Google Ads for service businesses: a starter kit
Five decisions that move a service-business Google Ads account from money-pit to predictable channel.
Most service businesses run Google Ads badly. They turn it on, see no results, blame the channel. Five decisions usually fix the account.
1. Use exact match by default
Broad match in 2026 spends your budget on irrelevant queries within a week. Start exact, expand only when you have data.
2. Build a real negative-keyword list
If "free" or "cheap" or "DIY" wouldn't qualify the prospect, those words go in the negatives on day one. Most accounts skip this and burn 30% of budget on never-buyers.
3. Conversion tracking before campaign launch
If you can't measure what a lead is worth, you can't optimize. Phone calls, form fills, booked calls - pixels for everything before a single dollar runs.
4. Start with one campaign, three ad groups
The temptation is 12 campaigns covering every service. Start tighter. You learn faster from one campaign with real spend than 12 starved of data.
5. Read the search-term report weekly
Not the dashboard. The actual list of words people typed. Half the negatives you need to add are hiding in there.
This isn't strategy. It's hygiene. Most accounts fail on hygiene before strategy ever matters.