How to Run a Google Ads Campaign for Your Small Business

Google Ads — formerly known as Google AdWords — is Google’s paid advertising platform. It lets businesses pay to appear at the top of search results for specific keywords. Unlike SEO, which takes time to build momentum, Google Ads can start driving traffic on the day your campaign goes live.

For small businesses, Google Ads can be a powerful tool for generating leads quickly. But it’s also one of the easiest places to burn through budget if you don’t know what you’re doing. This guide walks through how to set up your first campaign, choose the right keywords, and avoid the most common mistakes.

Setting Up Your First Campaign

Start at ads.google.com and create an account linked to your Google account. When Google prompts you to create a campaign, select your objective. For most small businesses seeking leads, choose ‘Leads’ or, if you want more control, skip the guided setup and create a campaign manually.

Choose the ‘Search’ campaign type for text ads that appear in search results. Set your geographic targeting to the specific regions where your customers are — for a local business, this is usually a radius around your location or specific towns and postcodes. Avoid selecting ‘All countries’ or even ‘United Kingdom’ unless you genuinely serve customers nationally.

Set a daily budget that you’re comfortable losing entirely while you learn. During the first month, you’re gathering data as much as generating leads. A daily budget of £10 to £25 is enough to get meaningful data for most local service businesses without excessive risk.

Choosing the Right Keywords and Match Types

Keyword match types determine how closely a search query must match your keyword before your ad shows. Broad match (the default) shows your ad for loosely related searches and can lead to irrelevant clicks. Phrase match shows your ad when a search contains your keyword phrase in order. Exact match shows your ad only when the search matches your keyword precisely or very closely.

For a small business with a limited budget, phrase match and exact match give you the most control. Start with a tight list of highly relevant keywords rather than trying to cover every possible variation. Ten focused, well-chosen keywords will outperform a hundred loosely related ones.

Set up a negative keyword list from day one. These are terms for which you don’t want your ad to show. If you’re a paid web designer, you probably don’t want to appear for ‘free website builder’ or ‘DIY website’. Add these as negatives before you spend a penny.

Writing Ads That Convert

A Google Search ad consists of up to fifteen headlines (of which three appear at a time) and four description lines (of which two appear at a time). Google rotates and tests combinations to find which perform best. Use this to your advantage — write headlines with different angles: one that includes the keyword, one that mentions a specific benefit, one that includes your location.

Include a clear call to action in your descriptions: ‘Call us for a free consultation’, ‘Get an instant online quote’, ‘Book your survey today’. Tell the visitor exactly what to do when they land on your page. Make sure the landing page your ad links to closely matches what the ad promises. A disconnect between ad copy and landing page content is one of the biggest causes of wasted ad spend.