Tracking before spending
Calls from ads, calls from the site, form messages and online bookings set up as conversions first, so each keyword is judged by inquiries rather than clicks.
Google Ads Management
Google Ads management in Richmond, BC
Search campaigns pointed at the right Richmond, timed for when your phone is answered, and able to reach travellers and business buyers before they arrive. Management is part of our Pro plan.
- Search campaigns
- Location exclusions
- Negative keywords
- Ad scheduling
- Conversion tracking
Paying for clicks from the wrong Richmond
Google’s suggestions for “seo richmond” lead with Virginia and Richmond Hill, and a search for “plumber richmond” lists eight other Richmonds before British Columbia. Ad campaigns meet the same confusion in a costlier form. A keyword built around “richmond” with loose settings can show your ad, and bill you, for someone researching a Richmond on another continent who will never walk through your door.
The opposite problem matters just as much. Some of your most valuable customers are not in Richmond when they search. Travellers look up “hotels near yvr with shuttle” from home in another province, an overseas shipper looks for a “customs broker richmond bc”, and a family in Vancouver plans a Saturday in Steveston. A campaign that only reaches phones inside the city misses them; one that reaches everybody wastes money. The settings have to sit carefully between the two.
Richmond’s economy shapes the rest. About 24,000 people work directly on Sea Island, and transportation, warehousing and manufacturing account for roughly a quarter of local jobs, so many advertisers here sell to other businesses during office hours. Restaurants and shops lean the opposite way, toward evenings and weekends, and home services follow the weather, with roofing and gutter work climbing once the winter rain settles in.
- 24,000 people work directly on Sea Island
- 1 in 4 local jobs in transport, warehousing or manufacturing
- $700 a month: the Pro plan, which includes ads management
Search demand
Searches that shape a Richmond ad account
Google.ca suggestions from October 2026. “google ads richmond bc” returns nothing, so owners look for help in broader words, and several suggestions belong to other Richmonds you will want to exclude.
Search term
Intent
Why it matters
richmond digital marketing agency
Medium
How owners look for help; shared with agencies in other Richmonds.
digital marketing richmond va
Research
The Virginia version, a sign that “richmond” alone is never enough.
plumber richmond hill
Research
Another city’s demand. Terms like this belong on your negative list.
emergency dentist richmond bc
Urgent
A patient in pain books whoever appears first. Worth a bid.
hotels near yvr with shuttle
High
Typed by travellers who are still far from Richmond.
customs broker richmond bc
High
A business buyer, usually searching during working hours.
roofing richmond bc
High
Rises with wet weather, so the budget should rise with it.
richmond bc flood insurance
High
A regulated product, where ad wording needs extra care.
Narrow first, then reach outward on purpose
We begin with the tightest setup that still works: ads shown to people located in Richmond and the nearby areas you serve, plus negative keywords for va, hill, ky, upon thames and the rest. Only once that core campaign brings inquiries at a sensible cost do we add a separate one for people searching from further away, such as travellers planning around YVR, so its results can be judged on their own.
Paid or organic
Ads, local SEO, or a mix for a Richmond business?
They pay off on different timetables. Many owners here run ads for a launch or a short season and let SEO carry the steadier months.
Google Ads
Local SEO
First inquiries
Within days of launch, once tracking works
Typically after a few months of work
What you pay for
Each click, billed by Google
A fixed monthly plan for the work
The other Richmonds
Filtered out with location and keyword exclusions
Handled by naming BC consistently everywhere
Out-of-town searchers
Reached through a separate, capped campaign
Reached by pages that answer their questions
When you pause
Inquiries stop the same day
Visibility fades slowly over months
Strongest for
Urgent needs and short seasons
Services people look for all year
The work
How we run an account
Location set to presence
The main campaign shown to people located in or regularly in your area, not to anyone who merely shows interest in a place called Richmond.
A long negative list from day one
Other Richmonds, job hunters, courses, freebies and do-it-yourself searches excluded at launch, then extended each week from the search terms report.
Separate campaigns for visitors
Where it makes sense, a small capped campaign for people outside the city looking for something here, such as airport hotels or a Steveston lunch, reported on its own.
Schedules that suit your trade
Business-to-business ads concentrated in office hours, restaurants and retail weighted toward evenings and weekends, and nothing at all when nobody can pick up.
Wording checked against your rules
Ads for insurance, mortgages, immigration advice and legal services reviewed against your regulator’s rules and the Competition Act, so every claim stays accurate.
Done carefully
Who pays whom
Rules we keep for every client, written down so you can hold us to them.
Google bills your card for the clicks. Our fee is flat, so a larger ad budget never earns us a cent extra.
The ad account is opened in your business’s name, and you are its administrator from the first day. Management sits inside the Pro plan at $700 a month (CAD), with no long-term contract. Should you leave, the account, its history and its conversion data go nowhere; they were always yours.
Ask us about your business
- No fee worked out as a percentage of ad spend.
- No shutting you out of your own account.
- No blanket acceptance of Google’s automated suggestions.
- No bidding on your brand name without a clear reason.
How we work
How we work, step by step
Four steps that take a Richmond business from hard to find to first in line.
-
01
Find the gaps
We review your website and Business Profile and check where you rank from several parts of Richmond.
-
02
Pick the targets
We choose the searches worth winning and give each one a single, focused page.
-
03
Make the changes
Profile, site, content and listing improvements, starting with whatever will move results most.
-
04
Measure and adjust
A plain monthly report on calls, messages and rankings, and the plan for the month ahead.
Questions
Google Ads questions from Richmond owners
How do we keep our ads away from people in other Richmonds?
Two layers. Location settings limit the ads to people physically in, or regularly in, the areas you choose, and negative keywords block searches naming another Richmond, such as Virginia or Richmond Hill. We read the search terms report weekly for anything that slips past.
Should we advertise to people who are not in Richmond yet?
Sometimes. Hotels, airport parking, travel agencies and logistics firms win much of their business from people searching elsewhere. For them we run a separate campaign with its own budget, so you can see exactly what those out-of-town inquiries cost.
Do the clicks come out of your fee?
No. Running the account is included in the Pro plan at $700 a month, in Canadian dollars. Google charges clicks directly to your own payment method, separately from us.
We sell to other businesses. Can Google Ads work for that?
It can, when the keywords are specific. A freight forwarder or customs broker bidding on precise service terms during office hours usually fares far better than one bidding on broad words around the clock. The quality of each lead matters more than the volume.
Our industry is regulated. Are there limits on what the ads can say?
Yes. Advertising for insurance, mortgages, immigration advice and legal services must be accurate under the Competition Act and your regulator’s rules, and Google applies its own policies to financial products. We keep the wording factual and run it past you before launch.
Is there a minimum term?
Only the month you are in. We suggest giving a new account two or three months, since the early weeks mostly go into learning which searches produce real inquiries and which only produce clicks.
Further reading
From the blog
Further reading on this subject for Richmond business owners.
Related services
Each one stands alone, and most clients start with a single service.
Industries we do this for
Each industry here is searched differently, so each page has its own research.
See where you stand in Richmond
Find out, free, how you rank from Steveston to City Centre, who is ahead of you and which changes matter most.
Request my free audit