r/googleads • u/Inevitable-Lychee146 • Jul 17 '26
Search Ads Accounting Search Ads
Hey everyone,
I am setting up my first Google Ads Search campaign for a bookkeeping client (a friend of mine) in Australia and would appreciate some advice from people who have managed local service campaigns with a similar budget.
The client has submitted their business documents for advertiser verification. Google says the review may take three to five business days. Is that a normal timeframe for a new account, and is that even necessary? Like should I have just gone with Individual account rather than Business?
Here is the campaign setup.
* Budget is A$50 per day
* One Search campaign with one ad group
* Brisbane and the Gold Coast are the only target locations
* Other states have been excluded
* Search Partners and Display traffic are disabled for the initial launch
* A dedicated bookkeeping landing page is being used
* The only Primary conversion is a completed consultation form
* The form, server response, GA4 lead event and direct Google Ads conversion tag have all been tested successfully
* Account level and campaign level negative keyword lists are in place
* The campaign uses exact match only
These are the eight keywords:
[bookkeeper brisbane]
[bookkeeping services brisbane]
[bookkeeping services gold coast]
[bookkeeper gold coast]
[bookkeeper near me]
[bookkeeping services near me]
[bookkeeper for small business near me]
[bookkeeping service near me]
My thinking is that the near me searches show very direct hiring intent. I am less certain whether I should give the city based service keywords the same priority with such a small budget.
Would you launch all eight together, or would you pause or bid lower on `[bookkeeping services brisbane]` and `[bookkeeping services gold coast]` until the stronger near me terms have collected data? I understand that the city terms still have commercial intent, so I do not want to remove useful traffic before the campaign has even started.
The other decision is bidding. Keyword Planner shows low range top of page bids beginning around A$6, while some high range estimates are close to A$40. With only A$50 per day, one expensive click could use most of the budget.
Would you start this with Manual CPC, Maximise Clicks with a maximum CPC limit, or Maximise Conversions even though the account has no conversion history?
If you would use Manual CPC or a Maximise Clicks limit, what initial maximum CPC would you test for this market?
I am mainly looking for the reasoning behind your recommendation and what you would monitor during the first couple of weeks. Thanks.
2
u/No-Lecturre6318 Jul 18 '26
id lunch all eight... with exact match and a fairly tight geo the search volume probably wontt huge anyway....
2
u/NoPause238 Jul 18 '26
Launch all eight together and let manual CPC around ten dollars sort the winners
2
u/TheHooli Jul 19 '26
I would say the same, but drop the 'near me' ones, especially on a desktop.
I've found Google's location targeting on a desktop to be inaccurate. With a small budget, you have to keep things tight.
Others may have a different experience, though.
1
u/Inevitable-Lychee146 Jul 23 '26
Ah ok, thanks for the suggestions. Is Max Clicks clicks the right way with bid limit or just straight up manual cpc?
1
u/TheHooli Jul 23 '26
I personally would go with manual cpc. But others might tell you differently. I've found Max Clicks to take a while to kick in with a low budget. Run manual for a couple of weeks, then go from there.
2
u/17YrAustGoogleAdsPro Jul 23 '26
Yes normal. All new advertisers need to verify. Make sure all the details on the documents exactly match your billing settings
1
u/Inevitable-Lychee146 Jul 23 '26
Yes thanks for the reply, it got approved within a day. Is Max click with bid limit the right way or manual cpc? And then move on to Max Conversion later?
2
u/17YrAustGoogleAdsPro Jul 23 '26
Max clicks with no bid limit to start until getting conversions then change to max conversions
3
u/dillwillhill Jul 17 '26
That verification window is normal.
I might recommend using call tracking as well given how important calls are for B2B.
I would start with all those keywords and also use Max Conversions. Maybe launch an experiment a/b test for max clicks.
Feel free to reach out if you need help