What you get
- Google Ads for residential and commercial buyers
- Knowing which channel brings each sale
Why more ad spend often doesn't help
Most Google Ads offers stop at the click or the "conversion". They don't show which jobs the ads paid for, so nobody can say whether more money would bring more work.
In April 2026, with the owner running his own Google Ads to the first site we built for him, online revenue that month was about 6× the seven months before combined, by the owner's own count. This was before the current system existed. That result belongs to the owner's own ads and that site. It proved people were searching for what he makes. What was broken was everything after the click. The old account had several different things set up as results, and nothing joined a click to an invoice.
The ads had been off since June. We left them off until the new site was live on the real domain, with one way of counting an enquiry. Then the new system showed something an ads report never would. The first order through the new system came from a ChatGPT answer, not an ad.
How we run the ads
Google counts one thing as a result: someone getting in touch from the website, by form, email or phone. A newsletter sign-up doesn't count. Every keyword is checked for real searches in your area before it goes live, and each ad says only what its page says.
Every week we read the searches people actually typed and block the ones that will never buy, like competitors' names, job hunters and DIY. A new campaign is left alone for its first month, because a few weeks of clicks is too little to judge on. Homeowners and trade buyers get separate campaigns, so one doesn't blur the other's numbers.
Each ad enquiry with a click record is matched to its record in your CRM. Your dashboard shows each ad group's spend, enquiries and cost per enquiry, and any ad enquiry still waiting for a reply. Each week we follow those enquiries on to quoted and won. Most buyers email or phone instead, and those carry no click record, so Google's count is the least the ads did, never the most.
Who this suits
An owner-run business whose jobs are worth chasing: a trade, a shopfitter, a maker like Goldenwood. People already search for what you do near you, and someone can answer an enquiry the same day.
Your part stays small. At Goldenwood the owner set the most the ads may spend a day, in writing. His team answers enquiries as they land in the team chat. And he tells us which jobs he wants more of. We do the keywords, the ads, the weekly checks and the tracing.
When not to run Google Ads with us
If nobody can answer an enquiry the same day. Paying for a click and then leaving the enquiry overnight wastes the click. Goldenwood had to fix this one: enquiries often waited overnight, and now each one lands in the owner's chat with a clock on the reply.
If one job is worth too little to pay for the clicks it takes to win it. What drives the cost is the price of a click in your trade and area, which Google sets by auction, and how many searches you want to buy. And not if you need a verdict this week: it takes a month or more to see which searches bring enquiries.
Running at Goldenwood
Ads came back on 12 September, rebuilt to count only real enquiries as results. Trade buyers, meaning builders, developers and office fit-outs, got their own campaign on 23 September, so the homeowner test stays clean. Each ad enquiry can be traced from the search that produced it to its record in the CRM.
Read the Goldenwood case study
How you pay
The first conversation and onboarding are free. Once we start building, you pay a monthly fee, plus a share of the revenue the system can measure, or one flat monthly fee if you prefer. Fees are set per business after our first conversation.
If measured revenue hasn't covered the monthly fee by month three, the fee pauses until it does, while your site stays live and every enquiry goes through it. A pause, not a refund.
Founding offer: 2 spots at 50% off the monthly fee for your first three months, in return for a case study and two introductions.
How long until Google Ads bring in enquiries?
Ads can show the day they go live. How soon enquiries follow depends on how many people search for what you do near you. Knowing which searches bring them takes longer, so we leave a new campaign alone for its first month before changing bids or budget.
Agency, consultant or do it yourself: which suits a small business?
Do it yourself if you have time every week to read the searches, block the waste and follow each enquiry through to a sale. Most owners don't. If you hire someone, ask to see one account followed from the click to paid jobs, not only clicks and conversions.
Google Ads or SEO: which first?
Ads, if people already search for what you do and you need enquiries soon. Search rankings and AI answers take longer but keep working after. Goldenwood runs both: ads for now, search and AI answers for the long run. On 25 Sep 2026, ChatGPT named it in 2 of the 12 buying questions we check.
How do I know my Google Ads are working?
You see it per ad group: spend, enquiries and cost per enquiry on your dashboard, then each week which of those enquiries were quoted and won. Google's count and your CRM's often differ, and we show both. We also tell you when the ads were not what paid. The first order through the new system came from a ChatGPT answer, not an ad.
Who owns the Google Ads account, and is there a lock-in?
You do. The account is your business's own, you pay Google directly, and you keep owner-level control the whole time. If we stop working together, the account and its history stay with you. The strategy stays ours: how we plan, build and run the campaigns, and the tracking and dashboard behind them, unless we agree a handover.
I tried Google Ads before and it did not work. What is different?
Often it wasn't the ads. It was what got counted and what happened after the click. In Goldenwood's old account, money went on people searching for competitors by name, several different things were set up as results, and enquiries waited overnight for a reply. In April 2026, with the owner running his own Google Ads to the first site we built for him, online revenue that month was about 6× the seven months before combined, by the owner's own count. This was before the current system existed. So we fixed the counting and the follow-up first, then turned the ads back on.