How to Choose the Right Google Ads Agency for an Ecommerce Brand
The right Google Ads partner depends on what your ecommerce brand needs next.
Hire a freelancer when you need direct execution on a relatively simple account. Build in-house when Google Ads requires daily coordination with your product, finance, creative and operations teams. Choose a traditional agency when you want several marketing channels managed under one roof.
Choose a specialist Google Ads partner when your brand has already proven demand, but the account has reached a scaling ceiling.
That is where we operate at Kraken Digital.
We work with established businesses that do not need another person making routine changes inside Google Ads. They need a strategy that improves new customer acquisition, fixes weak measurement and creates room for further profitable growth.
We have worked with more than 100 brands. Across those accounts, we have scaled ad spend by as much as 22 times while reducing customer acquisition cost by more than 15%.
Those figures do not mean every business will achieve the same result. They show the type of account complexity and scaling problem we are built to manage.
TL;DR
Choose a freelancer when your account is contained and you want affordable access to one operator.
Choose an in-house specialist when Google Ads needs constant coordination with your wider business and you can support the role with data, leadership and technical resources.
Choose a traditional agency when you need broad channel coverage across Google, Meta, SEO, creative or other services.
Choose a specialist Google Ads partner when your ecommerce brand has established demand, meaningful account complexity and a growth problem that routine campaign management has not solved.
At Kraken Digital, we focus on that final category. We specialise in Google Ads strategy, tracking, Shopping, Search, Performance Max and scalable new customer acquisition for established brands.
When should you hire a Google Ads freelancer?
Hire a freelancer when your account needs direct execution without a large delivery structure around it.
A strong freelancer can set up conversion tracking, connect Merchant Center, build branded and non-branded Search campaigns and manage an initial Shopping structure.
The main advantage is direct access.
You normally speak with the same person who audits the account, builds the campaigns and makes the weekly decisions. That keeps communication fast and removes the handoff between sales, account management and delivery.
The limitation is capacity.
One person is responsible for strategy, tracking, Merchant Center, reporting, communication and troubleshooting. As the account grows, each of those areas becomes more demanding.
A freelancer can manage a large account successfully, but the business becomes dependent on one person’s experience, availability and technical range.
That matters when the account expands across:
● More products
● More countries
● More campaign types
● More complex tracking
● Larger budgets
● More demanding reporting requirements
We do not recommend choosing a freelancer based only on lower fees.
Look at the problems they have solved before.
Ask whether they have managed ecommerce accounts at your current level, whether they can diagnose tracking issues and whether they understand customer acquisition beyond platform ROAS.
A freelancer is the right choice when one capable operator can still cover the full scope of the account without becoming the bottleneck.
When should you build Google Ads in-house?
Build in-house when Google Ads has become important enough to require daily integration with the rest of your business.
An internal specialist can work directly with your product, finance, merchandising, creative and operations teams.
That gives them access to information an external provider may only receive during scheduled calls.
They can see when stock is running low, which products have the strongest margins, which launches need support and which promotions are about to go live.
That close proximity creates speed.
If a high-margin product needs more demand, the strategy can change immediately. If fulfilment capacity becomes restricted, budgets can be adjusted before the business creates an operational problem.
But one internal hire does not automatically create a complete Google Ads function.
The employee still needs support across:
● Conversion tracking
● Analytics
● Merchant Center
● Product feeds
● Landing pages
● Creative
● Reporting
● Strategic review
The business also needs someone capable of evaluating their decisions.
We often see companies hire internally because nobody in the business understands Google Ads. The same lack of expertise then makes it difficult to judge whether the new hire is managing the account well.
An in-house specialist works best when you can support them with strong internal systems, reliable commercial data and experienced marketing leadership.
You should also consider the full cost of bringing the function inside the business.
That includes salary, recruitment, software, management time, training and external technical support.
In-house ownership is the right model when Google Ads is central enough to justify the infrastructure surrounding it.
When should you choose a traditional agency?
Choose a traditional agency when breadth and delivery capacity matter more than deep specialisation in one platform.
A larger agency can provide Google Ads, Meta, SEO, email, creative and website support through one relationship.
That reduces the number of external partners your team needs to manage and can improve coordination across channels.
The benefit is coverage, but risks distance.
The person who leads the sales process is often not the person who manages the account.
A senior strategist may present the proposal, while day-to-day work is transferred to an account manager or junior specialist managing a large portfolio.
The account can still receive reports and routine optimisation, but senior involvement often decreases after onboarding.
