Paid Media · In-house

Google Ads Management

Flat-fee Google Ads management for Canadian small businesses.

We build and run Google Ads campaigns for small and medium businesses across Toronto and the rest of Canada — Search, Performance Max, Shopping and call-only — on one flat monthly fee that never moves with your budget. The Social Shepherd is a Google Premier Partner, a tier Google limits to the top 3% of participating agencies in each country, and the agency was founded by an ex-Googler who worked inside the Ads ecosystem before starting it.

Most agencies bill a percentage of your ad spend. That means they earn more when you spend more, whether or not the spending worked. We do not do that. Your budget goes straight to Google, our fee stays where it is, and the only way we look good is if the leads show up.

What's included

A free 48-hour audit before you commit. We go through your existing account — or your competitors’ ads if you do not have one yet — and tell you what we would change and what we think it is worth. No obligation either way.
Full account build or rebuild. Campaign structure, ad groups, keyword research, match-type strategy and negative keyword lists, set up properly from the start rather than inherited.
Conversion tracking wired in before a dollar is spent. Calls, forms, purchases and offline conversions flowing into both Google Ads and GA4, because an account that cannot measure a lead cannot optimise toward one.
The right campaign types for how you actually sell. Search, Performance Max, Shopping, Demand Gen or call-only — chosen for your business, not applied as a template.
Weekly optimisation. Search term reviews, negative keyword additions, bid and budget adjustments, audience refinement and ad copy testing, every week.
Ad copy and creative assets written for you. Responsive search ads, sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets and image assets, refreshed as we learn what converts.
A weekly report in plain language, plus a monthly strategy call on the Growth and Scale plans. No dashboards you have to interpret yourself.
Full account ownership. The Google Ads account is in your name, and you keep it and every bit of its history if we ever part ways.

Our approach

It starts with a free 48-hour audit

Before you pay anything, we look at what you have. If there is an existing account we go through the search terms report, the conversion actions, the campaign structure and the wasted spend, and we come back within two business days with a specific list of what is broken and what we would do about it. If you have never run ads, we look at what your competitors are bidding on and what it would realistically cost to compete. Plenty of these audits end with us saying the budget is too small to work yet — that is a real answer and we would rather give it than take the money.

The first 30 days: build and instrument

Month one is about getting the foundations right, and most of it is unglamorous. We rebuild or restructure the campaigns, do proper keyword and negative keyword research, and write the ads. Then we make sure everything is measurable: call tracking, form tracking, purchase tracking, and where it matters, offline conversion imports so Google learns from the leads that actually became customers rather than every form fill.

This is the step most accounts we inherit have never had done properly. An account optimising toward “form submitted” when half the submissions are spam will confidently spend your money on the wrong people, and it will keep doing it for as long as you let it.

Then, every week

Once the account is live, the work is steady rather than dramatic. We review the search terms report and add negatives, adjust bids and budgets across campaigns, test new ad variations against the current winners, and check lead quality rather than just lead volume. On call-driven accounts, that means listening to what the calls actually are — a campaign producing thirty enquiries from people outside your service area is not a campaign that is working.

What it costs

One flat fee, banded by the size of the budget we are managing, because a $2,000 account genuinely takes less work than a $20,000 one. Your ad spend is separate and goes directly to Google.

Launch — $500/month. For ad budgets up to $3,000/month. Google Ads or Meta Ads, full build, conversion tracking, weekly optimisation and reporting.
Growth — $800/month. For ad budgets of $3,000–$10,000/month. Google and Meta together, landing page guidance and CRO, call tracking and lead quality reviews, plus a monthly strategy call.
Scale — $1,200/month. For ad budgets above $10,000/month. Everything in Growth, plus Shopping feeds and Merchant Center, Local Services Ads and remarketing programmes, and same-day support.

Every plan is month-to-month after the first 90 days, there are no setup fees, and you own all accounts and data. We ask for 90 days at the start because that is roughly how long it takes for a rebuilt account to produce a fair verdict on itself — anything shorter and you are judging the learning period.

What results actually look like

Here is a real account rather than a rounded-up one. Flash Mobile Detailing is a mobile car detailing business serving the Greater Toronto Area, and the goal was booked jobs from phone calls rather than clicks.

Between February and August 2026 the account spent CA$1,311.03 and produced 49 phone calls — CA$26.76 per call — from 294 clicks and 7,472 impressions, a click-through rate of 3.93% at an average cost per click of CA$4.46.

That is a small account, and we are showing it because it is typical rather than because it is a trophy. A cost per call under thirty dollars in a competitive local service category is a sound result, and at roughly $200 a month in spend it is the scale a lot of local businesses actually start at. If your economics work at that level, they tend to work better with more budget behind them — and if they do not, spending more will not rescue them.

Across three appliance repair clients we took on, the accounts produced between 29 and 41 leads in their first month. Results vary by industry, competition and budget, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

Reporting you will actually read

Every week you get a short written summary: what was spent, what came in, what changed, and what we are doing next. On Growth and Scale plans there is a monthly call to talk through strategy rather than metrics. If something goes wrong — a disapproved ad, a billing issue, a sudden drop — you hear it from us before you notice it yourself.

Frequently asked questions

How much should I budget for Google Ads?

For most local service businesses in Canada, $1,500 to $3,000 a month in ad spend is the range where campaigns have enough data to optimise properly. Below about $1,000 a month it is usually possible, but progress is slow because the account learns from a trickle. E-commerce and higher-ticket B2B often need more. We will tell you honestly in the audit if your budget is not yet enough to compete in your category.

Do you charge a percentage of my ad spend?

No. We charge a flat monthly fee of $500, $800 or $1,200 depending on the size of the budget being managed. Percentage-of-spend pricing rewards an agency for increasing your budget regardless of whether it produces more customers, and we think that is the wrong incentive to build a relationship on.

Do you lock me into a contract?

We ask for the first 90 days, then it is month-to-month with no exit fee. The 90 days exists because a rebuilt account needs roughly that long to produce a fair verdict. Judging it at week three means judging Google’s learning period rather than the work.

How fast will I see leads?

Campaigns typically go live within 7 to 10 days of starting, and first leads usually arrive in the first two weeks. Meaningful optimisation takes longer: expect 30 days before the account is running efficiently and 60 to 90 days before cost per lead settles. Anyone promising results in week one is either lucky or not being straight with you.

Who owns the Google Ads account?

You do. The account is created in your name, you have admin access from day one, and if we stop working together you keep it along with all of its history and conversion data. We do not hold accounts hostage, and you should be wary of any agency that does.

What does ex-Googler actually mean for my campaigns?

Our founder spent years inside Google working with the Ads ecosystem before starting the agency. The practical benefit is not secret access, because nobody has that. It is knowing how the auction behaves, which of Google’s automated recommendations are genuinely useful and which just increase spend, and how to escalate properly when something goes wrong with an account.

Do you work with businesses outside Toronto?

Yes. We are based in Toronto and a lot of our clients are in the GTA, but we manage accounts across Canada, including British Columbia, Ontario’s smaller markets and multi-location businesses running campaigns in several cities at once. Everything is run remotely, so location does not change the service.

What if I already have an agency running my account?

Start with the free 48-hour audit. We will tell you what we would do differently, and if your current agency is doing a good job we will say so. If you do decide to switch, we handle the transition without pausing your campaigns, so you do not lose momentum in the changeover.