Google Ads Consultant: Senior-Led PPC, Reported in Cost per Lead

01

What Does a Google Ads Consultant Do?

A Google Ads consultant takes ownership of the decisions that decide what your ad budget buys: which searches you pay for, what counts as a conversion, how bidding is set, and how results are reported. Most of the value sits in work a dashboard never shows.

At CFS Marketing, that means:

1. Tracking you can trust. We define what counts as a lead, test every form and call path, and compare Google Ads conversions with the leads in your CRM before we optimize anything.
2. Account structure built around intent. Campaigns are split by service and by how ready the searcher is to buy, so budget follows value.
3. Search terms and negative keywords, read line by line during cleanup and on a fixed schedule after that.
4. Ads and landing pages that match the search. We write them; you approve anything that runs under your name.
5. Bidding to a target cost per lead once the conversion data is clean, never to cheap clicks.
6. Monthly reporting in your numbers: leads, cost per lead and, where you share it, close rate.

02

Who Is a Google Ads Consultant a Good Fit For?

A Google Ads consultant is a good fit for a business that spends, or is ready to spend, $3,000 or more a month on Google Ads and can tell a good lead from a bad one. Below that level, the management fee takes too large a share of the budget, and there are too few conversions each month for bidding to learn from.

You are likely a fit if:

• You sell a service with clear value per customer, so a target cost per lead can be worked out.
• Your account spends money every month, but nobody can say what a lead costs.
• Google Ads reports more conversions than your sales team remembers receiving.
• You want one senior person accountable for the account, not a rotating team.
• You will share lead and sales outcomes so results can be measured past the click.

If your business is a law firm, our law firm PPC page covers cost per signed case, practice areas and intake. If you are in Dallas-Fort Worth, see Google Ads management in Dallas.

03

Should You Outsource PPC to a Consultant, an Agency or an In-House Hire?

You should outsource PPC to a senior consultant when you want experienced judgment on one account without paying for a full-time hire, and when you value direct access to the person making the decisions. An agency suits companies that need a larger team across many channels. An in-house hire suits companies whose ad budget and campaign volume justify a full-time role.

Whichever route you pick, outsourced PPC should come with three conditions: your business owns the Google Ads account, you can see the search terms report, and results are reported against leads in your CRM.

04

What Results Has CFS Marketing Produced in Google Ads?

CFS Marketing managed Google Ads for a bankruptcy law firm for four years, 2022 through 2025, and the account's yearly cost per conversion fell every year. The firm came to us from another agency, so 2021 is the baseline.

Source: the firm's Google Ads account, full-year figures, as reported in our case study. 2024 conversions were also verified against the firm's CRM.

• 2025 CPA closed 16.8% below the 2021 baseline, after four straight yearly declines.
• 2024 was the largest year: 475 conversions, verified against the firm's CRM, not just Google's count.
• Negative keyword management eliminated 40% of the low-intent traffic the account had been paying for.

A second client shows why tracking comes first. When we took over a trade school's Google Ads, we cross-referenced 1,462 reported conversions against the school's form database and found zero matches. After we rebuilt the tracking, the account produced 88 verified leads from June to December 2025, and 27% of those leads became students.

These are individual results in specific markets. Your numbers will differ, and we do not promise the same outcome. Client names are withheld.

05

What Happens in the First Month with a Google Ads Consultant?

The first month with CFS Marketing goes to tracking and cleanup, not to scaling spend. Optimizing an account whose conversion data is wrong only teaches Google's bidding to find more of the wrong thing.

Weeks 1 and 2: audit and tracking.

• Access review: confirm your business owns the Google Ads, Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager accounts.
• List every conversion action, and check which are primary (used for bidding) or secondary (observation only).
• Check conversion counting: for leads, Google recommends counting one conversion per click, not every repeat form fill.
• Submit test forms and calls, then match a month of reported conversions against your CRM.

Weeks 3 and 4: cleanup.

