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Google Ads management
Independent Google Ads management & optimisation for UK businesses, on a flat monthly fee that doesn't grow with your ad spend.
Where it starts depends on what you have
Management is the ongoing part. Before it, there's one fixed-fee piece of work, and which one depends on whether an account already exists.
No account yet
It starts with a build in your name: research, structure, tracking tested before a penny is spent, and negative keywords in place from day one. A new account then takes 60–90 days before its results are worth judging.
An account that already runs
It starts with an audit, so we both know how the account is performing before I change anything in it. Buying one commits you to nothing further.
Leaving an agency
Ask for admin access to the account before anything else. If it's in your name, it and its history come with you. If it isn't, that's the first thing to fix, whoever runs it next.
Not sure which applies? Thirty minutes on a free call settles where your account should start.
Talk through your accountWhy the fee doesn't follow your spend
Agencies commonly band their fees by ad spend, and some charge a straight percentage of it, typically 5–15%. Either way, the provider earns more when you spend more.
That doesn't make a percentage provider dishonest, and at a small spend a percentage can work out cheaper than a flat fee. What it does is put a price on the advice. When the right answer is to spend less, the person giving it earns less for saying so.
My fee doesn't grow with your ad spend. It's sized to the work in the account, and each additional platform is charged at a reduced rate. Your budget can double or halve and the fee stays where it is, so neither answer earns me anything.
£5,000 a month, under both models
| What happens | Fee at 10% of spend | Flat fee |
|---|---|---|
| The account spends £5,000 a month | £500 | Agreed up front |
| The budget goes up to £8,000 | £800, up £300 | Unchanged |
| £1,000 a month of waste is found and cut | £400, down £100 | Unchanged |
10% is the middle of the 5–15% range. The £1,000 is 20% of spend, inside the 15–30% that's typically recoverable in a UK account that hasn't had specialist attention for six months or more. Where it hides is in where Google Ads budgets leak, and what the market charges is in how much Google Ads costs in the UK.
Paying a percentage now? Bring the last invoice to a free call and see what the same account would cost on a flat fee.
Compare your feeWhat I run in Google Ads
Every campaign type that has earned its place in your account, and none that hasn't yet.
Search
Text ads on what people type, priced by the auction for each search. The core of almost every account, where most of the work goes and most of the waste hides.
Shopping
Product ads with a picture and a price, built from your Merchant Center feed. The feed comes before the bidding: titles and attributes decide which searches a product shows for.
Performance Max
Off for the time being, until the core campaigns have a month of stable results after several months of improvement. Then a 30-day test on a share of the budget, brand terms excluded.
Demand Gen
Image and video ads across YouTube, Discover and Gmail, reaching people before they search. Used where there's a reason to, not by default.
Haven't advertised before? What needs to be in place first is in before you start Google Ads.
What happens every month
The same jobs, on a schedule, in an account you can see into at any time.
One business I work with
£55
a lead, roughly, and a consistent 5–15 leads a month from Google Ads
That's a security installation and maintenance business: CCTV, alarms and access control.
Search terms, every week
Converting terms promoted to keywords, wasteful ones added to negatives, and the negatives kept in a structure rather than a pile. The missing structure is the problem I find most often in the accounts I audit.
Location and scheduling
Ads shown where your customers actually are, in the hours they actually convert.
Bidding
The strategy chosen for your conversion volume, and targets adjusted so they generate profit rather than just volume.
Ads and assets
Copy tested against copy, written to set you apart from the result above you.
Audiences
Remarketing lists, and customer match where you have the data.
Budget
Moved between campaigns, and between platforms if you run more than one, towards what's converting.
The Shopping feed
For retailers, Merchant Center work: titles, attributes and custom labels.
Landing pages
I'll flag what's not working, and suggest changes to raise your conversion rate.
A report and a call
What changed, what it cost and what happens next, talked through on a call, with my email address in between.
Wondering what yours could do? Thirty minutes on a free call looks at your market, your margins and what a lead is worth to you.
Talk through your marketMicrosoft Ads, alongside
Usually a second channel rather than a first: proven on Google, then copied across to a smaller, cheaper auction.
- About 6% of UK searches
- Over 12% of desktop
- Clicks often a third cheaper
The audience skews older, desktop and office-based, which is why it suits B2B best. You can hire me to run it on its own, and each additional platform is charged at a reduced rate. When it's worth adding, and when it isn't, is in Microsoft Ads in the UK.
How it's added, in four steps
- Your Google campaigns copied across with Microsoft's Google Import
- Bids cut to Microsoft's prices, because they arrive at Google's
- Microsoft's UET tag installed and wired into your consent setup, because conversion tracking doesn't come across in the import
- Locations, networks and negatives checked as carefully as on Google
ChatGPT Ads can sit in the same monthly report: how I run ChatGPT Ads as a measured test.
What it costs
A flat monthly fee, month to month, quoted after the intro call.
It's sized to the work: how many campaigns, markets and platforms there are to run. A single-location account with one campaign is a smaller job than a multi-market one running Shopping. The audit or the build before it is a one-off fixed fee; how both are set is on Services.
The ad spend
Billed by Google to your own account, plus its 2% UK DST fee. It never passes through me.
The management
No minimum term. It doesn't move when your budget does, in either direction.
Want a number for your account? It's quoted after the call, before anything is set up or changed.
Get a quote for your accountCommon questions
Is there a minimum term?
No. Management runs month to month, with no minimum term. The account is in your name from the start, so if you stop, it stays with you.
Why not a percentage of spend?
Because a percentage pays the provider more when you spend more, and less when waste is cut. My fee doesn't grow with your ad spend, so advice to raise or cut your budget earns me nothing either way. It's sized to the work in the account instead.
When does Performance Max go on?
Not straight away. It stays off for the time being, until the core campaigns have earned it: at least a month of stable results, after significant improvement over several months. Then it's tested on a share of the budget for at least 30 days, with brand terms excluded and its search terms and placements checked daily if possible.
Can you run Microsoft Ads too?
Yes. It usually starts as an import of your Google campaigns, then gets its own bids, its own UET tracking tag and its own settings check. Each additional platform is charged at a reduced rate, and the fee still doesn't grow with your ad spend on either.
Is anything charged on top?
Google adds a 2% UK Digital Services Tax fee on top of your ad spend, and has since November 2020. Nothing passes through me: Google bills the ad spend to your own account, and the management fee is invoiced separately.
Not sure management is what you need?
Thirty minutes, free. Where your account is now, whether it starts with a build or an audit, and how the monthly fee would be set.