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17+

years in paid search, managing Google Ads since 2009

100+

businesses worked with, across India and overseas markets

Certified

Google Ads certifications, kept current rather than framed once

Direct

no account managers between you and the person doing the work


Who Is Vijay Bhabhor?

I'm an independent Google Ads specialist based in Surat, Gujarat, working in paid search since 2009 — long enough to have run accounts through the rename from AdWords, the arrival of automated bidding, and the shift from keyword control to goal-based campaigns.

Independent means what it sounds like: no team the work gets delegated to, and no account manager translating between you and whoever is in the account. That limits how many clients I can take on — a deliberate trade for fewer accounts, understood properly.

Most of my work is with businesses in India, alongside accounts targeting the US, UK, Canada, Australia and the UAE. The technical work is the same; what differs is what a click costs, what a customer is worth, and therefore what counts as a good result.

The problems I'm most useful for

  • Spend is rising and the business results are not moving with it.
  • The numbers in Google Ads and the numbers in your accounts disagree, and nobody can say which to trust.
  • An account has accumulated years of edits and now nobody knows why it is built the way it is.
  • Leads arrive in reasonable volume and sales does not think much of them.

What I'm less useful for: businesses wanting someone to execute a plan already decided, or expecting a guaranteed return. More on both below.


What Does a Google Ads Expert Actually Do?

Short answer: a Google Ads expert decides what the account should be trying to achieve, whether the data it optimises against is trustworthy, and where the budget goes — then takes responsibility for whether that produced business results. Adjusting bids and writing ads is the visible part; it is not the part that changes outcomes.

Diagnosis before optimisation

Establishing what is limiting performance — frequently not in the ad account at all. Reading the search terms report rather than the keyword list, checking whether conversions correspond to real enquiries, and finding what a customer is worth before deciding what to pay for one.

Structure that suits the business

Grouping campaigns so each gathers enough conversion data for automated bidding to learn from. Fragmentation feels like control and usually costs performance; over-consolidation removes the ability to protect a product line. The right answer depends on your conversion volume, not a template.

Measurement that can be trusted

Conversion actions, values, deduplication, and how Google Ads, GA4, Tag Manager and your CRM reconcile against each other. Smart Bidding spends against these signals, so an inflated conversion does not merely misreport — it directs money towards whatever produced it.

Search intent and negatives

Deciding which queries are worth competing for and which look similar but never buy. On most accounts I take over, the matched queries are considerably broader than anyone intended, and the negative keyword list stopped keeping pace years ago.

Bidding and budget against economics

Setting targets derived from your margin and customer value rather than from a benchmark someone published. The same cost per acquisition can be excellent for one business and loss-making for another selling at an identical price with different costs.

Judging what to do next

Deciding when to test, when to leave something alone, and when more spend is justified. Restraint is a real part of the job — a well-meaning weekly change to an account that needed three stable weeks is a common cause of unstable performance.


When Should You Hire a Google Ads Expert?

Not every account needs one. If campaigns perform and someone competent is watching, a specialist adds little. These are the situations where an account has outgrown whoever looks after it.

Spend is growing faster than results

The most common trigger. Budget rose and revenue did not follow proportionally, which usually means efficiency was already at its limit.

Lead volume is fine, lead quality is not

Sales stops chasing the enquiries. Almost always a signal problem — the account optimises towards form fills because nothing told it which became customers.

Google Ads and your accounts disagree

Reported conversions do not match orders received. Until that gap is explained, every decision from the dashboard inherits the error.

The account has become unmanageable

Years of accumulated campaigns, paused experiments and overlapping targeting. The structure reflects history rather than current intent.

Shopping or Performance Max needs real attention

Product-led campaigns depend on feed quality and conversion values as much as settings — outside what general marketing support usually covers.

You need clearer answers than you're getting

Reports arrive, metrics get cited, and nobody can explain what changed or why. Sometimes the account is fine and the reporting is the problem.

