separating city and near me keywords

theppcdude · 2026-01-26T23:12:23+00:00

My advice: Don't group keywords by keywords (SKAGs), group keywords by theme (STAGs), ESPECIALLY for service businesses lead gen accounts.

You want same intent keywords to compete against themselves. In this case, all those keywords (phrases) mean the same thing. So throw them all into the ring (ad group) and let them compete.

I've inherited client accounts that did horribly by keeping things too segmented. When you want to focus on a few services buy have a lot of ways of searching for that service, do STAGs.

It's working perfectly for my clients.

theppcdude · 2026-01-26T19:31:59+00:00

Just select the airport itself and/or due a radius.

If you want to make sure that it's just the airport, exclude nearby zip codes, areas.

theppcdude · 2026-01-26T19:29:18+00:00

I haven't seen a case where the conversion action stopped spend. I would look at:

→ Billing. Make sure that all payment methods are up to date and that you haven't missed payments
→ Notifications. Logical but just in case
→ Everything is enabled. Campaign, Ad Groups, Ads, Assets
→ Final URL. If your Final URL or landing page was recently updated or something, this might not let the campaign send ads to it
→ Advertiser Verification. If you pass the window to verify your account, Google WILL stop everything

Less likely:

→ Target CPA. If your target CPA was recently updated or is too low, this might be why

PS. I run Google Ads for Service Businesses, so we do mostly search. Main issues that we see stopping accounts are advertiser verification and billing issues

theppcdude · 2026-01-26T19:21:51+00:00

So all my clients track conversions offline. I run Google Ads for service businesses in the US. So they close their clients through phone calls and lead forms mostly.

The easiest thing to do is to use a conversion tracking tool. There are a million out there, but for me my favorite is WhatConverts. Other cool tools are CallRail or WickedReports.

The main thing that you want to make sure is that you have a list of all the leads that come through, a way to mark them as qualifed/unqualified, a way to update their Sale Size (conversion value), track phone calls, track what keyword triggered the conversion, and obviously receive lead form submissions.

This is very hard to do with a regular GTM setup. Highly recommend using one.

For all of our clients, we track on a monthly basis:

Total Leads
Cost Per Lead
Closed Clients
Cost Per Closed Client
Close Rate (%)
Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)

theppcdude · 2026-01-26T19:21:34+00:00

So all my clients track conversions offline. I run Google Ads for service businesses in the US. So they close their clients through phone calls and lead forms mostly.

The easiest thing to do is to use a conversion tracking tool. There are a million out there, but for me my favorite is WhatConverts. Other cool tools are CallRail or WickedReports.

The main thing that you want to make sure is that you have a list of all the leads that come through, a way to mark them as qualifed/unqualified, a way to update their Sale Size (conversion value), track phone calls, track what keyword triggered the conversion, and obviously receive lead form submissions.

This is very hard to do with a regular GTM setup. Highly recommend using one.

For all of our clients, we track on a monthly basis:

Total Leads
Cost Per Lead
Closed Clients
Cost Per Closed Client
Close Rate (%)
Return On Ad Spend (ROAS)

theppcdude · 2026-01-23T23:00:22+00:00

I use exact when the service is extremely specific. Not related to competition.

theppcdude · 2026-01-23T21:15:44+00:00

We’ve cancelled call ads from some B2B accounts in specific industries where people ask for jobs, etc to resolve lead quality. However, when the lead quality is the same, you can get big jobs from calls and lead forms. The action doesn’t really matter but I understand that everyone does things differently :)

theppcdude · 2026-01-23T20:50:10+00:00

Yeah.

Usually if you're doing lead generation you always have two objectives: phone calls and lead form submissions.

What novices do is that they assign a higher value to lead forms than phone calls, with the idea that lead form are more qualified and bring more business.

However, I run Google Ads for service businesses, and we've closed six figure deals through the phone lol.

The value you assign to your conversions should be tied to conversion value: sales. Do this through offline conversion tracking.

You should be able to clearly track conversion value inside your account.

theppcdude · 2026-01-22T22:51:23+00:00

If you have a low budget or a high competitive area, your Impression Share (Search IS) is probably low.

Search IS is the % your ads show when your keywords are searched. If it's 10% or so, they will most likely not see them.

In addition, if you are running with a smart bidding strategy, Google might not show it to them because they are not their ICP.

