As a marketer, you know that SEM is a powerful tool to reach potential customers. But what are the core settings you should use in your Google PPC campaigns?
When you set up your Google PPC campaign, you’ll need to choose some core settings. These include the campaign type, bidding strategy and budget. You’ll also need to decide where you want your ads to appear.
Campaign Type
The first setting you’ll need to choose is the campaign type. There are four options: search, display, video, and shopping. Search campaigns are the most common and they’re what most people think of when they think of PPC.
With a search campaign, your ads will appear when someone searches for a keyword that you’ve selected.
Display campaigns show your ads on websites that are part of the Google Display Network.
Video campaigns place your ads on YouTube and other video sites.
Shopping campaigns are for ecommerce businesses and they show your products in Google Shopping results.
Bidding Strategy
When it comes to Google Ads campaigns, there are a few different bidding options available. The first option is manual bidding, which allows you to set your own bid amount for each keyword. This can be a good option if you have a good understanding of your competition and what they are bidding.
The second option is automatic bidding, which allows Google to automatically set your bids based on your campaign goals. This can be a good option if you are not as familiar with the bidding process or if you want to let Google do the work for you.
The third option is enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC), which is a combination of manual and automatic bidding. This option allows you to set a maximum bid amount for each keyword, and then Google will automatically adjust your bids based on your conversion rate. This can be a good option if you want more control over your bids, but still want Google to help optimize your campaigns.
Google Ads campaign automated bidding strategies include maximize clicks, maximize conversions, maximize conversion values and target impression share.
- Maximize clicks: Google automatically sets bids to help get the most clicks within your budget.
- Maximize conversions: Google automatically sets bids to help get the most conversions within your budget.
- Maximize conversion values: Google automatically sets bids to help get the most conversion value within your budget.
- Target impression share: Google automatically sets bids to help your ads show up a certain percentage of the time.
Budget
The next setting is your budget. This is the amount that you’re willing to spend on your campaign each day. You can set a daily budget or a monthly budget. If you set a monthly budget, Google will spread your budget evenly across the days of the month.
Depending on your campaign setup you can also set budgets for other settings such as Cost Per Lead (CPL), Cost per acquisition and CPC.
Five Expert Tips for Google Ads Campaign Settings Basics
1. Start with a small budget. When you’re first starting out, it’s important to keep your costs low. You can do this by setting a small budget for your campaign. This will help you get a feel for how much it costs to run a PPC campaign and how much traffic you can expect to get from your ads. As you become more experienced, you can increase your budget and start bidding more aggressively for keywords.
2. Choose the right campaign type. The type of campaign you choose will determine where your ads appear and how they’re priced. Search campaigns are the most common and they’re typically the most effective. However, if you’re targeting a specific audience, such as people who watch videos on YouTube, you may want to consider a video campaign instead.
3. Target specific keywords. When you’re choosing keywords for your campaign, it’s important to be specific. Broad keywords, such as “shoes” or “dresses,” will result in a lot of impressions but may not be very targeted. More specific keywords, such as “women’s running shoes” or “black dresses,” will result in fewer impressions but will be more targeted and are more likely to result in a click.
4. Set up conversion tracking. Conversion tracking allows you to see how many people who saw your ad ended up taking the desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for a newsletter. This information is valuable because it allows you to see which keywords and ad campaigns are resulting in conversions and which ones aren’t. Without conversion tracking, it would be difficult to know which campaigns are working and which ones aren’t.
5. Test different settings. The best way to find out what works best for your campaign is to experiment with different settings. Try different bid strategies, budgets, ad schedules, and targeting options to see what works best for your business.
Conclusion
We’ve touched on a few core settings in this article for setting up Google Ads campaigns.
Google Ads campaign settings are the foundation for your campaign. They determine how your ads will be shown, where they will be shown, and how much you will pay for each click. The settings also determine when your ads will be shown and how often they will be shown.
References
1. Google Ads Campaign Settings Basics. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.wordstream.com/
2. How to Optimize Your Google Ads Campaign Settings. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.business2community.com/
3. Google Ads Campaign Settings: The Complete Guide. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.ppchero.com/