Locals Ads Guide

If you are brand new to Google Ads and want a setup that actually makes sense, Daniel Dimsey’s approach is simple: stop letting Google build a messy campaign for you, and set it up manually so you control the keywords, the budget, and where your money goes. This guide breaks down the exact beginner-friendly process Daniel Dimsey uses to create a Google Ads search campaign that is built for leads, not wasted spend.

The focus here is on what matters most:

• Choosing the right campaign type
• Researching keywords before building anything
• Understanding what competitors are paying per click
• Avoiding the two biggest beginner mistakes
• Writing ads that are highly relevant and get clicked
• Setting budgets and locations the right way

Start with the Google Ads account setup, but skip Google’s guided campaign builder

The first step is straightforward. Go to Google Ads, sign in if you already have an account, or create a new one if you do not.

Before anything else, check the available promotional offers. Google often gives new advertisers ad credit when they spend a certain amount within the first 60 days. Depending on the offer, that can range from hundreds to well over a thousand dollars in ad credit.

Daniel Dimsey recommends paying attention to these offers early because they can significantly reduce the cost of getting started. Once you choose the offer, create the account, enter your business details, add your billing profile, and complete the basic setup.

Then comes the important part.

When Google tries to push you into building a campaign immediately, skip it.

That beginner setup flow often creates a campaign packed with auto-generated settings that are poorly aligned with how a serious advertiser should structure an account. If you want control, you want manual setup.

A few setup choices Daniel Dimsey recommends

• Skip the early campaign creation prompts
• Set your correct currency and time zone
• Decline personalised strategist support from Google
• Complete your payment profile and billing details

Once that is done, you are in the actual Google Ads dashboard, which is where the real work starts.

Do keyword research before you create a campaign

This is one of the biggest differences in the Daniel Dimsey method. Most beginners go straight into campaign setup. That is backwards.

Before you build a campaign, you need to know:

• What people are actually searching for
• Which searches are relevant to your business
• How many searches those terms get
• How much advertisers are paying per click

To do that, go to Tools, then Planning, then Keyword Planner.

Use seed keywords based on what a customer would type into Google if they were actively looking for your service.

Daniel Dimsey uses a window cleaning business as the example, with terms like:

• window cleaning near me
• window cleaning service
• residential window cleaner
• window washers near me
• exterior window cleaning

This logic applies to almost any business.

• If you run a plumbing company, use plumbing service terms
• If you run a Chinese restaurant, use food-related local intent searches
• If you sell products online, use product-specific search terms like “blue Hawaiian shirts”

If you are a service business or lead generation business, a search campaign is the starting point. If you are in ecommerce, a search campaign can still work, but you may also want a shopping campaign later.

Use local data, not generic national estimates

Once your seed terms are entered, set the location to the city or area you actually serve. Daniel Dimsey stresses this because location changes the accuracy of both search volume and cost-per-click data.

If your service area is Melbourne, use Melbourne. If your business serves a different city, use that city. The point is to research based on the actual market you are competing in.

What the keyword planner data tells you

The keyword planner shows two especially useful things:

• Average monthly searches, which gives you demand
• Top of page bid ranges, which shows what advertisers are paying

That top-of-page bid range matters because Google Ads works on a cost-per-click model. You do not pay when someone merely sees the ad. You pay when they click it.

So if the keyword planner shows competitors are paying anywhere from around $3 to $10 per click for a keyword, that is your rough benchmark for entering that auction.

Choose keywords based on intent, not just search volume

A common beginner mistake is chasing broad keywords because they look big and exciting.

That is a fast way to burn money.

Daniel Dimsey’s advice is to choose keywords that clearly signal buying intent. In the window cleaning example, “window cleaning near me” is strong because it suggests someone is actively looking to hire. On the other hand, a broad term like “window cleaning” is too vague.

Someone searching “window cleaning” could be:

• Looking for satisfying cleaning videos
• Researching equipment
• Another cleaner looking for supplies
• Casually browsing with no intent to buy

That is why intent matters more than raw volume.

