The strategic depth of a Head of PPC. The accountability of an agency.
We are not a fractional hire. We are an agency that operates at the level of one. You get senior PPC strategy embedded in your business: someone who understands your margins, challenges your assumptions, and reports to your CFO. Without the £120k fully-loaded cost or the recruitment risk of hiring a Head of PPC.
The gap between 'managed' and 'directed'.
Most ecommerce brands at £10-50k/month Google Ads spend face the same problem: they need senior strategic direction but cannot justify or find a full-time hire. So they settle for an agency that manages campaigns without understanding the business.
The result is competent execution without commercial context. Bids are optimised, but nobody asks whether those SKUs should be advertised at all. Reports are delivered, but they measure ROAS instead of contribution margin. The campaigns run. The business does not grow.
Your agency has never asked for your margin data
Reports show ROAS but not profit per order
Nobody challenged your budget allocation this quarter
You cannot explain PPC's P&L impact to your board
Performance Max runs without SKU-level segmentation
What you get when your agency operates as your PPC director.
Commercial diagnosis, not just campaign management
A Head of PPC manages campaigns. An embedded commercial partner diagnoses whether the campaigns are serving the business. We audit SKU economics, margin structures, and channel mix before touching a bid.
Board-ready reporting without the hire
You get weekly Loom updates, monthly deep-dives, and quarterly strategy sessions that translate Google Ads performance into P&L impact. No jargon. No vanity metrics. Just the numbers your CFO needs.
Senior attention without senior salary
A Head of PPC costs £70-90k plus NI, pension, training, and tools. You get the strategic thinking of that role without the £120k+ fully-loaded cost, and without the recruitment risk.
Continuity that does not depend on one person
When your in-house Head of PPC leaves, knowledge walks out the door. With an embedded partner, the methodology, data, and institutional knowledge stay with the account.
Challenge function built in
In-house teams optimise within their own assumptions. An external commercial partner challenges those assumptions: are you scaling the right SKUs? Is your margin data accurate? Should you even be spending more?
Works alongside your team, not above them
We are not replacing your marketing manager. We are giving them a senior PPC strategist to lean on for the decisions that need commercial context, not just platform knowledge.
In-house hire vs embedded partner.
The honest comparison for brands spending £10-50k/month on Google Ads.
| Factor | Full-time hire | Embedded partner |
|---|---|---|
| Strategic direction | Depends on individual hire quality | Senior-level from day one, informed by 75+ account audits |
| Cost (fully loaded) | £100-130k/year | Fixed monthly fee, typically 30-40% of in-house cost |
| Ramp-up time | 3-6 months to full productivity | 2-3 weeks diagnostic, then executing |
| Knowledge retention | Leaves when they leave | Stays with the account permanently |
| Holiday/sick cover | Campaigns unmanaged | Team coverage built in |
| Commercial context | Limited to one business | Pattern recognition across 30+ ecommerce accounts |
| Challenge function | Difficult to self-challenge | External perspective on every decision |
Common questions.
Is this the same as hiring a fractional CMO?
No. A fractional CMO covers overall marketing strategy. We are a Google Ads agency that operates at the strategic level of a fractional PPC director: deep expertise in Shopping, Performance Max, and SKU economics for ecommerce. We do not manage social, email, or brand strategy. That focus is why the results are better.
How does this work alongside our existing team?
We integrate as a senior extension of your team. Your marketing manager or coordinator handles day-to-day execution while we provide strategic direction, commercial analysis, and the decisions that need margin data and cross-account pattern recognition.
What size of brand is this suited for?
Brands spending £10k+ per month on Google Ads who need senior PPC strategy but cannot justify or find a full-time Head of PPC. Typically £1M-20M turnover ecommerce businesses.
How is this different from a normal agency retainer?
Most agency retainers give you an account manager and a quarterly review. This model gives you a named commercial partner who understands your P&L, attends your internal meetings, and makes decisions based on your margin data, not platform defaults.
What happens if we outgrow this model?
If you reach the point where a full-time hire makes sense, we help with the transition: documenting processes, briefing the new hire, and ensuring continuity. We have done this twice and both brands came back within 12 months because the hire could not replicate the cross-account pattern recognition.
How we work
See allSee if the model fits.
A 30-minute conversation to understand your business, your current setup, and whether an embedded partner adds value you cannot get elsewhere.
Book a discovery call