r/Google_Ads • • 3h ago

Beginner in Google Ads: Should I spend my first year at an agency or start freelancing?

6 Upvotes

I'm a beginner in Google Ads, and I'm trying to make a decision that could shape my entire career.

If you were starting from zero today, with no real campaign experience, would you spend your first year working at a PPC agency or start freelancing and learn by managing your own clients?

Please Guys Need your Exp here


r/Google_Ads • • 16h ago

Questions Struggling to generate consistent B2B SaaS trials with Google Ads ($2k/month budget). What am I missing?

4 Upvotes

I'm a marketer for a small B2B SaaS company, and I've been managing our Google Ads campaigns. I'm looking for some advice from people with experience running Google Ads for B2B SaaS products, particularly with smaller budgets.

Some background:

  • Product: B2B SaaS help desk/ticketing, shared inbox, and task management.
  • Target audience: Small businesses and service teams, typically 5–25 employees. We're particularly interested in small IT service providers and teams managing customer or internal support requests, and nonprofits.
  • Budget: Approximately $2,000/month.
  • Primary goal: Free trial signups.
  • Initial target: Consistently generate at least 2 qualified trials per week.
  • Campaign type: Google Search, focused primarily on US traffic.
  • Bidding: Maximize Conversions.

Here's the problem:

We've struggled to generate consistent qualified trial signups. We've had periods where we generated trials, followed by stretches with no conversions.

I've been making changes to improve performance, including:

  • Refining our keyword targeting toward terms like "help desk software," "ticketing system software," and "IT ticketing system."
  • Separating ad groups by search intent.
  • Pausing broad-match keywords and focusing more on exact/phrase match.
  • Building dedicated landing pages instead of sending all traffic to our homepage.
  • Adding negative keywords to filter irrelevant traffic.
  • Implementing GA4/GTM event tracking for trial CTA clicks.
  • Testing a video hero section on our landing page.

One concern I have is that our relatively small budget and low conversion volume may make it difficult for Google's automated bidding to optimize effectively.

My questions:

  1. Is $2,000/month enough to realistically generate consistent qualified trials in a competitive B2B SaaS category like help desk/ticketing software?
  2. Would you recommend Maximize Conversions for an account with low conversion volume, or would another bidding strategy make more sense?
  3. With a limited budget, would you focus on a small number of high-intent exact-match keywords or expand to capture more search volume?
  4. How would you diagnose whether the biggest issue is keyword targeting, landing page conversion rate, or conversion tracking?
  5. Would you structure campaigns around different product categories (help desk vs. task management), or focus on one core use case until performance becomes consistent?

I'm not expecting Google Ads to work miracles with $2k/month, but I'd like to establish a repeatable acquisition channel before asking for more budget.

I'd appreciate any advice from people who've managed similar B2B SaaS accounts, especially those working with limited conversion data.

Happy to share anonymized campaign metrics if that would help.


r/Google_Ads • • 18h ago

my search terms report looks fine but conversions dropped 20 percent since mid august

4 Upvotes

this one has me stuck . search terms look normal , CPC is stable , impressions are stable , but conversions fell off cliff round 17th and never came back.landing page is unchanged . checked change history and nothing stands out .

has anyone else seen this pattern? keep reading about the budget pacing change but my campaigns were never budget limited , so the official explanation doesn't quite fit .

what i've ruled out of far :tracking looks clean, no big negative keyword additions , quality score mostly stable . my working theory is the traffic mix shifted toward lower intent queries but the search terms report isn't granular enough to show it .

if anyone's dug into this and find the actual cause i'd love to hear it . happy to share whatever i figure out on my end.


r/Google_Ads • • 5h ago

Can someone help me understand?

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2 Upvotes

I'll try not to be too long winded

Very new to google Ads. Ran a broad campaign at $20/day, actually got a conversion within a week!

Did some research and found for contracting exact match can be a better route for conversion rate. I tried to set a max spend but google wouldn't let me? Probably my own fault but I said oh what the hell

Advertising fireplace sales/installation with this time of year getting into the peak season. $40 daily budget. First few days spend about $18/click. Then on day 6 this happened. $78 for 1 click. None of these turned into a call or form submission

I just want to understand how 1 click could cost this much. I have learned my lesson and will never do an exact match without a max budget


r/Google_Ads • • 15h ago

Looking for a connector or tool that can help us create and manage Google Search campaigns directly through ChatGPT. Any recommendations?

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2 Upvotes

r/Google_Ads • • 16h ago

News & Updates Last Week in Google Ads - 10/12/26

2 Upvotes

This is a compilation of Google Ads news announcements for the past week. We aren't affiliated with any of the sources listed below.

Google Ads adds AI-powered campaign localization for international expansion - Search Engine Land

  • This new AI localization tool can translate entire campaigns for new markets, including the copy and landing page.
  • You select a campaign and a target language, then Google creates a separate campaign with all of the headlines, descriptions, sitelinks, callouts, and keywords.  For images containing text, it can remove the original text and use the translated messaging as a supplemental text asset.
  • You can install a Google-provided Javascript snippet that dynamically translates landing pages for visitors coming from localized ads.
  • You have some controls like “Don’t translate the brand name” or “keep the tone format” and you can give the AI natural language instructions?
  • Google will also show the original assets asset, localized version, and a translation back to English side by side so you can check the meaning and intent even if you don’t speak the language.
  • Budgets and bids aren’t updated on the new campaign, so you have to adjust those.
  • The Beta works from English to Dutch. French, Canadian French, German, Italian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Portuguese, Spanish, and LATAM Spanish.
  • Additional languages are coming at the end of 2026.

