PPC consultant. Senior, hands-on, and the one you actually talk to.
I am an independent PPC consultant, one person with 14+ years on Google Ads, Meta Ads and LinkedIn Ads for DTC, SaaS and B2B brands across the US and Europe. Brands hire me directly as their PPC or performance marketing consultant, and agencies bring me in when an account needs a senior operator without adding headcount. Either way you talk to the person who runs the account, because that is the whole arrangement.
Want to see how pricing works first? Read PPC consultant pricing.
The facts, before the copy
- What it is
- An independent paid media consultancy: one senior consultant, no agency team
- Run by
- Diego Willian Zietek, founder and sole operator, 14+ years in paid media
- Platforms
- Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Microsoft Advertising, plus GA4 and Google Tag Manager
- Who it is for
- Companies that want the senior person running the account, and agencies that need one without adding headcount
- Markets served
- United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland and Portugal in English; Brazil in Portuguese
- Based in
- Curitiba, Brazil (GMT-3), working US and European business hours
- Pricing
- Fixed-price audit or flat monthly fee, month to month. How pricing works
What is a PPC consultant?
A PPC consultant is an independent specialist who plans, builds and manages paid search and paid social accounts for one client at a time, instead of splitting attention across an agency's full book of business. The work covers keyword and audience strategy, campaign structure, bid and budget management, conversion tracking and ongoing optimisation, reported directly by the person doing it rather than relayed through an account manager.
What a PPC consultant actually does, once the pitch is over
The title is used loosely enough to mean almost anything. Here is the work, in the order it usually happens.
Reads the account before touching it
Where the money goes, which conversions are real, what the search terms report says the account is actually buying. Most PPC consulting engagements that go wrong skipped this and started optimising a number that was never trustworthy.
Fixes measurement first
Call tracking connected to the platform, conversion actions that match the business outcome, geography and negatives tightened. Nothing scales honestly until this part is boring and correct.
Rebuilds structure around how you sell
Campaigns split by the thing that has different value to you, not by whatever the previous setup inherited. This is where a paid search consultant earns the fee, because platform defaults optimise for volume rather than for your margin.
Runs the account, week after week
Search terms, negatives, bids, budget pacing, creative testing. Unglamorous and continuous. The accounts that drift are the ones where nobody senior looks at them between reports.
Feeds outcomes back into bidding
Closed deals, signed cases, booked jobs, whatever your version is, imported back so the platform optimises toward revenue instead of toward form fills. This is the part almost nobody does and it is the part that changes results.
Performance marketing, built on data
I'm an independent paid media consultant with 14+ years of hands-on experience managing Google Ads, Meta Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and programmatic campaigns. I've worked across B2B, B2C, SaaS, healthcare, and pharma, always with the same focus: turning ad spend into measurable pipeline and revenue, not just clicks.
- ● Google Ads (Search, Shopping, PMax, Demand Gen)
- ● Meta Ads Manager (Facebook & Instagram)
- ● LinkedIn Ads & Microsoft Advertising
- ● Programmatic Advertising
Industries
Where I've spent the most time
About Diego Willian Zietek, who runs every account
Questions buyers ask: 60 answers
The same practice also runs googleadsfreelancer.com for US businesses hiring a freelance Google Ads specialist, and ppcconsultancy.uk for UK and Irish businesses.
Brands I've worked on
Fourteen-plus years across agency, in-house and freelance roles put me on accounts with very different economics: SaaS and subscription products such as Intuit QuickBooks, Skillshare and Pontomais, global consumer brands such as Shell, Timberland and Amazon Prime, home services companies such as an HVAC and plumbing business in Houston, and companies in telecom, education, healthcare and e-commerce. Through Underscore Marketing, a US agency, I also worked on oncology, rare disease and gene therapy brands.
What carries over to your account is pattern recognition: how a trial-to-paid funnel differs from a lead form, which conversions each business can actually measure, and where spend usually leaks.
