Google Ads tracking and management
Your Google Ads may be counting the wrong thing
Google Ads learns from whatever your tracking tells it is a result. Our Google Ads audit, the Tracking Audit, checks what yours is really counting. We fix it, in the account and in your website's code. Then, if you want, we run the ads.
The problem
Tell Google the wrong thing and it gets very good at it
Google Ads is pay per click (PPC) advertising: you pay Google when someone clicks your advert. We manage Google Ads for businesses in Wolverhampton and across the West Midlands, and the first thing we look at is what your account is counting.
A conversion is the thing you want from a click: an enquiry form sent, a booking made, a sale. Google Ads counts them through your tracking.
When Google sets your bids automatically, as it now encourages every advertiser to do, it learns from those conversions. It looks at who converted and goes looking for more people like them.
So it learns from whatever your tracking calls a conversion. If that is one phone tap counted twice, a thank you page anyone can load, or a free enquiry recorded as a paid booking, Google cannot tell the difference. It goes and finds you more of the wrong thing, and it gets very good at it.
The adverts can look healthy the whole time: plenty of clicks at a fair price, and nothing in the account to warn you. That is why we check the tracking before we touch the adverts.
Why we see it
Most Google Ads agencies never open your website's code. We build websites, so we do.
Conversion tracking lives in two places: your Google Ads account, and your website's code. Most agencies only look at the first. So they set up tracking that looks perfect in Google and quietly reports the wrong thing, because the fault was in the website all along.
Between the two sits Google Tag Manager, a free Google tool that holds your tracking tags. A tag is a small piece of code that tells Google something happened. A trigger is the rule that decides when a tag fires. We check all three: the Ads account, Tag Manager and the website itself.
We design and build websites and automate the systems behind them, so reading a site's code, and the forms and booking tools wired into it, is ordinary work for us. When the fault is in the site, we fix it in the site, rather than patching around it in Google.
Where the measuring stops
1
Click
Somebody taps your advert.
Measured
2
Landing page
They arrive on the page you paid to send them to.
Measured
3
Enquiry
They fill in your enquiry form, book or buy on your website.
Not measured
4
Job won
You quote it, and some become work. That happens off the website, so you count it.
Not measured
Without working conversion tracking the measuring stops after the visit, and Google has nothing true to learn from. With it, enquiry forms, bookings, purchases and taps on your phone number are tied to the click, the keyword and the page that caused them.
What conversion tracking joins up
- Which advert brought the enquiry
- Which keyword brought it
- Which campaign brought the booking or the sale
- Which landing page it happened on
- How many there were, and what each one cost
Checked in the Tracking Audit. Fixed in the Conversion Tracking Setup, in the account and in the website itself.
Google Ads
What it costs
Three steps, in the order they happen. Start with the audit: it is the cheapest way to find out whether you need the rest. Every price is fixed or quoted before we start.
Your ad budget is paid to Google directly and is separate from our fees.
Start here
Tracking Audit
£100 to £300fixed, and quoted before we start
Tracking Health Report, in 3 to 5 working days
A Google Ads audit, and the low risk way in. We find out whether the numbers in your Google Ads account are real, and tell you plainly what is wrong. Where it falls in that range depends on the size of your account and your website.
What the audit covers in the Tracking Audit
- Every conversion action in your Google Ads account, meaning each separate thing Google is told to count: whether it fires, what it counts, and whether it counts once
- Your Google Tag Manager container, tag by tag and trigger by trigger
- The tracking code on your website itself
- Your cookie consent setup, and whether the tracking respects it
- Whether the numbers you see in Google Ads match the enquiries and bookings you actually got
Go on to the Conversion Tracking Setup and the audit fee comes off its price.
Conversion Tracking Setup
£500where we built your website
From £1,000any other website
Tested end to end, in 1 to 2 weeks
One off. The build that makes your measurement correct, in Google Ads and in your website's code. On any other website we need access to its back end, the admin and the code, to fix faults in the site itself.
