For store owners about to pay for advice
A human consultant bills by the hour. Scaley Consultant reads the screenshot you already have open and answers for $99 a month, flat. The rates for both are below.
$99/mo flat. Nothing to connect. 3-day free trial. Card required. Cancel anytime
You have a question about your account, and you are not sure it is worth a consultant's hourly rate.
A real question from the ZenoX Media question bank. 89 stores asked it, 393 times.
A Google Ads consultant checks your account and tells you what to fix. Some also make the changes. Most bill by the hour or the month. Upwork freelancers run $15 to $40 an hour, and an established freelancer $80+ an hour, per Loves Data. Ad spend paid to Google comes on top.
Written and reviewed by Christopher Krassnig
Pick the row that matters most to you. Ad spend paid to Google sits on top of every option.
What it costs
What it can see
How fast you get an answer
Who makes the change
Live calls
Best at
Biggest risk
| Feature | Human Consultant | Scaley Consultant | Scaley Media Buyer |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it costs | By the hour or a monthly fee. See the rate table below | $99/mo flat | $99/mo + 1% of total ad spend |
| What it can see | Your live account, once you give them access | Only the screenshot, CSV or report you upload | Your live account, read-only |
| How fast you get an answer | When the call is booked, or the email comes back | Right after you ask, any hour | Right after you ask, any hour |
| Who makes the change | They can, if you hand over access | You do. It has no access to the account | You do. It reads and never writes |
| Live calls | Depends on the deal. Ask if calls are in the price | Weekly live call with Chris, on every level | Weekly live call with Chris, on every level |
| Best at | Building or rebuilding an account, and owning the result | A fast second opinion on the number in front of you | Finding where the money leaks in the live account |
| Biggest risk | You pay for every hour, even when the answer is short | It only knows what is in the file. Crop the wrong part and it misses it | It will not run the account for you. You still decide |
You can start with the chat and hire a person later, once you know what the job is.
Scaley prices are from the Scaley pricing page. Every human rate, with its source, sits in the rate table below.
AdWords consultant is the old name for the same job. Google renamed AdWords to Google Ads. A good consultant works through the account in roughly this order. Tracking comes first, because every other number depends on it.
If sales are counted wrong, every number after that is wrong too. A good consultant places a test order and checks each sale is counted once.
They read the search terms report and the product list. Anything that spent for weeks with no sale goes on a list to cut.
The feed is the product list Google reads from Merchant Center. Rejected products and weak titles cost you sales before a bid is ever set.
Shopping, Performance Max (Google's all-in-one campaign type) and Search, split so the products that make money get the budget.
A call where they explain what they would change, and why. Ask for the why, so you can make the next call yourself.
Hiring advice from Christopher Krassnig, from years of running Google Ads for online stores.
No source we checked publishes a rate for the word "consultant" alone. Consultants bill like a freelancer or a small agency, by the hour or by the month, so these are the closest sourced numbers. Ad spend paid to Google comes on top.
Freelancer on Upwork
Established freelancer
Average US freelance specialist pay
Agency monthly fee, small to mid-sized client
Agency monthly fee, larger account
Fee as a share of spend
Agency running it for you (our own, ZenoX Media)
Scaley Consultant
Scaley Media Buyer
| Feature | Price | How You Pay | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelancer on Upwork | $15 to $40 an hour | By the hour | Upwork, quoted by Loves Data |
| Established freelancer | $80+ an hour | By the hour | Loves Data |
| Average US freelance specialist pay | $25.49 an hour | By the hour | Mayple |
| Agency monthly fee, small to mid-sized client | $500 to $2,000 a month | Monthly fee | AgencyAnalytics, on agency fees |
| Agency monthly fee, larger account | Can pass $5,000 a month | Monthly fee | AgencyAnalytics, on agency fees |
| Fee as a share of spend | 10-20% of ad spend | Monthly, grows with spend | WhatConverts, on Google Ads professionals in general |
| Agency running it for you (our own, ZenoX Media) | $3-8K a month | Monthly retainer | Our own agency work at ZenoX Media |
| Scaley Consultant | $99/mo flat | Monthly, flat. Cancel any day | the Scaley pricing page |
| Scaley Media Buyer | $99/mo + 1% of total ad spend | Monthly. Cancel any day | the Scaley pricing page |
Ask for the hours in writing before the audit starts. An hourly bill with no cap is the one that surprises you.
See Scaley PricingThird-party figures are each source's own: Mayple, Loves Data and WhatConverts read on 15 October 2026, AgencyAnalytics read on 3 November 2026. The retainer range is ZenoX Media's own pricing, not a market survey.
