Skip to main content
    European Search Awards 2026 Winner - Best PPC Agency

    Frequently Asked Questions

    Questions we hear most often.

    If you don't find your answer here, get in touch. We're always happy to chat.

    Long-form answers

    Detailed guides by topic

    Twenty-four dedicated pages on agency choice, POAS, Performance Max and switching agencies. Each one opens with a direct answer and goes deep on the mechanics.

    Agency choice

    Choosing, evaluating and pricing a Google Ads agency for ecommerce.

    POAS & commercial bidding

    Profit on Ad Spend, margin-weighted bidding and SKU-level commercial logic.

    Performance Max

    Diagnosing, structuring and optimising Performance Max for ecommerce.

    Switching agency

    Auditing, transitioning and switching Google Ads agencies.

    Quick answers

    Getting Started

    We focus exclusively on ecommerce and measure success by profit (POAS), not just ROAS or revenue. Every product gets a commercial role, and every decision is documented and defensible. We don't chase vanity metrics. We chase profit.

    Yes. We work with ecommerce brands across multiple markets globally. Our approach works for any market where Google Ads drives meaningful revenue.

    We work with ecommerce brands spending £15k+ per month on Google Ads. Our clients range from ambitious DTC brands to established retailers turning over £50M+.

    Most clients see meaningful improvements within 30-60 days. However, our focus is on sustainable, profitable growth rather than short-term spikes that don't last.

    After a short initial setup period (typically 3 months to implement our methodology properly), we move to rolling monthly terms with 30 days notice. No long-term lock-ins. If we're not delivering, you can walk away. We'd rather earn your business every month than trap you in a contract.

    Yes. We're headquartered in Birmingham, UK with a fully UK-based team. No offshoring, no timezone issues. While we work remotely, we regularly visit clients in person for strategic reviews. We believe in face-to-face accountability, not hiding behind screens.

    Services & Approach

    POAS (Profit on Ad Spend) measures the actual profit generated per pound spent on ads, not just revenue. It accounts for product costs, margins, and ensures you're scaling profitably rather than just growing top-line revenue while losing money.

    We specialise in Google Shopping, Performance Max, and Search campaigns for ecommerce. This includes product feed optimisation, SKU-level management, commercial mapping, and profit-focused bidding strategies.

    No. We focus exclusively on Google Ads. This specialism allows us to go deeper than generalist agencies and deliver better results for ecommerce brands.

    Commercial mapping assigns every product a strategic role: margin driver, cash recycler, stock clearance, or controlled scale. This ensures spend is allocated intentionally based on commercial reality, not just performance signals. Most agencies bid on products without knowing whether a sale actually makes money. Commercial mapping fixes that.

    Gateway SKUs are products that rarely get purchased themselves but consistently introduce customers who go on to buy higher-margin items. Most agencies would pause these as 'underperformers' because the click-to-sale data looks poor. We identify them through purchase path analysis and protect their budget, because killing a Gateway SKU often kills the revenue it was quietly generating elsewhere.

    Google Ads attributes revenue to the product that was clicked, not the product that was actually purchased. So your 'best performing' SKU might just be the one people click before buying something else entirely. We call this the Hero SKU fallacy. We cross-reference click data with actual basket contents to find which products genuinely drive profit, not just which ones look good in Google's reports.

    We treat Performance Max as a precision tool, not a black box. We structure campaigns around commercial intent, use strategic asset groups, exclude poor performers at SKU level, and layer in first-party data. Every PMax decision is documented and defensible.

    We treat the feed as the foundation of Shopping performance. This includes title and description optimisation, custom label strategies for commercial segmentation, supplemental feeds for margin data, and ongoing quality monitoring.

    We build seasonality into our planning from day one. This includes pre-season preparation, adjusted bidding strategies, promotional asset scheduling, and post-peak analysis. We plan for Black Friday, Christmas, and your category-specific peaks months in advance.

