Your Next Client is Literally Searching for You, But You’re Invisible - With Jeremy Estey

88% of buyers start on Google, but if your firm isn’t showing up, you don’t exist.⚠️

 Referrals won’t scale. SEO alone won’t save you. And “trying out” paid ads without a strategy? That’s just burning cash.

In this episode of CFO Chronicles, we’re joined by Jeremy Estey of Amber Sky Marketing, a Google Ads strategist helping firms across North America get seen, clicked, and hired. We unpack the hard truths firms need to hear in 2025, including:

• Why Google Ads now outperform SEO by default
• How to spend just $500 and actually get real insights
• The search terms your next CFO client is already typing
• Why vague, generalist messaging is killing your ROI
• What AI-powered search means for your visibility (and what to do now)

If you’ve ever said, “We tried ads and they didn’t work,” this episode will show you exactly why, and how to fix it.

 Listen now or get left behind.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Jeremy Esty
• 0:46 Google Ads vs Search Engine Optimization
• 4:58 Budget Strategy for New Firms
• 11:31 Hiring Experts vs DIY Marketing
• 15:16 AI's Impact on Marketing Strategy
• 23:03 Finding the Right Keywords
• 25:33 Best Business Advice: Stay the Course

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back to another episode of CFO Chronicles. We have an amazing guest joining us today from Amber Sky Marketing, jeremy Esty. Jeremy and I get into all of the strategy around local search when it comes to Google for accounting firms, national search, how to use Google Ads, ppc, what to target, how to think about the key phrases you wanna use to get in front of your ideal client, and where to start when it comes to a marketing budget. As always, hope you enjoy the episode and let us know your thoughts. Tell me a little bit about kind of where you guys are coming in and how you help your clients with Google ads, Because it's my understanding that the PPC pay-per-click is a big piece of your strategy to get your clients the results they're looking for. Or am I getting that wrong?

Speaker 2: 0:46

Yeah, wrong, yeah, no, we definitely have a ppc component, google ads component. We're also doing search engine optimization. I can definitely speak to both um where google's headed right now. Um, obviously they're putting a lot of weight on on their search ads and just their ads in general, because that's where the bulk of their revenue is coming from, so they're obviously making those a priority. The good thing about google ads, and kind of why I really like them, is because they are super intent based right, as opposed to you know facebook ads, which are still great for you know specific purposes, more of like a branding play.

Speaker 2: 1:28

Whereas you know, if you're on facebook, you're not necessarily looking for services. You're just on there seeing what's going on. You're scrolling and if you come across you know an ad that might be relevant to you and it, you know, entices you to click, you'll click and you'll get more information. Whereas you know google, know Google ads, for example, um, if I am an accounting firm, let's just say or I guess maybe let's, let's use it from you know, an accounting firm client. If I'm looking for an accounting firm, um, I'm going to Google, cause, I mean, that's where most people are starting their searches and, for the most part people who are, you know, doing searches on Google. They have a pretty high intent to buy, or at least they're in, you know, that part of the buying stage where they're actively trying to get more information. So you know they're going to type in, you know essentially what they're looking to do, do and if it's super like high intent that they want to, you know they want to build a new accounting relationship. They're going to type in best accountant near me, or you know who can help me with my cash flow issues as a small business owner, right?

Speaker 2: 2:39

So you know, using those types of keywords, that's really where you know PPC in this case, which stands for pay-per-click Google search ads, really, really make sense, because the moment you essentially pay for Google ads, you're getting, you know, one of the top space, whereas if you look at it from a search engine optimization standpoint, you know Google has, you know, started to push the organic rankings down, and so you know it's not as front and center as it used to be.

Speaker 2: 3:17

Whereas you know Google ads oh, ok, this accounting firm is coming up, they're right in front of me and I really don't have to do any scrolling. So that's why they are super effective, you know, for driving new business, driving new conversations and essentially how they work, is. It's similar to search engine optimization, where you're analyzing keywords, trying to understand what keywords are going to make the most sense based on your specific client, and you know the challenges they're trying to solve, and I think that's another piece that we can talk about later. But being able to position your firm, understand who your clients are, what problems are you solving and then building out your marketing strategy based on that, and then that's where you can get really, really refined with with your google ads and and just who you're trying to target I love what you're saying about the intent level.

