Which Campaign Types Should Lead-Gen Businesses Use?

Your Google Ads setup is complete. All your tools are connected, tracking is in place, and you’re ready to build campaigns. Now comes the question every business owner asks: which campaign types should I actually use?

Google offers a lot of options—Search Ads, Local Service Ads, Display, Remarketing, Performance Max, YouTube, Demand Gen, Shopping. It’s overwhelming, and Google’s sales reps will happily tell you to run all of them at once.

Here’s the truth: most lead-generation businesses should start with 1-2 campaign types, get those profitable, then add others later. Spreading your budget too thin across multiple campaign types when you’re just starting is a recipe for mediocre results everywhere instead of great results somewhere.

This article gives you a clear decision framework based on your business type and goals. By the end, you’ll know exactly which campaign types to start with, which to add later, and which to skip entirely.

The Campaign Types Available

Let’s start with a quick overview of what Google offers. I’ll keep this brief because we’ll dive deep into the important ones in the next articles.

Search Ads are text ads that appear on Google search results when people search for keywords related to your business. Someone searches “emergency plumber,” your ad appears. This is the foundation for almost every lead-gen business.

Local Service Ads (LSAs) appear at the very top of search results, above even regular Search Ads. They include your business name, reviews, Google Guaranteed badge, and phone number. You pay per lead (when someone calls or messages), not per click. These are only available for certain business categories—home services, legal services, and a few others.

Display Ads are banner ads that appear across millions of websites in Google’s Display Network. These are visual ads (images, not text) that show up while people browse other sites.

Remarketing uses Display Ads to follow people who visited your website but didn’t convert. They see your ads as they browse other sites, reminding them to come back.

Performance Max is Google’s newest automated campaign type. It runs ads across Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, and Discovery all from one campaign. Google’s AI decides where and when to show your ads.

YouTube ads are video ads that play before, during, or alongside YouTube videos.

Demand Gen is a newer campaign type that runs image and video ads across YouTube, Gmail, and Discover. It’s designed for building awareness and consideration.

Shopping campaigns show product listings with images and prices. These are for e-commerce, not service-based lead generation, so we won’t cover them in this guide.

That’s the landscape. Now let’s talk about which actually matter for lead generation.

The Lead-Gen Hierarchy: Where to Start

Not all campaign types are created equal for lead generation. Here’s how I think about the hierarchy.

Tier 1: Start Here (80% of Budget)

Search Ads are the foundation for almost every lead-generation business. When someone searches “divorce lawyer near me” or “AC repair,” they have high intent. They need help right now. They’re actively looking for a service provider. That’s the traffic you want.

Search Ads are proven, controllable, and deliver the highest-quality leads for most businesses. You choose your keywords, write your ads, set your bids, and control your message. Results are predictable and scalable.

Start with Search Ads. Master them. Get profitable. Then consider adding other campaign types.

Local Service Ads should be your second priority if you qualify. LSAs only work for certain business categories—plumbing, HVAC, electrical, roofing, locksmith, legal services, and a handful of others. If your business category is eligible and you have your Google Business Profile set up with good reviews, LSAs are incredibly effective.

Why? The Google Guaranteed badge builds massive trust. You’re at the very top of search results, above everyone else. And you only pay when someone actually contacts you (pay-per-lead), not for every click. For qualifying businesses, LSAs often deliver leads at a lower cost than Search Ads.

One more important consideration for Search Ads: branded search campaigns. This might seem counterintuitive—why would you pay Google to show ads when someone searches for your business name? You already rank #1 organically for your own name, right?

Here’s why it matters: if you’re building awareness and you realize opportunities may come from multiple visits to your website, it’s a good practice to have some branded search presence.

Think about it as a one-two punch. Someone searches “emergency plumber” and sees your ad. They don’t click yet—they’re comparison shopping. Later that day, they Google your business name specifically because they remembered seeing you. If you have a branded search ad, you control that message at the top of the page. You can emphasize your best offer, highlight your reviews, include your phone number prominently.

