Manchester's PPC Management Partner
Manchester PPC management for ambitious Northern Powerhouse businesses that want an account built for their own market, not a national afterthought. We run Google Ads and Microsoft Ads for media, music and growing tech companies across the city region, with reporting that shows exactly which clicks turn into revenue.
Real Mojo Dojo clients, on the record.
Ten boroughs, one crowded auction.
The city region's business base has been growing faster than the country's. The number of firms rose 22% between 2015 and 2023 against 12% nationally, registered companies reached a record 251,769 at the end of 2024, and 40,892 new companies were formed that year alone. Most of that growth came from the smallest firms. For paid search, it means every common service category has a large, constantly refreshed pool of advertisers, many of them new and bidding without much discipline.
It is also ten boroughs, not one city. Manchester, Salford, Trafford and Stockport produce 68% of the region's output, while household income across the region is £3,700 below the UK average. A campaign built for Spinningfields professionals will not work in the same way in Bolton or Rochdale, and searchers often name their borough or town rather than the city. Targeting, bids and ad copy need to reflect those differences.
PPC management is how we handle it: planning, running and refining ads across Google, Microsoft, Meta and LinkedIn, and judging them on leads, sales and revenue. Buyers here have plenty of capable agencies to compare, so they expect transparent reporting, and they get it. If you are deciding between paid and organic, our guide to SEO, PPC and SEM sets out the trade-offs, and our SEO services cover the organic side.
We also run this service nationally: see PPC Management UK. The same service is available in London. Related Manchester services include Google Ads, Facebook Ads and LinkedIn Ads. See all of our Manchester services.
Easily one of the most intelligent individual I have had the pleasure of working agency side. (You) did the best by the client who is reaping the benefit of running one of the most sophisticated Google adwords campaign I have seen in my career.
Kartik, on our Google Ads work
PPC management in Manchester: a fast-growing field.
Sourced figures on the size and churn of the market your ads compete in.
Where PPC budgets leak, and what we do about it.
Six common ways paid budget is wasted. Two of them are shaped by the region's geography and calendar.
Conversions are counted wrongly
Double-counted form fills, reloaded thank-you pages and missing call tracking make an account look better or worse than it is, and automated bidding then learns from bad data.
Measurement is fixed first
We audit every conversion action, remove duplicates, add call and form tracking, and feed real lead or revenue value back to the platform where we can.
Ads show for the wrong searches
Broad and phrase match can trigger ads on loosely related queries, so budget goes to clicks that were never going to buy.
Search terms reviewed continually
We mine search term reports, add negatives, tighten match types and separate brand from non-brand so you can see what new customers really cost.
One campaign, one budget, no control
When everything is lumped together, the products or services that earn the most are starved while weak ones absorb spend.
Budget follows margin and return
Campaigns are split by intent and value, and budget moves toward what returns most, judged against your margins rather than platform averages.
Peak-season traffic sent to an evergreen page
The Christmas Markets, festival season and September term start bring bursts of high-intent searches. Sending that traffic to a generic homepage wastes the most valuable clicks of the year.
Seasonal pages ready before the peak
We plan landing pages, offers and budgets for each peak in advance, and test them with our conversion rate optimisation service so they convert from day one.
One message for very different boroughs
Output and higher-paid jobs sit mostly in the southern boroughs, while incomes in the northern towns are lower. The same ad and offer shown everywhere under-sells in one place and over-promises in another.
Ads written for each part of the region
We split campaigns by borough group, test offers and messages that fit each, and report results separately so budget follows the areas that pay back.
Reports full of clicks
Dashboards that lead with impressions and clicks hide whether the account is making money.
Reporting on business outcomes
Reports lead with leads, sales, revenue, cost per acquisition and return on ad spend, with plain commentary on what changed and why.
Industries we help in Manchester.
The sectors that shape the region's economy, and the job paid media does in each.
Financial, business and professional services
About 309,000 people worked in these firms in 2020. For accountants, law firms and advisers we run compliant search on specific services and LinkedIn by role, and track leads through to signed clients.
Tech, cyber and ecommerce
GMCA describes a £5 billion tech ecosystem. SaaS and ecommerce businesses get search, Shopping and LinkedIn campaigns judged on trials, orders and return on ad spend.
Media and creative businesses
MediaCityUK in Salford anchors a large creative cluster. Studios and agencies selling B2B get narrow search and LinkedIn campaigns aimed at commissioners and brand teams, not the general public.
Health and life sciences
Clinics and medtech firms along the Oxford Road Corridor and beyond need regulated, careful advertising. We keep ad claims compliant and focus spend on bookings and qualified enquiries.
Hospitality, venues and events
Tourism had a £12.7 billion economic impact in 2023. We plan budgets around the Christmas Markets, Parklife and term start, and use Meta and search to fill tables and tickets in those windows.
