Google users from all over the world can be your potential customers. They will visit your website and buy the products you’re selling. In this Google Ads tutorial, you’ll learn how to create your first AdWords campaign for your business.
Creating an ad gives you more exposure to the community and increases conversions. Otherwise, you’ll take tons of your time to rank on Google organically. So let’s get started with the basics first.
Google Ads vs AdWords: What’s Different
Google has been offering advertisers to display ads on its searches. The service was called Google AdWords. But in 2018, Google renamed AdWords to Google Ads, and they added a lot more features than just search ads.
This is an example of a few search ads for ‘best web hosting’:
In this tutorial, you’ll learn about displaying ads on Google search. So while you may be familiar with AdWords, I’ll use the new name for that, which is Google Ads. But you can also use the knowledge base to run other types of ads on Google.
Google Ads Tutorial: How to Create Your First AdWords Campaign
Let’s get started with a step-by-step guide to starting your first Google ads campaign for your business.
Get Started With Google Ads
Take a breather and don’t sweat it because it is accessible and understandable. Before starting, you should have a Google account or sign up to the Google ad word website. The real fun begins when you create your first campaign and get all those sales and profits.
1: Go to Google Ads and click on “Start Now”
To start running your ads, enter your billing information first.
For that,
- Go to settings under ‘Billing’
- Add your payment methods and manage the billing transfers.
2: Create your campaign:
And set your main goal (e.g., Conversions, store visits, brand popularity) and then on “next”.
3: Select your Google Ads campaign type:
4: Copy-paste your brand’s website, channel, or store, and then click next:
Name your Google Ads campaign now and ‘Continue’:
4: Set and evaluate your bid and budget. Go for ‘Manual CPC’ and uncheck, ‘Help increase conversion with Enhanced CPC’.
5: Uncheck search or display network ads:
6: Select the location of your target audience. And check ‘Presence’ only.
Now is the time for you to enter the relevant keywords.
7: Write your creative Ad copy. And increase your ad strength:
This does sound like a piece of cake, but how would you know what to write in ad copy? Or how to select optimization keywords? It was not an exaggeration when I said; I will hold your finger through every step. So, I dived into more to tell you about these steps.
Craft the Best Ad Copy
This is the first step toward making effective and practical ads to make conversions generate sales, leads, and much more. Now, it’s time to write the details of your ads.
This is where your research, communication, and writing skills matter the most. You can also hire a writer to make a unique and actionable ad copy. There are three headlines options available with two descriptions to make or break the deal.
Deal-makers:
- Use concise and catchy words
- Go for an engaging and friendly tone
- Include keywords that your audience use
- Use strong Call to Action words like Click, Buy, Now, Limited
Deal-Breakers:
- Write misleading information
- Sound like you’re pushing too hard
- Use a lot of click baits words (moderation is the key)
Ad copy is crucial to grab users’ attention and make them click on your landing page. Thus, use it wisely. When you are done writing the ad, place your brand’s number at the end so potential clients can contact you quickly.
Choose the Right Keywords
Optimization of websites, blogs, or social media brands are becoming popular day by day. Keyword research is one of the best ways to bring relevant traffic to your landing page. Check out the SEO for Beginners guide for in-depth keyword research ideas.
At this step, try to find as many relevant keywords as possible. You can find the keywords by using these tools and features:
- Google Trends
- Google Keywords Planner
- Ahrefs Keyword Generator
- Google search bar
- Google auto-suggestion feature.
- SERPs analysis
Check out some of the top keyword research tools available in the market right now.
The more you create the ads, the more you will know about your customers’ interests, clicks ratio, etc. Your keywords should qualify the following criteria:
- Good search volume (especially in your area)
- Related to brand
- Written on the landing page
- Long-tail keywords
Choose as many optimizing keywords as you want and then select the language of your target audience. For example, if your brand only deals in English, select English. But if you deal with Spanish and French customers too, then selecting them will give you an edge.
Target the Audience Based on Location
Location is an essential aspect of your target audience. Small brands that do not deliver everywhere should use the places they are comfortable.
- A specific target audience is great for conversions.
- A broad audience helps in recognition and trust-building.
Note: Ideally, first go for trust-building and branding your website for a better ad campaign. Then, when people do know your products go for conversions and sales.
Set and Manage Your Budget
Now, that is the step where you should evaluate your business’s cost, profit, etc. For the first ad, I recommend you go slow and low. Because that is your business’s first ad, you should consider it an experimental campaign.
It will give you an outlook on how ads work, what keyword is doing the best on Google and what needs your focus and attention.
