Google Ads 101: The Ultimate Beginners Guide

Running an effective Google Ad Campaign requires more than just setting up an account and choosing a few keywords.

It requires careful planning, targeting, and optimization to ensure that the right people see your ads and generate the desired results.

What is Google Ads? 

Google Ads is an online advertising network developed by Google that enables companies to show ads to consumers conducting online product or service searches.

It uses a pay-per-click (PPC) business model, so advertisers only pay when users click on their advertisement.

Businesses may use Google Ads to generate a variety of advertising, including search ads, display ads, video ads, and app ads, and target those ads based on things like geography, demographics, interests, and keywords.

The platform offers a variety of tools to assist companies with managing and optimizing their advertising campaigns, including the capacity to create budgets, monitor conversions, and change bids in real-time.

Businesses have a strong means of reaching their target market using Google AdWords, which also helps to boost website traffic and generate leads or sales.

Most chances are you already know what Google Ads is, at least an idea since you are searching on how to create profitable Google Ad campaigns.  

But there is always more to unpack, and it is important to lay grounds for a better understanding of this to optimize it. 

Google Ads is the paid advertising platform that works on the PPC ( Pay-per-Click) advertising or marketing channel. 

Advertisers, whether you, the small businesses or any seller, sometimes the marketers are supposed to pay only for the click made on the advertisement placed. 

Image Source: Hootsuite blog

Sometimes, it also works on the model of CPM, which means Click per impression or say, views. 

It has been an effective way of marketing or advertising the products online using the paid search marketing. 

When most of the world is on the internet, Google becomes the place where every potential buyer meets the seller. 

Image Source: NP

Organic traffic and paid search marketing are the two key components that play major roles in assuring that the right buyer meets the relevant sellers and vice versa. 

Google Ads is a highly effective and efficient advertising method to drive targeted traffic to your website. 

It allows you to find the right customer for your business while they are searching for the relevant products or services that you are selling.

Not just that, since Google Ads bring heavy traffic to your website, it also allows more engagement and a broader reach of your brand.  

Image Source: Instapage

With more ads, you are more likely to get higher sales, more product inquiries, phone orders, and in-store visits as well. 

What you are basically doing with Google Ads is creating various ad campaigns to feature ads placed on the Google SERPs ( Search engine result pages). 

Your ad will appear on only those SERPs from the relevant keywords you optimize your ad with. 

So only the relevant people who already search for the products or services you’re selling come across your ads, making more sense for them to click and buy. 

Image Source: Wordstream

You also need to remember that Google Ads can further expand on other platforms and across different channels such as Blogger, YouTube, and Google Display Network. 

These Google Ad campaigns are highly customizable and offer you various features to work with. 

Remember, you can start or pause these Ad campaigns anytime you want. 

Since it only cuts costs from your balance payment only when someone clicks on your ads. 

Why Should You Advertise On Google? 

Well, to begin with, Google is just the largest, most prominent, and most highly used search engine, receiving more than 5 billion search queries in just a day. 

Now what means people are there, and people are the potential business customers? 

Image Source: V12Data

So you as a business owner never get shortage on that aspect. The potential is limitless with Google as an advertising platform for reaching out to buying-intent customers. 

Google is the global resource for people to find products, ask questions, purchase online, and much more. 

According to Google, advertisers make $8 for every $1 spent on Google Ads. 

It is easier to advertise on Google with higher ROI than any other digital or traditional platform. 

How Does Google AdWords Work? 

There was a time when anyone could bid on any keyword they wanted. 

So there wasn’t much relevance factor between what was being searched and what was advertised. 

Then, Quality Score (QS) came in! We ve already mentioned how crucial a factor it is for how good or bad the quality of the keyword is. 

Now, you need to understand what and how metrics work with AdWords. 

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Each and every keyword comes with its own Quality Score (QS). Different quality scores come from the determining factor – relevancy. 

It is about how relevant the result is to what has been searched as a keyword. The relevance is also comparative, depending upon what you are comparing with. 

The same keyword can have different quality scores corresponding to another key term or term. 

The second factor must be the CTR (Click-through Rate) of the keywords, both expected and earlier. 

How many people are viewing your ad or seeing your ad is different from how many of them clicked on it. 

And this view of your ad gets called “impression.” 

