Google Ads is an essential advertising platform for businesses of all sizes to reach potential customers. This guide is designed to help you set up a Google Ads account and start running campaigns. We'll walk you through the entire process, from account creation to optimising your search campaigns.
Jump ahead to any section here:
Creating a Google Ads Account
1. Sign up for a Google Ads account by visiting ads.google.com and clicking "Start now".
2. Follow the prompts to set up your account, including entering your email address, choosing your time zone, and selecting your currency.
Adding Payment Methods
1. Navigate to the Billing section within the sidebar of your Google Ads account.
2. Choose your preferred payment method, such as a credit card or bank account.
3. Enter your billing information as prompted.
Adding Users to the Account
Adding users to your Google Ads account allows you to delegate tasks and collaborate with others on your advertising campaigns. Depending on your specific needs and organisational structure, you may consider adding the following types of users:
1. Staff members: You may want to give access to employees who are responsible for managing your advertising campaigns, creating ad copy, or analyzing performance data. This could include marketing managers, content writers, or data analysts.
2. Contractors: If you work with freelancers or independent consultants to help manage your Google Ads campaigns, you should add them to your account. This could include freelance digital marketers, PPC specialists, or copywriters.
3. Marketing agency: If you have outsourced your advertising efforts to a marketing agency, you will need to give them access to your Google Ads account. This allows the agency's team to create, manage, and optimise your campaigns on your behalf.
4. Web developers or IT staff: In some cases, you may need to grant access to your Google Ads account to web developers or IT staff who are responsible for implementing tracking codes, setting up conversion tracking, or troubleshooting technical issues related to your campaigns.
5. Business partners: If you are working with a business partner who shares responsibility for advertising decisions, it may be helpful to add them to your Google Ads account. This ensures they have visibility into campaign performance and can contribute to decision-making.
When adding users to your Google Ads account, it's important to assign the appropriate level of access based on their roles and responsibilities. Google Ads offers several user access levels, such as administrative access, standard access, read-only access, and email-only access. This allows you to control the actions each user can perform within the account, ensuring both security and efficient collaboration.
1. Access the Access and Security section in your Admin section in the side bar..
2. Click the blue "+" button to invite new users by email.
3. Assign appropriate roles and permissions to each user, such as admin or standard access.
Note: if you get a message that the email address isn't an allowed domain like in the screenshot below.
You can add the domain to the allowed list by clicking on Security and adding the domain in the Allowed Domains section.
Setting a Shared Budget
A shared budget in Google Ads offers several benefits for advertisers, particularly those managing multiple campaigns. Some of the key reasons to use a shared budget include:
1. Simplified budget management: Instead of setting individual budgets for each campaign, a shared budget allows you to allocate a single daily budget across multiple campaigns. This can save time and make it easier to manage your overall spending.
2. Automatic allocation of funds: Google Ads will automatically distribute the shared budget across campaigns based on their performance and potential to generate results. This ensures that the best-performing campaigns receive the necessary funding while underperforming campaigns receive less.
3. Improved flexibility: As your campaigns fluctuate in performance, a shared budget can adapt more easily than individual campaign budgets. When one campaign underperforms, the shared budget allows the remaining funds to be allocated to other campaigns that are performing well, helping to maximise your overall results.
4. Reduced risk of underspending: When using individual campaign budgets, you may accidentally allocate too little budget to high-performing campaigns, leading to missed opportunities. A shared budget helps minimize this risk by automatically reallocating funds to the campaigns with the highest potential.
5. Cost-effective experimentation: A shared budget makes it easier to test new campaigns or ad groups without significantly affecting your overall ad spend. This encourages experimentation and allows you to discover new opportunities for growth.
While shared budgets offer many advantages, they may not be suitable for every situation. For example, if you have campaigns with vastly different goals or targeting strategies, individual budgets may provide better control over spending. Always consider your specific advertising objectives and requirements when deciding whether to use a shared budget or individual campaign budgets.
Below we'll show you how to set up a shared budget for your campaign.
1. Click on Tools in the sidebar > Budgets and bidding > Shared budgets
2. Click on the blue "+" button to create a new shared budget.
3. Set a daily budget limit and allocate the budget to specific campaigns that will use the shared budget.
Setting Up a Search Campaign
1. Click on the large "+" button to create a new campaign.
2. Choose "Campaign" and select a goal (e.g., sales, leads, or website traffic).
3. Select the campaign type. This is a search campaign so we'll choose Search. You'll be prompted to enter the business website address and campaigns name.
