Bradford's Guide to Finding a Digital Advertising Expert

Trying to find a decent digital advertising consultant in Bradford can feel like a proper mission. You're bombarded with agencies from all over, all promising to get you to the top of Google or make you famous on Facebook overnight. The truth is, most of them are full of it. They'll take your money, run some generic ads, and leave you with nothing but a lighter bank account.

The problem is that a lot of what passes for 'digital marketing' is just noise. To get real results for your Bradford business, you need someone who understands strategy, not just someone who knows how to click a few buttons in Google Ads. This guide is about how to find that person and how to avoid getting ripped off.

So, what makes a Bradford business different?

First off, let's get one thing straight. Running ads for a business in Bradford isn't the same as running them in London or Manchester. The local economy, the competition, and the customers are all different. With Bradford being the UK City of Culture 2025, there's a massive opportunity on the horizon, but it also means more noise and competition. A generic approach just won't cut it.

You need a consultant who gets that. Someone who understands the West Yorkshire market and can tailor a strategy that actually works here. They should be asking you about your ideal customer in Bradford, not just plugging your business into a one-size-fits-all template. Are you targeting students from the University of Bradford? Families in Shipley? Businesses in the city centre? This stuff matters. A good consultant knows this; a bad one doesn't even think to ask.

Many business owners get fixated on the wrong things. They want cheap clicks or a high number of impressions. That's vanity. Awareness campaigns can be a massive waste of money. I've seen it countless times. When you tell Facebook to get you "brand awareness," it goes and finds the cheapest people to show your ad to – the ones who never click, never engage, and definately never buy. You're paying to reach the worst possible audience. Instead, you need to focus your budget on campaigns that drive actual conversions: leads, phone calls, or sales. That's how you get a return, not by plastering your name everywhere.

How much should you actually be spending?

This is the million-dollar question, isn't it? The honest answer is: it depends. It depends on your industry, your goals, and how much a new customer is actually worth to you. Tbh, anyone who gives you a fixed price without understanding your business is just guessing.

In our experience running campaigns for service businesses across the UK, a lead can cost anything from £5 to over £60. For example, we ran a campaign for a home cleaning company that got leads for £5 each. On the other hand, an HVAC company in a competitive area was paying around $60 a lead. For a Bradford-based electrician, you might expect something in the £10-£50 range per lead from Google Ads. The key is figuring out if that cost is profitable for you.

This brings us to the most important metric most businesses ignore: Customer Lifetime Value (LTV). You have to know what a customer is worth to stop worrying about the cost of a single lead. Let's do some quick maths.

Once you know your LTV, you can work backwards. A good rule of thumb is to aim for a 3:1 LTV to Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) ratio. So if your LTV is £7,500, you can afford to spend up to £2,500 to get that customer. If your sales team closes 1 in 10 leads, you can pay up to £250 per lead. Suddenly that £50 lead from Google Ads doesn't seem so expensive, does it? This is the kind of strategic thinking a proper consultant brings to the table. This is how you confidently decide your budget, rather than just picking a number out of thin air. For many founders, understanding this is one of the first steps to stop wasting money on ads that don't deliver long-term value.

How can you spot a good consultant from a bad one?

This is where you need to do your homework. Don't just take their word for it. Here’s a simple process to follow to vet anyone you’re considering hiring.

The most important part is the proof. We have detailed case studies for our clients showing the exact strategy and results. For example, we took a medical recruitment SaaS from a £100 Cost Per Acquisition down to just £7. For another B2B client on LinkedIn, we got their lead cost down to $22 for decision-makers. A good consultant will have this kind of evidence. If all they have are vague testimonials or logos of companies they've "worked with," be very suspicious.

And when you get on that first call, pay close attention. Are they trying to understand your business, your customers, your margins? Or are they just trying to sell you their "gold package"? A consultation should feel like you're getting free expert advice, not like you're being cornered by a salesperson. This initial chat is often the best indicator of what it would be like to work with them, and it's a core part of a proven process for hiring a paid ads expert that gets results.

Also, a quick word on references. If you've seen their case studies and had a strategy call with them and you still feel the need to ask for references to call, it's probably not a good fit. For us, that's a red flag. It shows a lack of trust from the start, and that's not a healthy foundation for a partnership. A good portfolio of work should speak for itself.

What platforms are actually right for your business?

Another classic mistake is thinking you need to be on every platform. You don't. You need to be where your customers are. A consultant's job is to figure that out, not just spend your money everywhere.

For most local Bradford service businesses—plumbers, solicitors, accountants, estate agents—the answer is almost always Google Ads. Why? Because you're capturing people who are actively searching for what you do. Someone typing "emergency plumber in Bradford" into Google has an urgent problem they need solving right now. That's the most valuable lead you can get. This is the foundation of any effective local business lead generation strategy.

If you're in B2B, selling to other businesses, then LinkedIn is often the best bet. It lets you target by job title, company size, and industry. So if you want to reach Managing Directors of manufacturing firms in West Yorkshire, you can do that. It's more expensive, but the leads are often much higher quality. We have experience getting costs down on LinkedIn, we managed to reduce the cost per lead for one client by 84%.

Meta (Facebook & Instagram) can work for almost any business, but the approach is different. You're not capturing existing demand; you're creating it. This means your offer and your creative have to be spot on. You need an ad that stops people scrolling and makes them interested in something they weren't even thinking about. It's harder to get right, but when it works, it can scale massively. We've had huge success here for eCommerce brands, generating a 1000% ROAS for a subscription box and a 691% return for a women's apparel brand.

The single biggest reason campaigns fail

I've saved the most important point for last. You can have the best consultant in Bradford, the perfect targeting, and a massive budget, but your campaign will still fail if your offer is rubbish.

The offer is not just your product or service. It's the entire proposition. It's the free audit, the initial consultation, the 10% off first order, the free trial. It's the reason someone should take a risk on you. Too many businesses have a "Request a Quote" or "Contact Us" button and wonder why nobody clicks it. It's boring, high-effort, and offers no immediate value to the customer.

You need to create an offer that is so compelling, people feel stupid saying no. For a service business, this could be a "Free 15-Minute Strategy Call" where you give away some genuine advice. For a SaaS company, it's a no-strings-attached free trial. The goal is to give them a taste of the value you provide, to solve a small part of their problem for free, so they trust you to solve the whole thing. If you're a B2B company, it's worth reading up on how to properly vet a consultant who truly understands offer creation, not just ad management.

This is my main advice for you:

Getting paid advertising right is a specialism. It takes expertise and experience to navigate the platforms, build a solid strategy, and get a genuine return on your investment. For many founders, the choice between going it alone versus hiring an expert is a difficult one, but trying to learn it all yourself can be a very expensive and time-consuming mistake.

If you're serious about growing your Bradford business and want an experienced hand to guide you, it might be time to get some professional help. We offer a free, no-obligation initial consultation where we'll look at your business and give you a straightforward, honest assessment of what's possible with paid ads. We'll give you actionable advice you can use, whether you decide to work with us or not.

Feel free to book a call if you'd like to have that chat.