How to Set Up Google Ads: Step-by-Step Guide for Beginners

Short answer: sign in at Google Ads, switch to Expert Mode (new accounts start in a simplified Smart Mode), and you can create the account without a campaign. Add billing, set up conversion tracking, then build one Search campaign for your most profitable service with tightly themed keywords, responsive search ads and a focused landing page. Before launching, check location, network and auto-apply recommendation settings, and review the search terms report weekly at first.

This guide is part of our Google Ads cost series. If you'd like it set up for you, see our Google Ads service.

Before you start

Have these ready:

• A Google account you'll use long-term (ideally a business email)
• Your website, with a page for the service you'll advertise
• A clear goal: calls, form submissions, bookings or sales
• A monthly budget you can sustain for at least a couple of months
• Business details for billing and, later, advertiser verification

Step 1: Create the account in Expert Mode

1. Go to Google Ads and sign in.
2. When Google starts guiding you into a Smart campaign, look for Switch to Expert Mode.
3. If offered, choose Create an account without a campaign.
4. Confirm your billing country, time zone and currency carefully; they're hard or impossible to change later.

Smart Mode suits some very small advertisers, but Expert Mode gives you control over keywords, match types, negatives, bidding and reporting.

Step 2: Add billing

Add a payment method and choose automatic or manual payments where available. You won't be charged until ads run. Google may later ask you to complete advertiser verification with business documents. See Google Ads advertiser verification.

Step 3: Set up conversion tracking

Do this before you spend. Track the actions that matter: form submissions, calls from ads, calls from your website, bookings or purchases. You can set up conversions with the Google tag, Google Tag Manager or by importing from GA4. Without tracking, you can't tell which keywords bring customers, and automated bidding has nothing to learn from. See Google Ads conversion tracking.

Step 4: Plan keywords

Start narrow. Pick your most profitable service and list how customers search for it: "[service] [city]", "[service] near me", "[problem] repair", "[service] cost". Use Google's Keyword Planner for ideas and volumes. Group closely related keywords into ad groups of a few keywords each. Use phrase and exact match while learning. See Google Ads match types.

Start a negative keyword list straight away: jobs, careers, free, DIY, training, and services you don't offer. See negative keywords.

Step 5: Create a Search campaign

1. New campaign → goal (leads, sales or website traffic) → Search
2. Networks: untick the Display Network for your first Search campaign
3. Locations: add the areas you serve; under location options choose people in or regularly in your locations
4. Languages your customers use
5. Budget: a daily amount based on your monthly budget
6. Bidding: Maximise conversions or Maximise clicks with a cap while you gather data
7. Ad schedule: hours when you can answer calls, if calls matter

Step 6: Write ads and add assets

Responsive search ads let you add up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions. Include the service and location, a benefit, proof (reviews, years in business) and a call to action. Add assets: sitelinks to key pages, callouts, call assets, location and structured snippets. Assets make ads larger and more useful.

Step 7: Check the landing page

Send each ad group to the most relevant page, not your homepage. The page should repeat the search ("Emergency Plumber in Leeds"), show proof, make calling easy and keep forms short. See Google Ads landing page.

Step 8: Review settings before launch

• Auto-apply recommendations: review and turn off any you haven't approved
• Display Network and search partners: decide deliberately
• Location options: presence, not interest
• Conversion goals: only the actions that matter set as primary
• Budget and bids: sensible for your goal

Step 9: Launch and monitor

For the first few weeks, check the search terms report a couple of times a week and add negatives. Watch cost per conversion, not just clicks. Give automated bidding time to learn before making big changes, and don't judge a campaign on its first few days.

Step 10: Improve over time

Pause keywords that spend without converting, raise bids on ones that work, test new headlines, and improve landing pages. Once you have steady conversions, try target CPA bidding, then consider expanding to other services or campaign types. See Google Ads campaign types.

What do beginners commonly get wrong?

The most expensive mistakes are broad match keywords without negatives, leaving the Display Network on in Search campaigns, targeting people "interested in" a location rather than in it, accepting every recommendation automatically, and running ads with no conversion tracking. Each one is easy to fix during setup and costly to discover months later.

A worked example

A dog training business creates its Google Ads account in Expert Mode without a campaign, sets up conversion tracking for its booking form and phone calls, then builds one Search campaign for "puppy training [city]" and related phrase-match keywords. It turns off the Display Network, sets location to people in its city, adds negatives for jobs and courses, and reviews search terms twice a week. Within the first month it has a steady trickle of bookings at a cost it can afford. (Illustrative.)

The bottom line

Set up Google Ads in Expert Mode, add billing and conversion tracking first, start with one focused Search campaign, check the default settings, and refine with the search terms report.

Want your Google Ads account set up properly? Request a free growth audit.