Digital marketing · Conversion
Paid Media
Paid search and paid social for firms whose buyers already know the category, pointed at pages that can turn a visit into a genuine enquiry.
The issue
The problem shows up differently depending on the firm. These are the questions we hear, in the words clients actually use, and the answer we would give in the room.
- Legal
We can buy the visit. The page does not turn it into an enquiry. Why would we spend more?
- Accounting and finance
Is paid search even worth it if the buyer is asking an AI assistant first?
- Medical and scientific
Can we advertise this work at all, or will paid ads create a compliance problem?
- Travel and hospitality
We can spend at volume. How do we know the click is a guest, not a looker?
Paid search and paid social pointed at pages that can turn a visit into a genuine enquiry. We are not buying traffic for its own sake. The aim is a qualified enquiry from a buyer who already knows the category and needs to choose a firm. Media spend sits outside the fee, at cost, so the incentive is not to spend more for its own sake.
A large share of demand still arrives as a search or a click. An AI assistant that names you still sends a person to verify the firm. Paid media is the fastest way to put a specific offer in front of a buyer who is already looking. It is a poor way to invent a reputation the site cannot support.
We will not scale spend until the landing pages state what you do, who it is for, what it costs, and what happens after they get in touch. Google AI Overviews and AI assistants have not removed that job. They have made the landing page more important, because the click that still happens is often the one that closes.
How this looks in your firm
In a law firm, paid search can fill a specialist offer quickly, and waste a budget even faster if the page cannot say what the work costs or what happens next.
In an accountancy, partners often ask whether paid is worth it now that buyers ask an AI assistant first. The honest answer is yes, for demand that still searches, and no, as a substitute for being easy to quote.
In a medical or scientific practice, the first question is whether the work can be advertised at all.
In travel and hospitality, volume is available and the risk is paying for lookers the property cannot convert.
The plan names the offer, the audience, and the page. If any of those three is missing, we do not spend. Travel and hospitality can use paid media at volume. Legal and medical usually cannot, because the work is specialist and the waste is expensive.
Paid clicks will not fix a site AI assistants cannot quote, and we will say so rather than taking the spend. If the site cannot convert, paid media will prove that quickly. That is useful. It is not a reason to keep spending.
What you get
These are the concrete things the engagement delivers, not only a report and an invoice.
A written plan naming the offers, the audiences and the pages that will take the click.
Ad copy and landing-page changes so the promise in the ad is the promise on the page.
Tracking that can see a form fill and, where possible, a qualified enquiry, not only a visit.
A monthly report that separates media cost from our fee, and that says when the numbers are too small to act on.
MeasurementHow we know it is working
Cost per enquiry and quality of enquiry, against a baseline we agree before spend starts.
Click-through rate is a diagnostic, not a result.
We review weekly in the first month and monthly after that.
If the landing page is the constraint, we stop scaling and fix the page.
If the offer is the constraint, we say so, because no campaign will sell a service the partners have not defined.
Three months is the minimum because paid media lies in week one and tells the truth once the sample exists.
What you do not get is a dashboard full of vanity metrics and a recommendation to raise the budget because last week looked quiet.
Who this is not for
If your website struggles to turn an interested visitor into an enquiry, paid advertising will only send more people to the same problem. We would rather fix the website first, and we will tell you so before asking you to spend anything on ads.
An example of this work
Patients arrived. Almost nobody asked for an appointment.
Specialist private clinic group, three sites in the South East, consultant-led. Anonymised.
Paid and organic traffic both looked healthy. The contact form sat in the footer. Every service page described the specialty in language so cautious that a visitor could not tell what happened next, what it cost to start, or whether they were the right patient for this clinic.
Questions
Does paid media still matter if buyers are asking an AI assistant?
Yes, because a large share of demand still arrives as a search or a click, and because an AI assistant that names you still sends a person to verify the firm. Paid media is the fastest way to put a specific offer in front of a buyer who is already looking. It is a poor way to invent a reputation the site cannot support. We will not scale spend until the landing pages state what you do, who it is for, what it costs, and what happens after they get in touch.
Do you mark up media spend?
No. Media spend sits with the platforms and is billed at cost. Our fee is a typical campaign initiation of £500, then 15% of the campaign monthly budget with a £200 minimum. The percentage is of the budget you have already agreed, not a reason to inflate it. If the budget changes, the fee changes with it, and you can see both numbers.
How soon will we know if it is working?
Clicks and cost per enquiry are visible within the first month. Quality of enquiry, which is the only figure partners care about, takes longer because professional services buying cycles are long. We report both, and we will say when the sample is too small to mean anything. If the site cannot convert, paid media will prove that quickly. That is useful. It is not a reason to keep spending.