Google Ads for Small Business: Getting Started Without Wasting Money

Google Ads is the fastest way to get your business in front of people actively searching for what you sell. It can generate leads from day one. It can deliver measurable, trackable ROI. It can genuinely transform a small business.

It can also burn through your entire marketing budget in a week if you don’t know what you’re doing.

I’ve audited hundreds of Google Ads accounts over the years. The majority are wasting 30-50% of their ad spend on the wrong keywords, the wrong settings, or the wrong campaign structure. That’s not a minor inefficiency — for a business spending £1,500/month, that’s £500-£750 going straight in the bin every month.

This guide will help you set up Google Ads properly from the start, or identify where your existing account is haemorrhaging money.

Before You Spend a Penny

Set Up Conversion Tracking

I cannot stress this enough: do not run Google Ads without conversion tracking. It’s the single most common and most expensive mistake I see.

Conversion tracking tells Google (and you) when an ad click leads to a valuable action: a phone call, a form submission, a purchase. Without it, you’re driving traffic but you have no idea which clicks are generating business and which are wasting money.

What to track:

• Form submissions (contact forms, quote requests)
• Phone calls (from your ads and from your website)
• Purchases (for e-commerce)
• Key page visits (like a “thank you” page after an enquiry)

How to set it up:

1. Install the Google Ads conversion tracking tag on your website
2. Define conversion actions in Google Ads
3. Verify conversions are recording (test by submitting a form yourself)
4. Optional but recommended: link Google Analytics 4 to Google Ads for richer data

If you need help with this, it’s worth paying someone to do it properly. Getting tracking wrong means every decision you make afterwards is based on bad data.

Define Your Goals

Before creating campaigns, be clear about what success looks like:

• How many leads/sales do you need per month?
• What can you afford to pay per lead? (If a customer is worth £2,000, paying £50-£100 per lead is probably fine)
• What’s your monthly budget? Be realistic — for most competitive markets, £500/month is the minimum for useful data
• Which services/products do you want to advertise? Start with your most profitable offering

Setting Up Your First Campaign

Campaign Structure Matters

A well-structured campaign is the foundation of a profitable Google Ads account. Here’s a simple structure for a service business:

Campaign 1: Core Services

• Ad Group 1: [Service A] keywords
• Ad Group 2: [Service B] keywords
• Ad Group 3: [Service C] keywords

Campaign 2: Brand

• Ad Group 1: Your business name keywords

Campaign 3: Competitors (optional)

• Ad Group 1: Competitor name keywords

Why separate ad groups? Because each ad group has its own ads. When someone searches for “emergency plumber,” they should see an ad about emergency plumbing, not a generic ad about all your services. Relevance = better performance = lower costs.

Choosing Keywords

This is where most small businesses go wrong.

Use Exact and Phrase Match, Not Broad Match

Google offers three keyword match types:

• Broad match: Your ad shows for anything Google considers related (extremely loose)
• Phrase match: Your ad shows when the search includes your keyword phrase
• Exact match: Your ad shows only for very close variations of your keyword

Start with exact and phrase match. Broad match will eat your budget on irrelevant searches faster than you can say “wasted spend.”

Example for a plumber in Bristol:

• ✅ [plumber bristol] (exact match)
• ✅ “emergency plumber bristol” (phrase match)
• ❌ plumber (broad match — you’ll appear for “plumber salary,” “plumber apprenticeship,” “how to become a plumber”)

Negative Keywords (Critical)

Negative keywords tell Google what NOT to show your ads for. They are essential for preventing wasted spend.

Add these from day one:

• “free” — You don’t want people looking for free services
• “jobs,” “career,” “salary,” “apprenticeship” — Job seekers, not customers
• “DIY,” “how to” — People wanting to do it themselves
• “reviews” — People researching, not buying (unless you want them)
• Competitor brand names (unless you’re intentionally targeting them)

Review your Search Terms Report weekly. This shows you the actual searches that triggered your ads. You’ll find irrelevant terms — add them as negatives immediately.

Writing Ads That Convert

Google Ads gives you limited space, so every word matters.

Responsive Search Ads (RSA) structure:

• Headlines (up to 15): Include your keyword, your location, your unique selling point, a call-to-action
• Descriptions (up to 4): Expand on benefits, include specifics (prices, guarantees, experience), add urgency where appropriate

Good headlines for a plumber:

• “Emergency Plumber in Bristol”
• “24/7 Plumbing Services — Call Now”
• “No Call-Out Fee | Fixed Prices”
• “20+ Years Experience | 5-Star Rated”

Bad headlines:

• “Welcome to Our Website”
• “We Are a Plumbing Company”
• “Contact Us Today” (says nothing specific)

The test: Would your ad make you click if you were the one searching? If not, rewrite it.

