Everything You Need to Know to Start With Google Ads

 

 

To have a successful Google Ads advertising strategy and achieve the best possible results, you need to create conditions that allow you to use its full potential. 

You want to have lower advertising costs, and if properly used, certain tools can help reduce your CPC. Below are some of the most important criteria that Google considers during positioning and pricing your ads. Plus, some free tools you can use to check your website’s performance. 

Keep reading to learn more about them and get a step-by-step guide to start with Google Ads advertising.

Website Check Tools

The key factors that affect a campaign’s performance are mobile site optimization and site speed. 

Mobile site optimization

It is essential, given that many visits come from mobile devices. To check your website, you can use Mobile-Friendly Test—a free Google tool.

Site speed

A high site speed is a must so that your campaign budget isn’t spent on clicks and visitors don’t give up while waiting for the landing page to load. It’s an important thing to cover, and you should work to optimize website speed. We suggest testing your website speed with a free Google tool called PageSpeed Insights.

Below are the links to more free Google tools for website checking:

• tagassistant.google.com
• Wayback machine
• Google Search Console
• testmysite.withgoogle.com
• www.thinkwithgoogle.com
• www.webpagetest.org 
• support.google.com
• www.google.com/webmasters 

Start With Google Ads (3 Headstones of Google Ads Advertising)

Create a Google Ads Account 

Why this is important

With over 3.5 billion searches per day and over 2 million websites on the Display Network, Google Ads is one of the most powerful channels to advertise to your audience. You have access to your campaign dashboard and all the tools Google Ads offers.  

The key steps 

To help you start with Google Ads, we have prepared a detailed guide explaining all the key steps to take.

• Go to https://ads.google.com/home/ and click on the blue “Start Now” button.

• If you already have other Google Ads accounts under the email address you are currently logged in with, you will need to click “New Google Ads Account.” 

• At this point, you will be presented with the default “guided setup,” in which Google will try to get you to launch an ad from scratch. We recommend skipping the guided setup because it will allow you to use other tools (e.g., Keyword Planner) to plan your campaigns. 

• To skip the guided setup, scroll down and click on the link titled “Switch to Expert Mode.”
  

• Next, click on “Create an account without a campaign.” 

• Next, select “Website visits” from the list and type your website URL.

• Click “Continue.”

• On general settings, click on the “Show more settings” link under the “Networks” section. 

• Select a start and end date for some time in the future (optional).

• Next, scroll down to the “Budget” section and set a budget (daily).
  

• Leave everything as default, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click “Save and continue.” 

• On the ad group setup screen, leave everything as default, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click “Save and continue.” 

• On the summary screen, click on “Publish.” 

• Now that your dummy campaign has been published, you can enable auto-tagging. Click on the Google Ads logo in the top navigation.

•  On the sidebar, click “Settings,” → “Account Settings,” → and “Auto-tagging.” 

• Tick “Tag the URL that people click through from my ad” → Click “Save.” 

• That’s all! You should start seeing your Google Ads traffic information inside Google Analytics in the first 24 hours after your ads have started running. 

Add Google Tag Manager

Why this is important

Google Tag Manager (GTM) is a great tool to add and manage multiple Pixels and tracking codes without needing to edit the website code.

Google Tag Manager is important because it replaces the developer's role. Without GTM, you would need to contact developers for everything, which would be impractical. GTM is an intermediary between actions on the site and the platform where we send data (Google Analytics, Google Ads).

If there were no GTM, we wouldn’t be able to properly track conversions (there are other ways, but GTM is the most accurate). Also, the optimization of campaigns would be much more complex.

What does a Tag Manager do?

Tag Manager helps you track various events, such as making a purchase or adding to a cart. It allows you to add and update your tags for conversion tracking, site analytics, remarketing, etc. Tag Manager gives you the ability to track activity across your sites and apps, and it is possible to change tags whenever needed.

The great thing about Google Tag Manager is that it doesn’t require coding knowledge so marketers can implement tags easily.

What are Tags?

It’s a piece of code used to provide additional information to Google Ads and Google Analytics. Typical tag information is the duration of the user's page visit to your site/submission form, how the visitors arrived on your site, which links they clicked, or even what products were removed from the shopping cart. 

Every tag is made to track different events. It can send information to Google Analytics, Google Ads, or a third-party code you place in your website’s JavaScript or HTML to track various important events for your business.

Add Google Analytics to Website (Using GTM) 

Why this is important

Google Analytics is the most popular tool to measure website data and gather visitor insights. With it, you will be able to know the amount of traffic you are getting and how your visitors are behaving on your website. 

Where and when to do this?

In Google Tag Manager and Google Analytics, and only once—the first time you install Google Analytics. 

Important data from Google Analytics

• If you’re targeting a specific audience, it’s crucial to know where your visitors are coming from.

• To determine which of your efforts are paying off, you must know how your visitors found your website. You can see if visitors came to your site directly, through a referral from another website (ex: Twitter, Facebook), or from search engines. 

• Which browsers you should be focusing on are defined by the web browsers your visitors use.

• The keywords used by visitors in the search engines to get to your website are crucial for SEO. Knowing which keywords people use to get to your site will help you determine if you’re on the right track.

Link Google Analytics Property to Google Ads Account 

Why this is important

By linking the data from Google Ads and Google Analytics, you will get a better overview of the entire customer journey from the moment they click on your ad to how they interact with your site afterward. You will also be able to see ad performance data in Google Ads and Google Analytics and create advanced user segments and Audiences.

Prerequisites and requirements

You need to have edit/administrative access to both the Google Ads and Analytics account you want to link.

Conclusion

To conclude, start with technical verification of the site, and you will save a lot of time and money. Also, you will notice which aspects of your website need improvement to have the best performance with Google Ads and succeed.

To use the advantages, unite these three powerful tools: Google Ads, Google Tag Manager, and Google Analytics. They will help you create, measure, and analyze campaigns and their results. Once you get this setup, you are ready to start with Google Ads!

 

About the author

Aleksandar Janković is a Google Ads Specialist at Sellers Alley. He works with clients to develop and execute digital marketing strategies in Google Ads. Aleksandar helps them reach their goals by finding new ways to market products and services to customers through various channels.

He has vast experience in planning, setting up, and managing campaigns in Google Ads, and using tools like Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager.