Paid search judged on enquiries, not clicks
Google Ads and Local Services Ads managed against the number of enquiries you actually receive. You keep the account, you see the spend, and if the channel is not paying for itself we will tell you to stop rather than quietly renew.
The spend is clear. What it bought is not
Most underperforming ad accounts are not badly intentioned, they are badly measured. Nobody connected the money going in to the enquiries coming out, so there is no way to tell which campaigns to cut. The account keeps running because stopping it feels riskier than continuing, which is the worst reason to spend anything.
- You cannot say how many enquiries last month's ad spend produced
- Ads point at the homepage instead of a page about the thing advertised
- You are bidding on your own brand name and counting those clicks as wins
- Nobody has added a negative keyword in months, so irrelevant clicks keep billing
- Phone calls from ads are invisible because no call tracking was ever set up
- The agency reports impressions and click-through rate and never mentions revenue
What managing an account actually involves
Not every business should run paid search. If your margins or your search volume do not support it, we would rather say so in the review than take the retainer.
Account structure and keyword intent
Campaigns split by what the searcher actually wants, so buying intent and research intent do not share a budget. Match types chosen deliberately rather than left on broad, which is where most wasted spend originates.
Negative keywords, maintained
The single highest-return maintenance task in paid search, and the one most often skipped. Search terms are reviewed on a schedule and irrelevant queries are excluded before they accumulate into real money.
Local Services Ads
For trades and local service businesses, LSAs often outperform standard search ads and are billed per lead rather than per click. We will set up and verify the profile, and tell you honestly if your category is one where it works.
Conversion and call tracking
Form submissions and phone calls tracked back to the campaign that produced them. Without this every other decision is guesswork, so it is the first thing configured and the last thing we would cut.
Landing pages that match the ad
A campaign is only as good as where it lands. Purpose-built pages for each offer, matching the promise in the ad, built fast and tested on the devices your audience actually uses.
Reporting against money
A short monthly summary in plain language: what was spent, how many enquiries it produced, what that works out to per enquiry, and what we are changing next month. No dashboard you never open.
Who paid search suits
Businesses with capacity to fill
Paid search is the fastest way to turn budget into enquiries. That only helps if you can service the work — filling a calendar you cannot staff creates a different problem.
Anyone already spending without clarity
If an account is live and nobody can tell you the cost per enquiry, the first month usually pays for itself in waste removed rather than new spend added.
Local service businesses
Trades, legal, dental, home services — categories where someone searching is often ready to call today, and where Local Services Ads can beat standard search on cost per lead.
Seasonal businesses
Where demand arrives in a window, paid search can be turned up and down deliberately rather than paying a flat retainer through the quiet months.
How we start
The first phase is measurement. Spending more on an account nobody can read simply produces more unreadable data.
Review what is running
A look at the existing account, the search terms actually triggering ads, and what is being counted as a conversion. This is where most of the waste is found, and you get the findings whether or not you hire us.
Fix the measurement
Conversion tracking, call tracking and analytics configured so each campaign can be judged on enquiries. Nothing else is worth changing until this is right.
Rebuild the structure
Campaigns and ad groups organised by intent, negative keyword lists applied, and budgets set against what each campaign is actually worth.
Build the destination
Landing pages for the offers that need them, so the ad and the page make the same promise.
Run, read, adjust
Small changes on a regular cycle, each one readable in the numbers. We report against cost per enquiry and say plainly when a campaign should be turned off.
What it costs
Management is billed as scoped work, separate from your ad spend, which goes directly to Google on your own card. We do not take a percentage of spend — that pays us more for spending more of your money, which is the wrong incentive.
- Your ad budget is paid by you, to Google, from an account you own
- Management is a flat scoped fee, not a percentage of spend
- The initial account review is free and yours to keep
- No minimum contract term — if it is not working, stop
- Landing pages, where needed, are quoted separately and stated up front
Questions about paid search
- How much should I spend on Google Ads?
- It depends on what one customer is worth to you and how competitive your category is. In most local service categories in NJ, a meaningful test starts around $1,000–$1,500 a month in ad spend — enough to gather readable data within a few weeks. Below that, results tend to be too noisy to draw conclusions from. We will give you a realistic figure for your category in the review, before you commit anything.
- Do I own the ad account?
- Yes, always. The account is created under your business, on your billing, and you keep it if you stop working with us. Agencies that keep the account on their own MCC and hand you nothing on exit are holding your history hostage, and it is a reason to walk away.
- How long before I see results?
- Paid search produces traffic on day one, which is the point of it. Producing *profitable* traffic usually takes four to eight weeks: the first weeks gather search-term data, and the improvements come from cutting what does not convert. Anyone promising profitability in week one has not run an account before.
- Is SEO or PPC better for my business?
- They answer different problems. PPC buys visibility immediately and stops the moment you stop paying. SEO is slower and compounds, and the traffic keeps arriving after the work is done. If you need enquiries this quarter, start with PPC. If you are building something for the next three years, start with SEO. Most businesses eventually want both, and we will tell you which order suits your situation rather than selling both at once.
- Will you take over an account someone else built?
- Yes, and it is common. We will audit what is there first and tell you honestly whether it is worth restructuring or rebuilding. Sometimes the existing account has years of useful conversion history worth preserving, and throwing it away would set you back.
- Do you guarantee a cost per lead?
- No, and neither can anyone else honestly. Cost per lead depends on your category, your competitors' budgets, your close rate and the season. What we will do is tell you what it currently is, what we think it can reach, and show you the number every month so you can judge for yourself.
Still deciding? Book a free 20-minute call and we will tell you honestly whether this is the right spend for where you are.
Related services
Digital Marketing
The wider picture — email, social and tracking alongside paid search.
Read more about Digital MarketingConversion Optimization
Paying for the click is half of it. The landing page decides whether it was worth it.
Read more about Conversion OptimizationSEO
The organic side, which keeps working after the ad budget stops.
Read more about SEOStart with the account review
We will look at what is running, what it is costing per enquiry, and where the waste is. You get the findings in plain language whether or not you hire us — and if paid search is wrong for your business, that is what the review will say.