Recently, I was part of a boring and awful digital marketing session, especially focused on Advanced Adwords strategies.
I always expect to feel enlightened when they say Advanced but what I witnessed was only “Gyaan” and jargon/bullshit, with no action items.
Many drinks later, I decided to list down the signs of a crappy Adwords consultant. Read this before he burns your money and leaves you empty handed.
First, whoever is ready to judge numbers without having any data, be it qualitative or quantitative is a fraud. Any experienced Adwords consultant should be requesting for significant data/numbers to understand target audience perceptive, to avoid “expert personal advice” from anyone from management.
One of the signs of a bad consultant is confidence to spend heavily with no data and assuring results based only on experience while refusing to comment on results/recommendations.
How to Identify Ineffective Adwords Strategies
This video highlights the most common mistakes Adwords consultants make that can waste budget and hurt campaign performance.
You can also pick these clowns by the number of reasons he tries to persuade you.
There are many hidden factors in the AdWords system, which at times do not respond as expected or deliver unexpected results.
A good PPC consultant will focus on things he can control and be responsible for their results.
Conversation with Adwords consultant is inversely propositional to trust, reliability, and confidence in performance. You can see for yourself from crappy PPC consultants, explaining why things do not work and how it’s the system’s fault and not theirs, but as I said they are crappy by definition, so just ignore them.
Do check for language, the Adwords language which PPC consultants use. When they start talking English which you don’t understand, like ‘click through rate’, ‘bid strategy’ just kick them out.
Check out for real estate campaigns – everyone is using words like premium lifestyle, innovative design, or nowadays even ‘collaborating with brands’. Customers do not give a damn about this and don’t even understand it.
If AdWords consultant is using these words in a campaign he is burning your money.
The Customer only buys when he wants the brand and he makes the purchase with a set budget and negotiates when it’s not a brand.
Customers don’t give a damn shit about brands, especially in real estate.The consultant needs to understand what you are selling and communicate the same to customers.
If he even starts speaking and trying to close the deal over ‘cost per conversion’ just throw something heavy at him or ask him to leave as politely as possible.
Agencies with an army of consultants are fooling firms by just trading leads from one source to a hundred lead – hungry firms and earning commissions from wherever it gets converted.
Another quality to look for is when he starts talking about ‘product inefficiencies’ after running a campaign for a significant period of time and then blaming it on product positioning or
competition for ineffectiveness. Ask him what kind of fucked up competitive analysis he did before he started. What I have listed here is not a complete list. But my learning through interaction with these people, which may save you some money.
An effective AdWords consultant is defined by their unwavering commitment to data-driven decision-making, not just campaign execution. Their primary value lies in interpreting your business's unique data to form a testable hypothesis, which prevents the costly mistake of spending heavily based on gut feelings or generic industry experience. A strategy built on evidence protects your budget and connects ad spend directly to tangible outcomes. A truly skilled consultant will always prioritize a thorough analysis before launch. Key indicators of their expertise include:
Requesting significant historical data, both qualitative and quantitative.
Focusing on controllable variables they can be held accountable for.
Avoiding broad promises of results without a clear understanding of your audience.
This foundational work separates professional strategists from frauds who rely on “expert personal advice.” To see more signs of a competent consultant, read the full analysis.
You can differentiate between essential jargon and obfuscation by demanding clear connections between the term and a business outcome. A competent PPC consultant uses terms like 'bid strategy' or 'click through rate' to explain how a specific tactic will achieve a goal, such as lowering customer acquisition cost. A poor consultant uses these terms as a smokescreen to sound intelligent while avoiding accountability for poor results. Always ask “Why does that metric matter for my sales?” An effective partner can translate technical language into a plain-English explanation of their strategy and its expected impact on your bottom line, while a charlatan will deflect or offer more confusing jargon. Uncover more communication red flags by exploring the complete guide.
A results-oriented PPC consultant communicates with clarity and accountability, while an ineffective one uses excuses and complex jargon. The key difference lies in their approach to problems: the good consultant focuses on what they can control and takes responsibility, while the bad one blames “hidden factors in the AdWords system.” An accountable partner talks about adjustments and solutions, whereas an unreliable one explains why things did not work. When comparing consultants, look for these contrasting traits:
Accountable Consultant: Discusses specific, controllable actions and their impact on performance.
Ineffective Consultant: Persuades you with a high number of reasons why external factors are to blame.
Accountable Consultant: Provides reports that link metrics to business goals.
Ineffective Consultant: Focuses on vanity metrics or confusing jargon you do not understand.
The more a consultant talks about system faults, the lower your confidence should be. Discover the full list of communication warning signs in the complete article.
The 'premium lifestyle' example perfectly illustrates a consultant's failure to connect with the customer's actual needs and motivations. This type of generic language shows the consultant has not done the work to understand what you are selling or what a buyer truly values, such as location, price, or specific amenities. Effective advertising speaks the customer's language, not corporate buzzwords. This mistake highlights a larger problem: when an AdWords consultant uses such copy, they are fundamentally misunderstanding their role. Instead of communicating value, they are just filling space with words that customers ignore, which is equivalent to burning your money. This issue often stems from a lack of proper research into your specific market and audience. To avoid this costly error, it is vital to vet a consultant's understanding of your business.