    Working Together

    Fixed monthly fees starting from £2k/month, based on catalogue complexity and spend level. No percentage of ad spend, ever. That model creates a conflict of interest-if we're paid more when you spend more, we're incentivised to inflate budgets, not improve efficiency. Fixed fees align us with your profit. When we find waste, we cut it.

    We deliberately limit our client roster. Every account gets senior-level attention, not a junior running a playbook. If we're at capacity, we'll tell you upfront and offer a waitlist rather than dilute the service. Quality over volume isn't a slogan here-it's a commercial decision.

    We'll analyse your Google Ads account, identify profit leaks and opportunities, and provide a clear roadmap for improvement. There's no obligation. It's genuinely useful whether you work with us or not.

    We provide weekly performance summaries and monthly strategic reviews. For urgent matters, we're always available. You'll have direct access to your account team, not a client services layer.

    Yes. For onboarding, strategic reviews, or when the conversation is too important for video, we'll come to you. We're not hidden behind screens. Most agencies never leave their office. We believe face-to-face accountability builds better partnerships.

    We'll need admin access to your Google Ads account, read access to your analytics, and ideally product cost data so we can calculate true profitability.

    Our onboarding takes 2-3 weeks and includes a full account audit, commercial mapping of your catalogue, feed analysis, tracking verification, and strategy development. We document everything and present a clear 90-day roadmap before making changes.

    We can take over management within 48 hours if needed, but we prefer a structured 2-week handover. This allows us to audit properly, understand historical performance, and avoid disrupting what's already working.

    Switching Agencies

    We handle agency transitions regularly. We'll work with your existing agency during handover where possible, or manage a clean break if that's not feasible. The priority is continuity: we won't let performance drop during the switch.

    Minimal. We plan transitions carefully, audit the existing setup before making changes, and preserve what's working. Most clients see no performance dip during handover, and improvements within the first few weeks.

    We work with your existing budget. If anything, we typically find ways to achieve better results with less spend in the first 90 days by cutting waste. We're on a fixed fee, so we have zero incentive to inflate your budget. If we recommend increasing spend, it's because the data proves there's profitable headroom-and we'll show you the numbers before committing a penny.

    Yes. If building internal capability makes more sense for your business, we offer training and consultancy to help you get there. We'd rather you succeed independently than stay dependent on any agency.

    30 days, simple as that. After the initial setup period, you're on rolling monthly terms. We don't believe in trapping clients with exit penalties or long notice periods. If you're not happy, you shouldn't have to jump through hoops to leave.

    Platforms & Technical

    Yes. We work with all major ecommerce platforms including Shopify, Shopify Plus, Magento/Adobe Commerce, WooCommerce, and custom builds. Our methodology adapts to your tech stack, and we have experience with most feed management tools.

    Google CSS (Comparison Shopping Service) allows approved partners to show Shopping ads with reduced click costs. We're a Google CSS Partner, which means our clients typically pay less per click than advertisers using Google's own CSS, savings that go straight to your bottom line.

    At minimum, we need Google Ads conversion tracking and Google Analytics. For profit-focused optimisation, we also need product cost data integrated into your feed. We'll audit your current setup and fix any gaps before we start.

    Yes. Accurate tracking is foundational to everything we do. We'll audit your current implementation, fix any issues, and ensure you're capturing the data needed for profit-based decisions. This includes server-side tracking where appropriate.

    With cookie restrictions tightening and iOS changes reducing client-side data, server-side tracking is no longer optional for serious advertisers. We implement and maintain server-side tagging through Google Tag Manager, ensuring your conversion data stays accurate even as browsers block more tracking. We also configure Google Consent Mode v2 properly so your campaigns can model conversions you'd otherwise lose. Most agencies ignore this until performance mysteriously drops.

    We work with all major feed tools including Feedonomics, DataFeedWatch, Channable, and native platform solutions. If you're not using a feed tool yet, we'll recommend one based on your platform and catalogue size.

