Google Ads, run day to day
Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Demand Gen and YouTube. Every change is aimed at one thing: more profit for you, measured against your real margins.
- Search
- Shopping
- Performance Max
- Demand Gen
Google Ads & Microsoft Ads · Worldwide
Ad spend that earns profit, not just sales.
I've run paid search for 22 years and managed over £100M of ad spend. My goal for every client is the same: maximise your profit. I find what's holding your account back, fix that first, then run it myself, every day.
One person on your account: me. No juniors, no handovers.
0+
Years in paid search
£0M+
Ad spend managed
5+
Years the average client has stayed with me
Global
Managing clients globally
One goal
Every account I run has one goal: to maximise your profit.
Not clicks, not revenue, not a ROAS figure for its own sake. Every bid, budget, keyword, ad and feed change is judged on one question: does it add profit to your business?
The usual problem
Most accounts aren't short of activity. They're short of profit.
Busy dashboards hide expensive habits. These three come up in almost every account I look at.
01
Judged on ROAS, not margin
A 4x ROAS sounds healthy until you work out that your margins need 5x to break even. Revenue goes up and profit goes down.
02
Tracking nobody has checked
If the conversion data is wrong, every bidding decision built on it is wrong too. It's the first thing I check, and it's often broken.
03
Passed down to a junior
The senior person wins the pitch and someone else runs the account. You end up explaining your business to a new face every few months.
Services
What I do, and how it's judged.
Most of my work is running accounts day to day, for businesses directly and for agencies under their own name. I also do one-off audits and training.
Microsoft Ads alongside it
Bing and the wider Microsoft network are a second source of search traffic that many accounts overlook. I run it next to Google so the two work together.
- Search
- Shopping
- Performance Max
A one-off account audit
A clear, ranked list of what to fix first, starting with the one thing that's holding the account back. Useful if you run the account in-house or want a second opinion.
- Tracking
- Structure
- Bidding
- Feed
Training for your team
Practical sessions for in-house teams on running the account well, built around your own account rather than generic slides.
- In-house teams
- Your own account
05 / For agencies
White label and training for agencies
I run accounts for agencies under their name, so your clients deal with you and I do the work in the background. I also train agency teams on running accounts well. I don't name the agencies I work with.
Ask about thisHow I work
Find the constraint first. Then fix that.
Every account problem sits in one of five layers. I check from the top and stop at the first one that's broken. Pick a layer to see what I look at.
Layer 01
Measurement
What I check
The tell
Fixing a lower layer while a higher one is broken is wasted effort. Better ads won't help a page that doesn't convert.
One account, anonymised
Room to grow, because it earned it.
A long-established UK retailer came to me spending around £20,000 a month on Google Ads. Today the account spends around £250,000 a month, and I still run it myself.
The budget grew as the account kept showing that more spend meant more profit.
My average client has been with me for over five years. What I do works.
I don't name clients. Their results are their business, and it's how I'd want mine treated.
Monthly ad spend
£20k£250k
12×More monthly budget than when I started
1Person running it: me
Know your numbers
Know your numbers before you spend another pound.
Three quick steps. Many businesses have never worked these out, and they decide how an ad account should be run. Put in your own figures; nothing you type leaves this page.
What do you keep from a sale?
Gross margin is what's left from a sale after you've paid for the product, as a share of the price before VAT. If you sell lots of products, use an average order and the average cost of what's in it.
£
£
What you pay for it, excluding VAT%
Use 0 if your prices exclude tax
Your gross margin
52%
£83Price before VAT
£43Gross profit per sale
What can you afford to pay for an order?
This is the most you can spend on ads to win an order and still not lose money on it.
£
As your ad platform reports it%
Google includes it if your site does%
From step 1%
Share of order value refunded£
Delivery, packing and payment fees%
Average, per returning customer
Your break-even ROAS
4.2x
Below this, every order from your ads loses money.
£30Break-even cost per order
£94Order value after VAT and returns
£41Profit per customer, with repeat orders
3.0xBreak-even ROAS on the first order, counting repeats
Break-even isn't a target. Overheads still need paying and you want a profit, so a sensible target sits above this.
Is your ad spend making money?
Uses your figures from step 2: break-even ROAS 4.2x.
ROAS is the conversion value your ads report divided by what you spend. You'll find it in your ad account.
After ad spend, each month
£0
First orders only, before overheads. I work these out properly from your real figures.
Built on my own software
Every account, checked every morning.
I built Cortex to do the analysis standard dashboards can't. It checks every account I manage each day. I review every change it suggests, and nothing goes live without my sign-off.
- Spend spikes and budgets running out early
- Conversion tracking that has stopped firing
- Search terms that cost money and never convert
- Ad spend joined to real orders and margins
Who I work with
A small number of clients, on purpose.
I'd rather have fewer clients and do the job properly. Here's how to tell if we'd be a good fit.
A good fit
- E-commerce and B2B businesses that want growth they can see in profit
- Owners who'll share their margins, so the account is judged on real numbers
- Teams who want one experienced person they can talk to directly
- In-house teams that want an audit or training rather than a full handover
- Agencies that want white-label management or training for their team
Probably not
- Anyone who wants activity reports rather than a straight view on profit
- Social media advertising: I work on Google and Microsoft only
- Promises of a set result before I've seen the account
About me
I'm Phil. I'm not an agency.
I started in paid search 22 years ago, running ads for my own business. I'd tried agencies and been disappointed with what came back, so I worked out how to do it myself. I never looked back.
Since then I've managed more than £100M of ad spend across Google and Microsoft. I'm based in the UK and Ireland, and work with clients around the world.
I've been the business owner paying for ads and wondering what I was getting. That's why I judge every account on what it adds to the business, and why I do the work myself. Through a partner agency, I also have direct access to Google's strategic partner programme.
Alongside ads management I build custom AI systems for businesses, which is where Cortex came from.
Hands-onEvery account managed by me. No juniors.
Profit maximisationEvery change judged on what it adds to your bottom line.
Plain EnglishStraight answers, including the ones you won't like.
"Most accounts don't need more tinkering. They need someone to find the one thing that's really holding them back, and fix that first."Phil Seaton
Questions
Before you get in touch.
Will I deal with you directly?
Yes. I run every account myself. There's no account manager in between and nobody junior doing the work.
Do you work with agencies?
Yes. I run accounts white label for agencies, under their name, and train agency teams. I keep the agencies I work with confidential.
Do you work on Meta, TikTok or LinkedIn?
No. I work on Google Ads and Microsoft Ads only. Keeping to two platforms is how I stay good at them.
What happens after I get in touch?
I'll reply by email, ask a few questions about the business and the account, and tell you plainly whether I think I can help. If I don't think I'm the right fit, I'll say so.
Get in touch
Want me to take a look?
Tell me a bit about the business and the account. I'll reply by email.
- You send a few details using the form.
- I reply by email with a few questions.
- I tell you plainly whether I can help, and how.