FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
The questions worth asking before you invest.
Plain answers to the questions we hear most often - about paid media, SEO, AI marketing, automation, and what it actually looks like to work with a specialist agency. No jargon. No sales spin.
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Before you get in touch.
WORKING WITH DUCIE
What to know about how we work, who we work with, and what a typical engagement looks like.
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Choose a digital marketing agency that specialises in the channels you need rather than offering everything. Look for demonstrated results in your sector, clear reporting, and a team that can explain their strategy in plain language.
Avoid agencies that lead with outputs - posts, blogs, ad impressions - rather than outcomes like leads, revenue, and growth. Ask to see case studies that are specific about results, not just directional. A good agency should be able to tell you exactly what they would do for your business before you sign anything. Book a free strategy call with Ducie and we will do exactly that.
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Ducie works with scaling businesses - typically 10 to 50 employees - where growth is a genuine board-level objective and the budget exists to invest properly. Sector varies: we have worked with B2B technology, eCommerce, professional services, industrial marketplaces, and local trade businesses.
What our clients share is ambition rather than a specific sector or size. If you are a larger business looking for specialist expertise in a specific discipline, we work with those too. The common thread is wanting a partner who takes accountability for commercial outcomes rather than just activity.
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Every engagement starts with a free strategy call - no commitment, no pitch deck. We learn about your business, your goals, and your current marketing position. If there is a fit, we put together a scoped proposal tailored to your objectives.
We do not have off-the-shelf packages. Some clients retain us across multiple disciplines; others start with a single service or a one-off audit. Retainers typically begin within two to four weeks of a signed agreement. You will always know exactly what we are doing, why, and what difference it is making.
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Both. Some clients start with a one-off audit or strategy project before committing to ongoing work. Others move straight into a retainer. We are flexible on structure - what matters is that the scope matches your current stage and objectives.
One-off projects tend to work well for businesses who want an independent view of their current marketing, or who need a specific piece of work done well before building a broader relationship. Retainers work best when you want consistent progress and ongoing optimisation rather than a single deliverable.
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Yes. Ducie is a remote-first agency and works with clients across the UK and internationally. Geography is rarely a barrier - most client relationships are managed through regular video calls, shared reporting dashboards, and async communication.
If your target audience is primarily UK-based, we bring local market knowledge regardless of where you are headquartered. If you are targeting international markets, we build campaigns around your audience geography rather than ours.
Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn and beyond.
PAID MEDIA
Questions about paid media strategy, budgets, performance benchmarks, and what AI-informed campaign management actually means in practice.
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Paid media is any form of digital advertising you pay for directly — including Google Search Ads, Google Shopping, Meta (Facebook and Instagram) ads, LinkedIn Ads, and YouTube Ads. Unlike organic channels, paid media delivers immediate visibility in exchange for ad spend.
Results are directly tied to budget and strategy quality. A well-run paid media account at modest spend will consistently outperform a poorly-run account at high spend. The quality of the strategy - audience targeting, keyword selection, creative, and bidding logic - is what determines whether your budget works or gets wasted.
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PPC agency fees in the UK typically range from £500 to £3,000+ per month in management fees, separate from your ad spend. Some agencies charge a percentage of ad spend (usually 10–20%), others charge a flat retainer. At Ducie, fees are scoped to your specific requirements rather than fixed packages.
Be cautious of very low management fees - they often signal that your account will be under-managed or handled by a junior team member. The management fee should reflect the level of active optimisation, strategic input, and reporting your account actually receives. Talk to us about what's right for your budget.
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Most businesses need at least £1,000–£2,000 per month in Google Ads spend to generate enough data for meaningful optimisation. The right budget depends on your sector, average transaction value, and target cost per acquisition.
We recommend starting with a budget you can sustain for at least three months rather than a large short-term test. Google's algorithm takes time to learn - campaigns launched and paused within weeks rarely produce useful data. A lower consistent budget over a longer period will outperform a high budget that gets cut before the account has optimised.
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A good ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) for Google Ads varies by sector and business model. eCommerce businesses typically target 3x–6x ROAS. Lead generation businesses usually measure cost per lead rather than ROAS directly.
The most important benchmark is your break-even ROAS - the point at which revenue from ads covers both ad spend and the cost of your product or service. Anything above break-even is profitable; the goal is to maximise volume while staying above it. We benchmark ROAS against your specific unit economics rather than generic industry averages.
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Performance Max (PMax) is Google's AI-driven campaign type that serves ads across all Google channels - Search, Shopping, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and Maps - from a single campaign. It uses machine learning to allocate budget and targeting automatically based on your conversion goals.
