Google Ads (until 2018 Google Adwords) is an advertising platform that allows you to place ads in Google search results and on other websites (e.g. YouTube). This allows you to reach people who are searching for your products or services.
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Create your first Google Ad campaign:
- Step by step guide
- Video tutorial
How does Google Ads work?
Google Ads works like an auction: You bid on keywords and when users search for them, your ad can appear. Whether it is displayed depends on your bid, the quality of the ad and its relevance.
Advantages of Google Ads:
- Targeted advertising: Reach your target group exactly where they are searching
- Cost control: Set a budget and keep your spending under control
- Measurable success: Analyze the performance of your campaigns in real time
💡Are you unsure how to best track the funnel conversions of your Google Ads? Here's our recommendation.
Create your first Google Ad campaign
(Step-by-step instructions using the “Display Ad”/“Search Campaign” example)
Start here:
Select your Google Ads account or create a new Google Ads account & click on “Create campaign”
Enter your company name & link the place where your visitors should be redirected to after clicking on the ad (your funnel) -> click on “next”
Link further accounts if required Link accounts (can also simply be skipped) -> click on “next”
Select a campaign goal
💡 We recommend “Submit lead form” (“Submit lead form”)
Set your campaign type:
-> By default, it shows you the so-called “Performance Max campaign” as the type.
Here, ads are displayed on all Google channels with a single campaign (wide distribution but also a lot of ad spend).
You can either leave it as it is or click here (on “View other campaign types” to select a specific ad type:
In this case, we select the classic “search" campaign.
💡 The advantage of search campaigns is that they are particularly relevant: These ads are displayed to users who are actively searching for your products and services.
Choose your keywords
💡You can use keyword options to specify the search queries for which the ad delivery should be triggered:
Keyword = largely matching
“Keyword” = matching word group
[Keyword] = exactly matching
Define your target group further by specifying location, language, target groups & advertising networks.
Good to know 💡
Locations: The larger the area in which you advertise, the cheaper it is per click/conversion (Reason: In a smaller area, the potential target group is smaller & therefore your ad is in proportionally stronger competition with other ads)
Languages: Here you can select which language your target group speaks
Audiences: Here you can select specific audience segments (based on interests, education, demographics,...) to be added to your campaign (your ads will then be presented primarily or exclusively to this audience)
-> The following also applies here: The more precisely you restrict to certain target groups, the more expensive your ads will be, which is why our recommended best practice is: As precise as necessary, as broad as possible (find a balance!)
Advertising networks:
Search network = ads can be displayed next to Google search results and on other Google websites if keywords are relevant to a user's search query (possibly less recommended for efficient budget use -> Google search results should be sufficient here)
Display network = ads that pop up on the page -> Google describes this as an “easy way to get additional conversions at comparable or lower costs than the search network with an unused budget.” (depending on what you want, possibly less recommended)
-> Our recommendation: For the start, the classic placement via Google search results is sufficient (most efficient budget use)
Click on “Done” and then on “Next”
Now create the actual ad yourself
Enter your funnel URL under “Final URL”:
Define the headlines for your ad (min. 3, max. 15 possible)
Define the text of your ad
💡Sure what you could write here?
Keep your headline & description simple and clear
Draw inspiration from competitors' Google Ads
Make your value proposition clear (What added value do you offer? What problem do you solve?)
Click on "next”
Define a bidding strategy (what should the Google algorithm optimize for?): We recommend selecting “Conversions” here
If necessary, set a target CPA (how much do you want to spend per conversion?). If you are still unsure here, you can simply leave the box unchecked
Click on “next”
Now set your advertising budget
Google may recommend a relatively high budget here, but we recommend manually selecting a budget that you set yourself
💡 Our tip? Start with a rather low budget & test your ads.
Your budget should not be too high at the beginning, but enough so that your ads are played against your competitors' ads & you can collect data. Once you have more information about which ads work well, you can increase your budget for these ads.
click on “next”
Enter your payment details
Wait until your ad has been confirmed by Google
Tutorial: Create your first Campaign
Further information on the following topics can be found in our Helpcenter: