Manchester account audit
An honest look at where today’s spend goes.
- Search terms by intent
- Spend and leads by borough
- Conversion tracking checked
- First 30-day plan
First win: wasted spend found
PPC Manchester · Google Partner
PPC Agency Manchester: Google Ads Built for Greater Manchester
Castle International is a PPC agency managing Google Ads for Manchester businesses from our studio at 17 Mann Island, Liverpool. We plan campaigns borough by borough across Greater Manchester and report on cost per lead and sale, not clicks. Terms run month to month and the ad account stays in your name.
Last updated:
Google Partner
Meta Business Partner- Best Search Agency2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026
6.13:1average Google Ads ROAS for Nicholas Charles, a Lancashire fragrance brand
9.65:1year-to-date Google Ads ROAS for Fizzy Whiz, a Merseyside supplier
900UK searches a month for “ppc agency manchester”
4.9Castle’s Google rating, from 29 reviews
Client figures are from published Castle case studies. Search volume from Ahrefs, UK, October 2026. See our case studies.
Where Manchester budgets leak
Where Manchester PPC accounts lose money.
Manchester auctions are crowded, so small set-up mistakes cost more here than in quieter markets.
01
Bidding on the whole conurbation
Targeting “Manchester” often means all ten boroughs and beyond. If you serve three of them, most of that spend reaches people you cannot help.
02
Broad terms in expensive sectors
Phrases like “solicitor Manchester” attract researchers, students and competitors. Without tight match types and negatives, they drain budget fast.
03
Landing on the home page
Sending every ad to the home page makes buyers hunt for the answer. In a competitive city they simply click the next ad.
What’s included
PPC management in Manchester: what is included.
One fixed monthly fee covers strategy, build, daily management, tracking and the landing pages your ads send people to.
Borough-by-borough targeting
Budget follows the boroughs that convert.
- Campaigns or bids per borough
- Radius rules around each site
- Exclusions for areas you skip
- Monthly borough report
Measured on cost per lead by borough
High-intent search campaigns
Exact and phrase match on the searches that sell.
- Keyword lists built from real queries
- Weekly negative keyword reviews
- Ad copy per service
- Competitor terms tested carefully
Measured on qualified enquiries
Shopping for Manchester retailers
For ecommerce brands selling UK-wide.
- Feed titles and attributes
- Campaigns split by margin
- Merchant Center health checks
- Seasonal promotions
Measured on return on ad spend
Performance Max, controlled
Automation with guardrails.
- Brand traffic excluded
- Customer-list signals
- Location rules enforced
- Channel reports reviewed
Measured on new customers won
Tracking you can trust
Google optimises towards real sales, not page views.
- GA4 and Tag Manager
- Enhanced conversions
- Offline imports from your CRM
- Call tracking
Checked against leads in your CRM
Landing pages that convert
Built by our own web designers and developers.
- One page per service or area
- Fast on mobile
- Clear calls to action
- A/B tests on forms
Measured on conversion rate
Monthly results review
Plain English, in Manchester or online.
- Live Looker Studio dashboard
- Review meeting each month
- Next steps agreed
- Brand and new searches split
Reported on leads and revenue
Every Manchester account includes
- Google Partner backing
- Microsoft Ads as standard
- A dedicated paid search lead
- Optimisation every week
- Review each month
- Your account and data
- Rolling monthly agreement
Results
Google Ads results for North West businesses.
Figures from paid search clients in Lancashire and Merseyside, each taken from the published case study.
Nicholas Charles Fragrances
A designer-inspired fragrance brand. Performance Max, Shopping and search campaigns grew sales while spend came down.
6.13:1average Google Ads return on ad spend
72%sales increase, last 30 days year on year
Fizzy Whiz
A wholesale supplier of candle and cosmetic-making ingredients, moved to Shopify and then grown through Google and Meta ads.
9.65:1Google Ads return on ad spend, year to date
82%month-on-month sales growth after the Shopify relaunch
Greater Manchester clients include Kingsley Recruitment in Manchester city centre and ACS Construction in Cheadle Hulme. Their case studies cover web and brand work rather than published figures, so the results above come from other North West clients.
Client reviews
Rated 4.9 by the businesses Castle works with.
We have recently started using castle to market our heating and plumbing company. So far everything is perfect. Leads are coming in and the communication from the team is outstanding.
