Google Ads delivers better results than any other advertising platform or tool (online or offline), with a staggering 63% higher engagements compared to other alternatives. Also, internet users are four times more likely to click on a Google ad than other ads.
Price-wise advertising on old media such as television, radio or even newspapers is more expensive and brings worse results. Compared to them advertising on Google is affordable and effective.
Setting up Google Ads, previously known as Google AdWords, is the process by which you create and organize advertising campaigns on the Google Ads platform.
If you’re interested in setting up Google advertising campaigns for your business or learning how to configure Google Ads, you’re in the perfect place.
As a web marketing agency, we have put together this short guide of best practices, with steps that we usually recommend to our clients in order to perfectly configure your Google Ads account launch your first Google advertising campaign.
9 Steps to Set Up Google Ads
1. Organize your Google Ads Account
Now let’s get down to business, it’s important to organize your account if you want to get good results from your Google advertising campaigns. To do this, you will need to classify your products or services into different categories.
The Google Ads tool will offer you two levels of categorization, the “campaign” level, i.e. the general level and the “Google ad group” sub-level.
In each campaign type, you will be able to create several “ad groups”. Campaigns are then the most important categories of your business, followed by Google ad groups which you should consider as smaller and more specific categories.
For example, for a web agency in Montreal like ours, we could set up this type of Google advertising campaign:
Campaign 1: Marketing Solutions
- Google ad group 1: Natural SEO
- Google ad group 2: Google Ads Advertising Service
- Google Ad Group 3: Facebook Advertising Service
Campaign 2: Technological solutions
- Google ad group 1: Website Development
- Google Ad Group 2: Online Store Development
- Google ad group 3: Technical and IT audit
Categorizing your campaigns, ad types, ad groups, Google ads and keyword lists separately will help you avoid mistakes.
2. Set your Google Advertising Budget
With Google Ads, you can control how much you spend with two different parameters: your budget per day and your bids.
Your budget is the amount you want to spend on each Google advertising campaign per day. Your “bid” is the amount you are willing to spend on a keyword if someone searches for that term and clicks on your responsive search ad.
When you’re starting out, it might be a good idea to spread your entire overall budget (the maximum amount you want to pay for your entire account) evenly across each of your Google ad campaigns until you realize which campaign works best for your business.
When it comes to setting up your bids for your keywords, you should balance selecting a bid that allows your Google Ad to get a place you want in the Google Ad rankings, while still respecting your budget.
Now, you can choose to learn more details in the “Choose your keywords” step below, or you can read a more in-depth article on how “bid” works here .
3. Choose your Keywords for your Google Ads
The goal when choosing your keywords is to choose terms that you think people might type into the Google search bar, when they want what you have to sell.
Additionally, you want your keywords to be as relevant as possible to the search ad that they will display and to the landing page that people will be redirected to once they click on your Google ad.
To help you get started, Google Ads offers a free tool, called the Keyword Planner, which can generate sample keywords for your Google advertising campaigns (We recommend that you carefully review this list of suggestions and only use the ones that make sense to you).
In general, the more competitive a keyword is, the more expensive it will be to rank for it. When you are starting out with Google Ads, you should avoid keywords with too much competitiveness, so as not to spend your entire budget in just a few clicks.
Sticking to low to medium cost keywords can still get you a lot of exposure and it also helps you test how Google ad campaigns work.
Learn more about Google Ads Keyword Planner.
4. Define your Keyword Match Types
“Keyword match type” is a setting on Google Ads that allows you to further refine when your Google Ad appears on Google. There are 5 different options:
Broad Match:
The “broad match” option shows your Ad to searches that contain your keywords in any order, and for related terms. This setting displays your Google Ad to the widest possible audience, and it is the default setting for all Google Ad campaigns.
Broad Match Modifier:
This setting allows you to specify that certain words in your broad match keyword must appear in a user’s search to trigger your Google Ad. That is, if your keywords are “high fiber wool yarn” and you want to be sure that “wool” and “yarn” are present every time in a search, you can ensure this by adding a (+) sign before these words. So your modified broad match would be: +high fiber +wool yarn.
Phrase Match (Exact Match):
This option makes your Google Ad appear for searches that contain your exact keyword, or for searches that contain your exact keyword plus the words before or after it. (If your keyword is “wool yarn” you will also appear for “good wool yarn” or even “wool yarn for sale near me.”). To choose this setting, you will need to add quotation marks around each keyword: “wool yarn”.
Exact Match:
When you choose the “perfect match” option, your Google Ad will only appear if someone searches for the exact word or phrase you choose. For this parameter, simply add brackets around your keyword: [wool thread]
Negative Match:
This matching option allows you to exclude unwanted words or phrases so that your Google ad does not appear when they are present, as this would bring you traffic that is not your target. For example, if you sell exclusively high-end wool yarn, you might want to exclude words like “affordable” or “cheap.” It’s possible, you just need to add a sign (-) in front of each word –affordable, -cheap.
You can get more information about these types of keyword matches here.
5. Set up your Landing Page
Your landing page is the web page where your potential customers are redirected after clicking on your Google ad. You must therefore choose a relevant page based on the keywords you have chosen or in relation to your Google advertising.
Then, if your Google Ad promotes sales wool yarn, choose a landing page with ad copy where wool yarn is featured, instead of just redirecting people to the home page of your website.
6. Choose Which Devices your Google Ads will Appear On
Do your target customers primarily use desktop, mobile, or both to do their research? Are you more interested in reaching buyers when they are out and about or rather people wanting to make an immediate purchase online?
