{"id":4458,"date":"2021-02-26T14:30:32","date_gmt":"2021-02-26T06:30:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.heroesofdigital.com\/my\/?p=4458"},"modified":"2021-10-06T16:57:15","modified_gmt":"2021-10-06T08:57:15","slug":"google-ads-campaign-setup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heroesofdigital.com\/my\/sem\/google-ads-campaign-setup\/","title":{"rendered":"The Beginner\u2019s Guide to The Google Ads Campaign Setup Process"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google Ads, also known as Google AdWords, is an SEM<\/a><\/u> platform used by millions of businesses. It\u2019s one of the quickest ways to reach your target market and start generating sales or leads. Thanks to its keyword targeting and an arsenal of tools and settings, it tends to give us advertisers the results we want. In this resource, we\u2019re going to go through the Google Ads campaign setup process in \u201cexpert mode\u201d, with all features and settings.<\/p>\n

Beginners often get stumped during this process. It can be confusing. As an example, how can one choose a bid strategy if he is not familiar with them? We\u2019ll do our best to educate you about the choices you\u2019ll be making, not just instruct you to make a choice.<\/p>\n

You won\u2019t be a PPC expert after mastering this Google Ads setup process but you will be on the way to becoming one since you\u2019ll understand the essential parts of a successful campaign.<\/p>\n

Part A: Beginning the Process in the Google Ads Setup \u201cWizard\u201d<\/h2>\n

You\u2019ll start off with a \u201cwizard\u201d or guided Google Ads campaign setup. We\u2019ve divided it into different sections and numbered the steps you\u2019ll need to take in each one. However, first you need to create a Google account if you don\u2019t have one already. You cannot create a Google Ads account without a Google account. If you have a Gmail account, you can use that. Or you can create a Google account at accounts.google.com\/signup\/.<\/p>\n

Now we can sign up for an Ads account.<\/p>\n

Signing up for a Google Ads account<\/h3>\n

1. Sign up<\/h4>\n

Head over to ads.google.com<\/a><\/u> and click on sign in<\/em> or start now<\/em>. \"Sign<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Sign In and Switch to Expert Mode<\/h4>\n

Sign in with your Google account but do not<\/u> click next<\/em>. Instead, click Switch to Expert Mode<\/em>, near the bottom of the page. That\u2019s right, we\u2019re removing the training wheels!<\/p>\n

\"switch<\/p>\n

Goals and Conversion Actions<\/h3>\n

1. Select a Goal<\/h4>\n

Each campaign in your Google Ads account has one goal. The goal indicates how Google should measure success. Each goal is compatible with certain campaign types and tends to work best for audiences who are in a specific stage of the buying cycle or buyer\u2019s journey<\/a><\/u>. Read on to find out more.<\/p>\n

\"selecting<\/p>\n

Sales: <\/strong>This is for businesses that primarily want quick, revenue-generating transactions, whether they\u2019re on the website, in a physical store, or elsewhere. This goal is not<\/u> for \u201clead generation,\u201d when there is a sales process before the transaction happens. You should select this goal when you expect the consumer to make a purchase before interacting with any representatives.<\/p>\n

Buying Cycle Compatibility: Decision stage (or consideration stage, in some cases)<\/p>\n

Leads:<\/strong> This goal is for campaigns that include a consultation or some kind of personalised communication with a representative. It can also be used for campaigns that aim to generate specific actions on the website, such as email list subscriptions or document downloads.<\/p>\n

Buying Cycle Compatibility: Decision stage<\/p>\n

Website Traffic:<\/strong> This goal simply aims to get traffic to your website. It\u2019s not a good one to choose if you\u2019re looking for a strong ROAS (return on ad spend) but it could be a good choice if you need awareness.<\/p>\n

Buying Cycle Compatibility: Awareness<\/p>\n

Product & Brand Consideration (Not available for search campaigns):<\/strong> Another goal that isn\u2019t really geared towards generating immediate revenue, this one uses video and display campaigns to encourage people to consider your products or services.<\/p>\n

Buying Cycle Compatibility: Awareness or Consideration<\/p>\n

Brand Awareness & Reach (Not available for search campaigns):<\/strong> As the name suggests, this goal aims to make your audience more aware of your brand. It tends to maximise the reach of your campaign, meaning more people will see your ads. Many are likely to be in the awareness stage of the buying cycle, which means ROI won\u2019t be immediate. Though, targeting consumers early can strengthen performance at later stages in the cycle. Develop a strategy to continue communicating with people who learn about your brand during an awareness campaign.<\/p>\n

