What Is a Google Ad Agency?
A Google Ads agency is a company that specializes in the use of paid marketing through the Google Ads advertising platform. Much like how a Google Ads specialist is a marketer that’s specialized in Google Ads as well as PPC in general, a Google AdWords agency is an entire company that’s composed of these marketers.
In essence, it’s nothing more than a marketing company that specializes in running Google Ads campaigns (and even paid ad campaigns on other PPC platforms, like Bing Ads, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads, etc.) for its clients.
The fact that actual Google marketing companies exist, entities that specialize in providing paid advertising services, especially through the Google Ads platform, ought to prove that being a Google Ads specialist is legit, as otherwise it would be impossible to set up an entire company on that business model.
How Does a Google Ad Agency Work?
As we’ve already seen, a Google Ads advertising agency is essentially a company that specializes in managing paid ad campaigns for brands using the Google Ads platform, and other paid advertising platforms. So, in essence, think of it like an organized Google advertising team that composed of multiple paid ad specialists.
As such, a Google Ads management company will have many of the same responsbilities as those of an individual specialist. So, for instance, a Google AdWords company would be contracted in order to manage a brand’s paid ad campaigns, optimize them, and even maybe create new ad campaigns.
They would also be expected to track the progress of their paid ads campaigns, recommend or even create new advertising strategies, carry out test, and create landing pages. All in all, the goal is to minimize ad spend as well as boost acquisitions as much as possible.
How Much Does Google Ads Agency Cost?
Starting an ad agency actually doesn’t cost all that much. There are plenty of businesses out there that cost a heck of a lot more than Google Ads agencies in order to get them off the ground. Naturally, the costs will differ depending on how many employees you are going to hire, but that comes with any business.
However, the base costs of starting a Google Ads company aren’t all that much as all you need is a serviceable laptop or computer and the necessary software to help you out with your PPC marketing. Moreover, you will also need to cover any fees that you might incur when registering your business, as well as costs associated with building your company website and marketing it.
In total, however, you won’t be looking at more than a couple of thousand dollars in order to get going with your Google marketing agency. The biggest cost that you’ll likely have to cover, then, is the cost of hiring your employees as the average Google Ads specialist salary in the US is around $60,000. And that’s just one employee.
Needless to say that as you scale up your enterprise, you’ll need to also increases your costs: other than hiring more PPC specialists, you’ll likely need to hire an accountant, an HR manager, etc.
What Is the Google Partner Program?
If you’d like to set up a Google Ads services agency then you might also be interested in signing up for the Google Partners program. This program is designed by Google for marketers or even agencies that make their livelihood from providing Google Ad management services to clients.
In essence, the Google Partners program provides benefits to these Google Ad agencies or specialists. The program is split into 3 tiers, with the benefits increasing as you climb up the tiers, which are: member, partner, and premier partner. If you’re interested in knowing what the benefits of becoming a Google Partner are, then consult the following table:
| Benefit | Member | Partner | Premier Partner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Education & Insights | |||
| Product education & certifications | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Consumer insights reports | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Product betas | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Access & Support | |||
| Account & technical support | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Executive experiences (Invitation only) | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Dedicated account support (Invitation only) | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
| Recognition & Rewards | |||
| Competitions & rewards | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Promotional offers | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Partner badge | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Directory | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Premier Partner awards | ❌ | ❌ | ✅ |
If you’re now wondering, “so, how do you become a Google Partner?”, we’re going to go over that in the following section.
How to Join the Google Partner Program
The basic steps that you need to take in order to become a member of the Google Partners program is simply to sign up for it. In fact, the process isn’t complicated, and all you need to do is the following:
- Go to the Google Partners website and click on the “Join Google Partners” button.
- Make sure you’re signed in to your Google Ads account and that you have admin access to your company’s Google Ads manager account. Without admin access, you won’t be able to sign up for Google Partners!
- Go over both the terms of service and the disclaimer, and then click on “Accept and continue” once you’re done.
- Select the Google Ads manager account that represents your Google Ads marketing company, and then fill in the required information.
- Click “Save” and you’re done!
How to Become a Google Partner
However, in order to become a Google AdWords Partner, there is a number of requirements that you need to meet, which are: performance, spend, and certifications.
When it comes to performance, you need to maintain an optimization score of at least 70% on your Google Ads manager account. This is to make sure that you can run ad campaigns for your clients as best as you can. On the other hand, when it comes to spend, your account needs to have a 90-day ad spend of $10,000 across all accounts.
Finally, when it comes to certifications, at least half of your employees (or “account strategists”) need to be certified in Google Ads. Moreover, your company needs to have at least a certification in each product area (example, Search, Video, Display, etc.) with an spend of $500 or more in 90 days.