That becomes a problem when performance stalls.
Routine account management is enough when the strategy is already working. It is not enough when the business needs a new growth direction.
Before hiring a traditional agency, ask:
● Who will make weekly decisions inside the account?
● How many accounts does that person manage?
● Will the senior strategist stay involved?
● Who handles tracking and Merchant Center problems?
● How often is the strategy reviewed?
● Does the agency use the same campaign structure across clients?
Do not evaluate the agency based on the founder, sales director or head of strategy unless those people will remain involved in delivery.
Evaluate the people who will actually manage your money.
Why do established ecommerce accounts stop scaling?
Established ecommerce accounts stop scaling when the current structure reaches the limit of the demand it was built to capture.
The account may still show strong revenue and ROAS.
But too much of that performance can come from branded searches, returning customers and people who were already close to purchasing.
When the business increases the budget, Google has to find new places to spend it.
That exposes weaknesses that were hidden at lower spend.
Branded and non-branded traffic are mixed together
Branded traffic usually converts efficiently because the customer already knows the business.
When branded and non-branded traffic sit inside the same reporting, the account can look stronger than its new customer acquisition activity really is.
A high blended ROAS does not tell us how much new growth Google created.
We separate those traffic types so we can see whether the account is acquiring customers or collecting existing demand.
Conversion tracking is incomplete
Google optimises from the data we send back to it.
When purchases are missing, transaction values are wrong or lead quality is not tracked, the platform learns from an incomplete version of the customer.
Increasing the budget does not solve that problem.
It increases its impact.
We treat conversion tracking as part of the strategy, not a technical task added after the campaigns launch.
Performance Max controls too much of the account
Performance Max can work well, but we do not treat it as the complete account strategy.
Without the right campaign separation, exclusions and supporting structures, PMax can prioritise branded searches, remarketing and other easy conversions.
That can inflate reported efficiency without creating enough new customer growth.
We use PMax in a controlled role based on the account’s needs. We do not hand the entire customer acquisition strategy to one automated campaign.
The strategy ignores product economics
Revenue alone does not tell us which products deserve more spend.
A product can generate strong revenue but weak profit. Another can report a lower immediate ROAS while bringing in high-value new customers who purchase again.
We look at margin, average order value, stock, repeat purchase behaviour and customer acquisition cost before deciding where to allocate budget.
Google Ads should serve the economics of the business.
The business should not reshape itself around the platform dashboard.
What is a specialist Google Ads partner?
A specialist Google Ads partner focuses deeply on Google rather than offering every marketing service.
The model combines the direct involvement of a freelancer with the experience, systems and support of an agency.
At Kraken Digital, we focus on:
● Search
● Shopping
● Performance Max
● Merchant Center
● Conversion tracking
● New customer acquisition
● Campaign segmentation
● Product and geographic expansion
● Attribution and analytics
We do not begin with a fixed account template.
We begin by identifying the restriction.
The problem may be weak tracking, campaign overlap, overreliance on branded demand, poor product prioritisation or an account structure that no longer matches the brand’s size.
Once we know the restriction, we build the strategy around it.
Our process follows three stages: brand audit, tailored strategy development and ongoing growth optimisation. [Kraken Digital homepage]
That order matters.
We diagnose before we prescribe.
What do we do differently from a generic Google Ads agency?
We specialise in Google Ads, focus on commercial growth and keep tracking at the centre of the strategy.
We specialise instead of spreading across every channel
Google Ads is not one small service inside a larger menu for us.
It is the core of what we do.
We focus on Search, Shopping, Performance Max, tracking, analytics and account structure because those areas determine whether an established brand can scale through Google.
A broad agency can be useful when you need several services at once.
A specialist is more useful when the problem is specifically inside Google Ads.
We work with businesses that have already proven demand
Our ideal client does not need us to prove that people want the product.
The brand already has customers, revenue and market demand.
The problem is that Google Ads has stopped growing efficiently, or it has never matched the performance of the wider business.
We work with 7–9 figure businesses that have reached that point. [Kraken Digital homepage]
That requires more than basic campaign setup.
It requires understanding why the current account has stopped producing incremental growth.
We prioritise new customer acquisition
We do not judge the success of an account only through blended ROAS.
A high ROAS can be produced by branded searches, remarketing and returning customers.
Those conversions still matter, but they do not provide a complete picture of growth.
We separate branded and non-branded traffic, examine customer quality and look at how Google contributes to acquiring people who were not already committed to the brand.
Our goal is to grow the business, not create the most flattering dashboard.
