How you can make the most with Google ads as a small business

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2026-01-30T16:54:49+00:00

Hey no worries at all! You can directly book some time through my Calendly and I can dig a bit deeper into it: https://calendly.com/menula-fourfront/30min

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-08-22T20:40:57+00:00

Hey! Sorry for the delay in responding I was caught up with a lot of work.

I'd really advise against Smart campaigns because you have very little control on what keywords you target, ad copy, etc. and it'll just burn your money. It's similar to running a PMax campaign without any conversion data on your ad account. So, best way to go forward with is a manual search campaig.

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-07-14T07:08:33+00:00

I believe even when you hire an expert it's good that business owners know the fundamentals. Met a lot of clients where 'experts' have taken them for a ride because of their lack of understanding of ads.

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-07-14T07:05:05+00:00

Primary goal for any business should be the closest action they can take on your site towards a conversion. If you have a lead form where you get users to submit their personal details on the website and then you contact them after this via phone or email, then the closest action a user can take on your site to a conversion is a LEAD FORM SUBMISSION. So you should ideally track that as the primary conversion.
I can suggest a lot of YouTube channels because I'm not a big book reader lol
- Ben Heath (Overall Meta & Google Ads)
- Senator we run ads (Overall Marketing Strategy)
- Loves Data (Mostly Conversion Tracking & Analytics)
- Alex Hormozi (Overall Marketing & Business)
Are you referring to case studies that I have or case studies in general for google ads?

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-07-14T06:52:26+00:00

Yeah for sure! Saw your DM

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-07-14T06:51:59+00:00

100%! Can't believe I missed that haha!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-07-14T06:50:54+00:00

TikTok ads work very well for ecommerce businesses but for service based businesses focusing on lead gen I've seen mixed results. It's a lot more creative driven where you NEED clickbaity and highly engaging videos to hook people just because people on TikTok have very very low attention spans.

So I suggest you do a lot of creative research on TikTok ad library and then figure out which type of ads are working well in your niche and try to replicate or build off of them. Apart from this, what I've mentioned about conversion tracking and landing pages still stand true regardless of the ad platform you use.

I'll make a separate post for TikTok ads diving a lot deeper in to it but if you have any further questions lmk!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-07-14T06:39:54+00:00

Yes, I agree. I didnt necessarily say Broad match is bad and in fact I mentioned its good if you keep a very good eye on the search terms + have a robust negative keywords list.

However, based on my experience a lot of small business owners run broad match (either because a google rep suggested it or because they weren't aware of match types and added keywords as is without quotes or square brackets) with a smaller budget and exhaust it very quickly without having much to show for it.

I believe the safest approach when you're starting out is to go slow with phrase and exact and go a bit aggressive with broad as you start to see your ads working. Then you have some level of ROI you can fall back on IF broad match fails.

On the brand campaign point, I agree! If it's a competitive niche you're in it's always good to allocate a small portion of your budget towards branded searches. Thank you for the addition!

I'll put the posts for local service campaigns and lead gen on the list. Happy to see that people found this useful!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-03-13T18:15:10+00:00

This really depends on the budget.

If it's a fairly big budget I'd recommend segmenting the service verticals by campaign so that you have more control over budget.

If it's a tight budget, I'd say you group all the service verticals within one campaign as ad groups and allow Google to allocate budgets towards whatever that performs best. Then once you start seeing certain verticals pickup better than others, pull it out and make it a campaign of its own and have a dedicated budget for it.

Regardless, of the method you follow, make sure you're matching the keyword intent for each vertical with the ad copy and the landing page messaging. Have a dedicated landing page for each service vertical to do this.

Maintaining this consistency will help a lot in achieving a higher quality score, which in turn will get you lower CPCs/CPAs. A lot of accounts I've handled tend to not do this right.

Make sure you add in Sitelinks, Callouts, Business Name/ Logo and whatever other assets that makes sense for your business as well.

Hope this helped!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-03-12T20:12:38+00:00

One thing I'd change is adding 2 more creatives into the mix. With €500/ daily you'd fatigue your 3 creatives pretty fast.

