Grow
Paid search that is accountable to the enquiry, not the click.
Google Ads will always spend the budget. Whether it buys anything worth having depends on structure, negatives, and what happens on the page after the click — which is where most underperforming accounts are actually losing money.
- Capability group
- Grow
- What that group is for
- Get found and win more customers
- Who it is for
- Businesses spending on paid search without clear evidence of what it returns, or wanting to start without wasting the first three months learning the same lessons.
- Where it stops
- Paid placement in search: account structure, bidding, keywords, ad copy and the landing page an ad points to. Earning the position without paying for it is SEO. Non-search channels and overall campaign strategy sit under Digital Marketing & Conversion.
Where paid search leaks money
A paid account can look healthy and still be wasteful. Broad matching quietly buys searches with no commercial intent. Everything points at the homepage, so a specific query lands on a general page and bounces. Conversion tracking counts form views rather than genuine enquiries, so the reported cost per lead is a number nobody should be making decisions on.
The fixes are unglamorous: tighter structure, a serious negative-keyword discipline, ad copy that matches the query, and a landing page that answers the specific thing that was searched for. Automated bidding works well, but only once it is being fed accurate conversion data — feed it bad signals and it optimises confidently towards the wrong thing.
Common signals
- Cost per enquiry is unknown, or is really a cost per form view.
- Every ad points at the homepage regardless of what was searched.
- The search-terms report is full of queries you would never want to pay for.
- Performance changed after an automated recommendation was accepted, and nobody knows which one.
- Paid is propping up traffic that organic should be earning at no marginal cost.
What we can help with
An audit usually decides where to start; a rebuild is often cheaper than a rescue.
- Account structure
- Campaigns and ad groups organised around intent and margin rather than around a product list, so budget can be steered towards what is actually worth winning.
- Keyword and negative strategy
- Match types chosen deliberately, and an actively maintained negative list. Most wasted spend is bought quietly through queries nobody reviewed.
- Ad copy and extensions
- Copy that matches the query and sets an honest expectation. Overstating in the ad buys a click and loses the enquiry, which is the expensive way round.
- Landing pages
- A page that answers the specific search, built to one offer and one action. Frequently the single highest-return change available in a paid account.
- Conversion tracking
- Tracking that counts real enquiries — server-side where it matters — so both you and the bidding algorithm are working from something true.
- Bidding and budget management
- Automated bidding used where the data supports it, manual control where it does not, and a written reason for each choice rather than a default.
- Reporting
- Spend, enquiries, and cost per enquiry by campaign, with the wasted spend shown as prominently as the wins.
How a paid search engagement usually runs
Tracking is fixed before spend is scaled. Optimising against unreliable data is guesswork.
Account and tracking audit
What is being bought, what is being counted, and whether the two are connected. Almost always finds a measurement problem before a bidding one.
Structure and tracking rebuild
Campaign structure aligned to intent and conversion tracking made trustworthy, so later decisions rest on something real.
Landing page alignment
The pages ads point at, matched to the searches that reach them — built or revised where no suitable page exists.
Controlled launch
Live at a deliberate budget, with search terms and negatives reviewed frequently in the early weeks, when most of the waste happens.
Ongoing management
Regular optimisation and plain monthly reporting, including a recommendation to reduce or stop spend where the numbers do not support it.
Where it connects
Paid search buys visibility now; SEO earns it over time at no marginal cost per click. Run together and sequenced properly, paid can cover the gap while organic builds, and the search-terms data from paid is genuinely useful evidence for what organic should target.
The other connection is what happens after the form is submitted. Relevance, landing-page quality and the speed and consistency of the response are optimisation levers in the same account, and worth reviewing before bids are raised again — that work sits under AI & Business Automation.
What to expect from us
- No guaranteed return on ad spend, cost per lead or position. Those depend on your market and margins.
- Conversion tracking made trustworthy before we optimise against it.
- A recommendation to spend less, or stop, when the numbers say so.
- Account ownership stays with you, with full access throughout and after.
Related
Work that usually sits alongside this
Spending on Google Ads without knowing what it returns?
Tell us what you are running and what an enquiry is worth to you. You will get an honest read on whether the account, the tracking, or the landing page is the problem.