Recognise more than one of these? They tend to be connected, and the connection is usually where the fix is.

Request an account review

What Should You Look for When Hiring a Google Ads Expert?

This is worth doing properly whether or not you end up working with me. Eleven things to check — and the answers you should be wary of.

  • 01Practical experience with accounts like yours. Ecommerce and lead generation are different problems. Ask which they have done more of.
  • 02Current certification. Google Ads certifications expire annually, so ask when theirs was last renewed rather than whether they have one.
  • 03Real understanding of conversion tracking. Ask how they would check whether your existing tracking is accurate. A vague answer here predicts most of what follows.
  • 04Ability to explain strategy in plain terms. If the explanation only works in jargon, it may not be a strategy.
  • 05Interest in your economics. Anyone who does not ask about margin or customer value is planning to optimise towards a number they invented.
  • 06Transparency about account ownership. The account should be yours. If that is unclear at the proposal stage, it will be worse at the exit.
  • 07Reporting you can act on. Reports should connect spend to enquiries or orders in your own records, not present platform metrics as outcomes.
  • 08Realistic expectations. A promised ROAS figure or ranking timeline is the clearest warning sign available. Nobody controls the auction.
  • 09A defined communication rhythm. Know who you speak to, how often, and what happens when something breaks on a Friday.
  • 10Clear pricing. Management fees and ad spend are separate things. Make sure both sides mean the same thing by "budget".
  • 11Evidence of previous work. Specific, contextualised examples with limitations stated. Round numbers with no context are marketing, not evidence.

Google Ads Expert vs Consultant vs Manager vs Agency

All four work for someone. The differences are who does the thinking, who implements, and how much of your budget pays for coordination rather than work.

Comparison of ways to resource Google Ads: independent expert, consultant, account manager, agency and in-house marketer
OptionTypical roleStrengthPotential limitationBest suited for
Independent expert Strategy and hands-on implementation, done by one person Direct accountability; the person deciding is the person doing Limited capacity, and no cover if that person is unavailable Accounts needing judgement more than volume of hours
Consultant Advises; your team or another party implements Senior thinking without a full retainer Recommendations depend on someone else executing them well Teams with capable hands but no paid search depth
Account manager Runs day-to-day tasks inside an agreed plan Consistent execution and responsiveness Rarely empowered to question the strategy itself Accounts already working that need maintaining
Agency A team across strategy, implementation and reporting Breadth of channels, capacity and continuity Seniority at pitch may not be seniority in the account; coordination costs money Multi-channel programmes and larger budgets
In-house marketer Owns the channel alongside other responsibilities Deep business context and immediate access to data Paid search moves faster than a generalist role can track Businesses with enough volume to justify a specialist hire

Direct specialist involvement earns its place when the constraint is a decision rather than a workload — a structure that needs rethinking, tracking nobody trusts, or a target never derived from the business. An agency earns its place on breadth and continuity. Worth being honest about which you have.


How I Work Inside a Google Ads Account

Six steps in this order, on every account. The order is the method — each step can invalidate the analysis that would have followed it.

  1. Understand the business

    What you sell, who buys it, what it costs you, how the sale closes, and what a customer is worth over time. None of this is in Google Ads, and all of it determines what a good result looks like. A business with genuine repeat custom can pay far more for a first order than one selling once — and that fact alone changes every target.

  2. Verify measurement before anything else

    Conversion actions, values, deduplication, and how Google Ads reconciles with GA4, Tag Manager and your CRM or ecommerce records. This comes second rather than last because everything after it is read through it. Where the numbers disagree, that disagreement is usually the first real finding.

  3. Diagnose the account

    Structure, targeting, search terms, bidding, budget distribution and the landing pages campaigns send people to. The search terms report over a meaningful period tells more than any settings review, because it shows what you paid for rather than what you intended to.

  4. Prioritise by impact, not by ease

    Several things are usually wrong at once. The one to fix first is whichever is most likely to move business results — not whichever is quickest to change or easiest to show in a report. I would rather hand over three findings that matter than thirty that include them.