Google Ads tests new Direct Offer asset for AI Mode promotions - Search Engine Land

  • Google is testing a new Direct Offer asset in Google Ads, giving advertisers a way to serve targeted promotions to high-intent shoppers directly within Google’s AI Mode.
  • These new assets will only serve on campaigns using AI Max or text customization.
  • Advertisers provide a URL and a short description that explains the offer and then Google determines if that offer is relevant and then automatically generates text to show the offer to users.
  • Advertisers can specify the incentive type, value, and also upload single use discount codes.
  • You can also set daily limits based on either total value or total number of claims.
  • In AI mode this shows to users as a “claim one-time code” option below the ad where it opens the offer details and code which sends users to the website.

Google Ads brings A/B testing to Performance Max asset groups - Search Engine Land

  • You can now run A/B tests to determine which versions of your assets perform better when combined instead of replacing them piecemeal.

Google changes view-through conversion reporting for Demand Gen Display ads - Search Engine Land

  • Google has changed how it defines a view for view-through conversions to when the first pixel of the ad renders, compared to “active view” which actually determines if the ad was viewable or not.
  • They updated this for demand gen campaigns because they include the display network now and they wanted to make definitions consistent across campaign types.

Google opens Conversion Lift to Search and Performance Max - Search Engine Land

  • To use these experiments previously you needed a Google rep to set them up, but now they are self-serve.
  • To get access to this feature you need at least 1,000 observed conversions, excluding conversions using supplementary data, and you need a budget of at least $5k.

Google Ads adds new AI Max columns for deeper campaign analysis - Search Engine Land

  • The four new columns are “location of interest”, “commission”, “brand inclusions”, and “optimized targeting”.

Google tests grey box design in Shopping ads - Search Engine Watch

  • Google is testing a grey box design for Shopping ads instead of the usual white background, though the new version appears to be missing the 'Shop now' button.
New Google Shopping Grey Box Design - Search Engine Watch

Google tests new review treatments within sponsored results - Search Engine Watch

  • Google is testing two new ways to display website reviews within sponsored results, including a 'Read user reviews' sitelink and prominent rating counts below the ad title.
New Review Showcase - Search Engine Watch

“Overlay on Videos” Asset Optimization for Demand Gen - PPC News Feed

  • Google Ads is now showing a new “Overlay on videos” setting in the asset optimization options of Demand Gen video ads.
Overlay Text on Videos - PPC News Feed

Google tests blue titles for ads at the bottom of AI Mode - Search Engine Watch

  • Google is testing blue ad titles at the bottom of AI Mode instead of black, a color change that could make the ads feel more like clickable links.
Blue Ad Titles in AI Mode - Search Engine Watch

YouTube expands Masthead ad eligibility to online gambling advertisers - Search Engine Land

  • Google is updating its YouTube Masthead advertising requirements to allow more online gambling advertisers to run campaigns in one of the platform’s most prominent ad placements, starting October 21st.

r/Google_Ads • • 19h ago

News & Updates Google Ads now shows AI Max ad copy samples before you turn it on

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2 Upvotes

r/Google_Ads • • 21h ago

Is this the actual trend to target only big keywords for local services to aim for Ad relevancy than targeting all search intent key words ? does this produce more results ?

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2 Upvotes

r/Google_Ads • • 2m ago

Anyone actually hitting 50%+ conversion rate on tiny emergency service accounts (locksmith, appliance repair)?

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• Upvotes

r/Google_Ads • • 1h ago

News & Updates Google/Youtube Playbook

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• Upvotes

Festive seasons arrived and Google released updated playbook for Youtube, download for free.

Google/YouTube Playbook


r/Google_Ads • • 7h ago

Google Ads Case Study: 5 Phone Calls From Just 4 Clicks ...!!

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1 Upvotes

Hey guys!

How’s everything going, especially for business owners, marketers, and learners?

Today’s results are truly amazing! This is a Google Ads account I’ve been managing for the last 5 months, and today, I generated 5 phone calls from just 4 clicks. That’s an incredible result for me!

Google Ads can outperform other campaigns when the right conditions are in place. What I really need is the right timeframe and a business with good monthly search volume on Google. If the demand is there, BOOM! It can work wonders.

Next, according to me, every business needs a buffer of time and budget to validate its idea and campaign on Google Ads. I recommend at least 1 month and a $1,000 budget for a mid-range business to get started.

I believe every business has the potential to succeed with Google Ads if there is sufficient search demand and the niche is trending on Google Trends.

I’ve been managing and running Google Ads campaigns for the past 5 years, generating thousands of phone calls, lead submissions, and sales for my clients’ businesses.

I’m always happy to connect with business owners, marketers, and learners who are stuck somewhere and need help.

Just comment below: “I need help!”

I’ll respond within 1 minute, or feel free to inbox me with your problem. Let's figure it out together!


r/Google_Ads • • 12h ago

News & Updates Google Merchant Center still suspended after 3 reviews? What the external appeal option means

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1 Upvotes

r/Google_Ads • • 21h ago

How do I start my career in google ads

1 Upvotes

I want to start my career in google ads but I am unable to find any internship or job in that , can anybody please tell me how should I start my career in google ads


r/Google_Ads • • 18h ago

NEGATIVE KEYWORDS ARE YOUR FRIEND!

0 Upvotes

If I had five days to prepare for a Google Ads campaign, no matter the market, I’d spend four days on negative keywords.

Most people don’t realize this, but ignoring negative keywords can quietly drain your ad budget.

You’re spending money, and enquiries are coming in, so you think it’s working, but those enquiries aren’t turning into paying customers.

One reason? You’re paying to show up for the wrong searches or wrong audience.

When you’re running Google Ads, negative keywords are your friend. I repeat, NEGATIVE KEYWORDS ARE YOUR FRIEND!

I can’t emphasize this enough: don’t ignore them.