Google Ads Certified  —  17 Years in Paid Search

Google AdWords Expert
Hire a Certified Google Ads Specialist

I am Vijay Bhabhor, an independent Google Ads and paid search specialist based in Surat, Gujarat. I have managed Google AdWords and Google Ads campaigns since 2009, across Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Display and YouTube for businesses in India, the US, UK, Australia, Canada and UAE.

When you hire me, you work with me directly. Every keyword bidding decision, every search term review, every bid strategy adjustment is handled by one person with 17 years of paid advertising experience, not routed through an account manager.

17+
Years in Google Ads
80+
Countries managed
₹50Cr+
Ad spend managed
6.4x
Avg ROAS, ecommerce
Certifications and credentials
Google Ads Certified
Search, Shopping, Display, Video, Performance Max, Measurement
Google Analytics 4 Certified
GA4 configuration, event tracking, GA4 to Ads integration
Top Rated on Upwork
10,000+ hours logged, 100% job success score
80+ Countries
Live campaigns managed simultaneously across India, US, UK, Australia and UAE
Active since 2009
Managed through every major Google Ads platform change from manual CPC to Smart Bidding

Management from ₹15,000/month. Flat fee. Month-to-month. Ad spend billed directly by Google to you.

What the name change actually means

Google AdWords and Google Ads Are the Same Platform

Google rebranded AdWords to Google Ads in July 2018. The auction mechanics, the keyword bidding system, the campaign structure and the Quality Score algorithm did not change. Only the name did. Many Indian advertisers, marketers and business owners still use the Google AdWords name out of habit, which is why both terms appear on this page and both point to the same paid advertising platform.

The rebrand reflected a genuine expansion in what the platform covered. Google AdWords at launch in 2000 was exclusively a keyword-triggered text ad system in Search results. The Google Ads platform in 2026 covers nine distinct campaign types: Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Display, YouTube, Demand Gen, App, Smart and Local Service Ads. Each has its own auction logic, targeting mechanism, creative format and bid strategy behaviour.

A paid search specialist in 2009 worked on keyword match types, Quality Score by ad group, ad copy testing and manual CPC bids. A Google Ads specialist in 2026 needs to understand Smart Bidding learning phase mechanics, Performance Max asset group architecture, first-party audience signal quality for Customer Match and RLSA, Merchant Center feed diagnostics, and how GA4 conversion events interact with Google Ads attribution models. The technical surface area is substantially larger than it was when I started managing accounts.

When you search for a Google AdWords expert or a Google Ads specialist, you are looking for the same thing. What determines whether someone can actually help your account is not which term they use, but whether they have managed paid advertising accounts at the complexity and budget level your business requires.

Platform changes that required new skills
2000
Google AdWords launches. Keyword-triggered text ads in Search results. Manual CPC bidding. Quality Score determines ad rank above bid amount.
2013
Enhanced campaigns. Device bid modifiers introduced. Ad extensions become a Quality Score and ad rank factor.
2016
Standard Shopping campaigns. Product feed quality in Merchant Center determines impression share more than bids. Feed management becomes a weekly discipline.
2018
AdWords renamed Google Ads. Responsive Search Ads replace standard text ads. Target CPA and Target ROAS Smart Bidding strategies become reliable for accounts with sufficient conversion data.
2020
Broad match with Smart Bidding becomes viable in high-conversion accounts. Customer Match and RLSA audience signals gain significance. Performance Max enters beta.
2022
Smart Shopping and Local campaigns replaced by Performance Max. Brand exclusion settings become essential to prevent PMax cannibalising Search. Account structure decisions now directly affect how the algorithm allocates across surfaces.
2024
Demand Gen replaces Discovery campaigns. GA4 fully replaces Universal Analytics. First-party data and consent-mode configuration affect attribution accuracy across markets.
What experience actually changes

How I Approach Google Ads Accounts Differently

There are things you learn from a course on paid search management and things you only develop from managing accounts across different industries, budget levels and markets over many years. These five practices are the specific ones that account managers at agencies typically skip, and that most PPC freelancers have not developed yet.

