How to Set Up a Google Ads Search Campaign

How to Set Up a Google Ads Search Campaign the Right Way: A Step-by-Step Guide

• Objective: Sales or Leads, with only the conversion goals you actually want
• Bidding: Maximize Conversions, no target CPA at launch
• Networks: Search Partners and Display Network both off
• Locations: "Presence" only, not "Presence or interest"
• Audiences: Observation, not Targeting
• AI Max: off at launch
• Keywords: phrase and exact match to start
• Assets: sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, a call asset and images
• After launch: exclude tablets, add negative keywords and exclude your own brand terms

Google Ads can be one of the fastest ways for a business to reach customers who are actively searching for what it sells. It can also be one of the fastest ways to spend money with nothing to show for it.

The difference usually comes down to setup. Several of Google's default settings are designed to expand reach, not to protect your budget. If you accept them without question, your ads can end up on low-quality websites, in front of people outside your service area, and on searches that have nothing to do with your business.

This guide walks through each stage of building a Search campaign, which settings to change, and why. As a running example, we'll use a local carpet cleaning company that wants phone calls and booked appointments.

Step 1: Choose Your Campaign Objective and Conversion Goals

When you create a new campaign, Google asks you to pick an objective. For most businesses, only two matter:

• Leads, if you want calls, form submissions or booked appointments
• Sales, if you sell products online

Objectives such as website traffic or awareness optimize for activity rather than revenue, so they are rarely the right choice for a campaign that needs to pay for itself.

You can also choose to create a campaign without guidance. This doesn't affect performance; it simply skips Google's suggestions during setup. Either route works.

Next, select Search as the campaign type and review the conversion goals Google attaches. Remove any that don't reflect real business value. Our carpet cleaner keeps only booked appointments and phone calls, so the campaign optimizes for the outcomes that actually produce revenue.

Finally, give the campaign a clear name. A simple convention such as campaign type, service and location (for example, "Search | Carpet Cleaning | Fort Wayne") makes the account far easier to manage as it grows.

Step 2: Set Your Bidding Strategy

For most new campaigns, start with Maximize Conversions and leave the optional target cost per action (target CPA) blank. Setting a target too early can restrict the campaign before Google has any data to work with.

Watch delivery closely for the first one to two weeks. A brand-new campaign with no conversion history sometimes struggles under Maximize Conversions: impressions stay low and the daily budget goes largely unspent. If that happens, switch to Maximize Clicks to build traffic and data, then move back to a conversion-focused strategy once conversions start coming in.

You can skip the customer acquisition setting for now.

Step 3: Turn Off Search Partners and the Display Network

This is one of the most important steps, and one of the easiest to miss. Google pre-selects both networks and labels them as recommended.

• Google Display Network: off. Display ads behave very differently from search ads. Someone browsing a website is not in the same mindset as someone searching for a service. If you want display advertising, run it as a separate campaign with its own budget and creative.
• Search Partners: off at launch. Partner sites can deliver lower-quality traffic. Once the campaign is performing well and you need more volume, test Search Partners deliberately and compare results.

Step 4: Target the Right Locations

Add the areas you actually serve: a city, county, ZIP codes or a radius around your business.

Then open Location options. (opens in a new tab) By default, Google targets people who are in your area, regularly in your area, or have shown interest in it. That third group can include people searching from hundreds of miles away.

For a local service business, select Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations (opens in a new tab). Your ads will then show only to people likely to be physically located in the areas you serve.

Set the language to match your ads, and if you are not running political ads, say so when Google asks about EU political advertising.

Step 5: Add Audiences in Observation Mode

You can layer audience segments onto a Search campaign, such as people interested in home cleaning services or homeowners. The key is the targeting setting:

• Observation shows your ads to everyone who matches your keywords and reports how each audience performs.
• Targeting restricts your ads to people in those audiences only, which can sharply limit reach.

At launch, always choose Observation. Audiences won't change performance much early on, but the data they collect will help you make better decisions later.

Step 6: Review the Remaining Campaign Settings

• Ad rotation: choose "Optimize: Prefer best performing ads."
• End date: leave it blank. You can pause a campaign at any time.
• Ad schedule: match it to when you can respond. If leads go cold when nobody answers the phone after hours, limit ads to business hours. If you have after-hours call coverage, running around the clock can be an advantage, since some competitors switch their ads off at night.
• Campaign URL options and page feeds: skip these unless you use third-party tracking or a page feed.

