Greater Manchester, UK

PPC That Actually Works.

Or I'll tell you it won't.

You're spending on Google or Meta. You're getting clicks, reports, and monthly calls. But the phone isn't ringing the way it should — and every time you ask what's actually working, you get a dashboard instead of an answer.

I fix that. Google and Meta campaigns built around real outcomes — leads, hires, bookings, revenue — with tracking that shows you exactly what's working and what isn't. I take on the accounts most consultants decline — non-standard environments, conversion goals that don't fit the platform defaults, attribution that has to be built from scratch. And if I don't think PPC will move the needle for your business, I'll say so before you commit to anything.

Book a free audit See what I do
Typical client results Actual client results
0+ yrs

Trading as a consultancy

£4.2M+

Ad spend managed

Bespoke tracking

Built where off-the-shelf breaks

Agency-ready

White-label & direct briefs

Tools and platforms I work with

N M OGILVY WPP BBDO GREY W+K BBH DROGA5 N M OGILVY WPP BBDO GREY W+K BBH DROGA5
How I work

Most businesses that come to me have already tried PPC. Sometimes it worked a bit and then stopped. Sometimes it never worked at all. Sometimes they're paying an agency that sends reports but never picks up the phone.

I work differently. Before I recommend a single campaign, I get under the skin of your business — your offer, your margins, your sales process, where leads go after they convert. Because PPC doesn't exist in a vacuum. The ad is just one part of a system that either works end to end, or breaks somewhere between click and customer.

That's what I fix. And if I don't think PPC is the right move for you right now, I'll say so.

Google and Meta campaigns built to generate leads, enquiries, and customers — not just clicks. Whether you're starting from zero or rescuing an account that's been underperforming, the approach is the same: strategy first, spend second. That includes the landing pages those ads send traffic to — built for the ad, not adapted from the main site.

Google Ads Meta Ads Lead Generation Recruitment Campaigns E-commerce Landing Page Design & Build Account Audits Multi-location

Ad platforms are built around ecommerce — add-to-carts, purchases, standard revenue events. When your conversion goal is a job application by role type, a booking via a third-party platform, or a B2B lead tied to a CRM, the default setup breaks. I build the measurement layer from scratch: server-side GTM, Meta CAPI, GA4 cross-domain, ATS integrations. The goal is always the same — every pound of spend traceable to a real business outcome.

Conversion Tracking Server-side Tracking GA4 Attribution Modelling CRM & ATS Integrations Halo Effect Analysis Incrementality

Clear, visual reporting that tells you what's working and what isn't — built for you, or white-label-ready for your agency clients. No vanity metrics, no data you can't act on. Reports are designed to be understood, not just sent.

Custom Dashboards Blended Data Sources Attribution Models White-label Ready Agency Reporting

Most PPC consultants hand you a brief and tell you to sort the creative yourself. I can take a campaign from strategy through to finished asset — videography, photography, content production. That matters because creative quality is a performance variable, not a separate workstream. Alongside this: channel planning, funnel strategy, conversion logic, and WhatsApp Business automation for brands building conversational marketing flows.

Channel Planning Funnel Strategy Creative Direction Videography & Photography Content Production White-label Partnership WhatsApp Automation
Work & Expertise

The sectors where the hard problems live.

Healthcare recruitment, hospitality, and high-ticket trades share one thing: they need campaign infrastructure and tracking that doesn't come off the shelf. I've built it for each of them — and the work proves it.

Healthcare recruitment
Recruitment
−41%
Cost per lead

Attribution infrastructure for a national care provider

Always-on Google and Meta campaigns across UK regions, with tracking built from scratch to distinguish role types the platforms can't see. Over 50,000 applications delivered across care and nursing campaigns.

  • Multi-regional campaigns weighted by live vacancy data
  • Halo attribution — quantifies candidates who apply via organic routes after seeing ads
  • Server-side GTM via Stape; ATS integrations: Jobtrain, Workday, CareTech
  • Blended Looker Studio dashboards combining ATS and ad platform data
Read case study
Home improvement and trades
Trade Lead Gen
9.5×
ROAS

Lead gen rebuild for a roofing and exterior coatings business

Google Ads rebuilt from scratch around one product, one geography, one conversion goal — with every lead tied back to verified revenue. £180,000+ from £19,000 in spend.

