The person who sets the strategy stays in the ad account.
Marketing investment excludes internal sales payroll and job delivery costs.
What does the manager do during the week?
Read the accounts against the books
Yesterday's spend next to yesterday's closed work. Review the search terms the platform makes available and investigate waste or gaps in measurement.
Ship the tests
New ad variants and landing page copy, one question at a time, so the result is readable. Every variant that ships carries the hypothesis it is testing.
Call the numbers
Review the agreed business numbers and the diagnostic measures needed to explain a change. The meeting ends with a decision or a specific evidence gap.
Work the page behind the click
Review the page against the promise in the ad. A conversion improvement can lower acquisition cost without lowering the auction click price.
Move the budget
Propose a bounded budget change using qualified and won work, allowing for the sales cycle. A human approves the dry run before any live write.
You are renting attention. The manager decides what the rent buys.
| Channel | Buyer context | Management question |
|---|---|---|
| Google Search | Looking for a service or product | Does the query, ad and page match a profitable buying need? |
| Meta | Browsing Facebook or Instagram | Does the creative introduce an offer that leads to qualified demand? |
| Video placements | Watching or researching | Is demonstration, reach or conversion the goal, and can we measure it? |
| Microsoft Advertising | Searching across its available network | Does this account produce customers at an acceptable total acquisition cost? Lower click prices are not assumed. |
| Retargeting audiences | A previous visitor or eligible customer audience | Is there permission to use the audience, and does the extra exposure cause useful demand? This is an audience strategy, not a separate platform. |
Who owns the decision when performance changes?
Responsibility you can name
Who recommends the budget? Who changes the account? Who checks conversion quality? Who talks to the sales team when the lead numbers and sales numbers disagree?
One accountable owner
Jason sets the direction with you. A named specialist handles daily execution. You receive the owners, scope, review cadence and approval rules before work begins.
A business outcome needs a clear denominator.
August 2025–August 2026: $163,062 in advertising, agency and website investment for 180 signed projects worth $4.16M—$906 in recorded marketing cost per project. Internal sales payroll and job delivery costs are separate. Read the case and definitions.
These results cover the whole marketing program. The case shows the reporting periods and included costs.
How much revenue becomes money the business keeps?
$40,000 attributed revenue ÷ $10,000 ad spend.
$40,000 × 40% contribution margin = $16,000 before marketing. Less $10,000 in ads and $5,000 in fees leaves $1,000 before fixed overhead and tax.
Four leaks, in the order they get checked.
Account structure
Check whether campaigns group related buying needs and support a useful budget decision. A platform default is a starting setting, not proof of the right structure.
The landing page
Test whether the page answers the ad and whether the enquiry journey works. Prioritize a repair when the evidence shows the page is constraining useful demand.
Tracking
Connect available enquiry and sales records before scaling. Document missing sources, consent limits, duplicate conversions and the sales lag.
The offer
Review suitability, price, proof and the next step. Use a bounded test to distinguish a weak offer from a targeting, measurement or delivery problem.
One owner on the strategy. A named human on the build.
| Function | Jason | Named specialist | Never |
|---|---|---|---|
| Budget allocation and channel mix | Sets it | Models the options | Moves on a hunch |
| Offer and landing page direction | Sets it | Builds the pages | Designs blind |
| Account structure and campaigns | Sets it | Daily build and management | One campaign for every intent |
| Creative and copy tests | Approves the test | Ships the variants | Tests with no hypothesis |
| Live budget changes | Proposes | Runs the dry run | Applied without a human reading it |
| Reporting | Writes the recommendation | Builds the scorecard | Reports sent to look busy |
The fee and the media, split on the page.
Management
Strategy, structure, the named specialist, and the scorecard. Most engagements land between $5,000 and $15,000. The written scope sets the fee, availability and specialist work. Revenue alone does not determine a package.
Your media budget
Your budget bills from Google, Meta, and Microsoft Advertising to your own accounts. Never marked up, never pooled, never a line item with a margin on it.
Free introduction
15 minutes to discuss goals, headline numbers and fit. Keep a brief written summary; detailed investigation is separate.
The Growth Constraint Snapshot
A separate written diagnostic using the accounts and records in its agreed scope. Payment and delivery terms are confirmed before purchase.
I will tell you on the first call, not after the first invoice.
This can fit when
- You can fund the management fee, media and other agreed costs from a sustainable budget.
- The offer has evidence of demand and enough contribution margin.
- Your team can respond to enquiries and fulfil the work.
- You can supply the records and approve changes.
Use a smaller first step when
- You still need to validate demand or the offer.
- The account needs one focused repair.
- The full programme would threaten delivery cash.
- You require a guaranteed ROAS the manager cannot control.
Your business should retain its accounts, data and platform billing. That is part of a sound engagement.
Six questions for any paid media agency. Ours are answered under each.
Who works on the account?
Jason owns strategy and budget recommendations. You receive the daily specialist's name and contact details when the scope is agreed.
Who pays the platforms?
You retain your accounts and pay media charges directly. Management, software and any agreed production are separate lines.
Which numbers are reported?
Spend, qualified demand, won work, acquisition cost and contribution where the data allows. Clicks and impressions remain useful diagnostics, but they do not replace business outcomes.
How is workload managed?
Before work starts, we confirm the specialist, available capacity and response expectations.
What happens when the engagement ends?
Your business retains the accounts, data and work it owns under the contract. The agreement identifies any licensed third-party assets and the handover process.
How are failed tests handled?
A useful review shows the original hypothesis, spend, outcome and decision. Ask for a permissioned example with enough context to understand why the change did not work.
Questions owners ask before they book.
What does paid media management include?
The agreed scope can include channel planning, account structure, creative tests, landing pages and reporting. ROI.LIVE names the person responsible for each part and separates management fees, media spend and other approved costs.
Is paid media the same as pay per click?
Pay per click is a billing model. Paid media is broader and can also be billed for impressions, views or other outcomes. The manager selects the channel and buying method that fit the objective.
What return on ad spend should I expect?
There is no universal target. Start with contribution margin, management costs, repeat purchases and cash timing. At a 40% contribution margin, 2.5 times ad spend only covers advertising before management fees and fixed overhead; it is not a profit target.
Should we run ads and SEO at the same time?
Sometimes. The decision depends on margin, available demand, budget and the team's ability to follow through. We agree which work should lead and avoid crediting several channels with the same sale.
Do you manage landing pages?
Yes, when included in the scope. The ad and page should make the same promise, and the enquiry journey must work on a phone. We measure conversion and acquisition cost before claiming the page improved performance.
How quickly will we know whether it is working?
We record the baseline first, fix measurement gaps and agree the evaluation period. Sales lag, spend and seasonality affect when there is enough evidence. The review separates observed results from a forecast.
