Does Google Ads really work?

When the sum can add up and it still goes wrong, the cause is nearly always in one of four corners. The first is intent that is too broad. A painter advertising on the word paint pays for do it yourselfers, schoolchildren doing a project and people looking for a colour. The clicks look relevant, the searchers mean something else. The fix is aiming more sharply: more precise keywords, tighter match types and above all a growing list of negative keywords that keeps the wrong intent outside the door. That is not a one-off job but weekly maintenance: every week the search terms report produces new terms you do not want to be found on.

The second corner is trust. Ads can buy traffic, but not trust. A visitor who clicks an advert is nowhere near yet: they do not know you, they compare you with three competitors and they decide in seconds. A page that does not immediately make clear who you help, why you, and what the next step is, loses them again. The third corner is measurement. Without correct conversion tracking Google optimises towards the wrong goal: page views instead of enquiries, button clicks instead of submitted forms. The account then looks like it is performing while the telephone stays quiet.

The fourth corner is structure. An account where everything sits jumbled together gives no answer to the only question that counts: which pound produced what? A good campaign structure makes it possible to point per intent at which advert and which page are responsible for the result. Only then can you improve deliberately instead of hoping. All four corners have something in common: they are not a matter of budget but of craft, and all four can be fixed.

There is a lever in the sum that often gets overlooked: the conversion rate of the page. Look again at the example in FIG.01. If the conversion rises from 4 to 8 per cent, the number of clicks per customer halves and the break even click price doubles from 12 to 24 pounds. The same campaign, the same budget, twice the room. That is why working on the landing page is often more profitable than fiddling with bids: it is the only lever that improves the whole sum at once.

What a strong page does is no secret. Make clear in one screen who you help and with what. Show evidence: real reviews, real photographs, a concrete example of your work. Make the next step frictionless, with a form that asks only what is needed. And answer objections before they are raised: what does it cost, how quickly can it happen, what if it disappoints.

One rule that is law in the United Kingdom: since 6 April 2025 fake reviews are a banned practice under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, so the reviews on that page have to be earned. What a weak page does is unfortunately no secret either: general text, no evidence, too many choices and a form that asks for half a CV.

The advert itself deserves the same care, within the limits Google sets: headlines of at most 30 characters and descriptions of at most 90. Short enough to make every word count. If you want help with that: our free AI generator for ad headlines and meta descriptions writes three variants within the character limits, and the keyword generator for local businesses helps you find the terms to aim those adverts at. More about the writing itself is at ad copy. And when an advert is not shortened but refused, the reason and the appeal route are set out step by step in your Google Ads advert has been disapproved.

Modern Google Ads is largely automated: smart bid strategies decide per auction what you bid, on the basis of the conversion data you supply. That works impressively well with clean data and disastrously with dirty data. Measure button clicks as a conversion and the system buys button clicks with complete conviction. So the order is sacred: reliable measurement first, only then let the automation go. What there is to choose is at bid strategies, and how to keep the link with analytics clean at Google Ads and GA4.

Measure as a primary conversion only what really counts: a form that arrives in your inbox or CRM, a call of meaningful length, an order or a booked appointment. Build in guard rails: a spam filter on forms, deduplication between GA4 and Ads so that the same enquiry is not counted twice, and a fixed check after every change to the site. It sounds dull and it is, but every hour that goes into it earns itself back in every month that follows, because all the automation leans on it.

For Performance Max all of that counts double. It is the most automated campaign form Google has: you supply goals, budget and material, the system does the rest, across all of Google's channels at once. With reliable conversions and strong material that can work out well. Without that base you hand the keys to a system you cannot check and that gives you limited insight into where exactly your budget goes. So start with an ordinary search campaign almost every time, and only expand once the figures hold up. What that spreading of one budget across six channels does on a small local budget, and when Performance Max does make sense, is worked out in Performance Max for trades.

About money we can be brief, because our rates are fixed and are on the pricing page. Management costs 250 euro a month for one location or service area, the one-off set-up of your account 500 euro. Your advertising budget comes on top of that and goes straight to Google; we earn nothing on it and therefore have no interest in a higher budget than the sum justifies.

Amounts are in euro, because that is the currency we invoice in, and a business customer in the United Kingdom accounts for the VAT themselves under HMRC VAT Notice 741A. Hesitating between doing it yourself and handing it over? Then read outsourcing Google Ads to an agency or look at what a Google Ads specialist concretely does for you. The full cost build up, from click price per sector to the monthly cap of 30.4 times your daily budget, is in what Google Ads costs.

