Google Ads Course

Curriculum: Class by Class

Open any class to see what it covers and what to bring. The details below come from the live classes themselves.

1. 1

   Day 1 · 90 minFoundationsIntroduction to Google Ads

   A detailed introduction to Google Ads: what it is, what it is used for, how it differs from other advertising channels, and what results are realistic to expect.

   What you will learn

   • What Google Ads is and how it shows your ads to people
   • What businesses use Google Ads for
   • How Google Ads differs from other advertising channels
   • What results to expect: what Google Ads can do for a business, and what it cannot do
   • Why results depend on your business, budget, competition, website and tracking, and are never guaranteed

   What to bringA notebook for your questions. No Google Ads account is needed for this class.
2. 2

   Day 2 · 90 minFoundationsAccount Setup, Interface and Policies

   Set up everything you need to start: a Google account, a Google Ads account and billing. Take a tour of the interface and learn the policies that keep accounts safe.

   What you will learn

   • Creating a Google Ads account in Expert Mode and adding a payment method
   • How an account is organised: manager account, account, campaigns, ad groups and ads
   • How billing and payment settings work
   • A guided tour of the Google Ads interface
   • Ad policies, restricted categories such as healthcare, real estate and education, and keeping your account in good standing
   • Common reasons ads or accounts are disapproved or suspended

   What to bringA laptop and a Google account. Have a business name and a website ready if you have them.
3. 3

   Day 3 · 90 minSearch lead campaignKeyword Research and Strategy

   How to find, check and organise keywords for Google Ads: using Keyword Planner and AI, researching competitors, and understanding keyword types and match types.

   What you will learn

   • How to do keyword research for Google Ads
   • How AI can help you find keyword ideas
   • How to check AI keyword suggestions for relevance before you use them
   • Understanding Google Keyword Planner
   • Researching the keywords your competitors are targeting
   • Planning your keywords: finding useful ones and grouping them into clusters
   • The types of keywords, and how Google matches your keywords to people's searches (match types)
   • Putting it together into a keyword strategy

   What to bringA business or website you want to plan keywords for. A Google Ads account helps you try Keyword Planner, but it is not required.
4. 4

   Day 4 · 90 minSearch lead campaignSearch Lead Campaign: Campaign Level

   Start building a Search campaign for lead generation: choose the goal and campaign type, then set networks, locations, language, budget and bidding at campaign level.

   What you will learn

   • Choosing the Leads goal and the Search campaign type
   • Naming and structuring campaigns so they stay easy to manage
   • Networks: Google Search, Search Partners and the Display Network option
   • Locations and location options: how to target and exclude areas
   • Languages, devices and audience segments in observation
   • Setting the daily budget and choosing a starting bidding strategy
   • Creating the campaign in draft

   What to bringA laptop and your keyword plan from Day 3 if you have one. A Google Ads account helps you follow along, but it is not required.
5. 5

   Day 5 · 90 minSearch lead campaignSearch Lead Campaign: Ad Groups, Keywords and Match Types

   Organise your keywords into ad groups, choose match types, and build a structure that keeps your ads relevant to what people search.

   What you will learn

   • What an ad group is, and how many to use
   • Grouping keywords by theme and by intent
   • Broad, phrase and exact match, and how each one behaves
   • Choosing a match type mix for a lead generation campaign
   • Setting the final URL for each ad group
   • Reviewing your ad groups for overlap and gaps

   What to bringA laptop, your keyword plan from Day 3 and your draft campaign from Day 4.
6. 6

   Day 6 · 90 minSearch lead campaignSearch Lead Campaign: Ads and Assets

   Learn the types of assets used in Google Ads ads, how to create them, how to make them relevant to your keywords and strategy, and how to use them.

   What you will learn

   • The types of assets used in Google Ads
   • How to make each type of asset
   • How to make your assets relevant to your keywords
   • How to make your assets fit your strategy
   • How to use assets in your ads
   • How the ad level fits with the campaign and ad group levels

   What to bringYour keywords and campaign plan if you have them. A Google Ads account helps you follow along, but it is not required.
7. 7

   Day 7 · 90 minSearch lead campaignLanding Pages and Lead Forms for Lead Generation

   Learn what a landing page needs to turn clicks into leads: a clear offer, a simple form, speed, trust, and Google's landing page rules.

   What you will learn

   • Why the landing page decides how many clicks become leads
   • Matching the page to the keyword and to the ad
   • Writing a clear headline, offer and call to action
   • Designing a short form that attracts quality leads
   • Speed, mobile layout, trust signals and a privacy policy
   • Calls and messages as extra ways to get a lead
   • Google's landing page requirements and common reasons a page is rejected

   What to bringA laptop and a landing page, yours or a competitor's, to review.
8. 8

   Day 8 · 90 minSearch lead campaignSearch Lead Campaign: Full Overview and Review

   A complete overview of a whole Google Ads campaign, from settings and keywords to ads, followed by a review.

   What you will learn

   • A complete overview of a whole campaign
   • How the settings, ad groups, keywords and ads fit together
   • Walking through a campaign from start to finish
   • Reviewing a campaign: what to check
   • Revisiting the key points from the earlier classes

   What to bringYour own campaign or plan if you have one, so you can review it. A Google Ads account is helpful, but it is not required.
9. 9

   Day 9 · 90 minSearch lead campaignSearch Lead Campaign: Bidding, Budget and Lead Quality

   Choose a bidding strategy, set a realistic budget, and learn how to judge the quality of the leads a Search campaign brings in.

