Ref: RV-2026-0602
2 June 2026
Growth Proposal

Search, Paid & Conversion for The Strategy Group

A diagnostic-first engagement to clean up the foundations, win the organic terms that matter (customer experience, employee experience, and AI strategy), use paid as a fast, cheap way to prove what converts, and turn more of the traffic you already earn into real enquiries and calls.

3 Pillars
CX · EX · AI strategy
1st–5th
Where you rank on core terms
Untapped
No paid channels live yet
No lock-in
Month-to-month ongoing
01 - Context

Where things stand

The Strategy Group is a boutique consultancy in customer experience, employee experience, and AI strategy - competing for the same searches as the Big Four, but as the smaller, more customised alternative. The work is real and the reputation is strong: most growth comes through referrals, LinkedIn, EDMs, webinars, and tenders, with a heavy weighting toward government and council clients. The website already ranks between 1st and 5th for a good number of target terms and shows up in AI search.

Two things sit underneath the brief. First, the foundations have taken some knocks: the move from WordPress to Webflow lost traffic, and a spam/scan incident flooded the site with junk enquiries before traffic dropped away - recovery is still underway. There are also two Search Console properties (domain vs. URL) reporting very different numbers, which usually points to old subdomain pages still lingering in the index and needing redirects or canonical tags to clean up.

Second - and more important - the bottleneck is conversion, not traffic. People arrive, download things, and look around, but very few unknown visitors fill in a form or pick up the phone. For a consultancy that nurtures over months and wins a lot of work through tenders, the website does two jobs at once: capture the rare high-intent enquiry, and act as proof for the people verifying you after a tender goes in. Both jobs can be measured and improved.

There is also a lot of conflicting noise. Ahrefs, SEMrush, Screaming Frog, and Jeffrey's Claude reports all say different things, which makes it genuinely hard to know what "good" looks like or what to act on. Cutting through that - with senior people interpreting the tools inside a proper framework rather than taking any single report at face value - is a big part of the value here.

The core opportunity: the demand exists - people are searching "customer experience strategy", "employee experience strategy", and "AI strategy" type terms, and you're already close to the top for many of them. The job is to (1) fix the foundations so the data is trustworthy, (2) hold and grow the organic terms that matter, (3) use a small amount of paid spend to learn - within 24-48 hours - which terms actually convert, and (4) turn more of that traffic into enquiries. Paid isn't a replacement for organic; it's the fastest, cheapest way to de-risk where the organic effort should go.

02 - Phase 1: Diagnostic & Foundation

Start with the audit

A one-time, fixed-fee diagnostic across SEO, paid opportunity, tracking, and AI search - ending in a single prioritised roadmap. This is where almost every engagement should start: low-risk, and it replaces conflicting tool outputs with one clear, senior-reviewed view of what to do and in what order.

01

SEO & Technical Audit (Webflow)

A full technical and on-page audit of the Webflow site - and a fix for the Search Console confusion.

  • Search Console reconciliation - domain vs. URL property, with a clear "which to trust and why"
  • Index & crawl review: stray old subdomain pages, duplicate content, redirect chains
  • Redirect / canonical clean-up plan to consolidate ranking signals onto the right pages
  • On-page review across the three pillar pages (CX, EX, AI strategy)
  • Schema / structured data audit (you already have schema - we verify it's doing its job)
  • Core Web Vitals & page-speed review within Webflow's constraints
  • Post-migration recovery assessment (what was lost in the WordPress → Webflow move)
  • Webflow API review - what an agent-assisted update workflow can and can't touch
02

Tracking & Measurement Audit

Before anything else runs, the numbers have to be trustworthy and the conversions have to be captured.

  • GA4 configuration review (events, key conversions, data quality)
  • Conversion tracking gaps: form fills, phone clicks, PDF/resource downloads, webinar sign-ups
  • Hotjar review - making sure scroll, click, and form-drop-off data is usable for CRO
  • Webflow tag/measurement setup and what's needed for Google & Meta tracking
  • Spam/scan fallout check - filtering bot traffic out of the reporting
  • A single definition of "a lead" so everyone is measuring the same thing
03

Keyword & Search Opportunity

Built around Jeffrey's existing SEMrush keyword list, run through our own tools and framework.