When setting up your Google Ads account, you need to be careful to define the type of customers you’re trying to reach with your ads (and even more importantly, the type of devices your target customers primarily use to shop).
For example, if you own an auto repair garage, you will try to attract people nearby who are asking for help, so in this case, consider showing your Google ads on mobile. Learn more about how Google Ads work on mobile.
7. Write your Google Ads
Your Google Ad is the first impression customers will have of your business, so be sure to communicate what you have and what people are looking for. It’s easier when your Google Ad contains the keywords the person is searching for.
This you can accomplish by dividing your campaign into clear Google Ad groups, and writing a single Google Ad for each (a feed promotion ad for your feed keywords, and a feed promotion ad crafts for your craft supplies, for example).
This will have the effect that your Google Ad will be much more relevant to your potential customers and will also possibly increase your “Quality Score”.
It’s also a good idea to include a “Call To Action” in your Google Ad: a clear and concise message telling the reader what you would like them to do after seeing your Google Ad.
These can be phrases like “buy now” or “learn more” that will make your potential customers want to click on your Google Ad. Finally, before making your ad, analyze it one last time to watch out for grammar or spelling errors.
You can also select the Performance Max campaign option that will help you create the best ad copy from the text you supplied based on Google other ads and metrics, its a handy ad extension that really gives results.
8. Connect your Account to Google Analytics
Google Analytics will allow you to know how many people have clicked on your Google ad (it’s a free tool) or interacted with your website. You don’t necessarily need to use Analytics to use Google Ads, so you’re free to move straight to the next step if you wish.
Even Google Ads can tell you how many people click on your Google Ad. Integrating Google Ads with Analytics allows you to keep tabs on what people are doing once they are on your site.
For example, if visitors arrive on your website, but they immediately leave, you may not be ad targeting the right audience or you may be taking them to the wrong part of your website. This information can therefore help you better organize your Google ads and possibly improve your marketing budget spending.
Learn more about Google Analytics here.
9. Get Started and Analyze your Data to Make Improvements Later
Good game! You are now ready to activate your Google advertising campaigns and analyze how they are performing.
Remember to frequently check which Google Ads and keywords are generating the most clicks and conversions. Once you are familiar with Google Ads, we invite you to look at the strategies that will allow you to achieve your objectives.
You can refer to this Google Ads article at any time, and there is other additional information at The Google Ads Help Guide.
Tips for Optimizing your Campaigns in 2024
Write Effective Online Ads on Google Ads
Writing a Google Ads ad is one of the key stages of your advertising campaigns. We will therefore give you some tips for successfully writing your Google Ads:
Consider Placing your Keywords in your Google Ads
Please note that Google will analyze the content of Google Ads advertising in order to classify them according to their relevance to Internet users’ searches.
If your keyword is present, first, Google will consider your Google Ads ad relevant and will therefore have a high chance of appearing. Therefore, if the content matches perfectly the user’s search, then your online display ad will most likely be clicked by them.
Encourage Users to Take Action
You must encourage Internet users to take action using imperative verbs such as: Discover, Ask, Click, Call… Most of the time, these incentive texts are placed on “Call To Action” to encourage the users to interact with your Google Ads advertising.
Highlight your Prices and Promotions
Depending on your area of expertise, it is sometimes a good idea to display the price of your products or services directly in your Google Ads.
This method protects you from the scenario where the Internet users click on your Google Ads advertising (and therefore cause you to lose money) and then leave your site, because the price was too high compared to what they expected.
This method can be attractive in two cases. The first, if you want to highlight promotions, which is great for attracting customers since you create a feeling of urgency. The second is to qualify the traffic you attract as mentioned previously, in order to give them all possible information before they click on your Google Ads advertisement.
Stand Out From the Competition!
Your business is necessarily different from the competition on certain points, so highlight them on your Google Ad. Whether it is the history of your company, your different experiences, the way you work or the origin of your products.
In each Google Ads ad group, remember to include at least three advertisements. Two text Google Ads each with 3 titles and 2 descriptions as well as a responsive ad with 14 titles and three descriptions. Also you can think about doing a Video ads, because that seems like the future of Google advertising.
This responsive Google Ads ad will allow you to establish different ad combinations of titles and descriptions in order to display the most relevant and effective Google Ads.
Take Advantage of Google’s Different Audiences
Indeed, with all the data provided by Google, you can create different types of audience according to age, the preferences of people for your products or even the purchasing intention of Internet users.
The purchasing intention is calculated according to the number of searches they may have carried out on Google related to your product!
You can also choose to target profiles close to your current customers for your Google Ads advertising. To create an audience type, go to the “Audience Management” tab to then configure a personalized segment.
Create Efficient Structures for your Google Ads Campaigns
Now that you know how to create a successful Google Ads campaign, we will see how to create a successful structure for those advertisement campaigns.
Here is an optimal structure for your Google Ads:
In your campaign, you will have access to different parameters such as: networks, languages, geographic areas, bidding strategy, distribution schedule for your Google Ads advertising or even the adjustment of bids based on devices.
In 2024, with many smart bidding strategies, the most optimal method remains to group keywords into Broad Ad Groups, while using the Google Ads ad customizer with the {KeyWord:} tag which will replace the user’s search with the triggered keyword.
Conclusion
If you would like to know more about Google Ads or wish to improve your marketing campaigns, please take a look at our Google Ads service page or simply contact us for a free consultation and personalized support to your needs and budget. We run the best web agency in Montreal we can help you for sure.
We are a digital marketing agency and we have been helping entrepreneurs and businesses for over 10 years to succeed in their digital transformation as well as to increase their conversion rates.