Whether you should run it depends on your goals and setup. PMax performs well when you have strong conversion data for Google to optimise against, high-quality creative assets, and a clear signal of what a good conversion looks like. It performs poorly with thin data, weak creative, or poorly defined conversion actions. Many advertisers find a hybrid approach - PMax alongside traditional Search campaigns - delivers the best results. We evaluate this on a per-account basis.
WHAT WE OFFER
Three ways we help you
get ahead of the curve.
Whether you need to be found in AI search, use AI to sharpen your marketing output, or build custom tools that give your team an unfair advantage - we have a service that fits.
AI Search Visibility
AEO, GEO, and LLM optimisation - making sure your business is cited, recommended, and visible across Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Bing Copilot. Structured data, schema, E-E-A-T, and content architecture that AI engines trust.
AEO / GEO / LLM
AI Marketing Strategy
A strategic audit of your current marketing function - identifying where AI can reduce cost, increase output, and sharpen targeting. We build a practical roadmap for making your marketing team AI-first, with tool recommendations, workflow redesigns, and implementation support.
CONSULTING
Custom AI Marketing Agents
Bespoke AI agents built specifically for your marketing function. From keyword research agents and content briefing tools to campaign analysis assistants and competitive intelligence agents - purpose-built to do the heavy lifting your team currently does manually.
BESPOKE BUILD
AI Content Strategy & Briefing
AI-informed content strategies built around real search intent, competitive gaps, and topical authority. Each brief is structured for both human writers and AI-assisted production - clear, specific, and optimised for platforms that matter.
CONSULTING
Prompt Framework Development
Custom prompt libraries and frameworks built for your brand, tone of voice, and marketing use cases. Your team gets reliable, on-brand AI output every time - without the inconsistency that comes from ad hoc prompting.
CONSULTING
Automation & Workflow AI
Identifying and implementing AI-powered automation across your marketing workflows - from campaign reporting and audience segmentation to content production pipelines. Less manual work, more time on strategy.
CONSULTING
Your marketing team, with an AI layer built in.
SPOTLIGHT - CUSTOM AI AGENTS
Custom AI marketing agents are purpose-built tools that do a specific job inside your marketing function - faster, more consistently, and at a fraction of the cost of doing it manually.
Unlike off-the-shelf AI tools, custom agents are built around your brand, your data, and your specific workflows. They know your tone of voice, your target audience, your competitors, and your commercial priorities.
This is new territory. Very few agencies are building this capability yet. We are taking on early clients now.
• Keyword research agent - surfaces high-intent, low-competition opportunities across your target market in minutes rather than hours
• Content briefing agent - generates fully structured, SEO and AEO-optimised content briefs from a single input
• Competitive intelligence agent - monitors competitor activity, content, and search positioning on a continuous basis
• Campaign analysis agent - interprets performance data and surfaces prioritised recommendations without manual review
HOW WE WORK
Discovery first. Always.
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AI Marketing Audit
We assess your current marketing function, tech stack, and AI search visibility. Where are you losing ground to AI-native competitors? Where are the biggest efficiency gains available? This gives us a clear picture before we recommend anything.
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Strategy and roadmap
A prioritised plan that covers AI search visibility, tool and workflow recommendations, and - where relevant - a specification for any custom AI agents. Scoped to your budget and built around measurable outcomes.
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Build and implement
We execute the strategy - whether that means implementing AEO optimisations alongside your SEO, building custom agents, redesigning workflows, or training your team on AI tools. Hands-on, not just advisory.
You might be the right fit if…
WHO THIS IS FOR
You know AI is changing marketing but don't know where to start
You've heard about AI Overviews, ChatGPT search, and AI tools - but you haven't had the time or the guidance to figure out what it means for your business specifically. We make it concrete and actionable.
Your marketing team is spending too much time on the wrong things
Keyword research, content briefing, performance reporting, competitive analysis - these are tasks where AI can do the heavy lifting. We identify where automation makes sense and build the tools to make it happen.
You want to get ahead of competitors who are not yet thinking about this
Most businesses your size are not yet investing in AI marketing strategy. The ones that move early will have a compounding advantage. This is the window to build that lead.
• NOW TAKING EARLY CLIENTS
This service is new.
The opportunity isn’t.
We are building our AI marketing consulting practice and taking on a small number of early clients at preferential rates. In return, we ask for honest feedback and the ability to document results. If you want to be at the front of this, now is the time.
Not sure where AI
fits in your marketing?
Book a free 30-minute strategy call. We will assess where you stand, where the biggest opportunities are, and what a practical AI marketing plan looks like for your business.
FREE STRATEGY CALL