Some stores need one answer. Some need a person on the account. Check which list sounds like you.
Copied word for word from the ZenoX Media question bank, and shown as an example, not a live session.
You
Should we set up a separate campaign for our best products?
Scaley Consultant
Usually no. Splitting your top products into their own campaign to push them harder tends to backfire, CPC goes up and volume drops. The performance split (high performer vs low performer) already gives your winners more budget and better bids automatically.
Three steps, and the account stays untouched the whole time.
Take a screenshot of the report, or export the CSV. Campaigns, search terms, products: whatever you are stuck on.
Type it the way you would say it to an expert. Should I lower my target ROAS? Is this cost per click normal?
It answers from ZenoX Media's client notes, and says why. You make the change yourself, or you skip it.
Some only tell you what to change. Some make the changes. Get the answer in writing, next to the price.
Names hidden is fine. Look at how the campaigns are split, and what they cut last month.
Listen for tracking. If they jump straight to bids and budgets, ask why.
AgencyAnalytics says setting up a brand new account can take 15 to 25 hours. An audit is less, but ask for the cap before they start.
You do. It stays in your name. They get access, not ownership.
Ask for a change log with the reason on each line. A monthly PDF of results is not that log.
This is ZenoX Media's own archive. Scaley looks your question up in it first.
ZenoX Media's Slack export
Every figure is ZenoX Media's own count, from its Slack export.
Christopher Krassnig
Founder, Scaley AI · Operator at ZenoX Media
I'm Chris. I run ZenoX Media, a Google Ads agency for online stores. $200M+ in client revenue tracked through our campaigns, across 400+ store accounts. That count comes from our own client reporting.
Most store questions fit in one screenshot. Is this cost per click normal? Should my best sellers get their own campaign?
A consultant can bill an hour for a question like that. My team answered it in Slack, over and over, on real stores.
So we put those answers behind a chat. That is Scaley Consultant. You paste the screenshot, and it answers from the notes my team wrote.
Need an answer? Paste the screenshot.
Scaley Media Buyer connects read-only. Ask where the money goes, and the answer lists it right away.
Screen from the Scaley app on Scaley Media Buyer. Names are blurred. Scaley Consultant never sees an account, so it works from the file you upload instead.
Connect Scaley Media Buyer read-only and ask where the money goes. It reads the whole account and never changes it.
One level up, Scaley Media Buyer reads the live account, so you stop pasting screenshots. Every price here is the published one, on the Scaley pricing page.
$99/mo flat
Always $99 a month
3-day free trial. Card required. Cancel anytime
Scaley Media Buyer. When you want it to read the live account, not just the file you upload.
See Scaley Media BuyerScaley Suite. When you want it to prepare the changes, not just name them.
See Scaley SuiteScaley Consultant
$99/mo flat
3-day free trial. Card required. Cancel anytime
Try it on your own screenshots for 3 days. Your first bill comes at the end of your first paid month.
3-day free trial. Card required. Cancel anytime
Inner Circle lists at $299/mo on its own Skool page. Every price and term here is the published one on the pricing page.
Every level includes an Inner Circle seat. Inner Circle is the top paid tier of the Google Ads eCom Lab, the Skool community Chris runs. Scaley users get it included. The weekly calls and the SOP Vault sit in Inner Circle.
Inside the Google Ads eCom Lab on Skool
Inner Circle sells for $299/mo on its own Skool page. The 1,700+ members are Chris's own count.
Free pages that help you judge any consultant, human or not.
All four pages are free to read and use.
Anything else, write to hello@scaleyai.com.
They bill by the hour or by the month. Mayple puts the US average for a freelance Google Ads specialist at $25.49 an hour. Upwork, quoted by Loves Data, says $15 to $40 an hour, and $80 or more for an established freelancer. AgencyAnalytics says a typical monthly fee starts at $500 to $2,000 a month for small to mid-sized clients, and bigger accounts can pass $5,000 a month. WhatConverts says many Google Ads professionals charge 10-20% of ad spend. ZenoX Media, our own agency, charges $3-8K a month. Ad spend is paid to Google on top. Scaley Consultant is $99/mo flat. Here is what PPC management costs at your ad spend.
Paste the screenshot you would send a consultant. Scaley Consultant answers from ZenoX Media's client notes, and nothing connects to your account. If the answer shows the account needs a rebuild, you will know what to hire a person for. Your first bill comes at the end of your first paid month.
3-day free trial. Card required. Cancel anytime
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