Canadian agency Catmo describes setup in its 2026 guide as $500 to $1,500 and 10 to 20 hours for campaigns, conversion tracking, and account configuration. This is one agency’s guide. Ad spend pays for clicks; the contractor’s fee pays for their work.
To accept the work, ask the contractor to demonstrate each agreed deliverable in your account. You should understand what has been built, what counts as a useful customer action, and who controls access. Use the checklist below for that conversation. For the financial comparison, see the guide to Google Ads setup and management pricing.
What should the setup checklist cover?
Use my checklist to agree what the setup should include. Ask the contractor to mark each item as included, separately charged, or unnecessary. At handover, ask them to demonstrate the agreed work.
- Website review and business goal. Agree which service and customer action matter. How to check in your account: compare ads with their landing pages and request the website review findings. Check speed: in our sample of 4,425 landing pages across 20 accounts, September 2024 to February 2025, pages with mobile speed scores of 9 to 10 converted 3.65% of clicks, versus 1.28% for scores of 1 to 5. These rates cover all devices, not mobile traffic alone. The association does not guarantee that speeding up your page will produce that gain.
- Search keywords and negative keywords. Discuss relevant enquiries and searches unrelated to your service. How to check in your account: ask to see keywords, campaign or ad group negatives, and applied lists. Google’s negative keyword guidance explains how negatives exclude irrelevant searches. Their match types matter in Search campaigns, so ask the contractor to explain the choices.
- Campaigns, ads, and assets. Agree which advertising activities the setup fee covers. How to check in your account: compare the campaigns, ad copy, and assets with the proposal. Ask what business purpose each campaign serves. You should be able to connect the explanation to your services without learning every technical term.
- Conversion tracking. Define what counts as an enquiry, call, or purchase. How to check in your account: ask to see the conversion actions and campaign goals, then match them to your agreed outcomes. Request a demonstration of the tracking check. “Analytics is connected” leaves open the question of what a recorded conversion actually represents.
- Schedule and geography. Discuss your service area and how you handle enquiries. How to check in your account: ask the contractor to show the campaign geography and schedules and explain their choices. If ads run all day, ask why. Requiring restricted hours simply to tick a box would miss the business question.
- UTM tags and handover. Confirm whether tags are included and how completed work will be documented. How to check in your account: ask to see the agreed tags in the advertising links. Against each deliverable, record where you checked it and any unanswered question. Keep that list for the acceptance discussion.
How many campaigns should you expect?
I would avoid using campaign count as an acceptance target. Ask the contractor to explain the structure through your services and goals: what does each part do, and what outcome will you review after launch? That gives you a useful basis for discussion. If you want to understand the building process, follow the Google Ads setup walkthrough.
What gets overlooked in a complete setup?
In my practice, the recurring gaps are conversions connected to revenue, scheduling and geography that reflect business operations, and negative keywords at launch. I ask the contractor to explain how a recorded action relates to an order. Google’s conversion tracking guidance explains that conversion data helps identify which keywords, ads, and campaigns produce results. Smart Bidding also relies on conversion data.
In our 2018 to 2026 research dataset, 99 of 130 accounts (76.2%) had conversion actions set up and marked primary, but excluded from the conversions metric and absent from every goal. In one account, from 2024 to the first half of 2026, such an action carried £1,659 in value per conversion versus £972 for a real order. A configured conversion action still needs checking: is it included in campaign goals, and does it represent an actual order? The 76.2% figure describes mismatched settings, not unprofitable accounts. Separately, from September 2024 to February 2025, schedules other than “all day” appeared in 3 of 28 accounts: 104 of 15,168 campaign settings rows (0.7%). Rows are not unique campaigns. Unrestricted hours are not automatically wrong: some sectors have flat daily demand.
What access should the business owner retain?
Have the account created under your email and retain Admin access. Google’s access levels documentation identifies Admin as the level that manages other users’ access. Give the contractor Standard access, or Admin if you decide it is appropriate. Sign in yourself to check your level. An agency’s manager account (MCC) links to your client account; yours remains separate, with its own access.
When this does not apply
Apply this checklist to the agreed scope: missing work you never commissioned does not establish a breach. Search keyword checks should not be transferred mechanically to every campaign type. Accepting setup work does not establish profitability either. If campaigns are already running and the results are unclear, use a Google Ads audit to investigate.
To review your account with us using this checklist, we can compare the promised deliverables with the settings and identify questions for your contractor.
My e-book “19 Google Ads Secrets”: how to get the most out of Google Ads without draining your budget, drawn from real campaigns and tests.
See the book →Questions and answers
Does setup include monthly management?
Catmo’s guide describes setup fees as typically separate from the monthly retainer. Check your proposal for any included management period and its deliverables.
How do I review keyword choices after launch?
Use the search terms report. It shows actual searches that triggered ads and helps identify new keywords and negatives. Ask the contractor to explain examples from your account.
Is a high optimization score enough?
No. Google describes optimization score as an estimate of how well your account is set to perform. For acceptance, check agreed deliverables and what your conversions represent.