When Hiring A Google Ad's Person, What Should You Ask?

Season #8

When Hiring A Google Ad's Person, What Should You Ask?  

00:00 Introduction
02:11 Key Questions to Ask a Google Ads Specialist
05:34 Importance of Experience and Case Studies
09:00 Setting Up and Managing Campaigns
12:47 Understanding Tag Manager and Analytics
18:23 Avoiding Common Pitfalls

[00:00:00] We are here today. We are talking about hiring. We're talking about Google ads. Cause it's a great topic.

[00:00:05] And Rina and I got into this topic. Discussion about, what kind of questions should you ask a Google ads person and yeah, so take it over for a second. I'm going to make sure Rina introduce yourself. Thank you. My name is Rina Little from Little Works Indie Media, and we run a little agency in Vancouver, but I happen to be in Maple Bay at the moment.

[00:00:29] Oh, [00:00:30] yeah, Maple Bay. And there is a user that asked us specifically to make sure they got tagged in the Facebook live. So their name is, if I could bring up my, I'll tag them up. They're going to be so disappointed if I don't tag them up, because I said I would. Give me one second. So Reena, You have a lot of Facebook clients or Google ads clients.

[00:00:56] You do lots of ads, right? Yeah. [00:01:00] I do, it's true. And one of the, there are a couple of things that clients always come to me with, and, it goes in two directions and this is relevant to Facebook ads too. It's. It's they'll have tried Google ads. They may have even tried Google ads a couple of times.

[00:01:19] They may have done it themselves. They may have had providers, but it hasn't worked. And so we get this. It doesn't work. It doesn't work for our business stance. And, [00:01:30] and that just makes me think a lot about it. In terms of what should you be asking your provider that you're, interviewing to find out and figure out if they're going to be the right fit for you.

[00:01:43] Because, The Google ads only work if they are done by somebody who has experience and who has strategy and who understands and has can do them. And it's actually a really easy. Maybe [00:02:00] not so easy, but it's pretty, it's not that hard to get yourself organized to go through the program, take a couple of courses and hang your shingle out and say that you're a Google ads expert.

[00:02:13] When the you're using the Google wizard or the Facebook wizard to set up your campaigns and or you're using the boost post. So I think that. Figuring out who you're working with is the first thing and what to ask for. So this is where we're [00:02:30] going. And the best example that I have for this, why this is so important is because I had one client come to me a few years ago.

[00:02:40] And he had tried Google ads a couple of times. He had his heart set on social media. He wanted social media management. He thought that was going to be the thing. And and I convinced him to take a small Google's Google ads management package out with us. And I bundled it in with a bunch of other stuff that he was looking for.

[00:02:59] And he [00:03:00] said, yes. And we grew his business online e commerce business from 55, 000 a month in sales to 125, 000 a month in sales in 12 months, which I was actually quite surprised about with a 500 ad spend, which is not very much, right? It's very little. That is the minimum we work with. And we never increased that ad spend through the whole 12 months.

[00:03:23] And, and he just had somebody on his that he had hired or that helped [00:03:30] out that wasn't. That wasn't, good, quite frankly. And so you want to watch two things in my mind, and then you can tell me what two things you think. So for me, the two things, the two questions to ask for is for some case studies.

[00:03:46] How long have you been doing it? Do you have any case studies? What have, you worked with? And if somebody answers really positively all the about all of the industries, then they're probably not telling you the truth because there's [00:04:00] some spaces where it's really more difficult.

[00:04:03] So we don't get the results that I just described in every, with every client. And sometimes I have to say to a client I don't really know how it's going to work for you. I like to work with people for three months. I think that's pretty standard across industry to check out the Google algorithm that takes Google and your team about that long to get things optimized and running smoothly.

[00:04:28] I say four, cause it takes a month to [00:04:30] set things up. Okay. Okay. Oh yes. No, the month of setup doesn't count. I don't count in that as three months of running the ad. So I, yeah, you're right. Yeah, so that's, I would agree. And then yeah. And then and then the other and, so if people tell you, yes, you can get remarkable results usually they're pulling your leg.

