The Absolute Beginner’s Guide to Google Ads 2025 — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00If you're planning on starting your very
2. 0:01first Google Ads campaign, this is the
3. 0:03video that I encourage you to watch
4. 0:05first before you even think about
5. 0:07setting up your first campaign in Google
6. 0:09Ads. And the reason for this is because
7. 0:11Google has made it a lot easier to set
8. 0:13up campaigns inside of Google Ads. Now,
9. 0:15I'm not saying that that is a bad thing.
10. 0:17I actually think it is a great addition
11. 0:19to make Google Ads easier to use for
12. 0:21anyone who's looking at launching their
13. 0:22own business. The only problem with that
14. 0:24is that all of this automation has
15. 0:26really stripped out some of the key
16. 0:29information and the key learnings that
17. 0:30you really need to understand about the
18. 0:33way that Google Ads operates. Because if
19. 0:34you don't understand these core points,
20. 0:36what will end up happening is you'll end
21. 0:38up wasting money. And I'm really really
22. 0:40aware that the majority of people who
23. 0:42would be watching this video would
24. 0:43actually be starting out in business. So
25. 0:47every little bit of marketing money they
26. 0:48have needs to be spent in the best
27. 0:51possible way. So, what I want to do in
28. 0:53this video is I want to walk you through
29. 0:54the key concepts that you need to
30. 0:56understand about Google Ads and how it
31. 0:58works so that you can then go through
32. 1:00and start setting up your first Google
33. 1:02Ads campaign. Now, right at the start of
34. 1:04this video to help you further when you
35. 1:06are ready to set up your first Google
36. 1:07Ads campaign, I do want to let you know
37. 1:09if you go to the description of this
38. 1:11video, you can actually get my free
39. 1:14campaign setup guide, which is going to
40. 1:15not only take you through the
41. 1:16step-by-step process, it'll also give
42. 1:18you some explanations of all the
43. 1:20different types of settings. and it's
44. 1:21also got all of those screenshots. So,
45. 1:23it's a really really valuable tool to
46. 1:25walk you through the correct way of
47. 1:26setting up your very first Google Ads
48. 1:28campaign. As I said, you can get the
49. 1:29link in the description below. All
50. 1:31right, let's now get into the
51. 1:32explanation and a very very brief
52. 1:34explanation. So, this is like the
53. 1:36beginner's guide to Google Ads. The
54. 1:38first thing I want you to understand is
55. 1:39that Google Ads is based on an auction,
56. 1:41but it's not the type of auction that
57. 1:42you would immediately think about. This
58. 1:44is not like an eBay auction where the
59. 1:46highest bidder always wins. And the
60. 1:48reason for that is because Google
61. 1:49doesn't only look at your budget or the
62. 1:51amount that you're willing to pay per
63. 1:53click. It also creates what it calls an
64. 1:55ad rank. And this ad rank is the
65. 1:57determining factor of how Google chooses
66. 2:00which ads to show in each individual
67. 2:02auction. Now, to put it really, really
68. 2:03simply, the way that Google decides who
69. 2:05wins the auction is that when someone
70. 2:07completes an initial Google search,
71. 2:09Google runs through this process really,
72. 2:11really quickly to calculate everyone
73. 2:13who's bidding on those keywords, what
74. 2:15their ad rank is, and then the business
75. 2:17with the highest ad rank gets that
76. 2:18number one position. The person with the
77. 2:20second highest ad rank gets that number
78. 2:21two position. And then, as you can see,
79. 2:23it goes on and on throughout the
80. 2:25different placements. Now, when it comes
81. 2:26to your ad rank, there are some
82. 2:27different factors that Google takes into
83. 2:29place. firstly your bid and that is you
84. 2:31know how much you're willing to pay for
85. 2:32that click the quality of your ad and
86. 2:34when it comes to the quality of your ad
87. 2:36I don't want to understate this is that
88. 2:38you do need to remember that for Google
89. 2:40the core goal that they want to achieve
90. 2:42is that they want to match up the most
91. 2:43relevant ads that are sending people to
92. 2:45the most relevant landing page which is
93. 2:47relevant to their users initial search
94. 2:49inquiry so one of the core successes or
95. 2:52the core drivers for success with Google
96. 2:54ads you always need to think about that
97. 2:56relevancy having highly relevant ads
98. 2:58taking people to highly relevant landing
99. 3:00pages back to their initial search. So,
100. 3:02so far we've spoken about the bid, how
101. 3:04much you're willing to pay. Secondly,
102. 3:05the quality of your ad, remembering it's
103. 3:07all about relevancy. How relevant is
104. 3:09that ad to the user search. And some of
