7 things you must do before launching a Google Ads campaign

Learn the pieces of the PPC puzzle you should have in place before getting started

Thinking of using Google Ads to bring more exposure to your business?

As the world’s largest PPC (Pay-Per-Click) platform, Google Ads—formerly known as Google AdWords—serves billions of ads each day in search results and across a network of millions of websites.

Google Ads can be a powerful marketing tool to help new customers find your business, as well as helping you re-engage with people who have visited your website in the past.

Before you get started in the world of pay-per-click advertising or hire a company to run your PPC campaigns, it’s important you understand how to make it work effectively for your business.

Keep reading to learn the 7 things every business must do before launching a Google Ads campaign.

#1: Know your goals

What do you want to achieve with your PPC campaign?

This is the most important question you need to answer before getting started with Google Ads. If you don’t define your advertising goals, you won’t be able to fully track the success of your campaign.
Google Ads can be a great way to drive:

Sales
Leads
Website traffic
Product and brand consideration
Brand awareness and reach
App promotion
and more.

Within Google Ads you’ll find a variety of campaign types—including Search, Display, Shopping, Video and App—that are designed to help you reach your specific goal or goals.

To learn more about the different types of Google Ads campaigns, read our previous blog: How can Google Ads help your business?

#2: Understand your customers

Now you’ve defined your goals, it’s time to get inside the heads of your new potential customers.

Remember, the success of your campaign depends on putting the right ad in front of the right person at the right time.

Who are they? What are they searching for? Where do they live?

By thinking about this before launching a Google Ads campaign, you’ll be able to tailor your ad copy, ad images and landing pages to exactly fit their needs.

Our tip: use Google Search Console to see how your website visitors are finding you. The insights you’ll find inside this free platform can be invaluable when building your PPC campaign.

#3: Check out your competitors

PPC advertising can be incredibly competitive. Every day your ads are running, you’re competing with numerous other businesses for a better position in search engine results.

Help is at hand! There are some great online tools that can help you see what your competitors are doing. Another way to get a feel for your industry is simply to google the search terms you’re hoping to show up for. Take a close look at the ad copy and/or images your competitors are using, and check out how their landing pages shape up.

#4: Identify your USP

Once you’ve learned about the competition, it’s time to decide how you’re going to beat them!

Having a strong USP (Unique Selling Proposition) is essential to stand out, especially if your industry is particularly competitive. What do you do better than anyone else? What do you offer that’s different?

Examples could be:

A free consultation
Quick turnaround time
Discounts for new customers
A limited-time promotion

Once you’ve decided on your USP, make sure you say it loud and clear in your ads!

#5: Know your budget

There’s no magic number when it comes to deciding your budget for Google Ads. And remember, a bigger budget doesn’t necessarily mean a better campaign.

If you hire an experienced company to help you with your PPC, they’ll be able to give you an idea of how much the average CPC (Cost Per Click) in your industry is. To calculate a budget, you can think about how many clicks you want to receive per day, and then work backwards.

#6: Have the right landing page

Where are you planning to send the people who click on your ads? This is where a lot of businesses fall down. All too often, they link to pages on their website that haven’t been designed with Google Ads traffic in mind.

Having the right landing page is critical to the success of your PPC campaign. All of your hard work will be in vain if you’re not sending traffic to a page that looks professional, matches your customer’s search intent, and has a clear call to action.

Another essential step is to implement conversion tracking on your landing page, so you can see at a glance how your PPC efforts are really paying off.

#7: Track what happens next

You’ve crafted the perfect ad copy, designed a compelling landing page, and secured a great lead: now what?

Google Ads can get more customers in the door, but it’s still your job to close the deal. Before you begin advertising, make sure you have a plan in place to handle the new leads that’ll be coming in.

Need help launching a Google Ads campaign?

We’re certified in Google Ads and we’ve been running successful PPC campaigns for clients in all industries for a number of years.

We’ll work with you to understand what your advertising goals are. Then we’ll create a PPC strategy for success, based on your business model and your industry.

Contact us today to learn more.

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