  • Search campaign structure: single product, single geography
  • Negative keyword discipline — restoration, painting, survey terms excluded
  • Multi-step Heyflow forms connected to Google Ads conversion tracking
  • Every lead tracked back to campaign, keyword, and verified revenue
Read case study
Hospitality and leisure
Hospitality Marketing
10
Venues under one strategy

Marketing infrastructure for a 10-venue hospitality group

Strategy consultancy, professional content, and marketing infrastructure across a 10-venue group — from paid media and booking attribution to internal team development and brand expansion.

  • Paid media strategy and campaign management per venue, consolidated group reporting
  • Professional content capture and reactive/evergreen content strategy
  • Internal marketing workshops to upskill in-house teams
  • WhatsApp Business rollout across the group for customer communication and marketing
  • Brand expansion framework developed and delivered
Read case study
Brit Fest live music festival
Featured Project
+161%
Instagram reach

Content strategy and media coordination for The Brit Fest 2025

Strategic content direction and on-site media coordination for a 30,000+ attendee music festival — six content pillars, five external contributors, and a digital presence that matched the scale of the sponsorship.

  • Six-pillar content strategy delivered ahead of the event
  • On-site media briefing aligning press, radio, magazine, and photography contributors
  • 10,529 content views — 63.8% from non-followers
  • Full digital coordination across ABC+ Warranty's main stage sponsorship
Read case study
Testimonials

What clients say

"Chris has been our behind-the-scenes PPC resource on some of our most technically demanding healthcare recruitment accounts for years. He manages campaigns across Google and Meta simultaneously, handles all the tracking infrastructure — including server-side setups and attribution models we wouldn't have the time or expertise to build in-house — and delivers reporting we can take straight to clients. When there is a problem, he finds it. When there is an opportunity, he moves on it. We don't have to manage him — we just have to brief him."

Head of Client Services
Digital recruitment marketing agency — white-label arrangement

"Before Chris took over the Google Ads, we genuinely didn't know what was working. We were spending money and getting some leads, but there was no real visibility. He rebuilt everything — the campaigns, the landing pages, the forms, the tracking — and for the first time we could see exactly where every lead was coming from and what it was worth. The account has generated over £180,000 in revenue from around £19,000 in ad spend. He's also straight with us, which I appreciate. If something isn't working, he says so."

Director
Exterior coatings business — anonymised

"We had multiple venues and a different approach to marketing in each one — or in most cases, no approach at all. Chris came in and gave us a framework we could actually use: a shared content strategy, proper planning processes, and for the first time a way of connecting our booking platforms to our marketing activity. We went from having no idea which venue was performing to having a reporting view that covers all five. He works at a level that most consultants don't — strategic enough to see the big picture but hands-on enough to actually build things."

Operations Director
Multi-venue hospitality group — anonymised

The detail behind the numbers

Three full case studies — healthcare recruitment, home improvement, multi-venue hospitality. Challenge, approach, and verified result for each.

9.5×
ROAS — trades
50k+
Applications — healthcare
£180k
Revenue from £19k spend
Read the case studies
50k+Healthcare applications delivered
9.5×ROAS — £180k from £19k spend
3.7×More hires than ATS data showed
£4.2M+Paid media budget managed
£180k+Verified revenue from £19k spend
6+Clients on server-side tracking
50k+Healthcare applications delivered
9.5×ROAS — £180k from £19k spend
3.7×More hires than ATS data showed
£4.2M+Paid media budget managed
£180k+Verified revenue from £19k spend
6+Clients on server-side tracking
No pitch, no waste of your time

I'll be straight with you.

PPC doesn't work for every business. A campaign's failure to perform is rarely just a failure of the ad account — your offer, your price point, your landing page, your follow-up process, and your margins all play a role in whether paid media can work commercially.

I'd love to take on every enquiry. But I won't. If I look at your business and genuinely don't think PPC is going to work for you — whether the budget isn't there yet, the product isn't right for search, or something else needs fixing first — I'll tell you that in our first conversation. No pitch, no proposal, no waste of your time.

