Once the first weeks are behind you, ads do not need you in the account every day. They need checking: are leads coming in, is the money going where it should, are the ads showing. For the owner of a plumbing company, a dental practice or a law firm, that takes about 15 minutes a week. Managing the campaigns, meaning new ads, tests and bid changes, is separate work, and how long it takes depends on the account.
If you are still deciding whether to learn this yourself or pay for training, count this time first. In my piece on whether a Google Ads course is worth it, I go through which situations make learning pay off. The question here is narrower: what to do in those minutes, and what to leave alone.
The schedule for a day, a week and a month
My schedule is built for an account with one or two Search campaigns. A large account, or an online store with a product feed, needs more.
| When | How long | What you do | What you leave alone |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daily, first weeks after launch only | up to 2 minutes | Check that the ads are showing and none is marked “Disapproved”. Check whether any calls or form requests came in | Bids, budget, recommendations |
| Weekly | 15 minutes | The five steps in the next section | Recommendations, the optimization score, the “Apply all” button |
| Monthly | 30 minutes | A review of spend, leads and paying customers. A decision on budget. A check that your phone number and form work on the site. Reading the account recommendations | Several changes at once, “Apply all” |
In the monthly 30 minutes, compare spend with your budget. For most campaigns Google will not charge more than 30.4 times your average daily budget in a month, or more than twice that budget on any one day, as Google’s help page on average daily budgets explains.
If a contractor runs your ads, the schedule stays yours: you are not running the campaigns, you are checking them. Why being able to check matters more than being able to do everything is the point of my article on a Google Ads course for business owners.
What to do in 15 minutes a week
- Count the week’s leads from your own records: calls, forms, messages. Do not rely only on the numbers in the account (3 minutes).
- Look at the week’s spend and divide it by the number of leads. That is your cost per lead (2 minutes).
- Open the report of search terms, meaning the phrases people typed before they clicked. Add anything unrelated to your service as a negative keyword (6 minutes).
- Check ad status: the “Campaigns” menu, the “Ads” page, the “Status” column. “Under review” normally lasts one business day. “Disapproved” means the ad is not showing, so find out why (2 minutes).
- Write one line: what you see and what you changed. A month from now this log will save you more time than it costs (2 minutes).
What to leave alone: common owner mistakes
Under “Recommendations” the account shows an optimization score and a list of suggestions. According to Google’s help page on optimization score, it is an estimate of how well the account is set up, from 0 to 100%. Two facts are worth knowing before you click anything.
First, the help page says the score can reach 100% by applying or dismissing all recommendations. So a score of 100% does not prove you are getting leads. Second, suggestions are built from the account’s history, campaign settings and search trends, and they can change bids, keywords and ads. The help page gives an example: a campaign on “Maximize clicks” that is reporting conversions may be advised to move to target CPA. That is a decision about money, not a small tweak.
In my weekly 15 minutes I do not open recommendations. Once a month, in my 30 minutes, I read them and apply one only when I can say in plain words what it will change in spend and leads. Why chasing the score is a mistake is in my article on how the Google Ads optimization score is lying to you.
- Pressing “Apply all” to raise the score. The score goes up, and leads may not.
- Logging in every day to nudge bids. The campaign never collects enough data, and you cannot tell what worked.
- Changing several things at once. A week later you cannot see which change did anything.
- Watching only clicks. A click is not a lead, so count enquiries from your own records.
When this does not apply
- In the first days after launch, before you have confirmed that leads are being counted. Then 15 minutes a week is too little, and the numbers in the account prove nothing yet.
- If lead tracking is not set up. The schedule works only with your own record of enquiries.
- For an online store with a product feed, or an account with many campaigns. The schedule is built for one or two Search campaigns.
- If you run the campaigns yourself. That is management, not checking, and it takes more time.
The step-by-step version of this schedule, with how to adapt it to your own business and budget, is in my book on Google Ads for business owners.
My e-book “19 Google Ads Secrets”: how to get the most out of Google Ads without draining your budget, drawn from real campaigns and tests.
See the book →Questions and answers
Do I need to log in every day?
In the first weeks, yes, but for up to 2 minutes: look at ad status and whether any enquiries came in. After that, once a week is enough while leads keep arriving. If they suddenly stop, log in right away rather than waiting for the schedule.
Do I have to apply Google’s recommendations?
Google does not require it. You can dismiss a recommendation with the X, and a dismissed one may come back later. The help pages describe optimization score and Quality Score as separate measures.
What if there are no leads after a week?
Do not change several things at once. Check ad status and whether enquiries are being counted. How long to wait for the first leads, and what to check if there are none, is covered in my article on how long Google Ads takes to work.