How to run a Google Ads campaign: a beginner's guide

Running a Google Ads campaign is a set of five decisions: how the account is structured, which keywords you target, how your ads read, what you are willing to spend and how you measure the results. If you set each one up in the right order, the campaign has a fair chance. If you skip the last one, you will never know which of the other four worked.

This guide is written for someone setting up their first Search campaign. It links to our deeper guides on each step, so you can go as far into the detail as you need.

Set up tracking before you spend a penny

The single most common mistake is launching ads with no way to measure what happens after the click. Install the Google tag on your website and set up conversion actions for the things that matter to you: a form submission, a phone call or a sale. Google Ads then tells you which keywords and ads produced results, rather than just clicks.

If you are unsure what counts as a conversion, read our guide to conversion rates (https://victory.digital/what-is-a-conversion-rate-and-how-do-you-improve-it). It explains the metric and the common pitfalls in plain English.

Structure the account properly

A Google Ads account has a fixed hierarchy: campaigns contain ad groups, ad groups contain keywords, and each keyword is matched with ads. The structure decides how well Google can judge relevance, so it is worth getting right on day one. Our guide to ad groups (https://victory.digital/what-are-ad-groups) explains the anatomy of a well-built account and the mistakes that inflate costs.

A rough rule: one ad group per product or service. A plumber might run one ad group for boiler repairs and another for bathroom installations, because the searches, the ads and the landing pages differ.

Choose keyword match types with care

Keywords decide which searches can trigger your ads. Broad match casts the widest net and needs the most supervision; phrase match and exact match give you tighter control. Beginners do well to start with phrase and exact match, review the search terms report weekly, and add anything irrelevant as a negative keyword. Negative keywords are the cheapest filter in paid search: they stop your ad appearing for searches you do not want.

Write ads that earn the click

Your ad has to earn the click and your landing page has to honour the promise. Match the searcher's language, lead with the benefit and say what happens next. Our guide to writing ad copy that converts (https://victory.digital/how-to-write-ad-copy-that-converts) walks through headlines, descriptions and the testing habits that lift click-through rates.

Set a budget you can defend

Your budget should follow the value of a customer, not a round number. Work backwards from what a new enquiry or sale is worth and what you can afford to pay for it. Our guide to setting a PPCPPC stands for Pay Per Click — an online advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked. budget (https://victory.digital/how-to-set-a-ppc-budget-for-your-business) has the formula and a worked example. We manage campaigns from GBP 849 a month as part of our digital marketing packages, and the same arithmetic applies whether you manage ads yourself or hand them to us.

Watch Quality Score

Quality Score is Google's rating of how relevant your ad, keywords and landing page are to the search. It runs from 1 to 10 and it decides how much you pay relative to competitors. A weak score means every click costs more than it should, and the quality score guide (https://victory.digital/what-is-google-ads-quality-score) explains exactly what feeds it and how to fix it.

Launch, then treat the account as a living thing

Launch day is the start, not the finish. For the first weeks, check the search terms report, pause what is wasting money, move budget toward what is working and test new ad copy against the incumbent. Accounts that get reviewed weekly outperform accounts that are left to run.

If you would rather hand the campaign to people who run paid search all day, our PPCPPC stands for Pay Per Click — an online advertising model where advertisers pay a fee each time their ad is clicked. team plans, builds and manages Google Ads campaigns for businesses across the UK. Digital marketing packages start at GBP 849 a month. See the packages at https://victory.digital/pay-per-click