My First Google Ads Search Campaign: What I Learned From a Real Practice Project

This is an independent practice project created for learning and portfolio development. The results shown are specific to this experiment and should not be treated as a general benchmark.

What I wanted to learn

I wanted to experience the complete process rather than only working inside the Google Ads interface.

That meant setting up the campaign, thinking about the search intent behind potential customers, sending traffic to a landing page and then trying to measure whether someone actually became a lead. I also wanted to understand what happens with a relatively small budget.

The project focused on Gurugram, particularly Sectors 55, 56 and 57, with the offer being fully furnished 2 BHK and 3 BHK rentals.

Campaign setup

How the campaign was set up

Platform	Google Ads
Campaign type	Search
Objective	Lead generation
Location	Gurugram
Focus areas	Sectors 55, 56 and 57
Offer	Furnished 2 BHK & 3 BHK rentals
Campaign period	September 14–20, 2026
Maximum CPC	₹30
Available budget	Approximately ₹1,100
Landing page	Netlify-hosted TrueNest page

I also connected the website with GA4 and Google Tag Manager and worked on Google conversion tracking. That part became more important than I expected.

What happened after launch?

The campaign started on September 14.

At first, I was checking the campaign much more frequently than I probably needed to. I wanted to see impressions, clicks and other changes as they happened.

There were periods when Google Ads wasn't immediately showing new activity even though I could see some website activity elsewhere. That made me realize something important about advertising dashboards: different platforms and reporting systems don't necessarily update at exactly the same time.

By the end of the experiment, the campaign had recorded 932 impressions and 58 clicks. The click-through rate was 6.22%, and the average CPC was ₹16.20. The total spend was approximately ₹939.

My final Google Ads numbers

• 932Impressions
• 58Clicks
• 6.22%CTR
• ₹16.20Average CPC
• 6Reported conversionsin Google Ads
• 3Verified form submissionschecked by me
• ₹939Spendapproximately

Everything the account reported

Impressions	932
Clicks	58
CTR	6.22%
Average CPC	₹16.20
Reported conversions	6
Verified form submissions	3
Reported cost/conversion	~₹157
Reported conversion rate	10%
Search impression rate	12%
Search impression share	11.93%
Spend	~₹939

There is an important detail in this table. Google Ads reported six conversions, but I could personally verify only three actual form submissions.

So I don't want to write this article as if I generated six confirmed leads. That would make the report look better, but it wouldn't accurately describe what happened.

The conversion tracking problem

This was probably the most valuable part of the entire experiment for me.

When I saw six conversions inside Google Ads, my first reaction was obviously to look at the number and think about what had happened. But when I checked the actual form submissions, the number didn't match. I could see three actual submissions.

That immediately changed the question from "how many conversions did I get?" to "what exactly is Google Ads counting as a conversion?"

While investigating the setup, I found that a conversion could be associated with a GA4 engagement event rather than only the actual lead form submission I intended to measure.

That was a useful lesson because it showed me that installing GA4 and GTM isn't the same thing as having a perfectly configured conversion system. The tracking has to be tested. A dashboard can show a number, but I still need to understand where that number came from.

I went deeper into this in what I learned about conversion tracking.

What I learned about campaign data

Before running the campaign, I thought campaign reporting was mostly about looking at the final numbers. After running it, I see it differently.

A number such as "6 conversions" doesn't tell the whole story. I need to know what event produced the conversion, whether it was the action I actually wanted, whether I can verify it independently, whether the event is firing once or multiple times, and whether Google Ads is receiving the correct conversion signal.

That experience made analytics and tracking feel much more connected to performance marketing.

The landing page was also part of the experiment

The advertising campaign didn't exist by itself. Someone clicking the advertisement still had to reach a landing page and decide whether to submit an enquiry.

Because this was a practice project, I was also learning about the relationship between the advertisement and the page people see after clicking. That includes things such as:

• whether the offer is immediately understandable
• whether the location is clear
• whether the property details are easy to find
• whether the page looks trustworthy
• whether the form is easy to use
• whether tracking is working

This made me realize that improving a campaign isn't always about changing the advertisement. Sometimes the next improvement is somewhere after the click.

What would I change next time?

If I ran the same type of campaign again, I would spend more time validating the conversion setup before judging the campaign results.

I would also look more carefully at search terms and keyword-level behaviour, because the people who click aren't necessarily all looking for exactly the same thing.

I would continue improving the landing page as well. The goal wouldn't simply be to get more clicks. I would want to understand whether the traffic is relevant and whether the people reaching the page have a clear reason to enquire.

What this first Google Ads campaign taught me

The biggest lesson was that running a campaign is not just about launching an advertisement. It is a chain.

Search → Ad → Click → Landing page → Form → Tracking event → Google Ads → My analysis

If one part of that chain is wrong, the final report can become misleading. That is something I understood much more clearly after actually running the campaign.

This was my first independent Google Ads practice campaign, so I don't see the numbers as an industry benchmark. I see them as a starting point in my learning. I ran a lead campaign on Meta around the same period, and comparing the two is in what I learned from both platforms.