Google Ads that track every pound, not vanity metrics.

Three failure modes are almost universal in kitchen Ads accounts we audit. Fix any one and performance improves materially; fix all three and the account is unrecognisable. 1. Negative keywords are missing. 40–60% of budget gets burned on searches for Wren, Howdens, IKEA, job seekers, kitchen fitters looking for work, second-hand Gumtree listings, and “kitchen design course” students. The initial negatives list should contain 250–400 terms on day one. Most accounts have 40. 2. Ads point to the homepage. Homepages are for everyone. Landing pages are for the specific buyer clicking a specific ad with a specific intent. We build dedicated landing pages per ad group. 3. Conversion tracking is partial. Form submits get tracked, phone calls don't, and offline conversion (consultation booked → sale) is never imported. Smart Bidding can't optimise for outcomes it can't see.

Cost-per-lead typically stabilises at £85–£150 after 90 days of optimisation. The first 60 days usually run higher while the account is calibrated, negatives are built out, and bid strategies train on conversion data. Best-in-class mature accounts reach £45–£85 CPL, but we only quote that range once we've got you there — not as a promise on day one. Effective cost-per-sale — the number that actually matters — lands around £450–1,800 typical, £200–£500 best-in-class for mature accounts. For a £45,000 average project, a £500 cost-per-sale is an absurd return on ad spend. For a £600 cost-per-sale, still excellent. We report both. CPL is a leading indicator; cost-per-sale is the one your accountant cares about.

Google Ads management scales with the account. For every £1,000 of monthly ad spend managed, we charge £150. A £500 monthly minimum applies below roughly £3,300 spend. This keeps the relationship fair at both ends — you don’t overpay on small accounts, and we’re properly resourced as spend grows. Ad spend itself is paid directly to Google, never through us, with no markup. You own the Ads account; we manage it. You get full transparency of what’s spent, on what, at what cost per conversion. We take no markup on ad spend and no commission on media buys — our only income is the management fee described above. Our incentives are aligned with performance, not volume.

When someone submits your contact form, that's a lead. When they come in for a consultation, that's a qualified lead. When they sign a contract, that's a sale. Most Ads accounts only report on the first event. Offline conversion import pushes the later events — consultation booked, sale signed — back into Google Ads with their monetary values. Once Smart Bidding can see which ads produce £50,000 sales versus which produce tyre-kickers, it starts finding more of the former. Over 3–6 months, your cost-per-sale drops materially while your lead volume stays stable. It requires discipline from your sales team to tag leads properly. We provide the sheet, we train the team, we chase adoption for 60 days. Worth every bit of effort.

Eventually, carefully, and never first. Performance Max (PMax) is Google's automated campaign type that spreads budget across Search, Display, YouTube and Discovery. It can perform well but it can also quietly burn budget on junk display placements if unconstrained. Our rule: no PMax until there are 60 days of Search data and 30+ tracked conversions. When we do launch it, it starts at 20–30% of Search budget, final URL expansion off, account-level negatives applied, placements monitored weekly. We'll add it when the data supports it, not because it's trendy.

£1,500–£2,500 per month minimum. Below that, you don't generate enough conversion data for Smart Bidding to optimise; the account runs in permanent learning mode and performance stays poor. Normal run rate for a South Coast bespoke kitchen client is £2,500–£5,000 per month. Scaling above that is a function of lead volume, your studio's installation capacity, and the cost-per-sale you're happy with. We scale in 20% increments every fortnight once CPA is stable — bigger jumps break bid strategies.

Six months initially. SEO before six months is mostly trajectory; Ads before six months is mostly setup and data collection. A three-month trial in this niche is unprovable and unfair to both sides. After month six, management continues on a one-month rolling basis. You can pause, reduce spend, or cancel with 30 days' notice.