We have already explained the full process of how to get Google Ads certified, so we suggest reading that post at the same time so that you know what’s required. If anything, this is another reason of why getting a Google Ads certification is worth it, since you might enjoy the benefits of the Google Partner program.
How to Become a Premier Partner
Finally, in order to become a Premier Partner, you need to form part of the top 3% of Google Ads companies that are participating in the Google Partners program. The evaluation of whether or not you’re eligible to become a Premier Patner is done every year and is based on the following criteria:
- Growth of Existing Clients: this is the measure of Google Ad companies’ ability to help their clients grow their paid advertising campaigns.
- Clientele Growth: this is the ability of a Google Ad company to obtain new clients.
- Client Retention: the measure of how much Google advertising agencies manage to hold on to their clients.
- Diversity of Services: if Google AdWords companies decide to expand their services beyond search ads, by offering display ad or video ad services, for example, then they’ve met this criterion.
- Ad Spend per Year: this is the measure of how much a Google Ad marketing agency spends on paid ads every year.
How to Start a Google Ad Agency
Starting a marketing agency is very different from the other processes we’ve seen so far, such as how to become a Google Ads freelancer. In fact, as we’ll see, the process involves even more skills than what you need in order to become a Google PPC specialist.
Thankfully, due to the nature of the work and the beauty of the internet, you don’t actually need to rent any office space in order to create a Google Ads management agency. This is great news as it significantly cuts down on your overhead costs. Of course, due to the legal aspects of operating a business, you would still need an address.
It’s beyond our expertise to take you through the legal aspects of registering a new business and so on, so it would be best to consult a lawyer or a legal advisor. And when it comes to tax purposes, it’s best to speak to a financial advisor that will direct you on how to apply for the relevant tax registrations, etc.
Another important step in creating a Google PPC agency is your own personal set-up. What we mean by this is having your own personal equipment in order to be able to work comfortably yourself. This would include things like your own personal computer, monitors, a keyboard, etc.
However, if you’ve already been working as a Google Ads expert before setting up your agency, then your personal set-up would already be done. This would also apply to our next point, and that’s obtaining the necessary Google Ads tools that will help you in your PPC marketing.
Having the necessary tools that will help you in your work is essential as it will save you precious, precious time, and as we all know, time is money. You’ll also need to eventually starting scaling and hiring employees that can help you grow your operations, which also implies having to furnish them with equipment and tools as well.
Naturally, to hire employees you need to be able to tell the difference between a great Google Ads specialist resume, a decent one, and one that’s irredeemably bad. Otherwise, you can also hire fresh faces that are yet to cut their teeth on Google Ads, and you can train them yourself.
Finally, once you have your Google PPC management company and your team set up, you are going to outreach as much as possible and through as many channels as possible. Try to make as many contacts as possible and gain as many Google Ads clients as possible until your business really gains traction.
And never be to proud to accept small jobs: there is no job too small to accept if you’re still trying to make a name for yourself.
How to Run a Google Ads Agency
There are a number of fundamental skills that you need in order to be able to run a successful Google Ads agency. These skills are different from any of the skills you might need to carry out your regular Google Ads specialist jobs, or rather they are additional skills on top of the ones you need as a Google PPC specialist.
This is because not only do you need to be adept at Google Ads and pay-per-click marketing yourself when starting an advertising agency for various reasons (for example, in order to train new staff, measure employee performance, etc.), you also need a handful of other skills in order to operate a successful Google Ads marketing agency.
The first of the skills is the ability to sell your product. Being able to sell the Google AdWords services of your agency to prospective clients is extremely important because, well, without selling anything you won’t have any revenue, and without revenue you won’t be able to sustain your agency. Naturally, that runs counter to your goals.
Moreover, knowing how and how much to charge for Google Ads management is just as important, as not only do you need to be able to sell your services, you also need to know how to price them appropriately in order for clients to be interested.
So, it’s worth investing in your people and sales skills in order to be able to close deals more effectively. And yeah, we know: dealing with people is no fun, which is why many of us prefers hiding behind our laptops. However, the reality is that you need to sell your services as much as you can or otherwise your Google Ads business will just fall by the wayside.
The second skill is arguably the most important out of all the skills and it’s an extension of what we mentioned in the beginning of this section, and that’s niche expertise. So, not only do you need the necessary skills of being a Google AdWords specialist: you also need to be damned good at the job.
As much as possible, you need to be an expert in your niche (which in this case is Google Ads—otherwise, why are you reading our article? 🤨) for a handful of reasons: 1) without expertise, you’ll quickly be figured out as a quack, and 2) knowing your stuff actually helps with the first skill, that of selling your product.
The final skill that we would like to touch upon is less a skill and more of a “personality trait”, and that’s having patience and perseverance. This is because the nature of business is hardly one where you see a lot of growth at once. In fact, you’ll likely hardly any growth for a long time.