Build separate campaigns around separate search intent

This is a major point in the Daniel Dimsey strategy.

If your business serves multiple types of customers or offers multiple services, do not lump them together in one campaign.

For example:

• Residential window cleaning should have its own campaign
• Commercial window cleaning should have its own campaign
• High-rise window cleaning should likely have its own campaign

Why? Because the person searching each term wants something different. If someone searches for commercial window cleaning and sees an ad written around residential work, the ad is less relevant, less likely to get clicked, and more likely to waste budget.

The same rule applies if you run a business with multiple services such as:

• pest control
• landscaping
• lawn care
• other distinct service categories

Each service gets its own campaign, using the same process: research the keywords, note the intent, and build around it.

Create the campaign: use Leads and Search

After collecting your keyword list, go to Campaigns and create a New Campaign.

For most local and service businesses, Daniel Dimsey recommends:

• Objective: Leads
• Campaign type: Search

Use Sales only if the business collects payment directly without a sales conversation, such as an ecommerce store. If the goal is to get someone’s details and then follow up with a quote, consultation, or phone call, Leads is the better fit.

Search is the campaign type to use because it targets people already expressing intent by searching. That is why it is such a strong option for beginners.

What about local shop visits?

Daniel Dimsey points out that if your Google Ads account uses the same email as your Google Business Profile, your business listing can connect automatically with your search ads. That means you do not need to build a separate campaign just for local shop visits in order to appear with local business ad formats.

Pick a conversion goal, but understand tracking needs to be set up properly

For the example campaign, the main conversion goal is form submissions on your website.

That is fine to select during setup, but Daniel Dimsey is very clear on a bigger issue: you need proper conversion tracking in place if you want to know whether your ads are actually working.

You should be able to track:

• Form submissions
• Phone calls
• Other lead actions that matter to your business

Without conversion tracking, you are basically spending money blind.

Even if your campaign goes live before tracking is fully configured, get the campaign built and then make sure tracking is completed immediately after. Google often takes time to review and publish campaigns anyway, so there is room to finish that setup properly.

Name campaigns clearly so you know what they target

This sounds small, but it matters once you have multiple campaigns running.

Daniel Dimsey recommends naming campaigns based on what they target. If the campaign is built for residential window cleaning, call it that. If it targets commercial work, make that obvious in the name.

Clear naming helps you quickly understand what each campaign is supposed to do when you return later for optimisation.

The first big beginner mistake: starting with conversion bidding too early

This is one of the most important parts of the whole setup.

When you reach the bidding strategy section, Google will often push you toward a conversion-based bidding strategy. Daniel Dimsey says this is one of the biggest mistakes beginners make.

If your account has no conversion data yet, Google does not know what a good conversion looks like for your business or what it should be paying to get one. If you tell it to optimise for conversions immediately, it can spend aggressively and inefficiently while it is essentially guessing.

What to do instead

Start with:

• Clicks as the bidding focus
• A maximum cost-per-click bid limit

Daniel Dimsey’s logic is simple. If the keyword planner showed your relevant keywords topping out around $10 per click, set your max CPC at $10. That creates a ceiling so Google does not run wild and overspend.

Once the campaign has generated around 30 or more conversions, you have enough data to consider moving to a conversion-focused bidding strategy.

That sequence matters:

1. Start with clicks
2. Limit the max CPC
3. Gather real conversion data
4. Switch to conversion bidding later

For a beginner account, that is the safer and more controlled path.

Turn off Search Partners and Display for a cleaner setup

Daniel Dimsey also recommends removing:

• Google Search Partners
• Display Network

The reason is simple: they are harder to track cleanly, especially for a beginner. If something is difficult to track and evaluate, it is usually not where you want to start spending money.

For a first campaign, keep things tight and focused.

Location targeting: do it the advanced way, not the lazy way

Most people set a big radius around their business and call it a day.

Daniel Dimsey does not recommend that if you want stronger optimisation later.

