Google Ads / 8 min read
Structuring a Google Ads account before any money is spent
An ads account is a filing system for money. Where the campaigns, keywords and negatives are put before launch decides what the first month can teach you, and what it can only waste.
Most of the decisions that matter in a trade business's Google Ads account are made before it is switched on. The structure decides what the platform may spend on, what it reports back, and whether that report means anything.
What follows is the order we build in, for a business selling a handful of services across one or more markets. Nothing in it is a performance claim. It is the method.
Campaigns and ad groups, by service and by market
- 01
One campaign per service
Roofing, gutters and siding are separate campaigns, not one called home services. Budget is set per campaign, so this is what lets money move towards the work you want.
- 02
Split by market only where the market differs
A second campaign for a second city earns its place when the service area, the competition or the pricing genuinely differ. Otherwise one campaign covers the whole area.
- 03
One ad group per way of asking
Inside a campaign, keywords are grouped by how the search is phrased: repair, replacement, emergency, commercial. Each group gets its own ad, written in the searcher's words.
Match types and the negative lists
A keyword is not a search. It is a rule about which searches may show the ad, and the match type sets how loosely that rule is applied.
- Start tight
- A new account launches on the tighter match types, so the first spend goes to searches that clearly mean the service. Wider matching is added later, one ad group at a time, where the search terms report earns it.
- Read the search terms report, not the keyword list
- It shows what people actually typed before the ad appeared. On a neglected account the gap between the two is where most of the money goes.
- Negatives are lists, loaded before launch
- One shared list for the whole account, and one per campaign where a word is a buyer in one service and waste in another. After launch they grow from the search terms report.
What goes on the starting negative list
The categories that look like a buyer to the platform and are not.
- Job and career searches, including apprenticeship and training.
- Do it yourself and how to searches.
- Product and material shopping, where the business sells the installed job rather than the part.
- Free and cheap, where the business does not compete on price.
- Software, franchise and business opportunity research.
The landing page keeps the promise the ad made
An ad for emergency roof repair that lands on a general services page has broken its promise before the visitor reads a word. Each campaign gets a page about that service, and where the markets are separate, each market gets its own.
The page says what the service is and shows the business's own finished work where permission exists. It states the service area and puts the phone number and the form where a phone user sees them first. If that page does not exist, building it comes before the launch.
Calls and forms are the only conversions
A conversion is a submitted enquiry or a phone call of real length. It is not a page load. Optimising towards a page view teaches the platform to buy the wrong traffic.
So the landing page carries a tracking number, and a call counts only above a length agreed with the business. The form counts on the confirmation the visitor sees after sending, not on the page that holds it. Before launch, a test call and a test form are made and found in the account.
Budget pacing
The budget is agreed as a monthly figure before anything is built, and the campaigns are set so that the month's money lasts the month. It is rolled out in phases: small at the start, so the early spend is tuition rather than loss, then moved towards what is producing enquiries.
Pacing is checked against the calendar each week. Spend running ahead of the calendar with no enquiries behind it is the earliest warning the account gives. It is caught at the review rather than on the invoice.
What the weekly review looks at
| Looked at | What it decides |
|---|---|
| Search terms report | Which searches become negatives, and which earn a keyword of their own. |
| Calls and forms, by campaign | Whether the recorded conversions were real enquiries, checked against what the office actually received. |
| Spend against the calendar | Whether any campaign is ahead of or behind pace, and why. |
| Budget between campaigns | Whether money should move towards the service producing enquiries, recorded with the reason. |
What social media does that the ads cannot
Search ads reach a person at the moment they are looking for the service, and only then. They do nothing for the foreman deciding where to work next, or the general contractor glancing at a company before an invitation to bid.
That is what the social profiles are for, and it is why we do not sell them as a lead source. Recruitment, credibility before an invitation, and staying visible to people who already know the business. The ads bring in the enquiry. The profile is what the enquirer checks before calling.
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