What does ad management involve?
Ad management covers all paid-campaign activities: account structure setup, audience definition, ad copy, bidding strategies, conversion tracking and weekly to monthly adjustments.
It's not one-off. A Google Ads account that works fine in January often performs worse in June as search terms, competition and bids constantly change. Without management, return evaporates slowly.
What does an ad manager do?
At account level: campaign structure setup, conversion tracking implementation, audience segmentation, budget allocation, bidding strategy.
At campaign level: ad variant testing, negative keyword addition, search term reports, landing page performance, bid adjustments by location and device.
At reporting level: monthly explanation of what changed, what worked, and which step follows. Not just numbers but interpretation.
Which platforms?
Google Ads dominates search-intent campaigns. Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) dominates interest-based campaigns. LinkedIn for B2B targeting by job title.
TikTok Ads and Pinterest Ads for specific age groups and visually-driven products. Snapchat Ads for young audiences under 25.
Each platform has different rules. A good ad manager knows the UI, bidding strategies and pitfalls of every platform you're active on.
Ad management fees
Agencies usually charge in one of three ways: a fixed monthly fee, a percentage of your ad budget, or an hourly rate.
Fixed monthly fee: from €750 per month for a small account with 1-2 campaigns, from €1,500 per month for multiple campaigns across platforms.
Percentage of budget: a fixed share of your ad spend. This model scales flexibly, but beware: it rewards agencies for higher spend, not for better return.
On top of this come the ad costs themselves (click budget), from around €500 per month to build enough data for reliable optimisation.
When to outsource?
From the moment your ad budget hits €500/month+. Below that threshold, doing it yourself is often more profitable than paying an agency.
When you don't trust conversion tracking or don't know how to set it up correctly. That's the difference between burning money and knowing return.
When you want multiple platforms at once. Combinations of Google Ads + Meta + LinkedIn drift without central coordination.
How to pick a reliable agency?
Ask for account-level access, not just reports. Whoever doesn't give access hides details.
Ask for cases with concrete numbers (ROAS, CPA) and the duration of the relationship. Agencies with clients who stay 3-5 years deliver consistently.
Ask whether the manager is certified (Google Partner status, Meta Business Partner). Not decisive but a minimum bar.
Ask what they DON'T do. Agencies that promise everything usually deliver little.
Common mistakes
Conversion tracking not set up or not tested. Then agencies and algorithms optimise on empty data.
No baseline measured before the agency joins. Without a starting point, growth isn't provable.
Picking an agency on lowest price. A good agency pays for itself, a cheap agency earns less and costs more mistakes.
No clear agreements on reporting frequency and escalation when performance drops.
Real-world example
An installation company in Brabant runs its own Google Ads on broad keywords like 'boiler'. The budget runs out every month, but enquiries don't come: the clicks come from people looking for information, not people who need an engineer.
An ad manager restructures the account: separate campaigns per service, negative keywords for information seekers ('replace yourself', 'manual'), conversion tracking on the quote form and bids on purchase-intent search terms like 'boiler replacement cost'. The same budget, now aimed at the clicks that make money. That's the difference between running ads and managing ads.
Checklist: is your ad management in order?
1. Conversion tracking set up and tested, including phone and form conversions.
2. Search terms report reviewed at least monthly and negative keywords added.
3. Separate campaigns per service or product group, no all-in-one campaign.
4. Landing pages that match the ad. What makes a good landing page is covered in our explainer "What is a landing page?".
5. Clear monthly reporting with interpretation, not just numbers.
6. Account in your name, with full access for you.
Want to know how we approach this? Our Google Ads service page walks through how we build, optimise and report on accounts step by step.
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