They're already searching. Stop paying to miss them.
Search campaigns for people already looking for what you sell. The highest-intent traffic there is — and the easiest to waste.
Google Ads is the opposite problem to Meta. Nobody needs convincing they want a dentist — they typed “dentist near me”. The job isn’t creating demand, it’s capturing it without paying for everything adjacent to it.
Which is where most small accounts leak. Broad match with no negative keywords means you pay for “dentist salary”, “dentist jokes”, “dental nurse courses”. Google’s automated settings default to spending more, not spending better, and the recommendations tab is not on your side.
The work is unglamorous: tight match types, a real negative keyword list, conversion tracking that counts enquiries rather than page views, and turning off the settings that quietly widen your targeting every month.
Everything in the programme.
Search terms audit
What you're actually paying for, as opposed to what you think you're bidding on. This is where the waste usually is, and it's often 30–40% of the spend.
Negative keyword list
Built from your real search terms, not a generic template. Reviewed monthly, because new waste appears every month.
Conversion tracking that counts enquiries
A form submission, a call, a WhatsApp click. Not a page view. If you're optimising toward the wrong event, Google will get very good at delivering the wrong thing.
Campaign and ad group structure
Keywords grouped tightly enough that the ad can match the search. Relevance lowers your cost per click directly — it's the one lever that makes clicks cheaper rather than fewer.
Landing page review
Google charges you less for pages that answer the search. I'll tell you what to change, and if the page needs rebuilding I can do that too.
Monthly report and search term review
Spend, enquiries, cost per enquiry, plus the new negatives added and why. Same format every month so you can see the trend.
How the work actually runs.
Find the waste first
Before adding anything, I read the search terms report and cut what's obviously not a customer. On a neglected account this alone often frees 30% of the budget.
Fix tracking, then restructure
Conversion actions that reflect real enquiries, then tighter ad groups so ads match searches. In that order — restructuring against broken tracking just moves the problem.
Turn off the helpful defaults
Search partners, display expansion, and auto-applied recommendations are on by default and widen your targeting without asking. Off, unless there's a reason.
Review search terms monthly
New waste appears every month. This is not a set-and-forget channel, and anyone who tells you it is has stopped looking at the account.
Results from this service.
No case study for this service yet.
Honest answer: I haven’t run this for a paying client yet. What I do have is the work on my own site — hypothesis, method and numbers, published in full.
Priced before we start, not after.
You get a written scope and a fixed number before any work begins, so there is no invoice at the end that surprises you. If the job turns out to be bigger than we thought, I tell you at the point I find out — not when the bill arrives.
Common questions about Google Ads.
Google keeps emailing me recommendations. Should I apply them?
Almost never automatically. Google's recommendations optimise for Google's revenue as well as your results, and "apply all" usually broadens your match types and turns on display expansion. Some are genuinely useful. The skill is knowing which, and that's part of what you're paying for.
How much should I spend?
It depends entirely on what a click costs in your industry, which varies from under a ringgit to twenty. I'll check your actual keywords before quoting a budget rather than giving you a number that sounds reasonable. For most local services in Malaysia it starts around RM1,000 a month.
I tried Google Ads before and it didn't work.
Fair, and it's the most common thing I hear. When I check those accounts it's usually one of three things: broad match with no negatives, conversion tracking that was never set up, or a landing page that didn't answer the search. All three are fixable, and all three are invisible unless someone looks.
Should I do Google or Meta first?
If people are already searching for what you sell — dentist, plumber, tuition centre — start with Google. If they don't know they need you yet, start with Meta. If you're local and nobody's searching your business name, honestly start with Local SEO, because it's cheaper than both and I'd rather tell you that.
What can't you do yet?
Shopping campaigns with large product feeds, Performance Max on big ecommerce accounts, and enterprise-scale account management. Search and local campaigns for service businesses are where I'm strongest.
Articles on Google Ads.
First articles publishing this week.