1Has a problem
'hot water system leaking from top'
Trades
- What they're thinking
- Is this an emergency? How much will it cost?
- What the ad should do
- Calm it down: what it usually means, same-day help, upfront call-out fee.
Draft: hidden from Google until Dan signs it off.
Google Ads
management.
Google Ads management means setting up, running and improving your ads on Google Search, Shopping, YouTube and Maps, so your budget goes to the searches most likely to become customers. I'm a Google Ads consultant on the Central Coast, NSW, working with businesses across Australia. Most accounts I look at aren't short on budget. They're short on knowing which part of the budget is working. So I start there, with how your buyers search and what they're worried about, and build the account around that.
Written by Dan Picken, founder. Last checked 24 October 2026.From my audits
Where most accounts
leak money.
Most accounts I look at lose money in the same handful of places. These are the six I check first, every time.
- 1
Tracking counts the wrong things
Page views, button clicks or the same form counted twice get recorded as conversions. Google's automated bidding then learns to find more of the wrong people.
- 2
Your brand name props up the numbers
People already searching for your business get counted as wins. Mixed in with everything else, they hide how the rest of the account is really doing.
- 3
Broad match with no guard rails
Loose keywords and too few negatives mean paying for searches that were never going to buy: 'jobs', 'free', 'DIY', or someone looking up a competitor's phone number.
- 4
One ad for every buyer
The same message shown to someone with a problem, someone comparing and someone ready to buy. Each needs something different.
- 5
Every click lands on the home page
The ad promises one thing, then the page makes people hunt for it. Most people don't bother.
- 6
Budget spread too thin
Lots of small campaigns, each without enough data for Google's bidding to learn. Fewer, better-fed campaigns usually do more with the same spend.
How Google picks the winner
It's not the
biggest bid.
Every search runs a fresh auction, and the biggest budget doesn't automatically win. Google ranks each ad on six things, and only one of them is money. Get the other five right and you can show higher while paying less per click.
- 01
Your bid
The most you will pay for a click. You often pay less.
What I do: Set bids from what a lead is actually worth to you.
- 02
Ad and page quality
How relevant and useful the ad and the page after the click are.
What I do: Write ads and pages for each kind of search, not one for all.
- 03
Ad Rank thresholds
The minimum quality an ad needs before it can show at all.
What I do: Fix weak ads before raising bids to force them through.
- 04
Competition
How close your ad is to the ads around it.
What I do: Find the searches where competitors are weak, and lean in there.
- 05
Search context
The words, location, device and time of each search.
What I do: Adjust by suburb, device and hour once there is enough data.
- 06
Ad assets
Extras like sitelinks, callouts and phone numbers.
What I do: Use every asset that answers a buyer worry before they click.
Worth knowing: Google says Quality Score, the 1 to 10 number in your account, isn't used in the auction. It's a hint about where to look, not the thing to chase.
Method: Spend Curve
Where more budget
stops paying.
Every extra dollar on Google buys a little less than the one before it. Your average cost per lead can look fine while the last few hundred dollars are being wasted. Drag the sliders to find the stop point. Sometimes the best advice is to spend less.
The shape is typical. The numbers are an example.
- Leads a month
- 105
- Average cost per lead
- $133
- Cost of the next lead
- $290
Past the stop point. The next lead costs $290, more than it's worth. Move budget elsewhere.
Method: Buyer State Mapping
Same product,
three different buyers.
People type different searches depending on how close they are to buying. Each needs a different ad. Most accounts show all three the same one.
2Comparing options
'fixed vs variable home loan'
Finance
- What they're thinking
- Which is safer for me? Who can I trust to explain it?
- What the ad should do
- Help them decide: a plain comparison, then a short chat with a broker.
3Ready to buy
'trail running shoes size 11'
E-commerce
- What they're thinking
- Is it in stock? When will it arrive? Can I return it?
- What the ad should do
- Remove the doubt: in stock, delivery date, free returns. Straight to the product.
Campaign types
Which campaigns,
and when.
Google Ads isn't one thing. Each campaign type catches people at a different moment, and not every business needs all of them. Here's what each one does, how it's typically used, and when I'd use it.
Search
Text ads at the top of Google results, triggered by what someone types.
Best for: People already looking for what you sell. Usually the place to start.
Shopping
Product ads with a photo and price, pulled from your product feed in Google Merchant Center.
Best for: Online stores. Often the best-performing campaign for e-commerce.
