How can I see which companies advertise on Google?

Search the keyword yourself in the place you care about and note the sponsored results, or use Google's Ads Transparency Center, which lets anyone search by advertiser or website name and filter by region and date.

Why are Google advertisers good leads?

Because they are already spending money to win customers, so a tool or service that improves the return on that spend has an obvious budget line. It is a budget signal, not proof of a problem.

Who should I contact at an advertiser?

At a small company, the owner. At a larger one, the head of marketing or growth, or the agency running the account if there is one. The ad itself often hints at which.

Does Google show how much a company spends on ads?

No. The Ads Transparency Center shows the ads, where they ran and when they last ran, not the budget.

Google advertisers: finding companies that already spend on growth

The logic: follow the money that is already moving

Most lead sources tell you someone might have a problem. An ad tells you something different and just as useful: this company is already spending money to grow, on this keyword, in this place, this week. Budget exists, a decision-maker approved it, and someone is watching whether it pays.

That is a strong opening for a specific set of sellers:

Marketing agencies (PPC, SEO, conversion, landing pages): their ads could perform better or cost less.
Call handling, answering and booking tools: paid clicks are wasted if the phone rings out.
Website and landing page builders: the ad sends traffic to the page you would rebuild.
Review and reputation tools: ads next to a weak star rating convert worse.
CRM and lead management: paid leads need tracking to the sale.

If you sell something unrelated to marketing or customer acquisition, the ad is still a weak budget signal (the company is investing), but less directly connected to your pitch.

Who you find, and who you do not

Advertisers by keyword and place surface local service businesses (solicitors, dentists, plumbers, removals, clinics), regional firms, ecommerce shops, software companies and national brands. You will not find companies that grow by referral, by sales teams or by organic search alone, which includes many good businesses with no paid search at all.

What the signal looks like

The signal is the ad and its context. Things worth noting for each advertiser:

What you see	What it suggests
Ad for a high-cost keyword ("emergency plumber Leeds")	Real spend per click; return matters
Ad points to the home page, not a matching landing page	Room to improve conversion
Ad mentions "call now" but the site has no click-to-call	Lost calls
Weak or missing star rating next to the listing	Reputation hurting clicks
Same advertiser on many keywords and towns	Larger budget, likely an agency involved
Ads stopped recently (visible in transparency data)	Tried and stopped; may have been disappointed

How to do it by hand

Write the keywords your buyers' customers search: "[trade] near me", "[service] [town]", "[product category] software".
Search each one in the target place. Use a location setting or a search from that area; ads differ by place.
Record each sponsored result: company, domain, ad text, landing page.
Check the Ads Transparency Center for each advertiser. Google describes it as a searchable record of advertisers and the ads they have served, where you can search by advertiser or website name and filter by region and date. Verified advertisers show their legal name and location as given in verification.
Open the landing page and note one concrete improvement you could make or problem you could solve.
Find the decision-maker: owner, marketing lead or agency. A small firm's site often names the owner; a larger one's leadership page or LinkedIn tells you who runs marketing.
Write with the observation, not a general pitch: "Your ad for 'boiler repair Leeds' lands on your home page, which does not mention boilers above the fold."

Expect about ten minutes per advertiser for a useful note and a named contact.

What you can and cannot learn

You can learn: which companies bid on a keyword in a place, their ad copy, landing page, and from the transparency centre, other ads they have run, where, and when they last ran. For verified advertisers, their legal name and location.

You cannot learn: their budget, cost per click, conversion rate, or whether the campaign is profitable. Ads vary by time of day, device and searcher, so one search shows a sample, not the full set.

Etiquette and rules

Viewing ads and the transparency centre is what they are for. Two practical rules:

Do not click competitors' or prospects' ads repeatedly to research them. It costs them money and reads as invalid clicks.
Do not imply you work with Google or have special data about their account. You saw a public ad.

If you are writing to UK sole traders (many local advertisers are), note that the UK regulator treats them as individuals for marketing email; the local business listings page explains.

Why it fails

Agency-managed accounts. If an agency runs the ads, the owner may refer you to them, and the agency is your competitor.
Wrong keyword choice. Cheap, broad keywords bring in hobby advertisers and national chains you cannot sell to.
Generic outreach. "I can improve your Google ads" is the most common cold email a small business gets. A specific observation about their landing page is not.
One search. Ads rotate. Search more than once, at different times.

How Sluice does it

In Sluice you name a keyword and a place, and it returns the companies advertising there. "People there" turns any of those companies into a directory search for the people who decide, by title and seniority. Directory previews are free; only people who score 70 or more against your customer profile are revealed (full name, LinkedIn, employer and usually a verified work email) at 5 cents each. Every pass shows its worst-case price before it runs.

The honest limits: Sluice tells you a company advertises, not how much it spends or how well it is going. For very small local advertisers, the directory may hold nobody, and the owner is easier to reach through the business listing itself; see local business listings. For the other budget signal, see companies hiring, and what a lead actually costs for the arithmetic.