This is a quick post that will announce my decision to no longer be a part of the Google Partners program in its current form because I believe it to not be in the best interest of my clients.  I have been a part of the Partners’ program for a very long time because at one time it offered more help for other things such as Google maps issues my clients faced. It was never particularly helpful from a Google Ads side of things. In fact, when I met with my rep for Google Ads, it was typically a waste of time. They didn’t understand that small businesses have a limited budget and can’t just throw money at issues. Generally, Google’s suggestions and best practices are at the benefit of Google and not the advertiser.  In fact, I wrote a post last year pointing out that Google reps themselves may have passed rogue agencies as being the most damaging to small businesses, as I have spent a lot of time in recent years fixing the damage done to campaigns by Google reps who called the business owner to make adjustments to their campaigns.

Google Ads Help From Google Only Helps Google

I sometimes worry that business owners think they are getting “help” from Google when they are actually allowing Google to control how they pay them money. It doesn’t make much sense. The new Partners program going into place this year will have requirements that you follow Google’s suggestions to stay in line, basically forcing agencies to do what Google says and not what is best for the client. Essentially, being a Google Partner becomes detrimental to the clients I serve, so unless their rules change significantly, this will be the end of my Google Partner status.

It is no longer worth the additional support for other products, which has actually gotten worse in recent  years, to be forced to follow Google’s rules for budget spend on Google Ads campaigns. To be honest, I haven’t had anyone ask if I was a Google Partner in years, so I don’t know that my clients care.  If anything, going forward, small businesses should look for an agency that is not a Google Partner. I wanted to explain the decision to my readers though and am happy to answer questions.