How to set up Google Ads for a small business: a plain-English first campaign, step by step (UK)

In shortA first Google Ads campaign in nine steps, based on Google's own help pages: Expert Mode or Smart campaigns, tracking, location, budget, keywords, negatives, ads and billing.

To set up Google Ads for a small business, create an account in Expert Mode, build one Search campaign around one service in one area, and set up conversion tracking before you spend a penny. Then add location, budget, keywords, negatives, an ad and billing, in that order.

It is not hard, but it has a right order. This guide walks through each step using Google's own help pages, says where people commonly go wrong, and tells you plainly where we think the defaults are not good enough.

Should you use a Smart campaign or Expert Mode?

Choose Expert Mode if you want to know which searches your money is going on, and a Smart campaign only if you want the least effort possible and accept less visibility.

A Smart campaign is Google's simplified campaign type for small businesses. Google's help says you give it a budget, location preferences and a few keyword themes, and it shows your ad to people looking for what you offer, with minimal ongoing management. A Search campaign is the standard type in Expert Mode, where you choose your own keywords, set bid prices and structure the account yourself.

Google's comparison page lays out the trade-off:

Google also says you can only create Smart campaigns in Smart Mode, and that you can change to Expert Mode at any time. We would choose Expert Mode for any business that cares about cost per enquiry, because search term reports show what is wasting money.

Step 1: Create the Search campaign

In Google Ads, go to Campaigns, click the plus icon and choose New campaign. Google's Search campaign guide says to pick an objective of Sales, Leads or Website traffic, then choose Search as the campaign type. It also says at least one conversion goal is required to create a Search campaign, even if you choose to create it without a goal's guidance.

For a service business, choose Leads. Name the campaign after the service, such as "Boiler repair Leeds".

Step 2: Set up conversion tracking first

Conversion tracking tells Google, and you, which clicks led to something that matters. Google's conversion guide says you choose what counts as valuable, such as a purchase, sign-up or phone call, and lists separate routes for website actions, phone calls and offline conversions. You create a separate conversion action for each type.

This matters more than any other setting, because Google's bidding guidance says that for conversion-focused bidding you need your tracking set up correctly and the actions you want to optimise for set as Primary. If the tracking counts the wrong thing, the automation optimises toward the wrong thing. We cover the usual causes in why your Google Ads conversions are wrong.

The practical rule: count enquiries, not page views. A form submission or a tracked phone call is a conversion. A menu click is not.

Step 3: Choose your location and language

Target the places where your customers are, which Google points out is not necessarily where your business is located. You can choose countries, areas within a country, or a radius around a location. Google's help says radius targeting needs a radius of at least one kilometre.

Two warnings from the same page. A very small target may show your ads only intermittently or not at all. And Google recommends broad geo targeting ("Presence or interest") on Search as a best practice, but says Presence targeting makes sense when you only want people who are physically in the locations you chose.

Presence or interest is a location option that reaches people who are in your chosen area and people who have shown interest in it. For a plumber who only travels 15 miles, that can mean paying for clicks from people you will never visit, so we would choose Presence.

Step 4: Set your budget and bidding

Google defines the average daily budget as roughly what you are comfortable spending each day over a month. Some days you will spend less and some more, but Google says you will never pay more than twice the daily budget on any day, or 30.4 times the daily budget in a month, for most campaigns. Google's worked example is that £304 a month gives a daily budget of £10. That is arithmetic, not a recommendation, checked on Google's page on 29 September 2026. For what clicks actually cost in your trade, see how much Google Ads cost in the UK.

For bidding, Google says to match the strategy to your goal. If you want customers to take an action and you have conversion tracking, focus on conversions with Smart Bidding. If you want traffic, focus on clicks. Google says Maximise clicks can be useful for new campaigns that lack enough conversion data for Target CPA or Target ROAS.

One documented trap: Google says Smart Bidding strategies need a standard 7 to 14 day learning phase and that frequent manual changes to budgets, targets or conversion goals in that window reset it. So set it up, then leave it for a fortnight.

Step 5: Choose keywords and match types

Keywords are the words or phrases that help match your ads to what people search for, and match types control how closely a search must relate to your keyword. Google describes three:

• Broad match is the default. Ads may show on searches related to your keyword, including ones that do not contain its direct meaning.
• Phrase match shows on searches that include the meaning of your keyword, and uses quotation marks, such as "tennis shoes".
• Exact match shows on searches with the same meaning or intent, and uses square brackets, such as [red shoe]. Google says it gives you the most steering but reaches fewer searches.

Google also says it is critical to use Smart Bidding with broad match. Our view is that a first campaign with little conversion data should start with phrase and exact match, on the services you really sell, and only widen once you have enquiries to learn from.

Keep it tight. In our view, each ad group should cover one service: if you sell boiler repairs and bathroom fitting, that is two ad groups with two ads and two landing pages.

Step 6: Add negative keywords

Negative keywords are terms that stop your ad showing on searches containing them. Google's example is an optician selling spectacles who adds "wine glasses" and "drinking glasses" as negatives.

Google notes that negatives behave differently from positive keywords. They do not match close variants, so a negative broad match keyword "flowers" blocks "red flowers" but not "red flower". You need to add plurals and synonyms yourself. Start with obvious exclusions such as "jobs" or "free" if they do not fit what you sell, then add more each week from your search terms report.

Step 7: Write the ads

Search ads in Expert Mode are usually responsive search ads. Google's help says you enter a minimum of three headlines and two descriptions, and can enter up to 15 headlines and four descriptions. Headlines allow up to 30 characters and descriptions up to 90. Google tests combinations and learns which perform best, and says assets can appear in any order, so each one should make sense on its own.

Write headlines that repeat what people searched for, name the area and say what happens next, only where it is true. Then add assets such as sitelinks, callouts and a call button, which give people more ways to respond.

The ad only earns its click. The page decides whether the click becomes an enquiry, so use our Google Ads landing page checklist before you send traffic anywhere.

Step 8: Check the network settings

Google's Search campaign setup includes tick boxes for the Display Network and Google search partners, and says Google will show your ads on other sites if it sees an opportunity.

Our view: for a first local campaign, untick Display, because you want people actively searching. Performance Max is a separate campaign type that mixes channels, and we explain when it suits a small business in Performance Max for small business.

Step 9: Set up billing

Google says there are two things to consider: your payment setting (when you pay) and your payment method (what you pay with). Depending on your country and currency, the settings can include postpay, where you are charged after your ads run, and prepay, where you pay first and your ads stop when the credit is used up. Some eligible businesses can also use monthly invoicing.

Postpay is simpler because ads do not stop unexpectedly. Prepay gives a harder ceiling on spend, which some owners prefer. You may be able to switch between them in your billing settings.

Where small businesses commonly go wrong

These come from Google's own guidance, apart from the last one, which is our view.

Our view

Google Ads is worth trying only if you can measure enquiries and answer the phone. A small business with no tracking and a generic homepage will pay for clicks and learn nothing. We would rather you spend the first fortnight getting tracking and one good page right.

Many owners can set this up themselves. What takes time is the weekly review and the judgment about what to cut. If you would rather hand that over, our PPC management service covers it, and book a free thirty-minute call if you want us to look at an account you already have.

David DomingosFounder of Lucent Digital Studio. Runs the design, build, SEO and Google Ads work himself, from Leeds.

About David →