When I took over a Google Ads account in February, the previous agency had done what most agencies do: optimised for vanity metrics.
More clicks. More impressions. More keywords. More "activity" to justify their monthly retainer.
The client was spending the same amount every month and getting… about the same mediocre results every month.
By October, here's what changed with the exact same budget:
- 60% lower cost per conversion
- 200% more conversions (we tripled lead volume)
- 30% fewer clicks (yes, this is a good thing)
- Thousands saved in agency fees
No proprietary software. No AI magic. No secret growth hacks.
Just sound common sense and strategic thinking that should've been happening all along.
The Problem: Agencies Optimise for the Wrong Things
Here's the uncomfortable truth about many digital marketing agencies: their incentives aren't aligned with yours.
They get paid whether your leads turn into customers or not. They get paid whether you make money or not. They often get paid more when you spend more, regardless of results.
So what do they optimise for? Things that look good in monthly reports:
- Increased impressions (meaningless)
- Higher click-through rates (irrelevant if they don't convert)
- More traffic (expensive if it's the wrong traffic)
- Lower cost per click (pointless if those clicks don't convert)
The previous agency had this account "optimised" for cheap clicks. Broad match keywords pulling in barely-relevant traffic. Generic adverts. One-size-fits-all landing pages. Brand keywords mixed with service keywords, making performance data useless.
They were proud of their low cost per click. The client was frustrated with their high cost per acquisition.
The Solution: Optimise for Value, Not Volume
When we audited the account, the strategy became immediately clear: we needed fewer, better clicks.
The goal wasn't to drive more traffic. It was to drive more qualified traffic that actually converted into paying customers.
Here's exactly what we did.
1. Removed Brand Keywords from Service Campaigns
This seems basic, but you'd be surprised how many accounts have this wrong.
The problem: Brand keywords (searches for your company name) have completely different performance characteristics than service keywords (searches for what you do). When you mix them together:
- Your data is muddled
- You can't optimise properly
- You waste budget on brand traffic that would've found you anyway
- Your non-brand campaigns look better than they actually are
What we did:
- Pulled all brand terms into a dedicated brand campaign
- Set a minimal budget (people searching for you by name will find you)
- Reallocated that budget to high-intent service keywords
This alone freed up 20-30% of the budget to invest in actually acquiring new customers.
2. Shifted to High-Intent, High-Value Keywords
The previous agency was running broad match keywords to "maximise reach."
Translation: they were spending money on loosely related searches that had little chance of converting.
Our approach:
- Killed 60% of the keywords entirely
- Moved remaining keywords to phrase match and exact match
- Focused on high-intent terms that indicated immediate need
Example transformation:
Before: Broad match "plumbing" (triggering for "plumbing courses," "plumbing supplies," "DIY plumbing," etc.)
After: Phrase match and exact match only:
- "emergency plumber [city]"
- "water heater repair near me"
- "burst pipe repair"
Yes, we got fewer clicks. But those clicks were from people who actually needed the service right now and were ready to hire someone.
The result: Paying more per click but getting a dramatically better return because conversion rates shot up.
3. Grouped Keywords by Intent and Created Matching Assets
Here's where most campaigns fall apart: they drive relevant traffic to irrelevant pages.
Someone searches for "emergency water heater repair" → clicks an advert about emergency water heater repair → lands on a generic homepage about all your services.
Conversion rate: abysmal.
What we did:
Restructured ad groups by specific intent:
- Each ad group contained 5-15 tightly related keywords
- "Emergency Pipe Repair"
- "Water Heater Installation"
- "Drain Cleaning Services"
- "Bathroom Renovation"
Created matching adverts for each group:
- Headlines that echoed the search query
- Benefits specific to that service
- Calls-to-action appropriate to urgency level
Built targeted landing pages:
- One page per major service/intent group
- Messaging that matched the advert promise
- Social proof relevant to that specific service
- Clear, singular conversion goal
The result: Someone searching for emergency pipe repair now sees:
- An advert about emergency pipe repair
- Landing on a page about emergency pipe repair
- With a form to request emergency pipe repair
Message match increased conversion rates by 40-60% across the board.
