Campaign Setup and Execution

Creating a New Search Campaign – Step by Step

Walk through the process of setting up a search campaign in the Google Ads interface from scratch:

Campaign Objective/Goal Selection – Choose a goal (Sales, Leads, Website Traffic, or create a campaign without a goal’s guidance) and select “Search Campaign”. Explain how goal selection can pre-set certain features or bidding options (but you can still manually adjust them).
General Settings – Name the campaign and configure networks (ensure Search Network is selected; decide whether to include Search Partners). Usually, for advanced control, it’s recommended to start with Google Search only and later test partners.
Location and Language Targeting – Select geographic target areas (countries, cities, radii) and the languages your customers speak. Provide tips for advanced geo-targeting (like using multiple campaigns for different regions if strategy differs, or excluding locations as needed).
Learners will follow along in a demo account or simulation to practice inputting these settings.

Setting Budgets and Bidding in the Campaign Setup

Continue with the campaign creation flow:

Daily Budget – Decide on a daily budget for the campaign (with reference to the earlier budget planning exercise). Clarify how daily budgets work (spend may vary day to day, but will average out to the set amount over the month).
Bidding Strategy Selection – Choose how to bid for this campaign. If using manual bidding, explain selecting Manual CPC and possibly enabling Enhanced CPC. If using an automated strategy (e.g. Maximize Conversions, Target CPA), show where to set target values.
Provide guidance on which bidding option to choose based on the campaign’s goal and available conversion data (for example, a new campaign with no history might start with manual or Maximize Clicks, then switch to Target CPA once enough data is gathered).

Configuring Advanced Campaign Settings

Cover the additional settings in campaign setup that advanced users should utilize:

Ad Schedule (Dayparting) – Show how to schedule ads to run only at certain hours/days if applicable (for instance, only during business hours for a B2B campaign, or 24/7 if appropriate). Discuss using ad schedule bid adjustments to prioritize prime times.
Device Targeting & Bid Adjustments – Explain that by default ads show on all device types (desktop, tablet, mobile). Show how to adjust bids by device if data indicates one performs better (e.g. decrease bids on mobile if conversion rate is lower, or vice versa). Note that some campaign types allow explicit opt-out of devices (call campaigns are mobile-only by nature, etc.).
Start and End Dates – Set a campaign to automatically end on a certain date if it’s for a limited-time promotion.
Ad Rotation – Explain options (optimize for best performing vs. rotate ads more evenly) – Google now largely automates this, but note what the current default is.
Exclusions/Content Settings – Although mainly for Display campaigns, mention that Search campaigns have limited content exclusions (like excluding adult content or sensitive content if relevant for search partners).
Ensure learners know where to find and adjust these settings as needed for fine control.

Ad Group Creation and Keyword Deployment

After base campaign settings, move to creating Ad Groups within the campaign:

Demonstrate creating your first ad group, naming it according to the keyword theme (from the planning in Chapter 4).
Set an initial default bid for the ad group (for manual CPC bidding scenarios).
Add the list of keywords to the ad group. Show how to input different match types (for example, using brackets [ ] for exact, quotes ” ” for phrase in some interfaces or selecting from dropdown in the UI). Emphasize adding the keywords in the correct match type formatting as intended from the research phase.
Create multiple ad groups as planned, each with their tightly themed keywords. This may be a point where using Google Ads Editor (a bulk editing tool) could be mentioned as an efficient way to upload many keywords/ad groups for those managing large campaigns (perhaps a brief demonstration or recommendation to explore it, since advanced users often leverage it).

Ad Creation and Extension Setup in the Interface

Continue the setup by inputting the ads and extensions:

For each ad group, enter the Responsive Search Ad assets: headlines and descriptions (which the learners have crafted in Chapter 5). Show how to pin headlines if necessary to guarantee certain text always shows in position 1 or 2 (useful for compliance or branding, though pinning too much can reduce RSA flexibility).
Ensure each ad group has at least one RSA (some advanced users might also add a Static ad or an extra RSA for testing – discuss whether to use multiple ads per ad group for experiment or let the RSA handle variation).
Add ad extensions at the campaign (or ad group) level. Guide through adding a sitelink with URL and description, adding a few callouts, and other relevant extensions identified earlier. Stress that extensions can be added at multiple levels, but campaign-level is efficient if they apply to all ads in the campaign (with exceptions like location extensions which are account-wide via linking a Google Business Profile).

Utilizing Audience Settings (RLSA) in Search Campaigns

Demonstrate how to layer audiences onto search campaigns for advanced targeting/refinement:

Show where to find Audience settings in the campaign (or ad group) and the difference between “Observation” and “Targeting” in search campaigns. (Usually, for Search, we use Observation to adjust bids for certain audiences like past visitors, without restricting to them, unless doing a pure remarketing campaign.)
Add a Remarketing List (if available) or an In-Market Audience to the campaign on Observation, to illustrate how you can later analyze performance for that segment and apply bid adjustments (e.g. increase bids +20% for users in the “Running Enthusiasts” in-market audience or your site’s past shoppers).
Explain Remarketing Lists for Search Ads (RLSA) strategy: e.g., create an ad group that only targets past site visitors searching broadly, with tailored ads (requires “Targeting” setting for that ad group’s audience). Although a dedicated RLSA campaign setup might be shown in the Advanced chapter, here we introduce the mechanics of adding audiences.

Template: Campaign Setup Checklist

Provide a checklist that learners can use while building and launching campaigns to ensure no important step or setting is missed. This Campaign Setup Checklist includes:

Verifying campaign level settings (goal, budget, bidding, geo, schedule, etc. all set as intended).
Ad groups created and named clearly; keywords added with correct match types.
Ads written and proofread; at least one RSA per ad group with Ad Strength “Good/Excellent”.
All relevant extensions added (sitelinks, callouts, etc.) at campaign or ad group level.
Conversion tracking (to be covered in next chapters) considered before turning on the campaign (so data will be captured from the start).
Double-check for any warnings or recommendations in the interface that might indicate a setting issue.
Learners can use this checklist as they conduct their own campaign build in a live account or simulation, ticking off each item.

Quiz – Chapter 6

Which setting would you use to make sure your search ads only show during your business hours?
What is the difference between adding an audience in “Observation” mode vs. “Targeting” mode for a search campaign?
Why is it useful to create tightly themed ad groups when setting up your campaign?