If you’re a local business owner looking to generate leads through Google Ads, this guide is going to walk you through everything you need to know to build, launch, and optimize a profitable campaign.

I’ve been running Google Ads campaigns for local businesses for years, and I’ve generated thousands of leads using the exact framework I’m about to share with you.

This isn’t theory. This is what’s actually working right now in real markets.

Today, I’m going to show you step-by-step how to set up a Google Ads campaign that generates quality leads for your local business. We’ll cover everything from landing pages and conversion tracking to keyword research, campaign structure, ads, assets, and optimization.

This is going to be comprehensive, so I’ve organized everything in a logical order. If you need to jump around, use the section headers and timestamps to navigate.

A Quick Side Note Before Getting Into The Content

This is all based on my Free Google Ads Course on YouTube (which you can watch above), and for each of the sections below I’m going to put the timestamp for where you can find the corresponding information in the video.

Also, in creating a blog post based on an almost three hour long video, some of the content needs to get slightly simplified for the sake of this not turning into an actual novel.

So, with that in mind, some of the sections are cut down a bit to make it more digestible here.

If you would like to get all of the content in full, you can find it in the video above.

Let’s get into it.

Before We Start: What You Need To Know

Video Timestamp – 00:02:50

This tutorial is specifically focused on lead generation for local service businesses. If you’re looking for e-commerce strategies, some of this will still apply, but the overall approach is designed for local lead generation.

I’m going to structure this tutorial with the most important (and honestly, most boring) stuff first. Things like landing pages, conversion tracking, and campaign structure need to be handled before you start messing with keywords and ads.

These foundational elements are the 20% of things that will get you 80% of your results. Skip them, and your campaign won’t work no matter how good your keywords are.

I’m also keeping things as simple as possible. I could go down the rabbit hole with Google Tag Manager, enhanced conversions, and advanced tracking setups, but I want this to be actionable for everyone regardless of skill level.

The way I approach these tutorials is to strip things down as much as possible without sacrificing quality. You don’t need to learn seven different software tools or become a tracking expert to run successful Google Ads campaigns.

One final note: I’m putting this together at the end of 2025, and Google changes their interface constantly. What you see on your screen might look slightly different, but all the core concepts will still apply. The principles of running profitable campaigns don’t change even when Google shuffles buttons around.

What Tools Do You Need To Run Google Ads?

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I’m sure you’ve taken one look at the number of software tools that come along with digital marketing, and have gotten overwhelmed.

Whether it’s the sheer number of them out there, not knowing what’s needed and not needed, and the prices of everything adding up quick, it can all be a bit much.

Going through all of the different software tools would be another Google Ads tutorial in and of itself.

I’m a big fan of keeping it simple though.

If you want to get a Google Ads campaign together and launched, the main thing you’re going to need is a way to build landing pages.

Two of my favorite ways of doing this is either by paying for a landing page builder, or by building them on WordPress.

Some landing page builders that I have used and recommend include:

• Go High Level
• Instapage
• Landingi
• Leadpages

If you’re more technically inclined, I’m a big fan of using WordPress and a theme like Divi to build your landing pages as well.

Typically building on WordPress is going to be the most cost effective, but most “clunky” option when it comes to getting your pages together.

On the other hand, landing page builders will give you a more streamlined experience at an additional cost.

That’s the main thing you’re going to have to sort out before getting moving on a campaign, but one other thing I would recommend is phone call tracking and recording.

I’ve been using CallRail for years to track and record phone calls, and it’s been great for years.

Call tracking is great because it gives you another layer of tracking on your campaign so that you can see the actual phone calls coming through.

On top of that, you can record the phone calls so you can monitor the overall lead quality of the phone calls coming through.

Setting Up Your Google Ads Account

Video Timestamp – 00:09:41

If you don’t have a Google Ads account yet, go to ads.google.com and click “Start Now.”

Google will walk you through creating an account. They’ll probably make you create a basic Smart Campaign to finish the setup.

Just do what they say, create the campaign, enter your payment info, and then pause the campaign immediately.

We’re not actually running that Smart Campaign—we just need to get through their setup process so that we can create a Google Ads account.

Important Step: Make sure your account is in Expert Mode.

Google sometimes defaults new accounts to “Smart Mode” which limits your access to features.

Go to Settings and look for an option to switch to Expert Mode. You need this to access everything we’re going to cover.

Understanding Your Budget: Can You Afford Google Ads?

Video Timestamp – 00:11:23

Before you build anything, you need to figure out if your budget can actually support a Google Ads campaign.

The reality is that Google Ads has gotten more expensive over the past few years. If you ran campaigns 5-7 years ago and you’re getting back into it, you’re going to notice costs have gone up significantly.

Some industries are more expensive than others. If you’re in roofing or legal services, you could be looking at $50-$100+ per click. Other industries like tree services or window tinting might be $10-$30 per click.

The point is, you need to know what you’re getting into before you spend time building a campaign.

Here’s my recommendation: Your daily budget should allow you to get at least 5 clicks per day for high-quality, high-intent traffic.

Why 5 clicks? Because my goal with any campaign is to convert 1 in 5 clicks into leads. That means at least one lead per day at minimum.

If you can’t afford 5 clicks per day in your market, Google Ads might not be the right platform for you right now. You might want to look at Facebook Ads or other lower-cost options.

How To Calculate Your Budget

Use the Google Keyword Planner to get rough cost-per-click estimates for your industry.

Go to Tools → Planning → Keyword Planner → Discover New Keywords.

Enter your root keywords. For this example, I’ll use tree services:

• “tree services”
• “tree services near me”
• “tree service company”
• “tree services [your city]”

You don’t need a massive list here. Just put in 3-5 root keywords to give Google an idea of what you’re looking for.

Click “Get Results.”

Then set your location targeting to your local market. Click on the location settings and enter your city or county. You can’t target super specifically here (only 10 locations max), so just get a rough area.

Google will show you keyword ideas with average monthly searches and cost-per-click estimates.

Sort by average monthly searches to see the highest volume keywords first.

Google shows you a low and high range for cost per click. I usually expect costs to be closer to the high range, especially when you’re starting out and competing with established advertisers.

For example, if I’m seeing $20-$35 per click for tree services in Seattle, I’d estimate around $25-$30 average. Multiply that by 5 clicks, and you’re looking at $125-$150 per day as a starting budget.

Let’s go over another quick example. If I search for dumpster rental keywords, I might see:

• “dumpster rental near me” at $8-$12 per click
• “dumpster rental [city]” at $7-$11 per click
• “rent a dumpster” at $9-$13 per click

I’d estimate around $8-$10 average cost per click. Times 5 clicks = $40-$50 per day minimum. I’d probably start with $75/day to be safe based on my experience in that industry.

