Google Ads Checklist
10 Things That Must Be Ready Before Launch

Every month three to five Vienna business owners come to me having „tried Google Ads, it didn't work". In nine cases out of ten the problem wasn't the advertising — the ads ran and brought people in. The problem was where those people landed and whether anyone measured what happened next.

Ads bring traffic. Your website and tracking turn it into customers — or quietly burn the budget. If the foundation isn't ready, any agency in Vienna charging €1,500–2,500 a month simply pours money into a hole and wonders why leads are so expensive. Below are 10 checks to run before you pay for a single click. About an hour of work — and it can save you €1,500–3,000 in the first month alone.

In short: checks 2 to 4 — conversion tracking, lead attribution and the cookie banner — are the foundation. Without them the rest is pointless, because you simply can't see what's happening.

What does Google Search show you before you run ads?

Direct answer: it shows you, for free, who you're up against — reconnaissance almost nobody does. Before building a campaign, type your 3–5 target terms into Google yourself („tax advisor Vienna", „moving company Vienna").

What to look at. Who already advertises on these terms (ads marked „Sponsored")? How many? What do they promise in the headline? Do they send traffic to the homepage or to a dedicated landing page? Are there extensions, prices, reviews? Why it matters. If six advertisers with polished landing pages sit on a term, the click will be expensive — a weak site won't keep up. If there's almost no advertising, it's either a niche with no demand or open ground. You want to know which one before the budget flows. Note three strong competitor ads and what you can say more concretely or better — that's the template for your own ads.

Why does Google Ads burn budget without conversion tracking?

Direct answer: because Google's algorithm optimises bids based on conversion data. No conversion data, no optimisation — you pay for clicks blind. This is the most important item on the list: Google Ads without tracking is a plane without instruments.

How to check. Open your Google Ads account, menu „Tools → Conversions". You should see active conversions with status „Recording conversions". If it's empty or shows a yellow „No recent conversions" triangle, you have no tracking — whatever you've been told. What usually breaks. No Google Tag Manager set up; GA4 connected formally but without events; the „Call" button not tracked; the form submits without reporting the conversion to Google Ads. Quick fix. GA4 + Google Tag Manager + 3–5 key events (form submitted, click on the phone number, „thank you" page reached). One hour of work that pays back in thousands of euros of saved budget.

How do you know which enquiry came from where?

Direct answer: only through cleanly separated events per channel — otherwise „30 enquiries a month" isn't data, it's a feeling. If you don't know which enquiry came from Google Ads, which from Instagram and which by word of mouth, you can't tell whether the advertising pays off.

How to check. In Google Analytics 4: Reports → Engagement → Conversions. Do you see `form_submit`, `phone_call`, `whatsapp_click` separately — each with its traffic source? If not, the setup isn't finished. What usually breaks. Only the form is tracked, yet in Austria 50–60% of customers call. No call tracking. The WhatsApp button has no event. Several forms count as one. Quick fix. In GTM, set separate events on each form, on the `tel:` click, on WhatsApp and on the „thank you" page. Each important event becomes its own conversion in Google Ads.

Do you need a cookie banner for Google Ads in Austria?

Direct answer: yes — and without one you lose ground not just legally but in conversion data too. In the EU, tags may not set cookies without consent. If there's no proper consent banner and the Google tags are set to „denied by default", they run in cookieless mode — and some conversions never reach Google Ads. You pay for clicks but don't see the result.

How to check. Open the site in incognito mode: does a banner appear with „Accept / Reject"? After accepting, open DevTools → Application → Cookies: do `_ga` and Google cookies appear? No banner, or no cookies even after consent, means a consent problem. What usually breaks. No banner at all (a GDPR violation in Austria); banner present, but Consent Mode v2 isn't connected to GTM; „default denied" is set but the banner never loads — the tags stay cookieless forever. Quick fix. Add a consent management platform (CookieYes, Usercentrics or Cookiebot) and connect it to Google Consent Mode v2 via GTM. That closes the legal risk and the data loss in one move.

How fast must a landing page load for Google Ads?

Direct answer: LCP should be under 2.5 seconds on mobile. Google measures load speed and lowers the Quality Score of slow pages — and a low Quality Score means you pay two to three times more per click than competitors for the same position.

