Most small Google Ads accounts we look at have a measurement problem, a search terms problem, or both. If your Irish business spends €300 to €3,000 a month on ads, this is the order we would work through your account in.
Measure first, or nothing else works
Every automated bid strategy learns from whatever you tell it is a conversion. Google's help page on Maximize conversions is blunt: "You must set up conversion tracking to use this strategy." The same page says it "will try to fully spend your average daily budget", so an under-spending campaign can start spending a good deal more the day you switch it on.
Count real enquiries, not taps on a button
Only primary conversion actions drive bidding, so each one should be a real enquiry: a form that reaches a thank-you page, or a call long enough to be a conversation (we use 60 seconds). A tap on a WhatsApp or call button belongs as a secondary action.
Consent Mode v2 is not optional in Ireland
Ireland is in the European Economic Area, so Google's EU user consent policy, updated in January 2024, applies: advertisers must "send verifiable consent signal(s) to Google" for EEA users to keep measurement and ad personalisation working. Consent Mode v2 added two signals, which Google's help page describes as "consent for sending user data to Google for advertising purposes" (ad_user_data) and "consent for personalized advertising" (ad_personalization).
The gap we find most often is a cookie banner whose Google Consent Mode setting was never switched on. Google's documentation also warns that blocking its tags completely until someone clicks the banner can lose data.
Enhanced conversions, and what happens after the form
Enhanced conversions add hashed first-party data, such as the email typed into your form, so conversions match more accurately. Google's help page also describes enhanced conversions for leads, for sales that close by phone or email later. Check that an email address or phone number actually reaches the tag.
Match types no longer mean what the names suggest
Google's help page on match types defines all three by meaning rather than words. Broad match covers searches "related to your keyword", phrase match searches that "include the meaning of your keyword", and exact match searches with "the same meaning or same intent as the keyword". Even exact match is no longer word for word.
Our default for small budgets
At this level of spend we build exact-led keyword lists, keep phrase match in a small discovery campaign, and leave broad off until a campaign has steady conversions (our threshold is 25 to 50 good ones a month), reliable tracking and lead-quality feedback. Google's guidance pairs broad match with Smart Bidding, so treat this as our practice, not a rule. Our test: would you want three times more of exactly this conversion?
Read the search terms report, and know what it hides
The search terms report shows what people typed before they clicked. Google's help page says it lists terms "that a significant number of people have used" and leaves out some low-activity terms to keep to its data privacy standards. You will never see every search you paid for, which is a reason to read what you can see more often.
Make negative keywords a weekly habit
In our experience, negative keywords are the most dependable waste control a small account has. Google's help page says negative keywords do not match close variants or other expansions, so if you block "job", you must block "jobs" and common misspellings yourself. The same page warns that too many negatives can reduce reach, so block what is clearly wrong rather than everything unfamiliar.
Set a fixed slot each week and add anything that could never become a customer: jobs, free, DIY, towns you do not serve. Read the report again after every budget increase. New themes mean more negatives; the same themes at a higher cost per click mean wait.
Choose a bid strategy that fits your budget
Google's help page on Maximize clicks says it aims to "get as many clicks as possible within your budget", and that an optional maximum CPC bid limit "can help you to control costs if you find your CPCs are higher than desired".
Where we start
Below about €20 to €30 a day, conversion-based Smart Bidding usually has too little data, so we start on manual CPC or Maximize clicks with a cap. Once tracking is proven and you expect three or more conversions a week, we move to Maximize conversions in a portfolio bid strategy, capped at about one and a half times your average CPC. Practitioners are split; some prefer Maximize conversions from day one.
The cap sits in a portfolio because Google's help page on Target CPA says CPC limits are "only available for portfolio, not standard, Target CPA bid strategies". Google advises against them because they can restrict optimisation; we use them anyway on small budgets, where one expensive click is a real share of the day.
Target CPA, and the 17 August 2026 change
Target CPA aims for an average, and Google recommends judging it over "the last 30 days, including at least 30 conversions". Few accounts at this spend reach that.
From 17 August 2026, Google changed how target CPA and target ROAS campaigns behave when limited by budget: they now perform more consistently toward the target, so one that used to beat its target may drift toward it. Google says it will not adjust your targets or budgets for you, and lists options from lowering the target to switching to Maximize conversions or raising the budget.