4. Next you'll be asked what the campaign is focused on such as Conversions, Conversion value, Clicks, etc. You need to match this with the outcome that Google Ads will optimise your campaign for.
5. Networks is asking where you'd like your search campaign to appear.
Search Network is where your search ads appear on Google search results.
Display Network is where your ads appear in display placements.
We recommend only selecting Search Network for the search campaign.
6. Locations. This is where you specify which geographic locations you want your search ads to appear.
7. Keywords. Google Ads does a good job of providing keywords from the website you've provided but you can update, remove or add your own.
8. build your Responsive Search Ad. A Responsive Search Ad (RSA) is a type of ad format in Google Ads designed to automatically adapt and optimise the ad content for individual search queries. By leveraging machine learning, Responsive Search Ads display the most relevant combination of headlines and descriptions to potential customers, helping to improve ad performance and overall campaign results.
When creating a Responsive Search Ad, advertisers provide multiple headlines and descriptions (up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions). Google Ads then tests different combinations of these headlines and descriptions and learns which combinations perform best for specific search queries. The system takes into account various factors, such as user behaviour, keywords, and device type, to serve the most relevant and effective ad to each user.
The main benefits of using Responsive Search Ads include:
1. Increased relevance: By testing multiple headlines and descriptions, RSAs can display the most relevant ad copy based on the user's search query, which can lead to higher click-through rates (CTR) and better overall performance.
2. Simplified ad testing: Responsive Search Ads automate the process of testing various ad copy combinations, eliminating the need for manual A/B testing. This saves time and resources while allowing you to gather valuable insights about which messages resonate best with your target audience.
3. Broader reach: RSAs can show more relevant ads for a wider range of search queries, increasing your ad's reach and potential impressions. This can help you discover new keywords or targeting opportunities that you may have overlooked.
4. Improved ad rank: As Responsive Search Ads help increase the relevance of your ads, this can lead to better Quality Scores and Ad Rank, potentially resulting in lower costs per click (CPC) and improved ad positioning.
To get the most out of Responsive Search Ads, it's essential to provide diverse and high-quality headlines and descriptions that showcase different aspects of your product or service. This will give Google Ads more options to test and optimise your ad performance.
Once you've added your headline, text and descriptions, click next to add the budget or choose your shared budget and set it live.
Optimising Your Search Campaign
Optimising your search campaign is crucial for ensuring the success of your Google Ads efforts. Regular optimisation helps you maximise the return on investment (ROI), improve overall campaign performance, and achieve your advertising objectives. Here are some key reasons why optimising your search campaigns is important:
Improve efficiency: By optimising your search campaigns, you can identify and allocate your budget towards high-performing keywords, ad copy, and targeting options. This enables you to get the most value from your ad spend and make your campaigns more cost-effective.
Stay competitive: The digital advertising landscape is constantly evolving, and so are your competitors' strategies. Regular optimisation allows you to stay ahead of the competition by identifying new opportunities and adjusting your campaigns to maintain a competitive edge.
Boost ad relevance: Optimisation helps you refine your ad copy, keywords, and targeting options to better match user intent and improve ad relevance. This, in turn, can lead to higher click-through rates (CTR), better Quality Scores, and improved ad positioning.
Increase conversion rates: By focusing on high-performing keywords, ad copy variations, and targeting options, you can attract more qualified leads to your website. This can result in higher conversion rates and better overall campaign performance.
Adapt to changes: Market conditions, consumer preferences, and search trends can change over time. Regularly optimising your search campaigns ensures that your ads remain relevant and effective as these changes occur.
Enhance user experience: Optimisation can help you create more engaging and useful ads that resonate with your target audience. This can lead to a better user experience, which not only benefits your ad performance but also supports your brand reputation.
Identify areas for improvement: Optimising your search campaigns allows you to identify any underperforming elements and make necessary adjustments. This continuous improvement process can help you achieve your advertising goals more efficiently.
Here are some steps you can follow to optimise your campaigns:
Monitor keyword performance by checking your account's "Keywords" tab regularly.
Adjust bids based on performance, increasing bids for high-performing keywords and lowering bids for underperforming ones.
Test different ad variations to see which ones resonate best with your audience.
Refine targeting options as needed, such as excluding certain locations or adjusting demographic targeting.
Proper Google Ads account setup is crucial for running successful search campaigns. By following this step-by-step guide, you'll be well on your way to reaching your target audience and achieving your advertising goals. Don't forget to monitor and optimise your campaigns to get the best possible results. Happy advertising!