Buying Cycle Compatibility: Awareness<\/p>\n

App Promotion (Not available for search campaigns):<\/strong> This goal is specifically for app creators. It encourages app installs and engagement.<\/p>\n

Buying Cycle Compatibility: Any (Many app campaigns encourage impulse installs, where people install free or low-price apps on a whim because they look so cool, useful, or fun!)<\/p>\n

Store Visits:<\/strong> Tracks consumers using their mobile phone location to find out if seeing an ad led them to visit a physical store. More information here<\/a><\/u>. You must speak to a Google representative to start using this goal.<\/p>\n

2. Choose the Search<\/em> Campaign Type<\/h4>\n

There are 5 campaign types: search, display, shopping, video, and discovery. This resource focuses on the search<\/em> campaign type. Search campaigns show text ads, without any images, at the top and bottom of search engine results pages, as shown in the image below.<\/p>\n

\"google<\/p>\n

3. Select Conversion Actions<\/h4>\n

\"google<\/p>\n

Select the actions you will count on. Choosing these will change your setup process a little bit, based on your specific needs. For example, if you want to receive phone calls from potential new clients or customers, select phone calls<\/em> and Google will prompt you to enter your business phone number.<\/p>\n

Set Up Conversion Tracking (but Take Your Time)<\/h3>\n

Google will now ask you to set up conversion tracking, which is how you\u2019ll track and log important interactions with your market. Usually, \u201cconversions\u201d refers to purchases, signups, or other important actions.<\/p>\n

Without conversion tracking, measuring your performance in a meaningful way might be difficult. Take your time with this, as it can be tricky but is an important step. Plan on revisiting it before you start running ads.<\/p>\n

Click \u201cinstallation options\u201d. If you have access to your website\u2019s CMS and feel comfortable adding some code to the <head> section, click on install tracking code yourself<\/em> and get it done. If you\u2019re not comfortable doing this alone, you can click email instructions to your webmaster<\/em> and send the instructions to someone who can do it for you.<\/p>\n

\"conversion<\/p>\n

Before you click continue<\/em>, make a mental note that there are several ways to manage conversion tracking and you\u2019ll need to take some time to study them. One of the ways is by using Google Tag Manager, which many advertisers prefer. It uses a \u201cconversion linker tag\u201d instead of a tracking code.<\/p>\n

Measureschool does a good job of explaining Tag Manager\u2019s benefits here<\/a><\/u> and teaching how to set it up here<\/a><\/u>. In addition to viewing those, we recommend carefully reading Set up conversion tracking for your website<\/a><\/u><\/em> to familiarise yourself with the different ways you can gather useful data.<\/p>\n

Once conversion tracking is set up, you can look in your Google Ads account to make sure the correct conversion actions are being logged. Go to Tools & Settings > Measurement > Conversions<\/em>. In the Include in Conversions<\/em> column, conversion actions with the value \u201cYes\u201d are being counted in your data. Those with the value \u201cNo\u201d are not being counted except in All conv<\/em> tallies.<\/p>\n

\"conversion<\/p>\n

If you need to give a conversion action the \u201cNo\u201d value so that it won\u2019t be counted, click on the conversion action title (in blue text) and then click EDIT SETTINGS<\/em>. Scroll down to Include in \u201cConversions\u201d<\/em>, click the dropdown arrow, and then deselect the box. Do the same if you need to give an action the \u201cYes\u201d value, except select the box instead of deselecting it.\"excluding<\/p>\n

Many advertisers search their keywords, click their ads (which costs a little bit of money), and then follow through with a conversion action to make sure everything functions correctly. Keep in mind that you won\u2019t be able to see your ad if your settings don\u2019t allow it. If you\u2019re not targeting your own location, you usually won\u2019t see your ad, for example. Temporarily change your location targeting settings to do a test conversion, in that case.<\/p>\n

Defining General Settings<\/h3>\n

1. Campaign Name, Networks & Expanded Options<\/h4>\n

At this point, Google asks us to determine some of the structural elements of our campaign.<\/p>\n

Enter a campaign name that represents your strategy. For example, the locations you plan to target and the products or brands your advertising can be included in it. You can also include any scheduling or settings you\u2019d like to use in your campaign name.<\/p>\n

Then, deselect Include Google Display Network<\/em>. It\u2019s generally recommended to exclude the display network from search campaigns because including it makes analysing your data more complicated. If you want to create display ads, create a separate campaign for them.<\/p>\n

\"excluding<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2. Language & Locations<\/h4>\n

Select the regions in which you would like to show ads. You can enter countries, states, cities, or zip codes. You can also select advanced search<\/em> to add locations in bulk or select a radius around a city or zip code.<\/p>\n

