Small business PPC
Google Ads for small businesses, sized to the budget instead of to an agency minimum
Most UK agencies will not take an account under a few thousand pounds a month, and the ones that do assign it to the newest hire. This is the alternative: a senior consultant, a service matched to the spend, and a fee that is a flat number rather than a share of your budget.
Why small business Google Ads accounts underperform
- Built from the Google wizard. Smart campaigns, broad match and location targeting set to the whole country produce clicks from people who will never be customers. The account spends; the phone does not ring.
- No conversion tracking, or the wrong kind. A phone click counted as a lead, a form thank-you page nobody set up, and Google optimising towards whatever it can measure, which is nothing useful.
- Nobody reads the search terms. In a small account, a few bad searches can take half the month's budget. A weekly ten-minute pass through the search terms report is the highest-return task in Google Ads, and it is the one skipped first.
- The agency fee eats the budget. A percentage of spend with a monthly minimum means a £1,500 budget can carry a £500 fee for a junior's attention.
Three ways to buy this, by budget
| Monthly ad spend | What usually makes sense | What you get |
|---|---|---|
| Under £2,000 | A fixed-price setup you run yourself | Structure, conversion tracking, negatives and a landing page check built in your own account, with a written handover and a short call on what to look at each week. |
| £1,000 to £3,000 with an existing account | A fixed-price audit | What is wasting money, with a pound figure, and the fixes in order. Implemented by you, or by me as a project. |
| Over £2,000 | Lean monthly management | Weekly work in the account, a written monthly report, a call when you want one, landing page and tracking fixes included. Month to month, 30 days' notice either way. |
Every option is a fixed or flat price in pounds, ex VAT, quoted by email from the form. Never a percentage of spend. How I price →
What local PPC management focuses on
Service area, not the whole country
Radius and postcode targeting matched to where you actually go, with bids by area and hour, and the searches from outside it excluded.
Calls that are counted properly
Call tracking that separates a booked job from a wrong number, so Google learns from real customers. The Google Business Profile linked, with location assets and local service ads reviewed where they apply.
One page per service
A landing page for the service someone searched for, with the phone number at the top and a form that works on a mobile. Not the homepage.
Microsoft as a cheap second channel
Once Google works, the same structure on Microsoft Advertising often brings the same enquiry for less.
The proof, at small-business scale
The published Houston home services case ran on a larger budget, but what moved it applies at any size: campaigns split by job type, tracking that separates a booked job from a call, and a weekly pass through the search terms. A small account has the same levers and less room for the fee.
Questions people ask before hiring
What is the minimum budget for Google Ads to work for a small business?
Enough to buy a meaningful number of clicks at your local cost per click. For many UK trades and local services that is £1,000 to £2,000 a month; for solicitors or IT support in a large city it is more, because the clicks cost more. The setup call includes this arithmetic for your market.
Do you take small accounts?
Yes, with the service matched to the spend: a setup you run yourself, an audit, or lean management. What I will not do is take a small account and give it a junior's attention.
How much does Google Ads management cost for a small business?
A flat monthly fee set from the scope, not from spend, quoted in pounds ex VAT from the form. For the smallest accounts a one-off setup is usually the better buy than a retainer. See pricing.
Can you set it up and then let me run it?
Yes. That is the setup option: built in your own account, handed over in writing, with a short call on what to check each week. If you later want management, the setup fee is credited against the first month.
Do you work with sole traders and limited companies?
Both. The engagement is a short services agreement in pounds, 30 days' notice either way, and everything built belongs to you.
Related services
Tell me about the account
Spend band, site and what is not working. You get a straight answer on whether I can help, what I would do first and a price range. No proposal deck, no sales follow-up sequence.