Setting up Google Ads in Tashkent: where to start and what budget you need
Google Ads launches in a day but only produces leads with proper preparation. Here is the sequence that saves your first budget.
What to fix before the first impression
Ads do not fix a website. Before paying for clicks, make sure the page loads on mobile in under three seconds, the phone number is tappable, and a Telegram contact button sits above the fold. Most Uzbek traffic is mobile, and a slow page burns budget before the offer is even seen.
Decide what counts as a result: a form submission, a phone tap, a click through to Telegram or WhatsApp. Without those events tracked you optimise blind and cannot answer whether the spend paid off.
Language matters: Russian and Uzbek deserve separate campaigns with separate ad copy. A mixed campaign underperforms in both segments.
Account structure
A workable setup for SMEs: one search campaign per language, ad groups by service, 5–15 closely related queries per group and two to three ad variants. Tight grouping lets the headline echo the query, the cheapest way to lift CTR.
Keep brand queries in their own campaign. Brand clicks are very cheap and distort your average cost when mixed into the main campaign.
Do not start with Performance Max before you have conversion history. Automated campaigns learn from data; with fewer than 30–50 tracked leads they spend on exploration instead of sales.
Budget and payment from Uzbekistan
A realistic monthly test budget in Tashkent is 4M–6M UZS for straightforward services. Competitive verticals such as real estate, legal, medical and automotive start from 10M UZS and go up.
Google charges an international card, so local Uzcard and Humo will not work — a USD Visa or Mastercard is required. Account currency is set once and cannot be changed later.
If you run through an agency for payment convenience, insist the account is registered in your company's name with access granted to the agency, so the history stays yours.
The first two weeks
Check the search terms report daily. You will almost always find 'free', 'DIY', 'jobs' and other city names — all of which belong in the negative keyword list.
Avoid editing bids and copy more than weekly. Frequent changes reset the learning phase and delay a stable cost per lead.