Someone who types "AC technician near me" into Google wants a person to come today. That's about the clearest customer you can pay to reach, which is why search ads suit local services. The common problem is that a large share of the budget goes to searches that have nothing to do with buying: a job seeker, a student looking for a PDF, someone in another city.
Three settings decide who you pay for: keywords, negative keywords and location.
How do you choose keywords for a local service?
Pick the phrases someone types when they're ready to order, and start with a small number of them. The service name with the city or neighborhood, "near me", "price" or "cost", and "emergency" if your service handles emergencies. These phrases carry clear buying intent and are very different from a broad term like "air conditioning" on its own.
Write keywords the way people type them: in colloquial Arabic, in formal Arabic, and in English if your audience searches in English. In Jordan and Saudi Arabia, one person searches for "AC maintenance" in formal Arabic, another uses the colloquial word for "fixing an AC", and a third types "AC repair" in English.
Which match type should you start with?
Google Ads has three match types: exact match, phrase match and broad match. Exact and phrase match give you more control over which searches trigger your ad, so we usually start with them on a limited budget. Broad match reaches more searches and works better once conversion tracking is in place with enough data for the platform to learn from.
Which negative keywords should you add?
Negative keywords stop your ad from showing on searches that contain a particular word. Start with a ready list before launch, then add to it every week from the search terms report, which shows what people actually typed before clicking your ad.
| Type of search | Example negative keywords |
|---|---|
| Job hunting | jobs, hiring, salary, vacancy |
| Learning | course, training, learn, tutorial, PDF |
| Looking for something free | free, for free |
| Do it yourself | yourself, how to, video |
| Places you don't serve | Names of cities or neighborhoods outside your area |
Add each one in Arabic as well as English. Unlike regular keywords, a negative keyword doesn't automatically cover its synonyms or misspellings. If you add "jobs", add "job" too.
What should a local service ad say?
Write what the searcher needs to know to call you: the service, the area you cover, and what sets you apart from the other results on the same page. "AC technician in north Amman, same-day visit" tells the searcher more than "best maintenance service". Add sitelinks to your important service pages and short callouts about your warranty or working hours. If you have very different keywords, such as maintenance and installation, give each its own ad group with an ad that names it.
How do you set the location for your ads?
Target the area you serve, and choose to show the ad to people who are in that location or regularly there. The default option in Google Ads also includes people outside the area who have shown interest in it. That's useful for tourism and hotels and wastes money on a local service. You'll find it in the location settings under "Location options".
If you serve all of Riyadh, target the city. If you're in Amman and can reach certain neighborhoods in reasonable time, use a radius around your office or add the neighborhoods one by one, and exclude the ones you can't reach.
Which settings eat your budget without you noticing?
Some settings are switched on when you create a new search campaign and are worth checking before launch:
- Display Network inside a search campaign: it shows your ad on websites and apps instead of search results. Turn it off in the search campaign and build a separate display campaign if you need one.
- Search partners: watch their results separately, and turn them off if they don't bring inquiries.
- Ad schedule: if nobody answers the phone at night, don't pay for calls at midnight.
- Auto-applied recommendations: review them in the account, because some add keywords or raise the budget.
Add your phone number as a call asset in the ad, since many local service customers call straight from the search result on their phone.
- Search phraseClear buying intent, in your area
- The adNames the service, the area and how to order
- Page or callThe service page itself, or a direct call
- Tracked conversionForm, call or WhatsApp
- Weekly reviewSearch terms, new negative keywords
How do you know the campaign is bringing customers?
Through tracked conversions: forms, calls and WhatsApp clicks. Set up tracking before launch, as explained in setting up Google Analytics 4 and conversion tracking. Then compare the cost per inquiry with what a customer is worth to you. If clicks are high and inquiries are low, go through the checks in paying for ads and getting no leads?
We set up local search campaigns and review them weekly as part of our digital marketing service. Tell us your service and the areas you cover, and we'll suggest a starting list of keywords and negative keywords.
Questions our partners ask
What's the difference between a keyword and a negative keyword?
A keyword tells Google when to show your ad. A negative keyword stops it from showing on searches that contain a particular word, such as "jobs" or "free".
Should I target the whole city or a radius around my office?
If you go to the customer, target the areas you can reach. If the customer comes to you, a radius around your location or specific neighborhoods is more precise than a whole city.
How often should I review negative keywords?
Weekly during the first month using the search terms report, then every two weeks or monthly once the campaign settles.
Written by the Visual Innovate team, the people who build, host and follow up systems, websites and apps for our clients in Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Egypt.
