Your Beginner Guide For Google Ads Campaign | Step-By-Step

90% of online consumers admit that search engine ads influence their shopping decision.

And in the world of search engine advertising, Google Adwords holds the king’s crown. The digital giant holds 92.8% of the search engine market share. Therefore, it represents a great opportunity for marketers.

The Adword platform by Google offers powerful tools to create and monitor advertising campaigns with the greatest efficiency. It is a game-changer to generate traffic on a site and acquire leads.

But as a beginner, it is often difficult to place your first steps in Google Ads. That’s why we are here with this Step-by-Step Adwords Guide to help you.

Read on to create your first successful Google Adword Campaign!

First, a few things that you should know:

How Google AdWords Works?

In a simple way and fewer words, we can summarise the working of Google Adwords in three points:

1. Potential customers search for the products they need by typing descriptive search terms (known as keywords) into the Google search bar. For example, “black swimming costume” is a keyword that people can search on Google with the motive to purchase swimwear.

2. By using the Google AdWords platform, you can bid on these keywords and display ads at the top of results pages to grab the attention of the people you are targeting. Your ad is displayed higher or lower than those of your competitors depending on your bid level and the “quality score”.

This score appears on a scale of 1 to 10. The higher is your score; the higher are the chances of your ad displaying above your competition.

3. Internet users click on your ad and land on a page presenting the product in question (= your “landing page”). They buy the product if they like it. Google AdWords charges you for each click, whether it results in a user conversion (a purchase) or not.

How Does Google Adwords Charge For Using The Platform?

Signing up for Google AdWords and creating campaigns is completely free. You only pay Google when someone clicks on one of your ads. This is because Google AdWords uses the “Cost Per Click” (CPC) model. A thing to note here: if you set a budget for your campaign, but no one clicks on your ads, you don’t have to pay anything.

How Does Google Adwords Take Payment?

Google AdWords gives you two possibilities: either you pay when you reach a certain spending threshold set by you or after every 30 days. Payment is made by direct debit.

Who Can Manage AdWords Campaigns?

Creating and managing AdWords campaigns can be done in-house with your marketing team if you have one. Or, you can outsource the whole process to a web agency. However, if you plan to invest large sums of money in AdWords advertising for the first time, it is wise to hire some experienced professional or agency.

How Can You Measure The Performance Of An Adwords Campaign?

Measuring the performance of a campaign consists of evaluating the achievements of the goals you set for yourself at the start. There are several possible objectives:

• Rise in the number of clicks on your ad.
• Increase in the number of orders/sales through AdWords campaign.
• Lower cost per order or cost per lead for the same volume of orders and leads.

Are There Different Types of Ad Campaigns?

Yes, Adwords offers seven categories of ads campaigns:

1. Search Campaigns: Ads appear on the results page as text.
2. Google Shopping Ads: The ads displaying products with photos, prices, availability, etc.
3. Display Network: The images ads on the Google Partner Network – websites & social media.
4. YouTube Ads: Google owns Youtube. It can broadcast your video ads on this platform.
5. Local Ads Campaigns: Ads for the local audience segmented by Geographical area.
6. Applications Advertisement Campaigns: Ads that promote applications.
7. Smart Ads Campaigns: Automate ads that Google optimizes for your business.

How to Track Your AdWords Campaigns?

Google AdWords offers reporting tools the same as what Google Analytics offers. You can generate reports on the interface of your AdWords account in CSV, XLS, or PDF format. Moreover, these reports can be segmented by geographic area, time period, keywords, etc. In short, Google AdWords gives you all the tools you need to set up a powerful reporting system.

Now, let’s get to the main thing –

STEP-BY-STEP Guidance on Creating A Google Adword Campaign

Step 1 Set Your Goals And Think The Type of Campaign Accordingly

First, set goals that match your business ambitions. Some examples of goals are:

• Drive More Visits To Your Website
• Receive More Phone Calls
• Increase Local Store Visits
• Get More Downloads Of Your App
• Increase Traffic On Your Youtube Channel

After that, think of the type of campaign that can fulfill the goals you set. Think hard on this. Discuss it with your team and then come up with an answer.

Step 2 Register on Adwords

• Visit Google Adwords weblink.
• Click on “Get Started”
• Choose ” create a new Google Ads Account”
• By default, it will guide you to creating a smart ads campaign. In smart campaigns, Google controls everything.
• You can go for it initially if you want.
• However, it is better to go with alternatives as it helps you know and controls your spending.
• Click on “Switch to expert mode”
• On your screen, you will see ” Select your goals for this campaign”
• Now here, either you can choose the goals from the list, or you can go for “Creating Campaign without Goals’ Guidance”

Step 3 Select Campaign Settings

• Now it will ask you to choose the type of campaign you wish to run.
• Based on the goals that you have already set, choose the type of campaign.
• Then, you have to choose the results that you wish to get from the advertisements. It is optional.
• On the next tab, you will have to give a name to your campaign.
• Choose the networks to display your ads.
• It is better to exclude the Google search partners and Google Display network for your first campaign. Google search partners are third-party websites.

Note: If you wish to run display ads, create a separate campaign.

