The questions before the contract
Every answer here started as a question somebody asked while deciding whether to spend money with us. They are the same answers our service pages give, with the reasoning left in.
The decision most people arrive with
SEO or Google Ads first?
The two are usually argued as rivals. They answer different questions about time, and the answer changes with the quarter you are standing in.
If you need enquiries inside this quarter, the money goes to Google Ads, because search advertising is the only channel that can be switched on in a week and read honestly in four. If you can wait two to three quarters, SEO is cheaper per enquiry for as long as those pages keep ranking, which paid media never does.
One question, settled
Why we do not charge a percentage of spend
It is the default fee model in this industry, and it pays your agency to do the one thing you should be most careful about.
Your agency should not own your ad account
It is the single most expensive thing to get wrong at the start of a relationship, and it costs nothing to get right.
What a Google Ads budget must clear
Not a price list. The arithmetic that decides whether a paid programme can teach you anything, and the number below which we say no.
Written from the calls, not from a calendar
A question earns a page here when it has been put to us by somebody with a budget. That is the whole editorial policy.
- Every piece began as an FAQ answer that needed more room
- The numbers match the service pages, because they are the same numbers
- Nothing is published to hold a slot in a schedule
- An answer that turns out to be wrong gets corrected, not quietly deleted
The service each one belongs to
Deliberately absent
The genres below are written for search engines rather than for anybody deciding anything.
- Ten tips, seven trends, and the year ahead
- News about platform features nobody asked us about
- Anything generated to fill a publishing calendar
- Case studies with numbers we cannot show the source for
Ask the question directly
If the thing you need to decide is not on this page, send it. The answer comes back either way, and it is free.
See the services
Bring the decision you are stuck on
A call, forty five minutes, no deck. We will tell you if we are the wrong firm.