Google Changes AdWords Agency Service Model

This week, Google AdWords sent out emails to some of their agency customers detailing a change that will be happening in their AdWords support model. The email talked about an “Enhanced Agency Service Model” that is taking place in the U.S., U.K. and other locations, effective the 1st of January. What is changing is that […]

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This week, Google AdWords sent out emails to some of their agency customers detailing a change that will be happening in their AdWords support model. The email talked about an “Enhanced Agency Service Model” that is taking place in the U.S., U.K. and other locations, effective the 1st of January.

What is changing is that Google is restructuring their AdWords support for agencies. It seems like many agencies are losing their dedicated representatives. It also seems that those who will continue to have account managers at Google, their communication with those managers will change.

Google told me, “One set of agencies will have a dedicated agency lead; specific accounts within those agencies will have dedicated vertical account management teams, who can offer industry-specific expertise. A second set of agencies will not have an assigned agency team, but will be able to receive support via phone.”

There were some rumors that agency support will be farmed out to India. I do know Google has a large AdWords support staff in India that provides pretty good support. But Google did not say where this support will come from. Maybe the first level support will come from India and second level would be from local offices, but that is just a guess.

Google sent me a statement on this:

We are changing the structure of agency support in order to better scale and align our team with the vertical expertise and focus area of our agency partners; better partnership means higher impact for our shared clients. This realignment will help our team to give agencies more relevant insights for their clients, and to provide service to a larger portion of smaller accounts.

We’ve transitioned some of our support resources in an effort to provide everyone with the service they need to resolve issues and give advertisers the best possible support. This realignment will help our team to give agencies more relevant insights for their clients, and to provide service to a larger portion of smaller accounts.

Overall, we’ve increased our investment in agencies; there are more dedicated agency leads focused on strategic partnerships with agencies, and working with agencies to drive the industry forward.

One set of agencies will have a dedicated agency lead; specific accounts within those agencies will have dedicated vertical account management teams, who can offer industry-specific expertise. A second set of agencies will not have an assigned agency team, but will be able to receive support via phone.

I guess we will see how much better off the agency is after January 1st, when these changes go into effect.


About the author

Barry Schwartz
Staff
Barry Schwartz is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land and a member of the programming team for SMX events. He owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry can be followed on Twitter here.

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