Google Ads in San Francisco, USA

Google Ads in San Francisco, USA — Google Ads that converts Bay Area users into customers

Today, having Google Ads campaigns isn't enough for a San Francisco business. Your potential client opens a smartphone on BART, sees three or four similar offers, and decides in 5 seconds which one to engage. If yours is slow, unclear on mobile, or doesn't render correctly under iOS Safari with intermittent BART connectivity — you've lost that customer before they finished reading your headline. That's why investing in quality Google Ads isn't a "luxury expense", it's a direct investment in revenue.

I'm Alex Filiuk, a Senior practitioner with 15 years of experience and a portfolio of 130+ projects. I deliver Google Ads campaigns for businesses in San Francisco, across the US (San Francisco, LA, Boston, Austin), in Europe (London, Manchester, Edinburgh), and in Ukraine. On this page I've collected what's worth knowing for an Bay Area business owner before commissioning google ads: how the engagement works, USD pricing brackets, which mistakes destroy ROI, and which 2025-2026 trends actually matter for the Bay Area market.

Why google ads matters for San Francisco businesses

Bay Area is the most expensive Google Ads market in the US for most verticals — legal, finance, real estate, and B2B SaaS routinely see CPCs of $25–95 per click. With auction prices that high, an unoptimized account burns five-figure monthly budgets without producing measurable pipeline. Strategic Google Ads is no longer 'set up campaigns and let them run' — it's continuous bid management, query mining, audience layering, and creative iteration against a search landscape where Google's automation makes 60–70% of the bidding decisions on your behalf.

What quality Google Ads delivers for an Bay Area business:

• Lower effective CPA. Properly structured accounts with negative-keyword discipline and audience layering deliver 30–55% lower CPA than 'set it and forget it' campaigns.
• Higher quality scores. Tight ad-group themes plus matched landing pages drive Quality Score from 5 to 8+, cutting CPC by 30–50% on the same keywords.
• Pipeline visibility. Conversion tracking calibrated against your CRM (HubSpot / Salesforce) shows actual pipeline lift, not just form-fills.
• Smart-bidding leverage. Performance Max and Smart Bidding configured with proper conversion-value signals — so Google's ML works for you, not against you.
• Competitive intelligence. Auction Insights, ad-copy monitoring, SERP feature tracking — actionable intel on what your Bay Area competitors are paying and where they're winning.

Google Ads vs the templated approach

Naive Google Ads is the 'set up campaigns, pick keywords, write ads, hope for the best' template. It worked in 2015. In 2025, with Performance Max, Smart Bidding, and broad match defaults, that template wastes 40–60% of spend on irrelevant queries before you notice. Modern Google Ads is a tightly-instrumented, query-mined, signal-rich operation.

A real SF-grade Google Ads program runs four parallel disciplines:

• Account architecture. Campaign segmentation by intent and margin (high-intent commercial vs research-stage informational), negative keyword libraries, audience exclusions.
• Search-query mining. Weekly query reports, expensive-and-irrelevant terms negated, high-converting terms graduated to exact-match.
• Creative testing. Multiple Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) per ad-group, headline / description rotation tracked, asset-level performance analyzed.
• Conversion-value tuning. Smart Bidding fed proper conversion values (lead score, deal size, LTV), not just 'all leads = 1'.

Google Ads compounds with SEO (paid + organic SERP coverage) and CRO on the destination pages — the same traffic, converted better.

Project types most-requested by Bay Area clients

Across 15 years and 130+ projects, I've noticed Bay Area business categories have their own digital signature. Most-common requests for Google Ads:

• B2B SaaS lead-gen. SoMa / Mission Bay / Hayes Valley SaaS founders running search + Performance Max + LinkedIn audiences against ICP queries, 60-day pipeline-attribution loop.
• Bay Area service businesses. SoMa and the Mission legal, accounting, consulting firms running high-intent commercial keywords with $50–95 CPCs, demanding tight ROAS.
• Local-intent Bay Area service businesses. Restaurant groups, dental practices, real-estate brokerages running geo-targeted local-service campaigns with call-tracking.
• DTC e-commerce shopping. Oakland / Marina brands running Performance Max with proper feed optimization, Merchant Center hygiene, and shopping-specific creative.
• Fintech regulated growth. the Mission / FiDi fintech running compliant search + display + YouTube against high-intent finance queries, with FINRA / SEC review baked into copy.
• Real-estate developments. SoMa and the Mission proptech and developers running geo-targeted display + YouTube + search for new-construction sales.

