POSITIVE SPARKS MARKETING LTD

Pay Per Click Advertising and Conversion Rate Optimisation Agency based in Cornwall but with clients across the world. We are one of the very few commission based PPC agencies in the world. Our aim is to be commission based with every client we work with. Our approach works with most businesses with an established online presence, but is particularly effective for e-commerce brands selling 100 or more products. Want to know how might work with you? Get in touch and we’ll run a free audit with an outline of how we can scale your business together.

Founder

The Digital Sparks Podcast

With over 100 episodes published so far, the Digital Sparks podcast is a weekly opportunity for me to interview a special guest who is an established voice in web marketing, online productivity or digital entrepreneurship. We stream across iTunes and all well known podcast directories and attain up to 2K listeners per episode. See bit/ly/digitalsparks

Presenter / Founder

Phil Byrne Ltd

Based in Wicklow, Ireland, I worked as a digital consultant to a variety of companies in both the UK and South East Ireland. I helped my clients craft and deliver web marketing strategies that covered all aspects of traffic generation and audience engagement. Clients include Rathwood Furniture, Camino Ways, Noble Express, Yorkshire Lavender and West Yorkshire Steel. njunction with my team.

Managing Director

LiveWorkAbroad.com

Having left the UK in 2010 to live in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I created the website liveworkabroad.com to document my experiences running a company remotely. The website interviewed a different remote worker every month and was one of the original websites out there promoting what is now known as the digital nomad lifestyle. 

Owner

CheapHotelChains.co.uk

Cheap Hotel Chains was one of the original hotel deal comparison websites. I used my skills in both web design and SEO to push the website towards the top of the organic Google rankings for a variety of location-specific hotel focused keyword searches.

The H2 Company

Based in the heart of the city of Leeds, The H2 Company was a full-service creative agency.  I was director of the web and digital services offered by the company and worked with a team of eight employees. These services included website design, web and email hosting, internet marketing, SEO, Adwords and Email marketing. We fulfilled web marketing strategies for a range of clients in both B2C and B2B markets including Raddisson SAS, EMI Music, William Hill and Opera North. 

Director

UM Media

UM Media offered website design and hosting for arts, music and literary organisations. Clients included Complete Music, Yorkshire Dance, Red Ladder Theatre and Leeds Markets.

Business Owner

I am a Pay Per Click Marketing and Web Analytics Professional with over 20 years of experience in the online world. I founded Positive Sparks Marketing Ltd, a commission based PPC agency that works with e-commerce brands across the world to generate more sales and optimise their conversion rates. 

My passion is to help businesses grow and scale online via a share of the revenue generated by our PPC campaigns, rather than ongoing fixed fees. I also a past host of the Digital Sparks podcast, where I previously interviewed established voices in web marketing, online productivity, and digital entrepreneurship. I have multiple publications on remote working and digital nomadism and am always looking for new challenges and opportunities to collaborate with like-minded professionals and clients.

Phil Byrne

Most brands are still running “Old Google Ads”

… just inside a new UI.

Old Google Ads was built around keywords.
New Google Ads is built around intent.

The shift most brands miss is…
It’s not about new campaigns, It’s about how you read the data.

Today’s winners:
→ Map structure to buying stages
→ Track profit, not CTR
→ Let Smart Bidding work with your rules, not instead of them

You don’t need 20 campaigns.

You need one system that knows who it’s talking to and what each click is worth.

That’s how you scale profitably, without chasing “cheap clicks” that never convert.

—
Follow Phil Byrne for real-world PPC systems that scale Shopify brands  profitably, not noisily.

li_at

JSESSIONID

Talks about #datafeed, #ppcadvertising, #ecommercegrowth, #googleshoppingads, and #conversionrateoptimization

Commission Based PPC Advertising Pro. Digital Entrepreneur. Founder of Positive Sparks, Digification & The Digital Sparks Podcast

Rahil Ali

Most Google Ads accounts don’t fail because of one big mistake.

They fail because 40 small things are never tested, tracked, or optimised.

Budget rules.
Headlines.
Landing pages.
Quality Score.
Attribution.
Page speed.
Audiences.
Search terms.

Individually, they seem minor.
Collectively, they make or break your profitability.

If you want consistent performance, you need a system that covers all four pillars:
🔹 Campaign optimisation
🔹 Ad optimisation
🔹 Conversion optimisation
🔹 Tracking & analytics

Miss one pillar and the whole thing wobbles.

