How much to spend on Google Ads if you run a law firm, clinic or small business

What you should spend on Google Ads comes down to three numbers: how much a client is worth to you, how many enquiries you end up closing and how much a click costs in your area. With them you calculate a test budget, not a fixed amount for ever. Below you will find the calculator step by step, the first campaign and a 15-point checklist with links to Google’s official help.

Google Ads does not pay off if you are missing one of these 4 things

“Google Ads is expensive” usually means something else: that you paid for clicks that could never turn into a client. Before you open the account, check that you have these 4:

1. A page that converts. Each service you advertise needs its own page, fast on mobile and with the phone number one tap away. If you only have the home page, you will pay for visits that do not find what they were looking for.
2. Measurement. Without conversions set up, you do not know which search brings in clients. And Google’s automated bidding uses those conversions to optimise.
3. Capacity to respond. A call nobody answers is a click paid for and lost. If nobody can answer in the afternoon, your ads should not run in the afternoon.
4. Enough searches. In Keyword Planner, searches with very low volume do not appear. If hardly anyone searches for your service in your area, ads have little to offer you.

If the page or the measurement is lacking, fix that first. As well as converting, the page influences what you pay for each click.

The highest bidder does not win the auction

Every time someone searches, Google runs an auction among the ads that match. The winner is the one with the best Ad Rank, which combines 6 factors:

• Your maximum bid.
• The quality of the ad and the landing page.
• The minimum rank required to be shown.
• The competition in that auction.
• The context of the person searching: terms, location, device and time.
• The expected impact of assets, such as your phone number or links.

Google puts it this way: even if your competitors bid more than you, you can win a higher position at a lower price with more relevant keywords and ads. And generally you do not pay your maximum bid, only what is needed to hold the position.

Quality Score gives you a clue to how you are doing. It goes from 1 to 10 per keyword and looks at 3 things: expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience. Google makes clear that it does not determine the auction: it is a diagnostic tool. But it points to exactly what makes an ad compete better.

The budget comes from a calculated test, not a fixed amount

The useful question is not how much others spend. It is how much you can pay for an enquiry and how many enquiries you need to make a decision. You work that out with your own numbers and with one figure that Google gives you.

Get the cost per click for your area from Keyword Planner

Do not use the costs per click published by agencies or blogs. Look up the ones for your searches in your province, in Keyword Planner. These steps were checked on 2 October 2026:

1. Create the account and enter your billing details. Without them, Keyword Planner will not give you keyword ideas.
2. Type 10 or 15 searches the way someone who would hire you would type them, with service and city.
3. Choose as your location your province or the real radius of your clients, with Spanish as the language.
4. Note down the top of page bid columns, low range and high range. They are roughly the 20th and 80th percentiles of what other advertisers bid over the last 30 days.
5. Use the high range as your reference cost per click. It is the cautious figure.

Google warns that, with a small geographic area, forecasts are less accurate because there is not enough data. If your main search does not show up, or shows up without data, that in itself is information.

The test budget calculator, step by step

If you would rather not do the sums by hand, the 14 steps are in our Google Ads budget calculator. Take an inheritance law firm in Castellón. All the figures in the example are assumptions, including the cost per click: it is not an industry figure, and yours comes from Keyword Planner. Steps 1 and 2 are the ones in the customer value calculator.

How to read the steps that raise the most questions:

• Step 3. If you pay the full value of an enquiry to get it, you are working for free. You decide what share you are willing to pay. In the example, half.
• Step 5. This is the most delicate assumption. Do the sums with two scenarios. If even the worst one does not pay off, improve the page before spending.
• Step 8. To evaluate a Target CPA strategy, Google recommends looking at at least 30 conversions. We use that figure as a reference for the test.
• Step 12. Google asks you to divide the monthly budget by 30.4. On a given day it can spend up to twice the daily budget, but over the month it will not go over 30.4 times that figure.
• Step 13. Our approach: if the daily budget does not pay for about 10 clicks, cut back on keywords or area. Better to cover a little well than a lot badly.
• Step 14. Google adds 3% in regulatory operating costs to the invoice for ads served in Spain. It has applied since July 2024 and was still in force on 2 October 2026.

