Google Ads is one of the quickest ways to get in front of people who are actively looking for what you sell. Switch a campaign on in the morning and you can have enquiries by the afternoon.
It’s also one of the easiest ways to waste money. The platform is built to make spending simple, and many default settings favour reach over relevance. Plenty of businesses try it once, see the budget vanish with little to show for it, and decide “Google Ads doesn’t work for us”.
Usually, it wasn’t the channel. It was the setup. Here are ten checks worth running before you spend anything, whether you’re doing it yourself or reviewing what an agency has built.
Before you build any Google Ads campaign
1. Is conversion tracking working?
If Google can’t see which clicks turned into enquiries, neither can you, and any automated bidding will optimise for the wrong thing. Set up tracking for form submissions, calls and any other genuine lead actions, then test each one yourself before launch.
2. Do you know what you can afford per lead?
Work out what a customer is worth and what share of enquiries you convert. That gives you a maximum cost per lead. Without it, you can’t tell whether £50 a lead is a triumph or a disaster.
3. Is the budget realistic for your market?
In competitive sectors, clicks can be expensive. If your daily budget only buys a couple of clicks, you’ll gather very little useful data. It’s often better to run a narrower campaign properly than a broad one thinly. Google’s Keyword Planner gives rough cost estimates, but treat them as a guide, not a promise.
Targeting the right people
4. Are your location settings correct?
Check not just which areas you target, but how. Google’s location options can include people who are interested in a location as well as people who are actually in it. For a local service business, targeting people who are in or regularly in your area is usually the safer choice.
5. Are your keywords specific enough?
Broad keywords bring volume, and a lot of it can be irrelevant. Start with keywords that show clear buying intent, such as the service plus a location, or terms like “quote”, “near me” and “cost”. Understand how match types work before relying on broad match.
6. Do you have a negative keyword list?
Negative keywords stop your ads showing for searches you don’t want. Common ones include “jobs”, “free”, “DIY”, “course”, “salary” and competitor names you don’t want to pay for. Build a starter list before launch and add to it every week.
What people see and where they land
7. Does the ad say something specific?
Generic ads get generic results. Mention what makes you different: response times, areas covered, guarantees, accreditations, prices from. Use the extra assets Google offers, such as sitelinks, callouts and call buttons, so your ad takes up more space and answers more questions.
8. Does the landing page match the ad?
Sending ad clicks to your home page is one of the most common and costly mistakes. If someone searched for “emergency roof repair Wirral”, they should land on a page about emergency roof repairs that mentions the Wirral, with a phone number and a short form visible straight away on their phone.
9. Is the ad schedule sensible?
If you can only answer calls from 8am to 6pm, running call-focused ads at midnight wastes money. Check when your leads actually come in and schedule accordingly, adjusting once you have data.
Most failed Google Ads campaigns don’t fail because of the channel. They fail because of tracking, targeting or the landing page. Fix those three first.
After launch
10. Will someone check the search terms report every week?
The search terms report shows what people actually typed before clicking your ad. It’s often eye-opening. Review it weekly in the early months, add negatives for irrelevant searches and add new keywords where you spot good ones.
Google will also suggest “recommendations” in your account. Some are helpful. Some mainly increase spend. Read each one carefully before accepting, and consider switching off auto-apply.
Questions to ask if an agency runs your Google Ads
If you’re paying someone to manage Google Ads, make sure the account is set up in your business’s name, so you keep the history if you part company. Ask for monthly reporting on cost per lead and leads by campaign, not just clicks and impressions. And ask what they changed last month and why.
If you’d like us to review your current setup or build a campaign from scratch, our PPC and paid advertising team works to cost per lead, not vanity metrics. And if your ads are sending people to a page that doesn’t convert, a dedicated landing page is often the quickest fix.
