Before You Start
Which platform fits your business, what to set up on day one, and the words you will meet first.
Two ways to reach people
Ads on Google Search reach people at the moment they type what they want. Ads on Meta (Facebook and Instagram) reach people who are scrolling and were not looking for you. Neither is better. They answer different questions, so the right first platform depends on how your customers behave.
| Platform | Who sees your ad | Fits best when | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Search | Someone who just searched for what you sell | People already know they need it and search for it, such as a clinic, a repair or a course by name | Small markets can have few searches, and you pay for clicks from people who were only browsing |
| Meta | Someone scrolling a feed or stories, matched to the audience you choose | People need to be shown the offer first, such as a new product, a visual product or a local offer | Attention is cheap to get and easy to waste, so the creative and the offer carry the result |
Start with one platform. Pick the one where your customer already behaves the way you need, searching for you (Google) or needing to be shown (Meta). Add the second only once the first has a result you can read.
Set up Meta in four steps
Meta groups everything you advertise with under a business portfolio. Inside it you connect the Page or Instagram account your ads appear as, and an ad account, which is where campaigns and billing live.
- 1 Create a business portfolio at business.facebook.com, using the public name of your business, as the portfolio guide says.
- 2 Connect the Facebook Page or Instagram account your ads will appear as.
- 3 Add an ad account to the portfolio. Meta describes three ways to do it.
- 4 Add a payment method to the ad account. You must be an admin of the ad account to manage payment methods, and the options depend on your country and currency. See accepted payment options.
Create the portfolio and the ad account yourself, under your own login. If an agency or a freelancer creates them inside their own portfolio, they control them. Give them partner access to yours instead, so you can remove them without losing your account.
A brand-new portfolio or ad account may not have every advertising feature at first. Do not judge the platform by what is missing in week one.
Set up Google Ads without getting stuck in Smart mode
Google's sign-up asks for your business name and website, offers to link your YouTube channel and Google Business Profile, then moves on to billing and conversion measurement. The steps below follow Google's sign-up guide.
- 1 Enter your business name and website.
- 2 Optionally link your YouTube channel and your Google Business Profile.
- 3 If Google offers the option to create the account without a campaign, take it. You can finish setup first and build the campaign properly after the Campaign Structure module.
- 4 Choose your billing country and confirm your time zone. The country decides which currency and payment methods you are offered, and the time zone drives your reports and billing.
- 5 Enter a payment method. Leave conversion measurement for the Tracking module, where it gets the care it needs.
Google may steer you toward Smart mode, which can only create Smart Campaigns. If you want to choose campaign types, keywords and bids yourself, which is how this course teaches, you need Expert mode. Read About Smart mode and Expert mode before you click through.
The words you will meet on day one
You do not need to memorise these now. The next module teaches each one with numbers you can move in the sandbox. This is only so the first screen of Ads Manager does not read like a foreign language.
| Word | What it means | Read more |
|---|---|---|
| CPM | What it costs to show your ad 1,000 times | Glossary |
| CTR | The share of people who saw your ad and clicked it | Glossary |
| CPC | What one click costs | Glossary |
| Conversion | The action you are paying for, such as a purchase, a booking or a message | Glossary |
| CPA | What one conversion costs | Glossary |
| ROAS | The revenue you get back for every 1 you spend | Glossary |
| Pixel | A snippet on your website that tells the platform what visitors do | Glossary |
| Audience | The group of people you choose to show the ad to | Glossary |
Check your understanding
3 questions. Wrong answers explain themselves.
1.Your customers usually search for you by name or by what you sell. Which platform fits as the first one?
Search ads appear when someone types what they want, which suits customers who already know they need it. Meta can work too, but it shows ads to people who were not looking, so the offer and the creative have to do more of the work. Splitting a small budget across two platforms gives each one too little to learn from.
2.An agency offers to create your Meta ad account inside their business portfolio "to save time". What should you do?
Whoever's portfolio holds the ad account controls it. Creating it under your own login and giving the agency partner access means you can end the relationship without losing the account or its history. Sharing a login is worse, because you cannot see or limit what is done with it.
3.You want to choose your own keywords and bids in Google Ads. Which mode do you need?
In Smart mode you can only create Smart Campaigns, where Google makes most of the decisions. Expert mode lets you create the other campaign types and control keywords and bids yourself, which is what the rest of this course teaches.