How To Create A Google Ads Campaign | Full Tutorial

 

How To Create A Google Ads Campaign | Full Tutorial

Creating a Google Ads campaign involves several key steps, from defining your objectives to setting up your ads and monitoring their performance. Here's a full tutorial to guide you through the process:

Before You Begin: Preparation is Key

• Define Your Goal: What do you want to achieve with your ads? (e.g., website sales, leads, phone calls, brand awareness, app downloads, store visits). This will guide your campaign type and settings.
• Know Your Audience: Who are you trying to reach? Understand their demographics, interests, and what they search for.
• Conduct Keyword Research: For Search campaigns, identify the words and phrases your target audience uses when searching for your products or services. Use tools like Google Keyword Planner.
• Prepare Your Landing Page: Ensure your website's landing page (where people will go after clicking your ad) is relevant, user-friendly, and optimized for conversions.
• Set Your Budget: Determine how much you're willing to spend daily or monthly.

Step-by-Step Guide to Creating a Google Ads Campaign

1. Sign In to Google Ads

• Go to ads.google.com and sign in with your Google account.
• If you're a new user, you'll be guided through an initial setup process where you'll add business information and campaign goals. Existing users can click the "Campaigns" icon and then the blue "+" button to create a new campaign.

2. Choose Your Campaign Objective

Google Ads will ask you to select a primary objective. This helps Google recommend the best campaign types and settings for you. Common objectives include:

• Sales: Drive online sales, phone sales, in-app sales, or in-store sales.
• Leads: Generate leads through form submissions, phone calls, etc.
• Website traffic: Get more visitors to your website.
• Product and brand consideration: Encourage people to explore your products or services.
• Brand awareness and reach: Show your ads to a broad audience to increase brand visibility.
• App promotion: Drive app installs and engagements.
• Local store visits and promotions: Drive customers to your physical locations.
• Create a campaign without a goal's guidance: For experienced advertisers who want full control.

3. Select a Campaign Type

Based on your objective, Google will suggest suitable campaign types. The most common ones include:

• Search: Text ads that appear on Google search results. Ideal for capturing demand from users actively searching for what you offer.
• Display: Image and text ads that appear on websites, apps, and YouTube. Great for brand awareness and reaching a broader audience.
• Video: Video ads that run on YouTube and other video partner sites. Excellent for storytelling and engaging visuals.
• Shopping: Product listing ads that show product images, prices, and store names directly in search results. Best for e-commerce businesses.
• Performance Max: A unified campaign type that leverages Google AI to find high-value customers across all Google channels (Search, Display, YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps).
• App: Promote your app across Google's networks.
• Smart: Simplified campaigns for small businesses.

For this tutorial, let's focus on a common scenario: creating a "Search" campaign to drive "Website traffic."

4. Set Up Campaign Settings

• Campaign Name: Give your campaign a descriptive name (e.g., "Brand Name - Product/Service - Geo-Targeting").
• Networks:
  • Search Network: Generally keep this enabled to show ads on Google Search results.
  • Display Network: For Search campaigns, it's often recommended to uncheck "Include Google Display Network" if your primary goal is search intent, as it can dilute your search performance. However, for broader reach, you can enable it.
• Locations: Target specific geographic areas where your customers are (e.g., cities, states, countries, or radius around a location).
• Languages: Select the languages your target audience speaks.
• Audiences (Optional but Recommended): You can refine your targeting by adding audience segments based on interests, demographics, or how they've interacted with your business (remarketing).
• Budget: Set your average daily budget. Google will try to spend this amount per day. You can adjust it anytime.
• Bidding:
  • Bidding Strategy: Choose how you want to bid. Google often recommends automated strategies based on your objective.
    • Maximize Clicks: If your goal is website traffic.
    • Maximize Conversions: If you have conversion tracking set up and want to maximize sales or leads.
    • Target CPA (Cost-per-acquisition): Bid to get as many conversions as possible at a specific average cost.
    • Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): Bid to get as much conversion value as possible at a specific return on ad spend.
    • Manual CPC: You set the maximum cost-per-click for your keywords. (More advanced, requires closer monitoring).
  • Conversion Goal: Ensure your conversion goals are correctly selected.

