Setting Up Your Google Ads Account the Right Way

A messy Google Ads account is like a messy toolbox—you waste time and money trying to find what you need. Setting up a logical and clean structure helps from day one… and it saves you headaches when you grow.

Foundation and Integrations

Set up your business information and billing details first. Use your actual business address and phone number—Google verifies this stuff. Choose your time zone carefully because you can't change it later.

Link Google Analytics right away, even before you create campaigns. If you sell products online, also connect Google Merchant Center so you can run shopping campaigns. These integrations give you deeper insights and unlock additional campaign types.

Campaign and Ad Group Structure

Create separate campaigns for different goals or product lines. Don't throw everything into one campaign. If you sell shoes, create separate campaigns for running shoes, dress shoes, and boots. Each campaign gets its own budget and settings.

Within each campaign, group keywords by specific intent—in your running shoes campaign, create separate ad groups for "men's running shoes," "women's running shoes," and "trail running shoes." Each ad group should have 10-20 closely related keywords.

Tight ad groups let you write more relevant ads—and improve your Quality Scores! Someone searching for "women's running shoes" doesn’t want ads for “athletic footwear”. So show them something relevant. Proper relevance directly translates to better performance and lower costs.