You are choosing between a freelance PPC consultant and an agency. I hear it from UK businesses most weeks, and the same choice shows up in Australia and the US. The pitches blur together. I sort them on budget, markets, creative load and tracking maturity.
I have spent 8+ years in this work, inside an agency and now as a consultant. I have managed $1.3M+ a year in ad spend across 35+ accounts in Australia, the UK, the US and the UAE. The peak return on ad spend I have published is 10.4x. Return on ad spend is revenue divided by ad spend. I lead a small team of people who manage and deliver the work. I stay the strategist and the point of contact. The agency advice below is advice I would still give when a larger production team is the better fit.
TL;DR
Hire a freelance PPC consultant when you need senior hands on tracking and structure. Hire an agency when you need many new ads at once and coverage for more than one brand. The number to manage is cost per qualified lead.
- Start here. Is tracking trusted, and is the account structure clear?
- If tracking is weak, or the structure is a mess, lean freelance. One senior should fix measurement and structure before you add people or spend.
- If tracking is trusted, ask whether you need many new ads at once, or several brands running together.
- If that production is the job, lean agency. The extra people are what you are buying.
- If production is light, lean freelance. You are paying for judgment on an account one person can hold.
- If you need both, keep one person on the account and hire other people to make the ads.
Freelance PPC consultant vs agency, by factor
Each row is one factor. Lean means the side I would choose if that row is your only problem. Your account will mix them.
| Factor | Lean freelance | Lean agency |
|---|---|---|
| Who does the work | The senior from the call is in the account each week. | A team. Ask for the name of the person who will log in. |
| Budget | Media spend is too small to feed a layered team and still learn. | Spend is large and split, so one person cannot keep up. |
| Markets | One person already runs your countries, and the offer is shared. | Each market needs its own production and its own cover. |
| Creative load | A steady test cycle on one brand. | Many new ads in the same week. |
| Tracking | Measurement is thin or wrong, and one senior should rebuild it first. | You trust the numbers, and several people can act on them at once. |
| How to judge the hire | Cost per qualified lead. | Cost per qualified lead. |
What buyers actually pay for
You are hiring someone to clear a block in the account. Two blocks show up over and over.
The first is judgment. Someone has to set the structure, read the search terms, set the bids, and check that the conversion is real. The second is production. Someone has to make a lot of new ads, and keep more than one brand moving in the same weeks.
Budget decides whether you can split those jobs. A small media budget cannot feed a layered team and still leave enough spend to learn. A large budget split across brands stalls when one person is the only pair of hands. Your margin and the value of a lead move the line between those two. Ask how their monthly charge compares with the media budget. Then compare both with cost per qualified lead.
Markets change the build. A UK account, an Australian account and a US account each need their own setup. The currency is different. Google's consent mode help notes that tag behaviour can differ for the UK, the EEA and Switzerland. If you advertise in the UK, ask how consent reaches your Google tags before you build audiences from site visitors.
I lead strategy for Australia, the UK, the US and the UAE, and I am the point of contact. A small team handles delivery. That helps when the offer is shared and the market is what changes. It is the wrong shape when each brand needs its own calendar and its own ad production.
Tracking maturity means a plain thing: do you trust the conversion, or are you still guessing? If you are guessing, fix analytics and tracking before you add people. If you trust the numbers, a team can act on them at the same time.
I read the public pages from Michael Veal, Diego Zietek and Martin Wilson. Veal and Zietek offer you the senior doing the work. Wilson offers senior Google Ads help set against packaged agency work. Veal's comparison is the frank page. He says an agency fits when the account is large, spread across markets, or needs daily cover. Those pages say little about a rush of new ads, or about several brands that each need a calendar.
When freelancers win
A freelance PPC consultant is the better hire when a senior has to be in the work. The work also has to be a job one person can hold.
Start with tracking. If the conversion is wrong, more people will optimise the wrong event faster. On Google Ads and the wider paid accounts, I want the conversion action fixed before the campaigns and the search terms.
This also fits one brand, or a few markets that share one offer. You should get the person from the sales call back in the account later that week. You should also be able to hear that the right move is to leave the account alone.
When agencies win
An agency is the better hire when the missing piece is several people working at the same time.
Creative volume is the clearest case. Meta ads on Facebook and Instagram wear out. If you need many new ads in the same week, one person becomes the queue. You are buying people who make the ads.
The other case is multi brand work. Each brand has its own offer, and someone different has to approve the ads. One person can set the measurement and the account rules. A team earns its place when those brands all need new ads in the same two weeks.
Hire an agency, or a freelancer plus someone on your side, when a quiet week would hurt the business. People get ill. I would rather say that on a call than pretend a small team is a full agency.
Questions for the sales call
Ask these before you sign. A clear answer beats a polished deck.
- Who is in the account each week, by name, and which tasks do they do themselves?
- What happens to the account when that person is on leave?
- Will our Google Ads account and our Meta ad account stay in our business, with an admin who works for us?
