Not just cheap clicks and form fills, but approved applications that actually fund.
I am Dan Brown, a freelance PPC consultant with over 15 years of experience. I have worked with some of the largest car finance and finance businesses in the UK, in one of the most competitive corners of paid search, and I optimise to the metric that matters to your business: the cost of a deal that funds, not the cost of a form that fills.
Most accounts optimise to enquiries. I optimise to funded deals.
Car finance is one of the most expensive and competitive areas of paid search in the UK. Clicks are dear, the auction is crowded with brokers and lenders, and the rules around how you can advertise a regulated financial product limit what you are allowed to say. None of that is the hardest part.
The hardest part is the gap between a lead and a funded deal. A big share of applicants will never be approved, or will be approved and never complete. If your Google Ads account is optimising towards form submissions, smart bidding will happily find you more of the cheapest leads, including the ones that will never fund. You end up paying for volume that looks good in the platform and does nothing for the business.
I have spent years working inside this exact problem. The work that moves the numbers is rarely a clever new keyword. It is connecting the account to what happens after the form, so the bidding learns to chase approved, funded customers rather than cheap enquiries.
I have worked with some of the largest car finance and finance businesses in the UK, managing Google Ads for car finance enquiries in a fiercely competitive market, rebuilding account structures, and focusing relentlessly on cutting cost per lead while pushing funded deals up.
That work delivered an increase in PPC sales of more than 800 percent, driven by a full restructure of the account and a shift towards lead quality rather than raw enquiry volume. I have managed large lead generation campaigns with substantial daily budgets, the kind where small efficiency gains translate into real money very quickly.
Because this is an FCA regulated space, all of this happened inside the constraints of financial promotions rules, so I am comfortable writing and managing campaigns that perform without straying into copy that creates a compliance problem for you.
The priorities that separate a profitable car finance account from an expensive one.
Import approved and funded outcomes back into Google Ads as offline conversions, so smart bidding learns to find people who actually get accepted, not just people who fill in a form.
Feed lead quality and deal value back into the account so the bidding chases profit, not the cheapest possible click. Fewer wasted enquiries, better cost per funded deal.
Campaigns built to perform within financial promotions rules, with messaging that stays compliant and avoids the claims that get accounts and ads into trouble.
Brand, generic, competitor and vehicle type intent kept separate, exact match where it earns its place, and a disciplined negative keyword strategy so budget goes to the right searches.
Clean GA4 and Google Tag Manager setup, call tracking for phone enquiries, and offline conversion imports that match real outcomes, all deduplicated so the numbers add up.
Target ROAS and target CPA strategies built on clean, quality data, and a cautious approach to broad match and Performance Max until the signal is proven, not assumed.
For a regulated, high cost channel like car finance, who actually does the work matters more than the size of the logo on the deck.
Figures from real car finance accounts I have managed. Every account is different, so treat these as evidence of approach rather than a promise of identical numbers.
Increase in PPC sales, driven by restructuring the account and shifting focus onto lead quality.
Cost per lead reduced through tighter structure, better tracking and disciplined negatives.
Experience managing substantial daily budgets where efficiency gains compound quickly.
I will always be straight with you about what is realistic for your offer, your lenders and your market before we start.
Review the account and conversion tracking, and find where budget is leaking to enquiries that never fund.
Rebuild around clear intent, with clean match types, negatives and FCA aware ad copy.
Wire up offline conversion imports so the account can see approved and funded outcomes.
Bid towards cost per funded deal, test methodically, and scale what works.
By tightening the account structure, cutting wasted spend with a disciplined negative keyword strategy, improving tracking, and feeding lead quality back into the bidding so it stops chasing cheap enquiries that never convert. Lower cost per lead is good, but the real target is a lower cost per funded deal.
Yes. By importing approved and funded outcomes back into Google Ads as offline conversions, the account can optimise towards the customers who actually complete, not just the ones who submit a form. This is the single biggest lever in most car finance accounts.
Car finance is a regulated financial product, so campaigns need to work within financial promotions rules. I have managed FCA regulated car finance advertising and build campaigns with that in mind. I am not a compliance adviser, so your own compliance sign off still applies, but I will keep the advertising on the right side of the line.
Yes. The principle is the same either way: connect the account to what happens after the enquiry and optimise to the outcome that makes you money, whether that is a funded deal, a completed application or a commission earning sale.
No. I work on a fixed monthly retainer, typically between £600 and £1,200 plus VAT depending on scope. That keeps my incentives aligned with your efficiency rather than with growing your budget.
Tracking and structure fixes can have an effect within the first few weeks, but smart bidding needs time to learn from clean conversion data, so the bigger gains tend to build over the following months. I would rather set a realistic expectation than promise an overnight transformation.
Tell me a little about your campaigns and goals and I will get back to you.
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