Audit. Restructure. Optimise. Repeat.
Most PPC accounts are launched and forgotten. Bids drift, budgets leak and nobody reads the search terms. We manage Google and Microsoft Ads by hand every working day, on a flat fee and month to month.
Most agencies launch campaigns and check in once a month. That is not management. We run PPC as four connected disciplines. Diagnose what is wrong. Fix the structure. Optimise daily. Report honestly.
PPC management is the ongoing work of running your pay per click ads on Google and Microsoft: choosing the searches you pay for, writing and testing the ads, setting bids and budgets, tracking every enquiry and sale, and cutting what does not pay its way.
Before changing anything, we audit. Account structure, targeting, tracking, bid strategy, ad copy and landing pages. Six areas. Every one checked. You get a clear picture of what works, what bleeds money and what to fix first.
Good PPC starts with clean architecture. Right campaign types for your goals. Right match types for your budget. Budget flowing where conversions happen. No default templates. Built around your numbers.
We are in the account every working day. Bids and budgets adjusted against real data. Search terms read every week and negative keywords added. Not once a month. Not automated rules running unsupervised.
Cost per lead. Conversion rate. Return on ad spend. How they trend over time. In plain English. Not impressions. Not click through rates dressed up to look impressive. The numbers that actually matter to your business.
Every engagement starts with a full account audit. Six areas. No shortcuts. The report is yours to keep whether you work with us or not. Here is exactly what we look at.
One ad group holds 48 keywords and two ads, so every search gets the same ad.
How campaigns, ad groups and keywords are organised. Poor structure means budget goes to the wrong places and Google cannot learn what converts.
Two tags count the same form, so every lead is reported twice and calls are not counted at all.
If tracking is wrong, everything built on top of it is wrong. We check every conversion action, every tag and every attribution path.
31% of the last 90 days' spend went on searches for jobs, free advice and DIY.
Which searches trigger your ads and which ones should not. We review every search term, every match type and every negative keyword list.
Target CPA is switched on, but the campaign records too few conversions a month to learn from.
Whether the bidding approach fits your goals and budget. Smart Bidding only works when it has the right signals.
The same two ads have run for 14 months, with no test and half the assets missing.
Whether your ads attract the right clicks and repel the wrong ones. We check messaging, assets, testing and Quality Scores.
Pages load fast and match the ads. One form asks for too much, and that fix is small.
The best ads fail on bad pages. We check speed, relevance, conversion paths and mobile experience.
3 of 6 areas flagged · typical takeover
The same audit of all six areas we run before taking on any account, done by the senior people who would manage it. Read only access is enough (to the ad accounts, plus Analytics or Tag Manager if we check your tracking): we look, we do not change anything. What we find is yours to keep, whether you work with us or not.
No account yet? We audit your market instead: what competitors bid on, what clicks are likely to cost and where the opportunity is.
No lock-in and no obligation. You keep the audit either way.
Structure, tracking, targeting, bids, ad copy and landing pages, each marked pass, mixed or flag, with the reasons written out.
The search terms, campaigns and settings that spent money without bringing in enquiries or sales.
Which conversions are real, which are counted twice and which are missing, so you know which numbers to trust.
What to fix first and what can wait, with the quick wins at the top.
We go through the findings with you and answer your questions. No sales pressure.
No black boxes. Five steps from first audit to ongoing optimisation, the same whether you are starting fresh or bringing an account across. Switching from another agency? Nothing is paused and nothing is lost: your campaigns keep running the whole way through.
You give us access and nothing changes yet: we read before we touch. We run the audit of all six areas over the account and you get a written report with every finding and a prioritised fix list. No account yet? We audit your market, competitors and opportunity instead.
Read only access. Your ads keep running exactly as they are.
The obvious problems get fixed first: wasted spend cut, negative keywords added and conversion tracking repaired or set up (Google tag, GA4, Microsoft UET, call tracking, CRM attribution). Every lead and sale is traced to its source before any spend is scaled.
Your ads keep running while the fixes go in, one at a time.
