Google Ads
Ads that pay you back.
Most accounts are optimised toward raw leads, so Google buys the cheapest clicks available, which are the ones that dial and hang up. We optimise toward the leads that actually become customers, and we can show you the difference inside your own account.
How is Google Ads managed for a local business?
The recurring work is campaign structure, match types and negative keywords, landing pages, bid strategy, and the definition of what counts as a conversion. Most of the money saved comes from the search terms report: reading what people actually typed and excluding the searches that will never become customers.
The decisive choice is what you tell Google to optimise toward. If every form fill counts as a conversion, the platform will find the cheapest form fills, which are often the least valuable. Feeding qualified lead data back from your CRM changes what the machine learning is aiming at.
Ad spend and management fees are separate, the account stays in your name, and you keep the conversion history and audiences if you leave.
What the auction actually rewards
Google publishes how position is decided, and it is not the highest bid. Ad Rank combines your bid, the quality of your ad and landing page, the Ad Rank thresholds, how competitive the auction is, the context of the search including location device and time, and the expected impact of your assets.
The practical consequence is that a relevant ad pointing at a relevant, fast page can outrank a competitor bidding more. Quality Score, which Google reports at the keyword level, is built from expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience.
That is why the work is mostly structure rather than bidding. Tightly themed ad groups produce more relevant ads. More relevant ads earn better click-through rates. Better click-through rates and a matching landing page raise quality, which lowers what you pay per click for the same position.
Anyone whose monthly work is adjusting bids is operating on the one lever with the worst return.
Somebody reads this before the call.
Tell us what you are spending and what you are trying to book. A strategist reads your account, your search terms and what a lead is currently costing you before you speak to anyone, so the call starts at your numbers rather than a pitch.
Bid multiplied by quality, not bid alone
Understanding this is the difference between an account that gets more expensive over time and one that gets cheaper.
Because quality is a multiplier, improving it lowers cost and raises position at the same time. Raising the bid only does one of those.
This is also why the landing page is not a separate project. Google explicitly counts landing page experience inside the quality assessment, which means a slow, generic page raises the price of every click you buy.
What a manager actually does each month
If you have ever wondered what a Google Ads retainer buys, this is it. None of it is glamorous and most of it is reading.
Read the search terms report
What people actually typed, as opposed to the keywords you bought. This is where wasted spend is found and it is the single most valuable half hour in the month. Irrelevant terms become negative keywords, and terms that convert well become their own ad groups.
- Negative lists for jobs you do not do and prices you do not offer
- Competitor terms evaluated on their own merits rather than by reflex
- New converting terms promoted into dedicated ad groups
Check that conversions are still real
Tracking breaks silently, usually after a site change. A month of optimising toward a broken conversion signal costs more than a month of doing nothing. We reconcile platform conversions against the phone log and the CRM rather than trusting the dashboard.
Tighten what counts as a lead
As CRM data comes back, the conversion definition moves further down the funnel: from any form fill, to a qualified enquiry, to a booked appointment. This usually raises reported cost per lead and lowers cost per customer, and both numbers should be shown.
See the remaining steps: What a manager actually does each monthHide the remaining steps: What a manager actually does each month
Test ads and landing pages
New headline and description variations against the ones that are working, and changes to the page the ad points at. Most accounts have far more upside on the page than in the ad.
Manage the automated campaign types
Performance Max and similar formats can work well once an account has reliable conversion data. Without exclusions and a clear view of where the money went they quietly absorb budget. Brand exclusions, placement exclusions and separate reporting are not optional.
Watch the things that break quietly
Disapproved ads, expired promotions, budget exhausted by mid month, location settings drifting, and assets that no longer match the offer. This is housekeeping and it is where accounts decay when nobody is looking.
You get the account, the reasoning and the numbers. Nothing is hidden inside a proprietary dashboard.
What a click and a lead typically cost
LocalIQ publishes annual averages from its own customers' Google and Microsoft Ads accounts. That is a large vendor sample with a stated method, not a market average, and not a number we commit to.
SourceSearch Advertising Benchmarks, LocalIQ, 2026
The spread is the useful part. In the same 2026 data, legal cost per lead is $131.63, dental is $72.97, home improvement is $90.92 and beauty and personal care is $39.25. If somebody quotes you one industry average, ask which industry.
Fee models, and the conflict inside each one
This is rarely discussed openly and it should be, because each model creates a different incentive and you should know which one is pointed at you.
A percentage of ad spend means the agency earns more when you spend more. That is a direct conflict: the thing that would most help many accounts is spending less on the wrong campaigns. It also means a month where the right move was to pause everything is a month the agency earns less.
Read the full breakdown: Fee models, and the conflict inside each oneHide the full breakdown: Fee models, and the conflict inside each one
A flat monthly fee removes that conflict and creates a different one: the agency earns the same whether it spends four hours or twenty on your account. The protection against that is a stated scope and a report that shows what was actually done.
Performance based fees sound attractive and are difficult to do honestly, because the agency does not control your close rate, your call answering or your pricing. They tend to produce arguments about attribution rather than better results.
We use a flat fee with a stated scope, and we do not mark up media. Your spend goes directly to Google from your own account. That is not a moral position, it is simply the model with the fewest hidden incentives, and you should ask any agency you speak to which model they use and why.
We do not publish a price for this piece of work on its own, because the right scope depends on what already exists. What is published is the bundle pricing: 2,400, 3,600 or 4,800 dollars a month depending on which channels are running. You can read the full breakdown on the pricing page, and you will get an exact number in writing before anything starts.
