Google Ads management
Reach people the moment they search for what you sell, and know what each lead costs.
We set up and run your Google Ads campaigns - keyword research, ad copy, conversion tracking and regular budget checks - on your own ad account, and report what every enquiry cost you in rands each month.
Available on its own, or as part of The Growth Programme.
In practice
What this actually is
Google Ads puts your business at the top of the results when somebody searches for what you sell, and you pay when they click. Someone typing “emergency plumber Somerset West” at nine at night has already decided they want it - the advert only decides who they call.
Ads stop the day you stop paying. Visibility you earn keeps working, which is SEO and GEO.
What we do
- Campaign strategy
- What should be advertised, to which searches, and where the budget goes first.
- Keyword research
- The phrases a buyer types, and just as importantly the ones you should not pay for.
- Campaign setup
- The account, the campaigns, the targeting and the tracking, built so a report can tell you which part earned what.
- Ad copy
- Written and tested per ad group, to answer the search rather than describe the company.
- Budget management
- Where the spend is going, and moving it toward whatever is producing results.
- Conversion tracking
- Built and verified before launch, so a conversion means a sale or a real enquiry rather than a page view.
- Ongoing optimisation
- Weekly, with what changed and why written down.
- Reporting
- One monthly report in rands: spend, results, cost per result and what changes next.
Spend you can hold to a number
Search demand, turned into something countable.
An account built around what people actually search for, with the wrong searches excluded, a conversion defined honestly, and a monthly figure in rands for what the spend produced.
Talk to us about Google AdsThe one channel where the customer starts the conversation
Every other channel has to interrupt somebody. Search does not. A person typing "emergency plumber Somerset West" at nine at night has already decided they want the thing, already decided they want it now, and is only choosing between whoever appears. The demand is not something the advert has to manufacture. It is already on the screen.
That makes search the least forgiving channel to be absent from and the easiest to waste money in, for the same reason. When intent is that concentrated, the difference between a campaign that works and one that quietly bleeds is not creative flair - it is whether the account is built around what people actually type, whether the obviously wrong searches are excluded, and whether the thing that happens after the click is any good.
The upside of a channel this measurable is that it can be held to a number, and should be. What a click costs, what a lead costs, and what a customer is worth are three figures that either add up or do not. Where they do not, the honest answer is to say so early rather than to optimise around it for six months.
6.64%
Of people who see a Google search advert click it, across twenty-three industries. Search is one of the few channels where most of the audience arrived wanting the thing.
8.18%
Average conversion rate after the click. Roughly one in twelve, which is what concentrated intent looks like when the landing page holds up.
6x
The gap between the cheapest and the dearest industry for the same click. A benchmark is a starting point for a conversation about your numbers, never a target.
The discipline
Four things decide what a Google Ads account costs you
They compound in this order. Two of them are invisible to anyone looking at the ads, and they are where a wasteful account is almost always wasteful.
The words
What you are paying to appear for
- What a buyer types, not what the industry says
- Match types chosen deliberately
- The wrong searches excluded
- Intent separated from research
This holds it up
The structure
Whether the account can be read
- One campaign, one objective
- Budgets that cannot cannibalise
- Search kept apart from Display
- Named so a report makes sense
This holds it up
The advert
Whether it earns the click
- Says what the search asked for
- A promise the business can keep
- Extensions used, not left blank
- Tested against a real alternative
They see this
The number
Whether any of it paid
- A conversion that is actually a sale or an enquiry
- Tracking verified firing
- Cost per result, not cost per click
- Reported in rands
They see this
The two invisible stages are where the money goes. An account with the wrong words and no structure can be given better adverts every month and will still lose, which is why an audit that only comments on the creative is a report about the easy quarter of the work.
Measurement
How you will know it is working
Search is the fastest channel to measure and the easiest to waste, so our Google Ads management reports on money in and money out, and nothing softer.
What we report on
- Spend, cost per result and return on ad spend, on your own account
- Which search terms and campaigns carry the account, and which are being switched off
- Impression share against your competitors, where the budget makes it worth watching
- What the account looks like when we stop, because it stays yours
Before you ask
The questions that come up first
Do you take a percentage of ad spend?
No. It is a flat monthly fee, so our incentive is not to talk you into spending more.
Who pays Google?
You do, directly, on your own account. We never front ad spend and never invoice it back to you. It keeps your data yours and keeps our invoice to you honest.
What budget should I start on?
Enough for the campaign to gather real data, which in South Africa usually means at least R150 to R250 a day for three to four weeks. Below that you are paying for a test that cannot finish, and we will tell you before you start if the budget cannot carry the plan.
How is this different from SEO?
You stop paying and Google Ads stops the same day; search visibility you earned keeps working. Ads buy you the top of the page now, search earns it over quarters, and most businesses want both for exactly that reason.
What happens if it does not work?
We say so, in the monthly report, with the numbers. Then we either change the thing that is wrong or we tell you to stop. We have told a client to stop before.