Google Ads Set Up: A Comprehensive Guide For Beginners

Google Ads is the advertising platform designed by Google to enable businesses to set up Google Ads across its network, including Search, YouTube, and Gmail; the Google Ads set up, however, can be overwhelming and daunting for those who are unsure where to start. With its array of campaign types, bidding strategies, targeting options and advanced settings – the Google Ads set up can be somewhat of a challenge.

For businesses getting started with paid advertising, Google Ads provides an easy way to drive target traffic and customers to your website.

Our blog will walk you through the Google Ads set up step-by-step providing tips and best practices particularly for those beginning their paid ads journey. We’ll cover everything from creating your first campaign and setting your campaign goals to setting your budget and monitoring your ad performance.

No matter what your goals are and your intentions behind learning about the Google Ads set up, our guide will have you covered.

Create Your Google Ads Account

So, before we get started on the actual Google Ads set up and developing a campaign, you’ll have to create a Google Ads account. Let’s walk through it so you can easily follow along:

1. Open up your website browser to the Google Ads website.
2. Click “Start now” and ensure the country and currency are correct.
3. Choose the category that best matches your business type.
4. Enter your business information (this includes the name; website URL; and contact information).
5. Link payment details.
6. Verify your email address.

Set Campaign Goals

The Google Ads set up process will require you to define your campaign goals and objectives. Setting clear goals will enable you to review their performance and optimise and improve for future Google Ads set up.

Google has a range of goals that you can consider, including:

• Driving website traffic
• Generating sales
• Increasing brand awareness
• Promoting a new product
• Receiving phone calls

We recommend that you choose one goal per Google Ads set up; this will enable you to focus your efforts on one thing. Ensure that the goal(s) you have selected are realistic and relevant to your overall business objectives. 

As well as having a defined goal, you’ll want to establish quantifiable metrics to track Google Ads performance, and these will include metrics like:

• Clicks
• Impressions
• Conversions
• Cost Per Click

Establishing goals as part of your Google Ads set up will enable you, as a business, to truly measure the effectiveness of each ad, as well as providing you with metrics that you can take on board to improve within your next Google Ads set up. 

Select Campaign Type

A key part of your Google Ads set up will be selecting the campaign type you wish to adopt. This is also highly important to ensure that your Google ad is effective in targeting the right audience. Let’s break each campaign type down:

1. Firstly, we have Search. This is a great campaign type as it enables you to target users who are in the market for the product or service you’re selling, based on keywords. This is a great campaign type to increase your website traffic and conversion rate.
2. Display Campaigns. These ads are image/video-based and will appear on the user’s screen as they are on a website. Display ads are based on the user’s interest, demographics and online behaviours. These ads are great for brand awareness and attracting the attention of your target audience.
3. Video Campaigns: These are video-based advertisements that are shown on the Google Display Network as well as social media platform, YouTube. Like display campaigns, video campaigns are great to build brand awareness and will be highly targeted.
4. Shopping Campaigns. Shopping campaigns are the perfect way to promote the products you’re selling on your e-commerce site and, like Search, shopping campaigns will enable you to gain the attention of audiences who are already in the market for your product.
5. App Campaigns. If you’ve got an app that you want to promote, this is the campaign type for your business. These are targeted based on users’ demographics and app usage.

There you have it, a quick rundown of the main campaign types that you can choose from during your Google Ads set up. Remember, it’s important to be selective based on your industry/business size; your audience; and your Google Ads goals. If you are careful about the campaign type you choose, your Google Ad can prove successful and effective!

Set Budget and Bidding Strategy

One of the perhaps most important elements of your Google Ads set up will be setting your budget and choosing your Bidding Strategy. There are several types of budget setting methods, these include:

• Daily Budget: A daily cap on the maximum amount you’re willing to spend on your Google Ads set up.
• Total Budget: An overall budget for your Google Ads campaign, spread over a specific period of time.
• Target CPA: A goal for your average cost per acquisition, calculated as the average cost of generating a desired action, such as lead generation or purchase.
• Target ROAS: A goal for your return on ad spend, calculated as the total value of conversions divided by the total ad spend.

We highly recommend to start with a lower budget and then build upon this after you have some experience with Google Ads set up, and have reviewed the analytics from previous ad campaigns.

Next, there are several bidding strategies for you to choose from and these are highly dependent on your campaign goals. Some of these will include:

• Manual CPC: Set a maximum budget for each keyword.
• Automatic Bidding: Google will optimise bids based on your campaign goals.
• Maximise Clicks: Google will aim to get as many clicks as possible within your budget.
• Maximise Conversions: Google will prioritise generating conversions, adjusting bids to maximise the number of conversions within your budget.

Build Ad Groups and Create Ads

The next step in your Google Ads set up is to build Ad Groups. So what is a Google Ad Group? This feature within your Google Ads set up will enable you to group together similar keywords and tailor ads specifically for them. They essentially help to categorise, segment and tidy up your ads. 

Now it’s time for a crucial part in the Google Ads set up – crafting a compelling ad that will resonate with your audience. The goal here is to get your audience’s attention and fulfil the goals you hope to achieve as a result of the campaign. Here’s how to do it:

• Headlines and Descriptions: You can add multiple headlines and descriptions and whilst these should be attention-grabbing, these should be highly relevant to your ad’s message.
• Call to Action: Tell your audience what you want them to do next, and get them to take action!
• Ad Extensions: If you can, add in all your business information as Ad extensions, like your website link, your contact information, etc.
• Images/Videos: Ensure that, if your ad is image-based, this will be the most important element of your Google Ad – you should have high quality and aesthetically pleasing imagery.
• Targeted Messages: Tailor your ad copy to specific audience segments, based on your audience’s interests and demographics.

So these are the key elements to think about when you’re doing your Google Ads set up. You’ll also want to ensure your ad is mobile-compatible and, once your ad has been published, make sure to continually review its performance to see how you can improve.

Target Your Audience

Selecting and defining your target audience will be key to the effectiveness of your ads. There are several different categories of defining your audience within the Google Ads set up. This includes demographics such as age, gender, family set up, lifestyle, and location. Then there’s interest targeting, so this may be demographics-based interests, or in-market interests (audiences who have shown prior interest in your products). Finally, Google Ads offers targeting through behaviour, for example, a user’s website history, their shopping habits, and their search history.

You also need to think about your target audience in relation to your campaign goals, so if you’re Google Ads set up goal was to increase brand awareness, you may want to target quite a wide audience whereas if your goal is to convert your audience to customers, you may want to focus more specifically on your target audience.

Set Up Analytics and Tracking

After the Google Ads set up process and once your ad has been published and live, you’ll want to review and analyse your ad’s performance through the analytics section. The key metrics that you’ll want to focus on include:

• Click-through Rate: The percentage of impressions that result in clicks on your ads.
• Cost per Click: The average amount you pay for each click on your ads.
• Conversion Rate: The percentage of clicks that lead to conversions, such as leads, email signups, or purchases.
• Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): The total value of conversions generated from your ads divided by the total ad spend. 

With this data readily available to you, you can identify performance gaps and refine your targeting and bidding strategies. 

Key Takeaways on the Google Ads Set Up Process

The Google Ads set up process doesn’t have to be complicated or overwhelming, and hopefully this guide has helped you prepare for your first Google Ads set up. The key things to remember are:

• Clearly define your campaign goals.
• Choose the campaign type that aligns with campaign goals.
• Start with a reasonable budget and adjust accordingly.
• Clearly define your target audience.
• Analyse performance data and make informed decisions based on these.

While Google Ads does take some time and effort to master, implementing these best practices from the start will set you up for success!