Where the budget actually leaks
This is the list we work through when taking over an account. Most accounts have at least four of them.
- Broad match with a thin negative keyword list, which buys searches for jobs you do not do and problems you do not solve.
- Every click landing on the home page instead of a page about the thing that was searched.
- Conversions counting page views, button clicks and calls that lasted eight seconds.
- Location targeting set to people interested in your area rather than people in it, which is a default and quietly wastes a large share of many budgets.
- Automated campaign types running with no brand exclusions, so a meaningful share of spend is buying people who already searched for you by name.
See the full checklist: Where the budget actually leaksHide the full checklist: Where the budget actually leaks
- Ads running at hours when nobody answers the phone, with no after hours capture.
- Budget exhausted by the middle of the month, so the account spends its allowance on the first ten days regardless of what performs.
- Nobody reconciling platform conversions against the phone log, so a broken tag goes unnoticed for a quarter.
Number four is the one that surprises clients most often, and it is a single setting.
Google Ads against the alternatives
This is the comparison that should happen before anyone builds a campaign.
| Item | Speed | Stops when you stop | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search ads | Days | Yes | Demand that already exists |
| Local Services Ads | Weeks, after screening | Yes | Licensed local categories, paid per lead |
| SEO and local SEO | Months | No | Compounding visibility you keep |
| Meta ads | Weeks | Yes | Demand you have to create |
For most local businesses the sensible answer is search advertising for immediate coverage alongside search work for the long term, rather than choosing one.
How to judge whether it is working
Cost per qualified lead, not cost per lead. The difference between those two numbers is the whole argument for managing an account properly rather than letting it optimise toward the cheapest possible action.
Then cost per customer, which requires your CRM to tell the ad platform which leads became business. This is the single biggest improvement available to most accounts and it is usually the one nobody has set up.
Read the full breakdown: How to judge whether it is workingHide the full breakdown: How to judge whether it is working
Impression share is worth watching as a ceiling indicator: if you are only appearing for a fraction of eligible searches and the account is profitable, budget is the constraint rather than performance.
What to ignore: click-through rate as a headline, average position, which no longer exists as a metric, and any report that leads with impressions. A campaign can have excellent engagement metrics and produce nothing.
Give a new account four to six weeks before drawing conclusions. The first two weeks are almost always the worst, because that is when the negative keyword list is being built out of real data.
How this connects to the rest
Google Ads is one of eight channels under paid advertising, and the paid advertising hub is the right place to start if you are not certain this is the channel you need.
It depends entirely on conversion tracking, which is why that work happens before any spend rather than after. Without it the platform is optimising blind.
Landing page optimisation usually returns more than campaign work on accounts that have been running a while, because Google counts landing page experience inside the auction as well as it affecting your conversion rate.
Alongside SEO and GEO, paid gives you immediate coverage while search work compounds, and the search terms report is the best available input into what content is worth writing.
If you qualify for Local Services Ads, they appear above search ads and are charged per lead, which is worth evaluating before committing a budget here.
In their own words.
These come from our Google Business Profile as they are written, not retyped onto this page, which means what you are reading is whatever is true today rather than whatever was true when the page was built.
Bring your account and we will read it.
A senior strategist looks at your search terms, your conversion setup and your landing pages before the call, so the conversation is about your money rather than a generic pitch.
Straight answers.
Do I own my Google Ads account?
Yes. It stays yours, including the conversion history, the audiences and the data. We work inside your account rather than a shared agency account specifically so this is never a negotiation.
If you leave, you take all of it, and you do not need our permission to do so.
Is ad spend included in the management fee?
No. Management and ad spend are separate and both are shown to you before you commit. Your spend is paid directly to Google from your own account. We do not mark up media.
How much should I spend per month?
Work backwards from your own numbers rather than from an industry average. Take your cost per click, your rough conversion rate from click to enquiry, and how many enquiries you need before the data means anything.
In a category where a click costs nine dollars and roughly one in twenty converts, each enquiry costs around one hundred and eighty in media, which sets a realistic floor for a test.
Why are my clicks so expensive?
Usually one of three things: a competitive category where the click price is simply high, low quality scores caused by loose ad groups and weak landing pages, or broad match buying searches far outside your intent.
The first is a fact of life. The second and third are fixable and are where most of the improvement in a managed account comes from.
Should I use Performance Max?
It can work well once an account has reliable conversion data and proper exclusions, and it wastes money quickly when it does not. The two non-negotiables are brand exclusions, so you stop paying for people already searching for you, and separate reporting so you can see where the money went.
Starting a new account on it before there is any conversion history is usually a mistake.
What is the Google Partner badge and does it matter?
It is a status Google grants agencies that meet its requirements for certification, spend and account performance. VIS Mountain holds it.
It tells you an agency meets a baseline. It does not tell you they will be good at your account, and it is not a special relationship with Google. Google's own guidance warns you about anyone claiming one of those.
How do I know my agency is doing a good job?
Ask to see the search terms report and the change history. The search terms show whether wasted spend is being managed. The change history shows whether anyone touched the account this month.
Both are in your account and neither requires the agency's cooperation to look at.
Where this comes from.
Primary documentation and published research behind the guidance on this page.
- About Ad Rank, Google Ads Help (opens in a new tab)
- About Quality Score, Google Ads Help (opens in a new tab)
- Google Ads policies (opens in a new tab)
- Different ways to track conversions, Google Ads Help (opens in a new tab)
- Search Advertising Benchmarks, LocalIQ (opens in a new tab)
- FTC truth in advertising (opens in a new tab)
Talk to the team
A short call, a look at how the business currently shows up, and a straight answer on what we would do first.