Hiring a Google Ads agency is a significant decision. You’re handing over budget, access to your ad accounts, and trusting someone else to represent your brand in paid search. Knowing what to expect makes the difference between a productive partnership and months of frustration.
This guide covers the typical timeline, deliverables, and milestones of the first 90 days with a Google Ads agency — so you can evaluate whether your agency is on track or falling behind.
Key Takeaways
- The first 30 days are about assessment, not results — expect an audit, tracking verification, and strategy development before any optimization begins.
- Meaningful performance improvements typically appear in weeks 6-12 — earlier "results" are often noise or low-hanging fruit fixes.
- Communication cadence matters more than frequency — weekly updates during onboarding, biweekly once stable, with clear KPI reporting.
- Red flags include agencies that promise instant results — or skip the audit phase entirely and jump straight to spending more.
Before You Hire: What Good Agencies Ask
The vetting process tells you a lot. Strong agencies will ask detailed questions before proposing a scope of work:
- What are your business goals (not just ad goals)?
- What’s your current monthly ad spend and target CPA or ROAS?
- Do you have conversion tracking in place, and is it verified?
- What’s your sales cycle length?
- Have you worked with an agency before? What went wrong?
- What does your landing page experience look like?
Agencies that skip these questions and jump straight to “we can improve your account” don’t understand the fundamentals of account management.
Phase 1: Days 1-30 — Discovery and Audit
Week 1: Onboarding
The first week is administrative but important:
- Account access: The agency gets read access (or manager access) to your Google Ads, Google Analytics, and tag management accounts
- Business briefing: A deep-dive call covering your products, services, margins, target customers, and competitive landscape
- Historical data review: The agency pulls performance data for the last 6-12 months to understand trends and baselines
- Tracking verification: Confirming that conversions are firing correctly and attributed properly
Weeks 2-3: Full Account Audit
A thorough audit covers every dimension of the account. The agency should evaluate:
| Audit Area | What They’re Checking |
|---|---|
| Account structure | Campaign organization, ad group logic, naming conventions |
| Keyword health | Match types, search term relevance, negative keyword coverage |
| Ad quality | RSA setup, headline variety, ad relevance to keywords |
| Bidding strategy | Alignment between bid strategy and business goals |
| Conversion tracking | Accuracy, deduplication, attribution model |
| Landing pages | Message match, page speed, conversion rate |
| Competitive landscape | Auction Insights, impression share, competitive positioning |
| Budget efficiency | Spend distribution, wasted spend identification |
For reference on what a proper audit covers, see our Google Ads audit checklist.
Week 4: Strategy and Roadmap
Based on the audit findings, the agency presents:
- Current state assessment: Where the account stands, major issues identified
- Prioritized action plan: What gets fixed first (usually tracking and structural issues)
- 90-day roadmap: Month-by-month objectives with specific KPI targets
- Budget recommendations: Whether current spend is appropriate for goals
This is the most important deliverable of Month 1. If the agency can’t articulate a clear strategy based on data, that’s a problem.
Phase 2: Days 31-60 — Implementation and Quick Wins
Tracking Fixes (If Needed)
If the audit uncovered tracking issues, these get fixed first. Everything else depends on accurate data. Common fixes include:
- Implementing Enhanced Conversions
- Setting up proper conversion values for lead gen
- Fixing duplicate conversion counting
- Implementing Consent Mode v2 for DACH compliance
- Setting up proper tracking infrastructure
Structural Changes
Based on audit findings, the agency restructures the account:
- Separating brand and non-brand campaigns
- Reorganizing ad groups around clear themes
- Implementing proper negative keyword lists
- Adjusting campaign settings (locations, schedules, networks)
Quick Win Optimizations
Some improvements show results quickly:
- Pausing keywords with significant spend but zero conversions
- Adding obvious negative keywords from search term review
- Fixing ad copy that doesn’t match landing page messaging
- Adjusting bids on clearly overpriced or underpriced keywords
- Enabling underused ad extensions
What Results to Expect in Month 2
Be realistic. Month 2 results are usually about efficiency improvements, not dramatic growth:
- Reduced wasted spend (better negative keyword coverage)
- Improved ad relevance (better Quality Scores starting to take effect)
- Cleaner data (accurate tracking = better decisions)
- Modest CPA improvement (5-15% if there was obvious waste)
