Paid campaigns judged on cost per lead, not impressions

It depends on how competitive your market is far more than on which platform you use. The mechanism worth understanding is that a budget too small to gather conversion volume never leaves the learning phase, so the algorithm keeps optimising on guesswork rather than data - which is why splitting a modest budget across Google, Meta, Instagram and TikTok usually produces four underperforming campaigns instead of one working channel. With a limited budget we concentrate on high purchase-intent keywords, a defined geography and restricted hours, and expand only once the first channel proves itself. If a proposed budget sits below the level where management fees make sense, we say so in the first conversation and suggest local SEO or a Google Business Profile instead.

First enquiries usually arrive within the opening weeks - that is the main advantage of paid over organic, which takes three to six months to show real movement. But a stable cost per lead only emerges after one to three months, once campaigns have accumulated enough conversions for the algorithm to optimise on data rather than assumption. The first month buys information: which audiences, which messages and which keywords actually produce enquiries. Anyone promising a specific cost per lead before launch is guessing, because the ad platforms themselves cannot supply that figure at that stage. We report what the first month found and what changes as a result, rather than presenting early volatility as either success or failure.

Yes, and we think it is the main reason our campaigns perform. When the same team writes the ad, builds the page and implements the tracking, there is no gap between what the ad promises and what the page delivers, and no argument about whose fault a poor conversion rate is - the failure mode where the agency blames the developer for a slow page and the developer blames the agency for irrelevant traffic simply does not arise. It also means a landing page can be changed the same week rather than queued with a third party. Pages ship with conversion tracking wired in from the start, so you can see the conversion rate rather than only the traffic that arrived.

You do. We work inside your accounts, or open them in your business name if they do not exist yet: Google Ads, Meta Ads Manager, GA4 and Google Search Console. We take management permission, not ownership. This sounds procedural but it is one of the sharper problems in the market - when campaigns run from an agency-owned account, moving to another supplier erases the algorithm learning history and forces a restart from zero. Here, ending the engagement means removing our access, not transferring an asset. It is worth asking this of any agency you are considering, before signing rather than afterwards, because the answer is difficult to change once the account already exists in someone else name.

Google captures demand that already exists; Meta creates demand among people who were not searching for anything. If people are actively searching for what you sell - a service with an obvious name and a clear moment of need - start with Google, where intent is already present and the click is closer to a purchase. If the category needs explaining, or the product is discovered rather than sought, Meta usually earns its place first. Most accounts end up running both, weighted differently by season and campaign. One practical difference worth planning for: on Meta the creative is the variable that moves cost per lead most, more than audience settings, so budget for producing and refreshing it rather than running one ad for months.

Monthly, on cost per lead and cost per acquisition, with what changed, what it produced and what we are testing next. Impressions and clicks appear as context, never as the headline, because they do not pay for anything. Reporting runs on full conversion tracking - GA4, the Meta pixel and Google Ads - from the click through to the form or the phone call, and where a CRM exists, through to the deal that closed. That is what lets you see which channel, campaign and individual ad produce paying customers rather than merely enquiries. When a number falls it appears as it is: volatility is part of the work, and a report that never contains a decline is being edited rather than measured.