How to Buy Google AdWords

Thinking about buying Google AdWords to grow your business? That's a great move, but first, a quick clarification: what was once called "AdWords" is now known as Google Ads. This advertising platform lets you bid on keywords so your business shows up at the very moment a potential customer is searching for what you offer. This guide will walk you through setting up your account and launching your first campaign, step-by-step.

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Before You Bid: Setting Up Your Google Ads Account

Before you can create a single ad, you need a solid foundation. This starts with setting up your Google Ads account correctly and defining exactly what you want to achieve.

Step 1: Create a Google Ads account (and switch to Expert Mode)

First, head over to the Google Ads homepage and click "Start Now." You'll use your existing Google account to sign up. During the setup process, Google will try to guide you through a simplified campaign creation known as "Smart Mode."

Heed this warning: Immediately look for a small link at the bottom of the page that says something like "Switch to Expert Mode."

Why is this so important? Smart Mode is designed for absolute beginners and severely limits your control over bidding, keywords, and targeting. While it might seem easier, Expert Mode gives you the control you need to run effective campaigns and avoid wasting your budget. Even if you feel like a novice, making this switch is the single best decision you can make at this stage. You can still create simple campaigns in Expert Mode, but you retain full control for when you're ready to scale.

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Step 2: Define Your Campaign Goal

What is the single most important action you want someone to take after clicking your ad? Google Ads isn't about getting random website traffic, it's about achieving a specific business outcome. Before you spend a dollar, define your primary goal.

Most goals fall into one of these categories:

• Sales: You want someone to complete a purchase on your e-commerce website.
• Leads: You want someone to fill out a contact form, sign up for a demo, or call your business.
• Website Traffic: You want to get relevant people to a specific page, like a new blog post or feature page. (Use this goal with caution - focusing on traffic without a conversion goal can lead to low-quality visitors).
• Brand Awareness: You want to get your brand name and message in front of a wide but relevant audience. This is generally better for display campaigns than search campaigns.

Deciding this now will guide every decision you make later, from your ad copy to your bidding strategy.

Step-by-Step: Building Your First Google Ads Campaign

With your account set up in Expert Mode, it's time to build your first campaign. We'll stick with a classic Search Campaign for this tutorial, as it's the most common and direct-response format.

Step 1: Choose Your Campaign Type

Google will ask you what type of campaign you want to run. You have several options:

• Search: Text ads that appear on Google search results pages. This is the place to start. You’re capturing people who are actively searching for what you sell.
• Performance Max: An automated, goal-based campaign type that runs ads across all of Google's channels (Search, Display, YouTube, Gmail, etc.) from a single campaign.
• Display: Image-based banner ads that appear on websites within the Google Display Network. Great for brand awareness or retargeting.
• Shopping: Product-focused ads with images and prices that appear in search results. Essential for e-commerce businesses.
• Video: Ads that run on YouTube.

Select "Search" to continue.

Step 2: Set Your Budget and Bidding Strategy

Next, you’ll tell Google how much you’re willing to spend and how you want to bid for ad placements.

Budget: This is a simple daily budget. For example, if you set a $20 daily budget, you’ll spend around $600 per month (Google calculates this as your daily budget multiplied by 30.4, the average number of days in a month). Start with a small, comfortable budget. You can always increase it later once you know what's working.

Bidding: This can feel intimidating, but don't worry. To start, focus on clicks. You’ll see a prompt asking what you want to focus on - select "Clicks." It might then suggest an automated bid strategy like "Maximize Clicks." This is a fine place to start, as it tells Google to get you the most clicks possible within your daily budget. As you get more advanced, you can switch to bidding strategies focused on conversions or target costs per action.

Step 3: Refine Your Campaign Settings

This is where you zero in on who sees your ads. Pay close attention to these settings:

• Networks: By default, Google enables "Search Partners" and "Display Network." For your first campaign, uncheck both boxes. You want your ads only on Google's own search results for maximum control and relevance.
• Locations: Be specific. Don’t target an entire country if you only serve a specific city. The more precise your location targeting, the less money you'll waste on clicks from people who can't buy from you.
• Languages: Choose the language(s) your target customers speak.

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Step 4: Master Your Keywords & Ad Groups

This is the engine of your campaign. An "Ad Group" is a container for a small, tightly-themed set of keywords and the ads that are triggered by them.

