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.Audience first
The same search can come from people who want completely different things, and Google Ads charges you the same for both clicks. I work out who is actually searching from your own data, then write ads and pick landing pages for the people worth paying for, and exclude the ones who aren't.
Split the searchers
Group search terms by who is behind them and what they want, not by match type.
Price each group
What a click is worth from each group, from your conversion and sales data. Some groups are worth more than others.
Write for each group
Ads and landing pages that answer that person's worry, and negatives for the people you don't want.
Worked example: a mechanic
Two searches that both look like car servicing. Two very different people:
The breakdown
'car won't start mechanic near me'
The planner
'logbook service cost toyota corolla'
One generic ad half-suits both. Two ads, each for one person, win both clicks, and you can bid more for whichever group is worth more to you.
From my audits
Most accounts I look at lose money in the same handful of places. These are the six I check first, every time.
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.
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.
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.
The same message shown to someone with a problem, someone comparing and someone ready to buy. Each needs something different.
The ad promises one thing, then the page makes people hunt for it. Most people don't bother.
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
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.
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.
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.
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.
How close your ad is to the ads around it.
What I do: Find the searches where competitors are weak, and lean in there.
The words, location, device and time of each search.
What I do: Adjust by suburb, device and hour once there is enough data.
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
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.
Past the stop point. The next lead costs $290, more than it's worth. Move budget elsewhere.
Consumer psychology
A search ad is judged in a second or two, next to three competitors saying almost the same thing. A few findings from research explain who wins that second, and what it's worth paying for.
01Choosing a position
A study of a retailer's Google ads found the top positions were not always the most profitable. Higher positions got more clicks, but the cost of holding them often ate the profit.
Position 1 is a cost, not a goal. Paying for it only makes sense if the extra sales cover the extra price.
What I do: Judge position by profit per click. Test lower targets on searches where you are paying for vanity.
02Reading the ad
Google's own research on the 'messy middle' lists the power of now among six biases that shape who people choose: the longer people have to wait, the weaker the pull.
For urgent searches, 'today' beats 'quality' every time.
What I do: Put real availability in the ad: same day, open now, delivered tomorrow. Only if it is true.
03Comparing four ads
The same Google research found short descriptions of key product specifications can simplify purchase decisions. When four ads say much the same thing, the one with a concrete spec is the easy choice.
'Quality service' is invisible. 'Fixed-price logbook service' or 'genuine parts, 12-month warranty' gives the buyer something to compare on.
What I do: Find the one spec buyers compare on, from your sales calls and search terms, and put it in the headline.
I'm a marketer, not an economist. These are published studies, linked so you can read them. Test them on your own account before you rely on them.
Method: Buyer State Mapping
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.
1Has a problem
'hot water system leaking from top'
Trades
2Comparing options
'fixed vs variable home loan'
Finance
3Ready to buy
'trail running shoes size 11'
E-commerce
Campaign types
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 it works
I go through your account and send the top 3 fixes, then we talk them through in a 20-minute call.
Before changing anything else, make sure Google is counting real enquiries and sales, not page views.
Campaigns, ads and pages organised by what people search and how close they are to buying.
Every month: what changed, why, and what I'm testing next. In plain English, not a 40-page PDF.
What you get
Signals this works on
Out of the 8 signals every page and ad sends.
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.
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.
Yes. The account stays in your name, with your billing and your history. I'm added as a user, and you can remove me any time. Years of data in your own account is worth more than a fresh start in someone else's.
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.
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.
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.
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.
They do different jobs. Ads buy you a place at the top today and stop the day you stop paying. SEO is slower to start but you don't pay per click. Ads are also the fastest way to learn which searches turn into customers, and I'd use that to decide what the SEO goes after first.
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.
No. I'm based on the Central Coast, NSW and work with businesses across Australia, including Sydney.
Takes a minute. Audits come back within 1 to 2 business days. For anything else, I'll get back to you as soon as possible.
What happens next
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