Running Google Ads for the first time? If you get it right, it’s one of the best ways to drive leads and sales. If you get it wrong… well, you’ll probably burn through your budget faster than you can say "conversion tracking."
In this blog post, I’ll walk you through how to set up your first Google Ads campaign the right way, from choosing the best campaign structure to avoiding common mistakes that waste your money.
Let’s get into it.
Why Google Ads Outperforms Social Media Ads
Most businesses lump Google Ads in with Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram, but there’s a fundamental difference. With social media, you’re interrupting people with ads while they’re busy watching cat videos or stalking their exes.
With Google Ads, you’re showing up at the exact moment someone searches for what you offer.
That’s why Google Ads tends to convert better. You’re not convincing people they need your product. You’re just making sure they buy from you instead of your competitors.
How to Set Up Your First Google Ads Campaign
Step 1: Choose the Right Campaign Type
Log in to Google Ads and click New Campaign.
Select Sales (for ecommerce) or Leads (for service businesses).
Choose Search as your campaign type.
Enter your business website.
Make sure your conversion tracking is set up before you launch! Google needs to know whether your ads are generating real results, not just clicks.
Step 2: Set Your Budget (The Right Way)
Most beginners get their budget wrong in one of two ways:
They spend too little and don’t get enough data to make optimisations.
They spend too much without the right structure in place.
Best starting budgets:
If you’re testing: $50 - $100/day
If you want results faster: $200+/day
Don’t panic if results don’t come instantly. Google needs time to optimise, and knee-jerk changes kill performance.
Step 3: Keyword Research for Profitable Ads
Finding the right keywords is everything.
Use Keyword Planner in Google Ads and input some basic ideas related to your business.
Here’s what to look for:
✅ Keywords with 100+ searches per month.
✅ Keywords directly relevant to your product or service.
❌ Ignore columns like "competition" and "CPC bids" – they’re misleading.
Step 4: Use Single-Theme Ad Groups (STAGs)
Once you have a list of keywords, group them into tight themes. Each ad group should focus on one clear topic so your ad copy can be highly relevant.
Example ad group themes for a Google Ads agency:
"Google Ads Agency"
"White Label PPC Agency"
"Local PPC Management"
"Amazon PPC Services"
Google loves ad relevance, and this structure improves Quality Score, CTR, and cost-efficiency.
Step 5: Writing Ads That Convert (Use ChatGPT to Speed It Up)
Writing ad copy from scratch? Painful. Instead, use this ChatGPT prompt, don’t forget to customise the [url] and [keywords]:
“Check out my product/service here: [URL]
The main keywords I am targeting in my ad group are:
[keyword], [keyword], [keyword]
Look at the above URL and give me a 3 sentence summary telling me what this product/service is all about.
I want you to generate ideas for my headlines and my descriptions for my responsive search ads in google ads. Headlines must be 30 characters or less, never exceed 30 characters for my headlines Descriptions must be 90 characters or less, never exceed 90 characters for my descriptions.
For my headlines I want you to generate 8 ideas in each of the following themes:
Keyword Relevance - these headlines should include the keywords people are searching for
Brand - these headlines should include my company brand name
USP/Features/Benefits - these headlines should include USPs, features and benefits relevant to my brand and product
Call To Actions - these headlines should be call to actions
That is a total of 4 themes and I want 8 suggestions per theme for a total of 32 suggestions. Organise the suggestions by theme.
For the descriptions I want you to generate 10 total ideas for the descriptions. Make the descriptions more than 60 characters long but remember to stick to the character limit of 90. Descriptions must match the search intent and landing page. Try to focus on benefits whilst incorporating keywords naturally and try to speak to pain points & benefits.”
Once you get the results, select the best suggestions from the list. Then, don’t blindly copy-paste – tweak them so they sound natural and relevant.
Step 6: Set Up Conversion Tracking
No Tracking = Wasted Budget.
Go to Tools & Settings > Goals > Conversions in Google Ads. You should see your main conversion action (purchase, lead form submission, etc.) listed as "Primary."
Not set up yet? Add a new conversion and place the tracking code on your thank you page – NOT your homepage.
Step 7: Bidding Strategy & Scaling
Start with Maximise Conversions (for leads) or Maximise Conversion Value (for ecommerce). Let it run for 1-4 weeks before changing your bid strategy.
When you have 30-50 conversions, switch to:
Target CPA (for leads), or
Target ROAS (for ecommerce)
📈 Scaling Tips:
Increase daily budget by max 20% per week.
Adjust CPA or ROAS targets by max 10% every 2 weeks.
Avoid These Common Google Ads Mistakes
🚨 Mistake #1: Turning Ads Off Too Soon: Google Ads takes at least 30 days to optimise. If you kill a campaign after a week, you’re quitting before the system even gets a chance to work.
🚨 Mistake #2: Inaccurate Conversion Tracking: If Google doesn’t know what a "good" result looks like, it will optimise for the wrong things (like random clicks instead of actual sales).
🚨 Mistake #3: Using Broad Match Too Soon: Broad match keywords can work eventually, but for beginners, they usually mean wasted spend. Start with Phrase Match and Exact Match instead.
🚨 Mistake #4: Targeting Generic Keywords: There’s a huge difference between someone searching:
❌ "How to get more traffic to my business" (bad – too broad), and
✅ "Google Ads agency" (good – ready to buy).
Conclusion
Setting up Google Ads successfully comes down to:
Choosing the right campaign type (Search + Sales/Leads).
Setting a budget that allows for proper testing.
Doing smart keyword research (100+ searches, relevant terms).
Using Single-Themed Ad Groups (STAGs).
Writing high-converting ad copy (ChatGPT shortcut).
Ensuring conversion tracking is working.
Following a structured bidding and scaling process.
Stick to this, and you’ll avoid the common pitfalls that kill most Google Ads campaigns.