Find out what your Google Ads account is actually buying.
I reconstruct the economics of large Google Ads accounts, uncover where structure and automation distort performance, and provide a concrete plan to fix the account—without trying to take over its management.
A strong reported ROAS can conceal weak acquisition economics.
Campaigns labeled non-brand may be converting branded searches. Performance Max may claim revenue from customers already navigating toward the company. Valuable queries may move through conflicting campaigns.
The account can look successful while leadership remains unable to answer a basic question: what are we actually buying with this money?
The Paid Search Forensic Review
An independent investigation of the economics, structure, and control systems inside a complex Google Ads account.
Can leadership trust this account’s representation of acquisition performance?
- True brand, non-brand, competitor, and unclassified performance
- Performance Max brand leakage and Search overlap
- Query routing, ownership, and internal competition
- Negative-keyword and brand-exclusion architecture
- Campaign, keyword, and match-type structure
- Geographic targeting, language, and localization
The dashboard looked exceptional. The query economics told a different story.
This composite example combines recurring patterns observed across large ecommerce accounts. It does not describe any single client.
Management reporting showed a 9.7× blended ROAS and classified 91% of spend as non-brand.
The immediate value was not a promised savings number. It was an honest view of what the account could—and could not—prove about acquisition.
A finite, fixed-fee intervention.
No percentage of spend. No open-ended management engagement. No attempt to replace the incumbent team.
Reconstruct
Rebuild the account’s economics from customer queries—not campaign labels.
Diagnose
Trace the structural and measurement failures producing the misleading result.
Prescribe
Design the reporting, controls, ownership, and rebuild sequence required.
Transfer
Present the evidence and hand an implementation-ready plan to the existing team.
Specialized diagnosis, delivered independently.
Across 15 years in paid search, I have managed more than $300 million in advertising spend. My specialty is understanding what an account is actually doing when its structure and reporting obscure the answer.
I work constructively with internal teams and incumbent agencies. My role is to follow the evidence, explain the failure, prescribe the correction, and leave the operators with a plan they can implement.
— Storm Nilson
Founder and Paid Search Forensic Consultant
If the account is spending millions, the company should know what the money is buying.
The first conversation is a short fit assessment. If the problem falls outside this specialty, I will say so.
Discuss an account