Important: These numbers are estimates. The only way to know your actual cost per click is to run the campaign. But this gives you a realistic starting point.

If that number is too high for your budget, you have a few options:

1. Run your campaign fewer days per week to stretch your budget
2. Focus on Facebook Ads or other lower-cost platforms
3. Save up more budget before launching

Don’t launch a Google Ads campaign if you can’t afford to run it properly. You’ll just waste money and get frustrated.

Need Help Running Google Ads For Your Local Business?

Campaign Structure and Relevance

Video Timestamp – 00:17:59

Before we start building, you need to understand how Google Ads campaigns are structured and the concept of relevance.

This is one of those concepts that seems simple but is absolutely critical to your success. Skip this and you’ll end up building a campaign that doesn’t have the right foundation in place.

Campaign Structure

Here’s how a Google Ads account is organized:

Campaign Level – This is where you set your daily budget, bid strategy, location targeting, and other macro-level settings that affect everything below it.

Ad Group Level – These are organizational folders within your campaign. Each ad group contains related keywords and ads. Think of ad groups like folders on a computer—they help you organize everything.

Keywords and Ads – Within each ad group, you have your keywords (the search terms you’re bidding on) and the ads that will show for those keywords.

Landing Pages – Your ads point to landing pages where people convert into leads by calling or filling out a form.

That’s the hierarchy. Campaign → Ad Groups → Keywords and Ads → Landing Pages.

The Concept Of Relevance

This is one of the most important concepts in Google Ads: Everything needs to be relevant at every step of the process.

Think about it from the searcher’s perspective.

If someone searches for “tree removal near me,” they have a specific intent. They need a tree removed. They’re not looking for general tree services, they’re not looking for tree trimming, and they’re definitely not looking for information about trees.

So what should happen?

They should see an ad that talks specifically about tree removal. The headline should mention tree removal. The description should mention tree removal.

When they click on that ad, they should land on a page about tree removal, and not a homepage with information about ten different services.

Every step needs to align:

• Search term → Tree removal near me
• Keyword → Tree removal near me
• Ad → “Tree Removal in Seattle – Call For Free Quote”
• Landing Page → Page specifically about tree removal services

This is why we structure campaigns into themed ad groups. Each ad group focuses on a specific service or keyword theme, with ads that speak directly to that theme and landing pages that match.

Here’s What Bad Structure Looks Like

One ad group called “Ad Group 1” with every keyword dumped into it:

• Tree removal
• Tree trimming
• Stump grinding
• Tree services
• Tree pruning
• Arborist

Generic ads that say “Tree Services – Call Us Today.”

Traffic sent to the homepage of a website.

This doesn’t work because there’s no relevance. Someone searching for stump grinding sees a generic tree services ad and lands on a homepage. That’s three layers of disconnect.

Here’s What Good Structure Looks Like

Tree Removal Ad Group:

• Keywords: tree removal near me, tree removal Seattle, emergency tree removal, etc.
• Ads: Specifically about tree removal
• Landing Page: Tree removal landing page

Tree Trimming Ad Group:

• Keywords: tree trimming near me, tree pruning Seattle, tree trimming service, etc.
• Ads: Specifically about tree trimming
• Landing Page: Tree trimming landing page (or general tree services page)

Stump Grinding Ad Group:

• Keywords: stump grinding near me, stump removal, tree stump grinding, etc.
• Ads: Specifically about stump grinding
• Landing Page: Stump grinding landing page (or general tree services page)

See the difference? Everything is organized by theme, and everything is relevant at every step.

Why This Matters

Google rewards relevance with better ad positions and lower costs.

But more importantly, users convert better when everything is relevant.

If someone searches for exactly what they need, sees an ad that matches, and lands on a page that delivers on the promise, they’re exponentially more likely to call or fill out a form.

Your job is to make this as easy as possible for people. Almost like you’re hand-holding them through the process:

“You searched for tree removal? Great, here’s a tree removal ad. Click it? Awesome, here’s a tree removal landing page. Call us and we’ll remove your tree.”

The easier you make it, the better your results.

Landing Pages: Where The Money Is Made

Video Timestamp – 00:25:40

You absolutely need to have landing pages for your Google Ads campaign. 80% of your success with Google Ads comes from where you send people after they click.

You can have perfect campaign structure, amazing keywords, high-quality traffic, and compelling ads. But if you’re sending people to a page that doesn’t convert, you’re wasting every dollar you spend.

Do not skip landing pages.

I see this all the time. Someone spends hours setting up their campaign perfectly, choosing the right keywords, writing good ads, and then they just send all that traffic to the homepage of their website.

That’s like spending thousands of dollars on a beautiful storefront and then having a broken door that people can’t walk through.

Why Landing Pages Beat Websites

Most websites convert around 10% of Google Ads traffic into leads. Sometimes less.

Why so low?

Because websites have navigation menus, links to blog posts, about pages, service pages, photo galleries, contact pages, social media links—all kinds of distractions.

Every single one of those distractions is an opportunity for someone to leave without becoming a lead.

Landing pages are different. They’re designed to do one thing and one thing only: convert visitors into leads.

Here’s a quick example of a landing page. The first example is the desktop layout, and the second example is the top of the mobile layout

There are key elements that every landing page should share. A good landing page has:

• No navigation menu – Can’t click away to other pages
• No distractions – Everything on the page guides toward one action
• Clear headline – Immediately tells people what you offer
• Strong call to action – Makes it obvious what to do next
• Mobile optimization – Loads fast and looks good on phones
• Trust signals – Reviews, certifications, years in business
• Real photos – Not stock images
• Simple design – Not cluttered or confusing

The only options someone has on a landing page are:

1. Become a lead by calling your phone number or filling out a form
2. Go back to Google

That’s it.

By removing all the distractions and keeping things simple, you dramatically increase the chances that someone takes the action you want them to take.

The Math Behind It

Let me show you exactly why this matters with real numbers.

Let’s say you’re getting 100 clicks per month at $10 per click. That’s $1,000 in ad spend.

Scenario 1: Sending to your website (10% conversion rate)

• 100 clicks × 10% conversion rate = 10 leads
• $1,000 ÷ 10 leads = $100 per lead

Scenario 2: Sending to a landing page (20% conversion rate)

• 100 clicks × 20% conversion rate = 20 leads
• $1,000 ÷ 20 leads = $50 per lead

Same ad spend. Same traffic. Same keywords. Same ads.

But by doubling your conversion rate with a landing page, you:

• Doubled your lead volume (10 → 20 leads)
• Cut your cost per lead in half ($100 → $50)

That’s the power of landing pages.

