Step #1: Click on “Switch to expert mode”
The Step-by-Step Guide to Successful Google Ads. Go to ads.google.com and select “get started” to begin if you are creating a brand-new account from scratch. As soon as you create your account, Google will walk you through creating a Smart campaign. This is tempting for advertisers that don’t want to put in the effort, but it’s worthwhile to take the time to develop your own tailored advertising.
So, instead of selecting your “Main advertising goal” as Google requests, select “Switch to expert mode.”
But relax, you don’t need to be an expert to follow the instructions in this manual. That is why I am here.
Step #2: Pick your campaign type
The Step-by-Step Guide to Successful Google Ads. Your Google Ads account is similar to a kitchen. Do you only use it to create scrambled eggs? Let’s hope not! For example, you might cook enchiladas when you want something spicy or a steak supper when you want to raise the protein. There are various campaign types for various reasons, just like there are various meal varieties.
Search (the campaign type we’ll be using for this guide)
Display
Video
Shopping
App
Discovery
Local
Performance Max
What different types of campaigns are there?
Google will ask you to select an aim before prompting you to select a campaign. The available campaign kinds will then be displayed to you based on your goal. Let’s choose website traffic since we’re going to make a Search ad for this tutorial.
Now we can see what’s available:
Pro tip: Don’t restrict yourself to one marketing kind as you develop your account over time. Run a variety of campaigns that are consistent with your PPC objectives. A healthy Google Ads account has a range of ads, just like a healthy kitchen uses different ingredients to make different dishes.
Step #3: Set up the campaign
Once you have decided on the food you will prepare, it is time to prepare your kitchen. In our Google Ads example, this is where you’ll choose your campaign’s general options, such as:
- Campaign name: This can be anything you want since it has no bearing on how well you do. You’re good to go as long as your campaign is simple for you to remember and arrange within your account.
- Network: You have the option to choose whether your ads appear on Google’s partner networks. These are Google-owned subsidiaries that are permitted to display your advertisement. This can increase your reach for less money, but it will be more difficult to attain a high impression share.
Step #4: Set your ad schedule
To ensure that you only spend money when it matters, you must tell Google when to show your advertising, just as you must inform your visitors when your dinner party is. For instance, you might steer clear of running your advertisement in the early morning hours when viewers might not be motivated to convert.
Select your start and finish dates as well as the ad schedule by clicking “display more settings” to set your schedule.
Pro tip: Beware! If you want to advertise to audiences in multiple time zones, you’ll need to do some arithmetic because the schedule defaults to the timezone that your account is configured to. How to properly set up ad scheduling is described here.
Step #5: Specify location & language
You don’t have a dinner party and invite everyone you’ve ever met. You choose a particular team. This allows you to cater the experience to their own preferences and interests. Additionally, you don’t want everyone to be able to see your Google Ads campaign. Here, you may choose your location and language.
Pro tip: To prevent showing to those who aren’t actually present but are “interested” in your chosen area, check the presence box. Find out more about location-based advertising here.
The section on audience parts will appear, but you can skip it. Although this is not a typical approach for search ads, this is where you would add your remarketing lists.
Step #6: Calculate your daily budget
It might be challenging to season food when cooking. The dish is forgettable if there is too little. Overdoing it will make your taste buds uncomfortable. Your budgets for Google Ads are the same: if you spend too little, you’ll never move past the learning stage. Spend excessively and you’ll go through your entire monthly budget in just one week.
You must first estimate your monthly spending in order to create a budget that works for you. To estimate your typical CPC or CPA, start by conducting some keyword research and looking at Google Ads standards for your sector.
To determine your daily budget, divide that amount by 30.4 (the typical number of days in a month).
Pro tips on setting your budget
- Do: Recognize the operation of daily budgets. If you set a daily budget of $8, for instance, Google might spend $12 on one day if it results in more clicks and conversions and only $6 on another day to balance your spending for the month.
- Don’t: Expect your spending plan to remain unchanged forever. A little flexibility is helpful in PPC. It makes no sense to pour money into a campaign that isn’t working just because you expect it to.
- Don’t: Set a tight budget. All advertisers want to be cost-effective, which is understandable, but having a small budget will restrict you. To make money, you must spend money.
- Do: Take a look at the daily and monthly estimated spending for your entire account with the Google Ads budget report.Step #7: Pick your bid strategy
Step #7: Pick your bid strategy
Similar to how there are various ways to prepare a dish, Google can use your budget in a variety of ways based on your objectives. Choose “Or, select a bid strategy directly (not advised)” to choose your bid plan.
