Muhammad Ali AbbasiPerformance Marketing ConsultantBook a Strategy Call

Google Ads • Search • Performance Max

When Someone Is Already Searching, Your Google Ads Should Not Waste the Moment

Someone types exactly what they need into Google. That is a valuable moment.

I’m Muhammad Ali Abbasi, a Google Ads consultant helping businesses turn that search intent into something more useful than clicks, impressions and dashboard conversions.

I work across Search campaigns, Performance Max, landing pages, conversion tracking and lead generation with one question running through the account:

What happened after we paid for the click?

If the search was relevant, the page made sense, the person converted and the business actually wanted that lead, we have something worth building on. If one of those pieces breaks, increasing the budget usually makes the problem more expensive.

Based in Dubai. Working across the UAE and international markets.

Talk About Your Google AdsSee Google Ads Results

Already running campaigns? We can start with what your account is already telling us.

Muhammad Ali Abbasi, Google Ads and performance marketing consultant based in Dubai

The moment before the click

Google Ads becomes powerful when you understand why the person searched.

A keyword is not just a word you put inside an ad account. There is a person behind it.

“dentist near me”

is in a different moment from

“how do dental implants work?”

“office cleaning company”

is in a different moment from

“how to clean office carpet.”

“medical equipment supplier”

is in a different moment from

“what is this medical device?”

The words can look closely related.

The business value can be completely different.

That is why I start with intent before campaign structure.

What is this person actually trying to do?

  • Research?
  • Compare?
  • Find a provider?
  • Check a price?
  • Solve an urgent problem?
  • Buy?
  • Book?
  • Call?
A Google Ads account should not try to win every search.
It should know which searches are worth paying for.

That decision influences the keywords, ads, landing page, bidding, negatives and conversion actions that come afterwards.

The work

Google Ads management is a chain of decisions, not a campaign sitting on autopilot.

The exact work depends on the account, but these are the areas I look at when Google Ads is responsible for generating real business.

Search Intent

  • Which searches indicate real demand?
  • Which are informational?
  • Which are commercial?
  • Which should never consume budget?

Campaign Structure

  • How should services, markets, intent and budgets be separated?
  • Where does consolidation help Google learn?
  • Where does separation give us necessary control?

Keywords

  • Exact.
  • Phrase.
  • Broad.
  • The question is not which match type is universally “best.”
  • The question is what level of expansion the account can support with its data, negatives, bidding and conversion signals.

Search Terms

  • Keywords are what we tell Google.
  • Search terms are what people actually typed.
  • That difference matters.
  • Search-term data helps reveal: new buying language, irrelevant traffic, unexpected opportunities, research intent, competitor traffic, job searches, wrong locations and completely unrelated meanings.

Negative Keywords

  • Negative keywords help prevent budget from being spent on searches we already know are wrong for the business.
  • They are part of ongoing account hygiene, not a one-time setup task.
  • Google also supports negative-keyword controls for Performance Max Search and Shopping inventory, so query control is not limited only to traditional Search campaigns.
Source: Google Ads Help

Ads & Assets

  • The ad has to connect the search with the next step.
  • That means working on: relevance, offer, difference, trust, specificity, calls to action and useful assets.

Landing Pages

  • The ad can win the click.
  • The page still has to win the next decision.

Tracking

  • Calls.
  • Forms.
  • Bookings.
  • Purchases.
  • Qualified leads.
  • Offline outcomes where the setup allows it.

Bidding

  • Automated bidding becomes much more useful when the conversion signal itself is useful.

Budget

  • Budget is allocated around opportunity and economics, not evenly because the campaigns happen to exist.

Optimisation

  • What changed?
  • Why?
  • What should receive more spend?
  • What should stop?
  • What still needs more evidence?

That is what I mean by Google Ads management.

Not keeping the account busy. Keeping the decisions useful.

Talk About Your Google Ads

Where budget quietly disappears

The keyword you chose is not always the search you paid for.

One of the easiest mistakes to make in Google Ads is looking at the keyword and assuming you already understand the traffic.

You do not.

You need the search terms.

That is where you start seeing the language people actually use before clicking.

Some searches confirm the strategy. Some reveal a new opportunity. Some show that Google interpreted your keyword more broadly than you expected.

And some make it obvious that money is being spent on people who were never potential customers.