    Results & Guarantees

    We measure success by profit contribution, not vanity metrics. This means tracking POAS, contribution margin, and the commercial impact of every pound spent.

    You'll receive custom dashboards showing profit metrics, not just revenue. Every recommendation is documented with commercial justification, so you understand exactly why decisions are made.

    Yes. Visit our case studies page to see real results from ecommerce brands we've worked with, including specific profit improvements and strategic approaches.

    We don't offer unrealistic guarantees because every account is different. What we do guarantee is transparency, rigorous methodology, and honest assessment. If we don't believe we can improve your results, we'll tell you upfront, before any commitment is made.

    Commercial Risk & Pricing

    Below £15k per month, Google Ads accounts rarely have enough conversion volume for profit-based bidding, incrementality testing, or meaningful SKU-level segmentation to work. We could take the fee, but we could not credibly improve outcomes. The £15k floor protects you from paying for a methodology your account cannot yet support, and protects us from work we cannot do well.

    Percentage-of-spend agencies earn more when you spend more, which quietly incentivises budget inflation, brand-keyword bidding, and protecting Performance Max budgets that should be cut. A fixed fee removes that conflict. When we recommend cutting £20k of monthly spend because it is not incremental, our income does not change. Yours improves.

    BOI® (Bid On Intent) is our proprietary framework for valuing each query by commercial intent and contribution margin rather than by historic ROAS. Standard PPC management bids on what converted yesterday. BOI® bids on what will convert profitably tomorrow, using SKU role (Scale, Profit, Protect, Recovery, Gateway), margin, and incrementality signals together.

    Commercial risk is the exposure performance metrics do not show: spend concentration on a handful of SKUs, margin blindness, Performance Max overreach, discount dependency, and signal quality. A 450% ROAS account can be high-risk if 60% of revenue depends on three products or a 20% budget cut would collapse revenue by 40%. We surface this through our Commercial Risk Index.

    We do not assume they trade off. Most ecommerce accounts can grow both by reallocating spend away from low-margin, non-incremental conversions and toward higher-margin, genuinely incremental ones. When the trade-off is real, we present the data and let you decide whether the marginal revenue is worth the marginal cost.

    We offer both. A standalone Google Ads audit identifies profit leaks, structural risk, and quick wins without a retainer commitment. Many clients start there, implement the recommendations internally, and engage us for ongoing management only when scale or complexity justifies it.

    AI, Tracking & Privacy

    We default consent to denied, wait for user choice, and use Google's conversion modelling to recover signal from non-consenting users. Combined with server-side tagging and enhanced conversions, this typically recovers 20-40% of conversion signal lost to consent banners, ITP, and ad blockers. Most agencies still rely on client-side tags alone and quietly lose data.

    Useful as a starting point, dangerous as a default. AI-generated headlines and images iterate fast but converge on bland averages that erode brand equity over time. We use AI assets to expand coverage and test creative angles, but anchor the asset pool with human-written, brand-aligned copy and photography so the algorithm has a clear quality signal to learn from.

    AI Overviews are compressing the top of funnel: more queries resolved without a click, fewer informational visits to brand sites. For Google Ads this means transactional queries become more valuable, brand defence becomes more important, and Shopping ads become a larger share of usable inventory. We are restructuring accounts around this shift rather than pretending nothing has changed.

    Yes. We integrate first-party customer lists, LTV cohorts, and audience signals into Smart Bidding and Performance Max so the algorithm optimises against your highest-value customer profiles rather than generic conversion patterns. Done properly, this lifts margin per order materially without raising spend.

    We use geo-split tests, conversion lift studies via Google's experiment tools, and holdout cohorts to separate genuinely incremental conversions from conversions Google Ads claimed credit for but would have happened anyway. Brand search is the most common offender. The goal is decision-quality data, not reporting that flatters the channel.

    Still have questions?

    Book a 30-minute discovery call and we'll answer all your questions while analysing your Google Ads account.

    Book a Discovery Call→

    We use cookies to improve your experience. Privacy Policy