How to set up your first Google Ads campaign

You are in complete control of your budget. There’s no minimum ad spend, and you can set a daily or monthly cap that works for your business. For more detailed projections, you can use the Performance Planner tool within Google Ads to explore how different budget levels might impact your results.

To ensure your ads marketing budget is effective, you can focus on three key actions:

• Measure results: Use conversion tracking to see which ads drive your most valuable results.
• Automate bidding: Apply that data with Smart Bidding to automatically optimize your budget for your goals.
• Refine targeting: Use audience and location settings to focus your ad spend on the specific people you want to reach.

The accuracy of your conversion tracking is what allows you to measure your return on investment and confidently manage your budget. You can improve the accuracy of your conversion tracking by verifying a few key parts of your setup:

1. Confirm your tracking tag is installed correctly on every page of your website.
2. Review the settings for each conversion action in your Google Ads account to ensure they match your measurement goals.
3. Test the process yourself to see if a conversion is recorded as expected.

You have a toolkit of targeting options to control where your ads appear and who sees them. Think of the following as a series of levers you can pull:

• Choose your keywords: This is the foundation for Search ads. Your ads show when people search for these terms.
• Pick your placements: For ads on websites and apps, you can select specific sites, YouTube channels, or apps where you want your ads to run.
• Define your audience: Reach people based on their interests, demographics, or previous interactions with your business (like visiting your website).
• Set your location and language: For any campaign, you can target entire countries, specific cities, or even a radius around your business

While both help you reach customers on Google, Standard Google Ads and Local Services Ads work in different ways. Here’s a breakdown of the key differences:

Standard Google Ads:
• Are customizable text ads you create that appear within search results.
•Operate on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, where you pay when someone clicks your ad.
• Are available to any business with a Google Ads account.

Local Services Ads:
• Appear in a distinct box at the top of the page with a “Google Verified” badge.
• Use a pay-per-lead model, so you only pay for qualified customer contacts.
• Are only available to eligible service providers who pass a screening process.