So how many clicks you get on your ad the respect to how many people have seen your ad tells you a lot about your ad and other factors. 

The calculator of clicks to respect the views is called Click-through Rates (CTR). 

Image Source: Zero Limit Web

The higher CTR of any ad means that your keyword relevancy is better than the lower CTR assuming the copy and other involved factors are great. 

Google checks out the history of CTR and further forecasts an expected one to find out how well your advertisement is more likely to match with searches on the web. 

You need to understand the history of the CTR and the predicted one; both are essential figures for your ad campaign. 

Google Adwords also offers a guided tour to create your ad campaign when you first sign up. 

Make sure you already decide : 

  • What will your ad campaign be? 
  • What particular product or service will you be promoting? 
  • Who is your target audience? 
  • Do you have a basic idea of some relevant keywords or search terms? 
  • Have you thought about what your ad group is? 

You get three different options for matching keywords in your PPC ad to the search queries of your potential user. 

Broad Match 

The broad match keywords are the default option in Google AdWords. They particularly target your ads with similar search terms using the Google Algorithm. 

It is very broad, so you can use the modifier to specify at some level and reduce the generalization. 

Exact Match 

The exact Match is pretty much as the name suggests. They are the keywords targeting only the search terms quite identical to your primary keyword.  

It even allows misspellings, changes in the spacing of the words in the phrase, and the plural versions as well.

Phrase Match

Phrase Match particularly targets search terms or queries from the target users, including a particular phrase or close variations. 


How Does Google Ads Generate Responsive Search Ads

Google Ads generates responsive search ads using a combination of machine learning and user-provided content.

First, advertisers provide multiple headlines and descriptions for their ads. Then, Google’s machine learning algorithms analyze these elements and test different combinations to determine which ones perform best for different search queries and audiences.

The machine learning system considers various factors such as relevance, performance history, and user intent to deliver the most effective ad for each search query.

Responsive search ads are designed to adapt to various device sizes and formats, allowing them to display more prominently on a wider range of devices.

By constantly testing and optimizing ad content, responsive search ads can help advertisers improve their ad performance and reach their target audience more effectively.

How Does a Landing Page play a role in Google AdWords

Another essential factor that plays a crucial role in running ads is your landing page, which is very well a benefactor in the success of these Google Ads. 

Even if you get people to click on your ad, the deciding factor remains where they will go once they click on the ad link. 

Image Source: LanderApp

It has to be a landing page, your website that again has to be very relevant and expected to whatever the user searches for and clicks on. 

If the landing page gives anything other than what is expected, irrelevant, or even underwhelming, they are more likely to leave the page. 

Ensure the landing page is user-friendly and easy to grasp on whatever it is communicating to the user.

It has to be scannable and easy to read. 

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You need to realize that if anything feels tough to understand for the audience, navigation is off or seems sketchy, people will leave, ending up a bounce for your ad, not conversion. 

And, too many people bouncing means a higher bounce rate signaling Google that there is something wrong with the ad or the relevancy to the targeted audience. 

Step-By-Step Guide To Create A Profitable Google Ad Campaign

how to create profitable google ad campaign

Figuring Out Whether There Is A Customer Demand

Adwords can really work when you have a demand for your product in Google search. 

if there are not enough potential customers searching for your product or customers who are not preferring to search on Google, then obviously, AdWord won’t work for you. 

So, before you start working and expecting out Google Ad to be the magic potion for your business to grow, ensure the customer demand. 

It is easy to find out what people are searching for these days or whether a particular topic is hot on the web or not. 

Image Source: Keyword Tool 

You use Keyword Planner from Google AdWord to do your own free keyword research. 

Keyword research allows you to see what terms people are searching for or what search terms have how many search volumes. 

It will also help you out finding other relevant key phrases. 

Here are some key things you need to look at through the keyword research : 

  • What is the search volume of your primary keyword/topic? 
  • What are the search volumes of the other related keywords? 
  • How much is the SEO difficulty? 
  • What is the paid difficulty of the keyword(s)? 
  • How much is CPC on the keyword(s)? 

To know this information easily, another free keyword research tool highly suggested is Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest. 

Image Source: NP

You would basically learn about the popularity of your key topic, the competition you will get, and how easy or difficult it will be going to rank on it. 

Another aspect you should consider is the people who this traffic will drive and whether they will buy your product. 