Logos belong to their owners and identify past work, not endorsements.
What I do
Paid Search (SEM)
Google Ads, Bing Ads, keyword strategy, bid management, search terms and negatives.
Paid Social
Meta Ads (Facebook/Instagram) & LinkedIn Ads with advanced audience targeting.
Landing Pages & Websites
Campaign pages and 5 to 8 page business websites built by the person who runs the ads. Tracking and hosting included. See the service
Analytics & Attribution
GA4, GTM, Looker Studio, multi-touch attribution modeling.
CRM & MarTech Integration
HubSpot, Salesforce - connecting ad spend to real pipeline.
PPC Audit & Consulting
Campaign audits, account restructuring, process optimization.
Where I go deep
Detailed pages on the engagements and industries I work in most.
Pricing & Rates
What this actually costs
ServiceSaaS PPC
Pipeline, not trial signups
ServiceEcommerce PPC
Shopping, PMax, margin-aware
ServiceHome Services
HVAC, plumbing, roofing
ServiceCleaning & Maid
Recurring-client economics
ServicePersonal Injury Law
Signed cases, not form fills
ServiceDental & Ortho
High-value treatments
ServiceMortgage Brokers
Funded loans, not leads
ServiceTourism & Travel
Long booking windows
Individual services
Each of these can be bought on its own, not only as part of ongoing management.
PPC Audit
Paid, independent, yours to keep
ServiceGoogle Ads Management
Flat fee, senior, month to month
ServiceB2B Lead Generation
Measured in pipeline
ServiceDemand Generation
Creating demand, measured honestly
ServiceConversion Tracking
One source of truth
ServiceLanding Pages & CRO
Where paid traffic dies
ServiceMeta Ads
Creative volume + CAPI
ServiceGoogle Shopping
The feed is the campaign
ServiceYouTube Ads
Outcomes, not views
ServiceFreelance Specialist
Direct access, one person
A paid media agency, an in-house hire, or one senior operator
A paid media agency, an in-house hire and an independent operator solve different shapes of problem, and plenty of my work comes through agencies. Here is the honest version of the trade, so you can tell which one this account needs.
| A full agency team | Working with me | |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs the account | Often not the person you met in the pitch | The person you spoke to |
| Who you talk to | An account manager relaying questions | Nobody in between |
| What you pay for | The team, the coordination, the overhead | The work |
| Capacity | Many accounts, many hands, always available | Few accounts at a time, which is the limit and the point |
| When the agency is the right call | Multiple markets at once, round the clock coverage, or a volume of creative production one person cannot physically deliver. If that is the account, the agency is the right call, and I will say so. | |
What a PPC consultant costs
Almost nobody puts this on a service page, which is why the question keeps getting asked. Three models exist, and each one fits a different kind of account.
Percentage of ad spend
Usually 10 to 20% of monthly media spend. The fee scales with the budget, which suits an account that is growing.
Flat monthly retainer
A fixed fee set by scope, independent of spend. Predictable for both sides, whatever the budget does.
Hourly or per project
Billed per hour or per defined deliverable. The right shape for a one-off audit, a build and hand over, or any piece of work with a clear end.
What the ranges look like
Below $3,000 a month in spend, a flat $750 to $1,500 is normal and percentage models rarely make sense. Between $3,000 and $10,000, expect 10 to 15% of spend or $1,500 to $3,000 flat. Between $10,000 and $50,000, 8 to 12% or $3,000 to $7,000 flat. Above $50,000, 5 to 10% or a custom retainer.
How I work: usually an audit first, fixed scope and fixed price, so you can judge the thinking before committing to anything ongoing. If it makes sense to carry on, the format of ongoing management is agreed in writing. What I will not do is quote a number before seeing the account, because a price set off a form submission is priced from averages rather than from your situation. The full breakdown of each model, what is negotiable, and the costs that sit outside the consultant fee is in the guide to PPC pricing models.
