How to Set Up Your First Google Ads Campaign

Do These 3 Things Before You Touch Google Ads

Most people jump straight to campaign setup. Then they spend their first $500 figuring out what they should've sorted beforehand. Don't do that.

1. Know what a customer is worth to you

Before you set a budget, work out your numbers. What's a lead worth? What's a sale worth? If your average job is $2,000 and you close 1 in 4 leads, each lead is worth $500. You can spend quite a bit per click and still profit. If you sell $60 products at tight margins, your math looks very different. Know this before you spend a dollar.

2. Set up conversion tracking

Conversion tracking tells Google when someone completes a valuable action after clicking your ad: a form fill, a phone call, a purchase. Without it, you can't see what's working. We cover the setup in Section 6 below. For now, mark it as non-negotiable.

3. Sort your landing page

You're paying for every visitor. Don't send them to your homepage and hope for the best. The page someone lands on after clicking your ad needs to:

• Match exactly what your ad promises
• Have one clear action for the visitor to take
• Load fast — aim for under 3 seconds on mobile. Slow pages raise your costs and kill conversions.
• Have social proof: reviews, trust signals, credentials

How Google Ads Actually Works

Most beginner guides skip this. Understanding the auction changes how you approach keywords, bids, and ad copy.

Every time someone searches on Google, an auction runs in milliseconds. And it's not just who bids the most that wins.

Google uses Ad Rank: a combination of your bid and your Quality Score. Quality Score is based on how relevant your ad is to the search, how relevant your landing page is, and the expected click-through rate.

You only pay when someone clicks. The amount you pay is determined dynamically in the auction and is often less than your maximum bid, but the exact mechanics are opaque and vary by auction.

Which Campaign Type Should You Start With?

Google gives you several campaign types. Here's what each one does and whether you should use it as a beginner.

Setting Your Budget

There's no set figure. But there's a practical way to think about it before you pick a number.

A budget rule of thumb

When you move to automated bidding (which we'll cover in Step 4 of the setup), Google's algorithm needs enough spend to gather data and optimise. One popular heuristic: set your daily budget to roughly 10x your target cost per conversion. It's not a Google-published rule, but it aims to give Smart Bidding room to generate ~30 conversions/month — the threshold where most Smart Bidding strategies stabilise.

If $500/day sounds like a lot, that's because it is. For most small businesses starting out, that's not realistic. The honest reality: lower budgets mean the algorithm takes longer to learn. That's fine. Start at a level you're comfortable with. Even $20–$50/day can generate useful data. Prove the campaign works, then scale.

Step-by-Step Campaign Setup

Here's exactly how to build your first Search campaign. Follow these in order.

1

Create Your Google Ads Account

Go to ads.google.com and sign in with your Google account. Google will walk you through the initial account creation.

Skip the Smart Campaign trap

Google's onboarding flow defaults to pushing you into a "Smart Campaign," which gives you almost no control and is difficult to optimise. Look for a link to "Switch to Expert Mode", "Without guidance", or "Create an account without a campaign" — the exact wording varies depending on where you are in the flow. Any of these get you out of the guided wizard and into the full Google Ads interface with real campaign settings.

2

Choose Your Goal & Campaign Type

Click + New Campaign. Google will ask for a goal:

• Sales: you want purchases on your website
• Leads: you want form fills, calls, or enquiries
• Website Traffic: only choose this if tracking isn't ready yet
• Without a goal: if you see this option, consider it — goals act as guardrails that hide certain settings from you, so experienced advertisers often skip selecting one to see every available option

Then choose Search as your campaign type and click Continue.

3

Campaign Settings

This is where most beginners make expensive mistakes. Pay close attention to these settings.

• Campaign name: Be specific. "Search – Plumbers – Sydney – Non-Brand" is better than "Campaign 1". You'll thank yourself later.
• Networks: Uncheck everything in the Networks section — "Include Google search partners" and "Include Google Display Network" are both ticked by default, and both should be turned off. Google spends leftover budget on these lower-quality placements and they rarely produce good results. Your ads will still show on Google Search itself.
• Locations: Target your actual geographic area. You can enter multiple suburbs or postcodes in bulk via the advanced search.
• Location options (the setting almost everyone misses): Underneath your location list, open "Location options". Google's default is "Presence or interest", which shows your ad to anyone Google thinks is interested in your location — including people who don't live there. Change it to "Presence: People in or regularly in your included locations". Only stick with Presence or interest if you genuinely want to reach out-of-area people.
• Language: English (or whichever language your target audience searches in).
• Audience segments: Skip these at setup. Add audience targeting later once you've collected real performance data.

