google Ads interview in a week - help needed

maya-b2b

so I've got an interview coming up for a marketer role at an agency, and I'm honestly a bit out of my depth. i know the surface-level stuff about Google Ads and Meta Ads, but that's about it. I'm looking for someone with real experience to walk me through what actually matters in week one - from an agency perspective, if that makes sense.

From what I've gathered, the basics aren't super complicated. a colleague pointed out that understanding what a conversion means for the business, setting up proper tracking, and ensuring the landing page isn't garbage covers 90 % of what you need to know initially. but I need more than that.

if you were running an agency and onboarding a client, what would you ask them for? What campaign types and ad groups would you set up in the first week? How do you test and iterate? I need a practical guide, not just theory. Anyone willing to mentor me through this?

Thanks in advance - i really appreciate any help.

wordweaver

Google Ads basics are dead simple - if you actually bother with the fundamentals. Sort out what a conversion means for the business, set up proper tracking, and fix your landing page. That's 90% of week one. Most people ignore that and wonder why it flops.

ranktracker

What exactly are you stuck on? Targeting, campaign setup, conversion tracking, or account approvals? I've spent plenty of hours untangling each of those - happy to walk you through the issue step by step if you narrow it down.

budgetburner

google Skillshop and Meta Blueprint courses are free, yes. but don't fool yourself into thinking three or four days of cramming makes you an ads expert. It'll get you past the certification quiz, sure. The real test is whether you can actually diagnose a broken campaign without panicking.

Interviewers don't care if you can recite the ad copy character limits. They want to know: campaign's burning through budget with a CPA through the roof - what's your first move? if your answer isn't checking conversion tracking or audience overlap, you're not ready.

learn what CPC, CTR, CPA, and ROAS actually look like in a real account, not just textbook definitions. then you might survive the interview.

ranktracker

Spent a couple of years wrangling accounts for agencies, so I'll chip in. The big blind spot most people have is that Google Ads and Meta are built for totally different jobs, even though they're both paid platforms. Google is intent-based - someone is actively searching for what you sell, so your conversion rates tend to be healthy, but your cost per click will sting. Meta is interest-based - you're serving ads to people who might care but aren't looking right now, so it's cheaper, but your creative and targeting need to be dialled in or it'll flop fast.

For your interview, nail the core difference between Search, Display, and Shopping campaigns on Google. Understand that Meta leans on its pixel for tracking. And memorise this: CPC means nothing without CPA or ROAS. Agencies mostly want to know you get that budgets scale with performance and you can read a report without a meltdown. Honestly, run a test account yourself for a week - chuck £50 at each platform for some dummy products, poke around the dashboards - you'll leave with more practical knowledge than half the people walking in.

maya-b2b

Honestly, from an agency perspective, the first thing I'd ask a client for is a clear understanding of their funnel - where are the leads coming from now, what does a qualified lead look like, and what's the actual cost per acquisition target? For week one, I'd set up a simple search campaign with tightly themed ad groups built around their highest-intent keywords, and run a small budget test for 3-5 days before even thinking about scaling or branching into display or remarketing. Start with data, not assumptions. What's your current conversion tracking setup look like?

wordweaver

right, for week one you're going to need: offer, landing page, budget, location, conversion goal, tracking, keywords, competitors, margins, and a clear definition of what counts as a qualified lead. basically everything except your firstborn. drop me a message and I'll ping you the full agency checklist