5 rules to stop wasting your Google Ads budget as a small business

In small and medium-sized companies, ad accounts are usually set up once and then left to "run themselves". The result: clicks, but the phone does not ring. The five rules below are basic adjustments that change the outcome without increasing the budget.

1. Do not start without a negative keyword list

Words like "free", "job vacancy", "how to" and "second-hand" quietly drain the budget of a company that sells services. Checking the search terms report once a week and adding irrelevant terms as negatives is the fastest way to save.

2. Connect each ad group to its own landing page

Sending a user searching for box production to the box page instead of the home page raises the conversion rate noticeably. The landing page should contain the searched term, a clear heading and a single action (form or phone).

3. Do not open the budget before conversion tracking is set up

If form submissions, phone clicks and e-mail clicks are not measured, there is no way to know which keyword brings business. In an account without conversion tracking, optimisation is guesswork.

4. Narrow location and time targeting

A company serving only Istanbul advertising across the whole country spends most of its budget on customers who will never come. If the phone is not answered outside working hours, bids can be lowered for those hours.

5. Write the ad copy around the search intent

There is a world of difference between "Corporate Web Design | Get a Quote" and "Welcome". The searched term in the headline, a concrete benefit in the description and a clear call to action: the formula for ad copy is that simple.

Bonus: review the account together once a month

An ad account is a living structure. A short monthly review (spend, conversions, cost per enquiry) corrects the direction; accounts reviewed every six months usually repeat the same mistake for six months.

We can carry out a short audit of your current ad account against these five rules; once access is shared, we will send a concrete list of recommendations within a few days.

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