Google Ads Consultant
Google Ads Consultant
for Ecommerce Brands
I run Google Ads for direct‑to‑consumer brands on Shopify. Strategy, budget and execution, owned by one person, with no account manager in between. Pricing is published, the numbers below come out of live accounts, and you get an audit before you commit to anything.
The Work
What Does a Google Ads
Consultant Actually Do?
A Google Ads consultant owns the channel — the strategy, the budget and the execution — rather than taking a task list or putting an account manager between you and the work. Most pages ranking for this term describe the outcome instead of the job. Here is the job.
01
What happens in month one?
Before anything is rebuilt, the account gets read properly. Most underperforming accounts are not a bidding problem — they are a measurement problem, and the bidding is only doing what the bad data tells it to. “Verified end to end” means checked against Google’s own conversion tracking documentation, not taken on trust from a tag that fires.
- Account, campaign and search-term audit, including wasted spend
- Conversion tracking verified end to end, not assumed
- Merchant Center and feed health for Shopping and Performance Max
- Landing pages reviewed, because the page decides what the click is worth
- A written list of what is wrong, in the order it is worth fixing
02
What happens every week after that?
Google Ads is not a project you finish. Budgets move, competitors change their bids, and Performance Max will quietly spend on branded traffic you were already winning for free unless someone is watching. Shopping and Performance Max both read from the same Merchant Center feed, so feed health is checked against the product data specification rather than eyeballed.
- Weekly: search terms, negatives, budget moved to whatever is earning
- Fortnightly: ad copy and creative testing, Shopping feed adjustments
- Monthly: a written report and a call — what changed, what it returned
- Quarterly: channel mix, and whether Google still deserves the next dollar
The Comparison
Consultant, Agency
or In-House?
All three work. They fail in different ways, and the right answer depends mostly on your spend.
| Consultant | Agency | In-house hire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly cost | $1,500–$7,000 | $2,500–$10,000+ | $10,000–$13,000 fully loaded |
| Who does the work | The person you hired | Usually a junior, behind an account manager | One employee, learning on your budget |
| Time to start | Days | 4–8 weeks onboarding | 2–3 months to hire |
| Breadth | One person across every channel | Specialists per channel | Whatever that one person knows |
| Fails when | You need volume of production | Your account is too small for their senior people | They leave, and the knowledge goes with them |
Under roughly $10,000 a month in ad spend an agency will not give you their best people, and a full-time hire costs more than the media. Above roughly $100,000 a month you want a team and should build one. The middle is where a consultant is simply the cheapest way to get senior attention on the account.
Proof
What Do the Results
Actually Look Like?
Pulled from live ad accounts, not estimated. Every figure covers the last 24 months. Real brands, real numbers, named.
17.5x
The Lifeguard Store — spend scaled from $1,500 to $14,600 a month
3.6x
Shurhold — seven years on the account
3.9x
Petticoat Lane — paid spend cut by a third while organic replaced it
Operator Experience
Why Does It Matter Whose
Money You Have Spent?
Before consulting I co-founded ModernReform, a high‑ticket direct‑to‑consumer fitness equipment brand. I ran its entire marketing function — the site, the branding, the ad accounts, the vendors — took it to $2.5 million in annual sales in 2021, and sold the business through Flippa in 2024 for a seven-figure sum.
Most consultants have only ever spent someone else’s budget. More on that here.
How To Buy It
How Does Each One
Actually Bill You?
A consultant bills a flat monthly fee, an agency often bills a percentage of ad spend, and an employee costs salary plus tools and training. The difference that matters is the incentive each arrangement creates, not the sticker price — a percentage of spend rewards spending more of it.
| Independent consultant | Agency | In-house hire | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who is in the account | The person you hired | Often a junior, supervised | Your employee |
| Cost structure | Flat monthly fee | Often a percentage of ad spend | Salary, plus tools and training |
| Incentive alignment | Flat fee does not reward spending more | A percentage of spend rewards spending more | Neutral |
| Capacity | Limited by one person’s hours | Can absorb a lot of work at once | Full time on you alone |
| Breadth of channels | Whatever that person actually runs | Widest — design, email, dev under one roof | Whatever you hire for |
| Continuity | High until they are busy or unavailable | Survives staff turnover | Highest, while they stay |
| Best when | You want one accountable operator | You need many disciplines coordinated | Spend is large enough to justify a salary |
An agency is the right answer more often than consultants like to admit — particularly if you need paid media, creative, email and development moving together. What you give up is knowing who is actually in the account.
