Paid search marketing that treats every keyword as an investment
Paid search is the most direct way to reach people at the moment they look for what you sell. We manage it as a portfolio across Google and Microsoft: deciding which searches deserve budget, how much each is worth, how to handle brand and competitor terms, and how paid and organic search work together.
What paid search marketing covers
Paid search marketing, sometimes called search engine marketing or SEM, is advertising that appears in search engine results when people search specific terms. Most of it runs through Google Ads, with Microsoft Advertising adding reach on Bing and its partners.
Where our Google Ads service focuses on running that platform expertly, paid search marketing looks at the bigger picture: your entire search advertising strategy across platforms. That includes which searches are worth paying for, how budget should be split between brand, generic and competitor terms, how much each type of click is really worth, and how paid search should work alongside your organic rankings.
The central idea is simple. Every keyword you bid on is a small investment with its own cost and return. Some consistently produce profitable customers. Some produce cheap clicks that never convert. Some you'd win anyway through organic results. Managing paid search well means continuously moving money from the second and third groups into the first.
Signs your paid search needs a strategic review
- Most of your budget goes to a few broad keywords with unclear returns.
- You spend heavily on your own brand name without knowing if it's necessary.
- Competitors bid on your brand and you're unsure how to respond.
- Paid and SEO teams don't share data or coordinate targeting.
- Budget is split between platforms by habit rather than results.
Who it's for
- Businesses spending meaningfully on search ads and wanting better returns.
- Advertisers on more than one search platform.
- Brands with strong organic visibility that want paid and organic to work together.
- Competitive markets where cost per click keeps rising.
- Growing businesses scaling search budgets efficiently.
Managing keywords as a portfolio
We group search terms by type, because each type has a different role and a different way of judging success.
| Keyword type | Example | Role | How we judge it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brand | "marquixad", "marquixad contact" | Protect your name and capture ready buyers | Incremental value over organic results |
| High-intent generic | "payroll outsourcing company" | Capture active buyers | Cost per qualified lead or sale |
| Problem or research | "how to reduce payroll errors" | Reach earlier-stage buyers | Assisted conversions and remarketing audiences built |
| Competitor | "[competitor] alternatives" | Win buyers comparing options | Cost per acquisition, within policy and legal limits |
| Long-tail | "payroll outsourcing for startups in Pune" | Efficient, specific traffic | Conversion rate and cost per conversion |
| Product or Shopping | Product names and categories | Drive e-commerce sales | Return on ad spend and margin |
Brand and competitor bidding
Should you bid on your own brand? Often yes, but not automatically. Brand campaigns protect your name when competitors bid on it, control the message and sitelinks people see, and are usually cheap. But if nobody else bids on your brand and you rank first organically, some brand clicks may simply replace free organic ones. We test this where possible, for example by pausing brand ads in a controlled way and measuring the impact on total brand traffic and conversions.
Should you bid on competitors' names? It can win buyers who are comparing options, but it's usually more expensive, converts less well, and must follow platform trademark policies and local law. We only use competitor campaigns where they can be profitable, with honest, non-misleading ad copy.
What if competitors bid on your brand? We monitor auction insights, keep a brand campaign running to protect the top position, strengthen ad assets, and advise on trademark complaints where your trademark is used in competitors' ad text.
Paid and organic working together
- Search term data from ads guides SEO priorities
- Ads cover important terms while organic rankings build
- Spend reduced where organic results already capture demand
- Combined presence on the most valuable searches
- Shared landing page and conversion improvements
- One report showing total search performance
Read our guide to SEO vs PPC.
Budget allocation across platforms and campaigns
Budgets are often set once and rarely revisited. We allocate them by marginal return: where would the next rupee of spend produce the most profit? That means comparing cost per conversion across Google and Microsoft, between keyword groups, and between campaigns that are limited by budget and those that have exhausted available demand.
We also account for seasonality, sales cycles and the time it takes for search clicks to become customers, so short-term dips don't lead to cuts that damage long-term results.
Query-level economics
For each important keyword group, we track the chain from click to customer:
- Cost per click and click-through rate
- Conversion rate on the landing page
- Lead-to-customer rate from your CRM
- Average order or deal value and margin
- Resulting profit per click, positive or negative
Match types, negatives and search terms
Keywords don't match searches word for word. Broad match can show your ads for a wide range of related searches, phrase match for searches that include the meaning of your keyword, and exact match for searches with the same meaning. Broader matching finds new demand but needs closer control; tighter matching gives precision but limits reach.
That control comes from negative keywords and regular search term reviews. We check the actual searches triggering your ads, add negatives for irrelevant ones (such as "free", "jobs" or unrelated products), and promote high-performing searches into their own keywords with dedicated ads and landing pages.
When automated bidding and broad match are used together, clean conversion data matters even more, because the system learns from whatever you tell it counts as success.
