Google Ads: Pay Only for Searches That Become Customers

RULE: The agent drafts and recommends; the owner approves. No campaign launches, no budget or bid strategy changes, and no new keywords go live without the owner's written yes.

A local business with a few hundred to a few thousand dollars a month cannot buy data. Every click must come from a person who needs the service, in the service area, now. Most wasted spend comes from three settings: broad keywords without negatives, "presence or interest" location targeting, and the Search Partners and Display networks left on.

1. Before you build: prerequisites

Stop and fix these first. An ad that sends visitors to a broken funnel buys nothing.