- Does your pay rise when our media spend rises?
- How do you define a qualified lead, and will the report show cost per qualified lead?
- Which of our markets have you run yourself, and will the same person run them?
- What will you refuse to take on?
Vague answers mean you are buying a logo.
Red flags
A few patterns are worth walking away from.
They build the Google Ads account inside their own manager account, and they become the owner. A manager account is the login that sits over client accounts. Google's help on manager ownership says a manager who creates the account becomes the owner automatically. Ownership of an account you already have stays off until your admin turns it on. Someone at your company should be able to unlink them. Your company keeps the data.
They keep Admin for themselves and leave your company without it. Google's access levels spell out the difference. Admin can add and remove users, and can unlink a manager. Standard access can edit campaigns. Keep Admin inside your company, and add a second admin so someone can manage the tags if one admin is away.
The report leads with impressions and clicks. You asked for cost per qualified lead. You need to know whether the leads were worth taking.
The senior from the pitch cannot name the person who will open the account next.
They promise a lower cost with no definition of a qualified lead. Cost can fall because the leads got worse.
How AI agents change the math
AI agents let one senior keep the weekly checks that agencies often staff with juniors. A team that has to make ads all week is a different hire.
Search term reviews and weekly numbers are real work. I no longer put a person on that work. I run a 19 agent stack on Claude and MCP for it. MCP, the Model Context Protocol, is the connector that lets those agents read ad accounts and analytics. They draft the search term review and assemble the report. I approve any change that spends money, and anything that gets published. That system is the one on my AI marketing agents page.
You can have a senior on the account, and the weekly checks, without a junior doing the work. You need people when the week is full of new ads or full of brand meetings. Hire the agency for that. Or hire me for the account and a studio for the ads.
Sometimes the same engagement should include generative engine optimization (GEO). GEO is how you get the brand mentioned and cited in AI answers such as ChatGPT and Google AI Overviews. Paid media still has to catch the demand those answers create. I sell both, so weigh that. Keep them together when you want one person watching the ads and the pages. Split them when your team already owns the site.
If you want me to look at the account before you choose, contact me. I will tell you if a freelancer is the wrong fit.
Sources
- Google Ads Help: ownership of client accounts
- Google Ads Help: access levels
- Google Ads Help: about consent mode
- Meta Business Help: add an ad account
- Meta Business Help: give a partner access
- Michael Veal, his freelancer and agency comparison, Diego Zietek and Martin Wilson. Pages I read for this angle. Their prices and case numbers stay on their sites.
FAQ
Will a freelancer disappear?
A freelancer can be off sick or can leave the engagement. Plan for that in the account. Google's access help says a lone administrator can leave you unable to manage your tags if they become unavailable. Add another admin. Keep Admin with someone in your company. Give the freelancer Standard access unless a specific task needs Admin. Write down that the logins stay yours. If I am away, the small team that handles delivery keeps the account moving. I stay your contact. I do not hand the account to a stranger. My 19 agent stack can keep search term reviews and reports moving. I approve any change that spends money, and anything that gets published. If a quiet week in paid media would hurt the business, hire an agency.
Do I own the account?
You should, and you do when the access is set up that way. On Google Ads, a client account can have only one owner. If a manager creates the account, that manager becomes the owner automatically. If they only link an account you already have, ownership stays off until an admin of your account turns it on. Your company keeps the data, and you can remove an owner by unlinking them. See Google's help on manager ownership. On Meta, share the ad account from your own business portfolio so it stays with you. Meta's partner access help says only the organisation that owns the asset can share it onward, and you can give a partner partial access to manage ads. I work inside accounts you own.
How many accounts can one person run well?
I will not give you a neat capacity number. It would be made up. The limit is how many new ads you need, how many brands are live, and whether the tracking is clean. Search term reviews and weekly reports can run from a checklist. A pile of new ads across several brands cannot. I have managed $1.3M+ a year in ad spend across 35+ accounts in Australia, the UK, the US and the UAE. That figure counts accounts managed over the work. It is not a promise of 35 accounts open at once. If a seller quotes a capacity number and never asks about your creative load, treat the number as a pitch.
Should GEO be in the same retainer?
A retainer means the ongoing engagement. Keep GEO in that engagement when you want one person on the ads and on the pages AI tools cite. GEO means generative engine optimization: getting your brand mentioned and cited in answers from ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews and other answer engines. I sell GEO as well as PPC, so weigh that interest. Split the work when your own team already owns the site and a paid specialist would be guessing at the pages. The ads need a conversion you trust either way. Ask for them together on the contact page.
What reporting should I demand?
Ask for cost per qualified lead. Let the person who accepts the lead define qualified. If you sell online, add return on ad spend. The report should say what changed, and what you are leaving alone. Impressions can sit in an appendix. If sales throws away a large share of form fills, a report that stops at form fills uses the wrong score. Agree the definition before you judge the month.