Setting up a Google Ads (AdWords) Account
We’re kicking off a series of posts to help people get started with Google Ads (also known as Google AdWords) since we can’t offer our in-person classes during this time (though we’re still doing training virtually). We’re going to start at the beginning with How to Set up Your Google Ads Account – The Right Way. Google Ads accounts are pretty straight-forward to set up but there are a few things you want to do to make sure you don’t have headaches down the line.
Account Set up Basics – First of all, you need a Gmail account so if you don’t have one or if you’re setting up a Google Ads account for digital marketing for a company you work for, we recommend setting up a generic gmail account that everyone at the company can access that’s not your personal account. For example “yourcompanyname”ads@gmail.com or demandquestads@gmail.com would be a smart one to set up.
Next, do NOT set up Smart Campaigns or Google Express Campaigns from Google (they’re the same thing). They make it very easy to set up but you can’t change your campaign settings from Smart to Basic down the line and you will not have as many options with the Smart Campaigns. Don’t do it!
Head over to ads.google.com and sign in. Once signed in you will be prompted with the question of “What’s your main advertising goal?” For best results with your Google Ads account, select “Switch to Expert Mode” at the bottom. Next you will be prompted to confirm your business information. It’s important that this information is correct because you can not change this in the future. Here’s Google’s advice on setting up a new Google Ads account: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6366720?hl=en
Here’s some more information on how to set up a new campaign in Google Ads
You’ll be prompted to set up an expanded text ads and to add keywords. Here are some tips on how to create ads.
Account Organization Video from Google Ads – This will help guide you when you set up your campaigns in Google Ads.
Lastly you’ll want to make sure you have a daily budget. We recommend starting with $5 a day with means around $150 a month to get started. You can adjust this anytime you want but be sure to start small because you can always increase your budgets after you’re sure everything is set up correctly!
“Setting up your budget” video – and yes, this video is for Google Express (also known as Smart campaigns) but will apply for regular Google Campaigns as well.
And there you have it – you should have a Google Ads (Google AdWords) campaign set up and ready to help you sell more online. As always, let us know if you have any questions. Happy digital marketing!