Google Ads is a bidding war, just not the one most owners picture. The highest bidder doesn't win. Google ranks you on your bid multiplied by your quality score, and quality score comes from click through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience. A shop bidding $12 a click with a tight setup outranks a shop bidding $25 pointing at a homepage
So the goal isn't outspending anybody. It's making the auction cheaper for you than it is for the guy across town and heres how you do it
Kill broad match. Broad match hands Google the decision on when you show up, and it will spend your money on "AC installation jobs," "HVAC certification," "window unit install," and your competitor's name. Phrase and exact only!! You're not casting a wide net, you're catching the fish already swimming toward the boat
But know what you're buying. "Exact match" matches meaning NOW, not the literal string. Phrase match lost its strict word order rules back in 2021. Neither one is bullet proof. So pull your search terms report every week and turn the junk into negatives. Your negative keyword list (the thing that tells google you don't want to be seen for certain words) is a huge part of what will make you money
Being vigilant on the junk keywords is how your money will compound. Every junk query you cut lifts your click through rate and your ad relevance. That lifts your quality score. That drops what you pay per click. Cheaper clicks mean you show up more often on the same budget, and the gap between you and the guy across town widens every month you keep at it
Pull your search terms report Friday. You'll find your first 30 negatives in ten minutes.
Here are 10 GitHub repos that quietly print money while you sleep.
1. Cal. com
Open-source Calendly. Fork it, white-label it, sell to dentists and lawyers for $200/month. The founders hit $5M ARR in 3 years doing exactly this.
Repo โ https://t.co/Qqe8Schsgt
2. Plausible Analytics
Privacy-first Google Analytics. Self-host it, resell to agencies for $50/month per client. Two founders bootstrapped this to 7 figures.
Repo โ https://t.co/HKpN07mUZ5
3. Ghost
Open-source Substack with 100% margin. 1,000 readers at $5/month equals $60,000 a year. Forever.
Repo โ https://t.co/qMl2Ig2h03
4. n8n
Open-source Zapier. Sell automation services for $500-$2,000 per setup. n8n raised $14M because the agency model behind it works.
Repo โ https://t.co/pmMLX1OLtH
5. Supabase
Free Firebase replacement. Build a SaaS in a weekend, charge $29-$99/month. They raised $116M for a reason.
Repo โ https://t.co/7KwbFsR2Qo
6. Medusa
Open-source Shopify. Take 5% on every sale forever. Zero rev share to Shopify.
Repo โ https://t.co/aiN386blug
7. AppFlowy
Open-source Notion. Sell self-hosted to enterprises worried about data privacy. They raised $30M because this market is massive.
Repo โ https://t.co/qcl2tERBCL
8. Coolify
Open-source Vercel and Heroku. Charge developers $20/month to manage their deployments. Replace their $200 Vercel bill.
Repo โ https://t.co/kFprAirARL
9. Listmonk
Open-source Mailchimp. Send unlimited emails for the cost of an AWS bill. Resell to agencies at 10x markup.
Repo โ https://t.co/QgcYOiFwiX
10. Penpot
Open-source Figma. Sell self-hosted design tools to agencies who refuse to upload client files to the cloud.
Repo โ https://t.co/HsOBYxuyFL
The difference between developers who build features and developers who build businesses is one decision.
Pick one of these. Fork it this weekend. Ship it next week.
The founders behind these repos already proved the model.
Save this. Share it with the developer in your life who deserves to break free.
100% free. 100% open source.
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