How to Use Google Ads for Beginners (Step-by-Step Guide)

About Google Ads

We love SEO at ThinkersFolk — it builds long-term, compounding traffic. But if you want results quickly, Google Ads is usually the fastest and most controllable way to do it.

In simple terms, Google Ads lets you:

• Show your ad when someone searches for a keyword you choose.
• Pay only when they click (Pay-Per-Click).
• Control your daily budget and maximum cost per click (CPC).
• Measure exactly which keyword, ad and landing page drove a lead or sale.

Google AdWords vs Google Ads

If you still see the term Google AdWords in old tutorials, don’t worry — it’s the same platform with a new name.

• In 2018, Google rebranded “AdWords” to Google Ads.
• Today, it covers Search, Display, Shopping, YouTube, Discovery, and Performance Max campaigns.

In this guide, we’ll focus mainly on Search campaigns — the classic “text ads on Google search results,” because that’s the best starting point for most businesses.

How Does Google Ads Work?

Think of Google Ads as a constantly running auction. Every time someone searches on Google, advertisers “compete” in a mini-auction for that search.

3 key terms you must know:

• CPC (Cost per Click): How much you actually pay when someone clicks your ad.
• Quality Score: Google’s 1–10 score of how relevant and useful your ad + landing page are for a keyword.
• Landing Page: The specific page people land on after clicking your ad (not just your homepage).

Your Ad Rank (which decides your position on the page) is based on both your bid and Quality Score. Unlike a normal auction, the highest bidder doesn’t always win the top spot. A highly relevant ad and landing page with a strong Quality Score can beat a higher bid and even pay less per click.

Rule of thumb: The more relevant your keyword → ad → landing page chain is, the less you usually pay and the better you tend to rank.

How to Be Profitable with Google Ads

You don’t run Google Ads to get “more clicks.” You run them to get conversions — leads, sign-ups, purchases, bookings, demo requests, etc.

Profitability comes from:

1. Choosing the right keywords (with buying intent).
2. Writing ads that attract qualified visitors (not just curious people).
3. Sending them to a landing page that actually converts.
4. Measuring and improving your conversion rate (CVR) over time.

Your landing page does the heavy lifting, but your ad brings the right people there in the first place. That’s why you must test multiple headlines, descriptions and calls-to-action (CTAs) and keep improving your funnel.

Part 1: Get Started with Google Ads

In this div, we’ll walk step-by-step through the basics you need to launch your first campaign.

1. Set a Budget (Without Guesswork)

Instead of asking “How much should I spend?”, start with: How much profit do I make per sale, and what percentage can I invest to acquire that sale?

Example:

• Average profit per sale: $100
• You’re willing to spend: 25% of that to get a customer
• Ad budget per sale: $25

If you need, say, 10 clicks to get 1 sale, your allowed CPC is: $25 ÷ 10 = $2.50 per click

If you improve your conversion rate (e.g. from 5% to 10%), your allowed CPC doubles. That gives you more room to bid higher and show higher on the page.

When you’re just starting, you’re estimating. A simple approach is to pick a small daily budget (for example, $10–$20 per day), let it run for at least a week, and then adjust based on real data.

2. Create Your Google Ads Account

Go to ads.google.com and follow the guided setup:

1. Sign in with your Google account.
2. Enter your business details, billing country, time zone and currency.
3. Skip “Smart campaigns” if possible and choose Expert Mode so you get full control.

From here, you’re ready to create your first Search campaign. But before that, make sure you have the essentials ready.

3. Here’s What You’ll Need Before You Start

• A website or dedicated landing pages with clear offers and CTAs.
• A list of initial keywords (we’ll refine these soon).
• Ad copy & headlines that match your offer and keywords.

4. Choose Your Keywords

In PPC, “keywords” are simply the phrases people type into Google. Your ad shows when their search matches the keywords you’re bidding on (based on match type).

Example: For a balloon shop, initial keyword ideas might be:

• helium balloons
• mylar balloons
• birthday balloon delivery
• kids party supplies

That’s a good starting point, but people don’t always search in clean product names. That’s why match types matter.

