Google Ads
Google agency ad accounts
Advertising accounts covering Google Search, Display, Shopping, YouTube and Performance Max, available now. The account is administered under a manager account and assigned to your organisation; you build campaigns in the Google Ads interface, and funding, service fees, total cost and account status are tracked in your AF Ads dashboard.
Google Ads
Why Google works differently from the social platforms
Everything else on this site interrupts. Google mostly does not. On Search you are bidding to answer a question somebody has already typed, which changes the economics: intent is higher, cost per click is usually higher too, and creative matters far less than the match between a query, an ad and the page it lands on.
That single difference reshapes how an account is judged. A social campaign lives or dies on creative refresh. A Search campaign lives or dies on keyword and query management — which searches you pay for, which you exclude, and whether the landing page answers the query well enough that Google's quality signals work in your favour rather than against your cost per click.
Google accounts are administered through a manager account, which is the structure an agency relationship uses to provision and support an advertising account. Underneath it, one account can run Search, Display, Shopping, YouTube, Demand Gen and Performance Max campaigns — very different products sharing a budget and a conversion history.
New to agency accounts in general? What an agency ad account provider does covers the ground that applies to every platform, and our guide to these accounts explains the category itself without selling you anything.
Google Ads
Who a Google account suits
Google suits businesses whose customers already know they have the problem. It is a poor fit for demand that has to be created.
Businesses with existing search demand
If people search for what you sell by name or by category, Search captures buyers at the point of decision. If nobody searches for it, Search has nothing to bid on and the budget belongs elsewhere.
Retailers with a product feed
Shopping campaigns put product, price and image directly in the results. For retail with competitive pricing, this is frequently the highest-return channel available anywhere.
High-value considered purchases
Services, B2B, property, education, professional advice — verticals where a single conversion is worth enough to justify a click price that would be indefensible in low-margin retail.
Video advertisers
YouTube sits inside the same account, so a brand running video and a business capturing search demand are not managing two separate relationships.
Google Ads
Why take a Google account from us
Google is the platform where the wrong advice costs the most, because a poorly structured Search account spends steadily and teaches you nothing.
Cross-platform comparison in one dashboard
Google is where cross-platform reporting earns its keep: search intent and social interruption produce very different cost per conversion, and comparing them in one view is how budget gets allocated sensibly.
Account structure that does not trap you
Conversion tracking configured in your own Google account rather than only in ours, so your conversion history is yours and survives any change in provider.
A straight answer about fit
Google is the platform where we are most likely to tell you not to bother. If nobody is searching for what you sell, we would rather say so than take the application.
The cost figure includes our fee
Google reports what it charged you. Your dashboard reports that beside what the advertising actually cost once the service fee is counted, which is the number a cost-per-conversion decision should be made on.
What a package costs, and the service fee charged when you fund an account, are published in full on the pricing page.
Google Ads
What Google requires before an account can run
Less identity verification than Meta, more homework on measurement and landing pages.
- Conversion tracking through the Google tag or Google Analytics 4. Without it a Search account is bidding blind, and Google's automated bidding has nothing to optimise towards.
- Landing pages that answer the query. Google scores the relationship between keyword, ad and page, and a weak one raises what you pay for every click.
- A keyword and negative keyword plan. Paying for the wrong searches is the single most common way a Google budget is wasted.
- A Merchant Center account and an accurate product feed if you intend to run Shopping.
- Advertiser verification, which Google requires to confirm who is paying for the advertising.
- Extra certification for restricted categories — financial services, healthcare, gambling and others need licensing before they can run at all.
Google's restricted categories are enforced through certification programmes rather than case-by-case review, so for some verticals the licence genuinely is the gate. Ask us before you plan a launch around one.
Google Ads
How a Google account is set up
Five stages, and the order matters more here than on the social platforms: measurement first, budget last.
- 01
Tell us what you intend to run
Which campaign types matter to you — Search, Shopping, YouTube, Performance Max — along with your markets and monthly budget. Shopping and Search need different things in place, so this is what decides whether the account arrives ready to spend.
