Why do you need a PPC freelancer?
Google Ads and Microsoft Ads are the two main tools for pay-per-click marketing, and between them they cover most of the search volume worth targeting. Done well, PPC puts your business in front of the exact audience searching for what you sell, at the exact moment they're looking, generating leads and sales rather than just impressions. Done badly, it's one of the fastest ways to spend a marketing budget with nothing to show for it.
The account manager's knowledge is what separates a campaign that pays for itself from one that doesn't. Poor structure, badly chosen match types and a bid strategy set in isolation can burn through budget on clicks that were never going to convert. I've taken over accounts running on autopilot, where the platform's own algorithm was optimising for the wrong goal entirely: leads instead of sales, or clicks instead of qualified traffic.
When I work on a PPC account I look at the whole thing: account structure, campaign and ad group setup, keyword match types and negative keyword lists, bid strategy, and the landing page experience a click actually lands on. Optimising the ad without optimising the page it sends traffic to is optimising half a system, and it's usually the half that matters less.
Where it's available, I blend ad platform data with CRM or sales data rather than optimising towards the platform's own conversion events alone. A platform's algorithm is good at generating conversions, but a conversion and a sale aren't always the same thing, and optimising for the wrong one moves budget in the wrong direction. That approach took a Dorset insurance broker's paid advertising from just under 100% ROAS to 300% in three months, covered in the insurance broker case study.
Landing Page Creation
I believe landing pages are just as important as the ad that sends traffic to them. There's no point paying for a click if the page it lands on doesn't convert. A dedicated landing page, built around a single offer and a single call to action rather than a general homepage, lets an ad run more efficiently: a better Quality Score, a stronger ad position and a lower cost per click, because the platform can see that the page matches what the ad promised. I build these to match the campaign, not the other way round.
PPC Campaign Optimisation
Optimising a campaign means constantly checking what is converting and what is not, then moving budget from the parts that are not towards the parts that are. Where it is available, I go a step further and blend the ad platform's own data with CRM or sales data, since a platform's conversion event and an actual sale are not always the same thing. That distinction was the difference between a Dorset insurance broker sitting at just under 100% ROAS and reaching 300% within three months. Read the full case study.
Split Testing
Split testing means running genuine alternatives, of an ad, a landing page or an audience, against each other and letting the data decide which one wins, rather than guessing. I run these both before a campaign launches and continuously once it's live, since what converts best tends to shift over time as competitors change their own approach and as an audience becomes more or less familiar with an offer. The result is a campaign that keeps improving instead of one that's optimised once and left alone.
Competitor Analysis
Understanding who you're actually competing with in the auction, not just who you compete with commercially, changes how a campaign gets built. I look at competitors' ad copy, the keywords they're bidding on, and where their landing pages seem to be falling short, then build campaigns positioned to win against that, not against a generic template. Competitors change their approach constantly, so this isn't a one-off exercise: it gets checked and revisited through the life of the account.
Conversion Tracking Setup
None of the above works without accurate tracking. I set up conversion tracking through Google Tag Manager on every account I manage, covering the actions that actually matter to the business rather than easy-to-track proxies like button clicks. That's what lets budget move towards what's actually converting rather than what looks like it's converting, and it's the foundation any further optimisation, including CRM data blending, has to be built on. Get this wrong and every decision made on top of it is built on bad data.
Keyword Bid Optimisation
Bid strategy has to match the goal, and the right choice depends on the account: Manual CPC gives tighter control over cost per click where budget discipline matters most, while an automated strategy can work well once there's enough conversion data feeding it. I choose and adjust bid strategy based on what the account's data actually supports, not on which option a platform defaults to, and I revisit that choice as the account's data and goals change.
What is PPC marketing?
PPC marketing, or pay-per-click marketing, is a paid advertising model where you pay a search engine or platform a fee each time someone clicks your ad, rather than earning the click for free through ranking. Google Ads is the best-known platform because of its scale, but Microsoft Ads, which serves Bing, Yahoo and AOL search traffic, is often overlooked and can produce cheaper clicks and less competition in the same market.
Both let you reach the right audience at the right moment, based on a budget you set and control, and both are measurable in a way a lot of other advertising isn't: you can see exactly what a click cost and, if tracking is set up properly, exactly what it produced. The trade-off is that the visibility stops the moment the budget does, unlike organic rankings, which is why I'd usually recommend running PPC alongside SEO rather than instead of it.
PPC vs SEO: which should I start with?
PPC gets you in front of buyers immediately, for as long as the budget runs. SEO takes longer to build, usually three to six months before it moves meaningfully, but the position keeps working without an ongoing spend once it's earned. Where budget allows, I'd usually recommend running both: PPC covers the gap while SEO builds, and once organic rankings are established, budget that was propping up branded or high-intent terms can shift towards the areas SEO hasn't reached yet.
If you're choosing one to start with, it usually comes down to how quickly you need results and how much time you have to invest before you need them. I cover the organic side on the SEO page, and if you want both working from one strategy rather than two separate ones, that's exactly what I do.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does PPC take to show results?
Unlike SEO, PPC can start generating clicks and leads within days of a campaign going live, since you're paying for placement rather than waiting to be indexed and ranked. What takes longer is optimisation: getting enough data to reliably tell which keywords, ads and audiences are actually converting usually takes a few weeks of live spend, which is why I'd treat the first month as a data-gathering phase rather than judging performance from day one.
How much should I budget for PPC?
That depends entirely on your market: cost per click varies enormously by industry and keyword competitiveness, and I've managed accounts from a few thousand pounds a month up to six figures. Rather than picking a number in isolation, I'd start from what a converted lead or sale is worth to your business, then work out what spend gets enough data to optimise properly without paying for clicks that were never going to convert.
Do you manage Google Ads, Microsoft Ads or both?
Both, and I'd usually recommend running both where the market supports it. Google Ads has the larger search volume, but Microsoft Ads, which serves Bing, Yahoo and AOL, often has less competition and cheaper clicks in the same market, so it's frequently overlooked value sitting there for the taking.
Can you guarantee a specific ROAS or cost per click?
No, and be wary of anyone who does. Auction dynamics, competitor behaviour and your own website and offer all affect the result, and no one controls a platform's auction. What I can do is show you the account moving against its own baseline: cost per click, conversion rate and, where CRM data is available, ROAS measured against actual sales rather than platform-reported conversions.
Do you offer PPC as a one-off project or ongoing management?
Ongoing, in almost every case. PPC needs continuous attention: bid adjustments, negative keyword additions, new ad tests and budget reallocation as data comes in, none of which is a set-and-forget task. A one-off account build is possible, but leaving it unmanaged afterwards tends to erode performance within weeks as auction dynamics shift and initial settings age.