Google Ads Account Creation and Access

Google Ads is an essential tool for any online business that wants to grow sales or increase brand awareness. Creating an account is free and allows you to reach new customers across all Google web services, including Google search and YouTube. You’ll need a Google Ads account if you want to run pay-per-click or other types of Google Ads to market your business.

To allow your marketing agency to run ads on your behalf, you need to set up the account, give them access and add a credit card to pay for the ad spend. We recommend that our clients maintain control of these items and then grant us access. Here’s how!

Create A Google Account

To start, you will need to create a Google account. You may already have an account if you use Gmail or have Google Analytics running on your website.

You can sign in to your Google account with another email using these steps, but you will need a Google email address to access the account and be a user. 

You will need an email address and a website for the business you want to run ads for. When you first create your account, you will be entered into “Smart Mode” however, you will want to switch to “Expert Mode” so you can get the most out of Google Ads and have access to all the features it has to offer. To do this, you can navigate to the “New campaign” page and click “Switch to Expert Mode” at the bottom of the screen.

Full instructions can be found here.

Adding and Managing Users

Google Ads allows you to add team members to the account to access the Ads and see all the data and information within the account. Each person must have their own separate Google account.

When you invite someone, you must assign them a role within the account. There are multiple roles in the google Ads system already, so you will choose the one that best applies to the person. The primary role is Administrator, which gives full access to the account. In contrast, the executive role is read-only access, so the person can evaluate everything that is going on yet not have the permission to make any changes. 

Suppose you allow access to a third party to manage an advertising campaign. In that case, granting them Administrator-level access is recommended so they can have all the tools available to them to allow them to complete the previously agreed-upon work.

Invitations expire after one month. Also, if you ever need to revoke access to someone, it is always possible to deactivate users. Full instructions can be found here.

Adding a Payment Method to Google Ads

Once your account is created, you will need to enter payment information. Select the tool icon and navigate “Settings” underneath the billing tab. You will first need to enter the country of your payment source along with your business name and address. After this information is entered, you will then be able to enter your billing information. