How to Set Up a Google Ads Search Campaign Step by Step

Setting up a Google Ads Search campaign feels complicated the first time, mainly because Google asks for many decisions at once. The trick is to decide them in the right order: goal first, then audience and location, then keywords, then ads, then measurement. Do that, and a campaign that once took a week of second-guessing can be live in a focused afternoon, with a clear plan for the first two weeks.

Step 1: Define one goal and one conversion

Before you open Google Ads, write down the single action you want. It might be a booked consultation, a completed purchase, a phone call over 60 seconds, or a submitted quote form. That action becomes your primary conversion. If you try to optimise for calls, form fills, newsletter sign-ups and purchases at the same time, Google cannot tell which result matters most, and your reports will look busy while telling you little.

Work backwards from value. If a booked call is worth about $120 in profit and one in four calls becomes a customer, a lead is worth roughly $30 in expected profit before ad costs. That number helps you judge cost per conversion later. If you do not know your numbers yet, start with a test budget you can afford to lose for learning, and treat the first month as research, not profit. The budget planning guide and the Budget Calculator will help you turn a monthly budget into a daily budget and an expected number of clicks.

Step 2: Choose the campaign type and settings

In Google Ads, choose New Campaign, then Sales or Leads, then Search. Give the campaign a clear name, such as Leads, Leeds, Emergency Plumbing. Turn off the Search Partners and Display Network options at first, so your budget stays on Google Search, where intent is strongest. Set the location to the area you actually serve, and check the location option that targets people in that location, not just people interested in it.

Set languages to the languages your customers use, and set an ad schedule if your business only answers calls during certain hours. A daily budget of $20 to $30 is a reasonable test range for many small local campaigns, but the right amount depends on click costs in your market. If average cost per click is $4, a $20 daily budget buys only five clicks a day, which will take a long time to learn from. In expensive markets, a smaller geographic area or a narrower keyword set is often better than a tiny budget spread too thin.

Step 3: Build ad groups around one theme

Create two or three ad groups to start, each built around one service and one landing page. For a dentist, that might be emergency dentist, teeth whitening, and dental check-up. Inside each ad group, add 10 to 20 closely related keywords. Start with phrase match and exact match for your most important terms, because they give you more control over which searches trigger your ads. Broad match can be useful later, but early on it often brings searches you did not intend to pay for.

Add negative keywords from the start. Include job-related terms, free, DIY, salary, training and other words that signal someone is not a buyer, unless your business genuinely serves that audience. Then, after launch, check the search terms report at least twice in the first two weeks and add any irrelevant queries as negatives. This routine is one of the cheapest ways to improve a new campaign, and it is covered in more detail in the keyword research guide and the account structure guide.

Step 4: Write responsive search ads that match the search

Write two or three responsive search ads per ad group. Each ad can have up to 15 headlines and four descriptions, but Google will mix them, so make sure every headline works on its own. Put the main keyword in at least two headlines, state the benefit clearly, and end with a specific call to action, such as Book a same-day appointment or Get a free quote in 60 seconds. Avoid vague claims such as best service, and avoid promises the landing page cannot prove.

A good test is to read the ad as if you were the searcher. If you searched for emergency plumber near me, would this ad tell you how fast help arrives, whether someone answers the phone, and what happens next? If not, rewrite it. The ad copy guide has headline formulas and worked examples, and the Quality Score guide explains why relevance, expected click-through rate and landing page experience matter for cost.

Step 5: Add extensions and set up conversion tracking

Before you launch, add sitelinks to key pages, callouts for benefits such as same-day service or free quotes, a call extension if phone calls matter, and a location extension if you have a physical premises. Extensions make your ad larger, give searchers more reasons to click, and often improve click-through rate without increasing your bid.

Conversion tracking is not optional. If you launch without it, you will know how many clicks you bought, but not whether they produced calls, forms or sales. Set up conversion actions for your primary goal before launch, test them with a real form submission or call, and confirm the data appears in Google Ads. The conversion tracking guide walks through the main options step by step.

Step 6: Choose bidding, launch, then review on a schedule

For a brand-new campaign with little conversion data, manual CPC or Maximise Clicks with a maximum CPC limit gives you control over costs while you learn. Once you have 30 to 50 conversions, automated strategies such as Maximise Conversions or Target CPA become more reliable, because Google has data to learn from. The bidding strategies guide compares each option in plain language.

After launch, resist the urge to change everything every day. Check daily for obvious problems, such as a paused ad, a rejected ad or a budget that runs out by 9 am, but wait at least seven days before judging performance. Then review search terms, pause keywords with many clicks and no conversions, improve the weakest ad, and check that the landing page loads quickly on a phone. Small, regular changes beat a weekly rebuild.

Your launch checklist

• One goal and one primary conversion, tested and working.
• Search campaign only, with the correct location, language and schedule.
• Two or three themed ad groups, each with its own landing page.
• Phrase and exact match keywords, plus a starter negative list.
• Two or three responsive search ads per ad group, with a clear call to action.
• Sitelinks, callouts, call and location extensions where relevant.
• A daily budget you can sustain for at least 30 days.
• A review date in your calendar, with search terms and conversion data ready.

Once your first Search campaign is stable, explore the guides index, avoid the common beginner mistakes, and use the free tools to plan the next test.

Finally, save a copy of your settings before you make major changes. A screenshot or a short note with your daily budget, bidding choice, location and start date makes it easy to undo a test that did not work. Good campaign setup is not about getting every setting perfect on day one. It is about starting with a clear, testable structure, measuring the right conversion, and improving one thing at a time.