And 20% is a conservative estimate. I’ve seen well-optimized landing pages convert at 25%, 30%, even 35% or higher for emergency services.

But even at a conservative 20%, you’re literally doubling your results compared to sending traffic to a typical website.

What Makes A Good Landing Page

Your landing page doesn’t need to be complicated, but having these elements can help boost up your conversion rates:

1. No Navigation

This is non-negotiable. Remove the navigation menu completely.

No links to your about page, no links to other services, no links to your blog. Nothing.

You want people to stay on this page and take action. Every link you add is a leak in your funnel.

2. Sticky Header With Phone Number

Keep your phone number visible at all times, especially on mobile.

Most landing page builders let you “stick” the header to the top of the page so it follows people as they scroll.

On mobile, this should be a tap-to-call button that lets people call you with one click.

Remember: 80% of your traffic is coming from mobile devices. Make it easy.

3. Clear Headline

Your headline should immediately tell people what you do and why they’re on this page.

If someone searched for “tree services near me,” your headline should say something like:

“Top Rated Tree Services in Seattle”

or

“Professional Tree Services – Fast, Reliable, Licensed”

Don’t get cute with clever slogans. Just tell people what you do.

You can add a subheadline with a few benefit points:

• Licensed & Insured
• Same Day Service Available
• Free Quotes

Keep it simple and focused on what matters to the customer.

4. Trust Badges and Certifications

If you have certifications, licenses, or professional associations, show them prominently.

Even things like BBB ratings can help. Yes, BBB is basically a paid membership, but consumers still trust it.

Other good trust badges:

• Industry certifications
• Years in business
• Insurance badges
• Angie’s List or HomeAdvisor badges

These help establish credibility immediately.

5. Clear Call to Action

You need at least two calls to action on your landing page:

1. A phone number people can call
2. A form people can fill out to request a quote

Some people prefer calling. Some people prefer forms. Give them both options.

Your first call to action should be above the fold (visible without scrolling) on both desktop and mobile.

I usually have:

• Phone number in the sticky header
• Form or phone CTA in the hero section
• Form at the bottom of the page
• Phone number in the footer

Make it impossible to miss.

6. About Section

You need a section that talks about your business, but make it personal.

Don’t just say “We started in 2005 and provide tree services in Seattle.”

Make it relatable. Inject some personality.

Talk about why you started the business, what makes you different, why customers should trust you.

I love using a photo of the owner with the team and trucks. It makes it feel like a real local business, not some corporate entity.

The more personal you make this, the better. People do business with people they know, like, and trust.

7. Real Photos (Not Stock Images)

This is huge. Do not use stock photos.

Use real photos of your business, your team, your trucks, your work.

They don’t need to be professionally shot. Phone photos are fine. In fact, phone photos often work better because they feel authentic.

When people see real photos, they trust that you’re a real local business.

When they see generic stock photos, it feels fake.

8. Reviews

This is absolutely non-negotiable. You must have reviews on your landing page.

Here’s what I do: I take screenshots of actual Google reviews and put them directly on the page.

Why screenshots instead of embedded reviews?

Because it’s really hard to fake a screenshot of a Google review. Everyone knows what Google reviews look like. If you show a screenshot, it’s obviously real.

If you just type out reviews in a template on your website, anyone could fake those.

Screenshots build trust.

Put 3-6 reviews on your landing page. More if you have room.

9. Services Section

List out what services you offer.

Keep it simple—just bullet points or short descriptions.

This is especially important if you offer multiple services. Someone might land on your tree services page but realize they also need stump grinding.

10. Mobile Optimization

I can’t stress this enough: 80% of your traffic will be on mobile.

Your landing page must:

• Load fast (under 3 seconds)
• Look good on phones
• Have easy-to-tap buttons
• Not require zooming or pinching

Test your landing page on your phone before you launch. If it’s frustrating to use, fix it.

Don’t Forget The Thank You Page

You also need a thank you page. This is where people land after they submit a form.

Keep it super simple:

Headline: “Thanks for reaching out!”

Body: “We received your request and will be in touch within [timeframe]. We look forward to helping you with [service].”

Phone number: “Prefer to speak with someone right away? Call us at [number].”

Why include the phone number? Because about 1 in 10 people who submit a form will actually call you directly from the thank you page.

This page is also where you’ll install your form submission conversion tracking (more on that later).

How To Build Your Landing Pages

You need a landing page builder or website builder to create these pages.

Here are your main options:

Landing Page Builders:

• Go High Level (what I use most often)
• Unbounce
• Instapage
• LeadPages

Website Builders:

• WordPress (most cost-effective if you’re technical)
• Wix
• Squarespace

I have a full breakdown of these tools at downeymarketing.com/tools if you want more details.

The reality is they all work. There’s no one “best” landing page builder. Pick the one that fits your budget and skill level and go with it.

Don’t spend three weeks researching the perfect tool. Just pick one and start building.

Need Help Running Google Ads For Your Dumpster Rental Business?

Initial Google Ads Campaign Setup

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Now we’re going to create the shell of your campaign and get your settings configured properly.

This is just the first pass. We’re going to get a basic campaign into the account, then come back and configure everything properly.

Because we’re going to come back to the campaign settings, don’t worry about getting all of this perfect on the first run through.

Creating Your Campaign

Go to Campaigns → Click the blue plus sign → Create Campaign

Select “Create campaign without guidance.”

Google will suggest objectives, but we’re going to ignore those. We want full control.

Select Search as your campaign type.

Don’t worry about conversion goals yet—we’ll set those up later.

Hit Continue.

Name Your Campaign

Name it something relevant to your business.

If you’re running tree services, call it “Tree Services.” If you’re running a dumpster rental campaign, call it “Dumpster Rental.”

Keep it simple and descriptive so that you can find it later if you have multiple campaigns in your account.

Bid Strategy

Start with a clicks-based bidding strategy.

Select “Clicks” from the dropdown and choose Maximize Clicks.

Why not go straight to conversions?

Because Google needs conversion data before it can optimize for conversions. If you tell Google to chase conversions when it has zero conversion data, it doesn’t know what it’s looking for.

Start with clicks, gather 30-50 conversions over a few weeks, then switch to Maximize Conversions or Target CPA.

Critical: Set a maximum cost-per-click bid limit.

Use the estimates you got from the Keyword Planner earlier.

If you estimated $25-$30 per click, set your max CPC somewhere in between those numbers to make sure your campaign has some room to work.

Don’t set this too low or you won’t get any traffic. You need to be competitive.

If you did set it too low or too high at some point, then you can come back to this later and adjust your bid limit.

