Google Ads in Kharkiv, Ukraine

Google Ads in Kharkiv — PPC setup and management that brings real leads

Google Ads is the most powerful digital marketing channel for businesses that need a stable client flow tomorrow, not “in 6 months when SEO kicks in”. In Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region, this channel is underused: many companies either never tried Google Ads, or got burned on one bad attempt and decided “it doesn’t work”. Reality is different — Google Ads works well in Kharkiv when set up correctly: with local keyword research, realistic geo, smart negative lists, well-tuned analytics in GA4 and GTM, and managed Smart Bidding strategies. I’m Alex Filiuk, a Senior UI/UX designer and digital marketer with 15+ years of practice. My portfolio includes 120+ launched and managed ad campaigns for Ukrainian and international clients, including a number of companies from Kharkiv.

This page brings together everything a business owner or marketing lead should know before commissioning Google Ads in Kharkiv: what the process looks like, what budgets are realistic for the region, which campaign types work, how to avoid typical mistakes, and why choosing a contractor with Kharkiv context dramatically affects ROI.

Why Google Ads is critical for businesses in Kharkiv

In a city of 240,000+ residents and a strong small-and-medium business sector, competition in every category is intense — dental clinics, legal services, auto, repairs, healthcare, e-commerce, beauty services. Most people search for solutions on Google. And the moment a potential client types “urgent dental Kharkiv”, they’re ready to book — the only question is who shows up first.

Google Ads in Kharkiv performs three key functions:

• Fast results. Unlike SEO, which takes 4–8 months to reach stable rankings, Google Ads delivers traffic on day one. For a new business or product, it’s the only realistic fast-start channel.
• Control. You see every spent hryvnia, every click, every lead. You can pause or accelerate any time, redistribute budget across geo, audiences, and campaigns.
• Scalability. If setup is correct and conversions are tracked — you can scale budget linearly and get more leads. Unlike organic, where growth is bounded by SERP competition.

Types of Google Ads campaigns I run

There’s no “one campaign for all cases”. Each business needs its own mix — depending on funnel, product, and CPC in the niche. Before launch we agree what goes into the model.

• Search campaigns. Classic ads in Google search results. Catching hot demand — people actively searching for your service or product in Kharkiv. Highest ROI in most niches. Always start with Search.
• Performance Max (PMax). Automated blended campaign that runs across Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, Discover, and Maps. Google’s machine distributes budget based on your conversions. Strong tool for e-commerce and B2C with ready creative, but requires correct setup and ongoing monitoring — otherwise PMax “eats” brand queries and paints a nice but unprofitable picture.
• Display and Discovery. Banner ads on partner sites, in Gmail, in Google Discover feed. Works for brand awareness and visitor return via remarketing. In Kharkiv — useful for manufacturers, medical centres, education.
• YouTube. Video ads — In-Stream (skip after 5 sec), Bumper (6 sec), Shorts. Top-of-funnel work: brand familiarity, audience warm-up, B2B lead gen. Often underused in the Kharkiv region.
• Demand Gen. New formats for soft conversions — Discover, YouTube, Gmail. Display alternative with better targeting mechanics.
• Remarketing. Returning visitors who came but didn’t convert. Cheapest channel by CPL — often 3–5x lower than cold Search.

For most Kharkiv businesses, the start looks like this: Search + remarketing for the first 4 weeks. Then, based on results, we add PMax or YouTube. If you run e-commerce, PMax kicks in immediately alongside Search.

How the Google Ads launch process looks — step by step

I work via a transparent process that all clients have gone through over 15 years. Each stage has a fixed deliverable. No “trust and wait a month” — you know what’s happening every week.

