Google Ads Is Deceptively Simple to Start and Brutally Hard to Run Well
I've built negative keyword architectures with root-keyword isolation across $100K+/mo accounts. If your search terms report makes you cringe, I can help. 400+ brands. 12+ years in the platform.
Book a Free ConsultationYou're spending real money on Google Ads but your search terms report is full of garbage. Your campaigns are structured the way some agency set them up two years ago and nobody has questioned it since. Performance Max is running and you have no idea where the money is actually going. Your ROAS is flat or declining, and every "optimization" your current team tries just shuffles budget around without fixing the underlying architecture.
The Five Issues Hiding in Every Google Ads Account
Negative Keyword Gaps
Your search terms report is full of irrelevant queries eating 15-30% of your budget.
Campaign Structure Bloat
Too many campaigns, overlapping targeting, and budgets spread so thin that nothing gets enough data to optimize.
Wrong Conversion Actions
Google is optimizing toward page views or button clicks instead of actual revenue events.
PMax Cannibalizing Search
Performance Max is claiming credit for branded conversions your search campaigns would have captured anyway.
Attribution Window Mismatch
Your attribution windows don't match your actual buying cycle, so the algorithm is optimizing on incomplete data.
Sound familiar? Book an audit and I'll show you exactly what's happening in your account.
Google Ads Done With Precision, Not Autopilot
Search Terms Audit and Negative Keyword Build
I'll go through your search terms report line by line. You'll get a full negative keyword architecture with root-keyword isolation, phrase-match negatives, and campaign-level vs. account-level segmentation. This is where most accounts leak the most money.
Campaign Structure Rebuild
Match types isolated, ad groups tightly themed, budgets allocated by intent tier. I'll restructure your account so that high-intent searches get the budget they deserve and broad discovery campaigns don't eat your whole spend.
Performance Max Transparency
PMax is a black box by design. I'll build the reporting workarounds that show you where the money is actually going, which asset groups are performing, and whether PMax is driving incremental conversions or just taking credit for branded search.
Conversion Tracking and Attribution
If Google Ads is optimizing toward the wrong conversion actions, nothing else matters. I'll audit your conversion setup, fix enhanced conversions, set proper attribution windows, and make sure the algorithm is optimizing toward actual business outcomes.
What I Actually Do in Your Account Every Week
"Consulting" can mean anything, so here's the literal work. This is the recurring rhythm inside a Google Ads account I run or advise on. None of it is glamorous. All of it compounds.
Search terms mining
Every week I pull the search terms report and read it line by line. New junk queries get mapped into the negative keyword architecture at the right level, whether that's account, campaign, or ad group. This is the highest-return hour in Google Ads, and most agencies stop doing it after month one.
Quality Score triage
Quality Score has three parts you can act on. Expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience. I track them at the keyword level and fix the specific one that's dragging. Sometimes that means a tighter ad group, sometimes it's one rewritten headline. A one-point lift on a high-volume keyword lowers your CPC in every auction you enter.
Budget pacing and bid strategy checks
Smart Bidding isn't set and forget. I check whether tCPA and tROAS targets are choking delivery, whether a campaign slipped back into learning after an edit, and whether budget is pooling in campaigns that haven't earned it.
PMax policing
Performance Max needs a warden. That means weekly placement report reviews, brand exclusions so PMax stops eating branded search, and checking that asset groups are spending on the products you actually want to push.
For Brands That Want Google Ads to Actually Perform
Ecommerce brands spending $15K+/mo on Google Ads with flat or declining ROAS. You've tried Smart Bidding, tried PMax, tried new creative. The problem isn't the tactics. It's the account architecture underneath them.
Lead gen companies paying too much per qualified lead. Your cost per conversion looks fine in the dashboard, but the leads aren't closing. You need someone to trace the funnel from click to close and figure out where quality is breaking down.
Anyone running Performance Max without a clear understanding of where the money is actually going. PMax reports look great. The question is whether those conversions are incremental or just branded searches Google is claiming credit for.
