Google Ads Help: The Beginners Guide

Google is a platform that boasts an overwhelming number of unique users of over 270 million people in the United States in February 2023. It can be said that "Google Ads", which can display advertisements on Google like this, is the best advertisement for getting to know your company's products and brands.

In addition to general advertising targeting such as age and gender, Google Ads also has the advantage of being able to set detailed settings such as user location, interests, and life stage.

To reach your target demographic, you must properly set up your Google Ads and manage your budget.

This time, we will explain the basic mechanism, types of campaigns, and setting methods for those who are considering posting to Google Ads and those who are unsure of how to set it up.

1. What is Google Ads
2. How Google Ads works
3. Benefits of using Google Ads
4. How to set up Google Ads
5. 7 types of campaigns in Google Ads
6. Points to note when using Google Ads
7. Get help with Google Ads
8. Understand how it works and maximize the operational effectiveness of Google Ads

1. #What is Google Ads

To display ads overall on Google Network Google Ads is a marketing tool

Furthermore, to search engines, YouTube, and Gmail, you may promote your goods and services on a variety of Google-powered websites and apps.  It was released as "Google AdWords" in October 2000, two years after the birth of the search engine Google, and later changed to "Google Ads" due to the 2018 rebranding.

The representative menu of Google Ads includes " search-linked ads " that display ads for each search keyword and " display ads " that are displayed according to the content of the website.

Also, recently, a menu has been created in which AI supports distribution settings, making it easier for people who are not familiar with advertising operations to start.

  2. #How Google Ads works

We will explain the basic knowledge essential for Google Ads, such as the flow of ad delivery, Ad Rank, and Quality Score.

 The flow of ad creation and delivery

To distribute Google Ads, first create a campaign. A campaign is a component for managing the entire advertisement, and basic settings such as delivery purpose, budget, bid strategy, and targeting are possible.

After setting up the campaign, set up the ad group that determines the detailed creative (ad production).

After all the settings are completed, a review will be conducted, and if there are no problems, the advertisement will be delivered. More information is provided under the heading How to set up Google Ads.

 Ad Rank and Quality Score

Google Ads are displayed in a prominent place (upper position) as the Ad Rank is higher.

Ad Rank is determined from a total of six indicators, including the “Quality Score,” which consists of the quality of the ad content and landing page, “Bid Unit Price,” and “How the user arrived at the search.”

Quality Score is a 10-point scale based on the quality and relevance of your ad. The index that serves as the standard is the click-through rate (CTR).

The more clicks you get for your ad impressions, the better your Quality Score.

In Google Ads, multiple advertisers submit bids to each other. This mechanism is called an auction, and even if the quality score is low, if you can submit a high bid price, you can be displayed higher.

 Advertisement target area

Google Ads allows you to specify your target location. By setting a target region, ads will be displayed according to the user's geographical attributes.

For example, if a user living in Yokohama searches for "yoga studio", ads targeting Yokohama as the target area will be displayed, but ads targeting areas other than Yokohama will not be displayed. Therefore, businesses that operate brick-and-mortar stores can increase their cost effectiveness by narrowing down the target area in their sales range.

In Google Ads targeting, users can be narrowed down by age, gender, interests, etc., in addition to geography.

3. #Benefits of using Google Ads

Many people think that operating Google Ads requires specialized knowledge. However, since there are many benefits for beginners, Google Ads is recommended for those who have no experience in operating web ads.

• Easy to assess cost-effectiveness
• You can predict the bid unit price and necessary budget before placing an ad.
• You can easily publish even if you have no experience or knowledge of advertising

 Easy to assess cost-effectiveness

The billing method of Google Ads is centered on performance-based billing, including pay-per-click. Since the fee is charged only when the results are actually produced, it can be said that it is easier to determine the cost-effectiveness compared to mass advertising, in which costs are incurred at the time of publication.

You can check your specific bids and required budgets using the simulation tool provided by Google. The tool can be used even before the advertisement is posted, making it easier to formulate an operational strategy.