  5. Optimise against business outcomes

    Qualified leads and sales rather than conversions in the abstract; cost per acquisition judged against margin rather than last month. For ecommerce that means watching contribution alongside return on ad spend — revenue efficiency and profitability can move in opposite directions.

  6. Scale only when the data supports it

    Efficiency almost always declines as spend rises, since the cheapest conversions get captured first. The question is not whether cost per acquisition increased but where it crosses the line your margin can carry. Incremental increases with time to stabilise hold cost better than large jumps.


Google Ads Experience Across Business Models

Range matters because the same tactic behaves differently depending on where it is applied. Each of these is a distinct commercial problem, not a different industry description.

Ecommerce and D2C

Fast feedback and measurable transactions, but a healthy average conceals which products contribute. Product data becomes an advertising input.

Lead generation

Volume is easy; quality is the whole problem. Without sales outcomes fed back, the account learns to buy whoever fills in forms most readily.

B2B

A deal closing months after the click is invisible unless the CRM tells the account. High cost per click can still be cheap against contract value.

SaaS

Trials are a weak proxy for revenue. The useful target sits at activation or paid conversion, so measurement must reach into the product.

Local businesses

A finite serviceable radius caps the market. Calls, messages and bookings are the meaningful conversions — and most often unmeasured.

Professional services

Few enquiries, each worth a great deal, over a long trust-building path. Small numbers make it easy to over-react to normal variation.


What Happens After You Decide to Work With Me?

Nothing is committed until scope is agreed, and the first three steps happen before that.

1 · An initial conversation

What you sell, what you want more of, and what the advertising has done so far. Usually enough to tell whether I'm the right fit.

2 · Understand the goals

What a customer is worth, what margin allows, and which outcome the account should be accountable for.

3 · Review the existing account

If one exists, a read-only look at structure, tracking and search terms — enough to know what the work actually involves before quoting for it.

4 · Agree priorities and scope

What gets done, in what order, by whom, and what we will measure — written down rather than assumed.

5 · Fix measurement, then optimise

Access arranged, tracking corrected or implemented, then the account work begins in the priority order we set.

6 · Reporting and rhythm

An agreed reporting cadence and a clear channel for anything urgent. You should never wonder what is happening in the account.

What I will not do is put a date on a performance figure. How fast results move depends on conversion volume, market competitiveness, your sales cycle and how quickly changes get implemented. I would rather set expectations you can hold me to.


You Keep Ownership of Your Google Ads Account

Short answer: the Google Ads account is yours, opened under your business, and it stays yours. I work in it with the access level the work requires. If we stop working together, you keep the account, the history and the data — there is nothing to hand back because none of it was ever mine.

Access rather than possession

I request access to your account rather than creating one I control, which keeps billing, history and conversion data with the business that paid for it. Existing account history has real value and is worth preserving even when the structure needs rebuilding.

Ad spend goes to Google, not to me

Advertising budget is paid directly to Google on your own billing, separate from any management fee. You see exactly what was spent, and leaving never means losing access to the account.

Worth asking wherever you end up. Some arrangements run advertising through an account the provider owns, which can mean starting from zero history if the relationship ends. Not necessarily wrong — but know it before signing rather than after.


