Derek VaalPaid Search Consultant
Services

Paid search built around your next customer.

I help lead generation businesses and ecommerce brands get more from Google Ads and Microsoft Ads. We define what a valuable conversion means for your business, then build the campaigns, tracking, and reporting around it.

Two business models. Different priorities.

Better leads or stronger sales. Start with what matters to you.

Lead generation

Enquiries your sales team can work with.

Search intent, landing pages, and conversion tracking need to agree on what a good lead looks like. I review the account alongside the lead-quality feedback your team can share, so a cheap form fill does not become the goal by default.

Talk through your lead generation account →
Ecommerce

Sales that make sense for the business.

Shopping, Search, and Performance Max work together around your products, margins, and customer demand. I connect campaign decisions with feed health, inventory, and the sales data behind the headline return.

Explore ecommerce results →
Direct support

Looking for a Google Ads freelancer instead of a large agency?

You work directly with me, the person responsible for the account. That makes this a better fit for businesses that want an experienced Google Ads freelancer who connects campaign changes to lead quality, sales, and reporting.

Core services

Paid search management from account structure through reporting.

01

Google Ads management

Know which campaigns deserve your budget. I review the account and manage changes around the leads or sales that matter to your business.

  • Account audit and restructuring plan
  • Clear roles across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Search, Shopping, and PMax
  • Search-term cleanup, budget pacing, and waste reduction
Explore this service
02

Merchant Center and product feeds

I fix the product-data, Merchant Center, and campaign issues that hold ecommerce accounts back.

  • Merchant Center and Microsoft Merchant Center review
  • Feed coverage, quality, landing-page, and policy checks
  • PMax structure, product groups, exclusions, and labels
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03

Microsoft Ads for ecommerce

Decide whether another search channel deserves a share of your budget. I assess readiness, set up the campaigns, and review what Microsoft adds.

  • Review whether expansion makes sense
  • Campaign imports, product feeds, and conversion checks
  • Search-term review and budget decisions
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Method

The order the work happens in, and why it matters.

Most underperforming paid search accounts have more than one problem, and fixing them in the wrong order wastes the budget spent proving it. Measurement comes before structure, and reliable conversion signals come before bidding, because every decision downstream inherits the errors upstream of it.

1. Diagnose

I review the account, conversion tracking, and the customer journey together. Lead-quality feedback matters for a service business; product data and margins matter for a store. Findings are documented and prioritized.

This is also where I tell you if the real problem is not in the ad account at all. Margin, inventory, landing pages, and measurement all masquerade as paid search problems.

2. Fix the inputs

Tracking accuracy and conversion definitions come first, alongside Merchant Center eligibility for ecommerce. Campaign changes need data you can trust.

Where the fix belongs to your developer or platform team, I brief them directly rather than handing over a ticket and waiting.

3. Restructure

Campaign roles follow the business: services and sales priorities for lead generation; margin, merchandising, and inventory for ecommerce.

Every structural change is written up with its reasoning before it is applied, and logged after.

4. Monitor and scale

Ongoing work is search-term review, budget pacing, feed health, asset testing, and the recurring checks that catch problems while they are still small.

Guardian runs daily checks on spend pacing, anomalies, and feed health, so issues surface between our conversations rather than during them.

Working together

Built to run without a standing status call.

The recurring weekly call is replaced by a recorded walkthrough each month and a client workspace that is current the rest of the time. This is a deliberate model rather than a compromise, and it suits some brands considerably better than others. It is worth knowing which you are before we start.

A recorded walkthrough each month

A video walking through the account: what changed, what it means, what I recommend next, and what I decided to leave alone. Recorded rather than live, so you watch it when it suits you and can send it to anyone else who needs the context.

Nobody has to take notes, and the reasoning stays available later.

The account is readable between walkthroughs

Dashboard holds your reporting, account health, shared files, and the recommendations I have reviewed and published. Guardian runs daily checks on budget pacing, spend anomalies, and feed health inside it.

You do not have to wait for a scheduled update to find out how the account is doing, which is the part a monthly rhythm would otherwise cost you.

Questions come straight to me

There is no account manager in between. When something needs a decision or an explanation, you are talking to the person who made the change and can tell you why.

Every account change is logged with its reasoning, so the history is readable months later.

Scope

What is included, and what is not.

Included

  • Account review covering campaigns, conversion tracking, and business priorities.
  • Strategy, build, and ongoing management across Google Ads and Microsoft Ads.
  • For ecommerce: Merchant Center and feed diagnostics, plus coordination on fixes.
  • Looker Studio reporting tied to business goals.
  • Dashboard portal access with account health, Guardian monitoring, shared files, and change history.
  • Direct access to me for account questions between reviews.

