Paid Search Management built on $350M+ in real spend
Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Performance Max, Responsive Search Ads, Smart Bidding, MCC orchestration. Senior
practitioners who have actually run portfolios at NortonLifeLock, GM, Eventbrite, Prudential, Columbia,
Harvard, Farmers, Gen Digital, and Seer Interactive — not just talked about it.
John Williams (founder, $350M+ managed spend, ex-Seer Interactive),
Kristy Morgan (growth strategist, 20 years in client services and complex revenue
problem-solving), Sandeep Muley (senior performance strategist, $50M+ annual ad spend across
100+ international accounts at a global media holding). Read the full team page.
Paid search is hard to do at the level that actually moves a business. Most agencies hire junior buyers, hide
them behind senior account managers, and bill on retainer regardless of result. We don't. The same person who
quotes the engagement is the person in the account every week.
What we've built (live portfolio)
Two reference projects you can review before you talk to us. Both are live, both have full case studies on the
blog, and both demonstrate the operating cadence we'd bring to your account.
Portfolio · Live
Good Life Insurance Group
Production insurance brokerage site, 77 pages, full schema, MailChannels lead pipeline, KV-based rate
limiting, real E-E-A-T. The paid-search angle: the structured-data foundation makes every PMax landing page
eligible for higher quality scores from day one.
goodlifeinsurancegroup.com
PIN-gated insurance CRM mockup. Why it matters for paid search: the same Cloudflare Workers stack we use to
ship sales-enablement tools also powers the conversion endpoints for paid traffic. One platform, one ops
team, no integration tax.
Brands John has personally managed paid media for. These are real engagements, not observable benchmarks.
Numbers + structure shown reflect public knowledge of each brand’s buying motion.
Portfolio · Paid media
Groupon — local marketplace
Managed paid media for Groupon’s consumer marketplace. Local-deal ad units across Search + Display +
Shopping; daily geo-tuned creative refresh; hyper-local landing pages tied to ZIP-level inventory.
Long-cycle B2C insurance + retirement. Branded search + non-brand life-insurance terms; advisor-locator
ZIP-level geo-targeting; conversion API pushed back qualified-lead signal across Google + Microsoft.
Multi-rooftop OEM with national + dealer-network paid search across Chevy, Buick, GMC, Cadillac. Vehicle
Listing Ads, Performance Max with feed-driven asset groups, MCC-level orchestration.
Higher-ed lead generation. Long-form qualified-application funnel across Google + Microsoft;
degree-program-specific creative; offline conversion uploads to tie enrolled students back to the original
ad.
Local paid search is its own problem. ZIP-level competition, after-hours bid adjustments, call-tracking, and
Google Business Profile integration matter more than they do nationally. These public examples show what good
looks like in the Valley.
Local · AZ
State Farm Arizona
Multi-agent local network. The mechanic to copy: each agent runs their own paid budget but shares the
corporate brand assets through MCC asset libraries. Reduces creative cost per agent while keeping brand
consistency.
Similar agent-network play. Where Farmers stands out: aggressive use of call-only campaigns during peak
intent windows (auto-quote requests typically peak Tuesday/Wednesday morning). Match your dayparting to your
buyer's actual behavior.
The big AZ auto groups (Sanderson, Larry H. Miller, AutoNation) all run multi-rooftop MCCs with feed-driven
Vehicle Listing Ads. The take: if your business has SKU-level data, push that into Merchant Center as a
structured feed before you optimize anything else in the bidder.
Connect your Google Ads account, Buddy runs the 250-point check, you get a written report inside 5 minutes.
Same engine the team uses internally. Run the audit.
Conversion tracking lock-down
Before we change a single bid, we verify GA4, Google Tag Manager, server-side tagging, Enhanced Conversions,
and offline conversion uploads. Most accounts have at least one broken signal. Fixing this typically returns
15-25% on existing budget without spending more.
Account restructure
Asset groups themed by intent (not internal taxonomy). Negative keyword lists shared at the MCC. Bid
strategy choice tied to data volume, not vendor preference. Geo targeting at ZIP level for local, at DMA +
radius for regional.
Creative pipeline
Buddy generates compliant creative variations. Vision pre-flight catches text-density disapprovals before
they ship. Cloudflare Images auto-cropping handles aspect-ratio variants. New asset every 14 days, not every
90.
Reporting that an operator can read
Looker Studio dashboard refreshed daily, weekly written summary, monthly strategic review. If a client reads
it once a quarter, we cut it. We optimize the report itself for utility, not screen real estate.
Latest in paid search
Hand-picked from the blog. New articles auto-surface here when they're published with the relevant tag.
Yes. PMax is our default for eCommerce and lead-gen. We use feed-only asset groups when the data supports it,
full-funnel asset groups when the brand is established. We also build asset libraries at the MCC for
multi-account portfolios so creative refresh is one upload, not fifty.
What's your minimum ad spend?
$5K/month for retainer engagements. Below that the math doesn't work for either side. Below $5K, run
Buddy yourself for free — Buddy is the same agent we use internally,
open-source on GitHub.
Do you do MCC-level work?
Yes. Sandeep ran MCC orchestration for 100+ accounts at a global media holding. We replicate image assets,
share asset libraries, and manage budget portfolios across child accounts when the structure makes sense.
What's your stance on Smart Bidding?
Use it when conversion data is clean and volume is sufficient. Don't use it when conversion tracking is
broken, when the conversion goal isn't tied to revenue, or when you need ZIP-level control. We audit
conversion tracking in week one before touching bid strategy.
How quickly can you start?
Audit within 24 hours via Buddy. Onboarding within a week. First optimizations live within two weeks. We don't
run 90-day onboarding sprints — that's billable padding.
Do you work with Microsoft Ads?
Yes. Microsoft Ads is part of every B2B portfolio we run because LinkedIn audience targeting on Microsoft
Search is a real edge. We also import Google Ads campaigns and adapt them for Microsoft's audience, not just
copy them blindly.
Talk to a strategist
Tell us where you are. We respond within one business day with a written take. No demos, no slide decks, no
pitch.
John, Kristy, or Sandeep will reply.One of the three of us will respond personally within 1 business day. No SDR queue.
Message received.
One of us will reply directly within one business day. While you wait, run a free
Buddy audit on your account.
AI disclosure: This page was drafted with AI assistance and edited by a human. The case studies,
benchmarks, and team statements describe real engagements and real practitioners. Public-brand showcases (Nike,
Reebok, Blue Nile, State Farm AZ, Farmers AZ, AZ auto dealerships) are cited as observable industry examples and
do not imply a client relationship.
Free 250-point Google Ads audit. No credit card.
Connect your account, Buddy runs the audit in under 5 minutes, you decide whether the gap is worth closing. Same
agent the team uses internally. Open source on GitHub.
