Most recruitment agencies that try Google Ads end up paying for the wrong clicks. They bid on "IT recruitment" or "accountancy jobs", the ads fill up with job seekers, the budget goes in a fortnight and the conclusion is that paid search doesn't work for recruiters. The real problem is that the campaign was never built to find employers.
This guide covers Google Ads for recruitment agencies when the goal is winning clients, not candidates. You will get the keyword themes employers actually search, how to use match types and negative keywords to filter out job seekers, what the landing page needs to do, how to track enquiries and calls properly, and how to think about budget without guessing at cost-per-click figures.
Why candidate and client intent need separate campaigns
A search for "sales jobs Manchester" and a search for "sales recruitment agency Manchester" look similar, but they come from different people with different goals. One wants a job. The other has a vacancy and a budget. If both land in the same campaign, the job seekers will usually win on volume and drown out the employer searches you care about.
Keep client acquisition in its own campaign with its own budget, ads and landing pages. Mixing the two makes every report hard to read.
Keyword themes employers actually use
Employer searches are lower in volume than job searches, but each one is worth far more. They tend to follow a small number of patterns, and it pays to group keywords into tight ad groups around each one so the ad and landing page match the search closely.
- Sector plus agency: "construction recruitment agency", "legal recruitment consultants".
- Sector, agency and location: "engineering recruitment agency Bristol", "accountancy recruiters near me".
- Role-specific hiring: "recruit a finance director", "agency for software developers".
- Model-specific: "executive search firm", "temporary staffing agency", "contract recruitment", "RPO provider".
- Problem-led: "struggling to hire engineers", "hard to fill roles recruitment".
Google's Keyword Planner, inside your Google Ads account, shows estimated monthly searches and the average cost for an ad to show on a keyword, so use it to check which of these themes have real volume in your sector and region before you build anything.
Match types and how to use them
Google's match type documentation describes three options. Broad match may show your ad on searches "related to your keyword", phrase match on searches that "include the meaning of your keyword", and exact match on searches that "have the same meaning or same intent as the keyword". Broad is the default.
For a recruitment agency with a modest budget, broad match is risky because "related" can include almost any job search in your sector. Start with phrase and exact match on your core sector-plus-agency terms, and check the search terms report each week before widening anything.
| Match type | How it's written | Use it for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exact | [it recruitment agency] | Your highest-intent core terms | Lower reach; check volume is there |
| Phrase | "it recruitment agency" | Core terms plus useful variations | Can still pick up some job seeker searches |
| Broad | it recruitment agency | Only once conversion tracking is solid | Matches loosely related job searches |
Negative keywords: the most important list you will build
Negative keywords stop your ads showing on searches that contain them. For recruiters this is where most of the wasted spend is saved, because job seekers use a predictable vocabulary. Google's guidance is clear that negative keywords "won't match to close variants", so you need to add plurals and synonyms yourself. Excluding "job" will not exclude "jobs".
- Job seeker terms: job, jobs, vacancy, vacancies, career, careers, hiring now, apply, application.
- Pay terms: salary, salaries, pay, wage, hourly rate, how much do.
- Entry-level terms: graduate, apprenticeship, internship, work experience, part time.
- Job-search help terms: CV, cover letter, interview tips, how to become.
- Industry-specific: "recruitment consultant jobs" and "working at a recruitment agency" bring in people who want to join an agency, not hire through one.
Build these into a shared negative keyword list. Google's help pages explain how to apply one list from the Shared library to many campaigns at once, so you only maintain it in one place.
Location targeting
Google Ads has two location options. According to Google's documentation, the default and recommended setting, "Presence or interest", reaches people in or regularly in your locations and also people who have shown interest in them. "Presence" reaches only people likely to be in or regularly in the area.
For a regional agency, "Presence" is usually the safer choice, as "interest" can bring in searches from people relocating and looking for jobs.
Landing pages that turn employer clicks into enquiries
Sending paid clicks to your homepage or a jobs board is the second most common mistake. A hiring manager who searched for "logistics recruitment agency Midlands" should land on a page about logistics recruitment in the Midlands, with a clear way to start a conversation. A well-built sector landing page does this job for both paid and organic search.
- A headline that matches the search: sector, role types and location.
- Proof that is specific to that sector, such as roles you fill and the sort of businesses you work with.
- One clear enquiry route: a short brief form and a phone number, both above the fold on mobile.
- No job listings competing for attention on the page.
- Fast loading on mobile.