[00:04:50] It's like the same thing as we can guarantee you're going to get number one on Google organic. It's, actually not, you, no one can tell you that, no one [00:05:00] can tell you that if someone tells you that. Yeah, exactly. So that's, those are indicators. Transparency is another thing I look for and that's our, or that I want people to ask and I usually talk about, and that transparency is about, how you're doing the setup.

[00:05:18] Not necessarily the campaigns, but what type of campaigns you're running, what your keywords are, what the ads look like what, the text actually is for your AdWords [00:05:30] what images you're using. Cause some, I had a contractor that was running that I knew that was running. Not a contractor that's mine, but I saw a contractor running ads for clients where nothing was approved in advance.

[00:05:43] The client had no idea what the ad said, what keywords they were targeting or anything like that was just a big mystery. And then in reporting. So in the setup some people, okay. So the, better quality providers will always [00:06:00] do, usually do tag manager, which is organized. To show the results in Google Analytics, rather than just using the analytics that are in, the Google ad space, because, the clicks on your ads doesn't really matter so much, the impressions shouldn't really matter that much.

[00:06:20] They give you information, but if you don't know how to use that information, it doesn't really matter. So for a client, that shouldn't matter. What should matter are goals, your goals. And [00:06:30] usually you have a conversation with your ads person to decide what are your goals? Because your goals should really be organized easily to happen on your website.

[00:06:41] They should also be goals that are congruent with your business goals. And that's a key piece that a lot of providers don't ask you what your business goals are. They'll just decide what you want and and they're not, able to tell you, you got this many calls from the [00:07:00] ads.

[00:07:00] You got this many calls that were organic. You got this many calls, you got this many forms filled out through ads and of that information isn't particularly, isn't particularly, helpful, but you need to decide what is the information that's helpful. What are those KPIs and your provider should walk you through that.

[00:07:23] Yes, a month is set up because we have so many clients to set up. So it's, you can do, you can usually squeeze it about two, [00:07:30] two weeks. We can squeeze it in. I can't hear you, Pip. Are you on mute? I can see your mouth moving. Yep. I got all excited. I'm like Such good questions, Ora, so let's get to those, but I agree so with the month set up and yeah, it takes a month because when you're talking to your client, you definitely need a strategy and you're not just going to bang up.

[00:07:53] Also, Google ads has changed a lot. So the strategy you come up with, you talk to the clients about, you [00:08:00] agree because. location is a huge thing. And depending on how you're going to set up your campaigns, like you want a strategy you can build upon later. You want maybe if you're a cyclical business turn on and off things like you'll figure out really quickly.

[00:08:17] If your landing page doesn't work in those three months yeah, Google ads is a long game. That's the thing is it's not a, like you can turn them off [00:08:30] and turn them on, but it takes about three weeks to a month to get the ball rolling. There's bidding strategies you have to use to anyway.

[00:08:38] So it takes a long time. Your next question is, oh yeah. Oh no, Rina, no adding. Clarify, just to clarify some of the things that you said, Pip, when you say it takes, three weeks to get the ball rolling, we're talking not only about the manual things that we actually have to do to your account.

[00:08:58] But we are also talking [00:09

:00] about the algorithm that Google uses to figure out who best to serve your ads to. So it is. It's a little bit longer learning than Facebook ads, for example. And and yes, when it comes to strategy, you have to book like we all, both of us book kickoff sessions where we actually ask all the questions and then we have to go and do the research.

[00:09:21] And then we have to there is a process involved and if they're just it is possible to throw up a campaign and and do the research [00:09:30] without the client involvement. And a lot of. Google ads. People do work like that, but I just find that the results, no, it doesn't make sense. You need to work closely with your client because there are things like the negative keywords you want to go through with your client.

[00:09:43] They're going to know their business way better than you are. So why would you make those assumptions? Also, you should get your ads approved because A second set of eyes can always find issues. That's where your branding comes in. If no one's got your [00:10:00] eyeballs on those ads, then you're letting somebody else, organize your branding for you.

