Think about the last time you Googled something – you probably saw sponsored links at the top marked “Ad.” Those are Google Ads in action. Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords) is Google’s online advertising platform, where businesses bid to display ads (text, images, or video) to users online.  In other words, it lets you “buy” real estate in Google Search results and across Google’s networks, reaching people when they are searching for what you offer. It’s a pay-per-click (PPC) system, meaning you generally only pay when someone clicks your ad.

Google Ads isn’t limited to search results. Through Google’s Display Network and partners, your ads can appear on millions of websites and apps, and on YouTube videos. In fact, after Google rebranded AdWords in 2018, the advertising platform now unifies search ads, YouTube video ads, app ads (Google Play), and display ads on partner sites in one place. This makes Google Ads a powerful way to find customers across the web.

Why Use Google Ads for Your Business?

Google Ads has some big advantages for businesses of all sizes. First, it lets you reach people exactly when they’re searching for products or services like yours.  For example, if you sell running shoes, your ad can appear when someone types “best running shoes” into Google. That intent-based targeting can lead to higher interest and conversions.

Targeted Audience: You can target by keywords, geography, language, device, time of day, and more. This ensures your ads reach the right people.

Flexible Budgeting: You set your own budget and bids. If you want to spend only $10 per day or $1,000 per month, you control that. You can pause or adjust campaigns anytime.

Immediate Results: Unlike SEO (which can take months), a Google Ads campaign can start driving traffic as soon as it’s live. You get data and clicks right away.

Measurable ROI: Google Ads provides detailed reports on impressions, clicks, conversions, cost, and more. You can see which keywords or ads are working and optimize accordingly.

With billions of searches each day on Google, using Google Ads helps your business tap into that huge audience. And since you only pay when someone clicks or views (depending on ad type), it can be cost-effective when managed well.

Key Google Ads Concepts and Terms

Before running ads, it helps to know some basic terminology:

Keywords: These are words or phrases people use in search. Advertisers bid on relevant keywords. When someone searches those terms, Google decides whether to show your ad.

Ad Auctions: Every time a search happens, Google runs an auction to determine which ads show and in what order.  Ad Rank is based on your bid and Quality Score (Google’s measure of ad relevance, expected click-through-rate, and landing page quality). Higher relevance can lower your costs.

Ad Formats: Google Ads supports various formats. Search ads are text ads in search results. Display ads are images or rich media shown on websites/apps. Video ads run on YouTube. Shopping ads show product images and prices in search results. App ads promote mobile apps. Each campaign type serves a different goal.

Bid and Budget: You set a maximum bid (how much you’ll pay per click) or use automated bidding strategies, and a daily or monthly budget. Google won’t spend more than your budget.

PPC (Pay-Per-Click): A common pricing model where you pay only when someone clicks your ad. Other models exist (like cost-per-view for video), but PPC is standard for search ads.

Ad Extensions: These are extra bits like site links, call buttons, location info, etc., that make your ad more useful and larger on the page. Using extensions often improves click-through rates.

Conversion: This is the action you want users to take (purchase, sign up, call, etc.). Tracking conversions tells you if your ads are turning clicks into business.

Knowing these terms will make the rest of this guide easier to follow. Now let’s go through the actual steps of running a Google Ads campaign.

How to Run Google Ads: Step-by-Step Guide

Running a Google Ads campaign involves planning and ongoing optimization. Here are the key steps to get started:

1. Create your Google Ads account and define your goal.  Go to ads.google.com and sign in with a Google account (or create a new one). You’ll be prompted to set up an advertising goal. Choose the goal that matches your needs (like website traffic, sales, or leads). This goal will determine campaign options later. Make sure to fill out basic business info like billing, time zone, and currency. Having a clear objective from the start (e.g. “increase sign-ups” or “boost sales of Product X”) will help guide all settings.

2. Choose a campaign type and settings.  Google Ads offers different campaign types for different advertising channels. For example:

Search Campaign: Text ads on Google Search results (showing up above or below organic results). Great for capturing intent from search queries.

