how to run google ads
To advertise on Google, open an account at ads.google.com in expert mode, build a search campaign, add 10–20 keywords in phrase match, and create a negative keyword list from day one. Set the daily budget to buy at least 10 clicks, send the ad to a landing page that matches the search exactly, and never launch without conversion tracking.
google ads' biggest advantage is intent: on instagram you interrupt people, on google you appear in front of someone already searching "boiler repair near me". a well-built search campaign is therefore the fastest-returning paid channel for most service businesses.
for the same reason, a bad setup is expensive: a campaign shown for irrelevant searches and pointed at the wrong page burns its budget within days. this guide covers the steps and the budget math a first-time advertiser needs to build their first campaign correctly.
step by step
open the account and avoid the smart campaign trap
When you sign up at ads.google.com, Google steers you into the simplified "smart campaign" flow, which hides most of the controls. Switch to expert mode during setup. Configure billing and the time zone carefully — the time zone cannot be changed later.
start with a search campaign
The right first campaign is search: you see what users typed and learn what converts. Postpone Performance Max, Display and YouTube until you have 30–50 conversions of data — those campaign types run blind without it.
add keywords with deliberate match types
Start with 10–20 keywords and choose match types consciously: "phrase match" is the right balance for most new accounts; [exact match] is the most controlled but narrow, while broad match burns budget when used before data accumulates. Focus on purchase-intent terms — modifiers like "price", "service" or a city name signal intent.
build the negative keyword list on day one
Add irrelevant intents — "free", "jobs", "salary", "how to", "used" — as negative keywords from the start. Once live, open the search terms report weekly and add every irrelevant query that spent money. This 15-minute routine recovers 20–30% of the budget in most accounts.
calculate the budget from your cost per click
Learn the average CPC in your industry, then set the daily budget to buy at least 10 clicks. A campaign that can't afford 10 clicks a day never produces statistically usable data; if the budget is short, narrow the keywords and locations rather than spreading the spend thinner.
send the ad to a page that matches the search exactly
Someone searching "kitchen cabinet prices" should land on the kitchen cabinet page, not the homepage. The landing page needs the searched service in its headline, a clear offer, a phone number or form, trust signals (reviews, references), and a ~3-second mobile load time. A weak landing page also lowers your Quality Score, making every click more expensive.
set up conversion tracking, gather two weeks of data, then optimize
Define form submissions, phone calls and WhatsApp clicks as conversions; without tracking, optimization is guesswork. Collect data on manual or maximize-clicks bidding for the first two weeks, then move to smart bidding strategies like maximize conversions once you pass roughly 30 conversions.
search campaign or performance max?
Google tends to push new advertisers toward Performance Max, but that campaign type is an automation fed by the conversion data in your account. Launched without data, it learns by spending — without showing you where the money went — and its reporting is not transparent.
The right order: first prove which keywords and messages convert with a search campaign; after 30–50 conversions, add Performance Max alongside it as an additional channel. For e-commerce with a Merchant Center product feed, Performance Max makes sense earlier — but search should remain the foundation.
budget math: what to expect for your money
Google Ads costs are not fixed; they depend on the auction, industry and location. To decide, build this simple chain: budget ÷ CPC = visitors; visitors × conversion rate = leads. Example: a 15,000 TRY monthly budget at a 10 TRY CPC and a 5% conversion rate produces ~1,500 visitors and ~75 forms or calls per month. Compare that with your revenue per customer to see whether the ads are profitable.
- Under ~5,000 TRY/month: rarely produces meaningful data; requires a very narrow single-service, single-district setup
- 10,000–30,000 TRY/month: the typical starting band for local service businesses
- 30,000–100,000 TRY/month: multiple services or cities; regular optimization becomes mandatory
- CPC reference for Turkey: 5–30 TRY in most industries, 50–150 TRY in competitive verticals (legal, aesthetics, insurance)
when to hire help
You can technically apply the setup in this guide yourself — the barrier isn't knowledge, it's time. The real cost is usually the time spent, not the management fee: without regular weekly attention, an account wastes budget fast, and the most expensive early mistakes (broad match, a missing negative-keyword list, unconfigured conversion tracking) almost always show up under inexperienced management.
As budget grows, as you run multiple campaign types or cities, or when you can't give it weekly attention, professional management usually pays for the waste it prevents — it's protected budget, not an added cost. When choosing an agency, demand reporting transparency — management that won't show you which searches spent your money is not better than managing it yourself.
key takeaways
- The right first campaign is search; Performance Max comes after conversion data accumulates.
- Phrase match plus a day-one negative keyword list are the two strongest defenses against wasted budget.
- The daily budget must buy at least 10 clicks; if it can't, narrow the scope, not the spend.
- Ads must land on a fast page that matches the search exactly — never the homepage.
- Ads without conversion tracking can't be measured, and what can't be measured can't be optimized.
frequently asked questions
- How much do Google Ads cost?
- There is no fixed price; you pay per click and the auction sets the cost. In Turkey as of 2026, clicks run 5–30 TRY in most industries and 50–150 TRY in competitive verticals like legal and aesthetics. A meaningful starting budget for a local service business is 10,000–30,000 TRY per month.
- How quickly do Google Ads produce results?
- Search ads start receiving impressions and clicks the day they go live, and the first leads usually arrive within the first week. But costs settling, negatives being cleaned and bidding strategies learning takes 4–8 weeks. Use the first month's data to optimize the campaign, not to judge it.
- Do I need Google Ads if I'm doing SEO?
- They do different jobs: SEO compounds over months into lasting visibility; ads buy top positions from day one. For a new site or service, ads are a fast demand test; long-term, the cheapest click is the one SEO earns. The ideal is using ad data to learn, then investing in SEO.
- My ads show but the phone isn't ringing — what's wrong?
- First check the search terms report: is budget going to irrelevant queries? Then check the landing page: does it match the searched service exactly, load fast on mobile, and show a visible phone number and form? In most cases the problem is after the click, not before it. If conversion tracking is missing, fix that first.
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