A Birmingham accountancy practice was spending £2,400 per month on Google Ads with a 12% conversion rate on their contact form.

The traffic was arriving. The clicks were real. But the landing page was a services list with a generic contact form at the bottom. No social proof, no pricing guidance, no clear next step. Visitors arrived, read nothing, and left.

After a landing page redesign built around the specific questions people have before choosing an accountant, and a complete rewrite of the ad copy to match the new page, conversion rate climbed from 12% to 31%. The budget did not change. The number of leads nearly tripled.

Conversion rate from 12% to 31%. Same ad spend. 2.6x more leads per month.
40%
Birmingham's population under 25 the UK's most digitally native major city
Birmingham City Council 2024
£24bn
Greater Birmingham's annual GVA
West Midlands Combined Authority 2024
2.6x
More leads from the same Google Ads budget after landing page optimisation
Asquare AI client data
Plain English

What social media advertising actually is, explained simply

Word of mouth used to be the most powerful marketing in the world. One happy customer would tell three friends. Social media advertising is word of mouth at scale: except instead of telling three friends, one piece of well-placed content can reach three thousand people who look just like your best customers. The catch is that you have to earn the right to be there. Nobody forwards an advert. They share something that taught them something, made them laugh, or made them think. The skill is making content that does one of those things AND sells.

Permission marketing is the privilege of delivering anticipated, personal, and relevant messages to people who actually want to receive them.

Seth Godin
Permission Marketing (1999)
Godin's insight, written before social media existed, predicted exactly how it would work. Interrupting people with irrelevant ads builds resentment. Earning permission by being genuinely useful, entertaining, or interesting builds the kind of audience that actually buys. The brands winning on social media in 2024 have permission. The ones losing are still interrupting.
NEWS
40% of Birmingham's population is under 25 the UK's most digitally native major city. Birmingham is the UK's youngest major city: 40% of the population is under 25. Digital-native buyers are reshaping every sector, from professional services to retail.
Source: Birmingham City Council Economic Review 2024
The social media reach funnel
How audiences move from unaware to customer
Awareness reached by content
Consideration engaged with post or ad
Intent visited your website
Conversion contacted or purchased

Retargeting is the mechanism that moves people from Consideration to Conversion. It shows ads to people who already know you, at the moment they are closest to deciding.

Why Birmingham businesses are investing in social media advertising now

40%
Birmingham's population under 25 the UK's most digitally native major city
Birmingham City Council 2024
£24bn
Greater Birmingham's annual GVA
West Midlands Combined Authority 2024
2.6x
More leads from the same Google Ads budget after landing page optimisation
Asquare AI client data

Birmingham is undergoing the most significant regeneration of any UK city. HS2, the Big City Plan, and Smithfield are reshaping the city centre. For businesses, this means a rapidly growing customer base, increasing competition, and a consumer market that skews younger and more mobile-first than anywhere else in the UK.

Industries we serve in Birmingham

Manufacturing and automotive supply chain Retail and wholesale trade Financial and professional services (HSBC, Deutsche Bank) Hospitality and leisure (NEC, arena events)

Social Media Advertising services
for Birmingham businesses

Paid social campaigns that target the right audience with creative that stops the scroll. Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn advertising managed end-to-end.

Audience strategy and targeting

Audiences built from your actual customer data: demographics, interests, lookalikes from your best customers, and retargeting lists of people who have already visited your site. We target people likely to buy, not just people who loosely fit a category.

Creative development

Ad creative that earns attention. Images, carousels, and short-form video scripts. We brief, produce, and test multiple variations. Most accounts run one creative for months without testing. We test systematically to find what actually converts.

Meta advertising (Facebook and Instagram)

Full Meta campaign management across feed, Stories, Reels, and Messenger. Every placement and bidding decision is made against your actual conversion data, not default settings.

LinkedIn advertising

LinkedIn lets you target by job title, seniority, company size, and industry. Higher cost per click than Meta, but for B2B businesses with high-value clients, the lead quality is in a different category. We manage the full setup and optimisation.

Retargeting campaigns

Ads shown to people who have already visited your site or engaged with your content. Retargeting consistently delivers the highest ROAS of any paid social format because the audience already knows who you are.

Performance reporting

Cost per result, ROAS, reach, and frequency reported monthly with analysis of what is working and what we are changing. We do not dress up weak results with impressive-looking reach numbers.

Questions from Birmingham businesses

Is Facebook advertising still effective in 2024?
Yes, for the right business types and with the right creative. The mistake most businesses make is treating Facebook ads like print ads: a static image with a logo and a phone number. The ads that work in 2024 look like content, not ads. We build creative that fits the feed, not creative that interrupts it.
Should we use Meta or LinkedIn for B2B advertising?
It depends on who you are trying to reach. LinkedIn gives you more precise job title and company targeting, which is valuable for reaching specific decision-makers. Meta has far larger reach and lower CPCs, which works for B2B businesses with a broad target audience. Most B2B businesses benefit from both, used for different objectives.
How much of our budget goes to Asquare AI versus to the platforms?
We charge a management fee for running your campaigns. Your ad spend goes directly to Meta or Google. We will explain the split clearly in our proposal. Our management fees are structured to scale with what you are spending, so they represent a smaller percentage as budgets grow.
Is Birmingham's digital marketing landscape very competitive?
Growing rapidly. Major regeneration is attracting national businesses and raising the bar for digital visibility. The businesses investing in digital now are building advantages that will be far more expensive to replicate in three years.
Do you work with Birmingham's manufacturing sector?
Yes. B2B manufacturing is one of Birmingham's strongest sectors. We run targeted Google Ads and SEO campaigns for manufacturers, distributors, and automotive supply chain businesses.

Ready to grow your Birmingham business?

Get a free social media advertising audit for your Birmingham business. We will identify your biggest opportunities and tell you exactly what we would do first.