How to start Google Ads as a small business – your first campaign in seven steps

How to start Google Ads: the seven steps

Starting Google Ads for a small business breaks down into seven steps. If you begin with search ads – the text ads shown on Google results pages – and your preparation is done, you can go from account to live ads within a few days.

• Pick a goal: inquiries, bookings, quote requests or online sales – choose one main action
• Prepare a landing page: the first page people see after clicking your ad
• Set budget and area: a daily limit plus the locations and hours you want to cover
• Create the account: sign up with a Google account and add billing details
• Build the campaign: keywords, ad text and a bidding approach
• Set up conversion tracking: record inquiries or purchases as conversions
• Review after launch: check real search terms and costs, then adjust step by step

If you want the basics of search advertising first, see what listing ads are. Below, each step is explained in the order you will meet it.

What to prepare before you advertise

Most of the difference between a good and a poor first campaign is made before you open the dashboard. Have these five things ready and the setup becomes straightforward.

• A Google account owned by the business, so access does not depend on one employee
• A payment method, usually a credit card, plus the company name and billing address
• A landing page that shows your service, rough pricing, area and how to get in touch
• Keyword ideas: 10–20 phrases your customers would actually type
• A monthly budget you can sustain; treat the first one or two months as data gathering

The landing page matters most. Sending ad traffic to your home page makes people hunt for what they searched for, and many leave. A page that answers the search right away turns the same spend into more inquiries.

Setting up the account and your first campaign

New accounts open in a simplified "Smart Mode". If you want to choose keywords and locations yourself, use the "Switch to Expert Mode" option during signup before you continue.

• Goal and campaign type: for a first campaign choose Search and the goal that fits your aim
• Location and language: local businesses should narrow the area by city or radius
• Budget and bidding: enter a daily budget; monthly charges are capped at roughly 30.4 times that amount
• Keywords: start with specific phrases such as your service plus your area
• Ad text: responsive search ads take up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions
• Assets: add your phone number, address and links to key pages

Spend can exceed the daily budget on some days, but the month as a whole stays within the cap. Every ad is reviewed by Google before it runs, and most go live within about one business day. If you would rather hand over the whole setup, see Google Ads setup service.

Your first month of running search ads yourself

Once ads are live, use the first month to tidy up your settings. A 15-minute check once a week already cuts most wasted spend.

• Search terms report: see which real searches triggered your ads and clicks
• Negative keywords: exclude terms such as "free", "jobs" or "DIY" that do not match your goal
• Conversion check: send a test inquiry to confirm it is recorded
• Ad text: replace weak headlines with wording closer to how customers speak
• Cost per result: compare what each inquiry costs against your target

Changing settings too often keeps automated bidding from learning, and results stay unstable. Give bigger changes about two weeks before you judge them. For splitting a modest monthly budget, see running search ads on a small budget.

Common mistakes when starting Google Ads

Most first-campaign problems come from the initial setup. Check these before launch and you protect your budget.

• Location left on the whole country, or set to include people outside your area
• Broad keywords on broad match only, so spend goes to loosely related searches
• No conversion tracking, so you cannot tell which ads brought inquiries
• Ads pointing to the home page, where pricing and contact details are hard to find
• The account created under an agency's or employee's name, with no clean handover later

Create the account in your own business name and grant access to outside help as needed. That way your data stays with you whether you keep running ads yourself or bring someone in later.

How UNANOBO helps: start with a free landing page demo

Before any setup, UNANOBO builds a free demo of the page your ads will send people to, based on your current site and brand. You also get a proposed campaign and keyword structure, so you can decide after seeing it whether to launch yourself or have the setup done for you.

The process is free demo, feedback, launch, growth. The founder handles every project personally, so you keep one contact from the first demo through setup and the first reviews. The ad account and billing stay in your name, and everything runs by message in Japanese or English.