Lesson 4: How to Setup Google Ads Campaign for Local Businesses

Many have false belief setting up a Google Ads campaign require high technical skill.

This is not true at all. Yes. Google campaign can go deep and has many advanced features which may require more skills to setup.

But to set up a basic ads campaign for local businesses, it is doable by citizen users like you as long as you follow the right step.

The Truth About Google Ads

Firstly, you might get overwhelmed and especially if you are comparing to Facebook ads. Eventually, you will find it easier and more comfortable once you get started.

A quick reminder.

A Google Ads campaign can run well for years without much maintenance. You may spend a little more time to set up a campaign. But once it takes on, it will run in autopilots. Unless Facebook ads where you might need to launch a campaign every weeks or month continuously.

Let’s clarify that Google Ads charge base on ads clicks and not by impression like Facebook ads. You will be charged a fee when visitors click on your ads.

Before we dive in… Let understand a few terms or metric often use in Google Ads:

There are many different types of campaign and goals which may require a different setting as below.

For local businesses, we will focus on Google Search (website traffic) Campaign.

Setting Up Google Ads for Local Businesses

Disclaimer: There are many setting and configuration in Google Ads. We will just go through the necessary & essential settings specifically for local companies so that you can launch your ads campaign at the shortest time possible. Conversion tracking & remarketing ads are excluded here.

Check out this video to find out the step-by-step to create your first Google Ads. You may find the important note after this video.

#1 – Ads Account & Campaign setup

Campaign setup defines the high-level setting such as goal, daily budget and target location.

Important Setup:

• Account name: Set your desire name
• Time Zone: Set your desire time zone
• Goal: Website traffic
• Networks: Search Network (include Google search partners), Exclude Display Network
• Locations: Enter your target location. Make sure Location options set to “People in or regularly in your targeted locations.”
• Languages: English, Chinese, Malay
• Budget: Depends on the keywords and competitor. Low competition can start at RM 10 per day.
• Bidding: Maximize Clicks. Leave “Set Maximum CPC bid limit” unchecked first.
• Ad Schedule: Set your desire schedule. Usually follow working hours.
• Auto-Tagging: Yes
• Ad Suggestions: Don't automatically apply ad suggestions

#2 – Ad Groups setup

Ad groups let you set the keywords to target the right audience. Read on the previous lesson to find out how to gather these keywords.

Google also provides keyword planner, which can be found at “Tools & Settings -> Planning -> Keyword Planner”. You can use this tool to find out the monthly search volume.

To set your target keywords, you need to understand the keywords match types use by Google.

To keep it simple, we suggest starting with [exact match] and "phrase match".

[Exact Match] – Only display your ads if the user searches on the exact keywords. Synonym will be included.

For example: [Roofing KL]

Search keywords:

“Phrase Match” – Only display your ads if the search keyword contains your keywords

For example: “Roofing KL”

Search keywords:

There are also 2 other match types: “Modified Broad Match” and “Broad Match” which I don’t recommend in the initial stage.

I recommend grouping similar keywords into an Ad group so that you can target these audiences with the right ad message and landing page.

For example, I may have Ad group called “Roof repair”, “Gutter cleaner”, “Roof installation” which target with a different set of keywords.

#3 – Ads & Extensions

Ad section is where you set your message in front of your target audience.

Setting up a text ad is easy and straightforward. While editing your ad, you can preview the ad instantly.

Here are a few essential setups:

• Final URL: Your landing page or website URL.
• Headline 1, 2 & 3: Headline to attract your target audience to click on your ads. Usually, emphasize with benefits to the audience and add some “number” to make it stand out and easy to read. The benefits bullet points (from lesson 2) is a useful reference.
• Display path: Add your keywords or power word like “free-consultation” to increase the CTR. This doesn’t reflect the actual URL in your website or landing page.
• Description 1 & 2: Indicate the additional text to describe your services. I suggest to emphasize benefits and not feature or about yourself.

Repeat the same process to create at least 3 variances of text ad for each ad groups.

This is important so that google can test out which text ads able to bring in the best audience at the lower cost.

Now, let’s look at the ads extension.

Ad extension appears below your main ad's message. It carries a broader message and supplement to your main message.

There are about 10 extensions as of writing time. For local businesses, I suggest focusing on the 6 extensions below:

• Sitelink – Display the shortcut link to your other pages. It can be a service page, contact page, FAQs page, About us page.
• Callout – Short message to shout out about you or your services. For example:
  • 25 Years of Experience
  • 1650 Customers since 2003
  • 90 Days Warranty
  • Only Use Top-Grade Material
• Call – Add your phone number to allow the user to call you from the ads instantly.
• Location – If you have registered Google my Business page, you can link it to your ads account. In this case, your ads will show up in the map listing result. This feature can help to increase CTR because your reviews on Google My Business will be shown as well.
• Price – If your business is providing competitive price, price extension is useful to use.
• Promotion - Another powerful extension to increase the CTR. Everyone like discount and promotion. This definitely will help to drive more traffic to your business.

These extensions will auto-apply to all your text ad.

Once done, you may need to wait for a few hours or day to get approval from Google.

If your ads get rejected, it will indicate where you need to fix. Just go ahead to fix it and submit for approval again. For example, all upper case is not allowed. There are specific niches like business loan need to meet certain policies. Gambling or adult niche is prohibited in Malaysia too.

Conclusion

Phew… As of now, you should have learned the fundamentals on how to launch an effective Google Ads campaign.

Now is your turn to launch your first Google Ads campaign!

Again, it looks like complex, it sounds complicated, but it is POSSIBLE to do it at your own with the right guidelines.

If you are SME or local businesses owner looking to get more sales from Google, this is the right time.