[00:10:06] And you should be, your Google ads person should be asking you for your branding document. So that if there's any words in there that you don't want used, so for example, especially in the, real estate space, nobody wants to use bubble in, their languaging at all. And Oh yes. Housing, whatever it's market, but I forgot what the term is, but, and there [00:10:30] are terms that you're, that your clients are going to have that you might not as a provider be aware of.

[00:10:34] So they should be asking and all contractors should always be asking every single one of them for your branding document. I have a branding guide. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And that's really important. It's true. Yeah. Google, the questions I think really revolve around types of businesses that I would, make sure to ask for Google ads.

[00:10:54] Did you finish your two? I'm getting two things. The top two things I would say that [00:11:00] a, business owner or somebody hiring somebody should add would be what, kind of accounts have you worked with before? And along with that question, so it's still one question is what. Accounts do you not work with?

[00:11:15] What type of businesses do you not work with? And the reason to ask that is because there's lots of rules in Google ads, like lots of rules. And if you're an experienced Google ads person, you will know what type of [00:11:30] businesses you don't work with. Because I can tell you right now I don't work with hotels generally because it's, I don't work with car dealerships because that's got its own Google ads, ticketing, booze.

[00:11:43] Drugs, guns, all of those, we don't work with those. And the reason being is because we've come up again and again, come up against some things. The other thing to know is if somebody wants to try Google ads for 30 days, we say, no, we won't work with you because it won't [00:12:00] work. And it's the hardest thing as an entrepreneur to say no to money.

[00:12:05] But when you know something's destined for failure, would you do it? Before you go on to your second point, because I know you've got a second one still, can we just answer Ora's question about tag mapping? Because I think that was a really important question. It's a really good question. Yeah.

[00:12:21] It's tag manager is organized on your website to collect the data a little bit differently than Google analytics. And it funnels the information into [00:12:30] it, not funnels. It seg helps you segment the information better in Google analytics, and that's why you want to use it. So we use tag manager to set up for Google ads and for Facebook ads and for LinkedIn ads, and then everything is.

[00:12:44] segmented beautifully in, in analytics and that's how it works. And then you can pull really nice reports from analytics that shows you everything so that you're actually looking at what happened on your site. So if Google ads tells you, and Facebook [00:13:00] ads tells you that you had this number of clicks to your website you want to actually see, did those clicks actually follow through or were they just like clicks and then.

[00:13:09] Flybys, right? So sometimes people click and then they just move on. So you want to see what are the numbers of people that actually landed on your page? How long did they stay on your page? What actions do they take on your page? Those are the good solid pieces of information because with that information, you can actually do some really beautiful organizing of your landing [00:13:30] page.

[00:13:30] And that's the next thing. Do, does your Google, person optimize your landing page? Within your campaign management, do they do that? That's a good question. If they don't do it, does somebody do it? Somebody needs to do that. Who's going to do it? Yeah. And we've come across that because we used to not do it.

[00:13:52] But the thing is, then you have to depend on the client. That's right. And which is a challenge, right? And so we [00:14:00] use, we'll use lead pages. The other thing is so the landing page concept, when nobody can see anything else, so they're not distracted by the next thing they're going to check out like a blog or something.

[00:14:11] So you do potentially want to treat it like Facebook ads. They go to a specific landing page. And that landing page might not be indexed on your website. To, go back to Aura's question, the tag manager, we do the same thing. Now we do a measure set up. And then at the very end of our measure set up, if people are doing Google ads, [00:14:30] then we add we add the conversion tracking there and we connect the Google ads and analytics account on both sides.

[00:14:37] So from Google ads to analytics, then from analytics to Google ads, it's like a double connector. And and that helps us, you, Then you can make audience lists. You could do all these really cool things, but you can then see the, pattern. That people like, Oh, I got this much from ads as much for organic cause Google ads will not report as well anymore [00:15:00] because they've taken away the attribution model that used to be.

