How to learn Google Ads?

How to learn Google Ads?

I distinguish 3 ways to acquire knowledge in this area:

• theoretical approach
• practical approach
• training approach

In the article, I will describe each method, the pros and cons associated with each method, and provide information on available materials.

Google Ads – Theoretical Approach

Individually gaining knowledge through publicly available materials is the easiest and cheapest way you can choose at the beginning of your adventure with advertising systems. 

Pluses: 

• low cost -most of the training materials are free, you just need to get to them
• easily accessible materials – the material base is large and allows you to gain basic competencies easily

Minuses:

• rigid training scope -theoretical materials will not answer your questions or conundrums. If you face a challenge when implementing or optimizing your campaign, you will have to find the solution to the problem yourself
• Beginners don’t know what’s worth learning – like in any other field, in performance marketing there are important and more important and useful and more useful things. If you have not been exposed to Google Ads, you may have a hard time judging what you should learn and in what order, and which elements to pay attention to
• Theoretical knowledge that is difficult to use in practice – while the available materials are quite extensive, it will be difficult for you to deduce on your own what solutions to use in a particular case
• Low ceiling of competence -This type of learning will allow you to acquire basic theoretical knowledge. However, you will not learn with it practical solutions or nuances that allow you to make the applied solutions effective.

Skillshop

The most popular Google Ads self-learning platform is Skillshop. This is an official training platform from Google, where you can take courses on solutions and advertising opportunities in the dedicated system. The courses are quite extensive, and it usually takes several hours to go through one element. With their help, you will acquire a basic knowledge of the types of campaigns available in Google Ads, tools for analyzing results and optimizing marketing efforts, as well as advertising opportunities.

Skillshop is a good tool for acquiring basic knowledge, but for users who already have experience with advertising systems, it will be of little use. Materials are plentiful, while it is difficult to determine for yourself which ones are worth using. However, it is advisable to think about it and choose the most necessary ones, as it would take about 70 hours to go through the whole thing.

The Skillshop also makes it possible to obtain Google certificates, which prove the knowledge gained by the course participant. Certificates are free, approached after completing the relevant elements of the training. As the advertising system is constantly evolving, they are valid for 12 months, so they must be renewed annually.

YouTube

There are many videos on the platform to help you learn about the advertising system and set up simple campaigns. From such materials you will learn, for example, “how to create an account and container in GTM” or “How to create a GA4 service and what to keep in mind?”

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This type of material is useful when you already know what action you want to perform, but don’t yet know how to do it. YouTub tutorials will certainly prove useful when setting up a campaign, but you won’t gain hard skills with them. Instead, they are an effective way to solve ad-hoc problems you may face when operating an advertising account.

Practical-approach-and-your-own-account Google Ads

Pluses:

• learning a useful range of knowledge – operating on a real account, you will be forced to learn essential elements naturally. After all, to turn on a campaign, you first need to know how to do it, so you will necessarily learn the necessary skills
• quick learning -by doing something yourself, you will learn it at a much higher rate than by reading about solutions or running only theoretical campaigns. By acting on your own account, you will learn the basic components of campaigns and ads at an express pace

Minusals

• Mistakes can prove costly – Having no experience with running campaigns and deciding to run advertising efforts yourself, you are jumping in at the deep end. Google Ads is quite a complicated environment, in which you need to spend some time to find your way around. If you’re an entrepreneur, you know well how painful misguided investments can be. The budget burned on misaligned ads will not be returned to you by anyone, and the realization that it could have been done better will only make matters worse
• the need for self-reflection and the ability to analyze indicators – in order to assess the quality of your campaigns, while not being an expert, you will have to demonstrate inquisitiveness and the ability to detect and correct your own mistakes. It’s virtually impossible to set up a 100% correct campaign if you’re doing it for the first or second time. That’s why you need to pay attention to every component of your advertising efforts and account setup. To make a good assessment of advertising effectiveness, you need to know the metrics that prove their quality. You can read more about this in the article titled. “Campaign KPIs – what are they and how to determine them?”
• In order to learn something, you need to know that you don’t know about it -have you ever heard of an athlete who won a world championship in his sport, training without a coach? (ok, there have probably been such cases, but you know exactly what I mean.) Learning from scratch, you will have a hard time finding campaign elements that need improvement. By relying solely on a hands-on approach, you run the risk of getting wrapped up in the knowledge and solutions you’ve already acquired, making it difficult to take your campaigns to the highest level of effectiveness.

Optimize Google Ads Campaigns

Learning on a living organism is certainly a way that will bring faster results than a dozens of hours theoretical course, but such a solution carries various risks. However, if you absolutely want to try setting up and optimizing a campaign yourself, start with low-budget activities to minimize possible losses. If you observe that your campaigns are working well, you can then increase the financial outlay and gradually build wider and wider coverage.

Training approach

Pluses:

• The classes are taught by people who deal with advertising activities on a daily basis -this is one of the most important advantages of this solution. This ensures that you will learn useful solutions that you can implement in your marketing activities
• large selection of available training -you can bet on online or offline training, depending on your preferences. The form of training also depends on which one you find yourself best at. You can bet on group or individual training. This way you are sure to take part in such classes that will perfectly suit you and your needs
• Gain competence quickly – by working with an experienced trainer, you will acquire competence in no time. Regardless of the advertising system or the tool you want to train with, an experienced trainer will transfer knowledge to you in an easy way

• trainers know what you need most – classes are taught by experienced practitioners who know almost everything about performance marketing. As a result, they are able to tailor the scope of training to meet the real needs you experience in the course of conducting advertising activities.

Minusals:

• training is mostly paid -but you should consider it an investment that will pay off very quickly. By learning how to properly run advertising campaigns, you will not only generate good results that translate into sales or lead acquisition, but also minimize the risk of a burned-out budget
• and that’s it

Most training courses available on the market, however, have a noticeable drawback – they are held in a passive mode, with one and the same material for the entire group. All-day training courses can be tiring, and the knowledge taken in such a time can completely drift away in the following weeks. The lack of regular practice after the course results in reduced memorability of the material. 

Google Ads training at SchoolUP

The above analysis led us to the decision to introduce a completely new training model in Poland, based on the active learning model. For several months, we have been providing such training within the SchoolUP platform. We changed everything and applied the following standard:

1. One personalized trainer tailored to your goals.
2. Personalized training plan arranged for your needs.
3. Flexible schedule.
4. Scope of training and pace you wish.
5. Assessment of progress.
6. Regular dose of motivation 🙂
7. Know-how and work 100% on real data.

At SchoolUP, classes are taught by trainers who have daily marketable practice. You can take up training regardless of your level.

Sign up for personal training with Google Ads and Facebook Ads!

By working with a trainer you will learn more in less time. Opt for one-on-one coaching and strengthen your competence in Google Ads.

Sign up now!

An additional plus of SchoolUP is the opportunity to develop your knowledge in marketing in the broadest sense, not only within Google Ads. So you can learn social media advertising, advanced analytics, marketing strategy, preparing analysis and reports, understanding metrics or interpreting indicators. The knowledge thus gathered organizes a holistic understanding of marketing, strategic planning processes and looking from the business side. These skills are often most useful when working at a digital agency or in the online marketing of your business.

The Google Ads SchoolUP operates a simple training fee model. Currently, it is £149 gross for a full hour of 1:1 training with a practitioner. You determine the number of hours and your availability. The trainer will tell you what results you can expect and in what time. If you work regularly and do your “homework,” the results will come quickly and last.

If you are undecided, I encourage you to schedule an initial, free interview at schoolup.pl This will allow you to see if this form of training is for you!