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Google & Meta Ads Management — Digital Trace Agency

SEO compounds but it takes months. Paid ads buy you the top of the page today — and burn money faster than anything else in marketing if nobody is watching them. We run Google Ads and Meta Ads as one system: search capturing people already looking for you, social creating demand from people who were not.

The average Google Ads cost per lead across all industries sat at roughly $70 in 2026, and in competitive service categories it runs well past $130. That spread is the whole job — the difference between a campaign that prints work and one that quietly drains a card is targeting, negative keywords, landing pages and tracking, not clever ad copy.

What You Get

Campaigns Built On Buyer Intent, Not Broad Reach
Conversion Tracking That Ties Spend To Booked Jobs
Landing Pages Built To Convert The Traffic You Paid For
A Monthly Report In Plain English: Spend, Leads, Cost Per Lead

What we actually manage

Account structure and campaign build, keyword and audience research, negative keyword lists, ad copy and creative, bid strategy, budget pacing, landing pages, and conversion tracking through to the form fill or the phone call. Google Search and Performance Max on the search side; Meta feed, Reels and Advantage+ on the social side.

Google Ads vs Meta Ads: which one first

If people are already searching for what you sell, start with Google Search — the intent is already there and you only pay when someone acts on it. If demand has to be created, or the offer is visual, start with Meta. Most local service businesses see the fastest return from Google Search first, then use Meta to stay in front of everyone who visited and did not convert.

What it costs to run ads properly

Two separate numbers. Your ad spend goes to Google or Meta. On top of that sits a management fee, which across the industry typically runs 10-20% of spend with a floor for smaller accounts. Below roughly $1,500 a month in ad spend there is usually not enough data to optimise against, and we will say so rather than take the account.

Ads work better when the page behind them does

Sending paid traffic to a slow or unconvincing page is the most common way to waste a budget. If your site is the bottleneck we will tell you — that is our web design and development work, and it usually pays for itself before the ad budget does.

Start Your Project

Google & Meta Ads Management: common questions

How much should I spend on Google Ads to start?

For most local service businesses, roughly $1,500-$3,000 a month in ad spend is the realistic floor for search campaigns. Below that there is rarely enough click volume to tell a winning keyword from a losing one, so optimisation becomes guesswork. If your budget is under that, SEO or a better landing page is usually the higher-return first move, and we will tell you so rather than take the account.

Do you charge a percentage of ad spend or a flat fee?

A flat monthly management fee, quoted from the account's size and complexity. Percentage-of-spend pricing, which is the industry norm at 10-20%, rewards an agency for spending more of your money. A flat fee means our incentive is your cost per lead, not your budget.

Who owns the ad account?

You do, always. We work inside your own Google Ads and Meta Business accounts, so the account history, conversion data and audiences stay yours if we ever stop working together. An agency that runs clients inside its own account is holding your data hostage.

How quickly will I see leads from paid ads?

Google Search can produce enquiries in the first week, because you are buying demand that already exists. The honest caveat is that the first 30-60 days are partly spent learning which keywords, audiences and creatives convert, so cost per lead usually drops noticeably after month one rather than starting at its best.