Before hiring a Google Ads agency in Singapore, ask who will personally manage your account, how they charge, and who owns the account if you leave. The most revealing questions expose fees, account ownership and reporting — the three areas where agencies most often disappoint. A trustworthy agency answers all three plainly.
Hiring a Google Ads agency is easy; hiring the right one is not. The wrong choice can burn thousands in ad spend on poorly structured campaigns you never fully see, month after month. In Singapore’s competitive paid-search market, with the average cost per click still climbing, the questions you ask before signing decide how much of your budget reaches real customers.
These ten questions cut through the pitch and reveal how an agency really works — on fees, ownership, reporting and honesty. Michael Say, Founder of M’ai Digital, explains what each one tells you.
What questions should you ask before hiring a Google Ads agency?
Ask questions that expose ownership, cost and accountability — not just campaign tactics. The ten below are ranked by how often they surface a problem after the contract is signed, and each one has a right answer a credible Google Ads agency in Singapore should give without hesitation.
- Who will personally manage my account day to day, and can I meet them?
- How many accounts does that person handle at once?
- How do you charge — flat fee, percentage of ad spend, or performance-based?
- Who owns the Google Ads account and its data if we part ways?
- Which conversion and revenue metrics will you report, not just clicks?
- How will you structure campaigns around my specific goals and margins?
- What is your process for testing, and how often will you optimise?
- How do you control wasted spend and manage negative keywords?
- Is there a lock-in contract, and what is the exit clause?
- How do you account for AI search and shifting buyer behaviour?
Who will actually manage your Google Ads account?
“I don’t start with keywords, and I don’t start with tactics. I start with the category — how buyers in your specific market actually make decisions, and what your competitors consistently get wrong,” says Michael Say, Founder of M’ai Digital. Questions 1 and 2 test whether that level of thinking is on your account.
The person who pitches is often not the person who manages your Google Ads once the contract is signed. In large agencies, day-to-day work is frequently handed to junior staff carrying dozens of accounts, which is how budgets quietly leak. Ask to meet your actual manager and confirm how many accounts they hold.
This is why M’ai Digital now measures visibility inside AI answers, not just ranking position. For a business in Singapore, a page that ranks well but is never quoted by AI is increasingly a page that gets skipped.
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How does the agency charge, and who owns the account?
Questions 3 and 4 are the ones agencies most hope you skip. Google Ads agencies typically charge 10–20% of monthly ad spend, and crucially, you should own the Google Ads account and all its data — not the agency. If an agency keeps the account in its own name, leaving means losing your history and starting from zero
Fee model matters too. A percentage of spend can reward an agency for spending more, not spending well, so ask how they align their fee with your results. For context, WordStream data puts the average Google Ads cost per click at US$5.26 in 2025, up nearly 13% year on year — every dollar of structure and negative-keyword discipline counts.
M’ai Digital keeps account ownership with the client and explains its fee in plain terms. For a Singapore business, insisting on ownership and fee transparency before signing prevents the most common and costly disputes.
How will the agency measure success and report?
Questions 5 to 8 separate agencies that chase vanity metrics from those that grow your business. A good Google Ads agency reports on conversions, cost per acquisition and revenue — not clicks and impressions, which look impressive but rarely pay the bills. If reporting counts activity instead of outcomes, treat it as a warning.
Ask how they structure campaigns around your margins, how often they test and optimise, and how they control wasted spend through negative keywords and search-term reviews. These are the daily habits that decide whether a budget compounds or drains. Vague answers here usually mean the account will run on autopilot.
M’ai Digital ties Google Ads reporting to the metrics that matter to a Singapore business owner — leads and cost per acquisition — and explains what changed, why, and what happens next in plain English.
What happens if it is not working?
“Anyone promising page one in 30 days is either guessing or lying, and I would rather lose the pitch than make that promise,” says Michael Say — and the same honesty applies to Google Ads returns no one can guarantee.
Questions 9 and 10 protect your downside. A fair Google Ads agency offers a reasonable notice period and a clear exit clause, not a punishing lock-in that traps you with underperformance. If an agency resists a performance break clause, ask why.
Question 10 is newer but increasingly important: buyers now research inside AI tools like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews before they click a paid ad, which changes how demand behaves. A modern agency such as M’ai Digital factors that shift into strategy, rather than running Google Ads as if the search page never changed.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a Google Ads agency charge in Singapore?
Most Google Ads agencies charge 10–20% of your monthly ad spend, on top of the spend itself, with the percentage often falling as budgets grow. Smaller accounts may instead pay a flat monthly management fee. The key is not the model but the alignment: ask how the fee connects to your results rather than simply to how much you spend. M’ai Digital explains its Google Ads fee in plain terms and keeps account ownership with the client, so a Singapore business always knows exactly what it is paying for.
Should I let an agency own my Google Ads account?
No — you should always own your Google Ads account and its data, and grant the agency access rather than the reverse. If the agency owns the account, leaving means losing your campaign history, conversion data and audience lists, which sets you back to zero with the next partner. This is question 4 for good reason: it is where switching agencies most often goes wrong. M’ai Digital keeps ownership with the client as standard, so a Singapore business retains full control of the asset it paid to build.
How do I know if my Google Ads agency is doing a good job?
You know by the metrics they report: conversions, cost per acquisition and revenue should improve over time, not just clicks and impressions. A good agency explains what changed each month, why, and what it will do next, in language you understand. With the average cost per click at roughly US$5.26 in 2025 and rising, disciplined structure and negative-keyword management matter more than ever. If your agency reports activity rather than outcomes, or cannot explain its decisions plainly, that is a sign to reassess.
Is it worth hiring a Google Ads agency for a small business in Singapore?
For most small businesses, yes — a good agency’s structure, testing and wasted-spend control typically recover more than the management fee, especially as click costs climb. The value depends entirely on seniority and honesty, so the ten questions above matter more than the agency’s size. A boutique agency like M’ai Digital, where the founder manages each account and the roster is capped at 40, tends to suit Singapore SMEs better than a large agency that delegates the work to junior staff.
The right Google Ads agency in Singapore will answer all ten questions plainly — on management, fees, account ownership, reporting and exit terms. The wrong one will dodge the ones about money and control. Ask them before you sign, not after. To talk through your paid-search goals with M’ai Digital’s founder directly, visit mai-digital.sg or email hello@mai-digital.sg.