Networks

This is super important and a lot of people get this wrong.

You’ll see two checkboxes:

• Search Partners
• Display Network

Uncheck both of them.

Search Partners used to be decent, but in recent years it sends terrible traffic. I’ve seen campaigns get calls from people looking for jobs, reaching out to completely unrelated businesses, and all kinds of irrelevant stuff.

Google shows your ads on their “search partner” websites, but you have no idea where those are or what kind of traffic they get.

Just turn it off.

Display Network is even worse for local lead generation.

When this is enabled, Google shows your ads as banner ads on random websites across the internet.

You might think “more exposure = good,” but the reality is you’ll just get a ton of clicks from people who aren’t looking for your services.

The traffic quality is terrible. Turn it off.

Stick with Google Search Network only. That’s where the high-quality, high-intent traffic is.

Location Targeting (First Pass)

We’ll come back and set this up properly later, but for now just do a basic setup.

Just input your main area that you’re going to target as a placeholder. I’ll show you how to do a much more in depth location targeting setup once we have the campaign framework in place on the account.

Click on “Location Options” and select “People in or regularly in your targeted locations.”

Do not use the recommended option.

If you don’t set this correctly, your ads can show to someone in a completely different state who happens to search for services in your city.

Example: Someone in North Carolina searches “tree services Seattle” and your ad shows up. They click, you get charged, but they’re 3,000 miles away.

That’s wasted money.

Select “People in or regularly in your targeted locations” and you’ll avoid most of that.

Ad Schedule

Set your ads to run during your business hours or at minimum when someone can actually answer the phone.

If you have a 24/7 call center, you can run ads all day.

If you’re a typical small business, set your ads to run during business hours.

Most local businesses see best performance during normal business hours: 7am-7pm Monday through Friday.

You can adjust this based on when you’re actually available.

Click “More Settings” and set your ad schedule.

Skip The Rest For Now

There are other settings we could configure, but we’re just trying to get the shell of the campaign created.

Hit “Next” through the keyword and ad creation screens. Just put in one dummy keyword and create a basic ad with dummy information.

We’ll come back and do this properly later.

Set your daily budget (use the number you calculated earlier) and click “Publish Campaign.”

Pause The Campaign To Finish Setup

As soon as your campaign is created, pause it.

We’re not ready to let it run yet. We still need to:

• Set up conversion tracking
• Configure location targeting properly
• Build out our keyword lists
• Create our ads
• Set up assets

So pause the campaign and let’s keep going.

Campaign Settings: Getting Our Settings Finalized

Video Timestamp – 01:00:25

Now that we have the framework of our campaign in the account, we need to go back into the campaign and configure everything properly.

Go to Campaigns → Select your campaign → Click on the “Settings” tab in the campaign window

This opens up all the campaign-level settings we need to configure, and we can get moving on making those changes.

Double Check Your Settings

First, make sure everything we set earlier is correct:

• Bid strategy is Maximize Clicks with a max CPC bid limit
• Search Partners is unchecked
• Display Network is unchecked
• Location Options is set to “People in or regularly in your targeted locations”

Good? Let’s keep going.

Location Targeting (Detailed Setup)

This is really important for local businesses. You need to be specific with your targeting.

Click on the location targeting section.

For local service businesses, I like to target by individual zip codes or cities rather than just using a radius.

Why?

Because it gives you more granular control and lets you see which specific areas perform best.

How to add zip codes:

Click “Advanced Search” when you’re in the location targeting options to open up the map and more detailed location targeting options.

You can either type in zip codes manually or use the map.

Click “Show all areas” on the map in the top right, then select “Show by postal code.”

Now you can see all the zip codes in your area and click to add them.

Click on each zip code you want to target and select “Include.”

Do this for all the zip codes in your service area.

Here’s the critical part: Exclude aggressively.

You need to exclude locations outside your service area to prevent your ads from showing there.

I exclude:

• Every other state (all 49 states if you’re in the US)
• All other counties in my state
• Major cities outside my service area

Why go through all this work?

Because Google still shows your ads outside your target area sometimes, especially with mobile users whose location might be slightly off.

By excluding everything around your target area, you minimize wasted spend.

How to add exclusions:

Use the same process, but click “Exclude” instead of “Include.”

For states: Type in the state name → Exclude it

For counties: Use the map → Show by county → Click and exclude

This can definitely be a tedious process, but it can save you hundreds of dollars in wasted clicks over the life of your campaign.

Here’s a quick example of what a finished location targeting map might look like:

Conversion Goals (We’ll Come Back To This)

You’ll see a section for conversion goals.

Leave this alone for now. We’ll set this up after we create our conversion tracking.

Everything Else

The rest of your settings should be good based on what we set earlier.

Hit “Save” and let’s move on to conversion tracking.

Need Help Running Google Ads For Your Local Business?

Conversion Tracking Setup

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Conversion tracking is absolutely critical. This is not optional.

Without it, you’re flying blind. You’ll end up having no idea what’s working and what’s not.

There are two main reasons you need conversion tracking:

1. So you know what’s working – You need to see which keywords, ads, and campaigns are generating leads so you can optimize.

2. So Google can optimize – Google uses conversion data to learn who to show your ads to. No conversion data = no optimization.

What To Track

For local lead generation, you’re tracking three things:

1. Phone calls from your landing page – When someone calls the number on your page
2. Phone calls from your ad – When someone clicks your phone number directly in the ad
3. Form submissions – When someone fills out your quote request form

These are the only conversion actions that matter for most local businesses.

Setting Up Conversion Actions

Go to Tools → Goals → Conversions → Summary

You’ll see a screen that shows all your conversion actions. If this is a new account, it’ll be empty.

I usually like to open the notepad app on my computer so that I can create the codes, copy them, and paste them into the notepad app for easy access when we start installing them.

We’ll create the actions first, and then we’ll get to installing them.

Click “Create Conversion Action.”

Setting Up Landing Page Phone Calls:

1. Select “Phone calls”
2. Click “Save and continue”
3. Choose “Phone call lead”
4. Click “Add conversion actions”
5. Select “Calls from website visits”
6. Choose “Someone calls a number shown on my website”
7. Enter the phone number exactly as it appears on your landing page (same formatting)
8. Enter it again in the second field
9. Click “Save and continue”

Now you need to configure the settings:

• Conversion name: I change this to something descriptive like “Landing Page Phone Calls”
• Value: Don’t assign a value (select “Don’t use a value”)
• Count: Select “One” (not “Every”) – You only want to count one conversion per person, not multiple calls from the same person
• Call length: I set this to 25 seconds. You can set it higher if you want (60 seconds means only calls over a minute get counted as conversions)

The call length is up to you. I use 25 seconds because even if a call doesn’t get answered, I still want to count it as a conversion. That still indicates an action was taken.

