Google Ads should not be a separate track next to the rest of your digital business. I see advertising as part of the same chain as tracking, landing page and analytics, so that optimisation is aimed at the right goals from day one.
I have worked with Google Ads, formerly AdWords, since 2014. From 2019 as Head of Search in-house, with overall responsibility for search in several markets, and today as an independent Google Ads consultant. Tern is a Google Partner.
Most of what I find when I take over an account is not about the ads. It is about what the account optimises towards. If a page view or a click on the phone number counts as a conversion, Google’s bidding learns to buy more of the wrong thing. That is why I almost always start with the tracking: what is a real enquiry or a real purchase, and does that signal reach the account?
Then comes the structure. Campaigns are split by what is sold and what it is worth to you, not by which campaign types exist. I go through the search terms every week, so the budget does not leak to searches that never become customers. I use Performance Max when the measurement holds, never as a shortcut around it.