What is included in the Conversion Tracking Setup
- An audit of your existing Tag Manager container and Google Ads account
- Your website's data layer reviewed, and the site's code fixed where it is wrong. The data layer is the information your site hands to the tracking, such as what was booked and for how much
- Conversion actions built in Google Ads with real values, the right categories and the right counting, so one enquiry counts once
- The Google Tag Manager build: variables, triggers and conversion tags
- Enhanced conversions, where your site holds customer details. Google matches a scrambled copy of the customer's email address or phone number to the advert they clicked, so fewer results go uncounted
- Consent Mode v2, which makes Google's tags follow each visitor's cookie choice, and a check against UK GDPR and PECR, the UK rules on personal data and cookies
- End to end testing before anything goes live
- A written handover document listing every conversion action, label and value, so you are never locked in to us
Had the Tracking Audit first? Its fee comes off this price.
Google Ads Management
£325 to £500a month, where your ad spend is under £3,000
At £3,000 a month or more of ad spend, a fixed monthly fee, quoted for your account. Never a percentage of your spend.
Monthly, with 30 days notice to stop
Your campaigns looked after every month. Left alone, a campaign drifts into searches you never wanted and clicks that never become work. Management is the job of stopping that.
What is included in the Google Ads Management
- Keyword and negative keyword management. Negative keywords are words you tell Google never to show your advert for, such as "free", "jobs" or "DIY" for most trades
- Ad copy written and tested, new adverts against the old
- Bid strategy, meaning how Google is told to bid for clicks, set to suit how much data your account has
- Budget pacing, so the month's budget lasts the month
- Search terms reviewed: the searches people actually typed before clicking, which are often not the keywords you chose
- A monthly report in plain English: what was spent, what came in, what each result cost and what we changed
We do not take on management until your tracking works. If it is broken, we fix it first.
Your ad budget
We usually suggest a minimum of around £500 a month of ad spend for Google Ads, though it depends on your trade, your competition and where you work. Below that there is rarely enough traffic for the campaigns to learn from.
Allow two to three weeks at the start for a campaign to gather enough data to optimise properly. What happens after that varies enormously by industry, and anyone who tells you otherwise is guessing.
How we charge
We never charge a percentage of your ad spend, because a percentage quietly rewards an agency for persuading you to spend more. Management is a monthly fee, with no long tie in and 30 days notice to stop.
Tracking comes first. We do not take on management until your tracking works. If it is broken, we fix it first. Managing an account you cannot measure is guesswork, and it is how accounts end up spending thousands and learning nothing.
We will not promise a position, a number of enquiries or a return. Nobody honestly can. Every month you see what was spent, what it produced and what we changed.
Who this is for
Right for you if
Businesses already spending on Google Ads who cannot say what it brings in, and anyone about to start who wants the measuring right before the money goes out.
Probably not us if
You want a guaranteed position, a promised cost per enquiry or a guaranteed return. Nobody can honestly offer those. Or you want ads run somewhere other than Google: Google Ads is the only advertising we manage.
Patrick's own account
What we found in Patrick's own Google Ads account
Detailing Sanctuary is Patrick's own mobile detailing business in Wolverhampton, not a client. That is why we can show you all of it, including what was wrong. The adverts were fine. The measuring was not.
Before the audit
- Spent on Google Ads
- £4,588Over about a year.
- Clicks
- 8,387
- Click through rate
- 8.59%The share of times an advert was shown that it was clicked.
- Average cost per click
- £0.55
- Recorded conversion value
- About £84In total, across the same period.
- Conversion actions
- 36Most of them left over from an old website.
What the audit found
A conversion tag in Tag Manager with no trigger attached, so it had never fired once. In Google Ads the matching goal showed as Misconfigured, and it was the goal the account was bidding towards.
Two tags firing on the same phone tap, into two different conversion actions, so one tap counted twice.
A conversion action named for form submissions that was actually being fed phone taps.
A conversion for enquiries that fired whenever the thank you page loaded. Anyone opening that page from a bookmark, or a search engine robot visiting it, counted as an enquiry.
In the website's code, free weekend enquiries were being sent to the tracking as full value purchases. No money is taken on those. Wired to a conversion action, every free enquiry would have been recorded as a paid booking at full price, and the tag would have looked perfectly healthy while it did it.
Where it stands now
The tracking is now correct, and the account can finally learn from what it spends. The campaigns have not been restarted yet, so there is no result to show you, and we are not going to guess at one.
Process
What happens next
The audit
Book a Tracking Audit and we quote a fixed price, £100 to £300, before we start. You give us read only access to your Google Ads account and Tag Manager, and we go through them alongside your website. Nothing is changed during an audit.