Speaker 1: 4:12

It's so true. A lot of people at the event were asking me you know, oh, hey, I'm. Or telling me, hey, I, I I'm listed here on angie's list or I'm doing that. Okay, great, how? How often are you going to angie's list to look for a service like you're not doing that, you're going to google. So hang out where your potential clients are going to be, where they're surging. Um, when it comes to firms getting started, or maybe people have relied on referrals their entire life and that's been all well and great. They've, they've plucked all the low-hanging fruit. What is that? What do you tell a new firm who's maybe getting into paid ads? What can they expect? What's a recommended budget? How quick do they spend that budget? Paid ads can be scary for a lot of firms, right? Maybe they've been burned in the past, maybe they've just never done paid ads. What's your recommendation to a firm who's either thinking about paid ads or okay, I'm ready to do something, but how much do I spend?

Speaker 2: 5:11

Yeah, and I think it all starts with kind of what I was talking about just a little earlier there in regards to who are your clients, who are you trying to attract? What problems do they have that you're trying to solve? Because I think a lot of generalist type firms or just you know businesses in general who just don't really understand or at least don't have their ideal client nailed down yet, go into like a marketing strategy like Facebook ads or Google ads, for example, which is like very generic type of messaging or looking at very generic keywords generic type of messaging or looking at very generic keywords and so I would say the first thing to do is you know really like who are you targeting? When you understand that, understand what their problems are, how are they like searching online and you know, tap into that messaging and tap into, you know, that language that they're using. Right, because when you can highlight a specific problem that they're having, that you solve, that is going to amplify. You know your ads Right, because you're speaking directly to a problem that they're probably like typing in Google to solve Right as opposed to having a generic message. Typing in Google to solve right as opposed to having a generic message.

Speaker 2: 6:30

You know everyone sorry, shouldn't say everyone, but there's a lot of firms out there who are just generalists and they just have a general message which really doesn't really speak to anybody. They're just offering the same services as you know the firm down the street. So I would say that's the first piece to it is just really dial in who you're trying to target. Dial is just really dial in who you're trying to target, dial in what problems are you solving, and then let that lead your strategy. And then, in regards to getting started, I mean, I'm obviously going to come from the approach of getting a professional to start it and to let a professional or an agency look after those Google ads. However, if you do want to do it yourself, I do recommend it as well. It's definitely a good skill to have, it's good knowledge to have as well.

Speaker 2: 7:14

And just you know, in regards to different types of marketing, that you can do. But if you're starting out, essentially it's you know you don't want to spend a whole lot. You want to, like you know, put a little bit on the table, just see how things work, test out different messages on the table, just see how things work, test out different messages and then kind of see what clicks and then if you've found a message or you know um, have found maybe some keywords that are converting, then look at scaling up, um, you know, as to I would say, like a good number to start out with $500. Okay, just just to kind of give you, like you know, a base. You know that'll give you a little bit of traffic, hopefully if your messaging is, you know, resonating with them.

Speaker 2: 8:00

That being said, google ads, you know it is starting to get a little bit more expensive because there's just a lot more bidding going on and it's essentially just, you know, the demand of it that they're able, you know, to increase those. But it all really depends too on, like, where are you trying to target. So, you know, start with, like you know, I guess, a number that that's comfortable to you, but also that isn't like a whole lot where you know, if the first campaign that you start doesn't really generate anything, you're not like stressing out because you wasted all that money and so if you are just starting out, obviously it's just like any new skill, you know, you just have to get your feet wet and I don't want to say dabble in it but, like you know, just really test what works, how actually works, how the platform's going to perform for you and how to structure those ads for results.

