On this page
The choices you set
| Choice | What you set | Local example | What to watch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Search terms | the words you appear for | roofer plus your town | exclude what you do not do, such as jobs or free |
| Area | a radius of at least 1 km or a list of towns | 20 km around your address | presence or interest |
| Budget | an amount per day, no minimum | what you can sustain for thirty days | enough clicks to learn from |
| Assets | phone, address, links to pages | calling straight from the ad | the hours someone answers |
For search campaigns Google recommends targeting people who are in or interested in your area; if you only serve people on site, choose those physically there. A call from the ad costs the same as a click on the headline. On a busy day Google may spend up to twice your daily budget, but never more than 30.4 times it in a month. How to make that choice and the other settings is covered step by step in how to set up Google Ads.
How Google decides who ranks first
The highest bid does not simply win. Google ranks on your bid, the quality of your ad and of the page it leads to, thresholds per position, the competition, the search context and the expected impact of assets such as your phone number. A good ad with a page that answers the search exactly can rank higher for less than a bigger bid with a weak page. That page is the work of a landing page, not of the ad. How often people click is your click-through rate; what counts as good is in what is a good CTR in Google Ads.
Two changes to know about: Dynamic Search Ads are folding into AI Max, where Google picks more search terms itself, as the news on AI Max explains. And if you measure with Google's tag, your cookie banner decides what you see; see Consent Mode and Google Analytics.
Ten enquiries a month, worked backwards
Ten enquiries a month
- Conversion of your page
- 5 percent
- Clicks needed
- 200
- Cost per click
- 2.50 euro
- Per month
- 500 euro
- Daily budget500 euro divided by 30.4
- 16.45 euro
Same goal, a weaker pageMonthly budget for ten enquiries
- Page converting 2.5 percent1,000 euro
- Page converting 5 percent500 euro
Your page weighs as much as your click price
In the example ten enquiries cost 500 euro a month, a daily budget of 16.45 euro. With a page that convinces half as well, the same enquiries cost twice that. Turn enquiries into work: if a job brings 2,000 euro of margin and one in three quotes is accepted, ten enquiries bring in well over 500 euro of clicks. Click prices vary widely per sector and country; in Belgium campaigns see 0.30 to 8 euro. Work out your own case with the Google Ads budget calculator and the ROAS calculator; full prices are in Google Ads cost. Whether the account itself costs anything is in is Google Ads free, and whether ads or organic search cost you less per customer, in SEO or Google Ads.
Check your local campaign before it goes live
- The area targets presence if you only work on site.
- Search terms such as jobs, free or do it yourself are excluded.
- Every ad leads to a page about exactly that service, not your home page.
- Your phone number is in the ad, with the hours someone answers.
- Enquiries and calls are tracked, so you know what a customer costs.