How To Build Google Ads Search Campaigns
I honestly charge $999 to teach this.
It’s generated $1,000,000s in revenue for my clients.
Learning this will literally save you 100s of hours.
A complete step-by-step guide on how I:
Build Google Ads Search campaigns.
(using excel & Google Ads Editor).
Rarely does someone give this away.
And today I’m doing so for FREE.
Here’s an overview of what’s to come:
Excel Spreadsheets
To build the Search campaigns, we use excel spreadsheets.
Here are the two you need to make a copy of:
We’ll also be using Google Ads Editor, you’ll need to download it.
A quick note on creative:
Since posting this guide, Google Ads has had some UX/UI updates, in saying so, you may notice some of the screenshots of the Google Ads platform below don’t exactly match the current UX/UI.
This doesn’t impact any step of the guide, it’s purely a visual difference not a functional one.
Step 1: Keyword Builder
Step 1 is to complete the keyword builder base spreadsheet.
Paste your target keywords under the “Keyword” column of the “Base Build” sheet within the provided spreadsheet (Ramzy Ibrahim | Google Ads | Custom Keyword Builder).
Note 1: If your keywords contain any special characters (e.g. $) be sure to remove them
Note 2: This isn’t a keyword research guide, be sure to have yours ready to follow along
Populate column B “Ad Group” by entering your ad group name into it:
Populate column A “Campaign” by entering your abbreviated company name and campaign details.
Once you’ve done so, apply this to the cells of that campaign within column A:
Campaign Naming Convention Explained
GMD is the abbreviated company name.
The S stands for “Search”, other campaign types could include:
- D for “Display”
- DR for “Display remarketing”
- RLSA for “remarketing lists for search ads”
- V or YT for “Video” or “YouTube”
HT stands for “Head Term” meaning primary keyword, other keyword categorisations could include B for “Brand” keywords.
Best Mattress reflecting the category of keywords within it.
Once you’ve done this for all your campaigns, delete any additional unused rows from the “Base Build” sheet:
Set The Max CPC
To do so, first navigate to “Tools and settings” > “Keyword Planner” within Google Ads:
Then select “Get search volume and forecasts”:
Paste in your keywords and click “Get started”:
You will now be presented with CPC data on a keyword level:
You can see two columns:
- Top of page bid (low range)
- Top of page bid (high range)
You have a few options from here, two of them being:
- Take an average of the low range and use that as a guide for your max CPC
- Apply the low range to each individual keyword
Be cautious with getting too carried away here, if your bids are too high or low, you’ll be able to amend them as you optimise your account.
With this in mind, now set your max CPC within the “Base Build” sheet:
Finalising The Spreadsheet
Within the spreadsheet there are the following sheets:
- Exact Ad Groups
- Phrase Ad Groups
- Broad Ad Groups
- Phrase Negatives
- Broad Negatives
Note 1: If you want to amend this structure, this is the time to do so (if you wanted to segment the broad keywords away from the exact and phrase for example).
Note 2: Any structural changes you make to this spreadsheet, you’ll need to make to the ad copy builder spreadsheet later on (they need to match 100%).
Back to the individual sheets, if you click on any of them, you’ll note they’ve been automatically populated:
You’ll note the ad groups within these sheets have the following appended to them:
- [E]
- [P]
- [B]
Alongside two sheets for our phrase and broad negative keywords.
Matching the structure we went through earlier.
Max CPC For Phrase and Broad Keywords
By default the max CPC for phrase keywords are set to 80% of exact keywords and the max CPC for broad keywords are set to 60% of exact keywords.
You can amend these if required to do so, otherwise leaving them as default and optimising them within the account overtime will do.
Bid Stacking
You may be thinking why the max CPC has been set in this order.
It’s a bidding tactic known as bid stacking to help better control costs.
This is to ensure we bid the most competitive on the keywords which have the highest value to us (exact and phrase match) and lower on those which don’t (broad match).