Speaker 1: 8:54

Yeah, cool. I mean, what I'm hearing as well is something that's probably really important to add on there to what you just shared. $500 in New York City or in Manhattan for testing is going to be wildly different from $500, say, in the Midwest, somewhere in a more you know, not as populated area. The other thing that I've always kind of encouraged clients to think about is who are they trying to bring on and for what service, and be willing to spend, basically break even on acquiring a new client. I think there's too many firms who they try to get into marketing or they try to run some marketing on their own. I'm sure you've seen this where it's like, hey, I got $500 and I want that $10,000 a month CFO client. That's great, it's awesome to have wishes, but that's not the way the world works. So at least that's how we've always run our ads, knowing, okay, we're going to bring on a client for 3k a month. Well, we have to be ready to put our money where our mouth is and spend three grand at least in the first month to acquire that client, and then we can always refine and make it extremely more profitable. So a lot of good points in there, and the other piece I'll add on and if you have some some to add to it is the piece about hiring an expert.

Speaker 1: 10:17

I think that's oftentimes a little bit overlooked when it comes to marketing. It's a really good skill to have as a business owner, you said. But if you put yourself in the shoes of the business owner coming to you for, say, tax planning advice, well, what are you going to tell that person? Hey, you can go out and do it on your own. You might get okay results, but I can almost guarantee you it's going to be way better if you just work with me as the professional. So that's always kind of a narrative. I try to lean in with clients as well. Marketing is great. It's great to know how to save on your own taxes, but oftentimes you get a significantly higher ROI by choosing to work with a professional. I'm not sure if you have anything else to add to that, but a lot of points that you said just kind of they were stirring up those ideas for me. I just wanted to add.

Speaker 2: 11:02

Yeah, yeah, no, totally. I think you bring up a good point and, yes, you're absolutely right. Sure, you can play around with Google ads, you can learn how to do SEO yourself, and I recommend it just to you know, give yourself context and just an understanding of how it works. But, at the end of the day, like you know these agencies and you know these pros, they've been doing it for years upon years, right, and so they know it works, they know how to structure stuff properly, and so you know they're going to be able to get you faster results than you. Just you know testing and going through trial and error. And it's no different than if I came to my accountant and be like and was like, I don't understand. You know these financials. Um, this is what I want to do. Can you help me understand this and help me put a plan into place so that I'm able to, you know, solve this financial challenge or whatever? That is right. They're the experts. They studied all that stuff.

Speaker 2: 12:03

As a business owner, you know my top priorities. I don't know yours are, but it's essentially what are the levers that are going to drive more revenue to the business? So those are, you know, the top priorities for myself and so any you know the time spent outside of that is essentially you know not where I want to be Right, and so you know it's essentially, you know, paying for somebody's time so that you can free yourself up, manage your business, manage your clients, create the best client experience as possible. So that's just my take on going down the expert route and really hiring somebody who is able to speed that up.

Speaker 1: 12:44

Yeah, you're going to pay with time or you're going to pay with money, and I think it's just asking yourself, probably at the current position in what do you have more of? Do you have more time to try to learn it yourself, or do you have more money to just have an expert come in and and get you the result probably 10 X faster? So some really good stuff there, jeremy. What? What's your thoughts on kind of the direction where AI is going, or even with Google, like they just had the release the other day of the new video AI with Google? How are you looking at this as far as strategy goes for your clients? How are you thinking about either using that for clients? How are you consulting them on how to use it? Do you have some thoughts on that? Because when I'm seeing these videos now, it's insane what AI is producing. It's quite scary actually.

Speaker 2: 13:34

So obviously there's really good ways to use it and, from a marketing perspective, I'd love to hear your thoughts on, either for the client or just in general, your thoughts on how you can use it to grow your business totally, and I think that's, uh, you know, the million dollar question right now, because technology and with ai coming to the forefront, and just a lot of disruption going on within the marketing space actually not even just the marketing space, but, like in all industries, people are kind of running around like where's's everything going? I don't know it's. You know, technology's evolving so fast I don't know how to keep up with it all. But if we look at Google specifically and we look at let's just look at Google search as it pertains to search engine optimization, obviously search engine optimization is changing because of AI. Obviously search engine optimization is changing because of AI and then, with AI overviews and other stuff that Google is implementing, the organic search rankings are getting pushed down. That said, if you look at it from a local SEO standpoint, local SEO is still very, very relevant, in fact it's. You know, if you're a local business and you don't have a business profile, a Google business profile set up, and you know you're not looking at or even considering doing local search engine optimization, I think you are leaving yourself behind the eight ball, because there's so much opportunity that still lies in Google search.

