We hear this fairly often:
“I’ve tried Google Ads. It didn’t work.”
Sometimes that is true. Google Ads is not right for every business.
But it is also worth understanding that simply having run ads on Google tells us very little about the strategy behind them.
For many service businesses, Google Ads is one of the first places we like to start because it gives us a relatively direct way to connect the business with people who are already looking for what it sells.
They have searched for the service.
They are in an area the business can service.
There is already intent.
Our job is to make sure we are connecting the right version of that demand with the business.
Google is the platform, not the strategy
We do not rely on Google to decide what a campaign should be.
We look at the business first.
What work does it actually want more of? Which customers are the right fit? Which services are profitable? Which locations make sense? What would the ideal customer search when they are genuinely ready to buy?
From there we make deliberate decisions around keywords, exclusions, ad copy, landing pages, geographic targeting, bidding, budgets, schedules and what we actually consider a worthwhile conversion.
That context matters.
We once audited a Google Ads campaign for a structural landscaping business that designs and constructs substantial residential projects.
The campaign was targeting people searching for garden maintenance.
Both involve gardens.
Commercially, they are completely different customers.
A campaign can generate clicks and still completely miss the point.
It can also tell us a lot, quickly
One of the other reasons we like Google Ads is the feedback.
If we can send fresh, relevant prospective customers to a website, we start learning what happens when people who genuinely need the service encounter the business for the first time.
If we audit a website and can already see that it is not ready for paid traffic, we will say so. There is no point spending a client’s advertising budget proving something we already know.
But if there is genuine uncertainty, Google Ads can be a very useful test.
Are the right people clicking?
Are they enquiring?
Which services attract demand?
Which search terms produce the strongest leads?
Where are people dropping away?
It gives us real customer behaviour to work with rather than an argument about whether somebody likes the website.
We can adjust as the business changes
The other advantage is flexibility.
Businesses do not need an identical stream of enquiries every month.
Sometimes there is capacity and we want more.
Sometimes the team is overwhelmed.
One service may be quiet while another is booked out. A specialist may leave. A business may want to grow in one area while pulling back from another.
A well-structured campaign gives us levers we can adjust accordingly.
It is not a tap that produces an exact number of leads on command, but we can change budgets, priorities, locations, services and schedules far more quickly than we can with many broader marketing activities.
Because more leads is not always the goal.
The goal is the right amount of the right work for the business at that point in time.
That is why we often start there
Google Ads can connect us with existing demand reasonably quickly. It is measurable. It can give us useful feedback on the rest of the customer journey. And we can adapt it as the priorities and capacity of the business change.
But none of that happens simply because the ads are on Google.
The platform is the tool.
The strategy is knowing who you want to reach, what they are looking for, what to say when you find them and what needs to happen once they click.
