DigiWise vs an agency
An agency and DigiWise are not the same shape.
This page does not argue that agencies are bad. Plenty are excellent, and one of them may well be your answer. It names the three differences that decide who carries the risk.
4.6/5 18 reviews (opens in a new tab) Managed by our team: $997/mo per account, up to $10,000/mo of ad spend. No commitment.
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1,000+
accounts audited
audits by Attilio Curcio
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$1,000s
of waste found
audit reports
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4.6/5
on Trustpilot
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20
years of Google Ads
Attilio Curcio, founder
1,000+ Google Ads accounts audited
The name on the contract is rarely the name in the account.
An agency sells you a company. What you get is whoever that company assigns, and the assignment can change without anyone telling you.
That is not a criticism. It is how any business serving many accounts has to work, and the good ones manage it well.
It does change the question worth asking on the first call. Not "how good are you": every answer to that is yes.
Ask this instead
- 01 Who, by name, will be in the account in month six?
- 02 What happens the week that person leaves?
A name and a straight answer about cover: that is a good agency, and you should hire them. If the answer is the company's reputation, you have learned something too.
Our answer to the same question.
Attilio and the team he leads run your account, and Attilio stays your single point of contact. The work never stops when someone is away.
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Attilio Curcio
Founder
He has the final say on anything that matters and stays your single point of contact.
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The team he leads
The day-to-day work on your account
They make the changes, check them and answer when you write. Your account is never left waiting on one person being available.
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DigiWise AI
Re-reads the account every night
It runs the same 22 checks after midnight and ranks what it finds. It surfaces the work; it never touches the account on its own.
Write and you get an answer within 1 business day. It is written into the plan.
A share of your spend pays more when you spend more.
Many agencies price as a share of what you spend. Many do not: if yours bills a flat retainer, this section does not apply to you.
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Step one
The most valuable single act in a neglected account is cutting the spend that produces nothing. Check C-01 lists every search term that took money in the last 30 days without producing a single sale, with its cost and clicks.
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Step two
Under a percentage, doing that work lowers the fee of the person doing it. The better the job, the smaller the invoice.
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Step three
Nobody has to be dishonest for that to bend the advice. It only takes a structure where the easy recommendation and the right one point in different directions.
One of these lines is flat. That is the whole argument.
Type what your agency charges, as a share of your ad spend: its line is drawn next to ours, from your number. No rate is assumed.
The rate in your contract.
- DigiWise: $997/mo per account, up to $10,000/mo of ad spend
- Your agency: type its rate above
Where a share wins
Type a rate: the chart shows the monthly ad spend below which a share costs you less than our flat fee.
Where it stops winning
Past the crossing point, every dollar you add to your budget also adds to their invoice, for the same account and the same work. Our line stays flat up to $10,000 a month; past that we quote the account, never a share of it.
We assume no rate. The agency line is drawn in your browser from the number you type, and the arithmetic is yours to redo: your monthly spend times the rate.
How ours is set instead
A flat fee: $997/mo per account, up to $10,000/mo of ad spend. Under the cap it does not move when your spend moves: cutting waste changes your results, and changes our invoice by nothing at all.
Where your spend does appear
Once, in the cap. One price covers ad spend up to $10,000 a month, because a much bigger account takes more work, and above that we quote it. Under the cap, nothing you do to your spend changes the bill.
A meeting to attend, or a page to read.
The usual agency rhythm ends in a monthly presentation: a slot in the diary, slides, an hour of your time to hear what happened.
Ours ends in one page:
- Every line is a change we actually made that month, before and after, in your currency.
- Anything still in test is marked as a test.
- It lands whether you wrote to us that month or not.
The sample beside this is an invented account. Yours shows your own.
July report
What changed, and what it did
- Stopped 47 searches They had spent for 90 days without a sale Saved -$1,247/mo
- Repaired the call-tracking tag It had been silent since April Fixed sales now counted
- Separated brand search from Performance Max No more paying twice for your own name Saved -$640/mo
- Raised the budget of a capped campaign It ran out of budget by 11:00 AM Raised +$1,400/mo
- New ad copy in test Against the two best performers Testing result next month
Illustrative figures on a sample account. Your report shows your own account, and every line is a change we actually made that month.
Four ways to get this done, and an agency is one of them.
Read the second row twice. The shape of the bill is the difference that survives every other argument on this page.