What happens during a PPC consultation
A PPC consultation is a working session, not a sales pitch. Before the call, I ask for read access to the ad account and analytics so I show up already knowing what the account is buying, rather than asking you to explain metrics from memory.
What I look at beforehand
Spend by campaign, which conversions are actually firing correctly, and whether the account structure matches how the business sells. Most of what comes up on the call was visible in the data first.
What we cover live
Where the budget is currently going, what looks broken versus what just looks unusual, and whether the timing and spend level make sense for your situation right now. If the honest answer is "not yet," I say so.
What you leave with
A short written summary of what I found and what I would do first, whether or not we work together afterward. A PPC consultation should leave you better informed even if you hire nobody.
How long it takes
Usually 30 to 45 minutes for the call itself. The account review beforehand takes longer on my side, and that is intentional: a consultation built on a real look at your data is worth more than one built on questions alone.
Some people search for a "PPC consultancy" expecting a small team rather than one person. In practice, most independent PPC consultants and small PPC consultancies run the same way: one senior person owns the account, and any additional hands are specialists brought in for a specific piece, not a layer of account management.
When hiring a PPC consultant is the wrong move
Saying this costs me work, and saying it is why the people who do hire me tend to stay.
Nobody answers the phone
If enquiries already arrive and go cold, more of them will not help. Intake is the constraint and paid media will only make the leak more expensive.
The offer is not competitive
Advertising accelerates whatever is already true. If the pricing, the reviews or the site cannot win on their own merits, paid search buys you a faster look at that.
The budget cannot generate data
Below a certain spend the account never collects enough conversions to optimise on, so every decision stays a guess. In expensive verticals that floor is higher than most people expect.
You want someone to blame
Some engagements are really about having a name attached when results are questioned. That works better with an agency, and I am not the right fit.
Six questions to ask anyone who will run your ads
Paid media is easy to sell and hard to check from the outside. These questions separate the people who run accounts from the people who present them. Ask them of me, of an agency, of anyone.
Who will actually work in my account, and what have they run before?
A good answer: A name and a track record, not a description of a team. The person in the pitch should be the person in the account.
With me: I run every account myself, with 14+ years in paid media. There is no junior team to hand it to.
Will the ad accounts stay in my name?
A good answer: Yes, always. Ad accounts, tags, conversion actions and history belong to the business that pays for them.
With me: You never hand over passwords, the accounts stay in your name, and if we stop, access is simply removed and everything stays with you.
How will you tell a lead from a click?
A good answer: Conversion tracking checked before budget moves: which actions count, which are duplicated, and whether calls and forms reach the account.
With me: Tracking is checked and fixed at launch, with GA4 and Google Tag Manager, because optimizing toward a broken signal only spends money faster.
What happens in the account every week?
A good answer: A concrete routine you can name: search terms, budgets, bids and creative tests. Not just a report at the end of the month.
With me: Weekly search term and budget work, a live dashboard, and a monthly written read on what moved and what comes next.
How is the fee set, and what does it include?
A good answer: A model you can understand before the call, and a clear scope. Is tracking included? Are landing pages? Who does the weekly work?
With me: The model is explained in the open on the pricing page, and the quote comes in writing after a short conversation.
When would you tell me not to hire you?
A good answer: Anyone honest has a no. If your budget or your market does not fit, you should hear it on the first call.
With me: Below roughly $1,500 a month in ad spend, running Google Ads yourself with a weekly review is often the better choice. And if you need several markets at once or round the clock coverage, an agency is the right call.
For the long version, read the step by step guide to choosing a consultant.
Depending on what you need
A paid media audit
You suspect money is leaking and want it found. Findings are yours either way.
OngoingAn independent PPC consultant
Senior attention on the account, month to month, with nobody in between.
FractionalSenior help without a hire
A set number of days a month, no headcount and no benefits attached.
NumbersWhat it costs
How the fee is set, explained in the open, so you know the model before the call.
ResearchPaid media cost index
Real cost per click across ten industries, measured and sourced.