This cheat sheet breaks down the 40 levers I use to scale e-commerce brands profitably.

Follow Phil Byrne for grounded, practical Google Ads insights.

Most Google Ads pros track 20+ metrics.

But only 7 actually matter.

- CPA (are you profitable?)
- ROAS (revenue per pound spent)
- CTR (ad relevance signal)
- Conversion Rate (landing page strength)
- Quality Score (controls CPC)
- Impression Share (market coverage)
- Search Impression Share (missed opportunities)
- CPC (bidding efficiency)

Everything else is noise.
Track these 7 weekly. 
Make decisions faster. 
Stop wasting time on metrics that don't move profit.

👉 Save this for your next campaign review and Follow Phil Byrne for more insights.

Most brands run Google Ads to increase revenue.

But profitable brands run Google Ads to increase margin.

The difference sounds subtle… but it changes everything, from how you scale, to what you pause, to which “wins” you actually celebrate.

When you look behind the curtain of consistently profitable e-commerce brands, you’ll see the same patterns:
- They validate first.
- They question everything.
- They track true CPA, not the flattering one.

And they scale only when the numbers prove they should.

I’ve put the 12 habits of profit-driven Google Ads brands into one cheat sheet you can use straight away.

Follow Phil Byrne for practical, profit-first PPC strategy.

Agency: We optimize every ad group, scale campaigns, and test audiences for high ROAS.

Client: What's my profit after all costs?
Agency: leaves meeting

This is why we only get paid on profit.
ROAS is a signal. Profit is the outcome.

One looks good in a deck. 
The other shows up in your bank account.

If your agency can't answer the profit question clearly, they're optimizing for the wrong thing.

Everyone loves to talk about traffic.

But traffic without structure is just noise.

What actually drives consistent growth is a funnel that works as one machine.

Here’s how we build it for eCom brands that want results to compound over time:
TOFU → get seen.
MOFU → build trust.
BOFU → turn intent into revenue.

Every layer is designed to do one thing, move the right people closer to the buy button.

Because clicks don’t matter. Conversions do.

If your traffic’s rising but sales aren’t, it’s time to fix the structure, not the spend.

👉 DM me “FUNNEL” and I’ll break down how to rebuild yours for profit, not just clicks.

Most brands try to scale their Shopify ads by spending more.

But… profitable brands scale by wasting less.

If your CPA keeps creeping up, your margins are thinning, or your Performance Max campaigns feel like a black box, the problem usually isn’t budget - it’s structure, tracking, and daily habits.

This framework breaks down exactly how I cut CPA by 30% in four weeks using:
✔ Smarter campaign structure
✔ Tight budget control
✔ Daily 5-minute checks
✔ Weekly search-term discipline
✔ Profit-first scaling rules

It’s the same playbook we use with commission-based clients before we scale any brand.

Comment “SCALING” and I’ll send you the full high-res version.

Follow Phil Byrne for profit-driven Shopify PPC strategies.

Before you spend another pound on ads, run this checklist first.

Most eCommerce brands lose money not because of bad products, but because their PPC systems leak at every stage.

Here’s my 30-point Ecommerce PPC Optimisation Checklist that keeps campaigns efficient, profitable, and scalable:
1️⃣ Landing page speed - slow pages kill conversions.
2️⃣ Mobile experience - ads must look flawless on every screen.
3️⃣ Negative keywords - block wasted clicks early.
4️⃣ Ad-to-page match - promises must align with the landing page.
5️⃣ CTA clarity - tell visitors exactly what action to take.
6️⃣ A/B testing - creative data beats creative opinions.
7️⃣ Dayparting - advertise when buyers actually convert.
8️⃣ Remarketing - 95% won’t buy on first click, bring them back.
9️⃣ Conversion tracking - no data, no optimisation.
🔟 Profit allocation - scale campaigns that protect your margins.

The full list covers 30 essentials that every serious eCommerce advertiser should review weekly.

Run it once, and you’ll catch leaks that agencies miss. 
Run it consistently, and you’ll scale profitably without guesswork.

Comment “CHECKLIST” and I’ll send you the full breakdown.
♻️ Save this post for your next campaign.

Follow Phil Byrne for proven, performance-led PPC systems built around profit, not vanity metrics.

Everyone loves commission-based PPC… until they realize how fast it can burn profit.

