Advertising on Google: account setup to first campaign
Advertising on Google step by step: account setup, billing and conversion setup, the first Search campaign, and how the cost of advertising on Google is formed.
By Roozbeh Nazari · CEO
Advertising on Google is a shorter setup and a longer learning process than most businesses expect. Opening an account takes ten minutes; making the account measure the right thing and spend the budget in the right place takes weeks. This article answers "how to advertise on Google" in operational order: account setup, billing profile, conversion setup, the first Search campaign and how the cost is formed. We explained what the campaign types are for in our what is Google Ads article; here there is only execution. We give no cost-per-click or "average budget" figures, because those values vary by sector, country and auction, and a single number misleads.
Account setup: expert mode and the billing profile
Google Ads Help's "Create a Google Ads account" page describes sign-up in three steps: business information, campaign goal and budget, payment details. The critical point in this flow is that the sign-up wizard steers a new account towards a simplified setup path; that path eases the start by hiding campaign structure but takes keyword, match type and placement control out of your hands. On the sign-up screen switch to expert mode or use the option to create an account without a campaign; you will open the campaign after measurement is in place. The second point is account settings: business email, time zone and currency; the last two cannot be changed later and affect all of your reports. For a business operating in Türkiye the currency should be TRY and the time zone Istanbul; even if your target country differs, billing and report hours are set by the account's country. The third point is the billing profile: Google Ads Help's payment method page explains adding a primary payment method during sign-up or later, that a temporary authorisation amount may appear on the card, and that cardholders in Europe may need additional verification. Company card and tax details must be entered correctly from the start; invoice details corrected later cost time on the accounting side. Once the account is open, give your agency or consultant administrator access through the access and security menu rather than by sharing a password; password sharing is a problem for both security and audit.
Conversions before the campaign: the real answer to how to advertise on Google
Most people asking "how to advertise on Google" open their first campaign without measurement and complain a month later that "there are clicks but no customers". The problem is not the ad but the absence of a conversion definition. Google Ads Help's "Set up your web conversions" document defines three steps: set up the website conversion data source, create the conversion actions, and implement measurement with the Google tag or a Google Analytics connection. In practice: place the Google tag or Google Tag Manager on your site; set up GA4 and link it to Google Ads; define the actions that are valuable to you: form submission, WhatsApp click, phone call, appointment page view. Create each action as a conversion action and mark it primary or secondary: primary conversions feed the bidding strategy, secondary ones are only reported. Making a page view a primary conversion is a common mistake; automated bidding will chase cheap page views. Validate the setup by submitting a real form; do not open a campaign until a number appears in the conversions column. In sensitive fields such as healthcare, what data may be collected is governed by ad policies and personal data law; do not carry patient information in the conversion tag.
The first campaign: Search only, narrow geography, tight matching
Our recommendation for the first campaign is a single Search campaign. Settings in order: as the goal, choose the conversion you defined, not generic "website traffic". In network settings turn off the Display Network and search partners; your first data should come only from Google search. In location, use the "people in this location" option, not "people interested in"; otherwise you get clicks from outside the target country. Set the language to the target user's browser language. Start keywords with phrase match and exact match; broad match opened before conversion data accumulates spreads the budget across irrelevant queries. Build the ad group around a single intent: "hair transplant price" and "how hair transplant is done" do not belong in the same group. In the responsive search ad write several headlines and descriptions; headlines should carry the keyword, the difference and the call to action; do not use outcome promises in healthcare ads. The landing page should match the ad's promise; sending traffic to the home page lowers the conversion rate. The bidding strategy can start click-focused with a cost-per-click cap in the first weeks and move to a conversion-focused strategy once conversions accumulate. Build the negative keyword list from day one and read the search terms report every week. In our paid media service we open the first campaign with this narrowed structure and expand only as far as the search terms report shows.
How the cost of advertising on Google is formed
The cost of advertising on Google is not a fixed price; it has three components. First, media spend: the cost formed in the auction for each click or conversion, capped by the daily budget you set, and Google may exceed the daily budget on some days and balance it over the monthly total. Second, billing by payment method: with automatic payments spend is charged when it reaches a threshold or at the end of the period; with manual payments the amount you preloaded is spent and ads stop when it runs out. In Türkiye invoicing and tax are applied according to the account's country setting; your accounting team should know before setup how to process the invoice from Google. Third, the management fee: if an agency runs the campaign this is a separate item from media spend and must be stated clearly in the contract; there are percentage-of-media-budget, fixed-fee and performance-based models. The honest answer to "how much does advertising on Google cost" is that the first month is a learning budget, and spending that budget before measurement is in place is the most expensive scenario. We explained how we split budget across channels in our Google Ads and Meta budget split article.
What to expect in the first 30 days: frequently asked questions
When do ads go live? Ads go through policy review; approval is usually quick, but sensitive categories such as healthcare may need additional review or certification, so prepare the first campaign before the launch date. How many keywords to start with? Few and precise: one intent per ad group, a handful of close variations; the search terms report tells you the direction of expansion. Should the campaign be changed every day? No; automated bidding strategies need a few days of stability to learn, and frequent changes reset that learning. Three things to check weekly: search terms (adding negatives), the conversions column (is measurement working) and landing page behaviour (engagement in GA4). Should you hand it to an agency? Opening the account in your own name and granting management access protects the data and history even if the agency changes; an account opened in the agency's name is the most common irreversible mistake we see.