Landing Pages

Never send Google Ads traffic to your homepage. This is the second most common mistake after missing conversion tracking.

Each ad group should send traffic to a relevant landing page:

• Searching for “emergency plumber Bristol”? → Send to your emergency plumbing page
• Searching for “bathroom installation Bristol”? → Send to your bathroom services page

A good landing page has:

• A headline that matches the ad and the search query
• Clear explanation of the service
• Trust signals (reviews, credentials, years of experience)
• A prominent call-to-action (phone number, contact form)
• Fast load time (under 3 seconds on mobile)

Managing Your Budget

Start Small, Scale What Works

Begin with £20-£30 per day (£600-£900/month). Run for 4-6 weeks to gather data. Then:

• Increase budget on campaigns/ad groups generating leads at an acceptable cost
• Reduce or pause campaigns that aren’t converting
• Never increase budget before you have conversion data — otherwise you’re just spending faster, not spending better

Bidding Strategy

For new accounts, start with Maximise Clicks to build data. After 30+ conversions, switch to Target CPA (cost per acquisition) or Maximise Conversions to let Google’s AI optimise for actual leads.

Don’t use automated bidding from day one if you have no conversion history — Google’s algorithm needs data to optimise, and without it, it’ll just spend your budget randomly.

Weekly Optimisation Routine (30 Minutes)

Google Ads isn’t set-and-forget. Here’s a quick weekly routine:

Every Week (30 minutes):

1. Check Search Terms Report — Add irrelevant terms as negative keywords
2. Review conversion data — Which keywords, ads, and campaigns are generating leads?
3. Check budget pacing — Are you spending your full budget? Running out early? Adjust.
4. Review ad performance — Pause underperforming ad variations
5. Check Quality Score — Low scores mean you’re paying more per click. Improve ad relevance and landing pages.

Every Month (1 hour):

1. Calculate cost per lead by campaign — Is each campaign profitable?
2. Review geographic performance — Are some areas converting better than others?
3. Test new ad copy — Always have at least 2 active ads per ad group
4. Review competitor landscape — Are new competitors entering? Have CPCs changed?
5. Report on ROI — For more on this, see our marketing ROI guide

The Most Expensive Mistakes

After auditing hundreds of accounts, these are the mistakes I see most often:

1. No conversion tracking — Flying blind. Fix this before anything else.
2. Broad match keywords — Showing ads for irrelevant searches. Switch to exact/phrase.
3. No negative keywords — Paying for clicks from people who’ll never buy.
4. Sending traffic to the homepage — Generic pages convert poorly. Use specific landing pages.
5. Set and forget — Not reviewing performance weekly. Campaigns decay without maintenance.
6. Ignoring mobile — Over 60% of searches are on mobile. If your landing page isn’t mobile-optimised, you’re losing most of your clicks.
7. Too many keywords per ad group — Leads to generic ads. Keep 5-15 closely related keywords per ad group.
8. No ad scheduling — If you’re a B2B business, why are your ads running at 2am? Schedule ads during business hours.

When to Get Help

Google Ads can be self-managed, but consider professional help if:

• You’re spending over £1,000/month (the ROI from expert management usually exceeds the management fee)
• You don’t have time for weekly optimisation
• Your cost per lead is higher than you’d like and you’re not sure why
• You’re in a competitive industry with expensive clicks
• You’ve been running ads for 3+ months without clear ROI

A good ads manager should pay for themselves — if they’re charging £500/month but saving you £800/month in wasted spend, that’s a no-brainer. Read our guide on how to choose a marketing consultant for what to look for.

Want Google Ads That Actually Make Money?

At Black Sheep Marketing, we manage Google Ads campaigns for small businesses across the UK. We set up tracking properly, structure campaigns for performance, and optimise weekly to drive your cost per lead down over time.

No long contracts. No jargon-filled reports. Just more leads for less money.

Get a Free Google Ads Audit →

Related Reading

• Marketing Strategy for Small Business UK: The Complete Guide
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• How to Measure Marketing ROI (Without a Data Science Degree)
• ROAS Explained: Return on Ad Spend for Non-Marketers