• Read the search terms report and build negative keyword lists.
• Pause campaigns and keywords that spend without producing real leads.
• Fix location targeting, ad schedules and landing page mismatches.
• Agree a target cost per lead with you, written down, before bidding changes.

At the end of the month you get a written summary: what we found, what we fixed, and what we will test next. Our GA4 conversion tracking page covers the tracking audit in detail.

06

Do You Set Up New Google Ads Accounts or Rebuild Existing Ones?

CFS Marketing does both: new account setups and rebuilds of existing accounts. The difference is where the first month goes.

• New setup. We build conversion tracking, call tracking and the account structure before the first ad runs, so the account learns from real leads from day one. You get a launch plan with the campaigns, keywords, negative lists and the target cost per lead.
• Rebuild. We audit what exists, keep what works (account history has value), and fix tracking before changing bids or budgets. The law firm above was a takeover from another agency: its 2022 conversion rate rose to 22.80% from 13.43% the year before.

07

Which Campaign Types Do You Run: Search, Performance Max or Local Services Ads?

CFS Marketing builds most lead-generation accounts on Search campaigns and adds Performance Max or Local Services Ads only where they fit the business and the tracking can support them. Each type buys something different.

We log leads from every campaign type in one place, so you can compare cost per lead across them directly.

08

How Do You Manage Negative Keywords?

CFS Marketing manages negative keywords by reading the search terms report, the list of real searches that triggered your ads, and blocking the ones that will never buy. Negative keywords stop ads from showing for those searches, with broad, phrase and exact match options.

How we run it:

• Weekly review during cleanup, then on a fixed schedule once the account is stable.
• Shared lists by theme: jobs and careers, free and DIY, education and training, competitor support lines, wrong locations.
• Care with intent words. "Free" can be junk for one business and a strong lead ("free consultation") for another. We decide term by term.
• Match type discipline. Broad match only after conversion data is trusted and a target cost per lead is set.
• Location settings. Google Ads defaults to "Presence or interest", which can show ads to people outside your area. Most local businesses want "Presence".

On the bankruptcy law firm's account, this work eliminated 40% of the low-intent traffic.

09

How Do You Report Google Ads Results?

CFS Marketing reports Google Ads results in cost per lead, using leads from your CRM or intake log, not just the conversions Google reports. Each monthly report answers four questions:

1. How many real leads did we get, and how many did Google report? If the two drift apart, we investigate.
2. What did each lead cost, by campaign and by service?
3. What happened to the leads (qualified, booked, closed), where you share that data.
4. What are we changing next month, and why?

Where your CRM allows it, we send closed sales back to Google Ads through offline conversion import, so bidding learns which searches become customers. Google only accepts imports within 90 days of the click, so the upload has to be routine.

10

What Won't a Google Ads Consultant Promise You?

A trustworthy Google Ads consultant won't promise a set number of leads, a specific cost per lead, or top position, because Google runs the auction and your competitors set part of the price. CFS Marketing won't promise those either.

What we will commit to:

• Tracking that matches your real leads before we optimize.
• A written target cost per lead, agreed with you.
• Monthly reports in your numbers, with the next change spelled out.
• Your business owns the account and its data, whether or not you keep working with us.

11

Who Manages Your Google Ads Account?

Cesar Soto, founder of CFS Marketing, is the lead strategist on every Google Ads account. Your account is not handed to a junior after the sales call.

• Independent client work since 2013; founded CFS Marketing in 2022.
• Certified in Google Ads Search and Google Analytics 4.
• Works in Google Ads Search, Performance Max and Local Services Ads, with tracking in Google Analytics 4 and Google Tag Manager.
• Based at our Irving, Texas office; works with businesses across the US.

12

What Does a Google Ads Consultant Cost with CFS Marketing?

CFS Marketing's Google Ads management runs on a monthly retainer, scoped by the number of campaigns, services and tracking fixes the account needs. Cesar quotes after reviewing your accounts. Ad spend is separate and paid directly to Google. We are the right fit for businesses spending $3,000 or more a month on Google Ads, or ready to.