Updated September 2026
Paid search that's accountable to paying customers, not clicks.
I've run Google Ads for more than ten companies, from agency accounts to my own budget as Head of Growth. The pattern is always the same: the account is optimizing for something, and it's rarely paying customers.
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Three things that are usually wrong.
- 01
The tracking. Conversions fire on page views, count twice, or don't count at all. Smart Bidding is doing exactly what it's told, which is optimizing toward noise.
- 02
The structure. Campaigns built around what's easy to report instead of how buyers search. Broad match with no negatives. Brand and non-brand in the same bucket, making everything look better than it is.
- 03
The last mile. Clicks become "conversions" and the report ends there. Whether those conversions became paying customers is someone else's spreadsheet, and nobody opens it.
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How I run it.
Tracking first. Conversion actions rebuilt around what matters, with values attached: a signup is worth this, a booked demo that. Offline conversion imports from the CRM so bidding learns from closed deals, not form fills.
Structure that mirrors intent. Brand, competitor, category, and problem-aware queries in separate campaigns with separate goals. Exact and phrase match where control matters. Broad match only with the conversion data to earn it.
Landing pages built for the query. Not the homepage. A page that answers the search, with the call to action that matches its intent. I build them, or I brief your team.
Attribution that separates brand from everything else. Branded search gets lifted by every other channel you run. Reporting it as paid-search performance is how budgets get misallocated for years.
Budget follows paying customers. Weekly review against the one number, reallocating by CAC per campaign, not by click-through rate.
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With your agency, or instead of it.
Audit. A written read on your account in two weeks: what's wrong, what it's costing, what to do first.
Direct. I own strategy and hold your agency accountable to it. You keep the team; you gain an owner.
Run. I take over the account and everything attached to it: tracking, structure, landing pages, reporting.
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The rest of search.
Microsoft Ads for B2B queries where it's quietly cheaper. YouTube for discovery. Retargeting across Meta, LinkedIn, and X for everyone who searched, clicked, and wasn't ready. Paid social and video →
Results
What this has produced.
- Blended CAC down 60% quarter over quarter at Quadratic
- Google Ads CPC down 75% and conversion rates up 90% across a portfolio of B2B technology accounts at Firebrand Communications
- Accounts run for 10+ companies across SaaS, developer tools, B2B services, and local services
- A full account rebuild for a solo therapy practice: structure, conversion values, and campaigns built around the queries that book appointments
Formats
An audit is a two-week project. A rebuild is a four-to-eight-week sprint. Ongoing management is part of a fractional engagement. How we work →