Retrofit and low carbon services
More than 3,000 low carbon firms operate in the region. Installers and green consultancies get borough-targeted search and lead forms that qualify the property and budget before you call.
Is your budget working in every borough you serve?
Book a strategy session and we will review your PPC accounts, borough targeting, seasonal plans and conversion tracking.
What managed PPC does for the numbers.
Paid media results from our published client case studies.
Paid channels we manage.
We choose channels by buyer and margin. A Salford Quays production company may need LinkedIn, a Northern Quarter bar Meta and Maps.
Search ads
Capture people already searching for what you sell, with full control of keywords, match types and ad copy across Google Ads management and Microsoft Advertising.
Shopping and Performance Max
Product feeds and automated campaigns for online stores, with feed clean-up and asset control. See Google Shopping Ads and Performance Max.
Display and YouTube
Reach and retarget audiences with visuals and video through Google Display and YouTube Ads.
Remarketing
Bring back visitors who did not convert, with audiences built from real behaviour. See our remarketing service.
Meta ads
Demand generation and direct response on Facebook and Instagram, from creative testing to audience strategy. See Facebook Ads and Instagram Ads.
LinkedIn ads
Reach buyers by job title, company and industry for B2B lead generation. See LinkedIn Ads.
TikTok ads
Short-form video campaigns for brands whose buyers spend time on the platform. See TikTok Ads.
The right mix, not every channel
We will tell you when a channel is not worth your budget yet. A smaller, well-run mix beats a wide one spread too thin.
Get a free review of your PPC accounts.
Send us your website and the ad accounts you run, and we will point out where borough targeting, seasonal planning and tracking could work harder. No obligation.
How PPC advertising works.
Most PPC platforms sell ad space through an auction that runs each time someone searches or scrolls. You choose who you want to reach and what you are willing to pay for a result. The platform then decides whether your ad enters the auction and where it appears.
On Google Ads, position depends on Ad Rank, which combines your bid with the quality of your ad and landing page and the context of the search. That is why the highest bidder does not always win, and why a relevant ad on a fast page can cost less per click than a poor one. Quality Score, a 1 to 10 diagnostic shown in the account, is a useful signal of how well keyword, ad and landing page fit together.
Other platforms work on similar principles with different inputs. Meta and LinkedIn weigh your bid against how likely the audience is to engage. Managing PPC well means knowing what each auction rewards and shaping the account to match. For the biggest platform, see our Google Ads management service.
What our PPC management covers.
Setup, day-to-day running and transparent reporting, so you can compare our work with anyone else's on the numbers.
Account and tracking audit. A full review of existing accounts, conversion actions and data quality before any budget moves.
Keyword, audience and competitor research. Intent-led research that finds the searches and audiences most likely to become customers.
Campaign structure and build. Campaigns organised by intent and value so budget can follow return.
Ad copy and creative. Copy, images and video written for the audience, tested against each other.
Bid and budget management. Bid strategies, budgets and pacing set against your target cost per lead or return on ad spend.
Search term and negative keyword control. Ongoing removal of wasted queries and protection of your brand terms.
Landing page recommendations and testing. Changes to pages and forms that lift conversion, working with our CRO team.
Conversion and call tracking. Form, call and sales tracking set up and checked so reported results can be trusted.
Remarketing audiences. Lists built from real site behaviour to win back visitors who did not convert.
Ad and creative testing. Controlled experiments so winners are kept and learning builds over time.
Shopping feed optimisation. For online stores, product data clean-up that improves eligibility and click-through.
Reporting and strategy reviews. Reports on leads, revenue and return, plus a regular review of what to do next.
PPC and SEO work best together.
Paid search buys speed and control. You can be on page one tomorrow, target exact audiences and switch budgets on and off. Organic search builds an asset that keeps bringing traffic without a cost per click. Each channel makes the other cheaper to run.
Search term data from paid campaigns shows which keywords convert, so we know which pages are worth ranking for. Organic data shows which pages already convert, so we know where paid clicks will land well. Bfree is a good example: running Google Ads management alongside SEO, sales rose 1000% and organic traffic 192%.
If you are deciding where to start, our guide to SEO vs PPC vs SEM sets out the trade-offs, and our SEO service covers the organic side.
How our PPC management works, stage by stage.
Six stages, from agreeing targets to monthly reviews, all run remotely over video calls and shared dashboards.
Goals and economics
We learn your margins, lead value, sales cycle and targets so success is defined in money, not clicks.
Account and tracking audit
We review any existing accounts and fix measurement before we touch budgets.
Strategy and budget plan
Channel mix, budget split and targets are agreed with you before anything launches.
Build and launch
Campaigns, ads, audiences and landing pages go live with tracking already in place.