105. 3:11the other core factors are the user's
106. 3:13context, so their location, the time of
107. 3:16the search, what device they're using,
108. 3:17their current search history. So, that's
109. 3:19very much based about their user. And
110. 3:20Google is introducing more and more AI
111. 3:22elements into this. So, they're looking
112. 3:24at the expected impact of your ad. So,
113. 3:25that really does start to take in your
114. 3:27previous performance. So that's why it's
115. 3:28really really important with Google ads
116. 3:30to remember that although your ads are
117. 3:31showing you know straight away or pretty
118. 3:33much straight away after you launch your
119. 3:35campaign that it's all about building
120. 3:37success upon success. So generally what
121. 3:39you find in Google ads is that your
122. 3:40results will get better over time as
123. 3:42Google gets to learn more about the type
124. 3:44of users who are more likely to not only
125. 3:46click on your ad but have a positive
126. 3:48experience when they get onto your
127. 3:49landing page. And although this can get
128. 3:51really really confusing as a beginner,
129. 3:53what I really want you to take home is
130. 3:55this core message when it comes to your
131. 3:56ad rank that better ads and a better
132. 3:58user experience will give you better
133. 4:00results. So when you're planning your
134. 4:02Google Ads campaign, you always need to
135. 4:04be thinking about what is the most
136. 4:05relevant ad copy that this user needs to
137. 4:08see and what is the most relevant
138. 4:09landing page which will help them with
139. 4:11their initial search and query. And if
140. 4:13you can get that in your campaign,
141. 4:16you're going to be already three or four
142. 4:17steps down the road of seeing success
143. 4:19with your Google Ads campaigns. Now,
144. 4:21there are some other factors that do
145. 4:22determine your ad rank, but as I said,
146. 4:24if you can just really get that core
147. 4:26feature down, Pat, that you really want
148. 4:27to make sure that your ads or your
149. 4:29landing pages are highly relevant to the
150. 4:31users's initial search, you are going to
151. 4:33be well set and well positioned for
152. 4:34success even with your first Google Ads
153. 4:36campaign. So now we've spoken about that
154. 4:38Google Ads is based on an auction and
155. 4:40that it's not just the highest bidder
156. 4:42who wins because it talks about your ad
157. 4:44rank and remembering to get the highest
158. 4:46ad rank possible, you really want to
159. 4:48have a core focus of making sure that
160. 4:50your ad copy and your landing page are
161. 4:52relevant to the user's initial search.
162. 4:54The next part that I really want you to
163. 4:55understand that when it comes to Google
164. 4:56ads is let's just now quickly talk about
165. 4:58where your ads can show. So many of you
166. 5:00would be aware that your ads can show on
167. 5:02the Google search network so that when
168. 5:04you know when you complete a Google
169. 5:05search you see those ad listings. If you
170. 5:07have an e-commerce brand and you're
171. 5:09selling physical products and you got a
172. 5:11shopping feed set up which can be easily
173. 5:13done through a platform like Shopify or
174. 5:15Woo Commerce, your ads can then also
175. 5:16appear on what's called the shopping
176. 5:18network. They're those placements of the
177. 5:19little product ads with the prices that
178. 5:21you see generally above your search
179. 5:23results. Your ads can also appear on
180. 5:24YouTube platform that we're talking to
181. 5:26right now, but they can also appear in
182. 5:28Gmail and on inside of apps or mobile
183. 5:31apps. And then finally, you can also
184. 5:32have those display ads. So those image
185. 5:34based ads and if you've ever had the
186. 5:36situation where you've gone to a website
187. 5:37and then you've seen that business's ads
188. 5:39follow kind of follow you around the
189. 5:40internet, that's a displayed type of ad.
190. 5:42Now there are a multitude of different
191. 5:44types of campaigns you can run in Google
192. 5:46Ads. And the big thing that I would
193. 5:47really really recommend is that if you
194. 5:48are wanting to run video imagebased ads
195. 5:50is that you would set them up in
196. 5:52separate campaigns. But as a start, my
197. 5:54biggest recommendation is that you start
198. 5:55with a Google search campaign so that
199. 5:57you can really start focusing in on what
200. 5:59search terms and what ad copies and what
201. 6:01landing pages are working best for your
202. 6:04business. Okay. So, I've already taken
203. 6:05you through the basics of the Google Ads
204. 6:07auction. I've also taken you through
205. 6:09where your ads can appear. Now, let's
206. 6:11talk about the targeting of your ads.