Running on commission isn’t about trust, it’s about math.

If you don’t know your client’s true margin, tracking setup, and audit baseline, you’re gambling, not scaling.

That’s why we built a 2-tier system to keep both sides profitable:
Level 1: Profit clarity, tracking, qualification.
Level 2: Attribution logic, scaling rules, retention tiers.

Commission models can be gold or a grenade.

It depends on your framework.

P.s If you’re testing commission-based PPC with Shopify brands, make sure your framework protects profit first.

Follow Phil Byrne for no-fluff PPC systems that actually scale.

Q4 is where brands make their year or lose their margin.

The brands that win don’t just scale spend.

They protect profit, control volatility, and prepare for every spike, surge, and surprise the season throws at them.

From CPC jumps… to stock shortages… to fatigued creatives… to messy attribution…

Most brands only spot the problems after the damage is done.

The strongest Shopify brands run 12 daily controls to keep margins healthy while scaling through the busiest quarter of the year.

👉 If you want to see how your brand can do the same this Q4, DM me... I’ll share actionable strategies for your business.

Follow Phil Byrne for practical, profit-first PPC strategy.

Google’s image quality update from 7 October 2025 is now live.

Google has officially made image quality part of ad performance.

If your visuals are blurry, pixelated, or poorly lit, your campaigns will now be flagged inside the Recommendations tab.

This isn’t a design tweak, it’s a performance rule.
Low-quality images will drag down visibility, CTR, and conversions.

For eCommerce and Shopify brands, this means:
• Google’s AI now reviews every uploaded image for clarity and presentation
• Shopping and Performance Max campaigns will be impacted first
• Stronger visuals can lift click-through and conversion rates immediately

Creative quality is now measurable, and Google’s watching.

The brands that scale will treat imagery as performance infrastructure, not decoration.

Follow Phil Byrne for PPC systems built on profit, data, and creative that performs.

Google’s image quality update from 7 Oct 2025 is now live.

Pretty shocking developments in paid advertising for Shopify brands:

→ Commission-based PPC delivers significantly higher margins compared to retainer models (agencies optimizing for their own revenue, not your profit)

→ Brands tracking true profit metrics see dramatically better outcomes compared to those chasing ROAS (margin-first tracking reveals what actually makes money)

→ Nevertheless, most Shopify brands still pay monthly retainers to agencies with no profit guarantee or skin in the game.

Meanwhile, AI-powered bidding is evolving toward profit-first functionality: Google is testing margin-based signals in Smart Bidding.

Early access programs let advertisers feed product-level profit data directly into bidding algorithms.

TL;DR:
Brands are paying retainers for vanity metrics, while profit-first PPC models prove ROI quietly in the background.

Good campaigns fail every day because budgets move at the wrong time.

Spend in the wrong order → CPA climbs.
Spend with no structure → margin disappears.
Spend too aggressively → scaling collapses.

Your budget isn’t the issue.
How you allocate it over time is.

That’s why the brands that grow predictably follow one pattern:
✔ Protect margin with brand + exact
✔ Build demand with Shopping + competitor coverage
✔ Expand with controlled non-brand testing
✔ Avoid “panic spend” that wrecks efficiency
✔ Maintain a balanced split as they scale

The result…
Stable performance → sustainable scaling → predictable profit.

P.S Curious whether your budget structure is helping or hurting growth?

DM me “BUDGET” and I’ll share the full breakdown.

Follow Phil Byrne for daily Shopify PPC growth insights.

Affiliate traffic is wasted if you're not retargeting it.

Here's why:

Affiliates bring qualified visitors to your site. But most leave without converting.

If you're not pixeling that traffic and feeding it into remarketing campaigns, you're leaving money on the table.

The Smart Funnel fixes this:

    1. Affiliates drive top-of-funnel awareness (no upfront cost)
    2. Remarketing pixels capture every visitor
    3. Tailored PPC ads nurture them through the funnel
    4. You track which affiliates send the best converters and scale

The brands winning right now aren't choosing between affiliate or PPC. They're connecting both into one conversion engine.

Affiliates build awareness. Remarketing closes deals.

👉 Full framework in the carousel. Swipe to see how each step compounds.

The Smart Funnel, How Affiliates Feed your PPC Remarketing

Most Shopify brands waste 30-40% of their PPC budget across 8 fixable areas.

Then blame "budget limits" for slow growth.