However, with enough patience, it’s often the case that all of a sudden, you’ll see sudden, unpredictable growth. And that’s how you know you’ve made it!
How to Run Google Ads for Clients
In order to run Google Ads for your clients you will need to set up a Google Ads agency account, apart from a number of things. This is a centralized platform where you will have access to all of your client’s accounts in one place, which saves the hassle of having to have multiple logins.
With the Google Ad agency account, you essentially have access to your clients’ accounts, billing and payment data, and the performance of their paid ads all in one place. The convenience of having such an account cannot be understated, and its imperative to create one in order to save yourself a lot of time.
The necessary steps of creating a Google Ads agency account are pretty simple:
- Create a Google Account: the first and most obvious step is creating a Google account. You can either use an existing Gmail account or create a new one. Our advice is to create a new one that will reflect your brand.
- Sign Up for Google Ads: with your Google account ready, you can now sign up to use Google Ads. If you’ve already been working with Google Ads, you probably have this down already. Otherwise, you will need to sign up, click on “Expert Mode” when you reach the account type section, and fill in your company details.
- Choose the Correct Account Type: once you’ve registered for Google Ads, you need choose the account type that reflects your business, which would obviously be agency. You can do this by clicking on the gear, selecting “Account Access”, clicking on “Invite Users,” and then select the “Manager Account” option. All that’s left is to fill out the final form.
And you’re done! However, be warned that in order to set up your account you need to pay a $500 setup fee!
How to Start a Google Ads Agency with No Money
Unfortunately, this is next to impossible, and in fact, you have to be ready to spend money in order to get your Google advertising company off the ground. This is because, unlike when you’re working a Google Ads side hustle, there are many necessary costs that are required in order for your Google Ads business to actually get going.
Unlike certain unscrupulous individuals on the internet that enjoy giving bogus advice so long as it generates traffic and clicks, we like to be honest with our readers. And as we said, the sad truth is that to make money, you need to be willing to spend money as well.
However, this doesn’t mean that there is anything you can do in order to minimize your costs as much as possible.
After all, much like how a Google Ads specialist has to make money, you also need to make money yourself as the owner of a Google marketing firm, so cutting costs is ideal. For example, you can try to use free PPC tools or the cheapest ones on the market to reduce costs as much as possible.
Moreover, speak to your financial advisor about anything that you can do in order to receive any tax rebates or anything like that. Finally, you can also start out by subcontracting or partnering up with a white label Google marketing company, so as to not bear the brunt of the costs of setting up a business so much.
Is a Google Ads Agency Worth It?
Much like you need to consider whether becoming a Google Ads specialist is worth it, you also need to consider whether opening a Google advertising agency is worth your while. Well, other than the fact that you need to enjoy working with Google Ads, there are a couple of other things that you need to bear in mind.
The most important consideration you need to keep in mind is whether you can provide the neceessary value to your clients that justifies their contracting you. For example, can you provide added value that other companies don’t have? Do you have a particular specialization that other companies don’t?
Other considerations include whether you can manage to keep up with the developing trends of PPC (for instance, new technologies, new strategies, etc.), and get your entire Google digital marketing agency on board with these changes, and whether you can manage the difficulty of having to deal with clients, not all of whom would be easy to handle.
The above are all “external factors”, in the sense, they are things that depend on how other people perceive your Google Ads PPC agency and how the market forces you to adapt your business model. At the same time, you also need to keep in mind internal factors, such as whether you can take the stresses of operating a business.
As you might easily assume, there are many stresses involved in operating a business, including having to hire complete strangers, training new employees, and even firing people that are holding your business back. And this is not to mention the associated financial stresses!
FAQs
How do I create a Google ad agency?
In order to start your own paid advertising agency business, you need to follow a few steps, which would include: finding your niche in the crowded industry of PPC; marketing your business as much as possible and networking with clients and other marketers; accepting smaller jobs before going for bigger ones; and build your own robust team of well-trained and highly skilled marketers.
How do I start a Google ad business with no experience?
This won’t be particularly easy, but you can technically open up a Google AdWords management agency without having any experience whatsoever in the field. However, it won’t be cheap as you will need to offload many responsibilities to third parties to do the work for you.
For example, you can hire a freelance Google Ads expert in order to manage the campaigns for you, and as a salesperson to reach out to potential clients and close the deals for you.
How do I provide Google Ads services?
To provide Google Ads services, you ought to register for a Google Ads agency account, which would allow you to manage all of your clients’ campaigns in one centralized platform. Then you simply need to market your services, reach out to clients, and try as much as possible to finalize deals in order to get as many clients on board as you and your Google AdWords marketing agency can handle.