Looking for a beginner’s guide to getting started with Google Ads? Look no further… Follow this step-by-step guide… 

Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) are one of the best advertising options online. 5.6 billion Google searches are made every day, and that’s why Google Ads are a great way to get your website in front of the eyes of your consumers.

Did you know that for every $1 spent on Google Ads, the average business owner ends up with $2 in revenue?  It’s hard to beat that ROI with other advertising platforms. That’s why if you’re looking for a good option when it comes to ads, you should consider Google Ads.

It’s not difficult to get started with Google Ads, but it can be overwhelming.  That’s why I’m going to walk you through how to set up a campaign in Google Ads even if it’s your first time logging into the platform.

7 Steps to Set Up a Campaign in Google Ads

Step #1: Go to the Google Ads Website

Go to https://ads.google.com. You will then see, “Start Now.” Click on that and sign up for your Google Ads account. You can then click on the button that says, “Create your first campaign.”

Step #2: Choose a Campaign Type and Name

You have options for a campaign type. When you’re just getting started, it’s best to choose “Search Network only.”

Name your campaign. You may want to choose a name that has to do with the product or service you’re advertising.

Step #3: Select Ad Display Location

You have many options when it comes to people’s locations. You can choose a large or small area. For instance, an entire country or just a city. If you want a specific area, you can use latitude-longitude coordinates.

Be sure you know the locations of your ideal customer. If you’re a local business owner, you want to target people around your area. If you’re selling your products and services to people throughout the United States, choose the U.S. For business owners who sell internationally, you may want to set up several campaigns for countries that have the highest sales or where most of your consumers live.

Step #4: Set Your Daily Budget

Until you become a proficient Google Ads user, it’s best to set a low daily budget.  This allows you to start slowly, gather data, and then expand what’s working once you are more familiar with your campaigns.  Note that Google can and will go slightly over your daily budget. For that reason, it’s important to keep a close eye on your campaigns and adjust your budgets each week to ensure you don’t go over your maximum monthly ad budget.

You must also set up your payment options.

  • Manual Payments: You pay before your ad shows.
  • Automatic Payments: You link your account to your credit card or bank account and the money is drafted automatically.
  • Monthly Invoicing: Google provides credit lines to some business owners who qualify.

Step #5: Add Keywords

This can be tricky, especially for first time advertisers.  Your first inclination is likely to add as many keywords as possible that you think are relevant for your business.  In fact, this is exactly what Google wants you to do because then you’ll spend more money.

Fight that urge!  Instead, focus only on what we call the “bullseye” keywords.  These are the keywords where there is absolutely no doubt that the person searching the keyword is looking for exactly what you offer.  There may only be a handful of these bullseye keywords and that’s OK.  Don’t add any keywords where there is any doubt the searcher may not be looking for your product or service.

Step #6: Create an Ad

This is when the fun begins. You get to create an ad that will attract your consumers and make them click to go to your website. Prospects are more likely to click on an ad that has the keyword they used in Google’s search bar. So, if you are targeting a specific keyword phrase your consumers use (after doing keyword research), be sure to use that phrase in one of the two headlines.

After the headlines, you can move on to the ad description. Focus on the key benefits of your product or service, describe your special offer if you have one, and end with a strong call to action.

Lastly, we recommend sending people to a landing page that is created to specifically match your ad. By doing this, you can ensure that the information in the ad is reflected on the landing page, which will lead to stronger conversions. People often make the mistake of setting up an ad that advertises a special deal and then sending them to their homepage that never mentions this deal. This only leads to frustration on the part of your prospect. A landing page should be highly targeted for the keyword phrase you used in your ad.

Step #7: Set Up Conversion Tracking

This last step is to set up all the appropriate conversion tracking for your business.  Google gives you the following options:

  1. Webform leads (ex. quote requests)
  2. E-commerce orders (ex. orders from your online shopping cart)
  3. Calls from ads (ex. phone calls from the number displayed on your ads)
  4. Calls from the website (ex. phone calls from the number displayed on your website)
  5. Imports from sales that occur off of the internet

Make sure you set up all the appropriate conversion tracking options before you turn your ads on! Otherwise, you won’t be able to measure the effectiveness of your ads.

Tracking, Adjusting and Conquering Effective Campaigns

As your ads run, keep an eye on the analytics. You’ll be able to see what is working and what isn’t working. As you pay attention to what your ads do, you’ll be able to get closer to what will give you the best results.

When you’ve figured out which ads your consumers click on the most, you can create similar ones for higher cost-per-click keywords. This will help you increase your ROI.

Now, go ahead and get started. Once you dive in, you’ll start to learn more about what works for your campaigns and that Google Ads can be a great way to advertise your business.

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