Keyword Research: Use Google's Keyword Planner (found under "Tools & Settings") to find the terms people are actually searching for. Start with "seed keywords" - broad terms related to your business. For example, if you run a local bakery, your seed keywords might be "local bakery," "wedding cakes," and "custom cookies."

The Keyword Planner will show you related terms, their average monthly search volume, and an estimated cost-per-click (CPC). Choose keywords that show clear buying intent.

Understanding Match Types: Don't just dump keywords into your ad group. You need to tell Google how closely you want a user's search to match your keyword.

• [exact match]: Encased in brackets. Your ad only shows if the search is nearly identical to your keyword. Example: [custom wedding cake].
• "phrase match": Encased in quotation marks. Your ad shows if the search includes the meaning of your keyword phrase. Example: "custom wedding cake" could match searches for "order custom wedding cake near me."
• broad match: No symbols. Google will show your ad for any search it deems related to your keyword. Avoid broad match when starting out, as it can spend your budget very quickly on irrelevant traffic.

Start with a mix of Phrase and Exact match keywords for the best balance of reach and control.

Structuring Ad Groups: Do not put all your keywords into one Ad Group. Structure them by theme. Using our bakery example:

• Ad Group 1: Wedding Cakes
• Ad Group 2: Cookies

This tight thematic structure ensures your ads are always hyper-relevant to the search query, which boosts your Quality Score and gets you more clicks for less money.

Step 5: Write Ads That Get Clicks

Your ad is your sales pitch. It needs to be clear, compelling, and relevant. Each text ad consists of:

• Headlines (up to 3): Your headlines are the most important part. Include your main keyword here. Communicate your unique selling proposition (e.g., "Free Delivery," "Award-Winning Designs").
• Descriptions (up to 2): Here you have more space to elaborate on your offer, benefits, and what makes you different.
• Display Path: These are custom URL paths that give searchers a clearer idea of where they'll land (e.g., www.yourbakery.com/Custom-Cakes).

Write at least two or three ad variations for each ad group. Google will automatically rotate them and show the best-performing versions more often.

Step 6: Use Ad Extensions

Ad Extensions are extra snippets of information that can be added to your ad, making it bigger and more informative - without costing you extra. Always use any extensions that are relevant to your business, such as:

• Sitelink Extensions: Add links to other pages on your site (e.g., "Our Gallery," "Contact Us").
• Callout Extensions: Highlight key selling points (e.g., "Free Consultations," "Eco-Friendly Ingredients").
• Call Extensions: Adds your phone number directly to the ad.
• Location Extensions: Adds your business address and a map link (essential for local businesses).

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Going Live and Measuring What Matters

Once everything is built, you'll submit your campaign for review. Once approved, your ads will start running. But your job isn't done - it's just beginning.

Set Up Conversion Tracking, No Excuses

This is the most critical step after launching. If you don't track conversions, you are essentially guessing. Conversion tracking is a small piece of code you add to your website that tells Google Ads when a user completes your desired action (like submitting a form or making a purchase).

Without it, you can see which ads get clicks, but you won't know which ones are actually generating sales or leads. Go to "Tools & Settings" > "Conversions" and follow the instructions. This is non-negotiable for success.

Monitor Basic Metrics

Don't be overwhelmed by the data. Keep an eye on these key metrics to start:

• Clicks: How many times your ad was clicked.
• Impressions: How many times your ad was shown.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of impressions that resulted in a click (Clicks ÷ Impressions). A high CTR indicates your ads are relevant to your keywords.
• Average CPC: The average amount you pay for each click.
• Conversions: The number of times people completed your goal action.
• Cost per Conversion: How much you spent, on average, for each conversion (Total Cost ÷ Conversions). This is your most important metric.

Final Thoughts

Building a successful Google Ads campaign involves setting up a strong foundation, structuring your keywords logically, writing relevant ad copy, and paying fanatical attention to your performance data. By following these steps, you've moved past aimlessly "buying" ads and entered the world of highly-targeted, measurable digital advertising.

Connecting all the dots in your marketing funnel is the next step to truly understanding performance. Instead of manually wrestling with CSVs from Google Ads and your other platforms, we built Graphed to do the heavy lifting for you. Simply connect your Google Ads, Google Analytics, Shopify, and CRM data in a few clicks. Then, you can ask in plain English, "What's my ROAS on Google Ads when tracked all the way through to a closed deal in Salesforce?" and get an instant dashboard - no spreadsheets required.