The Google Ads agency in Sarasota that audits the tracking before it spends a dollar.
Dinko Design is a Google Ads agency in Sarasota, FL that builds and manages campaigns for contractors and local service businesses across Sarasota and Manatee counties. Search campaigns, conversion tracking, landing pages — designed and run by the owner, not a rotating account team. No markup on ad spend, no reporting theater: we verify what counts as a lead before your budget ever runs.
Three ways to show up on Google — and when each makes sense.
When a homeowner searches 'AC repair Sarasota,' the top of that page is for sale — and the person searching has a problem, a budget, and a deadline. That's the difference between search and social: on Facebook you're interrupting someone relaxing after dinner; on Google you're answering someone who is already looking for you. For the trades, that intent is everything. Google sells access to it in three main formats, and picking the right mix matters more than most agencies let on. Here's the plain-English version of each, and the order we deploy them.
Search Ads
The text results at the top of the page when someone searches for what you do. You choose the searches, write the ad, and pay per click. Maximum control — keyword-level budgets, negative lists, ad copy that echoes the exact search. For most trades, this is where the budget belongs first.
- Pay per click, keyword by keyword
- Full control over targeting and copy
- The workhorse for service businesses
Local Services Ads (LSA)
Local Services Ads sit above even the search ads, show your review rating, and charge per lead instead of per click — with a Google Screened or Google Guaranteed badge once you pass background and license checks. Less control and less transparency than Search, but a strong complement once the badge is earned.
- Pay per lead, not per click
- Google Screened / Guaranteed badge
- Best paired with Search, not instead of it
Performance Max
Performance Max hands Google your budget and creative, and its automation places ads across Search, Maps, YouTube, Gmail, and the display network. It can work — but it optimizes toward whatever your account calls a conversion. If tracking counts page views as leads, it will happily buy you page views. Clean data first, automation second.
- Automated placement across Google
- Only as smart as your conversion data
- We add it after Search proves the tracking
Measured like an engineer, explained like a neighbor.
We audit conversion tracking before a dollar of spend — in our own account we caught Google-created 'conversions' that counted page views as leads, inflating reported results 18×. If it can happen to the people who do this for a living, it's happening to accounts all over town. Every account we run gets that audit first.
How Dinko runs Google Ads
- Conversion-tracking audit before launch — calls, forms, bookings
- Location targeting set to physical presence, not 'interest in' the area
- Negative keyword lists live from day one
- Weekly search-terms reviews through the first 60–90 days
- Call tracking with duration thresholds — a misdial never counts as a lead
- No markup on ad spend — your card, straight to Google
What we keep inheriting
- Google's auto-created conversion actions counting page views as leads
- 'Interest in area' targeting bleeding budget out of state
- One campaign with every service lumped together
- No negative keywords — paying for 'free,' 'DIY,' and job-seeker searches
- Search-terms report untouched for months
Six pieces. None optional.
A Google Ads engagement is a system, not a settings panel. Every account gets all six of these, because they only work together — great ads pointing at a slow page waste money, and a tuned campaign with broken tracking optimizes toward noise.
1 · Campaign Architecture
One campaign per service line, with ad groups tight enough that every ad can mirror the search that triggered it. Budgets sit at the service level, so your money flows toward the jobs you actually want more of — not whatever Google finds easiest to spend on.
- One campaign per service line
- Tight ad groups, mirrored ad copy
- Budgets weighted toward priority jobs
2 · Keyword Research + Negative Lists
Keyword lists built around buying intent — 'repair,' 'install,' 'replace,' 'near me' — and, just as important, negative lists from day one: 'DIY,' 'free,' 'how to,' job-seeker searches, and cities you don't serve. Negatives are where most self-managed accounts quietly bleed.
- Intent-first keyword selection
- Negative lists live before launch
- City and service exclusions mapped
3 · Ad Copy That Sounds Like You
Ads written in your voice, echoing the exact search, carrying the proof points that matter to a homeowner choosing a stranger: licensing, guarantees, response time, real reviews. Multiple variants per ad group, so we keep what earns clicks and retire what doesn't.
- Copy matched to each search theme
- Proof points homeowners care about
- Variants tested, losers retired
4 · Conversion Tracking Setup
Google Tag Manager configured, call tracking with duration thresholds so a misdial never counts as a lead, and form tracking that fires on real submissions — not page views. Then we audit it: every account gets the same tracking audit that caught an 18× inflation in our own.
