Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) is one of the biggest and most powerful advertising platforms. Google handles roughly 3.5 billion searches per day. Plus, 63% of people are more likely to click on a paid search ad on Google than on any other search engine. So, you can only imagine the number of possibilities it holds to help you grow your Shopify store.
Setting up a Google Ads for your Shopify store is a part of your overall online advertising success. Even though it’s not rocket science, there are still a few tricky things in the initial setup process that can cause problems later on.
But no worries. We’ve got your back. Here’s Zima Media’s complete course on how to set up Google Ads Account for your Shopify store, step by step!
We’re here to guide you through the proper Shopify Google Ads setup process, but first, here is why it’s so important.
Why You Need Google Ads
Well-crafted Google Ads campaigns can help you:
- Get new customers and leads instantly even when your website is brand-new and doesn’t have high organic ranking yet.
- Attract high-quality traffic (aka users with high search intent) that is already looking to buy the products you offer.
- Increase your brand awareness and move your prospects up the sales pipeline.
- Overcome your competitors.
- Show ads to your prospects where they’re most likely to see them.
- Get valuable data about your target audience and discover new opportunities.
This is why we built a guide to help you set up Google Ads and start boosting your Shopify store today.
How to Set Up a Google Ads Account for Your Shopify Store
Setting up a Google Ads account for a Shopify store is as straightforward as for any other website if you follow the steps below:
STEP 1: Sign Up for Google Ads
Go to www.ads.google.com and create an account. You can do it using your already existing Gmail account or create a new one.
Tip: We recommend setting up a new account to use it specifically for Google Ads management, or use Google Analytics Login. Otherwise, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with the number of emails you’re going to receive.
STEP 2: Switch to Expert Mode
Once you sign up, Google will automatically bring you to the page to start creating your first Google Ads campaign. To skip this step, for now, navigate to the bottom of the page and click “Switch to Expert Mode.”
On the next page, press “Create an account without a campaign.”
STEP 3: Select your Country, Time Zone & Preferred Currency
Tip: Please, note that it’s impossible to change any of these settings after the setup. You’ll need to create a new account if you decide to change your primary currency, country, or time zone.
STEP 4: Enter Your Billing Information
Once you enter your Google Ads account dashboard, go to “Tools & Settings” → “Billing” → “Settings.”
Enter your billing information and click “Submit.”
STEP 5: Link Google Analytics to Google Ads
Link Google Analytics account and site metrics to your Google Ads account to access all the vital Google Analytics data inside your Google Ads account.
Go to “Tools & Settings” → “Setup” → “Linked Accounts”
Find your Google Analytics properties and link them to your Google Ads account.
You’re all set up! Yay!
That’s it! You’re one step closer towards driving paid traffic to your Shopify store.
Google Ads Account Insights
To give you a better understanding of Google Ads, here’re a few main things you need to know to navigate your Google Ads dashboard with no extra hassle.
- Google Ads Campaigns – here, you’ll find all of the campaigns you create for your Shopify store. Those can be Search, Display, and Video ad campaigns.
- Ad Groups – here, you’ll see the ad groups your campaign consists of. Usually, you’d create a separate ad group for each product you want to advertise.
- Ads and Extensions – here, you’ll be able to see all the ad copies and ad extensions you created and their individual performance.
- Keywords – here, you’ll be able to manage the keywords you want to target and monitor the performance of each keyword.
- Audiences – here, you’ll be able to target or observe Lookalike, Affinity, In-Market & Custom Audiences.
- Settings – here, you’ll be able to change the main parameters of your campaigns such as targeted and excluded locations, budget, bidding, languages, campaign status, and goal.
- Keyword Planner – here, you’ll be able to research the keywords for your campaign, see their volume, cost per click as well as forecast your ad spend.
- Conversions – here, you’ll be able to set up proper conversion tracking and import Google Analytics goals to feed Google Algorithm with valuable data.
- Ad Preview & Diagnostics – here, you’ll be able to see in a test mode how your ads look in search results and what search queries they appear for.
- Bidding Strategies – here, you’ll be able to create multiple bid strategies for your campaigns automatically, see their performance, and plan your future bids accordingly.
Now you know the most critical basics of Google Ads and are ready to start building your first Google Ads campaign. Of course, there’s much more to running successful ad campaigns. You can find everything you might need in our complete Google Ads Guide!
And remember: whatever you do, always measure your advertising efforts.
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