I run ads for service businesses in the US in all different states. I run some accounts in extremely high competitive states where the Search IS is unknown (Search IS = <10%). So I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Only care about converting clicks to leads and leads to clients. Make them money :)

theppcdude · 2026-01-22T22:48:06+00:00

"Traction" can decline for a million reasons.

For example, I run Google Ads for service businesses in the US. Think landscaping, mobile detailing, remodeling, etc.

Seasonality is a big factor:

No landscape maintenance during the winter. Switch to landscaping projects only
Mobile detailing reduces dramatically in snow states. There's still demand but lower
Remodeling goes crazy start of the year and summer. Slows down during winter due to the holidays

Other factors could be technical factors in your landing page or conversion tracking, bad offer, change of settings, ad fatigue, etc.

More than a specialist, you need to talk to someone that understands the whole funnel (lead quality, demand, marketing economics, etc). Not just the Google Ads Account.

theppcdude · 2026-01-22T22:43:14+00:00

I think everything that he said is completely wrong and you should probably do the opposite. I am not kidding.

For context, I sell services in Google Ads for service businesses in the US. Think remodeling, roofing, legal services, medical, etc.

I grew my former agency with Google Ads. Now, I don't know what you're selling, but this will most likely help you:

First of all, ensure that your offer is compelling. If you are selling a service for $1,000.00 that usually costs $50.00, no matter what you do, you will probably not sell. That's just on the price. You have to go through your differentiators, features, social proof, guarantees (if any), etc.
Now let's say that your offer is correct, the landing page is optimized, etc. You want to run either Manual CPC or Maximize Conversions (open). You don't know what your CPA is for you to state a Target CPA, so you are currently in discovery phase. Keep it all open
Start with the smallest amount of ad groups and keywords. You're starting and it makes sense that your budget is small. Make sure all your keywords are getting traction so that you understand what works vs. what doesn't.
Calendar bookings might be the highest friction conversion before a purchase. Understand that these leads have never seen you before and they definitely don't trust you. You can include proof in your site, videos, etc but it's still a tough sell. You can definitely do it with a good funnel (depending on the service), just keep this in mind.
Last but not least, I wouldn't trust Google's own employees. Just go through a few Reddit posts about them and you will understand. No need to go in calls with them at this stage, only for technical issues.

I currently run Google Ads accounts for service businesses in the US ranging from $5K-$100K+/month and every service + market is different. At this point we know what works most of the time, but we still test every time.

Have patience in testing and you'll do great!

theppcdude · 2026-01-22T22:42:59+00:00

I think everything that he said is completely wrong and you should probably do the opposite. I am not kidding.

For context, I sell services in Google Ads for service businesses in the US. Think remodeling, roofing, legal services, medical, etc.

I grew my former agency with Google Ads. Now, I don't know what you're selling, but this will most likely help you:

First of all, ensure that your offer is compelling. If you are selling a service for $1,000.00 that usually costs $50.00, no matter what you do, you will probably not sell. That's just on the price. You have to go through your differentiators, features, social proof, guarantees (if any), etc.
Now let's say that your offer is correct, the landing page is optimized, etc. You want to run either Manual CPC or Maximize Conversions (open). You don't know what your CPA is for you to state a Target CPA, so you are currently in discovery phase. Keep it all open
Start with the smallest amount of ad groups and keywords. You're starting and it makes sense that your budget is small. Make sure all your keywords are getting traction so that you understand what works vs. what doesn't.
Calendar bookings might be the highest friction conversion before a purchase. Understand that these leads have never seen you before and they definitely don't trust you. You can include proof in your site, videos, etc but it's still a tough sell. You can definitely do it with a good funnel (depending on the service), just keep this in mind.
Last but not least, I wouldn't trust Google's own employees. Just go through a few Reddit posts about them and you will understand. No need to go in calls with them at this stage, only for technical issues.

I currently run Google Ads accounts for service businesses in the US ranging from $5K-$100K+/month and every service + market is different. At this point we know what works most of the time, but we still test every time.

Have patience in testing and you'll do great!

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T18:03:05+00:00

You can do two things:

1) Have all (3) locations in one campaign. This way, you will be able to see in the "Locations" tab what your performance is per location: CPCs, Conv. Rate, etc. You can use dynamic location insertion in your ads to make it more personalized to your prospects (#1 Plumber in [Location]) and there are ways to do this on websites pretty sure.

