When setting up your first Google ads campaign, there are a few things you need to know. First, understand what Google Ads is.

Google Ads is an online advertising platform developed by Google, where marketers and advertisers pay to showcase brief ads, services, products, video content etc. within the Google Ads network of web users. These ads are shown based on keywords that represent whatever your product or service is.

Benefits of using Google Ads Campaign

• Works faster than SEO
• Increase brand awareness
• Target and reach more customers
• Reconnect with site visitors
• Better understanding of your audience
• Provide insights for site/content optimization
• Better understanding of competition

Google Ads campaign have become even more popular in 2020 because of its effectiveness on your individual business initiative and secondly, because they are still cheap.

In this post, we will walk you through the necessary steps to take when setting up your first campaign.

What is a Campaign?

 A campaign is a set of ad groups that is used to categorize products and services that you or your company offers. (The higher level)

Each campaign revolves around a specific goal that is the main thing you want to achieve from this process. For example: Website traffic or sales.

What are Ad Groups?

Ad groups are one or more ads under your overall campaign (Lower level) that share similar targets. These help to keep your Google Ads organized and streamlined.

Next Steps

• Organize/streamline your account
• Budget
• Determine your keywords
• Set and determine your landing page
• Create your ads
• Activate your Campaign

Organize/streamline Your Account

Setting up the structure of your account from the start is one of the key ways to ensure success and money well spent.

A way to ensure continuity and organization is to break down your services into categories and then mirroring your account in that structure.

The more focused your ads are, the more people can reach the exact service that you or your business has to offer.

Creating different high-level campaigns and ad groups for each service ensures your ad relevancy. For example: this means that if someone is looking for cleaning services, he does not accidentally stumble on your ad for decorative services.

Budget

Determining your budget with Google Ads focuses on two main points of control; daily budget and bids.

Daily budget: Amount you want to spend on each campaign per day

Bid: How much you’re willing to spend on your keyword if searched and your ad is clicked

As a first timer, you may want to limit your cost because initially, you have no idea what exactly is going to work. Your initial testing will give you some insights into what specific messaging is hitting the mark with your target audience, and what specifically is converting into customers/leads.

Set higher budgets and bids on campaigns and keywords that are more important based on what the immediate goal is. Budgets and bids can be changed at any time. Pay attention, if something isn’t working, you can adjust to meet your needs.

Learn more about the breakdown and how to calculate your ad budget.

Determine your Keywords

When selecting your keywords, the overall aim is to choose words that your audience will potentially search for to reach your goods and services offered. These select keywords should be as relevant as possible to the ad you set up and the overall content of your select landing page.

Tips for Building Keyword List:

• Think like your customer
• Select words that target a specific customer
• Select some general words to reach more people (in related field)
• Group similar key words into ad groups

Google Ads comes with a free accessible tool called the Keyword Planner that will assist in determining the right keyword list for your target goal/campaign. The keyword planner can also help with your bidding process. It can help you determine what keywords are worth bidding on and how your keyword list fits within your budget.

Keynote

• The more competitive the keyword is, the more it will cost to bid on.
• When starting out, try to avoid the more competitive works to avoid spending the entire budget on a few clicks.
• Low to medium keywords will help with exposure while understanding your campaign performance.

Another important thing to keep in mind when determining your keyword list is Keyword match types: parameters set on your keywords to control which searches trigger your ads to appear.

• Broad Match: Shows your ad for searches that contain your keywords in any order, and for related terms.
• Broad Match Modifier: This allows you to specify that certain words in your broad-match keyword must show up in a user’s search to trigger your ad.
• Phrase Match: This option shows your ad for searches that contain your exact keywords, or for searches that contain your exact keyword plus any word before or after it
• Exact Match: Your ad will only show for the exact keyword or phrase you choose.
• Negative Match: Allows you to exclude unfavorable words or phrases that are close to your target words. Used to prevent irrelevant traffic.

Learn more tips on how to choose the right keyword match type

Determine Your Landing Page 

The landing page is where customers arrive when they click your ads. It is important that this page is absolutely relevant to your ad. Another key point is to ensure that your landing page is optimized with the relevant keyword(s). Conduct a keyword audit on your target page to improve your SEO.

Create Your Ads

Your ad showing up on google is the first introduction that people will have to your business. Ensure that your ad communicates exactly what you have and what they need. A key way to do this is by making sure that keywords are implemented in either the main header or the description of the ad. This makes your ad more relevant when searched and subsequently improves the quality score of your ad. Lastly, include a call to action in your ad.

Once this is done, you are ready to activate your Google Ads campaign. Check back in periodically to see how your ad is performing and make the necessary adjustments when needed.

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