5. Keyword Match Types

Match types tell Google how closely a user’s search needs to match your keyword before your ad can show.

Exact Match – [helium balloons]

Your ad shows on searches that are the same or very close in meaning to your keyword. Great for tight control and high relevance.

Phrase Match – "helium balloons"

Your phrase appears in the search in the same order, but there can be words before or after. Example triggers: buy helium balloons, helium balloons near me.

Broad Match – helium balloons

Google uses its understanding of meaning and context to show your ad on “related” searches, even if the words differ or reorder. This can unlock great traffic but can also introduce irrelevant queries if not controlled with negative keywords.

Negative keywords tell Google what you don’t want to show up for (e.g. -hot air, -rides if you sell party balloons, not balloon rides).

6. Start with the Best Keywords for Your Campaign

Use a mix of tools and common sense:

• Google Keyword Planner: Get search volumes and CPC estimates.
• Competitor research tools (e.g. SpyFu, SEMrush, Ahrefs): See which keywords competitors are using profitably.
• Your own analytics & sales data: Look at terms people already use to find you.

Prioritise keywords with clear intent (e.g. “buy”, “price”, “near me”, “service”, “agency”) over vague, broad phrases.

7. Should You Bid on Branded Terms?

Yes, in most cases.

Reasons to bid on your own brand name:

• It protects your brand from competitors bidding on your name.
• It’s usually cheaper and has a very high conversion rate.
• You control the message better than just relying on your organic result.

8. Should You Bid on Competitor Brand Terms?

This can work, but it’s a grey area and often expensive. You cannot use their brand name in your ad text, and your Quality Score is usually lower, which pushes CPC up.

If you test this, start small, monitor carefully, and be prepared for possible retaliation (they might start bidding on your brand name too).

9. Write Strong Ad Copy (Responsive Search Ads)

Today, Search campaigns use Responsive Search Ads (RSAs). You provide up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions, and Google automatically mixes and matches them to find the best-performing combinations.

Headlines (up to 30 characters each)

Every headline has one job: get them to read the next line.

• Make it match the search intent (“Cyan Refills for HP Printers” is better than “Wide Toner Selection”).
• Include the main keyword where it makes sense — Google often bolds matching text.
• Test different value propositions: price, benefits, guarantees, urgency, USP.
• Use Dynamic Keyword Insertion for highly specific product/service groups if appropriate.

Descriptions (up to 90 characters each)

Use descriptions to explain your offer and add a clear CTA.

• Highlight benefits: “Free delivery”, “Same-day service”, “Certified experts”.
• Add urgency: “Book today”, “Limited slots”, “Offer ends Sunday”.
• Use natural, simple language — write like you’d speak to a customer.
• Fill all 4 description lines with unique angles, not small rephrases.

10. Build High-Converting Landing Pages

You pay for every click — whether they convert or not. So your landing page must continue the story your ad started.

Good landing pages typically:

• Repeat or closely match the keyword and main promise from the ad.
• Open with a clear, benefit-driven headline.
• Focus on one main offer or action (buy, book, enquire, sign up).
• Use clean design with minimal distractions and fast loading time.
• Show trust signals: testimonials, ratings, certifications, guarantees.
• Make the CTA clear and obvious (button, form, WhatsApp/chat, phone call).

11. Adjust Default Settings (Don’t Just Click “Next”)

Google’s default settings often favour reach and spend over control. Before launching, review these:

Search vs Display

• Start with Search Network only for new campaigns.
• Uncheck “Include Display Network” to avoid burning budget on irrelevant placements.

All Features / Standard Settings

Select options that give you access to:

• Ad schedule
• Location & language settings
• Ad rotation
• Ad extensions (assets)

12. A Word About Ad Delivery (Ad Rotation)

You’ll generally see two approaches:

• Optimize: Google automatically favours ads with higher CTR/conversions.
• Rotate indefinitely: All ads get roughly equal delivery.

If you’re using Google to help you find winners quickly and don’t have time to analyse too deeply, Optimize can work.