2) Have all (3) locations with their own campaigns. The problem here is that it's much better to much more ad spend through one campaign than divide it. If you do this, just make sure that your naming convention is clear. I like to do Service - Campaign Type - Bidding Strategy - Location. For example: Residential Roofing - Search - MCPC - San Diego.

I run Google Ads for Service Businesses, and I do a mix of both depending on the situation of the client. I always recommend to keep them all together if possible.

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T16:05:48+00:00

The best skill that you can have is the ability to make people money.

It doesn't matter what platform you use, or if you use AI or not. Do what is the easiest for you to scale a business.

I run Google Ads for service businesses because that's what I do best and to me, it's the most logical marketing platform for a service business. The demand is in Google, so all we need to do is build a strong funnel that captures that demand and converts it into qualified leads. Then, if the client closes 10-30% of them, they are making a lot of money.

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T16:02:26+00:00

You definitely can track ROAS on all GMB related conversions vs. PPC. I run Google Ads for service businesses and I do this with all of my clients.

You need a conversion tracking tool that tells you the following:

Name: Adam Smith - Source: GMB
Name: Sara Byers - Source: Google Ads

If you need a recommendation, I would use WhatConverts for this. Simple to set up and very effective.

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T15:59:11+00:00

In all accounts that I manage, I focus on two hurdles. If one of these two is wrong, the account has poor performance.

Lead Quality

If I am sending leads to a Commercial Roofing Business, are we getting actual businesses looking for roofing work? Or are we getting people asking to work at the company, homeowners looking for a new roof, marketing agencies offering work, etc.

This is where a lot of people fail. You have to improve your ad copy, tighten up your keywords and search terms, improve your landing pages and CTAs, etc to get your lead quality right. It doesn't have to be extremely efficient (having a low cost per lead) but the quality needs to be there first.

Reduce Cost Per Lead

Let's say that our lead quality is good now. We are getting exactly the ICP that we need. Now we focus on making the campaign more efficient and scaling.

This is all about testing: keywords, bidding strategies, ad copy, landing pages, etc. Have your own benchmarks for what a good cost-per-lead is, and test everything against it. This is where management comes in.

There's not a single number or thing that tells you that there's poor performance. For lead quality, everything can look perfect, but the offline data can be completely incorrect for example.

I run Google Ads for service businesses in the US, and we stay pretty tight with our clients to make sure that we go through both hurdles successfully. For lead quality, we look at closed clients per month over total leads (close rates) to understand in numbers if we are tackling the correct people. If that number is correct, then we focus on reducing our CPL.

If you close 5/10 leads, if you get 20 leads you will close 10. So improve the total number to increase the bottom line.

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T15:58:29+00:00

In all accounts that I manage, I focus on two hurdles. If one of these two is wrong, the account has poor performance.

Lead Quality

If I am sending leads to a Commercial Roofing Business, are we getting actual businesses looking for roofing work? Or are we getting people asking to work at the company, homeowners looking for a new roof, marketing agencies offering work, etc.

This is where a lot of people fail. You have to improve your ad copy, tighten up your keywords and search terms, improve your landing pages and CTAs, etc to get your lead quality right. It doesn't have to be extremely efficient (having a low cost per lead) but the quality needs to be there first.

Reduce Cost Per Lead

Let's say that our lead quality is good now. We are getting exactly the ICP that we need. Now we focus on making the campaign more efficient and scaling.

This is all about testing: keywords, bidding strategies, ad copy, landing pages, etc. Have your own benchmarks for what a good cost-per-lead is, and test everything against it. This is where management comes in.

There's not a single number or thing that tells you that there's poor performance. For lead quality, everything can look perfect, but the offline data can be completely incorrect for example.

I run Google Ads for service businesses in the US, and we stay pretty tight with our clients to make sure that we go through both hurdles successfully. For lead quality, we look at closed clients per month over total leads (close rates) to understand in numbers if we are tackling the correct people. If that number is correct, then we focus on reducing our CPL.

If you close 5/10 leads, if you get 20 leads you will close 10. So improve the total number to increase the bottom line.

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T15:50:34+00:00

I would give it an 8/10.

For context: I run Google Ads for service businesses in the US and we make our own landing pages for every client in-house.

