Goals Google Ads

To calculate how much youll spend in a month, multiply your daily budget by 30.4 (or the average number of days in a month.) Keep in mind, Google Ads can spend up to twice your daily budget in a daybut will never exceed your budget for the month.

To demonstrate, lets say your daily budget is $50. With this budget, Google Ads could spend up to $100 on some days, but never more than $1520 ($50 x 30.4) for the month.

Pro Tip: A larger daily budget increases your impression share. Because you can afford to pay for more clicks in a given day, your ad is more likely to appear in search results.

9. Conversions

You have two Conversions settings options for your campaign within Google ads. You can choose to Use the account-level include in Conversions settings or Choose conversion actions for thiscampaign.

Dont let this section confuse you too much. We recommend you stick with the default conversion settings: Use the account-level include in Conversions settings.

Why? Well, the default carries a few benefits.

1. It includes a whole bunch of goodies on your reporting page, like what kind of conversion actions users are taking in the campaign. You can toggle your view to see all or just a few of these conversions.

2. Gives you a bit more control over automated bidding. You can tell Google which conversions youd like it to optimize in campaigns with automated bid strategies.

3. Gives a clear picture with the Conversions column, so you know whats up when you manage bids manually.

For example, consider this real-life application of conversion settings.

We identified two main conversion actions for a floral business: online sales and call-in orders. Using the Use theaccount-level include in Conversions settingsdefault, we observed how many of each conversion typecontributed to the overall conversion numbers in reporting. Additionally, we assigned values to each conversion action. As a result, we could determine which conversion type was driving more value (ROAS) in the campaign and react accordingly.

To sum up, the default setting lets you include valuable conversion action data in the Conversions reporting column. Having that data also facilitates better decisions about bids, whether Googles making them or you are.

Speaking of bids

10. Bidding Strategy

Currently, there are nine different bidding strategies to choose from, which can be downright overwhelming. For now, focus on these two types of bidding strategies: manual and automated.

Manual:You set your own keyword-level bids and decide how much to pay for clicks. Your manual bidding strategy option is Manual CPC.

Automated:Google adjusts your bids automatically based on data they collect. They also decide how much you should pay for clicks.

Google Ads Bidding Options.

Automated bidding strategies present themselves as a helpful shortcut that will save you from spending hours manually adjusting your bids. On top of that, Google has made massive improvements to these strategies, which use real-time signals we often cant compete with. For more tips on using automated bidding strategies, check out our guide to PPC bid management.

While its true that automated bidding will save you time,here are few situations where setting manual bid settings could still serve you best.

1. You have a new account.When your account is brand new, it also means you have no conversion data a must if you want to make the most of your ad spend and lower your cost per click (CPC). Consider allowing your account to collect this needed information over a month or two before switching to an automated or Smart Biddingstrategy.

2. Automated bidding is running wild.Manual CPC is always an option if you observe an automated bidding strategy departing from your goal. Simply switch back for more precise control.

Google Ads will default to an automated bidding strategy, so youll need to make a few quick changes to unlock manual bidding.

First, click on Select a bid strategydirectly. Next, open the dropdown and select Manual CPCfrom the list. Finally, uncheck the box to disable Enhanced CPC.

Thats it. Youre all set for manual bidding.

11. Ad Schedule

When you set up your first Google Ads campaign, its usually a good idea to leave the ad schedule set to its default setting. Default will run your ads 24/7/365 and allow you to gather data about which times of day and days of the week perform best.

Schedule when your ads are shown.

If youre running a lead generation campaign, it might be tempting to limit your campaigns scheduled to run only during office hours. However, you may still be able to drive high-quality conversions even with limited office hours and call-only campaigns. Youll just need to be diligent at returning their call the following business day, but youll never know if you limit your ad schedule from the start.

Bonus Tip: You can use start and end datesto run seasonal campaigns or limited-time promotions.

12. Ad Rotation

Since the switch to Google Ads (formerly Adwords), Google has added and retired several features.

Its best to test your ads manually.

You now have two options when it comes to Ad rotation.

• Optimize: Prefer best performing ads.
• Do not optimize: Rotate ads indefinitely.

Google Ads defaults to the first setting and will attempt to pick the best performing ads for you automatically. However, ad rotation campaign settings depend on your situation. If youre short on time, feel free to select Optimize; just keep an eye on your account.