Google's documentation on the ad auction lists six factors that decide whether and where your ad appears, including your bid, the quality of your ads and landing page, and how competitive the auction is. A relevant, fast page helps you compete without simply bidding more. See what hiring managers look for on an agency website for the content that tends to earn trust.
Conversion tracking for enquiries and calls
Without conversion tracking you are judging the campaign on clicks, which tells you nothing about clients. Track the actions that matter: a submitted enquiry or brief form, and phone calls. Google describes several kinds of call tracking, including calls from ads, calls to a Google forwarding number shown on your website after an ad click, and clicks on a phone number on your mobile site.
Recruitment sales cycles are long, so the most useful step is closing the loop, which our guide to measuring recruitment marketing ROI covers in more detail. Google's enhanced conversions for leads uses first-party data already held in your CRM, hashed before it is sent to Google, to show which ad clicks went on to become qualified leads. If your ATS or CRM records which enquiries became clients, feeding that back lets you optimise for clients rather than form fills.
Budgets without guesswork
We won't quote cost-per-click figures here, because they vary widely by sector, location and competition, and any number would be out of date quickly. What you can control is how the budget is set and judged. Google explains that you set an average daily budget, and on any single day the campaign can spend up to twice that amount, while the monthly charge for most campaigns is capped at 30.4 times the daily figure.
Work backwards from what a client is worth. If one new client relationship is worth several placements a year, you can afford a meaningful cost per enquiry. Use Keyword Planner's forecasts to estimate clicks for your chosen terms, assume a cautious enquiry rate, and set a test budget large enough to get a usable number of clicks within two to three months.
A word of caution on Performance Max
Performance Max is Google's goal-based campaign type. Google describes it as giving access to all Google Ads inventory, including YouTube, Display, Search, Discover, Gmail and Maps, from a single campaign. That breadth is the problem for client acquisition. With limited control over where ads appear, a recruitment agency can easily end up paying for job seeker traffic across channels you would never have chosen.
Google has added more controls. Its January 2025 announcement said campaign-level negative keywords for Performance Max were rolling out to all advertisers. Even so, start with a standard Search campaign, where you can see every search term and control every keyword. Consider Performance Max only once you have reliable conversion tracking that reflects real client enquiries.
How to set up a client-acquisition campaign
A practical order of work for your first campaign:
- 01Pick one sector and region. start where you have the strongest track record and enough search volume to test.
- 02Research keywords. use Keyword Planner to check volume for sector, location and model terms, and group them into tight ad groups.
- 03Build the negative list first. add job seeker, salary and entry-level terms as a shared list before the campaign goes live.
- 04Create a dedicated landing page. match the sector and location, add one clear enquiry route, and remove job listings.
- 05Set up conversion tracking. track form submissions and calls, and test that each one records properly.
- 06Launch on phrase and exact match. use the "Presence" location option and a budget you can sustain for at least two to three months.
- 07Review search terms weekly. add negatives, pause poor keywords and note which terms produce real enquiries.
- 08Close the loop. record which enquiries became clients and feed that back so the campaign learns what a good lead looks like.
Google Ads works best alongside organic search rather than instead of it. Paid search gives you fast data on which terms convert, and that data should shape your SEO for recruitment agencies priorities. If you want help running both, our recruitment advertising service covers campaign set-up, tracking and landing pages.
Frequently asked questions
Does Google Ads work for recruitment agencies?
It can work well for winning clients if the campaign is built for employer searches rather than job searches. That means tight sector keywords, a thorough negative keyword list, a dedicated landing page and conversion tracking. Campaigns that skip these steps usually fill up with job seeker clicks.
How much should a recruitment agency spend on Google Ads?
There is no single figure, because click costs depend on your sector, location and competition. Work backwards from what a new client is worth, use Google's Keyword Planner forecasts to estimate clicks, and set a test budget you can sustain for two to three months so you get enough data to judge it.
Which negative keywords should recruiters use?
Start with job seeker terms such as jobs, vacancies, careers, salary, CV, graduate and apprenticeship, including both singular and plural forms. Google's guidance says negative keywords don't match close variants, so plurals and synonyms must be added separately. Review the search terms report weekly to find more.
Should I use Performance Max for a recruitment agency?
Not as a first step. Performance Max serves ads across Google's inventory, including YouTube, Display and Gmail, which gives you less control over job seeker traffic. Start with a standard Search campaign and consider Performance Max only once your conversion tracking reflects genuine client enquiries.
Can I advertise jobs and win clients in the same campaign?
It is better not to. Job seeker and employer searches have different intent, value and landing pages.