01

Conversion tracking gets verified before any campaign is touched

Google Ads Smart Bidding optimises toward whatever conversion data it receives. If the data is wrong, the algorithm learns the wrong behaviour at your expense. I have audited accounts where the conversion tag was firing on every page load rather than on confirmed form submission, reporting 8,000 conversions a month when actual qualified leads numbered 60. Smart Bidding had been optimising toward phantom conversions for months. The click-through rate looked healthy. The cost per acquisition in reality was roughly 130 times what the account dashboard showed.

Before touching any campaign structure, bid strategy or keyword list, I verify every active conversion action. I cross-check Google Ads conversion counts against GA4 event data. For ecommerce, I confirm purchase values match actual order values, not just conversion counts. For lead generation, I confirm the tag fires on form submission rather than page load. This is not optional. An account with broken conversion data cannot be optimised, only wasted.

02

ROAS and CPA targets come from your actual margin data

A business with 30 percent gross margin breaks even on Google Ads at a 3.33x ROAS. A business with 60 percent gross margin is profitable at 2x ROAS. When a Google Ads manager sets a 4x Target ROAS because that is what ecommerce clients commonly aim for, they are either leaving profit unrealised for a high-margin business or running a low-margin business below break-even. Both outcomes happen regularly in accounts managed without margin analysis.

I calculate your break-even ROAS from your actual product margins before setting any Smart Bidding target. I then set the Target ROAS target 20 to 30 percent above break-even so the account runs profitably with room for algorithm variance. For lead generation accounts, I calculate the maximum allowable cost per acquisition from your customer lifetime value and expected close rate before setting a Target CPA. These numbers change when your margins change. They are never borrowed from industry benchmarks.

03

Account structure is built around Smart Bidding data requirements

The most expensive structural mistake in Indian Google Ads accounts is fragmentation. An account with 25 campaigns each generating 2 to 3 conversions per month means every campaign is in a permanent learning phase. Smart Bidding requires at least 30 conversions per campaign per 30-day window to exit learning and deliver predictable results. Below that threshold, the bid strategy oscillates and campaign performance is inconsistent regardless of how well the keywords, ad copy and audiences are set up.

I consolidate conversion signals into 3 to 5 campaigns segmented by intent tier and product margin category. An ecommerce account might have one Search campaign for branded queries, one for high-intent non-branded product terms, and one Performance Max with asset groups split by category. That setup accumulates 40 to 60 conversions per campaign per month. Smart Bidding has real signal to work with. The account learns within 4 to 6 weeks rather than staying in a learning phase indefinitely.

04

Search terms get reviewed every week without exception

With broad match as Google's default keyword setting since 2021, the search terms report is where wasted spend accumulates fastest. A monthly search term review, which is what most agencies actually do despite claiming weekly optimisation, allows 3 to 4 weeks of irrelevant traffic to consume budget before anyone identifies it. In India specifically, broad match in competitive categories can direct 40 to 60 percent of spend toward completely unrelated queries if negative keyword lists are not maintained weekly.

Every account gets a shared negative keyword list built on day one from competitor names, irrelevant intent signals and category noise. Each week I pull the full search terms report, identify queries that match the wrong intent, and add negatives at the campaign or shared list level. This single practice consistently recovers 15 to 25 percent of ad spend within the first two months. Every negative addition is logged with the date so you can see what was being wasted and precisely when it was stopped.

05

Diagnosis starts from patterns, not from checklists

A PPC management course teaches you what to check. It cannot teach you that a Search campaign showing high impression share alongside climbing cost per acquisition in an Indian B2B account almost always points to a competitor increasing budget in the same auction, not to a structural problem with your ad groups or keyword bidding. It cannot teach you that a Shopping campaign with stable impression share but declining conversion rate after a Merchant Center feed update is almost always a product attribute change that altered how products match to search queries, not a bid strategy problem.