Step 7: Leave AI Max Off for Now

Google will offer to turn on AI Max for Search campaigns (opens in a new tab), a set of automated features that expands your keyword matching (opens in a new tab), generates ad text and can send visitors to different pages on your site.

It can work well in a mature campaign, but it is a poor starting point. One important detail: when AI Max's search term matching is turned on, Google treats your keywords as broad match. That removes the control you need while a new campaign is still learning. Launch with AI Max off, and test it later once you have a stable baseline to compare against. Google will offer it again at the ad group level, so check that it is off there too.

You can also skip Goog (opens in a new tab)le's automatic keyword and asset suggestions if you have already done your own research.

Step 8: Build Your Ad Group and Choose Keyword Match Types

Each ad group should focus on one tightly related set of keywords. Our carpet cleaner starts with a single ad group built around core searches such as "carpet cleaning Fort Wayne" and "carpet cleaning near me."

How each keyword matches searches depends on its match type:

For a new campaign, use phrase and exact match only. Broad match is Google's default, and it can reach a huge range of loosely related searches. Without a solid base of conversion data, that usually means paying for irrelevant clicks. Accounts already spending heavily, with plenty of conversion history, are better placed to test it.

Step 9: Write Your Ad and Add Assets

Write a responsive search ad with a full set of headlines and descriptions, and set the final URL to the most relevant landing page. Then add assets, which make your ad larger, more useful and more clickable.

Sitelinks deserve special attention. When Google shows several of them, your ad takes up far more space on the results page, pushing competitors further down.

For images, photos from your own website or job sites are usually the most credible. Stock and AI-generated images are options, but review them carefully and use only those that genuinely represent your business.

Step 10: Set a Realistic Budget

A practical rule of thumb is to budget for at least 10 clicks per day based on the average cost per click from your keyword research. If clicks in your market average $10, a daily budget of around $100 is a reasonable starting point.

Treat Google's projected results on the budget screen with caution. They are estimates, often optimistic, and should not be read as a forecast.

Review the campaign summary and publish. If Google then prompts you to set up a Google tag that is already installed, you can close that screen.

Step 11: Finish the Setup After Launch

A few important settings are only available once the campaign exists. Open the campaign settings, confirm everything you just configured, then complete these steps.

Exclude tablets

Under devices, set a -100% bid adjustment for tablets. Tablet traffic is typically low in volume and converts poorly, so removing it keeps a new campaign focused on mobile and desktop. Turn tablets back on once the campaign is performing well.

Add negative keywords

Negative keywords stop your ads from showing on irrelevant searches. For our carpet cleaner, that includes:

• Rentals and DIY: rent, rental, machine, DIY
• Products: vacuum, shampooer and equipment brand names
• Job seekers: jobs, hiring, careers, internship, apprenticeship
• Unrelated meanings: auto, car, boat
• Competitor names you don't want to bid on

AI tools such as ChatGPT can generate a useful starting list, but review every suggestion. Some will block searches you actually want. A carpet cleaner that runs promotions, for example, should not exclude words like "coupon" or "deal."

Exclude your own brand name

Add your business name, and its common variations and misspellings, as negative keywords in non-brand campaigns. Saving them as a shared negative keyword list makes them easy to apply across campaigns.

The reason is simple: a non-brand campaign exists to find new customers. People searching for your business by name already know you, and including them inflates results and hides how well the campaign actually performs. Run brand searches in a separate brand campaign.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should a new Google Ads campaign use broad match? In most cases, no. Start with phrase and exact match to keep traffic relevant. Broad match is better suited to accounts with substantial conversion history.

Should I keep Google Search Partners turned on? Not at launch. Test Search Partners later, once the campaign performs well on Google Search alone and you need more volume.

Why are my ads getting clicks from outside my area? The default location option includes people who have shown interest in your area. Switch to "Presence" to reach only people in or regularly in your target locations.

What should I do if Maximize Conversions isn't spending my budget? Give it one to two weeks. If impressions and spend stay low, switch to Maximize Clicks to build data, then return to a conversion-based strategy once conversions start coming in.

Conclusion

A profitable Google Ads campaign doesn't come from a single clever trick. It comes from getting the fundamentals right: tracking the conversions that matter, keeping traffic local and relevant, starting with tight keyword controls, and adding automation only once you have data to measure it against.

Set the campaign up carefully, review the search terms report regularly, and keep adding negative keywords as new irrelevant searches appear. Small adjustments made consistently are what turn ad spend into a reliable source of leads.

Want a Google Ads campaign built to bring in qualified leads instead of wasted clicks? Webtech Ninjas can setup, manage and audit your campaigns. Contact us to get started.