If you know you answer every call and you only want to count longer conversations, set it to 60 seconds.

Click “Save.”

Setting Up Call Extension Phone Calls:

This is much simpler.

1. Create another conversion action
2. Select “Phone calls”
3. Choose “Phone call lead”
4. Select “Calls from ads”
5. Name it something like “Call Asset Phone Calls”
6. Set the same settings (Don’t use a value, Count: One, Call length: 25 seconds)
7. Save

Done.

Setting Up Form Submissions:

1. Create another conversion action
2. Select “Website”
3. Enter your website URL and click “Scan”
4. Select your Google Tag (not Google Analytics)
5. Click “Save and continue”
6. Choose “Submit lead form”
7. Click “Add conversion actions”
8. Select “Set up the code manually”
9. Name it “Landing Page Form Submissions”
10. Don’t use a value, Count: One
11. Save

Now you have three conversion actions created.

Installing The Tracking Codes

This is where you actually make the tracking work.

Next thing we’ll need to do is get the tracking codes installed on your landing pages.

Don’t worry—it’s literally just copy and paste. If you can copy and paste, you can do this.

Step 1: Get Your Codes

If you’ve already taken your codes and saved them, then you can move down to installing them.

If you haven’t, go back to your conversion actions (Tools → Conversions → Summary)

You’ll see your three conversion actions listed.

You need two pieces of code:

1. Google Tag – This goes on every page
2. Event Snippets – These go on specific pages

Step 2: Install Google Tag On All Pages

Click on your first conversion action (Landing Page Phone Calls).

You’ll see an option for “Google Tag” – click “Set up.”

Copy the entire code snippet.

Now go to your landing page builder.

Every landing page builder has a place to add custom code to the “head” section of your page.

Look for settings like:

• Custom Code
• Head Code
• SEO Settings
• Page Settings

Find the section that lets you add code to the “head” of the page.

Paste your Google Tag code there.

Do this for EVERY page:

• Your main landing page
• Your thank you page
• Any other landing pages

The Google Tag needs to be on every page.

Step 3: Install Event Snippets

Now go back to your conversion actions.

Click on “Landing Page Phone Calls” again.

This time, look for “Event snippet” and click “See event snippet.”

Copy that code.

Go back to your landing page (not the thank you page, your actual landing page).

In the same head section where you pasted the Google Tag, paste the event snippet right below it.

Save your page.

Now do the same for form submissions:

Go to your “Landing Page Form Submissions” conversion action.

Click “See event snippet.”

Copy the code.

Go to your thank you page (not your main landing page).

Paste this code in the head section of your thank you page.

Why the thank you page? Because this code fires when the page loads. When someone submits a form, they get redirected to the thank you page, the code fires, and Google counts it as a conversion.

Note: Make sure your form redirects to your thank you page after submission. Most form builders have a “redirect URL” field—put your thank you page URL there.

You don’t need to do anything for Call Extension tracking. That’s handled automatically by Google when you set up the call asset later.

Creating Custom Conversion Goals

One more step.

Go back to Tools → Conversions → Summary

Scroll down and you’ll see “Custom Goals.”

Click “Add Custom Goal.”

Name it something like “Custom Conversions.”

Select all three of your conversion actions:

• Landing Page Phone Calls
• Call Asset Phone Calls
• Landing Page Form Submissions

Click “Save.”

Now go back to your campaign.

Go to Campaigns → Settings → Conversion Goals

Change from “Account default” to “Campaign specific.”

Select your custom goal.

Save.

This tells Google: “Optimize this campaign around these specific conversion actions.”

Done. Your conversion tracking is set up.

Keyword Research & Finding High Intent Keywords

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Now it’s time to build your keyword list.

The key is focusing on high-intent keywords—search terms that show someone is actively looking to hire your services right now.

High Intent Vs Low Intent Keywords

This is the most important concept in keyword selection.

High-intent keywords show clear buying intent. Someone is looking to hire a service or buy something.

Examples for tree services:

• “tree services near me”
• “tree removal Seattle”
• “tree service company”
• “tree trimming near me”
• “emergency tree removal”

Low-intent keywords are informational or too broad. Someone might be researching, looking for information, or not ready to buy.

Examples:

• “trees”
• “tree care tips”
• “how to trim trees”
• “types of trees”
• “tree identification”

See the difference?

High-intent keywords include phrases like “near me,” location names, “company,” “service,” etc.

Low-intent keywords are just research terms.

Always focus on high-intent keywords.

If you bid on low-intent keywords, you’ll get clicks from people who aren’t ready to hire you, and you’ll waste money.

Using The Keyword Planner

Go to Tools → Planning → Keyword Planner → Discover New Keywords

Enter your root keywords. For tree services, I’d enter:

• tree services
• tree services near me
• tree service company
• tree services Seattle (or your city)

You don’t need a huge list. Just 3-5 root keywords to give Google direction.

Click “Get Results.”

Set your location to your target area using the location selector.

Sort by “Average monthly searches” to see the highest-volume keywords first.

Now comes the important part: going through the list and pulling out only the high-intent keywords.

Pulling High-Intent Keywords

As you scroll through the results, you’re going to see a mix of good and bad keywords.

Your job is to pull out the good ones and organize them by theme.

Open a spreadsheet (Google Sheets works great). Create columns for different keyword themes:

• Tree Services
• Tree Removal
• Tree Trimming
• Stump Grinding
• Tree Pruning
• Location-Specific

As you go through the Keyword Planner results, copy high-intent keywords into the appropriate column.

For example:

• “tree services near me” → Tree Services column
• “tree removal Seattle” → Tree Removal column
• “tree trimming service” → Tree Trimming column
• “stump grinding near me” → Stump Grinding column

Each of these columns will become an ad group in your campaign.

Keywords to include:

• Anything with “near me”
• Anything with your location
• Service-specific terms with buying intent
• “Company” and “service” keywords

Keywords to avoid:

• Just broad terms like “trees” or “tree” by themselves (too broad)
• “How to” keywords
• “DIY” keywords
• Jobs or career-related keywords
• Product keywords (unless you sell products)

Go through at least the first 100-200 keyword ideas and pull out everything relevant.

The more thorough you are here, the better your campaign will perform.

Finding Additional Keywords

After you’ve exhausted the Keyword Planner, you can find more keywords directly in Google Ads.

Once you create your ad groups (which we’ll do next), you can go into any ad group and click the blue plus sign to add keywords.

