly for standing advisory. Both are quoted after scoping. See the pricing page for how each model behaves.
Do you need edit access to consult?
No. Read-only access to Google Ads, GA4 and Tag Manager is enough for the review. Edit access only matters if you want me to implement the fixes, which is a separate decision.
Is a consultant worth it for a small account?
For accounts under a few thousand a month, a single fixed-price audit is the sensible way to buy consulting: one document, one walkthrough, then you or your team implement. Ongoing advisory is for teams with enough spend that a better decision each month pays for the session.
Related services
Tell me about the account
Spend band, site and what is not working. You get a straight answer on whether I can help, what I would do first and a price range. No proposal deck, no sales follow-up sequence.