Paid search, set up in your name and run on a schedule

Search ads for buyers who already know what they want

A search is a statement of intent. When a buyer types the name of a service, a software product plus consultant, or a problem phrased the way your customers phrase it, they are telling you what they want at that moment. Search ads put a short message and a link in front of that query.

For B2B companies the useful searches are often narrow, and the near misses are many: job seekers, students, people looking for a do-it-yourself guide, buyers of a product you do not sell. The work is finding the phrases worth paying for, keeping the near misses out, and sending each click to a page that matches the ad. Search ads management handles that setup and the weekly upkeep in Google Ads and, where it fits, Microsoft Advertising.

Negative keywords and the search terms report

The search terms report shows the actual queries that triggered your ads. Reading it is the single most useful routine task in a search account, and it is where wasted clicks become visible.

Each pass sorts terms into three piles. Good terms you are already covering. Good terms worth adding as their own keywords. Poor matches that should become negatives: jobs, salary, training, templates, competitor names you have decided not to bid on, services you do not offer.

Negatives can sit at campaign level, at ad group level, or in shared lists applied across campaigns. A careful manager also checks that a new negative does not block searches you want, because a single broad negative can switch off a whole service line without anyone noticing.

Account ownership comes first

Before anyone builds a campaign, settle who owns the account. The safe arrangement is simple: the Google Ads account is created under your business, billed to your payment method, and you hold admin access. The provider links its manager account to yours or is added as a user.

This matters later. The account holds years of keyword history, conversion data and ad tests. If it sits in a provider's name and the relationship ends, you may lose that history and have to start again.

The same applies to Microsoft Advertising, Google Tag Manager and GA4. Ask for access levels to be written into the agreement, and check now and then that you can still log in yourself.

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