4. Improved Data Quality for Smarter Optimisation
Once we had clean campaign structure and better traffic, we implemented three critical data improvements:
Customer Match Lists
We uploaded the client's existing customer database to create audience segments:
- Existing customers → Excluded from new customer acquisition campaigns (why pay to advertise to people who already hired you?)
- High-value customers → Used to create Similar Audiences for expansion
- Past quotes/lost deals → Targeted with specific win-back messaging
This prevented wasted spend and allowed us to find more people who looked like their best customers.
Enhanced Conversions
Implemented enhanced conversions to improve tracking accuracy and feed better data back to Google's algorithm. Better data = better automated bidding decisions.
Conversion Value Tracking
This was the game-changer.
Instead of treating all conversions equally, we assigned values based on:
- Service type (emergency jobs vs. routine maintenance)
- Lead source quality (phone calls vs. form fills)
- Historical close rates and average job values
Example:
- Emergency repair enquiry = £500 value (30% close rate × £1,500 average job)
- Routine maintenance enquiry = £75 value (15% close rate × £500 average job)
We then switched from "Maximise Conversions" to "Maximise Conversion Value" bidding.
The result: Google's algorithm started prioritising clicks more likely to result in high-value jobs, not just any conversion. Revenue per lead increased by 35% whilst lead volume also increased.
The Real Lesson: Strategic Thinking Beats Tactical Optimisation
None of what we did was groundbreaking. We didn't use proprietary technology. We didn't implement some secret AI tool. We didn't discover a hidden Google Ads hack.
We applied strategic thinking:
- Understanding the business economics (which leads are actually valuable)
- Aligning campaign structure with customer intent
- Creating message match across the entire journey
- Optimising for business outcomes, not marketing metrics
The agency before us was optimising for what was easy to measure and easy to report.
We optimised for what actually mattered: profitable customer acquisition.
Why Don't More Agencies Do This?
Fair question. If this is all "common sense," why isn't it common practice?
A few reasons:
1. Misaligned incentives Many agencies get paid based on ad spend or retainer, not results. Reducing clicks and simplifying campaigns doesn't make for impressive monthly reports—even if it makes more money.
2. It requires business understanding This approach requires deep understanding of your business economics, customer journey, and service profitability. That takes time and expertise many agencies don't invest in.
3. It's harder to scale Agencies want repeatable processes they can apply across 50 clients. Custom landing pages, service-specific messaging, and conversion value modelling doesn't scale well across diverse clients.
4. Clients sometimes resist When you tell a client you're going to cut 60% of their keywords and get fewer clicks, they panic. They've been conditioned to think more = better. Agencies often give clients what they think they want rather than what they actually need.
What to Do If Your Google Ads Aren't Working
If you're spending money on Google Ads and not seeing returns, here are the diagnostic questions to ask:
1. Are you mixing brand and non-brand keywords? Separate them immediately. They're two different businesses.
2. Are you using broad match keywords? Unless you have massive conversion data and sophisticated automation, you're probably wasting money. Switch to phrase and exact match.
3. Do your adverts match your landing pages? If someone clicks an advert about emergency plumbing and lands on your homepage, you're losing 50-70% of potential conversions.
4. Are you tracking all conversions equally? If a £10,000 project enquiry is weighted the same as a £200 service call, your optimisation is broken.
5. Are you excluding existing customers? If you're paying to show adverts to people who already hired you, you're lighting money on fire.
6. Do you actually know which keywords drive revenue? Not leads. Not clicks. Actual closed business. If you don't know this, you can't optimise properly.
The Bottom Line
Marketing should make you money, not just generate activity.
Same budget. Triple the conversions. 60% lower cost per conversion.
The difference wasn't more technology. It was better strategy.
Stop chasing volume. Start chasing value.