Castle is a professional and knowledgeable company that has helped us so much- they’ve increased our overall outreach, assisted with the creation of polished, effective branding and documents, crafted quality content, and are very SM savvy.
Castle took Supreme CBD to the next level with the new branding and website. They’ve increased the sites revenue by 86% in the first 3 months. …they’re really responsive and helpful and go above and beyond to deliver.
On video
Owners on working with Castle.
Trusted by
Brands that have worked with Castle.
Campaign types
The right Google Ads campaigns for a Manchester business.
Not every campaign type suits every business. This is how we choose for Manchester accounts.
Search campaigns
The foundation of nearly every Manchester account. Ads show when someone searches for what you sell, in the boroughs you choose. We keep match types tight, because broad matching in a city this size spends money fast.
- Exact and phrase match first
- Ad groups per service
- Borough names in ad text
- Weekly search-term reviews
Local and call-led campaigns
For firms that win work by phone. Ads carry a call button, run when someone can answer, and count calls of a set length as conversions.
- Call assets on every ad
- Schedules matched to opening hours
- Call tracking numbers
- Missed-call reporting
Shopping campaigns
For Manchester retailers selling online. Products appear with price and image, and the feed decides most of the result.
- Feed optimisation
- Margin-based campaign splits
- Promotions and delivery details
- ROAS targets by product group
Performance Max
Search, Shopping, YouTube, Maps and Gmail from one campaign. Worth it once tracking is solid and brand traffic is excluded, so it finds genuinely new customers.
- Brand exclusions
- Asset groups per product line
- Location rules applied
- Weekly placement checks
YouTube and Demand Gen
Short video and image ads to people in your target boroughs before they are ready to buy. Judged on reach and later branded searches.
- Borough or radius targeting
- Videos made by our in-house team
- Remarketing to site visitors
- Branded search growth tracked
The Manchester market
PPC in Manchester: the market in numbers.
Greater Manchester is one of the UK’s largest regional economies, and its search auctions are busy to match.
£104bn
Greater Manchester economy (GVA), 2024.
ONS, sum of ten boroughs108685
businesses (enterprises) in Greater Manchester.
ONS, 20263.0m
people living in Greater Manchester, mid-2025.
ONS, 202632m
passengers through Manchester Airport in 2025.
Manchester Airport, 2026How often businesses search for PPC help in Manchester
Monthly UK searches, Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, October 2026
Sources: ONS (regional GVA by local authority, 2024); UK business counts 2026 and mid-2025 population estimates via Nomis; Manchester Airport (2025 passengers); Ahrefs Keywords Explorer, UK, October 2026.
What this means for Manchester campaigns. In Manchester, the same keyword can cost very different amounts by borough and sector. Legal, property and finance searches are fiercely contested, so we lead with exact-match keywords and borough targeting. City-centre hospitality depends on timing, so schedules follow events and weekends. And many Manchester firms sell nationally, so their campaigns need a local and a national layer.
Manchester lead calculator
What could tighter targeting do for your Manchester budget?
Many Greater Manchester accounts pay for clicks from boroughs they never serve. Enter your numbers and see the effect of cutting them.
Extra enquiries a month
+0
£0Cost per enquiry
0Clicks a month
Treat this as a guide. It assumes clicks from boroughs you do not serve never become enquiries, and that the budget saved buys in-area clicks at the same cost and rate. A free account review uses your actual location report instead.
How we work
How a Manchester Google Ads account gets going.
Roughly how the first quarter unfolds.
- Week 0
Discovery call
We discuss lead values and margins, in Manchester or online. With read access, we review the account first.
- About a week
Tracking and set-up
Conversion tracking, location settings and access are checked before any new spend.
- Week 1 onwards
First enquiries
Search campaigns go live and enquiries often start within days.
- 6 to 12 weeks
Settled cost per lead
Bidding learns while we prune searches, boroughs and hours that do not convert.
Why Castle
Choosing a PPC agency in Manchester: how Castle compares.
Manchester firms usually compare a city-centre agency, a freelancer or an in-house hire. Here is where our model differs.
| Feature | Castle | Typical large agency | Freelancer | In-house hire |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Senior specialist runs the account day to day | Yes | Sometimes | Yes | Depends on hire |
| Borough-level targeting and reporting | Yes | Sometimes | Sometimes | Sometimes |
| Landing pages built by the same team | Yes | Extra cost | No | No |
| Calls and CRM sales tracked as conversions | Yes | Sometimes | No | Sometimes |
| Google Partner support | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Ad account owned by you | Yes | Not always | Not always | Yes |
| Contract terms | Month to month | Often 6–12 months | Varies | Salary and training |
A general comparison of working models, not an assessment of any named agency or person.