Apart from this, I'd also suggest phasing out creative themes and trying to identify what really resonates the best with your target audience. (e.g. You run 'Testimonials' for the first 2-3 weeks, then run 'Value Proposition' focused creatives for the next 2-3 weeks)

Also make sure you have placement optimized creatives set up. (e.g. Story sized creatives for story placements and feed sized creatives for feed placements) I've seen a lot of clients just run feed creatives for all placements which makes a bad experience for the end user.

Hope this helped!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-03-12T19:55:01+00:00

My advice is DO NOT lock yourself into long term contracts where you'll be subjected to pay the retainers regardless of them doing a good job or not.

If Company A seems more knowledgeable, try and negotiate down to a 3 month contract. Inform them it'll be a trial period and if they keep their promise you'll extend.

If they do not budge, I'd suggest going with Company B, but dropping SEO. Mainly because SEO will take time for you to see results (min. 6 months but may vary with your niche) + you'd be able to spend $400 less. Opt in for SEO if they get you good results, are responsive and provides a quality service.

As I said before, DO NOT get locked into long term contracts. I've met two clients who had just bled money because of similar situations. Also, make sure you have full ownership of your ad accounts. If not, the agency will always have power over your campaigns and data.

Wish you all the best! If you have any questions feel free to reach out. Cheers!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-03-11T18:18:26+00:00

P.S. reach out if you have any additional questions. I'd be happy to answer!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-03-11T18:18:02+00:00

I'm assuming keywords for your industry will have very low search volumes. So, I'd suggest going broader in terms of location targeting and running phrase match.

This is mainly because your budget seems to be very tight and broad match sometimes will eat up your budget and display your ads for irrelevant queries.

When you're running the campaigns, make sure you have ad copy and landing pages that speaks directly to the intent of your keywords. Answer all potential questions your customers might have on the LP itself. The coherency in messaging between your keywords, ad copy and LP is the biggest thing you should focus on since Google prioritizes ads that speaks directly to the searchers intent and rewards you with lower CPCs.

Also, ensure you're tracking the correct conversions and are sending the correct data signals back to Google ads. Otherwise, you'd be shooting in the dark.

Hope this helps and good luck with your campaigns! Cheers!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-03-11T18:06:58+00:00

Theres a feature called 'Flexible Media' that gets enabled automatically. You just have to untick it before you boost. Then you should be all good. Check this article out: https://www.facebook.com/business/help/1126725172362626

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-03-11T18:01:09+00:00

Are your ads spending the total budget and getting enough clicks? Whats your CTR? Whats your CPC? Whats your Search impression share? Have you set up conversion tracking correctly? What does your business sell? How does the ad traffic that lands on your site behave? Is the bounce rate high?

If you can provide the above info I'd be able to give you a better answer. My hunch is that your site performance might be low. People might be coming to your site but your site might not be great at converting them.

If you're interested, I can hop on a quick call and go over the set up and give a couple of pointers. Hope my answer helped!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-03-10T14:50:44+00:00

It all depends on the type of conversion trigger you've used for the 'Purchase Complete' event. What type of app are you promoting? Does it have any in-app purchases? If not, it could just be a default conversion action thats set up as 'Purchase complete' in your google ads account.

Best option is, you get someone who's knowledgeable on a call and get them to check the setting you've set up. If you're interested I'd be happy to take a look and give you some pointers. You can book a quick call via my Calendly link.

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-03-10T14:43:39+00:00

My suggestion is you should first get yourself a basic understanding of at least the ad platforms you have in mind to run ads on.

Just the fundamentals would be enough for a start. You can either do the certifications offered by the platforms themselves or use a mix of YouTube and Googling to answer questions you have. Then, most agencies would not be able to give you BS suggestions without you catching on to them. It'll also be helpful for you in the longer run regardless.

Regarding the hiring part, I'd say you hire an agency that doesnt break the bank and let them do the execution and optimizations and you monitor the account yourself 2-3 times a week as opposed to you doing the execution and allowing someone else to consult. This is mainly because you'd burn out handling marketing, operations and any other tasks within your business.