Examples can include

  • Jobs.
  • Courses.
  • Free options.
  • DIY research.
  • Wrong services.
  • Wrong products.
  • Wrong geography.
  • Completely different meanings of the same word.
  1. Keyword we targeted
  2. Real search terms
  3. Relevant / Questionable / Irrelevant
  4. Keep / Investigate / Exclude
  5. Better use of budget

That is why search-term review and negative-keyword management remain part of the account after launch.

Not because every unexpected search is bad.

Because we need to understand which expansion is useful and which is waste.

More traffic is not automatically more opportunity.

The goal is not to make the account smaller. It is to make the spend more intentional.

Choosing the campaign type

Search and Performance Max solve different parts of the problem.

Performance Max is not automatically the upgrade from Search. Search is not automatically the safer choice. They have different roles.

Google describes Performance Max as a goal-based campaign type that can reach inventory across Google beyond keyword-based Search, while Search campaigns continue to give direct access to keyword-driven demand. Source: Google Ads Help

Google Search

  • High-intent queries
  • Keyword-led
  • More direct query visibility
  • Strong message-to-search alignment

Search is useful when we want to work closely with the language people use when they actively look for the service or product.

It gives us a direct connection between: Query. Keyword. Ad. Landing page. Conversion.

This can be especially valuable when search intent is strong and services need deliberate separation.

Performance Max

  • Cross-channel reach
  • Automation-led expansion
  • Creative + audience + conversion signals
  • Broader customer discovery

Performance Max can reach people across multiple Google surfaces using goals, audience signals, creative assets, search themes and Google’s automation.

It can be useful when: the conversion tracking is trustworthy; there is enough quality data; the business has suitable creative; the campaign goal is clear; the wider Google inventory makes sense for the customer journey.

Shared foundation

  • Useful conversion goals
  • Good landing pages
  • Clean business feedback

Using them together

For some businesses, Search remains the core demand-capture channel while Performance Max expands beyond those keyword-led moments.

For others, Search alone may be the cleaner starting point.

The answer comes from the account. Not from using a campaign type because Google recommends it.

Automation can decide faster.
It still needs a useful definition of success.

After the click

If people are clicking but not converting, the campaign may not be the only problem.

This is where many Google Ads conversations become too narrow.

The account generated clicks. The CTR looks respectable. The search terms look relevant. But enquiries are weak.

Before rewriting everything inside Google Ads, I want to understand what happens next.

The more expensive the click, the more expensive a weak landing page becomes.

You already paid to earn the visit.
The landing page decides what that visit has a chance to become.

That is why I treat landing-page conversion as part of paid media performance, not as somebody else’s problem.

Landing Pages & CRO service page — coming soon

What happens after the click

  1. 01Does the page immediately answer the search?
  2. 02Is the offer clear?
  3. 03Does it look trustworthy?
  4. 04Is the page fast on mobile?
  5. 05Does the visitor understand the next step?
  6. 06Is there proof?
  7. 07Is the form asking too much?
  8. 08Or too little?
  9. 09Is WhatsApp the right action?
  10. 10Should the person call?
  11. 11Are we sending every keyword to the same generic page?

The conversion is not the finish line

Google can optimise for a lead. Your business has to tell us whether it was a good one.

Suppose Google generates 40 leads. Ads Manager calls them conversions. That is useful. But the business knows more. Maybe:

  1. 40leads
  2. 30answered
  3. 22were relevant
  4. 15qualified
  5. 9booked
  6. 6actually attended
  7. 3became customers

Now we have a different picture.

This matters because the conversion action we optimise toward shapes the account.

If every form submission looks identical to Google, the platform cannot automatically know which lead became valuable later.

Where the business has the systems and data to support it, stronger offline and first-party conversion information can help connect ad interactions with later-stage outcomes.

Google currently recommends enhanced conversions for leads as an improved way to use offline lead data and first-party information for attribution and bidding. Source: Google Ads Help

From click to customer

  1. 01Click
  2. 02Lead
  3. 03Contactable
  4. 04Qualified
  5. 05Booked / Opportunity
  6. 06Customer
The closer the optimisation signal gets to the real business outcome, the more useful the account can become.

Not every business starts with perfect offline tracking. That is fine. We start with the best reliable signal available and improve the measurement as the system matures.

