Google AdsA guide for people who sign the cheques

Start with the question, not the campaign#

Most Google Ads accounts are built backwards. Someone opens the interface, follows the setup prompts, and the business inherits a structure designed for a generic advertiser. A better starting point is a written answer to three questions: what action counts as success, what that action is worth, and which searches signal that someone is ready to take it.

Those answers decide everything that follows. A lead-generation business that values a qualified enquiry very differently from a casual form fill needs different tracking from a retailer selling hundreds of products at different margins. The interface will not ask you these questions. You have to bring the answers with you.

The campaign types, and what each is for#

Google offers several campaign types, and the menu changes from time to time, so check the current documentation before you build. The principle behind them is stable: some campaign types give you control over where ads appear and what triggers them, and others hand placement decisions to Google's automation in exchange for reach.

For most businesses the sequence is: Search first, because it captures people already looking; Shopping or Performance Max next if you sell products from a feed; and video or Demand Gen only once the lower funnel is profitable and measured.

Account structure that mirrors the business#

An account has a simple hierarchy: account, campaigns, ad groups, then keywords and ads. Budgets and bidding live at campaign level, so a campaign should group things that deserve the same budget and the same target. Ad groups should group keywords that can honestly be answered by the same ad and landing page.

The common error is splitting campaigns too finely. Every split divides your conversion data, and automated bidding needs enough conversions per campaign to learn. Split only when there is a real business reason: different margins, different geographies, different targets, or brand versus non-brand. Keep brand searches in their own campaign so their cheap, high-converting clicks do not flatter the rest of the account.

Keywords, match types and negatives#

Keywords express intent you want to buy. Match types control how loosely Google may interpret them. Our guide to keyword match types covers the detail, but the governing idea is that looser matching gives automation more room to find conversions and more room to waste money. The safety net is a living negative keyword list, built from what you actually see in the search terms report.

Reading search terms is the single most valuable hour in a Google Ads week. It shows the real queries you paid for, and every account that has not been reviewed for a month contains surprises. Add irrelevant queries as negatives, add strong queries as keywords, and note any theme that deserves its own ad group.

Ads, assets and the page after the click#

Responsive search ads let you supply up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, which Google combines and tests. Write them as a set: a few that repeat the core query, a few that state the offer, a few that remove the main objection, and a few that give proof. Pinning a headline to a position reduces testing, so pin only where legal or brand rules require it.

Assets such as sitelinks, callouts and structured snippets expand the ad and usually lift click-through rate at no extra cost per click. Use them. Then make sure the landing page continues the promise the ad made. Ad relevance and landing page experience both feed into how Google prices your clicks.

Tracking: the step most accounts get wrong#

Google's bidding systems optimise toward whatever you tell them is a conversion. If you count page views, newsletter sign-ups and real purchases as equal conversions, the system will happily buy you the cheapest of the three. Define one primary conversion that reflects business value, mark the rest as secondary, and attach values wherever you can.

For lead businesses, importing what happened after the lead, such as qualification or sale, changes the account more than any bid adjustment. Our guide to offline conversion tracking explains how to do it.

Bidding without superstition#

Automated bidding is now the default, and it works well when it has clean conversion data and enough of it. When it does not, it guesses, and its guesses are expensive. New accounts often do better starting with a simpler strategy to gather data, then moving to target-based smart bidding once conversions are steady.

Whatever strategy you use, changes need time to settle. Frequent target changes reset learning and make results impossible to read. Decide your review rhythm in advance and stick to it.

Where accounts usually leak money#

When an account underperforms, the cause is rarely exotic. It is usually one of a handful of ordinary leaks that compound quietly over months. Checking for them first saves a great deal of time spent tuning bids that were never the problem.

• Counting the wrong conversions. Micro-actions inflate results and send bidding after cheap, low-value activity.
• Brand mixed with non-brand. Cheap brand clicks hide expensive, unprofitable generic campaigns.
• Location settings left on defaults. Ads reach people merely interested in a place rather than in it.
• Search campaigns opted into display. Budget drifts to lower-intent placements without anyone deciding it should.
• Unread search terms. Loose matching buys irrelevant queries for weeks.
• One landing page for everything. Every ad group's promise ends on the same generic homepage.

Each of these is cheap to fix and none needs more budget. If you have inherited an account, work through our PPC audit checklist before changing strategy.

The first ninety days#

The weekly routine after that is unglamorous: search terms, budget pacing, conversion sanity checks, one creative or landing page test at a time, and a monthly look at whether cost per acquisition still sits within what a customer is worth. Accounts rarely fail dramatically. They decay quietly when nobody does this.

Published by Fabulous.Media, a network of specialist marketing agencies. Updated 9 October 2026. Platform features change often; check current official documentation before acting on platform-specific detail.