How do I use Google Ads?

Choose the right objective for Google Ads

Defining your objectives is the starting point for a successful Google Ads campaign. In fact, it's one of the first steps when you access the platform's home page to start an ad. Do you want to receive more calls, generate additional sales (or leads) or attract visitors to your store? As you've probably noticed when looking for advice on how to set up a business, it all depends on the nature of your activities, your needs and your vision.

Your objective will help the search engine to get an idea of the audience you're targeting, and adapt the campaign configuration accordingly (pricing, display). For example, if you're looking to attract in-store traffic, the target audience for your ad won't be the same as that of a company looking to generate engagement on YouTube. By choosing the right target, you can avoid wasting time and money.

To stack the odds in your favor, make sure your company's campaign objective is SMART. It must be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Particular emphasis should be placed on relevance, as Google Ads is only a marketing tool, and the use of ads must be part of a well-defined overall strategy.

Once you've defined your objectives for your marketing strategy, you can launch a Google Ads campaign. You'll need to go to ads.google.com and click on "Start now". You'll need to create a Google account to run this campaign.

Choose the right keywords for your campaign

Choosing the right keywords is crucial if you want to successfully set up your ads without the help of an SEA specialist, a community manager (for social networks) or a marketer. They determine the audience that will see your message, and therefore your click and conversion rates. You can use Google's keyword planning tool to optimize your Ads campaign target.

Google Keyword Planner identifies the most relevant keywords for you, based on expressions or terms related to your business. Pay particular attention to the popularity of the keywords proposed to you, and to the evolution of their search over time. The tool also provides an estimate of the cost associated with targeting each keyword. This can help you better define the advertising budget for your campaign. Don't hesitate to select several expressions if you find them relevant to your business.

During the process of creating a Google Ads ad, you'll also need to choose the location where you want to display your ad. While it may be tempting to select the widest possible geographic radius to maximize impact, this isn't always a good idea. In general, the smaller and more circumscribed your target, the better results you'll get with a reasonable investment.

For example, if your main target is in the Paris region, it's not very useful to target Marseille. This applies to search as well as to the other types of campaigns offered by Google Ads: display, discovery, shopping, smart, video...

Optimize your ad on Google Ads

The ad itself is the message Internet users will see on the Google results page. For a search campaign, it consists of a 30-character title and a 90-character description. The search engine gives you the option of adding several titles and descriptions to optimize the quality and attractiveness of your ad. Take advantage of this possibility to test different advertising messages highlighting your business. Google can display titles and descriptions in any order. It can also combine several titles for a single description. To do this, make sure that each element is individually relevant.

The secret to optimizing an ad for the Google Ads search network is to master your audience. To do this, you need to ask yourself a few questions:

• What are its features?
• What's the problem it wants to solve?
• Which tone does she identify with most?

Using this data as a basis for your marketing campaign, you can create an ad that will make your target want to click. Adding an image is an excellent idea to make the message more punchy and easily memorable.

For advertising campaigns carried out on the display network (Google's network of partner websites and applications), responsive ads are the best. Generated by AI from your data, they automatically adjust to the available space, offering a better rendering to reach web users more easily.

Set a suitable budget for Google Ads

To finalize the configuration of your Google Ads campaign, you need to indicate the amount you're willing to pay monthly and daily for the ad. The tool gives you several proposals, with for each amount the estimated number of clicks you can expect each month. You're free to enter your own budget, depending on your objectives and your overall marketing strategy for your company.

Google will only charge you the specified amount if a user clicks on your ad. In addition, your daily expenses may exceed or fall short of your budget. However, the cost of the campaign per month will remain within your monthly budget.

There are several steps to follow when setting up a new Google Ads campaign :

• go to the Google Ads home page and click on "Start now" to launch a new campaign,
• provide your company name and website address,
• indicate the type of device targeted (mobile or desktop),
• choose the campaign's main objective,
• write a punchy ad,
• select targeted keywords,
• Indicate the geographic zones you wish the ad to be displayed in,
• define your Google Ads campaign budget and register your payment method.

Once you've set up an ad, you can always modify it later using Google Ads Editor (a free downloadable application).

Tracking results is also an integral part of managing a Google Ads campaign. It enables you to analyze the data generated by your campaign to improve your next advertising initiatives. To do this, link Google Analytics to your account from the "Tools > Associated accounts" menu (under Configuration). You'll be able to track, among other things, conversions generated by the campaign, clicks and cost.