How to Make a Google Ad Campaign
Putting your business on the front page of Google search results is one of the most powerful ways to connect with customers at the exact moment they’re looking for you. With Google Ads, you can get prime real estate in front of motivated buyers. This tutorial will walk you through setting up your first successful Google Ads campaign, step by step, from initial planning to launch and beyond.
Before You Begin: Smart Campaign Planning
Jumping into Google Ads without a plan is a quick way to spend your budget with little to show for it. A few minutes of strategic thinking upfront can make all the difference. Before you even open the Google Ads interface, get clear on these three things.
1. Define Your Campaign Goal
What is the single most important action you want someone to take after clicking your ad? This isn't a trick question. The entire structure of your campaign hinges on this answer. Common goals include:
Leads: Getting a potential customer to fill out a contact form, sign up for a demo, or call your business.
Sales: Driving a direct purchase on your e-commerce website.
Website Traffic: Bringing relevant users to your site to read content, learn about your brand, or explore your services.
Pick one primary goal. You’ll tell Google what your objective is during setup, and it will use that information to help optimize your campaign for the results you want.
2. Understand Your Target Audience
Who are you trying to reach? Go beyond basic demographics. Think about their mindset. What words would they type into Google to find a solution you offer? What problems are they trying to solve?
For example, instead of just targeting "homeowners," think about the specific person. Are they a DIY enthusiast looking for "how to fix a leaky faucet" or someone in an emergency situation searching for "24-hour plumber near me"? Each search implies a different level of urgency and intent, which should influence your keywords and ad copy.
3. Get Started with Keyword Research
Keywords are the foundation of any Google Search campaign. These are the search terms people type into Google that will trigger your ads. Your goal is to find keywords that are highly relevant to your business and show commercial intent.
Google’s free Keyword Planner tool (found inside your Google Ads account under "Tools and Settings") is the perfect place to start. Enter a few ideas related to your product or service, and it will generate a list of related keywords along with their average monthly searches and estimated competition.
Focus on keywords that show intent. For example, "best running shoes for flat feet" is much more likely to come from a potential buyer than a generic term like "shoes." Look for these “long-tail” keywords — phrases of three or more words — as they often have less competition and higher conversion rates.
Setting Up Your Google Ad Campaign: The Step-by-Step Guide
With your plan in hand, you're ready to build your campaign. We'll focus on creating a Search campaign, the most common type where your text ads appear on Google search results pages.
Step 1: Create a Google Ads Account
If you don’t have one already, head to ads.google.com to sign up. During the setup process, Google will try to guide you into "Smart Mode," a simplified version of the platform. It's helpful, but for full control, you'll want to find the small link that says “Switch to Expert Mode.” This gives you access to all the features and settings we'll cover below.
Step 2: Choose Your Campaign Objective
Once you’re in the dashboard, click the “+ New Campaign” button. The first thing Google will ask is for your campaign's goal. Select the objective you defined during your planning phase, such as "Leads" or "Sales." This helps Google recommend settings that align with your desired outcome.
Step 3: Select a Campaign Type
Google offers several campaign types, including Display, Shopping, and Video. For this tutorial, we will focus on the most popular and direct option: select Search. This means your ads will show up to users actively searching for keywords related to your business.
Step 4: Configure General Campaign Settings
This is where you'll make some of the most important decisions for your campaign.
Campaign Name: Give your campaign a clear, descriptive name that you’ll easily recognize later. For example, "Plumbing Services - San Diego - Search" is much better than "Campaign #1."
Networks: By default, Google enables both the "Search Network" and the "Display Network." For new campaigns, it’s best practice to uncheck the Display Network. The Search Network includes Google search results and search partners. This keeps your ads focused on users with high intent, making it easier to control your budget and analyze performance.
Locations: Target the geographic areas where your customers are. You can target entire countries, states, cities, or even specific zip codes. Be as specific as possible to avoid spending money on clicks from irrelevant areas.
Languages: Select the languages your customers speak.
Budget: Enter the average amount you want to spend per day. Google's system might spend slightly more or less on any given day, but it will not exceed your average daily budget multiplied by the number of days in the month. Start with a budget you're comfortable with, you can always adjust it later.
