Key takeaways
- An auction uses bids and ad quality to decide which ads show and where.
- Structure campaigns by goal and ad groups by tightly related keywords.
- Landing page relevance affects both results and costs.
- Conversion tracking is essential before scaling spend.
- Interfaces and features change, so rely on current official help pages.
What is Google Ads and pay-per-click advertising?
How does paid search work?
When someone searches, an auction decides whether ads can appear and in what order. The decision considers your bid, the expected quality of your ad and landing page, and the context of the search. A relevant ad with a good page can show at a lower cost than a poor ad with a high bid. You pay under the bidding model you selected, often per click.
How is an account organised?
| Level | Role |
|---|---|
| Account | Holds billing and settings |
| Campaign | Sets budget, goal, locations, networks and bidding |
| Ad group | Groups tightly related keywords and ads |
| Keywords | Words and phrases that can trigger ads |
| Ads | The text and assets people see |
| Keep one theme per ad group so ad text can match the search closely. |
How do I choose keywords?
Start with what customers type when they want your product, add variations, and separate high-intent terms from broad research terms. Understand match types: broad reaches many variations, phrase is narrower and exact is the tightest, with current behaviour described in the official help pages. Add negative keywords to avoid irrelevant searches, for example "free" or "jobs" for a paid product.
How do I write good ads?
Use the searcher's words in the headline, state a clear benefit, include a proof point or offer you can honestly support and end with a call to action. Provide several headline and description options so the system can test combinations. Follow advertising policies: no misleading claims and no restricted content.
Why does the landing page matter?
Clicks only pay off if the page continues the promise of the ad. Match the headline to the search, show the offer clearly, keep forms short, load fast on mobile and build trust with real contact details and reviews. A poor page wastes budget however good the ad is.
What should I track?
Set up conversion tracking for actions that matter, such as purchases, calls or form submissions, and link the ads account to your analytics. Track impressions, clicks, click-through rate, cost per click, conversion rate, cost per conversion and return on ad spend. Use the search terms report to see what people actually searched and adjust keywords.
How do budgets and bidding work?
Set a daily budget you can afford to test with. Begin with a simple strategy while you collect data, then consider automated strategies that optimise for conversions once tracking is reliable. Avoid frequent big changes, which reset learning. Review performance weekly rather than hourly.
What is a safe optimisation routine?
- Check conversion tracking works.
- Read the search terms report; add negatives.
- Pause poor keywords and ads with enough data.
- Test a new headline in each ad group.
- Improve the landing page for the weakest group.
- Record every change with the date.
What mistakes are common?
Too many themes in one ad group, ignoring negatives, sending all traffic to the home page, no conversion tracking, judging after a few clicks, copying competitor claims that you cannot support and spending without a goal.
How do I read a search terms report?
The search terms report lists the actual phrases people typed before seeing your ad. Sort by cost and look for terms that spent money without results or that show the wrong intent. Add those as negative keywords. Also look for good terms that you did not target, and add them as keywords with matching ad text. Reviewing this report weekly is one of the simplest ways to cut waste and improve relevance.
How do I decide when to scale a campaign?
Scale only when conversion tracking is accurate, results have been stable for a reasonable period and the cost per conversion fits your margin. Increase budgets gradually, expand to related keywords and test new audiences or locations one at a time. Watch quality signals and customer feedback. If results fall, return to the last stable setting and investigate rather than adding more spend to a weakening campaign.
What is a simple checklist before launch?
Confirm the goal, tracking, budget, locations, languages, negative keywords, ad policy compliance and landing page speed on mobile. Have a second person review the settings, since small mistakes in targeting can waste budget quickly.
Download Google Ads and PPC Guide PDF
Google Ads and PPC Guide PDF
The PDF carries the same content as this page in a clean, print-ready layout, so you can read it offline and keep it for revision.
4 pages · 90 KB · PDF · Updated 5 Nov 2026