[00:15:04] Now it's, their data driven attribution. So you have to use Google analytics to see the real results we've actually, the, some My next point of what to ask if you're hiring a Google ads person would be my first one was what accounts do you work on and then, and because you want to know if they're e commerce, they're, that's their [00:15:30] specialty, right?

[00:15:30] Or if they're lead based, like if I want a form filled out and then the reporting, how do you report or better than that, who owns the account? I think that's, and that goes with the transparency because a lot of if you search, you'll see, have you ever seen search Kings? So they advertise for the States and Canada and there's, they have big pockets to do Google ads [00:16:00] advertising.

[00:16:00] Cause it can cost some industries, a lot of money. So you want to ask them, they own the account though. So here's the thing. If you have a Google account with someone else and you're like, I don't want to do it anymore and they own it. You have to wait for them to close that account before you can open another account and wait 30 days?

[00:16:17] Yeah, we argue about this a lot because here's the thing, campaign camp we never start with somebody else's account anyways. We always start with a fresh account because the setup is different. [00:16:30] Everybody has a slightly different approach to set up. And so working on somebody's account that has been running for ages can sometimes be messy, so we always start with a fresh one. It also gives an ads credit, generally speaking. So we like to do that. And we will, if people want to own their account we have that discussion at the beginning. I usually suggest that. That most most agencies like to start fresh anyway, so it's not no point, but [00:17:00] the reason is because I asked my guy this because I was trying to figure out why, because everything else we usually give over really easily.

[00:17:09] But with the ads account, generally speaking, what ends up happening is we try and close it out and the client never comes in and, accesses it properly. And. Because there's a, there's there's a a step that they need to do that never happens and then it just leaves this empty account.

[00:17:28] That's [00:17:30] problematic. Interesting. Yeah. Oh, and then, so sorry, we're different. We're different. So we want clients to own the account. We want to take them into their account. We want to teach them about Google ads, but Rina and I do this differently. You can really screw up

a Google ads account if you go in and you're touching things or moving things or, You really want to but you can just give you access or just ask the client not to touch anything.

[00:17:56] It is, I think it is theirs. So sure. [00:18:00] Screw it up. Pay me to fix it. Yeah. I'm not too worried about that. Our clients definitely see everything. We give them view access for sure. And we also coordinate with the rest of their team if they have other contractors that need to do something. Steven has a really good question there.

[00:18:15] I think Pip, this is one for you. Cause I don't really know the seven day. Yeah, do you think the data attribution is better than the seven day that they had before? Which one do you feel has generated better results? I, we used to [00:18:30] use linear, so they, had different models. They had first click, last click and then they had linear, and then they had decay.

[00:18:37] Oh my god, I can't believe I remember all of them. Time decay. And it's, so it's just what they measure, and we always pick linear. Which, but now they took away all of that and now you get to do the data driven. So seven days, the attribution was in the seven day one. I said, I don't remember seven day attribution model.

[00:18:56] Cause we always picked linear. [00:19:00] Do I, I don't, I like control. I like having a little, and so it's funny every time they take away some control, you can see Google the Google company makes more money. So they want to be like Facebook. They want to be like, no, you get nothing and just give us money.

[00:19:18] So I think that's funny. Good question. And Oh, what was I thinking? There was something else that came up about service providers and what they do. We were talking about, [00:19:30] okay you Oh, you want me to go? I got so many, I forgot what I was going to say. So I would also ask how how do you strategize?

[00:19:42] To get the best campaign because the secret of secrets to Google ads is the foundation matters. Yeah. What you do and maybe this is why you start a new account each time. I like, I'll pull all the data I can get off there. If [00:20:00] you see their account and it hasn't worked at all, then it is smarter to set up a new account because you can get that, that 600 that whatever they have, you get 1, 800 now if you spend 36.

