Search campaigns

Google Search Ads: Campaign Setup and Management

We show your ad to people who are searching for your service or product right now. We build the structure, copy and bids so your budget goes to queries with purchase intent, not random clicks.

Free audit How it works

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Setupfrom ₴10,000
Managementfrom ₴12,000/mo

google.com/search

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Search Ads explained in 40 seconds

01 · Query

The auction begins

Query Someone types “washing machine repair near me” into Google, and an auction for their attention begins.

0:00 / 0:39

What it is

Search Ads: the essentials

A Search campaign shows text ads above and below Google search results when someone types a query related to your business. You pay per click, not per impression, and every click comes from an existing need: “dental implant cost,” “washing machine repair technician,” “small business bookkeeping services.” It is the channel in Google Ads that sits closest to the sale.

In 2026, Search is no longer just keywords and bids. Google matches queries by meaning, tailors ad copy and picks the landing page through AI Max, while Smart Bidding evaluates every auction individually. Our job is to give the algorithms the right data and guardrails: clean conversions, a well-planned structure, negative keywords, brand exclusions and strong ad copy. That's when automation works for your profit, not for click volume.

Google Search Above and below the organic results, on mobile and desktop, labeled “Sponsored.” The top positions go to the ads with the highest Ad Rank in the auction.

Google Maps If location assets from your Google Business Profile are linked to the campaign, your ad can appear in Maps for queries like “auto repair near me.”

Google search partners Partner sites that use Google-powered search. Traffic quality varies here, so we turn this network on only after reviewing the data and keep it under close watch in reports.

Mechanics

How it works under the hood

01
Query and match

Someone types a query. Google matches it to your keywords based on match type and, with AI Max, also to the content of your website and ads. Negative keywords filter out what you don't need.
02
Auction and Ad Rank

In every auction, Google calculates Ad Rank: your bid, ad and landing page quality, the expected impact of assets and the context of the search. It determines both your position and your cost per click.
03
Ad assembly

A responsive search ad is assembled from your headlines and descriptions for the specific query and device, while assets add links to site sections, a phone number, address, prices or images.
04
Conversion and learning

A lead, call or purchase is sent to Google Ads via the Google tag, GA4 or your CRM. The bid strategy learns from this data, and every week we clean up search terms, test ad copy and reallocate budget.

Who it’s for

When to use Search Ads

Services with urgent demand

Plumbers, towing, appliance repair, veterinary clinics: people need a solution now and call the first relevant ad. Call assets and an ad schedule that matches your business hours are critical here.

Local businesses in a specific city or district

Clinics, auto repair shops, salons: precise location targeting, your address from Google Business Profile and “near me” or neighborhood queries bring in people who can easily get to you.

B2B and high-ticket services with long sales cycles

Search volume is low, but every query is valuable. Precise keyword targeting, offline conversion import from your CRM and optimization for qualified leads, not just any submitted form.

Validating demand for a new service or market

Search quickly shows whether demand exists, what it costs to acquire a customer and which messaging works, before you invest in large-scale campaigns.

Brand protection

A dedicated brand campaign holds the top spot for your name when competitors or aggregators bid on it. Brand clicks are usually cheaper than non-brand clicks thanks to high relevance.

Formats

Ad formats and their anatomy

1 Headlines: up to 15 variations, Google shows up to three
2 Descriptions: up to 4 variations, up to two are shown
3 Assets: sitelinks, phone number, address, prices

Responsive search ad (RSA)

Up to 15 headlines of up to 30 characters and up to 4 descriptions of up to 90 characters, plus two path fields in the display URL. Google tests combinations for every query, so headlines need to differ in substance: benefit, price, timing, process, call to action.

Pinning and Ad Strength

Pinning locks a headline to a specific position. It's needed for brand names or mandatory wording, but it reduces the number of combinations. Ad Strength is a hint about copy variety, not an auction factor, so we focus on conversions.

Navigation assets

Sitelinks to key pages, callouts with your advantages and structured snippets listing services, brands or models. They expand your ad's footprint and take people straight to the right page.

Contact assets

A phone number with one-tap calling, an address from your Google Business Profile and a lead form that people can fill out without visiting your website.

