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01 · ACQ · 01/04

Google Ads.

Not for vanity. Not to inflate impressions. For what your CAC can actually pay.

You structure your account by business goal, not by format. Search captures hot intent, Performance Max sweeps the rest, DemandGen opens discovery. We review every morning, cut what does not pay its CAC, scale what holds.

By Jérôme · Strategy & data

Get my Google Ads account quotedSee the Brasero mission

02 · OPERATION NOTE · OPS GOOGLE ADS

Google Ads, decoded

The field report

You see your CPCthe cost you pay per click climbing while your ROASwhat your ads return per euro invested stays flat, or your Performance MaxGoogle Ads automated campaigns campaigns eating budget on brand terms without bringing anything new. The account structure usually has not kept up with your growth.

The cost of waiting

70 % of Belgian SMEs use Google Ads as their primary acquisition channel in 2026. If the structure is wrong, you fund the exclusion list more than your pipeline. Quality scorethe rating Google gives your ads drops, bidding turns unfair, and you pay for clicks that never convert.

In black and white

An account structured by business goal, not by algo whim. Audiences calibrated on your real target customers. Clear visibility on what every euro spent on Google brings back, per campaign and per ad group.

The manoeuvre

We start by auditing your account, before touching a single bid. We look at Searchtext campaigns on the Google search engine, Performance MaxGoogle Ads automated campaigns, DemandGenGoogle Ads discovery campaigns, YouTube, and what actually shows up in GA4the Google audience measurement tool. We rewire conversions cleanly, cut parasite campaigns, scale what pays its CACthe cost to acquire a new customer.

The lock that breaks

Budget arbitrage that holds month after month. Clean reading when we wire Meta Ads in alongside. An account your team can take back over if we leave tomorrow, with no hidden dependency.

03 · WHAT WE WON'T WRITE IN AN RFP

Google Ads is a commercial steering tool. Not a visibility medal.

If the ad does not pay its CAC (cost to acquire a new customer), we cut it. No campaign running out of habit, no Performance Max (Google Ads automated campaign) eating your brand terms without bringing anything new. The right question before opening an account: above which CAC do you stop? If the answer is fuzzy, we frame the target before creating campaigns. The broader agency vs freelance vs in-house debate sits here.

  • 01

    Account structured by goal

    Brand Search, Generic Search, Performance Max, DemandGen (discovery campaigns), YouTube. Each campaign carries a clear business goal. Budgets read in CPL (cost per qualified contact) or ROAS, not impressions.

  • 02

    Continuous morning steering

    We review the account every morning before 10am. We cut parasite queries, adjust bids, isolate ad groups that slip. No autopilot on SME budgets.

  • 03

    Quality score worked on

    Ads rewritten ad group by ad group, landing page aligned with the main keyword, extensions calibrated. A higher quality score (the rating Google gives your ads) means a lower CPC for the same position. The whole edge sits there.

  • 04

    Full account ownership

    The account stays with you, never piloted as a black box. You leave with the history, conversions, audiences. If you change agency tomorrow, the mechanic remains documented and resumable.

04 · THE MISSION THAT PROVED IT

We deployed it on these fields.

Brasero estate, corporate retreats and weddings in Liège province

Brasero Group

Hospitality & events

Google Ads across 5 markets for 24 months.

Read the Brasero mission
Battlekart, immersive indoor karting in Verlaine and Malmedy

Battlekart

Indoor leisure B2C

6-month Google Ads + Meta run, 2 sites.

Read the Battlekart mission
Ecostal Group team handling a solar panel in their warehouse

Ecostal Group

B2B photovoltaic e-commerce

18-month B2B Google Ads run, 3 e-shops.

Read the Ecostal mission

05 · THE PLAY-BY-PLAY

Four steps. Four weeks on average. Zero pipeline cut.

  1. STEP 01

    We audit your existing account.

    We look at 90 days of history: campaign structure, parasite queries, quality score per ad group, conversions reported in GA4 (opens in a new window). We measure what pays, what bleeds, what sleeps. Tools: Google Ads (opens in a new window) Editor, GA4 export to BigQuery (opens in a new window).

  2. STEP 02

    We freeze the scope and the target CAC.

    Target account plan, scope frozen in writing, ceiling CAC client-approved. We say what we cut, what we keep, what we open. No sneak-in scope outside the quote. If Performance Max (Google Ads automated campaign) does not fit your volume, we say so.

  3. STEP 03

    We restructure and launch in parallel.