ProofCase studies
Client and project cases told with their limits, plus teardowns of what real companies buy on Google Ads.
ResearchThe State of Healthcare Marketing 2027
A free 44 page report on how people find care and how AI is entering discovery, diagnosis and the hospital ward.
Real engagements, real numbers where I can publish them
Where I can publish numbers from the account, they are here with what they mean. Where the data is confidential, by contract or because it was an employed role, I describe the work and not the figures. All case studies.
HVAC and plumbing company, Houston, TX
Freelance · May 2025 to Feb 2026The Challenge
- Very expensive clicks, with dozens of local competitors on the same searches
- ZIP code choices, where the areas with the most potential cost the most
- Seasonal swings between cooling and heating
The Strategy
- Services, areas and budget adjusted as results came in
- Generic and brand campaigns read together, not in isolation
- Cost per conversion, calls and bookings tracked by service, area and season
Google Ads and Performance Max in one of the most competitive local markets in the US, with expensive clicks, ZIP code choices and seasonal demand. The performance data is confidential by contract, so the case covers the work and the lessons, not the numbers. Read the case.
Trutek, truck suspension parts, Brazil
Google Ads · since 2020Cumulative account history since 2020: 5,707 clicks and R$ 63.61 per conversion. Conversions are contact actions recorded by Google Ads, not sales. I also created the brand identity and built the site. Read the case.
“Diego created our brand, built our website and set up our Google Ads campaigns. Since then, we regularly get enquiries from customers interested in our parts through the WhatsApp button on our site. We trust his work.”
Leonardo, Manager, Trutek. Translated from Portuguese.
Healthcare
Five years in the sectorI have also worked in paid media in healthcare. Nothing from that work is published anywhere on this site: no employer named, no budgets, no results, no internal detail. It is listed only because it is where a large part of my healthcare experience comes from.
Underscore Marketing - US Pharmaceutical Marketing Agency
Freelance · Sep 2023 – Mar 2024The Challenge
- Strict regulatory compliance across brands
- High customer acquisition costs in pharma
- Multi-stakeholder targeting: HCPs, Patients, Payors
The Approach
- Dedicated remote PPC specialist for the agency's client portfolio
- Complex search campaign management across B2B & B2C accounts
- Continuous restructuring for CPA, CTR & lead quality
Pontomais (now VR Gente), B2B HR Tech, Brazil
In-house, employed · from Aug 2017, two yearsThe Challenge
- Long sales cycles typical of B2B SaaS
- Need for consistent, qualified user acquisition
- Retention and churn pressure on existing MRR
The Approach
- Multi-channel execution across Google Ads, Meta & programmatic
- Retargeting and remarketing to increase LTV
- SEO & SEM performance monitoring tied to MRR goals
At the start, Google Ads brought in about five contact requests in a month. In the eight months that followed, the volume reached the hundreds. The volumes are approximate and come from my own experience on the project. Read the case.
Big World Jobs, a job board for every country
My own project · since Sep 2026A free job board built from scratch, with roles read straight from employers' careers pages. It is my own project, separate from the consultancy, where I applied almost everything I fix in client accounts before any money goes into ads. Read the case.
Health plan broker, Brazil
Google Ads · about eight months, 2019 to 2020Google Ads and a monthly report for a reseller of health plans. On almost the same spend as September, quote requests went from 566 to 651 and the cost per request fell from R$ 16.42. Read the case.
How we'd work together
Discovery & Strategy
Comprehensive analysis of your business, market, and competitors. Custom PPC strategy and roadmap tailored to your goals and budget.
Campaign Launch
Expert setup with proper tracking, conversion goals, and A/B testing. Every campaign is built for performance from day one.
Ongoing Optimization
Weekly optimization, a live dashboard and a monthly written read on what moved and what comes next, with direct communication throughout.
Scale & Growth
Expansion of successful campaigns, new channel exploration, and sustainable growth strategies.