The better option: target individual areas

Use Advanced Search and include the specific suburbs, postcodes, or service areas you actually cover.

Yes, it takes longer.

But it gives you a major advantage: later, you can make bid adjustments by location.

That means if one suburb generates lots of leads profitably, you can bid more aggressively there. If another area burns budget and barely converts, you can reduce your bids there.

That level of control is impossible if you simply drop one giant radius pin over the map.

The second big beginner mistake: the wrong presence setting

This is the other major mistake Daniel Dimsey calls out.

By default, Google often selects Presence or interest for location targeting. That setting can allow people outside your target area to see your ads if they are merely interested in the location or include it in their search.

That is bad for local businesses.

If you only serve a specific region, you do not want clicks from people who live nowhere near it.

So change the setting to:

• Presence: People in or regularly in your included locations

This keeps the campaign focused on real prospects inside your service area and cuts down wasted clicks from irrelevant searches.

Add audiences on observation mode for future bid adjustments

One of the more advanced tips Daniel Dimsey gives beginners is to add audience segments in Observation mode, not Targeting.

This step is not about narrowing who can see your ads right now. It is about collecting extra data so you can optimise later.

By adding audience segments like interests, home-related categories, and other demographic or behavioural groups, you create the ability to compare performance across those segments once the campaign gathers data.

For example:

• If homeowners convert well, you may increase bids there
• If a certain interest segment performs poorly, you may reduce bids there

The important part is to keep this on Observation. If you set it to Targeting, you risk restricting your traffic too early.

Ad scheduling: 24/7 can actually be the smart move

Google Ads allows you to choose a schedule for when your ads run. If your business only wants leads during specific hours, you can certainly set that.

But Daniel Dimsey says he often prefers running ads 24/7.

Why? Because weekends and off-peak periods can sometimes produce cheaper leads simply because fewer advertisers are competing. So unless there is a strong operational reason not to, a full-time schedule can uncover lower-cost opportunities.

For ad rotation, the default preference for best-performing ads is fine.

Skip Google’s keyword and asset generation tools

Google offers automated keyword and asset generation during setup. Daniel Dimsey recommends skipping it.

His reason is practical, not theoretical. These tools can be unreliable and can even create publishing issues. More importantly, manual setup gives you much better control over the ad message.

If you want ads that actually speak to your customer’s intent, write them yourself.

Keyword match types: use exact match or phrase match, not broad match

Once you paste your keywords into the ad group, Google may leave them as broad match by default.

Daniel Dimsey does not recommend broad match for beginners.

Broad match can trigger your ad for a wide range of loosely related searches, which means more irrelevant traffic and more cleanup later.

Better options

• Exact match for maximum control
• Phrase match if you want a bit more flexibility

His personal preference is exact match because it keeps the targeting tighter and reduces the amount of work needed later with negative keywords.

To make a keyword exact match, place square brackets around it.

For example:

• [window cleaning near me]
• [window cleaning service]

If you are formatting a large list, Daniel Dimsey suggests using ChatGPT to convert the list into exact match format quickly.

How to write ads that actually get clicks

This is where the campaign becomes visible to searchers, so the ad copy matters a lot.

Daniel Dimsey recommends building strong relevance into the ad from the first headline.

Use keyword insertion in headline one

His favourite tactic here is keyword insertion.

This allows Google to dynamically insert the actual search term that triggered the ad into the first headline. If someone searches “exterior window cleaning”, your ad can show “Exterior Window Cleaning” as the first headline. If they search “window cleaning near me”, that phrase appears instead.

That makes the ad incredibly relevant to the search.

And relevance usually helps with click-through rate.

Use a clear call to action in headline two

For the second headline, Daniel Dimsey likes a strong call to action, such as:

• Get Your Free Quote
• Book Your Consultation
• Call Now

This tells the person exactly what to do next.

Study competitors for angles, not copy

Another useful tip is to look at what other advertisers in your market are doing.

