What a pilot campaign is, and why I don't just switch the ads on

Anyone can switch on Google Ads. Google will practically do it for you. Pick a few keywords, write an ad, set a budget, done.

And a lot of businesses do exactly that, spend a few hundred pounds, get a handful of odd enquiries and decide "Google Ads doesn't work for us".

Maybe it doesn't. But that's not a fair test.

What a pilot campaign is

A pilot campaign is a proper test of whether Google Ads works for your business. It's for new advertisers, or businesses already on Google Ads that want to try advertising a new product or service.

I set everything up properly, run it for three months, and at the end you decide what to do based on real data.

What's included

• Keyword research
• Writing the ads
• Conversion tracking
• Landing pages
• Call tracking
• Reports
• Managing the campaign for all three months

Why three months

The first few weeks are about learning: which searches bring good leads, which bring rubbish, which areas work, which ads get people to pick up the phone. Then it's about using that to improve. Stop too early and you're deciding on half the data.

Your part

It works best as a team effort. I ask for two things:

1. Answer calls quickly. Someone searching now wants an answer now. A missed call is a click you've paid for and lost.
2. Tell me how each lead went, as it comes in. Good, bad, wrong area, spam. That's how the campaign gets better.

What it costs

From £2,000 for the setup and all three months. More campaigns, locations, landing pages or keywords push the price up. Your ad spend is separate and goes directly to Google from your own account.

What happens at the end

You can roll onto monthly management. You can walk away with the account and the data, which are yours either way. There are other options too, depending on what we find.

Either way, you'll know whether Google Ads works for your business, which is more than a few hundred pounds of guesswork will tell you.