Without a branded ad, you’re at the mercy of what Google decides to show in your organic listing. And here’s something most business owners don’t think about: your competitors may be bidding on your brand name as one of their keywords. If you don’t have a branded ad running, their ad might show up when someone searches for you by name. That’s lost business.

Branded search campaigns are cheap—most clicks cost $0.50-$2 because you have a perfect Quality Score for your own name. It’s worth running.

Tier 2: Add After Search Is Profitable (15% of Budget)

Remarketing and Display Ads are for staying in front of people who didn’t convert the first time.

Someone visits your website, looks at your services, maybe even fills out half a form, but doesn’t finish. Remarketing follows them around the web with your ads. “Hey, remember us? We can still help.”

This works well for services with longer sales cycles where people do research before hiring. General contractors, remodeling, legal services—people don’t hire immediately. They visit multiple sites, compare options, and think about it. Remarketing keeps you top of mind during that consideration period.

When should you add remarketing? Once you have enough traffic to make it worthwhile. If you’re only getting 100 website visitors per month, remarketing won’t have enough volume to be effective. But once you’re at 500+ visitors per month from your Search campaigns, remarketing becomes valuable.

I used remarketing extensively in my furniture business. Someone would visit our site, browse sectional sofas, and leave. For the next 30 days, they’d see our ads on news sites, blogs, YouTube—everywhere. When they were ready to buy, we were front of mind. Our remarketing campaigns had a 3-5× higher conversion rate than cold traffic because we were targeting warm leads.

Tier 3: Test Carefully (5% of Budget)

Performance Max can work, but it needs careful monitoring. Google’s automation is powerful, but it can also spend your budget in ways you don’t expect. Performance Max runs across multiple channels—Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail—and you have limited control over where your ads show.

Some businesses love Performance Max. Others find it wastes money on low-quality placements. My recommendation: don’t start here. Get Search Ads profitable first, then test Performance Max with a small portion of your budget.

YouTube ads work for niche use cases. If your service is visual (before/after home remodeling, cosmetic surgery, landscaping), YouTube can build trust by showing your work. But video ads require video production, which is an added cost and complexity. Most lead-gen businesses should skip YouTube until they’ve maxed out Search and remarketing.

Demand Gen is newer, and the jury is still out. It’s similar to Display but runs across YouTube, Gmail, and Google Discover. Some early adopters report good results, but it’s not proven enough yet for me to recommend as a primary strategy.

The 80/20 rule for lead generation: Most businesses should spend 80% of their budget on Search Ads (and LSAs if eligible), 15% on remarketing, and 5% on testing new channels. Master the fundamentals before getting fancy.

Decision Framework by Business Type

While I can’t cover every specific business type—there are hundreds of variations in lead-generation businesses—here’s a general framework to help you decide where to start based on your industry.

For most service-based businesses with high intent, short sales cycles: Start with Search Ads as your foundation. If you qualify for Local Service Ads (home services, legal, etc.), add those immediately. These two campaign types should consume 80-90% of your budget in the first 3-6 months.

For businesses with longer sales cycles and higher consideration: Search Ads are still your foundation, but add remarketing earlier—maybe month 2-3 instead of waiting until month 6. People in industries like remodeling, legal services (estate planning, not personal injury), or B2B consulting don’t hire immediately. They research. Remarketing keeps you visible during that research phase.

For businesses where visual proof matters: If your service has a strong before/after component (landscaping, remodeling, cosmetic procedures), consider adding YouTube or Display with visual creative once Search is profitable. But start with Search first.

For highly competitive markets: If you’re in a crowded market (personal injury law, HVAC in major metros), you might need to run both Search and LSAs from day one to capture enough volume. You’ll also want branded search to defend against competitors bidding on your name.