\"google<\/p>\n

To make sure your ads don\u2019t appear to people who are in a region, you can exclude locations by clicking on them and then clicking exclude<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"location<\/p>\n

Enter the language of your advertisements, landing pages, and keywords. It should all be in the same language.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Selecting a language doesn\u2019t automatically translate your ads or anything like that. It will just make sure people who speak the language are the ones who see your ads. For example, we\u2019ve selected English. Now our ads will be shown to people who have English set as their language in Google\u2019s settings. The selection should match the language of all your advertising collateral.<\/p>\n

3. Select Audiences<\/h4>\n

Audiences can help to restrict the users who see your ads to people who are more likely to be interested in your products. There\u2019s no need to select one. We recommend trying your campaign without audience targeting at first. Test an audience after a month or two if your performance isn\u2019t meeting your standards. Also, think about setting up a remarketing campaign.<\/p>\n

For more information, read our in-depth audience targeting guide here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

4. Budget & Bidding<\/h4>\n

Since we don\u2019t know which keywords we\u2019ll bid on yet, enter a placeholder for your budget. Go with a small amount. We\u2019ll instruct you on how to calculate your actual budget later.<\/p>\n

Go ahead to the Bidding<\/em> section and select your bid strategy. For an in-depth comparison of all the Google Ads bidding strategies see our resource here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can click show more settings<\/em> to have a look at the 3 options within. Usually, you won\u2019t need to adjust these but do so as needed. They are as follows:<\/p>\n

Conversions:<\/strong> Allows you to set a specific conversion action to track within this campaign instead of using the conversion settings at the account level.<\/p>\n

Ad schedule:<\/strong> Allows you to avoid showing ads during specific timeframes. For example, when nobody is available at your office to answer a call.<\/p>\n

Ad rotation:<\/strong> When the default setting (i.e. Optimise: Prefer best performing ads)<\/em> is chosen, Google will automatically show the ads that work best more than the other ads. The best-performing ad is chosen based on your bid strategy. If you\u2019ve chosen maximise clicks<\/em> (or selected that you want to \u201cfocus on\u201d clicks), Google will show the ad with the best click-through rate more than the others, for example.<\/p>\n

5. Ad Extensions<\/h4>\n

You don\u2019t need to finalise your extensions right now. You can add them later, after you\u2019ve chosen your keywords. But let\u2019s try to put a few in place. It\u2019s recommended that you follow best practices.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Use at least 4 types of extensions when possible.<\/li>\n
  2. Use as many of each type as you can as long as they encourage the right actions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    You can find out more about ad extensions here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

    But for a quick overview, these are commonly used extensions:<\/p>\n

    Location extensions<\/strong> display your physical business address so that consumers can easily navigate to you. They also link to your business listing so that people can see your reviews, photos, and other information.<\/p>\n

    \"location<\/p>\n

    Affiliate location extensions<\/strong> help consumers find stores that sell your products. These are for brick-and-mortar retailers, not e-commerce stores.<\/p>\n

    Callout extensions<\/strong> are short, simple phrases that encourage people to click your ad. Advertisers use callouts to mention their accolades (e.g. a marketing agency might use \u201cGoogle Ads Partner\u201d) or special offerings (e.g. \u201cFree Shipping on All Orders\u201d).<\/p>\n

    \"Google<\/p>\n

    Call Extensions<\/strong> display your phone number or a phone number that forwards to your business. These are clickable so that users can call you directly from the ad. They\u2019re a good choice for businesses with sales teams. However, if you use these, you might want to limit your ad schedule to hours when someone is available to answer the phone at your office<\/p>\n

    \"Google<\/p>\n

    Sitelink Extensions<\/strong> link to pages of your website. They\u2019re great for taking up space on the search engine results page (valuable real estate) but the pages they link to need to be high quality or your conversion rates may suffer. Try to link to pages that might encourage visitors to complete a conversion or upsell them. A page full of relevant testimonials, for example, or one about your team\u2019s impressive achievements (if you\u2019re a service provider) might be good ideas.<\/p>\n

    \"Google<\/p>\n

    Price Extensions<\/strong> list products and their prices so that people can see what you\u2019re offering. They don\u2019t show images like Google Shopping ads, however. If you offer a wide range of products, make sure this kind of extension is added to the appropriate ad group so that you're not trying to sell something to someone who is looking for something completely different.<\/p>\n

    \"Price<\/p>\n

    App Extensions<\/strong> encourage people to download your app. They show your app logo, its reviews, its title, and a brief description. Of course, this extension is only an option if you offer an app.<\/p>\n

    Structured Snippet Extensions<\/strong> organise and display lists in the following categories:<\/p>\n