Paid advertising

Paid ads let you reach buyers immediately but waste money quickly if targeting and creative aren't right. Learn the fundamentals before scaling spend.

Paid advertising

Introduction

When I first ran Google Ads in 2010, it looked very different. Still, the core mistake I made is the same one I see marketers make today. I wasted most of the budget in the first two weeks. Not because the channel didn’t work, but because I didn’t fully understand what made people click or what made them convert. I picked keywords that felt right, wrote ads that looked clever, and assumed the rest would follow.

It didn’t.

What I learned through painful trial and error is that paid search only works when you treat it like a precision engine. You have to know exactly what your buyer is searching for, why they are searching, and what they need to see to trust that you are the right answer.

This playbook exists to help you skip that painful learning curve. It shows you how to pick intent-driven keywords, write ads that earn the click, and set up your account for fast feedback and real pipeline instead of vanity traffic.

If you’ve been meaning to launch paid search for your B2B company but weren’t sure where to start, or if you’ve tried it before and didn’t see results, this playbook is for you. It is practical, step-by-step, and focused on getting your first profitable campaign live.

Chapters

Coming soon.

Paid advertising

tools

Google Analytics

Google Analytics

Web analytics that tracks user behaviour and conversions, essential for understanding traffic and lead sources when configured well.

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Google Tag Manager

Google Tag Manager

Tag management that lets you add and control scripts, events and pixels with versioning and consent rules.

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HubSpot

HubSpot

All in one CRM with marketing, sales and service, strong when you want one system that teams adopt.

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Looker Studio

Looker Studio

Free dashboard tool that pulls data from many sources, great for quick reports and shareable views.

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Books

Breakthrough Advertising

Eugene M. Schwartz

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Breakthrough Advertising

A field guide to message market fit. Use stages of awareness to pick angles, craft offers and brief ads that speak to real pains and jobs.

Traffic secrets

Russel Brunson

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Traffic secrets

A broad look at audience building. Useful ideas for content, partnerships and email that compound over time.

Traction (channels)

Gabriel Weinberg

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Traction (channels)

A method to discover your best channel. Prioritise, test and focus resources where traction is most likely.

Dotcom Secrets

Russel Brunson

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Dotcom Secrets

Translate funnel templates into clean journeys. Focus on offers, sequences and pages that convert instead of tactics that age badly.

Wiki

Landing page

Create focused standalone pages for paid campaigns that remove distractions and guide visitors toward one specific action to improve conversion rates.

Cost per click (CPC)

Calculate what you pay each time someone clicks your ad to evaluate channel efficiency and determine if paid traffic costs justify the leads generated.

Paid social advertising

Target prospects based on demographic, firmographic, and behavioural data, interrupting their social feeds with relevant offers and content.

Cost-per-X

Master the economics of customer acquisition by tracking what you pay for each meaningful action across channels.

Paid search

Capture high-intent prospects actively searching for solutions by bidding on relevant keywords and appearing in search engine results.

Related topic

Demand generation

Build your channel strategy and optimise each channel, so you grow traffic strategically without burning budget.

Paid advertising

Other playbooks

Demand generation tools

Demand generation tools

Pipeline doesn't fill itself. These tools help you identify who to target, reach them at scale, and create content that earns attention in crowded markets.

Growth team tools

Growth team tools

The wrong tools create friction. The right ones multiply your output without adding complexity. These are the tools I recommend for growth teams that move fast.

Sales pipeline tools

Sales pipeline tools

Deals slip through cracks when your sales stack doesn't work together. These tools keep your pipeline visible, your follow-ups timely, and your process tight.

Customer value tools

Customer value tools

Acquiring customers is expensive. These tools help you keep them longer and grow their accounts so your acquisition costs actually pay off over time.

Marketing funnel tools

Marketing funnel tools

Traffic means nothing if it doesn't convert. These tools help you capture leads, nurture them automatically, and understand what's actually working in your funnel.

Hubspot configuration

Hubspot configuration

HubSpot is powerful when configured properly and a mess when it's not. Set up your instance correctly from the start so your data stays clean and your team trusts the system.

Keep reading