The report
Within 3 to 5 working days you receive your Tracking Health Report: every fault we found, what it means for your ads, and what fixing it involves. It is yours to keep. Fix it with us, with someone else, or yourself.
The fix
If you want us to fix it, that is the Conversion Tracking Setup: £500 where we built your website, from £1,000 on any other, less the audit fee. It takes 1 to 2 weeks, everything is tested before it goes live, and you get the handover document at the end.
Management
Once the tracking works, we can run your campaigns if you want us to: £325 to £500 a month where your ad spend is under £3,000. Monthly, with 30 days notice to stop. Allow two to three weeks at the start for the campaigns to gather data.
Questions about Google Ads
What is conversion tracking, in plain English?
It records what people do on your website after they click one of your adverts: send the enquiry form, tap your phone number, book or buy. Each of those is a conversion, and each one is tied back to the advert and the keyword that led to it. It is not a visitor counter. Visitor numbers tell you how many people arrived. Conversion tracking tells you which of them got in touch or paid, and what each one cost. Google also uses it to decide who to show your adverts to, which is why it matters so much when it is wrong.
How do I know if mine is broken?
Four signs to look for. Conversion numbers that look too round, or too good to match your diary. A goal marked Misconfigured in your Google Ads account. Conversions with no value against them. More conversions than you have actual customers. Any one of those is worth checking. Tracking can also be wrong with none of them showing, which is what the audit is for.
Do I need the audit if I am already spending on ads?
Yes, and the more you spend, the more it matters. Every pound goes through the same tracking, so if it is counting the wrong thing, a bigger budget buys more of the wrong thing. Patrick's own account spent £4,588 with no working conversion tracking. If you go on to the setup, the audit fee comes off its price.
Will you manage my ads without doing the setup?
Not until your tracking works. If the audit shows it already works, we can start managing straight away. If it is broken, we fix it first, through the Conversion Tracking Setup. Managing an account you cannot measure is guesswork, and it is how accounts end up spending thousands and learning nothing.
How long before I see results?
The audit takes 3 to 5 working days and the setup 1 to 2 weeks. From the day the setup goes live, your account is counting the right things. The campaigns take longer: allow two to three weeks at the start for them to gather enough data for Google to learn from. What happens after that depends on your trade, your competition, your prices and where you work. We will not promise you a position, a number of enquiries, a cost per enquiry or a return, because nobody honestly can. What we will do is tell you every month what was spent, what it produced and what we changed.
What happens if I stop working with you?
You keep everything. Your Google Ads account and your Tag Manager container are in your name, not ours. If you do not have them yet, they are set up in your name from the start. The handover document is yours too: it lists every conversion action, label and value, so anyone can pick up where we left off. Management is monthly, with 30 days notice to stop.
Do you work with businesses outside Wolverhampton?
Yes. All of this is done remotely, through access to your accounts and your website. We are based in Wolverhampton and work with businesses across the West Midlands and the rest of England. If you are local and would rather sit down with someone, we will come and see you.
How much should I spend on the ads, and who do I pay?
Your ad budget is paid by you to Google directly, and it is separate from our fees. We never take a percentage of it, because a percentage quietly rewards an agency for persuading you to spend more. We usually suggest around £500 a month as a minimum for Google Ads. It depends on your trade, your competition and where you work, so it is a recommendation rather than a rule. Below that there is rarely enough traffic for the campaigns to learn from, and you end up paying for data you never get.
Does my website have to be one you built?
No. The audit and management work with any website. The setup is £500 where we built your site, because we already know its code. On any other website it is from £1,000, because we need access to its back end, the admin and the code, to fix faults where they actually are. We quote the figure before we start.
We work face to face across Wolverhampton, Bilston, Wednesfield, Willenhall, Walsall, Dudley, Cannock, Telford, Stafford and Birmingham, and remotely with businesses anywhere in England. The Google Ads work itself needs only access to your accounts and your website, so it works the same wherever you are.
Find out what your account is really counting
Book a Tracking Audit. It is £100 to £300, fixed and quoted before we start, and your Tracking Health Report arrives within 3 to 5 working days. If you go on to the setup, the fee comes off its price. We reply within one working day.