Google Ads – 10-Step Formula to CRUSH it!

Want to CRUSH it with Google Ads? Here’s the 10-Step Formula to Scale Your Small Business Ads and Dominate Your Market!

Look, if you’re a small or medium-sized business, chances are you’re leaving cash on the table when it comes to Google Ads. You can’t just throw money at ads and hope for the best. You need a solid strategy that delivers killer RESULTS, not excuses. Get the wrong audience and poor landing page experiences then you will soon see your monthly budget disappear.

Here’s how you can stop burning cash and start scaling to the moon, step by step:

1. Sniper Targeting: Hit the Keywords That Convert

• Hyper targeted business goals – load your online advertising with business goal orientated bullets. No point in running Google Ads if your business goals do not align to it.
• Don’t play the keyword guessing game. Use long-tail keywords to laser-focus on your potential customers, not the tire-kickers. Less competitive keywords, more ROI. Don’t neccesarily avoid expensive keywords but do be mindful – the focus has to be profitable keywords. Expensive does not equal profit and perhaps are better suited to campaigns with larger budgets.
• Negative Keywords are your best friend. Block out the irrelevant clicks and keep your advertising budget and ad spend where it belongs. Create a negative keyword list that cuts the cr*p and leaves you with relevant keywords for your campaign and the perfect target audience.
• Geo-Targeting: If you’re local, OWN your backyard. Target by city, neighbourhood, or even post code. Get in front of potential customers who are ready to buy.

2. Juice Up Your Ads with Extensions

• Sitelinks: Give your target customers an express lane to the money pages. Add links to key pages like “Services,” “Free Quote,” or “Contact Us.” Pages that can help the decision-making process.
• Call Extensions: If you’re a local business, make it stupid easy for business owners or potential customers to call you. They see the ad, they click the button, BOOM—you’ve got a live lead.
• Location Extensions: Get your address right in their face and drive foot traffic straight to your door. They see it, they trust you.
• Structured Snippets: Show off what makes you special. Whether it’s “Free Shipping,” “24/7 Service,” or “5-Star Reviews”—stack the deck in your favour.

3. The Landing Page Hustle: Make it Irresistible

• Ads are only half the game. If your landing page doesn’t convert, you’re dead in the water. Make your page match the ad—no one likes surprises.
• A killer CTA should hit them between the eyes the second they land. Be clear, be bold, and tell them EXACTLY what to do.
• Mobile Optimization is not optional. People are on their phones 24/7. If your site doesn’t load fast and look sharp, you’re losing cash by the minute.

Read our guide to optimising your landing pages and get industry secrets to boost your Google Ads performance.

4. Guard Your Budget Like It’s Fort Knox

• Smart Budgeting: Focus your marketing budget on what’s working. If a campaign’s not converting, SLASH the budget and reinvest it where it counts.
  
  Consider the average cost per click and then set an appropriate daily budget that drives the phone calls.
• How Much Per Lead: whats the average cost per acquisition? what are the keyword costs? do you have a realistic budget set and what are your average conversion rates. Keep an eye on the prize!
• Dayparting: Ads should run when your audience is ready to BUY. If you’re a restaurant, don’t waste money showing ads at 3 AM. Be strategic. Show ads to people at relevant times of day.
• Automated Bidding: Let Google’s AI do the heavy lifting. A cost-effective way to making the most out of your advertising efforts. Use tools like Target CPA or ROAS once you’ve got data rolling in. Set it, tweak it, and profit.
  
  As long as you are hitting your campaign goals and not exceeding monthly budgets then let the bots do the work.
• Manage your Spend: Create a bidding strategy that is realistic and manageable. Your advertising spend should really be based on data-driven decisions rather than finger in the blowing wind.
  
  There are a range of factors that could impact your spend including bounce rates, relevancy and keyword optimisation. KEEP AN EYE ON SPEND.

5. A/B Testing: Only the Strongest Survive

• Test EVERYTHING—headlines, descriptions, CTAs, landing pages. Throw spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks. Keep what converts, ditch the rest.
• Run split tests on your landing pages too. Small tweaks can deliver BIG gains. Test different layouts, copy, and button colours. Focus on the target audience and what would be right for them.
• Dynamic Ads: Let Google do the hard work by automatically generating ads based on your website content. It’s like having an extra marketer on your team, minus the salary.

6. The Goldmine of Remarketing

• Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA): These people already know you, and now they’re HOT leads. Serve them ads that remind them why they need you NOW.
• Display Remarketing: Stay top-of-mind with potential buyers by serving them visual ads on the Google Display Network. Get in front of them wherever they go.

7. Max Out Your Quality Score

• Relevance is King: Your ad text, keywords, and landing page MUST be in sync. Google AdWords rewards relevance with a higher Quality Score, which means lower CPC, cost per acquisition and more clicks.
• Skyrocket Your CTR: Write ad copy that makes people WANT to click. The higher the CTR, the better your ads perform, and the cheaper they get.
• Use Ad Extensions to get a leg up on the competition and boost your Quality Score without lifting a finger.