Not included

  • Ad spend, which is paid directly to the platform on your own billing.
  • Creative production, photography, and video. I specify what is needed and review it.
  • Website development and theme work, though I diagnose issues and brief your developer.
  • Paid social, email, SEO, and marketplaces. Paid search is the whole focus.
  • Guaranteed performance numbers. Nobody who has not seen your data can honestly offer one.
Best fit

Who I can help most.

  • Established lead generation businesses and ecommerce brands
  • Teams that can share sales or lead-quality feedback
  • $15k or more in monthly paid search spend
  • Teams that care about customer value and reliable measurement
  • Businesses that want direct access to the person managing the account
  • Teams happy with a monthly recorded walkthrough instead of a standing weekly call
Questions

Questions before we start.

What makes this different from hiring an agency?

You work directly with the person doing the work. There is no account manager relaying instructions to a media buyer you never meet, and no junior handoff after the pitch. The tradeoff is honest: a solo practice takes on fewer clients and does not offer paid social, SEO, or creative production.

What does it cost?

Management is a flat monthly fee, not a percentage of your ad spend. The fee is set by account complexity and the work the account actually needs, so it does not rise simply because you increased budget, and I have no incentive to grow your spend rather than your results. Management starts at $2,500 per month. A short strategy call gets you an exact quote with no commitment.

Do you start with a paid audit or a free one?

Paid, and credited in full against your first month if we go ahead. The ecommerce audit of campaigns, tracking, and product data is $1,500. For lead generation, we agree on the audit scope and fee on the strategy call. If you hire me, that comes off the first invoice, so the audit effectively costs nothing. If you do not, you keep the findings and the prioritized action list. You get real diagnostic work rather than a sales pitch dressed up as a free audit.

How long am I committed for?

The first term is 90 days, and after that it runs month to month with 30 days notice. The initial term exists because structural changes to Search, Shopping, and Performance Max need time to gather enough data to be judged fairly, and cancelling at week six usually means paying for the disruption without ever seeing the result. The paid audit comes first, so you see exactly what I would do before committing to any of it.

What do I keep if the engagement ends?

Everything. I work inside your own Google Ads and Merchant Center accounts, so the campaigns, the historical data, and the structure belong to your business. If we stop working together you keep all of it, including the exported change history from Dashboard explaining why each decision was made. There is no manager account holding your campaigns and nothing you need to rebuild from scratch.

How often will we actually talk?

You get a recorded walkthrough of the account every month covering what changed, what it means, what I recommend next, and what I deliberately left alone. Between those, Dashboard holds your reporting, account health, and reviewed recommendations, and Guardian checks budget pacing, spend anomalies, and feed health daily. Questions come straight to me rather than to an account manager.

Why a recorded walkthrough instead of a standing weekly call?

Because a recurring status call is mostly a worse version of a document. A recording can be watched when it suits you, forwarded to anyone who needs the context, and rewatched when a decision comes back up three months later. It also means the time goes into the account rather than into narrating it. This model only works because the reporting layer is a live portal rather than a monthly PDF, which is why the walkthrough can be a summary instead of the only time you see the numbers.

What if my team wants a weekly call?

Then this probably is not the right fit, and it is better to find that out now than in month two. A standing weekly sync is not the model here. Some brands genuinely need that rhythm and there are good consultants who work that way. If you are unsure, raise it on the discovery call and we can be honest about whether the working style matches before either of us commits.

Do you work with lead generation businesses as well as stores?

Yes. Lead generation work focuses on search intent, tracking, and the quality of enquiries. Ecommerce work also covers Shopping, product feeds, and margins. We agree on the right scope for your business before starting.

How fast will I see results?

Some wins land in weeks, usually where spend is being wasted outright or a tracking error is distorting the picture. Durable gains come from cleaner structure, accurate measurement, and healthy product data, and those take longer because the campaigns need enough data for the results to mean anything.

Will you make changes without telling me?

No. Recommendations are written up and reviewed before they are applied, and every account change is logged with the reasoning behind it. AI helps me draft internal analysis and review large volumes of search-term and product data, but it never applies a change. Every account change is made manually.

What if paid search is not my real problem?

Then I will tell you on the call rather than after you have signed. Weak results can come from tracking, landing pages, sales follow-up, margins, or inventory. Campaign management alone may not solve the issue.

Useful reading

How I think about the work, before you talk to me.

These guides cover scope, channel mix, and the checks that come before any campaign change.

Next step

Tell me what is not working in the account.

Share your website, spend level, and biggest concern. I will tell you whether I can help and what I would look at first.