[ClaudiaKey6]

Hey everyone,

I’m hoping to get some practical advice from people who have experience running Google Ads campaigns. I’ve been looking into Google Ads more seriously and realized that there are quite a few things to understand beyond simply creating an ad and setting a budget.

I wanted to put together some of the questions I’ve been thinking about and hopefully get some real-world opinions from people who have already tested different approaches.

How Should a Campaign Be Structured?​

One of my main questions is how to properly structure a Google Ads campaign from the beginning.

Should campaigns be separated based on products, services, locations, or different types of keywords? I’ve also seen people recommend keeping campaigns very simple, while others prefer having multiple tightly focused ad groups.

I’d be interested to know what structure has worked best for you and whether you change your structure as the campaign starts collecting data.

Choosing the Right Keywords​

Keyword selection seems like one of the most important parts of the whole process.

How do you normally find keywords that have good commercial intent without spending too much on searches that are unlikely to convert?

I’m also curious about how experienced advertisers approach exact, phrase, and broad match keywords. Is it better to start very specific and expand later, or give broader keywords a chance from the beginning?

Managing the Budget​

Budget is another area where I’d appreciate some advice.

For a new campaign with limited historical data, how do you decide on an initial daily budget? Do you start small and gradually increase it, or allocate enough budget from the beginning to collect data faster?

I’d also like to understand how you decide when a campaign deserves more budget and when increasing the budget would simply lead to more wasted spending.

Choosing a Bidding Strategy​

There are quite a few bidding options available, and this can get confusing when you’re just starting out.

For a new campaign without much conversion history, what bidding approach would you recommend?

Do you normally begin with manual control, maximize clicks, maximize conversions, or another strategy? And at what point do you usually change the bidding strategy once enough conversion data has been collected?

Writing Better Ad Copy​

I’d also love to hear how others approach ad copy.

How many variations do you normally test at once? Do you focus more on highlighting benefits, pricing, special offers, features, or solving a specific customer problem?

I’m particularly interested in what makes an ad stand out when several competitors are targeting the same keywords.

Search Terms and Negative Keywords​

Another area I’m trying to understand better is search-term management.

How frequently do you review the actual searches that triggered your ads? How quickly do you normally add irrelevant searches as negative keywords?

I’ve heard that regularly cleaning up search terms can make a noticeable difference, but I’d like to know how much time experienced advertisers actually spend doing this.

Understanding Campaign Performance​

There are so many metrics available that it can be difficult to know which ones really matter.

Obviously, clicks and impressions are useful, but I’m more interested in metrics such as conversion rate, cost per conversion, click-through rate, impression share, and return on ad spend.

Which metrics do you personally look at first when checking whether a campaign is healthy?

Landing Pages​

I’m also curious about how much attention people give to landing pages.

If the ads are performing well but the landing page isn’t converting visitors, how do you normally identify the problem?

Do you make changes to the page itself, adjust the ad messaging to better match the landing page, or look at the traffic and keywords first?

When Should You Make Changes?​

One thing I’m particularly unsure about is how long to wait before making changes.

It can be tempting to check a campaign every day and immediately adjust keywords, bids, ads, or budgets when something doesn’t look right.

At the same time, making too many changes too quickly can probably make it difficult to understand what actually caused an improvement or decline.

How long do you normally let a campaign run before making significant decisions?

Common Beginner Mistakes​

Finally, I’d love to hear about mistakes that you’ve personally seen or made when working with Google Ads.

Maybe it was choosing the wrong keywords, setting up conversion tracking incorrectly, targeting too broadly, changing campaigns too often, or simply spending too much before understanding what was working.

Sometimes learning what not to do is just as valuable as learning the “best” strategy.

Would Love to Hear Your Experience​

I know there isn’t one perfect Google Ads strategy that works for every business, so I’m not necessarily looking for a single right answer.

I’d really appreciate hearing about your own experiences, especially things you learned after running campaigns for a while. Even small tips or lessons from campaigns that didn’t go as planned would be helpful.

Thanks in advance to everyone who takes the time to share their experience. Hopefully this discussion can also help others who are trying to get a better understanding of Google Ads without wasting too much time or budget along the way!

 

[CatherineNorris]

Good questions overall. I think conversion tracking is one of the first things to get right because without reliable data, it’s difficult to know whether the campaign is actually performing.

 

[JessicaWatts]

The biggest mistake I made when starting with Google Ads was changing things too quickly. I’d give a campaign a few days, see some poor numbers, and immediately start adjusting everything. That made it almost impossible to understand what was actually working.