Creating a Campaign in 5 Minutes

Our First Order of Business: Creating a Campaign. Let’s get started with a dummy campaign. Here are the standard details that you’ll have to enter—just use the settings that I’m suggesting in Column 2.

We’ll pause the advert immediately after creating it. You’ll also get a chance to experiment with the different settings later. It is easier to learn AdWords if you first focus on the structure and not the content.

Campaign fieldYour first selectionNotes
Campaign TypeSearch Network onlyUncheck “Display Network” option for now. You’ll usually target only one network at a time, depending on whether you’re eyeing immediate sales or new sale leads.
Campaign NameDating site for farmersPlease, please do not name your campaign “Campaign #1” or “Test Campaign”. It is good hygiene to develop sensible naming conventions and avoid confusion later. You will eventually have more than 10 campaigns. We’ll discuss more naming conventions later.
LocationWherever you areGoogle fills in a default list of countries based on the information you provided and their clever GPS technology. After all, Google is Big Brother.

How wide an area should you target? Bromley, London or the entire Europe? We’ll get into this later.

LanguagesWhatever language your customers use
DevicesDesktop and laptop computersIf you’re selling takeaway Chinese food, it might make sense to target customers using mobile phones. However, your website must be mobile-friendly if you choose to go this route!
Bid StrategyI’ll manually set my bids for clicksThis option gives you the most control over your ads (and money). We also recommend that you start here as it helps you learn AdWords at a greater level of understanding.
Budget£6 per dayStart with a harmless amount and we’ll refine this figure later! A good rule of thumb goes, how much money can you afford to spend without batting an eyelid?

£6 is a magical number with Google. If you invest any more than £6, Google’s team of experts will help get you set up at no extra cost.

Ad ExtensionsIgnore for nowWe’ll come back to this when you’re an “Intermediate” Adwords user.
Advanced Settings > Ad DeliveryRotate: Show ads more evenlyHere, it is best not to stick with Google’s default, which is “Optimize for clicks.” In our circle, we read that option as “Give more money to Google.”

After you set up conversion tracking (explained in the further chapters), you may change ad rotation to “Optimize for conversions.”

 

Click “Save and Continue”. Now, we’ve built your first Campaign shelving unit.

It’s time to curate books to fill these shelves. On the next page, Google will invite you to write your first ad. How exciting! Don’t worry about crafting the most compelling copy just yet, we’re still creating a dummy campaign.

 

AdWords fieldYour first entryQuick tips on writing your ad
HeadlineFinding a date for FridayWhat problem are you solving?
Description Line 1Browse guys online for freeHow can your product help?
Description Line 2100 profiles of single, handsome menWhat can you tell me about your product in 35 characters?
Display URLLove.comWhat is your website’s name?
Destination URL/ Landing Pagehttp://www.love.com/home-pageWhere will your customer be directed to if they clicks on the ad?
KeywordsSingle men, handsome men, dating buddies, free dating sitesIf someone is searching for your business, what would they type into the Google search bar? If you’re writing an actual ad, you’d have to specify 15-20 keywords!
Maximum Cost Per Click20 penceHow much you’re willing to spend? The higher your bid, the more likely your ad is to appear. Let’s just experiment with a safe bid. We’ll give you our top-secret formula to money-management later.

Finally, just enter your billing information and click “Finish and Create Ad”.

Not ready to advertise yet? Remember to pause your campaign.

Quick Tip

Don’t worry about getting the details perfect. You can change all of the details, even after the ad goes live. The trick to AdWords is to iterate many, many times. Explore AdWords. It also takes more than a day for you to see results. Rome wasn’t built in a day; AdWords is a marathon not a sprint; and so on. It may take few minutes to set up your account, but it’ll take four to six weeks to develop a full-fledged strategy. Be prepared to commit some money and time to establish this. We’ll dive deeper into this topic in Part 2.

Warning

Don't Get Caught Out!

Although this ad is a dummy ad and will not actually be published on the Internet, check that you do not violate any of Google’s editorial guidelines. Google charges penalties even before your first click!