Why a search account needs regular attention
Search campaigns drift if nobody watches them. New search terms appear every week. A competitor rewrites its ads. Google adds a setting and switches it on by default, or a landing page form breaks and conversions quietly stop recording.
Management is the habit of checking these things on a schedule instead of finding out from a billing statement. In practice someone works in your Google Ads or Microsoft Advertising account, reads the search terms report, adds negative keywords, adjusts bids or bid strategy targets, replaces weak ads and confirms conversions are still coming through. They keep a short log of what changed and why, so you can follow along and pick it up yourself if you ever take the account back in house.
A typical week in a managed search account
Early in the week, the manager opens the search terms report and reads what people actually typed. Irrelevant matches become negative keywords. Good terms that are not yet keywords get added, usually as phrase or exact match.
Midweek is for checking. Is each campaign spending roughly what was planned? Did conversions record yesterday, and does the count line up with the form submissions you received? Has Google pushed any new recommendations that would change settings if accepted?
Later in the week, ad copy gets attention. Assets marked as low performing are swapped out, and a new headline or description may go into a test. Bid strategy targets move only when there is enough data to justify it.
Each change goes into a log you can read.
What you hand over at the start
- Access to your Google Ads account, and Microsoft Advertising if you use it, through a manager account link or a user invite.
- Access to Google Tag Manager and GA4, or to whoever manages your website.
- A list of the services you want to advertise, with any you want left out.
- The areas you serve, if you do not cover the whole country.
- A monthly ad budget you are comfortable with.
- What counts as a lead for you: a form fill, a booked meeting, something else.
- Words and claims you want avoided, and any competitor names not to bid on.
- A contact who can answer questions and approve ad copy.
If you have no account yet, create it yourself under your company email so it belongs to you from day one.
Questions about search ads management
Do I need both Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising?
No. Most accounts start with Google Ads because it carries most US search volume. Microsoft Advertising can be added later, often by importing the Google campaigns and then adjusting settings. Whether it is worth the extra upkeep depends on your buyers and budget, which the service partner can talk through with you.
Who owns the ad account?
You should. The account should be created under your business email and billed to your payment method, with you holding admin access. The provider works through a manager account link or a user invite that you can remove. That way the keyword history and conversion data stay with you if the arrangement ends.
Who decides the ad budget?
You do. A provider can explain how daily campaign budgets work, how search volume and click prices affect spend, and how to split money between services. Ad spend is billed by Google or Microsoft to you, and you can lower or pause it in the account.
You keep the accounts and the data. Ask a service partner to quote the hands-on work.
Ask for a quoteOther services
Paid social setup
Pixel, Conversions API, audiences, first creative set and lead forms built and tested before any budget goes live.
Landing pages
Pages written and built to match each campaign, on a tool you can edit later, checked on mobile before traffic arrives.
Lead source reporting
A simple report showing inquiries by channel and campaign, built from your own CRM and analytics data.