Google Ads in Newstead, Brisbane

How we structure Newstead Google Ads campaigns

Most B2B campaigns follow the same architecture for us:

Branded search. Cheap, high-converting, always-on. If a Newstead prospect types your business name plus "contact" or "phone," we bid to make sure you're at the top. It's a small slice of spend that punches well above its weight on conversions.

Non-branded search — high intent. "[Service] [problem] Brisbane" queries. The person already knows what they need and is shopping. These convert in single-digit visits but cost more per click. We pre-qualify with smart match types and negative keywords — for example, it's common for an accounting firm to leak budget to job-seekers searching "accountant Brisbane jobs" until the keyword list is cleaned up.

Non-branded search — research stage. "How to [problem]" / "Best [solution] for [industry]" queries. These don't convert directly but they bring qualified prospects into a retargeting audience. We send these to content-rich landing pages (long-form guides, ROI calculators, comparison sheets), not to a generic homepage.

Retargeting (display + RLSA). Anyone who's visited the site recently gets shown brand-reinforcement ads on properties they're already on. Cheap, high-converting, but only works once the top of funnel is delivering volume.

The Newstead client mistakes we see most

Too much spend on broad-match keywords. Newstead businesses get sold on "smart bidding" by other agencies who let Google's algorithm spend on whatever it wants. The result: thousands of clicks from unqualified searches, occasional accidental conversions, terrible ROI. We start every account with exact-match and phrase-match only, and add broad-match selectively after 90 days of data.

No real conversion tracking. "Page view" and "button click" don't count. The conversion event needs to be a form submission with a real email, a phone call >2 minutes, a meeting booked, or a sale completed. We set up Google Tag Manager + GA4 + CRM integration to capture the full path.

Landing pages that don't match the ad. If the ad promises "Free SEO audit for Brisbane businesses" and the landing page is the homepage with a generic contact form, you're paying for clicks that bounce. Every Newstead campaign gets at least 3-5 dedicated landing pages tied to ad groups.

No negative keyword discipline. A Newstead law firm shouldn't pay for clicks from people searching "DIY legal templates." A Newstead software company shouldn't pay for clicks from job seekers. We build a 200-500 keyword negative list at launch and grow it monthly.

Pricing and ad spend

Our management pricing is published openly — no hidden percentages, no markup on clicks. Google Ads management is part of our subscription plans, and the current rate is on our pricing page (/pricing).

Ad spend sits on top of that and is yours — it goes straight to Google. The right monthly spend depends on your average deal value and how many leads you want; we work that out with you on the call rather than quoting a made-up range.

We do not accept commission on "impression boosting" or other vanity-metric campaigns. Every dollar spent has a measurable outcome.

Reporting and transparency

Monthly reports for every Newstead client:

Real ROAS. Spend in. Revenue (or pipeline value) out. The actual number, not a Google-default "conversions" report.

Cost per qualified lead. Total qualified leads (the ones that progressed in your sales process) divided by total spend. The most important single number.

Quality score and impression share. Where in the auction we're winning and losing. These predict next month.

Top performing + worst performing ad groups. Where we're shifting budget for next month.

No "impressions delivered" or "clicks attained." Those are activity metrics, not outcome metrics.

How long until you see real ROI

Honest answer: 30-60 days for Google Ads to settle, around 90 days for confident ROI numbers.

First 30 days: launch, optimise, learn. The account will probably underperform — that's normal. We're feeding the algorithm and clearing junk keywords.

Days 30-60: the account starts converging. Conversion rate stabilises and the cost per conversion comes down as the wasted spend is cleared out.

Day 60+: real optimisation. We have enough data to A/B test ad copy, landing pages, and audiences. ROAS typically keeps improving over the following months as we refine.

A Newstead B2B campaign walkthrough

This is a hypothetical walkthrough to show how we'd approach a typical Newstead B2B account — not a specific client.

Picture a Newstead-based commercial property advisory already spending a few thousand a month on Google Ads, but with most of its "conversions" being newsletter signups rather than real qualified property inquiries. Average deal value is high (tens of thousands), so even a poorly-run account limps along — but the effective cost per genuine lead is far too high.

What we'd change in the first 60 days:

1. Rebuild conversion tracking. Often the website's contact form is the only thing tracked as a conversion — phone calls (high-intent for property) are invisible. We'd add call tracking via CallRail, map calls over two minutes as conversions, and rebuild the bid strategy around those. 2. Prune the keyword list. Anything containing "DIY," "job," "course," "free," "template" moves to negative keywords. Wasted cost drops, conversion rate improves. 3. Build dedicated landing pages — one for sale advisory, one for leasing, one for valuations. Generic homepage traffic moves to category-specific pages. 4. Switch bidding from "Maximise conversions" (Google's default) to "Target ROAS" once there's enough conversion data to support it.

The point of all this: stop paying for unqualified clicks and start measuring the leads that actually matter — so the cost per genuine, qualified lead comes down and the principal stops having to think about Google Ads at all.

How we handle competitor bidding (and bidding on your name)

Competitor bidding (you bidding on their brand names): legal in Australia, common, but use carefully. Useful in a few specific scenarios — usually when a competitor has poor service or a known weakness — and you can be the "considered alternative." Less useful as a default. We allocate a modest slice of budget to competitor terms when there's a real positioning angle, and none when there isn't.

Defensive bidding (bidding on your own brand): mostly always-on, and cheap. If a Newstead competitor is bidding on your brand name (they probably are), you NEED to be at the top on your own brand or you'll lose a share of branded searches to them. Branded search converts far better than non-branded, so even a small leak is expensive.

Trademarked terms: we don't use them in ad copy (Google's policy + Australian trademark law). Bidding on the keyword is fine; copying the trademark into headline or description is not.

Negative competitor keywords: equally important. If your brand contains a generic word that competitors also use ("Brisbane Property," "Newstead Advisory"), we use match-type discipline to make sure you're not paying to show up for their searches accidentally.

Reporting cadence and what's in each report

Weekly internal review (we do this, you don't see it): account health check, keyword performance scan, ad copy A/B status, budget pacing vs target, anomaly detection (sudden CTR drops, quality score changes).

Bi-weekly client summary: 1-2 paragraphs sent via email — what moved, what we changed, what's queued. Designed to read in 90 seconds.

Monthly performance report (full): PDF or shared Looker Studio dashboard covering:

- Spend in / Revenue (or pipeline value) out — real ROAS, not Google-default conversion value - Cost per qualified lead — the most important single number - Conversion rate by ad group, landing page, device, location - Quality scores trending — predictive of next month's CPC - Top 5 performing search terms (what queries actually generated conversions) - Top 5 search terms we paused (what queries wasted budget) - Three things we did, three things we're doing next

Quarterly strategy review (call): 45 minutes. Lifetime account performance, year-over-year trends if applicable, budget allocation questions, new campaign opportunities, anything you've been thinking about that I should hear.