Guides
Google Ads, explained by the person who reads the Search Terms report
13 guides on the questions a UK business asks before and after it pays for a click: how much to spend, how agencies charge, why an account spends without converting, and the reports and settings that decide most of it. Written from what we see in accounts, with sources named where a number is not ours. No prices in the guides; those live on the pricing page.
Conversion tracking for Google Ads: the setup that decides whether the account can learn
How to set up Google Ads conversion tracking properly: the three triggers that cover a whole site, one primary action, and how to check a tag actually fires.
9 min read
How much should you spend on Google Ads? Work it out from the click, not from what is spare
The Google Ads budget sum for a UK business: cost per click in your sector, clicks per enquiry, what an enquiry is worth, the floor and the ceiling.
8 min read
Management fee or a percentage of spend: which way of paying a PPC agency works against you
How UK PPC agencies charge, what each model rewards, the arithmetic of a percentage of spend, what a flat fee fixes, and the questions to ask any agency.
8 min read
Why your Google Ads are not converting: the eight causes, in the order to check them
A diagnostic for Google Ads that spends without enquiries: search terms, tracking, targeting, match types, landing page, form, offer and too little data.
9 min read
Negative keywords: the list that decides whether your budget buys customers or curiosity
How negative keywords match, where they live, the seed list, the weekly routine that grows it, and the mistakes that block wanted searches.
8 min read
Google Ads match types in 2026: what broad, phrase and exact actually do now
Exact, phrase and broad match in 2026: close variants, what phrase absorbed, how broad reads intent, where each belongs in an account, reading the report.
8 min read
PPC or SEO: which to pay for first, and when a business should run both
What each costs in time and money, what stops when you stop paying, when Google Ads should come first, when SEO should, and how the two feed each other.
8 min read
How to read the Search Terms report: the weekly routine that pays for most PPC management
The Search Terms report: where it is, what the columns mean, the weekly read, the other search terms row, Shopping and PMax, and what it shows.
9 min read
Call tracking for Google Ads: counting the calls that were customers
The three layers of call tracking for Google Ads, the minimum duration that separates a customer from a misdial, reading calls, and recording.
8 min read
Google Ads for a recruitment agency: candidates and clients are two campaigns, and one account for both wastes half the budget
A recruitment agency's searches split in two: candidates after jobs and employers after an agency. The negatives, pages and budgets for each side.
7 min read
How to cap Google Ads at a monthly figure: the daily budget maths, the 30.4 rule, and why a pause rule fails
Google can spend twice the daily budget in a day and 30.4 times it in a month. The division that holds a monthly cap, and the account where we proved it.
6 min read
Call-only ads ended in February 2026: what a phone-led business runs instead, and the call that is not counted
Call-only ads ended in February 2026. The replacement: call assets, a page with the number first, and the click to call Google shows but does not count.
7 min read
AI Max for Search: what it does to a small account, what the September 2026 auto-upgrade changed, and what to switch off
AI Max widens matching, rewrites headlines and swaps landing URLs. Which campaigns were upgraded from September 2026, what each part does, the switches.
7 min read
Shorter answers to the questions people type into Google, one per page, are in the questions section.
Tell us what you spend. We reply with a fixed fee and the first three changes.
Your monthly spend, what a lead is worth to you and the address of the page your ads land on. Daniel Stoychev replies within one working day with the tier, the fee, what he would change first, and whether your sector and area are still free.