Google Ads setup
Google Ads account and campaign setup, done properly once instead of fixed for a year
A fixed-price build for companies starting Google Ads, restarting after a bad experience, or launching a new market or product. Delivered inside your own account with tracking that works from day one, then handed over or kept under management, your choice.
What goes wrong when Google Ads is set up quickly
Google makes it easy to launch a campaign in ten minutes, and the defaults it chooses are the ones that are good for Google: broad match, Smart Bidding with no data, Display and Search Partners switched on, auto-applied recommendations enabled, a conversion action that fires on a pageview. Most of the accounts I audit are still paying for a setup like that months later. A proper Google Ads campaign setup is slower and cheaper.
What the setup includes
- Account foundations. Account created or cleaned in your name, billing on your card, manager access for me, GA4 and Tag Manager linked, auto-apply switched off, conversion actions defined for what you actually sell.
- Conversion tracking. Forms, calls, purchases or bookings tracked once each, deduplicated, tested on desktop and mobile, with enhanced conversions and consent mode where relevant. See conversion tracking setup for the full scope.
- Research and structure. Keyword research against your services and margins, competitor auction review, campaign structure by service line and geography, match types chosen on purpose, negative lists built before launch rather than after the first wasted month.
- Ads and assets. Responsive search ads written per ad group with real differentiation, sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, call and location assets, brand campaign separated.
- Landing page check. Message match, speed, mobile forms and click-to-call tested. Fixes made where I can, specified for your developer where I cannot.
- Launch and first two weeks. Conservative bidding until data exists, daily checks during launch week, a written handover document explaining what was built and how to run it.
Setup only, or setup then management
Many companies buy the setup and run it themselves, especially under $3,000 a month in spend, where a retainer would be a large share of the budget. The handover document is written for that: what each campaign is for, what to check weekly, what not to touch. Others move straight into month-to-month management; the setup fee is then the first month's work rather than an extra.
Either way, the build lives in your Google Ads account, and the tags in your Tag Manager. There is nothing to migrate later.
Relaunches and new markets
A restart after an agency, a launch in Canada or the UK, or a new product line is a setup with history attached. In those cases the work begins with a short audit of what exists, so the good parts and the conversion data are kept and only the broken parts are rebuilt. Resetting an account to zero is rarely the right answer and always the easy one to sell.
Questions people ask before hiring
How much does a Google Ads setup cost?
A fixed price quoted from the form, scaled by the number of services, markets and whether tracking has to be built from scratch. It is credited against the first month if you continue into management.
How long does it take?
Two to three weeks from kickoff to live for a typical single-market account. Tracking that depends on your developer or CRM can extend that.
Do you set up the account in your MCC or mine?
Yours. If you do not have one, I create it in your name with your billing, then link it to my manager account for access. You can remove that access at any time.
Can I run it myself afterwards?
Yes, and the handover document is written for that. A quarterly check-in or a one-off consulting session is available if you want a second pair of eyes without a retainer.
Do you also set up Microsoft Advertising or Meta at the same time?
Yes. Microsoft is usually a small addition once Google is built. Meta is a separate build with its own tracking (pixel and Conversions API) and is quoted on its own.
Related services
Tell me about the account
Spend band, site and what is not working. You get a straight answer on whether I can help, what I would do first and a price range. No proposal deck, no sales follow-up sequence.