Step-By-Step Guide on How to Set Up a Google Adwords Campaign

If you haven’t already signed up for Google AdWords, you’re losing money.

We’re not kidding. Google is the world’s number one search engine. By using Google AdWords, you’re putting your site in front of millions of viewers. You can customize who sees your ads based on location and demographics.

Google selects these ads via a bidding process, so you get what you pay for. But Google cares about its audience as much as you do. They won’t rank a bad ad higher than you because they have more money.

On top of that, connecting Google AdWords to Google Analytics will give you the vital information you need to perfect your SEO strategy.

So if you’re ready to boost your business, check out our guide on how to set up a Google AdWords campaign.

Learn the Basic Terms of a Google AdWords Campaign

There are a few key terms to keep in mind.

• Keyword: These are the words or phrases that people use in Google Search to find your business. Do some research to find the best keywords for you.
• Bid: This is the most money you’re willing to pay when someone clicks on your ad.
• Ad Rank: This helps you find out where your ad will appear, relative to other ads.
• Quality Score: This tells you how relevant your keywords are to your ad, and your landing page.
• CPC: This is how much you pay for each click on your ad. If it’s less than your bid, they won’t charge you the full bid price. Read more here about pay-per-click services.
• Conversion: The number of how many people click on your ad versus how many sales you get.

How to Set Up a Google Adwords Campaign :

Here is a basic guide to setting up a Google AdWords campaign. You can customize it later, but for now, let’s get the foundation.

1. Select Your Campaign Type :

Campaigns represent the bigger categories of your business. It’s the “Women’s Fashion” to the “Fashion for working women in their 30s.”

To start off, choose the “Search Network only” option. You can change these demographics later if you want.

2. Choose the Geographic Location of Your Ads :

If you run a local shop or restaurant, this is going to help you stand apart.

So if you have a pizza restaurant in Boise, Idaho then you’re competing against stores like Papa John’s. That’s pretty stiff competition.

But if you set your ad campaign to the Boise area, you could see your ad right next to Papa John’s.

You can set your area to cities, states, counties, or whole countries.

3. Select Your “Bid strategy” and Set Your Budget :

Your daily budget is the greatest amount that Google can charge you per-day. If you have a good ad, you’ll hit that amount every day.

For more control, change the default “Bid strategy” to “I’ll manually set my bids for clicks.”

You can pay for the ads up front (manual) or after people click on your ads (automatic payments).

Spread your budget over your different ad campaigns.

4. Write Your First Ads :

When you’re creating your ads use your SEO strategies. Make sure your display header is the same as your keywords. Keep it short and sweet, you only have 25-35 characters per line.

Create a few different ads based on the different aspect of your niche. Using the women’s workwear example, you can create ads for

• Adult Women’s Workwear Pants
• Adult Women’s Workwear Accessories
• Adult Women’s Workwear Pants
• Ect

Keep in mind the display URL has to be the same domain as your site. You can set the landing page to a more specific URL.

5. Insert Your Keywords :

Lucky for you, Google AdWords has an impressive Keyword Planner. Have a good mix of short-tail and long-tail keywords for the strongest searches.

This planner will also help you guess how much money you should put on each keyword. Check out this tutorial for the Google Keyword Planner.

6. Set Your Maximum Pay-Per-Click :

Set the greatest amount of money you want to pay for each click on your ad. This is your “default bid.”

If you have a small budget for your AdWords, then bid on low-cost keywords. This will help your ad get in front of more people. If your keywords are more expensive, your ad is only up for part of the day.

Keep in mind that your clicks might not equal sales. If you spend all your clicks at the beginning of the day, you’ll have fewer opportunities for sales.

7. Connect to Google Analytics :

Here’s one of the best features about using Google AdWords. You can connect your ads to Google Analytics and see which keywords are getting the most traffic.

You can use this information to improve your SEO strategies. If people click your ad but then immediately leave, your keywords might not be working. If they stick around, then that keyword is something you should integrate into your site.

8. Double Check Everything :

Before you execute your ad, review everything. Double check your spelling, your display URL, and landing pages.

Make sure your budget is set, and review the math so you don’t spend over your limit.

Run one last inspection of your keywords to make sure they’re not misspelled.

Then enter your billing information, and submit your ad campaign. Congratulations! Now you know how to set up a Google AdWords campaign!

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