How To Set Up a Google Ads Campaign for Your Brand

Google ads appear all across the internet—in search results, on websites, at the beginning of YouTube videos, and more. Learn how to use them.

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

  1. Choose a campaign objective and type
  2. Determine your ad spend
  3. Select campaign settings and targeting
  4. Create or upload ads
  5. 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.

Google Ads Campaign

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.

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.

Wrapping Up:

We at ShopShipShake have been working with businesses like yours with fulfilling experiences. We offer one-stop services, including an efficient supply chain, over 10 thousand of China’s suppliers, over 1,000,000 SKU and more. With a successful track record of over 100,000 clients, we are sure to deliver your orders requirements.

Let’s get in touch to build, sustain, and grow your businesses! If you would like to know more details about us, please contact us:  blog.shopshipshake.com. If you are interested in cooperating with us. Please register on: https://shop.shopshipshake.com/shop/register/business

The article originates from: https://www.shopify.com/za/blog/google-ads-campaign

Google Search Volume and What It Means for Your Business

Do you know how many Google searches happen each month for your brand or product? Search volume data is essential for business owners, but it isn’t always easy to find—or understand. Here are the best tools and DIY methods for finding your Google search volume—and what to do with these numbers.

What is Google search volume?

Google search volume measures how often a given keyword is searched for on Google. It’s a data point typically expressed as average monthly searches or monthly search volume (MSV). This number is an estimate, since Google doesn’t make exact keyword search volume data public.

Google search volume reflects the total number of searches a keyword receives, not the number of unique users. If one person makes the same query multiple times, each search counts toward MSV. 

Understanding search volume can empower you to align your web pages with customer search behavior, optimize your content strategy, and enhance your visibility in search results, making it easier for new customers to find your products.

Factors that affect Google search volume

Search volume isn’t static. It fluctuates over time for reasons that include: 

  • Seasonality. If the search volume for a particular query rises and falls in a predictable pattern each year, it can be said to be “seasonal.” For example, interest in the search term “bbq grill” peaks every June in the United States. Google Trends can help you explore the seasonality of keywords relevant to your business.
  • Trends. Some spikes in search volume are less predictable, such as those tied to breaking news, current events, and other popular topics. Check out today’s search trends to see which queries have the highest volume now.
  • Advertising. Special promotions and ads can generate awareness and interest in your brand or products, which may translate to an increase in search volume for your pages. 
  • Search engine optimization. Optimizing your content for search (known as SEO) can help your website rank higher on search engine results pages, leading to increased search volume. 
  • User behavior. As technology evolves, so do search patterns. Increasing use of mobile search, for example, has shifted search volume to favor different keywords and mobile-optimized sites. 

Tools for assessing the Google search volume for a keyword

Before finding the MSV for a keyword, it’s essential to understand the limitations of search volume data. MSV is a rough estimate, and, like all estimates, sometimes Google (or your favorite keyword research tool) gets it wrong. A high-MSV keyword could bring in very little traffic; a lower-MSV keyword could be a boon for your business. Ensure MSV is one of several metrics you use when evaluating keywords.

Search volume doesn’t appear on the SERP by default (although, if you want it to, you can download a browser extension like MozBar). To find search volume, you can use a paid third-party keyword research tool or a combination of three free tools from Google: Google Ads Keyword Planner, Google Trends, and Google Search Console. Each serves a different purpose:

  • Google Keyword Planner. Google Keyword Planner is a free tool by Google to help businesses find keywords to target with Google Ads. To use it, input a search term (or several) related to your business, and it will return a list of related keyword ideas with average monthly search volume, CPC (cost per click), and competition (for ad placement, not organic search) for each.
  • Google Trends. Google Trends is another free tool by Google that can show you how a keyword’s popularity has changed over time and how it compares to other keywords. Instead of absolute search volume, Google Trends shows relative search volume out of 100. If you want absolute numbers, combine Google Trends with another tool, like Google Search Console. Google Trends is helpful If all you need to know is how search volume changes over time (for example, if you just want to see the seasonality of a query).
  • Google Search Console. Google Search Console is a free service for anyone who owns or operates a web domain. It allows you to see important information about how Google interacts with your site so that you can fix technical issues that might prevent your web pages from displaying in search results. With a bit of math, you can also use Google Search Console to find MSV.

