When a small budget works, and when it does not
Google Ads is a reasonable tool for a Hong Kong SME when the search intent is already clear. Someone typing "office removal Kowloon" wants a quote today. A named clinic treatment, or a forklift for hire, is the same kind of query. The same budget spent on awareness is a different job, and Search is a poor way to do it. A small account used that way usually produces clicks you cannot explain.
Settle that distinction first. If you cannot write down the phrase a ready customer would type, you do not yet have a Search campaign. You have a hope that Google will find one for you.
Search campaigns and Performance Max
A Search campaign is the one where you choose the words. You pick the queries, you write the ads, you send people to a specific page, and you can read the search terms report afterwards and see what you actually paid for. That is the right first campaign for a small account.
Performance Max is the one where Google chooses the placements: Search, YouTube, Display, Gmail, and Maps, mixed together. It needs conversion data before it can aim at anything useful. A brand-new account with no tracking and no history does not have that data. Starting there is a poor first campaign: you cannot see which placement spent the money. Add it later, once Search is stable and conversions are flowing.
Keywords, location, hours, and the page they land on
A new account should start with phrase and exact match, plus a written list of negative keywords. Broad match will invent queries you never meant to buy. The first negatives are usually obvious: job seekers, "free", "DIY", and competitors' names if you do not want to pay for people who already typed someone else. Review the search terms report in the first fortnight and add whatever you should not have paid for.
Set location targeting to presence, not "presence or interest". The second setting shows ads to people outside Hong Kong who have merely looked the place up. A Kwun Tong workshop does not need those clicks. Match the ad schedule to the hours when someone can actually answer the phone or WhatsApp. An enquiry that arrives at midnight and sits until morning has often already moved on.
The landing page is the service page, not the home page. If the query is about office removal, the click should open the office-removal page, with a way to request a quote on that same screen.
Tracking before the first dollar
Conversion tracking is the non-negotiable prerequisite. Form submit, click-to-WhatsApp, and a phone call: at least one of those has to be recorded, or neither you nor an agency can tell what worked. Without it, a cheap click and an expensive click look the same.
A two-week test with no tracking teaches nothing. You will have spent money and gained a story about impressions. You will not know whether anyone enquired, or which search term produced the enquiry. Put the tracking in before the campaign is switched on, and test it yourself — submit the form, tap the WhatsApp button, and confirm the conversion appears. If it does not, you are not ready to spend.
What the monthly report must show
A monthly report that earns its place shows spend, clicks, conversions, cost per enquiry, the search terms report, and the changes made that month with a reason for each one. That is enough to decide whether to continue, pause, or rewrite.
Impressions and "brand lift" are padding on a small account. They describe how often an ad was eligible to be seen, or a feeling about the name, not whether anyone asked for a quote. If those numbers are the ones in bold, ask for the ones above instead.
A realistic monthly budget is not a figure copied from someone else's trade. It is enough clicks in a month to learn something: which terms convert, which ads are ignored, which negatives you missed. A budget that buys a handful of clicks and then stops cannot teach that. Decide the learning question first, then size the spend to answer it.
When to hand it to someone
Hand the account over when the owner's time is worth more than the management fee — and only then. Doing it yourself, hiring a freelancer, and using one Hong Kong studio that runs managed Google Search and Performance Max campaigns with a monthly report are equal options. The structure matters more than the badge. The account stays in the company's own Google Ads account; the manager is linked to it. If you part ways, you keep the history, the conversion data, and the right to appoint the next person.
The first dollar is the easy part. The decisions that make that dollar informative — intent, match type, presence, hours, the service page, and a conversion you can see — have to be settled while the account is still empty. After that, the report either tells you something, or it tells you that you started too soon.