5. Create Ad Groups

Ad groups are where you organize your keywords and ads around a specific theme or product/service.

• Ad Group Name: Give your ad group a clear name (e.g., "Running Shoes - Men's," "SEO Services - Local").
• Keywords:
  • Add the keywords you researched earlier.
  • Match Types: Understand keyword match types:
    • Broad Match: Allows your ad to show for searches broadly related to your keyword (e.g., "running shoes" might match "best jogging sneakers").
    • Phrase Match: Your ad will show for searches that include the meaning of your keyword (e.g., "running shoes" might match "buy running shoes online").
    • Exact Match: Your ad will only show for searches with the identical meaning or close variations of your keyword (e.g., "[running shoes]" might only match "running shoes" or "shoes running").
  • Negative Keywords: Add terms you don't want your ads to show for (e.g., "free," "cheap" if you sell premium products) to prevent irrelevant clicks and wasted spend.

6. Create Your Ads

• Responsive Search Ads (RSAs): These are the standard for Search campaigns. You provide multiple headlines (up to 15) and descriptions (up to 4), and Google AI will automatically test different combinations to find the best-performing ones.
  • Headlines: Aim for 3-5 compelling headlines that include your keywords, unique selling propositions, and calls to action. Each headline can be up to 30 characters.
  • Descriptions: Write 2-4 descriptive lines that elaborate on your offer, benefits, and call to action. Each description can be up to 90 characters.
  • Display URL path: Customize the path that appears in your ad's display URL.
  • Final URL: This is the actual URL of your landing page.
• Ad Extensions (Assets): Enhance your ads with additional information. These can significantly improve your ad's visibility and click-through rate.
  • Sitelink extensions: Add more links to specific pages on your website (e.g., "Contact Us," "Pricing," "Product Categories").
  • Callout extensions: Add short, descriptive snippets highlighting your unique selling points (e.g., "Free Shipping," "24/7 Support").
  • Structured snippet extensions: Showcase specific aspects of your products or services (e.g., "Destinations: Paris, Rome, London").
  • Call extensions: Display your phone number, allowing users to call directly from your ad.
  • Location extensions: Show your business address and a map.
  • Image extensions: Add relevant images to your search ads.

7. Review and Launch

• Carefully review all your campaign settings, ad groups, keywords, and ads.
• Google Ads will often provide recommendations and identify potential issues. Address these before launching.
• Set up Conversion Tracking: This is crucial for measuring the effectiveness of your campaigns. Install the Google Ads conversion tracking code on your website to track valuable actions (e.g., purchases, form submissions).
• Enter Payment Details: If you haven't already, add your billing information.
• Once everything looks good, click "Publish Campaign."

After Launching: Monitor and Optimize

• Monitor Performance Regularly: Check your campaign's performance daily or weekly. Look at metrics like clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), cost-per-click (CPC), conversions, and conversion rate.
• Adjust Bids: Based on performance, adjust your bids to optimize for your goals.
• Refine Keywords: Add new relevant keywords, pause underperforming ones, and continue adding negative keywords.
• Test Ad Copy: Continuously test different headlines and descriptions in your responsive search ads to improve CTR and conversion rates.
• Optimize Landing Pages: Ensure your landing pages are still performing well and providing a good user experience.
• Budget Management: Adjust your daily budget as needed based on performance and your overall marketing goals.
• Explore Other Campaign Types: Once you're comfortable with Search campaigns, consider experimenting with Display, Video, or Performance Max campaigns to expand your reach.

By following these steps, you can create and manage effective Google Ads campaigns to achieve your business objectives. Remember that successful Google Ads management is an ongoing process of monitoring, testing, and optimization.