Commercial and visual assets

Service prices, promotions with dates, images, business name and logo. Google shows them when it predicts better performance, so we fill in everything relevant to your niche.

Ads with AI Max

When AI Max is enabled, Google can tailor headlines and descriptions to the query based on your website and assets, and choose a more relevant landing page. We set the guardrails: URL exclusions and text guidelines, including term exclusions.

What we do

What we set up in the campaign: 12 steps

No templates: we adapt every item to your niche, margins and goals. Here’s what our launch checklist looks like.

01 Pre-launch conversion audit We check the Google Ads tag and GA4 in GTM, enhanced conversions, Consent Mode v2 and duplicate events. We separate primary and secondary actions so bidding learns only from real leads and sales.
02 Intent-based keyword research We collect queries, group them by intent and service, and filter out informational and “free” searches. Negative keywords and account-level negative keyword lists are ready before the first impression.
03 Account structure Brand and non-brand run as separate campaigns. We split non-brand by services or categories with different margins and by regions with different economics, so budget goes where it makes money.
04 Match types that fit the strategy Exact and phrase match give you control at launch. We enable broad match only together with Smart Bidding and sufficient conversion volume; without them, it pulls in irrelevant traffic.
05 AI Max as a controlled experiment We test AI Max through Google Ads experiments: search term matching, text customization and final URL expansion, together with brand and URL exclusions and text guidelines.
06 Brand exclusions In non-brand campaigns and in AI Max, we exclude your own brand so it doesn't inflate results and, when needed, other brands you shouldn't appear for.
07 RSA copy We write up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions with different arguments for each ad group, mirror the wording of the query and pin only what must appear first.
08 Full asset set Sitelinks to dedicated pages, callouts, structured snippets, call assets with a schedule, an address via Google Business Profile, images, prices, promotions and lead forms, tailored to your niche.
09 Location, schedule and networks We choose “Presence” instead of “Presence or interest,” align the ad schedule with the hours you answer calls, and turn off the Display Network in Search campaigns.
10 Audiences in observation mode We add website visitors, your customer list via Customer Match and interest segments without narrowing reach. We see who converts better, and the algorithm gets additional signals.
11 Bid targets based on unit economics We choose the strategy based on conversion volume and calculate target CPA or ROAS from your margin and average order value. We make changes gradually to avoid resetting the learning period.
12 Landing pages Each ad group leads to a page that matches the query: fast mobile loading, a price or price range, a clear form, a phone number and reviews.

Audit

The mistakes we find most often

If your ads are already running, let’s start with an audit. Here’s what usually eats up the budget in this campaign type.

Mistake 01

Brand and non-brand in one campaign

Brand queries deliver cheap conversions and mask an unprofitable non-brand segment. Automated bidding sees a healthy average, while you overpay for cold traffic.

Mistake 02

Broad match without data

Broad match keywords with manual bidding or without conversion tracking show ads for loosely related queries. The budget goes to clicks that never had a chance to become customers.

Mistake 03

Conversions you can't trust

A page view or a click on the phone number is set as the primary action, GA4 events duplicate the Google Ads tag, and enhanced conversions are missing. Automated bidding diligently optimizes for the wrong thing.

Mistake 04

Nobody opens the search terms report

There are no negative keywords, or they conflict with keywords and block relevant queries. We review search terms weekly and fix these conflicts.

Mistake 05

“Presence or interest” location targeting

People outside your service area who have merely shown interest in it see your ads. For a local business, that's budget lost outright.

Mistake 06

Display Network in a Search campaign

The Display Network setting was left on by default: part of the budget goes to banners on sites with different traffic quality, and the statistics get mixed together.

Metrics

What we track

Cost per conversion and conversion value The key metrics: how much a lead or sale costs and how much revenue it brings in. We set targets based on your margin and average order value, not market averages.
Qualified leads and sales from your CRM Not every lead becomes a customer. We import CRM statuses as offline conversions to optimize campaigns for real deals, not form volume.
Search impression share Shows how many of the eligible auctions you win, while impression share lost to budget and to rank tells you what exactly is limiting growth.
Quality Score and its components Expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience. It's a diagnostic, not a goal: it shows where to rewrite copy and where to fix the page.
Auction insights Which competitors appear alongside you, how often they rank above you and how much you overlap. It explains why clicks got more expensive or impression share dropped.
Spend on irrelevant queries We calculate how much budget went to queries with no chance of a sale. This is the main signal for adding negative keywords and revisiting match types.

