If you’re a small business owner who’s frustrated with spending money on Google Ads that don’t bring real customers, just junk inquiries this guide is for you. We’ll walk you through the exact blueprint we use to help businesses like yours get qualified leads fast, whether it’s phone calls, form submissions, or in-store visits even on a limited budget.
Without making you wait any longer, here’s a quick sneak peek at the key takeaways you’ll discover today:
- The actual impact (real results) Google Ads bring for small business websites (that even our team has delivered for several clients)
- 8 easy steps to setup Google ads for your website
- Tried and tested tips (gathered from several years of experience) on Google ads
Before proceeding further, we would also like to inform you that we do execute SEO for small and local business websites that are willing to wait and require a long-term success strategy implemented for their business.
Here are the Results We’ve Delivered for Our Clients Through Google Ads (With Right Execution, You Can Achieve the Same Success)
Google ads seriously pay off these results when handled the right way. But if you are struggling to get the same outcomes, don’t panic, you are not alone.
We have seen many business owners investing in ads but not getting the deserved success and do you know what are the obvious reasons? A few are outsourcing the less competent professionals while others are trying to execute the strategy by themselves thinking this may help them save their money.
Well whatever would be the reason, we are here to share the right process of Google Ads execution with you so that you can get the real results just like we are getting for our clients from different niches.
This is the 8-Step Google Ads Setup Plan for Your Small Business (Easy Enough Even for Beginners)
First time or not, these 8 straightforward steps can help you launch and manage your ads for your business website with full confidence:
Step 1. Define Your Advertising Goal
Google Ads is a powerful tool for reaching and fulfilling your marketing objectives- but it is structured to focus on accomplishing one primary goal per campaign.
Now, choose what you want to increase out of the following first:
- Phone calls
- Website traffic
- Foot traffic to your store
- Online sales
Hopefully, you are ready with your choice. Now, your next step is to make your choice more specific. Like, if you’ve selected increasing calls as your objective, then make it more specific – “I want 20 calls per week”.
Similarly, if you want website traffic to increase then mention on which page you need the increased traffic. For those who want to boost leads can set their objective this way- “I want 10 people to fill out my lead form every month”.
Remember, defining your goal is an important decision because your campaign type, ad copy, budget and even landing page content is going to depend on this single decision.
Step 2. Create Your Google Ads Account
Now that you are clear on your advertising goal, your next step is to set up your Google Ads account. If you follow these instructions carefully, the account creation will take only a few minutes.
- First go to https://ads.google.com and click on the button “Start Now”.
- Sign in with your Gmail account. Here, we will suggest you to use your work email instead of a personal account.
- Thereafter, you’ll have to enter basic details of your business and specify the action you want your target audience to take. You can also link additional accounts in case you want to.
- Set-up Your Account Preferences: Here, you have to enter the country name, time zone and currency. All these details should be based on the same country where your business is legally registered or from where you are making the payment.
- Next, you will be asked to fill in payment details like the profile you will use to make payment and the method.
- Finally, click submit.
With this, you will get a new account set up.
Step 3. Set up Your First Campaign
In this phase, you will be redirected to the Google Ads dashboard where you have to click on “+New Campaign” to initiate the creation of your first or new campaign:
Following that, this is how you have to proceed:
- Choose your goal that you want to be the result of your ad campaign (it should be the same that you’ve decided in the first step).
- Next, you’ll be asked to select the type of campaign you would like to run. Here you have to select “Search” as your campaign type as it is the right option for those who are interested in running ads on Google’s search results.
- Thereupon, you’ll have to select the way you’d like to reach your goal.
- After selecting this, give a meaningful name to your campaign like “Lead Gen- June 2025- US”.
One important point to note here is that by default both Search Network and Display network would be selected but if you want your campaign to be search-based strictly, uncheck Display Network:
Step 4. Define Target Audience and Location
This is the step where you define your target audience whom you want to see your ad and the location where it will appear.
