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Google Ads Tutorial 2026: How to Create a PPC Google Ads Campaign Step by Step

Running Google Ads in 2026 is not just about clicking the “New Campaign” button and hoping for sales.

If you want results, you need to understand how the Google Ads system works, what campaign type to choose, how to structure your keywords, how to target the right location, how to write relevant ads, and how to track conversions properly.

In this complete guide, I will walk you through how to create a Google Ads Search campaign step by step. This is especially useful for beginners, business owners, ecommerce stores, service-based companies, local businesses, and anyone who wants to generate leads or sales using Google Ads.

At AARSWEBS, we help businesses with Google Ads management, campaign setup, optimization, conversion tracking, and anti-fraud click protection. If you need professional help, you can visit AARSWEBS.com and contact our team.

What is Google Ads?

Google Ads is Google’s advertising platform where businesses can show ads across Google Search, YouTube, Display Network, Gmail, Discover, Maps, Shopping, and other Google properties.

The most popular and high-intent campaign type for many businesses is the Search campaign.

Why?

Because Search ads appear when someone is actively searching for a product, service, or solution.

For example, if someone searches:

That person already has intent. They are not just scrolling randomly. They are looking for something.

This is why Search campaigns can work very well when they are set up correctly.

Step 1: Go to Google Ads

To get started, visit ads.google.com and sign in to your Google Ads account.

If you are using Google Ads for the first time, Google may show you a promotional ad credit depending on your country, account eligibility, and current offers.

Once you log in, you will land on the Google Ads dashboard.

From the dashboard, you can see campaign performance, impressions, clicks, conversions, devices, demographics, recommendations, search terms, billing information, and conversion tracking status.

If this is your first campaign, do not worry. The interface can look complicated in the beginning, but once you understand the structure, it becomes much easier.

Step 2: Click on New Campaign

Inside your Google Ads account, click on “New Campaign.”

Google will ask you to choose your campaign objective.

This is an important step because your campaign objective tells Google what you are trying to achieve.

Common objectives include:

If you are running ads for an ecommerce store, “Sales” may be a good option.

If you are running ads for a service business and want inquiries, phone calls, WhatsApp messages, form submissions, or bookings, then “Leads” can be a better option.

If you are not sure and want more control, you can also create a campaign without goal guidance.

Step 3: Understand Google Ads Campaign Types

Depending on your campaign objective, Google will show you different campaign types.

Some of the major campaign types include:

Search Campaigns

Search campaigns show text ads on Google Search results when people search for specific keywords.

This is one of the best campaign types for high-intent leads and sales.

Performance Max Campaigns

Performance Max campaigns allow advertisers to access multiple Google channels from a single campaign. These campaigns can show ads across Search, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, Maps, and more.

Performance Max can be powerful, but it requires proper conversion tracking, strong creative assets, and clear business goals.

Demand Gen Campaigns

Demand Gen campaigns are designed to reach users across visual and discovery-based Google surfaces such as YouTube, Discover, Gmail, Maps, and Display.

These are useful when you want to generate demand, reach new audiences, and push people into your marketing funnel.

Display Campaigns

Display campaigns show visual banner ads across websites and apps in Google’s Display Network.

They are good for remarketing, brand awareness, and visual promotions, but they usually have different intent compared to Search campaigns.

Shopping Campaigns

Shopping campaigns are mainly used by ecommerce stores. To run Shopping ads, you usually need to connect your products through Google Merchant Center.

Video Campaigns

Video campaigns allow you to run ads on YouTube and other video placements.

App Campaigns

App campaigns are used when your goal is app installs, app engagement, or app pre-registration.

For this tutorial, we will focus on a Search campaign because it is one of the most popular and effective campaign types for beginners.

Step 4: Understand Quality Score Before Creating Ads

Before you create your campaign, you must understand Quality Score.

Quality Score is based on relevance.

Google wants to show ads that are useful for the searcher. If your keyword, ad copy, and landing page are relevant to each other, your campaign has a better chance of performing well.

Quality Score is influenced by factors such as:

Let’s say your keyword is “Google Ads management.”

Your ad should talk about Google Ads management.

Your landing page should also talk about Google Ads management.

If your keyword says one thing, your ad says another thing, and your landing page is about something completely different, your performance will suffer.

Relevance is the key.

Step 5: Do Not Add Hundreds of Keywords in One Ad Group

One of the biggest mistakes beginners make is adding too many keywords into one ad group.

Do not add hundreds of keywords without structure.

Every keyword has a different intent.

For example:

All of these keywords include “Google Ads,” but the user intent is different.

Someone searching “Google Ads login” is not looking to hire an agency.

Someone searching “Google Ads course” may want training, not management.

Someone searching “Google Ads management agency” is much closer to becoming a lead.

This is why campaign structure matters.

A good practice is to keep your ad groups focused. In many cases, one to five closely related keywords per ad group can work much better than dumping hundreds of keywords into one place.

Step 6: Create Your Search Campaign

Now select “Search” as your campaign type.

Google may ask you to select conversion goals. If you already have conversion tracking set up, select the relevant goal.

Examples of conversion goals include:

If you do not have conversion tracking set up yet, you can still create the campaign, but you should set up conversion tracking as soon as possible.

Without conversion tracking, you may get clicks, but you will not know which clicks are actually producing leads or sales.

Step 7: Name Your Campaign Properly

Campaign naming is important.

Do not name your campaign something random like “Campaign 1.”

Use a clear naming structure so you can quickly understand what the campaign is about.

Example:

AARSWEBS – Search – Google Ads Management – UAE

This tells you:

Good naming becomes even more important when you manage multiple campaigns.