For businesses in professional services targeting other businesses: Start with Search Ads. Add remarketing. Consider LinkedIn ads (not part of Google, but worth mentioning because it’s often more effective than Display for B2B). Skip YouTube and LSAs (B2B usually doesn’t qualify).

Personal example from my furniture business: We started with 100% Search Ads. Once that was profitable, we added remarketing (because furniture has a longer sales cycle—people shop for weeks before buying). We tested Display and YouTube but found they didn’t work for us—the quality of traffic was poor. So we killed those and doubled down on Search + remarketing. Simple, profitable, scalable.

The point is this: your campaign mix should reflect how your customers actually buy. Emergency services? Search + LSA. Considered purchases? Search + remarketing. Visual services? Maybe add YouTube later. Don’t overthink it.

Budget Allocation Recommendations

Here’s the timeline I recommend for adding campaign types as you scale.

Month 1-3: Master One Channel

Spend 100% of your budget on Search Ads. Or if you qualify for Local Service Ads, split it 70% Search and 30% LSA. Get profitable on one channel before expanding.

The mistake I see most often is businesses trying to run Search, Display, remarketing, and Performance Max all from day one with a $3,000/month budget. You end up with $750 in each campaign type—not enough to gather meaningful data or optimize effectively. You’re just burning money.

Better approach: Put $3,000 into Search Ads, learn what works, optimize, and get profitable. Then expand.

Month 4-6: Add Remarketing

Once Search is profitable and you have traffic to remarket to, adjust your budget:

70% Search (and LSA if running)
20% Remarketing
10% Testing (Display or Performance Max if you want to experiment)

Month 7+: Optimize Based on Performance

Look at the data. Double down on what’s working. Kill what’s not. Maybe Search is delivering leads at $100 each and LSAs at $150, but your close rate on LSA leads is 2× higher, so the actual cost per customer is lower. Shift more budget to LSAs.

Or maybe remarketing is crushing it with a 5× ROI while Display is breaking even. Kill Display, add that budget to remarketing.

The goal isn’t to run every campaign type. The goal is to run the campaign types that profitably generate customers.

What to Avoid

Let me save you some expensive mistakes:

Don’t start with Performance Max. I know Google’s reps push this hard. They’ll tell you it’s the future, it uses AI, it’s better than anything else. Maybe that’s true eventually, but right now, Performance Max gives you too little control. You can’t see which placements are working, you can’t exclude bad placements easily, and you can’t optimize like you can with Search. Start with Search, master it, then test Performance Max if you want.

Don’t run Display to cold audiences without remarketing first. Cold Display (showing banner ads to people who’ve never heard of you) rarely works for lead generation. The exception is remarketing—showing ads to people who already visited your site. Do that, skip cold Display.

Don’t use Shopping campaigns. These are for e-commerce product listings. Not relevant for service-based lead generation.

Don’t test YouTube until Search is profitable. YouTube requires video production. That’s extra cost and complexity. Only go there once you’ve maxed out simpler channels.

Don’t listen to your Google rep pushing you into multiple campaign types on day one. Google reps are often incentivized to get you spending across multiple campaign types. Their job is to maximize Google’s revenue, not your profitability. Be polite, but make your own decisions based on what’s working.

Start Simple, Scale Smart

Here’s the summary: Start with Search Ads. If you qualify for Local Service Ads, add those too. Get profitable on these two channels before expanding.

Once Search is working, layer on remarketing to capture people who didn’t convert the first time. Then, if you have budget and want to test, try Performance Max or YouTube or Display. But only after the fundamentals are profitable.

Most lead-generation businesses will spend 80% of their budget on Search and LSAs for the life of their campaigns. That’s not boring—that’s smart. Double down on what works.

In the next article, we’ll dive deep into Google Search Ads—how to structure campaigns, choose keywords, write ads, set bids, and optimize for maximum ROI. This is the foundation that everything else builds on, so let’s get it right.