One session. Four problems found — including one that had stopped the campaign spending.

He paid for it himself. Not through his agency, not on expenses. He wanted a second opinion and he wanted it fast.

Client PPC agency, Ireland

Results after One consultation

The Situation

He was managing an account he'd never been trained to manage.

Aaron was managing a Google Ads account for a specialist mortgage product aimed at government workers — nurses, teachers, civil servants. He wasn't a trained PPC specialist. He'd been handed the account and was doing his best with it, while relying on his agency for support he wasn't getting enough of.

He paid for the consultation himself — not through his agency, not on company expenses. He wanted a second opinion from someone outside the arrangement, and he wanted it fast.

The account wasn't a complete mess. There was structure. Campaigns existed, ad groups existed, conversions were tracked. But underneath it sat a set of foundational problems no one had ever flagged — and one of them had quietly stopped the campaign from spending altogether.

"Aaron was paying attention, asking the right questions, and clearly cared about the work. What he was missing wasn't talent — it was someone in his corner who had seen these patterns before and could name them out loud."

What the Audit Found

Four problems. One had stopped the campaign entirely.

Ad group structure too broad Keywords across very different intents grouped together, making it impossible to write tightly relevant ads or read meaningful performance data.

All match types in use — including broad Broad match running unsupervised alongside phrase and exact, pulling in irrelevant traffic and inflating CPC.

Wasted spend on ineligible age groups Product not available to under 25 or over 65, but both age brackets shown ads and burning budget.

tCPA set at £25 — campaign had stopped spending Target CPA set far below achievable market rate. Google throttled the campaign to nothing. The account had been effectively off for weeks.

The Guidance Given

Clear instructions. Actionable the same week.

The first job was cleaning up what the account could see. Until the data was honest, any optimisation was guesswork.

STRUCTURE

Restructure using Google Ads Editor Walk through how to break the broad ad groups into tight, intent-led groups offline in Editor before pushing live — faster, safer, and easier to QA than working in the UI.

ADS

Pin ads correctly (H1 keyword, H2 CTA) Pin the primary keyword to headline 1 and the call-to-action to headline 2 so RSAs stay on-message instead of letting Google shuffle the wrong combinations.

AUDIENCES

Exclude ineligible age brackets Add 18–24 and 65+ as audience exclusions immediately. The product can't be sold to them, so every impression is wasted budget and a worse CTR signal.

BIDDING

Fix the tCPA — get a real number from the client Lift the £25 target off the campaign so it can spend, then go back to the end client and agree on a defensible CPA based on margin and conversion rate, not a guess.

CLIENT COMMS

Set client expectations during the optimisation window Be upfront that CPA will look noisy for the first few weeks while the account relearns. Frame it before the data lands, not after the client panics.

Outcome

What Aaron left the call with

A clear plan to rebuild ad groups in Editor. Ineligible age brackets excluded the same day. tCPA lifted — campaign spending again. Language to set client expectations on CPA noise. A short, ordered list he could action that week.

“

One session covered the four main issues, gave him a working order to fix them in, and left him with a plan that fitted into a normal week. No drama, no rebuild from scratch. Just the next set of right moves. Aaron was capable. What he was missing wasn't talent — it was someone in his corner who had seen these patterns before and could name them out loud.