You're running 1 Google ad.
ThoughtWorks is running ~2,000.
Nick — hedgehog lab barely shows up on paid search for the terms buyers use to find a build partner, while ThoughtWorks runs an always-on testing machine. Here's the gap.
Your reputation is strong. Your paid presence isn't.
hedgehog lab is a well-regarded global digital product consultancy with real organic pull. But on paid search — where buyers actively look for a software development partner — you're effectively absent. One generic text ad, zero paid visits. That's not a brand problem. It's a presence problem.
You have the reputation. Paid is the demand you're not yet capturing.
The gap is presence, not talent.
hedgehog lab does excellent work. But next to ThoughtWorks' paid program, you're not on the field — a single ad against a continuously-tested machine.
hedgehog lab is running a single generic search ad and pulling zero paid visits. ThoughtWorks runs ~2,000 creatives and 1,432 paid visits a month — on the exact terms buyers use to find a build partner. "custom software development" and "software development partner". You're not in the auction at all.
This isn't about budget. It's about showing up.
The category isn't uniformly aggressive on paid — but the leader is relentless, and even boutique peers are testing more than you.
Even a boutique peer like ustwo is testing more paid creative than hedgehog lab. Right now you're the smallest paid presence in your own category.
What ThoughtWorks is actually running.
A snapshot from the Google Ads Transparency Center — ThoughtWorks' live creatives, spanning several themes at once and running continuously.
- Several campaign themes running at once — retail AI, data ROI, and team productivity — never a single message.
- Bold, benefit-led display creative: "Build retail's AI foundation", "Stop wasting data ROI — 4x faster decisions", "20% higher satisfaction. AI that works."
- The same concept shipped in multiple colour and layout variants — A/B testing at scale.
- Roughly 3,000 lifetime / ~2,000 recent creatives cycling across search, display and YouTube — always on.
ThoughtWorks cycles through ~2,000 distinct creatives across multiple themes and formats. hedgehog lab is running one generic text ad.
That's the difference between compounding in the auction every day and being invisible on the terms your buyers search.
You don't run paid today. Here's why it's worth starting.
Not running paid isn't a mistake — plenty of strong consultancies coast on referrals and reputation. But there's live, high-intent demand in your category every month, and right now your competitors capture all of it. Here's a conservative view of what a focused program could return.
Paid-search visits ThoughtWorks captures on these terms today (observable demand)
Qualified visits a focused hedgehog lab campaign could realistically capture
Qualified leads, at a 2–4% B2B enquiry rate
Qualified leads across a 90-day sprint
Illustrative, based on observable category demand and typical B2B conversion rates — not a guarantee. We pressure-test these against your real numbers, deal size and close rate on the call.
How you'd win — without matching ThoughtWorks' budget
You don't need ThoughtWorks' volume. Target bottom-funnel, high-intent terms where buyers are actively choosing a build partner — not broad awareness display. Relevance beats budget on the terms that convert.
Bid on the exact terms ThoughtWorks and ustwo rely on, with sharper, outcome-led creative — hedgehog lab's product and mobile specialism and named case studies front and centre.
Launch 15–20 creative variations instead of one, and iterate weekly. The exact gap that's costing you today is the cheapest one to close.
This is the pipeline you're currently handing to ThoughtWorks. The call is where we turn it into your plan.
30 minutes. Your live account. A clear plan to lift ROAS.
No slide-deck pitch. You give us view-only access to your Google Ads, and we walk it with you, pointing at real campaigns, real keywords, real creative, and show you exactly where we'd move budget to lift ROAS.
Google Ads (and LinkedIn Ads if relevant), read-only. Nothing changes in your account. Takes 2 minutes.
Screen-share, 30 minutes. We open your campaigns, ad groups and creatives alongside the competitive data in this report.
Where the wasted spend is, the keyword gaps vs ThoughtWorks, the creative angles you're not testing, and the sequence we'd tackle them in, yours to keep, execute in-house or with us.
What this looks like in practice
"We enjoy a productive partnership with Prime Marketing. We started with LinkedIn Ads and later moved our Google Ads to them as well. Since then we've seen clear improvements in our results."
"Prime built the ABM and LinkedIn layer that actually moved machines. The lead quality and the sales conversations shifted almost immediately."
"A stable, predictable lead flow every single month. Prime treats our paid channels like a growth engine, not a media buy."
30-minute working session with Papillon. View-only. Actionable.
Want the full picture, Nick?
This report uses only public data. Give us 30 minutes and viewer access, and we'll show you exactly where the budget's going and how to close the gap on ThoughtWorks, backed by our 90-Day Paid Pipeline Sprint guarantee.