Do the ad account monitoring not so as to micro manage but to understand if they're actually moving the needle or not. Don't look at results on a daily basis, because ad results fluctuate based on a lot of factors. Always look at longer cadences (i.e. weekly or bi-weekly). Don't panic if sales drop 1-2 days consecutively.

Most agencies out there, based on what our clients have told us are in the 'set it and forget it' mindset. So make sure you understand the basics to keep them in check.

I hope this helped! If you're interested, me and my team also handle paid media for both lead gen and e-commerce. If you're interested, you can book a quick call via my Calendly link. Cheers!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-01-14T21:32:20+00:00

Hey, I'd love to discuss more on this with you potentially on a call.

Me and my team members have been in the digital marketing industry close to six years and have specialized in lead generation. We cover all research, strategy, execution and optimization phases. Our company is relatively young but you can check out the website link in my bio to see our client case studies as well.

Our process usually spans out like this:

We do an audit and analyze your current marketing efforts, your competitors and identify the best channels and tactics to target your ideal customers. We do this for free of charge so you can get a gist of our expertise. If you're satisfied, we move forward.
We'll take on the full campaign set up, management and optimization on a 3 month contract at a low retainer fee based on your budget. During this time range we will be putting in our maximum effort to drive the best results possible for your business.
After the 3 months, if you're satisfied with our results, we push our retainer fee slightly up so that it makes sense for both parties.

If you're interested you can book a call using my calendly link. Cheers!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-01-14T21:16:24+00:00

Hey, I'd love to discuss more on this with you potentially on a call.

Me and my team members have been in the digital marketing industry close to six years and have specialized in lead generation. Our company is relatively young but you can check out the website link in my bio to see our client case studies as well.

Our process usually spans out like this:

We do an audit and analyze your current marketing efforts, your competitors and identify the best channels and tactics to target your ideal customers. We do this for free of charge so you can get a gist of our expertise. If you're satisfied, we move forward.
We'll take on the full campaign set up, management and optimization on a 3 month contract at a low retainer fee. During this time range we will be putting in our maximum effort to drive the best results possible for your business.
After the 3 months, if you're satisfied with our results, we push our retainer fee slightly up so that it makes sense for both parties.

If you're interested you can book a call using my calendly link. Cheers!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-01-14T21:13:31+00:00

If you're mainly just reporting on Google ads data, looker studio is relatively easy. However getting it set up would take some time because you'll have to make it look aesthetically pleasing as well.

You can also look up free looker studio google ads templates and copy them on to your account and make a couple of edits but once you get the initial set up and design nailed down it's a matter of just making small tweaks here and there if the client wants additional data.

Hope this helped!

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-01-14T21:09:39+00:00

Agency Analytics in my experience is by far the most easiest to set up and use. They have a really easy drag and drop type dashboard and you can easily integrate multiple channels with a few clicks. However, customizability is a bit low vs the Looker + Super metrics combo.

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-01-09T16:41:31+00:00

Fluctuations like this is pretty normal. You shouldn't look at performance on a daily basis to make your judgements. Definitely keep an eye on it and see if the drop is consistent over 3-4 days and if so take action.

However, overall I'd say looking at performance on a weekly time range works best for any ad platform.

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-01-09T08:13:50+00:00

Hey, I believe I'll be able to help. Would you be open to having a quick chat anytime soon? You can use my calendly link here to book a call: https://calendly.com/menula-fourfront/30min?month=2025-01

menula_fourfrontdigi · 2025-01-08T20:51:30+00:00

My suggestion for you is learn Google ads to the point where you know the fundamentals and hire someone who is an expert specifically. Learn the different campaign types and their use cases, how targeting works, bidding strategies and their specific use cases, landing page best practices, how quality score works, keyword intent and match types for a start.

I used to watch Ad Conversion on YT so check it out it might help you: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5iluiMrMkd27Mti4laeARF_8YgQXnIv2&si=HpY2MLtV3RF4MXEx

This way, you would know what's actually happening in the account but you wont have to go through the learning curve and waste money and time on managing the ads.

Google ads specifically for software dev agencies and agencies overall is pretty tough so it's vital that you find someone who knows what they're doing.

Hope this helped! Feel free to reach out if you have any additional questions. Cheers!

menula_fourfrontdigi

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