The account is restructured around your goals and margins: campaign types, targeting, budgets and bid strategies chosen for your business, not from a template. New ad copy written and tested. New campaigns built only where the old ones cannot be saved.
Conversion history and learnings carried across. Nothing starts from zero.
We are in the account every working day. Bids and budgets adjusted against real data and spend kept on pace. Search terms read every week and negative keywords added. Not once a month.
Checked every working day, and every change shows in the change history.
A plain English report on the numbers that matter, with every change we made listed: monthly on Starter, weekly on Growth and Scale. Cut what wastes money. Scale what works. Test new opportunities when the data supports them.
Monthly reports on Starter, weekly on Growth and Scale. You can leave any month.
We never start from scratch unless the account is beyond saving. Your conversion history, audience data and campaign learnings carry forward. Rebuilding from zero throws away data that took months to collect.
Whether we take over your account or build a new one, the numbers that matter improve in a set order, each one on the back of the last. Here is the usual sequence, and what you see from us along the way.
After the audit, the quick fixes go in: negative keywords, broken tracking repaired and budget pulled from campaigns that never convert. On accounts we take over, this is usually where the first improvement shows: more of the same budget goes on searches that can become customers.
You seeEvery change we make, listed
With tracking fixed, real enquiries and sales flow back into the account. Meaningful conversion data usually takes two to four weeks, and Smart Bidding needs it before it can bid well.
You seeTracking tested with real enquiries
The account is restructured around your margins, ad copy tests run and budget moves toward the searches that turn into enquiries. This is when each $1,000 of spend usually starts to bring in more leads, and cost per lead steadies.
You seeCost per lead in plain English
Around the 90 day mark most accounts hit their stride. We put more budget behind what is working only when the numbers support it, and keep cutting what is not.
You seeWhat we cut, what we scale and why
Get a timeline for your own account
Every account is different. New accounts take longer to learn than ones with years of conversion history, and small budgets learn more slowly. You get an honest read on timing after the audit.
We audit PPC accounts constantly. These seven mistakes show up in almost every one. Some are the business owner's fault. Most are the agency's.
Not one of these lines was in the monthly report. It led with clicks.
32% of the spend leaking, plus the 15% fee · illustrative
Clicks are a cost. Conversions are the point. If your reports lead with click volume and click through rate instead of cost per lead and return on ad spend, your agency is measuring the wrong thing. High click volume on the wrong searches is not a win. It is a bill.
Google's automated bidding can be powerful. But it needs accurate conversion data to learn from. Feed it page views or button clicks instead of real leads, and it optimises for the cheapest, lowest quality traffic. Smart Bidding is only as smart as the data behind it.
If your agency charges 15% to 20% of ad spend, they earn more when you spend more. Even when the extra spend adds no return. Ask your agency how they charge. If the answer is a percentage, ask why their incentive should be tied to your spend instead of your results.
Same three ads running for six months. No new headlines. No new descriptions. No test variations. Ad copy testing is one of the highest leverage activities in PPC. Small improvements in click through rate lower your cost per click across the board. Agencies that do not test are leaving money on the table.
Microsoft Ads (Bing) reaches fewer searchers than Google, but clicks are often cheaper and the audience tends to skew older and higher income. Most agencies skip it because it is extra work for the same management fee. For some businesses it delivers a better cost per lead than Google.
A 30 page PDF full of graphs that nobody opens is not reporting. It is there to cover the agency, not to inform you. Good reporting is one page. Three to five numbers. A clear explanation of what changed, what worked and what happens next. If you cannot understand your PPC report in two minutes, the report is the problem.
Broad match shows your ads for searches you would never choose: jobs, DIY, free, the wrong suburb. If nobody reads the search terms report every week and adds negatives, those clicks keep getting paid for.
See these in your own account?
Not cherry picked spikes. Real outcomes from real Australian businesses we manage. Anonymised by industry.
90%
Around 80% impression share vs the major banks
Competing against banks with four to six times the budget. Tracking firing on wrong actions. Reported performance was fiction.