If you want clean A/B tests and unbiased data, choose Rotate indefinitely, especially early on. Many advanced advertisers now also use Experiments in Google Ads to run true split tests.

13. Target a Location (and the Right People in It)

Location settings matter a lot, especially for local businesses.

• Set your primary geographic area (country, state, city or radius).
• Under “Location options”, choose People in or regularly in your targeted locations if you don’t want random out-of-area traffic.

14. Device Targeting

Different devices often behave differently. You can adjust bids for desktop, tablet and mobile once you see data.

• If mobile traffic clicks a lot but rarely converts, lower mobile bids.
• If desktop traffic has high conversion value, increase desktop bids.

15. Understand Search Partners

Google can also show your text ads on “Search Partner” sites (other search engines and sites using Google search technology). Conversion quality can vary.

A simple approach: start with Search Partners ON, collect data, then decide whether to keep them based on performance in your reports.

16. How Should I Structure My Campaign?

There’s no single “perfect” structure, but here are common and effective patterns:

• By product/service: separate campaigns for different offerings.
• By match type: separate Broad / Phrase / Exact ad groups or campaigns.
• Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs): one keyword per ad group for very tight relevance (best for high-value terms).

Whatever you choose, the goal is consistency: each ad group should have closely related keywords, tightly aligned ads, and a matching landing page.

17. Lesson Learned: Prepare for a Ramp-Up Period

When you launch a brand-new Google Ads account or campaign, performance is rarely “perfect” on day one. It usually takes 2–4 weeks for Google to properly learn how your ads and landing pages perform.

During this ramp-up period:

• Your impressions and clicks might start low.
• You’ll be building up CTR and Quality Score history.
• Google is cautious about spending your full budget until your relevance is proven.

To speed things up:

• Start with a reasonably strong daily budget so Google can test.
• Pause obviously weak keywords early (no clicks, or clicks with zero conversions).
• Improve weak ads and landing pages instead of assuming “Google Ads doesn’t work.”

18. How to See Your Ad Data in Google Analytics

Connecting Google Ads with Google Analytics lets you see deeper metrics like bounce rate, engagement time and pages per session — and import conversions back into Google Ads.

1. Make sure you have admin access in both Google Ads and Google Analytics (same email helps).
2. In Analytics, go to Admin → Product Linking → Google Ads Linking.
3. Select the Google Ads account, choose relevant views (or data streams), and link.
4. Enable auto-tagging in Google Ads or use UTM parameters for full control.

Once linked, you’ll be able to see which campaigns and keywords drive real engagement on your site—not just clicks.

Part 2: Improve & Scale Your Google Ads Campaigns

Once your campaigns are live and gathering data, the real game is in optimization.

1. Expand Keywords by Reviewing What Works (Including Competitors)

Your competitors are already spending money to test what works in your market. Use that to your advantage.

With PPC & SEO tools (e.g. SpyFu, SEMrush, Ahrefs):

• Enter a competitor’s domain to see which keywords they advertise on.
• Look for keywords they’ve been bidding on consistently over many months.
• Note the ad copy patterns they use for top-spend keywords.

Long-running, high-spend keywords are usually strong indications of profitability. Add promising ones to your own keyword list, but always adapt the ad copy and offer to your brand.

2. Advertise on Long-Tail Keywords

Long-tail keywords are longer, more specific search phrases like “licensed plumber for water heater repair” instead of just “plumber”.

They’re powerful because:

• The searcher usually knows what they want (higher intent).
• They’re often cheaper than very broad, short keywords.
• Your landing page can be ultra-specific, boosting Quality Score and conversions.

Examples:

Core Keyword	Long-Tail Variation
find a plumber	licensed plumber for water heater repair
screenshot software	screenshot software for iPad with annotation
photography course	online digital photography course for beginners

3. Useful Tools for Finding Long-Tail Keywords

• Google Keyword Planner: filter for lower volume phrases with clear intent.
• Google Autocomplete & “People also ask”: type in your core keyword and note the suggestions.
• PPC & SEO tools: check competitor keyword lists and “related keywords” reports.
• Ubersuggest, WordStream, etc.: quick ideation tools to expand your list.

