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Before you sign with anyone

How to Hire a Google Ads Expert, and When You Don't Need One Yet

A freelancer, an agency, a hire or software. Each fits a different store. Here is what each costs, what to check, and where Scaley fits: answers from an agency's own notes, at a price you see up front.

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For store owners about to hire Google Ads help, or wondering if the help they have is any good.

Scaley is built by the team behind ZenoX Media, a Google Ads agency with $200M+ in client revenue tracked through our campaigns, across 300+ accounts.

The short answer

To hire a Google Ads expert, check three things before you sign. You own the account. They fix tracking first. They report sales, not clicks. An agency retainer runs $3-8K a month, from our own agency work. If you need answers, not hands, Scaley Media Buyer, built by ZenoX Media, reads your live account and never changes it.

Written and reviewed by

Freelancer, agency, in-house or software

Four Ways to Get a Google Ads Expert, Side by Side

No option wins every row. Read the row that matters most to you, then pick. Ad spend is paid to Google on top of every fee here.

  • What it costs

    Freelancer
    $15 to $40 an hour on Upwork, $80+ for an established freelancer (Loves Data). US average $25.49 an hour (Mayple)
    Agency
    $3-8K a month, from our own agency work. Loves Data: upward of $1,000 a month
    In-House Hire
    $71,000 a year average US base salary (Glassdoor, via Loves Data), plus tools
    Scaley
    Scaley Media Buyer: $99/mo + 1% of total ad spend

  • How fast it starts

    Freelancer
    Ask when they can start and what onboarding takes
    Agency
    Ask how long the audit and onboarding run
    In-House Hire
    Hiring and training come first
    Scaley
    Answers within minutes of connecting read-only, or of sending screenshots on Scaley Consultant

  • Who holds the account

    Freelancer
    Check it is in your name, not theirs
    Agency
    Check the contract says you own it
    In-House Hire
    You
    Scaley
    You. It reads and never takes over

  • Who makes changes

    Freelancer
    They do. Ask how they tell you
    Agency
    They do. Ask how they tell you
    In-House Hire
    Your hire
    Scaley
    You. On Suite, each fix waits for your yes

  • Strategy calls and new creative

    Freelancer
    Confirm what the contract includes
    Agency
    Confirm what the contract includes
    In-House Hire
    If you hire for it
    Scaley
    No

  • Biggest risk

    Freelancer
    One person. If they leave, the know-how goes too
    Agency
    A small account can end up with a junior
    In-House Hire
    One point of view and a big fixed cost
    Scaley
    It will not run the account for you. You still decide

If you want hands on the account, hire a human. If you mostly need someone to tell you what is wrong, that part can start today.

Freelancer, in-house and outside agency figures are each source's own, read on 15 October 2026. 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. Glassdoor, quoted by Loves Data, puts the average US base salary for a Google Ads specialist at $71,000 a year. Loves Data says to expect upward of $1,000 a month for an experienced agency. WhatConverts says many Google Ads professionals charge 10-20% of ad spend. The $3-8K a month range is ZenoX Media's own retainer pricing, not a market survey. Scaley's price is listed on the Scaley pricing page.

Straight talk

Do You Need a Google Ads Expert or Just Answers?

A lot of stores hire someone to run the account when what they need is answers. Some really do need the hands. Scaley is software, not a place to hire freelancers.

Start with Scaley if

  • You run your own Google Ads and want an expert to check your thinking.
  • You can't tell if your current freelancer or agency is doing good work.
  • You spend less than $1,000 a month on ads. WhatConverts says a specialist might not make money sense at that level.
  • You want answers today, not after a month of onboarding.
  • You want to keep every login and every decision.

Hire a human if

  • You want someone to take the account off your hands. For bigger accounts, ZenoX Media does exactly that.
  • You need new ads, videos or landing pages made for you.
  • You want a weekly call with a person who owns the result.
  • You never want to log in, read an answer or approve a change.
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What good looks like

Good Signs in a Google Ads Expert

These hold for a freelancer, an agency or a hire. Look for all four.

They Ask About Your Margins First

A good expert asks what a sale is worth to you before they touch a bid. Without your margins, every ROAS target (return on ad spend: sales back for each ad dollar) is a guess.

They Check Tracking Before Anything Else

If sales are counted wrong, every decision after that is wrong too. A good expert checks tracking in week one.