The businesses I do work with get everything I have. That's the trade.

Find out if we're a fit — book a free 30-minute call
Is this for you?

We're a good fit if…

Not every business is ready for PPC, and not every business is right for how I work. Here's how to tell.

01

You're prepared to give it time.

PPC compounds. The first 90 days are about building a foundation, not hitting peak performance.

02

Your product or service has real demand.

I can reach the right people. But if nobody's searching for what you offer, I'll tell you before we start.

03

You want to understand what's working.

Not just receive a monthly report. I'll explain the data, not hide behind it.

04

You're open to fixing the full picture.

If your landing page is the problem, I'll say so. If your follow-up process is losing leads, I'll flag that too.

05

You want one person who owns the whole thing.

Not a junior account manager, not a revolving team. One consultant who knows your account inside out.

06

You're not looking for the cheapest option.

My fees are fair and transparent. But if price is the primary decision criteria, I'm probably not the right fit.

07

You're not treating paid as your only channel.

PPC performs best alongside organic presence, brand awareness, and content. If paid media is the only thing keeping the lights on, that's a fragile position — and I'll tell you that before we start, not after.

Sound like you? Book a free 30-minute call — I'll tell you honestly whether PPC can work for your business, before you commit to anything.

Book a free audit
Why Stern Digital

What you actually get

Not a managed service with monthly reports you can't interrogate. A strategic partner who knows where the numbers come from.

Results over activity

The goal is business outcomes: leads, applications, bookings, customers. Not impressions or click-through rates. Every campaign decision is made with that end in mind.

One person, end to end

You deal with one consultant who understands your account completely. No account managers, no handoffs, no "I'll check with the team." The person who built the strategy is the person optimising it week to week.

Agency-ready from day one

Trusted by agencies as a white-label paid media partner. Reporting is structured for client-facing use. Comms are professional and discreet. If you need a senior PPC resource without hiring one, this is how it works.

Honest about fit

If your brief doesn't match what I do well, you'll find out in the first conversation — not six months and several thousand pounds later. That's not modesty. It's how good work actually gets done.

Not scared of the hard stuff.

Most platforms assume you're selling products. When you're recruiting nurses, managing bookings across five venues, or selling high-ticket services with no ecommerce flow, the default infrastructure doesn't work. I build what makes measurement — and optimisation — possible in the first place.

Chris Woollam — Founder, Stern Digital
About

Chris Woollam,
Founder — Stern Digital

Before consultancy, Chris spent close to a decade in telecoms in technical management roles — which explains the systems-first approach to everything.

Chris Woollam is the founder of Stern Digital. He manages paid media for agencies and direct clients across healthcare recruitment, hospitality, and the trades sector — often as the senior PPC resource behind agency-branded campaigns.

Alongside paid media and measurement, Chris brings hands-on creative capability — videography, photography, content strategy, logo design — built before the consultancy. For clients where creative is a bottleneck, this matters more than it sounds: ad performance is partly a creative variable, and being able to iterate on assets without a separate production process is a genuine advantage.

The consultancy is deliberately focused. Not a generalist shop, not a large team. One specialist who takes on a small number of clients and treats each one as if their budget is his own.

Based in Salford, Greater Manchester. Working with agencies and brands across the UK.

Paid media — Google Ads and Meta Ads across search, social, shopping, and recruitment
Tracking & attribution — server-side, cross-platform, CRM and ATS integrations
Reporting & dashboards — custom, blended, white-label ready
Creative — videography, photography, content strategy and campaign creative direction
Salford, Greater Manchester — working with agencies and brands across the UK
Get Started

Two ways to work together

Whether you want a structured starting point or a straight conversation, both options get you to the same place.

I take on a small number of clients at any one time — by design, not by accident. If the timing feels right, don't sit on it.

Book a free account audit

30 minutes. Bring your Google Ads or Meta account. You'll leave with a clear view of what's working, what isn't, and what the priority fixes are — no obligation beyond the conversation.

Request an audit

Just get in touch

If you'd rather describe what you're working on and see if there's a fit, use the form below or drop a direct email. Responses within one working day.

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