A recent poll conducted via LinkedIn revealed 83% of PPC campaign managers believe campaign support from Google and Meta falls short. While this is based on a modest sample of self-selecting users, it reinforces the view that many working in the pay-per-click industry are frustrated, and that both the big platforms have been slow to address campaign support concerns. The consequences for agencies can be brutal: Campaigns fail, clients lose money, and agencies lose business.
This article will examine why campaign support is perceived as poor, how that impacts PPC agencies, and what Google and Meta could do to improve.
Types of Campaign Support Available
Self-Service Resources
Both platforms have online help centres (Facebook’s; Google’s). These are stocked with articles, troubleshooting guides, best practices, and documentation on campaigns, billing and policy.
Direct Support Channels
Chat, email, and phone support are available on both platforms. However, Meta Ads only offers chat and phone options to larger advertisers.
Premium Help
Google Ads and Meta Ads will provide direct training and tools to agency partners. Large spenders could get a Google representative or Meta account manager, offering a direct support line.
The Problem with Google and Meta’s Support
Self-Service Resources are Out of Date and Incomplete
Google Ads and Meta Ads are constantly changing their user experience (UX) and general functionality. However, information available in Google Ads Help and Meta Business Help Centre often lags by two to three months.
Updating advertising platforms can also create bugs, causing advertisers to deal with new problems. The resources available on Help Centres focus on common navigational information, and in-depth bug reports or troubleshooting advice is limited. These incomplete help pages cause frustration for users who need to use platforms.
In their defence, Google Ads and Meta Ads have made more effort recently to correct help centres on time, but complaints like the below are still common.
Poorly Skilled and Incentivized Direct Support
When it comes to campaign support, Google and Meta both seem to use gatekeeping methods. Perhaps to protect their staff from getting stretched too thin. That’s why the first interaction is usually an AI chatbot using question-and-answer prompts. The goal of bots seems to be to drive the majority of advertisers back to the help centre pages.
Advertisers who manage to slip the bot are allowed to raise a ticket via email or start a live chat with a support agent. These tickets and chats will likely get passed to one of the offshore companies that Google and Facebook outsource to. I had a look at the LinkedIn profiles of Meta Marketing Pros (low-level strategic support staff). All of them work for companies Meta has contracts with. The main ones are Teleperformance in Portugal and TDXC in Singapore.
Outsourcing to these companies is not necessarily the problem. It’s the fact that support staff likely rely on scripts when speaking to clients. The staff they employ also seem to lack the required PPC account management experience for such a role.
Teleperformance and TDXC posted a few job listings on their websites. I looked at the requirements for roles such as Customer Support for Social Media and Digital Marketing Campaign Specialist. The only skills they asked for were English and basic computer skills. Job listings also mention sales experience, which is strange for a support role. This user on Reddit claiming to have worked with the Meta Marketing Pro Team might confirm the job requirements.
There also appears to be an incentive in place for staff to resolve cases with little to no escalation. Perhaps the cause is a disconnect between support staff and technical teams inside Meta and Google. It’s made worse by the absence of centralized case tracking, so every time you speak with a new agent, you have to explain your problem from scratch, as the example below indicates.
Premium Help is Exclusive, Slow, and Disconnected
Although things improve with premium assistance, most advertisers will never reach the required level of spend. That leaves most advertisers stuck with basic channels when looking for help.
Premium campaign support isn’t a silver bullet, either. Even dedicated support can be slow to escalate problems. It can sometimes take days, if not weeks, for the correct department to be assigned to the case, as the below example from my own agency shows:
A client from a regulated industry saw their traffic collapse for key terms overnight. Despite weeks of reassurances by their assigned representative that everything was fine, the situation did not improve. Continued complaints finally led to a review by Google’s policy team. They discovered that the account had lost its verification certificate over a month ago. The change happened with no warning or notice. At that point, the client had lost a lot of money and was understandably unhappy.
One of the roles of an assigned account manager is also to help clients with strategy. Unfortunately, both Google and Meta put pressure on account managers to sell automation to advertisers and encourage them to spend more. When this is the main goal, they come across as untrustworthy and out of touch with the reality of managing PPC accounts.
The Impact of Subpar Campaign Support on PPC Agencies
Financially Damages Agencies and Clients
Most PPC agencies and their clients depend on platforms like Google Ads and Meta Ads to drive daily leads and sales. As a result, any downtime, account restrictions, or technical issues can disrupt productivity and lead to financial losses.
