Service
Google Ads alongside SEO: the second engine, in the right order
Google Ads is the fastest way to get in front of a search and the most expensive way to stay there. Run well, it brings enquiries within days from the searches SEO has not reached yet, and its search terms report is the best keyword research a business can buy. Run badly, it spends a quarter of its budget on searches nobody meant. We run ads for SEO clients as the second engine, managed by the same person who reads the Search Console data, for a flat monthly fee rather than a percentage of spend. The spend itself goes from you to Google; it never passes through us.
The two engines, side by side
- Ads
- Enquiries in days. Cost per click. Stops when the budget stops. Every search term visible.
- SEO
- Enquiries in months. Cost per month. Keeps working after the work pauses. Compounds.
Most businesses need both. The question is which starts first, and that depends on how soon you need the phone to ring.
Sequencing
When ads come first, and when they come second
| Your situation | Start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Empty diary, need enquiries this month | Ads, with SEO underneath | SEO cannot show in weeks; ads can. The SEO work starts in the same month so that in six months the ads can be cut back. |
| Steady work, want the bigger jobs | SEO, then ads for the gaps | The pages for the jobs you want take months to settle. Ads cover those exact searches while they do. |
| New business, new site | Both, small | A small ads budget produces the search terms that tell us which pages to write first. The remapping client in Chester was in the map pack by week five without ads; ads would have covered weeks one to four. |
| Seasonal trade | Ads in season, SEO all year | Ads switch on for the six weeks that matter. SEO holds the position the rest of the year. |
| E-commerce | Free Shopping listings first, then Shopping ads | The Merchant Center feed shows products for nothing. Paid Shopping is added for the products with margin. |
| Nobody searches for the service | Neither | Ads on a search nobody makes spend nothing and bring nothing. We say so in the audit. |
How the account is run
The weekly routine on every account we manage
- Search terms report read in full. Every search that triggered an ad. Anything you do not want to pay for becomes a negative keyword the same day.
- Conversions by keyword and landing page. Calls, forms and (for shops) purchases, tracked in your account, not ours. A keyword that spends without converting for three weeks is paused.
- Budget pacing. Spend against the month's plan, so the budget does not run out on the 20th or sit unspent.
- Landing page check. The page the click lands on must load in under three seconds on a phone and put the phone number one tap away. A slow landing page wastes the click before the ad has a chance.
- The SEO hand-off. Search terms that convert become the next month's SEO page, so that over time the ads pay for less of what SEO now covers.
What we will not do
Three things that are common in ads management and absent here
A percentage of spend. A manager paid 15 per cent of the budget is paid more for spending more. The fee is flat and set out on the pricing page or in the quote.
Broad match on autopilot. Google's defaults push new accounts to broad match and automated bidding with no negatives. On a small budget that means paying for searches three towns away and for jobs you do not do. We start on phrase and exact match, in the areas you serve, and widen only on evidence.
An account in our name. The account is yours from the first day. Leaving costs you nothing but removing our access.
Questions about SEO and Google Ads
Should we do SEO or Google Ads?
Both, in an order set by your timescale. Ads bring enquiries within days and stop the day the budget stops. SEO takes months and keeps working after the work pauses. A business with an empty diary starts with ads and builds SEO underneath; a business with steady work starts with SEO and adds ads for the searches SEO has not reached yet. The audit says which you are.
How much should we spend on ads?
Enough to buy roughly thirty clicks a week for the searches that matter, so the account has data to learn from. What that costs depends on your sector's cost per click, which the audit checks; a plumber's clicks and a solicitor's clicks are a long way apart. Ad spend is paid by you to Google directly and never passes through us.
Is ads management included in the SEO tiers?
On the Multi-area tier, set-up and management are included on request. On Local and Growth it is quoted separately as a flat monthly fee, never a percentage of spend, so there is no incentive for us to spend more of your money.
Who owns the ads account?
You do. It is created in your Google account, we are added as a manager, and if you leave you remove us and keep everything: the campaigns, the history, the conversion data. An agency that keeps the account in its own name is keeping your data hostage.
What do you look at every week?
The search terms report first: the actual words people typed before clicking. Every week it contains searches you do not want to pay for, and every week they become negative keywords. Then conversions by keyword and by landing page, then the budget pacing. An account nobody reads weekly wastes a quarter of its spend on searches nobody meant.
Do ads help SEO?
Not directly; Google says paid clicks do not influence organic rankings. Indirectly, yes: the search terms report shows which queries convert within a week, and those become the SEO pages worth writing. Ads are the fastest keyword research there is.
Ask which engine to start with
Tell us your sector, your town and how soon you need enquiries. The audit checks the search volumes and the cost per click, and says whether ads, SEO or both, and in which order.