Plenty have tried it. They set up a campaign one evening, spent a few hundred euros and waited for the miracle. The result was almost nothing. Then came the verdict, delivered with all the finality of a court ruling: “Google Ads don’t work”.
It’s not Google Ads. It’s the missing strategy.
Let’s take it backwards: when they are NOT worth it
When you don’t know exactly who you are targeting. When your site is not designed to convert visitors into customers. When you haven’t defined what “result” means for you. And when you don’t track what happens after the click. Any one of those four is enough.
In these cases, you are literally paying to bring people to a door that doesn’t open. A shop with the lights off. The visitor arrives, finds no reason to stay, and leaves. You paid for the click. Tell me I’m wrong.
And when they are worth every euro
When you target correctly. When the page the user sees after the click is built to keep them and make them act. When you know how much a customer is worth to you and you can work out whether the cost per customer makes sense.
That is when the game changes. Google Ads are among the most measurable and controllable marketing tools there are. You know exactly how much you spent, how many came, and how many became customers. Few channels offer that kind of transparency.
The question that needs an answer before all the others
Before you spend a single euro, ask yourself something simple: if 100 people come to my site tomorrow, how many will contact me?
If the answer is “I don’t know”, then Ads are not the next step - the site is. Because Ads don’t fix a site that doesn’t convince; they simply bring more people to see it and leave. Like turning up a song you never liked.
The right order is: first a site that converts, then traffic to it. Otherwise you are paying to fill a bucket with a hole in it. And that bucket never fills.
So, back where we started: the problem was never the Ads, it was the door that wouldn’t open.
If you are considering a campaign and do not know whether your site will convert the traffic, we start there: I check the page the ad will land on and whether enquiries are being recorded properly, and then I set up the campaign, the targeting and the measurement. You will know in advance what needs fixing, so the budget brings people to a door that opens. Send me your website address and what you want the ads to bring in (calls, bookings or orders) through the contact form, and see what Google & social ads management covers.
The whole picture: this article covers one part of a larger subject. If you are after the whole of it, from beginning to end, it is in the guide to answer engines.