Other popular keyword research tools include third-party options Ahrefs, Keyword Finder, Moz, Semrush, and Ubersuggest. These tools typically cost money but offer a free trial or free option with fewer features. 

How to use Google Search Console to calculate search volume

Google Search Console is a must for business owners; it shows key data about how Google users interact with your site. While Search Console alone doesn’t provide keyword search volume, you can extrapolate this data.

This method is time-consuming and only works if there’s useful keyword data from Google Search Console (so it won’t be helpful if you have a brand-new site that isn’t ranking for anything). However, since this data comes from Google and is specific (it shows the actual search volume for a given period rather than an estimate), it can provide the most accurate data. Here’s how to do it:

1. Set Search Console and log in

If you haven’t set up Google Search Console, sign in to your Google account, add your URL, and follow the prompts to verify that you’re the owner of your site. 

Once on Search Console, navigate to “Performance” using the menu on the left. Scroll past the visualization at the top of the page and select “Queries.” 

2. Sort by impressions

You can sort your top queries by clicks or impressions. To use Google Search Console to calculate absolute search volume, you use impressions data. Impressions represent how many users have seen a link to your page. Basically, Google counts an impression every time one of your links appears within a user’s search results for a given query. 

3. Find a keyword you rank for in the top 10 

Confirm your website ranks in the top 10 results for at least one keyword. If you rank for a keyword, you can assume that the number of impressions equals the search volume for a given period. This is because every time a user searches for that keyword, it generates an impression for your site. Note that you can change the date range to 30 days at the top of the Performance report—this will tell you impressions per month.

4. Use this volume to extrapolate

Now you know the search volume for one keyword over a particular period, use the Explore feature on Google Trends to calculate the search volume for other relevant keywords. Enter the keyword whose volume you know, followed by a comma, and the keyword whose volume you want to discover. Set the region and the type of search to match the settings you used in Google Search Console.

Google Trends shows the relative popularity of these two keywords over time. You can easily turn this data into a ratio. 

For example, say your site ranks for square-toe shoes, and you’re thinking of branching out into ballet flats. Looking at “square toe shoes” versus “ballet flats” over the past month, you can see the average interest in ballet flats was 77 (on a scale of 0–100) and 8 for square toe shoes. You now know that, for past month, “ballet flats” was 9.625 times more popular than “square toe shoes.” You can then take your Google Console data—imagine your site ranks for “square toe shoes” and received 2,400 impressions for this query last month—to find the absolute search volume for “ballet flats,” by multiplying 2,400 by 9.625 to get 23,100.

How to use Google search volume data to improve your business

Here are a few tips on using information on Google search volume to benefit your business:

1. Conduct keyword research

Use search volume data to help you decide which keywords to include on product pages and blog posts. Incorporate the highest-volume relevant keywords into your content to attract as many shoppers as possible. 

2. Experiment with long-tail and short-tail keywords

Long-tail keywords have multiple words attached to a primary keyword, like, “square toe mary jane flats.” These longer keywords typically represent a user further along in the customer journey because they’re searching for something relatively specific and may be ready to purchase. Long-tail keywords tend to have lower search volume than short-tail keywords, which have fewer words and typically represent a user in the information-gathering phase. 

3. Estimate traffic potential

Use MSV to estimate how much search traffic you’ll receive from targeting a particular keyword. Multiply MSV by 0.25 for a rough estimate of the maximum amount of organic traffic you can receive per keyword. (The average click-through rate for the top organic result is about 25%.) Ranking for a keyword does not guarantee clicks, but it can get your brand name in front of more eyes.

Wrapping Up:

We at ShopShipShake have been working with businesses like yours with fulfilling experiences. We offer one-stop services, including an efficient supply chain, over 10 thousand of China’s suppliers, over 1,000,000 SKU and more. With a successful track record of over 100,000 clients, we are sure to deliver your orders requirements.

Let’s get in touch to build, sustain, and grow your businesses! If you would like to know more details about us, please contact us:  blog.shopshipshake.com. If you are interested in cooperating with us. Please register on: https://shop.shopshipshake.com/shop/register/business

The article originates from: https://www.shopify.com/blog/google-search-volume