Search campaign management
Search is where intent is highest, so control matters most. We run query-level management across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads: match-type strategy, maintained negatives, and brand and non-brand separated with their own targets, as the core of our paid search and Google Ads management.
£160M+ in ad spend managed across searchFunded
- emergency plumber near me£612
- boiler replacement quote£388
- gas safe engineer call out£274
Negatived at account level
- plumber salary uk£180
- how to bleed a radiator£146
- plumbing courses near me£98
Broad match plus Smart Bidding can be a strong combination or an expensive one, and the difference is governance. Left unmanaged, search budget drifts onto loosely related queries, brand and non-brand blur into one flattering number, and the negative-keyword list ages while waste accumulates. We keep search accountable at the query level: what each pound matches against, which terms convert, and which to cut.
What we manage
- Match-type strategy suited to automated bidding
- Account and campaign negative-keyword lists
- Brand and non-brand split with own targets
- Search-terms review and n-gram waste analysis
- Structure that feeds Smart Bidding cleanly
- Bid targets, value signals and new-customer bidding
- Auction insights and impression-share calls
- Same discipline across Google and Microsoft
The four levers we keep on
Negatives that hold
One canonical account-level list does the heavy lifting, not scattered, half-maintained exclusions, so loosely related queries stop draining budget.
Brand vs non-brand
Separated into their own campaigns and targets, so non-brand growth is funded deliberately and automation cannot take cheap credit for brand.
Match types by job
Broad where automated bidding has good signals and tight negatives; phrase and exact where control or efficiency demands it.
Structure for learning
Enough separation to steer budget and read performance, without fragmenting the account into pieces too small for the algorithm to learn from.
The same campaign type either compounds or leaks
Modern search leans on broad match and automated bidding, which only works when you fence it in. The difference between the two columns is governance, not budget.
Left to run
- Budget drifts onto loosely related queries
- Brand and non-brand blended into one number
- Negative list ages while waste accumulates
- Bidding optimises on whatever it is given
Governed at query level
- Search terms reviewed on a cadence
- Negatives maintained at account and campaign level
- Brand and non-brand separated with their own targets
- Match types chosen by job, not dogma
Smart Bidding, run responsibly
Automated bidding does exactly what the data tells it is good. We make sure that data, and the goals on top of it, are right before it spends.
Set realistic targets
Target CPA or ROAS, or maximise conversion value, against goals the account can actually hit.
Feed real values
Value-based bidding so it optimises for profit, not the volume of cheap conversions.
Use new-customer signals
Weight bids toward new buyers where acquiring them matters more than repeat demand.
Run it on clean data
Deduplicated conversions and offline imports, so it never learns from junk.
The same query-level discipline applies on both engines, but they are not run as copies of each other. Microsoft has a different audience, competitive set and its own levers, so we manage it deliberately on our Microsoft Ads management, and none of it works without the clean inputs from conversion tracking.
Go deeper
- Account-level negative keywords: one list to rule them allOur approach to negative-keyword hygiene.
- PPC best practice: search termsReading the search-terms report for waste and intent.
- Brand campaigns: are they worth it?When brand search earns its budget.
- Bidding towards new customer acquisitionWeighting bids toward new buyers.
Related services & tools
Common questions
What teams ask about search campaigns before they hand over an account.
Find the wasted spend in your search account
Get a free senior review of your Google and Microsoft search campaigns, where budget is matching the wrong queries, where brand is flattering the numbers, and what to cut and scale, from a Google Premier Partner managing £160M+ in ad spend.
- Where budget produced no profitable return in the last 90 days
- Whether your conversion tracking and values are reliable
- How much of your performance is genuinely incremental vs demand you already had
- Which campaigns are worth more budget and which to cut
“A useful PPC review should make the next decision obvious: what to cut, what to protect, and what is worth more investment.”
Fraser Smith, Chief Strategy Officer, reviews every submissionFree senior PPC review
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