Get Google Ads Ready for 2025: How to Set Up Your Search Campaigns Step-by-Step

This guide will walk you through how to correctly set up Google Ads search campaigns to maximize your results in the coming year. This post will cover every crucial step, from campaign creation to ad group setup, so you’re fully prepared to create high-performing Google Ads campaigns.

Step 1: Prepare Your Keyword Research and Ad Copy

Before setting up your search campaigns, ensure your keyword research and ad copy are ready. Keywords should be segmented into different campaigns and ad groups to keep your campaigns focused and effective. We recommend having a clear naming convention for each campaign, such as “Search Campaign – One-Bedroom Villas” if you're promoting a particular product or service.

Why Naming Conventions Matter

Use descriptive campaign names to streamline optimization. A well-structured campaign setup helps you later when analyzing reports. For example, use a name like “Men’s Shorts – USA” for an eCommerce campaign to make tracking easy.

Step 2: Choose Your Campaign Objective

1. In Google Ads, click New Campaign.
2. Select your objective: Sales or Leads (for this example, we’ll use Leads).
3. Ignore any inactive conversion action warnings if you’re setting up in a test account.
4. Review your conversion actions and decide if you need any adjustments. You can set these up later or exclude conversions that aren’t relevant to the current campaign.

Step 3: Configure Campaign Settings

Once you select your campaign objective, proceed with these steps:

• Campaign Type: Choose Search.
• Bidding Strategy: Start with “Clicks” as a basic approach; later, you can switch to smart bidding strategies such as Maximize Conversions once you gather more data.

Language and Location Targeting

1. For Language, stick to one language per campaign.
2. For Location options, target specific countries, cities, or regions based on your audience. Use Presence only if you want to focus on users physically in your targeted locations.

Step 4: Use Audience Segments and Bid Adjustments

To gain insight into different audience behaviors, use the Observation setting with around 20–30 different audiences. Over time, you can add bid adjustments to prioritize higher-performing audiences. This feature allows you to increase bids for high-performing audiences or reduce them for less effective ones.

Step 5: Set Up Keywords and Match Types

In the Keyword settings, combine broad match and exact match keywords based on your research. Start with a mix to see which terms drive the best performance. Additionally, exclude any branded terms if you want to run campaigns solely focused on general or non-branded search traffic.

👉 How to Do Google Ads Keyword Research in 2025: A Complete Guide

Step 6: Optimize Ad Group Names and Copy

1. Assign specific names to each Ad Group to improve reporting clarity.
2. Add your keywords to each ad group according to match type (broad or exact match).
3. Create ad copy and headlines that align with user intent, adding at least 10 headlines and 4 descriptions for optimal performance.

Step 7: Add Ad Extensions (Site Links and Callouts)

Adding ad extensions like site links and callouts can increase your ad’s visibility and click-through rate. Each site link can provide extra context or call-to-action links below your main ad, making it stand out. This is especially beneficial on mobile, where a larger ad size increases user engagement.

Step 8: Set Your Budget

1. Set a realistic daily budget based on your cost-per-click (CPC) research. For instance, if your average CPC is $3, a $30 daily budget will yield approximately 10 clicks per day.
2. Google Ads may suggest higher amounts, but adjusting to fit your strategy and testing results is best.

Step 9: Review and Publish

Before publishing, double-check all settings to ensure everything aligns with your goals. Once confirmed, hit Publish to activate your campaign.