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  Article updated: May 21, 2023

Create a Google Ads search campaign

You can create and manage Google Ads campaigns in Hootsuite Ads. Hootsuite Ads supports the creation of search ad campaigns, and responsive display ad campaigns.

Google Ads Campaign Structure video.

Before you begin

You must connect your Google Ads account to Hootsuite Ads before you can create a Google Ads campaign in Hootsuite. See Connect your Google Ads account to Ads for more information.

Create a campaign

  1. On the Hootsuite Ads home page, select New campaign.
  2. Select Google Ads.
  3. Enter a campaign name, select a Google billing account, and then select Save and proceed.

The Search Ads campaign type has an Open Goal by default. To add a goal, you can edit the campaign in Google Ads once you publish it.

Google ads campaign selected showing search ads, open goal information.

Define campaign settings

  1. Select one or more networks where you want your ads shown. Hootsuite Ads always selects the Google Search Network by default.
  2. Enter one or more geographic locations to include or exclude in your ad targeting. Enter a country, city, region, postal code, or address. Addresses can include a radius in kilometers (km) or miles (mi) from the address.
  3. Enter one or more languages to target with your ads.
  4. Enter an average daily budget.
  5. Select a start and end date for your campaign. If you do not specify an end date, the campaign will run indefinitely.
  6. Select a bidding strategy from the list.
  7. Add between two and six sitelink extensions or between two and ten callout extensions to your campaign. See Google's help article About extensions for more information.
  8. Select Save and proceed.

Set up ad groups and ads

  1. Enter a name for the ad group.
  2. Enter keywords to make your ads relevant to a targeted search. Press Enter between each keyword to add one keyword per line. Use match types to control the search terms that can trigger your ads. See Google's help article About keyword matching options for more information.
    • Broad match: your ads may show where searches include your keywords, related keywords, or close variations like synonyms and misspellings.
      Example: tennis shoes.
    • Broad match modifier: similar to broad match, your ads may show where searches include your keywords designated with a plus sign or close variations.
      Example: +tennis, +shoes.
    • Phrase match: your ads may show where searches include exact phrases and close variations.
      Example: “tennis shoes”.
    • Exact match: your ads may show where searches include exact keywords and close variations.
      Example: [tennis shoes].
    • Negative match: your ads are not shown where searches include your negative keywords.
      Example: -tennis.
    Ad group setup showing ad group name, keywords, and get keyword ideas boxes.
  3. Select Advanced options to choose an ads rotation strategy. See Google's help article About ad rotation settings for more information.
  4. Select Create Ads.
  5. Enter a destination URL, headline(s), description, and display path (optional) for each ad. Select the plus icon to add variations of each ad component.
    Create ad with new text ad options and an example preview.
  6. When you’re finished creating ads, select Save, and then review all your ad variations.
  7. Point to each variation, select the three dots and then select Edit or Remove to modify or delete a specific ad variation.
    3 example ad variations.
  8. Optionally, select Add Ad Group and repeat the previous steps to add another ad group to the campaign.
  9. Select Save and proceed.

Review and publish your ad campaign

  1. Review the summary of your campaign, and then select Publish to Google Ads.

Hootsuite Ads sends your campaign to Google for review and publishing. Ensure your ads comply with Google's advertising policies. See Google's Advertising policies help articles for more information.

You can monitor your campaign’s results in the campaign dashboard. Select Your Campaigns, and then select the Google Ads campaign from the list.

You can edit or delete ads from the All Ads tab of the campaign, and delete ad groups from the Ad Groups tab. If you make any changes to your campaign from your Google Ads account, and they will be synced to Hootsuite Ads.

 

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