Google Ads Checklist

Google Ads Checklist: 9 Key PPC Search Campaign Settings
I just setup a Google Ads (formerly known as Google AdWords) campaign for a client, and I’ve decided to share our Google Ads Checklist because I think you’ll benefit from it when setting up a new campaign.

If you’re about to launch a new Google Ads PPC search campaign, then there are 9 key settings you’ll want to double check to ensure you’re set up for success:

Initial Keyword Match Type
Negative Keywords
Initial CPC Bid
Budget
Ads & Ad Rotation
Locations
Networks
Devices
Conversion Tracking

1. Initial Keyword Match Type
A very common mistake that almost all new PPC advertisers make is to set the keyword match type to Broad. Broad match will give you the most traffic, but in the early stages of your test campaign you don’t want to risk showing your ad to irrelevant keywords.

For everyone who is not familiar with keyword match types, here’s a quick primer:

Broad
Modified Broad
Phrase
Exact

The match type of a keyword tells Google which keywords should trigger your ad to be displayed. For example, if all of your keywords are Exact match, then you tell Google to only show your ad when the exact keyword is typed into Google.

Phrase match keywords will trigger ads when the exact phrase is part of the keyword typed into Google. For example, if your Phrase match keyword is “office space” then your ad will display for “new york office space” and “office space in nyc.”

However, your ad would not display for “office in space” because the phrase “office space” is broken up by the word “in.”

Broad match keywords will trigger your ad for the exact match, the phrase match, and also for any other keyword that Google has determined is related. So as I said before you’ll get the most traffic with Broad match, but you risk showing your ad to irrelevant traffic that Google thinks is related to your product or service.

Modified Broad match is a more advanced technique to limit which keywords trigger your ads to be displayed.

So the first thing you want to check is to make sure your keyword match type is NOT Broad.