Open "More settings" — three things worth changing

• Ad rotation: "Do not optimise" (at least at first). The default is "Optimise: Prefer best performing ads", which sounds sensible but means Google will pick one or two winners early and starve the rest of impressions before they've had a fair shot. Set it to Do not optimise while you're learning, then switch to the default later once you have data.
• Ad schedule: Don't run ads 24/7 if you can't service enquiries after hours. A plumber running ads at 3am attracts calls they can't convert — and international searchers in the wrong timezone. Set hours that match when your business can actually respond.
• Political ads: Unless you're running political content, select No.

4

Set Your Budget & Bidding Strategy

Daily budget: Enter the number from Section 4.

Bidding strategy: what to choose

• Start with Maximise Conversions. Once your conversion tracking is set up properly, this is the simplest place to begin. It aims bids at the clicks most likely to convert rather than the cheapest clicks, and it'll stabilise over the first week or two.
• If Maximise Conversions isn't working — which can happen on smaller accounts with low search volume or limited conversion data — switch to Manual CPC. You set your own bids per keyword and keep full control. It's more hands-on but more predictable when there isn't enough data for Google's algorithm to learn from.
• Leave Target CPA unchecked at first — even once you have conversions. Let Maximise Conversions run without a target for a few weeks so Google establishes what your natural cost per conversion looks like. Once you have 30+ conversions over 30 days and a clear baseline, you can add a Target CPA within the Maximise Conversions setting.
• Customer Acquisition setting: leave unchecked. This setting lets Google bid differently for new vs returning customers. Don't touch it at setup — it's something to test later once you have a baseline.

Turn AI Max off. Don't let Google write your ads either.

Google's setup flow now pushes two AI features: AI Max for Search (an AI overlay that rewrites queries, expands keyword matching, and generates assets) and AI-generated ad copy. Both are on or suggested by default. For a first campaign, turn AI Max off and write your own headlines and descriptions. AI Max frequently spends aggressively without corresponding results, and AI-written copy tends to be generic and off-brand. You can test AI Max as a controlled experiment later, once you have a clean baseline to compare against.

Smart Bidding needs data first

Google's automated bidding is genuinely powerful once it has data. If you flip it on before conversion tracking is working, it's essentially guessing. Get tracking right first, then let the data accumulate.

5

Set Up Keywords & Ad Groups

We'll cover keywords in depth in Section 7. For now: create at least one ad group, add 5–15 closely themed keywords, and use Exact Match format: [keyword] with square brackets.

Add your initial negative keywords here too (covered in Section 7).

6

Write Your Ads

Full ad copy guidance is in Section 8. For each ad group you'll write up to 15 headlines (30 chars each) and up to 4 descriptions (90 chars each). Aim for Good or Excellent Ad Strength. Make sure at least one headline includes your main keyword.

7

Add Ad Assets

Ad assets (previously called extensions) add extra lines to your ad at no extra cost. They improve click-through rate and ad rank. Add these before you launch:

• Sitelinks: links to your key pages (Contact Us, Services, Reviews)
• Callouts: short phrases like "Licensed & Insured" or "Available 24/7"
• Call asset: adds your phone number for one-tap calling
• Location asset: shows your address if you have a physical location
• Business name and logo: Google uses these in visual ad formats
• Image assets: upload 3–5 high-quality images of your work or team

8

Enter Billing Details

Add your business address and payment method. For Australian accounts, use AUD and add your ABN if you're GST-registered (this affects how Google invoices you). Google charges in arrears — you'll be billed when your account reaches a threshold or at the end of 30 days, whichever comes first.

9

Review Everything, Then Launch

Before you click Enable: check your campaign settings, proofread all ad copy, confirm your landing page URLs are correct, and verify your conversion tracking is live (covered in Section 6).

Once you're confident everything is correct, enable the campaign. Keep a close eye on it for the first few days. If something looks obviously wrong — budget spent by 9am, ads triggering for irrelevant searches — fix it immediately.

Don't make big changes in the first 2 weeks

Let the campaign gather data before you start optimising. Pulling keywords or pausing campaigns after 3 days of data isn't optimising. It's guessing. Give it time.

Conversion Tracking: Don't Skip This

Conversion tracking tells Google when someone completes a valuable action after clicking your ad: a form fill, a phone call, a purchase.