1. Brief and market research (week 1, days 1–3). You fill in a 30+ question questionnaire about business, goals, audience, competitors, geo, budget, target CPL. If you’re in Kharkiv — we can meet in person. In parallel I analyse your niche in the Kharkiv region — competitors, CPC benchmarks, demand volumes.
2. Keyword research and campaign structure (week 1, days 4–7). Building the semantic core via Keyword Planner, Ahrefs, Serpstat. Clustering by intent. Compiling the starting negative keyword list — particularly important for Kharkiv (excluding “jobs”, “free”, “Kharkiv NPP”, irrelevant local brands).
3. Analytics — GA4 and GTM (week 2, days 1–3). Auditing or building Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics 4 from scratch. Event map, triggers, tags. Importing conversions to Google Ads, configuring Enhanced Conversions for accurate matching.
4. Building campaigns (week 2, days 4–7). Account structure (campaigns → ad groups → keywords/ads/assets). Ads — minimum 3 RSAs per group with 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. Extensions (sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, calls). Geo targeting — Kharkiv and the region with radius or settlement targeting.
5. Launch and early monitoring (week 3). Starting on Maximize Clicks for data collection. Daily Search Term Report check, adding negatives, excluding irrelevant queries. First conclusions — by day 7–10.
6. Optimization and Smart Bidding (week 4+). Switch to Maximize Conversions, then to tCPA or tROAS — depending on conversion volume. Testing new ads (A/B). Connecting remarketing. Looker Studio dashboard for transparent reporting.

The starter cycle is 3–4 weeks until full operation with Smart Bidding. Then — monthly management with weekly reviews and monthly reports. If you need a fast start (e.g. opening a business in Kharkiv by a specific date) — we can compress the cycle to 10–14 days via parallel work on multiple stages.

How much does Google Ads cost in Kharkiv — real numbers

Cost has two components: specialist work (setup + monthly management) and the ad budget (money you pay directly to Google for impressions and clicks). These are fundamentally different line items.

• One-off setup. Single payment for full account build: market research, keyword research, structure, ads, GA4 and GTM, initial negatives, launch. Suitable if you have an in-house marketer who runs the account further.
• Monthly management. Ongoing optimization: Search Term Report, bidding, negatives, ad testing, new audiences, Smart Bidding, Looker Studio reports. Includes 4–8 hours of work per week depending on volume.
• Performance package. Google Ads bundled with SEO and conversion optimization. For businesses that want systemic growth, not “just clicks”.

As for the ad budget: realistic numbers for a regional Kharkiv business:

• Small business (1 service, 1 location): UAH 8,000–15,000/mo. Enough for 50–150 targeted clicks and 5–15 leads in service niches.
• Mid-sized business (multiple services or e-commerce): UAH 20,000–50,000/mo. Allows running Search + remarketing + PMax in parallel.
• Active e-commerce or aggressive scaling: UAH 50,000+/mo. Full performance strategy with YouTube, Display, audience tests.

CPC in Kharkiv is significantly lower than Kyiv — examples from real niches: dental UAH 10–22 (Kyiv 25–60), legal UAH 15–35 (Kyiv 40–90), repairs UAH 12–25 (Kyiv 30–55). The same budget brings 1.5–3x more traffic in Kharkiv. Use it.

Common mistakes when launching Google Ads — and how to avoid them

Over 15 years I’ve seen dozens of cases where a Kharkiv business (and across Ukraine) burned budget on typical mistakes. Key ones:

• Launching without conversion tracking. The campaign runs, clicks come in, but GA4 doesn’t register leads — or registers them wrong (form + call merged into one trigger). Smart Bidding receives garbage signals, optimizes “backwards” — for clicks, not for leads. The classic reason for “we spent 30k and got nothing”.
• Geographical targeting on “Ukraine” instead of the region. A small but critical mistake. If your business serves only Kharkiv and the region — don’t show ads in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Uzhhorod. That’s 70%+ budget waste.
• Small or absent negative keyword list. “Dental Kharkiv” without negatives will catch “dental Kharkiv jobs”, “dental Kharkiv free”, “dental Kharkiv negative reviews”. Each such click is UAH 15–25 of irrelevant traffic.
• Leaving Maximize Clicks forever. It’s a starting strategy for the first days of data collection. If you don’t switch to Maximize Conversions/tCPA after the first 15–20 leads, Google keeps “buying” cheap clicks regardless of quality.
• Performance Max without brand exclusions. PMax without correct setup “eats” your brand queries (people searching for you by name) and paints a nice attribution — as if PMax brought these clients, when they were coming via brand anyway. 20–40% of real performance is lost.
• Ignoring the landing page. The best Google Ads campaign won’t save a site without a clear CTA, with slow loading, no mobile adaptation. As I tell my clients, ad budget and landing page budget are connected vessels.

