Immediate visibility
Tested in the ads
- Top of the page once ads go live
- Instant, testable conversion data
- Full control over spend and targeting
Google. Bing. YouTube. Shopping. One search budget.
Search engine marketing is paid advertising wherever people search: Google, Bing, YouTube and Shopping, plus Performance Max and Demand Gen across Google. We plan it as one budget, run it on Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, and trace every lead back to the platform that brought it. Flat fee, no lock-in, every account in your name.
One search budget, everywhere your customers look.
Paid search is not a set and forget machine. Behind every campaign that actually makes money is a strategy, a structure and someone watching it daily. These are the four pillars we manage on every SEM account.
Paid search is not a set and forget machine. Behind every campaign that actually makes money is a strategy, a structure and someone watching it daily. These are the four pillars we manage on every SEM account.
Before anything goes live, we plan one budget across the platforms your customers use: how much goes to Google search, Shopping, Bing and YouTube, which campaign types each needs and what a lead is worth. You approve the split, and it changes as the results come in.
We sort the searches by what the person wants to do: buy now, compare, or neither. Buyers get the budget, comparers get cheaper bids and the rest are excluded, and the same list runs on Google and Bing so neither pays for the other's mistakes.
One message, written for each place it appears: a search ad, a product listing and a short video. Each is tested against its own numbers, the winner stays, and what works on one platform is tried on the others.
Every platform is checked daily and the account gets a proper working session every week: bids raised where sales come from, new exclusions added, and money moved between platforms when one starts earning more than another.
Strategy, targeting, creative and optimisation all working toward the same number.
Pick the pieces you need, or hand us your whole search budget. Each service is shown where it runs: the results page, Shopping, YouTube and the rest of Google.
Where it runsSearch results
Get in front of people the moment they search for what you sell. Text ads on Google and Microsoft Bing, tuned for clicks that convert. We manage keywords, match types and bid strategies on both platforms so you pay for buyers, not browsers.
Where it runsShopping
Your products, with their picture and price, shown on Google and Bing when someone searches for them. We keep one clean product feed for both Merchant Centers and bid by margin, so the products that make you money get the budget.
Where it runsSearch resultsShoppingYouTubeAcross Google
People who visited but did not enquire, reached again when they next search, watch YouTube or open Gmail. We cap how often they see you and leave out anyone who has already bought.
Where it runsSearch resultsShoppingYouTubeAcross Google
Google's all in one campaign, spending one budget wherever it finds buyers. We feed it clean product data and real sale values, and check where it spends, so it finds new customers rather than people already searching your name.
Where it runsBehind every ad
If you cannot measure it, you are flying blind. We set up tracking across Google Ads, Microsoft UET, GA4 and your CRM so every lead, call and sale is credited to the platform, campaign and ad that brought it.
Where it runsBehind every ad
The best ad fails on a bad landing page. We improve or build the pages your ads send people to, whichever platform sent them, so the promise in the ad and the page match from click to enquiry.
Where it runsYouTube
YouTube is the second biggest search engine. We run video ads that show when people search and watch around what you sell, judged on the leads and sales they add, not on views.
Where it runsYouTubeAcross Google
Once search shows which messages sell, we turn them into image and video ads for YouTube, Discover and Gmail and show them to people like your customers, so more of them search for you later.
Your ads show within weeks which searches bring enquiries. We use that, search by search, to decide where paying keeps earning its place and where an SEO page should take over, so your ads and your rankings never compete for the same click.
Tested in the ads
emergency plumber melbourne
In the ads9 leads at $41
Keep the ads and build the page: urgent searches click the first result
Page planned for SEO
Run both and you own the whole page
The ads find the searches and the messages that convert, and our SEO team builds pages for the ones worth ranking for. Showing in both the ads and the results below them gives people two chances to choose you.
Search ads can bring enquiries within weeks. The other platforms join once tracking is proven and we know which searches convert, so each one adds leads, not just spend. Here is the usual shape of the first six months.
We look at every platform you run or could run, your competitors' ads and your tracking, and agree what a lead is worth to you. You approve the budget split, with every account in your name, before anything is spent.
Conversion tracking is set up and tested across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads and GA4. Google Search goes live first, on the searches most likely to convert, and is watched daily.
With tracking proven, the best Google campaigns are brought across to Microsoft Ads, and Shopping or Performance Max start for product businesses. Search terms are read every week and the waste is cut.
Once search is paying its way, video and Demand Gen reach people before they search, and remarketing brings back visitors who did not enquire. Each is judged on the leads it adds, not on views.
Budget moves each month to the platforms and campaigns with the lowest cost per lead. Every lead is reported back to the platform and search that brought it, so you can see what each dollar did.
Curious what the first months would look like for you?
Timelines vary. A busy market or a small budget takes longer to learn, and an account with years of sales history moves faster. The audit gives you a timeline for yours.
No vanity metrics, no cherry picked spikes. Real outcomes from real Australian businesses, anonymised by industry. The numbers do the talking.