Different category, different approach — so I don't ship templates. Every engagement starts with discovery against your actual Bay Area market context.

The Google Ads engagement, step by step

I work via a transparent process that 130+ clients have completed end-to-end. Each phase has a fixed deliverable that you receive in your hands. No "wait a month while I design" — you know what's happening every week, with weekly Slack updates and one Zoom sync at 8am Bay Area / 3pm Kyiv.

1. Account audit (week 1). Existing account review (if any): structure, negatives, query reports, conversion tracking integrity, attribution model, wasted spend identified.
2. Strategy and account architecture (week 1–2). New campaign structure designed, ad-group themes defined, keyword research with intent / margin segmentation.
3. Conversion tracking and CRM integration (week 2). GA4, Google Ads conversion tracking, server-side via GTM, CRM offline-conversion import (Salesforce / HubSpot).
4. Build and launch (week 3). Campaigns built, ads written (multiple RSAs per ad-group), audiences and exclusions configured, landing-page-experience verified.
5. Stabilization (week 4–5). Daily query mining, bid-strategy validation, Quality Score monitoring, early budget reallocation.
6. Optimization rhythm (week 6+). Weekly query mining, monthly creative refresh, quarterly account-restructure review.
7. Strategic review (quarterly). Pipeline-attribution analysis, budget reallocation across campaigns, expansion-vs-contraction recommendation.

What you receive when the Google Ads project completes

• Audit report: existing account state, wasted-spend analysis, opportunity sizing.
• Account architecture document: campaign / ad-group structure, keyword and audience strategy, negative library.
• Conversion-tracking implementation: GA4, Google Ads, server-side GTM, CRM offline-conversion import.
• Built campaigns: Search, Performance Max, Display, YouTube as appropriate, fully launched.
• Negative-keyword library: account-level + campaign-level, refreshed weekly.
• Reporting dashboard: Looker Studio with cost / conversions / CPA / ROAS / pipeline metrics, refreshed daily.
• Weekly query-mining report: wasted-spend terms negated, high-converting terms graduated.
• Monthly performance report: account health, top performers, recommendations for next month.

Why hire a Ukraine-based Senior instead of an Bay Area agency

Bay Area has a deep pool of talent — and rates that match. A typical Senior at a SoMa agency: $180–280/hour. A 12-week engagement at a respectable SoMa studio: $80,000–180,000. The work is excellent, but the cost makes it inaccessible for most early-stage startups, mid-sized DTC brands, and bootstrapped B2B SaaS companies.

The remote Ukraine-Senior model gives you:

• 30–60% cost reduction. Same Senior expertise, same deliverables, transparent fixed-fee USD pricing.
• Single point of contact. No account manager, no project coordinator, no creative director "stepping in" mid-call. You talk directly with the person doing the work.
• Async-friendly cadence. The 7-hour gap (Bay Area EST → Kyiv) is a feature: I work while you sleep, you wake up to demos and questions in Slack, we sync 1× per week on Zoom.
• Production-grade quality. Same modern stack (Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind), same accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA, ADA-compliant), same handoff specs as a top-tier Bay Area agency.
• Transparent fixed pricing. No hourly invoices, no scope-creep surprises. You know the total before we start.

USD pricing model

All projects are quoted as fixed fee in USD, paid 50% upfront / 50% on delivery (or split into milestones for projects > $20K). No hourly invoices. If scope changes mid-project — we re-quote, you approve in writing, and the change is added with a clear delta.

Indicative ranges to set expectations (every quote is bespoke, but these brackets are realistic):

• UI/UX design — landing or simple website (4-6 weeks). $8,000–18,000. Bay Area agency equivalent: $30,000–80,000.
• Corporate website — full design + dev (8-12 weeks). $20,000–45,000. Bay Area agency equivalent: $80,000–250,000.
• B2B SaaS / web app — design + frontend + backend (16-28 weeks). $50,000–180,000.
• UX audit (2-3 weeks). $4,000–9,000.
• Branding — full identity system (8-12 weeks). $12,000–30,000.
• SEO retainer (3-6 months minimum). $2,500–6,000/month.
• Fractional CPO / consulting (15-20 hrs/month, 6+ months). $4,000–8,000/month.