They Show You a Real Account

Ask for a screen share of an account they run, with the names hidden. A real account beats a slide deck every time.

You Own Everything

The Google Ads account, Merchant Center and the data stay in your name. They get access, not ownership.

Hiring advice from Christopher Krassnig, from years of running Google Ads for online stores.

Walk away if you see these

Red Flags When You Hire Google Ads Help

They Promise a ROAS Before Seeing the Account

Nobody knows your number before they look at your margins, your tracking and your products. A promise up front is a sales line.

The Account Sits in Their Name

Your ads run in an account they own. If you part ways, years of history stay with them.

Reports Show Clicks, Not Sales

Clicks and impressions are easy to grow. If the report never shows sales and cost per sale, ask why.

Nobody Can Say Who Does the Work

You met a senior person on the sales call. Ask who touches your account each week, by name.

One of these is worth a hard question. Two is a reason to walk.

Mistakes on your side of the table

Hiring Mistakes Store Owners Make

Hiring on Price Alone

The cheapest quote often covers the least work. Put the quotes side by side for the same written scope before you compare the fee.

Judging the First Two Weeks

Fixing tracking and cutting waste can make the numbers look flat at first. Agree up front what a good first month looks like.

Nothing in Writing

A handshake scope grows or shrinks without anyone saying so. Send the brief below and get the answer back in writing.

Every one of these is cheaper to fix before you sign.

For online stores

How to Vet a Google Ads Freelancer for Ecommerce

Store accounts are not like accounts that collect leads. Ask these, and ask to see the proof on screen, not on a slide.

Is Every Sale Counted Once?

Ask how they check purchase tracking. A good answer: they place a test order, check that each order ID is counted once, and explain why Google Ads and Shopify never match to the cent.

What Do You Do About Feed Errors?

The product feed is the list of products Google reads from Merchant Center. Ask how they fix rejected products. A good answer names the errors they see most and keeps the feed in your name.

Have You Run Shopping and Performance Max for Stores?

Ask for Shopping and Performance Max (Google's all-in-one campaign type) work on real stores. A good answer is a live account they can show you, names hidden.

How Do You Split Products by Margin?

Ask how they treat a high-margin product next to a low one. A good answer groups products by profit and allows for returns, not just by price.

Can You Separate Brand Searches and New Customers?

Two checks, not one. First: do reports show people searching your store name apart from everyone else? Brand sales often come anyway. Second: do they show new buyers apart from returning ones?

Testing Products Fast?

Ask what they do when a product test fails in a week. Dropshipping stores need quick cuts. Start with the Google Ads Dropshipping guides.

Hiring advice from Christopher Krassnig, from years of running Google Ads for online stores.

Copy these into your next call

Questions to Ask Before You Hire Anyone

Who Will Touch My Account Every Week?

A good answer is a name and a role. A vague answer means you don't know who is spending your money.

How Do You Measure a Good Month?

Listen for sales and cost per sale, or profit. If the answer is clicks, traffic or impressions, keep looking.

What Will You Change in the First 30 Days, and Why?

A good expert says tracking first, then waste, then growth. Anyone who wants to rebuild everything in week one is guessing.

Can I See an Account You Run Right Now?

Names hidden is fine. A real account shows how they think. A case study PDF shows how they sell.

Who Owns the Account If We Stop?

You. Always. If they pause before they answer, that tells you enough.

How Will You Tell Me What You Changed?

Look for a change log with the reason for each change. Not a monthly PDF that only shows the results.

The hiring checklist

Your Hiring Brief: Send the Same One to Everyone

Your Store

Your store link, the countries you sell to, how many products you have and your rough margin on each kind.

Your Numbers

What you spend on Google Ads a month, what sales you want from it, and how your tracking is set up today.

The Work

Which campaigns, the product feed and the landing pages: in or out. A good expert checks the page the ad sends people to, its speed, price and stock, before blaming the ads.

Ask Every Quote the Same Money Questions

Is there a setup fee? Is the monthly fee flat or a share of spend? Is there a minimum term? What costs extra: feed work, new ads, tracking, tools?

Reports and Access

How often you get a report and what it shows: sales and cost per sale. They get access to Google Ads and Merchant Center. The accounts stay in your name.