90%
Lower cost per acquisition
Around 80% impression share vs the banks
Up against major banks outspending the fintech four to six times on the same keywords, with conversion tracking firing on the wrong actions.
Fixed tracking first, won on relevance and Quality Score, then concentrated budget on high intent searches that actually converted.
6x+
Return on ad spend
Across multiple campaigns, not one
Spend was driving traffic but returns were inconsistent, with profit riding on one or two campaigns while the rest leaked budget.
Rebuilt the account so several campaigns held a strong return at once, scaling the winners and cutting the waste.
35%
Lower cost per lead
Within 90 days
Budget going to broad searches and untracked calls, so the phone rang with price shoppers instead of real jobs.
Tracked every lead including calls, focused on high intent local searches and cut the wasted spend.
Want results you can hold us to like these?
Handing over your ad budget takes trust and paid search is full of operators who don't earn it. Here's how we're built differently, where it matters most: your money and your account.
If our campaigns aren't performing, you should be free to leave. We work month to month, results keep you with us, not paperwork. It keeps us honest and keeps us sharp.
We never hold accounts hostage. Your Google Ads account, your Bing account, your data, your campaigns. Always in your name, always under your control. If we part ways, you keep everything.
No vanity metrics, no inflated numbers. We report on what actually matters, cost per lead, conversion rate and return on ad spend. In language you don't need a marketing degree to read.
If paid search will not pay off for you yet, we say so before you spend anything. Usually the website, the offer or the margins need fixing first, and we would rather tell you that than sell you a campaign.
There are a lot of dodgy operators in the paid search space and most of them look fine until you read the fine print. Here is an honest side by side of how we run things versus the typical agency.
Your Google, Microsoft, Shopping and YouTube numbers, side by side: which platform earns its budget and which one leaks. The senior people who would run your account do the work, and every finding comes with what it costs you and what to fix first.
Whether Google, Microsoft and GA4 agree on your leads and sales. When they do not, one platform takes the credit for another's work.
Typical findingCalls counted twice
What each platform spent on searches and placements that never brought an enquiry, and the words to exclude everywhere.
Typical finding$1,240 on searches with no leads
How your budget divides between Google, Bing, Shopping and YouTube today, next to what each one brings in, and the platforms you have never tested.
Typical findingBing never tested
Whether your products are approved in Google and Microsoft Merchant Center, and whether Performance Max is spending on people already searching your name.
Typical finding14 products disapproved
Whether the search ad, the product listing and the video each send people to the page that fits them, and whether those pages load fast on a phone.
Typical findingAds sending people to the home page
Whether your Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Merchant Center and YouTube channel are all in your business's name, with admin access you hold.
Typical findingAccount in the agency's name
Not advertising yet? Then we size up your market: who already bids on your searches, what a click costs on Google and Bing, and which platform should get your first dollar.
No lock-in and no obligation. You keep the audit either way.
SEM pays off when your customers search in more than one place and you want one budget that follows the leads. These two lists show whether that is you.
Your customers search in more than one place: Google, Bing, YouTube or Shopping.
You want every platform judged on its cost per lead, so money moves to the ones that earn it.
You are happy to start with Google search and add platforms once tracking proves them.
You want one team and one report for all your search ads.
You want to be on every platform at once, before tracking shows which ones pay.
You would rather not have conversion tracking on your site, so no platform can be judged on leads.
Your budget is under about $3,000 a month: Google search on its own is the better start.
You measure success in clicks and views rather than enquiries and sales.
Sound like your kind of fit?
These are the sectors our team knows best: the buyers, the margins and the auctions that decide who wins.
Split a budget across platforms, estimate what Google Ads will cost in your market, check where spend leaks and work out what a campaign has to return. Free, with no signup.
See all free tools →Paid search has two costs people constantly confuse: our management fee (what you pay us to run the campaigns) and your ad spend (what goes to the platforms for clicks). Here is how both work, clearly separated, before you ever pick up the phone.
We charge a flat fee. Your ad spend goes straight to Google and Microsoft. Never a percentage of your budget: the fee is agreed up front and only changes if the scope of work changes.
Small business
Scaling business
High volume and eCommerce
Choose an option to explore what is included.
Every plan includes a senior strategist you talk to directly, daily monitoring with weekly optimisation, and month to month terms with no lock-in. Google Ads and Microsoft Ads run on every plan, and so can Shopping and Performance Max, Starter included; YouTube and Demand Gen are added where they fit your goals and budget.
The right fee and budget depend on your industry, competition and goals. We scope it honestly after a short call.
What business owners ask before putting one ad budget across Google, Bing, YouTube and Shopping.
Ask us directlyIt runs your paid advertising wherever people search: ads on Google and Bing results, Shopping listings, YouTube, and across Google with Performance Max and Demand Gen. We plan them as one budget, set up the tracking, write and test the ads, and move money each month to the platforms and searches that bring enquiries.
SEM is paid: your ads show at the top of the results, in Shopping and on YouTube, and you pay for clicks or views from the day they go live. SEO earns the unpaid results underneath and builds over months. This page is about the paid side; the two work well together, and our SEO page covers the organic side. Our PPC vs SEO cost comparison tool shows how the numbers compare for your business.