Bidding: This tells Google how you want to spend your money to achieve your goal. For your first campaign, a simple approach is best. In the "Bidding" section, select "Clicks" as what you want to focus on. Then, check the box that says "Set a maximum cost per click (CPC) bid limit." This gives you direct control, preventing Google from bidding more for a single click than you're comfortable with. Start with a reasonable bid, like $2.00 or $3.00, and you can adjust it based on early performance data.
Step 5: Create Your Ad Groups
Think of ad groups as small, specific filing cabinets within your campaign. Each ad group should contain a small cluster of tightly related keywords and the ads that are specifically written for those keywords.
For example, if a shoe company runs a campaign, they wouldn't lump all their keywords into one giant group. Instead, they’d create separate ad groups:
Ad Group 1: Men's Running ShoesKeywords: "men's running sneakers," "best running shoes for men"
Ad Group 2: Women's Hiking BootsKeywords: "women's waterproof hiking boots," "hiking boots for women"
This tight organization ensures that people searching for hiking boots see an ad about hiking boots, not running shoes. This relevance is critical for earning clicks and driving conversions.
Step 6: Write Compelling Ads
This is your chance to stand out. Inside each ad group, you’ll create your ads. Google now uses Responsive Search Ads, where you provide multiple headlines and descriptions, and Google’s AI mixes and matches them to find the best-performing combinations.
Here’s a breakdown of the parts:
Final URL: The landing page people will arrive at after clicking your ad. Make sure this page is directly relevant to the ad!
Headlines: You can write up to 15 short headlines (30 characters each). Your most important headlines should include your main keywords, highlight your unique value proposition, and perhaps a call to action.
Descriptions: You can provide up to 4 descriptions (90 characters each). Use this space to expand on your headlines, detail key benefits, and clearly state what you want the user to do next (“Shop Now,” “Get a Free Quote,” etc.).
The key is relevance. Your ad copy, keywords, and landing page content should all align. This results in a better experience for the user and a higher Quality Score from Google, which can lead to lower ad costs.
Step 7: Add Ad Extensions
Ad extensions are extra snippets of information that can be added to your ad, making it larger and more informative. They’re free to add and can significantly improve your ad's visibility and click-through rate. At a minimum, consider adding:
Sitelink Extensions: Links to other specific pages on your website, like "About Us" or "Pricing."
Callout Extensions: Short, specific snippets of text to highlight benefits, such as "Free Shipping" or "24/7 Customer Support."
Structured Snippets: Highlight specific aspects of your products or services from a predefined list (e.g., Brands: Nike, Adidas, New Balance).
Step 8: Review and Publish
You're almost there! Google will show you a final review of your entire campaign. Double-check your budget, location settings, keywords, and ad copy. If everything looks right, hit “Publish.” Congratulations, your campaign is ready to go live! It may take a few hours for Google to review and approve your ads.
After Launch: Monitor and Optimize
Setting up your campaign is only half the battle. "Set it and forget it" is not a viable strategy. You need to routinely check in on your campaign’s health and make adjustments based on the data.
Check your dashboard regularly and pay attention to these key metrics:
Clicks & Impressions: Are people seeing and clicking your ads?
Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of impressions that result in a click. A low CTR could signal a mismatch between your keywords and ad copy.
Cost Per Click (CPC): How much you’re paying on average for each click.
Conversions: The number of desired actions (leads, sales) your ads have generated. This is your most important metric.
Optimization is an ongoing process of pausing what isn't working (like keywords that spend money but never convert) and scaling what is. Over time, you’ll refine your targeting, improve your ad copy, and get a better return on your investment.
Final Thoughts
Creating a Google Ads campaign is a straightforward process when you break it down into methodical steps. It starts with a clear plan, moves to detailed setup, and ends with continuous monitoring and optimization. Following this framework gives you a powerful tool to connect with highly motivated customers at exactly the right time.
Of course, once your campaign is collecting data, the challenge is understanding what it all means and how it fits with the rest of your business. While the Google Ads platform gives you plenty of campaign-specific data, we built Graphed to help you connect that performance to what really matters: your bottom line. We allow you to sync Google Ads with your other systems like Google Analytics, Shopify, or Salesforce, and then simply ask questions in plain English, like "Show me which ad campaigns are driving the most revenue" or "Create a dashboard tracking ad spend vs. customer lifetime value." Instead of wrestling with spreadsheets to get answers, you can get a holistic view of your results in seconds.