Here's how to manage budget limits the right way:
✅ Forecast margins before scaling (not just revenue) 
✅ Prioritize proven winners over testing new ideas 
✅ Build organic and affiliate traffic to reduce PPC load 
✅ Tighten targeting to drop cost per click naturally 
✅ Shift cold spend to warm retargeting during competition 
✅ Pause losers immediately (not "let's give it one more week") 
✅ Plan Q4 budget months ahead, not in November 
✅ Track Quality Score and search term waste weekly

Budget limits aren't the problem. But poor allocation is.

The ones who optimize allocation always outperform those who just ask for more budget.

👉 Which strategy are you missing right now? Comment below.

Don't chase high ROAS if your margins can't support it:

1. High ROAS often means underspending opportunity
2. Most brands optimize for metrics, not profit
3. Celebrating ROAS without margin guarantees you'll plateau broke

Instead: track profit per order, not revenue.

Some of my best accounts came from brands willing to lower ROAS targets strategically.

They obsess over lifetime value and repeat rates in a way most agencies ignore unit economics.

The most profitable brands are built by people brave enough to prioritize margin over vanity metrics.

Most brands don’t need a new ad strategy

…. they need a faster way to fix what’s leaking.

When your Google Ads funnel dies, speed matters.

You’ve got 60 minutes to bring it back to life.
- Find the leak
- Check trust signals
- Fix the first objection point
- Add one quick conversion boost
- Go live and refresh your traffic

Conversion wins don’t come from big redesigns.
They come from small, sharp moves done fast.

Google’s latest PPC Automation update from 9 October 2025

AI-led automation is now changing eCommerce advertising.

This update confirms a major change where automated bidding and real-time optimisation now outperform manual management across Google, Meta and Shopify.

Early data shows:
• Up to 20% higher conversions with smart bidding
• Up to 20% lower cost per conversion
• Better retention from consistently refreshed creative

This isn’t about handing over control, it’s about scaling smarter.

Automation now manages bids, budgets, and creative testing faster and more precisely than any human can.

Your edge lies in guiding the system with clarity and data, not micromanaging every lever.

The brands that adopt this update early will scale profitably. 

The ones that ignore it will pay more for the same results.

Follow Phil Byrne for no-fluff insights on performance marketing systems built around automation, data, and profit discipline.

Google’s latest PPC Automation update from 9 October 2025

Everyone thinks scaling is a budget decision.
“Just increase spending and the numbers will follow.”

But that’s exactly how most brands lose money.

Because real scaling has nothing to do with pushing the budget and everything to do with proving the system won’t break when you do.

Here’s what profitable brands fix before they scale a penny:

1.Profit validation: does margin survive a 20–30% spend increase?
2.Attribution mapping: do the channels agree on where sales are coming from?
3.Creative testing: are we improving click quality, not just CTR?
4.Audience expansion: is there actual headroom, or are you recycling the same buyers?
5.Margin protection: are branded terms and wasted spend under control?
6.Landing page testing: can the site convert colder traffic reliably?

If these six layers aren’t validated, you’re not scaling. You’re taking risks you can’t measure.

Want me to show you which layer your account is stuck on?
DM me “SCALE” and I’ll walk you through it.

Google Ads just fixed one of its biggest problems and it’s good news for e-commerce brands.

Google has rebuilt major parts of its policy system using Gemini, tightened review workflows, and upgraded how suspensions are checked.

The results are genuinely impressive:
✅ Wrong suspensions down 80%
✅ Appeals processed 70% faster
✅ 99% resolved within 24 hours

If you’ve ever had a profitable campaign frozen for no clear reason… you know how painful those delays were.

For brands running £5k–£50k/day through Google Ads, a single wrongful suspension could mean:
- Lost sales
- Broken momentum
- Wasted budgeting cycles
- And a complete reset of learning data

This update reduces that risk massively.

A few implications for Shopify brands:
1️⃣ Scaling is safer: fewer random account freezes during momentum.
2️⃣ New campaigns recover faster: you’re not stuck waiting days for reinstatement.
3️⃣ PMax becomes more reliable: fewer false positives from automated systems.
4️⃣ Q4/Q1 volatility drops: historically the worst time for wrongful suspensions.

Google’s enforcement still isn’t perfect… but this is the biggest quality-of-life upgrade advertisers have had in years.

If you’ve been holding back spend because of “Google suspension PTSD,” this might be the turning point.

taplio