Consulting & Account Audits

Google Ads consulting for people who want the answer, not a retainer

An independent read on your account, your agency or your strategy. You keep control and keep running it. We tell you what is actually wrong, what it is costing you, and what to do in what order.

No management retainer required You keep your agency Written findings you can act on

What does a Google Ads consultant do? A consultant diagnoses and advises rather than managing the account day to day. You keep control, keep your team or agency, and pay for an independent read on what is broken and what it is costing you. It suits businesses that suspect something is wrong but do not want to switch agencies to find out, and agencies that want a senior second opinion on a client account.

Blue Grid Media is a Google Partner specialising in contractor and home service accounts.

Who this is for

Three situations where an outside read pays for itself quickly.

1

You suspect your agency is coasting

Reports look busy, results do not move, and you cannot tell whether the account is genuinely difficult or genuinely neglected. Firing them is expensive if you are wrong. An independent read settles it in a week.

2

You run it yourself and hit a ceiling

It worked, then it stopped. You have changed bids, budgets and keywords and nothing moved, because the problem is structural rather than tactical.

3

You are an agency wanting a senior read

A client account that is underperforming, or a pitch you want to walk into knowing exactly what is wrong with the incumbent's setup.

What gets examined

The same list every time, so nothing convenient gets skipped.

AreaWhat we checkWhy it usually matters
Campaign structureWhether campaigns are separated by job value and marginService calls versus high ticket workOne blended bid across jobs worth $250 and $3,000 caps you out of the profitable work
Conversion signalWhat the account counts as a conversion, and whether booked jobs feed back inIf it optimises toward form fills, it will buy you form fills, not jobs
Search terms and negativesWhere the money went versus what you meant to buyUsually the fastest cost reduction available, and it needs no budget change
Landing page and matchWhether the page delivers what the ad promisedLanding page experience is a quarter to a third of Quality Score
Geography and scheduleWhere and when the budget actually gets spentLeads outside your service area or after hours when nobody answers
Local Services AdsVerification, job types, service areas, review velocity, lead creditsThe cheapest fixes on the whole list, and the most commonly skipped
The honest questionWhether ads are the constraint at allSometimes the answer is the phone, the follow-up or the booking rate

That last row is the one most audits leave out, because it does not lead to a proposal. If the leads are arriving and nobody is booking them, no amount of account work fixes it, and we will tell you that instead of rebuilding campaigns you did not need rebuilt.

How it runs

About a week end to end, and roughly 45 minutes of your time.

Free consultation call

Thirty minutes. You describe the business and the symptom, we tell you whether a paid audit is even worth doing. Sometimes the answer is obvious on the call and you can go fix it yourself.

Read-only access

Google Ads, Local Services Ads, Analytics and call tracking where it exists. Read-only. We change nothing without being asked.

We work independently

No workshops, no discovery series. We look at the account and the numbers behind it.

Written findings, ranked

Each issue with what it is costing, the specific fix, and the order to do them in. Written so you can hand it straight to whoever runs the account.

A call to walk through it

Then you decide what to do. If you want us to implement, that is a separate conversation and there is no obligation.

Published Pricing

$300 for the full audit. $150 an hour after that.

Two ways to buy, both priced before you get on the call. The consultation itself stays free.

Consulting
$150/hour
Ongoing advisory, implementation guidance, training a junior buyer, or a senior read on a client account. Billed by the hour, no retainer.
Consultation call
Free
Thirty minutes. We tell you whether a paid audit is worth doing at all. Sometimes the answer is obvious on the call.

The audit is a fixed $300 regardless of account size or ad spend. If the free call makes it clear an audit will not earn its fee, we will say so on that call instead of sending a proposal anyway.

Book a Free Consultation

Related reading

White label for agencies

Rather have us run the accounts under your brand than advise on them? That is the white label service.

When LSA stops working

Twelve reasons Local Services Ads dries up, and the diagnostic order to work through them.

LSA lead credits

Which leads Google will credit, which it will not, and how the automated system decides.

Questions we get asked

Including the ones with answers that do not help us sell.

How much does a Google Ads account audit cost?

A full account audit from Blue Grid Media is a flat $300, regardless of account size or monthly ad spend. It covers Google Ads, Local Services Ads and conversion tracking end to end, and you get written findings ranked by what each issue is costing you plus a call to walk through them. Ongoing consulting after the audit is $150 an hour with no retainer. The initial thirty minute consultation is free.

How is consulting different from your management service?

With management we run the account. With consulting we look at it and tell you the truth, then you or your existing team do the work. Some people want a second opinion before firing an agency. Some run it in-house and are stuck. Some are agencies who want a senior read on a client account. All three are consulting, not management.

Will you just tell me to hire you?

No, and that is the point of paying for an independent opinion. Sometimes the account is competent and the real problem is that nobody answers the phone after 5pm, or the booking rate is the constraint rather than the lead volume. We would rather tell you that than sell you a rebuild you do not need.

What do you actually look at in an audit?

Campaign structure against job value, conversion tracking integrity, whether the account is optimising toward booked jobs or form fills, search term waste, negative keyword gaps, geography and schedule, landing page and message match, Quality Score components, and for LSA the verification status, job types, service areas, review velocity and lead credit handling.

Do you audit Local Services Ads as well?

Yes, and most auditors skip it. LSA has its own failure modes: job types you cannot service, service areas that pull leads you will never credit, review velocity below the threshold that keeps you in the top three, and a lead credit process most contractors never work. These are usually cheaper to fix than anything in Google Ads.

What do I get at the end?

A written document, not a phone call you have to remember. Findings ranked by what they are costing you, with the specific change for each one and the order to do them in. If your agency is doing the work, it is written so you can hand it to them directly.

Can you work with my existing agency rather than replace them?

Often that is the best outcome. A good agency with a blind spot fixes it once someone points it out. We have no interest in a fight with your current provider, and we will tell you if we think they are doing solid work.

I run an agency. Can you consult for us rather than our client?

Yes. Senior second opinions on client accounts, structure reviews before a pitch, or training for a junior buyer. If you would rather we ran the accounts under your brand instead, that is our white label service.

How much of my time does this take?

One call to hand over access and explain the business, roughly 45 minutes. Then we work independently and come back with findings. You are not sitting in workshops.

Is a free audit not the same thing?

A free audit is a sales tool, and it is designed to find enough wrong to justify a proposal. That is not the same as an independent read where the person looking has no stake in the answer. We do offer a free consultation call, and it is genuinely free, but a paid audit is deeper and comes with the written document.

What if the answer is that everything is fine?

Then you have paid for certainty and you can stop worrying about the ad account and go fix something else. That is a legitimate outcome and it happens.

Bring one account to the call

Thirty minutes, screen shared. We look at a real account and tell you what we would change and why. If the honest answer is that it is fine, you will hear that too.