When something unexpected happens in a campaign, I start with the pattern from previous accounts rather than working through a generic troubleshooting list. Knowing where to look first cuts diagnosis time from weeks to days. Budget stops burning while the actual cause is identified. This kind of diagnostic speed only comes from having seen the same behaviour across enough different accounts and industries to recognise it quickly.

What 17 years in paid search actually means

The Account Experience Behind the Number

I started managing paid search campaigns in 2009. Google AdWords at that point had no Smart Bidding, no Responsive Search Ads and no Performance Max. Every CPC was manual. Quality Score was the dominant ad rank factor. A well-structured ad group with tightly themed keywords, a high expected click-through rate and a relevant landing page could outrank a competitor spending five times more because their Quality Score was poor. Understanding that relationship at a granular level before automated bidding existed means I know what the algorithms are actually trying to do when they run correctly, and what they are doing when they do not.

Between 2012 and 2019, most of my client work came through Upwork, where I managed accounts for businesses in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and Hong Kong. The categories were varied — fashion ecommerce, SaaS, medical clinics, legal services, industrial equipment. Working across that range simultaneously meant learning quickly that what works in a high-CPC legal services account in the UK is the wrong approach for a product catalogue account in India. Budget sizes, auction competitiveness, match type strategy, and the margin economics behind ROAS targets differ enough between categories that treating them the same is consistently expensive.

Since 2019, I have managed paid campaigns for an ecommerce operation running across 80 plus countries simultaneously, with annual Google Ads spend in the eight-figure range. Managing paid advertising at that scale, with different CPCs, different consumer search behaviour and different attribution windows across markets, changes how you think about account structure, budget allocation and conversion reporting. Decisions about PMax cannibalisation across markets, ROAS targets when margins vary by product line, and conversion lag in markets where purchase decisions take longer carry directly into how I approach a ₹2 lakh per month Indian client account.

I work remotely with all clients. Account access, campaign management, reporting and strategy calls happen online. Clients in Mumbai, London and Toronto work with me in the same way.

Scale and scope of accounts managed
Budget range managed
₹30,000/mo to ₹30L+/mo for Indian clients. Eight-figure annual spend internationally.
Countries with live campaigns
80+ countries. India, US, UK, Australia, Canada, UAE, Europe, Southeast Asia.
Campaign types managed
Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Display, YouTube, Demand Gen, Local Service Ads, App.
Account types
Ecommerce, B2B lead generation, local services, SaaS, medical, legal, education, manufacturing.
Industries managed across 17 years
Fashion ecommerce Jewellery Textiles and fabric export Medical diagnostics Dental clinics Real estate SaaS Industrial B2B Legal services Education Financial services Restaurants Home decor Health and wellness D2C brands Tour and travel
Tools used across accounts
Google Ads Editor Merchant Center GA4 Google Tag Manager Looker Studio Optmyzr SEMrush Microsoft Clarity CallRail
Account outcomes

Results From Accounts I Have Managed

Three account situations with the specific problem identified, the paid search optimisations made, and the measurable outcome. Results show what changed and by how much, without naming specific clients.

Ecommerce Search, Shopping, Performance Max
Ecommerce — India
Problem found

Account spending ₹4 lakh per month across 22 campaigns. Purchase conversion tag firing on page load rather than on confirmed purchase, meaning every session reaching any page was recorded as a conversion. Smart Bidding had been learning from this false signal for 7 months. Reported ROAS in the account was 6.2x. Actual ROAS from real purchase data was 1.9x.

Changes made

Fixed conversion tracking via GTM. Rebuilt the account into 4 campaigns. Set Target ROAS from actual product margin data by category. Added shared negative keyword list from 6 months of accumulated search term waste.

Result in 90 days
ROAS
1.9x
6.4x
+237%
Revenue
₹7.6L
₹25.6L
+237%
Spend
₹4L
₹4L
same
CPA
₹2,100
₹425
down 80%
Lead generation Search, Display remarketing
B2B SaaS — United Kingdom
Problem found

Account running broad match against a tightly defined ICP. 58 percent of spend was going to search terms matching wrong job titles, wrong company sizes and wrong industries. Conversion tracking double-counted every lead: form submission event plus thank-you page view both set as primary conversions. Smart Bidding was optimising toward a cost per acquisition that was half the real figure.