Frequently Asked Questions About Hiring a Google Ads Expert

What does a Google Ads expert do?
Decides what the account should be optimising towards, verifies that the conversion data behind those decisions is accurate, structures campaigns so automated bidding has enough data to learn from, controls which searches you pay for, and sets targets derived from your margin. Adjusting bids and writing ads is the visible part of the job rather than the part that changes outcomes.
How do I hire a Google Ads expert in India?
Start with a conversation about your account and economics rather than a proposal. Ask how they would verify your existing conversion tracking, what they want to know about your margins, and for a past example with its limitations stated. Confirm you keep account ownership and that fees and ad spend are separate.
What should I check before hiring a Google Ads specialist?
Current certification rather than just certification, relevant experience with your business model, a real answer on conversion tracking, interest in your margins and customer value, account ownership terms, and evidence that includes context rather than round numbers. Anyone promising a specific return on ad spend or a date for results is describing something they cannot control.
What is the difference between a Google Ads expert and a consultant?
In practice the titles overlap, but the useful distinction is implementation. A consultant advises and your team executes; an expert working hands-on does both. Consulting suits businesses with capable people who lack paid search depth. Hands-on management suits accounts where the work itself needs doing by someone senior enough to make the decisions while doing it.
Should I hire a freelancer or a Google Ads agency?
It depends on whether your constraint is judgement or capacity. An independent specialist gives direct accountability — the person deciding is the person doing — with limited capacity as the trade-off. An agency gives breadth and continuity, with coordination costs and the risk that pitch seniority is not account seniority.
How can I verify Google Ads certification?
Ask for the certificate itself, which shows the holder's name, the specific certification and its expiry date. Certifications are individual and expire annually, so the date matters more than the badge. Note that individual certification is different from Google Partner status, which is a company-level programme with its own requirements — the two get conflated often, sometimes deliberately.
Can you take over an existing Google Ads account?
Yes, and it is most of what I do. An account with history is usually preferable to a fresh one, since that history has learning value even where the structure needs rebuilding. The first step is a read-only review of structure, tracking and search terms, before either of us commits.
Will I keep ownership of my Google Ads account?
Yes. The account is opened under your business and stays yours, with me working in it at the access level required. Ad spend is billed directly to you by Google. If we stop working together you keep the account, its history and its data — nothing needs handing back because none of it was mine.
Can you manage Google Ads for businesses outside India?
Yes — I work on accounts targeting the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and the UAE alongside Indian accounts. The platform work is identical; cost per click, competitive density, buyer expectations and seasonality all differ, so targets and campaign structure should be set per market rather than carried across from another one.
Do you work with businesses in Surat?
Yes. I'm based in Surat, so meeting in person is straightforward, which some businesses prefer when handing over an advertising budget for the first time. That said, most of my accounts are outside the city — Google Ads is managed remotely and reviewed through shared data, so being local is a convenience rather than a requirement.
Which Google Ads campaign types do you manage?
Search, Shopping, Performance Max, YouTube, Display, Demand Gen and remarketing, along with the conversion measurement all of them depend on. Which belong in a given account depends on the objective and the conversion volume available — running every type because they exist is a reliable way to leave each with too little data to optimise.
How much does it cost to hire a Google Ads expert?
It varies with account complexity, the number of markets, whether tracking needs building, and how much implementation sits with me rather than your team. An audit is fixed-scope and one-off; consulting is priced by involvement; ongoing management is a monthly fee. In every case, advertising spend is paid directly to Google and separate from the fee.
How long does Google Ads optimisation take?
Tracking and structural problems can often be fixed in the first few weeks, and where distorted data was the main issue the reported improvement shows up quickly. Meaningful movement in acquisition cost usually takes two to three months, since campaigns need conversion data after structural changes. A business with daily sales learns faster than one with a three-month sales cycle.
Do you guarantee ROAS or leads?
No, and I would be wary of anyone who does. Results depend on your offer, pricing, website, competition and the auction — most of which nobody controls. What I can commit to is a defensible priority order, honest reporting against your own records, and telling you early if I think Google Ads is not the right place for the budget.
Can you work with an existing marketing team or agency?
Yes, and it is common — handling paid search while an agency covers other channels, giving a second opinion on an account someone else manages, or working alongside an in-house team that owns the site. Responsibilities need defining clearly enough that nobody is optimising against someone else's changes.

Looking for a Google Ads Expert?

Whether you have an account that is not performing, are planning to start advertising, or just want an independent read on your current setup — tell me what you sell, what you are trying to achieve, and what the advertising has done so far. I will tell you what I would change, and whether I think I am the right person for it.

Talk about your Google Ads goals Request an account review