Step 4 More Settings

• Click on “Show More Settings”
• Specify the start and end dates of the campaign. This is crucial because your ads will continue to run if you don’t specify an end date.
• Then there is the “Campaign URL option”. You don’t need it as you will use Google Analytics to track ads.
• Next, is the “Dynamic search ads setting”, which provides auto-creation of your ads. It is an advanced concept, so it would be wise to bypass it. This is because you must keep things in your hands for your first campaign.
• Below there is an option of “Ad Schedule”. Depending on what you are advertising, you can choose the hours and days. It will tell Google when you wish to turn on your ads and when you want them to be off.
• For example, if you provide emergency plumbing services, you can select the particular times of the day when you want your ads to start and stop.

Note: If you leave the ad schedule at default, your ad will run all time.

Step 5 “Targeting and Audiences”

Then comes the section “ Targeting and Audiences.”

• The first option that you will see in this section is the “Locations” to choose.

Now you may think that choosing “all countries and territories” will be favourable to you. But that’s not right. This is because choosing this option will burn your budget very quickly. Plus, there is no sign that you will get leads that will convert.

Here, you have to think about your ideal audience. Where are they located? Think of a location from where you are getting maximum engagement currently. Where are your current customers? Are they local? Do they live in your country? Or are they at some other location?

• Just take a moment and go through all these questions. Now once you have an answer, choose a location that is fairly precise to your ideal audience. For example, don’t target by a zipcode, as there will be very few leads because of the less population. Instead, go for a fairly precise location like a country.
• Note: You can also target multiple geographic locations from the option ”Enter Another Location.”
• Further down, you will have the option “Target”. Here, you will have the option to include or exclude particular people from the chosen locations on the basis of some factors.
• Then comes the “LANGUAGES”. This one is simple, just choose your language, and you are all set.
• Now there is “Audiences”. You can here define particular audience segments that you wish to see your ads.

Step 6 Set Budget and Bidding

• Choose your currency. Put your average daily budget you wish to spend. Start with a very low budget.
• In Bidding, set a maximum cost per click bid limit. This is the maximum amount that you wish to spend per click from your budget.
• By default, Google uses the maximise clicks bid strategy. According to this, Google bid on getting maximum clicks on your ads within your selected daily budget.
• As a beginner, we advise you to choose the same strategy, “Maximum Clicks”. But you can set a cap on the maximum bid amount. Like, if your average daily budget is 10$, you can set a cap of $1 on cost per click bid limit.
• You can make adjustments anytime in bid value throughout your campaign. Once you start the ads, you get to know what is best working for you as per your budget. That will help you to make the right bidding decisions.
• Then comes the “Ad Extensions”. These extensions help you showcase extra information with advertisements. For example, site link extensions add additional links to your ads.

Once you are done with everything, click on “Save and Continue.”

Step 7 Set up Ad Groups

• So at this stage, we are going to create the AD groups. For that, the first step is to set an AD group name.
• You can see a column in front of AD GROUP NAME on your screen. Click on it and type any name. “General”, for example.
• Now the next step is to fill the KEYWORDS section. On your screen, you can see a link icon inside this section. Paste the URL of the webpage and click on GET KEYWORDS.
• A lot of keywords appear on the large box below the GET KEYWORDS button. These are the keywords you can target for your ads.
• If you don’t like the suggested keywords, you can delete them and paste the list of your own researched keywords in their place.

Note: You should avoid adding too many broad match keywords. Otherwise, your ads will appear on requests that do not match your offer. Also, you should focus on your specialties. For example, use the keyword ″ running shoes ″ instead of ″ shoes ″ if you sell running sneakers.

In addition, if you are an e-merchant, select the keywords with transactional intent that convert the best.

• Once you fill the KEYWORDS section, scroll down to the SAVE AND CONTINUE button and click on it.

Step 8 Create ADs

At this step, we are going to create the AD. We will create a copy that will engage with people searching on Google the keywords you included in your ad group.

• Click on the FINAL URL section on your screen. Enter the URL of the target webpage you want to advertise on Google.
  Leave the DISPLAY URL section.
• Scroll down to the HEADLINES section. You have to fill the first three heading columns of this section. Click on the first column, and you’ll find various heading options that Google automatically suggests after analyzing the pasted URL.
• Pick any heading or create a new one.
• Similarly, fill the second and third heading columns.
• Scroll down to fill the DESCRIPTION section the same way. Google will provide suggestions for descriptions too. You can choose from them.
• All the appropriate columns are now filled. Click on the SAVE AND CONTINUE button.

Note: Heading and descriptions are very important for the success of your campaign. Take your time and create them precisely. Put yourself in the shoes of your target audience, and then think about how they will relate to your headings and descriptions.

Final Step: Set up Payments

The last step is to set up your payments. You will need your credit/debit card for it. Google ads offer discounts to new customers. You can call 1-866-2GOOGLE (1-866-246-6453) for United States callers. They are open from 9:00 am – 8:00 pm EST Monday – Friday.

That’s it, now go on exploring your campaign and tweak your settings. Pause your campaign if you have any doubts and reach out to us.

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