20 Questions To Ask A Google Ads (AdWords) Freelancer

 

If you’re looking to hire a Google AdWords Freelancer any time soon, there are a number of things you should be clear about before diving in. Firstly, make sure you search thoroughly for the right person.

 

Next, you should make sure you have sufficient budget to hire the right freelancer and not just anyone that’s available.

 

So, if you’re ready to hire someone, then here are 20 questions you should ask to make sure you make the right decision:

 

What AdWords budget should I set?

This is a common question that many advertisers have and an important one too. Adwords budget setting requires expertise and you should work with an AdWords Freelancer with a number of approaches to deciding on your budget. An experienced freelancer will have worked with similar businesses and will have an idea of what budget to start with. They will also be able to help with keyword research, which is important to decide on your budget.

 

Do you have experience in my industry?

Find out if the AdWords freelancer has experience in your industry, whether that’s travel, finance, retail or any other. The more experience they have the better. They’ll bring some creative ideas on how to promote your products or services and which campaign types to use.

 

What other channels do you manage?

Besides AdWords find out if they have experience with other similar channels. Chances are that you may want to setup a Bing Ads campaign in the future and working with the same freelancer will be helpful. You won’t have to search again to find a freelancer. Some AdWords freelancers have experience and knowledge of Bing Ads.

 

Which campaign type should I setup?

There are 5 campaign types in AdWords: Search, Display, Video, Shopping and App. These differ widely and you should choose a Google Adwords expert that has experience in the one you want to launch. They’ll be able to advise on how to approach the advertising strategy for your channel and what assets and creatives you should create. Search is by far the most popular and every AdWords freelancer should be experienced in it.

 

What do you charge?

Find out what the hourly or fixed charge is for their services. Whether it’s to setup new AdWords campaigns or managing existing campaigns, you should get a clear idea of what you’ll be paying. The average hourly rate for Google AdWords freelancers in the UK is £40 per hour.

 

Do I sign a contract?

You should avoid tying yourself in lengthy contracts. That’s because if the relationship goes sour or the performance is not great, then you can easily walk away. However, signing a contract has many benefits including setting out who owns the account, who is responsible for what, the goals to be achieved, total cost of the project and more. A 3 month contract as a start is the ideal place to start and after that if all is well, you should sign a longer one.

 

Do you have case studies?

Case studies closely related to your industry are helpful. They help you assess the skills and experience of the freelancer and how that is likely to help you. The case studies should set out the business background, the problem and the solution that the AdWords freelancer was able to implement to solve the problem.

 

How many sales or leads will I get?

The Google Ads PPC freelancer should be able to use forecasting tools to determine the likely performance of your campaigns. This should include doing keyword research to determine the keyword search volumes and also assess the likely CPC and costs. And with this they can determine how many sales or leads you’re likely to get based on the average industry conversion rates.

 

When should I run my ads?

You should know when the best times to run your ads is. That includes days and hours that will bring you the best performance. The default in Google Ads is 24/7 and you can change that in Ad Scheduling to whatever you require. For example you can run ads Monday to Friday or weekends only. Or you can run them all days but within certain hours only. The AdWords Expert will help you decide that based on your industry and your goals.

 

Is my website ready to advertise?

Find out if your website is ready to serve your market. This includes the landing pages where you’ll send the visitors directly to. The AdWords freelancer you hire should understand website usability and Conversion Rate Optimisation (CRO) and help you optimise your pages effectively. The aim will be to achieve good quality scores that will cost you less in the long run.

 

What reports will I get?

Reports are key to managing PPC campaigns effectively. The AdWords Specialist will send you reports on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The monthly report is the most important because it shows you how ads performed over an extended period and you can compare that to a previous month or the same month in previous years.

 

Who is responsible for writing ads and researching keywords?

As the expert, the AdWords freelancer should write the ads and do the keyword research. However you’ll provide input at the beginning through the brief that you provide. So, you should provide up to 5 keywords that the freelancer will use to conduct keyword research. And you should provide some initial text that will be included in the ads.

 

Which keywords should I bid on?

Keyword selection is an important part of running AdWords campaigns. It’s not enough that you carry out thorough keyword research. You should also analyse them with the AdWords Expert and decide on the best to bid on. So you’ll be looking at things like the volumes, suggested bids, average CPC, costs, searcher intent and similar factors.

 

Should I grant you access to Google Analytics?

In Google Analytics, you can setup audiences and goal tracking which are more advanced than the options available in AdWords. So the freelancer should help you set this up if they have experience with Google Analytics. They will first link your AdWords and analytics accounts and import metrics that you can track such as bounce rates and how many pages viewed.

 

Will you carry out competitor analysis?

The AdWords freelancer should be able to carry out competitor analysis to see what they are bidding on. They can do this manually by searching on Google and assessing their ads. Or they can use an automation tool like Spyfu or SE Ranking that gives you detailed info on their keywords, ads, Budget spend etc. This info will be helpful to you setting up exceptional campaigns that are differentiated from competitors’.

 

Will I get a Google AdWords Voucher?

Google offers free vouchers for new advertisers. Your account should be no older than 14 days and should not have had another voucher applied to it. If the AdWords freelancer is a Premier Google Partner, they’ll be able to get you a £120 voucher. If not, and then it’s likely you’ll only be eligible for the £75 voucher.

 

Who owns the Google AdWords Account?

This is an important issue that you should discuss with the AdWords freelancer before starting. Google’s advice is that the advertiser should own the account and that’s how I believe it should be too. Even if the freelancer setups the account, make sure you have admin rights and ensure that you’ve got it in a contract that at the end of the relationship you will have sole access to the account and can add and remove other users.

 

Which third party tools do you use?

There are a number of third party bid management tools. Some common ones include Wordstream and Acquisio and these tools are supposed to help you save time and improve your PPC campaigns. However, Google AdWords has some good features to help you do this for no extra cost. So find out which tools the expert uses and if there are any extra costs tied to that.

 

How do I pay AdWords charges?

The AdWords freelancer will be able to advise you on how to pay for your advertising. That includes choosing between pre-pay and post-pay depending on your country requirements. With post-pay you’ll pay for clicks after you’ve accrued costs and this will usually be by direct debit or bank transfer or credit/debit card. With pre-pay you’ll topup your AdWords account and click costs will be deducted from your balance.

 

Are you a Google Partner?

You should hire a Google Ads certified expert or a fully certified Google Partner. This ensures that you’re working with an expert that has passed rigorous Google exams and regularly manages successful campaigns. A certified expert would be sufficient, but one that is now a Google Partner will have achieved a higher level of proficiency that few AdWords experts have attained.