That brings another crucial part of this process to check- The intent of the keywords. You have seen that the keyword intent should be buying; only it will benefit you. 

In addition, see whether you can leverage information to offer a product or what potential solution (your product)  you can provide to this target area. 

Create And Set up A Google Ad Account 

To create and set up a Google Ad Account, make sure you first have or create one. 

Using a different, dedicated, or business-focussed Google account is better to make things easier for you to manage.

Once you got your account, go to www.ads.google.com and Sign in. 

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After signing in, you will get a question prompted at you asking, “What’s your main advertising goal”?

Then you will provide your business name and website. 

Now, make sure you have a fully-functioning website and landing page ready to link your ads to. 

Image Source: Everest Agency 

Because once you set up your account, Google will scan your website to get more details and also verify if it is a real business. 

Once it is scanned and verified, you will see the window above. From there, you need to click “Next,” which will lead you to the option to create your first campaign. 

And it further allows you to create your Google Ad account with some more prompted windows and fill-ups. 

You also will be asked to confirm the business information. 

Well, this is very important as you won’t be able to change this information in the future, so make sure you fill in the right information. 

See Whether You Afford To Bid For Top Keywords Against Your Competitor 

Before you create the keyword list for your campaign, you need to ensure that you can go ahead with it. 

Lot of small business owners make this mistake of going after the top keywords and then within a few days of the ad running up; they decide to put it down. 

Why? Because they came to know they bite more than they can chew. 

Image Source: Wishpond Blog

Since the competition is high on the keywords, and so is the CPC, they are bleeding out money from their business possibly not bringing many results for different reasons. 

And Now, they cannot keep it up and running long enough to bear the fruits. You do have to see whom you are competing with. 

If they are giant corporations, well, they are more than okay with opening floodgates of money to push out everywhere, ruling over many top keywords.  

But you, on the other hand, have to think about it. 

So, how do you figure out whether advertising on these top keywords is affordable for you or not? 

You need to pull out a comparison between two figures, one being your business’s Maximum CPC and other is the estimated CPC of the keyword. 

Image source: SEJ

Make sure your maximum CPC is always greater or at least somewhat greater than the estimated keyword CPC. 

howto calculate maximum cpc

To calculate your Maximum CPC, find out : 

  • The conversion rate of your website 
  • Profit per customer 
  • Target Ad profit margin

Here’s the formula to calculate your Maximum CPC : 

Max CPC: Profit per customer X  (1 – Profit margin) x website conversion rate 

For Example, if you’re an average profit per customer is $500 and your conversion rate is 1% and you are comfortable with 30 percent profit margins, 

Here’s how you can calculate your Max CPC 

Max CPC = $500 X (1-30) X 1% = $3.50 

So, now you can choose the keywords with CPC somewhat around your maximum $3.50 but not more than that. 

In case you want to go for a keyword with an estimated CPC $8, now you can increase your Max CPC, and to increase that, you either increase profit per customer or your conversion rate. 

Selecting The Right Keywords For Your Campaign 

Once you know how much you can afford to spend on your ad, you have your ad budget in your hand. 

The next crucial step you need to optimize to make your ad campaign profitable is picking a keyword.

You can find the popular keyword research tool that Google Adwords offers, called Google Keyword Planner.

Image Source: Ahrefs

Start searching for the terms that come to your mind related to your product or service.

Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and consider what your potential customer will search for.

Do not overthink of analyze because people search; they don’t ponder on it. Usually, the search terms are two or three words, so start from there. 

Type all the search terms you can think of. Further, it asks you to set your product category, so find it and set the right one. 

Set the country and language you are targeting as well. 

Image Source: Ahrefs

You can use the filtration options to filter out keywords or terms accordingly. Choose what kind of keyword or terms you don’t want as well. 

After hitting the “Get Ideas” button, you will see it offering you different keyword ideas. 

Check the “keyword ideas” tab to see the list of all the potential keywords you can target. 

You also will be seeing their average monthly searches and suggested bids as well. 

Now you have to aim for the keywords that give you more results in less spent money. 

Image Source: Ahrefs

Aim for keywords that have more monthly searches and cost you less on average. This can be a great start to your ad campaign. 

You can also use MOZ’s Keyword Explorer, a paid SEO tool, to find more keywords with extensive details and features. 