Just as important is what we do not promise. No fixed number of leads a month, no date on which it becomes profitable, no positions. Anyone promising that is promising something they do not control: your market, your margin and your competitors all have a say. What we do do: make the same sum beforehand that is in this article, and say honestly when the answer is no. A client who discovers after three months that their margin could never carry the click prices deserved that conversation in week nought.

What this looks like when it runs is shown by two clients named on our paid search page. Miraflores Thuiszorg, a home care provider in the Netherlands, was barely visible online to people actively searching for home care. We set up campaigns per care type and per region, linked to landing pages that matched the search exactly, and exclude search terms without conversions as soon as the measurement shows it.

What that produced we do not put here: our own rule is that an outcome only travels together with the starting point and the measurement under it, and those sit in the client's account and not on this page. Witte Tanden in Oisterwijk, a dental practice near our own base, wanted more patients from the immediate area: there campaigns run on treatment led search terms with location targeting, with landing pages where an appointment can be booked straight away.

What we describe here is the way of working in those two accounts; more context is at the paid search cases. The pattern counts more here than an outcome: both engagements started with the sum and the measurement, not with a big budget. Without a measurement that is right from day one you cannot see which search terms convert and which do not, and then there is nothing to optimise.

The question comes up in every first conversation: should I advertise or work on my organic visibility? The honest answer is that they are different tools with a different time horizon. Ads buys visibility per click: it works as long as you pay and stops when you stop. SEO builds visibility that stays, but takes months of patience before it carries. That also makes Ads an excellent test instrument: within weeks you see which search terms and which message convert, knowledge your organic strategy benefits from for years. In which order you build those two channels as a starting business is set out step by step in SEO or Google Ads: which first.

The sum decides the order. Is your margin generous enough for the click prices in your market, then you can start today and build for the long term alongside it. Is the sum negative, do not force it: start with the free SEO scan to see where you stand organically, and first build a site that turns visitors into enquiries, because that investment pays off in both channels. Learning more about advertising and being found is always free in the knowledge base.

What does Google Ads cost per month?

Two things, and you have to keep them apart: the advertising budget that goes to Google and the management cost. You set the budget yourself and it depends on your market and your margin. For management we charge 250 euro a month for one location or service area, plus 500 euro once for the set-up. More important than the size of the budget is the sum beforehand: what may a click cost at most so that something is left at the bottom.

How quickly does Google Ads work?

Search campaigns can bring traffic from the first day, because you buy visibility on a search directly. That is a different thing from an immediate return: the first weeks mainly produce data with which you sharpen search terms, adverts and bids. For an honest picture think in weeks, and do not promise yourself a fixed date by which it has to be profitable, because that depends on your market and your figures.

Why do I get plenty of clicks but no enquiries?

Usually because of one of three causes. The intent is too broad, so you pay for searchers who mean something else. The landing page inspires too little trust or leaves the next step unclear. Or the measurement is wrong, so you steer on numbers that say nothing. Work through them in that order: the search terms report first, then the page, then the conversion tracking.

Is Performance Max always better than an ordinary search campaign?

No. Performance Max can work well when your conversion tracking is reliable and you have strong creative, because the system steers entirely on the signals you supply. If those signals are wrong, it confidently optimises in the wrong direction and you also see less clearly where your budget goes. A reliable base in a search campaign first, and only then expand.

Do I have to do SEO before I start with Ads?

Not necessarily, they are different tools. Ads buys visibility straight away and is therefore good for testing demand quickly, SEO builds visibility that stays. The sum decides the order: if your margin is too small for the click prices in your market, organic visibility is often the more logical route. If the sum does add up, the two strengthen each other.

When is outsourcing Google Ads sensible?

When the sum is positive but the time or the knowledge to steer it structurally is missing. A good account takes weekly maintenance on search terms, negative keywords and adverts. What an agency cannot do: turn a negative sum positive. If your margin is too small for the click prices in your market, outsourcing does not fix that, and an honest agency should tell you so beforehand.

Does Google Ads really work? For companies with a healthy margin, an offer people actively search for and a page that inspires trust: yes, demonstrably. For companies where one of those three is missing: only once that is fixed, and sometimes not at all. The good news is that you do not have to guess the answer for your business. Download the free calculation skill at the top of this article and let Claude or Codex do the sum, or put your figures to us; through the contact page or straight into a conversation. We will tell you honestly, including when the answer is no.