How to Get a Google Ad

Placing your business at the top of Google’s search results is one of the most powerful ways to attract new customers. With Google Ads, you can reach people precisely when they’re looking for the products or services you offer. This guide breaks down exactly how to create and launch your first Google Ad campaign, step by step.

Graphed

Build AI Agents for Marketing

Build virtual employees that run your go to market. Connect your data sources, deploy autonomous agents, and grow your company.

Build Your First Agent

First, a Quick Primer on How Google Ads Work

Before you jump in, it’s helpful to understand the basic mechanics. When a user types a query into Google, an auction happens in milliseconds to decide which ads appear. Two main factors determine the winners:

• Your Bid: The maximum amount you're willing to pay for a single click on your ad.
• Quality Score: Google's rating of the quality and relevance of your keywords, ad copy, and landing page. A higher Quality Score can result in lower costs and better ad positions.

You don't just pay to show up, you pay when someone clicks your ad. This is known as a pay-per-click (PPC) model. For this guide, we'll focus on the most common type of ad: Search Ads. These are the text-based ads that appear at the top of search results pages.

Key Terms to Know

• Keyword: A word or phrase that a user types into Google. You choose which keywords will trigger your ads.
• Impression: Each time your ad is shown on a search result page, it counts as one impression.
• Click: When a user clicks on your ad to visit your website.
• Click-Through Rate (CTR): The percentage of impressions that result in a click (Clicks ÷ Impressions = CTR). A higher CTR generally indicates a relevant ad.
• Cost Per Click (CPC): The amount you actually pay for each click on your ad.

Step 1: Set Up Your Google Ads Account

Your first stop is the Google Ads homepage. Creating an account is straightforward, but one crucial step can save you a lot of headaches later.

Go to ads.google.com and click "Start Now." You'll sign in with your Google account. Google will immediately start guiding you through a simplified campaign creation process. This is designed for absolute beginners, but it hides many of the settings you’ll need for control and better performance.

Look for a small link that says "Switch to Expert Mode."

This might sound intimidating, but "Expert Mode" simply gives you access to a full-featured dashboard instead of the overly simplified version. It unlocks the control you need to build campaigns that actually work without wasting your budget. Don't worry – this guide will walk you through everything in Expert Mode.

After switching, you can choose to create a campaign right away or create an account without a campaign. Let's create an account first. You'll confirm your business information, time zone, and currency. Finally, you’ll set up your billing information by adding a payment method.

AI Agents for Marketing

Crash Course

Graphed

Free PDF · the crash course

AI Agents for Marketing Crash Course

Learn how to deploy AI marketing agents across your go-to-market — the best tools, prompts, and workflows to turn your data into autonomous execution without writing code.

Download the PDF

Step 2: Create Your First Google Ads Campaign

Now that your account is set up, you can build your first campaign. A campaign is the highest-level container, where you'll define your budget, location targeting, and overall advertising goals.

Choose Your Campaign Objective

Google will ask you what you want to achieve. Common options include:

• Sales: Drive sales online, in-app, by phone, or in-store.
• Leads: Encourage potential customers to show interest by submitting a contact form or calling you.
• Website traffic: Get the right people to visit your website.

For your first campaign, Website traffic is a great place to start. It’s a straightforward goal focused on getting people to your site.

Select Your Campaign Type

Next, you’ll choose your campaign type. Google offers several options, including Display, Shopping, Video, and Search. Since you want to show up on the Google search results page, select Search.

Set Your Bidding Strategy

The bidding section tells Google how you want to spend your money. This can get complex, but you can keep it simple for now.

• Maximize clicks: This strategy tells Google to get you as many clicks as possible within your daily budget. It’s an excellent choice for a first campaign when your primary goal is driving traffic.
• Manual CPC: This gives you full control, allowing you to set a maximum bid for each individual keyword. It offers more control but requires more hands-on management.

Start with Maximize clicks. You can always change this later. You also have the option to set a maximum cost-per-click bid limit. This prevents Google from bidding too aggressively, which is a good failsafe. For example, you can tell Google to maximize clicks, but never bid more than $2.00 for a single click.

Graphed

Build AI Agents for Marketing

Build virtual employees that run your go to market. Connect your data sources, deploy autonomous agents, and grow your company.

Build Your First Agent

Adjust Your Campaign Settings

This is where Expert Mode really comes in handy. Under "Campaign Settings," you'll find a few important options that are often overlooked.

• Networks: By default, Google will opt you into showing your ads on its Search Partners and Display Network. For a Search campaign, you want maximum control. Uncheck both boxes for now. This ensures your ads only appear on Google's main search results page.
• Locations: Choose where you want your ads to be shown. You can target countries, states, cities, or even ZIP codes. Be as specific as your business requires. Under "Location options," it’s highly recommended to select "Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations." The default setting can show your ads to people interested in your location, which can waste your budget on irrelevant clicks.
• Languages: Select the languages your customers speak.
• Budget: Enter the average amount you want to spend per day. Google Ads works on a daily budget. If you set it to $10, Google will aim to spend around $300 over a 30-day month. Choose a budget you’re comfortable with. You can change it at any time.

