The UK E-Commerce Guide To Vetting Google Ads Experts

I get it. Trying to find a Google Ads specialist in the UK who actually gets e-commerce feels like searching for a needle in a haystack. The market is flooded with "gurus" and generalist agencies who've run a couple of campaigns for a local plumber and now think they can scale a seven-figure Shopify store. They can't. They'll burn through your cash talking about clicks and impressions while your profit margin disappears.

The problem is that most founders vet agencies on the wrong criteria. They look for a slick sales pitch, a fancy office in London, or impressive-sounding jargon. None of that matters. You need a partner who is obsessed with the only metric that counts for an e-commerce business: profitable return on ad spend (ROAS). Everything else is just noise. This guide will walk you through how to cut through that noise and find someone who can actually move the needle for your business.

So, what's the real difference between a generalist and an e-commerce specialist?

A generalist will set up a standard Search campaign, throw in some broad match keywords, and point it at your homepage. They'll report back on how many clicks you got and tell you the campaign is "building awareness". This is useless for an e-commerce brand. You can't pay your suppliers with "awareness".

An e-commerce specialist lives and breathes a different world. They understand the nuances of Google Shopping, the complexities of Performance Max campaigns, and the critical importance of a perfectly optimised product feed. They know that a slight change in a product title can be the difference between a 2x and a 6x ROAS. They talk about Average Order Value (AOV), Customer Lifetime Value (LTV), and contribution margin. They understand that acquiring a customer for £30 is a disaster if your average profit per order is only £20.

I remember one campaign we worked on for a women's apparel brand. They came to us after working with a generalist agency who were getting them lots of traffic but sales were terrible. The agency was blaming the website. We took one look and saw the problem immediately. Their Google Shopping feed was a mess—poor quality images, no product identifiers, and titles stuffed with irrelevant keywords. We spent the first week just cleaning up their data feed in Merchant Center. The result? Within a month, we had turned the campaign profitable and were achieving a strong return on ad spend, without even touching the website. A generalist would never have even known where to look.

That's the differance. Specialists know the specific levers to pull for e-commerce. They don't just manage ads; they understand the entire ecosystem from the product feed to the checkout page.

How do you spot a true expert in the wild?

Forget the sales pitch. Forget the fancy website. You need to become a detective and look for evidence. The single most important piece of evidence is their case studies. But not just any case study. You need to dissect them.

Most agencies present case studies that are all fluff and no substance. "We increased clicks by 300%!" So what? That could mean you just spent four times as much money. "We lowered CPC by 50%!" Great, but did sales go up or down? These are vanity metrics designed to sound impressive to people who don't know any better.

You need to look for case studies that talk about business results. Specifically for e-commerce, you're looking for:

• -> Revenue Generated: The top-line number. How much money did they actually make for the client?
• -> Return On Ad Spend (ROAS): For every £1 spent on ads, how many pounds in revenue came back? This is the holy grail metric for e-commerce.
• -> Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): How much did it cost to get one sale? Is this number profitable for the business?
• -> Niche Relevance: Have they worked with businesses similar to yours? Getting results for a £20 gadget is very different to selling £500 bespoke furniture. Experience in your sector is a huge advantage.

If their case studies don't transparently show these numbers, be very sceptical. A real expert is proud of their results and will show them off. We have detailed walkthroughs for clients, for example, showing how we generated £107k in revenue at 618% ROAS for one client, or achieved an 8x return for another. That's the level of detail you should be looking for. It's not enough to just know what to look for, you also need to know how to properly vet UK Google Ads experts to ensure you're making the right choice.

What sharp questions should I ask on a discovery call?

Once you've found an agency with promising case studies, the next step is the discovery call. This is not for them to sell to you; it's for you to interview them. Your goal is to get past the sales script and see if they have real, strategic depth. Don't let them control the conversation. Go in with a list of specific, challenging questions.

Here are some you should absolutely ask:

1. "Talk me through your process for onboarding a new e-commerce client like me." A good answer will involve a deep dive into your business, your margins, your customer LTV, and a thorough audit of your Google Ads and Merchant Center accounts. A bad answer is, "You give us access and we start running ads."
2. "What's your approach to Performance Max for a Shopify store with 500 SKUs?" This is a technical question designed to test their expertise. A real specialist will talk about asset group structure, feed-only vs. standard PMax, and how they handle reporting challenges. A generalist will give you a vague answer about "letting Google's AI do the work."
3. "Our current ROAS is 2.5x, but our break-even ROAS is 3x. What would be your first steps to improve profitability?" This question tests their problem-solving ability. A great answer would involve looking at the product feed, analysing search query reports to cut wasted spend, improving ad creative, and reviewing landing page conversion rates. A poor answer would be, "We'll just increase the budget."
4. "Can you show me an example of a report you provide to your e-commerce clients?" This is crucial. You want to see if they report on the metrics that matter (ROAS, revenue, CPA) or if they hide behind vanity metrics like clicks and CTR. The report should be clear, concise, and focused on business outcomes.
5. "What do you need from me to be successful?" This is a fantastic question to turn the tables. A true partner will talk about needing clear communication, quick feedback on creative, and transparency about your stock levels and profit margins. Someone just looking for a paycheque will say, "Just your credit card details."

