04 · Grow
Google Ads and paid search
Paid search is the fastest way to find out whether your offer works – and the fastest way to spend money finding out nothing, if the measurement underneath it is wrong.
We start with the tracking, because a campaign optimised against bad conversion data will confidently spend your budget on the wrong things. Then we build campaigns against commercial value rather than platform metrics.
Common problems in existing accounts
- Conversions are counted twice, or page views are being counted as conversions.
- Every conversion is valued the same, so a newsletter signup competes with a sales enquiry.
- Broad match and automated bidding are running against a conversion signal that is not trustworthy.
- Search term reports show consistent spend on queries with no commercial relevance.
- Performance Max is absorbing budget with no visibility into where it is going.
- Ads point at a home page rather than a page that answers the query.
- Reporting shows cost per conversion, and nobody has connected it to revenue.
What we do
Account audits
A structural review of an existing account: conversion tracking accuracy, campaign and match type structure, wasted spend in search terms, bidding strategy fit, ad relevance, and landing page alignment.
Campaign setup
Account architecture built around commercial intent, keyword and negative keyword strategy, ad copy written against the query, extensions, audience configuration, and a bidding approach chosen for your conversion volume.
Search and Shopping
Search campaigns structured by intent, and Shopping driven by a product feed we treat as a first-class asset – because feed quality determines Shopping performance more than bidding does.
Performance Max and Display
Used where they fit, with asset groups and audience signals structured for visibility rather than run as a single opaque campaign, and with the reporting available to understand where budget goes.
Remarketing
Audience segmentation by intent and stage, with frequency and exclusion rules – remarketing to people who already bought is a common and avoidable waste.
Conversion tracking and measurement
Correct conversion configuration with values assigned per action, offline conversion import where the sale closes outside the site, and consent-aware implementation. See analytics.
Landing pages
We build the pages the ads point to, on the same system as the rest of your site. Message match and page speed are usually the largest available gains in a paid account.
Diagram
How we manage accounts
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Fix measurement before spending No optimisation happens until conversion tracking is verified end to end. Automated bidding amplifies whatever signal you give it, including a wrong one.
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Assign value, not just count Different conversions are worth different amounts. Feeding values rather than counts into bidding is the single change that most often improves account economics.
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Structure for control Campaign structure follows commercial intent and budget control, kept simple enough to manage and specific enough to act on.
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Manage the negative side deliberately Regular search term review and negative keyword work. In broad-match and automated accounts this is where most of the recoverable waste is.
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Report against the business Monthly reporting on spend, qualified leads or revenue, and cost per outcome – with the actions taken and the actions planned. Not a platform screenshot.
What you receive
- Account audit with prioritised findings
- Verified conversion tracking with values assigned
- Campaign structure, keywords, negatives and audiences
- Ad copy and creative assets
- Landing pages, where in scope
- Documented bidding and budget strategy
- Monthly reporting against business metrics
- Search term and waste review each cycle
How this runs
Every engagement follows the same sequence, with a defined output at each stage and nothing proceeding on an assumption that has not been written down. Grow work sits inside that process rather than alongside it.
Common questions
Can you guarantee a cost per lead?
No. Auction costs are set by competitors, demand and seasonality, none of which we control. We can benchmark, forecast ranges from real data, and manage toward a target – and tell you early when the target is not achievable in your market.
What budget do we need?
Enough to generate the conversion volume that automated bidding needs to learn from, which depends heavily on your market and price point. If the realistic budget is too small for paid search to work, we will say so rather than take the retainer.
Who owns the account?
You do, always. We work inside your Google Ads account under your ownership, so if the relationship ends you keep the account, the history and the learning. Agencies that hold the account are holding your data hostage.
Do you work with Google Ads and SEO together?
Yes, and they inform each other – paid search term data is the fastest source of truth about which queries actually convert, which is directly useful to SEO and content decisions.
Related services
Spending on ads without clear returns?
Give us read access for a week. We will tell you what the account is actually doing before we propose anything.
Or email hello@applystudio.com – we reply within one business day.