How to choose a Google Ads agency in Ottawa.

A good agency can turn Google Ads into your most reliable source of work. A bad one can spend a few thousand dollars of your money on clicks from people who were never going to hire you, and send you a monthly report full of impressions to make it look fine. The difference is usually visible before you sign, if you ask the right questions.

First: what you should own, whoever you hire

• The Google Ads account. It should be in your business’s name and billed to your card. The agency gets access; you keep the account and its history if you ever leave.
• The conversion tracking. The setup that records calls and forms should live in your account, not in a tool the agency takes with it.
• Your ad spend, kept separate. You should always be able to see exactly what went to Google and what went to the agency.

If an agency will only run ads from an account it owns, walk away. Years of data and history can disappear the day you part ways.

Questions to ask before you sign

Who will actually manage my account?

At larger agencies the person who sells you the service is rarely the person who manages it. Ask who makes the changes and how many accounts they look after.

How will you track calls, not just clicks?

For most local businesses the phone is where the money is. A good answer covers calls from the ads, calls from the website, and forms, each tied back to the campaign that produced it.

How do you decide which searches my ads show for?

Listen for talk of search intent, match types and negative keywords, and an offer to show you the search terms report. Vague answers here are how budgets end up paying for “how to” searches and job seekers.

Where will the ads send people?

An ad for furnace repair should land on a page about furnace repair, not your homepage. Ask whether landing pages are part of the work, and who builds them.

What will the monthly report show?

You want calls, forms, bookings and the cost of each lead. Impressions and clicks are useful for diagnosing problems, but a report built mainly on them is hiding something.

What is the contract?

Ask about the minimum term and how you leave. Long lock-ins are a sign an agency expects you to want out.

Answers that should worry you

• “We guarantee first position” or a guaranteed number of leads. Nobody controls Google’s auction, and nobody can promise what your market will do.
• “We will set it up in our account.” See above.
• “Just leave it to us.” You should understand, in plain words, what they are doing and why.
• A plan with no mention of your phone. If calls are how you get work, answering and tracking them is part of the job.
• Broad keywords with no search-term reviews. The fastest way to spend a budget on the wrong people.

Does a local Ottawa agency matter?

Google Ads can be managed from anywhere, so location is not a requirement. What a local agency brings is context: knowing that furnace searches jump in October, which suburbs a trade really serves, and what nearby competitors are bidding on. It also makes it easy to sit down together when something needs explaining.

How AdVelocity answers these questions

Since you might be reading this while comparing us too: your Google Ads account is in your name and you pay Google directly. Ayham, the founder, manages every account personally. Calls and forms are tracked by campaign, search terms are reviewed and blocked where they waste money, and reports show enquiries and cost per lead in plain words. The details are on the Google Ads management page, and the how it works page walks through every stage.