On the other hand, SEMrush is also a great tool for keyword research and added features for spying on your competition. 

Image source: MOZ

Remember, that keyword research is a huge deal and an extensive process with a learning curve. 

It takes time, tools, investment, and expertise to throw it off the park for your ad campaign. 

tips selecting right keywords for ad campaign

Keywords Are Based on Three Different Factors: 

What Users Have Been Searching Already 

  According to Google Analytics, you can figure out what users are searching already on your site, so you can provide them with that exactly. 

You can optimize your ad campaign according to that for better results. 

The Seasonality Of The Keywords 

There are certain keywords that work the best or are only active, heavily searched on the web around a particular event, few weeks or even a few months, such as Super Bowl. 

You can always use this opportunity to reach maximum audience by leveraging seasonality-based keywords for your ads. 

Use Google Trends, a platform offered by Google itself where you can see what people have been searching for. 

You can see what people, places, topics anre locations are the most popular in the search and social media. 

Image Source: Shane Barker

Leverage the popularity of the keywords to make your ads reach to all the relevant audiences. 

There are three primary match types you need to know on Google Adwords : 

  1. Broad: Any word or term related to you’ve selected  
  2. Phrase:  Words that being used in the phrase 
  3. Exact:  Exact word selected

You need to find the right mix of these keywords for your ad campaign. 

Choosing too many of one can either increase your budget unnecessarily or bring down your results.

Google Ad Campaigns Tips, Strategies, And Best Practises:

pro tips strategies for google ad campaign

Using a PPC Planning Template

Image Source: Hubspot Blog

It is easy to get derailed from your Google ad campaign projects, especially when you aren’t much aware of how it goes.

There are various Planning templates available on the web that you can download to make your journey easier. 

It helps you stay on your course and tells you what steps to take and how to move forward. You will be more efficient in managing your ad campaigns from one place. 

Never Use Broad Keywords Terms 

Since keywords are an integral aspect of Google Ad campaigns, you really need to nail it down. 

Ensure you keep testing and tweaking your PPC marketing strategy and Google Ad campaign. 

You can definitely try all kinds of relevant keywords but if you are choosing the keywords that are too broad, it will only dilute the overall relevancy. 

Image Source: SEW

Selecting broader keywords makes your ad reach out to an irrelevant audience or the wrong audience, that means less number of clicks and higher expenditure on the ads. 

If your Google Ad campaign is bleeding money and doesn’t bring good news oftentimes, broader keywords can be one of the hideous villains behind it. 

That’s why you also need to always keep reviewing your current staratey. See what keywords you are using. 

On top of that, review what works and bring you results. See what keywords are behind that success and bring the most of those using mix and match.

It is essential to keep adding, changing, removing keywords from your keyword mix to see what combinations are working best. 

Don’t Run Ads That Are Irrelevant 

If you are running ads that are irrelevant to your audience or targeted audience, you aren’t going to get many clicks. 

Your ads need to match the user’s intent; even the intention of purchasing, information, or other intents are essential in this part. 

Whatever ad you’re creating, the header, ad copy, graphics, keywords, and the solution you are providing should be something the searcher is looking for, otherwise, it is a dead fish. 

Make your ads more related, relevant, and to the point. Something that is highly dedicated to the particular audience you are targeting.  

Improve Your QS ( Quality Score)

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The QS, the quality score, is something Google determines the ad’s ranking. 

You need to make sure that you get high QS, so it gets a better ranking and better placements on the Google SERPs as well. 

If you have a low-quality score, it means there will be fewer impressions on your ads, so low reachability and a lesser chance for conversion. 

Google suggests the Quality Score is always improving and going up. 

You Need To Optimize Your Ad Landing Page 

When you place your ad on Google, and any user clicks on it, they will reach a certain Ad landing page. 

This is a crucial part of the sales funnel, the product page where you must convince them to buy the product even more. 

The aim of this page is to provide required information about the product, how it can benefit them, what more they are getting, and basically anything and everything you can say to sell your product. 

Image Source: NP

Further, the objective here is to take your potential customer to the next checkout page. 

However, sometimes people often directly plugin the checkout page at the Google Ad. 

That is not advisable because customers do need enough information and persuasion to go through the checkout page. 

So, first of all, ensure you have your landing page with an ideal ad copy or sales pitch. 

