Expertise / 02
Paid ads: Google, LinkedIn and Meta
Fewer clicks, more of the right ones.
Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads for enterprise B2B in three markets, about Rs 8 lakh a month, with Meta for awareness and remarketing. The work is the same every time: find where the money leaks, fix the counting, then let the platform learn from a true signal.
Highlights
28% to 50%of search spend on right-intent searches, one campaign
About 3xright-intent share on the second campaign
Halvedclicks, on purpose
About 180negative terms added in the rebuild
Weeklyreported leads checked against the sales tracker
Smart bidding on a bad signal spends confidently in the wrong direction. Fix the counting before the bidding.
What this covers
01Google SearchCampaigns structured around the search terms buyers actually type, phrase and exact match, negatives kept current, partner and display placements off, one conversion goal per campaign, landing pages that match the search.
02LinkedIn AdsMatched audiences from named account lists, sponsored content and document ads cut from existing case studies, lead gen forms, engagement retargeting, separate campaigns per market and audience, attribute-only targeting where lists do not reach.
03Meta AdsAwareness, remarketing and event promotion. The smaller share of the spend, run with the same rules on counting and creative.
04MeasurementClick IDs captured with every lead and reconciled weekly with sales. Conversions counted once. Auction Insights and search terms read before any bid moves. Spend reconciled to invoices monthly.
05Budgets and plansKeyword plans checked against real search volumes and real click costs before a budget is approved. Live, logged-out searches to see what actually shows for the target terms and who is bidding.
06Creative and copyResponsive search ads written from search terms, not from the brochure. Carousels and document ads built from proof the company already has. Tests on the angle, not the colour.
How an account gets taken over
1Read for two weeksSearch terms, placements, conversion settings, auction insights, landing pages. No changes yet.
2Prove each problemEvery leak shown with a report, not a hunch, before anyone is asked to approve a change.
3Fix the countingOne goal per campaign, click IDs saved with every lead, job applications out of the lead count.
4RestructureAd groups around real search terms, match types tightened, negatives added, placements off, pages matched.
5Check weeklySix plain slides. Leads are counted by what the person wrote and their designation. A week with none is said in words.
Work
| Work | What was done | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Paid search rebuild 2026 | An under-performing Google Ads account taken in-house. Four problems proven with reports: loose broad match, partner and display placements on, a conversion event firing on every form, impressions lost to rank with no competitor in auction insights. Six fixes. | Right-intent share 28% to 50% on one campaign, about 3x on another. Case |
| Search spend against organic rank 2026 | A data warehouse joined Google Ads, Search Console and GA4. It showed about two thirds of search spend going to queries already ranking in the top three organically, mostly the brand name. | That spend was cut. Builds |
| LinkedIn budget defence 2026 | LinkedIn spend was cut by about four fifths. Engagement from target companies fell more than 90% while website enquiries held. Wrote the Audience We Lost report naming the companies that stopped engaging. | LinkedIn rebuilt on a smaller, tighter budget instead of switched off. |
| Three-market campaigns 2024 to 2026 | Separate campaigns for the US, Canada and India on LinkedIn and Google, each with its own audience, creative and page. Targeting narrowed when a market's engagement never turned into enquiries. | Part of the 150+ quality leads programme. Case |
| Keyword plan reviews 2026 | Agency keyword plans checked against real monthly search volumes and real click costs, with suggested terms, volumes and competition added to the same sheet rather than a separate document. | Budgets set on evidence, not on the plan's assumptions. |
| Healthcare awareness campaigns Pharma brands, 2023 to 2024 | Awareness programmes for healthcare professionals: paid promotion for influencer, video and webinar content, run end to end. | Doctor engagement 4 to 12 and 2 to 18 on the two programmes. |
Rules
- Cheap clicks are a warning sign. The cheapest traffic on the account was partner sites and job seekers.
- No bid change without a reason in a report. Lost to rank with no competitor in auction insights is a quality problem, not a budget problem.
- Conversions are counted once, by people. Reported leads must match what sales received.
- Ads get credit next to organic in every review, never instead of it and never under it.
PlatformsGoogle Ads, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, Meta Ads Manager
MeasurementGA4, Google Tag Manager, Google Ads and LinkedIn Ads APIs, HubSpot
ResearchKeyword Planner, Ahrefs, Semrush, live search checks
ReportingPython, Google Sheets, PowerPoint, an automated weekly report
Ask the assistant