If a competitor has likely been advertising for a long time, their headlines may reveal useful patterns. For example, if they emphasise social proof with wording like “five-star reviewed” or “trusted”, that suggests those angles may be resonating.

The goal is not to copy their ads word for word. The goal is to understand the message types that appear to be working in your market.

Descriptions should support the click and the conversion

Your descriptions should reinforce trust, explain the offer, and point toward the next action. Keep them clear and useful rather than stuffing in random phrases just to satisfy Google’s ad strength meter.

Daniel Dimsey is blunt about ad strength: do not obsess over it. It is not a reliable indicator of whether the ad will perform well. It often reflects quantity more than quality.

He also likes pinning certain headlines and descriptions so he can better understand what messaging is actually converting rather than letting Google completely mix everything without structure.

Use assets that support the sale

After the main ad copy, Google lets you add assets such as sitelinks, callouts, phone extensions, and more.

Sitelinks

Daniel Dimsey recommends linking to pages that push the prospect closer to action, such as:

• Get a Quote
• Read Our Reviews
• Book a Consultation
• Specific service pages

These should direct people to pages that move them toward becoming a lead.

Callouts

Callouts can be added, though he does not place huge weight on them. They can help make the ad look a bit fuller, but they are not the main event.

Call asset

If you want phone calls, add your phone number as a call asset. On mobile devices, this gives people the option to tap and call directly from the ad.

What to avoid

Daniel Dimsey is not a fan of Google’s built-in lead forms in this setup and considers them poor quality for lead generation.

He is also dismissive of structured snippets for this use case.

Set the daily budget based on your max CPC

When it is time to choose a budget, Daniel Dimsey gives a simple rule of thumb:

Take your maximum cost per click and multiply it by 10.

If your max CPC is $10, start with a $100 daily budget if you want to guarantee the possibility of roughly 10 clicks per day.

That does not mean every click will cost the full $10. Some may come in lower, so you may get more than 10 clicks. But the formula gives you a workable baseline.

Of course, if you want to start smaller for safety, you can set a lower budget and increase it later.

Do not panic when Google shows a warning on the bidding strategy

If Google flags the bidding strategy because you chose clicks instead of conversions, Daniel Dimsey says not to worry.

That warning is not a sign that the campaign is set up incorrectly. In this method, it is there because you intentionally started with a click-focused strategy to avoid wasting money before the account has enough data.

Once you complete advertiser verification and confirm the account, you can publish the campaign.

The Daniel Dimsey beginner framework, simplified

If you want the whole process boiled down, this is the Daniel Dimsey structure:

1. Create the Google Ads account and claim any promotional ad credit
2. Skip Google’s guided campaign builder
3. Use Keyword Planner before building anything
4. Choose high-intent keywords only
5. Split campaigns by service type and search intent
6. Create a Search campaign with the Leads objective
7. Use form submissions as the conversion goal
8. Start bidding for clicks, not conversions
9. Set a max CPC based on top-of-page bid estimates
10. Turn off Search Partners and Display
11. Target individual service areas, not just a wide radius
12. Change location setting to presence only
13. Add audiences in observation mode
14. Use exact match or phrase match keywords
15. Write ads manually with keyword insertion and strong calls to action
16. Add useful sitelinks and a phone asset
17. Set budget using the max CPC x 10 rule
18. Publish and gather data before moving to conversion bidding

Final thoughts

What makes the Daniel Dimsey approach useful for beginners is that it strips away a lot of Google Ads nonsense and focuses on control, relevance, and data. Instead of letting automation make bad early decisions, you guide the campaign with sensible keyword choices, sensible bidding, and sensible targeting.

That does not mean the campaign will be perfect on day one. It means you are starting from a much stronger position.

And for a beginner, that matters a lot.

If you follow the Daniel Dimsey setup properly, you will avoid two of the biggest money-wasting errors right out of the gate: using conversion bidding before the account has data, and using the wrong location presence setting. Get those right, keep your keywords tight, and build your ads around genuine search intent, and you give yourself a far better shot at profitable Google Ads in 2026.