207. 6:13Because yes, it is true that you do
208. 6:15target ads by keywords. So, you can
209. 6:18select what keywords you want your ads
210. 6:20to appear for in the auction. But the
211. 6:22thing I love about Google Ads is that
212. 6:23it's not only based on keyword targeting
213. 6:25because you can also target people based
214. 6:27on their locations. Now, you can do this
215. 6:29via country. You can also break it down
216. 6:30to targeting different states, cities,
217. 6:32and you can also target different
218. 6:34postcodes or zip codes depending on
219. 6:36where you live. You can also target your
220. 6:37ads based on the devices. So, you can
221. 6:39run ads specifically for an iPhone. You
222. 6:41can also run ads for laptops or for
223. 6:43different iPads. So if you've got a
224. 6:45product that you know is really really
225. 6:47highly targeted for someone completing a
226. 6:48search on a mobile phone, you can limit
227. 6:50your ads to only show up on people who
228. 6:52are completing a search on a mobile
229. 6:54phone. And then above that device
230. 6:55targeting, you also have an option for
231. 6:57targeting via audiences and
232. 6:58demographics. So if you've got a
233. 7:00product, say for example, that is really
234. 7:02really high specific for newborns, you
235. 7:04can target your ads to only targeting
236. 7:06parents who have recently had a new
237. 7:08baby. And this is one of the great
238. 7:09things I love about Google Ads is that
239. 7:11you can get really, really specific
240. 7:12around not only the keywords, but the
241. 7:15type of people and where they're based
242. 7:16and what device they're using, so that
243. 7:18you can really tighten in and focus on
244. 7:20your core markets of who your products
245. 7:22are best suited for. All right, so we've
246. 7:24spoken about the targeting of your ads.
247. 7:25Another thing that I want you to really
248. 7:27understand with Google Ads is that
249. 7:28there's really three different levels
250. 7:29inside of Google Ads. There's your
251. 7:31account, there's your campaigns, and
252. 7:33then there's your ad groups. Now, let me
253. 7:35just break down each of these. Now, when
254. 7:37it comes to a Google Ads account,
255. 7:38effectively every account should only be
256. 7:40advertising one business. So, you might
257. 7:43have multiple different campaigns. You
258. 7:45can run that inside of one Google Ads
259. 7:46account, but you do definitely want to
260. 7:48make sure that you're not running
261. 7:50campaigns for different businesses
262. 7:51inside of the same account. So, every
263. 7:53business has its own account. Then a
264. 7:54step down from there, you have your
265. 7:56different campaigns. Now, there are
266. 7:57different types of campaigns. So,
267. 7:59there's campaigns that are, you know,
268. 8:00only based for search. So, you got
269. 8:02search campaigns. You've also got video
270. 8:03campaigns, display campaigns. But you
271. 8:05also may want to run different search
272. 8:07campaigns in the same account. A perfect
273. 8:10example may be, let's just say you have
274. 8:12products which are targeted at men and
275. 8:13other products which are targeted at
276. 8:15women. You could split them out into
277. 8:17separate campaigns. And the reason for
278. 8:19that is because inside of Google Ads,
279. 8:21your budget, so the way that you control
280. 8:22your spending is held at the campaign
281. 8:24level. That's really, really important
282. 8:25for someone who's coming over from say
283. 8:27Meta or Facebook type ads. Cuz in
284. 8:30Facebook, you can run your budgets at a
285. 8:31campaign level and an ad set level.
286. 8:33Whereas for Google, it is different
287. 8:34because your budget is only run at the
288. 8:36campaign level. So you've got your
289. 8:37account, you got your campaigns, and
290. 8:39then the level below that is your ad
291. 8:40groups. And this is pretty similar. I'll
292. 8:42use that Facebook example is your ad
293. 8:45set. So within your ad group, this is
294. 8:47where you may bunch similar keyword
295. 8:49themes together or similar products
296. 8:51together so that you can really keep
297. 8:52that relevancy for the user inside of
298. 8:55your Google Ads account. And then inside
299. 8:57of those ad groups is where you run all
300. 8:58of your different ads or creatives. So,
301. 9:01the way to think about this is that the
302. 9:03campaign is the tree, your ad groups are
303. 9:05the branches, and the ads are the
304. 9:07individual leaves. All right. Now, I
305. 9:08know we've gone through a lot of
306. 9:10information already, but also what I did
307. 9:12want to do is because I know when you do
308. 9:13start Google Ads, sometimes you just get
309. 9:15really confused with all of the
310. 9:16different acronyms or terms that people
311. 9:18are using. Now, I'm not going to go
312. 9:20through a full exhausted list, but I
313. 9:21just want to take you through some of
314. 9:22the core acronyms that you'll need to
315. 9:24know. And the first one is what's called
316. 9:26CTR, which is your click-through ratio.
