How to Tell If Your Google Ads Agency Is Doing a Good Job

To tell if your Google Ads agency is doing a good job, look past the summary dashboard and open the search terms report for the last 30 to 90 days. A healthy family law account shows searches tied to divorce, custody, and hiring intent in your service area, with junk queries filtered out by negative keywords. If that report is full of irrelevant terms, free-legal-help searches, or unrelated practice areas, your agency isn't managing the account, they're letting it run.

What does "doing a good job" actually mean for a family law PPC agency?

It means turning paid clicks into qualified consultation requests while filtering out the searches that will never hire your firm. That's the whole job. Everything else, dashboards, monthly calls, ad copy tests, exists to support that outcome.

For family law specifically, the work is heavier than in most industries. Family law keywords are among the most expensive in Google Ads, and search intent varies wildly. Someone typing "how to file for divorce myself" is not your client. Someone typing "divorce attorney [city]" might be. A good agency knows the difference and structures the account around it.

How to tell if your Google Ads agency is doing a good job in 30 minutes

You don't need a marketing background to audit the fundamentals. Ask for view access to the Google Ads account (not just a report) and walk through these checks in order:

1. Open the Search Terms report. Set the date range to the last 90 days. Sort by cost, highest first. Read the top 50 terms. Would you pay for these clicks if it were your personal money?
2. Check the negative keyword lists. A serious family law account has hundreds of negatives, often thousands. Look for exclusions like "free," "pro bono," "salary," "jobs," "reddit," "how to," and unrelated practice areas.
3. Review conversion tracking. Are calls and form fills both tracked? Are call conversions set to a minimum duration (usually 60 seconds or more) so 10-second wrong numbers don't count?
4. Look at ad group structure. Divorce, custody, child support, and modification searches should generally live in separate ad groups with tailored ad copy, not stuffed into one.
5. Check match types. Broad match on legal keywords without tight negatives is where budgets go to die. If you see broad match keywords with weak negative lists, that's a red flag.
6. Scan the location targeting. Confirm it's set to "Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations," not "Presence or interest." The default setting wastes money on people researching your city from elsewhere.
7. Look at the change history. If nothing has been touched in weeks, the account is on autopilot. Family law accounts need regular pruning.

Thirty minutes with these seven checks tells you more than any monthly report.

What metrics matter, and which ones are being used to distract you?

Metrics that matter for a family law firm:

• Qualified consultation requests, meaning calls or forms from people in your service area with a matter you actually handle.
• Cost per qualified lead, not cost per click or cost per raw form fill.
• Consultation-to-signed-client rate from paid traffic specifically.
• Search impression share on your core money keywords in your target geography.

Metrics that get used as decoration:

• Total impressions and total clicks with no context on quality.
• Click-through rate as a standalone number.
• Quality Score averages across the whole account.
• "Conversions" without a definition of what counts as one.

If your monthly report leads with impressions and clicks, ask why. Impressions don't hire lawyers.

What should communication and reporting from a good agency look like?

You should be able to answer three questions at any time without having to ask:

1. How much did we spend last month?
2. How many qualified consultation requests came from that spend?
3. What did the agency change in the account, and why?

Reporting doesn't need to be fancy. It needs to be honest. A one-page summary with spend, leads, cost per lead, and a short note on what was adjusted beats a 20-page PDF full of charts nobody reads. At ORSA, reporting is built around consultation volume and what produced it, because that's the number that actually pays the bills at a law firm.

You should also see evidence of ongoing work. Negative keywords added. New ad copy tested. Bid adjustments by device or location. Landing page recommendations. If the account looks identical month over month, nobody's managing it.

What are the warning signs your agency isn't doing the work?

Any one of these deserves a direct conversation. Two or more, and it's time to look elsewhere.

• They can't or won't give you direct access to the Google Ads account.
• The search terms report is full of irrelevant queries and hasn't been cleaned up.
• Conversion tracking counts every form submission or every call, including spam and wrong numbers.
• They report on "leads" without defining what a lead is.
• They can't explain the account structure in plain English.
• They run the same ad copy for divorce, custody, and adoption searches.
• Your point of contact is a junior coordinator who escalates every real question.
• They handle 30 industries and 300 accounts. Family law is not their focus.

Legal PPC has its own mechanics. Generalist management often produces generalist results, which in a category this expensive means money burned on searches that were never going to convert.

How long should you give a new agency before judging performance?

Give a new agency 60 to 90 days before making a call on results, but give them one week before making a call on process. Within the first week you should see account restructuring, expanded negative keyword lists, and conversion tracking cleaned up. Within 30 days you should see cost per qualified lead trending in the right direction, even if volume is still building.

If you're evaluating a potential agency now, our Google Ads management services for family law page outlines what the first 30, 60, and 90 days typically look like. If you're mid-engagement and something feels off, the search terms report is where to start.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I ask my agency for admin access to my Google Ads account?

Yes. You should always own the account and grant the agency access, not the other way around. If your agency owns the account and won't transfer it, that's a significant red flag. It means you can't leave without losing your entire account history.

Is a low cost per lead always a good sign?

No. Cost per lead can look great while the leads themselves are unqualified: people outside your service area, people looking for free help, or people with matters you don't handle. Always tie cost per lead back to consultation quality and signed cases, not just form fills.

How often should my agency be updating negative keywords?

For a family law account, negative keyword review should happen weekly in the first 90 days and at least every two weeks after that. Search behavior shifts constantly, and new junk queries appear all the time. A negative list that hasn't been touched in a month is a list that's leaking budget.

What if my agency won't share the search terms report?

Insist. The search terms report is standard Google Ads data, not proprietary information. Refusal to share it usually means one of two things: the report looks bad, or the agency doesn't want you to see how little management is actually happening. Either way, you have your answer.

Final Thoughts

Lead volume and cost per lead are the metrics agencies love to show you, and they're also the metrics where underperformance hides most easily. Volume can be inflated with junk conversions. Cost per lead can look reasonable while the leads themselves are worthless. The report that actually reveals whether your agency is doing its job is the search terms report, because it shows in plain language exactly what you paid for. A healthy family law account has a visibly clean one, and if yours doesn't, no dashboard summary will save you.

Open your search terms report this week. Sort by cost, read the top 50 queries, and ask yourself which of those searches you'd actually want to pay for. If the answer makes you uncomfortable, start a conversation with someone who focuses only on family law and bring that report with you.