Who does the work
- A freelancer
- One person, as their week allows
- An agency
- Whoever the agency assigns, and it can change
- You, with a tool
- You do
- DigiWise
- Attilio and the team he leads decide and apply; software reads the account every night
How it is paid
- A freelancer
- By the hour, or a retainer
- An agency
- Often a share of what you spend
- You, with a tool
- A monthly subscription
- DigiWise
- A flat fee: $997/mo per account, up to $10,000/mo of ad spend. Never a share of your spend
What arrives
- A freelancer
- Depends who you found
- An agency
- Often a monthly presentation
- You, with a tool
- Charts you have to read
- DigiWise
- The work done, and one page a month of what changed
What it costs to stop
- A freelancer
- You start the search again
- An agency
- Often a notice period
- You, with a tool
- Nothing, and nothing changes
- DigiWise
- Nothing: no contract, and the account and everything in it stays yours
The line that matters most is the second one. A share of ad spend pays your manager more when you spend more, not when you spend better. A flat fee means the only way we win is if you stay.
Three cases where you should hire an agency instead.
We would rather you read this now than find it out in month two. Any of the three below, and the honest recommendation is not us.
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You need more than Google Ads
We manage Google Ads and nothing else. What is never included is written down, not discovered later:
- Websites
- Creative
- Other ad networks
- SEO
- CRM
If what you need is one partner holding all of that together, a full-service agency is the right shape, and we are not.
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You need a supplier your organization recognizes
Quarterly reviews in a room, a named account director for procurement, a contract your legal team can process. We work by email, with a monthly report, no contract and no notice period.
For some buyers that is the point. For others it is a dealbreaker, and it is better to know now.
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Your account is well past our one-price cap
One price covers ad spend up to $10,000 a month. Above that, we quote the account on the call.
If you are well past that, say so on the call. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit for the account, rather than quote a price that does not fit it.
In their words.
4.6/5 on Trustpilot Read all 18 reviews
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"Attilio has been great in managing our Google ads. He is knowledgeable and always answers any questions about our account. He also has this great tool, DigiWise, that helps with report building."
Kimberly, US - Trustpilot verified -
"Our experience with DigiWise has been a smooth road. Attilio has properly and professionally delivered high quality services, vast knowledge and innovative solutions to the table."
Marianne Leguia, US - Trustpilot verified -
"DigiWise provides excellent service that is proactive, collaborative and attentive."
David, US - Trustpilot verified
What people ask before they switch.
Do you take a percentage of my ad spend?
No, never. One flat fee: $997 a month per account, for ad spend up to $10,000 a month (a quote above). Up to the cap, nothing you do to your spend changes the invoice.
Who actually works on my account?
Attilio and the team he leads. They decide what changes and they apply it, and Attilio stays your single point of contact. DigiWise AI reads the account every night and ranks what it finds; it never changes anything on its own. Every decision is a person's.
How fast do you answer?
Within 1 business day, whatever you ask: it is written into the plan. And the monthly report lands whether you wrote to us that month or not.
I already have an agency. Should I switch?
Not on the strength of a web page. For a second opinion, run the Free AI Audit: it reads your real campaigns and runs all 22 checks. For the audit, our software only reads the account. Take the report to whoever runs the account. If they can answer it, keep them.
What is not included?
Websites (we advise on landing pages, we do not build them), creative (photo, video, brand assets), other ad networks (Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Amazon), SEO (organic search, content, links) and CRM (automation, emailing, tool integrations). We manage Google Ads, and only Google Ads.
Is there a contract or a notice period?
Neither, and no setup fee. You cancel from your billing page, we remove our access, and the account plus everything we built in it stays yours.
What access do you need, and is it safe?
Two separate things. The audit: Google's API has no permission limited to reading, so its consent screen looks broader than what we do. For the audit, our software only reads the account, and you revoke it in one click. The managed service is the deliberate opposite: you invite us as a manager on your account, and every change we make is logged with its date in your monthly report.
Bring the account, not the decision.
Thirty minutes, your screen, your numbers. If an agency is the better shape for what you need, you will hear it from us on the call. Managed by our team: $997 a month per account, for ad spend up to $10,000 a month (a quote above), no commitment, no notice period.
4.6/5 18 reviews (opens in a new tab) Comparing something else? A freelancer or doing it yourself.