Google Ads for small business: a lower cost per lead, run by you, or by your agent

See exactly what to fix, and how

RunPPC connects to your account and watches your Search and Performance Max campaigns continuously. Ask it what to do, and it points to the exact leaks to fix, fixes them in your account once you approve, or tells you when nothing needs changing.

Meet the AI Ads Agent

Elon your AI Google Ads manager Connected

Which keywords are wasting the most money?

These three search terms spent the most last month with no calls. Approve them as negative keywords and you stop paying for them:

Negative keywords Copy

free estimate template
plumbing school near me
fix a faucet yourself

What happens when you approve:

1. Review the three terms and what each one spent.
2. Approve them in one click, or edit the list first.
3. Elon adds them as negative keywords in your Google Ads account.
4. Elon keeps watching your search terms and flags the next ones.

Ask about your Google Ads

Answers can be imperfect. Nothing is sent to your Google Ads account without your approval.

• Watch

  Reads your account 24/7

  Connected to your account, the agent reviews your Search and Performance Max campaigns continuously, not once a quarter.

• Propose

  Proposes what to change

  It flags wasted spend, missing negatives and drifting cost per lead, and it tells you when to do nothing. Each fix comes as a proposal you can edit or reject, and once you approve it the agent makes the change in your account.

• Convert

  Counts real cost per lead

  Calls and form leads are tracked separately and fed back to Google, so you see your true cost per lead, before and after.

RunPPC is an AI agent for running Google Ads. It is built for small businesses, marketing managers and owners who want to run their own Search and Performance Max campaigns, and for the freelancers and agencies who manage Google Ads for them, all aiming for more calls and form leads at a lower cost per lead. It connects to your Google Ads account, monitors it continuously, and tells you what to change, while you stay in control: nothing changes without your OK. It works on Search and Performance Max only. It shows you every change in full and applies it to your Google Ads account once you approve that exact version.

Google Ads works. Accounts left alone do not.

Google Ads puts you in front of people at the exact moment they search for what you sell. A plumber whose ad shows for "emergency plumber" at 9pm is reaching someone ready to call. That intent is the whole point.

How to run Google Ads for your business, step by step

You do not need to be an expert to launch. You need a clear order of operations and the discipline to judge everything by leads, not clicks.

1. Start from the lead, not the keyword

   Decide what a new customer is worth and what counts as a lead: a phone call, a form, a booking. Every later choice is judged against cost per lead, not clicks or impressions.

2. Set up conversion tracking first

   Track calls and form submissions before you spend anything. Without it you are optimizing blind and cannot see which searches actually produce customers. It is the foundation the whole account learns from.

3. Choose Search, then add Performance Max

   Start with Search to catch people already looking for what you do. Add Performance Max once you have conversion data to steer it. Together these two cover local lead generation on their own, whether or not you also run Local Services Ads.

4. Build tight keywords and negatives

   Group a handful of intent-matched keywords per campaign, and keep a growing negative list so you stop paying for searches that will never call. Write ads that echo the exact words people type.

5. Match the click to the page

   Send each click to a page that reflects the search: the service and the city. The message match between the ad and the page is where a paid click turns into a lead instead of a bounce.

6. Let Google bid toward your cost per lead

   Begin on a strategy that gathers data, like Maximize Conversions, then move to Target CPA once tracking is solid, so Google bids toward a target cost per lead you choose. RunPPC proposes the target, and sets it in your account once you approve it.

7. Launch small, optimize weekly

   Start with a budget you are comfortable learning on, then review every week: prune wasted search terms, adjust bids, and put more behind what brings calls and forms.

Done in this order, launching is the quick part. Almost all of the result comes from what you do in the weeks after.

Step two is the one everything else leans on. If you are wiring it up now, follow the guide to Google Ads conversion tracking for calls and form leads. If you want software doing the ongoing work, compare the best AI tools for Google Ads first, since they differ most in whether they apply a change or only suggest one.

Stop counting clicks. Count cost per lead.

There is no fixed minimum; you set the budget. Cost per click varies a lot by industry and location, so treat published averages as broad ranges. What decides the outcome is the number underneath.

• A cheap click that never calls

  Expensive, because it never becomes a customer. Low cost per click, zero leads.

• A pricier click that becomes a customer

  Cheap, because it pays for itself. Higher cost per click, real leads.

Quality Score quietly moves this: when your ad echoes the search and the page matches the service and the city, Google rewards it with a lower cost per click. Pick a budget you can learn on, then put your attention on lowering cost per lead. That is the lever a small business controls. Pulling it week after week is the second cost in the budget, and the guide to what management costs sets out the figures for an agency, an in-house hire or software.

Two campaign types bring the leads

For local lead generation, Search captures people already looking, and Performance Max extends your reach once you have data to steer it.

• Capture existing demand

  Search

  Someone typing "roof repair" and their city is close to calling. Search brings the highest-intent calls and forms, and it is where most small businesses should start.

  Best for immediate calls and form leads

• Extend your reach

  Performance Max

  Once conversion tracking is solid, Performance Max finds more customers across Google's surfaces and learns from the leads you feed it. Start with Search, then scale with it.

  Best for scaling what already works

Point both at the towns and radius you actually serve, so you never pay to show up three cities away, and pair them with a page that names the searcher's city. This page covers Search and Performance Max only; Local Services Ads is a separate Google product, not what RunPPC works on.

The hard part is not launching. It is staying optimized.

Launching a campaign is a weekend project. Keeping it healthy never ends. Search terms drift, negative lists grow, a campaign quietly overspends on a keyword that stopped converting, and cost per lead creeps up a little each week until, a month later, the budget is leaking and nobody noticed when it started.

This is where most small budgets are lost, not at setup. The work is not hard so much as relentless. That is a hard ask for a busy owner, a lean marketing team, or an agency juggling many accounts, and it is exactly where an agent helps: it watches continuously, proposes what to change, and makes the change in your account as soon as you approve it.

Common mistakes that burn a small budget

Most wasted spend comes from a short list of avoidable habits. Catching these early is the fastest way to lower cost per lead.

• Broad match with no negatives

  Broad keywords without a growing negative list quietly pay for searches that will never become customers. The search terms report is where you find them.

• No conversion tracking

  If calls and forms are not tracked, you are guessing. You can see spend, but not cost per lead, so a losing campaign looks the same as a winning one.

• Set it and forget it

  A campaign that launches well still needs a weekly look. Skip it and the early wins quietly reverse, because search behavior, competitors and your own best keywords keep moving.

• Every click to the homepage

  A generic homepage rarely matches a specific search. The closer the page speaks to the keyword and the city, the more clicks turn into calls.

• Chasing clicks, not leads

  Impressions and clicks feel like progress, but they are not customers. The number that pays the bills is cost per lead, and the leads behind it.

Frequently asked questions