Without it, you can't see which keywords are generating leads. You can't see what your cost per acquisition is. Smart Bidding has nothing to optimise against. You're spending money with zero visibility.

How to set it up in Google Ads

• Go to Tools & Settings → Measurement → Conversions
• Click + New Conversion Action → Website
• Name it clearly (e.g., "Contact Form Submission"), set the category and value
• Install the tracking tag directly on your site, or via Google Tag Manager if you're comfortable with it
• Test it yourself: complete the action on your own site and verify it appears in the Conversions dashboard

What should you track?

• Service businesses: Form submissions, phone calls (use Google's built-in call tracking)
• eCommerce: Purchases, with the actual revenue value passed through where possible
• Secondary actions: Add to cart, checkout starts. Useful signals, but don't make these your primary conversion goal.

Primary vs Secondary conversions — this matters

In your Conversion settings, each action can be set as "Primary" or "Secondary". Google's Smart Bidding only optimises toward Primary conversions. If you accidentally mark a micro-conversion like "Add to Cart" as Primary alongside a purchase, your bidding will chase the wrong thing. Set only your most valuable action (usually a purchase or a qualified lead form) as Primary. Everything else is Secondary.

Keywords & Ad Groups

Keywords are what trigger your ads. Get these right and your ads show for searches that convert. Get them wrong and you pay for clicks that never will.

Start with keyword research

Use Google Keyword Planner. It's free and it's inside your Google Ads account under Tools → Keyword Planner. Type in your service or product and it shows you what people actually search for, how often, and roughly what it costs per click.

Look for keywords with clear purchase or enquiry intent. "Emergency plumber Sydney" converts. "How to fix a leaking tap" doesn't.

Keyword match types: start narrow

Match types control how closely a search needs to match your keyword before your ad triggers.

How to structure your ad groups

One ad group = one theme. Each ad group has its own set of keywords and its own ads. Keep them tightly focused. A user who searches "emergency plumber" should see an ad about emergency plumbing, not a generic ad about everything you offer.

Add negative keywords before you launch

Negative keywords stop your ads showing for irrelevant searches. Without them, you'll pay for clicks that will never convert. Add these as a starting list:

• "free": people searching this aren't ready to pay
• "jobs", "careers", "apprentice": job seekers, not customers
• "DIY", "how to", "YouTube": people who want to do it themselves
• "training", "course", "certificate": people trying to learn the trade

Then, every week after launch, review your Search Terms report and add any irrelevant searches that are triggering your ads. This is an ongoing job, not a one-time task.

Writing Your Ads

You get up to 15 headlines (30 characters each) and up to 4 descriptions (90 characters each). Google mixes and matches these, so every headline needs to stand alone and make sense on its own.

Ad copy that actually gets clicked

• Put your keyword in Headline 1. Google bolds it when it matches the search. Instantly more attention-grabbing.
• Lead with the benefit, not the feature. "Same-day service" beats "Experienced team" every time.
• Address the main objection. What stops someone from calling? "No call-out fee", "Fixed prices, no surprises", "Fully licensed and insured."
• Use numbers. "500+ 5-star reviews", "20 years experience", "From $99." Specifics are more credible than generalities.
• End with a clear CTA. "Get a Free Quote", "Book Online Today", "Call Now for Same-Day Service."
• Write it yourself. Don't use Google's AI-generated suggestions. They're generic. Your ad copy needs to reflect your actual business and what makes you different.
• Check mobile. Make sure headlines don't get cut off with "..." on a phone screen. That's where most clicks happen.

After You Go Live

Google Ads is not set-and-forget. The businesses that get good results review it regularly, make small improvements, and make decisions based on data rather than gut feel.

The first two weeks: watch, don't panic

Give your campaign time to gather data before you start making changes. Google's algorithm needs time to learn. Don't pause keywords or make big bid changes based on 3 days of results. Check it daily to catch anything obviously wrong. But let it run.

The four metrics that matter

Your weekly tasks

• Search Terms report: Find irrelevant searches triggering your ads, add them as negatives. Do this every single week.
• Budget pacing: Is your daily budget being fully used? Running out by midday? Adjust if needed.
• Keyword performance: Any keywords with 50+ clicks and zero conversions need attention. Pause them or investigate why.
• Conversion data: Is tracking still recording correctly? Numbers that stop suddenly usually mean a broken tag.

Mistakes That Cost Beginners the Most

These aren't edge cases. They show up in almost every new account.