Google Ads Malaysia: A Guide for Local Businesses

Google Ads is an online advertising platform that allows businesses to display ads on Google’s search engine, YouTube, and millions of partner websites. It operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, meaning you only pay when someone clicks your ad. For Malaysian businesses, Google Ads is crucial because it helps drive targeted traffic, generate leads, and increase sales by reaching consumers actively searching for products or services locally. In fact, RM 2.1 billion were spent on search ads in 2024, highlighting the reliance on digital advertising to capture market demand.

One of the most powerful features of Google Ads is the Search Campaign, where ads appear alongside organic search results when users type relevant queries into Google. Unlike social media ads, this means businesses can connect directly with customers at the exact moment they express interest or intent, making search campaigns highly effective for driving qualified traffic and conversions.

Interestingly, based on our conversation with our clients, many small business owners in Malaysia are not fully aware of Google Ads, especially the Search Campaign component. While Facebook Ads and Google’s Display Network ads are relatively well-known, search campaigns often remain underutilized or misunderstood. Many Malaysian entrepreneurs are familiar with running ads on Facebook due to its social nature, ease of use and low start up costs, but they may not realize the potential of Google Search Ads to capture high-intent customers actively looking for their products or services.

This gap in awareness presents a significant opportunity for local businesses to leverage Google Search Campaigns to gain a competitive edge in the Malaysian market by targeting users with strong purchase intent, ultimately driving more meaningful leads and sales.

You’ll need a Google Ads account to launch a campaign. The account setup process is straightforward, and while we won’t cover every step here, Google provides a guided walkthrough to get you started. Once your account is ready, the next step is choosing your campaign goals, targeting the right audience, and setting a budget that aligns with your marketing objectives.

Choosing the Right Campaign Type for Your Business in Malaysia

Best Google Ads Campaigns for Product-Based Businesses

For businesses focused on selling physical products, the primary objectives typically revolve around showcasing inventory, driving online sales, and attracting customers who are ready to make a purchase. Google Ads offers several powerful campaign types specifically designed to meet these needs.

Google Shopping Ads: The Visual Sales Engine (Highly Recommended)

For product-based businesses, especially in e-commerce, Google Shopping Ads reign supreme as the most effective campaign type. Unlike traditional text ads, Shopping Ads provide eye-catching visuals—directly showcasing product images, prices, and titles within Google search results. This allows potential customers to instantly see what they’re looking for, making purchasing decisions faster and more seamless. The combination of transparency and visually engaging presentation drives higher conversion rates and a stronger return on investment compared to standard text ads.

For Malaysian e-commerce businesses, Shopping Ads offer game-changing advantages: they boost product visibility, ensure strong presence in local search results, and attract high-intent buyers who are actively searching for products. Additionally, the verified profiles associated with these ads enhance credibility and customer trust, giving businesses an edge in a competitive digital landscape.

Google Shopping Ads come in different formats to suit varying marketing strategies. Product Shopping Ads highlight individual items, Showcase Shopping Ads group products into curated collections for better discovery, and Local Catalog Ads drive foot traffic to physical stores. However, success with Shopping Ads hinges on a well-optimized product feed, managed through Google Merchant Center, ensuring accuracy and performance in Google’s advertising ecosystem.

Performance Max Campaigns: AI-Driven Omnichannel Powerhouse

Performance Max is one of Google Ads’ most powerful campaign types, harnessing artificial intelligence (AI) to serve ads across Google’s entire ecosystem—including Search, Shopping, Display, Video, Gmail, and Discover. While widely recognized for its strength in e-commerce due to its Shopping capabilities, its versatility extends far beyond, making it a highly effective solution for businesses across various industries.

The true advantage of Performance Max lies in its ability to maximize conversions by dynamically identifying the best-performing ad formats and placements wherever potential customers engage with Google. This AI-driven automation ensures that businesses can expand their reach beyond traditional search ads while maintaining relevance across multiple channels.

To get the most out of Performance Max campaigns, advertisers should take full advantage of Google’s creative assets by providing multiple headlines and descriptions.

Additionally, incorporating relevant search themes to guide the campaign’s focus and regularly refreshing video and image assets ensures continued optimization and audience engagement.

