A campaign needs more than an ad and a budget. Think through what happens after someone clicks: the page they see, how they enquire and who responds.

These five checks give you a practical starting point before launching a new campaign or handing it to an agency.

1. A relevant landing page

Choose a page that matches the service and location in your ad. That might be an existing service page or a dedicated campaign page. A homepage can work when it answers the search clearly, but a broad homepage often asks visitors to do more searching.

  • Make the service and area you cover immediately clear.
  • Explain why someone should choose you, with relevant reviews or work examples.
  • Make your phone number and enquiry form easy to find and use on mobile.
  • Remove distractions that make the next step harder to find.

Open the page on your phone and complete an enquiry yourself. Check that it reaches the right person and that any confirmation message makes sense.

For help choosing the destination, see whether your Google Ads need a dedicated landing page.

2. Working conversion tracking

Decide what counts as a useful result before you start: an enquiry, a booking or a sale. Then check that your reporting measures that action.

  • Track successful form submissions, rather than just visits to the contact page.
  • Check which call actions you measure and label them clearly.
  • Test that an enquiry records once, rather than being counted repeatedly.
  • Keep a record of which enquiries become qualified leads and customers.

A click on a website phone number does not prove that a call connected. Google distinguishes phone-number clicks from actual calls in its phone-click tracking guidance. Make sure you understand what your report is counting.

3. A clear offer

Give the right customer a specific reason to enquire. What do you help with, who is it for and what should they expect next?

For example, a repair business could explain its service area, available appointment times and how quotes work. Only promise things you can consistently deliver. You do not need a discount or a free service to make the offer clear.

Use the same message in the ad and on the landing page, so visitors can see they have arrived in the right place.

4. A realistic budget

Work backwards from the value of a new customer, your margins and what you can afford to spend acquiring them. Separate the advertising budget from management fees and any setup or landing-page work.

That is our service minimum, not a universal rule for every business. Use the Google Ads calculator to explore different click costs and conversion assumptions. Treat the output as a scenario, not a forecast.

Agree when you will review performance and what you will look at. A small number of clicks or enquiries can give a misleading impression; there is no single click count that guarantees a reliable conclusion.

5. A plan for follow-up

Decide who answers calls, checks form submissions and follows up when you are on a job. Make sure someone can cover when that person is unavailable.

  • Send enquiries to an inbox or CRM someone actually checks.
  • Set a realistic response target for your working hours.
  • Use a clear voicemail and acknowledgement message when you cannot respond immediately.
  • Record the outcome so you can connect campaign results to real work.

Before you switch the ads on

Walk through the whole journey once: read the ad, open the page, send an enquiry and check the response. Fix anything that makes the process confusing or unreliable.

If you would like help reviewing your setup, book a chat and we can work out what needs attention before launch.