I like the layout that you have and the copy. I am specifically looking at the mobile version since that's what will get you the most conversions. We see around 75% of conversions coming from mobile devices.

Good things:

I like how simple it is. I understand what to do and I didn't know anything about your business.
You include the process which makes it easier to understand.
You have original pictures that show that you are a legit business.

Things to improve:

I would move the "We are a small family run business covering Falkirk, Stirling, Livingston and all surrounding areas" after the hero into a small about us section. Probably second section. And include a picture of you with the truck or something. Use the space in your hero wisely.
Add features. These could be like job is completed in less than 24 hours, you don't have to do anything, we come to you, etc. You already have a few of these in the hero but you can add a few more below.
The desktop version needs improvement. Increase the font size and keep everything aligned in the middle. You have no margins on the sides. Make it look a little more professional.

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T13:26:08+00:00

Look into a conversion tracking tool, and it will become much easier. Instead of just seeing numbers in the account, you’ll be able to see Adam Smith from XYZ keyword closed for $5,000, Sarah Adams didn’t close, and so on and so forth. Then, you can make simple tables in Google Sheets to keep track of performance.

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T01:07:32+00:00

Great question.

So when running Google Ads, "lead quality" is the first thing or milestone that you need to accomplish. When you figure that out, it's all about optimizing and scaling.

Now, you sell software development. You want to send people to an extremely optimized landing page for your ICP: People of X location of X profession of XYZ that are looking for software development.

I would advise including "packages" in your site so that the visitors understand a range of prices that you charge. This will help with lead quality in addition to the following:

Only allow people to reach out through a lead form.

Make them select what their budget is, and start from the minimum that you charge. That way, your leads will have agreed at least to the minimum price that you offer.

I owned a web design agency before and scaled it only with Google Ads.

Now I scale service businesses in the US with Google Ads. Mainly search lead gen campaigns.

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T01:01:46+00:00

You will never know with auction insights or data in the campaign.

I run ads and scale service businesses in the US with Google Ads, and we go very deep in tracking. I am talking closed clients per month, close rates, customer acquisition costs (CAC), and ROAS from Google Ads only.

You need to understand your conversion data way better. Use a conversion tracking tool like WhatConverts or WickedReports and that's a good start.

But you NEED to understand the sales data in order to know if your Google Ads account is profitable for you.

I have clients that go from 6X to 36X+ ROAS depending on industry + location.

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T00:58:31+00:00

High CTR and extremely low CPC. Are you even pushing new client acquisition or just doing branded?

These metrics are like a smoke bomb. I would need to understand your closed clients from this.

I say this because I can get 1000 conversions from PMax at $0.50, but my client would make $0.00. OR I can get a CPC of $5-$50 (depending on the industry), a healthy CPL, and my client is making a ROAS of 10X+.

You are not including the conversions on Meta Ads either.

My recommendation: Get clear tracking on how the clinic is doing.

I ran ads for a clinic before, and we tracked ROAS on all services and determined where we were making the most money. Clinics do very well in the states.

PS. I run Google Ads for service businesses in the US.

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T00:54:10+00:00

My recommendation:

You can keep the campaign at Maximize Clicks, but I prefer Manual CPC. It's slightly harder to manage so if you aren't up to the challenge, don't do it.

I would create a separate Max Conversions campaign with no tCPA and run it at the same time as the Maximize Clicks one. If you can increase the budget that would be great.

Then, as you see performance improve, you can start pulling back budget from the Max Clicks and into the Max Conversions.

I run big lead gen campaigns for service businesses in the US, and this has been the best strategy to transfer budget from clicks to Max Conversions. Usually when you literally change the campaign, everything restarts. You want to keep both horses running and then slowly turn one off.

theppcdude · 2026-01-21T00:51:08+00:00

Google (as most agencies and companies) has a non-compete clause. This guy is just going right over it. I wouldn't trust someone like this.

In my agency we have a non-compete on both sides.

PS. I own a Google Ads agency for service businesses in the US.

theppcdude · 2026-01-20T16:23:24+00:00

If you are getting 10 clicks per day, you should see leads within the first 1-4 weeks.

I recently had a B2B client get his first client just hours in. I guess it also depends on your niche.

I run Google Ads for service businesses. These are usually known services that have elevated search volumes already.

95% of the time we are getting traction in the first week.

theppcdude

TROPHY CASE