Display Campaign: Image or banner ads shown on websites and apps in the Google Display Network. Good for raising awareness with visuals.

Video Campaign: Ads on YouTube (skippable or bumper ads). Useful for storytelling or broad reach.

Shopping Campaign: Product ads that show an image, title, price, etc. in Google Search (mainly for ecommerce).

App Campaign: Ads to promote an app on Google Search, Play, YouTube, and more.

Plus newer options like Performance Max or Local, which can mix formats.

Pick the type that fits your goal. For example, if you want visitors to your website or sales, a Search campaign is common. If you want video viewers, choose Video for YouTube ads.

When you set up the campaign, Google will ask for basic settings like:

Campaign name: Keep it descriptive so you can manage multiple campaigns (e.g. “Search – Shoes – Spring sale”).

Networks: For search campaigns, you can usually run on the Google Search Network (and optionally search partners). For display campaigns, use the Display Network. (You can start with defaults and change later if needed.)

Locations and Languages: Specify the geographic area (countries, regions or a radius) where you want your ad shown, and the language of your target audience.

Schedule: Choose start/end dates or schedule certain days/times when your ads should run. For example, if your store is only open weekdays, you might only show ads then.

3. Conduct keyword research and set targeting. (This is for Search campaigns.)  Keywords are what trigger your ads. Think about terms your customers might search. Use Google’s Keyword Planner tool to find related keywords and get ideas. Aim for relevant keywords with reasonable search volume. Divide them into ad groups by theme (e.g., “running shoes” vs. “trail running shoes”).

When selecting keywords, remember match types:

Broad match: Your ad may show for any search related to the keyword (e.g., “shoes” might trigger “buy running shoes sale”). This captures wide traffic but can be less precise.

Phrase match: Triggers if the search includes your phrase (e.g., “best running shoes” might trigger for “best running shoes for women”).

Exact match: Only if the exact keyword (or very close variant) is searched. Narrow focus.

Negative keywords: Words for which you don’t want your ad to appear. For example, if you sell premium shoes, you might add “cheap” as a negative keyword. This prevents irrelevant clicks.

Add all relevant keywords to each ad group. Start with a mix of match types if you’re unsure. Check Google’s suggestions in the interface or use tools.

4. Write compelling ads. In each ad group, create one or more ads. A search ad typically has a headline (3 parts of ~30 characters each), a display URL, and a description (90 characters). Follow these tips:

Use Keywords: Include at least one of your keywords in the headline or description to make the ad relevant to the search. For example, if someone searched “buy leather boots,” having “Buy Leather Boots” in your headline helps draw their eye.

Highlight Benefits: Clearly state what makes you stand out (free shipping, 24/7 support, bestseller, discount, etc.).

Include a Call-to-Action (CTA): Encourage the click with phrases like “Shop now,” “Learn more,” or “Get a quote.”

Ad Extensions: Set up extensions like sitelinks (extra links to subpages), callouts (short additional text), and call extensions (phone number). These make your ad bigger on the page and often improve click-through rates. For example, you might add sitelinks like “About Us,” “Latest Offers,” etc.

Responsive Search Ads: Google’s newer format lets you enter multiple headlines and descriptions, and Google automatically tests combinations. This often improves performance over single static ads.

Always preview your ad to make sure it looks good on mobile and desktop. Double-check spelling and grammar—careful, you want to appear trustworthy and professional.

5. Set your budget and bidding strategy. Decide how much you’re willing to spend. Enter a daily budget (the average you want to spend each day).  Then choose a bidding strategy:

Manual CPC: You manually set a maximum cost-per-click bid for each keyword (or use Ad Group defaults). Gives you full control but is time-consuming.

Maximize clicks: Google automatically sets your bids to get as many clicks as possible within your budget.

Target CPA/Maximize conversions: If you have conversion tracking set up (see tip below), you can have Google optimize bids to get the most conversions at your target cost-per-action.