After that, you can choose from the offered options.
There are two categories of bidding strategies:
- Manual bidding: You must inform Google of your maximum CPC bid for each term if you’re using manual bidding. This is the highest price you’re willing to pay to click an advertisement for that keyword. It’s critical to understand that this isn’t always the price you’ll pay; it may be less, but never more (more on how the Google Ads auction works here). This tactic allows you complete control, but use caution because lowering your bid too much may result in performance limitations.
- Automated bidding: When using an automated bidding method, you’ll give Google some time to choose your maximum CPC bids. Simply keep an eye on the data to obtain a sense of the cost per click.
I’ll illustrate why automated bidding might be beneficial with a personal anecdote. I let the rental store choose my equipment when I first started snowboarding because I had no idea how I would handle various terrains or what my particular preferences would be. I use a particular kind of board now that I have experience since I know what works for me. That’s how automated bidding operates. You can review a detailed explanation of the automatic bidding techniques here.
For this part, there are other settings available, such as ad rotation.
According to my experience, this is typically not touched too frequently and depends on the particular circumstances of each organisation. Google will favour the ads that perform the best by default. That makes sense because you’ll want to maximise your return on investment with each advertisement Google decides to display.
However, you may choose to make an even rotation if you decide to test ads against one another equally or if you have ads with various sorts of material that you want seen.
Step #8: Set up your keywords
One of the most crucial steps in running Google Ads is the next one. Without ingredients, you can’t make a dish, and without keywords, you can’t run Google Ads.
The words and phrases that your target is entering into Google Search are known as keywords. With Google Search advertisements, you place bids on the keywords you wish to see your adverts for. Before we discuss keywords, have a look at what your screen would look like:
- Ad group name. Ad groups, which keep your campaigns structured, are nothing more than storage bins for your advertisements and keywords. You should categorise these into topical categories and give them descriptive names for the best Google Ads account structure.
- Default bid. When utilising manual bidding, you will need to set your maximum CPC bid for each keyword that you add to your ad groups.
- You can get expected CPCs for your chosen terms by using our guide to keyword research and the suggestions below.
PPC keyword pro tips:
- Do: Plan out your key terms based on their monthly search traffic and average cost per click using keyword research tools, such as the Keyword Planner in your Google Ads account or our Free Keyword Tool.
- Do choose terms that clearly have a business purpose. These phrases include “cost,” “for sale,” and others. Target location-based keywords like “divorce lawyer boston” if your PPC strategy is local.
- Don’t only use keywords instead of other targeting possibilities. The Kardashians of PPC are keywords. Despite their enormous fame, they don’t support themselves.
- Don’t: When creating your keywords, disregard your bid (we’ll talk about this soon). Your bid strategy objectives may have an impact on how you approach your keywords and targeting, even if you are not required to set a Max CPC price for each term.
- Keep low-volume versions of your main keywords off of your keyword list. You can spare yourself the hassle and reduce the number of keywords you use by using the appropriate match types.
Match types
You must also choose the match type you want when you enter your keywords. This is due to the fact that there are several searches that a person could make (referred to as queries) that aren’t exact but are still extremely related to your keywords. Match types aid Google in determining which of these keyword variations you want your ads to appear for.
To give yourself flexibility, you should vary the match types you use. The three match types are listed below in order of least to most restrictive:
- Broad match: enables your ad to appear for any keyword-related search.
- Phrase match: searches for terms with the same meaning as your keyword and returns results.
- Exact match: only allows your ad to show when a query has an identical meaning to your query.
Pro tip: Since these may vary depending on your objectives, there is no right or incorrect match type. My greatest recommendation for keyword optimization is to experiment with all three and discover what works best. But phrase match is a definite thing if you’re really doubtful. It strikes a balance between maintaining relevance and casting a wide net.
Eliminate Negative keywords
Negative keywords are words you choose for which you don’t want your advertisements to appear. For instance, if I’m promoting CDL classes, anyone looking for work in the sector could use the phrase “CDL.” Therefore, I might make “jobs,” “positions,” and “openings” negligible to deter those who prefer employment to education.
Once you’re up and running, you can use the Search Terms Report to check which searches you’ve showed for and develop your negative keyword list. You should have some negative keywords to start.
