The Complete (and Easy!) Google Ads Guide & Tips for Beginners

Below is our Google Ads guide for beginners. Use this guide to get useful tips on improving the performance of your Google Ads campaigns.

1. Theme Your Keywords

Group your keywords into tightly related themes.

2. One Ad Group Per Theme

Create a separate ad group for each and every keyword theme.

3. Limit Your Keywords

Each ad group should be limited to a maximum of 20 keywords, less than 10 is ideal.

4. Delete Non-Performing Keywords

Delete any keywords from an ad group that have had no impressions or clicks or have a history of a low CTR (less than 1%)

5. Keyword Alignment

Make sure the primary keyword is in the ad's headline, in the description and in the page title of the landing page. This will improve relevance and quality scores.

6. Call To Action

Your ad copy should include a clear call to action e.g. Buy online today!

7. Bid for Ad Position

Try and target your ads consistently into the top 3-4 positions. This will provide the best chance of achieving a high click through rate.

8. Keyword Matching Type

Having all your keywords on broad match will mean your ads will sometimes be served to the wrong audience. Test using modified broad, phrase and exact matching types to make sure your ads are only displayed in front of the right searchers.

9. Negative Keywords

Include negative keywords in your campaign so your ads aren't served against searches that are not relevant e.g. if you only sell new cars, then "used" should be a negative.

10. Destination URL

Each of your themed ad groups should deliver the searcher to a page on your website that is specific to that theme. This will improve the user experience and landing page Google Quality Score.

11. Separate Search From Content Network

Create campaigns that target Search and Content Network separately. Each network requires different methodology to optimize performance. To begin with just target the Search network.

If your Google Ads campaigns continue to perform at a click through rate (CTR) of less than 2%, then contact us for assistance and advice.

Alternatively, you may want to consider our managed Google Ads (AdWords) campaign advertising service which takes the guess work out of your Google advertising efforts.

The Google Ads platform is very sophisticated and complex and is often changing as Google regularly brings in new features. It can be quite a challenge to stay abreast of how to get the most out of your online advertising efforts in this very fluid environment.