Speaker 2: 15:06

That being said, if you look at it from a more macro level. You know, doing SEO nationally there's, you know, obviously it's a little harder and you're going to have huge corporations, you know, with the resources to outspend you to get those number one leads. That said, I'm not saying it doesn't work, but you really have to get strategic in how you're looking at your keywords and which keywords you are targeting. But, that said, ai is definitely changing the way that we do marketing. I talk about Google Watch just because they obviously are the big players in the search space. I was reading the latest figures. Watch is because they obviously are the big players in the search space. I think the I was reading the latest figures they've actually dropped just a little bit, but very slightly. I think they've dropped their market share by like three percent. So there's somewhere like 85 87 percent of of the entire search market right.

Speaker 2: 16:02

It's still massive, huge there's going to be some changes, I think, coming down, because google had, essentially, is going through this antitrust um stuff right now with the us government, and so no one's really too sure what's going to happen. There's been talks about google having to maybe piece some of its business off, um, and just changing the way they do things. That said, you know, I think this is going to present some opportunities for other search engines like bing, yahoo. If you look at it from like more of a privacy focused search engine like duck, duck, go or brave, for example, I think there's going to be opportunities there, because a lot of people haven't truly tapped in to those um, uh, those search engines as much. And then also, too, if you look at it from generative AI search like Perplexity, even ChatGPT or any of the LLMs that are out there. That's where a lot of people are flocking to as well for information. So it's not just about getting yourself visible on Google, but it's how can you get yourself visible across the whole like online space, really right, and so you know that's with video, that's with social. Obviously you know having really high quality content as a part of that. So when somebody searches, whether it's on Google or Bing or even Perplexity, because you have your stuff really optimized for that. You can be found on more places than just Google alone. So I think that's where things are going.

Speaker 2: 17:40

But, like I said, ai is really disrupting a lot of things and it's really accelerating where things are headed. And I think you know, when you think, okay, ai is here right now, you start putting a plan into place based on where AI is at. Then, literally like a few months later, ai is, you know, evolved even more, so now you got to adjust your strategy. So I think there's a lot of like tweaking and tinkering and kind of going back and forth right now trying to figure out what that all looks like. So a lot of testing and refining. But at the end of the day, I really think you know, going back to just like the fundamentals of marketing and positioning yourself is really what's going to, you know, have the biggest impact. So, like you know, focusing on a very specific client, figuring out how you can solve those problems, and then just putting your messaging out into the world on how you solve those problems, and I think that part will never change and that part's always going to be relevant.

Speaker 1: 19:50

Okay, two questions for you here before we wrap up. One you mentioned a couple times testing out different keywords, different key phrases, thinking about what is my, what is my end client typing in, to potentially find me kind of like reverse engineering it. What, what strategies do you have for someone who wanted to go do that on their own as a starting point, like how, how do they know what people might be searching? I know there's a couple different resources out there. I want to hear your answer. But for someone to get started, they're like okay, jeremy said I got to use some keywords and test it out, but like what? What keywords should people be using? What should they think about? Where could they potentially find some of the answers?

Speaker 2: 20:32

Yeah, and so I think that's a good question. I mean, obviously you can go, you know, use AI like chat, gpt, and just get like a broad understanding of kind of right, you can still use that for your local search. But refine it into like, how would your clients, you know, based on their business and like what they're trying to do, how would they use search and put yourself into your client's shoes if you were looking for your services? How would you type that into google, right? Um, like, if let's just use cash flow management, for example, like instead of like, oh, um, who's the best for cash flow management? Um, you know, sure that probably gonna work, that you can probably rank for that.

Speaker 2: 21:30

But if you refine it to like, you know, I'm a small business with cash flow issues, who can I get to help me solve this? So, thinking about it, how would you talk to somebody and using that phrasing? And now with AI search, I don't know about you, but if I'm on perplexity or even just chat, gpt, for example, and I'm trying to ask a question, I'm asking a question like I'm just talking to my best friend and I'm not like being general or like find me information on this, but it's just like if I was in this situation, how would I you know, how could I solve this problem based on my resources and what I have? So really start to focus on more of a conversational approach to it. Using keywords and like more long tail keywords is really kind of where you're probably going to get the most bang for your buck, so to speak. I hope I answered that. I felt like it was a little bit kind of scattered there.

