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ArticlePPC strategy for Google Ads: the six decisions to make before a new account spends
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Most of what gets called PPC strategy is tactics: a bidding setting, a match type, a script. Tactics change every week. A strategy is the handful of decisions the account runs on for months, each with a reason you can show the client.
Written by Ericka Karen, who has planned Google Ads search campaigns since 2019 and wrote the rules behind Search Fuel Space.
- A PPC strategy is six decisions with reasons; bids, match types and scripts are tactics that serve them.
- The six decisions: which searches to buy, what stays out, how many campaigns, the day-zero split, what ads can claim, and how to judge the first month.
- A small budget asks for fewer campaigns, not more, with the reason written down.
Strategy is decisions, tactics serve them
"Use Smart Bidding" is not a strategy. Neither is "phrase match only" or "add negative keywords weekly". Those are ways to carry out decisions that should come first: what you are buying, for whom, with how much money, and how you will know it worked.
The test is simple. If the client asks why the account looks the way it does, a strategy answers in one sentence per decision. A pile of tactics answers with "best practice".
The six decisions of a Google Ads strategy
01 Which searches to buy
The keywords people actually type, each with its monthly search volume from Google data, sorted by intent. Buying and comparing first; learning later, if ever.
The common mistakeStarting from a keyword list nobody checked, then discovering half of it has no volume.
02 What stays out
The themes you will not bid on, and why: no volume, no buying intent, or nothing on the website to back them.
The common mistakeLeaving things out silently. The client finds the gap and assumes you forgot.
03 How many campaigns the budget can carry
A campaign needs enough budget to show up, collect clicks and tell you something. A small budget asks for fewer campaigns, not more.
The common mistakeOne campaign per service because that is how the menu of the website looks.
04 How the money is split on day zero
Before the account has history, the split comes from search volume and intent. It is a hypothesis you write down so you can test it.
The common mistakeSplitting the budget evenly because there is no data yet. Even is also a decision, just one without a reason.
05 What the ads can claim
Prices, guarantees, delivery times and reviews go into ads and extensions only when the website shows them.
The common mistakeExtensions that promise what the page does not say. The click lands, the promise is not there, the visitor leaves.
06 How you will judge the first month
What you check before launch (conversion tracking), what you read in week one, two and four, and what would make you change the plan.
The common mistakeJudging week one by leads, when week one is for search terms and click-through rate.
A small budget needs a sharper strategy, not a smaller one
The instinct with a small budget is to cover everything a little. It feels fair to every service the client sells. In practice every campaign ends up with too few clicks to learn from, the account looks busy and nothing in it can be judged.
Fewer campaigns, focused on the searches closest to buying, give each one enough budget to say something by the end of the month. The rest is not forgotten. It is written down under what stays out, with the reason, so it becomes the next step instead of a gap.
That conversation is easier with the reason on paper. "We are starting with two campaigns because the budget can carry two" is a strategy. "We only had time for two" is an excuse.
When the account already has history
The six decisions do not change when an account is old. The evidence does. A campaign that stopped delivering, or a structure you want to test against the live one, can be replanned from today's search data. Run the new plan as the challenger in a Google Ads experiment, and let the numbers decide which one stays.
Write it down, or it is not a strategy
A strategy that lives in the manager's head changes every time the client asks a hard question. Written down, it does the opposite: when results dip, you point to the decisions and to what you said you would check, and the conversation is about the plan instead of about trust.
The Google Ads plan guide turns these six decisions into a document, section by section, with a template to copy.
Where Search Fuel Space fits
Search Fuel Space makes decisions one to five from the website, the budget and the location: the searches with their monthly volume, what stays out and why, how many campaigns the budget carries, the day-zero split, and ads and extensions checked against the site. Each decision comes with its reason, in a document with your brand. The first month stays yours, and so does the account: it plans, you execute.
Questions
What is a PPC strategy?
The set of decisions an account runs on, each with its reason: which searches to buy, which to leave out, how many campaigns the budget can carry, how the money is split, what the ads can claim and how you will judge the first month. Bids, match types and scripts are tactics that serve those decisions.
What is the best Google Ads strategy for a small budget?
Fewer campaigns, focused on the searches closest to buying. Spreading a small budget across many campaigns leaves each one with too little to learn from and too little to show the client. Say what you are leaving out and why, so the client sees it as a choice.
How is a Google Ads strategy different for a new account?
A new account has no history, so every decision has to come from search data and from what the business can prove. An account with history can also lean on its own results. Either way, the decisions are the same six; only the evidence changes.
How often should a PPC strategy change?
The decisions should hold for months. Tactics change weekly. If the strategy changes every week, it was never written down, and the client notices.
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