With these figures, the test would bring in about 30 enquiries and, closing 25%, 7 or 8 clients. But they are assumptions: the point of the test is to replace them with your real data.

If the answer at step 7 is no, you have 3 options. Raise the page’s conversion rate, look for cheaper keywords with the same intent, or leave Google Ads for later. All three cost less than launching without doing the sums.

The first campaign is a small Search campaign with no automation

Google Ads is organised into account, campaigns and ad groups. Each campaign has its own budget and settings. Each group brings together similar keywords and ads. To start, one Search campaign with 2 or 3 groups is enough, one per service.

These are the settings that move the most money. Several of them are switched on by default. The last column is our approach for a first campaign with a small budget:

Networks. When you create a Search campaign, search partners are included by default. Untick them: Google does not tell you which partner sites your ad appeared on. Also check that Display expansion is not ticked, as it takes your ads to websites and apps.

Location. With the default option, your ads also reach people who have shown interest in your area even if they are somewhere else. Google recommends it, but provides “Presence” for when you only want to reach people in your locations. A law firm that sees clients in Castellón is in that situation.

Ad schedule. By default, ads run all day. Limit them to your opening hours. Note: since 1 June 2026, even if you switch off weekends, Google tries to spend 30.4 times the daily budget over the month. That is why the table calculates the daily budget from the monthly one.

Match type. Google assigns broad match by default and asks you to combine it with automated bidding. But its own optimisation guide suggests using phrase or exact match and reviewing search terms. Our approach: with a small budget, phrase and exact until you have about 30 conversions.

Phrase match goes in quotation marks, like "inheritance lawyer". Exact match goes in square brackets, like [inheritance lawyer castellón].

Bidding. According to Google, Maximise clicks can work for new campaigns with no conversion data, and it allows a maximum cost per click for the whole campaign. If you already measure enquiries, Maximise conversions will try to spend your whole budget on getting as many as possible. Smart Bidding strategies have a learning period of 7 to 14 days: do not touch them during that time.

Automation. Auto-applied recommendations can add broad match keywords, search partners or the Display Network. AI Max broadens the searches you appear for and customises text and landing pages. Cautious approach: in a sector with advertising rules, no text should go live without you having read it.

Example: a law firm’s ad groups and negative keywords

Let’s go back to the inheritance law firm. One campaign, “Inheritance Castellón”, with 2 groups:

• “Inheritance lawyer” group. Keywords: [inheritance lawyer castellón], "inheritance lawyer" and "estate lawyer castellón". It leads to the inheritance page.
• “Inheriting debts” group. Keywords: "inheriting debts" and "refuse an inheritance". It leads to a page about that situation.

Negative keywords from day one, as an example: civil service exams, master’s, course, job, salary, template and sample. Add “free” if you do not offer anything for free. Negative keywords do not exclude close variants: if you exclude “template”, add “templates” as well.

Law firm, clinic or tax and accounting firm: the ad rules change, not the structure

The structure above works for any local service business. What changes from sector to sector is Google’s policies and the rules of your profession.

One thing they all share: in Spain there are no Local Services Ads for law firms, clinics or tax and accounting firms. As of 2 October 2026, Google only offers them here for trades and home services, such as plumbers, electricians or removals. For everyone else, the way in is Search campaigns.

Google Ads for lawyers: no policy of their own, but a catch with debts

In the list of Google Ads policies there is no specific one for legal services (checked on 2 October 2026). But if the ad offers to negotiate a debt write-down or a payment plan with creditors, Google treats it as a debt negotiation service. In Spain it only allows this for those registered as insolvency mediators with the Ministry of Justice.

The ad text follows your code of professional conduct (Código Deontológico): no promises of results, and your Bar Association (Colegio de la Abogacía) identified. The details are in lawyer advertising: what the Code allows.

Google Ads for clinics: the filter is on medicines and audiences

The healthcare and medicines policy has two points that affect almost any clinic:

• Prescription drugs. Outside the United States, Canada and New Zealand, their names cannot appear in ads or on landing pages. A treatment page with the name of the drug in the title can hold up the campaign.
• Audiences. For invasive procedures, such as cosmetic surgery or injections, you cannot use your own audiences, such as your patient lists or remarketing.

