How to Place a Google Ad

Placing your first Google Ad is a major step in growing your business, shifting you from hoping for traffic to actively driving it. But with so many settings and options, it's easy to feel overwhelmed. This guide will walk you through the entire process, from setting up your account to writing compelling ad copy and launching your first campaign.

Before You Start: Laying the Groundwork

Jumping directly into the Google Ads platform without a clear plan is a recipe for wasted budget. Before you spend a single dollar, take a few minutes to answer three fundamental questions. Getting these right will make every subsequent step significantly easier and more effective.

1. What's Your Goal?

What do you actually want people to do when they click your ad? Your entire campaign strategy - from keywords to ad copy - hinges on this answer. Be as specific as possible.

Drive Sales: The goal is to get users to purchase a product directly from your e-commerce store (e.g., Shopify, BigCommerce).
Generate Leads: You want potential customers to fill out a form, request a quote, book a demo, or call your business.
Increase Website Traffic: Your main objective is to bring more visitors to a specific landing page, blog post, or your homepage to build brand awareness or readership.
Promote an App: The goal is to drive downloads and installations for your mobile application.

Pick one primary goal for your first campaign. You can always create more campaigns later, but a focused objective keeps things simple and measurable.

2. Who's Your Audience (and What Do They Search For)?

You need to get inside your customer's head. What words or phrases would they type into Google to find a solution like yours? This is the foundation of keyword research.

Brainstorm "Seed" Keywords: Start with the obvious. If you sell custom-made dog collars, your seed keywords are "custom dog collars," "personalized dog leash," etc.
Think About Problems: People don't always search for the solution, they search for the problem. For example, instead of "CRM software," they might search "how to keep track of sales leads."
Use Google Itself: Type your seed keywords into Google and see what "People also ask" and "Related searches" suggest. These are gold mines for keyword ideas.

You don't need a massive list to start. A tight, relevant group of 5-15 keywords is perfect for your first ad group.

3. What's Your Budget?

Determine a comfortable monthly ad spend and break it down into a daily budget. For example, if you decide on $300 a month, your daily budget would be $10 ($300 / ~30 days).

Google Ads allows you to set a maximum daily budget, which it will work not to exceed over the course of a month. Don't worry, you won't accidentally spend a thousand dollars in one day. Start with a budget that you're comfortable testing and learning with. You can always adjust it later once you see what's working.

Setting Up Your Google Ads Account

With your groundwork complete, it's time to create your account. This is a straightforward process, but there's a key step to watch out for.

Navigate to the Google Ads homepage and click "Start now."
Sign in with your Google account or create a new one.
Google will initially guide you through a simplified "Smart Mode" campaign setup. This is important: Look for a small link that says "Switch to Expert Mode."

Expert Mode isn't as scary as it sounds. It simply gives you full control over all the campaign settings we'll discuss below. Smart Mode is too restrictive for most businesses that want to get serious about their advertising performance.

Once you switch to Expert Mode, you can choose to "Create an account without a campaign." This allows you to set up your billing information and explore the dashboard before committing to a campaign structure.

Creating Your First Campaign: A Step-by-Step Guide

From your main Google Ads dashboard, click the blue "+" button and select "New campaign." Now we'll walk through the setup process based on the plan you created earlier.

Step 1: Choose Your Objective

The first screen asks you to select a goal for your campaign. This aligns directly with the "What's Your Goal?" question from your groundwork. If your goal is to generate leads, select "Leads." If it's to sell products, select "Sales." This choice helps Google recommend helpful settings and features later on.

Step 2: Select a Campaign Type

Google offers several campaign types, but for your first ad, you'll most likely want to start with a Search campaign. This means your ads will appear on the Google search results page when people look for your chosen keywords.

Other types include:

Display: Image-based ads that appear across a network of websites (think banner ads).
Shopping: Product-specific listings that appear at the top of search results, ideal for e-commerce.
Video: Ads that run on YouTube.
Performance Max: An automated campaign type that runs ads across all of Google's channels. It's powerful but less controlled, so it's best to master Search first.

Select "Search" and then choose how you want to reach your goal (e.g., Website visits, Phone calls). Enter your website URL and give your campaign a descriptive name, like "Search - Services - US".

