Google Ads · Essex
Ads that pay
for themselves.
Google Ads and search engine advertising for Essex small businesses.
Google Ads is the fastest way for a small business to appear in front of people who are already looking to buy. It is also the fastest way to waste money, and most accounts we take over are burning budget on broad keywords, untracked conversions and campaigns nobody has touched in months.
A2 Project manages search engine advertising as a hands-on monthly service. Proper account structure, conversion tracking that actually works, and reporting that shows cost per enquiry rather than a wall of impressions. Your budget stays in your own account and is never marked up.
What's included
Everything your
account needs
Account Setup
Campaign structure, ad groups, keywords and negatives built properly from the start. Most wasted spend traces back to a rushed setup.
Conversion Tracking
Calls, forms and bookings tracked so you can see cost per enquiry rather than guessing from click counts.
Ad Copy & Testing
Headlines and descriptions written for your business and tested against each other, not generated once and left alone.
Keyword Management
Ongoing search term review and negative keyword work, which is where most budget is quietly saved.
Bid & Budget Control
Bidding managed against what a customer is actually worth to you, with budget pacing so you do not burn the month in a fortnight.
Monthly Reporting
Spend, enquiries, cost per enquiry and what changed. Plain English, no dashboard screenshots passed off as analysis.
Your budget
Your money stays
your money
Ad spend is always paid directly from your own Google Ads account. It is never routed through A2 Project and it is never marked up. You keep ownership of the account, the data and the history, including if you ever stop working with us.
A2 Project charges a management fee and nothing else. That means the incentive is to make your budget work harder, not to talk you into a bigger one. Every quote and every report shows the management fee and the ad spend as two separate lines, because they are two separate things.
It sounds obvious. A surprising number of agencies do not work this way, and if yours takes a percentage of spend it is worth asking what happens to their fee when they recommend you increase it.
Which campaign
Smart Campaign
or bespoke
Not every business needs a complex account. A Smart Campaign is the sensible starting point for smaller budgets. Fewer moving parts, lower management cost, and enough control to bring in enquiries without over-engineering it. That is £250 per month, or £175 when bundled inside the Plus plan.
Bespoke campaigns are for larger budgets and more complicated goals. Multiple campaign types, granular keyword and audience structures, custom conversion tracking and ongoing testing. That starts at £750 per month.
Both carry a one-off £500 setup fee covering account structure, tracking and the initial strategy. If your budget is too small for either to make sense, we will say so and point you somewhere better rather than take the fee anyway.
Who it's for
Built for Essex
small businesses
Google Ads management from A2 Project is built for independent businesses across Southend, Shoeburyness, Chelmsford, Basildon, Colchester and the wider Essex area. It works best when you have a clear service, a defined area, and a genuine need for enquiries now rather than in six months.
- —You need enquiries this month, not after an SEO campaign matures
- —You have run ads before and could never tell if they made money
- —Your account was set up by someone who has since disappeared
- —You are spending on ads but nobody is tracking what converts
FAQ
Common
questions.
For most small businesses in Essex, a realistic starting point is £300 to £1,000 a month in ad spend, on top of the management fee. Below roughly £300 there is usually not enough data for the campaign to learn and results stay unpredictable. The right number depends on what a customer is actually worth to you, which is the first thing we work out together. We will tell you honestly if your budget is not yet at a level where ads make sense.
No. Ad spend is paid directly from your own Google Ads account to Google and never passes through A2 Project. We charge a flat management fee, shown separately from spend on every quote and report. You keep full ownership of the account and all of its history.
A Smart Campaign is £250 per month, or £175 when bundled inside the Plus plan. Bespoke campaigns for larger budgets and more complex goals start at £750 per month. Both include a one-off £500 setup fee covering account structure, conversion tracking and strategy. Ad spend is entirely separate, paid direct from your own account, and never marked up.
Traffic starts within days of launch. Meaningful results take longer, because the campaign needs enough conversion data to optimise. Expect the first four to six weeks to be learning and adjustment rather than peak performance. Anyone promising immediate profitability is guessing.
They answer different problems. Ads buy visibility immediately and stop the moment you stop paying. SEO takes six to twelve months but keeps working afterwards. If you need enquiries now, start with ads. If you are building for the long term, start with SEO. Most businesses eventually want both, and there is no rule saying you have to start with either.
Yes. The account is created under your ownership and we are added as a manager. If you stop working with A2 Project, access is removed and you keep the account, the campaigns, the conversion history and the data. Nothing is held hostage.
Work with A2 Project
Ready to stop
guessing?
About
I'm Matt Sladden, founder of A2 Project. I started my career working with small businesses across Southend, across every industry, before moving on to work with household names and consulting for one of the world's leading creative agencies, where I worked alongside huge names in the automotive space such as BMW, MINI and Ferrari.
I now bring that experience back to where it started. Think of me less as an agency and more as your dedicated marketing manager, someone who embeds themselves in your business, understands your goals, and gets things done.