How Google Ads works (the bare minimum you need to know)
In search campaigns, your ad appears when someone types something related to the keywords you have chosen. You pay per click: according to Google’s help, a click will not cost you more than the maximum cost per click (CPC) you have set, and the real average shows in your account as “Avg. CPC”.
The ad does not sell anything by itself. Its job is to take an interested person to a page where they can act. If that page does not convince, you still pay for the click.
Unlike organic ranking, here you pay for every click: if you stop investing, visits from the ads stop arriving. In the guide Google Ads or SEO we compare when each one makes sense.
Before spending a single euro: goal and conversions
The first step, according to Google, is to decide which actions you want to measure. A result can be a purchase, a call, a form submission or a booking. Without that definition you will not know whether the campaign works.
Write down in one sentence what you want to achieve (“receive 10 quote requests a month”) without making up a figure: use a quantity that makes sense for your business.
Decide which action counts as a conversion.
Set up conversion tracking before switching the ads on. Google supports actions on the website, calls from ads, app installs and offline conversions.
Check with a test that they are really being recorded.
If you do not measure, you cannot optimise
A campaign without conversion tracking will only tell you how many clicks you have paid for, not how many customers have come to you.
Who creates the account and who pays for the advertising
The Google Ads account must be in your business’s name. In Reflected Studio’s working model, you create the account and give access to the campaign manager; you pay the advertising spend directly to Google with your own payment method, and the studio takes care of managing the campaigns. That way the money and the account data are yours from day one and you can withdraw access whenever you like.
Always ask to be shown the account and the reports regularly. A good manager has nothing to hide when it comes to spend.
How to set the budget without guessing
Google treats a campaign’s budget as a daily average. On a given day it can spend up to double that amount, to make up for days with little traffic, but the monthly charge will not exceed 30.4 times your average daily budget. That is what its official help says.
There is no magic figure. To estimate it:
- Work out how much you can pay to win a customer and still be profitable: the profit on a sale minus your costs.
- Think about how many customers you want and how many enquiries you need to get them, based on your real experience.
- Start with an amount you can afford to spend without results during the learning phase.
- Review it with real data after a few weeks, not on instinct.
Be clear that clicks that do not convert are paid for too. That is why it is best to start small and scale up when you see which campaigns work.
Keywords, match types and negatives
Choose terms that reflect a specific need: “emergency plumber 24 hours” shows intent; “what is a plumber” shows curiosity. Better a few relevant searches than many scattered ones.
| Match type | How it is written | When the ad shows |
|---|---|---|
| Exact | [purple flowers] | For the exact term or close variants with the same meaning |
| Phrase | "purple flowers" | If the search contains the phrase, with something before or after it |
| Broad | purple flowers | For variations, including related terms |
Negative keywords stop the ad from showing on irrelevant searches. The official example: a glasses shop adds “wine” so as not to appear for “wine glasses”.
Every week, review the search terms report: you will see what people actually typed. Irrelevant ones become negatives; those that convert become keywords of their own.
The ad and the landing page
Google scores quality with three components: expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience. It is a diagnostic tool, not a figure that goes into the auction, and Google recommends not treating it as a goal in itself. Even so, it tells you where the fault lies.
- The ad must promise the same thing the page offers.
- The landing page must be specific: one service, one clear action, a visible phone number or form.
- Avoid sending all the traffic to the home page.
- Check that the page looks and works well on mobile.
If your website is not ready to convert, improve it before investing in ads. The guide on what a business website needs gives you a list.
A routine for not losing money
First week: check that conversions are being recorded and that there is no spend on absurd searches.
Every week: review search terms, add negatives and pause whatever spends without converting.
Every month: compare cost per conversion with what you can afford to pay.
Do not change ten things at once: that way you will know what caused each variation.
No manager can promise you a number of customers: it depends on the offer, the price, the competition and the website. What can be done is to control spend, measure and improve with data. If you would like us to run it, there is the Google Ads service.
Frequently asked questions
How much should I invest in Google Ads each month?
There is no figure that works for everyone. Work out how much you can pay per customer without losing money, how many enquiries you need to get one, and start with an amount you can bear during the learning period. Then adjust with real conversion data.
Do I only pay when someone contacts me?
No. In search campaigns with a click-based strategy you pay for each click on the ad, whether or not a contact follows. That is why fine-tuning keywords and the landing page matters so much.
Does paying for ads improve my position in the normal results?
They are different channels: ads are paid per click, and organic results depend on how your website ranks. Having ads does not replace SEO work, nor the other way round.
How long does it take to see results?
Ads can be switched on without waiting for organic ranking, but useful results arrive after collecting data and adjusting. There is no fixed timescale: it depends on search volume, competition and the quality of the page.
Sources5
- Google Ads Help — How budgets worksupport.google.com (opens in a new tab)
- Google Ads Help — Cost per click (CPC)support.google.com (opens in a new tab)
- Google Ads Help — Ways to track conversionssupport.google.com (opens in a new tab)
- Google Ads Help — Quality Scoresupport.google.com (opens in a new tab)
- Google Ads Help — Keyword matching optionssupport.google.com (opens in a new tab)