    We rebuild Brand Search + Generic Search + Performance Max + DemandGen, by business goal. Conversions wired cleanly, plus Meta CAPI (direct server link site → Meta) when applicable. We keep the old account live until the new one has found its footing.

  4. STEP 04

    We compare 30 days before vs after.

    A/B measurement on the same goals, same attribution window. Looker Studio (opens in a new window) dashboard wired to GA4 + Google Ads. Notion handover to your team or your media agency. We review together every month for three months.

06 · THE FLOW AT A GLANCE

The path each Google click takes between the auction and your conversion.

BUSINESS GOALCAC TARGET · ROAS FLOORSEARCHhot intentImpressionsClicksConv.PMAXthe rest, sweptImpressionsClicksConv.DEMANDGENtargeted discoveryImpressionsClicksConv.YOUTUBEvideo intentImpressionsClicksConv.⏱ 10:00 AMMORNING REVIEW · CUT / SCALE / ADJUSTGoogle Ads · GA4 · GTMWHAT FLATTERSWITHOUT PAYING✕ CUT

The account serves one business goal. Four formats carry it, morning review cuts what does not pay its CAC.

07 · NOT YET FOR YOU IF

Three cases where Google Ads is not the top priority.

  • Your conversion tracking is broken.

    Without clean GA4 + coherent conversions, the Google algo bids blind. We start by laying down measurement, then we touch campaigns. Not the other way around, otherwise you fund its mistakes.

  • Your annual ad spend is under 30 k€.

    Below this threshold, the cost of a structured account piloted every morning is not paid back. At these volumes, a senior freelance half a day per week often does better than us. We would rather say so than rope you into a process that's too heavy.

  • You want the Google Ads medal without steering the CAC.

    No one on your side will read the monthly reports to decide what to cut. At that stage, Google Ads becomes a prestige expense, not a commercial channel. We would rather frame budget governance before opening the account.

08 · THE QUESTIONS WE ACTUALLY HEAR

Questions whispered after the second meeting. Honest answers.

On the Belgian market in 2026, unpiloted SME Google Ads accounts lose 20-35 % of their potential CAC (cost to acquire a new customer) through drift: parasite queries, Performance Max eating the brand, mis-calibrated bids. The real cost is not the wasted budget, it is the sales pipeline that does not land. The broader agency vs freelance vs in-house debate sits here.

Not on its own. Performance Max learns better when you separate signals: Brand Search for searches on your name, Generic Search for searches around your offer, Performance Max for cross-format discovery. If you mix, the algo cannibalises your brand, inflates its numbers, and you pay twice for the same click. Separating also lets you cut without hesitation when a channel slips. On the social side, Meta Ads is framed with the same separated-signal logic.

No. Monthly HTVA flat fee, independent of media budget. The rule: if we are paid as a % of spend, we are incentivised to make you spend. Wrong incentive. We prefer a clear flat fee tied to an upfront business goal, so we can cut without hesitation what does not pay its CAC. CAC is won as much on the bid side as on the landing page that turns clicks into leads.

Belgian SME 2026 market range: 15-30 % recoverable CAC over the first 6 months when the audit reveals parasite queries, Performance Max eating the brand, or poorly segmented Generic Search. Beyond that, it is conquest, no longer waste hunting. For your specific case, we quote after the audit. The natural partner on the measurement side is framed GA4.

A senior freelance to pilot the account: 4 to 8 days per month depending on ad spend, so 3,200 to 6,400 € HTVA monthly on the Belgian market. A junior in-house with a documented process: a half-time is enough below 100 k€ annual budget. If we leave, you walk away with the Notion doc + account structure + commercial cadence in two weeks.

Yes. We do this on 25 % of our missions. The rule: who steers the account strategy and the monthly review. If your existing agency stays pilot, we frame scope and timeline. If they execute our plan, we accompany and review. Never any hidden double billing. We do not step on the other agency without saying so. Lived case on the SME Search side: Google Ads piloting on Brasero, as proof.

Field note

Google Ads is rarely the first lever we activate. Before touching a single bid, we check that measurement holds and that a ceiling CAC (cost to acquire a new customer) is set in writing. Without that, the algo takes 20-35 % of your budget through silent drift. We rarely start there.

Jérôme · Strategy & data
JérômeStrategy & data · HeySquad

Other sub-services PAID ACQUISITION

We look at your Google Ads account. We tell you what pays, what bleeds, what sleeps.

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