4. Try New Ad Copy Ideas

Don’t “set and forget” your ads. Regularly test new variations based on what you’ve learned.

Smart testing approach:

• Start with a baseline RSA and record your CTR, conversion rate and CPA (cost per acquisition).
• Introduce one major change at a time: new offer, new angle, new CTA, new benefit.
• Keep tests running long enough to gather statistically meaningful data.
• Judge success by return on ad spend (ROAS) or profit, not just clicks.

5. Improve Your Quality Score

Quality Score is driven by three main factors:

• Expected CTR (how likely people are to click your ad).
• Ad relevance (how well the ad matches the keyword).
• Landing page experience (relevance, speed, clarity, trust).

To improve Quality Score:

• Tighten your ad groups so each contains closely related keywords only.
• Include the main keyword (naturally) in your headline, description and URL path.
• Make sure the landing page clearly addresses the exact problem or promise of the ad.
• Improve page speed, mobile experience and overall clarity of the offer.

Higher Quality Scores usually mean lower CPC and higher positions — effectively getting more for each rupee or dollar you spend.

6. Actionable Optimization Advice

• Regularly pause or fix keywords with low Quality Score and no conversions.
• Shift more budget into ad groups and keywords that drive profitable conversions.
• Add negative keywords every week based on your search terms report.
• Keep refining your landing pages — A/B test headlines, forms, layouts, CTAs.

7. Advanced Options

Extensions (Assets)

Extensions (now called assets in Google Ads) give your ad more real estate and more ways to interact with you.

• Sitelink assets: extra links (Pricing, About, Contact, Demo, etc.).
• Callout assets: short highlights like “Free Shipping”, “24/7 Support”.
• Structured snippets: lists like “Services: Web design, SEO, PPC”.
• Call assets: click-to-call numbers, very useful for local service businesses.
• Location assets: show your address and map.
• App assets: promote your mobile app.

Dayparting (Ad Schedule)

Dayparting lets you show ads only during specific hours or days. Example: A restaurant might show “Lunch Offers” ads only 11am–3pm, or a B2B business might focus on office hours when response teams are available.

Remarketing

Remarketing shows ads to people who have already visited your site. For example, someone views your sunglasses category, leaves, and later sees your ad on another website or in search results.

You’ll need to add a remarketing tag (small code snippet) to your site, then build audience lists (e.g. “Visited Pricing Page”, “Added to Cart But Didn’t Buy”).

Dynamic Keyword Insertion (DKI)

DKI lets you automatically insert the user’s search term into your ad’s headline or description, making the ad feel highly tailored.

It’s powerful, but you must be strict with your match types and negative keywords. If you don’t actually offer the thing they searched, it can lead to wasted clicks and annoyed visitors.

8. Using Campaign Templates & Frameworks

If building everything from scratch feels overwhelming, use templates and frameworks:

• Create your own internal templates per service (e.g. “Lead Gen – Local Service”, “E-commerce – Single Product”, “Brand Campaign”).
• Reuse proven ad structures and just swap in new keywords, offers and landing pages.
• Use CSV imports or Google Ads Editor to upload larger builds faster.

At ThinkersFolk, we follow battle-tested structures for campaign builds so we don’t reinvent the wheel every time — we use that energy to improve performance instead.

Wrap-Up – You’re Ready to Launch (& Improve)

When someone searches on Google, they’re usually looking for something very specific. They already have intent. Your job with Google Ads is to match that intent at the right moment with the right offer.

By now, you know how to:

• Set a realistic budget based on your profit and goals.
• Create a Google Ads account and launch a Search campaign.
• Choose smart keywords and match types.
• Write strong, relevant ad copy.
• Build landing pages that convert.
• Use settings, extensions and analytics to your advantage.
• Optimize and scale campaigns over time.

The biggest advantage of PPC is speed and flexibility. You can see what’s not working, switch it off, test something new, and keep improving. Treat your Google Ads as a living system, not a one-time setup.

And if you’d rather have an expert team set all this up and manage it for you, ThinkersFolk can help you plan, launch and optimize high-ROI Google Ads campaigns tailored to your business.