The Lead Gen Search Campaign Checklist lists the Google Ads settings that decide where a lead gen Search campaign spends money, in the order you meet them. It has five phases: account preflight, campaign settings, bidding and budget, keywords and ads, and the checks to run after launch. Most items reverse a Google Ads default that favors reach over lead quality.
Six defaults cost lead gen advertisers the most, because each one widens where ads show without asking.
The Lead Gen Search Campaign Checklist sets the minimum daily budget at 3× your target CPA. A budget of 1× or 2× sounds like enough to buy one or two leads a day, but in practice one expensive lead or a few costly clicks uses up the day. The campaign then shows as limited by budget, Smart Bidding sits out auctions it would win, and it learns slowly from too few conversions. At 3×, the budget leaves room for the bid strategy to work. Monthly spend is the daily budget × 30.4, the average days in a month Google uses for its monthly spending limit.
Worked example: with a $60 target cost per lead, the minimum daily budget is $180. That is about $5,472 a month, enough for roughly 91 leads a month at target.
If 3× your target CPA is more than you can spend each day, run one campaign instead of several, use exact match only, and tighten the location to the area that brings your best customers.
What location option should a lead gen campaign use?
Use "Presence: People in or regularly in your included locations." The default, "Presence or interest," also shows ads to people outside your area who search about it, so a plumber in Denver pays for clicks from people in Ohio reading about Denver. Change it under Campaign settings, Locations, Location options.
Should I turn off auto-apply recommendations in Google Ads?
Yes. Auto-applied recommendations can add keywords and broad match keywords, change bid strategies and targets, and expand targeting without asking. They don’t raise budgets, but new keywords spend the existing budget on new searches. Turn off every type under Recommendations, Auto-apply, then review recommendations by hand and apply only the ones that help.
What bid strategy should a lead gen Search campaign use?
Use Maximize conversions with a target CPA from day one, even in a new account, because the target CPA is the guardrail on cost per lead. Build it as a portfolio bid strategy in the shared library so you can also set a max CPC bid limit. Use Maximize conversion value with a target ROAS only if you send Google a value for each lead, such as from your CRM.
What should the max CPC bid limit be?
Start with the low-range top-of-page bid that Keyword Planner shows for your main keywords, plus 15%. That is usually enough to show on the first page without paying for the top spot, where clicks cost the most. Set it in the advanced settings of a portfolio bid strategy. If the campaign has no clicks or leads after 7 days, bracket the bid: double it, and if it starts spending, come back down halfway until both spend and cost per lead hold. Low-volume keywords need these big moves, because small changes take weeks to show any effect.
How many ad groups should a new lead gen campaign have?
Start with one ad group for your one core service, with 5–20 keywords and one landing page. A small test budget spread across several ad groups gives each one too few clicks and leads to tell what works. Add a second ad group only when the budget can cover another three times your target CPA a day.
When should I pause a keyword with no conversions?
Pause a keyword once it has spent twice your target CPA with no conversions, but check the last 30, 14 and 7 days side by side first. If the 30-day numbers are bad but the 14-day and 7-day numbers are better, the keyword is recovering, so keep it. With a $60 target CPA, the pause line is $120 spent with no leads.
Should I pin headlines in a responsive search ad?
Yes, if your headlines come from customer research. Write them from the words and themes customers use in reviews, sales calls and surveys, then pin the strongest headlines and descriptions, with a call to action in both a headline and a description. Google will often rate the ad strength as Poor, but ad strength scores variety, not results, and a pinned ad built on customer language often outperforms a long list of headlines left for machine learning to mix.
Can a healthcare practice use this checklist?
Usually not. HIPAA limits the conversion data a healthcare practice can send to Google. Sending it safely takes anonymized server-side conversions, and the compliant tracking platforms that set those up can add a significant monthly cost. Without that conversion data, Smart Bidding strategies like Maximize conversions can’t work, so many practices are better served by Manual CPC. Compare the options, costs and tradeoffs in our guide to HIPAA-compliant conversion tracking for Google Ads. A separate Manual CPC checklist is coming soon.
Do I need AI Max or broad match to show ads in Google’s AI results?
You need broad match, not AI Max. Broad match is the only keyword match type confirmed to show ads in Google’s AI-generated results. Google says it is testing phrase and exact match there, with no official rollout as of October 2026. AI Max is mostly a rebrand of existing automated features. Broad match reaches much wider than phrase or exact, so use it from the start only if the budget is well above three times your target CPA a day, and only with a strong negative keyword list.
Should I let AI fully manage my Google Ads campaigns?
Not yet. Google’s built-in automation and AI agents from vendors like Anthropic and OpenAI can make logical changes, but they often lack the full context of the business and the experience to judge an account, and Google’s automation can spend a budget fast. Use AI to suggest changes, and keep a person approving every change before it goes live. Read the pros, cons and documented cases in our guide, Should AI fully manage your Google Ads campaigns?
How big should my Google Ads daily budget be?
Set the daily budget to at least three times your target CPA. Below that, one expensive lead or a few costly clicks can use up the day, so the campaign shows as limited by budget and Smart Bidding can't bid in every auction it would win. Monthly spend is about 30.4 times the daily budget.
Do I need auto-tagging on in Google Ads?
Yes. Auto-tagging adds a GCLID to every ad click, which Google Analytics, offline conversion imports and enhanced conversions for leads use to tie a lead back to the click that produced it. Turn it on under Admin, Account settings, Auto-tagging.