The simulation tools available in Google Ads are:

Keyword Planner: Allows you to estimate the cost of paid search advertising

Performance Planner: Allows you to estimate your display ad spend

Reach Planner: This allows you to estimate the cost of your YouTube ads

You can easily publish even if you have no experience or knowledge of advertising

Google Ads has a feature called Smart Assisted Campaigns powered by AI. Smart campaigns will automatically serve your ads with the most successful settings.

Items that would normally have to be set by the advertiser, such as budget, bid strategy, and target, are automatically set, so the advantage is that you can easily start advertising operations without any know-how.

4. #How to set up Google Ads

The following two procedures are required to place Google Ads.

• Create and set up an account
• Advertisement creation/setting/posting

 Create and set up an account

When you create your account, it's a good idea to have the following information ready to ensure a smooth initial setup:

• Names, addresses, and phone numbers of shops and services
• Business email address (Gmail recommended)
• Content you want to promote (website, LP, etc.)
• credit card

After logging in with the Google account you want to manage Google Ads, access the Google Ads site, and click the "Start Now" button.

When the "Create a new campaign" screen appears, select "Switch to expert mode" at the bottom. Switching to expert mode allows you to set keywords and bids in detail.

If you continue to set up according to the question, it will be an account that operates only in Smart Assist mode.

Next, move to the campaign creation screen, but click "Create an account without a campaign". After confirming your business information, such as billing address country, and currency, click the Submit button.

Then click the "Confirm Account" button to complete the account setup. If you don't set your payment information, your ad will not be delivered even if you set it up, so let's complete it here.

Select "Overview" in "Tools and Settings" → "Pricing" at the top of the screen.

Click Manage Payment Methods to register your credit card information.

 

Advertisement creation/setting/posting

Here are the steps to run Google Ads:

Create a campaign (budget, period, target, bid unit price, etc.) Create an ad group (search keywords, etc.) Submit creatives See this article for specific setting methods.

In addition to detailed setting methods for each campaign and ad group, we also explain how to check the settings after the settings are made.

Points to note when using Google Ads

Google Ads has many benefits for beginners, but there are also points to be aware of. Get the most out of your Google Ads experience by understanding what to do below.

 

In some cases, there is a lot of competition, and advertising costs are high

In Google Ads, the more competitive search terms are, the more competitive the bids will be, and the more expensive the advertising costs may be.

Google Ads ranks are determined by multiple factors, including the Quality Score of your ad and landing page, and your bid, but you may need to bid higher than your competitors to make your ad stand out. 

If you only have a small budget for search terms with a lot of competition, your chances of showing ads will be greatly reduced.

To display ads with the target keywords, use the keyword planner to research the average bid price and competitiveness in advance.

If a competitive search term seems to be running out of budget, you should also make the decision to switch to another search term.

 

Requires expertise in choosing appropriate search keywords

When setting up Google Ads, register search keywords according to products and services. When a user searches for that keyword, your ad will be displayed.

In this way, the advantage of Google Ads is that it can provide solutions to user concerns and issues, but it requires specialized knowledge to select appropriate search keywords. 

This is because the display ranking of the advertisement changes greatly depending on the relevance to the company's products and the combination of multiple keywords.

Get help with Google Ads

If you have any questions about how to use Google Ads, please use the Google Ads Help Center.

It covers everything you need to know about Google Ads, including how to create and manage campaigns, how to pay your bills, and more. If you're still not sure, try using the Google Ads Help Community.

You can find Q&A from advertisers in our help community, and you may be able to get answers from other users by posting your questions.
 Understand how Google Ads works 

With Google Ads, you can widely promote your company's products and services through search sites, YouTube, and the Google network.

With Smart Assist Campaigns that automatically optimize your settings, you can now set up your delivery with little to no prior knowledge. However, whether you understand the basic knowledge or not, the operation results will change greatly. This is because detailed settings such as budget fine-tuning and keyword selection affect performance.

You don't have to understand everything from the beginning. Use this article as a reference to gradually acquire know-how, and repeat improvements and trial and error.

As your understanding of Google Ads deepens, your operational effectiveness will increase, and you will be able to deliver the right ads at the right time to the users you want to know about your company's appeal.