Methodology
How RTN actually works.
Four phases, one goal: profitable ads. A PPC management process built from 15+ years managing hundreds of Google Ads accounts. Audit. Stabilise. Validate. Scale. Then do it again.
Why most PPC accounts plateau
Most Google Ads accounts follow the same trajectory. An agency takes over, makes some quick changes, performance improves for a few months, then it flatlines. The agency keeps sending reports showing activity, but the numbers stop moving. Sound familiar?
The problem is usually the same: no framework. Changes get made reactively. Budget goes up before the foundations are tested. Campaign structures get rebuilt on gut feel rather than data. Nobody goes back to check whether last month's changes actually worked before making new ones.
The RTN System exists because we saw this pattern in hundreds of accounts. Businesses spending thousands per month with no structured approach to improving performance. The system forces discipline: diagnose before you treat, prove before you spend, and keep cycling through the process because the work is never done.
The system
Four phases. The sequence matters.
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Phase 01
Audit
Run the numbers.
A senior PPC specialist goes through your account line by line. Not a junior with a checklist. Not an automated tool spitting out a generic PDF. Campaign structure, keyword targeting, bidding strategy, conversion tracking, search terms, feed quality, competitor positioning. Every finding goes into your Free Audit: where your budget is going, where it is being wasted, and what the realistic opportunities look like. Free, no obligation. Take the findings and implement them yourself if you want.
- Campaign structure analysis
- Keyword and search-term review
- Bidding strategy assessment
- Conversion tracking accuracy check
- Product feed quality review (Shopping / PMax)
- Competitor landscape analysis
- Wasted spend identification with £ figures
- Prioritised action plan
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Phase 02
Stabilise
Cut the dead wood.
Before any new budget goes in, RTN fixes what is broken. Most agencies skip this entirely. They restructure everything, push budget into new campaigns, and hope the numbers go up. Then the same underlying problems drag performance back down. Irrelevant search terms get negatives. Broken campaigns get rebuilt. Conversion tracking gets fixed so you are measuring real purchases, not phantom conversions. Product feed data gets cleaned. Not glamorous, no huge revenue spikes. Same revenue on less spend means profitability improves immediately.
- Negative keyword implementation
- Campaign structure rebuild
- Conversion tracking fix and verification
- Product feed cleanup and optimisation
- Bid strategy realignment
- Budget reallocation to performing segments
- Wasted spend elimination
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Phase 03
Validate
Prove it pays.
Once the foundations are solid, RTN tests. New campaign structures, refined audience targeting, bid strategy experiments, creative variations. Every change is measured. Every decision is backed by data, not intuition. One question: does £1 in produce a profitable return? Not a theoretical return based on last-click attribution. Not a ROAS number inflated by branded search. An honest assessment of whether your ads are making you money after costs.
- Controlled campaign experiments
- Bid strategy testing (manual vs automated)
- Audience segment testing
- Ad copy and creative testing
- Product feed title and category experiments
- Landing page performance analysis
- Honest ROAS measurement (ex-branded)
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Phase 04
Scale
Turn up the winners.
When campaigns are consistently profitable and the return is validated, RTN increases investment. More budget behind proven campaigns. New product categories. Microsoft Ads for incremental reach. Broader keyword coverage where the data supports it. This is where the revenue growth happens. After scaling, the cycle restarts: the expanded account gets re-audited, new waste caught, new opportunities identified. The work is never finished.
- Budget increase on validated campaigns
- New product category expansion
- Microsoft Ads deployment
- Broader keyword and audience reach
- Performance Max expansion (where appropriate)
- Full account re-audit to start the next cycle
The numbers behind the system
Results across the active book.
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97%
Client retention rate
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74%
Average revenue growth in year 1
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£1.3k
Average wasted spend recovered after month 3
Proof methodology
Where the 74% comes from.
A specialist agency that quotes a growth number owes you the method behind it. Here's the breakdown.
The figure
74% average sales growth for active RTN clients in their first twelve months on the account.
How it's calculated
For every active client account between January 2024 and the most recent full reporting month, the trailing twelve months on the RTN account get compared against the equivalent twelve months immediately before RTN took over. Sales = paid-search-attributed revenue inside Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, with conversion tracking validated against the client's analytics platform.
The 74% is a mean across those accounts. Each account is weighted equally, regardless of spend, so a £3k/month account counts the same as a £30k/month account.
What's included
- Active clients only. Anyone still on the account at the most recent reporting period.
- Twelve months of overlap on each side of the switch.
- All paid-search-attributed revenue (Search, Shopping, PMax, Display where running).
What's excluded
- Clients on the account for less than twelve months. The comparison isn't fair yet.
- Clients who paused or churned.
- Organic, social, email, and direct revenue. Paid search only.
Why this matters
Most agency growth claims are picked from a single case study, cherry-picked period, or attribution that doesn't survive scrutiny. This figure is a mean across the whole active book, with a consistent definition. If the next year's mean drops, the headline drops.
Last updated
2024 / 25 reporting period. Refreshed annually at the end of calendar Q1.
See the system in action on your account.
Book a Free Audit and find out where your budget is going, what's being wasted, and what the opportunities look like.
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