Google Ads is a pay-per-click (PPC) advertising platform that lets you show ads on Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, and the Display Network of partner sites. Ads are targeted by keyword, location, device, and audience interest, and you're only charged against the goal you set — clicks, impressions, or conversions.
Ad types
- Search ads — text ads shown above/below results when a user searches a keyword.
- Display ads — visual/banner ads shown across millions of partner sites and apps.
- Shopping ads — product listings with image, price, and store name.
- Video ads — ads shown before or during YouTube videos.
How budgeting works
Your daily budget is a cap; average monthly spend won't exceed roughly 30.4 times that figure. The bidding strategy (manual CPC, Target CPA, Target ROAS, etc.) determines what goal your spend is optimized toward — new accounts generally do better starting with a lower budget and scaling up once there's learning data.
What to get right before you start
Before setting up a campaign, nail down which page the traffic lands on, whether conversion tracking is in place, and what the audience's search intent actually is — ad spend pointed at a weak landing page is wasted regardless of how well the campaign itself performs.
