Paid Advertising
Google Search Ads
The campaign type, not the retainer. If you also run shopping, Performance Max and display, you want the account managed rather than one campaign type run well in isolation.
Google Search Ads put you in front of people already searching for what you sell. The Nexclick builds campaigns around intent and maintains a weekly negative keyword discipline, because match types have loosened to the point where a keyword now buys searches nobody would have chosen deliberately.
Is this you?
What usually prompts the call
- Your search campaigns spend on terms with nothing to do with your business.
- Exact match is bringing in searches that are visibly not exact.
- Every keyword sits in one ad group behind one generic advert.
- Cost per click has risen and nobody can explain what changed.
What we do
The actual deliverables
Things that appear on an invoice, not adjectives.
- Build around intent rather than keyword volume
- Somebody searching "emergency plumber" and somebody searching "how to fix a dripping tap" want different things. Grouping them wastes the first to serve the second, and volume-led keyword lists do exactly that.
- Use match types deliberately
- Exact is no longer exact and broad is really a bidding strategy. Structure and negatives now do the constraining that match type used to, which is a change plenty of inherited accounts never absorbed.
- Negative keyword lists, maintained weekly
- Shared lists at account level plus campaign-specific ones. The most reliable single source of savings in a search account, and dull enough that it quietly stops happening.
- Ad copy tested against the query
- Responsive search ads with elements pinned where the message must not drift, and enough asset variety to test properly without the platform assembling combinations that read badly.
- Match the landing page to the ad group
- Each group pointing somewhere that answers its specific query. A campaign sending every keyword to the home page is paying full price for a deliberately poor experience.
- Choose the bid strategy for the data you actually have
- Manual or maximise clicks while conversion volume is thin; target CPA or ROAS once there is enough. A target set on twelve conversions a month produces erratic spend and no learning.
- Monitor auction insights
- Who is bidding against you, who is new, and whether a cost rise is competitive pressure or something changed inside your own account last Tuesday.
- Diagnose quality score rather than chase it
- It is a symptom. The useful reading is which component — relevance, expected click-through, landing page experience — is dragging, and fixing that specifically rather than the composite number.
Comparison
What is actually draining a search budget
Every row here we have found in a live account, usually inside the first hour. Check yours against the middle column before agreeing to increase a budget.
| Symptom | Where to look | Usual cause |
|---|---|---|
| Spend high, conversions flat | Search terms report, last 30 days | Broad match buying adjacent and unrelated queries |
| Cost per click rising with nothing changed | Auction insights | A new competitor bidding, or your own PMax competing with you |
| Impressions against irrelevant searches | Exact match keywords | Exact now matches close variants, and intent drifts with them |
| Conversions credited but sales flat | Conversion actions setup | A soft action counted as a conversion, or one counted twice |
| Brand costs rising sharply | Brand campaign search terms | A competitor bidding on you, or PMax absorbing branded traffic |
| Good click-through, poor conversion | Landing page per ad group | Every keyword pointing at the same home page |
| Spend concentrated on one keyword | Bid strategy and budget caps | Target CPA set with far too little conversion data behind it |
| Weekend spend with no enquiries | Ad schedule against opening hours | Ads running when nobody is there to answer the phone |
How it works
Step by step, with timeframes
Timeframes are typical rather than guaranteed, and they assume we get account access and approvals when we ask.
- 01Week 1–2
Research and structure
Query intent mapped, campaigns and ad groups planned, and the initial negative lists built before launch rather than discovered afterwards.
- 02Week 2–3
Build and launch
Campaigns built, ad copy written, and tracking verified with a real conversion before any budget starts spending.
- 03Ongoing, weekly
Weekly search terms review
Negatives added, well-performing queries promoted to their own groups, and waste cut. Every week — monthly is already too slow at any real spend.
- 04Ongoing, monthly
Test and report
One structural change at a time with reporting on cost per outcome, including the tests that made things worse.
What you get
Reporting and ownership
- Campaigns structured by search intent, with the reasoning written down.
- Negative keyword lists maintained weekly and visible to you at any time.
- The full search terms report monthly, including what we are still paying for.
- Ad copy tested one variable at a time, with the losing versions reported.
- Everything inside your own account, on your own billing.
Tools and platforms
- Google Ads and Google Ads Editor
- Keyword Planner and third-party keyword tools
- Search terms and auction insights reports
- GA4 and offline conversion import
- Call tracking where enquiries arrive by phone
Timeline
How long this actually takes
Two to three weeks to research, build and launch, then results are readable within four to six. Search is the fastest channel to produce enquiries and the fastest to waste money, for exactly the same reason. One honest limitation worth stating before you commit a budget: search advertising captures existing demand, it does not create it. If nobody is searching for what you sell, no amount of campaign quality changes that, and the honest recommendation is a demand-creation channel instead. The keyword volumes make this obvious at the research stage, so we will tell you then rather than after a quarter of spend.
Pricing model
Monthly retainer
Monthly retainer where search is the only campaign type you run. Where you also run shopping, Performance Max or display, full account management is the right scope and usually better value than several narrow engagements running past each other.
Questions
Google Search Ads questions
How is this different from full Google Ads management?
Scope. This is search campaigns only. Full management covers every campaign type and, importantly, how they interact — Performance Max quietly absorbing your branded search is a problem that only becomes visible when somebody is looking at the whole account rather than one part of it.
Is exact match still exact?
No. It matches close variants, reorderings and terms Google considers to share intent, which is a broader interpretation than most advertisers expect. In practice you now control targeting through structure and negatives rather than through match type, and accounts built before that change are usually leaking because of it.
How often should negative keywords be added?
Weekly at any meaningful spend. Query patterns shift constantly and the platform is continually testing adjacent terms. Monthly review means up to four weeks of paying for searches you would have excluded immediately, and quarterly review means most of a budget cycle.
Should we use broad match at all?
Yes, in a controlled way — with strong conversion tracking, a solid negative list and smart bidding to constrain it. Broad match with manual bidding and no negatives is the most reliable way to spend a budget on nothing. It is a discovery tool, not a default setting.
Does quality score still matter?
As a diagnostic, yes. As a target, no. Chasing the composite number wastes time; reading which component is low tells you something actionable — poor expected click-through points at ad copy, poor landing page experience points somewhere the campaign cannot fix.
What if a competitor is bidding on our brand name?
It is permitted and common. You cannot stop them bidding, though you can stop them using your trademark in ad text via a Google complaint. The practical answer is to hold your own brand term at a small budget — your quality score on it will be far higher, so it costs them more than it costs you.
When does search advertising simply not work?
When there is no search volume for what you sell, which happens with genuinely new categories, and when your margin cannot support the click prices in your auction. Both are visible at the research stage. Neither is fixed by better campaign management, and the honest answer is a different channel.
Last reviewed 28 July 2026.
Tell us what you are trying to fix
A 20-minute call, no pitch deck. The Nexclick will tell you what we would do, roughly what it costs, and whether we are the right people for it.