Inside Google Ads podcast: Episode 22 - Getting Started in Google Ads

Want to run Google Ads? 

You've come to the right place. 

We're taking it back to the beginning this week and answering your burning questions about how to start running Google Ads for the first time. 

I'm your host, Jyll Saskin Gales. I spent six years working for other brands at Google, and now I work for you. This is Inside Google Ads, Episode 22, Getting Started. 

Our first question comes from MoniQue_ The _Singer on TikTok, and they ask, do I have to have a website to create a Google Ad? 

No, but it's a good idea.

You can run a Call Ad on Search and not link a website to it. So if someone searches for you and you're running a Search Ad, instead of them clicking to go to your website, they would click to call you. 

If you're advertising a mobile app, they can go straight to downloading your app or engaging with your app. They don't have to go to your website.

You can also run a Video campaign, for example, with the goal of getting reach or getting views. 

So there are a bunch of ways to run Google Ads that don't result in someone visiting your website. But all that being said, if you're at the point in your business where you're profitable enough and ready to grow enough to run ads, you're probably going to want to have a website. 

The fastest and easiest way to get a website, if you don't have one, is to buy a domain wherever you like to buy domains. I used to recommend Google Domains, but unfortunately, that doesn't exist anymore. It should cost you maybe $12 a year and then you can create a free website using Google Sites. Even if you have no technical expertise, within an hour or two, you should have a website. It'll walk you through how to link it to your domain and boom, you have somewhere to drive people from your ad. 

Our next question today comes from Sumit on TikTok, and they ask, I want to create a simple Google Ad only for a single word and for a set price per click. Do you have a video for that? 

I do have a video for that, but I'll break it down for you here, too.

First, you're going to want to create a Google Ads account and create a new campaign, then Search campaign. If you don't see that option, it's because your account is in Smart Mode and you want to switch to Expert Mode. 

When you create your Search campaign, the first step after you give it a name will be to choose your budget and your bid strategy. Since you said you want a set price per click, what you want is something called Manual CPC bidding. To learn more about bid strategies, you can check out the very first episode of this podcast, Episode 1.

To see what your bid should be, what you could expect to pay for that word you want to advertise on, you can use the free tool in Google Ads called Keyword Planner. You'll find this under Tools, Planning, and then Keyword Planner, and you can check out Episode 8 of this podcast to learn more about Keyword Planner.

Then, you want to set your budget. My recommendation is to set your budget at 10 times your maximum CPC bids so you can afford at least 10 clicks per day. You guessed it, we've got an episode about that, too! Episode 16 is about how budgets work, so that'll help you figure out how to set the right budget for you. But the general rule of thumb is at least 10 clicks a day. And so if you're researching what clicks cost anyway, multiply that by 10, you've got your average daily budget. 

Now, when you put your single word, as you put it, into Google Ads, you're going to want to put square brackets [] around that. That puts it in something called Exact Match. To learn more about match types, you can check out Episode 14 of this podcast.

I will say if you literally mean there's just one word you want to advertise on, unless it's a very specific word, it's probably going to be too generic for you. So even though it's called a keyword, keywords normally have multiple words in them. For example, “Google Ads Podcast” could be a keyword, and I would put a square bracket before “Google” and a square bracket after “Podcast” if I wanted [Google Ads podcast] to be in Exact Match. 

Two more steps. 

You have to actually write your ad. What is it going to say to the user if they search for your keyword and you show an ad? You'll need some headlines, some descriptions, and actually last episode, Episode 21, was where I shared some tips on creating great ads. 

And then last but not least, publish your campaign. Google will likely send you through the security verification to make sure it's really you, so don't let that trip you up. And then congrats, we just set up your first Google Ads campaign, running Search Ads on one keyword for a set cost, in just a few minutes. 

Now, by the way, Sumit or whoever else is interested, if you want a little bit more detail, my Google Ads for Beginners course is just for you. Stop guessing and start advertising. In less than four hours, spread across 40 digestible lessons, you'll learn all the skills and knowledge you need to plan and launch your first Google Ads campaign, whether you want to advertise on one word or 10 words, whether that's going to be Search or Performance Max or something else. 

Our last question today comes from Jusjaymedia on TikTok, and they ask, do you have a course on how to start from scratch on Google Ads? 

I do. I just told you a bit about Google Ads for Beginners, and I actually have two Google Ads courses. So one of the most common questions I get when people contact me from my website is which one's right for me, the Inside Google Ads course or Google Ads for Beginners? 

So Google Ads for Beginners is like being in a workshop with me. You pay once, you get the knowledge, and it prepares you to run your first campaign. 

Inside Google Ads is like being in a one-on-one coaching session with me, for a much more affordable price. You pay monthly or annually, and you get access right away to more than 100 in-platform lessons that are updated and augmented by me as the platform changes. Plus, because Inside Google Ads is a membership, you can get your questions answered by me by commenting on any of the lessons or attending the monthly meeting exclusively for members. 

You can find both Inside Google Ads and Google Ads for Beginners at learn.jyll.ca, and if I don't have what you're looking for, there are plenty of other places you can learn about Google Ads. Of course, podcasts like this are helpful. There are free YouTube videos. There are courses on platforms like Udemy, for example, and other practitioners in the space offering courses. So if you want to learn how to start running Google Ads, there are many places to do so Jusjaymedia. 

My options for courses would be either Google Ads for Beginners or Inside Google Ads. 

Now, I usually end each episode with an Insider Challenge for you to solve, but since this episode is designed to be really friendly for beginners, and next week is a holiday in Canada and the US, we will have an episode where we're doing something a bit different. 

I'm not going to introduce a new challenge this week, but I will give you the answer to last episode's challenge. I told you in Episode 21 that there are five different types of headlines in Google Ads and I challenged you to tell me the five different character requirements for headlines. 

I gave you the first one: the standard headline length for Search Ads, Performance Max Ads, etc., is 30 characters. Here are your other options.

We have Demand Gen headlines, those have up to 40 characters.

For whatever reason, we have long headlines, which you'll find in Performance Max campaigns, for example. Those have up to 90 characters, not to be confused with descriptions, which also have up to 90 characters.

And then we have mini headlines in some video formats, which only have 15 characters. 

Now, the fifth answer was the headline asset, meaning the campaign-level headlines and descriptions you have the option to add to your campaigns separately from your Responsive Search Ads themselves. That is a beta feature, and they used to have a 25 character limit, which is why there were 5 different headline character requirements in Google Ads. 

But bless Google's heart, they recently changed that to 30 characters, bringing the headline asset character requirements in line with the normal Responsive Search Ad headline character requirements. This feature is still in beta, as I mentioned, and I'm so happy that Google simplified our lives so that we are now back to only 4 different headline character requirements, not 5. 

I'm being mildly sarcastic, but there you have it. Headlines in Google Ads can now have up to 4 different character requirements: 15 characters, 30 characters, which is the typical one, 40 characters, or 90 characters, depending on the headline type and campaign type. 

I've got something special planned for you next week. So until then, I'm Jyll Saskin Gales and I'll see you next time Inside Google Ads.

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