Can A Google Ads Agency See Your Account Data Without Permission?

The other day I was “working on” (polite term for not making any meaningful progress apart from covering myself in oil and grime) my old project car.

Needless to say, the phone decides to ring at the most inopportune moment - when I’m doing my best Harry Houdini impersonation trying to contort myself under the car to reach some part that should be somewhere easy … but because it’s an old French car it is in the most difficult spot imaginable.

But in these trying economic times, when the phone rings (and you don’t immediately recognise it as a crank call) you pick up.

So I crawled back out, and grabbed the phone to pick up.

It was somebody calling from what he claimed was “Australia and New Zealand’s largest Google Ads partner agency” (or words to that effect) and he was calling to discuss the performance of the Google Ads I run for my business - which, for reference, is a small campaign targeted around a couple of key services.

The call took an interesting turn right from the outset, as the caller stated (once again I don’t remember the exact wording but the meaning was clear) that “due to [the agency’s] special relationship with Google, we are given unique access to data that shows your ads are underperforming and we can fix this for you”.

In effect, the ‘sales rep’ for this agency was claiming that because they are such a key partner for Google Ads, Google gave them - without any of my permission - data from my ads account (which isn’t linked to their agency account), and that this data showed my campaigns weren’t performing as they should.

Now anybody who has followed my content for any amount of time will know I’m fairly critical of Google Ads (in terms of the platform being designed to extract maximum cash from advertisers and obfuscate performance to the greatest possible extent) … but even I wouldn’t go so far as to think that Google is just handing out specific, private account performance data to partner agencies to find new sales targets.

Clearly, the caller appeared to be following a script - which I’d assume is normally targeted at people who don’t have so much understanding of how the platform works.

When I pushed back on his claim he got rather flustered and backpedalled, changing his claim to be that his agency had developed special tools that could see the data without account access.

When I asked him to elaborate on what the data was showing (outside of a general claim of ‘your campaigns are junk and we can fix them’) and how this tool works, he just hung up and appeared to block my number when I tried to call back.

The “frustration” here (aside from having crawled out from under the car for no good reason thus wasting valuable making-it-worse time) is that there are companies out there using such misleading sales pitches, and presumably a lot of good businesses are falling for them.

So if your business gets a call from an agency claiming to have unique insights into your account data (that you haven’t shared with them) be wary.

What can an agency actually see without account access?

There is a difference between being able to see something about your advertising and being able to see what is happening inside your Google Ads account.

Somebody can see your ads appearing in Google. They can look at the page you send visitors to. They might spot an obvious problem with your offer, your ad copy, or a landing page that doesn’t work properly on mobile.

Google also has an Auction Insights report, which provides limited information about other advertisers participating in the same auctions (so, in theory, if somebody was competing with you on the same keywords they might be able to see some data via this system). This includes things such as how often their ads appear alongside yours, and how often they appear above you.

That is useful competitive information. It doesn’t tell you what those competitors are spending in total, how many customers they are getting, or whether those customers are profitable.

Google’s published partner benefits include industry insights and, for selected Premier Partners, dedicated support. They don’t describe a privilege that lets a large agency open up an unrelated business’s private performance data to find something to criticise on a sales call. The normal process for linking an existing account to an agency’s manager account requires acceptance by someone authorised to do so.

And if an agency is using its own tools to make estimates, it should say that. An estimate from a third-party tool and actual performance data supplied by Google are two very different things.

“Underperforming” compared with what?

This is the question that tends to get skipped over in these sorts of pitches.

Are my ads underperforming because they aren’t showing for every conceivable search? Because somebody else’s ad appears above mine? Because I’m not spending as much as another business?

None of those things, on their own, tells you whether the campaign is doing its job.

Take my own business as an example. I’m advertising a couple of specific services. If somebody clicks an ad, pays for an audit, and then engages me for follow-up work, the value of that customer can extend well beyond the initial enquiry.

You can’t work out what that relationship is worth by looking at where my ad appears in Google.

Equally, a campaign could generate lots of clicks and enquiries while being a complete waste of money if those enquiries never turn into worthwhile customers. Looking busy and making money aren’t necessarily the same thing.

A proper assessment needs to connect the advertising to what the business is trying to achieve. That means looking at the account, checking what is being measured, and asking questions about what happens after someone clicks or enquires.

It might turn out that the ads are underperforming. There might be plenty of room for improvement. But that should be a conclusion reached through investigation, rather than the opening line of a sales script.

What should you ask if you get a call like this?

You don’t need to know the inner workings of Google Ads. Just ask the caller to explain the basis for their claim:

• What specific data are you looking at?
• Where did it come from - Google, your own tools, or somewhere else?
• Is it actual data from my account, or an estimate?
• What exactly is underperforming, over what period, and compared with what?
• Can you show me the information you’ve already used to reach that conclusion?

These are fairly reasonable questions to ask somebody who has interrupted your day to tell you that your marketing isn’t working.

If they have identified a real issue, they should be able to explain it. If they need access to investigate further, that’s also a perfectly reasonable thing to say … but it doesn’t support a claim that they’ve already seen private data proving your campaigns are rubbish.

A Google Partner badge, a large client list, or a claim to be the biggest agency in the country doesn’t remove the need to provide evidence.

Get a second opinion based on your actual business

I’m obviously not going to argue that you should never question your Google Ads performance. Reviewing accounts and identifying wasted spend is a big part of what I do.

But there is a difference between having a legitimate concern about your results and having somebody manufacture that concern so they can sell you a solution.

If you are worried about how your campaigns are performing, start with what you actually know. What are you spending? What worthwhile enquiries or sales are coming back? Can your current provider explain what they are doing and why?

If those answers aren’t clear, an independent review can help.

My Google Ads audit service involves reviewing your account with your permission, understanding what you want to achieve, and identifying what needs attention. It’s a standalone paid service, so you can take the findings back to your existing provider, implement them yourself, or use them to inform your next steps.

No mysterious access to data that only the biggest agencies can see. Just an assessment based on the information that actually matters to your business.

And if you call while I’m under the car, give me a moment to crawl out.