Intent
Separate research, comparison, local-service and purchase-oriented searches.
Search advertising in Canada
Capture demand
when people are looking.
Paid search is strongest when customer intent already exists. The job is to connect the right query with the right offer, landing page and economics rather than simply buy more clicks.
Intent ladderQuery → action
Research“best…” / “how…”
Compare“price” / “near me” / “reviews”
Act“book” / “buy” / “quote”
BrandCompany / product search
Search framework
Build around intent,
not just keywords.
Google runs an auction each time an eligible search occurs. But before bidding, the advertiser still needs a clear commercial structure.
Offer
Match the ad to what the searcher actually needs at that moment.
Landing page
Continue the promise, answer objections and make the next action obvious.
Economics
Know allowable CPL, CAC or ROAS before scaling bids and budget.
Visual explainer
How a search campaign
turns into a customer.
Clicks are only the middle of the funnel.
QueryNeedWhat is the person trying to solve?
→
AdPromiseWhy this result?
→
Landing pageProofCan the business solve it?
→
ConversionActionCall, form, booking or sale
→
Business resultCAC / ROAS / profitthe real decision metric
Campaign structure
Separate searches that
mean different things.
One generic campaign often hides which intent, geography and offer are actually working.
Branded search
Protect and measure searches for the business or product name separately from category demand.
Non-branded search
Capture people searching for the service or product without already knowing the advertiser.
Geographic intent
City, neighbourhood, “near me” and service-area searches can deserve distinct bids, pages or reporting.
Comparison intent
Handle carefully. These searches can have different conversion rates, ad policy considerations and customer expectations.
What to measure
Search performance
beyond CPC.
Google Ads offers multiple bidding goals including clicks, impressions, conversions and conversion value. The right success metric should follow the business objective.
Traffic cost
Useful for diagnosing auction cost, but meaningless without conversion quality.
Conversion rate
Shows how effectively clicks become leads, calls, bookings or purchases.
Cost per lead
Connects spend to enquiry volume, but lead quality and close rate still matter.
Customer acquisition cost
Shows what it costs to acquire an actual customer, not merely a click or lead.
Return on ad spend
Useful where attributable revenue is available, but margin still determines real profitability.
Primary sources
Search advertising references
Google’s current documentation supports the auction and bidding framework used in this guide.
Next step
Map intent first. Then decide what a click is worth.
Use the Google cost guide and calculators to turn search strategy into actual budget thresholds.