Changes made

Fixed conversion tracking to one primary conversion per lead. Rebuilt keyword targeting on phrase and exact match. Added 180 negatives from 6 months of search term waste. Restructured ad groups by job title search intent. Layered custom intent audiences and RLSA.

Result in 60 days
CPL
£214
£88
-59%
Volume
23/mo
68/mo
+196%
Lead quality
52%
81%
+56%
SQL rate
18%
34%
+89%
Lead generation Search, Local Service Ads
Local services — Surat, Gujarat
Problem found

Local service business spending ₹80,000 per month on Search with no call tracking in place. Phone calls were the primary conversion type but were not being measured. Budget ran 24 hours a day including overnight hours when the business was closed. Broad match sending a significant portion of spend to research and DIY queries with no purchase intent.

Changes made

Set up call tracking via GTM with proper campaign attribution. Restricted campaigns to business operating hours using ad scheduling. Added 120 negative keywords covering research and DIY intent. Launched Local Service Ads alongside Search. Bid adjustments by postal code from 3 months of post-analysis performance data.

Result in 75 days
CPL
₹1,840
₹760
-59%
Monthly leads
43
98
+128%
Conv rate
8%
22%
+175%
Wasted spend
62%
11%
-82%
Fit assessment

Who I Work With and Who I Do Not

I take on a limited number of accounts so each one gets the attention the engagement justifies. This is a direct filter so both sides can decide quickly whether to proceed.

Good fit
Monthly ad spend of ₹30,000 or more
Below this level, Smart Bidding cannot accumulate enough conversion data and the management cost becomes disproportionate to what the budget can realistically deliver.
An existing account with poor campaign performance
Most engagements start as takeovers. There is almost always structural work to do and measurable quick wins available from fixing conversion tracking, negative keyword lists and campaign architecture.
A new account you want built correctly from day one
A properly structured account from the start avoids months of dismantling fragmented campaign structures and correcting broken tracking later.
Measuring success in cost per lead or ROAS, not impressions
If the primary metric is business revenue or qualified leads from paid advertising, the goal is the same.
Willing to allow 60 to 90 days for stable results
Smart Bidding exits the learning phase in 4 to 8 weeks. Accounts judged at 30 days have not completed a full learning cycle.
Not a fit
Monthly ad spend under ₹30,000
At this level, the economics of professional paid search management do not work in your favour. SEO or organic channels typically deliver better returns until budget grows.
No functional landing page
Well-structured campaigns sending traffic to a poor landing page will not convert. That problem needs to be resolved before investing in paid advertising makes sense.
Expecting results within 7 to 14 days
Search campaigns generate data from week one, but Smart Bidding takes 4 to 8 weeks to stabilise. Anyone guaranteeing results in a week is misrepresenting how the platform works.
Offer that has not been validated through any channel
Paid advertising scales what already generates results. It cannot fix an offer that the market has already not responded to at the price being charged.
Requiring guaranteed ROAS or CPL before starting
Campaign performance depends on landing page quality, offer pricing, auction competition and search volume, variables that are partly outside the scope of campaign management.

Not sure which applies to you? Send a message and I will give an honest answer before either of us commits to anything.

How to get started

How to Hire a Google Ads Expert

Three ways to work together depending on what your account needs. Every engagement begins with a free audit so you know exactly what is being fixed and why before any fee is agreed.

Factor Vijay Bhabhor — independent Typical Indian agency
Who manages your account Me directly — every week, every change logged A junior exec managing 30 to 50 accounts
Contract Month-to-month, 30 days notice to stop Typically 3 to 6 month minimum
Pricing model Flat fee based on work required Often a percentage of ad spend
Account ownership Your account under your billing throughout Some agencies create accounts under their MCC
Reporting Live Looker Studio dashboard plus weekly written update Monthly PDF focused on CTR and impressions
Ad spend billing You pay Google directly Often billed through the agency
Experience 17 years, 80+ countries, 100+ account types Varies — assigned exec often 1 to 3 years in
Common questions

Questions About Hiring a Google Ads Expert

Specific questions about what working with a Google AdWords expert involves and what to expect.