Audit
What Does a Google
Ads Audit Cover?
Priced and published, so you can decide without booking a call first.
Every audit on this page is credited in full against your first month if you start a retainer within 30 days of the report being delivered. The audit is how we both find out whether there is enough here to work on together. If there is, the audit costs you nothing. If there is not, you keep the report and owe nothing further.
Google Ads Audit
$250 one time
For an account that is spending money where you are not certain what the money is buying.
- Account and campaign structure
- Search terms, and where budget is going to waste
- Conversion tracking verified end to end, not assumed
- Shopping and Performance Max feed health
- Findings written in the order they are worth fixing
- Requires read access to the Google Ads account
Google & Meta Ad Audit
$400 one time
The Google Ads audit and the Meta Ads audit together, plus the part neither one can see alone.
- Everything in the Google Ads audit
- Everything in the Meta Ads audit
- How both platforms are counting the same conversions
- Requires read access to both accounts
Includes a walkthrough call
SPECTRUM — Full Marketing Audit
$1,500 one time
Both ads audits, plus the SEO audit, three competitor teardowns and a call where we go through every finding together.
- A walkthrough call covering every finding
- Everything in both ads audits
- Full SEO audit, including Search Console and Analytics
- Three competitor teardowns
- Up to 250 pages
- 7 to 10 business days
The $1,500 full marketing audit is priced on the SEO page because it covers SEO as well as both ad platforms. It is the same audit either way.
Pricing
What Does It Cost
to Work Together?
Published, so you can rule me in or out without booking a call.
Channel Management
Starting at $1,500 /month
You own the plan. I run the channels.
- Campaign build and management
- Conversion tracking and reporting
- Monthly performance call
- SEO is not included at this tier
- Additional channels +$500 each
- Minimum ad spend $5,000/month
- 6 month commitment
Most Popular
Growth Partner
Starting at $4,000 /month
I own paid strategy end to end.
- Everything in Channel Management
- Every channel included, priced as one
- SEO included: technical, on-page and content
- Channel mix and budget allocation
- Creative direction and briefs
- Quarterly CRO roadmap
- 25 hours a month included
- Minimum ad spend $10,000/month
- 3 months, then month to month
Fractional CMO
Starting at $7,000 /month
I own the whole marketing function.
- Everything in Growth Partner
- Email, SEO and site direction
- Contractor sourcing and management
- Quarterly planning with you
- 40 hours a month included
- Minimum ad spend $20,000/month
- 6 month commitment
Fit
When Should You Not
Hire a Consultant?
Do not hire a consultant if you are spending under $5,000 a month, if you have already written the plan and just need it executed, or if what you actually need is volume of creative. Worth being direct about, so neither of us wastes a call.
Hire someone else if
- You are spending under $5,000 a month — my fee would be too large a share of your budget
- You want someone to execute a plan you have already written. That is a freelancer, and cheaper
- You need volume of creative and production. That is an agency, and they are better at it
This works if
- You sell direct to consumers, usually on Shopify
- You are spending at least $5,000 a month on ads
- You want one person accountable, not a team you never meet
- You would rather hear what is not working than have it smoothed over
FAQ
Questions About
Hiring a Consultant
If yours is not here, ask it on the call.
What does a Google Ads consultant cost?
What does a Google Ads audit cost?
$250 on its own, or $400 together with the Meta Ads audit. The $1,500 full marketing audit adds SEO, three competitor teardowns and a walkthrough call, and is priced on the SEO page because it covers more than advertising. Every one of them is credited in full against your first month if you start a retainer within 30 days of the report being delivered.
Is a consultant better than an agency?
How long before Google Ads improves?
Do I keep ownership of my Google Ads account?
What if I am spending less than $5,000 a month?
Do you work with brands outside ecommerce?
What is PPC management?
What is PPC campaign management?
How much does PPC management cost?
Let’s Talk
Book a free 30 minute call. I will tell you what I would do with your accounts, whether or not you hire me.
Book a Discovery Call
30-minute strategy session
Prefer to Reach Out Directly?
Happy to talk it through over email or a quick call. I usually reply within a few hours on weekdays.
- greg@digitalkarbon.com
- Massachusetts • Nationwide
Who You Talk To
Me, Every Time
What to Expect
- 30 minutes with me, not a salesperson
- What I would change in your account first
- No pitch deck, no obligation