Click "Save and Continue" to move to the next step.

Step 3: Build Your Ad Groups and Pick Keywords

Inside your campaign, you'll create Ad Groups. An ad group is a container for a small, tightly themed set of keywords and the ads related to them. Good structure makes your account easier to manage and improves your Quality Score.

For example, if you run a local bakery, you might create separate ad groups for:

• "Wedding Cakes"
• "Birthday Cakes"
• "Gluten-Free Pastries"

For each ad group, you’ll add relevant keywords. The keywords in the "Wedding Cakes" ad group should all be about wedding cakes, and the ads you write for that group should speak directly to that topic.

How to Choose the Right Keywords

Think like your customer. What would they type into Google? Your goal is to find keywords with commercial intent - phrases that signal someone is ready to buy or inquire.

There are three main keyword match types you need to know:

• Exact Match [keyword]: Ads only show for searches that exactly match your keyword. This gives you the most control. For example, [custom birthday cakes] will only trigger your ad for searches of "custom birthday cakes."
• Phrase Match "keyword": Your ad can show for searches that include the meaning of your keyword. It's more flexible than exact match but still highly relevant. "custom birthday cakes" could match with "custom birthday cakes delivery" or "order custom birthday cakes online."
• Broad Match keyword: Ads can show for searches that are related to your keyword, even if they don't contain the keyword terms. This provides the least control and can often lead to wasted spend, so it's best to avoid broad match when you're just starting.

When starting out, stick mostly to Phrase Match and Exact Match. This helps ensure your ads are shown to a relevant audience.

Step 4: Write Compelling Ad Copy

This is your chance to sell your product or service. Your ad needs to be relevant to the person's search and give them a clear reason to click.

A standard Search Ad consists of:

• Headlines: You can write up to 15 headlines (30 characters each). Google will use its AI to test different combinations to find what performs best. Make sure to include your main keyword here!
• Descriptions: You can write up to 4 descriptions (90 characters each). Use this space to highlight benefits, unique features, or a special offer.
• Final URL: The specific page on your website you want people to land on when they click your ad. Don't send them to your homepage - send them to the most relevant page possible.

AI Agents for Marketing

Crash Course

Graphed

Free PDF · the crash course

AI Agents for Marketing Crash Course

Learn how to deploy AI marketing agents across your go-to-market — the best tools, prompts, and workflows to turn your data into autonomous execution without writing code.

Download the PDF

Tips for Writing Ads That Get Clicks

• Be Relevant: Your headline should match the user's search query as closely as possible. If someone searched for "kids birthday cakes," your headline should reflect that.
• Include a Clear Call-to-Action (CTA): Tell users what you want them to do. Examples include "Order Online Today," "Get a Free Quote," or "Shop the Sale."
• Highlight What Makes You Different: Mention free shipping, 24/7 service, a satisfaction guarantee, or anything else that sets you apart.
• Use Ad Extensions: Extensions are extra snippets of information that can be added to your ad, making it larger and more informative. Start with Sitelink Extensions (links to specific pages on your site) and Callout Extensions (short phrases highlighting benefits).

Once you’ve written your ads (aim for at least three per ad group), click "Save and Continue." You’ll review everything and hit "Publish." Congratulations! Your campaign is now live and will go into a brief review period before your ads start showing.

Step 5: Reviewing Performance

Launching the campaign is just the beginning. The real key to success is monitoring your account and making adjustments based on the data. In the first few weeks, log in regularly and check key metrics like:

• Impressions and Clicks: Are people seeing and clicking your ads? If impressions are low, your bids or budget might be too restrictive.
• CTR (Click-Through Rate): A low CTR (often below 2%) might signal that your ad copy isn't compelling enough or that your keywords aren't relevant to your ads.
• CPC (Cost Per Click): Are the clicks within a price range you can afford?

Final Thoughts

By following these steps, you've learned how to set up a Google Ads account, structure a campaign, choose the right keywords, and write effective ads. This framework gives you a solid foundation you can build upon as you get more comfortable analyzing your performance and optimizing for better results.

Once your campaigns are up and running, analyzing what’s working becomes the next priority. Pulling reports from Google Ads and connecting that data to your website analytics or CRM to understand the full picture can quickly become a manual, time-consuming task. At Graphed, we automate all of that for you. By securely connecting your data sources, you can ask plain-English questions like, "Which campaigns drove the most website traffic last month?" and instantly get real-time dashboards and reports. This allows you to focus less on building reports and more on making the smart decisions that grow your business.