Creating the first ad campaign is like taking a step toward the betterment of your brand. It will give you tips on being more engaging and creative, what works with your image, and whatnot.
You can also calculate your budget and bidding amount through an online keywords planner and their complete analysis. Every keyword has its bidding amount; the higher the competition, the higher its CPC (Cost-Per-Click)
Internet marketers like me love to target the high CPC keywords because they bring in the best ROI.
You need to pay for displaying ads on Google web spaces as an advertiser. There are two types of payment for Google Ads.
Manual: You can pay it before running the add
Automatic: Google will deduct the money automatically
You provide debit or credit card information in automatic payments, and Google deducts money until you stop the campaign.
Most people use automatic ways of payment. But I love going for the manual payments because then I have more control over my ads.
Review Your First Google Ads Campaign
When you are done with basic information, keywords, target audience, and payments, Google Ads will ask you to review the Google campaign. Here, you can check for grammar, spelling mistakes, keywords, and everything.
Ensure you have written everything according to the goals.
If everything is aligned with your brand’s image and target goal, click on the next step and add your billing and payment details.
Investing your time and money in a system, you don’t know is highly risky. So let’s get to know how Google Ads works.
So, How Does Google Ads Work?
Google Ads works on bidding. You choose a couple of keywords you’d like your ad to display. And you do the minimum to maximum bidding on clicks, which is called cost per click (CPC). In most auctions, the highest bidding advertisers win the Google advertising spaces.
Relevance plays an essential role in Google Ads. The more relevant your ad and landing page, the less you’ll pay for the ad. And you’ll bring in a lot of return on your ad investment.
Now at this moment, you may believe that you must pay a substantial amount of time and money to display ads. But it’s not the case. With a few tricks in Google Ads, you can make it in way less than you think.
Let’s understand the essential terms to decide on your ads accordingly.
What Affects Your Google Ads Placement
Google Ads runs on pay per click (PPC) business model. Many things are involved in the system. But two important things affect the placement of your ad.
- Highest bidding
- Creditable landing page
Although paying for every click sounds like a lot, these clicks are worth more than they cost.
For example, if you pay 5$ for a single click and that customer purchases 450$ worth of product. You will still have a fortune left.
By now, I hope you are aware of creating successful ads with the highest conversion rates. So keep following these tips and keep creating ads for your business.
How to Improve Your Google Ads?
Now that you have created your own first Google advertisement, it’s time for you to evaluate the result. That is the essential part of building your brand name and increasing conversions. I have discussed some factors below to keep in mind while improving your ads:
Go for Competitive Analysis
Evaluate the keywords used by your competitors and add them to your ad campaign. If some keywords work for them, they’ll work for you.
Analyze your competitors
Analyze the keywords that work for your impressions and those who don’t, make a list to choose actionable words.
Make Your Ad and Landing Page Mobile-Friendly
More than half of the searches on Google are on mobile today. Mobile-friendly websites and ads show up high on search result pages. It’s important to understand that most of your customers must be using their phones more than anything else.
When optimizing your website, ask yourself these questions:
- Is your landing page fast enough to load quickly
- Is it easy to navigate and take action?
After that, you’d like to test your site and get the highest green score there. Improving your load time by 0.1s can boost conversion rates by 8%.
For optimizing your ads for mobile users,
- Upgrade to the expanded text ads to enjoy more space
- Go for the right ad extensions (They show a little more information about your business)
Create a Converting Landing Page
The landing page plays an important part in your ad campaigns. It will increase the quality score of your campaign. Use the keywords of your advertisements on your landing page as well.
Pay Special Attention to Your Ad copy.
If creating your ad campaign did not work, have you tried changing the ad copy? New and improved ad copy can work wonders; it will be more engaging, creative, and valuable. It can also increase your quality score.
Boost the Quality Score
When budgeting and paying for the advertisements, you use CPC- Cost-Per-Click which can be lowered if you increase the quality score. But how would you do that?
- Grab the attention of your audience with a compelling headline
- Let them know why your business or offer is unique
- Use a strong CTA (Call to Action)
- Rotate multiple ad variations
If you have an entire ad group, Google automatically shows the best ads. That’s why I recommend rotating 2 to 4 ad variations with different headlines and copies.
CPC depends on the quality score. In contrast, quality score depends on specific keywords, landing page, credibility, and expected click-through rate. In other words, if you want to maximize Google AdWords, you should increase quality scores.
Check out the ultimate guide to target your audience with Quora Ads as well.
I hope this Google Ads tutorial helps you get started quickly with what was known as AdWords before. I’ve presented all the information in an easy and actionable way. Let me know if you’ve any questions.
