Google and Meta Ads Management for Small Businesses

I’m Ben Webb, a freelance marketing consultant and Growth Partner based in Worcestershire. I manage Google and Meta advertising campaigns for small businesses across the UK, with a particular focus on getting the conditions right before campaigns go live, because ads only perform as well as everything surrounding them.

If you’re looking for someone to promise you page one results or a guaranteed cost per lead before they’ve even looked at your business, I’m probably not the right fit. If you want honest, methodical advertising management that’s built around what your business actually needs, read on.

What Paid Advertising Work With Me Looks Like

Audit and Setup First

Before building anything, I look at what’s already in place. That means reviewing your website with a specific eye on whether it’s built to support advertising. Can it track conversions properly? Is there a thank you page after your contact form so we can measure what’s actually working? Are there landing pages available, or do we need to create them?

This audit matters because sending paid traffic to a website that isn’t set up to convert it is expensive and demoralising. Getting the technical foundations right at the start (conversion tracking, pixel setup, goal configuration) means we’re making decisions based on real data from day one rather than guessing.

Landing Pages

Landing pages are one of the most important and most overlooked parts of a paid advertising campaign. Sending someone who clicks an ad to your general homepage is rarely the most effective approach. A focused landing page that matches the message of the ad, with a clear and single call to action, consistently outperforms.

I help clients build landing pages as part of the campaign setup. Depending on the situation, that might mean building directly on their existing website, working within a platform I can pick up quickly, or collaborating with their existing web developer, writing the copy and structure and handing that over for them to build. The right approach depends on what’s already in place.

Research and Strategy

I look at what competitors are running, what’s working in the market, and what messaging and creative approach is most likely to resonate with your specific audience. This informs the campaign structure, the ad copy, and the targeting before we spend anything.

Ad Copy and Creative

I write the ad copy for campaigns I manage. For video content, I can help with scripting and direction even if the filming sits elsewhere. Good creative is rarely about being clever, it’s about being clear, relevant, and honest about what you’re offering. The same principles that make good marketing work generally apply directly to advertising.

Ongoing Management, Testing and Optimisation

Once campaigns are live, the work continues. I manage budgets, monitor performance, test different creative and copy variations, and make adjustments based on what the data is telling us. Paid advertising is not a set-and-forget activity, it requires consistent attention and a willingness to test and learn over time.

I provide regular reporting so you always know what’s happening with your budget and what results it’s generating.

Google Ads and Meta Ads: Which Is Right for You?

I run both Google and Meta advertising campaigns, and in many cases I recommend running both simultaneously, at least initially.

They work differently and often complement each other well.

Google Ads tend to capture people who are actively searching for what you offer, which can mean higher intent but also higher competition and cost.

Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram) are better for reaching people based on who they are rather than what they’re searching for, which makes them powerful for building awareness and targeting specific audiences.

Google Ads can take longer to optimise but often deliver strong performance once they find their footing. Meta Ads can produce results more quickly in some cases but require strong creative to cut through. Running both gives you data from two different channels, which makes it easier to identify where to focus budget over time.

The right mix depends on your budget, your audience, and your goals, which is a conversation worth having before committing to anything.

The types of campaigns I’ve had the most success with include:

In a recent campaign for a counselling agency, we are were able to to generate 32 leads for a client over a month that worked out to around just £0.20p per lead across both google and meta platforms.

An Honest Word About Paid Advertising

Paid advertising is one of the most competitive marketing channels available, and the honest truth is that it is getting more competitive and more expensive every year.

There are things worth knowing before you invest:

Ads take time to optimise.

Most campaigns need a period of testing before they start performing consistently. Clients who expect immediate results from day one are often disappointed. The optimisation process is real, necessary work, not an excuse for poor performance.

Ads amplify what’s already there.

If your website is outdated, your branding is inconsistent, or your offer isn’t clear, advertising will expose those weaknesses rather than paper over them. The businesses that get the best results from paid advertising are typically the ones where the foundations (website, messaging, brand) are already solid.

Margins matter.

With ad costs rising, the economics need to work for your specific business. A campaign that delivers a cost per lead that doesn’t make sense for your margins is not a successful campaign regardless of how many clicks it generates. Being realistic about what’s achievable within a given budget is something I take seriously from the very first conversation.

Who This Is For

My paid advertising work tends to suit businesses who: