Choosing a PPC agency in Birmingham
Seven questions, and how to check the answers yourself
Seven questions to ask any Birmingham PPC agency, the answers that should worry you, and the checks you can run on its claims in an afternoon without asking.
Written by Daniel Stoychev, who runs the accounts · 5 September 2026 · about 10 minutes
Choose a Birmingham PPC agency on four things you can verify and ignore everything you cannot. Whose name the Google Ads account will be in, how the fee is calculated, who will actually read the account each week, and whether the numbers they show you are real. Every other thing on an agency's website, the awards, the badges, the review count, the office address, is either unverifiable or beside the point. This guide gives you seven questions to ask, the answers that should end the conversation, and a set of checks you can run on any agency in an afternoon without their help.
The seven questions
- Whose name will the Google Ads account be in? The right answer is yours, on your Google account, with your card on the billing, and the agency linked as a manager you can remove. The wrong answer is theirs, which means leaving is starting again.
- How is your fee calculated? A flat fee by spend band, or a fixed monthly figure, means the agency earns the same whether it recommends spending more or less. A percentage of spend means it earns more when you spend more, whatever comes back.
- Who will read my search terms report, and how often? The name of a person and the word weekly. If the answer is a team, a process or a platform, ask which human opened the account last Monday.
- Will you put the ad spend on my card or yours? Yours. Spend that goes through the agency can be marked up and cannot be checked.
- What will the monthly report lead with? Enquiries and their cost, and where you told them what an enquiry is worth, return on spend. If it leads with impressions and clicks, the report is written to look busy.
- What will you refuse to do? A good agency has a list: auto-apply recommendations, Performance Max on its own, the location setting that includes people merely interested in the area. An agency with no refusals has no method.
- Where are you, actually? Not where the website says. Ask where the person who will run the account sits. A remote agency that says so is fine; one that prints a Birmingham address it does not occupy has told you how it reports.
The answers that should end it
| What they say | What it means | What to ask instead |
|---|---|---|
| "We're a Google Premier Partner" | The agency spends a lot across all its accounts and has certified staff. It says nothing about yours. | Who, by name, reads my account each week? |
| "We manage over £X million in ad spend" | The agency is large. Large agencies qualify out small accounts and hand the rest to juniors. | What is the smallest account you take, and who runs it? |
| "Our fee is just 15% of spend" | Every budget increase they recommend pays them more. | What does your fee do if you cut my spend by a third by removing waste? |
| "We'll set up the account for you for free" | Often the account is built inside their manager account and stays there. | Will the account be on my Google account with my card? |
| "Our results speak for themselves", with logos | Logos are not numbers. Numbers with the spend cropped out are not results. | Show me one account's spend, enquiries and cost per enquiry for a stated period. |
| "We have a Birmingham office" | Perhaps. Several agencies targeting the city print addresses they do not occupy. | Which of your people is at that address on a Tuesday? |
Checks you can run without asking them
None of these takes more than a few minutes, and together they tell you more than a sales call.
- Search the ICO register for the agency's name. A business handling your customers' data should be registered; one that is not has not thought about it.
- Put the address they print into Street View. A serviced office is fine; a residential street or a virtual office address on a page that says "our Birmingham office" is a claim you have just disproved.
- Read the pricing page, if there is one. Most Birmingham agencies publish no prices at all; the ones that do have decided to be judged on them. When we read the ten largest UK PPC agency websites on 5 September 2026, one published a full price list and one a single "from" figure; the rest published nothing.
- Search the agency's own name on Google. If competitors are bidding on it and the agency is not, it does not practise what it will sell you.
- Ask for a sample monthly report with the client's name removed. An agency that cannot show one either does not send them or is embarrassed by them.
- Ask what the account's change history will show after a month. The right answer is dozens of entries under a named person. The change history is inside your own account and it cannot be faked.
The office question, honestly
Google Ads is run on a screen, and whether the screen is on Colmore Row or in another town makes no difference to the account. What matters is whether the person with the screen reads the account every week and answers the phone when you ring. A local office is worth having if you want to meet in person often; it costs the agency rent, which its clients pay. We are in Wrexham, we say so on every page where it comes up, and we visit Birmingham by appointment. Choose an agency that tells you where it is; distrust one that lets you assume.
What a good first reply looks like
Send the same two facts to every agency on your list: your monthly ad spend and your sector. A good reply comes from a person, names the fee in writing, asks for your customer ID so it can read the account before promising anything, and says what it would change first. A weak reply invites you to a discovery call, mentions the agency's size, and does not contain a number. The reply is a sample of how the agency communicates, and it does not get better after you sign.
One test covers most of this guide. Ask the agency: if you took over my account today and found that a third of the spend was going on searches that could never buy, what would happen to your fee when you cut it? A flat-fee agency says nothing. A percentage agency has to think.
Choosing between two good ones
If two agencies pass every check, choose the one whose report you would rather read, because you will read twelve of them a year. Ask each for the sample report and compare the first page. One leads with money and enquiries and says what it refused to do; the other leads with a chart of impressions. That is the whole difference, and it is visible before you pay anyone.
Follow-up questions
Does a Birmingham PPC agency need to be in Birmingham?
No. The account is run on a screen and the useful questions are who reads it and how they are paid. A local office is a convenience for meetings and a cost the clients carry. What matters is that the agency tells you where it is.
Is a Google Partner badge a good sign?
It is not a bad sign, but it measures the agency's spend and certifications, not the attention your account will get. Ask who reads your account weekly instead.
Should I be worried if an agency will not publish its prices?
It is normal in this market and it is still a choice. An agency that publishes prices has agreed to be compared; one that does not is pricing each client on what it thinks they will pay.
What is the one document to ask for?
A sample monthly report with the client's details removed. It shows what the agency measures, what it leads with and whether it admits to anything it declined to do.
How do I check that an agency is doing the work after I sign?
Open the change history in your own Google Ads account. Every change is listed with a name and a time. A quiet fortnight is a fortnight of no management, whatever the report says.