Google Ads Key Terminology 

Bidding 

Google Ads is a PPC ad platform based on a bidding system. The advertiser selects the maximum bid amount they are willing to pay for the click on their ad. 

So if you want better ad placement and so higher conversion, you must be willing to bid higher. 

There are three options available for bidding : 

  • CPC:  The most common bidding option is Cost-per-Click, where you will be charged every time someone clicks on your ad.
  • CPM: This bidding option is called Cost per Mille, or per thousand impressions, where you must pay for every click on an ad shown to every thousand people.
  • CPE: CPE is cost per engagement, where you will be charged when someone takes predetermined action after clicking your ad. 

Keywords

Keywords are an integral part of Google Ad campaigns. You cannot pull off an ad campaign without understanding the Keywords and how they function. 

When any user types a particular search term or query on Google, it also shows the results according to the keyword and searcher’s intent. 

These are the keywords that define what a searcher is looking for and for what purpose. 

For example, some keywords can explain searchers looking for a product to buy now, whereas some keywords are more to get information. 

Keywords are used to target the potential customer to the advertiser who wants to sell the products. 

It also helps optimize the ad to increase its reachability and higher ROI on Google Ads. 

CTR ( Click-Through-Rate) 

Your CTR is the number of clicks you get on your ad as a comparison or proportion to the number of views you get. 

It is essential you know about the CTR when you are dealing with ad campaigns on Google Ads. 

Also, higher CTR means high-quality ads and high-quality ads that match with search intent or buying intent users to the targeted and relevant keywords. 

Campaign Type

Image Source: SEJ 

You must choose one of the three campaign types from the search display or video. 

You can choose the campaign type when you start creating the paid campaign. 

There are campaign types : 

  • Search Ads: These are the text ads displayed in Google’s search result pages.
  • Display Ads: These ads are usually image-based and often shown on the various web pages of the Google Display Network. 
  • Video Ads:  These kinds of ads are somewhere from six to fifteen seconds and appear on Youtube.  

Display Network 

Google Ads are usually displayed on Google’s search result pages or the web pages of Google Display Network (GDN). 

GDN is basically a network of various websites allowing space to display the Google Ads where these ads can be text or image. 

These ads often present the content relevant to the targetted keywords. One of Google’s most popular display network ads is its shopping ads and app campaigns. 

How to Generate Leads in Google Local Services Ads

To generate leads in Google Local Services Ads, businesses should:

  1. Set up a Google Local Services Ads account and complete their profile with accurate and detailed information about their business.
  2. Choose the services they want to advertise and the areas they want to target.
  3. Optimize their profile for local search by including relevant keywords in their business description, service offerings, and reviews.
  4. Encourage customers to leave reviews on their Google My Business page, which can improve their ranking in local search results.
  5. Respond promptly to customer inquiries and requests for quotes to build trust and establish a positive reputation.
  6. Monitor their campaign performance regularly and adjust as needed to improve their results.

How Does Google Display Ads Grow Marketing Results for Advertisers

Google Display Ads can grow marketing results for advertisers by increasing reach, offering targeted advertising, providing visual appeal, and being cost-effective.

How much does it cost to run a Google Ad Campaign?

The cost of running a Google Ad Campaign varies depending on a number of factors, such as the type of campaign, the competition for your target keywords, and your budget. Google Ad Campaigns use a pay-per-click (PPC) model, which means you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. You can set a daily budget for your campaign and adjust your bids to control your costs.

How do I know if my ads are performing well?

To track the performance of your ads, you can use the reporting tools provided by Google Ads. You can monitor metrics such as clicks, impressions, click-through rates (CTR), and conversion rates to see how your ads are performing. You can also set up conversion tracking to measure the number of conversions or sales generated by your ads.

Can I target specific locations with my ads?

Yes, you can target specific locations with your ads, such as countries, regions, cities, or even custom-defined areas. This allows you to reach audiences in specific geographic areas and adjust your bidding and ad copy accordingly.

How do I choose the right keywords for my campaign?

To choose the right keywords for your campaign, start by researching your target audience and their search behavior. Use keyword research tools to identify relevant and high-volume keywords, and consider using long-tail keywords that are more specific to your products or services. Choose keywords that are relevant to your ad group and landing page, and use keyword match types to control how your ads are triggered.

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