Someone typing balayage near me on a Tuesday night is ready to book. Google Ads puts you in front of them at that moment, and it is the fastest channel we run. It is also the easiest to waste money on, which is why we count a conversion only when a booking lands in the diary, not when someone clicks an ad or fills in a form.
Search campaigns
Campaigns built by service and by area, not one big bucket.
A search campaign is only as good as its structure. We build ad groups around the services you want more of and the areas you serve, so the ad for a skin fade in Shoreditch says skin fade and Shoreditch, and lands on the page for exactly that.
The negative keyword list matters as much as the keywords. Jobs, courses, training, free, salon suites, product names you do not sell: all excluded before the first pound is spent, and added to every week from the search terms report.
- Ad groups by service and area, each with its own ads and landing page
- Ad copy that names the service, the area and the price where you are happy to show it
- Sitelinks that go straight to booking, and call buttons shown only in the hours someone can answer the phone
- Negative keywords reviewed weekly from the real search terms
Product capture pending
A Google Ads account for a salon, showing search campaigns split by service and area with the negative keyword list open
Performance Max
Performance Max, only where it earns its place.
Performance Max hands Google your photos, your text and a budget, and lets it place ads across Search, Maps, YouTube, Gmail and the Display network. It can work well for a salon with a strong offer and good imagery. It can also spend quietly on nothing much, because it reports a blended number and hides where the money went.
So we run it with conditions. Booking conversions in place first, so it learns from bookings and not from clicks. Your real photos, not stock. Brand searches excluded, so it does not take credit for people who were already looking for you. And a clear read each month on whether it is adding bookings that Search alone would not have found. If it is not, it goes.
Booking-based tracking
A conversion is a booking in the diary. Nothing less.
Most salon ad accounts count a click on the booking button, or a form fill, as a conversion. Neither is a client in a chair. We count a booking when it is confirmed in the diary, and that is the number Google's bidding learns from and the number the report is built on.
Because the same team built Salon100X, the booking confirmation is the conversion, so cost per booking is available by campaign, ad group and search term. If you stay on another booking system, we track as far as that system lets us see and say plainly in the proposal what the report will show.
- Google Ads conversion tag and GA4 through Tag Manager, loaded after cookie consent
- Booking confirmed as the primary conversion; calls and directions tracked separately
- Cost per booking by campaign, ad group and search term
- A weekly check that the conversions in Google match the bookings in the diary
Product capture pending
The conversion actions screen in a salon's Google Ads account, with Booking confirmed set as the primary conversion
Landing pages
One page per offer, matched to the ad that sent them.
Sending paid traffic to your home page is the most common way to waste it. The ad promised a specific thing; the page must deliver that thing, above the fold, with a Book button and a price. So each campaign gets a landing page of its own.
We build them fast, write them plainly and keep them honest: the offer, the price, who it is for, what to expect, the reviews that mention it, and the booking flow. For medical spas and dermatology clinics the page leads with a consultation, names no prescription medicines and makes no outcome claims.
- A page for each offer, with the offer, price and Book button above the fold
- Built to load fast on a phone, checked before the campaign starts
- Headline and photos changed to test what books, not what clicks
- Booking flow tested end to end with a real appointment before spend begins
Product capture pending
A campaign landing page for a single salon offer on a phone, with the offer, the price and a Book button above the fold
Budget
How the budget is set, and who decides it.
We start from what a new client is worth to you and what you can take on. There is no point buying bookings for a Saturday you cannot staff. Then we look at how many people in your area search for your services each month, which sets a ceiling on what is sensible to spend.
The starting budget goes in the proposal, and ad spend is stated separately from our fee, so you can see both. We move budget between campaigns as the cost per booking tells us to, and we never raise the monthly total without asking you first.
The monthly report
What the report shows, line by line.
One page you can read on your phone, and a spreadsheet behind it for anyone who wants the detail. It covers the month just gone, against the month before, and against the same month last year once we have it.
- Spend, bookings and cost per booking, by campaign
- The search terms that produced bookings and the ones we excluded
- Which landing page and ad copy did the work
- Calls and direction requests from ads, tracked separately
- What we changed this month, and what we will change next
Product capture pending
A monthly Google Ads report page showing spend, bookings and cost per booking by campaign, with the salon's name and the date range at the top
Questions
Straight answers.
How much should I spend?
How quickly will I see bookings?
Can I see the ad account?
Is Google Ads right for a medical spa or dermatology clinic?
What if I am not on Salon100X?
Related
Start with a free audit of your search demand.
Tell us your services, your area and what you spend now. The written audit, back within five working days, says whether paid search makes sense for you and what we would run first.