As Copywriters we know this and have put together a helpful, “Beginners Guide to Setting Up a Google Ads Account.” Google Ad, formerly known as Google Adwords, is an excellent advertising place for companies who are looking to get more sales and increase their customer base. When you bid for Google Ads and get it, you will appear at the top search whenever Google users search for anything related to your type of business using keywords.

Note that the Ads do not come free the reason why it is known as pay-per-click (PPC) meaning for every time someone clicks on your ad, you are paying. It is not easy to grasp Google Ad on your first trial, but if you read the instructions carefully, you’ll have a better understanding.

Here is how to set up a Google Ads account and start promoting your business:

The first thing to do is head to Google Ads and create an account if you don’t have one yet. When the page opens, you’ll see a green start now button, click on it to begin the process.

Step 1: Deciding your daily budget

The first thing they will require you to do is choose how much you want to pay.  You can decide how much you want to spend per day, and whenever there is a click on your add, Google Ads subtracts from your money.

Choose the amount you are comfortable with spending. You might want to start small to test the waters, and if you are happy with the ensuing result, you can increase your daily budget.

Step 2: Choosing your target audience

Do you have a specific group of people you want to see your Ads? Probably just people from the United States, or do you prefer the whole world to see your business since international trade is your thing? You’ll see four boxes stating different location. Make your choice according to your capacity. If your business isn’t able to cater to the world, don’t waste your money clicking “all countries and territories.”

Step 3: Create custom audiences

In your Google Ads dashboard, locate the “Audience manager” under the heading “shared library” to create your custom audiences. It is one of the powerful tools aside from demographics and location targeting that Google has offered to business to help them track leads.

When you open the audience manager, you’ll see the two ways to create custom audiences which are a custom affinity and custom intent. With custom affinity, you can define your target audience by adding at least five of their interest, apps, URL, or places.

For example, if your intended target audiences are vegans, type it into the space for interest, and click enter. You’ll see it added under the interest list. Do the same for other interests you wish to add.

For the custom intent audiences, you have to anticipate what your prospective audience might be searching.

Step 4: Create a remarketing list

A remarketing list is crucial if you hope to convert visitors to customers. Just like the name suggests, remarketing is running a marketing campaign to people who have visited your site but didn’t make a purchase.

It’s normal when people visit your site for the first time and do not make a purchase. They probably need more information and convincing, which is why it is essential to make a remarketing list.

Step 5: Choose a Network

There are two networks available, which are the search network and display network. Choosing the display network means your ad will appear on websites configured to show ads. While the search network places your ad at the top of Google’s search engine.

However, you should note that the search network displays your ad to people who are searching for something related to your line of business. So, if you are not yet an established brand, you might want to go with it until you’ve built customers loyalty, only after then you can think of using display network which is suitable for remarketing.

Step 6: Selecting keywords

The next step is choosing your keywords. Here you will need to anticipate the needs of your prospective clients. The keywords you use will determine if your Ad shows up in the search results of users. The maximum keywords Google will permit is15-20 keywords.

As you add the keywords, Google will provide the search popularity to make you have an informed decision. If the search popularity for a search keyword is too high, Google Ad makes bidding on it very expensive. Ensure you either have enough funds to bid on such keywords or stay within your budget and bid on keywords with moderate search popularity.

However, note that adding 15-20 keywords at once will only make you spend more money unnecessarily and wouldn’t even get the desired result. When you add that much keyword, more than half will be irrelevant, and this could earn you a low quality score. Use only relevant keywords not more than five if you wish to optimise your Ads. Read up more on types of the keyword.

Step 7: Set your bid

The bid is what makes your ad go live. Whenever someone clicks on your ad, Google Ad subtracts a particular amount of money from your daily budget. You have two options of setting a bid, but if you are the first timer, you may want to let Google do the job. After some time, you can decide to set the bids manually.

Step 8: Write your Ad

This step is very critical, and if you need to hire a professional to take care of it, go for it. When writing your Ad, you need to keep it short and straightforward. Avoid ambiguous or confusing words. Ensure that your headline is compelling enough to cause a user to click. And don’t forget to include a call to action.

Keep these things in mind. The headline limit for Google Ads is 30 characters, while the description is 80 characters. Make every word count!

Step 9: Payment

After writing and saving your Ad, you will need to input your business and card information to pay for your bids. But you won’t get charged until after 30 days or when you set budget has been exhausted.

If you want to know how your Ads are performing, select a conversion source which could either be through your website or phone. With your website, you can easily set up a Google Analytics goal and Google Ad conversion tracking. You should opt for phone conversion if you make more use of phone calls for your business.

Set Up for Initial Success

The above steps are the fundamentals of getting a Google Ads account launched.  Beyond set up spend time reviewing stats and optimizing your account. A major misconception of pay per click advertising is that you can set it up and forget it.  You can also learn more about how to set up and use bing ads for your business.