Google will show you keyword suggestions based on that ad group.

These suggestions are often really good because they’re based on actual search data and performance in your market.

You can use this to expand your keyword lists over time.

Adding Match Types To Your Keywords

Before you add keywords to your campaign, you need to understand match types.

Match types tell Google how broadly you’re willing to let them show your ads.

There are three main match types:

Exact Match [keyword] – Most restrictive. Shows your ads for searches that are as closely related to your keyword as possible. You put brackets around the keyword.

Phrase Match “keyword” – Medium restriction. Opens things up a bit more. You put quotes around the keyword.

Broad Match keyword – Least restrictive. Shows your ads very broadly for loosely related searches. No special characters. If you’re a beginner, don’t use this match type.

Let me explain each one:

Exact Match:

If you have [tree removal near me] as an exact match keyword, Google will show your ads for searches very closely related to that term.

It might show for:

• tree removal near me
• tree removal companies near me
• tree removal service near me
• tree removal in Seattle

It won’t show for something wildly different like “tree trimming” or “how to remove trees.”

Exact match is the most targeted and usually the most expensive, but it’s the highest quality traffic.

Phrase Match:

If you have “tree removal near me” as a phrase match keyword, Google opens things up a bit.

It might show for:

• tree removal near me
• emergency tree removal near me
• cheap tree removal near me
• best tree removal near me

But it could also show for things a bit further outside that like competitor names or loosely related terms.

Phrase match gives Google more freedom, which can be good or bad depending on your negative keyword list.

Broad Match:

Unless you have more experience and a long list of negative keywords, avoid using broad match for your local lead generation Google Ads campaign.

If you put tree removal as broad match, your ads could show for:

• tree removal
• tree services
• tree products
• how to remove trees
• tree removal tools
• arborist supplies
• literally anything remotely related to trees

You’ll waste a ton of money.

My Recommendation:

Use both phrase match and exact match for your keywords.

Start with both, see what performs better, and optimize from there.

For very specific keywords like “tree removal near me,” both phrase and exact are fine.

For broader keywords like just “tree services,” I’d only use exact match to keep it tight.

Wrapping Keywords

Now that you understand match types, you need to wrap your keywords before adding them to your campaign.

I don’t do this manually, because it is a waste of time.

Here’s some options that can speed up the process.

Free Option:

Google “keyword wrapper tool” and use one of the free tools that you’ll find right there on Google.

Copy your keywords from one column in your spreadsheet, paste them into the wrapper, select phrase and exact match, and copy the wrapped keywords.

Paid Option (What I Use):

I use a tool called Keyword Me. It’s paid but saves me hours.

You paste in your keywords, click to wrap them in phrase and exact, and copy the results.

Either way works fine. Use whatever fits your budget.

Negative Keywords: The Other Half Of The Equation

Video Timestamp – 01:51:35

Just as important as your regular keywords are your negative keywords.

Negative keywords tell Google what you don’t want your ads showing up for.

This is critical because phrase and exact match aren’t as restrictive as they used to be. You need negative keywords to clean up your traffic.

Where to find negative keywords:

1. Common Negative Keyword Lists

Google “common negative keywords for Google Ads.”

You’ll find lists with hundreds or thousands of common negatives like:

• free
• cheap
• DIY
• how to
• jobs
• careers
• hiring
• salary
• youtube
• craigslist
• wikipedia

Go through these lists and add anything relevant.

2. States and Cities

Add every other state as a negative keyword (including abbreviations).

If you’re in Washington, add Oregon, California, Idaho, Montana, etc.

Also add major cities outside your service area.

ChatGPT is great for this:

“Can you provide me with a list of all the states in the United States with their abbreviations in a format I can copy and paste into Google Ads?”

Copy that list, remove your state, and add the rest as negatives.

3. Competitor Names

Go to Google Maps and search for your service in your area.

Add every competitor’s business name as a negative keyword.

Use the root of their name. If the business is “Joe’s Tree Services,” just add “joe’s” as a negative.

4. Keyword Planner

As you go through the Keyword Planner, you’ll see irrelevant terms.

Add those to your negative keyword list.

5. Search Terms Report (After Launch)

Once your campaign is running, check your search terms report weekly.

Go to Insights and Reports → Search Terms.

This shows you every search your ads appeared for.

Add irrelevant searches as negatives.

This is ongoing work that never stops.

I typically have 200-500 negative keywords before launching a campaign, and that list grows to thousands over time.

Adding Negative Keywords

Once you have your list:

1. Wrap them in phrase match (use your keyword wrapper)
2. Go to your campaign
3. Click Keywords → Negatives
4. Click the blue plus sign
5. Paste your negative keywords
6. Save

You can add negatives at the campaign level (affects all ad groups) or at the ad group level (affects only that specific ad group).

Ad group level negative keywords are good for if you want to make sure specific search terms make it to specific ad groups.

It’s not required, but sometimes I like to do that if I notice that certain search terms are being shown ads that are a little less relevant.

Making that change can help you improve the relevance on your campaign over time.

In this case though, you should be fine to just drop your negative keywords at the campaign level.

Need Help Running Google Ads For Your Local Business?

Building Your Ad Groups

Video Timestamp – 01:46:08

Now we’re going to take your organized keyword lists and turn them into ad groups.

Remember: Each column in your spreadsheet becomes one ad group.

From your campaign dashboard, click on the “Ad Groups” tab.

You should see the dummy ad group we created earlier. Pause or delete it.

Click the blue plus sign to create a new ad group.

Name your ad group based on the keyword theme.

If you’re creating an ad group for tree removal keywords, name it “Tree Removal.”

If it’s location-specific like tree services in Seattle, name it “Tree Services Seattle.”

Click “Next.”

Paste your keywords for that ad group.

Take all the wrapped keywords from one column in your spreadsheet and paste them into the keyword field.

Skip everything else. Don’t worry about the ad suggestions or anything else.

Click “Cancel” when it asks you to create an ad (we’ll do that separately).

Click “Save and continue.”

Your first ad group is created.

Repeat this process for every keyword theme in your spreadsheet.

Take your time and make sure each ad group is properly named and has the right keywords.

When you’re done, you should have 5-10+ ad groups depending on your business.

Writing Your Ads

Video Timestamp – 02:06:30

Now we need to create ads for each ad group.

Go to Campaigns → Ads.

Select the ad group you want to create an ad for using the dropdown at the top.

Click the blue plus sign → Responsive Search Ad.

Ad Structure

Responsive search ads let you create up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions.

Google will mix and match these to find the best-performing combinations.

Final URL: Enter your landing page URL.

Display Path: Add your keyword here. If your ad group is “Tree Removal,” put “tree-removal” in the display path.

