Everything for a Google Search campaign is in section C of its Google Search campaign section. The main settings are at the top; the rest fold away under four headings you open when you need them.
Where to find it:
Open the campaign and scroll to the Google Search campaign section. Section C is Create it in Google Ads before the campaign exists, and Settings, and updating Google Ads after.
Budget and bidding:
- Daily budget, in your Google Ads account's currency.
- Bidding: Maximise clicks, with a cap (best for a new account); Manual CPC (you set every bid); Maximise conversions (needs about 30 sales a month first); Maximise conversions at a target cost per sale; Maximise conversion value (optional target return, where 400% means 4 times the spend); or Top of Google, every time (best for your own brand name).
- Max cost per click: the cap, the default bid with Manual CPC, or the most Top of Google may pay for one click.
- Top of Google (Google calls it target impression share): choose where your ad should sit (the very top, the top of the page, or anywhere on the page) and for what share of searches. Google raises the bid as needed to keep it there, never above your max cost per click. A keyword Google marks as low search volume does not show at any bid.
- With Google's bid data in, a line suggests a cap and a daily budget.
Where and who:
- Countries: every country Google Ads serves, the usual ones first. Type in Find a country to find one; the line under it says which are chosen.
- Languages: as many as you like.
- Also Google search partners: off is safer on a small budget.
- Cities, regions, postcodes and radius: type a name and press Search Google, then click the places to add them. Leave the countries empty to show ads only in those places. Radius around an address takes an address, town or postcode, a country code, a radius and km or miles; + Another radius adds more.
- Your audiences: for each list, Watch (bid more for people who know you without narrowing who sees the ads), Only them, or Keep out.
When and on what:
Open Ad schedule, devices and dates.
- Ad schedule: tick the days and set From and Until, in your Google Ads account's time zone. Nothing ticked means every day, all day.
- Devices: Mobile phones, Computers and Tablets, each No change, Never show, -50%, -25%, +25%, +50% or +100%.
- Dates: Start (empty: as soon as you switch it on) and End (empty: no end).
Bids per ad group:
Open Bids per ad group (Manual CPC). With Manual CPC each ad group bids this much per click, unless a keyword has its own bid (the Your bid column in the keyword tables). Empty means the max cost per click above. A keyword's own bid wins, then its ad group's, then the max cost per click.
Assets:
Open Sitelinks, callouts, snippets, call and images. These extra lines under your ad usually lift clicks.
- Sitelinks (2 to 8): links to other pages, each with a 25 character link text and two 35 character lines (fill both lines or neither).
- Callouts: up to 10 short facts, 25 characters each.
- A structured snippet: a header from Google's list (such as Services, Types or Courses) with 3 to 10 values of up to 25 characters.
- A call button with your phone number.
- Images from your campaign's pictures (square and landscape work best).
- Write them for me writes sitelinks, callouts and a snippet from your brief, using only real pages of your site.
Anything over Google's limits is named when you save, and left out when the campaign is created, so one long line never stops the whole campaign.
A real example:
The course campaign of yoursite.com runs at $25 a day with Maximise clicks and a $1.80 cap, in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia, in English, with search partners off, tablets bid 50% lower, three sitelinks (What You Learn, Free Starter Plan, Recipe Books), four callouts and a Courses snippet.
Tips:
- Start with Maximise clicks and a cap. Switch to Maximise conversions once Google receives about 30 sales a month from your campaigns.
- Use Top of Google for a campaign on your own brand name, so nobody sits above you when people search for you.
- Save these settings keeps them without sending anything. See Google Search Ads And Creating The Campaign.