Before you start: Google Ads campaign’s most important elements

1. Google Ads account

To set up a Google Ads account, all you need to do is to have a Google account.

Implementing a Manager Account is a recommended practice. This overarching account serves as a central hub for organizing and managing multiple Google Ads accounts. By linking individual campaigns to the Manager Account, you can easily experiment with different settings and strategies without impacting your primary campaigns. Furthermore, the Manager Account facilitates integration with Google Analytics and offers flexibility in billing options.

When overseeing multiple campaigns for a diverse client base, implementing a hierarchical structure of manager accounts is highly recommended. A primary manager account can serve as a central hub, with subordinate manager accounts dedicated to specific clients or projects. This approach optimizes efficiency and organization, particularly within agency settings.

➡️ Get familiar with our Google Ads services

2. Payment settings

Once we have established our Google Ads account, we must configure our payment method.

1. Go to Tools and settings.
2. Select Payments.
3. Configure your payment settings. Decide whether you want to receive invoices from Google (i.e., if you are an organization or an individual). Fill in all required information.
4. Choose a payment type: automatic or manual. For new Google Ads accounts, automatic payments are usually the best option. You will be asked to link a payment card (credit or debit).
5. Once you've linked your card, campaigns can generally start; however, please review all the steps on the list first. When certain thresholds are exceeded in your Google Ads campaign, the system will charge your account with specified amounts. For manual payments, you choose when to make a payment, i.e., you can make a transfer or link a credit card and ask the system to charge it a specific amount, e.g., 500$.
6. You can track your campaign payments in the payment management section - check your remaining funds, find out when your card was last charged, or change your Google Ads campaign payment settings. You can also pay for campaigns using monthly invoicing, although this requires meeting certain requirements (we discuss this in more detail in our Google Ads training).
7. Your Google Ads account can also be credited with special promotional coupons.

3. Defining a campaign’s goal

The subsequent phase involves a meticulous delineation of the key performance indicators (KPIs) to be tracked within a particular Google Ads campaign, as well as the overarching objective. Potential KPIs encompass mobile clicks, program enrollments, offer awareness, and contact generation.

Beyond a Google Ads account, conducting a successful campaign necessitates the utilization of Google Analytics and, preferably, Google Tag Manager. While not strictly obligatory, Tag Manager significantly enhances campaign management by facilitating the control of all website tags and scripts.

4. Conversions

It is imperative to define conversions within both Google Ads and Google Analytics prior to campaign launch. Failing to do so will result in the unavailability of certain campaign features. Specifically, the system will restrict access to bidding strategies such as "maximize conversions" due to the absence of defined conversion tracking.

Once we have completed all of the aforementioned steps, we can proceed with the creation and launch of our Google Ads campaign.

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