- 02
We confirm the account country and the manager arrangement
Which countries we can register a Google account in depends on what our partner agencies hold, and the current list is on the pricing page. You are told what we can place you on before you commit to anything.
- 03
Measurement is checked before anything runs
Conversion tracking, and the Merchant Center feed if Shopping is in scope, are verified first. A Google account without working conversion tracking will spend money and teach you nothing.
- 04
The account is assigned under a manager account
It appears in your dashboard with its status and history, and you get the access needed to build campaigns in the Google Ads interface.
- 05
You fund it and launch
You top up your wallet and fund the account from it. The fee that applies is worked out and put in front of you before the transfer is confirmed.
The stages that apply whichever platform you choose — review, assignment, funding, delays and what happens if an account is suspended — are set out in how it works.
Google Ads
What your dashboard shows for a Google account
The financial side comes from our own records and is exact. The campaign figures come from Google, and the Google connector is not built yet — so for now they are loaded from Google's reporting rather than syncing on their own.
- Every top-up, the fee charged on it and what the advertising has cost you in total, from our own ledger rather than from Google's billing
- Account status, balance and a record of every change to either
- Campaign, ad group and ad performance alongside your accounts on other platforms
- Impressions, clicks, CTR, CPC and CPM
- Conversions and cost per conversion, as configured in your conversion tracking
- Period-on-period comparison and CSV export
Until the Google connector ships, campaign figures are imported from Google's own reporting and your dashboard shows when each account was last updated. Google also reports impressions and reach differently across Search, Display and YouTube, and some metrics simply do not exist on some campaign types — impression share is meaningful on Search and meaningless on YouTube. We will document what we read per campaign type when the integration ships rather than implying one uniform set of numbers.
Google Ads
Getting a Google account productive
One thing to settle before you apply, and one to name when you do.
Get conversion tracking working first
It is the prerequisite that takes longest and the one you can complete without us. An account that arrives to find tracking already running starts producing usable data immediately; one that does not spends its first fortnight teaching you nothing.
Name the campaign types when you apply
Search, Shopping and YouTube place different demands on the account and on what you need in place — a Merchant Center feed matters for one and is irrelevant to the others. Saying which you need is what lets us tell you whether you are ready.
Questions
Google accounts, asked and answered
If yours is not here, ask before you apply rather than after.
Will Google reporting sync into my dashboard automatically?
Not yet. TikTok is currently the only platform with a live API connection, so Google figures are loaded into your dashboard from Google's own reporting until the Google connector is built. The financial side is unaffected: funding, the service fee and your total advertising cost are our records rather than Google's, and they are exact from the first top-up.
Does one account cover Search, Shopping and YouTube?
Yes. They are campaign types within a single Google Ads account rather than separate products, so one account and one conversion history covers all of them.
Will I own the conversion tracking?
That is how we intend to set it up. Conversion actions configured in your own Google account mean the history belongs to your business and survives a change of account or provider. Tracking that exists only inside a provider's account is a lock-in you should be wary of anywhere, not only here.
Is Google worth it if nobody searches for what I sell?
Usually not on Search, and we will tell you so. Demand generation is what the social platforms are for. Google's Display, Demand Gen and YouTube inventory can create awareness, but if you are choosing one channel and there is no search volume, this is not the one.
How is Google's cost different from the social platforms?
Cost per click is typically higher and conversion rate typically higher too, because you are reaching people who are actively looking rather than interrupting them. Judging Google on cost per click against a social channel is the most common mistake — cost per conversion is the comparison that means something, and it is the one your dashboard is built around.
What is Performance Max, and will I be able to run it?
It is Google's automated campaign type that spends across Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube and Gmail from a single campaign, using your feeds and creative assets. It will be available in the account, though it needs solid conversion tracking to work at all — with weak measurement it spends efficiently towards the wrong outcome.
We are not an official, exclusive or certified partner of Google. We supply advertising accounts through our own business relationships and third-party agency providers, and we operate independently. Google and its logo belong to their owner.
Open a Google account
Search, Shopping, YouTube and Performance Max from one account and one conversion history. Applying costs nothing, and we will tell you if search volume makes it the wrong choice before you spend anything.