Google Ads agency or freelancer: which model fits?

Anyone who compares only day rates or monthly retainers overlooks the most important part: who keeps the account working when someone is unavailable, when tracking stops working, or when a decision has to be justified at short notice? The comparison below brings offers onto the same scope of services. Then choose the model that can deliver that scope.

Which delivery models are available in Switzerland?

Four delivery models are available. They differ above all in who is responsible and who provides cover.

• Freelancer: a self-employed specialist with direct contact. Advice, implementation and communication usually rest with the same person.
• Agency: a team with distributed roles. Strategy, campaign operations, tracking, creative work and project management can sit with different people.
• Network or brokerage: a platform places individual self-employed specialists. The specialist does the operational work. Depending on the model, you sign the contract with the specialist or with the broker. Clarify who is responsible for delivery, cover and handover.
• Managed service: a support model with a defined process, software workflows and a named point of contact for the agreed scope of services. maitiq is one example; both agencies and freelancers can offer such a model – the four models are not mutually exclusive.

«Specialist», «expert», «agency» and «AI» are labels, not proof: a label alone proves neither experience nor service quality. Directories and ranking lists are also publications with their own business model: check who runs the list and how a placement comes about before you use it for your selection.

When does a Google Ads freelancer fit?

A freelancer fits when the task is clearly scoped, direct specialist contact matters and your business accepts relying on one key person – for example for an audit, a build-out, a fixed-term advisory engagement or well-defined ongoing work.

Check not only the time the person has available, but the system around the person:

• Who takes over during holidays, illness or simultaneous client crises?
• Which tracking, feed, creative or data tasks does the person cover themselves?
• Which partners are brought in, who coordinates them, and who is liable for the handover?
• Where are goals, exceptions, tests and rejected recommendations documented?
• How quickly can the contract be ended and the knowledge handed over in full?

A one-person model is not automatically fragile. A freelancer who documents their work thoroughly can, with named cover, be more resilient than an agency team with high staff turnover. What matters is the arrangement you can verify, not the number of logos on a team page. At maitiq, this arrangement is part of the model: a named Client Success Manager leads the relationship, and every proposal is recorded in the decision log with its proposed action, rationale and available supporting data – regardless of which person happens to be working.

When does a Google Ads agency fit?

An agency fits when several disciplines have to be coordinated, ongoing additional capacity is needed or you expect organisational cover – for example with several markets, complex tracking, regular creative work or many internal stakeholders.

A broad scope of services counts only if it is included in the offer and available in day-to-day work. Ask who actually works on the account, who leads the relationship, which roles are brought in only under a separate engagement, and how business context moves from the conversation into operational work. A senior person in the sales conversation does not prove that the same person will look after the account. In the maitiq managed service, that person is named: a Client Success Manager supports setup and reviews and remains your point of contact.

Also check the coordination. More specialists bring more perspectives, but without a shared decision log they can produce contradictory changes. So name one responsible party for scope of services, prioritisation and acceptance. maitiq solves this with a decision log: each proposal describes the proposed action, the rationale and the available supporting data, with old and new values only for the relevant change types. Decisions and applied actions are recorded, and implementation is logged as a separate step.

When does a network or a brokerage fit?

A brokered model can fit when you need a specific skill quickly or have to bridge a vacancy. Depending on the brokerage, you sign the contract with the specialist or with the broker. When the broker is your contractual partner, clarify what responsibility it carries for delivery, replacement and handover – and what remains with the person doing the work.

So clarify in writing who is liable in the event of poor performance, whether the specialist may be replaced without your consent, how a replacement is briefed and takes over, who holds the documentation and rights, and whether the person works with the same access rights you would otherwise grant. Without these points, you buy capacity but not continuity.

What does «consulting» mean with Swiss providers?

«Consulting» may mean a free initial conversation or a paid advisory engagement; it varies from provider to provider. So clarify before the meeting whether consulting is a paid service, the preparation of an offer or part of the ongoing support – and who implements it afterwards. A paid advisory engagement provides recommendations but does not run the account. At maitiq, the starting assessment is a concrete read-only audit with findings from your own account that changes nothing in the account.

What maitiq takes on as a managed service

A managed service fits when recurring account work needs consistent coverage and a clear record, without your team having to operate another tool on its own. maitiq runs this model: configured workflows review the account on a recurring basis – budget, target CPA, search terms, ads, conversion data –, each proposal states the proposed action, the rationale and the available supporting data, and a named Client Success Manager supports setup and reviews. Consequential business decisions remain with your team. For eligible proposals, configured autopilot may approve and apply within its authorised limits; other proposal types require a human decision. An explicit, recorded decision to exclude the exact keywords listed can itself authorise the associated guarded negative-keyword action. Implementation is logged as a separate step; it does not universally require a second human authorisation. Creative work, website and other channels are separate services.