- Google Tag Manager + form tracking
- Call tracking with duration thresholds
- Pre-launch tracking audit, every account
5 · Landing Page Alignment
The click is half the job — the page it lands on is the other half. We align every ad group to a page that repeats the promise of the ad, loads fast on a phone, and makes calling or booking the obvious next step. We design and build these pages ourselves.
- Message match, ad to page
- Fast, mobile-first pages
- Call and booking paths front and center
6 · Search-Terms Reviews + Reporting
Weekly search-terms reviews through the first 60–90 days — reading the actual searches your budget bought and pruning the waste — then an ongoing monthly cadence. Reporting counts leads, not impressions, and lands in plain English on a call where questions are welcome.
- Weekly reviews, first 60–90 days
- Monthly reporting on leads, not clicks
- Plain-English strategy call
Audit first. Spend second.
The order is the point — nothing spends until the measurement is trustworthy.
Audit & Tracking
Account review, competitor landscape, and the conversion-tracking audit. We check what Google is already counting as a conversion, wire what's missing, and verify what counts as a lead before anything spends.
Weeks 1–2Build
Campaign architecture, keyword and negative lists, ad copy in your voice, landing pages aligned to each ad group, and call and form tracking wired and test-fired end to end.
Weeks 2–3Launch & Prune
Go live, then weekly search-terms reviews through the first 60–90 days — reading every search the budget bought, cutting waste, feeding what's working.
Months 1–3Optimize & Plan
Monthly reporting on leads in plain English, seasonal budget planning around Sarasota's calendar, and ongoing copy and landing-page testing as the account matures.
OngoingSarasota home base. Suncoast coverage.
We work from Sarasota (34240) and build campaigns around the geography your trucks actually cover. Location targeting is set to people physically inside your service area — not the lazy default that includes anyone who ever showed 'interest in' it from three states away. If a neighborhood isn't worth the drive, it isn't worth the click, so it gets excluded.
Sarasota & the Islands
From downtown Sarasota out to Siesta Key, where a mix of year-round homeowners, seasonal residents, and vacation rentals keeps home-service demand moving in every month of the year. Competition is thickest where the rooftops are densest, so campaigns here get our tightest radius and negative-list work.
North into Manatee County
Bradenton's established neighborhoods lean toward repair-and-replace work, while Lakewood Ranch's steady wave of new construction searches for upgrades, additions, and finish trades. Different housing stock, different search behavior — and campaigns that treat them that way instead of blanketing the county with one message.
South County & the Coast
Venice, Nokomis, and Osprey down the Trail, North Port's fast-growing subdivisions, and Englewood on the coast — growing areas full of homeowners searching for every trade. We map campaigns to the drive times that make a job worth taking, so the budget follows your trucks, not the map's edges.
One flat fee. Published, on purpose.
Most agencies on this page of Google won't print a number. Here's ours. Your ad spend goes on your card, straight to Google — we never mark it up or take a percentage, so when your spend grows, our incentive stays the same: make each dollar buy more, not skim more dollars. You pay us a flat monthly fee for the work.
Search-first management for contractors and local service businesses in the Sarasota area. The person you meet on the audit call is the person in your account every week — the owner, not a hand-off.
- Conversion-tracking audit before launch
- Campaign build — one campaign per service line
- Negative keyword lists from day one
- Weekly search-terms reviews (first 60–90 days)
- Call + form tracking wired and verified
- Landing page alignment
- Monthly plain-English reporting call
Working with Dinko, in their words.
Real Google reviews from owners we've built websites and marketing for. Ads campaigns land better when the same hands built the site they point at.
“He's very informative and takes the time to explain everything so you actually understand the process behind the website design and SEO work he's doing. Even though he's based in Florida and I'm in California, communication has been great and the whole process has been smooth. It takes a lot of trust to hand over your company's website and online presence to someone, but Dinko made that easy.
“Dinko is an excellent designer of websites. His attention to details is obvious. I recommend him to you to design or elevate your website.
What Sarasota owners ask us first.
How much does Google Ads management cost in Sarasota?+
How much ad spend do I need?+
How long until Google Ads produces results?+
Google Ads or SEO — which should I do first?+
Do you work with contractors specifically?+
What makes running Google Ads in Sarasota different?+
Do I own my Google Ads account?+
Industries we serve
Built for contractors & home service businesses
We specialize in web design and marketing for the trades. Every service we offer is tuned for your industry.
Ready for clicks that actually become calls?
Free Google Ads audit — account structure, tracking accuracy, search-terms waste. Straight answers before you spend another dollar.