This shows in the ad URL and adds relevance.

Headlines (15 total):

Group your headlines into categories:

Keyword-Specific Headlines (5-6 headlines):

• Tree Services Seattle
• Tree Removal Near Me
• Seattle Tree Service Company
• Professional Tree Services
• Tree Care Services Seattle

Call-to-Action Headlines (4-5 headlines):

• Call For Free Quote Today
• Book Your Free Estimate
• Schedule Service Now
• Get Your Free Quote
• Same Day Service Available

Benefit/Differentiator Headlines (4-5 headlines):

• Licensed & Insured
• 25+ Years Experience
• Top Rated on Google
• Family Owned & Operated
• Emergency Service Available

Mix and match these categories to fill all 15 headline slots.

Descriptions (4 total, 90 characters each):

Use similar themes by mixing in different keywords, calls to action, benefits, and other relevant information for your industry.

Fill in all of the different descriptions on the ad.

Here are some ideas below:

Description 1: “Professional tree services in Seattle. Licensed, insured, and locally owned. Call for your free quote today.”

Description 2: “Need tree removal, trimming, or stump grinding? We’ve got you covered. Same-day service available.”

Description 3: “Top-rated tree service company serving Seattle and surrounding areas. Free estimates. Call now!”

Description 4: “Expert tree care services with over 25 years of experience. Licensed & insured. Book your free quote today.”

Get your keywords in there, include benefits, and always have a call to action.

Using ChatGPT For Ideas

I use ChatGPT to brainstorm headline and description ideas:

Prompt: “I’m creating a Google Ads campaign for a tree service company in Seattle. Can you create 20 different headlines as close to 30 characters each as possible?”

Copy the best ones and customize them for your business.

Prompt: “Can you generate 20 more headlines that incorporate calls to action?”

Prompt: “Can you create 10 descriptions for a responsive search ad under 90 characters each?”

Use AI for inspiration, not as a copy-paste solution.

Creating Multiple Ads Per Ad Group

You want at least 2 ads per ad group for testing.

Create your first ad, then click on it and select “Copy.”

Paste it into the same ad group.

Modify a few headlines and descriptions to create a variation.

This lets you test which version performs better.

As you’re optimizing the campaign, you’ll want to consistently test more ad variations to see if you can beat what’s currently performing best.

Copying Ads To Other Ad Groups

To save some time when setting up your campaign, you don’t need to write completely new ads for every ad group.

Create an ad for your “Tree Services” ad group.

Then copy it and paste it into your “Tree Removal” ad group.

Just change the keywords in the headlines and display path to match the new ad group theme.

This saves a ton of time when building out your campaign, and is something you can do to help speed up testing and optimization moving forward.

Setting Up Assets

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Assets are add-ons that make your ads bigger and more clickable.

They’re critical for performance.

They’ll not only give you important things like adding a phone number to your ad, but they can incorporate more calls to action, offers, benefits, and more.

The whole idea is to take up as much space as possible on Google to make your ad stand out.

To create assets for your campaign, go to Campaigns → Assets (or Extensions on some accounts).

Here are the assets you need to set up:

1) Call Asset (Most Important)

A call asset is one of the easiest ways to get more phone call leads from your campaign.

It will put a clickable phone number on your ad that people can call you directly from.

Adding this onto a campaign can easily bring in an additional flow of inbound phone calls.

Neglecting this asset is essentially like leaving money on the table.

To get it set up select the call asset section, and click the blue plus sign on that page.

Add your phone number. This must be the same number that’s on your landing page (footer is fine if it’s not in the main section).

Select your conversion action: Choose “Call Asset Phone Calls” (or whatever you named your conversion action) from the dropdown.

Setting this conversion action will tell Google to count phone calls to that number as that conversion action on your campaign.

If you don’t set it to your conversion action, then it won’t track conversions properly.

Save.

2) Sitelink Assets

Sitelinks add additional links below your ad.

Create 4-6 sitelinks.

Each sitelink needs:

• Sitelink text: The clickable text (like “Call For Free Quote”)
• Description lines 1 & 2: Additional text that shows below the sitelink
• Final URL: Where it goes when clicked

Important: Each sitelink needs a DIFFERENT final URL.

You can’t send them all to the same landing page—that’s against Google’s policies.

If you only have one landing page, create multiple URLs by adding parameters:

• yourlandingpage.com/sitelink1
• yourlandingpage.com/sitelink2
• etc.

This technically makes them different URLs even though they go to the same page.

Example sitelinks:

• “Call For Free Quote” → Landing page
• “Book Online” → Landing page with booking form
• “View Our Services” → Landing page with services section
• “Read Reviews” → Landing page with reviews section

3) Callout Assets

Callouts are short text snippets that show after your ad description.

Add at least 4 callouts highlighting benefits:

• Free Quotes
• Licensed & Insured
• Same Day Service
• 25+ Years Experience
• Family Owned & Operated
• Top Rated on Google

These are just extra selling points that take up more space in the search results.

4) Image Assets

If Google allows it (some new accounts can’t add images until verified), add images.

Use real photos of your business. No stock photos.

Images can show up in your ads and make them more eye-catching.

5) Structured Snipped Assets

These don’t show as often anymore, but add them anyway.

Select a header type (like “Services” or “Types”) and list out your offerings:

• Tree Removal
• Tree Trimming
• Stump Grinding
• Emergency Services

Other Assets To Consider

Location Asset: Links your Google Business Profile to your ads. Can work well but test carefully—sometimes generates clicks without conversions.

Business Name/Logo: Add these but Google is picky about approving them.

Price Assets: If you have set pricing, you can add it here.

Promotion Assets: For special offers or sales.

I typically stick with call assets, sitelinks, callouts, and images as the core essentials.

Some Final Changes I Like To Make Before Turning The Campaign On

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Before turning the campaign on, there are few additional things I like to go through to put on the final touches.

The only thing on this list that is an absolute necessity is turning off auto apply recommendations.

Outside of that, these things are optional, but I like to add them in because they can help to trim out some waste before even turning on the campaign.

Exclude Tablets

Go to “Where and when ads showed” → Devices.

Find “Tablets” and click the pencil icon.

Decrease by 100% to exclude tablets completely.

There’s usually very little traffic here, and often since it’s on tablets it will tend to be more form fill leads.

I’d prefer to push more traffic to mobile and get as many phone calls as possible.

Exclude 18-24 Age Range

Go to “Audiences, keywords, and content” → Audiences.

Click “Show or hide table” and you’ll see age ranges.

Select all the “18-24” options across all ad groups.

Click “Edit” → “Exclude from ad group.”

