What is Google Ads?

Have you ever wondered how some businesses always seem to appear at the top of Google search results?

It’s not magic, it’s Google Ads, and in this article, we’ll create a Google Ads campaign from start to finish.

We’ll cover everything you need to do on Google Ads so that you can get your business in front of the right customers.

What Is Google Ads?

“What Is Google Ads” is often asked by business owners who are learning about online marketing tools.

Google Ads is a powerful tool that lets you advertise your products or services directly to people searching for them on Google’s platform(s).

With a Google Ad activated, when someone types in a relevant search term, your ad can appear right at the top of Google’s results page.

With a Google Ads campaign, you’re essentially putting your business website right in front of your ideal customers.

Google Ads is a way to ‘jump to the front of the line’ of Google’s search-engine results.

Now that we’re clear on the basic premise of ‘What is Google Ads’, let’s proceed to create our own Google Ad campaign together.

Make A New Google Ads ‘Search’ Campaign

Creating A New “Google Ads Campaign”

In this article, we’ll be creating a Google Ads campaign to advertise a window-screen repair company called Torpin Screen, which is based in Ramona, California.

To start creating your Google Ads Campaign, first log into your Google Ads account.

From your dashboard, click on “New Campaign” and then Google will then ask you about your campaign goals.

For this walkthrough, we’re going to bypass all of Google’s guided setup options and choose “Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance.”

By selecting “no goal guidance” option, we’ll achieve far more control over the specifics of our Google Ads campaign.

Google Ads ‘Search’ Campaign – Initial Set-Up

“Google Ads How To Write Search Campaign Ads”

When you start a “New Campaign”, Google Ads will ask you “What’s Your Campaign Objective?”.

Basically, Google Ads is asking you to select a Campaign Type.

From the Campaign Types offered, select the “Search” campaign type, since we want our ads to appear on Google’s search-results pages.

The “Search’ campaign on Google Ads means that when someone goes to google.com and types in a search query, our Google Ad has the potential to show up.

For the purposes of our article’s ad campaign, we’re not focusing on YouTube or other platforms or campaign types.

 

By choosing ‘Search’ as our campaign type, we’re assured to show up only for people actively searching for information on the Google.com website.

Google Ads ‘Search’ Campaign – ‘Conversion Goals’

We’re still staying on the ‘New Campaign’ page, and the next step is that Google might ask about your “Conversion Goals”.

Google Ads’ Conversion Goals track specific user-actions on your website, but for our basic campaign, we’ll skip this “Conversion Goals” step.

The next section on the “New Campaign” page is for you to “Select the results you want to get from this campaign”.

Choose that both of the options available: Website Visits & Phone Calls.

You’ll need to enter your full business website address, such as https://www.mywebsite.com

Make sure to copy your entire URL and paste it into the ‘your business’s website’ field.

 

You can also specify a phone number for people to call; this Phone Number section is worth filling out, so do so.

Google Ads ‘Search’ Campaign – ‘Campaign Names’

The last step on this first page is to give your campaign a descriptive name.

Your Google Ads Campaign Name is for internal-reference only; it won’t affect your rankings, regardless of how you name your campaign.

The second phrase in your campaign name should indicate the ‘type’ of advertisement campaign you’ve created (lead-generation, awareness, etc)

For our example, we’re creating a campaign called:
“Window Screen Repair –  Lead Generation”.

The first phrase of your campaign name should be the keyword or concept that your advertisement will be promoting.

Using this naming convention helps you stay organized, especially if you manage multiple campaigns.

Here’s an easy section for you to copy-paste into your own Google Ads (just change the text within the brackets).

[Keyword Phrase - Ad Campaign Type]

Google Ads ‘Search’ Campaign – ‘Bidding’

“How Much Does Google Ads Cost?”

With a Google Ads Search campaign, your advertisement appears at the top of Google’s search-results page.

When a person clicks on your Google Ad, then Google considers that a ‘Click’; Clicks cost you money on Google Ads.

If a person sees your ad but doesn’t click it, then that’s considered an ‘Impression’; Impressions don’t cost you any money on Google Ads.

In our example Google Ads Search campaign, we want the largest amount of impressions for our ad, and we do this by choosing from a list of ‘Optimization Options’.

Choose “Maximize Impression Share” under “Other optimization options”.

By choosing ‘Maximize Impression Share’, we’re ensuring that we’ll seen by as many people as possible.

 

Google will also ask you what percentage of the audience you want to target, and you can enter any number you want from 0% to 100%.

Frankly, 100% is the only number that makes sense, to me, so I always choose that amount.

