How to Set Up a Google Search Campaign Properly (Free Step-by-Step Guide)

This is the full setup we run on every new Google Search campaign, written out so you can do it yourself. No email gate, no PDF download, no upsell. If you follow it properly you'll have a campaign that beats most agency-managed accounts we audit.

Ninety per cent of wasted Google Ads spend is decided in the first hour of setup, before a single click is bought.

Step 1 — Set up conversion tracking before anything else

Do this first. A campaign without accurate conversion tracking is a campaign Google cannot optimise, and you'll be guessing for months. In Google Ads go to Goals → Conversions → New conversion action.

• Track form submissions on your thank-you page, or as a submit event.
• Track click-to-call taps on mobile as a separate action.
• Track calls from ads (call extensions) with a 60-second minimum duration.
• Mark only real enquiries as Primary. Page views, scroll depth and time on site should be Secondary — never let Google optimise toward those.

Then test it. Submit your own form, tap your own call button, and confirm the conversion appears in Google Ads within a few hours. We audit accounts every week where tracking has silently been broken for months.

Step 2 — Account structure: keep it boring

Modern Google Ads rewards simplicity. Over-segmented accounts starve each ad group of data and never exit the learning phase.

1. 1One campaign per service line or per major location — not per keyword.
2. 2Two to five ad groups per campaign, each built around one tight theme.
3. 3Ten to twenty closely related keywords per ad group, maximum.
4. 4One landing page per ad group that matches the theme exactly.

If you're spending under $3,000 a month, you almost certainly want one campaign and two or three ad groups. Nothing more.

Step 3 — Campaign settings people get wrong

• Networks: turn OFF Display Network and OFF Search Partners for the first month. Both dilute your data.
• Locations: set targeting to "Presence: people in or regularly in your targeted locations" — never the default "presence or interest", which advertises you to people overseas researching your suburb.
• Language: English.
• Ad rotation: optimise for best performing ads.
• Ad schedule: run 24/7 at first, then cut hours once you have data showing which ones waste money.

Step 4 — Keywords and match types

Start with phrase match and exact match only. Broad match without a mature conversion signal is how new accounts burn budgets in a fortnight.

1. 1List the 10–20 terms a ready-to-buy customer would actually type. Not category terms — buying terms.
2. 2Add them as phrase match, plus exact match for your top five.
3. 3Include your service + suburb combinations if you're a local business.
4. 4Leave out anything informational ("how to", "DIY", "salary", "course") — that traffic doesn't convert.

Bid on your own brand name too. It's cheap, it protects you from competitors bidding on you, and it usually returns the best cost per lead in the account.

Step 5 — Negative keywords from day one

This is the single highest-return twenty minutes in Google Ads. Build a negative list before you launch.

• Job seekers: jobs, careers, hiring, salary, apprenticeship, resume.
• Freebie hunters: free, cheap, DIY, second hand, gumtree, kmart.
• Learners: course, training, how to, tutorial, template, YouTube.
• Wrong intent: reviews, complaints, scam, wikipedia, definition.
• Competitor brand names, unless you're deliberately running a conquest campaign.

Then check the Search Terms report twice a week for the first month and add every irrelevant query you find as a negative. This is the habit that separates profitable accounts from expensive ones.

Step 6 — Bidding strategy by stage

1. 1Weeks 1–2, no conversion data: Manual CPC or Maximise Clicks with a strict CPC cap. You're buying data, not results.
2. 2After roughly 15–30 conversions: switch to Maximise Conversions.
3. 3Once cost per lead is stable: move to Target CPA, set about 20% above your current average — not below it, or delivery collapses.
4. 4Only use Target ROAS if you're ecommerce and passing real purchase values back to Google.

Every significant change resets the learning phase. Make one change, wait a fortnight, then judge it.

Step 7 — Write ads that pre-qualify

Responsive Search Ads: give Google 12–15 headlines and 3–4 descriptions per ad group, and pin nothing except your brand name if you must.

• Put the exact keyword theme in at least three headlines.
• Name the location if you're a local business — "Cronulla", "Sutherland Shire", "Sydney".
• Include one qualifying line: price range, minimum job size, or who it's for. Filtering out bad leads is worth more than volume.
• Include proof: review count, years in business, guarantee.
• Finish with a clear action: Get a Free Quote, Book Today, Same-Day Response.

Add every relevant asset: sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, call extension, location extension. They're free, they take up more of the results page, and they lift click-through rate immediately.

Step 8 — Send the traffic to the right page

Never send Search traffic to your homepage. Build or pick a page that matches the ad group's theme, and make sure it has the enquiry form in the hero, a click-to-call button, proof in the first screen, and a load time under two seconds on mobile.

Message match matters financially, not just aesthetically — Google rewards relevance with a better Quality Score, which lowers what you pay per click before you've improved anything else.

Step 9 — The first 30 days

1. 1Days 1–3: confirm conversions are recording. Fix tracking immediately if not.
2. 2Days 3–14: search terms report twice a week, negatives added each time. Don't touch bids.
3. 3Day 14: pause keywords with 100+ clicks and zero conversions. Keep everything else.
4. 4Day 21: review ad strength and swap out the weakest headlines.
5. 5Day 30: assess cost per lead against what a customer is worth to you, then choose your bidding strategy for month two.

The mistakes that cost the most

• Launching Performance Max before Search has data — it will spend your budget on brand searches you'd win for free.
• Changing five things at once and having no idea which one worked.
• Judging performance on clicks and impressions instead of cost per qualified lead.
• Running under $1,000 a month across ten campaigns instead of one focused campaign with real budget.
• Nobody answering the phone. The best-run campaign in the world can't fix an unanswered call.

Want us to check your work?

We'll audit any Google Ads account for free and tell you exactly what we'd change — whether you hire us or not. Send it through and we'll go line by line through the search terms report with you.