Lexington, KY — PPC / SEM
PPC & SEM
for Lexington
Businesses
Paid search done by the person actually running the account. No percentage-of-spend retainer, no markup on ad budget, no reports designed to justify the invoice.
Start a conversation
Most ad accounts
quietly leak money.
Paid search is simple in theory. Someone searches for what you sell, sees the ad, clicks, buys. In practice, campaigns get built once, nobody touches them for six months, and the budget slowly drains into irrelevant search terms and bid strategies that stopped making sense two algorithm updates ago.
The agency model makes this worse. Percentage-of-spend pricing rewards the manager for pushing more budget through the account, not for making it more efficient. The reporting dashboard looks busy. The revenue line doesn't.
I've managed over $5M in annual ad spend across Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and Amazon — mostly ecommerce, some local service businesses. At that scale, every dollar has to justify itself. Same principle scales down to a $3k/month Lexington account. The fundamentals don't change.
Three ways
this usually goes
Account audit
A single-session review of what's running, what it's costing, and what it's actually returning. Search terms, account structure, bid strategy, conversion tracking. Output: a plain-language read on whether the account is leaking money and where. Flat fee.
Build or rebuild
Set up a new account, or gut and rebuild one that's been drifting. Proper campaign architecture, negative keyword strategy, conversion tracking that reflects real revenue, Shopping feeds if you're ecommerce. Scoped once, handed off with a playbook if you want to run it in-house.
Ongoing management
Weekly optimization, monthly strategy, reporting that actually tells you what happened and why. No percentage-of-spend pricing. Flat monthly fee tied to account complexity, not budget size — so I don't make more when you spend more.
If any of these
sound familiar
Ecommerce running Shopping or Search
You sell products online and the account is either not built right or not managed tight enough to hit the margin you need. Feeds, bidding, structure — that's where the lift lives.
Local services needing leads
Lexington-area service businesses where the phone ringing is the conversion event. Google Ads can move faster than SEO on this — if the targeting and landing pages are set up properly.
Accounts you inherited and don't trust
Someone built this a year or two ago, you've kept paying, and you're not confident what the money is actually doing. An audit can answer that in one session.
Teams who want a setup, not a retainer
You have someone in-house who can manage the day-to-day. You just want the account built right up front with a playbook they can actually run.
What I'm
not selling
Not a percentage-of-spend retainer. Not a markup on ad budget or tools. Not a monthly PDF with "impressions up 38%" in bold when the revenue line is flat. Not a junior account manager copying last quarter's playbook into your campaign.
If the honest answer is that your account is already running well and doesn't need me — or that paid search isn't the channel that moves your business — I'll say so. Referrals come from that answer more reliably than from finding ways to keep the invoice alive.
Things worth
knowing upfront
What's the difference between SEO and SEM? +
SEO is organic — earning rankings over time without paying per click. SEM (or PPC) is paid — buying visibility through ads on Google, Microsoft, or Shopping. SEO builds long-term equity. SEM delivers traffic this week. Most businesses benefit from both, but they serve different jobs.
How much should a Lexington business spend on Google Ads? +
Depends on your industry, your margins, your competition, and what you're actually trying to drive. I've managed accounts from a few thousand a month to over five million a year. Budget size matters less than account structure and whether you're tracking what actually turns into revenue.
How do I know if my ad spend is being wasted? +
Pull the search terms report. If you're paying for clicks on queries that have nothing to do with what you sell, the negative keyword list needs work. If cost-per-conversion is climbing while revenue isn't, the account structure needs a rebuild. Most accounts I audit have both.
Are Google Shopping campaigns worth it? +
For most ecommerce businesses, Shopping is the highest-ROI ad format available. Your product, price, and image show up directly in search. The lift lives in clean feeds and smart bid strategy, not in campaign volume. I ran Shopping for Galls for years — I know where the money hides.
Do you manage accounts long-term, or just set them up? +
Either. Some Lexington businesses need ongoing management — daily bid adjustments, new campaigns, seasonal strategy. Others just need the account built right with a playbook their marketing person can run. I'm fine with both. Not interested in selling retainers that outlive their usefulness.
Is there markup on ad spend or tool costs? +
No. The ads get billed straight to your card. I charge for the work — management, audit, or build — and that's it. No percentage-of-spend retainer that rewards me for burning more of your budget.
The rest of
what I do here
No pitch.
Just a conversation.
Tell me what the account is doing, what you're spending, and what you think it's returning. If there's real lift available, I'll tell you. If the account is fine and the problem is somewhere else, I'll tell you that too.
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Not Robbie Clark will get in touch with you. Feel free to check out other stuff on the site.
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