Rebuilt tracking. Restructured campaigns around high intent keywords. Won on Quality Score and relevance instead of budget.
6x+
Across multiple campaigns, not one
Returns inconsistent. One campaign profitable. The rest bleeding budget on low margin products.
Restructured around margin and performance. Scaled winners. Cut waste. Consistent ROAS across multiple product lines.
45%
Within 60 days of account takeover
Broad targeting and no negative keywords. Half the budget going to irrelevant searches. No call tracking.
Installed tracking. Built negative keyword lists. Tightened targeting to high intent terms. Matched campaigns to focused landing pages.
Senior team. Flat fees. No contracts. Full transparency. The opposite of how most agencies run PPC.
Every Google Ads and Microsoft Ads account keeps a change history: who changed what, and when. Ask your agency to show you theirs.
and 36 more this month, each with its reason
Most PPC agencies promise the same things. The difference is in how the work actually gets done.
We are not for everyone. Here is an honest read so you know before picking up the phone.
You want every dollar tracked to a lead, sale or measurable return.
You want active daily management, not a once a month look.
You are open to fixing tracking and landing pages alongside campaigns.
You want a flat management fee with full transparency over spend.
You want the cheapest possible management fee.
You do not want proper conversion tracking on your site.
You expect PPC to fix a weak offer or broken website overnight.
You only care about clicks and impressions, not conversions.
Sound like where you are right now?
We manage PPC campaigns across dozens of industries. These are the ones we know best.
Prefer to run the numbers before you talk to anyone? These tools need no signup, and each one gives you a straight answer in a few minutes.
See all free tools →Flat management fees. Not a percentage of your ad spend. That is the single most important thing to check when comparing agencies. Our fee is agreed up front and only changes if the scope of work changes.
Our fee moves when your plan does, never with each dollar you spend.
Your ad spend goes directly to the platforms. We do not take a cut. Unlike many agencies, we never charge a percentage of your ad budget. You pay Google and Microsoft directly for clicks and you pay us a flat management fee. That means our incentive is your results, not your spend going up.
Small business
Scaling business
High volume and eCommerce
Choose an option to explore what is included.
On every plan you talk directly to the senior strategist who runs your account. Google and Microsoft search run on every plan, and Shopping and Performance Max can run on any plan, Starter included. The account is checked every working day and optimised in depth every week, and every change we make is listed in your report: monthly on Starter, weekly on Growth and Scale. Every plan is month to month, with no lock-in.
The right management fee and budget depend on your industry, competition and goals. We scope it honestly after a discovery call.
What Melbourne business owners ask before handing their Google and Microsoft Ads to someone new.
Ask us directlyEverything it takes to keep your Google and Microsoft search ads earning: search terms read every week, negative keywords added, bids and budgets adjusted every working day, ad copy tested, tracking kept accurate and each ad matched to the right landing page. It starts with an audit of six areas (structure, tracking, targeting, bids, ad copy and landing pages), and conversion tracking is checked or set up before any spend is scaled. Our conversion tracking setup guide shows what correct tracking looks like.
Two costs, kept separate. Your ad spend goes straight to Google and Microsoft, usually $3,000 to $15,000 a month for our clients. Our management fee is flat, from $800 a month, agreed up front and never a percentage of your spend; it only changes if the scope of work changes. A percentage fee pays an agency more when you spend more, whether or not the extra spend works. Our Google Ads budget estimator gives you a realistic ad spend range for your industry.
We recommend at least $3,000 a month in ad spend across Google and Microsoft. Below that, most accounts gather conversion data too slowly for the platforms to learn, and a management fee takes too big a share. If you have less to spend, we will tell you plainly whether to put it elsewhere or run the account yourself for now.
On an account we take over, waste usually comes out first, in the first week or two, as negative keywords go in and broken tracking is repaired. Numbers you can trust follow within two to six weeks as real enquiries flow back into the account. Cost per lead usually steadies between weeks 4 and 12, and most accounts hit their stride around the 90 day mark. Your ads keep running the whole time. Starting from scratch? Clicks start the day campaigns go live, and the same order follows. Our first 30 days guide walks through month one.
Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, with search campaigns at the core. For product businesses we also run Shopping and Performance Max from your product feed, and remarketing to bring back visitors who did not enquire. If you want YouTube and Demand Gen as well, planned as one budget with your search ads, our search engine marketing page covers that.
Yes, and it is one of the first things we check on a takeover. A common leak: the location setting still includes people who have only searched about Melbourne, from Sydney or overseas. We target the suburbs, postcodes or radius you serve on both Google and Microsoft, exclude the rest and run ads in the hours you can answer, so you stop paying for clicks you cannot take on.
PPC (pay per click) is how you pay: only when someone clicks your ad. Google Ads and Microsoft Ads both work this way. SEM (search engine marketing) is paid advertising wherever people search: Google, Bing, YouTube and Shopping. Choose this page if your Google or Microsoft search ads need an audit and management by hand; Google Ads management for Google's full range of campaign types in depth; and search engine marketing for one paid search budget across Google, Bing, YouTube and Shopping.
A short report in plain English: cost per lead, conversions, return on ad spend and how they are trending, with every change we made and what comes next. Starter gets it monthly; Growth and Scale weekly. Whichever plan you are on, the person you talk to is the senior strategist doing the work. Our ROAS calculator shows the return we hold ourselves to.
PPC buys the top of the page one click at a time, and stops when you stop paying. SEO earns the free listings under the ads, and takes months to build. PPC tells you quickly which searches bring enquiries, which is useful when you plan SEO. Our PPC vs SEO cost comparison tool puts the two side by side with your own numbers.
Whichever page matches the search. Someone who searched for blocked drains should land on a page about blocked drains with a clear way to call or book, not on your home page. Landing pages are one of the six areas in our audit: speed, how well the page matches the ad, and how easy it is to enquire on a phone. Our web design team can build or fix those pages, and conversion rate optimisation can test them.
Check three things yourself. When was the account last changed? Google and Microsoft both keep a change history, and a well run account changes most working days. When were negative keywords last added? And do you hold admin access, with the ad spend billed to you directly? If any answer surprises you, run our Google Ads audit scorecard over the account, or ask us for the free audit.
It is worth it when a lead is worth more than it costs to buy one. Work it back: what a customer is worth to you, how many enquiries become customers and what a click costs in your trade. If the sums work, PPC is one of the few channels where every dollar can be traced; if they do not, we will say so. Our honest breakdown of whether paid search is worth it for small businesses covers both cases.
Someone typing "accountant melbourne" into Google wants one this week, and that is the job PPC does. Paid social finds people before they start looking. Most service businesses start with PPC because the intent is already there; eCommerce and lifestyle brands often need both. Our Google Ads vs Facebook Ads guide compares them properly.
This page covers search: Google and Microsoft Ads. Facebook and Instagram ads are run by our paid social team.
For Melbourne search ads, roughly $20 to $50 for trades, $50 to $150 for professional services and $100 to $300 or more for legal and finance. A good cost per lead is one your margins can carry: work out what a customer is worth and what share of your leads become one. Our cost per lead by industry guide has the Melbourne benchmarks.
You can, and on a small budget it is a sensible way to start. The work is steady rather than hard: search terms read weekly, negatives added, bids checked, ads tested, tracking watched. When that routine takes more of your time than the fee would cost, or starts slipping because you are busy running the business, it is time to hand it over.
It is hard to say without looking, but in the accounts we audit, 25% to 40% of spend usually goes on irrelevant searches, the wrong campaign types or pages that do not convert. Our Google Ads waste risk check flags the common causes without needing access to your account, and the free audit puts a dollar figure on it.
PPC reports come with their own language. Here is what the terms you will see from us, or from any agency, actually mean for your business.
1On the picture
No term matches that yet. Ask us and we will explain it.
Practical PPC advice from the team that manages millions in ad spend.
View all PPC articles →Tell us where you are at. We come back with a straight read on your current campaigns or your market opportunity. What works. What leaks money. What we would fix first. Free audit. No lock-in.
