Marketer, analyst, ex-CMO focused on the Google ecosystem (Ads, Merchant Center, GA4, GTM). Google Partner. 150+ projects, 100+ positive reviews on Freelancehunt, 12+ countries.
- I work directly, with no account managers or subcontractors
- I measure results in sales, not in-platform conversions
- Maximum expertise in the Google ecosystem — instead of “PPC, social ads and SEO, all in one”
A typical situation. The client switches contractors, budgets, strategies, keywords, ads. And nothing moves.
The client thinks the problem is the ads. Sure, sometimes the ads really are the problem. To figure out where exactly the problem is — in the ads or somewhere else — I run independent audits. In them I point out the problems you actually have, rather than just trashing your contractor. The main goal of an independent audit is to show what can be improved and what to work on.
The job of an ad is to bring the right user to a specific page. The page itself does the selling.
People often mix this up: they expect the ad to do the selling. But the ad's job is to filter the whole stream of people and bring exactly the right person to the page. Not to sell.
Key point: a Google Ads ad doesn't sell. It brings the user to the website. The website does the selling.
For those who don't want to read a long piece (although I recommend reading to the end — there's plenty of useful stuff here and two real teardowns), here's one more key point right away.
Key point: ads are 50% of success, the website is the other 50%. Ads won't fix a broken website.
If your website makes it impossible to place an order, submit a request or find out where you're located, no ads will save it. That's what CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization) is for — optimizing a website's conversion rate, i.e. finding and removing whatever stops a user from buying, submitting a request or finding you, depending on your business.
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Why the website is half of success
This is as simple as it gets. You have a 100-dollar budget, a click costs 1 dollar. At a 1% conversion rate you get one lead, at 2% — two. Cost per lead drops by half without a single change to the ads.
| Metric | 1% conversion rate | 2% conversion rate | 3% conversion rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget | $100 | $100 | $100 |
| Cost per click | $1 | $1 | $1 |
| Clicks | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Leads | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Cost per lead | $100 | $50 | $33 |
The ads are identical in all three columns. The only difference is how the website turns visitors into leads.
Living proof is one of my cases, in metal processing, which I talked about recently. The conversion rate of the Wix landing page was 5–8%. After I rebuilt the landing page, moved it to a faster engine and did a bit of CRO optimization, the conversion rate came in at 15.79%. That's a 2–3x increase.
| Before | After | |
|---|---|---|
| Platform | Wix | fast HTML landing page |
| CRO optimization | no | yes |
| Changes in the ad account | — | none |
| Landing page conversion rate | 5–8% | 15,79% |
| Conversion rate growth | ×2–3 |
And I made no changes in the ad account at all. I'm also comparing comparable seasons, so it's not seasonality: the working conversion rate was 5–8%, and after the rebuild we see a conversion rate that's incredible for a website.
To see how this works for yourself, open the Google Ads ROI calculator, plug in the same inputs or your own project's numbers and play with the conversion rate: 1, 2, 3% or more. In most cases it's more important to invest in fixing the issues on your website than to mindlessly raise the budget and try to pull everything out with ads.
Key point: a website isn't a separate thing from Google Ads PPC. They exist together, not apart.
Teardown #1: a medical sensor landing page
CRO for Google Ads: why ads can't save a broken website
The teardown is fairly short. Of course, a full CRO audit is much bigger, but this client is sharp and doesn't need everything spelled out. I sent him this video and he put it to work right away, without any questions and without any “but what if we, but what if we” and the like.
What mattered in this case:
- Hero screen — the first screen a person sees as soon as they open the page. It had to be reworked around what people are searching for.
- The menu was eating about 20% of the screen. Hide it in a burger menu.
- Small fixes: shrink the Telegram button to an icon or fit it on one line with the order button.
- Sticky button — an “Order” button fixed on the screen that moves with the page. So the user scrolling on a phone doesn't have to hunt for a way to order.
- One-click quick order — on both desktop and mobile. The current form is too long, and there's no reason to cut your own conversion rate out of nowhere. Especially since orders are handled by managers. I'm always for making things as simple as possible for the user: the manager will confirm the order anyway and ask where to ship it and under what name.
- Infographics instead of a wall of text.
- Remove information nobody needs. There's probably a year and a half of stats on these sensors, and they sell very well. So the managers at least know the key questions potential buyers ask. If something isn't important — remove it.
We don't need a landing page that's one long wall of text. For example, that same metal processing landing page fits into three scrolls. And it performs really well.