Alternatively, if you want more control and have the time to make fine-tuned changes, set your ad rotation to Do not optimize and use an ad scriptto flag your winning and losing ads. This will give you a more accurate way to A/B test your ads and ultimately lead to the best performing ads.

Pro Tip: Contrary to what some people (ahem Your Google Ads Rep) say, you dont need to have three ads running for each ad set. In fact, most of the time, youll want to stick with a simple A/B test unless you have enough traffic to justify splitting your traffic out to three ads. If you dont have enough traffic, then splitting your traffic three ways will slow down your test results and hurt your performance.

13. Ad Extensions

What if you could make your ads bigger than all your competitors ads without spending more money? Thats basically what ad extensions will do for you.

Google ad extensionsare hands down one of the best ways to improve your click-through rates (CTR) and maximize your campaign performance.

Example of a seller rating extension.

Ad extensions are additional lines of text that appear below your ads description. As a result, they make your ad bigger and more noticeable in search results. The more prominent your ad, the more likely searchers will click it. This results in a domino effect that improves nearly all your key performance indicators from increased CTR, decreased CPC, and lower costs per conversion.

Your Competitors Tiny Ads vs. Your Ads With Ad Extensions

The best part is ad extensions are easy to create and add to your campaign.

Lots of ad extension choices.

Youll have nine different ad extensions to choose from, all with their unique characteristics and advantages.

Dont get overwhelmed by all your options start with universal extensions. These include the three ad extensions Google recommends every advertiser use: sitelinks, callout extensions, and structured snippets.

Sitelinks: add additional links under the main text ad in searchsitelinks direct searchers to important pages on your site.

Sitelink extension.

Callout extensions: these are 25-character chunks of text that give the most exciting and valuable qualities about your business a shoutout.

Callout extension.

Structured snippets: niche product types? A unique range of services? Structured snippets give searchers a glimpse into the small details you think your customers will find most valuable.

Structure snippet.

See more about ad extensions in our article: Google Ad Extensions: 10 Types and How to Use Them.

14. IP Exclusions

IP exclusions allow you to block specific IP addresses from seeing your ads.

These exclusions are particularly useful if you think your competitors might be clicking on your ads. Its also a good idea to exclude your IP address, so you dont skew the data by accidentally viewing your own ads.

To emphasize, lets look at an industry with one of the highest costs-per-clicks: law. Weve heard first-hand accounts of law firms hiring people just to click on their competitors ads. The result? Thousands of wasted advertising dollars (and usually an ad budgetthat runs out first thing in the morning, so your competitors ads show instead). So if youre involved in PPC for lawyers or simply have a CPC of over $50, then definitely spend some time with IP exclusions.

So how do we check to see if this is needed? Use theAd Preview and Diagnosistool.

The right way to search for your ads.

You can add IP exclusions to your Google Ads campaign after the initial setup process is complete.

Competitors dont need to see your ads.

To set them up, navigate to your campaign settings, click additional settings, and select IP exclusions. Then enter the IP addresses you wish to exclude and click save.

15. Campaign URL Options

This setting allows you to add URL tracking parameters on the campaign level.

Campaign-level URL tracking is helpful if you need to track something specific on only one campaign. Ultimately, you can save yourself some time and redundancy by adding your tracking template at the account level. This will apply the same tracking template to all campaigns in your account.

Nonetheless, you can find your campaign URL optionson the campaign Settings page under additional settings.

Easily add URL tracking parameters.

You can use a toolor build your tracking template from scratch. Once you have the code snippet, copy and paste it into the tracking template field and click save. Now Google Ads will automatically append this to every URL in your campaign.

Tracking parameters give you additional insight into prospects and can be used to complete hidden form fields on your landing pages.

Finish Up Google Ads Campaign Settings

If you followed along and created your campaign with all the correct settings, then Ive got some good news for you: you may only have to do it this once!

In fact, after you create a Google Ads campaign with the correct settings, you can easily apply these settings to all future campaigns.

Quick and easy!

Just click Load campaign settingswhen you click the button to create a new campaign, and Google will automatically load those settings from existing campaigns. Youll avoid the hassle of running through settings each time you make a new Google Ads campaign.

Whats more, choosing the right setting for your campaigns will improve your Google Ads performanceand help you maximize your ROI.

Do you have questions about your Google Ads campaign settings that I didnt cover in this article? If you do, leave them in the comments below!