This age range typically doesn’t have the money to pay for services and often includes job seekers.

Exclude Lower Income Range

Go to the same audiences section → Demographics → Household Income.

You can optionally exclude “Lower 50%” if you want.

This isn’t always necessary, but for higher-ticket services it can help.

Turn Off Auto-Apply Recommendations

This is critical.

Go to Recommendations → Auto-Apply Settings.

Google has moved this option around over the years, but as long as you’re at the top level of your account and not in a specific campaign you should see the Auto-Apply Settings option.

Go in there and make sure EVERYTHING is turned off.

If anything is turned on, Google will make automatic changes to your campaign without asking, which can mess everything up.

There’s nothing more frustrating than logging in to see Google has made a bunch of changes to your campaign you didn’t want.

Final Campaign Review

Go through your campaign one more time:

• All ad groups have keywords? ✓
• All ad groups have at least 2 ads? ✓
• Negative keywords added? ✓
• Conversion tracking installed on landing pages? ✓
• Assets set up (especially call asset)? ✓
• Location targeting configured? ✓
• Ad schedule set? ✓
• Budget set? ✓

Everything checks out? Great.

Launching Your Campaign

Time to turn it on.

Go to your campaign list.

Find your campaign and click the selector next to it.

Change from “Paused” to “Enabled.”

Your campaign is now live.

What To Expect After Launch

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Days 1-3: If you’re using Maximize Clicks, Google needs time to learn. You might see very little traffic at first. This is normal.

Days 4-7: Traffic should start picking up. You should start seeing impressions, clicks, and hopefully your first conversions.

Week 2+: Campaign should be running more consistently. This is when you start optimizing.

If You’re Not Getting Traffic

Problem: No impressions at all.

Solutions: Your keywords have no search volume, or your max CPC bid is way too low. Increase your max CPC or add more/broader keywords.

Problem: Impressions but no clicks.

Solutions: Your ads aren’t compelling or relevant. Rewrite your ads to be more specific to what people are searching for.

Problem: Clicks but no conversions.

Solutions: Your landing page isn’t converting. This is the #1 issue. Test different headlines, simplify your form, make your phone number more prominent.

Ignore Google’s Recommendations

You’re going to get bombarded with “recommendations” from Google.

They’ll show you an “optimization score” and suggest changes.

Ignore 99% of them.

Google’s recommendations are designed to make Google more money, not improve your results.

Common bad recommendations:

• “Switch to automated bidding” (when you don’t have enough data)
• “Add broad match keywords” (waste of money)
• “Expand your location targeting” (outside your service area)
• “Try Performance Max campaigns” (not good for local lead gen)

The only recommendations worth considering:

• Fixing conflicting negative keywords
• Fixing broken tracking
• Actual technical errors

Everything else? Ignore it.

You’ll Get Emails From Google Reps

Google will send you emails saying your campaign needs urgent attention.

They’ll make it sound like everything is broken and you need to act now.

Ignore these too.

Remember that Google Reps are working for Google, and they’re not campaign managers. They want you to spend more money.

If your campaign is generating leads at a profitable cost, you’re doing fine.

Switching To Conversion Based Bidding

After you have 30-50 conversions within a 30 day window (ideally 50+), you can consider switching to a conversion-based bid strategy.

Go to Campaign Settings → Bidding.

Change from “Maximize Clicks” to either:

• Maximize Conversions (no target CPA)
• Target CPA (set a target cost per conversion)

On a lot of my campaigns, if I do make the switch to a conversion based bidding strategy, I’ll go with Target CPA in most cases.

If you do make the switch to a conversion based bidding strategy, then you need to give it at least 14 days to learn.

Beyond that, Google can take up to 30 days or more to fully dial in a conversion based bidding strategy.

Important: Don’t rush this switch.

Many campaigns work perfectly fine staying on clicks-based bidding. You don’t always need to switch.

Only switch if:

• You have at least 30-50 conversions in a 30 day window
• Your campaign is consistently getting leads
• Your landing page is converting well

If your conversion rate is low, switching to conversion bidding won’t necessarily solve that problem.

That will usually just point to a landing page issue, and it’s best to focus on that first before changing your bidding strategy.

Optimization: Where The Real Work Begins

Launching your campaign is just the start.

Optimization is where you make it profitable.

Unfortunately, you can’t just build a Google Ads campaign, walk away and then just assume everything will work.

The whole idea of optimization is that you want to take budget away from parts of the campaign that are wasting money and push more of the budget towards parts of the campaign that are making you money.

Stacking those changes on top of each other bit by bit over time is what will ultimately have your campaign performing better over time.

On my YouTube Channel, you can watch this video here that goes over a campaign optimization checklist.

Alternatively, if you go to my Free Google Ads Course over on YouTube you can find all of the links in the description of the video linking out to a bunch of other helpful support videos for after your campaign has been launched.

Final Thoughts

Google Ads for local businesses ultimately comes down to a few key things:

1. Landing pages – This is where 80% of campaigns succeed or fail. Get this right first.
2. Conversion tracking – You can’t optimize what you don’t measure. Set this up properly.
3. High-intent keywords – Focus on buyer intent, not information seekers. Avoid broad keywords.
4. Proper structure – Organized ad groups with relevant ads that speak to specific search intents.
5. Consistent optimization – This is ongoing work. You can’t just set it and forget it.

If you follow this framework, you’ll be way ahead of most local businesses trying to run Google Ads.

The campaigns that work are the ones that focus on fundamentals: sending high-intent traffic to well-designed landing pages, tracking everything properly, and continuously optimizing based on real data.

It’s not complicated, but it does require attention to detail and a commitment to doing things the right way.

Most importantly: Don’t skip the boring foundational stuff. Landing pages and conversion tracking are way more important than finding the “perfect” keywords or writing the “perfect” ad.

Get the foundation right, and everything else becomes much easier.

Need Help With Your Google Ads Campaign?

If you’re a local business owner and you want help setting up or managing your Google Ads campaigns, I can help.

There’s a link below where you can apply for a free consultation. I’ll personally review your application, and if I think I can help, I’ll reach out to schedule a call.

I can take the exact framework I’ve outlined in this guide and implement it for your business with custom landing pages, full campaign setup, and ongoing management.

Thanks for reading, and I hope this guide helps you build a profitable Google Ads campaign for your local business.

Check Out More Content

Want to read some more content? Check out the following blog posts to read more.

Want To Run Dumpster Rental Google Ads? Read This First

Pool Service Google Ads Case Study 2026

Tree Service Google Ads: 5 Tips To Running Profitable Campaigns

Need Help Running Google Ads For Your Local Business?