SEO services & PPC services, Birmingham
Digital marketing services Birmingham
Freelance SEO services and PPC services for Birmingham and West Midlands businesses. Fifteen years of agency-side search experience, delivered without the agency.
Birmingham, from Gas Street Basin to the Bullring
More miles of canal than Venice, and plenty of competition for every click
Birmingham packs agencies, retailers and service businesses into a few busy square miles, from the Jewellery Quarter to the Bullring. In a market that crowded, paid search and SEO reward precision: the right searches, the right parts of the city, and a clear view of which clicks become customers.
Rugby to Birmingham New Street
Around 35 minutes by train, for a coffee or a meeting at your office
The fastest trains from Rugby call at Coventry and Birmingham International before arriving at New Street, around 30 miles in all. That makes a coffee in the city centre, or a meeting at your office anywhere in the West Midlands, easy to arrange. Ongoing SEO and PPC work is handled remotely, with video calls in between.
Birmingham has one of the densest agency markets outside London, which is exactly why freelance consultancy works well here. You are choosing between an agency retainer that funds an office, an account director and a new business team, or paying by the hour for the person who actually builds and runs the campaigns.
I spent much of my career agency side, in London with top 100 agency Tangent on Great Portland Street and in the Midlands, so the approach is the same one used on enterprise accounts. What is missing is the layer between you and the work.
Local clients have included Withwise, based in Solihull just outside Birmingham, and, a number of years ago, Lapworth Architects, where I supported their digital marketing to drive more enquiries. Rugby to Birmingham New Street is around 35 minutes on the fastest trains, so meeting in person is straightforward.
For most Birmingham businesses the first question is not which channel but whether the tracking is telling the truth. It is common to find an account optimising towards a conversion that is not really a conversion, which makes every decision after that unreliable.
What matters here
Digital marketing services for Birmingham businesses
Three things that change the approach in this market.
A crowded agency market
Plenty of choice locally. Freelance consultancy competes on where the money goes, not on the size of the team.
Tracking before tactics
Conversion tracking and GA4 checked first. Optimising towards the wrong goal is the most expensive mistake in paid search.
Around 35 minutes away
Rugby to Birmingham New Street by train, so a coffee in the city or a meeting at your office is easy to arrange.
The services
SEO services Birmingham and PPC services Birmingham
Paid search and organic search, run by the same person so they inform each other rather than competing for the same clicks.
PPC services & campaign management
Google Ads across search, shopping and remarketing. Keyword research, competitor analysis, campaign build, budget pacing, conversion tracking and ongoing optimisation, charged by the hour with no commission on your ad spend.
PPC services and managementSEO services & management
Technical SEO, query research, on-page content and FAQs, structured data, local visibility and citations, plus the authority building that makes a brand quotable rather than merely present.
SEO services and managementFreelance or agency
Freelance consultant or agency in Birmingham?
Agencies earn their fee on large, multi-channel programmes. For a search account, four things usually decide it.
Where the fee goes
An agency retainer funds premises, account management and new business alongside the work. Freelance PPC services are charged by the hour from £80, so more of the budget reaches the account.
No minimum term
Agencies commonly ask for a minimum six month agreement, signed before there is any evidence the work is paying. Hours here are booked as they are needed, with no minimum term and one month of good grace either way so both sides can plan ahead. A smaller number of agencies also still take a percentage of your media budget, which gives them an interest in that budget growing; I charge for time only, so the advice on what to spend is not tied to what I earn.
The same person throughout
No senior pitch followed by a junior in the account, and no handover in month two. The person you brief in Birmingham is the person building and optimising the campaigns.
Scaling either way
Hours go up when there is work to do and down when there is not. That suits seasonal businesses and anyone who wants a flexible extension of an existing marketing team rather than a fixed retainer.
Questions
Freelance digital marketing in Birmingham, answered
What people ask before commissioning search work locally.
What do your SEO services in Birmingham include?
Technical SEO, keyword research, on-page optimisation, content, local SEO and Google Business Profile, plus visibility in AI search such as Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT. Every piece of work starts with an audit of where your site stands against the Birmingham competitors you actually lose business to.
What do your PPC services in Birmingham include?
Google Ads and Microsoft Ads set-up, restructures and ongoing management, including search, Performance Max, shopping, remarketing and paid social. Conversion tracking and GA4 are checked first, so budget is optimised towards real enquiries and sales rather than clicks.
How much do SEO and PPC services in Birmingham cost?
£80 per hour, with no commission taken from your ad spend. Work runs month to month or as a fixed project, and longer retainers are welcome where they suit you. A free audit is available before you commit to anything.
Can we meet in person in Birmingham?
Yes. Rugby to Birmingham New Street is around 35 minutes on the fastest trains, calling at Coventry and Birmingham International. I’m happy to meet for a coffee near New Street or at your office, and most ongoing work is handled remotely by video call.
Will my Birmingham business show up in AI search results?
AI tools answer questions rather than match single keywords, so pages need clear answers, structured data such as FAQ and LocalBusiness schema, and consistent information about your business across the web. That work is built into every SEO strategy, and visibility is monitored with tools such as Semrush.
How long before we see results?
Paid search can bring enquiries within days of launch, with performance improving over the first few weeks as data builds. SEO usually takes three to six months to show meaningful movement in a competitive city like Birmingham, which is why the two often run together.
Have you worked with Birmingham businesses?
Yes. Locally I have worked with Withwise, based in Solihull just outside Birmingham, and some years ago with Lapworth Architects, supporting their digital marketing to drive enquiries. The rest of my client base runs across the UK and internationally.
Why use a freelance PPC consultant rather than a Birmingham agency?
Agencies carry overheads you end up funding: premises, account management, new business. With freelance consultancy you pay by the hour from £80 for the person doing the work, with no commission taken from your ad spend. You also keep the same contact throughout, rather than being handed to a junior once the account is won.
Do you handle PPC and SEO separately?
They are separate disciplines but one plan. Running both means paid search data informs which organic queries are worth pursuing, and organic coverage tells you where you can stop paying. Details on the PPC Birmingham page.
Contact Owain
Discuss your requirements over a call or a coffee
Tell me where you rank now, what you are spending and what you want search to do for the business. You will get a straight answer on whether there is enough opportunity to justify the work.
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