National operator: aligning organic search and paid acquisition

Situation

Organic and paid were both active, but the dashboards told different stories: ad landing URLs were not the same ones earning impressions, and regional teams overlapped on keyword sets. Finance wanted governance and a narrative that held quarter to quarter, not a one-off audit deck.

What we focused on

• Shared keyword and intent map: So content, landing structure, and ad groups referenced the same intent layers instead of duplicating or cannibalising.
• Landing hygiene: Speed, mobile behaviour, and message match from ad to page for priority routes; fixes sequenced by impact, not vanity.
• Measurement: Conversion definitions, GA4/GTM sanity, and Search Console segments that leadership could interpret without a glossary.

Outcome

Clearer ownership of which pages owned which intents, less wasted spend on traffic that bounced for fixable reasons, and reporting that supported quarterly planning instead of monthly arguments about whose numbers were “right.”