How Do I Set Up a Google Ads Campaign?

Setting up a Google Ads campaign involves defining your budget and targeting area, organizing your services into ad groups, selecting relevant keywords to trigger your ads, and creating ads that lead users to a matching landing page. Targeting each city separately with corresponding ads and landing pages that mention both the service and the city ensures higher engagement and click-through rates.

Full Explanation

The foundation of a Google Ads campaign is straightforward: the campaign level controls your budget and geographical focus. It is most effective to target your advertisements by city, creating a unique campaign for each location you want to reach. Within these campaigns, the structure further divides into ad groups, each representing a different service your business offers.

Under each ad group are keywords and ads. Keywords are what trigger your ads when a user searches for related terms. Ads are what users see and click on, and these should be tailored to mention both the specific service and the city. This dual mention helps potential customers identify relevance quickly.

The landing page your ad directs to should mirror this strategy by prominently displaying the service and city mentioned in the ad. This alignment across the keyword, ad, and landing page improves the user experience and increases the likelihood of clicking through, ultimately enhancing campaign effectiveness.

Step-by-Step Breakdown

  1. Create a campaign per city: Set your budget and specify the city or area you want to target.
  2. Define ad groups: Assign each group to a different service your business offers.
  3. Select keywords: Choose keywords related to the services in the specific city to trigger your ads.
  4. Write ads: Design ads that clearly state the service and the city to attract relevant clicks.
  5. Set up landing pages: Ensure each landing page reflects the service and city so users find exactly what they expect.

Real Examples

If you offer plumbing services in multiple cities, you would create a separate campaign for each city such as “Plumbing Services in City A” and “Plumbing Services in City B.” Within each campaign, your ad groups might be “Emergency Plumbing,” “Drain Cleaning,” and so forth. Keywords under these groups would trigger ads stating, for example, “Emergency Plumbing in City A.” Clicking the ad takes the user to a landing page that highlights emergency plumbing services available specifically in City A, reinforcing the ad’s message.

Common Mistakes

  • Not targeting campaigns by city, which can dilute your budget and reduce ad relevance.
  • Using generic ads that don’t mention both the service and city, lowering user engagement.
  • Failing to match landing page content with the ads and keywords, causing higher bounce rates and less effective campaigns.

FAQs

Why target campaigns by city?
Targeting by city ensures your budget is focused and your ads are highly relevant to the audience in each location, leading to better results.
What should ads include?
Ads should clearly mention the service offered and the city to grab the attention of users searching within that area.
How important is the landing page?
The landing page must align with both the service and city mentioned in the ad and keywords to maintain user interest and improve click-through rates.

Key Takeaways

  • Structure campaigns by city to keep your budget and targeting precise.
  • Use ad groups to organize different services within each campaign.
  • Choose keywords that closely relate to the services and city you are targeting.
  • Create ads that mention both the service and location for better user engagement.
  • Ensure landing pages reflect the same service and city to improve conversion rates.