New to Google Ads? Dive into our 2-minute set-up guide designed for beginners.
In this blog, we’ll walk you through the essentials of setting up your Google Ads account, understanding the user interface and seeing where Google is matching your search terms.
You’ll find a video version of this post embedded at the bottom of this page.
Navigating your new account
There are some important settings in the account to understand and configure before you’re ready to go live.
When you initially create your Google Ads account, you’ll land on the Overview tab screen. First, click on All Campaigns at the top of the screen or click Campaigns on the left-hand menu bar to see your campaigns. Think of your Google Ads account as a folder, and this is the top level of your folder.
Once you’re in the Campaigns tab, you’ll see hyperlinks that, if clicked, will take you into your campaign. The first column is called Ad Groups. This tells you everything you have in your campaign folder.
You might have several Ad Group folders or you might just have one. Most of the time, you’ll probably have several. Click your Ad Group folder, you’ll then see what keywords you have set up for your campaign.
Check your campaign settings
The next step is to make sure your account is working correctly. If you’ve just set up your account, you’ll notice that you have a campaign that was created during the account creation.
You want to turn that campaign off immediately because, most of the time, it’s set up in a way where the targeting is very broad and you may not reach the audience you are aiming for.
Setting up your Google Ads search terms
Checking the Search Terms is an important step when managing a search campaign because they reveal the searches that led to your ad being displayed. This data will show after a few days of running your campaign. To see this information, just head to the Insights and Report tab on the left-hand side menu bar and then select Search Terms.
When you see the Search Terms tab, take into account that on the far right, there is a column called Keywords (you may need to add this column). These are the keywords that you may have told Google to seek out for you, but in fact, the far left-hand side column, called Search Terms, is where you’ll find the search terms and keywords you are paying for when people click.
So, what is critically important here is that if these Search Terms don’t look right, you need to spend some time correcting them in order to run the targeted campaigns you have planned.
Google Ads in 2 Minutes: A Quick Overview video
Let us help you
Setting up Google Ads accounts, running these accounts, researching and setting up correct Search Terms – these are some of the things we can help with here at Disruptiv Media.
We offer free consultations, audits and training too.
If you need help with any aspect of your digital marketing journey, get in touch today.