How to choose a Google Ads agency in the UAE: ten checks
Ten checks to send every Google Ads agency in the UAE before you sign: who owns the account, who pays Google, what they show you and how they're paid.
The short answer
Choose a Google Ads agency by testing ownership, billing, reporting and fees before you look at results. The account should be in your name with you as administrator, you should pay Google directly, and the agency should show the search terms report live. Be wary of a fee that rises automatically with your ad spend, because it rewards spending more rather than earning more.
Ask who the administrator of the Google Ads account is before you ask anything else. If the answer is the agency, the search history, the audiences and the conversion data you are paying to build sit in an account they control. The ten checks below are written to send to every agency on your shortlist, so you can compare their answers in writing.
What should you ask a Google Ads agency before you sign?
| Ask or check | Why it matters | A weak answer sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Who is the administrator of the Google Ads account? | The account holds your conversion history, audiences and negative keywords. Whoever administers it decides what happens to them. | 'We run it under our own account to keep things simple.' |
| Whose card or invoice does Google bill? | Paying Google directly keeps the media spend visible to you and free of mark-up, and leaving doesn't depend on settling a balance with the agency. | 'One monthly invoice covers our fee and your ad spend.' |
| Can you screen-share the search terms report for the last 30 days, sorted by cost? | It is the report that shows what people actually typed before they clicked, so it shows where the money went. | 'We send a monthly PDF', or 'Google handles the matching'. |
| What will the account optimise towards: form fills, or enquiries that sales marks as real? | Bidding chases whatever is counted as a conversion. If every form fill counts, it will find the cheapest form fills, junk included. | 'We optimise for conversions', with no definition of one. |
| How will you count phone calls and WhatsApp conversations in the UAE? | The UAE wasn't on Google's list of countries for forwarding numbers, which power its call reporting, on 7 November 2026. A real plan names the tools. | 'Google tracks calls automatically.' |
| How are you paid, and what happens to your fee if I halve the budget? | A fee that rises with spend rewards spending, not returns. | 'We take a percentage of whatever you spend.' |
| Which of Google's recommendations did you reject last month, and why? | Recommendations come from the platform that earns when you spend more. Some are sound, but applying all of them is not judgement. | 'We keep the optimisation score at the maximum.' |
| Who writes the Arabic ads, and who reads the Arabic search terms? | Arabic searches need Arabic negative keywords. If nobody on the account reads Arabic, that junk never gets blocked. | 'We translate the English ads.' |
| What is on the monthly call, and who from the agency attends? | You want spend, enquiries, cost per qualified lead, what changed and what's next, from the person making the changes. What a monthly report should show lists the rest. | 'A dashboard link showing clicks and impressions.' |
| What happens to access, tags and audiences if I leave? | Your right to keep them belongs in the contract, not in goodwill at the end. The contract guide lists the clauses. | 'We transfer assets once all invoices are cleared.' |
Who should own the Google Ads account?
You should, with the agency added as a linked manager or as a user. The account holds the history: which searches converted, which audiences you built, which negative keywords took months to collect. When the agency owns the account or the billing, taking that history with you becomes a negotiation.
Check it yourself in the first week. In the account's Admin settings, under Access and security, your own login should be listed as Admin and the agency should appear as a manager or as Standard users, and in Billing the payer should be your company. Repeat the check for Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics, where whoever holds admin rights controls what happens to your tracking.
If the agency owns the account, you are renting your own results.
Why does a fee based on ad spend create a conflict of interest?
Because the fee grows when the budget grows, whether or not the extra spend earns anything. Say an agency takes 12% of ad spend. On AED 25,000 a month that would be AED 3,000, and doubling the budget would double its fee to AED 6,000 whether or not the second AED 25,000 brought in a single customer.
| Fee model | What it rewards | Where it goes wrong | What to ask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat monthly fee | Doing the agreed work | Nobody checks the work, and nothing pushes the agency to find more | Which tasks are in the fee, and where will I see them in the change history? |
| Percentage of ad spend | Spending more | The fee rises with the budget even when returns fall | Is there a cap, and what happens to the fee if I halve the budget? |
| Fee per lead | Lead volume | Cheap, unqualified leads count the same as good ones | Who defines a qualified lead, and who audits the count? |
| Flat fee plus an outcome bonus | Results you can both measure | Arguments about which sale the ads caused | Which number triggers the bonus, and can I see the data behind it? |
A percentage can still be fair when it comes with a cap, a rate that falls as spend rises, or a rule that every budget increase needs your written agreement. Without one of those, ask for a flat fee priced on the work. An agency paid per lead is rewarded for volume, and nothing in the deal pays it to make the leads good unless the contract defines a qualified one, which is the problem behind Google Ads leads that turn out junk.