Location Targeting
Here, you’ll choose the area that you want to target. It can be :
- Entire country
- Specific city or region
- A radius around a specific location
For one of our clients who is a local service provider in Austin, Texas, we set the target location as “Austin” and for efficient targeting, we excluded surrounding cities.
This means even if you want to exclude any location, you are free to do that.
Language Targeting
Here, you will select the languages your customers speak. These languages should be the one that appears in your target market’s Google interface.
Audience Segments
Although this step is optional for those who are interested in running search campaigns, it can be useful for others. Those who want to layer their audiences, based on the following pointers you can do it :
- Interests
- Purchase intent
- Website visits (remarketing)
- Demographics (age, gender, etc.)
For one of our clients who wanted us to run an ad for their product- running shoes, we targeted fitness enthusiasts and people interested in sports apparel only and made our ad targeting more relevant.
Step 5. Set Budget and Bidding Strategy
In this step, you’ll define how much you are willing to spend per day for your ad (like it can be $10/day or whatever amount you are comfortable in spending) and accordingly Google will try to stay within the average monthly spend for you.
Thereupon, you have to choose the way that you want Google to prioritize for optimizing your bids. This is going to be entirely based on the goal you selected initially. Common options that you can see here are :
- Maximize clicks
- Maximize conversions
- Target CPA (Cost-per-acquisition)
- Manual CPC (if you prefer more control)
For those who are just starting out, we recommend you to choose the option- maximize conversions as this is considered the best move for beginners.
Step 6. Write Compelling Ad Copy
This is the step where you create text for your ad, also known as the ad copy. Here’s what you’ve to do:
- Write at least 15 headlines and make sure each headline is of 30 characters.
- Create a minimum of 4 descriptions, each up to 90 characters.
Now, this is the stage where you’ll enter the destination URL where you want your target audience to land. Make sure your landing page should exist and be relevant to your ad and keyword. Because a poorly optimized or irrelevant landing page minimizes the impact of your ad, even if your copy is excellent.
Step 7. Set Up Conversion Tracking
This step is specifically for those who want “Leads” or “Sales” as an outcome of their ad campaign. It will help you track valuable actions like form fills, purchases, sign-ups.
Step 8. Review and Launch the Campaign
At this stage, you’ll get the final chance to review your entire campaign before it goes live. In case you want to make corrections in any part, you can do it here.
See, you’ll get a summary of the following settings:
- Campaign name
- Goal and campaign type (e.g., Leads – Search)
- Networks (Search, Display)
- Locations and languages
- Budget and bidding strategy
- Target audience and keywords
- Ad extensions (if added)
- Ad copy and Final URL
- Billing info and account settings
When everything seems ok to you, hit the submit button to let Google review your ad (which usually takes a few hours).
Tried and Tested Tips on Google Ads From Our Team
Our experience working with clients across various industries has given us powerful insights into the most effective strategies that drive real growth for small businesses and in this section we are going to share all of them with you.
Here we go!
1. Use Location-Based Terms as Your Target Keywords
For the business owners that want to reduce wasted ad spend, we recommend you to target more precise phrases instead of broad terms. This will also help you improve conversion rates of your website.
Like, for a shoe repair shop located in Chicago, a more valuable target keyword for ad targeting can be “shoe repair near Chicago Loop” and there are many such examples that they can use.
Geo-specific terms narrow down competition and attract high-intent local customers and as a small business store, we expect you want to convert them at any cost.
NOTE: When you use the same location names in your ad copy and landing pages, it improves the quality score and relevance of your ad, which plays a great role in lowering cost-per-click significantly.
2. Track Conversions with Google Tag Manager (GTM)
Google Tag Manager (GTM) is particularly useful for the users who can track ad spend and clicks, but lack insight into what visitors do after clicking on their ad.
Once you set it up, you can add or update tracking tags and make a smart decision for your business. What’s more, you can set up custom events which will help you track the people who scrolled up to a specific section, let’s say pricing section or watch your product video.
Gaining sharper insights, amazing right?