  • Map of where you rank now vs. the terms that actually matter commercially
  • Long-tail and "buying-intent" opportunities (e.g. "CX strategy framework") vs. head terms
  • Competitor SERP analysis - boutique competitors and where the Big Four can't be beaten
  • Brand-awareness gap analysis (service searches vs. "The Strategy Group" searches)
  • Which terms are worth a paid test first, to confirm they convert before investing in organic
04

AI / GEO Visibility

Generative-engine optimisation - how the brand shows up in AI answers, beyond the blue links.

  • Visibility checks across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini for pillar topics
  • What's driving the AI mentions you already get - and how to reinforce them
  • Structured data and content recommendations for AI answer surfaces
  • Practical "agent-ready" content guidance for the Webflow stack
05

Deliverable: One Prioritised Roadmap

Everything above lands as a single, plain-English roadmap - ranked by impact vs. effort, with the quick wins (Search Console clean-up, tracking fixes, redirects) called out separately from the longer plays. No 80-page tool dump, no "the algorithm changed" hand-waving. Just a clear sequence of what to do, why, and what each step is worth - and an honest read on where we can shift the numbers and where we can't. If a setup module or ongoing work makes sense off the back of it, this roadmap is what it's built from.

03 - Setup Modules

Add what the roadmap calls for

Modular, fixed-fee builds you can take in any combination. Each is scoped to stand alone, and every paid-channel module includes a 30-day managed launch, so you get a decisive answer on whether it converts rather than an account that is switched on and left alone. The detail below is deliberately specific: where we're asking for real money, you should see exactly what the work is. Pricing for each is in Section 06.

A

Google Ads: Setup & 30-Day Validation

Paid search built around intent and profit. Most accounts waste money on poor structure, weak messaging, and broken tracking - we build the fundamentals properly, then validate what returns enquiries.

  • Account structure organised by intent and funnel stage - brand, pillar-service, and high-intent long-tail kept in clean, separate campaigns
  • Keyword research & strategy mapped to the right page - pillar terms (CX / EX / AI strategy) plus buying-intent long-tail like "CX strategy framework" or "customer experience consultant"
  • Competitor campaigns (e.g. boutique alternative to the Big Four) - only ever with your sign-off
  • Ad copy & testing - responsive search ads with multiple headline and description variants per ad group, written to match intent and tested on purpose
  • Landing-page alignment - the ad and the page tell the same story; mismatch kills conversion and wastes spend
  • Negative keyword management from day one - filtering out jobs, courses, students, and "how to" traffic
  • Bid management with guardrails - automation we control, not blind trust
  • Measurement wired to real actions (form fills, calls, resource downloads) - platform data alone is not enough; per-keyword landing-page quality signals feed straight back into SEO
  • 30 days managed - daily monitoring, search-term review, optimisation, and a clear read on which terms actually convert
B

Meta Ads: Setup & 30-Day Validation

Facebook + Instagram. Creative testing is the engine - paid social fails when the creative stops working and there's no system to replace it. We build a repeatable testing loop tied to conversion, not vibes. We run a lot of B2B on Meta, and it often beats LinkedIn on cost per qualified lead.

  • Account setup - Meta Business Manager, ad account, and pixel / Conversions API across Facebook and Instagram
  • Creative testing plan - hooks, angles, and formats tested deliberately; winners tracked so they can be reused
  • Audience & funnel design - cold, warm, and hot audiences, each with a defined job, targeting decision-makers in your sectors (government, council, construction, aged care)
  • Customer match - upload known decision-maker contacts and reach them directly; Meta matches on email and mobile, which gives strong reach across a government workforce
  • Tender remarketing - tag the URL you send tender evaluators to, then follow those specific people with credibility ads so you look established everywhere they look
  • Retargeting with exclusions - we stop paying for conversions you'd have won anyway
  • Static creative from your internal photography and podcast stills (or built by us - see Module D)
  • Measurement across platform, GA4, and your enquiry path; enquiry/lead objective wired through
  • 30 days managed with a creative and audience read-out
C

LinkedIn Ads: Setup & 30-Day Validation

A separate, optional B2B channel. LinkedIn reaches exactly the right titles - useful when you need precision over reach. We're upfront that it usually costs more per lead than Meta, so we treat it as a deliberate add-on and only keep running what earns its place.

