Scaling Google Ads for Micro1: ~8.3x ROAS in 6 Months

Engaged by Micro1, a Silicon Valley startup connecting companies with the top 1% of remote tech & AI talent, to build, launch, and scale their Google Ads acquisition channel. Facing a hyper-competitive market dominated by players like Toptal, I developed and executed a comprehensive Google Ads Go-To-Market strategy. This involved auditing and rebuilding foundational elements, implementing a sophisticated full-funnel campaign structure (including PMAX, Search, Retargeting, and ABM), and driving continuous optimization. The result was establishing Google Ads as a primary growth engine, generating approximately $250,000 in attributed revenue on 30,000 spend (~8.3x ROAS) between Q4 2023 and Q1 2024.

Micro1 needed to penetrate a competitive landscape and attract high-intent leads (companies seeking elite, vetted engineers & AI specialists) cost-effectively. Key challenges included:

Intense Competition: Competing against established giants like Toptal with significant brand recognition and ad budgets.

High-Quality Lead Requirement: The need to target specific decision-makers (VPs of Eng, Hiring Managers) seeking premium, pre-vetted talent, filtering out job seekers.

Channel Foundation & Scaling: Building the Google Ads channel from a potentially suboptimal state (based on initial audit findings) into a scalable, ROI-positive acquisition source.

Proving ROI Quickly: Demonstrating clear value and pipeline contribution in a fast-paced startup environment.

My approach combined deep strategic insight with hands-on technical execution:

Audit & Foundational Rebuild: Conducted a thorough audit, identifying and rectifying critical issues in conversion tracking, campaign goal configuration, network settings, and bidding strategies to enable optimal performance and cross-campaign learning.

Advanced Keyword & Audience Strategy: Performed deep keyword research (including competitive analysis) focusing on high-intent terms related to hiring specific tech roles (Python, AI, ML, NLP, specific frameworks) and outsourcing needs. Developed targeted audience segments, including ABM lists and retargeting pools.

Full-Funnel Campaign Structure Build: Designed and implemented a comprehensive structure targeting different stages of the user journey:

Channel Insights & Investment Justification: Provided analysis demonstrating Paid Search's superior ROI compared to other channels, successfully advocating for increased budget allocation to scale results.

Revenue Generation: Directly attributed ~$250,000 in revenue from Google Ads.

Exceptional ROAS: Achieved approximately 8.3x Return on Ad Spend (~$30k spend).

Channel Scalability: Established Google Ads as a reliable, high-ROI customer acquisition channel for Micro1, demonstrating significant competitive traction against incumbents.

Strategic Foundation: Delivered a robust, optimized Google Ads infrastructure and GTM playbook ready for continued scaling.

Google Ads Strategy & Full-Funnel Go-To-Market (GTM) Planning

Advanced PPC Campaign Management (PMAX, Search, Display Retargeting, ABM)

Campaign Structure Build & Implementation

Competitive Analysis & Keyword Research

Audience Segmentation & Targeting (Custom, In-Market, Retargeting, ABM)

Conversion Tracking Setup & Optimization (Google Tag Manager)

Smart Bidding Strategy Implementation (tCPA, Portfolio Bidding)

Performance Analysis & Data-Driven Optimization (CPL, MQL, ROAS)

Responsive Search Ad (RSA) Copywriting & Testing

Google Ads Audit & Account Restructuring

Startup Marketing & Scaling Acquisition Channels

Google Ads Platform (Search, PMAX, Display)

Google Analytics

HubSpot (for ROI tracking & attribution)

Why This Matters: This project showcases my ability to take ownership of a critical acquisition channel in a highly competitive tech market, build a sophisticated full-funnel strategy from the ground up, apply deep technical and strategic expertise to overcome challenges, and deliver significant, measurable revenue growth and ROI for a fast-growing startup.