Terms of service

By using this website you accept the terms in Part A. If you do not accept them, please stop using the site.

Part B applies in addition once you engage us, which happens when you confirm a statement of work in writing, including by email, or when you ask us to begin work and we do so. Together with that statement of work, these terms form the whole agreement between us.

We may update these terms. The version in force is the one published here on the day you use the site or, for an engagement, on the day the statement of work is confirmed. We will tell existing clients by email before a change materially affects them.

This site exists to explain what we do and to let you contact us. It is provided free of charge, and we may change, suspend or withdraw any part of it without notice.

We do not guarantee the site will always be available or uninterrupted. Access may be suspended for maintenance, for security reasons, or because of something outside our control such as a hosting or network failure.

You are responsible for making sure everyone who accesses the site through your internet connection is aware of these terms and complies with them.

You may use this site for lawful purposes only. In particular, you must not do any of the following.

We own or are licensed to use all intellectual property rights in this website and the material published on it, including the text, layout, design, graphics and code. Those works are protected by copyright and other laws around the world, and all such rights are reserved.

You may view, download and print extracts for your own personal or internal business use. You must not modify copies you have taken, use any illustration, photograph or graphic separately from its accompanying text, or remove any attribution.

You must not use any part of the content for commercial purposes without a licence from us. If you print, copy or download any part of this site in breach of these terms, your right to use the site ends immediately and you must return or destroy any copies you have made.

You may link to our home page or to any published page, provided you do so in a way that is fair and legal, does not damage our reputation, and does not suggest an association or endorsement that does not exist. We may withdraw permission to link at any time. Requests relating to content use go to contact@xmconsultingltd.com.

The articles, guides and general information published on this site are provided for information only. They are written from experience with advertising platforms and search engines, and they are not legal, financial, tax or professional advice on which you should rely.

Digital advertising changes constantly. Content that was accurate when published may be out of date by the time you read it, and we give no warranty that anything on this site is complete, current or free from error.

Before acting on anything you read here, take advice appropriate to your own circumstances. We accept no liability for loss arising from reliance on general content published on this site.

Where this site links to other websites or resources provided by third parties, those links are provided for information only and do not signify approval of them or their content.

We have no control over the content of those sites and accept no responsibility for them, or for any loss that may arise from your use of them.

When you submit the enquiry form or email us, you confirm that the information you provide is accurate and that you are entitled to provide it.

Sending an enquiry does not create a contract, does not oblige us to take you on as a client, and does not oblige you to engage us. We will use what you send only to respond to you, as described in our privacy policy.

We provide performance marketing services, which may include paid media management, search engine optimisation, analytics and tracking implementation, conversion optimisation, consultancy and training. The specific services for your engagement are set out in your statement of work.

We will perform them with reasonable skill and care and to the standard a competent professional in our field would apply. Where a statement of work conflicts with these terms, the statement of work takes priority for that engagement only.

Before an engagement starts we usually review your existing accounts. Unless agreed otherwise, that initial review is free and puts neither side under any obligation.

Everything we run will comply with the policies of the platforms involved, including the Google Ads policies, Google Merchant Center requirements and the advertising policies of any social platform used.

We will not use techniques that put your accounts at risk of suspension, including cloaking, misrepresentation, doorway pages and manipulative link schemes. If you ask us to do something that breaches a platform policy or the law, we will decline, explain why, and may end the engagement if the request is not withdrawn.

You remain responsible for your products, prices, claims and website content complying with advertising law and any regulation specific to your sector, including the CAP Code. We will flag obvious problems we notice, but we are not your legal or regulatory adviser.

Our work depends on your cooperation. Delay in providing the following may push back timelines, and that delay is not our responsibility.

Advertising accounts, analytics properties, tag containers, domains and the data inside them belong to you at all times. Where an account does not yet exist, we create it under your ownership, not ours.

We work through our manager accounts using the lowest level of access sufficient for the job, and we will not use your accounts, data or performance history for any purpose other than delivering your services.

On termination we return or confirm continued access to everything within 14 working days, including documentation and change history. We do not withhold access, assets or data as leverage in a commercial dispute, in any circumstances.

Our fee is a flat monthly amount stated in the statement of work, based on scope rather than a percentage of your media spend, so that advice to spend more or less is never influenced by our own invoice.

Media spend is billed by the advertising platform directly to your own payment method and never passes through our accounts. You are responsible for keeping a valid payment method on those platforms and for the amounts they charge. Automated bidding can produce short-term variance around a daily budget, and platforms may exceed a daily figure while averaging across a month.

Invoices are issued monthly in advance unless agreed otherwise, and are payable within 14 days by bank transfer. If an invoice is overdue we may charge interest and compensation under the Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998, and may suspend the services on seven days' written notice.

Third-party costs such as software licences, stock imagery or specialist production are quoted separately and only incurred with your written approval. If you dispute an invoice, tell us within 14 days with your reasons and pay any undisputed portion on time.

Either of us may propose a change to what is being delivered. A change takes effect only when both sides confirm it in writing, including any effect on fees or timelines.

Small requests that take little time are normally absorbed without a fee change. Where a request materially expands the work we will say so before starting, rather than presenting you with an unexpected invoice.

Engagements run month to month once any initial period in the statement of work has ended. Either party may end the engagement for convenience on 30 days' written notice expiring at the end of a calendar month.

Either party may end it immediately if the other commits a material breach that is not put right within 14 days of being asked, or becomes insolvent, enters administration, has a receiver appointed or ceases to trade.