Conversion Tracking service page — coming soon

Before we trust the numbers

A campaign cannot optimise properly if the account is learning from the wrong conversion.

I want to know what Google currently calls a conversion.

Possible conversion actions

  • A form submission?
  • A button click?
  • A phone-number click?
  • A WhatsApp click?
  • A page view?
  • A purchase?
  • A booking?
  • Several of them at once?

These are not automatically equal business outcomes.

If weak micro-actions and serious customer actions are mixed together, automated bidding can receive a confusing definition of success.

That is why conversion setup needs thought.

Depending on the business, the measurement stack can include

  1. 01Google Ads conversion tracking.
  2. 02Google Tag Manager.
  3. 03GA4.
  4. 04Enhanced conversions.
  5. 05Call tracking.
  6. 06CRM stages.
  7. 07Offline lead outcomes.
  8. 08Sales or revenue data.
Tracking is not there so the report has more columns.
It is there so we make better decisions with the money.

The whole experience matters

A better ad is not only about writing a clever headline.

Google Ads performance is influenced by the relationship between the search, ad and landing experience.

That is why I look at them together.

Someone searches for a specific service. The ad should make sense for that service. The page should continue the same promise. The next action should be obvious.

When those pieces disagree, you can pay for highly relevant intent and still lose the customer after the click.

Metrics such as CTR, ad relevance and landing-page experience can help diagnose parts of the system.

But I do not treat a platform score as the final business KPI.

The account still has to create commercially useful outcomes.

  1. 01Search
  2. 02Ad
  3. 03Landing page
  4. 04Next action
  5. 05Business outcome
Good Google Ads feels consistent from the search box to the landing page.

Already spending?

Before rebuilding the account, I want to know what the account has already learned.

An existing Google Ads account is not something I automatically want to throw away.

It contains history. Searches people made. Ads they responded to. Pages they visited. Campaigns that spent. Budgets that ran out. Conversions that were recorded. Tests that worked. Tests that failed.

That history can be valuable.

When I review an existing account, I want to understand:

  1. 01Campaign structure.
  2. 02Search terms.
  3. 03Keyword intent.
  4. 04Negative keywords.
  5. 05Locations.
  6. 06Devices.
  7. 07Ad schedules.
  8. 08Budget allocation.
  9. 09Bidding.
  10. 10Conversion actions.
  11. 11Search versus Performance Max overlap.
  12. 12Landing-page alignment.
  13. 13Lead quality.
  14. 14What happened after scaling.

The point of an audit is not to create a long list of mistakes.

It is to decide what deserves to happen next.

Keep what is useful.

Fix what is broken.

Stop paying for what has already proven it does not work.

Talk About a Google Ads Audit
Muhammad Ali Abbasi reviewing an existing advertising account

The process

Start with the search. Follow the money all the way through.

  1. 01

    Understand the Business

    What are we selling?

    What is a customer worth?

    Which services matter most?

    What happens after an enquiry?

  2. 02

    Map Search Intent

    What does the customer search when they are actually close to buying?

    What searches look relevant but are not commercially useful?

  3. 03

    Check the Measurement

    What does the account currently count as a conversion?

    Can we trust it?

  4. 04

    Build the Structure

    Campaigns. Services. Locations. Keywords. Match types. Budgets. Negative logic.

  5. 05

    Match the Page

    Where should each important search land?

    What does the visitor need to see next?

  6. 06

    Launch & Watch the Queries

    The account begins giving us real behaviour.

    Search terms. Clicks. Costs. Conversions.

  7. 07

    Connect Lead Quality

    What happened to the enquiries?

    Which searches generated people the business actually wanted?

  8. 08

    Scale With a Reason

    Increase spend when the economics and quality support it.

More budget is the last part.
Not the strategy.

How much should you spend?

A Google Ads budget should be able to buy enough useful information to make a decision.

There is no universal “right Google Ads budget.”

A useful budget depends on:

  • What clicks cost in your market.
  • How many clicks are needed to produce a conversion.
  • What percentage of those conversions are qualified.
  • How many qualified opportunities become customers.
  • What a customer is worth.

Example

Imagine the average click costs AED 20.

If the landing page converts 10% of relevant clicks, you may need roughly ten clicks to generate one lead.

That is approximately AED 200 per lead before we know whether the lead is qualified.