Modern Google Ads approaches worth attention

The Google Ads ecosystem evolves fast. Here are 2025–2026 approaches I apply for Kharkiv businesses:

• AI-driven Smart Bidding as standard. tCPA, tROAS, Maximize Conversion Value — given correct conversions, these strategies outperform manual bids. Manual is for very specific niches or test campaigns only.
• Performance Max + asset groups. Instead of separate DSA, Display, Discovery — one PMax campaign with several asset groups for different audiences and products.
• First-party data. Customer Match, uploaded client lists, Enhanced Conversions with email/phone — critical in the era of iOS restrictions and cookie deprecation.
• Server-side GTM. Migration from client-side GTM to server-side — more accurate tracking, ad blocker bypass, better site speed.
• CRM integration. Importing offline conversions (closed deals, repeat purchases) into Google Ads — Smart Bidding optimizes not for “lead” but for “real client”.
• Demand Gen instead of Discovery. New formats with better targeting and creative.

Cases: Google Ads for businesses in Kharkiv and across Ukraine

My portfolio includes 130+ projects, of which a portion involves Google Ads, analytics and performance work. Among them — clients across categories: retail, services, manufacturing, IT, B2B, e-commerce. I’ve worked with Kharkiv companies, with clients from Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and from the USA (New York, Los Angeles) and Europe. This lets me see how a local Kharkiv business competes with national and international brands — and how well-run Google Ads becomes a competitive edge.

If you want concrete examples — go to the “Projects” section or get in touch via the contact form: I’ll pick 5–10 most relevant cases for your niche. I particularly recommend looking at SaaS and e-commerce examples — performance mechanics are most fully revealed there.

What you receive after Google Ads launch

• Your own Google Ads account — under your name and billing, full control and access.
• Configured GA4 and GTM — with event map, triggers, tags, and documentation.
• Campaign structure — Search, remarketing, optionally PMax/YouTube/Display.
• Semantic core — structured keyword mind-map with volumes and CPC benchmarks for Kharkiv.
• Negative keyword list — starter + regularly expanded based on Search Term Report.
• Looker Studio dashboard — transparent real-time report: spend, clicks, conversions, CPL, CPA, ROAS.
• Weekly updates — short report with completed actions and next-week plan.
• Monthly detailed report — with analysis, conclusions, and recommendations.
• Landing UX audit — short checklist of recommendations for the site receiving the traffic.

My other services for businesses in Kharkiv

Google Ads is part of an ecosystem. If you’re planning serious performance marketing or strategic redesign, consider a comprehensive approach:

• SEO — organic traffic as a strategic foundation while Google Ads gives fast growth.
• Conversion optimization — so that traffic from Google Ads converts into leads at maximum rate.
• UI/UX design — a landing page that doesn’t burn budget but converts.
• Web development — from landing to full e-commerce, with analytics and speed out of the box.
• SMM — so Meta remarketing complements Google Ads.
• Email marketing — repeat sales and retention of clients acquired via ads.
• Ad creatives — banners, videos, promo graphics for Display and YouTube.
• Business consulting — positioning and unit-economics strategy before investing in performance.

Google Ads in other Ukrainian cities

I work not only with Kharkiv region businesses. If you have offices in several cities or regional expansion plans — we’ll build a system that scales. Among other locations I actively work with:

• Kyiv — national brands, IT companies, large-scale e-commerce
• Lviv — creative business, gastronomy, IT
• Odesa — retail, tourism, e-commerce
• Dnipro — manufacturing, B2B, technology companies
• Kharkiv — IT, education, engineering

The full list is on the “Service Areas” page.

Ready to discuss Google Ads for your business in Kharkiv?

If you have a specific request — fill in the contact form or reach me via email/Telegram (contacts in the website footer). The first consultation is free, up to 60 minutes. We’ll discuss your business, current Google Ads state (if any), goals, approximate budget and timeline. Then I’ll send a detailed proposal with a fixed setup and management price — no surprises, no hidden fees.

I’m ready to build a performance ecosystem for your business in Kharkiv where every hryvnia of ad spend works for a specific lead, sale, or client. Not “let’s run ads and see what happens”, but a managed system with transparent metrics and predictable results.