[00:20:15] Yeah, you need to remember. So the other thing that you want to make sure you're doing and this was really tragic. I have an older client, like elderly client that I love [00:20:30] to work with. And, and so somebody did a sales call with him and he got connected. Apparently he signed a contract, although nobody's been able to produce that contract.

[00:20:42] And, And he signed up for a 3, 000 package on Google ads and, and they accessed the Google ad account from his, Google workspace. So there was like a connection [00:21:00] between, so what ended up from his account, sorry, not Google workspace. So what happened was he was they, he gave them his login to his Google ads account and then they.

[00:21:14] They added and removed him from the account. And so what happened was he, got this whole, a whole bunch of charges and he tried to contest it with his bank because he didn't remember signing up, but he's elderly. [00:21:30] So it's actually possible that he didn't remember, but there was also no contract produced by the company or in his inbox and they they just kept running ads.

[00:21:43] Like he's now. And and the, bank didn't, his credit card did not back him up. So he's been. He has to pay. So make sure that you're not giving your login to a producer. If anything, if you need technical [00:22:00] help what, we generally do, and I think Pip does the same is you walk people through on a zoom call and show them how to add you to their account, or you set up the account and add the client to the account.

[00:22:14] And that's, those are the two ways that should really be happening. Anything else is a compromise, especially if you use the same passwords or similar passwords between your accounts. It can get really scary. And this is what happened. These guys got into his Google workspace and [00:22:30] and then deleted all of the emails between the two companies.

[00:22:33] So he had no proof of a contract, what was said, what was promised or anything. And it was a mess for me to clean up an absolute. And just heartbreaking. You definitely want it. Yeah. Because we had a client who had a, an experience where somebody got ahold of his credit card and used his credit card for Google ads.

[00:22:51] Now there are bad players that will try to take over an account and direct them because direct spend your money and direct them to [00:23:00] their site. So you do want to be careful if you want to ask. Things like how many accounts do you manage and what is your like, so when we talk about logging in really important, you can lock down your account by having it only the URLs that you want.

[00:23:19] able to get into the account. That's a security feature. Yeah, you can. So we, when we add our MCC account and then we show the owner how to, Oh, that's [00:23:30] your, it's a management account. It's one, one account to rule them all. You know what I mean? And I don't, I, I'm sure there's a limitation but it's, so you can go in and you can see all the data together.

[00:23:43] So you're not like logging in. Logging out. So any professional Google ads person should have an MCC account. So that's that's one of those sneaky questions. And if you ask these type of questions, Yeah. Then you're like, the person will know that [00:24:00] stuff. And so then there's no messing around.

[00:24:04] Google ads, can be a game changer for some businesses. I say, can, it is a game changer for some businesses. It is colder traffic than a referral, but it is still there. They're intentionally looking for the service. So that's really great. Yeah. Yeah. MCC account. So what are our four questions so far?

[00:24:26] What experience do you have? [00:24:30] I don't know, there were so many good ones. I can't believe you were going to recap that because I can't remember. I can, I'll recap it. I'll watch the replay. And then like, how do you structure an account? That's what you want to ask. How do you approach reporting?

[00:24:49] Yes. Explain your process for building and managing. So that's where you want to hear things like, yeah, we'd like to meet you every week or every month. We're in the account at [00:25:00] least three times a week. When we launch, we don't launch on Fridays because if anything goes awry, who's paying attention, right?

[00:25:06] Things like that. Yeah. Those are the kind of answers you want to hear. And then another good question is what tools do you use to help optimize your campaign? Yeah. And if they lay some cool tools you can look up that you won't understand at all. Yeah there's, some great ones out there that, we use to help us.

[00:25:28] Cause we use [00:25:30] machines, we use people, we use our brains, all of that. Any other things you would ask Reena, if you were hiring a Google Ads person? Yeah. The one thing that I like to do, which I don't, I'm not sure. I don't think, I'm not sure if you guys do, but I like to utilize, a system of working with Facebook ads and Google ads so that they work together.

