1. Is he/she capable of understanding the business you work in, beyond simply being able to research keywords?
   
2. Can he/she demonstrably show that he/she understands what impact on your sales, profits and cashflow that advertising with Google is going to have?
   
3. Can they explain, (without looking at this page about AdWords ROI) why ROI is NOT the prime measure of an account’s performance? (If they can’t do this, they don’t understand any business let alone yours!)
   
4. Can you get in touch with them easily by email and ‘phone when you want?
   
5. Can they explain why the amount you pay for a broad match keyword click can vary dramatically and why your ad ranking for a broad match keyword may vary dramatically too?
   
6. VERY IMPORTANT: Do they insist that they “own” the contents of your account so that they demand the right to delete everything from your account when you stop using their services? This is underhand practice.
   
7. Do they possess ALL these key skills?

• • • copywriting
    • understanding consumer motivations
    • understanding ad distribution and associated market behaviours
    • understanding account structures - Campaigns and Ad Groups and, specifically, what controls are available at what level
    • statistical analysis capability and an ability to analyse data and decide what is statistically relevant and what’s not
    • keyword research capability- knowledge of research tools, what they do and how to use their results
    • familiarity with the AdWords editor
    • knowledge of conversion tracking - what it is, where it works and where it doesn’t
    • ability to integrate AdWords with Google Analytics - and how to work with different traffic sources
    • ad scheduling - basic and advanced
    • negative keyword utilisation to control which ads your target market sees as well as who doesn’t see them at all
    • the difference between negative phrase and negative exact match keywords
    • geotargeting capabilities and how to exploit them to the full
    • time-dependent account optimisation
    • billing cycles
    • competitor research
    • keyword types
    • content-targeting
    • the AdWords pricing model
    • relationship between AdWords/PPC and SEO and precisely why you don’t need to optimise your AdWords landing pages for SEO.

There are a bunch more too but that’s a quick list. Copywriting alone is a skill that can takes years to develop.

Over and above this list your AdWords consultant needs to understand how businesses work, the lifetime value of a new customer, cashflow issues, impact on margins of operational gearing. They also need the ability to work with you closely so that the goals for the AdWords account you are managing are aligned as closely as possible with those that will maximise profitability. Check out this article on Business Analysis and AdWords optimisation to see how a deep understanding of business puts perspective on the role of an AdWords Consultant.