Fees for work performed up to the termination date remain payable, including through the notice period whether or not you ask us to keep working. Fees already paid for a period after termination are refunded pro rata.

For engagements that ran three months or more, a written handover covering account structures, live tests and tracking configuration is included in your fee. For shorter engagements we may quote for it separately.

You keep all rights in the materials you provide, and grant us a licence to use them solely to deliver the services during the engagement.

On full payment of the fees relating to them, we assign to you the rights in deliverables created specifically for you, such as campaign structures, ad copy, tracking configurations and reports.

We keep ownership of our own pre-existing know-how, templates, frameworks and internal tooling, including improvements we make to them. Nothing prevents us from using the general skills and experience gained on an engagement in work for other clients.

Each party will keep the other's non-public information confidential, use it only to perform or receive the services, and protect it with at least the care it applies to its own confidential information.

This does not apply to information that is already public without breach, was already known without an obligation of confidence, is independently developed, or must be disclosed by law. Where disclosure is legally required, the disclosing party will tell the other first if it is lawful to do so.

We will not name you as a client, publish results relating to your business, or use your logo in our marketing without your prior written permission. Permission for one use is not permission for all uses.

Both parties will comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. Each of us is an independent controller for the business contact details of the other's staff.

Where we process personal data on your behalf, for example inside your analytics property or CRM, we act as your processor. In that role we act only on your documented instructions, keep the data confidential, apply appropriate security measures, assist with data subject requests and breach notifications, and delete or return the data when the engagement ends.

We will not appoint a sub-processor with access to your personal data without telling you first and giving you a fair opportunity to object. How we handle personal data as a controller is set out in our privacy policy.

Advertising and search performance depend on factors outside anyone's control, including platform algorithm changes, auction dynamics, competitor behaviour, seasonality, your pricing and stock position, and the quality of your website and sales process.

We therefore do not guarantee specific rankings, traffic volumes, lead numbers, conversion rates, return on ad spend or revenue. Any forecast or example we give is an informed estimate based on the information available at the time, not a contractual commitment.

Except as expressly stated in these terms, all warranties, conditions and terms implied by statute or common law are excluded to the fullest extent permitted by law.

Nothing in these terms limits or excludes liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited.

Subject to that, and because this site is provided free of charge, we exclude all liability for loss or damage arising from use of the website, including loss of profit, business, goodwill or data, and from any virus or harmful material you may encounter through it.

For an engagement, each party's total liability, whether in contract, tort including negligence, breach of statutory duty or otherwise, is limited to the total fees paid or payable in the 12 months immediately before the event giving rise to the claim.

Neither party is liable for indirect or consequential loss, or for loss of profit, revenue, anticipated savings, business opportunity, goodwill or data, even if foreseeable. We are not liable for losses caused by advertising platforms, by account suspensions arising from your products, claims or website, or by changes made to your accounts by you or a third party without our knowledge.

You will indemnify us against claims, damages and reasonable costs arising from materials you provide, including claims that they infringe a third party's intellectual property rights, are misleading, or breach advertising law or regulation.

This does not apply to the extent a claim arises from our own breach of these terms or our negligence.

During an engagement and for six months afterwards, neither party will knowingly approach for employment any individual directly involved in delivering or receiving the services, without the other's written consent.

This does not prevent general recruitment advertising, or hiring someone who responds to it without being personally approached.

Neither party is liable for failure or delay caused by an event beyond its reasonable control, including extended platform outages, failures of public telecommunications networks, industrial action, epidemic, fire, flood, war or acts of government.

The affected party will tell the other as soon as practicable and take reasonable steps to limit the effect. If the event continues for more than 30 days, either party may end the engagement on written notice without liability.

We may use trusted specialist subcontractors, for example for video production or development, and we remain fully responsible for their work as if it were our own. We will tell you if a subcontractor will have access to your accounts or personal data.

Neither party may assign or transfer its rights and obligations without the other's written consent, except to a successor in connection with a genuine transfer of its business.

Notices must be in writing. Notices to us go to contact@xmconsultingltd.com and, for termination or a formal legal notice, also by post to 6 Burton Close, Thornton Heath CR7 8SU, England, United Kingdom. Notices to you go to your named contact's email address and, where given, your registered office.

An email notice is treated as received on the next working day after sending, provided no delivery failure is received. A posted notice is treated as received two working days after posting.

These terms and the statement of work form the entire agreement between us and replace any earlier discussions or representations, except that neither party excludes liability for fraudulent misrepresentation.

A variation is effective only if agreed in writing by both parties. Delay in enforcing a right is not a waiver of it, and waiving one breach does not waive another.

If any provision is found unenforceable, the rest continues in force and that provision is treated as modified to the minimum extent needed to make it enforceable.

Nothing here creates a partnership, joint venture or employment relationship, and neither party may bind the other. A person who is not a party has no rights under the Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999.

If something goes wrong, tell us. Email contact@xmconsultingltd.com with the detail. We will acknowledge within two working days and give a substantive response within ten.

If a dispute is not resolved that way, both parties agree to attempt mediation with an accredited mediator before starting court proceedings. This does not prevent either party from seeking urgent injunctive relief.

These terms, your use of this website, each engagement under them, and any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with them, including non-contractual disputes, are governed by the law of England and Wales.

The courts of England and Wales have exclusive jurisdiction to settle any such dispute or claim.