Best Google Ads Campaigns for Service-Based Businesses

Search Campaigns: Capturing High-Intent Service Queries

Traditional Google Search Campaigns remain a cornerstone for service-based businesses, effectively capturing users who are actively searching for specific services. These campaigns allow businesses to appear at the top of search results when users enter relevant queries, indicating a high purchase intent.  

Running a successful Google Search campaign for service-based businesses requires a strategic approach to maximize visibility, attract the right audience, and drive meaningful conversions. Here’s how to optimize your campaigns for the best results:

Keyword Targeting

Focus on high-intent keywords—terms that potential customers actively search for when they need a service, such as “roofer near me” or “plumbing service Kuala Lumpur.” Tools like Google Keyword Planner can help identify these high-performing keywords. Using phrase match and exact match ensures your ads appear for relevant searches, minimizing wasted clicks from broad matches.

Geographic Targeting

For service businesses, location matters. Set up precise geographic targeting, whether city-specific, regional, or within a defined radius, so your ads reach only users in your service area. This reduces wasted spend and ensures your marketing efforts focus on local customers ready to take action.

Compelling Ad Copy & Extensions

Your ad should instantly capture attention and build trust—highlight unique selling points, showcase customer testimonials, or mention industry awards to boost credibility. Strong call-to-actions (CTAs) like “Get a Free Quote Today!” or “Call Now” encourages engagement. Using ad extensions such as callout extensions, location extensions, and call extensions adds valuable details and improves click-through rates.

Optimized Landing Pages

A strong ad leads to a high-converting landing page. Ensure your landing page is highly relevant to the search query, with a clear contact form, phone number, and detailed service information to facilitate conversions. A seamless user experience encourages action rather than drop-offs.

Strategic Ad Groups

Organize ads into specific ad groups based on different services, such as “Lawn Care” or “Garden Design.” This allows for highly tailored ad copy and keyword targeting, boosting relevance and overall campaign effectiveness.

By integrating these strategies, service businesses can maximize ad performance, reach the right audience, and drive more conversions.

Common Mistakes in Running Google Ads

Running successful Google Ads campaigns requires continuous attention and strategic adjustments. Many businesses, particularly Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), often fall prey to common pitfalls that can lead to wasted ad spend and suboptimal performance. Awareness of these mistakes is the first step toward effective management.

Neglecting Keyword Research

One of the most frequent and impactful errors is neglecting thorough keyword research. Effective keyword research involves identifying not only high-volume keywords but also understanding the underlying intent behind those searches. Without this crucial step, ads may target irrelevant queries, leading to wasted budget and low conversion rates.

Closely related is the failure to utilize negative keywords. Negative keywords are essential for excluding irrelevant search terms that might trigger ads, preventing unnecessary clicks and conserving budget. Businesses often overlook the need to regularly review and update their list of negative keywords as search trends evolve.  

Inadequate Conversion Tracking Setup

Another critical oversight is inadequate conversion tracking setup. Without proper conversion tracking, businesses operate in the dark, unable to accurately assess which ads or keywords are driving valuable actions on their website, such as purchases, lead form submissions, or phone calls. This lack of data makes optimization efforts speculative rather than data-driven.  

Ineffective Bidding Strategies

Ineffective bidding strategies also commonly hinder campaign performance. Bids that are too low can result in insufficient impressions and clicks, limiting reach. Conversely, bids that are excessively high can lead to wasted ad spend without a proportional increase in results. Experimentation and continuous monitoring are necessary to find the optimal bidding strategy for specific campaign goals. 

Poor Ad Scheduling

Poor ad scheduling, also known as dayparting, is another mistake. If ads are displayed during times when the target audience is not active or unlikely to convert, budget is wasted. Analyzing campaign data to identify peak activity hours and adjusting ad schedules accordingly can significantly improve efficiency.  

Failing to Optimize Landing Pages

In today’s digital landscape, overlooking mobile users is a critical error. With a significant portion of Malaysian internet usage occurring on mobile devices , it is crucial to ensure that landing pages are mobile-friendly and ads are optimized for mobile viewing. Failing to cater to mobile users can result in a poor user experience and lower conversion rates. 

If landing pages are slow-loading, confusing, or not designed for conversions, potential customers who click on an ad may abandon the site, leading to wasted ad spend. Ensuring landing pages are relevant, fast, and have clear calls-to-action is paramount.