Ongoing optimisation
We review search terms, bids, budgets and creative tests, and move spend toward what returns most.
Reporting and review
Monthly reporting on leads, revenue and return on ad spend, then a plan for the next month.
Areas we serve in Manchester.
We work remotely with businesses across all ten boroughs. In and around the city centre that includes Ancoats, the Northern Quarter, Spinningfields, Piccadilly and the Oxford Road Corridor, with Salford, MediaCityUK and Eccles to the west.
To the south we cover Trafford, Stretford, Sale, Altrincham, Chorlton, Didsbury, Wythenshawe, Stockport and Cheadle. North and east, accounts reach Prestwich, Bury, Bolton, Wigan, Rochdale, Oldham, Tameside and Ashton-under-Lyne. Each area can carry its own bids and messages, because a lead in Altrincham and a lead in Oldham rarely cost the same.
Selected results.
Featured work from our wider client portfolio. It shows how we approach growth, not results for businesses in this city.
“Their team understood our business before we even had to explain it. Enquiries are up 250% and the quality is better than ever.”
Outsmart competitors instead of outspending them.
What nine years and $32 million of Google Ads taught us about outsmarting competitors instead of outspending them. One client, five ideas that transfer to any account.
Send me the PPC Playbook →
Free. 12 pages, 14 min read. In your inbox. Magic-link delivery, it arrives in about two minutes, and there's no sales call attached to reading it.
What are PPC management services?
PPC management services cover the planning, setup, daily running and reporting of pay per click advertising. That includes keyword and audience research, ad copy and creative, bidding and budgets, tracking, landing page advice and regular reporting, across platforms such as Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, Meta and LinkedIn.
How is PPC different from SEO?
PPC buys visibility. You pay per click or action, results start quickly and you control who sees the ad. SEO earns visibility over months and has no cost per click, but takes longer to build. Most businesses do best running both, each informing the other. Our guide to SEO vs PPC vs SEM goes through the trade-offs.
Which PPC platforms should I advertise on?
It depends on where your buyers are and what a customer is worth. Search ads suit people who already know what they want. Shopping suits online stores. LinkedIn suits B2B lead generation. Meta and TikTok suit demand creation and visual products. We recommend a mix after understanding your margins, not a fixed package.
Do you work with Manchester businesses?
We do, remotely. Onboarding, planning and monthly reviews all happen on video calls, and you get shared reporting that shows spend, leads and revenue as they come in, so you never have to wait for a meeting to see how the account is doing.
How long does it take to see results from PPC?
Traffic starts as soon as campaigns are approved, but useful conclusions take longer. Platforms need data to learn, so expect the first weeks to be about collecting it and removing waste, with efficiency improving as tests conclude. Linen House cut marketing cost by 40% while paid revenue grew 109%, which is the pattern good management aims for.
How do I know if my PPC campaigns are working?
Judge them on business results: leads, sales, revenue, cost per acquisition and return on ad spend, not clicks or impressions. That only works if conversion tracking is accurate, so we check tracking first. Where possible we tie ad data to real sales or lead quality, not just form fills.
Should we target borough names or the city name?
Usually both, in separate groups. Many people search for Stockport, Bolton or Altrincham rather than the city, and those searches can be cheaper and more local. We test each and put budget behind the terms that bring leads.
Should I manage PPC in-house or hire an agency?
In-house works when you have someone with the time and platform experience to keep accounts current. An agency suits teams that need specialists across several platforms, fresh testing ideas and reporting that ties spend to revenue. Many businesses start with an agency and bring parts of the work in-house later.
Do you provide PPC audits?
Yes. An audit reviews your account structure, tracking, keywords and search terms, ads, budgets and landing pages, then ranks the fixes by likely impact. See our Google Ads audit, or use the form below to ask for a review.
What is remarketing and why does it matter?
Remarketing shows ads to people who have already visited your site or engaged with your brand. Most visitors do not convert on the first visit, so remarketing keeps you in front of warmer audiences, usually at a lower cost per conversion than cold traffic. Linen House used remarketing as part of the campaign that grew paid revenue 109%. See our remarketing service.
What should I look for in a PPC agency?
Ask who owns the ad accounts, how conversions are measured, what the reports lead with, and how spend is split by margin. Look for published results in your kind of business, not just headline figures. Be wary of agencies that report clicks and impressions but cannot show revenue or cost per lead.
When should we plan for the Christmas Markets and term start?
Well before they begin. We prepare ads, landing pages and budgets a few weeks ahead, so the account has learned and the pages are proven when demand arrives in November or September.
Get a free review of your PPC accounts.
Send us your website and the ad accounts you run, and we will point out where borough targeting, seasonal planning and tracking could work harder. No obligation.