How to choose a Google Ads agency in Romania

Why agency choice matters more than your budget

A poorly managed Google Ads account can waste 40-60% of its budget in the first few months. Not because of the platform, but because of bad structure, weak targeting, or the absence of weekly optimisation. Accounts spending €5,000/month often underperform accounts spending €1,500/month. The only difference is who is managing them.

If you are evaluating Google Ads agencies in Romania, the most important thing you can do is understand what separates a good agency from a mediocre one. Price is not the main criterion. How they work is.

What performance marketing is and what a performance marketing agency does

Performance marketing is paid advertising measured and paid for against business outcomes, sales, profitable leads or qualified pipeline, not impressions or traffic. The difference from traditional marketing is not the channel, it is the unit of measure: every unit of spend is tracked through to the commercial result it produces.

In Romania, a performance marketing agency manages campaigns across the main paid channels, Google Ads, Meta Ads and LinkedIn Ads, builds correct conversion tracking, and is judged on commercial results rather than activity volume. In practice we run the account around the profit it generates, not around the number of clicks or impressions. This is the same logic we apply at DAFE Digital: campaigns are built around profit, not traffic.

What sits behind such an agency matters as much as the definition. At DAFE Digital we bring Google Partner certification, more than 10 years of experience in paid media, and accounts managed across 27+ industries. The results are visible in the case studies on the site, from CRMconnect and Ritual Aromas to Deratizare Constanța and ForwardTech7, each with a different business context but the same results-first way of working.

Certifications that matter, and ones that don't

Google Partner vs Premier Partner

Any serious Google Ads agency in Romania should hold at least Google Partner status. Premier Partner is awarded to a small number of agencies that meet strict criteria: a minimum managed spend of $10,000 in the last 90 days, sustained campaign performance, and at least one certified specialist on the account.

Individual Google Ads certification (which freelancers can also obtain) is not the same as agency-level Google Partner status. Ask directly: are you a Google Partner or Premier Partner?

Experience on the Romanian market

Romania has specific market characteristics that matter for Google Ads: lower CPCs than Western Europe (average ~$0.40 vs $1.50-3.00 in the UK), different search behaviour, and increasing competition in verticals like real estate, clinics and e-commerce. An agency that has only worked with clients from other countries may apply structures that do not fit the local market.

Ask specifically: how many active clients in Romania do you manage, and in which industries?

Questions to ask before you sign anything

Before any commercial proposal, ask these questions and evaluate the quality of the answers, not just the content.

• Who actually manages my account? Will your account be handled by a junior who just passed the certification, or a specialist with 3+ years of experience? Many clients sign with senior staff and receive juniors on their account.
• How many accounts does my specialist manage? An effective specialist can actively manage 8-15 accounts. If someone has 30+ accounts, meaningful weekly optimisation becomes impossible.
• What reports do I receive and when? Monthly reporting is the minimum. Good agencies offer live dashboard access or weekly reports with explanations, not just numbers.
• Do I own the Google Ads account? The account must belong to you, not the agency. If you leave, your history, conversion data and audiences stay with you.
• How do you measure success? ROAS, cost per lead, cost per acquisition, specific to your objective, not vanity metrics like clicks or impressions.

If an agency cannot answer all of these questions clearly in the first 15 minutes of a conversation, that is a sign their internal processes are not clear to them either.

Red flags to watch for

• They promise a specific ROAS or cost per lead before auditing your account. No serious agency can promise specific results without reviewing your existing account, your margins and your competition.
• They do not ask for access to Google Analytics or conversion data. Running Google Ads without properly configured conversion tracking is flying blind, regardless of budget.
• The Google Ads account is in their name or on their email. If you leave, you lose all historical data. The account must be created under your email or domain.
• They report only clicks and impressions, not conversions. If they are not tracking real conversions (calls, forms, purchases), they cannot optimise toward results.
• They have no case studies with real numbers. Any agency with 2+ years of activity should be able to show at least 3-5 concrete results with verifiable data.

Pricing models for Google Ads agencies in Romania

Fixed monthly retainer

The most common model in Romania: a fixed monthly fee regardless of ad spend. Advantage: predictable costs. Disadvantage: the agency has no financial incentive to grow your budget, even when it would benefit you. Typical prices in Romania: 1,500-7,000 RON/month depending on agency size and account complexity.

Percentage of managed budget

10-20% of monthly ad spend. Advantage: the agency earns more when you spend more efficiently, aligning incentives. Disadvantage: it can encourage budget increases even when not justified. Preferred model for larger budgets (€5,000+/month).

Hybrid model

A small fixed retainer plus a percentage of budget. For example: 1,500 RON/month plus 12% of managed spend. The most equitable arrangement for both parties. It covers the agency's fixed costs while aligning long-term incentives.

The table below summarises how each model aligns with your interests. For detailed figures, see Google Ads agency pricing in Romania and how much Google Ads costs in 2026.

Pricing model	How it works	How it aligns incentives	Best for
Fixed monthly retainer	A fixed fee per channel, regardless of budget	Predictable, but the agency does not gain from improved performance	Small, stable budgets and predictable costs
Percentage of budget	A percentage of the managed media budget	The agency earns when the account spends more efficiently	Larger, growing budgets
Performance fee	Payment tied directly to an agreed result	Strong alignment, but hard to define correctly	Accounts with mature tracking and clear goals
Hybrid model	A fixed retainer plus a share of the media budget	Covers fixed costs and rewards performance	Most e-commerce and lead generation accounts

At DAFE Digital we work on a hybrid model: a retainer plus a share of the media budget, so the agency wins when the account performs. We do not publish fixed figures on the site because the right fee depends on account complexity, but the principle stays the same: the agency's interest is tied to your profit.