What a search term review looks for
- Irrelevant searches wasting budget
- Searches with the wrong intent, such as job seekers or researchers
- High-converting searches that deserve their own keywords
- Competitor and brand searches to separate
- New product or service ideas from real demand
Common paid search mistakes we fix
- Optimising for clicks or cheap leads rather than qualified leads and revenue.
- Mixing brand and non-brand in the same campaigns, hiding true acquisition costs.
- Broad match without negatives or conversion data to guide it.
- Sending every ad to the homepage instead of matched landing pages.
- Counting micro-actions as conversions, which misleads automated bidding.
Business benefits of strategic paid search
A portfolio approach turns search spend into a controllable, profitable growth lever.
- Budget focused on profitable searches rather than spread evenly.
- Less spend on clicks you'd win anyway through organic results.
- A clear competitive strategy for brand and competitor terms.
- Better coordination between paid, SEO and landing pages.
- Confident scaling based on known unit economics.
Our paid search capabilities
Cross-platform strategy
Google and Microsoft planned and reported as one search programme.
Keyword portfolio management
Brand, generic, competitor and long-tail groups with distinct goals.
Search term analysis
Weekly reviews to add winners and exclude waste.
Brand incrementality testing
Controlled tests to measure what brand ads really add.
Competitor strategy
Auction monitoring and policy-compliant competitor campaigns.
Budget allocation
Spend moved to the highest marginal returns across campaigns and platforms.
Offline conversion tracking
CRM outcomes connected so bidding values real customers.
Landing pages
Pages matched to keyword groups for higher conversion.
Paid and SEO integration
Shared data, coordinated targeting and combined reporting.
Why choose MarquixAd for paid search?
We manage search advertising with the discipline of an investment portfolio.
Expertise
Specialists across Google and Microsoft search.
Strategy
Every keyword group has a defined role and target.
Technology
Offline conversions, scripts and alerts for tighter control.
Data
Profit per keyword group, not just clicks and conversions.
Execution
Weekly search term and bid management.
Optimisation
Budget reallocated monthly by marginal return.
Reporting
Total search performance, paid and organic, in one view.
Communication
Clear recommendations on brand and competitor spend.
Scalability
From small local accounts to multi-market programmes.
Our paid search process
Audit
Accounts on all platforms, tracking, search terms and budget distribution reviewed.
Connect outcomes
Conversions linked to CRM data so profit per keyword group can be measured.
Build the portfolio
Keywords grouped by role, with targets for each.
Restructure
Campaigns reorganised for control over budget and bids by group.
Optimise weekly
Search terms, bids, ads and landing pages refined.
Reallocate monthly
Budget moved across groups and platforms by marginal return.
Test and scale
Brand incrementality, new keyword groups and expansion.
What you receive
| When | Deliverables |
|---|---|
| Weeks 1–3 | Cross-platform audit; tracking and CRM connection plan; keyword portfolio and targets |
| Launch | Restructured campaigns; brand and competitor strategy; landing page recommendations |
| Weekly | Search term, bid and ad optimisation; short update |
| Monthly | Portfolio report with profit by keyword group and platform; budget reallocation |
| Quarterly | Strategy review, incrementality findings and growth plan |
Paid search marketing: frequently asked questions
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What is paid search marketing?
Advertising in search engine results, mainly through Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising, where you pay when people click your ads.
Is paid search the same as PPC or SEM?
The terms overlap. PPC describes the pay-per-click model, which also applies to other channels; SEM usually means paid search advertising specifically.
How is this different from your Google Ads service?
Google Ads management focuses on that platform. Paid search marketing covers your whole search advertising strategy across platforms, including brand, competitor and budget decisions and integration with SEO.
Should we bid on our own brand name?
Usually, especially if competitors bid on it. But it's worth testing whether brand ads add conversions beyond what organic results already capture.
Can we bid on competitor names?
Bidding on competitor keywords is generally allowed by platforms, but using their trademarks in ad text is restricted, and local laws apply. We keep campaigns compliant and honest.
What can we do if competitors bid on our brand?
Run a strong brand campaign, improve ad assets, monitor auction insights and, where your trademark appears in their ad text, consider a trademark complaint through the platform.
How should we split budget between Google and Microsoft?
By results. We compare cost per conversion and available volume on each and allocate budget where the next rupee performs best.
How much should we spend on paid search?
Enough to capture profitable demand for your high-intent keywords. We estimate this from search volume, click costs and your target cost per customer.
How do you measure profit by keyword?
By connecting ad data to CRM or e-commerce outcomes, then combining conversion rates, deal values and margins for each keyword group.
Does paid search help our SEO?
Not directly in rankings, but search term data from ads is invaluable for choosing SEO targets, and the two together can capture more of the results page.
How quickly will we see improvements?
Cutting wasted spend often improves efficiency within weeks. Restructuring and bidding changes usually settle over one to two months.
Who owns the ad accounts?
You do. We work in accounts created in your name, and you keep everything if we stop working together.
Make your search budget work harder
Get a free review of your paid search accounts and keyword economics.