Bidding

Bid strategies

Maximize conversions The starting strategy when conversions are already tracked but history is limited. The algorithm spends the budget to get as many conversions as possible.

Target CPA (tCPA) Once conversion volume is stable: we set an acceptable cost per lead based on unit economics, and the system adjusts the bid in every auction.

Maximize conversion value and tROAS For online stores and businesses where leads differ in value: we pass revenue, margin or a lead score, and bids shift toward more valuable customers.

Target impression share For a brand campaign where consistently ranking first for your own name matters. We rarely use it for non-brand queries.

Manual CPC Only for narrow cases, when there are no conversions yet or strict control is required. Enhanced CPC (eCPC) is no longer available for Search campaigns as of 2025; Smart Bidding strategies have replaced it.

Industries

Where this campaign type works especially well

Dental Clinics Medical Centers & Clinics Law Firms & Attorneys Plumbing Services Auto Repair Shops IT Outsourcing & Software Development All industries

Works well with

Performance Max One campaign across every Google channel, optimized by AI Remarketing Bring back visitors who left without buying Google Maps Ads Calls and directions to your location

Pricing

Full-service Search Ads: what it costs

You pay the ad budget directly to Google. Our fee is fixed — no percentage of spend below the Scale plan.

Setupfrom ₴10,000

Managementfrom ₴12,000/mo

Auditfree

Get a quote All pricing

FAQ

Questions and answers: Search Ads

Didn’t find your answer? Ask us directly — we’ll advise for free.

How long does it take for a Search campaign to start generating leads?

Ads start showing right after review, usually within one business day. But the first weeks are a learning period for Smart Bidding and for collecting search term data, so we evaluate results once conversions have accumulated. During this time, we pay especially close attention to cleaning up search terms.

Do we need broad match and AI Max if we're in a narrow niche?

Not always. Broad match and AI Max work well when there are enough conversions and the value of each one is clear. In narrow niches, we usually start with exact and phrase match, test AI Max through an experiment and keep it only if it brings in new relevant queries without a drop in lead quality.

Why pay for ads on our own brand if we already rank first organically?

Competitors, aggregators or resellers bidding on your name can appear above your organic listing. A brand campaign claims that space and gives you control over the copy and the links to the right pages. We separately assess how much traffic it actually adds so you don't pay for clicks you would have gotten anyway.

What is Quality Score, and can it be raised quickly?

It's a keyword-level rating from 1 to 10 based on expected CTR, ad relevance and landing page experience. There's no quick trick: we group keywords more tightly, rewrite ad copy to match queries and improve the page. Quality Score itself is a diagnostic tool; what counts in the auction is Ad Rank, calculated in real time.

How do you track calls from ads?

We set up call conversions from call assets with a minimum call duration, calls from your website via a Google forwarding number and, if needed, call tracking that passes data to GA4 and Google Ads. We don't count short, accidental calls as conversions, so bidding doesn't learn from noise.

What changed with AI Max, and what happened to Dynamic Search Ads?

Google is phasing out Dynamic Search Ads (DSA): you can no longer create new DSA campaigns, and their logic has moved into AI Max for Search campaigns. AI Max matches queries based on your website content, tailors ad copy and selects the landing page. We enable it with controls: URL and brand exclusions, text guidelines and regular review of the search terms report, which shows exactly which matches came from AI Max.

Free audit

We’ll launch your campaign right from day one

Leave your contact — a specialist will review your ads or website and prepare a short breakdown with concrete next steps. No obligations, no hard selling.

01 A short call or chat We clarify your niche, goals and what you’ve already tried.
02 Ads and website review We check the account (read-only access), tracking and landing pages.
03 Action plan You get a list of issues and priorities — even if you don’t work with us.

We reply within 1 business day

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