8. Dial in Your Audience Targeting

• Custom Audiences: Go after your perfect customer—those with buying intent in Google search for a product or service, not window shoppers. Build custom audiences based on behaviour and interests.
• In-Market Audiences: Target users who are READY to buy. These are your high-intent, credit-card-waving prospects.
• Lookalike Audiences: Want more customers like the ones you’ve already got? Use lookalike audiences to clone your best buyers and grow FAST.

9. Use Google’s AI to Your Advantage

• Smart Campaigns: Don’t have time to manage everything manually? Google’s Smart Campaigns use AI to optimise your ads. It’s like hiring a marketing genius without the hefty salary.
• Automated Rules: Set up triggers that automatically adjust bids or pause campaigns based on performance. Let the machine do the heavy lifting while you focus on scaling.

10. Analyse, Adjust, Scale!

• Watch your numbers like a hawk. Track CTR, conversion rates, CPA, and ROI. If something’s not working, PIVOT. No set-it-and-forget-it here. Monitor the campaign performance regularly. Delve into the customer lifecycle, the way prospective customers are transformed into paying customers.
• Conversion Tracking: Set up tracking properly so you know EXACTLY what’s driving sales, leads, and calls.
• Google Analytics Integration: Get deep insights into user behaviour on your site. The more you know, the better you can refine your strategy to drive sales.

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Stop wasting money on ineffective Google Ads. Follow this proven, step-by-step plan and watch your ad spend turn into PURE PROFITS.

Play it smart, test everything, and SCALE until you dominate your market. The important thing to consider (as with any marketing efforts) is that this NEEDS to be an ongoing process. DO NOT press go on your campaign and expect instantaneous results!

Monitor the target audiences, budget reports and average costs per click. Use Google Analytics as your right hand-man (or woman). Keep adding to the negative keyword list if you find your search campaign performance dipping.

Most importantly be realistic. If you have no marketing budget, are targeting broad keywords and are sending traffic to your homepage then you do not have a solid strategy for digital advertising. You may as well pee into the wind.

FAQs for Small Business Google Ads

1. How can I scale Google Ads for a small business?

Scaling Google Ads for small businesses is all about laser-focused targeting and killer ad copy. Start by optimising your campaigns for high-conversion, long-tail keywords and refine your audience targeting. Test your ads like crazy—A/B test headlines, CTAs, and landing pages—and then scale the winners. Don’t waste a single dollar on ads that don’t deliver.

2. What are the best Google Ads strategies for SMBs?

To dominate with Google Ads as a small or medium business, you need to get strategic. Leverage long-tail keywords to beat the competition, and focus on remarketing to turn lost prospects into buyers. Oh, and don’t forget to use ad extensions to boost clicks. You’re not just running ads—you’re building a lead machine!

3. How do I maximise ROI with Google Ads for my small business?

Maximising ROI is all about killing wasted ad spend. Use negative keywords to block irrelevant clicks, and focus on the keywords that drive results. Tighten up your landing pages—every click should convert. Use tools like Target CPA or ROAS bidding to automate and optimise your budget for maximum returns.

4. What are the most important Google Ads optimisation tips for SMBs?

Here’s the deal: Optimisation is a non-stop process. Start with killer keyword research and use geo-targeting to own your local market. Constantly test and refine your ads—try out new headlines, descriptions, and images, and always keep an eye on your Quality Score to lower your CPC. Every tweak should move the needle toward more conversions!

5. How do I use Google Ads extensions to grow my small business?

Extensions are like adding rocket fuel to your ads. Use call extensions to make it super easy for prospects to contact you directly from the ad. Add location extensions to get people through your door and use sitelink extensions to direct them to key conversion pages like “Free Consultation” or “Special Offers.” Extensions can skyrocket your CTR—if you use them right.

6. How can I reduce costs and boost conversions with Google Ads?

First off, cut the fat! Use negative keywords to avoid paying for irrelevant clicks and target your dream buyers with long-tail keywords that have less competition. You’ll want to optimise for a high Quality Score, which will lower your CPC. And, of course, test everything—because small tweaks can deliver massive ROI gains.

7. How can small businesses use Google Ads for conversion optimisation?

Conversion optimisation starts with your landing page. Match your ad message to the page, hit them with a clear CTA, and make it so irresistible that they have no choice but to convert. Optimise for mobile, load times, and most importantly—test different variations to see what works. The faster your page converts, the faster you scale.

8. What’s the best way to target keywords with Google Ads for SMBs?

Skip the competitive, high-CPC keywords and go for the long-tail keywords that your competitors are sleeping on. These give you lower CPCs and more qualified leads. Pair that with negative keywords to filter out junk traffic, and you’ll have a campaign that’s lean, mean, and converting like crazy.

9. What’s the importance of Google Ads A/B testing for small businesses?

A/B testing isn’t optional—it’s essential. You can’t just set your ads and forget them. Test every element—headlines, ad copy, CTAs, images—because you don’t know what will resonate until you see the data. The stronger the ad, the more conversions. The more conversions, the more profit. Simple.

10. How can I use remarketing to improve Google Ads performance for SMBs?

Remarketing is your secret weapon. If someone hits your landing page and doesn’t convert, don’t let them off the hook! Serve them custom ads everywhere they go online. Keep showing up with tailored offers and retarget until they convert. Hot leads are worth gold, and remarketing is how you turn browsers into buyers.