How to Create Your First Google Search Campaign

In Google Ads, go to Campaigns, click the blue "+" button and select "New campaign." Choose your campaign objective — for most businesses, select Conversions (Leads or Sales). Select the conversion actions you want this campaign to optimise toward. Choose Search as the campaign type. Name your campaign clearly using a format like: `[Campaign Type] | [Product/Service] | [Targeting]`.

### Bidding Strategy

Maximise Conversions: Best if you have conversion tracking set up. Recommended starting point for new campaigns.

Maximise Conversions with a Target CPA: Use if you know how much you can afford per conversion and have historical data.

Manual CPC: Full control over individual keyword bids. Useful when learning.

Do not use Maximise Clicks for conversion-focused campaigns.

Networks

Uncheck "Search Partners" and "Display Network" for your first campaign.

Location Targeting

Select your target geographic areas. Critical setting: Change location options from "Presence or interest" to "Presence: People in or regularly in your targeted locations." The default shows ads to people merely researching your target location, wasting budget.

Language and Schedule

Select target languages. Leave ad schedule as 24/7 initially — you can refine after collecting data.

Budget

Set a daily budget you can sustain for 2-4 weeks. Calculate based on your target CPA and desired conversions. If your target CPA is AED 100 and you want 30 conversions per month, you need roughly AED 100/day plus a 20-30% learning phase buffer.

Each ad group should contain keywords that share the same search intent. Good example — "Emergency Plumber" ad group with keywords: emergency plumber, emergency plumber near me, 24 hour emergency plumber, urgent plumber. Bad example — mixing emergency plumber, bathroom renovation, and drain cleaning in one group.

Add 5-15 keywords per ad group. Use a mix of match types: exact match for highest-priority terms, phrase match for flexibility, and broad match sparingly with smart bidding only.

Add negative keywords from day one: job-related terms, free/DIY terms, irrelevant locations, and unrelated modifiers.

Google Search uses Responsive Search Ads (RSAs). Provide up to 15 headlines (30 characters each) and 4 descriptions (90 characters each).

Write headlines covering these angles: primary keyword, benefit statement, number or stat, urgency, pricing or offers, trust signals, call to action, pain point, location, and differentiator. Each headline should offer a distinct angle — do not write 15 variations of the same message.

Set display paths to show a clean, readable URL in your ad.

Sitelinks: 4-8 links to key pages. Callout Extensions: Short benefit snippets. Structured Snippets: Predefined headers with value lists. Call Extension: Your phone number. Location Extension: Your business address. Lead Form Extension: In-ad form submission.

Check campaign budget, bidding strategy, location targeting (Presence not Presence or interest), Display Network unchecked, keywords themed correctly, at least 10 unique headlines, landing page URLs correct, and all extensions added. Click Publish.