We build tracking into the strategy
Tracking determines what Google learns and what we can measure.
We audit the conversion actions, purchase values and attribution setup before relying on the account data.
When the data is weak, the strategy is weak.
We use custom tracking, advanced analytics and real-time insights to make decisions from commercial outcomes rather than incomplete platform reporting. [Kraken Digital homepage]
We build around the brand
Two ecommerce companies should not receive the same Google Ads structure simply because they both sell products online.
A business already creating demand through Meta needs a different approach from one driven by search.
A high-ticket product requires a different buying journey from a low-cost repeat purchase.
A brand with a narrow bestseller range needs a different Shopping structure from one with thousands of products.
We build the account around the market, margins, products and growth stage of the business.
What results support our approach?
We have worked with more than 100 brands and scaled ad spend by as much as 22 times while reducing customer acquisition cost by more than 15%. [Kraken Digital homepage]
Our published results include:
● Scaling monthly ad spend from $11,000 to $222,000 while maintaining LTV:CAC within target. [Kraken Digital homepage: SaaS case study]
● Growing an ecommerce brand from $0 to £308,000 in Google Ads revenue in under six months, with a reported 6.85 ROAS. [Kraken Digital homepage: ecommerce case study]
● Adding $76,600 in revenue with $20,100 in additional spend for a $400,000-per-month ecommerce store. [Kraken Digital homepage: scaling-ceiling case study]
● Producing a reported 25% increase in monthly revenue from a 1% increase in Google Ads spend for a golf ecommerce and retail brand. [Kraken Digital homepage: golf brand case study]
These are our reported results.
They do not guarantee that every brand will produce the same outcome. They demonstrate the type of accounts, budgets and scaling problems our system has been used to manage.
How should you evaluate a Google Ads agency?
Evaluate the agency based on who does the work, how they measure growth and whether they understand your business model.
Who will manage the account?
Get the name and experience of the person making the weekly decisions.
Do not accept a sales presentation led by senior people if the account will be handed to someone you have never met.
How do they measure new customer acquisition?
Ask how they separate branded demand, returning customers and non-branded acquisition.
A strong agency should explain where growth is coming from without hiding behind blended ROAS.
Can they fix tracking?
The agency should be able to audit conversion actions, transaction values, duplicate events and discrepancies between Google Ads, your ecommerce platform and your CRM.
Campaign decisions are unreliable when tracking is broken.
Do they understand product economics?
The agency should ask about margins, average order value, stock, repeat purchases and target customer acquisition cost.
Clicks and ROAS are not enough.
What happens when the current campaigns reach their limit?
The agency should have a clear approach to expanding beyond the existing high-intent traffic.
That could involve broader non-branded Search, product expansion, YouTube, Demand Gen, remarketing or geographic growth.
The answer should reflect your account.
It should not sound like a campaign checklist used for every client.
Which Google Ads management model should you choose?
Choose a freelancer when your account remains simple enough for one experienced operator to manage properly.
Choose an in-house specialist when Google Ads requires daily integration with your internal teams and you can support the role with the right systems and leadership.
Choose a traditional agency when you want broad multi-channel delivery through one provider.
Choose a specialist Google Ads partner when your brand has proven demand, greater technical complexity and a clear scaling problem.
At Kraken Digital, we are built for established businesses in that final category.
We help brands that have outgrown routine account management and need Google Ads to become a stronger source of measurable new customer growth.
Final takeaway
The right provider is the one whose operating model matches the problem you need solved.
A freelancer gives you direct access.
An in-house hire gives you internal integration.
A traditional agency gives you broader delivery capacity.
A specialist partner gives you depth.
Do not choose based only on price, agency size or reported ROAS.
Choose the person or team that can explain where your next stage of growth will come from, how they will measure it and why their strategy fits your business.
Frequently asked questions
Is a freelancer or agency better for ecommerce Google Ads?
A freelancer is better when one experienced operator can manage the full account without becoming the bottleneck. An agency is better when the account requires wider technical support, greater capacity or deeper strategic experience.
When should an ecommerce brand hire Google Ads in-house?
Hire in-house when Google Ads requires daily coordination with product, finance, inventory, creative and operations, and the business can support the role with the right data, leadership and technical resources.
What makes a specialist Google Ads agency different?
A specialist agency focuses deeply on Google Ads rather than spreading its attention across many services. We combine platform expertise with tracking, ecommerce economics and new customer acquisition strategy.
Author: Max Crakanthorp, Founder of Kraken Digital