Discounts apply when you bundle services (e.g. design + development + SEO together) — typically 15-25% vs. ordering each separately.

How the async workflow handles the timezone gap

The 7-hour difference between San Francisco (EST/EDT) and Kyiv (EET/EEST) is the biggest concern most Bay Area clients raise — and it's the easiest to solve. The honest answer: most Bay Area startup founders and product teams already work async with Slack-first cadence. The remote-Ukraine engagement just formalises what's already happening internally.

• Daily Slack handoff. When you wake up at 8am Bay Area time, I've already worked 8 hours. There's a thread in #project with the day's progress, demo link (Figma / Vercel preview), and 2-3 specific questions that need your call. You answer over coffee — by 4pm Bay Area time I'm already incorporating your feedback.
• Weekly Zoom sync. One 60-90 minute call per week, scheduled at 8am Bay Area / 3pm Kyiv. We walk through what shipped, what's next, what's blocked.
• Loom for async demos. Instead of scheduling a meeting to "show you what I built", I record a 5-10 minute walkthrough.
• Notion / Linear for tracking. Whatever you use, I'll join. No new tool to learn.
• Emergency Zoom on demand. Critical decisions get a 15-minute Zoom call within 4 hours of request, regardless of timezone.

Cases — Bay Area and US clients in my portfolio

My portfolio contains 130+ projects, including B2B SaaS for US founders, DTC brand sites for Bay Area and LA-based companies, and fintech dashboards for clients on the East Coast. For NDA reasons I can't list every client publicly — but on the discovery call I'll walk you through 5-10 most-relevant cases for your specific niche.

Other services for San Francisco businesses

• UI/UX design
• Web development
• Mobile app design
• Mobile app development
• Branding and logo design
• E-commerce
• CRM / ERP / SaaS
• SEO, Google Ads, SMM, email marketing
• UX audit, CRO
• Business consulting, product strategy

Other US and EU cities I serve

• Los Angeles — entertainment, creative agencies, e-commerce
• San Francisco / Bay Area — B2B SaaS, deep-tech, AI
• Boston — biotech, ed-tech, university spinoffs
• Austin — startups, gaming, tech
• London — fintech, B2B SaaS, creative
• Manchester — northern tech hub, sport-tech, MediaCity
• Edinburgh — fintech, ed-tech, data science

Full list of locations on the "Service Areas" page.

Ready to discuss your Bay Area project?

Fill out the contact form or message me through the channels in the footer. The first 60-90 minute call is free — we'll discuss your business, product goals, indicative scope, USD budget range, and timeline. If you have an existing site / app, I'll do a quick express-review and show you 3-5 issues that can be fixed in the first week, even before signing a full engagement.

Common mistakes Bay Area businesses make commissioning google ads

• Hiring on hourly rate. A $25/hour practitioner in Eastern Europe is statistically a junior at best. The 30-60% cost gap with Bay Area agencies isn't from hourly rate — it's from removing layered agency overhead.
• Skipping the discovery phase to "save money". A 1-2 week paid discovery is the cheapest insurance against a $50K mistake.
• Not asking about IP and ownership. Get this in writing before kickoff.
• Underestimating the value of single-contact engagement. Talking directly to the person building your product cuts requirement-translation losses by ~40%.
• Treating google ads as a one-off project. The strongest results come from continuous iteration, not handoff-and-forget.

2025-2026 trends I apply on Bay Area client google ads projects

• PMax with proper asset groups and audience signals (not auto-pilot)
• YouTube Shorts ads — vertical 9:16 first, then horizontal
• Server-side tracking + Enhanced Conversions for post-iOS 14 attribution
• Search themes (the new keyword model in PMax) — used selectively
• Demand Gen campaigns for top-of-funnel awareness
• Brand vs non-brand budget split — measured separately
• Negative keyword hygiene — weekly review on competitive niches