Google renamed AdWords to Google Ads in July 2018. The platform is identical. AdWords originally referred only to keyword-based text ads in Search results. The Google Ads platform today covers Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Display, YouTube, Demand Gen and Local Service Ads. Many Indian advertisers still use the AdWords name out of habit. Both terms refer to the same paid advertising system, the same certifications and the same account management work.

Ask for a direct link to their live Google Skillshop certification profile, not a screenshot of a badge. Google certifications are publicly verifiable. Beyond the certificate, ask three specific questions: how do they verify conversion tracking accuracy before making any optimisations, how do they calculate Target ROAS or Target CPA targets for a new client, and whether your account stays under your billing or under their MCC. Genuine paid search specialists answer all three specifically. Vague or deflecting answers are a clear signal.

Ongoing Google Ads management starts at ₹15,000 per month for ad spend up to ₹1 lakh per month. For more complex accounts the fee is ₹30,000 to ₹60,000 per month. A one-time audit is ₹10,000 to ₹25,000 depending on account size. Consulting sessions are available per hour or as half-day engagements. All pricing is a flat fee, not a percentage of ad spend. Ad spend is paid directly by you to Google and never passes through me.

The first 30 days are primarily about fixing the structural problems that are costing you money: conversion tracking accuracy, campaign architecture, negative keyword lists and bid strategy selection. Real conversion data begins accumulating from the first week. Smart Bidding strategies need 4 to 8 weeks to exit the learning phase and deliver consistent results. Meaningful, sustained improvement in ROAS or cost per acquisition is typically visible at the 60 to 90 day mark. Anyone promising reliable results in 7 to 14 days is misrepresenting how Google Ads Smart Bidding actually works.

Yes. Your account stays under your billing throughout. I access it through Google Ads Manager (MCC) access. I never create a new account under my own MCC and hold your campaign data. When the engagement ends, you keep everything: the account, all historical performance data, audience lists, Customer Match lists, conversion history and campaign structures. This is non-negotiable on every engagement.

Yes. Most of my engagements start as takeovers. The first step is a full audit covering conversion tracking accuracy, campaign structure, search term waste and what has and has not been working. You receive a written summary of findings before I make any changes to live campaigns. Historical data in an existing account has value and is preserved wherever possible rather than rebuilding from scratch, which would reset the Smart Bidding learning history.

Yes. I work with clients across India including Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Chennai and Pune, and with international clients in the US, UK, Australia, Canada and UAE. Campaign management, reporting and strategy calls are handled entirely online through Google Ads Manager access, Looker Studio dashboards and video calls.

No, and any paid search specialist who does is not being accurate. Campaign performance depends on variables that are partly outside the scope of campaign management: landing page conversion rate, offer pricing relative to competition, search volume, seasonal demand and how many competitors are bidding in the same auction. What I guarantee is documented, transparent management. Every optimisation change is logged with a date and the reason for it. If something is not working, you hear about it in writing with a specific plan to address it.

The minimum monthly ad spend is ₹30,000. Below that level, Smart Bidding cannot accumulate enough conversion data per campaign to function properly, and the management cost becomes disproportionate to what the budget can generate. For businesses spending less than ₹30,000 on paid advertising, SEO or organic channels typically deliver better economics at that stage of growth.

Independent Google Ads Expert  •  Surat, Gujarat

Ready to Hire a Google Ads Expert?

Start with a free account audit. I will review your campaigns, identify the biggest structural and tracking issues, and tell you honestly what needs to change to make your paid search investment work. No pitch. No commitment.

Based in Surat, Gujarat  •  India and international businesses  •  Month-to-month, no lock-in