Google Ads is the largest digital advertising platform in the world. In the last quarter of 2023, advertisers spent more than $65 billion on the platform—not a small amount.
When most marketers think of Google Ads campaigns, they think of text ads on Google search results. But there are many types of campaigns—from video to mobile app ads—with a few important key steps to setting them up.
Learn the ins and outs of advertising with Google and how to run Google Ads campaigns on your own.
What is a Google Ads campaign?
A Google Ads campaign is a structure for advertising in search results, YouTube videos, and more within the Google Ads platform.
Google Ads campaigns work through a selection of settings. Among them are ad groups (which contain the ad formats and target keywords), budget, and technical settings.
Google ads are self-serve, meaning you can set up and cancel an ad campaign at any time. You can sign up for a Google Ads account, add credit card billing information, configure ads and campaign settings, and have ads running within a day.
There is no minimum or maximum spend for Google Ads campaigns; advertisers can spend as little as $1 per day (though results may be limited).
Types of Google Ads campaigns
When advertisers create new campaigns in Google, they have nine different types to choose from:
- Search. Google Search ads appear in Google search results as promoted links.
- Display. Display ads, also referred to as banner ads, are image ads, short videos, and HTML-based ads shown on non-Google websites that have agreed to show ads.
- Video. Video ads on YouTube appear in multiple ways, including 30-second skippable pre-roll ads and six-second unskippable bumper ads that appear at the beginning of videos.
- Shopping. Product listing ads for products or services sold online appear in search results next to text ads and Google’s Shopping tab.
- Demand Gen. This new, experimental campaign format appears on all of Google’s social properties, including YouTube Shorts, Discover, and Gmail.
- App. A campaign type specifically for advertisers of mobile apps, these appear across all Google’s mobile properties, including search, Google Play store, and YouTube.
- Local. For promoting physical locations, such as brick-and-mortar stores or restaurants, local ads primarily appear on Google Maps.
- Smart. With this ad type, new or small business advertisers can choose to have Google automatically place their ads across all of the properties Google owns.
- Performance Max. Similar to a smart campaign, Performance Max is an automated campaign type that shows ads across all channels but caters to large, commercial accounts.
How to create a Google Ads campaign
- Choose a campaign objective and type
- Determine your ad spend
- Select campaign settings and targeting
- Create or upload ads
- Configure conversion tracking and launch
These five steps to create a Google Ads campaign are the same for every campaign type:
1. Choose a campaign objective and type
When you create a new campaign in Google Ads, your first prompt will be to define your objective. This helps Google recommend the campaign types that best suit you. “Sales” and “website traffic” are the most common goal types.
Depending on the objective you select, there may be additional settings to choose from, such as the conversion goal if you choose a sales objective.
Once you select your objective, Google will provide the relevant campaign types for you. The campaign type will determine the settings and placements available to you throughout the campaign.
2. Determine your ad spend
You typically set budgets on a daily basis in Google Ads and can change them at any time. When creating a new campaign, most advertisers choose the lower end of their budget range and then spend more as they see results.
Your objective will partially determine your bidding strategy. For example, if your goal is to get more website sales, campaigns will bid to optimize for the most sales by default.
There are additional nuances you can add to your bid strategy directly. For example, you can target a certain impression share of all searches or set bids at the ad group level, giving you the flexibility to spend more on high-performing ad groups.
3. Select campaign settings and targeting
In this stage, you will set the parameters for how you want your campaign to reach people. This includes settings for which platforms to advertise on, which languages to use in your ads, and more.
The final step in the configuration is setting your targeting. For search campaigns, this means the keywords you want to target, as well as negative keywords (the terms you don’t want to show up on). Advertisers can research the keywords they want to target ahead of time using Google’s Keyword Planner tool. For non-search campaigns, advertisers set targeting based on the interests and behavior of their target audience.
4. Create or upload ads
In this stage, you’ll write ad copy for search ads or upload media for other types, such as video campaigns. Google also now offers generative AI support to help you create ads if you provide it with the final URL (landing page) you’ll be sending them to.
📚Read more: Effective Google Ads Examples From Ecommerce Brands
5. Configure conversion tracking and launch
Google Ad campaigns work best when they can optimize based on conversion signals. These are set in the “Conversions” section of the “Measurement” menu. Google Ads can measure conversions using various tools, but the most common method is for marketers to import their existing conversion data from Google Analytics (GA4).
Once your conversion tracking is in place, your ads are ready to launch. Click “Enable” to turn on your ads. In the Google Ads interface, you can tell a campaign is on if there is a green dot next to its name.
Google Ads does an automated review of new ads before ads go live; you can expect the review to take anywhere from one hour to 24 hours. Once it’s done and your ads are approved, your ads will begin showing.
Google Ads campaign FAQ
How much does a Google Ad campaign cost?
Google Ads lets advertisers set their daily budget, which can be as little as $1 or as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars per day. The amount of visibility you get for your budget depends on a wide variety of factors, including campaign type, number of competing advertisers, and ad quality score.
Are Google Ads campaigns worth it?
Generally, marketers see a high return on Google Ads campaigns relative to other channels because they can use keyword targeting to reach people interested in their products.
How do you cancel a Google Ad campaign?
Google Ads campaigns are self-serve, which means you can pause or cancel them in the Google Ads interface at any time.
How do you track your Google Ads campaign?
Google Ads provides a robust interface to track the metrics of your campaigns from directly within Google Ads. Google also offers an integration between Google Analytics (GA4) and Google Ads, allowing you to bring that data into GA4 for deeper analysis.