Manchester industries
Google Ads for Manchester’s key sectors.
A Spinningfields law firm, a Northern Quarter bar and a Trafford Park manufacturer need different searches, budgets and hours. Each Manchester account is built around how its buyers decide.
- Legal and professional
- Property and lettings
- Healthcare and aesthetics
- Ecommerce and retail
- Hospitality and nightlife
- Trades and home services
- Education and training
- Recruitment
- B2B and manufacturing
- Tech and SaaS
PPC pricing in Manchester
Manchester PPC pricing: a fixed fee, your budget.
Management is a fixed monthly fee based on how complex your account is, not a slice of your ad spend.
Your media budget is separate and paid to Google. You set it, and we will say so if it is too thin for Manchester auctions.
- Fixed fee agreed up front
- Media budget set by you
- Month-to-month terms
- Admin access to your account
Further reading
Paid search insight for Manchester businesses.
Why paid advertising is no longer optional in 2026, and what brands are getting wrongPaid advertising is now critical for growth in 2026. Learn how platforms, creative, and data-driven strategy are reshaping digital marketing results.Read article
The ROI of eCommerce SEO and paid advertising working togetherSEO builds long-term visibility, paid ads drive instant results – but together, they create unstoppable growth. At Castle, we combine SEO and paid…Read article
How data-led decision making transforms your marketing ROICreativity may win attention, but data delivers results. At Castle, we combine creative strategy with performance data to maximise ROI, refine campaigns in…Read articleRelated services
Pair Manchester PPC with these services.
Search ads work harder alongside other channels, run by the same team.
Organic visibility in ManchesterSEO in ManchesterRankings, map pack and AI-search visibility for Greater Manchester firms.Explore the service→
Social adsMeta AdsReach Greater Manchester buyers on Facebook and Instagram.Explore the service→
Enquiries, end to endLead GenerationAds, pages and follow-up joined into one lead engine.Explore the service→
Pages that convertWeb DesignFast sites and landing pages built for paid traffic.Explore the service→Questions
PPC Manchester: frequently asked questions
What does a PPC agency in Manchester charge?
Two separate costs. Your media budget is paid to Google and you control it. Our management fee is a fixed monthly amount based on the number of campaigns, locations and products. Manchester click prices are high in some sectors and modest in others, so we model a realistic budget from your own figures before you commit.
Do you have a Manchester office?
No. Our paid search team works from 17 Mann Island in Liverpool. Manchester Oxford Road is as little as 47 minutes from Liverpool Lime Street by direct train. We meet Manchester clients at their offices for kick-offs and reviews, and run everything else by video and shared dashboards.
How fast can Google Ads produce leads in Manchester?
Search ads reach people already looking, so enquiries often start in the first week after launch. Allow about a week before that for tracking and set-up. In busy Manchester auctions, a steady cost per lead usually takes six to twelve weeks of data and pruning.
Why are Manchester clicks more expensive than elsewhere?
More advertisers bid on the same searches, especially in legal, property, finance and trades. That pushes up prices for broad terms. We counter it with tight borough targeting, exact-match keywords on the searches that convert, and landing pages that turn more of each click into an enquiry.
Will I own my Google Ads account?
Yes. The account sits in your name with your admin access from day one. If you ever leave, every campaign, keyword and conversion record stays with you. You can also check any figure in our reports directly in the account.
Can you run Google Ads across all of Greater Manchester?
Yes, and we usually split it. Separate campaigns or bid adjustments for each borough show you where leads cost least, so budget moves towards Bolton, Stockport or the city centre based on results rather than guesswork. Every monthly report breaks results down by borough, so you can see the difference.
What is the minimum term?
There is none. Our management agreement rolls over each month, and you can end it at the close of any month. We would rather keep Manchester clients through results than paperwork. If an account is not earning its keep, we will tell you directly and explain what we would change.
Book a discovery call
Talk to a PPC agency that knows the Manchester market.
Share your numbers. We will show you where your Google Ads budget goes today and what we would change first.
- Free discovery call
- Month-to-month terms
- We come to Manchester