Everything we do, explained properly

How paid ads work

Every time someone opens Google or scrolls Instagram, there is a space where an advert can go. Who gets that space is decided in an auction that runs in the time it takes the page to load.

You do not simply buy the space. Three things decide whether you win it:

• Your bid. The most you are willing to pay for one click, or for one thousand views.
• How relevant you are. Platforms would rather show an advert people actually want. A relevant advert can beat a higher bid.
• How good the advert is. Clear offer, clear picture, a page that loads and matches what was promised.

That last point is why we build a landing page as part of the work. You can win the auction and still waste the money if the page people land on is slow, vague or asks for too much.

Google ads

Google ads put you at the top of the results page when someone searches for what you do. They are reaching for their phone and typing block paving near me. You appear above the normal results, marked as sponsored.

What it is good at

• Catching people at the moment they have already decided to buy.
• Work people search for rather than stumble on: emergency jobs, replacements, repairs, specialist trades.
• Longer, more considered purchases, including most business-to-business work.

What it is weaker at

• Anything nobody searches for. If people do not know the service exists, they cannot type it in.
• Cheap, impulse purchases, where the cost of a click can be more than the sale is worth.
• Crowded, expensive terms, where a few national firms have pushed the price per click high.

What we set up

The account

Built in your name, on your billing. You own it and keep it if we stop working together.

Conversion tracking

So we can see which clicks turned into enquiries, not just which ones turned into visits. Without this you are guessing.

Keywords

The searches you want to appear for, grouped so the advert matches the search closely.

Negative keywords

The searches you do not want to pay for: jobs, courses, DIY, free, and anything outside what you sell. This list is where a lot of wasted spend gets cut.

Ad copy

Several versions per group, so Google can favour the ones that work.

Location and schedule

The areas you actually cover, and the hours you can answer.

The landing page

One page, one job: turn the click into an enquiry. No menu to wander off into.

Meta ads

Meta is Facebook and Instagram. Nobody there is searching for you. They are scrolling, and your advert appears between a friend's photo and a video. That changes what the advert has to do: on Google you answer a question, on Meta you have to earn the attention first.

What it is good at

• Work that looks good in a photo. Driveways, landscaping, bathrooms, before and after.
• Reaching people who did not know they needed you yet.
• Getting going quickly, and usually at a lower cost per enquiry than search.
• Showing up again for people who visited and did not get in touch.

What it is weaker at

• Urgent jobs. Someone with a burst pipe is searching, not scrolling.
• Narrow business-to-business targeting, where the buying decision takes months and involves several people.
• Anything that needs explaining in detail before someone will consider it.

What we set up

The ad account

On your own Business Manager, in your name, with your card on it.

The pixel

A small piece of code on your site that reports back which adverts led to enquiries, so the system can find more people like the ones who converted.

The creative

The images or video and the words on them. This matters more than the targeting on Meta, which is why we keep making new ones.

Audiences

Usually broad to start, because the system finds buyers faster than a hand-built audience does, then tightened once there is data.

Retargeting

A second, cheaper advert aimed only at people who already visited.

The form or the page

Either a form inside Facebook, which is fastest, or your landing page, which gives better quality enquiries. We pick based on your job value.

Which one fits you

We tell you this honestly on the call, before anything is agreed. As a rough guide:

Plenty of businesses end up on both. The usual order is to prove one works, then add the second rather than split a small budget across two from day one.

Budget and ad spend

Two separate payments

This confuses people, so to be clear:

• Ad spend goes straight from you to Google or Meta. It never passes through us, and we never mark it up.
• Our fee is separate. On Starter that is a one-off £200 setup, then commission on work you actually win. On Growth it is £750 a month and a lower 4% per job.

We are not registered for VAT, so our prices are what you pay.

How much to put behind it

There is no universal number, but the logic is the same everywhere. Work backwards: what is one job worth to you, how many enquiries turn into a job, and what does an enquiry cost on your platform and in your area. We go through this with you rather than quoting a figure that sounds good.

What we would say plainly: a budget too small to collect data will not teach the platform anything, and you end up paying for the learning without getting the benefit.

The learning period

New campaigns start worse than they finish. Both platforms spend the first stretch working out who responds, and the cost per enquiry is usually at its highest then. Judging a campaign in its first fortnight is judging it at its worst. Changing it constantly in that window makes it take longer still.

How results are measured

You get a weekly summary and a client portal. These are the numbers in it, and what each one is actually worth knowing.

Impressions

How many times the advert was shown. On its own it tells you almost nothing.