If only half are commercially useful, the economics change again.

That is why budget planning should move backwards from the business.

  1. 01Customer value
  2. 02Acceptable customer acquisition cost
  3. 03Close rate
  4. 04Acceptable qualified lead cost
  5. 05Landing page conversion rate
  6. 06Expected click cost
  7. 07Testing budget

A budget should give the campaign enough room to learn something useful without pretending money alone can solve a weak system.

The number needs context

A cheap click can be expensive. A high CPL can still make money.

People often ask: What is a good CPC? What is a good CPL? What is a good conversion rate?

There is no single number that answers those questions for every business.

Clicks

AED 5 vs AED 80

A AED 5 click can be terrible if the search has no buying intent.

A AED 80 click can be valuable if the person is searching for a high-value service and regularly becomes a customer.

Leads

AED 50 vs AED 150

The same applies to leads. AED 50 per lead sounds better than AED 150.

Until the AED 50 leads never answer and the AED 150 leads regularly buy.

The useful benchmark is not “What do other advertisers pay?”
It is “What can this business profitably pay for the right customer?”

Match types

More reach only helps when the account can recognise useful demand.

Exact
Exact match gives tighter control around specific searches.
Phrase
Phrase match gives Google more room around the meaning.
Broad
Broad match can expand much further and increasingly relies on Google’s automation, context and conversion data.

There is no rule that says one match type should always win.

Google continues to move Search toward more AI-led matching and automation, including AI Max capabilities. Source: Google Ads Help

That makes the quality of the surrounding system even more important:

  • Conversion data.
  • Search-term review.
  • Negative keywords.
  • Campaign structure.
  • Landing pages.
  • Business feedback.

I am not interested in being “pro broad match” or “anti broad match.”

I am interested in whether the expansion creates customers the business actually wants.

Demand capture vs demand creation

Google Ads and Meta Ads often meet the customer at different moments.

Google Ads

Someone usually does something first.

They search. They reveal intent through the words they use.

Google gives us an opportunity to respond to that demand.

Meta Ads

The person may not be searching at all.

Creative interrupts the feed and gives them a reason to become interested.

Meta can create or develop demand earlier in the journey.

Which one should you use?

If people already search frequently for exactly what you sell, Google can be a strong place to capture that demand.

If the offer needs to be introduced visually or the customer is unlikely to search for it first, Meta may have a stronger role.

Some businesses need both. Google captures the search. Meta builds awareness, retargets or creates interest.

The correct mix comes from how the customer actually buys.

Explore Meta Ads

Where search intent matters

Google Ads becomes especially useful when customers already know how to describe the problem.

Healthcare & Medical Clinics

Patients often search around symptoms, treatments, doctors, services and locations.

The work is not simply buying the treatment keyword.

Intent, policy, location, trust, landing pages and appointment quality all matter.

Aesthetic & Dental Clinics

High-value treatments can carry expensive clicks.

The page, treatment explanation, proof and consultation path matter as much as keyword selection.

Medical Devices & B2B

Search volume may be smaller.

But the commercial value behind one qualified enquiry can be much larger.

That changes how we think about keywords, qualification and lead value.

Service Businesses

Google can be particularly useful when customers search because they need the service now.

Cleaning. Consulting. Professional services. Home services. Other local and specialist services.

Ecommerce & Product Businesses

Search, Shopping and Performance Max can play different roles depending on the catalogue, feed quality, margin and customer demand.

I do not start by asking: “How do we use Google Ads?”
I start with: “Is there valuable demand here that Google Ads can capture?”

See how Google Ads fits the wider system on the Performance Marketing page, or read more about my background.

Based in Dubai. Built to work beyond it.

Search behaviour changes by market. The thinking behind the account should change with it.

I work from Dubai and understand the UAE advertising environment.

But this page is not limited to one city.

The same service can behave differently across markets.

That is why I do not want to duplicate one Google Ads structure across every country and call it localisation.

The market should influence the account.

Google Ads Management Dubai

All locations — coming soon

What changes between markets

  • Different CPCs.
  • Different language.
  • Different competition.
  • Different buying behaviour.
  • Different customer value.
  • Different conversion routes.
  • Different expectations after the click.

Before you hire a Google Ads consultant

The questions I would want answered before putting more money into the account.