The answers to these questions will tell you everything you need to know. You're listening for strategic thinking, not just tactical button-pushing. Are they asking you smart questions back? Are they trying to understand your business, or just trying to close a deal? Trust your gut. Real expertise feels different; it's calm, confident, and focuses on your problems, not their services.

How much should I actually expect to pay for this expertise in the UK?

This is the question on everyone's mind, and the answer is, predictably, "it depends". But I can give you a realistic breakdown of the common models and what you should expect to pay for a competent specialist or agency in the UK. Anything significantly cheaper should be a massive red flag—you get what you pay for, and cheap ads management usually means an inexperienced person learning on your dime.

The three most common fee structures are:

• Flat Monthly Retainer: This is very common. You pay a fixed fee each month regardless of ad spend. For a good UK specialist managing a small to medium e-commerce account, you should expect to pay anywhere from £1,000 to £3,000+ per month.
• Percentage of Ad Spend: This model aligns the agency's fee with the amount you're spending. It's typically between 10-20% of your monthly ad spend, often with a minimum retainer. For example, 15% of spend with a £1,500/month minimum.
• Hybrid/Performance Model: This is less common but can be very effective. It usually involves a lower flat retainer plus a percentage of the revenue generated or a bonus for hitting certain ROAS targets. This model really aligns the agency's incentives with your own.

It's important to understand the pros and cons. A flat retainer is predictable, but can mean the agency has less incentive to scale your spend. A percentage of spend model incentivises scaling, but you need to ensure they're scaling profitably and not just for the sake of increasing their fee. Ultimately, it comes down to finding a fee structure that feels fair and aligns with your goals. If you're wondering how these models compare, our full guide on UK paid ads management costs provides a much deeper analysis.

To give you a better idea, I've built a simple calculator below. Adjust the sliders to see how the different models would impact your total monthly cost.

My ads are getting traffic, but no sales. Is it always the ads?

This is a massive point of friction between clients and agencies, and something a good specialist will be honest about from the start. It is incredibly tempting to blame the ads or the agency when sales aren't coming in. And sometimes, it is their fault—poor targeting, bad ad copy, inefficient campaign structure. But very often, the problem lies elsewhere.

An advertising campaign is like a high-performance engine. But if you put that engine into a car with flat tyres and a leaky fuel tank, you're not going to win any races. Your website, your offer, your pricing, and your brand reputation are the rest of the car. The best Google Ads campaign in the world can't fix a fundamental business problem.

I've seen so many e-commerce founders with fantastic products fail because their website was a conversion killer. We're talking slow load times, a confusing checkout process, blurry product images, or a complete lack of customer reviews. When we send highly qualified, ready-to-buy traffic to a page like that, they just get frustrated and leave. The ads did their job, but the website failed to close the deal. This is a common issue for many store owners, and often they find that despite healthy traffic, they still have Shopify ad traffic but no sales, a problem that needs a specific fix beyond just tweaking the ads.

Before you blame your ad manager, you need to do an honest audit of your own assets. Is your offer compelling? Is your pricing competitive? Is your website trustworthy and easy to use? If you're seeing a high click-through rate on your ads but a very low conversion rate on your site, the problem is almost certainly not the ad targeting. The problem is what happens after the click. Many founders in the UK struggle with this, and it often comes down to what we call the 'nightmare-based fix' for low conversion rates, which focuses on aligning your entire funnel with the customer's core problem.

Here’s a simple flowchart to help you diagnose where the real issue might be.

So, what's the plan to find the right expert?

Finding the right partner is a process of methodical elimination, not a lucky guess. You need to approach it with a clear strategy to filter out the time-wasters and identify the genuine experts. It takes a bit more effort upfront, but it will save you thousands of pounds and months of frustration down the line.

To put it all together, here is a summary of the actionable steps you should take. This isn't just theory; this is the exact process I would follow if I were in your shoes, looking to hire someone to manage my own e-commerce brand's advertising budget.

Ultimately, hiring a Google Ads specialist is an investment in your business's growth. The right partner can become one of your most valuable assets, unlocking profitable scale you couldn't achieve on your own. The wrong one can set you back months and burn a hole in your budget. By taking a methodical, evidence-based approach to your search, you drastically improve your chances of finding a true expert who can help take your e-commerce brand to the next level.

This process might seem like a lot of work, but it's designed to protect your investment. If you'd like an expert opinion on your current situation and a no-obligation sense of how we'd approach your specific challenges, consider booking a free strategy session. We can audit your existing campaigns and give you some actionable advice you can implement right away, whether you decide to work with us or not.

Hope this helps!