Clicks

How many people tapped it. Also not the point, but it shows whether the advert itself is working.

Click-through rate

Clicks as a share of impressions. A low rate usually means the creative or the offer is wrong, not the targeting.

Cost per click

What you paid per click. Useful for spotting an expensive keyword, not for judging success.

Enquiries

Calls, forms and messages. This is the number that matters.

Cost per enquiry

Spend divided by enquiries. The one figure to watch week to week.

Won work

What you actually closed. The only number that pays anyone, which is why our commission is tied to it.

AI and automation

Ads create a problem: enquiries arrive while you are up a ladder, on a job, or asleep. Most lost work is not lost to a competitor's advert. It is lost because nobody answered for six hours.

Automation is the part that answers. It is not one product, it is a set of pieces you can take whole or separately, each running on your own accounts.

• Answering, so nothing waits.
• Qualifying, so you know which enquiries are worth your time.
• Booking, so the good ones land in your calendar without a phone tag.
• Chasing, so the quiet ones get followed up without you remembering to.
• Reporting, so you can see what came in and what it was worth.

AI phone receptionist

A number that answers on the first ring, at any hour, in a normal voice. It asks the questions you would ask, writes the answers down, and books the job into your calendar if it qualifies.

What it does

• Answers calls you miss, or all of them, whichever you prefer.
• Asks your qualifying questions: what the job is, where, how big, when.
• Books a slot, or takes a message and texts you the detail.
• Sends you the transcript straight away.

What it does not do

• Pretend to be you. It says it is an assistant if asked.
• Quote a price on work it cannot see.
• Argue. Anything awkward gets handed to you.

Call minutes and messages are passed on at cost, on top of the monthly fee.

Follow-up and booking

Missed call text back

A missed call triggers a text within seconds, so the caller does not simply ring the next firm on the list.

Sixty second email reply

Form enquiries get an answer immediately, with the questions you need answered before a visit.

Booking and confirmations

A calendar people can book into, synced to yours, with confirmations and reminders so fewer slots are wasted.

Follow-up sequences

Quotes that went quiet get chased on a schedule, by text and email, until they answer either way.

Review requests

Sent automatically after a finished job, when people are most likely to leave one.

Every piece can be taken on its own. You do not have to buy the whole package to get the one thing you need.

Your data and accounts

• The ad accounts are yours. Set up in your name, on your billing, and they stay with you.
• The leads are yours. They arrive in your inbox and your CRM, not ours.
• The website is yours. Your domain, your hosting. Nothing is held on our accounts.
• Nothing is locked. If we stop working together, you keep the accounts, the data and the pages, and we hand over access.

What we hold is access to run the work, and enquiry details so we can check the adverts are producing real leads. That is covered in the privacy notice.

What happens, week by week

1. Application and call. You answer the questions, we talk it through, and we tell you which platform fits and whether we think it will work. If we do not, we say so.
2. Setup. Accounts, tracking, landing page, first adverts written and built. We need photos, your prices and your coverage area from you; this is the usual hold-up.
3. Launch. Campaigns go live on a controlled budget. Early numbers are the worst numbers you will see.
4. First fortnight. Learning period. We watch, cut obvious waste, and leave the rest alone long enough to mean something.
5. Weeks three to six. Cost per enquiry starts settling. Creative and keywords get rotated on what the data says, not on a hunch.
6. Ongoing. Weekly summary, monthly review, and new creative before the old stops working rather than after.

Jargon, translated

Attribution

Deciding which advert gets the credit for a sale. Harder than it sounds, and never exact.

Bid

The most you will pay for a click or a thousand views.

Broad match

Letting Google show your advert for searches related to your keyword, not just the exact words. Wider reach, more waste.

CAPI

Conversions API. Sends conversion data to Meta from the server instead of the browser, so ad blockers and privacy settings break less of it.

CPC

Cost per click.

CPL

Cost per lead. Spend divided by enquiries.

CRM

The list of your enquiries and customers, and what stage each one is at.

CTR

Click-through rate. Clicks as a share of impressions.

Conversion

The thing you wanted to happen: a call, a form, a booking.

Creative

The image, video and words in the advert.

Impression

One showing of your advert.

Landing page

The single page an advert sends people to, built for one action.

Learning period

The early stretch where the platform works out who responds. Results are at their worst here.

Negative keyword

A search you refuse to pay for.

Pixel

Code on your site that reports back what visitors did.

Retargeting

Advertising to people who already visited you.

ROAS

Return on ad spend. Revenue divided by spend.

Quality score

Google's rating of how relevant your advert and page are. Better scores lower your cost.