How to check. Open PageSpeed Insights, paste your URL, look at the mobile LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) value. What usually breaks. Huge uncompressed images in the hero block; an overloaded WordPress theme with 30 plugins; fonts loaded one request at a time. Quick fix. Compress images to WebP, remove zombie plugins, self-host fonts. If the theme is truly dead, you can build a separate fast landing page for the ads in a day — without rebuilding the whole site.

Is the mobile version actually usable?

Direct answer: you'll only know on a real phone, not in the Chrome emulator. 70–80% of Google Ads traffic in the DACH region now comes from a phone — if the site is awkward there, every second paid click is wasted.

How to check. Open the site on your own phone, scroll, press the main button with your finger, fill in the form to the end. What usually breaks. Buttons too small for a finger; text spilling off the screen; a 12-field form with no mobile layout; a cookie banner covering half the screen that you can't close. Quick fix. Enlarge tap targets, cut the form to 3–4 fields, check the consent banner closes in one tap.

Why is HTTPS mandatory for Google Ads?

Direct answer: without HTTPS, Chrome shows the visitor „Not secure" in the address bar — that destroys trust at the start, and Google Ads also lowers the Quality Score of unsecured pages.

How to check. Open the site: there should be a padlock in the address bar and the address should start with `https://`. If it says „Not secure" or the padlock is crossed out, there's a problem. What usually breaks. An expired SSL certificate; the theme loading parts over `http://` (mixed content); the site moved but internal links stayed old. Quick fix. Free SSL via Let's Encrypt (most Vienna hosts enable it in one click). Check on SSL Labs — the grade should be A or A+.

Why must contact details and the Impressum be visible?

Direct answer: because the Austrian market is wary and the Impressum is a legal requirement — without it the visitor doesn't convert and Google cuts the ad. If the address, phone and Impressum aren't visible on the landing page, the trust needed to enquire isn't there.

How to check. Every page should have a link to the Impressum (usually in the footer) and at least one direct contact route — phone or email — in the visible area. What usually breaks. Impressum only on the homepage, not on the ad landing page; contact hidden inside a form only; no UID number on the site. Quick fix. Add a footer with Impressum and contact on every page, and state the UID if you have one.

How many CTAs belong on a landing page?

Direct answer: one that counts. If the visitor sees five options — call, write, download the catalogue, subscribe, watch a video — they do nothing. That's choice paralysis.

How to check. Open the landing page and count the clickable elements in the first screen (what's visible without scrolling). More than three is too many. What usually breaks. An 8-item menu in the header; a hero with three buttons; a floating chat; a „Subscribe" pop-up — and the actual goal somewhere at the bottom. Quick fix. Remove or minimise the menu, keep one main button, push everything else further down.

Do the ad and the landing page match?

Direct answer: they must promise the same thing — otherwise it's the most expensive mistake in Google Ads. Sending traffic from the ad „Tax advisor Vienna" to a homepage that says „We are a modern firm since 1985" means the person clicked on a specific offer and landed on a generic „about us" — and left.

How to check. Take the 3 target terms for the ads. Does the landing page answer that query in the first screen? Does the visitor see the same phrase that was in the ad? What usually breaks. One landing page for all services; a „Welcome to…" headline instead of a result promise; a team photo in the hero instead of proof you solve the visitor's problem. Quick fix. One landing page per service. Headline = result promise + local anchor („Tax advice for Vienna SMEs — free first consultation"). Then the page answers the visitor's questions step by step.

Where to start when time is short?

All 10 checks together take about an hour. Launching Google Ads without them costs €1,500–3,000 in the first month — wasted. In priority order, if you can't do everything:

• Measurement first — conversion tracking, lead attribution, cookie banner (checks 2–4). Without these you're flying blind.
• Then the technical side — speed and the mobile version (5–6).
• Then conversion — one clear CTA, visible contacts, ad-to-landing-page match (8–10).
• The search reconnaissance (check 1) you do right at the start — it's free and it saves budget.

If any of this is unclear, or the site works but the ads still bring no enquiries — look at the actual cost of Google Ads in Austria, work out your real cost per enquiry with the lead calculator, or read how a freelancer and an agency in Vienna differ. And if you'd like someone to review it before launch, that's exactly what I do — Google Ads management in Vienna.