Paid search advertising through Google Ads is a popular and powerful digital marketing strategy. Marketers are increasingly becoming aware of the challenges and drawbacks of organic search marketing and turning towards pay per click campaigns for help.
Organic search marketing and SEO are particularly handcuffed by the time and effort that it can take to achieve a top spot in the search rankings.
When you want a top result on the search pages quickly, you need to resort to paying for PPC ads.
This discussion will explore how to set up a Google pay per click campaign.
Step 0: Getting Started
Before you begin creating your account and starting your first campaign, there are two vital steps you need to take.
First, you need to be certain that PPC is right for you. Do you have enough money in your budget to invest in paid search advertisements? What about the time and personnel to manage your PPC campaigns?
You also need a plan. Your plan will ensure that you have an overarching objective to guide your pay per click strategies.
You don’t want to invest in keywords or focus on metrics that don’t offer your company progress in the right direction!
Taking these initial steps will not only make the process of setting up a Google pay per click campaign much easier, but you’ll also have better success on the paid marketing platform.
Step 1: Starting An Account
Google is great at making its business solutions very accessible and easy for newcomers.
If you already have a Google account (a regular Gmail account is just fine), then you’re already part of the way there.
However, it may be wiser to start a new account specific to your business, instead of relying on a personal Google account.
If you are creating a new account, you’ll be asked to verify that account.
Step 2: Creating A Google Ads Campaign
As soon as you enter the Google Ads page with your account, you will be prompted to start your first campaign.
Again, Google will be right there to walk you through the process. You’ll be asked a number of questions during the campaign creation.
Before you get into the deeper details (budget, keywords, locations, etc.), first you’ll need to name your campaign.
You may want to name it based on its objective. If a campaign is focusing on a specific audience, time of day, keyword cluster, location or another identifier, use that in the name.
This will keep you organized, especially as you create more campaigns in the future.
Step 3: Campaign Details
With your campaign named, you can now move into the nuts and bolts of your first Google Ads effort. There are a number of options and selections that Google will ask you to consider.
Budget
How much do you plan to spend on running PPC ads each day? Your budget will set a limit on how much your pay per click campaigns can cost you in a day.
If your budget runs out, Google will stop running your ads until the next day.
Set a budget that is comfortable for your business. Also, consider that this is your first time launching a pay per click campaign. It’s okay to set a tighter budget until you understand what you’re doing.
Location(s)
Where do you want your ads to appear? You have two options when it comes to location targeting through Google Ads.
The first option is to manually enter towns, cities, states or countries and add them to your targeting list. Google will recommend locations nearby.
Alternatively, you can create a radius around your business’ location. This is perfect for local PPC campaigns that want to drive nearby customers to a business.
Networks
Google has two major advertising networks: Google Display Network and the Google Search Network. You can choose one or both of these networks to display your ads.
Many PPC professionals recommend starting with the Search Network first. Once you gain a footing and learn some of the early lessons of paid search marketing, you can invest in Display Network ads as well.
Keywords
You want your ads to appear when someone completes a search query that relates to your business and its products/services. To achieve this, PPC marketers target relevant keywords.
Google will suggest a number of keywords that they feel relate to your business. However, it is wise to edit this list and include only the terms that you deem important.
It’s best to start with a small batch of keywords.
If you need some keyword inspiration, there are a few tools available that will show you the search volume of each term and what the expected cost per click for each term will be.
Learn more about the keywords here: https://ppcexpo.com/blog/you-can-use-keyword-planner-to-identify
Bids
This concept of cost per click is what informs your bidding strategy.
This bid is compared with other Google Ads users and ultimately influences whether or not your ad is displayed and, if so, where on the page.
Google has several automated bidding strategies to choose from. Each one has a unique goal in mind that should relate to the overarching objective of your campaign.
Unfortunately, these aren’t available until you’ve secured some conversions by manually bidding on keywords. Choose a bid amount that is competitive, yet reasonable.
Ad Text
The last step is to create the meat of the ad itself. What will your paid marketing messages say? How will they entice a user to click?
Writing effective ad copy is difficult. You probably aren’t going to get the recipe right the first time, or even the first few times.
It is important to tinker with your copy and try different structures, call-to-actions and value propositions until you figure out what works.
Your ads also need to link to a page on your website. Ideally, you’ll create a unique landing page experience that relates to the ad campaign. This will improve your chances of securing a conversion. On the other hand ad position is the main factor of selling.
Finalizing Your Google Pay Per Click Campaign
Your campaign is ready to go live (pending Google’s approval), but you may still need to enter your billing information.
Once the campaign is published, your job isn’t over. In fact, it is only just beginning!
The next step in the process is PPC management. Your campaigns will begin to produce clicks, conversions and other significant metrics that you need to carefully monitor and understand.
The more time you put into your PPC campaigns, the better the reward. Even if it is just 5 minutes out of your day, a little bit of improvement can lead to big successes over time and one thing keep it remember to use always responsive search ads