317. 9:28And quite simply, this is how many
318. 9:31people see your ad versus how many
319. 9:32people click on your ad. So if you had
320. 9:34100 impressions or 100 people saw your
321. 9:36ad and you got 10 clicks, that would
322. 9:38give you a click-through ratio of 10%.
323. 9:39Now, the reason for why your
324. 9:40click-through ratio is so important is
325. 9:43because you do need to remember that
326. 9:44Google only gets paid when someone
327. 9:46clicks on your ad. So you do really want
328. 9:48to be focusing on your CTR to make sure
329. 9:50you can get that as high as possible. As
330. 9:52a general rule, as a benchmark, last
331. 9:54year a company called Wordstream did
332. 9:56some research and they released data
333. 9:57showing that for search campaigns across
334. 10:00America and Europe, the click-through
335. 10:01ratio was just under 7%. So, as a guide,
336. 10:04if you can get your clickthrough ratio
337. 10:05above 7%, you're doing pretty well.
338. 10:07Another term you need to know, which is
339. 10:08CPC, which is your cost per click, and
340. 10:10this is purely the average cost of all
341. 10:12of your clicks. So, if you spent $100
342. 10:15for 100 clicks, your CPC would be $1 cuz
343. 10:18you're paying $1 per click. Now, that
344. 10:19doesn't mean that every individual click
345. 10:22was a dollar. You might have some that
346. 10:23are 89, others that were $110, but it
347. 10:26just averaged out to be a dollar per
348. 10:28click. Now, your conversion value cost.
349. 10:30Now, this one is a little bit more
350. 10:31complex, but this is essentially your
351. 10:33return on ad spend. Now, the way that
352. 10:35Google would show this, so let's just
353. 10:36say that you spent $100 in ads and you
354. 10:39got $500 worth of revenue, your
355. 10:41conversion value cost would be 5.0 or a
356. 10:44row of 500%. And then another core
357. 10:46metric is your search impression share.
358. 10:48And your search impression share is how
359. 10:50often your ads showed versus how often
360. 10:52it could show. So let's just say that
361. 10:54your ads appeared on 100 out of every
362. 10:56available thousand searches. Your search
363. 10:58impression share would be 10%. So that's
364. 11:01my crash course to get you ready to set
365. 11:03up your first Google Ads campaign. Now
366. 11:04let's just quickly revise what we went
367. 11:06through. First, you need to remember
368. 11:07that Google Ads is based on an auction.
369. 11:09But the good news is it's not just based
370. 11:11on money because remember it's all about
371. 11:13that ad rank. And to get that higher ad
372. 11:15rank, you want to make sure that you got
373. 11:16highly relevant ads going to highly
374. 11:18relevant landing pages from the user's
375. 11:20initial search. Remembering that your
376. 11:21ads don't only appear on Google search,
377. 11:23you can also get them to appear across
378. 11:24the shopping network, inside of apps, on
379. 11:27YouTube, and also on the display and
380. 11:29Gmail networks. Also remember, you've
381. 11:31got different targeting options. So
382. 11:32you're not only targeting by keywords,
383. 11:34you can also target by locations,
384. 11:35devices, and also demographics and
385. 11:37audiences. So, now that I've taken you
386. 11:39through the very basics of Google Ads,
387. 11:41you should be ready to start setting up
388. 11:43your very first search campaign inside
389. 11:45of Google Ads. And I want to help you
390. 11:46here in two ways. Remember, follow the
391. 11:48link in the description below so that
392. 11:50you can get access to my Google Ads
393. 11:52campaign setup guide, which has the
394. 11:54extra explanations and also all of the
395. 11:56different screen shares so you can
396. 11:57follow along in a step-by-step process.
397. 11:59And if you'd like to see a step-by-step
398. 12:01tutorial, I want you to go through and
399. 12:02watch this video right here. Thanks for
400. 12:04joining me. It's been an absolute
401. 12:05pleasure having you here. My name is
402. 12:06Aaron Young for Define Digital Academy
403. 12:08and I look forward to seeing you in this
404. 12:10campaign tutorial setup video right now.