How to evaluate an agency's value for money

An agency's value for money is not measured by its monthly fee, but by the profit the account generates after you subtract that fee. An agency that costs more but doubles your profitable sales is cheaper, in real terms, than a cheap one that keeps the account flat.

The most common mistake when selecting an agency is comparing offers on the price column. Two proposals at the same fee can mean completely different things. One includes an audit, tracking setup, weekly optimisation and reporting with explanations. The other includes only basic management. You compare prices, but you are actually buying different results.

Selection criteria beyond the fee

Before comparing prices, score each agency on the criteria that determine the real result. Use this table as a scorecard.

Criterion	What a good answer looks like	Red flag
Who manages the account	A named specialist with experience in your industry	"Our team", with no responsible person
Accounts per specialist	8-15 accounts, genuine weekly optimisation	More than 30 accounts per specialist
Reporting transparency	Account access and reports with explanations	Monthly screenshots only
Pricing model	Agency fee clearly separated from media budget	Fee and budget merged into one figure
Account ownership	The account stays under your name and domain	Account created on the agency's domain
Proof of results	Case studies with verifiable numbers	ROAS promises made before any audit

An expensive agency that delivers profit is an investment. A cheap agency that delivers reports is a cost. The difference shows up in your sales figures, not on the invoice.

How to spot an agency that delivers profitable leads, not just cheap conversions

A good agency reports cost per profitable lead and revenue generated, not the raw number of conversions or the cost per click. The difference is essential. A campaign can produce 200 cheap leads where almost none buy, or 40 leads that become real customers. The second campaign costs more per lead and is worth far more.

Cheap conversions are easy to produce. You keep targeting broad, optimise for volume, and the report looks impressive. The problem appears at month end, when sales do not grow in proportion to the lead count. An agency that optimises for profit knows that not all conversions carry the same value.

The questions that separate traffic from profit

• How do you tell a good lead from a weak one? The answer must include lead quality, not just lead cost.
• Do you track what happens to leads after they enter the CRM? An agency connected to results knows the close rate, not just the conversion rate.
• Do you optimise for revenue or for the number of conversions? For an online store, the equivalent question is: do you optimise for ROAS and profit, or for the number of orders?
• What do you do with search queries that bring clicks but not customers? The correct answer includes reviewing search term reports and consistently adding negative keywords.

We have taken over e-commerce accounts that reported hundreds of conversions a month yet barely covered their costs. After rebuilding the campaigns around products with real margin and around profit rather than volume, the same budgets started to generate profitable sales. The conversion count dropped. The profit rose. This is how we approach every account in our Google Ads management: optimising for return on ad spend, not for volume.

An agency that reports lead volume is selling you activity. An agency that reports profitable leads is selling you results. Always ask for the second one.

What to expect realistically in the first 3 months

Month 1 is almost always a settling-in period. If taking over an existing account, the first 2-4 weeks involve auditing, restructuring and reconfiguring conversion tracking. Starting from scratch, campaigns enter a learning phase (7-14 days) where Google's algorithm collects data.

In month 2, results become more stable, but not necessarily optimal. Smart Bidding needs a minimum of 30-50 conversions per campaign per month to function efficiently. Below that threshold, results are inconsistent regardless of agency quality.

Month 3 is the first point at which you can genuinely evaluate the direction. If KPIs have not improved since month 1, request a dedicated strategy conversation, not an automatic contract renewal.

The golden rule: if after 90 days you do not have clear conversion data and a positive trend, something is wrong, whether with the campaign structure, the landing page, or the offer itself.

What a good long-term agency relationship looks like

A healthy long-term relationship with a marketing agency means that, after the first 90 days, the relationship shifts from setup to growth: constant testing, scaling what works, and reporting that ties campaigns to your business numbers. If after six months the conversations are still about basic settings, the relationship has stalled.

Paid advertising rewards continuity. Bidding algorithms learn from accumulated data, seasonality only becomes visible after a few cycles, and high-performing audiences are built over months, not weeks. An agency that completely changes strategy every two months never gives the account the time it needs to produce results.

What to expect after the first 3 months

• Months 4-6: scaling the campaigns that work, testing new channels or formats, the first clear conclusions about seasonality.
• Months 6-12: optimising for profit rather than volume, expanding into new audiences, and recommendations that go beyond the ad account, from landing pages to the product feed.
• Beyond 12 months: the agency knows your business almost like an in-house employee. Reporting becomes a strategy conversation, not a list of numbers.

When a long-term relationship is no longer worth continuing

Loyalty to an agency is valuable, but not unconditional. The signs that a relationship has run its course are clear: results stall for several months with no explanation, communication becomes reactive instead of proactive, or the specialist who managed your account is replaced without anyone telling you. A good agency is still good in month 24, not only in month 2.

A good long-term relationship is not a contract that locks you in. It is an agency you would choose again, every month, if you had to sign from scratch.

Why the first 30 days tell you more than the proposal

Promises in a pitch are hard to verify without context. The first 30 days of real collaboration show something else: response speed, quality of initial tracking setup, clarity of communication and transparency in reporting. These are behaviors that don't change regardless of how much time passes.

An agency that in the first month doesn't configure conversions correctly, sends no interim report and doesn't explain what was optimized will not improve by month four. Work structure becomes visible quickly, not after a year of contract.