How we structured a first Google Ads campaign for a builder

A first Google Ads campaign for a local service business works best when it is narrow: a modest daily budget, targeting limited to the places you work, one ad group and one landing page per service, and exact and phrase match keywords only. This is how we structured one for a licensed builder in regional Australia, launched on 7 October 2026. We are not claiming results. At the time of writing the campaign has days of data, not months, and we will say so when there is something to report.

Two campaigns, two jobs

The account has two Search campaigns.

• Services in the regions: A$22 a day. It targets the councils and postcodes the builder actually works in, for service searches like granny flats, extensions and renovations.
• Town names across the state: A$8 a day. It targets searches that include a town name, such as a builder in a particular town, with the location set to the whole state.

Splitting them stops the town searches eating the budget of the service searches, and lets each have its own cap. Both are Search only, with the Search Partners and Display networks off.

Targeting: people in the area, not people interested in it

The regions campaign lists 14 locations: three councils and a run of postcodes covering the builder's service area. The setting that matters is presence only. The default also targets people who show interest in a place, which can include someone in another city looking at holiday homes. For a builder who travels to a site, you want people who are physically in the service area.

One detail from the Ads interface: not every council is available as a target. Where a council was not offered, we used its postcodes instead. Check what the picker lets you choose, not what you assume it does.

One ad group, one landing page, per service

The regions campaign has six ad groups: granny flats, extensions and second storeys, knockdown rebuilds and custom homes, duplex and dual occupancy, major renovations, and a general local builder group. Each group has:

• Exact match keywords for the main phrasings, such as [granny flat builders] and [home extension cost]. Exact match shows the ad only for searches with that meaning.
• A few phrase match keywords to catch close variations, such as "second storey addition".
• One responsive search ad with 15 headlines and 4 descriptions written for that service.
• One landing page built for that service, with no site navigation, so the visitor sees one enquiry form and one call to action.

The point of this structure is that the person who searched "granny flat builders" sees an ad about granny flats and lands on a page about granny flats. A single catch-all ad group would show a generic ad and a generic page for every search.

What the ads can and cannot say

Headlines and descriptions are limited to what the builder can stand behind: that they are licensed and insured, handle approvals and engineering, give fixed price proposals, and work in named areas. The Ads editor tried to prefill AI written headlines with promises no one had checked. We overwrote every field. More on that in ad claims you can prove. Phone numbers are not allowed in ad text, so the number goes in a call asset instead.

Bidding, conversions and negatives

• Bidding: Maximise clicks with a cost per click cap of A$12 on both campaigns. With no conversion history yet, automatic bidding for conversions has nothing to learn from. The plan is to review a switch once the account has around 15 conversions.
• Conversions: two actions, a quote form submitted and a phone number click, both primary and counted once per click. Enhanced conversions are on. The first real enquiry has to be traced end to end: the conversion appears in Ads, and the email reaches the right person.
• Negatives: a shared list of 94 phrase match terms applied to both campaigns at launch, then 99 after the first review. It excludes things the builder does not do, and searches like display homes and pre fab. We deliberately did not add "cost" or "price" because people researching granny flat prices are real buyers. See search terms and negative keywords for a local service for how to build the list.

What went wrong on launch day

Three small things, all worth knowing.

1. A landing page was flagged "Destination not working". The ad was reviewed before the page had finished deploying. We appealed and it was accepted.
2. The campaign wizard rejects web addresses that contain a question mark. It silently dropped one ad. The fix was a plain web address plus a final URL suffix for the tracking parameter. The ad editor's preview showed placeholder text, which was the clue that the ad was empty.
3. Autosave failed after Google's re-authentication prompt on the budget step. The review page then showed the saved state, not what we had typed. Reloading the draft before publishing showed the real settings.

On launch afternoon the account had 2 impressions and 0 clicks. That is normal, and it is not a result.

Why we would build it this way for your business

Start small, keep targeting tight, match each search to its own page, and make the first month about learning what converts. When we manage an account, you keep your own Google Ads account and pay Google directly for clicks. Our Ads management add-on is $549 a month in AUD, month to month, on top of the $298 a month base plan. See pricing, or get started.