You invest in Google Ads and you don't know if it's delivering margin or just feeding a CAC that no longer holds up. Most agencies optimize campaigns. We design acquisition systems connected to the P&L.
Three patterns we see repeated in almost every company that comes in for CREF© diagnosis.
Campaigns are reported on CTR, CPC, platform ROAS. Indicators that give a sense of control and rarely explain what's happening with margin. Paid looks good on Looker while the income statement loses efficiency. When the CEO asks about real impact, there's no clear answer.
The market standard is changing bids, creatives, adjusting keywords. Tactical improvements within a system that has rarely been designed. But the problem is almost never in the campaign. It's in the offer, the segment, the commercial cycle. Anyone who optimizes without diagnosing moves metrics without touching the business.
In mid-market, the purchase decision rarely closes on the first click. There's research, comparison, multiple visits, a salesperson involved. Attributing the full conversion to the last ad breaks the real reading. The result: investing more in what seems to work and disinvesting in what was actually feeding the pipeline.
It's not contracted. It's diagnosed. Before touching Google Ads, we run your business through CREF©.
CREF© is Elevam's growth consulting framework. In the phase applied to the paid channel, we identify whether the problem is in acquisition, conversion, retention or frequency, and where paid brings real margin, not just traffic.
P&L-first audit: we analyze real costs, margins per line, channel dependency and cycle behavior. Paid enters the diagnosis, it isn't assumed as the solution.
We connect Google Ads with your CRM and your real pipeline. Multitouch attribution, not last-click. The sales team stops competing with marketing. Both look at the same data.
Structure, segmentation and messages designed from the ICP, not from the keyword tool. Focus on real purchase intent, not on cheap volume. Investment concentrated where the cost of acquisition sustains margin.
Every decision is validated against real impact on the income statement, not against platform ROAS. The reporting is designed so a CFO understands it without translation.
| Market standard | How we approach it at Elevam |
|---|---|
| Market standard:Optimizes by platform ROAS | How we approach it at Elevam:We optimize by contribution margin |
| Market standard:Reports CTR, CPC, conversions | How we approach it at Elevam:We report CAC, LTV, payback and pipeline contribution |
| Market standard:Last-click attribution | How we approach it at Elevam:Attribution model connected to CRM and real cycle |
| Market standard:Proposes "more budget" as the solution | How we approach it at Elevam:We diagnose whether the problem is in the channel or in the offer |
| Market standard:Interchangeable execution team | How we approach it at Elevam:Senior consultant assigned throughout the cycle |
Two interventions in different sectors. Same principle: SEM connected to the P&L.
Sector with CPC up to €10 per click. The client came from active Google Ads campaigns with unsustainable cost per conversion.
553 confirmed calls
Vehicle rental at airport. Saturated market, strong seasonality. Starting point: several previous agencies, high cost per conversion, low profitability. Campaigns generated leads, but the business didn't scale.
With €10,000 of additional investment, cost per booking stabilized at ~€10 over an average ticket of €200–250
Full occupancy in peak months
Asier López
CEO of ElevamPaid only makes sense when it's integrated into the P&L. Otherwise, it's spending disguised as investment.
When the cost of acquisition starts to rise and margin doesn't follow, scaling means investing in a channel that's no longer profitable. The clear signal: each additional euro of investment returns less margin than the previous one. Before continuing to raise budget, offer, segment and attribution must be reviewed. Often the problem isn't in Google Ads, it's in the business that paid is reflecting.
By connecting Google Ads with the CRM and modeling multitouch attribution, not last-click. You have to measure pipeline contribution, real payback period and LTV per segment. Not immediate conversions. Without that connection, decisions are made on platform metrics that don't reflect what's happening in the business. In B2B cycles of 60 to 180 days, Google Ads ROAS tells a story that's almost always incomplete.
It depends on the purchase cycle, the target CAC and the market size. Not on a standard figure. Below a certain threshold, the algorithm doesn't have enough data to optimize and the investment dilutes. In most cases we see, below €3,000 to €5,000 monthly the channel costs more in management than it brings. Above, it depends on the sector. The correct answer starts with the P&L.
Almost always. The channels influence each other: what ranks organically lowers the cost of brand paid, and what we learn in paid refines the organic content strategy. Treating them as silos is expensive. Integrating them requires a consulting layer on top of the three channels, not three agencies coordinating with each other. At Elevam, paid, SEO and GEO are run by the same consultant.
In the strategic assessment we analyze your Google Ads account, your attribution model and your reading of the channel in P&L. No commitment. What you see after that session is what your team wasn't seeing before.