The ad is healthcare advertising, and everything else applies to it: registration number, no promising cures, care with testimonials. You have it all, rule by rule, in what your clinic can say in its advertising.

Tax and accounting firms and other service businesses: watch out for anything financial

If what you advertise is financial advice or credit, in Spain you first need financial services verification. For a tax or employment advisory firm, a property management firm or a B2B service, the usual issue is something else: searches with low volume. There, Keyword Planner will soon tell you whether there is any demand to buy.

Each ad group leads to its own page, never to the home page

Google asks for the landing page to be closely related to the ad and the keywords. It also asks for the important information to be at the top and for it to be easy to get in touch on mobile. And landing page experience is one of the 3 components of Quality Score.

The minimum on a service landing page:

• The same service and the same city as the ad, in the title.
• What you do, for whom, and what happens when they press the button, without scrolling.
• A phone number that dials with one tap, and a short form.
• Who will deal with them, with their professional association or registration number if your profession requires it.
• How you work out the price, if your code allows you to publish it.
• That it works: Google does not accept destinations that do not load or are under construction.

There are complete templates for a law firm website and for a dental clinic website. If the page does not convert, every enquiry costs more: that is the job of conversion rate optimisation (CRO).

Without measured forms and calls, Google optimises blind

A conversion is the action you decide is valuable: in a service business, a form submitted or a call. Set them up before you launch, not afterwards.

Forms. The simplest way is the URL-based setup: the form leads to its own thank-you page and Google counts every visit to it. If your website does not have that page, the submission can be measured with code.

Calls. Google distinguishes several types:

• Calls from the ad. They are measured with Google forwarding numbers, available in Spain. Each call from the ad is charged as a click.
• Calls to the phone number on your website. A code snippet swaps your number for a forwarding number for people who arrive from the ad (setup).
• Clicks on the phone number on your mobile website. They count the click, not whether the call took place.

For calls, set a minimum duration: shorter calls do not count as conversions. Our approach: start with 60 seconds and adjust it using the call details report.

Only real enquiries as the primary conversion. If you count visits to the contact page, Google will optimise to get visits.

Consent. In the European Economic Area, Google asks you to set up consent mode properly; it connects to your cookie banner. The Information Society Services Law (LSSI) requires consent to use cookies (art. 22.2). Cautious approach: expect some enquiries not to show up in Google Ads, and record each one yourself, with its source. How to set it up is explained in how to measure the enquiries from your website.

In the first 8 weeks, look at this, in this order

In some situations, Google limits impressions from advertisers it does not consider qualified. Among the factors it cites are account age and advertiser verification status. All advertisers will have to complete that verification at some point: do it as soon as you are asked.

8 settings that burn through your budget

1. Broad match with no negatives. It is the default option. Without negatives, you pay for searches by the curious, by students and by people looking for work.
2. Negatives in the singular only. They do not block close variants. Write singular and plural.
3. Location by interest. With “Presence or interest”, you pay for clicks from people who are not in your area.
4. Partners and Display Network ticked. Your ad appears outside Google Search: on sites you do not see in the reports, or in front of people who were not searching.
5. Launching without conversions. Without them, neither you nor automated bidding knows what works.
6. Sending everything to the home page. Someone who searched for “inheriting debts” needs to find the answer, not your menu.
7. Accepting auto-applied recommendations. They can switch broad match or partners back on without you reviewing it.
8. Scheduling Monday to Friday in the hope of spending less. Since June 2026, the monthly target is still 30.4 times the daily budget.

Checklist: 15 points before launching, with the official help for each one

What to do on Monday

1. Calculate the value of a client and your closing rate over your last 20 enquiries, in the calculator.
2. Open Keyword Planner with 10 or 15 searches for your main service and your province. Note down the high range.
3. Fill in the table with two scenarios for conversion. If it does not pay off in the worst one, do not launch yet.
4. Review the landing page for that service on your phone: title, phone number, form and who deals with enquiries.
5. Set up the conversions for forms and calls, and run a test of each.
6. Go through the checklist and launch a single Search campaign.
7. Set aside 20 minutes twice a week for the search terms report during the first month.

If you would rather do it with someone, at NOR studio we start with these same sums: your numbers, Keyword Planner and the landing page. All before paying for the first click. We explain it in Google Ads for law firms and service businesses.