Why You Shouldn't Trust Google Ads Reps

Google Ad Reps are a notoriously annoying part of PPC marketing.

Every single Google Ads account receives a dedicated representative from Google, who often emails you incessantly to schedule calls and provide advice to help drive results.

But are Google Ad Reps actually useful and to be trusted? We're going to dive into how these "Google Account Strategists" work and whether you should trust every thing they tell you.

Google Ad Reps Are Sales People

First and foremost, it's important to note that Google Ad reps are primarily sales people.

They're actually mostly hired by third party companies (not Google directly) and their training is all completely focused around one single KPI - How can we increase ad spend?

I thought long and carefully about writing this blog post, and tried to find as many independent opinions without bias as possible.

And after reading literally hundreds of Reddit threads, forum posts & talking to colleagues in the space, the majority opinion is absolutely clear - Google Ad Reps have a very clear and singular motivation - to get you to spend more on ads.

Google Ad Reps Prioritize Revenue

Listen - I'm absolutely certain there are some great ad reps out there who are genuinely good people and are actually working with both agencies & brands to help improve ROI for their clients. 

But do you think for one second they would tell a client that the solution is to decrease their budget? I really could not find a single piece of evidence across the internet to suggest that this has ever happened. 

We actually looked at the LinkedIn profile description for our own Google Ads rep...

The account strategist in question even boasts about the book-value of the clients under his management.

That's a pretty clear indication that revenue and ad spend is the absolute primary driver for these dedicated account reps.

We looked objectively at the LinkedIn profiles for many Google Ad Reps, and noticed some very common themes such as:

• "I work to hit aggressive quarterly revenue goals"
• "I manage over X amount of ad spend across X number of clients" 
• "I work closely with clients to find opportunities for increasing budgets" 

👉 The bottom line is clear - Ad Reps have a mandate to get you spending more budget above all else. 

The Advice They Provide is Automated

This point is especially true with smaller businesses with relatively low spend.

Again, it's important to remember that Google Ad Reps are generally going to be quite inexperienced PPC marketers by default. 

Their training and managers tell them to follow the automated recommendations provided by the Google Ads platform itself. 

So for example, you may have ignored Google's recommendation to run 'Broad Match' campaigns because you're already seeing a phenomenal ROI from your exact-match campaigns and have no desire to scale your budgets.

But guess what? With absolutely no insight into your business (or your clients business) you can be certain that ads rep will check-off 3 or 4 things that you should be doing that you aren't already.

Not one of those things is based on any experience with your specific business and growth goals.

Instead, it's entirely based on Google's AI-based recommendations, which do not take into account a huge range of factors that Google cannot possibly to know such as - Your growth goals, your capacity to scale the business, negative keywords, your budget, your target cost to acquire a customer based on intricate business margins, etc. 

Here's another funny Reddit comment we found, addressing a phone call someone received from a Google rep...

There's worrying evidence that Google Reps go too far

We found some real evidence where Google reps bypass agencies and contact clients directly, potentially undermining the relationship between the agency and the client.

Here is one such example...

Clearly, this is absolutely shocking, and I'm sure that in this instance Google sorted this issue out internally.

I'm not suggesting that Google would ever train someone to behave this way, and it's clearly a fringe case. 

We have also seen situations where the head of Google's Ad Liason has publicly discussed such issues with agencies or advertisers and acknowledge wrongdoing.

Of course, in any Global organization with thousands of employees, you're going to have these issues which we appreciate.

But it's very worrying that Google reps are jeopardizing real relationships in a bid to improve their own goals above all else. 

Why might you listen to Google reps?

Google reps should be able to help you with any specific platform changes or to answer perhaps very specific questions that you can't find a resolution to.

In addition - if you're at the higher levels of PPC marketing, then quite clearly Google do have an incentive to work with you rather than against you.

We've seen evidence to suggest that with large-scale agencies, their can be some very knowledgeable Google reps (predominantly based out of Dublin) who really have been helpful as a 'sounding board' to agencies, even if it's just to keep them abreast of new platform updates and throwing out opportunities or ideas the agency partner might have missed for their client. 

Quotes on Google Ad Reps

We crowdsourced all the most interesting quotes on Google Ad Reps from Reddit.

🤯 Here are the most interesting ones we found:

1. From r/marketing 
   • "Google Rep: 'You definitely want to set everything to broad match.'" - This quote highlights the often misguided advice given by Google reps.
2. From r/PPC 
   1. "It's probably some form of script they're following. In the end, Max + Automate everything gives them the ability to fill any and all gaps they have in their impressions network, and tell you, you're doing great because it's so cheap... I've had 1 or 2 be genuinely helpful, the others just want to sell shit and get good surveys from me, so they can keep their jobs." - This quote suggests reps are more focused on fulfilling quotas.
3. From r/PPC 
   1. "Keep them at an arm's length but don't ignore them completely. I've tried to do that and they inevitably start contacting the clients directly, claiming that I'm leaving revenue on the table by not adopting all of their unprofitable tactics." - This quote underscores the aggressive and often intrusive tactics used by Google reps, which can undermine professional relationships and trust.
4. From r/PPC 
   1. "The random reports and escalation of issues is kind of nice, but I can count on 1 finger how many reps we've had that have given valuable insights." 
5. From r/PPC 
   1. "I've almost never talked to the same person twice out of dozens of calls, which makes you repeat yourself over and over..." - Highlights the lack of continuity and knowledge passed between reps
6. From r/PPC
   1. "Their advice is always increase my budget and you’ll get more conversions. Wow thanks!" - Sarcastically critiques the simplicity and one-size-fits-all nature of advice given by reps.