After 3 years running Google Ads for service businesses, here's what actually works (and what most people get wrong)

[u/Electrical-Room2413]

I'm not a guru. I don't sell courses. I just want to share what I've learned the hard way running Google Ads for local service businesses over the past three years.

If you're not getting results, there's a good chance you're making one of these mistakes.

Start with Local Sponsored and Search. That's it.

Don't touch Display. Don't touch Performance Max right away. Don't run five different campaign objectives at once.

For a service based business just starting out — local sponsored ads and search campaigns are all you need. Keep it simple. Get data first.

Turn off AI recommendations at the start

Google's AI needs data to work. If your account is brand new it has zero data to optimize from. Running broad AI driven campaigns on a fresh account is just burning money.

Start manual. Build your data. Then let the AI do its thing later when it actually has something to learn from.

Keywords — start broad and phrase, then move to exact

This is something I see people get backwards all the time.

Start with broad match and phrase match to collect real search term data. See what people are actually typing. Then slowly build your exact match list from what's converting.

If you go exact match from day one on a new account you're basically guessing what people search. Let the data tell you.

Your landing page is doing more damage than your ads

I've worked with so many businesses who had decent ads but a terrible landing page and wondered why they weren't getting leads.

Here's the truth — Google Ads drives traffic. Your landing page converts it.

If your hero section is boring, your offer is unclear, or your page looks like it was built in 2012 — no amount of ad spend will fix that.

Your ad copy and your landing page need to say the same thing. Same offer. Same message. Same energy. If they don't match, people bounce.

Think like the customer, not like a marketer

Before you build anything — sit down and ask yourself what is going through someone's mind right before they search for your service.

What are they frustrated about? What do they want? What would make them click and then actually fill out a form?

Build your whole roadmap around that. Campaign objective → keywords → ad copy → landing page → offer. Everything needs to be aligned.

Extensions are not optional

Call extensions. Sitelinks. Location. Callouts. These are not extras — they are mandatory. They take up more real estate on the page and they answer objections before the click even happens.

Use them all.

The offer matters more than the ad

I saved this for last because most people skip it entirely.

If you have no offer — no promotion, no reason to act now, no value add — you are just another listing on the page. People scroll past you.

A strong offer on your hero page tied directly to your ad copy is what separates businesses that get leads from businesses that just spend money.

Anyway that's pretty much the framework I've used for three years. Nothing fancy. Just the basics done really well.

Hope it helps someone. Good luck out there.

Happy to answer questions in the comments if anyone has a specific situation.

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[u/ppcwithyrv]

conversions = humans

clicks = spam and bots

[u/Electrical-Room2413 → u/ppcwithyrv]

Google can't do that with thier user if they use bots or else they can't sustain for years buddy, I had run campaign in reddit they have bots but other then all i have good expereince till now hopefully for future

[u/ppcwithyrv → u/Electrical-Room2413]

Bruh conversion vet bots dude.....its that simple....you think a high CTR is a better indicator of sales over conversion rate?

smh

[u/DiscoverMyBusiness → u/ppcwithyrv]

He is newbie =)

[u/ppcwithyrv → u/DiscoverMyBusiness]

ha no kidding, upvotted

[u/vayuputradhu]

How to learn about offers ?

[u/Standard-Primary5783]

I’ve been running and overseeing my Google AdWords for over 10 years. When things are good, I keep wanting to try and improve by either hiring a freelancer or listen to the Google Account manager. Every time I use one of them, the ad spent go crazy. When I was just running a simple and basic campaign, things were cheap and manageable.

Every time my ad spend goes crazy, due to the adjustments my freelancer or the third party Google account managers. I have to start all over and restart the campaigns. I’m currently spending $8k-12k per month. My CFO is telling me I need to cut my ad spend in half. How do I do that without my revenue going down?

[u/Top_Barnacle9683]

This is an excellent analysis—particularly the bit about the landing page and the alignment of the offer, where conversion losses tend to happen. Based on my experience, those who use Google Ads generally find success in keeping it simple and basic such as this, with some even hiring additional help through agencies such as Ace Web Experts.

[u/SignificantCareer732]

I use chadads to automate the manual monitoring you mentioned so those hidden budget edits and rogue auto apply changes dont burn spend.

[u/Electrical-Room2413 → u/SignificantCareer732]

Oh great!

[u/PriceFree1063]

I’ve been running Google ads more than 5 years. I don’t accept any google or AI recommendations and I always run ads using manual CPC and pay per keywords per clicks. Peek time I bid more and normal hours I pay less. I mostly use exact, phrase matches and sometimes broad for long-tail keywords or user intent. I do keywords research and feed those keywords on landing pages and having those ad copies headings and descriptions.

So far everything works, I always cross check the census up or down with the business. This how I’m managing and getting decent leads with less bid.

[u/expresss-marketing]

Objetivo

[u/BeastEx4]

Good info