Notice and Handover

How much notice either side gives. What you get back when it ends: access, change notes and every file they made for you.

From brief to hire

How to Shortlist a Google Ads Specialist

Four steps. Each one costs you an hour or less and saves you a bad hire.

  1. Send the Same Brief to Three People

    Same store, same numbers, same scope. Now the quotes can be compared fairly.

  2. Compare the Written Scopes

    Lay the answers side by side. Look at what each one includes, not just the fee.

  3. Meet the Person Who Does the Work

    Not only the person who sells. Ask them the questions above and ask to see a live account.

  4. Agree the First Thing They Deliver

    For example, a tracking check and a list of waste in the first two weeks. Then you can judge real work early.

What a good start can look like

A Sample First 30, 60 and 90 Days

A sample plan, not a fixed rule. The order depends on your tracking, your feed and how much data you have. Most good specialists start with tracking.

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  1. Week 1: Access and Tracking

    They get access to your account, not ownership. They check that every sale is counted once. Nothing big changes until that is right.

  2. Days 8 to 30: Stop the Leaks

    Once tracking works, they cut search terms and products that spent for weeks with no sale. Each cut comes with a reason you can read.

  3. Days 31 to 60: Feed and Product Split

    They clean up the feed and split Shopping and Performance Max by margin, so your best products get the budget.

  4. Days 61 to 90: Grow What Sells

    They put more budget behind what makes money. You get a plain report each month: sales, cost per sale, what changed and why.

Christopher Krassnig, founder of Scaley and ZenoX Media

Christopher Krassnig

Founder, Scaley AI · Operator at ZenoX Media

Why I built Scaley

Not Every Store Needs a Team. Every Store Needs the Truth

I am Chris. I run ZenoX Media, a Google Ads agency. We run bigger accounts for store owners, start to finish. For a lot of stores that is still the right call.

But a lot of stores that asked us for help could not carry a retainer yet. They didn't need a team. They needed someone to look at the account and tell them what was wrong.

So we built Scaley. Before it answers, it looks things up in our own Slack messages, voice memos and how-to guides. Those are years of notes we wrote about real stores. The counts are right below.

Scaley Media Buyer reads your live account and answers what you ask. Scaley Suite goes one step further: it writes the fix, queues it, and waits for you to tap yes.

If your account is big enough for a team, hire one. ZenoX Media is one. If it is not there yet, start with Scaley.

What it reads before it answers

The Notes Behind Every Answer

This is our agency's own archive. Scaley reads it next to your account before it answers you.

262,792Slack messages
636Slack channels
8,183voice memos
1,151answered questions

ZenoX Media's Slack export

Every figure is the agency's own count, from its Slack export and voice-note library.

Example, with round figures

Ask If Your Current Help Is Any Good

This window is an example. The account is made up, with round figures. Connected, Scaley Media Buyer reads your live numbers first, and it only reads.

scaleyai.com/chatScaley Media Buyer
Example account, round figures

  1. You

    My freelancer says the account is fine. Is it?

  2. Scaley Media Buyer

    Partly. Shopping runs at a 3.0 ROAS on $1,200 of spend. Search runs at 0.8 on $500, and most of that went to broad terms with no sale in 30 days. Google Ads also shows 140 sales this month, while your store shows 110 orders. Check whether the same order is counted twice before you trust that return. Two questions for your freelancer: why is that Search spend still running, and why do the sale counts differ? I only read the account. The changes stay with you.

Automation with a yes button

Want the Fixes Made? Scaley Suite Waits for Your Yes

Giving someone the keys is the scary part of hiring. Scaley Suite gets access, never a free hand. It finds the waste, writes the fix and queues it. Nothing changes until you tap yes.

One line at a time, each with the reason. You can read each proposed change and its reason before you approve it.

Sample queue with no real account behind it. Only Scaley Suite can change an account, and only after you approve that line. Scaley Media Buyer and Scaley Consultant never write.

scaleyai.com/queue2 waiting on you
  1. Shopping / Core CatalogYou approved it

    Pause the products that spent for 30 days with no sale

    Tracking checks out, and 30 days is longer than these products usually take to sell.

  2. Search / GenericYour call

    Move $200 a month from broad Search terms to the top Shopping products

    Example check: after product cost and ad cost, those products still leave a profit. The broad terms do not.