Many agencies get paid based on a percentage of their client’s ad spend. When platform problems stop clients from spending, it can result in smaller billable retainers. Some PPC agencies also rely on performance bonuses. Targets can become difficult to reach when advertising doesn’t run as it should.
Agency Reputation Suffers
Clients lose money because of problems with their ad accounts. This loss of income sometimes leads to frustration and loss of trust in their partner agencies. Businesses want PPC agencies to have a good relationship with Google and Meta. They feel agencies should be able to resolve problems quickly. But when agencies are open about limited campaign support, it looks like blame shifting or a lack of capability. The situation ends up hurting the agency, even when the problem is with the platforms themselves.
Wastes Agency Time and Resources
Sub-standard strategic support wastes a lot of agency time. Topics like automation and increasing spend are the main talking points of hour-long sessions. Account managers and junior support put minimal effort into understanding the business marketing needs.
Stifles Agency Growth
For smaller and growing agencies, the lack of campaign support is even worse. Without access to premium help, these agencies have to use basic channels that don’t work. This constant roadblock makes it harder for new agencies to build a reputation in a crowded market.
Why it’s Important to Improve Support
Damage to Platform Profitability
Getting proper campaign support from Google and Meta isn’t just a perk for agencies. It’s required for survival. Dragging out issues like suspended ad accounts, disapproved ads, or technical problems leads to wasted ad spend, missed opportunities, and strained client relationships.
Strategic guidance from platform reps is also necessary to improve campaign performance. When not provided, it doesn’t just hurt agencies but also stops growth in ad spend that benefits platforms. More support for agencies is a financial win for everyone.
Rising Competition for Google and Meta
Google and Meta should know that they are no longer unchallenged in the digital advertising space. To increase market share, TikTok, Pinterest, and Microsoft Advertising are offering better support. As a result, growth on these platforms is reaching high numbers. The below comment on the LinkedIn Poll shows how smaller platforms are giving extra campaign support to advertisers:
Amy Parkinson commented, “I’ve had a high spend client who’s ads just switched off over a week. We desperately tried everything to get an answer via chats, emails and phone calls. The end issue… an error on Meta’s part. Meanwhile I’m being offered weekly meetings with the Pinterest support team. So, some companies are getting it right.”
Additionally, Google faces a growing crisis from the rise of AI. More users are turning to conversational platforms, like Chat GPT, for their search queries. Not only does this threaten Google’s core user base, but it could also drive agencies towards AI platforms that release an ad-serving offering.
Ways Google and Meta Can Improve
Keep Resources Recent and Include Bug Report
Platforms should keep online resources in line with user experience and general platform functionality. They should also include bug reports or troubleshooting advice. When help centres don’t provide a solution, there should be a direct line to technical teams that can resolve issues. Platforms could use AI bots to direct users to the quickest resolution instead of using them for gatekeeping.
Hire Experience Support Staff and Improve Collaboration
Google and Facebook should be hiring support staff with PPC experience. They should keep outsourcing partners to the same standard. Managers with PPC experience should help support junior staff, build campaign support cases, and quickly pass them to the right teams to handle. Collaboration between internal teams and outsourced support centres needs to be improved. Platforms should gear support teams for efficiency over gatekeeping.
Improve Basic Strategic Support
Understandably, Google and Meta can’t give premium support to all advertisers. However, setting up their Meta Marketing Pro and Google’s Account Strategists programs is a step in the right direction. Where this basic strategic help continues to miss the mark is that staff have little to no experience with PPC accounts. There will always be a mismatch when support calls experienced PPC managers nonstop to make account recommendations, only to be caught stuttering when asked the most basic questions. These roles need knowledgeable people who can add value to small and medium-sized accounts and help them grow.
Conclusion
Not getting campaign support from Google and Meta isn’t a small problem for agencies. It threatens growth and sustainability in the long term. Managing my own PPC agency in Manchester has left me with many personal experiences of support setbacks. Agencies like mine rely on these platforms to deliver a continuous service to our clients. When support is slow, ineffective, or disconnected, both agencies and their clients lose productivity, trust, and money.
Google and Meta need to realize that robust, time-sensitive, and knowledgeable support is necessary to keep their dominance in an increasingly competitive digital advertising market.
The solution is better qualified and trained support staff who can collaborate with internal teams to resolve cases quickly. At a minimum, help centre resources need to be in line with platform updates, keep track of bugs, and offer troubleshooting guidance.
In the long run, increasing campaign support isn’t just a benefit for PPC agencies. It improves the financial health of advertising platforms by allowing advertisers to spend more. Google and Meta are still the largest companies in digital advertising for the moment, but with rising competition, not improving support could give rivals the edge.