As a reminder, the closer a user’s search query is to your target keyword, the greater chance it will lead to a conversion, we therefore want to stack our bids across our campaigns to reflect this with:
- Exact keywords having the highest bids
- Phrase keywords having medium bids
- Broad keywords having the lowest bids
Delete Any Additional Unused Rows From These Sheets
Now go through each sheet and delete the unused rows:
Remove Formulas From Sheets
We now need to remove the formulas from the following sheets:
- Exact Keywords
- Phrase Keywords
- Broad Keywords
- Phrase Negatives
- Broad Negatives
To do so, select one of these sheets and first copy the filled out cells within it:
Then paste special as values only:
Complete this process for the sheets mentioned above.
Once you’ve done this:
- Create a new sheet and name it “Combined”
- Excluding the “Base Build” sheet, copy and paste the filled out rows and columns from the other sheets into the “Combined” one
Note: You only need to copy and paste the first row once, don’t do so for the remaining sheets.
The end result being a “Combined” sheet containing all the information of the following sheets:
- Exact Ad Groups
- Phrase Ad Groups
- Broad Ad Groups
- Phrase Negatives
- Broad Negatives
Step 2: Ad Copy Builder
Step 2 is to complete the ad copy builder.
First open up the provided spreadsheet (Ramzy Ibrahim | Google Ads | Custom Ad Builder) and your completed keyword builder base spreadsheet.
From the “Base Build” sheet within the keyword builder base spreadsheet, copy columns A (Campaign) and B (Ad Group):
Now paste what you’ve copied into columns I (Campaign) and J (Ad Group) of the “Ad Copy Base Builder” sheet within the Custom Ad Builder:
We now need to update the rows underneath what we’ve just pasted. Update column A from 1 to 2 and column L from AV1 to AV2:
AV standing for ad variant, as we’ll be running a split test of two ads per ad group, we’ll need two ad variations. Updating these rows allows us to identify between the ad variants within the spreadsheet and the Google Ads platform.
We now want to copy the filled out cells from columns I and J:
Then paste it directly underneath into the AV2 rows:
Ad Copy Guidelines
The main components of a search ad can be found within the spreadsheet.
Each one of these components having character limits:
- Headlines: 30 characters
- Descriptions: 90 characters
- Paths: 15 characters
Columns B-H within the spreadsheet will assist you with not going over these limits when you start writing your ad copy.
If you are on or under the character limit, the cell remains green, otherwise it will turn red:
Headline 1
Your first headline should always contain your target keyword.
To insert your target keyword, copy and paste the filled out cells from column J into column M:
Headline and Description Positions
You’ll notice columns labelled headline and description positions:
Instead of allowing Google Ads to automate the ad copy split testing, stipulating the positions of these ad components gives us greater control over our ad copy split tests.
Split Testing Ad Copy
It’s recommended to only split test one ad component at a time enabling you to pin point what it was that caused performance differences between AV1 and AV2.
Generally, split testing headline 2 is a great component to start with, which we’ll get to soon.
Checking Character Count
After you’ve pasted the filled out cells from column J into column M, be sure to review the character counts within column B.
If you’re over, reduce H1 by abbreviating or removing words. If you’re under try to add words to strengthen your ad copy.
Note: Only do this for AV1, once you’ve done so, copy and paste AV1’s H1s into AV2’s H1s. Doing this also applies for the other ad components that aren’t being split tested.
In our case we were generally over:
After a few tweaks H1 character limits were met:
Remaining Headlines and Descriptions
Your target market or audience will determine the language you use for the remainder of your ad copy.
With this in mind, here is a guideline to follow.
Search Intent
As you’re writing the ad copy, consistently review it against the search intent of the user by asking yourself:
What does the user intend to find after making this search and does my ad copy address their intent?
As an extension of this:
If a user was to click my search ad does my landing page address their search intent?
A reminder to keep your efforts here granular and thematic, the better you do so, the better your campaigns will perform.
To assist with identifying user search intent, check the organic results of the search query (within Google) and review the content of the top ranking pages.
Headline 2
Call to action.
Headline 3
Feature and benefit or another call to action.
Additional Headline Pointers
- Write to your target market or audience
- Keep them succinct and be specific, your headlines should directly address your target market or audience
- Use specific timeframes (23 days) and numbers (377%) where possible
- Use emotionally charged words to (e.g. fast, now, amazing etc.)