3. Don’t Rely on Smart Campaigns for Long
Smart campaign is a great entry point for beginners but even after 2-3 months you are relying on it, then it can be problematic.
Because these types of campaigns are designed for convenience, not control. Over time, if you do not get complete control, it will lead to waste your ad budget and you will miss many golden opportunities to grow your business.
For those who are stuck in this situation, it’s high time to transition. You can choose Search or Performance Max campaigns with custom settings. These will offer you deeper targeting options, more detailed reporting and full control over keywords, ad copy, bidding strategies and audience segments.
4. Test Multiple Ad Variations Per Ad Group
You will agree with the fact that no two customers respond the same way. Each reacts based on their own nature to the ad text and call to action. So, test at least 3-4 ad variations within each ad group. This will help you know which one is the best-performing version for most of the audience.
You can also make small tweaks and run tests. Whether it’s emotional, logical, benefit-driven, or feature-focused messaging; experiment with every angle to make your copy more engaging.
The more compelling your copy would be, the higher your click-through rate (CTR) and over time, that means a lower cost-per-click (CPC).
5. Start with Manual CPC Bidding
Manual bidding is a smart move. As a business owner, it will allow you allocate a modest daily budget and bid conservatively on high-intent keywords.
Gradually, when data rolls in, you can increase bids on driving real ROI and pause or lower bids on underperformers.
6. Review Search Terms Report Weekly
This report can help you see the exact search queries that triggered your ads and you will be more amazed to know that it’s often packed with hidden, valuable keywords.
Checking the search terms report will help you catch even wasteful trends early. So, this habit can make your campaigns far more profitable, that too, without increasing your budget.
7. Set Up Remarketing Early – Even If You Don’t Run It Yet
This is a solid game plan for anyone managing a business. What you have to do is create separate lists for cart abandoners, blog readers or users who visited your product or service page.
Now wondering how it will benefit you? Here’s the answer- later you can use this list to run highly targeted ads, which will really boost your return on ad spend dramatically.
FAQs
- How much amount is safe for a small business to spend on Google Ads per month?
Ans. Well, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how much you should spend on Google Ads. It really depends on a few things like where you’re targeting, the kind of business you run, how big your audience is, and what you want your ads to achieve.
However, for those who are just getting started, a monthly budget of $200 – $400 is a good place to begin. As a business owner, it will give you enough room to test your ads, see what works, and start making improvements, without stretching your budget too thin.
- Which type of Google Ads campaign is best for small businesses?
Ans. Based on our experience, we recommend that small business owners running Google Ads for the first time start with Search campaigns. They’re simple, focused, and help you reach people who are actively searching for what you offer.
However, if you are someone looking for broader reach with minimal setup, Performance Max is also a great option. It can help grow your business by showing ads across Google’s entire network automatically.
- What’s the minimum daily budget to run a campaign effectively?
Ans. It has been observed that the average daily budget to run a Google Ads campaign effectively is around $10–$15 per day. If you implement the campaign with strategy, this amount will help you:
- Generate enough clicks to gather meaningful data
- Test ad performance and keywords
However, if you are from an industry that has higher competition or CPCs, you may start around $20–$30/day and see quicker results.
- Can you pause your ads anytime without penalty?
Ans. Yes, you can pause your Google Ads campaigns anytime without any penalty. Pausing stops your ads from running and spending money, but your account and campaign data remain intact. You can resume them whenever you’re ready.
- Is Google Ads better than Facebook Ads for small businesses?
Ans. Well, this completely depends on your goals. If you intend to reach people who are actively searching for your product or service on Google, then Google ads are the best option as it can help you get high-intent leads and quick conversions.
However, if you want to build brand awareness and target specific audiences based on interests and behavior even if they are not actively searching for your product or your business, then Facebook ads is the ideal option for you to run ads.
Wrapping Up
We’ve tried our best to cover everything a small business owner might need- whether you’re just getting started with Google Ads or trying to improve your current results.
If you still need a hand or prefer to have experts manage your campaigns for you, feel free to reach out. Our team is here and ready to help!