Three Steps. Real Answers.
The Audit
I go through your Google Ads account, conversion tracking, and search terms reports. You get a written audit with specific findings, not a generic checklist.
The Plan
A flat-fee proposal covering exactly what needs to happen. Negative keyword build, campaign restructure, conversion tracking fixes. Scoped to your account, not a template.
The Work
Changes implemented within 5-7 business days. Weekly reporting on the metrics that matter. Direct access to me for strategic questions or urgent issues.
Consultant, Agency, or In-House Hire
There are three ways to get Google Ads run well, and I'll be straight about when each one fits. I've sat on every side of this table.
Consultant
A senior operator inside your account without the agency wrapper. Fits brands spending roughly $10K to $100K a month that want the work done by the person they hired, not handed to a coordinator.
You keep the account, you see every change, and you're not paying for anyone's office. The tradeoff is bandwidth. One person can't also shoot your video creative.
Agency
Makes sense when you need volume. Heavy creative production, five channels at once, or a team that scales up and down without you hiring anyone.
The failure mode is famous. You're sold by the senior team and serviced by whoever's available. If you go this route, ask who touches the account weekly and how that person is paid.
In-House
The right call north of $100K a month in spend, where a full-time specialist costs less than any outside option and lives in your data all day.
The risks are the hiring itself and the single point of failure. The strongest in-house teams I've seen still bring in a consultant for audits and second opinions.
What It Costs and What the First 90 Days Look Like
Market rates first. Freelance Google Ads help runs $50 to $150 an hour. Experienced consultants charge $2,000 to $10,000 a month depending on spend and scope, and agencies typically take 10 to 20 percent of your media budget. I've published a full breakdown of what Google Ads agencies actually charge if you want the long version.
I price everything as a flat monthly fee, scoped to your account after the audit. No percentage of spend, because that model pays the vendor more every time your budget goes up, whether performance improved or not. I've written about why flat-fee Google Ads management beats percent-of-spend pricing in more detail.
Days 1 to 30
Stop the bleeding. Audit, negative keyword build, conversion action cleanup, and pausing whatever spends without returning. Most accounts recover 10 to 20 percent of wasted budget in this window.
Days 31 to 60
Restructure. Campaigns get rebuilt around intent tiers and bid strategies reset against clean conversion data. Expect some turbulence here. Smart Bidding relearns after structural changes, and anyone who promises otherwise is selling you something.
Days 61 to 90
Scale what proved out. Budget moves toward the campaigns earning it, new keyword and creative tests launch, and reporting settles into a weekly rhythm. If you'd rather hand the whole channel off instead of consulting on it, that's what my managed Google Ads service is for.
Red Flags When Hiring a Google Ads Consultant
After 12+ years in this platform, I can usually tell within one call whether a "consultant" actually runs accounts. Here's what should make you walk.
The account lives in their MCC
If the consultant owns the Google Ads account and you're just a viewer, leaving them means starting from zero history. You own the account and grant access. Never the reverse.
They charge a percentage of spend
Their pay goes up when your budget goes up. Guess what every recommendation becomes.
They never mention the search terms report
It's the first thing a real practitioner opens. If the pitch is all AI and dashboards with nothing about query-level waste, they don't do the work themselves.
Reporting leads with impressions
Clicks, impressions, and CTR are activity metrics. If revenue, CPA, or qualified pipeline isn't the first line of the report, the report is hiding something.
They guarantee a specific ROAS
Nobody controls the auction, your competitors, or your conversion rate. Guarantees are a sales tactic aimed at buyers who can't yet tell the difference.
Built on 12+ years managing performance campaigns for 400+ brands.
Google Ads Consultant Questions, Answered
How much does a Google Ads consultant cost?
Do I keep ownership of my Google Ads account?
How long until I see results?
Can you fix Performance Max campaigns?
What monthly ad spend makes a consultant worth it?
Ready to Fix Your
Google Ads?
Book a free audit. I'll go through your account and show you exactly what's working, what's wasting money, and what to do about it. No pitch. No obligation.
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