- Adding [brackets] and (parentheses) as they improve CTRs
Description 1
Core product or service features and benefits ending in a call to action.
Or:
Opening relatable statement or question, followed by features and benefits ending in a call to action.
Description 2
Additional product or service features and benefits ending in a call to action.
Reminder: Features tell and benefits sell.
Review Competitor Ad Copy
As a reminder, to assist with ad copy ideation, you can always review your competitor’s ad copy.
Beyond this here are some additional guidelines to follow:
- No fluff, write directly to the user and clearly portray how your value proposition, features and benefits adds value to them
- Use corresponding CTAs with only one CTA per ad
- Keep your writing simple, aim for a 6th to 7th grade reading level (avoid using big words)
- Address user pain points, you can also do this through features and benefits: Tired of tight uncomfortable shoes? Our high quality Italian leather provides ultimate comfort moulding to the shape of your feet
- Write in an active voice (what happened) not passive voice (what occurred)
- If you find yourself repeating similar words, be sure to widen your vocabulary
- Write to one person, not a group of people, this makes it more personal
- Show personality in your writing, to assist with this, think about writing how you talk to a friend
- Be consistent in your writing style
Split Testing Headline 2 Example
As per the below example, update AV2 H2, whilst keeping all other ad components the same:
Ad Copy Flow
Keep in mind as you’re writing your ad copy the way it’ll appear in search. Your headlines and descriptions should flow from one another and not be disjointed as they may read awkwardly otherwise.
Paths 1 and 2
To include as much as your keyword as possible.
Final URL
Your target URL for the search ad.
Note: If you have built UTM parameters for your URLs be sure to include them at this stage.
Additional Sheets Within The Spreadsheet
Alongside the “Ad Copy Builder Base” sheet, this spreadsheet also contains the following sheets:
- Exact Ads
- Phrase Ads
- Broad Ads
Which are the ads for their corresponding campaigns and they have been automatically populated.
Delete Any Additional Unused Rows From These Sheets
Now go through each sheet and delete the unused rows:
Remove Formulas From Sheets
Now remove the formulas from the following sheets:
- Exact Ads
- Phrase Ads
- Broad Ads
Once you’ve done this:
- Create a new sheet and name it “Combined”
- Excluding the “Ad Copy Builder Base” sheet, copy and paste the filled out rows and columns from the other sheets into the “Combined” one
Note: You only need to copy and paste the first row once, don’t do so for the remaining sheets.
The end result being a “Combined” sheet containing all the information of the following sheets:
- Exact Ads
- Phrase Ads
- Broads Ads
Step 3: Google Ads Editor
We’ll now need to upload our keyword and ad copy build sheets to Google Ads via Google Ads Editor, a free resource provided by Google to assist with bulk tasks.
To download the editor, visit:
https://ads.google.com/intl/en_au/home/tools/ads-editor/
Once here, click on “Download Google Ads Editor”:
After downloading, open it and add a new account by pressing the “+Add” button and follow the prompts which follow:
You’ll now have access to your Google Ads account via the Google Ads Editor:
From here open your keyword builder base spreadsheet and copy the entire “Combined” sheet.
Once you’ve done so, go back to Google Ads Editor, navigate to “Account > Import > Paste text…”:
Then select “Paste from clipboard”:
Now select “Process”:
Finally select “Finish and review changes”:
Now select “Keep”:
After doing so, select the campaign view within the editor by clicking on “Campaigns” within the bottom left hand column:
Now select all your campaigns within the middle section of the editor and make the following edits within the right hand column by updating the fields:
- Budget: Set a placeholder of $1 (we’ll update this within the Google Ads platform)
- Bid strategy: Manual CPC with enhanced CPC disabled (be sure to click the pencil icon to disable)
- Include search partners: Disabled
- Include Display Network: Disabled
- Targeting method: People in or regularly in your targeted locations (you’ll need to scroll down the side bar to find and update this field)
Now open the ad copy builder base spreadsheet and copy the entire “Combined” sheet.
