Grow your own big-budget clients
Building a profitable agency or freelancing with small-budget clients is hard. Here's how to grow your smaller clients into bigger-budget clients.
Agency insights
Thoughts, lessons and practical advice for Google Ads agencies, freelancers and consultants. Subjects include finding and managing clients, building tools, business strategy and staying relevant.
In around 2007 accidentally ended up managing Google Ads. Here are some of the things I've learned on the way.
Start here
Latest articles
Why good Google Ads campaigns still lose clients
One of the most disheartening parts of managing Google Ads is that you can do a great job and still lose the client. The ads, and by extension the person managing the ads, always gets the blame for poor performance.
The AI audit ambush
It was damning. 30+ pages of dire warnings, critical fixes and missed opportunities. My response was wrong.
Why agencies struggle to improve Google Ads lead quality
These days optimising Google Ads for raw leads - someone filling in a form or calling - eventually fills your inbox with the kind of leads nobody wants. Spam, wrong numbers and so on. Most agencies know this by now. They also know the solution: upload qualified leads as offline conversions. The real problem is getting clients to tell us which leads are qualified.
Most Google Ads Reports Focus on the Wrong Things
Every month Google Ads agencies spend hours preparing reports for their clients. Most of them end up archived and unread. I think most of them focus on the wrong things. They describe what happened inside Google Ads, but say very little about what happened after the lead arrived.
The problem with call duration conversions
On the surface using call duration as a proxy for call quality is a reasonable idea. The thinking is that poor-fit leads or spam callers often hang up quickly. Good quality leads usually talk for longer. Put another way, a long call equals a good lead. But this isn't always true.
Helping people make better Google Ads decisions
I advise a handful of agencies and in-house Google Ads teams. Over time, I’ve noticed a recurring problem creep in. Some people start outsourcing their critical thinking to me.
When there are no good options in Google Ads
When a well-built Google Ads campaign stops working, sometimes there’s no good way to fix it. Here’s how to handle that with honesty and care.
Client selection: complexity is a red flag
Anyone in a service business knows that some money is easy, and some costs blood. The difference isn’t the work, it’s the client. The key is spotting terrible clients early. Complex systems are a red flag.
Why Managing Google Ads Is So Hard for People Who Care
If you manage Google Ads for clients, you’ve probably wrestled with the urge to over-check, overthink or endlessly tinker with campaigns. I have too. Here’s what I’m doing to make the work more sustainable — and a little more sane.
PPC Burnout Is Real: How to Protect Yourself
Running Google Ads for clients is stressful. Here are some ideas that might help avoid burnout.
Modernising a Legacy Google Ads Account Without Breaking It
A successful restructure leaves the account easier to understand, easier to optimise and better positioned for the future. Understanding why the account looks like it does is key to getting from sticky mess to well-oiled machine.
The shy introverts guide to finding clients
Here's my approach for beating the feast-famine cycle.
Grow your own big-budget clients
Building a profitable agency or freelancing with small-budget clients is hard. Here's how to grow your smaller clients into bigger-budget clients.
My client fired me, and now he’s asking for my secret sauce.
A client fired you even though you were doing a good job. Here's how to make this sting less and keep the door open for future work.
You can optimise your client's business like you optimise their Google Ads account.
You can give your client a much bigger ROI by optimising their business than almost anything you can do in their Google Ads account. Here's how.
How to handle your client's terrible ideas.
Your client has a terrible idea for "improving" the campaign. If you push back you're going to lose the client. Here's how to keep the client without killing the campaign.
Google Reps
You may get an email or call from someone claiming to work at Google. They’ll tell call themselves an account representative, strategist, advisor or account manager. You and I would call them salesmen.
Guaranteeing Google Ads.
It’s uncomfortable when a potential client asks me if I guarantee that they’ll make sales from their Google Ads. In the past my first instinct was to run away. I thought that asking for a guarantee was a sure sign that they’re going to be a toxic client. I was wrong.
How do you convince a potential client to trust you if you don’t have a track record?
How do you convince a potential client to trust you if you don’t have a track record? This happens a lot when people go out on their own after working in-house or for an agency. Read on to find out how I solved this problem.
How to make OK money from small clients
You have to work with the clients you can get, not the ones you hope for. Sometimes you might not be able to attract big-budget clients. Here's how to do OK with smaller clients.
How to take over an existing Google Ads account.
You’ve taken over a Google Ads account that’s in trouble. You're going to turn it around - more conversions, lower costs, 10 quality scores etc. There’s a lot riding on getting this right...
Optimise your words
There are a handful of non-PPC tools I'd hate to run my Google Ads business without. Hemingway is one.
Resources for Google Ads agencies and freelancers.
Tools, reading lists and discussion groups for digital marketing agencies and freelancers offering Google Ads as a service.
Should I specialise or be a generalist?
I often get asked whether it’s best to specialise or be a generalist. I understand why but I think it's the wrong question. I think a better question is ...
The AdLeg Google Ads Software Suite.
I interviewed Kyle Sulerud, creator of the AdLeg Software Suite about how he started in Google Ads (AdWords) and why he built his Google Ads creation and management software.
I've inherited a mess.
Crazy structure, gibberish naming convention and 22 conversion actions that might or might not mean anything. Here is a collection of principles, tips and ideas for when you inherit a messy Google Ads account.
Available topics
Agency insights
Thoughts, lessons and practical advice for Google Ads agencies, freelancers and consultants. Subjects include finding and managing clients, building tools, business strategy and staying relevant.
Conversion tracking
Understand what happens after someone clicks your advert. Subjects include offline conversions, CRM integration, attribution, auditability and marketing instrumentation.
Essays and thinking
Articles about marketing, engineering, AI and problem solving that don't fit neatly into the other topics. These are some of the ideas and experiences that have shaped how I think.
Google Ads for lead generation
Learn how to use Google Ads to generate profitable leads. Subjects include campaign strategy, bidding, targeting, optimisation and the challenges of running lead generation campaigns.
Landing pages
Things I've learned about high-converting landing pages. Subjects include copywriting, page structure, forms, trust, conversion rate optimisation and user experience.
Lead quality
Practical advice on attracting better enquiries and understanding why lead quality varies. Subjects include diagnosing poor leads, qualification, filtering junk leads and improving the feedback you send to Google Ads.
Sales Process
What happens after a lead has been generated determines if Google Ads is profitable. Subjects include first contact, follow-up, quoting, lead nurturing and turning more enquiries into customers.
Most Google Ads Problems Aren't Google Ads Problems
If my writing resonates with you, I'd like to give you a copy of my book, Profitable Google Ads. The book was written for business owners, but many PPC professionals have found it valuable too.
Before you download it, what describes you best?