Which eight areas should you compare?

The table does not rate quality. It only forces you to check the same task for every model. Answers such as «personal», «full service» or «automated» need a concrete acceptance criterion. RACI stands for the four roles responsible, accountable, consulted and informed – who does the work, who is accountable overall, who is consulted and who is kept informed. The «Managed service» column is the model maitiq runs: the service contact is a named Client Success Manager, the documentation is the evidence and decision log per proposal, and implementation is logged as a separate step.

What does the printable provider scorecard look like?

Print the scorecard and fill in one sheet per provider by hand – not a shared table in which the broadest wording wins. The ten rows match the mandatory list's checkpoints. Mark one of the four evidence states for each row: Statement supported, No evidence found, Not available or Not verifiable, and use the notes line for your own requirement, the offer's response and the evidence with document and page. A missing evidence status on rights or cover is an unresolved prerequisite, not proof that the service itself is absent; resolve it before you appoint a provider.

Then transfer only the evidence states to a comparison sheet. There is deliberately no score and no weighting: a row without evidence on account rights or cover is a knock-out criterion, even if every other row has evidence. Compare only once all providers have answered the same mandatory list. If you also want to rate offers with weights and points, use the offer review.

How maitiq fares: the responsible role is a named Client Success Manager; configured recurring workflows handle the recurring account analysis and by themselves provide neither guaranteed human cover nor specialist capacity; documentation and evidence are available per proposal with the proposed action, the rationale and the available supporting data; fees are quoted per account, not as a percentage of the media budget; and the entry point is a read-only audit that requires read-only access and changes nothing in the account.

How do you compare the annual operating costs?

Use only your own offers and internal full costs. Enter the same line items for every model and leave unknown fields explicitly unknown. Print the table and fill it in by hand for each model; it is a worksheet, not a second interactive calculator:

Annual operating costs = annual external fees + (internal hours per month × months in the year under review × full-cost hourly rate) + annual tools and licences + annual specialist services + one-off setup and exit costs falling in the year under review

Annualise recurring external fees, tools and specialist services over the months of the selected year and count applicable one-off costs once; initial setup does not belong in an ongoing year in which it does not recur. If tools, specialist services, cover or handover are already included in the quoted fee, do not count them twice. Three rules make the comparison robust: the Google media budget stays outside this calculation. Unknown is never summed as zero but shown separately as an open line item that remains unknown or must be confirmed. Expected performance is not entered as a guaranteed credit. The formula is not a Swiss market benchmark; it only makes offers with a different split of external and internal work comparable. For the line «variable or performance-related fee», the following applies at maitiq: the fee is not tied to the media budget – maitiq does not earn more when your advertising spend rises. The complete annual calculation including the media budget belongs in the total cost calculator.

Which account rights does which delivery model need?

The advertiser should keep permanent admin access through company accounts. In its help on manager accounts, Google states that a client account remains the owner of its data and can end a manager account's access by unlinking it.

Google distinguishes the access levels «email only», «billing», «read only», «standard» and «administrator». Grant the smallest level that allows the agreed task – as a recommendation for allocating access, not a statement that administrative setup never needs admin rights. Read only is sufficient for analysis and audit – the maitiq read-only audit works at exactly this level –, standard for operational campaign work; retain administrative control in your company and grant admin rights only for the specific task and for a limited period. For brokered or changing people, the following also applies: access is tied to the person, is withdrawn and regranted when the person changes – never passed on.

Agree as well who owns scripts, rules, dashboard configurations, creatives and documents, and how they are handed over at exit. No delivery model may keep knowledge in personal chats only. A clean exit is part of the operating model and not a topic only after notice has been given.

Which questions belong in the selection meeting?

1. Which account levels do you check, and at what cadence?
2. Who works operationally, who decides and who stands in?
3. How do you link recommendations to their source and rationale?
4. What happens when data is missing or contradictory?
5. Which disciplines are included, optional or excluded?
6. Which access level do you need for audit, operations and implementation?
7. Who owns the account, rules, documents and generated assets?
8. How are internal time, media budget and management fee kept separate?
9. How does a complete handover at exit work?
10. Which claim can you substantiate with a work example?

Frequently asked questions

Sources and how to read them

The two Google help pages document features and access limits; the nine provider and editorial pages show how suppliers describe their services. Rankings and directories are not independent performance evidence. Information on how maitiq works is available at maitiq.com.

To compare fees and services, we also include your existing offer or your invoice; this information is not held in the Google Ads account.

Have maitiq review your specific case.