Once you’ve done so, go back to Google Ads Editor and import what you’ve copied by following the same steps we went through to import the “Combined” sheet within keyword builder base spreadsheet.
After doing so, select “Keep” once again.
We now want to post our campaigns from the Google Ads Editor to the Google Ads platform.
To do so, select “Post” located on the top right of the editor:
Review the information within the panel that appears and select “Post” once again:
We now need to navigate to the Google Ads platform and make the following changes:
- Apply shared budgets
- Add location targeting to one campaign
- Add ad scheduling to one campaign
Apply Shared Budgets
For every campaign set of exact, phrase and broad, we’ll need to apply a shared budget. Overtime you may optimise budgets and amend this, but it’s a good way to set up the budgets to begin with.
To do so navigate to “Tools and settings > Shared Library > Shared budgets”:
Press the “+” sign:
Give the budget a name, select the campaigns it needs to be applied to and press save:
Now update the daily budget for the campaign set by pressing the pencil icon:
After entering the new budget press “Save”:
Go ahead and do this for all your campaign sets.
Add Location Targeting To One Campaign
Within the campaign view of Google Ads, click “+ Show more” in the left hand column:
From here select “Locations” and click the pencil icon:
Once you’ve done so, select a campaign and apply either location or radius targeting to it and click “Save”.
The default location targeting is country wide, we recommend removing this targeting option even if you’re planning to target the entire country and apply state level targeting instead as it’ll give you more granular data and optimisation options:
If you’re a local store you may be better off applying radius targeting around your location:
Either way, set the location targeting to what suits your business best.
Add Ad Scheduling To One Campaign
Click “Ad schedule” and then pencil icon:
Once you’ve done so, select a campaign and apply your ad schedule and click “Save”.
The default ad schedule is 24/7, we recommend updating this even if you’re planning to run ads 24/7 and apply a daily schedule instead as it’ll give you more granular data and optimisation options:
Otherwise, update your ad schedule to your business hours on a daily basis or to what suits your business best:
Apply Location In Bulk Within Google Ads Editor
Return to Google Ads Editor and navigate to “Account > Full download” to download the changes you’ve made to your campaigns within the Google Ads platform:
After going through the prompts and your account will be downloaded.
Select the campaign you’ve update the location for then navigate to “Keywords & targeting > Locations”.
From here copy the locations listed within the editor:
Now select the campaigns you haven’t updated the locations for and remove their default locations:
Once you’ve done so, paste in the copied locations:
Select the campaigns you want to apply the locations to and press “OK”:
Your locations have now been added in bulk, click “Post” to post the changes to your account:
Apply Ad Schedule In Bulk Within Google Ads Editor
Select the campaign you’ve made ad schedule updates to.
Once you’ve done so, navigate to “Edit > Copy Shell”:
After doing so select the campaigns you haven’t updated the ad schedule for, navigate to “Ad schedule” in the right hand column and paste the schedule you’ve just copied by clicking on the clipboard icon (located on the bottom right):
Your ad schedules have now been added in bulk, click “Post” to post the changes to your account.
Google Ads Extras
Adding Additional Ad Features
If applicable we encourage advertisers to use ad assets to increase their ads’ realestate within the SERP alongside adding and highlighting additional call to actions, features and benefits.
These assets are:
To add these assets, navigate to “Ads and assets > Assets” within the Google Ads platform:
Tracking Conversions
Setting up conversion tracking is required to report on the conversions of your campaigns.
Conversions could include actions such as leads or sales.
To set them up navigate to “Tools and settings > Measurement > Conversions”:
From here select “+ New conversion action”:
If you’ve built your conversions within Google Analytics you can import them. Alternatively you can set them up directly within Google Ads:
Attribution Model
When setting up your conversions, you’ll have the option to select which model you’d like to use to determine how your conversions are attributed across your campaigns within Google Ads:
For the reason in the above image, our recommendation is to use data-driven:
Bonus: Get Started Today
All of this can be a lot of work, it also requires time and expertise to get it right.
If you need a hand with your Google Ads management, reach out, we’d be happy to help.
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