If you run a plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, or landscaping company, you've probably been pitched by someone promising to "handle your Google Ads." Some of them do good work. Others set up a campaign, send a monthly report full of impressions, and let it run. These seven questions help you tell the difference before you sign anything.
1. Who Owns the Google Ads Account?
The account should be in your name, with you as an admin. Your campaigns, keywords, and conversion history are a business asset. If the manager owns the account and you leave, you can end up starting from scratch. Ask directly, and ask whether you'll have login access any time you want it.
2. Does My Ad Spend Go Straight to Google?
Ad spend is what Google charges for clicks. Management is what you pay the person running the account. Those should be two separate lines. Some arrangements bundle them into one number, which makes it hard to see how much of your money is actually reaching Google. Ask for a clear split, and ask whether the ad spend is billed directly by Google to your card.
3. How Will We Know Which Calls Came From the Ads?
This is the question that separates real management from a report with nice-looking charts. Clicks and impressions don't pay your bills; phone calls and booked jobs do. Ask how calls and form submissions are tracked, whether call tracking is set up, and whether you'll see which keywords produced them. If the answer is "we'll look at traffic," keep asking.
4. What Happens to the Click After Someone Taps the Ad?
The ad is only half the job. If a homeowner with a burst pipe or a dead AC lands on a slow page with no tap-to-call button, the money is gone. Ask where the ads send people, whether each service gets its own page, and who fixes the page if it's the weak link. A manager who only touches the ad account can't fix that on their own.
5. What Does the Contract Say About Leaving?
Look for long minimum terms, auto-renewals, and fees for canceling. A manager confident in their work shouldn't need to lock you in for a year. Ask what the notice period is and what you get back if you leave, including account access and your tracking setup.
6. Who Will Actually Be Working on My Account?
At larger agencies, the person who sells you the service often isn't the person who manages it, and your account may be one of dozens handled by someone junior. Ask who will log in, how often they review the search terms report, and how to reach them when something looks off. A simple question like "who do I call?" tells you a lot.
7. Do You Understand How My Kind of Business Works?
Home service ads are not like ecommerce ads. Emergency searches behave differently from planned jobs, calls matter more than form fills, your service area is limited by the route and the crew, and some leads aren't worth taking. Ask how they'd split your budget between job types, how they'd keep job-seeker and DIY searches out, and what they'd do about hours when nobody answers the phone. Specific answers beat confident generalities.
What to Take From the Answers
You don't need to understand every setting in Google Ads to judge a manager. You need clear answers about ownership, where the money goes, how results are measured, and how easy it is to leave. Vague answers to simple questions are usually a sign of what the working relationship will be like.
How I Answer Those Questions
I build home service websites for a flat $499 and manage Google Ads for $750/month, with ad spend paid directly to Google. I build every site and run every campaign myself, with no agency, call center, or account manager in between, and you can cancel anytime in the first 30 days.