What 20 years of running Google Ads for my own businesses taught me

Around 2001 I was running an IT training and services business. I built my own website with Serif WebPlus (some of you will remember it) and set up Google Ads to find customers.

I've been using Google Ads to win clients for my own businesses ever since. Through my website business, where one client who came through was worth over £40,000. And once I focused on Google Ads, my own campaigns brought in clients including a multimillion-turnover e-commerce store, a chain of laser skin and aesthetics clinics in London, two wine academies and a couple of building companies.

Here's what stuck.

1. It's different when it's your own money

Spending your own money on clicks focuses the mind. You don't care about impressions or click-through rates. You care about whether the phone rings and whether the person on the other end becomes a customer. I still run every account like that.

2. Google has changed a lot. People haven't.

The platform today looks nothing like it did in 2001. But people still search when they need something, still want to know they're in the right place, and still pick up the phone when they trust you. Get those basics right and most of the rest follows.

3. Google's interests aren't yours

Google looks after its shareholders first, the people searching second, and advertisers last. That's fine, as long as you know it. It's why I don't take Google's recommendations at face value. More on that here.

4. Tracking first. Always.

If you can't tell which clicks became customers, every decision is a guess. Every account I work on starts with the tracking.

5. No one knows who's at the other end of the search

You can do everything right and still have a slow month. The people who click this month aren't the same people who'll click next month. That's why I don't offer guarantees, and why I work from the data.

6. Keep it simple

A lot of wasted money comes from complexity: too many campaigns, too many keywords, too many settings nobody chose. Simple, tight and well tracked beats clever.

7. The numbers have to add up

That's the whole thing, really. If the ad spend and the fees don't make sense for the business, it doesn't matter how good the account looks.

I now run Ads Refinery from Somerset, doing for local and service businesses across the UK what I've done for my own businesses for over 20 years.