Phase 3: Days 61-90 — Optimization and Scaling
Advanced Optimization
With the foundation in place, Month 3 is where strategic optimization begins:
- Bid strategy testing: Moving to automated bidding strategies where data supports it
- Ad copy testing: Systematic RSA experiments with controlled variables
- Audience layering: Adding observation audiences and adjusting bids based on performance
- Landing page recommendations: Data-driven suggestions for page improvements
Scaling Decisions
If early results are positive, the agency should recommend scaling strategies:
- Increasing budget on high-performing campaigns
- Testing new campaign types (Performance Max, YouTube, Display remarketing)
- Expanding keyword coverage in proven categories
- Geographic expansion if applicable
Performance Reporting
By Month 3, you should have a clear reporting cadence:
- Weekly: Spend pacing, key metric snapshots, any anomalies
- Monthly: Full performance review against KPIs, with context and next steps
- Quarterly: Strategic review with business impact analysis
What Good Agencies Deliver vs. What Bad Agencies Do
| Good Agency Behavior | Red Flag Behavior |
|---|---|
| Thorough audit before making changes | Starts “optimizing” on day one |
| Sets realistic timeline expectations | Promises results in week one |
| Explains changes and reasoning | Makes changes without communication |
| Focuses on business outcomes (CPA, ROAS) | Reports on vanity metrics (impressions, clicks) |
| Provides access to all accounts and data | Keeps accounts under agency ownership |
| Challenges your assumptions when data supports it | Agrees with everything you say |
| Recommends budget decreases when warranted | Always suggests spending more |
| Transparent about what’s working and what isn’t | Hides poor performance behind cherry-picked metrics |
Agency Costs: What’s Normal
Google Ads agency pricing varies, but here are common models in the DACH market:
Common Pricing Models
- Percentage of ad spend: 10-20% of monthly ad spend (most common)
- Flat monthly retainer: €1,000-€5,000/month depending on account complexity
- Hybrid: Base retainer + performance bonus for exceeding targets
- Setup fee: One-time fee of €500-€2,000 for onboarding and audit
What’s Reasonable for Different Spend Levels
| Monthly Ad Spend | Typical Agency Fee | What You Should Get |
|---|---|---|
| €2,000-€5,000 | €500-€1,000/month | Basic management, monthly reporting |
| €5,000-€15,000 | €1,000-€2,500/month | Active optimization, biweekly reporting |
| €15,000-€50,000 | €2,500-€5,000/month | Strategic management, weekly reporting, A/B testing |
| €50,000+ | €5,000+/month or % of spend | Dedicated team, custom reporting, multi-channel strategy |
Hidden Costs to Watch For
- Tool fees passed through to clients (should be included or disclosed upfront)
- Additional charges for landing page work
- Separate billing for reporting or dashboard setup
- Fees for account restructuring (should be part of onboarding)
Questions to Ask at Each Phase
End of Month 1
- What did the audit reveal as the top three issues?
- What’s the 90-day plan, and how will we measure progress?
- Are there any tracking issues that need fixing before optimization?
End of Month 2
- What changes were made, and what impact are you seeing?
- How much wasted spend was identified and eliminated?
- Are we on track against the 90-day roadmap?
End of Month 3
- How does performance compare to the pre-agency baseline?
- What’s the recommended strategy for the next quarter?
- Are we ready to scale, or do we need to optimize further?
When to Consider Switching Agencies
Some situations warrant a change:
- No audit or strategy: The agency jumped to optimizing without understanding the account
- No communication: You haven’t heard from them in weeks
- Account ownership: They own the accounts and you can’t access them
- No progress: After 90 days, there’s no measurable improvement and no clear explanation
- Metric mismatch: They report on clicks and impressions while you care about CPA and revenue
Making the Partnership Work
The agencies that deliver the best results on Google Ads have clients who are active partners, not passive checkbook holders. Your role:
- Provide business context — Share sales data, margin information, and strategic priorities
- Give timely feedback — Review and approve changes promptly
- Share lead quality data — Tell the agency which leads convert to customers
- Be honest about results — If conversions aren’t turning into revenue, say so
- Set realistic expectations — Give the 90-day plan time to work
For a deeper understanding of performance marketing KPIs and what to track, review our comprehensive KPI guide.
Looking for a Google Ads agency that follows this structured approach? We start every engagement with a thorough audit and a clear 90-day plan. Get in touch to discuss your account.
Sources
- General industry knowledge and direct platform experience
- Google Ads Help Center — account management best practices