Step 3: Define Bidding and Budget

In the "Bidding" section, you'll tell Google how you want to spend your money. For a beginner, focus on clicks. Select Manual CPC or "Maximize Clicks" and consider setting a maximum cost-per-click (CPC) bid limit. This prevents you from accidentally paying, say, $15 for a single click when you were only expecting to pay $2.

In the "Budget" section, enter the daily budget you determined earlier. Google Ads will use this as a daily spending cap.

Step 4: Refine Your Targeting

Here you'll tell Google who should see your ads.

Location: Be specific. Don't target "United States" if you only serve "Austin, Texas." The more focused your location, the more relevant your audience.
Languages: Choose the language(s) your customers speak.
Networks: By default, Google will opt your Search campaign into its Display Network. For your first campaign, it's a good idea to uncheck this box to keep your ads focused solely on the search results page. This gives you more control and a clearer picture of your performance.

Step 5: Set Up Ad Groups and Keywords

This is where your keyword research comes into play. A good campaign structure is essential for long-term success.

Campaign: The top-level container (e.g., your "Search" campaign).
Ad Group: A sub-container for a small group of highly related keywords. For example, if you're a plumber, you might have one ad group for "emergency plumbing services" and another for "clogged drain repair."
Keywords: The specific search terms within that ad group.
Ads: The ad copy that gets shown for keywords in that ad group.

Give your first ad group a name (e.g., "Custom Dog Collars"). Then, enter the keywords you brainstormed. For better control, use keyword match types:

"Phrase Match": Puts quotes around your keyword, like "custom dog collars." Your ad will show for searches that include this complete phrase.
[Exact Match]: Puts brackets around it, like [custom dog collars]. Your ad will show only for that exact search or very close variants.

Starting with phrase and exact match gives you more control over your budget and ensures your ads show up for the most relevant searches.

Step 6: Write Your Ad Copy

Now for the fun part: writing the ad that people will actually see. A text ad has a few key components:

Final URL: The landing page where people will go after clicking. Make sure it's directly relevant to the ad!
Headlines: You can write multiple headlines (up to 30 characters each). Google will rotate them to find the best-performing combinations. Include a keyword in at least one headline. Highlight benefits, not just features.
Descriptions: Longer text (up to 90 characters each) where you can elaborate on your offer. Mention what makes you unique - free shipping, a satisfaction guarantee, fast service, etc. Include a strong call-to-action (CTA) like "Shop Now," "Get a Free Quote," or "Book Your Demo."

Step 7: Add Ad Extensions (Optional but Recommended)

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 click-through rate. Common extensions include showing your location, phone number, sitelinks (links to specific pages on your site), and callouts (short benefit phrases like "24/7 Support"). Add any that are relevant to your business.

Step 8: Review and Launch

Give everything a final look. Google will flag any obvious errors. Once you're happy with it, click "Publish campaign." Congratulations, your ad is now in review and, if approved, will be live shortly!

After You Launch: Don't Just Set It and Forget It

Placing the ad is only half the battle. Now you need to monitor its performance to ensure you're getting a positive return on your investment. Check in on your campaign at least once every few days at first.

Key Metrics to Watch:

Impressions: How many times your ad was shown.
Clicks: How many people clicked your ad.
Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click (Clicks ÷ Impressions). A high CTR generally means your ad is relevant and compelling.
Average Cost-Per-Click (CPC): How much you're paying, on average, for each click.
Conversions: The number of people who completed your desired goal (a sale, a lead form submission, etc.). This is the most important metric. You need to set up conversion tracking in Google Ads to measure this properly.

Your goal is to find the keywords and ads that drive conversions at an acceptable cost. You might find that a keyword gets lots of cheap clicks but never converts, making it a poor investment. Over time, you'll pause the losers and shift your budget to the winners.

Final Thoughts

You've just learned how to organize, build, and launch a Google Ads campaign from scratch. It's a process of planning, executing, and most importantly, monitoring. True success comes not just from launching your ad, but from consistently checking its performance and making small, data-driven adjustments over time.

Running ads on Google is powerful, but tracking your performance holistically across Google Ads, Google Analytics, your CRM, and your e-commerce platform can be a full-time job. We built Graphed to remove that friction. By connecting your data sources, you can ask simple questions in plain English like, "show me a dashboard comparing my top Google ad campaigns by cost, conversions, and revenue from Shopify" and get a live, interactive dashboard in seconds. No more CSVs or jumping between platforms - just clear answers that help you understand what's actually working.