Google Ads Success: How to Manage Google Ads Campaign as a Beginner

When starting on your journey of managing Google Ads campaigns. It’s super important not to get frustrated by your lack of understanding and to spend your time focusing on the basics. It really can feel like stepping into uncharted territory and will likely do some for a long time. However, with the right knowledge and strategies. You can navigate these challenges really get to grips with the platform. Understanding the potential of Google Ads for your business. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll delve deep into the harsh realities of how to manage Google Ads campaign as a beginner. The truths about Google ads, and uncover actionable solutions to ensure your success.

Understanding Google Ads: How Google Ads Work?

Google Ads, formerly known as Google AdWords. This an online advertising platform developed by Google that allows businesses to place ads on Google’s search engine results pages (SERPs) and other Google properties. In this guide, we’ll just focus on how to manage Google Ads campaign as a beginner, rather than other ad types like YouTube or Display. It operates on a pay-per-click (PPC) model, meaning advertisers only pay when users click on their ads. Depending on what type of strategy you use. For the most part, you can manage how much you’re willing to pay per click by simply entering a figure. With Google Ads, businesses can reach their target audience. drive website traffic, generate leads, and increase sales, if done correctly.

Important points to note: If your website is not user-friendly, product/service is unsellable/useless or you are paying someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing to run the ads. You’ll just be tipping your money down the drain. We’re sticklers for understanding profit margins so please please please prioritise understanding your numbers first.

Fluctuations in Performance:

One of the harsh realities of managing Google Ads campaigns is the fluctuation in performance metrics. To give an example, these could be click-through rates (CTRs), conversion rates, cost-per-acquisition (CPA), or simply impressions. If you’re still unsure what these acronyms mean We’ve got another article that explains them all. Understanding how metrics impact each other is vital to knowing whether your ads are working or not. These fluctuations in performance can be influenced by various factors, including changes in market conditions, competitor activity, user behavior, errors on your end, website user experience, etc. The list goes on.

Example Solution:

To navigate performance fluctuations effectively. Adopt a data-driven approach to campaign management. What we mean here is, truly understand what your numbers need to look like so you’ve got a path to walk on.

To give an example: If you were selling t-shirts and your RRP was £30 and your overheads were £10 then you’ve got £20 to play with. Now, you don’t want to spend £20 to acquire someone to buy it otherwise you’re breaking even. To go even further, if your target CPA is £10 (meaning you want to make a profit per t-shirt of at least £10).

Let’s break this down to actual metrics. If your average CPC is £2 then it means you’ve got 5 clicks to get a conversion. meaning your conversion rate needs to be at least 20%. Now that’s a very simplified version meaning it gives you an idea of what the numbers need to be like. If you look into your campaigns and the conversion rate is 5% then that means something has to change. Either you need cheaper traffic. A better conversion rate, or a lower profit margin. There are other factors like lifetime value which factor in more but we’ll leave that for another post.

Now this is the point where we should talk about budget. However, that could be a post of its own. For context, we’ll add a basic bit of info here and continue with the t-shirt example. If you’re running the campaigns yourself as a business, rather than an agency you won’t need to factor in agency fees so we’ll keep it to that for now.

If you’re happy to pay £10 to sell t-shirts per person, and you want to sell 300 a month then you simply tie the two numbers to give you a monthly budget = £3000 platform spend. Where it gets complicated is when you’re running the campaigns and the CPA by day will fluctuate. So one day it could be £20 and the other days £7. However, if you put a maximum CPA limit of £10 then this will limit your traffic and you will likely not sell the volume you’re after. Reviewing the performance daily is fine but try not to make huge changes in the account often. For the first 2 weeks leave it then reassess.

Dealing with Performance Issues:

As mentioned above, understanding what you actually need to know before you start shows how crucial it is so you don’t waste money. Even with the seasoned professionals. Performance issues are an inevitable aspect of managing Google Ads campaigns, particularly for beginners. Lack of transparency from Google, changing algorithms, and evolving market conditions can further complicate the optimisation process. There will even be days were there are anomalies and everything is setup and running how it should be, yet no results. Knowing what to look for and amend (if necessary) in those moments is crucial. The reality is that things will go wrong sometimes due to your own fault and other times out of your control. Changing a bid or target too drastically could absolutely tank your volume and other times it could help, you just need to know what you’re doing. When something tanks, we look at GA4 to see if this trend is happening on other channels, this is a great place to start. If you don’t have GA4 setup, this is your reminder. Don’t get us started on cookie policies etc, but if you don’t have that sorted, please please please sort it now.

Example Solution:

Overcoming these challenges isn’t an easy feat or something you can learn overnight. However, focusing on implementing changes that have the biggest impact and ensuring your campaign is set up as best as it can be is a great start. For example, build campaigns out first with the best profit margin. Maximise brand, conduct thorough keyword research – negate irrelevant search terms and optimise ad copy and landing pages for relevance and relatability. Additionally, stay informed about industry updates and best practices through reliable sources.

Negative Keywords:

I probably should have put this first. However here we are. Any paid search expert worth their weight will tell you how important negative keywords are. Probably even more important than keywords themself, well kind of. I cannot stress enough how important it is to exclude search terms that have nothing to do with what you’re selling or your service. Your campaign structure should reflect either different products you’re selling or the services you provide. If service based like a local plumber, our recommendation would be to segment by service and location. If you’re starting out, keep the campaign amount to a minimum and build out. Spreading your budget too thin won’t teach you anything and Google will struggle to learn anything.

Conclusion:

Learning how to manage Google Ads campaign as a beginner. Strategy, and continuous optimization. Start by setting clear goals, selecting relevant keywords, and writing compelling ad copy. By embracing a strategic approach to campaign management. Leveraging the data you get. Staying attuned to performance metrics. You can navigate the platform much quicker. There is a lot more that we could write in this article but let’s start there for now. Stick around for part 2.