We’ll also set our Cost-Per-Click (CPC) bid limit, which is the maximum amount we’re willing to pay per click.

Start with a reasonable amount for your CPC, like $3, and adjust it later based on the campaign’s performance.

If you’re not getting any clicks after a few weeks, try changing your CPC to something like $5, instead.

 

Google Ads ‘Search’ Campaign – ‘Locations’

Setting up “Local Google Ads”

Google Ads allows you to specify locations precisely, ensuring your ads are shown only to people in the areas you serve.

Location targeting is essential for local businesses, so take the time to specify where you want your add to appear.

For our example Google Ad campaign, we’re going to target people in the neighborhoods where our window-screen business is located: Ramona, CA and Poway, CA

In the Languages section, you can also target your ad to show up for specific languages, if your business caters to a multilingual audience.

Google Ads ‘Search’ Campaign – ‘Keywords & Ads’

“How to Conduct Keyword Research for Google Ads”

The next step in your Google Ads campaign is to input your keywords; the keywords / phrases you choose will determine when your Google Ad will appear.

Google Ads will offer to choose keywords for you, automatically, but it’s best to decline their offer, because you can do better keyword research on your own.

To start doing your free keyword research, simply open a new browser window and go to Google.com.

Start typing in a word or phrase related to what your business offers, and make note of what Google autosuggests.

Keep doing this process until you have at least 15 keyword phrases, comprising your Keyword List.

Put each keyword/ phrase in own set of [brackets], one bracketed phrase per line.

‘Exact Match’ keywords means that Google ONLY shows our ad to people searching for those exact phrases.

For example, if someone searches for “window screen repair near me,” our window-screen repair Google Ad could show up, because that exact-match phrase is on our list.

Google Ads ‘Search’ Campaign – ‘Keywords & Ads’

The first step within the ‘Keywords & Ads’ section is to fill-in your Final URL and Display Path, which are explained thusly:

Final URL is the complete URL of the webpage that you want people to visit, after they click your ad.

Display Path is where you write a simplified version of the URL, such as website.com / window-screen / repair-service

Final URL is your full web address; Display Path is for cosmetic-purposes only, and doesn’t need to be an actual URL.

Now for the creative part: writing our Google Ads ad copy.

Google will ask us to create a variety of Short Headlines and Long Descriptions for our Google Ad.

• • Short Headlines, up to 15 in total – (30 characters, max)
  • Long Descriptions, up for 4 in total – (90 characters, max)

A Short Headline text could be “Window Screen Repair in Ramona”

A Long Description could be “Fast, reliable repairs for torn or damaged screens. Call today for a free estimate!”

 

When writing your headlines & descriptions, choose strong call-to-action words, highlight unique benefits of your product/ service, & explain the solution that your business provides.

Google Ads ‘Search’ Campaign – ‘Headlines & Descriptions’

“How to Make Dynamic Headlines Google Ads”

Dynamic Headlines work by creating multiple Short Headlines (up to 15) and then letting Google dynamically combine and test each of them.

Using Dynamic Headlines helps optimize your ads for better performance, and it’s certainly easier than custom-creating a variety of one-off advertising messages.

Google will automatically choose the best-performing combinations of Short Headline and Long Description

Your Long Descriptions are basically simple sentences, where the purpose is to elaborate on your Short Headlines.

Sitelink Extensions: Adding Value

“What Are Sitelink Extensions On a Google Search Ad?”

After you’ve created your Dynamic Headlines, you’ll want to add a few Sitelink Extensions to your Google Ad.

Sitelink Extensions are basically like additional links that appear below your ad, directing users to specific pages on your website.

We’ll fill out 4 fields for each Sitelink that we want to create:

• • Sitelink Text – (25 characters, max)
  • Description 1 – (30 characters, max)
  • Description 2 – (30 characters, max)
  • Final URL

For our screen-repair business example, we’ll add a total of three Sitelinks, “Window Screens”, “Screen Doors”, and “Screen Repairs”, and each Sitelink gets it’s own unique URL/ web-address.

Sitelinks give customers more options to click, helping them to find what they seek.

Finalizing and Launching Your Campaign

Once you’ve completed all the steps, review your campaign settings and click “Publish.”

Google will review your campaign to ensure it complies with their policies.

After 24 to 48 hours, your Google Ads will likely start running, and you can begin monitoring their performance.

Remember that you might not see any clicks if your CPC Bid Limit, or your Google Ads Campaign Budget, is set too low.

Everything is just “try and see” with Google Ads, so have fun and check your campaign regularly, to see where you can improve it.