Running a small business is no easy feat. You’re always wearing a million hats and wondering what to prioritise to best spend your time and money to ultimately grow your business.

Facebook and Instagram ads are where most people start when they’re dipping their toe into paid advertising, while Google Ads usually gets chucked into the too hard basket. The platform is incredibly confusing, and just trying to set up your ads can send you down an internet rabbit hole that leaves you feeling defeated and swearing off Google Ads forevermore.

When combined with a killer business your Google Ads account can be a super profitable marketing tool – when you know how to use it – so here are three tips that can help you get started.

CONVERSION TRACKING In its simplest form, conversion tracking is a free tool that allows you to see how many leads or sales (known as conversions) that your ad speed is generating each month. The most powerful aspect of performance marketing is being able see the exact revenue figure that your ads have created. This allows you to optimise your ad account and focus your budget on campaigns that are performing well, and turn off the ones that are duds and are just costing you money.

Big agencies get this one wrong all the time and it’s also the number one mistake any ad account can make. Get your conversion tracking set up right before you begin to even think of dropping a dollar on ads.

START SMALL Businesses with small budgets don't need to have a complex account structure. Focus on the core campaigns that perform for your business and exhaust the opportunity there before expanding. Once you start to see results you can increase the complexity of your account. But at the start? Keep it streamlined.

YOU ARE THE SOLUTION The best thing about Google Ads is that you're showing ads to people when they are actively searching online for a solution. The only way you should be measuring success inside Google Ads is through an increase in leads and sales, so don't get caught up on vanity metrics that sound great but don’t actually indicate performance. Focus on the conversion related metrics that move your business in the right direction.

Google Ads is Google’s number one revenue maker, so it’s fair to say that this type of advertising is doing pretty darn well and can be a gamechanger in your business (if you know how to use it).

See more of Kaity Griffin by visiting her website, kaitygriffin.com.

For more small-business stories like this, visit  frankie.com.au/strictly-business , or sign up to our  monthly e-newsletter . Have a small-business story you'd like to share? Pitch it to us.