The primary sign that an agency is just trading leads is an intense focus on lead volume and cost per conversion metrics, with little regard for lead quality or final sales. These agencies often treat leads as a commodity, selling the same prospect information to multiple “lead-hungry firms” and collecting a commission from whoever closes the deal. This model incentivizes quantity over quality, leaving you with unqualified prospects that waste your sales team's time. Watch for these red flags:
An obsessive focus on conversion count without discussing lead-to-sale rates.
A lack of interest in your sales process or CRM integration.
Vague reporting that doesn't differentiate between a curious clicker and a ready-to-buy customer.
A genuine partner is invested in your revenue, not just their commission. Discover how to identify and avoid these lead-trading schemes in our detailed guide.
To properly vet a new AdWords consultant, you must systematically test their strategic thinking before granting them access to your budget. An effective process moves from general discussion to specific, data-based scenarios, revealing their true competence. This structured approach forces them to demonstrate expertise rather than just talk about it. Follow these steps during the hiring process:
Demand a Data Request: Start by asking what specific data they would need to see from you. A good consultant will immediately ask for access to analytics and historical campaign data.
Present a Scenario: Give them a hypothetical campaign goal and ask for their initial thoughts, focusing on their process, not promises.
Scrutinize their Language: Pay close attention to how they talk. Do they use clear, business-focused language or hide behind jargon like 'bid strategy' without explaining its purpose?
Discuss Failure: Ask them how they handle underperforming campaigns. An honest answer involves testing and iteration, not blaming the system.
This methodical vetting process will help you avoid costly hiring mistakes.
If you suspect your consultant is failing, you need to conduct a focused audit on their communication and reporting. A heavy reliance on a single metric like 'cost per conversion' is a major red flag, as it can hide a lack of real business impact and low-quality leads. A successful campaign is measured by its contribution to revenue, not just intermediate metrics. To perform an audit, first review the ad copy they are using. Is it specific and customer-focused, or full of vague buzzwords like 'innovative design'? Second, challenge their reporting. Ask them to connect the 'cost per conversion' to the actual revenue generated from those conversions. A good consultant can demonstrate this link, while a poor one will deflect. For a deeper dive into auditing your campaigns, explore the complete article.
The rise of AI and automation in Google Ads fundamentally elevates the role of a consultant from a technical manager to a strategic leader. With tools handling the 'what' of bidding, the consultant's value is now entirely in the 'why', an area where bad consultants are weakest. Their focus must shift from manual adjustments to high-level strategy, creative direction, and market analysis. The consultant's key responsibilities now include:
Conducting a thorough initial competitive analysis to inform positioning.
Crafting compelling ad copy that resonates with the target audience, avoiding generic phrases.
Understanding the product and customer journey to a deep degree.
Interpreting performance data to make strategic pivots, not just tactical tweaks.
In this new landscape, a consultant who cannot perform these strategic tasks is more of a liability than ever.
Your long-term strategy must embrace this volatility by prioritizing a consultant's process over their promises. Since the AdWords system can be unpredictable, the most valuable asset a consultant brings is a rigorous, adaptable methodology for testing and learning, not a guarantee of specific results. Focus on hiring for adaptability and analytical skill rather than empty confidence. When setting expectations, shift the conversation from “What ROI can you guarantee?” to “What is your process for navigating unexpected outcomes and optimizing from them?” A superior PPC consultant will be transparent about the system's quirks and present a clear plan for how they will manage risk, control variables, and pivot based on real performance data. This reframes the relationship around continuous improvement.
The most common mistake is accepting this excuse at face value without questioning the consultant's initial due diligence. When a consultant blames your product or competition *after* a campaign fails, it is a clear admission that they failed to conduct a proper competitive analysis before they started. This is not a product problem; it is a planning problem. A competent AdWords consultant identifies these potential challenges upfront. A thorough analysis before launch would:
Identify key competitors and their strategies.
Assess your product's positioning within the market landscape.
Anticipate potential roadblocks and develop a strategy to overcome them.
By insisting on this analysis from day one, you force accountability and prevent them from using your product as a scapegoat for their own lack of preparation. For more on avoiding these blame games, see the full guide.
This combination of high confidence and low commitment is a classic sign of a consultant who lacks a data-driven strategy. Their “experience” is a substitute for hard evidence, and their refusal to comment on specific results reveals they have no intention of being held accountable. A data-first approach means making educated projections based on analysis, not vague assurances. The best way to counter this is to pivot the conversation from their experience to your data. Ask them directly: “Based on our historical data, what is a realistic performance baseline we can expect to see in the first 30 days?” This forces them to engage with facts, not feelings, and quickly separates the strategists from the salespeople. Explore the complete article for more techniques to screen consultants.
A consultant's initial demand for data is the most reliable sign they are a professional, not a fraud. This step is critical because it grounds the entire campaign strategy in reality, rather than the consultant’s personal biases or the management’s subjective opinions. Basing decisions on historical performance and target audience insights is the only way to avoid burning money on untested assumptions. A refusal to analyze data before spending heavily is a massive red flag. A proper analysis phase allows the AdWords consultant to understand what has and has not worked, identify your true customer, and set realistic benchmarks, thereby creating a campaign they can be held responsible for. Learn more about the foundational steps that great consultants never skip.
Chandala Takalkar is a young content marketer and creative with experience in content, copy, corporate communications, and design. A digital native, she has the ability to craft content and copy that suits the medium and connects. Prior to Team upGrowth, she worked as an English trainer. Her experience includes all forms of copy and content writing, from Social Media communication to email marketing.
Growth Strategy and Planning
