Search campaigns are shown only when someone does a search. These campaigns do not show up on the Display Network. Follow these steps to create your search campaigns:
Determine your Campaign settings. To create a search campaign, start by determining all of the campaign’s settings. These include, but are not limited to, budget, location targeting, device modifiers, bidding options, ad rotation, and ad scheduling. In the Network settings, choose Google Search and Search Partners.
Conduct initial keyword research. The purpose of doing some initial keyword research is to determine all of your themes, or ad groups. You do not need to find all of your keywords yet. Determine the various ways that people are searching for your products or services. Make a list of all your themes.
List your ad groups. From your initial keyword research, make a list of all the ad groups you want to create within your new campaign. By starting with ad groups, you will find it easier to organize your keywords and ad copy. Your ad group name is used only for organizational purposes. Therefore, use an ad group name that lets you quickly identify the ad group’s purpose.
Choose your landing pages. For each ad group, choose the most appropriate landing page on your website. If you have two good landing pages for an ad group, first ask yourself if your ad groups are granular enough. You may need more granular ad groups. If you still have multiple landing pages for an ad group, make note of them so you can start testing different landing pages immediately.
If you are using a different landing page for each keyword, you should move this step into the keyword research phase.
Write three targeted ads per ad group. For each ad group, write three highly targeted ad. When someone sees these ads, they should think that your specialty is selling the product or service that the keywords in this ad group provide. Ensure that the landing page you choose for the ad group shares the same intent as the ad copy. You may decide not to use this ad once your account goes live. These ads are for organizational purposes.
Continue your keyword research. Conduct keyword research for every single ad group. As you choose a keyword for an ad group, look at the ad and the landing page. If the ad and landing page accurately describe the keyword, it’s in the correct ad group. If the ad or landing page does not describe the keyword, then put it in another ad group. You may find that you need to create additional ad groups.
Do not start with deep or long-tail keywords. Few accounts should start with these word types. Adding deep keywords is an optimization technique to use once you determine what words are leading to conversions.
Find negative keywords. As you are conducting keyword research, take note of keywords that you do not want your ad to show for and add them as negative keywords. By starting with positive and negative keywords, you can refine your ad display. If you are unsure whether a keyword should be a negative, it can be useful to leave it out when you first start your account. Later on, you can use the Search Query report to see the metrics for these keywords and add them as negatives.
Determine match types. As you do your keyword research, keep in mind the match types you will want to use. If you have a small budget, you will want to start with mostly exact and either some phrase or modified broad matches. If you have a larger budget, start with more modified broad matches. If you are trying to gather research and your primary goal is not conversions, broad match can be useful. It is okay to have the same keyword with different match types inside the same search campaign.
Write ads. For each ad group, write at least two ads. By starting with at least two ads, you are beginning the ad-testing phase immediately. Since a brand-new account does not have any metrics, there is no best or worst ad yet. If you have an established account, you should run an ad report to see what ads and taglines have been most effective so far and borrow those elements when writing your next ads.
Create your ad extensions. At a minimum, every campaign should use sitelinks. If you are a local business, then you should use the location extension and possibly the call extension. If you are focused on calls, then make sure you are using the call extension. There are several extensions available, and most campaigns should be using at least two to three extensions.
Set initial bids. Setting initial bids is difficult since you have very few metrics to work from. The best way to set an initial bid is to estimate your conversion rate and profit per sale. If there are certain keywords that you think will do well regardless of initial bids, you could use the first-page bid estimate to set bids. Be careful of using first-page bids in competitive areas.
While it is okay for a keyword to appear twice in a search campaign using different match types, it is not okay for those keywords to have the same bid. The exact match version should have a higher bid than the phrase match. If you use broad match, that should be the lowest bid among the match types.
Set remarketing list for search ads. One important element for any search campaigns are remarketing lists for search ads. You need to create them either on google adwords or in google analytics. These are “hot audiences” – people that already know you and your brand. So you need to create them and set your bids higher for them.
By following these steps, you should have a well-organized beginning to a search campaign. You will need to refine your keywords, test ad copy, add negative keywords, and change bids over time to continuously optimize your campaigns.
