Buying the searches that are worth answering
Search campaigns are the closest thing in marketing to a queue of people asking for what you sell. The work is making sure you pay for the ones who mean it.
Match types, negatives and honest structure
Broad match with smart bidding can work, but only with a negative keyword list that is actively maintained — otherwise you fund a slow drift into searches that will never convert. We keep themes tight enough that the ad, the landing page and the search all say the same thing.
The other half is measurement. If the campaign optimises for “traffic”, it will happily deliver cheap clicks from people who were never going to buy — it did exactly what it was told. Conversion actions have to be real enquiries, with values attached, before automated bidding can be trusted with your budget.
What management covers
- Keyword research by intentService, competitor, problem and location terms grouped by what the searcher wants.
- Negative keyword disciplineReviewed weekly, applied at the right level, documented so nothing recurs.
- Ad copy and extensionsResponsive ads tested continuously, with sitelinks, callouts and structured snippets.
- Bidding strategyManual or automated based on data volume, moved deliberately rather than by default.
- Call and form trackingCalls, forms, WhatsApp taps and bookings recorded as conversions with values.
- Location and schedule controlBudget concentrated where and when your leads actually convert.
Where search wins
Urgent services
Breakdowns, repairs, emergencies — high intent, immediate decision.
Considered purchases
Property, education, professional services with a long research phase.
Competitor conquesting
Being present when someone searches the brand they were told to check.
Questions we get asked
Should we bid on our own brand name?
Usually yes, cheaply — it protects against competitors bidding on you and gives you control of the message. If nobody is bidding on your brand and you dominate organically, it can be scaled back.
How many keywords do we need?
Fewer than most accounts have. A focused set of terms with strong intent, properly grouped, outperforms hundreds of loosely related ones.
Do you use Performance Max?
Where it fits — usually retail and broad demand capture. For lead generation we generally keep Search doing the heavy lifting so we can see and control what is being bought.
Ready to talk about search campaigns?
Send us your website and what you want more of. We will tell you what we would do first, what it would cost, and what to expect — within one business day.