Not Utilizing All Assets

Finally, not utilizing ad extensions is a missed opportunity. Ad extensions provide additional information and functionality to ads, such as phone numbers, site links, callouts, and structured snippets. These extensions make ads more compelling, increase visibility, and provide more avenues for users to interact with the business, thereby improving click-through rates. 

What Is the Minimum Budget for Running Google Ads in Malaysia?

Determining the minimum budget for Google Ads in Malaysia isn’t straightforward, as costs vary widely based on competition, keyword selection, ad Quality Score, geographic targeting, and ad placement within search results. Unlike fixed-pricing models, Google Ads operates on an auction-based system, meaning costs fluctuate depending on demand.

How Much Does a Click Cost in Malaysia?

In Malaysia, the average cost-per-click (CPC) ranges from RM1 to RM5 for most industries. However, in highly competitive sectors, CPCs can exceed RM10 or even RM20.

Keywords with high commercial intent (e.g., “tutoring centre Sunway”) tend to have significantly higher CPCs than informational keywords (e.g., “tutoring”). For example, “Proton Saga spec” costs RM 0.2 to RM 0.4 per click, while “Proton Saga dealer” costs up to RM 5.9.

Some of the most expensive keyword categories, such as insurance or finance, can see CPCs soar beyond RM 20.

Is There a Minimum Budget?

While Google Ads allows for flexible budgeting, setting an extremely low budget (e.g., RM10-RM20 per day) is unlikely to yield meaningful results.

Why? If the average CPC is RM3, a RM10 daily budget would allow for just 3 clicks per day—typically insufficient to generate leads or sales.

To achieve better visibility, data collection, and conversions, businesses should aim for:
A daily budget between RM33 and RM200
A monthly budget ranging from RM1,000 to RM6,000

Maximizing Budget Efficiency

Instead of spreading a small budget thin over a long duration, businesses often see better results by investing a competitive budget (e.g., RM12,500 per month for a quarter) to quickly assess Google Ads effectiveness and make data-driven optimizations.

Agency Costs

If hiring a Google Ads agency, management fees typically fall within:
Fixed fees (e.g., RM600 for budgets below RM4,000)
Percentage-based fees (e.g., 15% of ad spend for budgets between RM4,000-RM10,000)

Ultimately, a higher budget allows for more clicks, better ad placement, and deeper optimization, ensuring businesses can compete effectively and generate valuable leads.

Google Ads Optimization

Google Ads campaigns unequivocally require frequent and continuous optimization. They are not a “set-and-forget” tool; ongoing adjustments are essential to ensure sustained performance and maximize Return on Investment (ROI).

Google’s auction-based system means that ad performance, CPC, and ad position are constantly influenced by various factors. Without regular optimization, campaigns can quickly become inefficient, leading to wasted ad spend and diminished results. Continuous optimization allows businesses to adapt to these changes, maintain relevance, and ensure their ads are reaching the right audience at the right time. It also helps in achieving a higher Quality Score, which translates to lower acquisition costs and improved ad placement without necessarily increasing the budget.

A comprehensive account optimization is recommended at least once a month, with smaller, more agile adjustments performed on a daily or weekly basis. Monthly full optimizations ensure alignment with overarching goals and the evolving market landscape, preventing campaigns from falling behind. Daily or weekly adjustments are crucial for addressing immediate issues, such as underperforming keywords or ad groups, and reacting to emerging market trends. For new campaigns or those with small budgets (e.g., RM20-50/day), daily monitoring and adjustments are even more critical to gather data and refine targeting quickly.

Final Thoughts

Google Ads is a powerful platform that can transform how local Malaysian businesses attract and convert customers online. Its ability to target high-intent users through search campaigns, combined with flexible budgeting and measurable results, makes it an essential tool for driving growth in today’s digital marketplace. However, navigating the complexities of Google Ads to maximize ROI requires expertise and ongoing optimization.

That’s where Solbright comes in. As a dedicated Google Ads management partner, Solbright specializes in crafting tailored campaigns that align with your business goals and the unique Malaysian market. From keyword research and ad creation to bidding strategies and performance tracking, Solbright handles the entire process so you can focus on running your business.