How to run Google Ads: setting up a first campaign
Google Ads puts you above the search results for people already looking for what you sell. Here is how to set up a first campaign.
How do Google Ads work?
In a search ad you pick a keyword, and when someone searches for it your ad appears above the results. You pay for the click, not for being shown. When several companies advertise on the same keyword, the order is decided by an auction. That auction counts your bid and also how relevant the ad is to the search.
So setup comes down to two things: the ad showing on the right searches, and measuring whether the person who clicked became a sale.
Set up conversion tracking first
Before you launch a campaign you have to tell Google Ads what counts as success. A form submission, a phone call and a click to WhatsApp are each defined as a separate conversion.
If you skip this step the system only sees clicks and tries to get more of them. With conversions defined, it shifts the budget to the searches that bring customers.
The campaign and its keywords
Choose a search campaign for your first one. Limit the target area to where you actually work. Start with keywords close to a purchase: the name of the service together with "price", "company" or the city.
Every keyword has a match type. Broad match shows the ad on many searches considered related and can spread the budget quickly. Phrase and exact match are narrower and easier to control. On a small budget it is safer to start narrow.
The search terms report and negative keywords
After the campaign has run for a few days, open the search terms report. It shows which searches triggered your ad and how much was spent on each. Add searches that will never become customers, such as "free", "how to" or "salary", as negative keywords.
Repeat this check every week. Most of the wasted spend in an ad account shows up in this report.
The page after the ad, and the sum
The person who clicks should land on a page about what they searched for. A visitor sent to the home page leaves when they cannot find it. The page should show the service, what the price depends on and one clear next step. We build that kind of page as part of our web design work.
The number to look at each week is this: cost per customer = spend ÷ customers gained. The click count says little on its own. We explain where ads sit in the wider budget in how to build an advertising strategy. Setting up the account and looking after it weekly is what our Google Ads service does.