As we've discussed, there are lots of different types of Google ad formats, from search ads to shopping and video ads. Regardless of the ad format, there are certain steps you'll likely take when creating any Google ad. You'll learn about those steps in this video. Your first step is to define your campaign goal. Your goal is, what do you want to achieve with the ad? Do you want to make more sales? Get more leads? Increase website traffic? Or encourage people to visit your store? The goal you choose will inform other campaign options. For example, imagine your goal is to increase website traffic. You'll likely want to select a type of bidding, like "maximize clicks." This will put your money, also called your ad spend, towards getting people to click on the ad. You may also encounter the word "objective" instead of "goal," such as "define your campaign objective." For Google Ads, these words mean essentially the same thing. Remember, your goal or objective is what you want to ultimately achieve with this ad. The next step is to choose your ad campaign type. This determines where your ads will show and what they will look like. The word "campaign" has a specific meaning in Google Ads. Campaigns are ads that share a budget, location targeting, and other settings. Campaigns are often used to organize categories of the products and services you offer. Your Google Ads account can have numerous campaigns operating at one time. Your second step is to choose the campaign for your type of ad, such as search, shopping, local, or video. Depending on which campaign you choose, your ads will appear in different locations. For example, a search ad will appear in the SERPs and a video ad will appear in YouTube. A local ad can also be in Google Maps, websites, and YouTube. Your third step is to set a budget for your campaign. This budget sets the maximum you will spend. You can change it at anytime. You will set a daily average budget that specifies how much you want to spend each day over the course of one month. Google Ads will automatically optimize your campaign spend for the days of the month when you're more likely to get clicks and conversions based on your bid strategy; For example, on days when search traffic is higher. This means that on some days you might not reach a daily budget, while on others you might exceed it. However, you will never exceed your monthly spending limit. The fourth step is to choose your bidding strategy. If you select a campaign goal, you'll see a recommended bidding strategy. Google Ads allows you to choose your bidding strategy to ensure that your campaign is designed to meet your specific goal. For example, you might choose to focus your bidding on conversions. You can also select an automated bidding strategy. Many automated strategies use machine learning to improve the ad performance. For Google Ads, think of machine learning as a set of software instructions that try to help the ad achieve its goal. An automated bidding strategy takes the challenge and guesswork out of setting bids to meet your performance goals. In an automating bidding strategy, Google Ads sets bids for your ads based on the ad's likelihood to result in a conversion or a sale. The machine learning software in automated bidding strategies learn as they go. As your ads get served to more people, the bid performance informs future bidding amounts. The next step is to select your audience targeting. Targeting helps define how narrow or broad your audience targeting will be, which is deciding who you would like to see your ads. With no targeting, your ads will have the widest reach. Narrowing the targeting of your ads lets you reach the specific customers who are interested in what you have to offer. Remember your customer personas? Now is the time to put them to use. Common forms of targeting in Google Ads include keywords, audiences, locations, topics, and devices. While you can use the Google Ads tool to get ideas for targeting, typically, you'll plan and determine these options before creating an ad. Planning ahead of time avoids making mistakes in the ad-creation process. The sixth step is to actually just create your ad. The primary text ad format is responsive search ads, and they're composed of several headlines, descriptions, and a landing page URL. The engines then automatically test different combinations to determine which performs best. Don't forget, creating your ad is only one part of converting a potential customer. Your landing page needs to deliver what the potential customer expects to see when they click on your ad. Now, if they click on an ad and are confused by the landing page, you may lose that potential customer. The seventh step is to set up your conversions. To know if the ad is successful, you must learn if the potential customers are turning into paying customers. Conversion tracking can help track the actions that you want customers to take on your website. By tracking this data, you'll be able to assess the effectiveness of your ads, targeting, and overall campaigns. One way to track conversions is through a tool called Google Analytics. To track conversions, you'll connect Google Analytics directly to your Google Ads account. You'll learn more about Google Analytics in a course later in the program. Before setting up any conversions, you'll need to provide users with clear and comprehensive information about any data you are collecting about them. You'll also need to get their consent to collect any data. Typically, this consent is gained through a website pop-up and agreement button. The next time you see a pop-up about collecting any information, also referred to as the "cookie consent bar," please read it. You may need to use something similar if you're tracking conversions for a website. That's a lot of steps to create a Google ad! Now, when you start to create an ad, it may feel a little overwhelming at first. That's okay! But once you learn the platform and create a few ads, you'll understand the process and feel much more comfortable. Stick with it.
