Project: Launch!

Overview

Now that you’ve created a paused Google Ads campaign with multiple ad groups, and learned about keywords, ad copy, targeting, audiences, and optimization strategies, it’s time to launch your campaign and start driving results.

This project guides you through activating your campaign, setting an initial budget, choosing a bidding strategy, and monitoring early performance to ensure a successful launch testing Google Ads.

Phase 1: Prepare to launch your campaign

Before launching, ensure your campaign is fully configured and paused:

• Verify all ad groups, keywords (using Broad Match), Responsive Search Ads, ad assets (extensions), targeting (locations, languages, audiences), and conversion tracking are set up as learned in previous lessons.
• Double-check negative keywords and audience exclusions (e.g., exclude converted customers) to minimize wasted spend.
• Confirm your landing pages are live, relevant, and mobile-friendly, especially for high-intent searches like “landscaping services” or “landscaper near me.”

Phase 2: Set your budget and bidding strategy

Choose a budget and bidding approach that aligns with your startup’s goals and constraints.

Budget guidance

• Initial test budget: Allocate $2,000–$5,000 for a 30–to 60-day test to evaluate profitability across your campaign and ad groups. This ensures sufficient data (e.g., 50+ conversions) for Google’s machine learning to optimize effectively.
• Daily budget: Set a daily budget based on your total test amount (e.g., $67–$167/day for a $2,000–$5,000 monthly budget).
  • Note: the more campaigns, products, ad groups, keywords, and locations you test, either the more budget you need, or the longer you'll need to test, as you'll be spreading the budget over more variables.
  • Note: the more expensive your product is or the longer your sales cycle, the more budget you'll need or the longer you'll need to test.
• Scalability: If ads prove profitable (or promising) don't just double or triple the budget suddenly or else you'll risk spiking CPAs and tanking ROAS.
  • Instead, scale the budget by 20-50% every 14-30 days. If your initial budget is $3,000/month ($100/day), scale to $3,600–$4,500/month ($120–$150/day) after 30 days of profitability (e.g., CPA $45, ROAS 350%).
  • Avoid exceeding 50% at once to prevent overspending on untested segments—monitor CPA and ROAS closely.

Bidding strategy

• Use Smart Bidding: Select an automated strategy like Target CPA (e.g., $50 if willing to pay $50 per conversion), Target ROAS (e.g., 300% if aiming for $3 revenue per $1 spent), or Maximize Conversions (to drive as many conversions as possible within your budget).
  • Avoid manual bidding strategies (e.g., Manual CPC, Enhanced CPC), as they’re outdated for modern SEM—Google’s machine learning optimizes better with Broad Match and automation.
• Adjust targets later: Start with conservative targets (e.g., higher CPA initially to gather data), then refine downward after 30–60 days based on performance.

Phase 3: Launch your campaign

• Activate the campaign:
  1. In Google Ads, go to Campaigns, select your paused campaign
  2. Click the campaign status (paused) and set it to Enabled.
  3. Verify all ad groups, ads, and assets are active and error-free.
• Monitor initial performance:
  • Check the campaign daily for the first week to ensure ads serve, budgets aren’t overspent, and no technical issues arise (e.g., disapproved ads, tracking errors).
  • Use columns like impressions, clicks, CTR, conversions, and CPA to monitor early results.
• Avoid over-optimizing: Resist making changes in the first 7–14 days—Google needs time to learn and optimize with Broad Match and Smart Bidding.

Phase 4: Optimize

Now that you're launched, use the next lessons to learn how to optimize them over time!