   What you will learn

   • Bidding strategies for leads: Maximise conversions, Target CPA and manual CPC
   • When to start with each strategy, and the data each one needs
   • Setting a daily budget from your target cost per lead
   • Cost per lead versus cost per qualified lead
   • Why leads go cold, and how fast follow-up changes results
   • Connecting leads to a CRM or a sheet, and offline conversions in outline

   What to bringA laptop and a sample campaign or budget to practise with.
10. 10

    Day 10 · 90 minSearch lead campaignSearch Lead Campaign: Negative Keywords and Optimising

    How to add negative keywords, what to track in Google Ads, and how to optimise a campaign based on what you see.

    What you will learn

    • How to add negative keywords
    • Why negative keywords matter
    • What to track in Google Ads
    • How to read what you are tracking
    • How to optimise a campaign based on what you see
    • What optimising can and cannot do: it can improve a campaign over time, but it cannot guarantee results

    What to bringA campaign you can look at, if you have one. A campaign with data is helpful, but not required. A Google Ads account helps you follow along, but it is not required.
11. 11

    Day 11 · 90 minDemand Gen lead campaignDemand Gen Foundations

    Learn what Demand Gen campaigns are, where their ads appear, how they differ from Search, and when to use them for lead generation.

    What you will learn

    • What Demand Gen is, and where its ads can appear, such as YouTube, Discover and Gmail
    • How Demand Gen differs from Search, Performance Max and Display
    • Why Demand Gen creates demand where Search captures it
    • Where Demand Gen fits in a lead generation funnel
    • What you need before you start: creative, audiences and tracking
    • What results to expect, and why they are never guaranteed

    What to bringA laptop and a Google account. No ad spend is needed to follow along.
12. 12

    Day 12 · 90 minDemand Gen lead campaignDemand Gen Lead Campaign: Campaign Level, Bidding and Budget

    Start building a Demand Gen campaign for leads: choose the goal and conversion goals, then set budget, bidding and schedule.

    What you will learn

    • Choosing the Demand Gen campaign type and the Leads goal
    • Conversion goals, and why tracking must be ready first
    • Setting a daily budget and deciding how long to run before judging results
    • Bidding options for leads, such as Maximise conversions and Target CPA
    • Start and end dates and scheduling
    • The learning period and what can reset it
    • Creating the campaign in draft

    What to bringA laptop and access to a Google Ads account. You will build in draft.
13. 13

    Day 13 · 90 minDemand Gen lead campaignDemand Gen Lead Campaign: Audiences and Targeting

    Choose who sees your ads: locations, languages and audience signals such as your own data, custom segments and lookalikes.

    What you will learn

    • Locations, languages and devices
    • Your data segments, such as website visitors and customer lists
    • Custom segments built from searches and websites
    • Lookalike segments and Google's own audiences
    • Optimised targeting, and when to turn it on or off
    • Planning cold, warm and hot audiences for a funnel

    What to bringA laptop and your draft Demand Gen campaign from Day 12.
14. 14

    Day 14 · 90 minDemand Gen lead campaignDemand Gen Lead Campaign: Creative, Ads and Lead Forms

    Build the ads and the lead form: choose image, carousel and video formats, write the copy, add a lead form, and check everything before you launch.

    What you will learn

    • Ad formats: single image, carousel and video
    • Image and video sizes, and what makes creative stop the scroll
    • Writing headlines, descriptions and calls to action
    • Adding a lead form so people can enquire without leaving Google
    • Writing the form questions, privacy policy link and thank-you message
    • Policy limits for health and property claims
    • A checklist to run before you launch

    What to bringA laptop and your draft Demand Gen campaign from Days 12 and 13.
15. 15

    Day 15 · 90 minTrackingConversion Actions

    How to create a new conversion action in Google Ads, and the different types of conversion actions you can use.

    What you will learn

    • What a conversion and a conversion action are
    • Why tracking conversions matters for measuring a campaign
    • How to create a new conversion action in Google Ads
    • The types of conversion actions
    • How to choose the right type for your goal

    What to bringA clear idea of what you want to count as a conversion (for example a form submission). A Google Ads account helps you follow along, but it is not required.
16. 16

    Day 16 · 90 minTrackingConversion Tracking with Google Tag Manager

    How to track conversions on a website using Google Tag Manager, including the whole process of recording a conversion when a visitor reaches the thank-you page.

    What you will learn

    • How conversion tracking on a website works
    • How Google Tag Manager is used for conversion tracking
    • Setting up conversion tracking on a website with Google Tag Manager
    • Tracking a conversion when a visitor reaches the thank-you page
    • The whole process from start to finish
    • Checking that the conversion is recorded correctly

    What to bringA Google Tag Manager account and a website with a thank-you page that you can add Tag Manager to. A Google Ads account with a conversion action (see Day 15) helps you follow along, but it is not required.
17. 17

    Day 17 · 90 minReporting and capstoneReporting, Optimisation and Scaling

    Learn to read results from Search and Demand Gen campaigns and decide what to do next: key metrics, common problems, tests and safe scaling.

    What you will learn

    • Reading Google Ads reports: columns, segments and date ranges
    • Key metrics: impressions, CTR, CPC, conversion rate, cost per lead and impression share
    • Comparing Search and Demand Gen results fairly
    • Diagnosing high costs, low clicks and weak conversion
    • Testing ads and landing pages one change at a time
    • Scaling safely: when to raise budgets and when to wait

    What to bringA laptop, and a campaign with data if you have one.
18. 18

    Day 18 · 90 minReporting and capstoneCapstone and Review

    Put it all together: build a Search lead campaign and a Demand Gen lead campaign from start to finish, run a review checklist, and get your questions answered.

    What you will learn

    • Building a full Search lead campaign from campaign to ad
    • Building a full Demand Gen lead campaign with a lead form
    • Setting up conversion tracking for both
    • Running a review checklist before launch
    • Presenting your plan and getting feedback
    • A recap of the whole course, questions and next steps

    What to bringA laptop and your work from earlier classes.

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