Write a complete Search campaign plan that is ready to build.
Before you open Google Ads, set aside about thirty-five minutes and write your Search campaign plan on paper. When it's finished, the plan should be one or two pages long, and someone else should be able to build the campaign from it without asking you a question. It covers your ad groups, keywords, match types, negatives, one responsive search ad per group and a landing page for each group. Every decision in it should be your own.
Building a campaign in Google Ads is easy, but planning one inside the interface is hard. The interface walks you through one setting at a time, suggests keywords you did not ask for and offers to write your ads for you. A campaign built that way can end up reflecting Google's suggestions more than your own decisions. If you write the plan before you open the account, the decisions stay with you. This exercise brings everything from module seven together in one document.
Start from your keyword list from Lesson 7.1, Find the keywords buyers actually type. Use the ready-to-buy group. Add the comparing group only if your page answers comparisons well. Within those keywords, look for themes as described in Lesson 7.3, Build a Search campaign that matches ads to keywords. A theme is a cluster of searches that one ad and one page could answer.
Choose two to four themes to become your ad groups. With fewer than two you have nothing to compare. With more than four on a small budget, spend is spread too thinly, and Lesson 2.3, Keep the structure simple enough to read, explains why. Pick the themes closest to your best offer and your best pages.
Give each ad group a handful of keywords, and give each keyword a match type. As Lesson 7.2, Match types and negative keywords control where you show, sets out, phrase match and exact match give you control while you are still learning. Broad match is optional. You can put it on your strongest keyword, but only if you have tested your tracking and plan to use smart bidding. If you do use it, watch the search terms closely.
Priya runs a maths tuition centre in Tampines (an invented example). Her plan has three ad groups, all targeting searchers in the east of Singapore. The "P5 maths" group has [p5 maths tuition tampines] in exact match, plus "p5 maths tuition", "primary 5 maths tuition" and "maths tuition tampines" in phrase match. The "PSLE maths" group has [psle maths tuition] in exact match, plus "psle maths tuition east" and "psle maths revision class" in phrase match. The "Comparing" group has "best maths tuition tampines" and "maths tuition fees tampines", both in phrase match. She left out a just-learning ad group for searches such as how to teach fractions, because her blog posts serve those parents better. People searching to learn are often better served by blog posts than by an ad group.
Take the starting negative list from Lesson 7.2 and attach it to the campaign as a shared list. Then re-read it against each ad group in turn and check that no negative blocks a keyword you want.
You can also add theme-specific negatives to a single ad group so that certain searches go to another group. Priya's shared list has about twenty-five terms covering jobs, free materials, subjects she doesn't teach, secondary levels and places outside the east. In the P5 group she added "psle" as a negative, so PSLE searches go to the PSLE group and don't trigger the ad meant for younger children.
Write one responsive search ad for each ad group, following Lesson 5.2, Search ad text that matches what people typed. Each ad needs several headlines that use the theme's words, several headlines that give specific reasons to choose your business, and a couple of descriptions. Every headline must be able to stand alone. Check the current character and asset limits in Google Ads help, and trim anything that goes over. If you already wrote search ads in Lesson 5.5, Draft six ads for one offer, reuse them for the matching ad group and write new ads for the other groups.
Priya's P5 maths ad has headlines about P5 maths in Tampines, a free trial, six students per class and evening slots. Her PSLE maths ad covers PSLE preparation, past-year question practice and small classes. Her Comparing ad covers clear fees, class size and the free trial.
For each ad group, write down the final URL, which is the address of its landing page. Then check the page against its ad using Lesson 5.4, The landing page finishes the ad's job. Do this on a phone if you can, because many searchers will open the page there. Ask three questions. Does the page headline repeat the theme? Is every promise in the ad headlines visible on the first screen, which is the part above the fold that shows without scrolling? Is the form or button easy to reach?
Write down any change a page needs. If a page needs a lot of changes, fix it before you launch that ad group.
Priya's P5 maths group points to her P5 maths page, which repeats the free trial offer at the top. The PSLE maths group points to her PSLE revision page, which needed its class dates moved above the fold. The Comparing group points to her fees and timetable page, so people comparing centres find the answer straight away.
Your finished plan should contain:
each ad group with its keywords and their match types the shared negative list, plus any theme-specific negatives one complete responsive search ad per group a landing page for each group, with any needed changes noted
Gather your keyword list, negatives and ad drafts. The activity below asks you to write the complete plan, ready to build.
Write your Search campaign plan with ad groups, keywords, match types, negatives, ads and landing pages, so you can build it straight into Google Ads.
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