Free advertising on Google for beginners: complete guide

If you know anything about Google Ads, you are aware of how confusing it is to get started with free advertising on Google. Finding the right combination of keywords, designing banners, setting a daily budget.. it can get overwhelming. Luckily, our team at Clever Ads wants to educate you on how to get started and successfully navigate the tricky waters of Google Ads. We have compiled a guide for beginners on how to advertise on Google for free, check it out below… and download our Google ads promo code!

Free Advertising on Google Start! Choose a network

First things first, you need to decide where you want your ads to appear. There are two networks that you can display your Google Ads on: the Google Search Network and the Google Display Network.

The Google Search Network is perfect for targeting those customers who are interested in your specific industry or product. You can display your ads on the search results pages of those consumers who performed a search for one of the keywords or long-tail keywords that you have assigned to your ad campaign. Sites that are included within the Google Search Network are Google Shopping, Google Maps, and Google Play.

The Google Display Network is for targeting your ideal customers, but when they are not actively searching for you. The Google Display Network spans many channels such as Youtube, Gmail, Blogger and other  Premier Google Partner sites in which you can target those with specific content.

Launch a campaign

There are several types of campaigns that you can use for your advertising goals. The campaign type you choose to use depends on where you are advertising, and what type of ad you want to utilize.

Search campaigns

The first category of ad campaigns is a Search Campaign. If you have decided that you want to advertise on the Google Search network and utilize text ads, this is the campaign you’ll want to launch. Whenever someone searches for your related keywords, your text ad will pop-up. With search ads it is incredibly important to have strong keywords, a well-organized landing page, and a well-written text ad to ensure that you are relevant enough to be as close to the top of the first-page of search results as possible.

Clever tip: follow Google’s own instructions…

Title: 25 characters
Descriptive lines: 35 characters (Line 1: description, Line 2: Incentive or call to action – CTA)
Display URL: 35 characters
Do not use the word “click”.

 

Display Campaigns

The next category is a Display Campaign. A display ad can be shown anywhere on the Google Display Network. If you want to target specific interest or sites related to your product or industry, you can easily do this with a display campaign. Your rich media and image ads will be displayed on those sites which you target.

What is rich media content?

Rich media is a term used in the digital advertising world to describe ads with advanced features such as video, sound or other elements that engage viewers and get them to interact with the content.

 

Next we have a Search Campaign with a Display Opt-in. Do you like the sound of a Search Campaign but also think that a Display Campaign would be beneficial to your business? Well that’s exactly what a Search Campaign with a Display Opt-In is! You only have to create your search ads and they will also be shown on the Display network. This is perfect for expanding the potential of your target audience seeing your ads and being exposed to your brand.

Video Campaigns

Our next category, Video Campaign, is pretty self-explanatory. These are Ads in the form of videos that run across the Google Display Network and Youtube. If an image or rich media ad isn’t enough for you, then Video Ads might be a good option!

Let’s take a look at some opinions about YouTube Ads…

Have you heard that a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, a video is worth a million. – Njord Rota. Owner of Majestic Heli Ski

With YouTube Ads, we were able to reach users just when they were looking for what we offer. – Kim Thompson. Spark Foundry

Since we started advertising on YouTube, we’ve almost doubled sales year over year. – Stephanie Syberg. Owner and creator of Tulane’s Closet.

Universal App Campaigns

Our second to last category, Universal App Campaign, is very specifically for the advertisement of apps. It also has one of the widest range of places where it will be displayed. It can be shown across the Search, Display and Youtube networks. All you have to do is set up some information about the app and Google will automatically adjust what the app looks like and your bidding to optimize downloads.

Clever tip: once we have linked our App, we must create a campaign in Google Ads with objective “App Promotion”, select the Android platform and automatically the App we connected will appear to use it as a destination link for our ads.

Shopping Campaigns

Finally, we end with Shopping Campaigns. These campaigns are perfect for those retailers who want to promote their inventory and generate more sales with better qualified leads. Your ads can show up on Google Shopping or possibly other Google Search sites. If your goal is to promote sales not just brand awareness, this might be a good option for you.

Bidding strategy

So you have decided which type of Ad campaign you want to utilize and you’ve decided where you want them to be displayed. You’ve done keyword research, using a tool like Clever Ads Keyword Planner Tool, to find the most profitable and accurate keywords, and you’ve made some adjustments to your landing page and website navigation so that your customers will have the easiest and best experience possible on your site. You’re probably thinking you’re all set to launch your campaigns and expect you’ll have some success right?

Actually, no matter how impeccable your ads are and how user-friendly your website navigation is, your ad won’t show up at all unless you set your bidding strategy. Without a bid, you will not show up on Google Ads, no matter what.

When it comes to bidding strategy, did you know that you not only have the option to manually set your budget for every campaign and Ad group, but that there’s an option for Google to automate it, giving you more free time to work on other marketing objectives?

When it comes to automated bidding, you can’t just jump straight in on your first campaign and have Google choose everything. Technically, this is a possibility, but Google utilizes machine learning. It needs your campaign to have been active long enough to have a decent amount of click and conversion data.

Automated bidding strategies

There are several different possible automated bidding strategies. We will go through some of them here for you so you can have a better idea what might be the best strategy for your campaigns!

Maximize Clicks

Is designed to do exactly what it says. Google will automatically set your bids at the amount that will generate your ads as many clicks as possible (within your budget).

Target Return-on-Ad-Spend (ROAS)

Is more focused on getting the greatest ROAS possible, instead of just conversions or clicks. This automated strategy bids more on those ad locations in which Google thinks it is the most likely to lead to a sale. While there are several automated strategies, you always have the option to determine every bid and budget yourself. This is a good idea when first starting off your campaigns, but as you launch more campaigns, as your business grows and you are expanding your brand, as you decide to launch an ad campaign on a different platform, the automated bid strategies are helpful in giving you more free time to focus on these other things. Plus, a lot of the time Google with its machine learning will know better strategies than you because you can’t spend all of your time playing around on Google Ads.

 

 

How to Advertise on Google for Free: Promo Code

Before you launch your first campaign, be sure to check out Clever Ads’s free Google Ads Promo code With our promo code, you can start your Google Ads campaigns for free, which gives you time to see what keywords, bidding strategies, and campaign types work best for you, and which don’t. This is another key part of the Google Ads process. Be sure to check every couple of weeks or so which campaign strategies are working and which aren’t/ Also, remember that while a campaign might be working now, it will get old and will become less effective. Be sure to create new content every month or so, using what you’ve learned from your past campaigns to create even better ones.

Don’t forget to download Clever Ads’s free promo code. You don’t want to miss out on the opportunity to have a free period trial on Google Ads! Don’t even worry about your Google AdWords cost when you first start out! After your first couple of campaigns, be sure to check out our Google Ads Audit to get a comprehensive view of what is working well and what could be improved upon in your campaigns.