What should an agency show you when you ask where the money went?
A live look at the search terms report for the last 30 days, sorted by cost. The ten searches with the most spend should be ones you'd be glad to take a call from, and the list of negative keywords beside them should have grown every week.
Then ask how much of last month's spend went on searches that produced nothing, and what was blocked as a result. A good answer is a figure and a list of negatives added, and 'we optimise constantly' is not an answer. Google leaves search terms with too little activity out of the report, so the long tail stays hidden, but the money you can recover is in the big spenders.
Does a Google Partner badge tell you anything?
Very little about your account. Google's help page says the badge belongs to the agency's registered manager account as a whole, and its criteria include a minimum optimisation score, a minimum ad spend across managed accounts and certified staff. It shows an agency is active at some scale, not that it will make you money.
The optimisation score deserves a question of its own. Google describes it as an estimate of how well an account is set up to perform, and it moves as recommendations are applied or dismissed. An agency working to that score is working to a target set by the platform that earns when you spend more, which is why 'which recommendations did you reject last month?' reveals so much.
What changes if you sell property or health services?
You need an agency that can name who is responsible for permits and claims before an ad goes live. The Dubai Land Department said in October 2020 that advertising without the required permits brings progressive fines starting from AED 50,000. That is a 2020 statement, so check current penalties with DLD. For health advertising, CMS's 2024 guide names the Ministry of Health and Prevention as the competent authority and says medicine ads need its approval, while the Dubai Health Authority has its own standard for social media content. This isn't legal advice.
A weak answer is 'that's the client's job', with no process behind it. The Trakheesi permit guide and the healthcare marketing guide set out what is confirmed for each sector.
Would we pass our own ten checks?
Run them on us as well. Ad accounts, pages and files stay in your name when you work with us, and our PPC and Google Ads work is quoted on scope. The pricing page publishes where monthly services start, at AED 12,000 excluding VAT for most of them. Below roughly AED 5,000 a month for management, ask whichever agency quotes it who is actually doing the work.
If you want a written answer before committing to anything, our free cost review is a short call followed by a written reply within 72 hours. Questions that apply to any marketing agency are in How to choose a marketing agency in Dubai. Whichever agencies you shortlist, send them all the same ten questions and compare the written replies, because a vague answer tells you as much as a wrong one.
Questions people ask
How much does a Google Ads agency charge in the UAE?
Agencies charge a flat monthly fee, a percentage of ad spend, a fee per lead, or a mix, and any 'typical' price you're quoted should be treated as unverified unless the source is named. Ours are published: most monthly services start at AED 12,000 excluding VAT, priced on scope. Below roughly AED 5,000 a month for management, ask who is doing the work.
Should the Google Ads account be in my name or the agency's?
In your name, with you as the account administrator and the agency added as a manager or user. The account's history belongs to your business, and so should the billing. If an agency insists on running your ads under its own account, ask what you would receive on the day you leave.
Is a Google Partner agency a safer choice?
A Partner badge is awarded to an agency's manager account on company-wide criteria, including a minimum optimisation score, ad spend across managed accounts and certified staff. It doesn't measure results for any single advertiser, so treat it as a minimum and judge the agency on account ownership, reporting and fees instead.
Is a percentage-of-spend fee always a bad idea?
No, but it rewards spending more rather than earning more, so it needs guardrails: a cap, a rate that falls as spend rises, or a requirement that budget increases need your written approval. Without those, ask for a flat fee tied to a defined list of work.
How can I check what my Google Ads agency is actually doing?
Open the account's change history for the last 30 days to see who changed what, then open the search terms report sorted by cost. Compare Google's billing total with the spend in the agency's report. Some changes made by Google's own systems or staff may not appear, so treat it as a strong check rather than a complete one.