Performance Max
One campaign that runs across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail and Maps, using Google's AI to decide where.
Best for: Stores with a product feed and good sales data. It's powerful, but left alone it will happily spend on your own brand name and low-quality placements, so it needs guard rails.
Local and Maps
Your address, distance and directions shown in ads and on Google Maps, linked to your Google Business Profile.
Best for: Businesses people visit or call locally, and 'near me' searches.
YouTube and Demand Gen
Video and image ads on YouTube, Discover and Gmail, shown before people search.
Best for: Building demand for something people are not searching for yet. Judged differently to Search.
How most accounts run.
How I run them.
Most accountsHow I do it
KeywordsA long list sorted by search volume.Searches grouped by how they connect and what the buyer is trying to do.Search Relationship Mapping
Ad copyOne message for every search.A message for each buyer state: problem, comparing, ready.Buyer State Mapping
Budget'Spend more to get more.'Find the point where the next lead costs more than it's worth. Sometimes the right answer is to spend less.Spend Curve
AutomationPerformance Max and Smart Bidding switched on and left to it.Fed real enquiry and sales data, with guard rails on brand terms and placements.
Landing pagesEvery ad goes to the home page.Each ad lands on a page that says what the ad promised.
ReportingThe platform's conversion count.Checked against real enquiries and sales, so you know what actually caused them.Cause Testing
How it works
Four steps.
Nothing hidden.
- 01
Free audit
I go through your account and send the top 3 fixes, then we talk them through in a 20-minute call.
- 02
Fix the tracking
Before changing anything else, make sure Google is counting real enquiries and sales, not page views.
- 03
Rebuild around buyers
Campaigns, ads and pages organised by what people search and how close they are to buying.
- 04
Run it monthly
Every month: what changed, why, and what I'm testing next. In plain English, not a 40-page PDF.
What you get
- Account audit and rebuild plan
- Conversion tracking checked: GA4, enhanced conversions, and offline conversions where it fits
- Search, Shopping, Performance Max, YouTube and Demand Gen, only where they fit
- Ads written for each buyer state
- Search term cleaning and negative keywords
- Landing page recommendations
- A monthly report in plain English
- Direct access to me, start to finish
Signals this works on
Out of the 8 signals every page and ad sends.
- Relevance signal
- Message match
- Friction removal
- Conversion trigger
Proof
[CASE STUDY: client name, what changed, before and after numbers, with permission]
Questions
people ask.
How much does Google Ads management cost?
There are two parts: your ad spend, which you pay to Google, and the management fee, which depends on how many campaigns and channels are involved. The free audit shows whether your current spend is in the right place before you add more. I'd rather show you where the money's leaking than ask you for more of it.
How long before Google Ads works?
Search ads can bring clicks the day they go live. In my experience, the first month goes into fixing tracking and structure, and automated bidding takes another month or two to settle on real data. Judge an account on three months, not three weeks, and be wary of anyone promising faster.
Do you work in my existing account?
Yes. You keep ownership of the account and all its data. If you leave, everything stays with you.
Is there a lock-in contract?
[YOUR TERMS]
Do you use Performance Max?
Where it fits, mostly for online stores with a product feed. I run it on real sales data, keep brand searches and poor placements out, and compare it against Search and Shopping. I don't take its reporting on trust.
Is Quality Score important?
It's a useful hint, not the goal. Google says Quality Score isn't used in the auction itself. What matters is the quality of the ad and the page, which Quality Score only summarises.
Should I use a Google Ads agency or a consultant?
Typically, an agency gives you a team and an account manager, and the person who sold you the work often isn't the one doing it. A consultant is the person doing the work. With me, you deal with me directly, start to finish.
What budget should I start with?
It depends on what a click costs in your market and how many enquiries you need. The budget has to buy enough clicks each month for Google to learn from real conversions. The free audit works out a starting budget from your actual costs.
Google Ads or SEO: which is better?
Google Ads brings traffic as soon as it is switched on and stops when you stop paying. SEO takes longer but keeps working. In my experience, most businesses do best with both: ads data shows which searches turn into customers, then SEO is built around those.
What's in the free Google Ads audit?
I check your tracking, account structure, search terms, ads, landing pages and budget. You get the top 3 fixes in writing and a 20-minute call to talk them through.
Do you only work with Central Coast businesses?
No. I'm based on the Central Coast, NSW and work with businesses across Australia, including Sydney.
Keep going
See what your
account is missing.
Free. Done by me. Top 3 fixes and a 20-minute call.