In 2024, Google Ads is a proven channel for acquiring new customers. Whether you’re trying to reach a wide b2b audience, build your brand to active buyers on the Internet, or influence consumers toward the end of their buying decision, there’s no denying that this is one of the most consistent and time-tested ways to get targeted visitors to your website.
That being said, Google Ads is also complex. Unless you want to promote your business on a fixed budget with a smart campaign, when you launch your first Google Ads campaign you’re beginning a journey that takes not only marketing fundamentals, but also technical expertise. Talk of clickthrough rates, impression share, CAC, and ROAS can easily be dizzying to novices. Campaigns, ad groups, keywords, audiences, ads, assets, and conversions mean nothing without a little experience and a lot of learning. These, combined with new changes to Google Ads like a growing influence by AI or the deprecation of 3rd party cookies, mean there are a lot of layers to becoming a successful advertiser on Google’s network.
In the face of this challenge, some businesses choose to hire a marketing agency or consultant to do the work for them, and that could very well be the right decision if you have a big budget, don’t want to learn a new marketing skill, or you just don’t have the free time to give your ads the attention they deserve. Still others choose to do it themselves, or build up the function in-house. The people who launch these new campaigns, when successful, commit themselves to a rewarding but also challenging craft. Everyone needs help when they’re starting out, and most of these people would be wise to use whatever training materials they need to get started. Because of this, the market for Google Ads courses offers a number of different options for a variety of budgets, industries, and other specific needs. With so many choices how can you be sure you’ll pick the right one? Through our clients and work we’ve learned some key elements to a good course, and chose to write this guide to offer that experience to the world.
Consider Time Commitments
Learning this or any other technical skill is a commitment. The commitment comes with several layers— cost, attention, and certainly time. This goes for whether you’re taking an in-person course, an online course, or teaching yourself with videos, blog posts, or perhaps even physical books. Committing the right amount of time is key to success here. The time you spend should be divided into two main categories: academic and practical application. First, you need to learn the fundamentals. These include basic marketing theory (AIDA, the 4 P’s of marketing, lead generation, and others), Internet marketing concepts (the AARRR framework, marketing funnels, nurturing), how Google Ads works (networks, settings, budgets, ad auctions, bidding, targeting, ads and assets, and conversion tracking), and more. Next, you need to take the ideas you learned and apply them in the real world. Finally, you’ll need to revisit theory, this time armed with your practical experience but leveraging what you learned to improve results within the difficulty, complexity, and vagueness of the real world. This cycle, when most abbreviated, could still take months, and you’re bound to waste some money on ads along the way. To produce meaningful results on Google Ads and drive a steady, scalable stream of customers in the door to your business or that of your employer isn’t easy. Still, it’s achievable. But you need to factor in the time required to truly succeed.
Pick the Right Learning Style
If your childhood educational experience, you probably realized that some teaching methods match your learning style and some don’t. That’s true with any learning environment but, arguably, most true with new practical career skills. Whether you want to learn Google Ads to grow your own business or to succeed in a digital marketing career, setting yourself up for success means matching your learning method to your learning style. Luckily, there’s more available content to learn digital marketing skills like Google Ads than ever before. Short videos, long videos, social media content, newsletters, blog posts, self-paced online courses, in-person courses, certificate programs, and even college degree programs are all an option. What you need to decide is which type of content matches your learning style. First, consider the scope of what you’re trying to achieve— do you need a lean lead generation campaign, or do you want to 10 or even 100x sales? This will define the scope of what you’re trying to learn. Once scope is defined, you then need to take a peek at the available options. This is where picking the right learning style comes in, both so you’re effective in your progress but also so you don’t make a mountain out of this mole hill. Deliberately choosing where you learn, based off your learning style, is important to set yourself up for success and make sure the time you’ve committed is worth all the hard work you’ll be doing.
Check for Success Cases
In the world of education, credentials are key. Stats around student stay at universities, graduation rates, rates of entering graduate education, hiring rates, and others offer a clear comparison between schools so that the prospective student can make their choice. In the world of Google Ads courses, either online or in person, you also want to look for success cases if you want to be sure your effort and resources will be well-used. This can come in the form of reviews, case studies, high-profile clients, and other proof. These success cases are essential to knowing your hard work will pay off. In your decision making process, make sure to look for examples of success that are as similar to your plans as you can, and try to suss out if they appear real because deception is common online. Spending some time on evaluating your best path to learning is worthwhile. It will not only keep you from waste, but it will also give you the motivation you need to truly pour yourself into your lessons.
Seek Interactive Learning
For most of us, at times school was a drag. We had a hard time understanding the context of what we were doing whether studying history, math, or PE. Seeing how a lesson connects with your real world, the real activities you live and breathe,is the missing link between learning and just consuming content. It’s also the missing part between real world application of what you learned and it simply going in one ear and out the other. Because of this, you’ll need an interactive learning environment, whether studying Google Ads or anything else. This can absolutely come in the form of a traditional course, as long as you consider real application mandatory homework. Even better, though, is an environment that’s interactive to the core. Learning in an interactive environment is what we all start out doing as toddlers, and we can benefit from it at every level of learning new things, including Google Ads. The trouble is, most online or in person courses don’t educate with this model— to them you’re a consumer of video or text content. If you choose that as your method of learning how to advertise on Google, just make sure to keep yourself honest by working while you learn. Otherwise, seek alternatives for a more full spectrum of learning. It’s easy to get lost in Google Ads, and you need all the help you can get. An interactive learning environment, when well qualified, offers dramatically more practical lessons.
Keep the Student’s Mind
Learning Google Ads is achievable for most people with a basic awareness of how the internet works and general marketing principles, but it can be an uphill climb. You need a strong understanding of fundamentals, real world experience, the right consumers, strong landing page content, and even a little luck. With that, it can be easy to settle into patterns and let your skill atrophy. To counteract this, you have to keep the mind of a student throughout your career. The process of discovery doesn’t end with real world application. Just like Google, and Google Ads, to keep evolving you also need to keep evolving in your skill. You can do this by continuing to consume content, take courses, and connect with peers in marketing and a specific technical skill like Google media buying. To get you started, Neal Schaeffer recently put out a blog post on his top 50 marketing books— find it below. It’s exactly this type of content you’ll need to continue consuming in order to keep your mind flexible and continue your learning progress.