[00:25:52] And so that to me is my sort of my superpower. That's how I feel like I get a lot of really good results, but doesn't always [00:26:00] work for everybody. But, but you want to find out, are they working in a silo or are they actually integrated with the rest of your, So can they work with a team? Yeah. Yeah, because that's another thing. When trying to access, if you're working with a team, are you going to be able to get easy access to the analytics? I had this issue just last week where I'm asking for admin access on the analytics and I'm not getting it Begging.

[00:26:27] It's frustrating because some people get really territorial [00:26:30] and competitive and unfortunately that's not helpful and having a collaborative mindset is way better. It's oh God Mona, I'm trying to get rid of this so I can put up your beautiful picture. How you doing? It's so true, what you said.

[00:26:52] And that's why we get along. We do get along.

Slightly competitive, but A little competitive. [00:27:00] I'm like, you do Google Ads wrong, Rina. No, we work really well together. Only, with access, but I like what you do. I like, the client centered approach of the trying to get them that free 600 or whatever when you sign up.

[00:27:15] So that's a good one. Keep your eye out for that. There's like the integration. I think that is a huge, maybe the final point we're going to come up with today because that integration. Of working with other people. I've been locked out of [00:27:30] a website by, the web dev of some companies because he doesn't like me.

[00:27:35] I'm like, so that's not about the client though. And so that's bad. It's helpful. It's very unhelpful. It's, and nobody wins with that. With that. No, they think they win. They think they win and they think they'll have the client, but eventually they'll learn. Client doesn't win with that attitude is the problem.

[00:27:54] And we need to make sure that the clients come first. That's the most important thing. Just, despite of [00:28:00] your feelings don't matter about the other people it's it's hard. The great thing about Google ads is if you do them well, Most of the time people stay with you.

[00:28:12] Some people leave because they get poached or this or that, but so maybe asking like, how long is your longest client in Google ads? Because then, that it's been successful. I would like to also point out one thing because I think this is the [00:28:30] misunderstanding that I get a lot is that once you get your ads optimized to a point your conversions are going to pretty much stay similar until you Two weeks and then goes on a scale.

[00:28:44] Yeah, that's true if no one's paying attention to the count. But if you've got a professional who's paying attention to the count, it should stay fairly similar over time because you're paying for that number of ads. So if you want more, it's not gonna go continually go up like that. [00:29:00] And that a lot of people have that expectation.

[00:29:02] But if you wanna get more, conversions, you need to scale your ad spend. That's the best way to, to to increase your. Your conversions or your phone calls or whatever it is that you're looking to have. Yeah. Yeah, it's true. Actually, do you know just, a slight side story, but the other day I had a phone call from a potential client and at the end of the call, and it was somebody I already talked to, but at the end of the call, he's should I call you back at this number?

[00:29:27] And he spouted off some weird number. And I was like, [00:29:30] No, and I'm like, I'll give you my number. But it's cause Google ads, if you do the phone call, it'll replace your number, right? With a trackable number. So I'm going to have a conversion for my ad because I answered the phone. Yeah. Okay. That's interesting.

[00:29:49] So the other thing to note before we go, and I know this is like something to drop last minute, but if you're here, then you get to hear this, which is. That huge Google leak [00:30:00] that happens there, they're saying, some people are saying that if you do, it's smarter to do a little tiny campaign for yourself because it affects your SEO.

[00:30:14] But Hey man, I just work here. I don't know the, I don't know the little black box, but I do know that I think you do better if you have a brand campaign going. Okay. Good, tip. With that, we are out of time. [00:30:30] Not out of touch. Just out of time. Next week. Oh, guess what next week is? Ah, it's the what's, happened in the last month of marketing.

[00:30:44] So every, Third Thursday, fourth Thursday, fourth, because that's the 25th every fourth Thursday in our group. We do a recap on all the crazy stuff that's happened in the last month and search social and websites. So you will see [00:31:00] the whole gang here, me, Rina, Greg, and what's that guy's name? Freeland.

[00:31:07] So we will see you next week. Thank you so much for joining us today and have a wonderful happy summery. Bye. Bye.