  • Account setup - LinkedIn Campaign Manager, billing, and Insight Tag tracking
  • Precision targeting by job title, seniority, function, industry, and company size - reaching L&D, HR, transformation, and procurement decision-makers
  • Matched audiences - upload contact and company lists for account-based reach into specific councils, departments, and agencies
  • Sponsored content & lead-gen forms - low-friction, pre-filled forms suited to a considered B2B audience
  • Ad copy & creative pitched to senior buyers, message-matched to the landing page
  • Honest channel call - we report Meta vs LinkedIn side by side so you can see which is pulling its weight per lead
  • 30 days managed with a performance read-out
D

Conversion, CRO & Landing Pages

The page is where the money is made or lost. This fixes the real bottleneck: turning the traffic you already have into enquiries and calls.

  • CRO review of the pillar pages and primary enquiry path - headline, hierarchy, CTAs, and friction
  • Hotjar-driven analysis - where people actually scroll, click, and drop off
  • Message-match from ad to page, so paid traffic lands somewhere built to convert
  • Form optimisation - shorter forms, better field ordering; we've lifted form conversion 40%+ with structure alone
  • Use-case / offer pages for Liam's four AI offerings - one page per audience, built to be A/B tested (generic pages underperform targeted ones by 60-100% in our experience)
  • Custom landing pages / subdomains in clean Astro code - no Lovable tags, no AI tells, full control of the page and its metadata
  • Prioritised, effort-vs-lift recommendation list your team or ours can action
04 - Ongoing Management

Compound what works

Month-to-month, no lock-in. Scoped to the services you choose to keep running - SEO is the core, with paid management and CRO layered on as needed. The whole point is steady, measurable progress you can see, not a report once a quarter.

01

Ongoing SEO Program

SEO that brings buyers, not browsers. It only earns its place when it brings customers, so the work stays tied to terms that convert rather than vanity rankings. It runs monthly because SEO compounds; a one-off audit just gathers dust.

  • Technical foundations kept clean: monthly crawl, index coverage, redirect, and broken-link checks
  • Intent-mapped on-page work across the pillar and service pages
  • Google Ads data sets the priorities - we optimise organically for the terms paid has proven convert, and stop spending effort on terms that pull traffic but no enquiries
  • Content briefs and topic suggestions your internal team can execute
  • Schema maintained as new pages publish; internal linking and topical authority work
  • Monthly keyword and ranking tracking on the agreed set
  • Monthly AI search visibility checks (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini)
  • We protect what already ranks: careful changes, no moves that tank a position you hold
  • Brand-awareness support so service searches start turning into branded searches
02

Paid Management (if running)

Active management of whichever paid channels validated in Phase 1 - not "set and forget".

  • Google Ads: keyword expansion, negative pruning, ad copy testing, bid & budget optimisation
  • Meta & LinkedIn: audience refinement, customer-match upkeep, creative rotation
  • Tender remarketing kept live and refreshed
  • Budget reallocation toward what converts; honest calls on what to switch off
03

CRO & Content Support

  • Ongoing landing-page and pillar-page recommendations
  • A/B tests on key pages, including Liam's AI offerings
  • Ad-to-page alignment as new campaigns launch
  • Feedback on internally-produced creative (Canva) and content
04

Reporting & Strategy

  • Custom dashboard maintained and live across all channels
  • Monthly performance report tied to enquiries and cost per enquiry
  • Channel ROI comparison and budget recommendations
  • Regular catch-up calls; quarterly strategy planning
  • Senior founders on the account - Brad and Robin - not handed to juniors

The paid-to-organic loop: this is the core of how we run search for you, and it was the thread through our whole conversation. Google Ads shows within days which terms actually produce enquiries, the ones worth ranking for. We then point the SEO program straight at those proven terms, so the on-page work and content briefs go where paid has shown real demand. Terms that bring visits but never convert stop eating organic effort. It runs both ways: the terms you already rank for can be tested in paid first to confirm they convert before you invest more in them. One budget teaches the other, and the dashboard makes the whole loop visible.