Target ROAS: For ecommerce, you can target a return-on-ad-spend.

For beginners, “Maximize Clicks” or a modest “Target CPA” (if conversions are being tracked) can be a good start, because you don’t have to manually adjust each keyword.  Just be careful: bidding too low might yield few impressions, while bidding too high could spend your budget quickly. Monitor your cost per click (CPC) and adjust as you go.

6. Launch your campaign and monitor performance. After reviewing all settings, save and start your campaign. It may take a few hours to a day for ads to start showing. Once live, don’t set it and forget it. Check the campaign regularly:

Key metrics: Look at impressions (how often your ad showed), clicks, click-through rate (CTR = clicks ÷ impressions), and conversions (if tracked). A high CTR generally means your ads are relevant to the searchers.

Search Terms report: See actual queries that triggered your ads. Add any irrelevant terms as negative keywords. Also, find new keyword ideas from terms that are converting well.

Adjust bids & keywords: If some keywords aren’t getting clicks, consider raising their bids or pausing them. If certain keywords are costing a lot without results, consider removing or adding negatives.

Test different ads: Create multiple ads in each ad group to A/B test messages. Swap underperformers with new ideas. Often, small changes (like a different headline) can boost results.

Landing page check: Ensure that the page you send clicks to matches the ad’s promise. A mismatch can hurt your Quality Score and conversions. For example, if your ad is about “Women’s Running Shoes,” make sure the link goes to a page of women’s running shoes, not your homepage.

Tips and Best Practices

Track Conversions: Set up Google Ads Conversion Tracking or link to Google Analytics. This lets you see which ads/keywords actually lead to sales or sign-ups. Over time, aim to optimize for conversions, not just clicks.

Use Negative Keywords Often: Regularly review which searches triggered your ads and add negatives to avoid wasting money (e.g., “free,” “jobs,” etc., if irrelevant).

Geotargeting: If you serve customers in specific areas, use location targeting (and location bid adjustments) to focus spend where it matters. For local businesses, you can also try Call-Only or Local Search Ads.

Ad Schedule: Running ads 24/7 is not always ideal. If your data shows certain days or hours get better results, use ad scheduling to concentrate budget when prospects are most active.

Quality Score Matters: A higher Quality Score (based on ad relevance and landing page experience) can lower your cost per click. Improve it by making sure your ad copy closely matches keywords and landing pages are fast and relevant.

Start Small and Scale: When learning, begin with a small budget and a few core keywords. As you see what works, you can expand your budget, add more keywords, or try additional campaign types (like Display or Video).

Stay Patient and Test: It’s normal for Google Ads campaigns to take a little time to optimize. Keep testing headlines, images, calls-to-action, and bid strategies. Adjust based on data rather than guesswork.

How Google Ads Campaigns Work in a Nutshell

In summary, a Google Ads campaign flows like this: You pick a campaign type (Search, Display, etc.) and set a daily budget. Within the campaign, you create one or more ad groups around themes, each with specific keywords and ads. Google shows your ads to users based on those keywords and settings, and you pay for clicks or views. Over time, Google’s auction system takes into account your maximum bid, Quality Score, and competition to determine ad position. Your job is to monitor performance and continually refine: adding new keywords, improving ad copy, and tweaking bids for the best ROI.

Think of it as a live experiment. You started by clearly defining what you want (sales, traffic, etc.), chose the right ad “kitchen” to cook in (campaign type), picked the freshest ingredients (keywords and ad text), and now you serve it to hungry searchers. By measuring who takes the bait (clicks and conversions) and making your recipe better each time, you can grow your campaign’s success.

Keywords to remember: “google ads” (the main topic) and “how to run google ads” (the process we’ve walked through). Keep things conversational – if you ever wondered “how to run Google Ads?”, now you have a practical roadmap.

Running Google Ads effectively is part art, part science. But with clear goals, simple writing, and regular optimization, you can create campaigns that genuinely help your business reach more customers online. Good luck, and happy advertising!