  3. Search / GenericWaiting for you

    Add the terms with 60 days of clicks and no sale as negatives

    A negative tells Google not to show your ad for that search. Tracking works, and 60 days covers late sales.

Pick how much help you want

Three Levels of Google Ads Help. Start Where It Fits

Same agency notes at every level. An agency retainer runs $3-8K a month, from our own agency work. Start where it makes sense and move up when you want the fixes queued for you.

Scaley Consultant. You already have this inside your plan.

Most Popular

Scaley Media Buyer

$99/mo + 1% of total ad spend

At $5K spend that is $149 a month

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Leak Guarantee: any month we show you less waste than your bill, we refund it

See the conditions

Wasted spend means money spent in the 30It covers every paid bill. Ask within 14 days of the bill. Full terms

  • Everything in Scaley Consultant
  • One-click Google Ads connection, read-only
  • Reads live campaign, product and search term data
  • You ask the questions. It answers from the live account
  • 1% of your total ad spend. No minimum, no cap
  • Leak Report inside your 3-day trial

Scaley Suite. When you want it to prepare the changes, not just name them.

See Scaley Suite
The offer

What Comes with Scaley Media Buyer

Scaley Media Buyer

$99/mo + 1% of total ad spend

  • Inner Circle seat included (normally $299/mo)
  • Leak Report inside your 3-day trial

3-day free trial. Card required. Cancel anytime

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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 month, every paid bill

The Leak Guarantee: Less Waste Than Your Bill Means the Bill Comes Back

It covers Scaley Media Buyer. Check the list against your own search terms report.

Every month, if the wasted ad spend Scaley shows you is smaller than that month's bill, we refund the whole bill.

  1. Connect Read-Only

    One click on Google's own sign-in screen gives Scaley read-only access. It cannot change a setting.

  2. See the Waste List in Minutes

    Click the one-click audit. Within minutes of connecting, you see every search term and product that took clicks and made no sale, with the dollars next to each one. A counter adds it all up.

  3. Less Waste Than Your Bill? You Get the Whole Bill Back

    Any month the waste shown is smaller than that month's bill, email hello@scaleyai.com within 14 days of the bill. We refund the whole bill, base fee and percent.

Wasted spend means money spent in the 30It covers every paid bill. Ask within 14 days of the bill.

Full terms

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Your first bill comes at the end of your first paid month.

Do the cost math

What Scaley Costs on Your Own Spend

Drag in your monthly ad spend. Then hold it next to a retainer of $3-8K a month, from our own agency work, or the freelancer rates above.

$5,000

$
$2,000$150,000+
$5,000 a month in total. Scaley Consultant: $99 a month. Scaley Media Buyer: $149 a month. Scaley Suite: $399 a month.

  • Scaley Consultant

    Scaley Consultant is a flat $99 a month. Your ad spend does not change the price.

    $99 a month

    Start the 3-Day Free Trial

  • Scaley Media Buyer

    Scaley Media Buyer is $99 a month plus 1% of $5,000 total ad spend: $149.

    $149 a month

    Start the 3-Day Free Trial

  • Scaley Suite

    Scaley Suite is $199 a month plus 4% of $5,000 total ad spend: $399.

    $399 a month

    Start the 3-Day Free Trial

From our own price list. Scaley Consultant is $99/mo flat. Scaley Media Buyer is $99/mo + 1% of total ad spend. Scaley Suite is $199/mo + 4% of total ad spend. The retainer range is from our own agency work at ZenoX Media.

Before you hire

Hiring a Google Ads Expert: Your Questions

Anything this does not answer, write to hello@scaleyai.com and ask.

It depends on the shape. 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. Glassdoor, quoted by Loves Data, puts the average US base salary for a Google Ads specialist at $71,000 a year. Loves Data says to expect upward of $1,000 a month for an experienced agency. WhatConverts says many Google Ads professionals charge 10-20% of ad spend. Our own agency retainer runs $3-8K a month, from our own agency work. Ad spend is paid to Google on top. Scaley Consultant is $99/mo flat, Scaley Media Buyer is $99/mo + 1% of total ad spend and Scaley Suite is $199/mo + 4% of total ad spend.

Get an Expert Answer Before You Sign Anything

Connect your account read-only and ask what an expert would ask. If it turns out you need a human, you will know exactly what to hire for.

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