Speaker 1: 22:33

No, I think it's good. Sorry, go ahead. I didn't mean to cut you off there.

Speaker 2: 22:37

Yeah, no, I was just going to say just focus on like more conversational type of you know phrases people would use. And there's also like a number of different tools that you can use, like like to help you with your keyword research. You know, there's like SEM rush, there's Uber Suggest, there's also Ahrefs. I mean, if you Google SEO tools or keyword research tools, you'll get pages upon pages of them. But essentially what those help you do is like, if you put in a very specific keyword, it'll tell you one how difficult it would be to rank for that keyword, how many you know what's the search volume for that. But then it also provides you other like keywords that are relevant to that that you know may not have a lot of competition, that you can start ranking for and getting more results based on that. So I would definitely recommend, you know, looking at using an SEO tool or even like a keyword research tool.

Speaker 1: 23:40

Nice, yeah, I think that was that's really good, because then I mean you jump in, even kind of blending. You're saying jump in a chat, gbt, hey, what are the best SEO tools to help me find what I'm looking for? You kind of reverse engineer it or think all right, even if I was looking for a plumber or whatever it is, what am I typing in? Then just replace the niche with yours I mean, that could totally potentially also work.

Speaker 1: 24:03

So great, great stuff there. Last question for you, jeremy um, I've been asking this to a lot of guests as of late. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?

Speaker 2: 24:13

best piece of advice I've ever received. You're putting me on the spot here.

Speaker 2: 24:17

I've received a lot of take your time you know good pieces of advice, but, um, one that comes to mind. I'm gonna have to think about this. Hopefully you can edit out the time gap here for me to think but, um, the best piece of advice I've ever received. Maybe it's coming from like being a business owner in general, but it's like business is the battle of attrition. Right, because a lot of people have these great ideas. They start implementing it. They think because they have a business, you know business is going to automatically flow to them.

Speaker 2: 24:56

Then they realize that you know building a business takes time. You need to be patient, and that you know if you're not making, you know, millions of dollars within the first six months of starting your business. You know a lot of people quit where. It's just like understanding that it's a battle of attrition and the longer you stay at it, just like anything you know, the more people will drop off. That clears the way for less competition. I think you know it just goes back just to anything in general. You know if you want something bad enough, you'll be motivated within and you know you just have to stay the course. I think that's the biggest thing.

Speaker 1: 25:31

I love it. Just keep pushing, just keep going.

Speaker 2: 25:34

Yeah, no matter how hard things get, just keep pushing, Because you know it is really hard. You know, being a business owner, I'm sure you can relate as all the other business owners out there. But there's days where you just feel like you're putting in so much effort, Nothing's happening and you get deflated and you know, then all of a sudden you get a really big win and you're kind of back at like, yeah, this is amazing, this is awesome again, and then you have a little lull. So it's like a whole bunch of ebbs and flows. Stay the course, just stay positive, just commit to what you're doing and you know things usually work out as they should.

Speaker 1: 26:07

Ladies and gentlemen, jeremy Esty from Amber Sky Marketing, thank you so much, jeremy, honestly, for coming on sharing your time. It was an absolute pleasure meeting you in utah. I hope we get to see each other again an event real soon or something that's going on, because I know we're on the other sides of the country right now. Um, how can people get in touch with you if they want to continue the conversation? What's the best way to reach out to you?

Speaker 2: 26:30

yeah, you can find me on linkedin. I'm super active on linkedin, um. I'm posting every day, if not twice a day sometimes. You can also just send me an email. Hello at amberskymarketingcom. I'm checking my emails daily, so you can reach out to me that way as well.

Speaker 1: 26:49

Cool, I'll make sure those get put in the show notes for you, jeremy. Again, thank you so much for coming on. Ton of value. I highly recommend everyone get in touch with you. You have so much to share. When it comes to PPC and just the strategy behind Google and local search. Um yeah, amazing conversation. Thanks again.

Speaker 2: 27:08

Hey, thanks for having me on, james. Looking forward to listening to your future episodes.