Step #9: Create your ad
Okay, everything has been cooked and prepared. It’s time to start serving. Hells Kitchen, a popular cooking program, emphasizes that plating aesthetics is just as important as flavor. Even if it tastes excellent, no one will eat something that doesn’t look appetizing, and no one will click on a boring advertisement regardless matter how amazing the offer is. Step-by-Step Guide to Successful Google Ads
The only standard Search advertisements you can generate after June 2022 will be responsive search advertising, thus your ad creation window will resemble this:
Google Ad copy pro tips
- Do adhere to standard practices for responsive search ads. Because the display of these adverts to users is automatic, you must ensure that every line of text or image makes a strong impression.
- Keep in mind your CTA. The goal is to motivate your audience to take an action, after all. Always be explicit about the intended outcome of their click. To help enhance conversions, use phrases like “sign up today,” “call now,” and others.
- Stay interesting. Market with emotion to stand out on the SERP, and get ideas from our ad content samples.
- Don’t go overboard. Consider your advertisements as the “face” of your company. You want them to present your brand in a polished manner, much like a plate of presentation. This component of your copywriting shouldn’t be neglected in lieu of a barrage of forceful CTAs. Step-by-Step Guide to Successful Google Ads
Step #10: Add on your ad extensions
The main course is always the star of a delicious meal, but sides are always welcome. And occasionally they can enhance the entrée. Ad extensions work similarly. These are extra lines of text that you can add to your advertisement to “buff up” (no pun intended) it and increase CTR.
The worst case scenario is that they don’t display or generate clicks, but they won’t render your advertisement ineffective. Ad extensions are meant to improve your advertisement, therefore there’s really no reason not to use them.
Navigate to the Extensions area in the left-hand column to add extensions to your advertising. The Google Ads platform will then guide you through the procedure from there.
The best aspect is that Google constantly expands and enhances the selection of ad extension alternatives. Visit our Google Ads extension cheat sheet to learn about all the options available and see how they could spice up your ads.
Step #11: Device targeting and extras
Let’s get saucy! Too much sauce is never enough sauce, and that concept applies whether I’m pouring gravy on my potatoes or practicing PPC. Don’t be afraid to go crazy with your extra settings, like device targeting.
On manual bidding on Search, you can choose to adjust how much you’re willing to pay for clicks coming from certain devices. However, you can also exclude them all together by bidding down by 100%. Step-by-Step Guide to Successful Google Ads.
Take pleasure in it. To identify your ideal audience, don’t be scared to combine a few different tactics. And don’t immediately rule anything out. For instance, excluding a device without evidence to support the claim that it is underperforming first could limit your results.
Pro tip: Step-by-Step Guide to Successful Google Ads. You’ll also find this choice in the campaign settings for Display campaigns as a checkbox. You can check your performance by device for all campaign and bidding types in the Devices section of Google Ads, which is ideal for those wishing to modify their approach for mobile or desktop. Step-by-Step Guide to Successful Google Ads
Step #12: Don’t forget your landing page
Without dessert, what is dinner? Disappointing. Without a landing page, what good is a fantastic Google ad? Failure.
It may sound harsh, but one of the challenging aspects of my job as a PPC expert is that occasionally I have to tell marketers things they don’t want to hear but must know. In the end, even with the best advertisements in the world, you won’t get any results if your landing page isn’t optimized.
The first part of the play is getting the correct person to click, but your website is what gets them into the end zone. My last piece of advice for setting up your Google Ads account is to pay attention to the landing page that you’re sending your visitors to.
Here are a few landing page best practices to follow:
- Cover the technical aspects. Make sure the page is responsive and secure, and speed it up.
- Focus on the CTA: Make sure the button, form, or whatever your action is, is visible and simple to use. Talking about all the wonderful features that your brand offers can be confusing. However, if your visitors have a specific objective, make sure they can easily and quickly achieve it.
- Have a clean, attractive design: Take inspiration from landing page examples!
Step #13: Set your ad live
To ensure success, become accustomed to PPC reporting. You can halt or modify your campaign at any time. Along with that, you should become acquainted with important PPC indicators to identify future opportunities for optimization. Additionally, you might want to keep an eye out for any annoying ad rejections that might prevent your campaign from succeeding.
Otherwise, you’re good to go on a cruise. Give your campaign some breathing room and a chance to gather data. The hardest aspect of PPC, in my opinion, is patience. Try not to modify anything more than once every two weeks to thirty days; for new campaigns, the window may need to be even longer. Therefore, unwind and take in this incredible new Google Ads campaign you just created!
You can always utilize our free Google Ads Performance Grader to obtain a thorough audit whenever you’re ready to check in.