Step 8: Choose Your Bidding Strategy

Google will ask what you want to focus on.

Common bidding options include:

For a brand-new account or a new campaign with no conversion data, starting with clicks can sometimes help you collect initial traffic and data.

Once your campaign starts generating conversions and you have enough conversion data, you can test conversion-based bidding strategies.

For ecommerce, conversion value can be very powerful because not every conversion has the same value.

For example, one order may be worth $20 and another order may be worth $500.

Conversion value bidding helps Google optimize based on the value of conversions, not just the number of conversions.

Step 9: Search Partners and Display Network

During Search campaign setup, Google may ask whether you want to include:

For many beginner Search campaigns, it is better to keep Search focused and avoid mixing Display traffic with Search traffic.

Search and Display are different traffic types.

Search traffic is based on active intent.

Display traffic is more interruption-based.

If you mix everything from the start, it can become harder to understand performance.

Step 10: Select Your Locations

Location targeting is extremely important.

You can target:

For example, if you want to target UAE, you can select United Arab Emirates.

If you want to target UAE but exclude Sharjah, you can include UAE and then exclude Sharjah.

This helps you control where your ads appear.

Step 11: Use Radius Targeting

Radius targeting is useful for local businesses.

For example, if you run a dental clinic, restaurant, repair service, gym, or local office, you may not want to target an entire country or city.

You may only want to target people within 5, 10, or 20 miles of your business location.

Radius targeting can help you focus your budget on people who are actually close enough to become customers.

Step 12: Choose Presence Targeting Carefully

Google gives location options such as people who are present in your targeted location or people who have shown interest in that location.

For many local and service-based businesses, targeting people who are actually present in the location can be a better option.

Why?

Because someone may show interest in Dubai while living in another country. That does not always mean they are a relevant customer for your service.

If you want actual local customers, focus on people who are present in your target area.

Step 13: Select Language

Next, choose your language targeting.

If your ads and landing pages are in English, select English.

If you are targeting a market where Arabic, Urdu, Hindi, Spanish, or another language is important, you can add relevant languages.

Make sure your ads and landing pages match the language expectations of your audience.

Step 14: Audience Segments and Observation Mode

Google Ads allows you to add audience segments.

For a new campaign, using observation mode can be a good option.

Observation mode lets you collect audience data without restricting your campaign too much.

For example, if you are running Google Ads for a digital marketing service, you may observe audiences interested in:

After collecting data, you can see which audiences perform better and adjust your strategy.

Step 15: Ad Rotation and Schedule

If you are running more than one ad in an ad group, Google can optimize ad rotation toward better-performing ads.

For most advertisers, optimized ad rotation is a good starting point.

You can also set:

For example, if your sales team only answers calls from 10 AM to 6 PM, you may want to run ads during those hours.

Always check your account time zone.

If your account time zone is different from your target market, your ad schedule may run at the wrong time.

Step 16: AI Max for Search

Google has been adding more AI-powered features to Search campaigns.

AI Max for Search is designed to help expand and improve Search campaign performance using AI-driven matching and asset features.

For beginners, it may be worth testing, but do not blindly depend on automation.

Always monitor:

AI can help, but your strategy, tracking, and optimization still matter.

Step 17: Add Keywords

Google may scan your website and suggest keywords automatically.

This can be useful, but do not accept everything blindly.

You must understand keyword intent.

There are three major keyword match types:

Broad Match

Broad match gives Google more freedom. It can bring more traffic, but it can also bring irrelevant clicks if not managed carefully.

Phrase Match

Phrase match gives more control than broad match while still allowing some variation.

Exact Match

Exact match gives even more control and is often useful when you want to target very specific searches.

For many beginner campaigns, phrase match and exact match can be safer than broad match.

Remember, every click costs money.

You do not want to pay for visitors who are not looking for your service.

Step 18: Create Your Ad

Your Search ad should include:

Example headlines:

Example descriptions:

Make sure your ad matches the keyword and landing page.

Step 19: Add Ad Assets

Ad assets can make your ad bigger, more useful, and more trustworthy.

You can add assets such as:

For example, a Google Ads agency can add sitelinks such as:

Promotion assets can also help your ad stand out if you are offering a discount or special package.

Ad assets increase visibility and can improve user trust.

Step 20: Set Your Budget

Now set your daily budget.

For example, you can start with $10 per day, $20 per day, $50 per day, or more depending on your industry and competition.

However, budget should be realistic.

Some industries have very expensive cost per click. If your average CPC is $10 and your daily budget is $10, you may only get one click per day.

You need enough budget to collect meaningful data.

Step 21: Review and Publish

Before publishing, review everything:

Once everything looks correct, publish your campaign.

After publishing, your campaign may enter learning mode. This is normal.

Do not panic if results do not appear immediately.

Step 22: Set Up Google Tag and Conversion Tracking

After publishing, Google may ask you to set up Google Tag.

This is very important.

Google Tag helps you track website activity and conversions.

Without conversion tracking, you may know how many clicks you received, but you will not know how many leads, sales, calls, or bookings came from your ads.

For serious advertisers, conversion tracking is not optional.

It is the foundation of optimization.

Final Thoughts

Google Ads can generate leads and sales, but only if your campaign is structured properly.

Do not just rely on Google’s default recommendations.

Understand your goal, choose the right campaign type, target the right location, use relevant keywords, write strong ads, add useful assets, set a realistic budget, and track conversions properly.

If your Google Ads account is not producing results, if your campaigns are wasting money, if your account needs optimization, or if you are setting up Google Ads for the first time, AARSWEBS can help.

Visit AARSWEBS.com to get professional Google Ads management, campaign setup, optimization, and anti-fraud click protection from a Google Partner company.

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