How to Set Up a Google AdWords Campaign for Your Business

The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has caused a lot of revenue loss among small Canadian businesses that must stay closed during lockdown periods. Making the shift to selling online can be difficult to understand and confusing to get into, especially when there is so much research that needs to be done on who your audience is, what they are searching for, and tracking trends that directly impact your business. With this said, if you are looking to advertise your business’ services, goods, or even just your website, you will need to set up a Google AdWords campaign in your digital marketing strategy. While this might sound simple, it involves a lot of different factors for it to be successful. So, here is a checklist you can follow to help you through.

New to Google AdWords? Learn These Terms First

If you are completely new to Google AdWords or online marketing in general, you will need to learn a few basic terms first as these will be used a lot during your Google AdWords set up process and during the campaign duration.

1. Keywords: these are the phrases or search terms that are typed into search engines, such as Google or Bing, which cause your ad to appear in the search results. When you are setting up a Google AdWords campaign, you need to have done prior research into the keywords you think others are searching for and match with.

2. Bids: you don’t pay for your advertisement to show up in the results, but rather, when an individual clicks on the ad (this varies depending on which type of advertising you are using). The “bid” is the maximum amount of money you are willing to pay for someone else’s click.

3. Ad Ranking: this is a metric you will be able to see which determines where you ad will show up in relation to others. The ranking is determined using the “bid”, the “quality score” and a few other factors.

4. Quality Score: this is another metric that tells you how relevant the keyword phrases you picked are to both your advertisement and your landing page (website). You want a good quality score as this can help improve your ad ranking and lower how much your bids cost.

5. Conversions: when someone clicks on your ads and takes another action (that you’ve designed) such as purchasing from you, calling you, or submitting their email information, this is a conversion.

6. Cost-Per-Click (CPC): this is the amount you pay per click. When someone clicks on your advertisement, this amount is what you will pay for that click. It is important to note here that you don’t always pay the entire maximum of your bid – there’s a range it could cost you.

Now that we have the most common terms used in relation to Google AdWords, you can begin setting up your ad campaigns.

Step One: Understand Your Audience & What They Are Looking For

Before you can truly get started with a Google AdWords campaign, you need to understand what your customers are searching for online. The advertising will only work for you, if you know what customer demand is and if you can fill it. The best way to figure this out is by doing keyword research, which helps you determine which keyword phrases your customers are searching for online.

• Find a good keyword research tool that you can get comfortable using.
• Create an account with it.
• Log in and set your location. You can go as general or as pinpoint accurate as you’d like. For instance, you could set it
  for Ontario, Canada or even Toronto, Canada, or just Canada.
• Set the language to English.
• Set the device to laptops, desktops, or mobile depending on who you want to target.
• Now type in keyword phrases or words that you think individuals are searching for.
• Make sure to use “phrase matching” so that you can get an accurate depiction of how many times that specific phrase is being
  searched for.

Pro Tip: in the keyword phrase list that gets generated, you will see local monthly searches, what the competition is like for the keyword, and the approximate cost/click for it. Make sure that before you settle on any of these keyword phrases, that you can afford the cost/click (CPC).

Step Two: Organize Into Ad Groupings

Once you have the keyword phrases that you want to advertise for, you will need to break your goods and services into categories and base your Google AdWords campaign around them. There are two levels available with a Google Ads Account, one which is campaigns and the other which is ad groups – you can have multiple ad groups in one Google AdWord campaign.

• Campaigns represent larger categories in your business.
• Ad groups represent smaller, specific services and goods in your business.

Example: if you run a craft store, you may have a campaign for knitting and this would contain several ad groups like yarn, needles, fabric. A second campaign could be kid’s crafts, and the ad groups could be things like glitter, glue, paint, markers, and craft kits.

Why is this step important? By creating separate campaigns with ad groups and keyword lists, you can ensure that your ads are relevant to the user. Someone who is searching for yarn, isn’t going to want to see paint and markers.

Step Three: You Need to Set a Budget

You can control how much you spend either with a daily budget or with your maximum bids. The budget is the amount you are willing to spend each day on your AdWords campaign, while the bid is the amount you are willing to spend on the click for a specific keyword.

• If you are starting out, spread your budget evenly across the campaigns until you figure out which ones perform best.
• Once you are going, you may want to put more of your budget towards keywords that draw in your target audience. For instance, if you want to sell a lot of yarn, you may focus on this campaign more heavily.

All in all, when setting up your maximum bids for keywords, keep it balanced so that your ad will still get a desirable ranking but so that you won’t over exceed your budget.

Step Four: Choose Your Keywords Wisely

Read through the “keyword match type” very carefully in the Google Ads settings. This will help you refine when and how your ad shows up in the search results. There are five categories to choose from, which include broad match, broad match modifier, phrase match, exact match, and negative match. Understand these terms and choose the one that aligns with your advertising goals.

Step Five: Create Landing Pages.

The landing page is where your customer is going to “land” after they click on your advertisement in the search results page of Google or Bing. Choose a landing page that is relevant to your ad, relevant to your chosen keyword, and in line with what individuals are searching for. If your ad is promoting kids crafts, make sure the landing page is all about kids crafts and not just your homepage.

Step Six: Decide on Preferred Device.

Consider what devices your ideal customers are using to search for your goods and services. The best way to reach someone who is looking for car repair is someone on a mobile device who is searching for a nearby automotive shop. So, make sure you align the device (desktop, laptop, mobile) with your target audience.

Step Seven: Create the Ads.

Break your campaign down into precise ad groups and then write unique ads for each of these ad groups. Include the keyword, a call to action, and a concise message that tells your audience what you want them to do after clicking on your ad.

Step Eight: Connect Your Google Analytics Account.

If you want to take your AdWord campaigns to the next level, connect a Google Analytics account. This will give you insights into how people are interacting with your website, what pages they are staying on the longest, and what their demographics are.

Step Nine: Monitor!

Once you’ve done the steps above, go ahead and activate your ad campaigns. Just make sure to come back and monitor them to see how well they perform. You want to make note of which ones get the most clicks, which ones convert more, and what the overall trend looks like for each. This can help you tweak your ads, create new ones, or fine-tune your marketing strategies.