05 - The Dashboard

Your command centre, included free

One live view across every channel, so you're never reconciling four tools that disagree. It pulls Google, Meta, and any other ad platform together and shows what's working, what isn't, what's improving, and where the next dollar of budget should go. Reporting is the core - and it doubles as the place we manage tasks and sign off creative.

What lives on the dashboard

Always live, always your data - ready to share with Jeffrey, the team, or the board at any time.

Spend
By channel, daily
Cost per enquiry
By channel & campaign
What's working
And what needs budget
Channel compare
Google / Meta / LinkedIn
Enquiries
By source, paid + organic
Rankings
The terms that matter
Creative approval
Review & sign-off
Tasks & requests
One place to manage

Included, not sold separately. The dashboard is exclusive to ongoing clients - we don't offer it as a standalone product. For everyone we manage it's included at no extra cost, and it's live from day one of your setup. It's simply how we work with the people we work with.

06 - Investment

Pricing

All prices ex GST. Indicative and modular - start with the diagnostic, then add only the modules the roadmap justifies. Setup is one-time; ongoing is month-to-month with no lock-in and no percentage of ad spend, ever.

Phase 1: Diagnostic & Foundation Audit Start here

One-time fixed fee · delivered as a single prioritised roadmap

$3,500 + GST
DeliverableStatus
SEO & technical audit (Webflow) + Search Console reconciliationIncluded
Redirect / canonical clean-up plan (old subdomain pages)Included
Tracking & measurement audit (GA4, conversions, Hotjar)Included
Keyword & search opportunity analysis (from Jeffrey's list)Included
Competitor SERP & brand-awareness gap analysisIncluded
AI / GEO visibility audit (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini)Included
Prioritised roadmap (impact vs. effort, quick wins flagged)Included

Setup Modules

One-time fixed fees, priced per module below · pick any combination · paid modules include 30 days' management

ModuleInvestment
A · Google Ads: Setup & 30-Day Validation
Structure, keyword build, ad copy, tracking + 30 days managed
$2,800
B · Meta Ads: Setup & 30-Day Validation
FB + IG, creative testing, customer match, tender remarketing + 30 days managed
$2,800
C · LinkedIn Ads: Setup & 30-Day Validation
Optional B2B channel - precision title/company targeting + 30 days managed
$2,500
D · Conversion, CRO & Landing Pages
CRO review + 1 custom landing page; additional pages from $2,500 each
$3,000

Take any combination. Where modules are taken together, the shared foundation (tracking, measurement, creative) isn't billed twice - multiple paid channels launched at once are quoted as a combined setup, so it's less than the line items added up. The reporting dashboard is not a paid module - it's included free with any ongoing retainer (see Section 05).

Ongoing Management

Month-to-month, no lock-in · dashboard included · priced per retainer below

RetainerInvestment
SEO-only retainer
Ongoing SEO program + dashboard + reporting (Jeffrey's priority)
$2,500 /mo
Full-program retainer
SEO + paid management (Google/Meta/LinkedIn) + CRO + dashboard
$3,500 /mo

The retainer is scoped to what you actually want running. If a month is lighter than expected, we'll say so; if there's more to do, we'll flag it before it's billed. The 30-day managed launch inside each paid setup module means you're not paying a retainer until those channels have proven themselves.

Custom Landing Pages & Subdomains Optional

Clean-code Astro builds - no Lovable tags, no AI tells, agent-friendly

from $2,500 + GST each

For new project pages, campaign landing pages, or the AI-offering pages Liam is testing - built properly in clean code rather than through Lovable, so there are no third-party tags to strip out, no AI "tells" in the writing, and full control over the conversion experience and metadata. We can also run a short workshop and build these with your team so the capability stays in-house, which is the direction Jeffrey's keen on. Priced per page/subdomain by complexity.

Recommended Media Budget

Paid directly to the platforms - never managed or marked up by us

~$1,500 /channel /mo
Channel (fund only what you run)Validation budget /mo
Google Ads
Enough click volume to see which terms convert
~$1,500
Meta Ads
Facebook + Instagram, prospecting + retargeting
~$1,500
LinkedIn Ads
Higher CPMs, so budget buys fewer but higher-intent impressions
~$1,500

Media spend goes straight from your card to the platforms. We never take a percentage of spend, and never will, so our incentives stay aligned with yours. Around $1,500 per channel is enough to get a clear validation signal during the 30-day launch, and you only fund the channels you actually run. Because paid can be turned on and off, it is the cheapest way to answer "does this term convert?" before you commit organic effort to it. We advise on reallocation once the data is in.

07 - Timeline

How it runs

The diagnostic comes first and stands alone. Setup modules and ongoing work follow only if the roadmap justifies them. A typical full path looks like this:

WK 1

Access & Diagnostic Kickoff

Access to both Search Console properties, GA4, Hotjar, and Webflow. Jeffrey's keyword list handed over. The audit begins across SEO, tracking, paid opportunity, and AI search.

WK 2

Roadmap Delivered

One prioritised roadmap: Search Console reconciliation, redirect/canonical clean-up plan, tracking gaps, keyword & GEO opportunity map, and quick wins flagged separately. Decision point on which modules to take.

WK 3

Foundation Fixes & Build

Quick wins implemented (redirects, tracking, schema). Chosen setup modules built: Google Ads, Meta + LinkedIn, and/or CRO and landing pages. Dashboard stood up.

WK 3-6

Validate

Paid campaigns live with daily monitoring. CRO changes tested. Data collected on which terms and channels actually convert - and which pages turn clicks into enquiries.

WK 6

Review & Transition

Performance read-out: what converts, what to put organic effort behind, what to switch off. Transition into ongoing management - or hand findings to your internal team.

08 - Scope

What's included and what's not

Included (per the modules you choose)

  • Full diagnostic audit and prioritised roadmap
  • Search Console reconciliation and redirect/canonical clean-up plan
  • Tracking & measurement audit and gap fixes
  • Google Ads setup + 30-day managed validation
  • Meta Ads setup + 30-day managed validation
  • LinkedIn Ads setup + 30-day managed validation (optional)
  • CRO work and custom landing pages
  • Ongoing SEO program and paid management
  • Custom reporting dashboard (free with any ongoing retainer)
  • Senior founders on the account - no juniors

Not included (client responsibility)

  • Media / ad spend (paid directly to Google, Meta, LinkedIn)
  • Webflow subscription and CMS/admin access
  • Access to Search Console (both properties), GA4, Hotjar, and ad accounts
  • Jeffrey's SEMrush keyword list
  • Decision-maker contact lists for customer-match (where you choose to use it)
  • Supply of internal photography / video for creative (or we build it)
  • Organic social, EDM, newsletter, and webinar production
  • Tender writing and content authoring (we advise and brief)
  • CRM / email platform subscriptions
09 - How We Work

Terms & approach

No lock-in

Month-to-month after the diagnostic. If it's not generating enquiries, we don't want to be sending invoices.

No % of spend

Flat fees and a management fee based on hours at our standard rate. We never take a cut of your media budget - our incentives stay aligned with yours.

Cut through the noise

We use AI tools heavily - but inside a real framework, interpreted by senior people. You get one clear answer, not five reports that disagree.

Built to adapt

No "the algorithm changed, you lost traffic" excuses. When things shift, there's a way to respond - and the measurement to prove it worked.

Senior specialists

Your account is run by the founders - Brad and Robin - who've been in online marketing since Google Ads first launched. No junior handoff.

Enquiries, not rankings

Ranking #1 means nothing if the phone doesn't ring. We measure success by enquiries and cost per enquiry, and we work the conversion side as hard as the traffic.

Let's cut through the noise

The rankings are already close. The demand is real. The gap is trustworthy foundations and conversion.
Start with the diagnostic, get one clear roadmap, and decide what's worth building from there.

Let's get started