Paid media measured in revenue, not impressions
Most agencies report on clicks. We report on what those clicks are worth. Great Bear Marketing builds and runs paid media programs where every decision traces back to measurable revenue, reduced CPA, and growth you can actually sustain. Based in Brooklyn, working with clients across the United States.
What paid search actually costs now
Sourced and linked, with the dataset size and date on each one. Where two credible datasets disagree, we say so rather than picking the flattering one.
the rise in average search CPC over a decade on one consistent methodology. Conversion rates tripled over the same period, from 2.70% to 8.18%, which is the only reason the maths still works.
WordStream by LocaliQ, May 2026, 13,474 campaignsaverage cost per lead, which fell year over year for the first time in five years. Conversion rates improved in 87% of industries.
LocaliQ, June 2026of audited Google Ads accounts recorded no conversions at all over 90 days, and a quarter had not set a single negative keyword.
WordStream, June 2026, 15,666 accountsconversion rate for accounts using at least one negative keyword against those using none. Basic account hygiene is still the largest available win in most accounts.
WordStream, June 2026of Google Shopping spend now runs through Performance Max among advertisers using both it and standard Shopping. Automation is no longer optional, so the skill is in constraining it.
Tinuiti, Digital Ads Benchmark Report Q1 2026branded search incrementality factor for brands under low competitive pressure, meaning roughly 9% of the conversions it was credited with were actually caused by it. Under high competition that rises to 0.37.
Haus, September 2025, geo experimentsChannels we manage
We recommend a channel mix based on where your buyers actually convert, not on what is easiest to bill for.
Google Ads
Search, Shopping, Performance Max, and YouTube.
Meta Ads
Facebook and Instagram prospecting and retargeting.
LinkedIn Ads
B2B demand generation and account-based targeting.
Microsoft Ads
Incremental search volume at typically lower CPCs.
Retargeting
Cross-channel sequencing built around buyer intent.
Feed & Shopping
Product feed optimization for e-commerce catalogs.
How we work
Audit
We start with what the data already says: wasted spend, broken tracking, mis-set bids, and the gaps between what you are paying for and what actually converts.
Strategy
Channel mix, budget allocation, and offer positioning mapped to your funnel and margins, not to a template.
Build
Account structure, tracking, and creative built to be measured. If we cannot attribute it, we do not scale it.
Test
Structured testing on creative, audiences, and landing pages. Aggressive on volume of tests, disciplined about reading them.
Scale
Once CPA holds at target, we scale spend deliberately and keep optimizing. Growth without runaway acquisition costs.
Numbers we will not quote you
Agencies win paid media pitches with two statistics. The first is that some large share of your budget, usually 20% to 40%, is being wasted. We went looking for the study behind that and there is not one. Every version leads to another agency page citing another agency page. The second is a click fraud percentage, and those all originate with companies selling fraud detection. There is no independently audited industry-wide invalid traffic rate to cite, and in 2025 the Media Rating Council found gaps in how the detection vendors themselves were meeting its requirements.
We are equally cautious with platform-reported lift. Google published that its AI Max features deliver about 7% more conversions, but that is Google's own internal data comparing more of its features against fewer of its features, not automation measured against a controlled alternative. Waste in your account is real and worth finding. We would just rather show it to you from your own data, which is what the audit is for, than open with a number neither of us can check.
Why teams choose Great Bear
We are not a volume shop, we are a performance partner. Accounts are run by senior practitioners, not handed to juniors or pushed offshore. We work with budgets from around $5,000 per month up to enterprise teams spending $400,000+ monthly, and we are equally comfortable slotting in alongside an existing in-house team as we are owning the channel outright.
Paid media questions
Which paid media channels do you manage?
We manage Google Ads (Search, Shopping, Performance Max, YouTube), Meta Ads across Facebook and Instagram, LinkedIn Ads for B2B, Microsoft Ads, and cross-channel retargeting. We recommend the mix based on where your buyers actually convert, not on which platform is easiest to bill for.
What ad budgets do you work with?
Both small and large, but strategically. We work with emerging brands starting around $5,000 per month as well as enterprise teams spending $400,000+ monthly. What matters is not the size of the budget, it is the commitment to scale responsibly, test aggressively, and optimize relentlessly.
How quickly will I see results from paid media?
Most clients see meaningful performance improvements within the first 30 to 60 days, depending on channel maturity and data quality. Paid media campaigns typically optimize within two to three weeks, while SEO and CRO initiatives deliver compounding gains over several months.
Can you work alongside our in-house marketing team?
Absolutely. We frequently collaborate with in-house CMOs, designers, developers, and sales teams. We slot in where you need us most: plugging gaps, elevating strategy, and accelerating performance without disrupting your existing workflow.
Do you work with businesses outside of New York?
Yes. We are based in Brooklyn and work with clients across the United States. Paid media is run remotely by the same senior team regardless of where you are located.
Who actually runs my account?
Senior practitioners. No juniors, no outsourcing, no guesswork. The person who builds your strategy is the person in your account, and every decision traces back to measurable revenue, reduced CPA, and scalable growth.
How do you handle Performance Max and automated campaign types?
We use them, and we constrain them. Performance Max already carries about 67% of Google Shopping spend among advertisers running it alongside standard Shopping, so refusing to touch it is not a strategy. The work is in what you feed it and what you fence off: clean product feeds, asset group structure, brand exclusions, and enough conversion signal quality that the automation is optimizing toward revenue rather than cheap actions. Handing a black box your whole budget and hoping is the failure mode we get called in to fix.
Is my reporting telling me the truth about what ads actually caused?
Often not, and this is the least discussed problem in paid media. Platform-reported conversions credit clicks that would have converted anyway, and branded search is the worst offender. Haus ran geo experiments and found an incrementality factor of 0.09 for brands under low competitive pressure, meaning about 9% of the conversions branded search got credit for were genuinely caused by it. Under heavy competition that rises to 0.37 and the spend defends itself. We would rather run a holdout test and find out which situation you are in than keep reporting a number that flatters everyone.
Did the end of third-party cookies break conversion tracking?
Third-party cookies did not end. Google confirmed in April 2025 that it would not roll out a deprecation prompt and would keep the existing cookie controls in Chrome, then wound down most of the Privacy Sandbox replacement work in late 2025. So the cliff everyone planned for did not arrive. Tracking loss is still real, just from other directions: Safari, Firefox and Brave have blocked third-party cookies for years, iOS app tracking consent limits what Meta sees, and consent banners cut into measurable traffic in some regions. We fix that with server-side tracking, clean first-party data and consent mode rather than by pretending the numbers are complete.
Other services
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