They overlap, so choose by the job. SEM is the widest: paid ads on every platform where your customers search, Google, Bing, YouTube and Shopping, planned as one budget. If you only want Google's campaign types run in depth, see Google Ads management. PPC management is for search accounts on Google and Microsoft that you already run and want checked first, then managed by hand.
Google Ads and Microsoft Ads (Bing) as the core platforms, plus Shopping, Performance Max, YouTube, Demand Gen and remarketing where they fit your goals. Most Melbourne businesses start with Google search, then add Bing for its cheaper clicks and older, higher income audience once the account is proven.
Yes, on every platform. Google and Microsoft search ads can be limited to suburbs, postcodes or a radius around you, and scheduled for the hours you answer the phone. YouTube and Demand Gen use the same areas, and Shopping ads can be kept to the places you deliver to.
Think of it as one pot, not a budget per platform. Most of our clients put $3,000 to $15,000 a month into ads, starting mostly on Google search and moving money to Bing, Shopping or YouTube as each proves its cost per lead. Our fee is flat and agreed up front, from $800 a month. The Google Ads budget estimator sizes the search part for your industry, and our guide to Google Ads costs in Melbourne explains what drives click prices.
Most of it usually starts on Google search, where people are closest to buying. Bing takes a smaller share once the Google campaigns are proven, Shopping and Performance Max grow with your product range, and YouTube and Demand Gen earn budget only when they add leads at a cost that works. Our marketing budget allocator is a starting point; the free audit gives you a split for your market.
Google search usually goes live in weeks 3 to 4, once conversion tracking is tested, and brings the first enquiries within weeks. Bing and Shopping follow in months 2 to 3, once the searches that convert are known, and YouTube and Demand Gen from month 3, when there is enough data to judge them on leads. Most accounts settle into a steady cost per lead by around six months. Our first 30 days guide covers the first month in detail.
It can be, if you start narrow. On a smaller budget we put almost everything into Google search, where the buyers are, and add Bing or Shopping only once search pays for itself. Spreading a small budget across four platforms at once is the fastest way to learn nothing. Our honest breakdown of whether paid search is worth it for small businesses covers when it is not.
Every platform on the same numbers, side by side: what it spent, the leads and sales it brought, its cost per lead and its return. That is how we decide where next month's budget goes. You get the report monthly on Starter and weekly on Growth and Scale, from the senior strategist who runs your account. Our ROAS calculator shows the return we hold each platform to.
To the page that answers what they were doing. A search ad for a service goes to that service's page, a Shopping click to the product itself, and a YouTube viewer, who was not searching yet, to a page that explains more before asking for anything. A slow or generic page wastes clicks on every platform. Our web design team builds or fixes those pages, and conversion rate optimisation tests them so more visits become enquiries.
Ask to see cost per lead by platform for an account they run. An SEM agency should know which of Google, Bing, Shopping and YouTube is earning its budget and which is not. Then check two things: every account, feed and channel is in your business's name, and the fee is flat rather than a percentage of spend. Our audit scorecard is a quick way to test your current setup.
Often, as a second platform. Microsoft Ads reaches people searching on Bing, in Windows and Edge, and on Yahoo and DuckDuckGo. Fewer people search there than on Google, but clicks are often cheaper and the audience tends to be older, which suits many professional and home services. We bring your proven Google campaigns across, tune them for Bing, and keep Bing only if its cost per lead holds up.
They do different jobs. SEM meets people who are already looking, on Google, Bing, Shopping or YouTube. Paid social puts you in front of people who fit your customer but are not looking yet. If people search for what you sell, start with SEM, and add social when you need more demand than search can supply. Our Google Ads vs Facebook Ads guide goes through examples.
One Google search campaign, yes, and on a very small budget you should. It gets harder with every platform you add: four sets of settings, four places to check tracking and one budget to keep moving between them. Most owners run out of time before they run out of ideas. Our free tools help either way.
Ask for three things: cost per lead by platform over the last six months, how much went on searches that never brought an enquiry, and why the budget is split the way it is. A good agency answers all three quickly. Our waste risk check helps with the second without account access, and our negative keywords guide shows how that waste is kept down.
It depends on your industry and on the platform. Search leads cost roughly $20 to $50 in many trades and $100 or more in legal and finance, and YouTube or Demand Gen leads usually cost more than search ones at first. The test is the same everywhere: does the cost per lead leave room for profit once a lead becomes a customer? Our cost per lead by industry guide has Melbourne benchmarks.
Search ads come with their own language, and each platform adds some of its own. Here is what the common terms mean, and where each one shows up.
1On the picture
No term matches that yet. Ask us and we will explain it.
Straight talking guides on search engine marketing, Google Ads and paid search strategy. Written for business owners, not other marketers. No jargon, just what actually makes paid search pay off.
View all Google Ads articles →Tell us where you're at and we'll come back with a straight, no obligation read on your SEM and Google Ads setup. What's working, what's wasting money and what we'd do differently. Free audit, no lock-in.