We keep small accounts on one of two clean set-ups: a capped budget with Maximize conversions and no target, or a target with a budget comfortably above actual spend. Move a target in steps of about 10%, give any change at least seven days, and raise budgets by about 20% at a time. These are our rules of thumb, not Google's.
Write ads for people, not for Ad Strength
Google's help page says Ad Strength does not decide whether your ad is eligible to serve and is not used to calculate Ad Rank, Quality Score or auction wins. It mainly checks how your headlines and descriptions relate to your keywords, not outside factors such as your landing page.
Google's Quality Score page lists expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, and states that "Quality Score is not an input in the ad auction". It is a diagnostic, not a target.
Pinning, and one large study
Google advises against pinning "unless necessary, as it limits the system's ability to test combinations". One large industry study, by Optmyzr in September 2024 across more than 22,000 accounts spending at least USD 1,500 a month, found ads rated Average had the best cost per acquisition and conversion rate, and pinning made little overall difference. It is vendor data from larger accounts and over a year old, but it supports pinning only what must appear, such as your brand name, and judging ads on cost per enquiry.
The landing page decides the lead
Google's Quality Score page describes landing page experience as "how relevant and useful your landing page is to people who click your ad". Earn it with a page that matches the ad: one service, one area, one clear call to action. Sending every click to your homepage makes the visitor search twice.
Bidding learns from whatever you count
If a form submission is your only primary conversion, Smart Bidding is rewarded the same for spam and genuine enquiries, and learns to find the cheapest form fills. Our rule: if more than about 5% of what reaches your inbox is spam, fix the form first. A hidden honeypot field and a server-side timer cost nothing in genuine enquiries.
Then upload the enquiries that became customers, through offline conversion import or enhanced conversions for leads, so the system learns from sales rather than form fills. And ring new enquiries back within minutes; in our experience that matters as much as any campaign change.
Check who your ads are shown to
For a local service, open Location options in your campaign settings. Google's help page calls the default, "Presence or interest", recommended, while "Presence" limits ads to people in, or regularly in, the places you target. Google itself suggests Presence when that is all you want.
What to ignore, or at least question
Optimization score is, in Google's words, "an estimate of how well your Google Ads account is set to perform", and it "is not used by your Quality Score". Applying or dismissing a recommendation both change it, so dismissing one you have rejected moves the score just as applying would.
Auto-apply recommendations, once switched on, "will apply regularly", says Google's help page. Check your Auto-apply settings, because some may already be on. For the dated list of this year's platform changes, and which of them you can safely ignore, see our Google and Microsoft Ads changes for autumn 2026.
Calls from Google
Many calls that appear to come from Google are made by authorised third parties; Google's help page names partners including Growth Digital, Coob Ads, Promofix, Aleph and 365 Digital. Agencies widely report that their advice centres on more spend, broad match and automation. Never give a rep edit access, and read your change history before and after the call.
Disapproved ads, tracking problems and broken sitelinks are still worth fixing quickly.
Eight checks to run in your own account this week
- What is primary? Confirm the primary conversion is a real enquiry, then submit your own form on mobile data and check it records within a day or two.
- Consent signals. Look for a missing EEA consent warning in Tag Diagnostics and confirm the plugin's Consent Mode setting is on.
- Search terms. Add jobs, free, DIY, wrong towns and wrong services from the last 30 days as negatives.
- Location option. Choose deliberately between "Presence or interest" and "Presence".
- Networks. Check whether Search Partners and the Display Network are ticked, and segment by network to see what each delivers.
- Auto-apply. Switch off anything you would not approve by hand.
- The August change. If a target CPA or ROAS campaign shows Limited by budget, pick one of Google's options.
- Change history. Check who changed what in the last 90 days.
Make one change at a time, with a week or two between changes, so you can tell what worked.
If you would rather have someone work through these checks with you, our Google Ads management starts with your tracking and your search terms before we touch a single bid.
When the account is in order and the enquiries still do not come, the page is usually the weak link. Our web design team builds landing pages around one service, one area and one call to action, and our website costs guide sets out what that typically costs.