Teardown #2: a portable power station product page
It's not Google Ads wasting your budget. It's your website. A real product page teardown
The second example is a teardown of a power station product page on one of my projects. I compare it with how a page like that is done on Rozetka (Ukraine's largest online retailer).
Why do I keep using Rozetka as an example? Because I really like this brand. I use them myself and order a lot — I've been with them for about 15 years. Plus they do quality marketing. I like that.
There were a number of issues here too, more details in the video. But one important point: what's logical for Rozetka isn't always logical for a small store.
For example, don't display a product code if you don't use it. If a user calls you and says, “I need an EcoFlow River 2 power station,” and you reply, “Dude, just tell us the code, we don't get it” — that shouldn't happen.
The product's key specs should be in the title. The job of your ad and landing page is to make the user understand clearly, at first glance, from the first screen, where they've landed.
Beyond that, a lot of things really vary from project to project. It could be certain specs on the first screen. It could be social proof: reviews, a rating, the number of customers. For example, we added social proof on a dental clinic project. It's not a game changer, but adding it costs nothing.
And imagine how competitive the dental market is. To run PPC in this niche, simply being a dental clinic isn't enough. There are specific promotion challenges, and besides the physical pain people searching for a dentist feel, there are other pains and fears you need to address.
What both teardowns have in common
- The first screen. Also known as the hero screen, also known as the main screen — call it what you like. It should show what this is, why choose you, and, if it's a product, the price and a call-to-action button.
- Mobile matters more than desktop. In most niches that's true, but not everywhere. For example, in B2B and serious niches you need to work on both, and desktop may even be more decisive. I won't explain why — hopefully it's obvious. But for an average project, from my experience across a large number of projects, about 90% of traffic is mobile and 10% is desktop.
- Remove the unimportant so it doesn't take up space. That matters more than adding something new.
- Quick ordering or quick communication. A callback request pop-up, one-click ordering — depending on the specifics of your business.
- Video and infographics instead of a wall of text. I think any product can be shown on video. And structure your text, because people's attention is as scattered as it gets right now. You need to narrow it so the user understands as fast as possible where they are and what's here. Don't make them think for long and look for the answer on their own.
Key point: if something on your website doesn't work, nobody will call to sort it out. They'll just close your site and go to a competitor.
A bit later I'll describe a few more cases with custom-built websites. The problem there is so glaring it deserves a separate article.
Why a Google Ads specialist does this, not just a designer
A designer makes things either pretty or according to the brief. A specialist, on the other hand, sees what queries users come with.
A decent specialist isn't just a button-pusher in the Google Ads account. They analyze lots of factors, for example search terms. If you use your head, you can build audience patterns from search terms and understand how your audience thinks.
A short digression. I often see people trying to automate work with search terms using AI agents or scripts. Let them. Here's why: the more they do it, the less they stay in touch with understanding their audience.
I love automation and I automate a lot of routine work. But I don't automate the core, the key part. For example, search terms let you understand your audience's behavior patterns and build your strategy from them.
I also offer website audits and CRO as a separate service. But if we work together on PPC management, they're already included in the management package, and I don't charge extra for them, because it's part of my job. More in the article “How much does it cost to hire a Google Ads specialist?”.
A fresh case: when the problem is the strategy
Here's a very fresh example. Two months ago some clients reached out to me, we talked, but it didn't turn into a collaboration. They went to a big agency. Two months later they came back: two months of work — 4 qualified calls for about 30,000 UAH ($667) in spend.
And they say: go ahead, launch the ads, we're ready to work. I say: guys, the niche is quite difficult, and with what you have right now I understand why there were no results. You fundamentally chose the wrong direction: you built an online store on Shopify where, for your kind of demand, an online store isn't needed at all.
Key point: no correctly chosen tactic can make up for a wrongly chosen strategy.
I wrote about this in detail in the article on marketing strategy and tactics and in the breakdown of why PPC isn't working, through the lens of the 5Ps.
Conclusion
Before you change contractors or increase the budget, look at your website through the eyes of a customer on a phone.
And if you're not sure whether your website, landing page or product page can be improved, nobody's stopping you from ordering several audits from different contractors. Then take the best from each, combine it into one, and get a really great tool.
It's like with doctors: you go to one, he tells you some things, you go to another, and if it's something serious — to a third. And only then you make a decision. Same in advertising.
Landing page quality affects both expected CTR and cost per click. What research says about it — in the article on CTR in Google Ads.
Want the same breakdown of your website — a website CRO audit: a video walkthrough and a document with a list of fixes.
Where to find me
Message me on Telegram or by email — I respond quickly. Telegram channel and YouTube are for those who want to see real cases before reaching out and understand my approach.