Are Google Ads worth it for a small business?

Google Ads show your business to people who are searching right now. Crazy Egg's January 2026 comparison describes Google as capturing high-intent users who are actively looking for a solution.

That makes ads useful for services such as plumbing, dentistry, legal help and local trades, where someone with a problem searches for a fix. It makes them harder for products people do not search for yet.

Whether they pay off is arithmetic. Work out what a customer is worth, how many enquiries become customers and how much you can pay for one enquiry. Our guide to Google Ads setup and cost walks through the setup.

Here is a simple example. The numbers are illustrative, not a forecast.

1. A new customer is worth $2,000 in profit or revenue, depending on how you count.
2. One in ten enquiries becomes a customer, so each enquiry is worth about $200.
3. If a click costs $3 and one in twenty clicks becomes an enquiry, an enquiry costs about $60.
4. That leaves room to pay for tracking, a page and management and still come out ahead.

Change your own numbers. If an enquiry costs more than it is worth, fix the offer or page before you add budget.

Google lists no minimum spend on its bidding page, so the budget is yours to set. WordStream's guide says a small budget can still work if it targets the right keywords, and that you need enough to gather meaningful data.

The pricing guide we cite does not name its sources, so treat its numbers as a rough guide. Check your own keywords in Google's Keyword Planner for real estimates.

Ads magnify what you already have. A clear offer and a good page get more from each click. A confusing page wastes it.

Crazy Egg notes that Google's costs can be higher in competitive industries such as legal, finance and technology. If your margins are slim and your industry is crowded, test with a small budget and watch the cost per enquiry closely.

You can run a simple Search campaign yourself if you can spare time every week. An agency or specialist is worth considering if you have no time, have tried and failed, or run a larger budget.

Ask them:

• What is included in the fee, and what is billed separately?
• How will you track calls and forms?
• How often will you review the account?
• Who owns the account, and can I see it?

Our paid ads service starts with tracking and offer before scaling spend.

You can get traffic soon after launch, but early numbers are noisy. Judge cost per enquiry after enough clicks to see a pattern, not after three days.

• Weeks 1 to 2: set up tracking, launch one campaign and check search terms.
• Weeks 3 to 6: add negative keywords, test new ads and fix the landing page.
• Months 2 to 3: decide whether to scale, change the offer or stop.

If the account is not producing enquiries by then, the problem is usually the offer, the page or the tracking, not the platform.

Our full comparison of Facebook Ads and Google Ads for a small business covers the differences. In short, Google meets existing demand, and Facebook helps create it.