The same job has half a dozen names, and one of them is retired
People search for this role under whatever they were told to call it. The titles overlap almost completely, and knowing which is which saves you from comparing quotes that are not comparable.
Google Ads consultant, or AdWords consultant
The same person. Google retired the AdWords name in 2018 and a large share of searches still use it, which is why you will see adwords consulting and Google Ads consulting sold side by side by the same people. If someone still calls the product AdWords in their own copy in 2026, that tells you something about how recently they updated anything else.
PPC consultant, or pay per click consultant
Channel neutral by definition. In practice most PPC consulting engagements are majority Google Ads, with Meta, Microsoft or LinkedIn added where the audience justifies it. The broader title usually signals someone comfortable outside one platform.
Paid search consultant
Narrower on purpose. Search only, meaning Google and Microsoft, no social and no display. Useful shorthand when the work is genuinely intent driven and you do not want budget drifting into awareness.
Google Ads specialist
Tends to mean platform depth rather than commercial strategy. A specialist who knows every setting is valuable, and it is a different hire from someone who will tell you the account should spend less this quarter.
And the one that does not matter: near me
Accounts are run in a browser and reviewed on a call. Proximity stopped being a useful filter years ago, and screening by it removes most of the people who could help you. Covered in full in why location does not matter.
Certifications & tech stack
Google Ads Certifications
- G Search Certification, valid to October 2027
- G Display Certification
- G Shopping Certification
- G Video Certification
- G Measurement Certification
Technology stack
Common questions
What is a PPC consultant?
A PPC consultant is an independent specialist who manages Google Ads and paid social accounts directly for one client, rather than an agency team splitting attention across many. They handle strategy, campaign builds, tracking and optimisation, and report on the work themselves instead of through an account manager.
What happens during a PPC consultation?
I review your account and tracking before the call, then we spend 30 to 45 minutes going through what the data actually shows, what looks broken, and whether now is the right time to spend more. You get a short written summary afterward regardless of whether we work together.
Are you cheaper than an agency?
Usually the fee is lower, because there is no account management layer, no sales team and no office to fund. But that is not the main argument. The main argument is that the senior person is the one doing the work.
What is the minimum engagement?
I usually start with a standalone audit, fixed scope and fixed price. If it makes sense to continue, the format of ongoing management is agreed in writing before anything starts.
Do you work with clients outside Brazil?
Yes. Most of my work is with US, Canadian and European companies, and the whole engagement runs remotely.
What does a Google Ads specialist do?
Manages and optimizes pay-per-click campaigns on Google's advertising platform: keyword research, ad copywriting, bid management, landing page optimization, conversion tracking, and ongoing performance analysis to maximize your return on ad spend.
How much does it cost to hire a PPC specialist?
A fixed-price audit, or ongoing management on a monthly fee, month to month. You get a written quote after a short first call. How it works is on the pricing page.
What changes when one person runs the account?
You get senior attention on the account every month, and the person who answers your question is the person who made the change. Fewer handoffs, faster answers: you communicate directly with the person managing your campaigns, which usually means faster response times and more accountability.
Which platforms do you manage?
Google Ads (Search, Display, Shopping, Video), Meta Ads (Facebook and Instagram), and LinkedIn Ads, with experience in Microsoft Advertising and programmatic platforms. Google Ads is my primary area of certified expertise.
How quickly can I expect results?
Campaigns can start generating traffic and leads immediately after launch. Meaningful optimization typically takes 2–4 weeks as data comes in, with most clients seeing significant improvement within 60–90 days. A live dashboard and a monthly written read keep you tracking progress from day one.
Tell me what you are working with
A short form beats a long discovery call. Give me the basics and I will come back with a straight read on whether I can help, usually within one business day.
- No sales sequence. You get a reply from me, not a nurture flow.
- If I am not the right fit, I will say so and point you somewhere better.
- Prefer to talk live? Book a slot instead, link below.
Rather book a time directly? Schedule a call.