Updated: October 15, 2026

Google Ads interviews often focus on how you plan campaigns, measure conversions, control waste and make optimisation decisions. The strongest answers explain the reasoning behind an action and the data you would check before changing a campaign.

Campaign setup

1. What information do you need before launching a campaign?

Clarify the business objective, target audience, offer, budget, geography, landing page, conversion actions, margins or lead value, compliance constraints and success metrics. Confirm that conversion tracking works before spending materially.

2. How do you structure a Search campaign?

Group campaigns around distinct goals, budgets, locations or product/service areas. Organise ad groups around closely related themes, use relevant keywords and ads, and direct users to matching landing pages. Avoid needless fragmentation that prevents meaningful data collection.

3. What is the difference between keyword match types?

Broad match can reach searches related to the keyword’s meaning; phrase match covers searches that include the meaning of the phrase; exact match focuses on searches with the same meaning or intent. Actual matching is not simply a literal string comparison, so review search terms and use negatives where appropriate.

4. What is Quality Score?

Quality Score is a diagnostic estimate based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance and landing-page experience. It is not itself a KPI or a direct summary of every auction-time factor. Improve relevance and user experience rather than chasing a score in isolation.

Bidding and optimisation

5. When would you use Maximise Conversions or Target CPA?

Maximise Conversions aims to generate as many conversions as possible within the budget. Target CPA adds a target average cost per acquisition. Select a strategy based on the objective, tracking quality, conversion volume and economics; a target that is too restrictive can limit delivery.

6. What is Target ROAS?

Target return on ad spend uses conversion values to optimise toward a desired value-to-ad-spend ratio. It is most meaningful when conversion values are reliable and represent business value. Validate value tracking before relying on it.

7. How do you reduce wasted spend?

Check search terms, negative keywords, location settings, audience and device performance, ad relevance, landing-page conversion rates and conversion quality. Make changes based on enough evidence, and avoid excluding valuable traffic solely because it has a higher click cost.

8. What is the role of negative keywords?

They help prevent ads from showing for unwanted searches. Build them from actual search-term data and known irrelevant intent, review them regularly and check that exclusions do not block relevant searches.

9. What is Performance Max?

Performance Max is a goal-based campaign type that can access Google’s advertising inventory across multiple channels. Provide strong creative assets, useful audience signals and accurate conversion measurement, then evaluate results against business outcomes and available reporting.

Measurement and troubleshooting

10. What is a conversion action?

It is a valuable action you want to measure, such as a purchase, qualified lead, phone call or sign-up. Define what counts, avoid duplicate counting and ensure the action represents meaningful business value.

11. What is the difference between CTR, CPC, CPA and ROAS?

  • CTR: Clicks divided by impressions.
  • CPC: Cost divided by clicks.
  • CPA: Cost divided by conversions.
  • ROAS: Attributed conversion value divided by ad spend.

Use the metric that aligns with the objective, and verify attribution and conversion quality before drawing conclusions.

12. Clicks are increasing but conversions are not. What do you investigate?

Check tracking first, then search intent, traffic quality, landing-page speed and message match, form errors, mobile usability, pricing or offer friction and changes in attribution. Compare segments and avoid changing multiple variables at once without a plan.

13. How do you test ad copy?

Start with a clear hypothesis, ensure assets comply with platform policies, use relevant messaging and measure meaningful outcomes. Allow enough time and data for a fair assessment; avoid declaring a winner from a handful of clicks.

14. Why can platform conversions differ from analytics conversions?

Systems can use different attribution models, reporting windows, time zones, consent signals, identity matching and counting methods. Compare definitions and settings before treating a discrepancy as an error.

15. How do you report campaign performance to a client?

Report spend, conversions, cost per conversion, conversion quality and revenue or ROAS where reliable. Explain changes, limitations and next steps. Separate observed results from hypotheses and do not promise outcomes that depend on auction conditions or client-side factors.

Practical interview scenario

You have a fixed monthly budget for a local service business. Leads are coming in, but many are irrelevant. Explain how you would audit search terms, location targeting, keywords, ads, landing-page questions and conversion definitions. Then describe how you would test changes and report qualified-lead cost—not just raw form submissions.

Official learning resources

Interview tip: Be ready to describe a real campaign, your role, the budget or scale if you can disclose it, the decision you made, the result and what you learned. Never invent campaign experience or performance figures.