Pay Per Campaign is now an officially certified Google Agency Partner — verified in the Google Partners Directory — with approval arriving in under 72 hours from submission. Below, we walk through the three requirements Google checks daily, how we cleared every one of them, and what this status unlocks for our clients.
The Announcement
We're Now an Official Google Agency Partner
Pay Per Campaign has achieved Google Agency Partner status — and from the moment we submitted our application to the moment we received our badge in the official Google Partners Directory, fewer than 72 hours passed.
This milestone is not just a badge on a website. It is the result of how we have always managed campaigns: with certified expertise, responsible budget stewardship, and a relentless focus on following Google's best practices without sacrificing real campaign performance. For our clients, it also unlocks something immediate and tangible — exclusive Google credits and benefits that support their advertising activity directly.
Verified in the Google Partners Directory
Our listing is publicly visible and verifiable in real time. Google checks partner eligibility daily — this is a live status, not a historic award.
View our Google Partner profileInside the Process
Google's 3 Requirements — and How Pay Per Campaign Cleared Every One
The Google Partners Programme is designed for advertising agencies and third parties that manage Google Ads accounts on behalf of other businesses. To become a Google Partner, an agency must simultaneously satisfy three distinct criteria. Here is how each one works and how Pay Per Campaign approaches each.
Google requires that at least 50% of account strategists — defined as MCC users who have managed accounts with $500 or more in ad spend over the preceding 90 days — hold valid Google Ads certifications. Those certifications must cover the product areas your clients are active in: Search, Display, Video, Apps, and more. It is a genuine knowledge threshold, not just a headcount metric.
Pay Per Campaign: every active campaign manager is fully certified across multiple campaign typesYour agency's Manager Account (MCC) must demonstrate at least $10,000 USD in cumulative ad spend across all linked client accounts within the most recent 90-day window. This threshold has remained consistent since Google's programme update in February 2022. Pay Per Campaign serves a diverse client base across multiple sectors, which made this criterion straightforward to maintain. Critically, all client accounts are managed through our dedicated MCC — pooling their spend into one qualifying view.
Pay Per Campaign: diverse multi-sector client portfolio comfortably exceeds the spend thresholdThe Google Ads optimisation score reflects how well your campaigns follow Google's recommendations — bidding strategies, ad strength, audience signals, keyword quality, and more. The minimum to qualify for partner status is 70%. Pay Per Campaign consistently maintains a score between 90% and 95%, demonstrating genuine adherence to best practice while preserving sound campaign judgement for each client's unique context.
Pay Per Campaign: 90–95% optimisation score — consistently 20–25 points above the minimumA precision note on certifications: Google's requirement is not simply "50% of all MCC users" — it specifically applies to account strategists, meaning those who have actively managed accounts with $500 or more in spend in the past 90 days. At Pay Per Campaign, every team member who manages client campaigns holds current certifications across relevant Google Ads product areas.
Our Scores at a Glance
Where Pay Per Campaign Sits on the Scorecard
Our optimisation score is something we actively manage every week. Google sets the floor at 70% — a level that's achievable, but easy to let drift. We maintain a score significantly above that because we review recommendations on an ongoing basis, apply those that align with each campaign's specific goals, and document our reasoning when we dismiss those that do not. Performance always takes precedence over a perfect score on paper.
A high optimisation score signals genuine campaign hygiene — that bidding strategies are well-configured, ads are relevant and complete, audience targeting is precise, and negative keywords are properly applied. It is a reliable external signal of how seriously an agency treats the accounts it manages.
Advice for Every Agency
If Your Agency Manages Client Google Ads, You Need a Dedicated MCC
One of the most operationally significant decisions any Google Ads agency can make is setting up and working through a dedicated Manager Account (MCC), rather than logging into each client's individual Google Ads account separately. This single structural decision affects your eligibility, your clients' benefits, and the quality of your reporting.
When all client accounts are linked beneath a single MCC, Google aggregates their spend for partner qualification purposes. This means a healthy portfolio of mid-sized clients — even without one dominant account — can collectively meet the $10,000 spend threshold far more easily than if accounts were managed individually. It also centralises billing, cross-account reporting, and access permissions in one place.
Beyond agency eligibility, this structure directly benefits your clients. Google Partner status unlocks access to exclusive Google promotional credits and early feature access that agencies can pass through to their clients — real monetary value that would not be available if accounts were managed in isolation.
Google Partner benefits flow downstream to clients. Once your agency holds Partner status through a properly structured MCC, clients whose accounts are linked can access Google advertising credits and promotional offers. This is a concrete, quantifiable benefit of working with a certified Google Partner agency.
"The partner badge is not a certificate on the wall. It is checked by Google every single day — in the optimisation score we maintain, the certifications our team renews, and the results we deliver for every account we manage."
— Pay Per Campaign Team
Why It Matters for You
What Working with a Google Partner Agency Actually Means for Your Business
Choosing a Google Partner agency provides a layer of independently verified accountability that self-certified agencies simply cannot offer. The badge confirms — not based on what an agency claims, but on what Google has verified — that three core standards are being met simultaneously: certified expertise, active spend management, and campaign performance.
Critically, Google verifies Partner eligibility on a daily basis. This means the status is a live, continuous signal — not a historical award. If an agency's optimisation score drops below 70%, their certifications lapse, or their managed spend falls below the threshold, their partner status is revoked automatically. You can check any agency's current status in real time via the Google Partners Directory.
At Pay Per Campaign, we are proud that Partner status arrived as a natural outcome of how we already work — not as a box-ticking exercise. Every criterion Google assesses is something we treat as a baseline standard, not a goal.