Is my Google Ads agency wasting my money? A 15-minute check for contractors

Updated October 2026 · 7 minute read

You pay an agency every month, the phone rings sometimes, and the report they send is full of impressions and click-through rates. If you run a plumbing, HVAC, roofing or electrical business, here's how to check their work yourself in about 15 minutes. You don't need to be a PPC expert.

0. Make sure you can log in to your own account

The account should be in your name, with you as an admin. If the agency “owns” the account and won't give you access, that's the biggest red flag on this page: when you leave, your history leaves with them. Ask for admin access before anything else.

1. Read the search terms report (5 minutes)

This is the list of what people actually typed before they clicked your ad. Go to Campaigns → Insights and reports → Search terms, set the date to the last 90 days and sort by Cost.

Look at the top 50 rows. Red flags:

• Job searches: “plumber jobs”, “hvac apprentice”, “roofer salary”.
• DIY: “how to…”, “diy…”.
• Stores and parts: “home depot…”, “…parts”, “…for sale”.
• Services you don't offer, or towns you don't serve.

A well-managed account has very few of these, because the agency adds them as negative keywords every week or two. If you see many, and they've been running for months, nobody is cleaning up.

2. Check what counts as a “conversion” (3 minutes)

Go to Goals → Conversions → Summary. A conversion should be a phone call over 60 seconds, a form submission, or a booking. If you see things like “page view”, “clicked phone number” or “scrolled 50%” counted as primary conversions, the agency's “cost per lead” is flattering itself. Ask them which conversion actions are primary and why.

3. Look at where your ads show (2 minutes)

Open each campaign's Settings → Networks. For most contractors, Search Partners and Display Network should be off on search campaigns, because they add cheap clicks that rarely call. Then check Locations and make sure the targeting is “Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations”, not “interest in”.

4. Check the schedule (2 minutes)

If you can't answer the phone at 2am, are you paying for 2am clicks? Under Ad schedule, see whether ads run around the clock and what the night-time clicks cost. Running 24/7 is fine if you really offer emergency service and someone answers.

5. Ask three questions

1. “When did you last add negative keywords, and which ones?”
2. “What's our cost per booked job, not per click?”
3. “What did you change last month, and what happened?”

A good agency answers all three in one email. Vague answers to all three are a sign they're managing the account on autopilot.

What to do if it looks bad

Don't fire them on the spot. Send them the list of wasted searches with the dollar amounts and ask them to fix it. Then check again in a month. The free check gives you that list in a format you can forward.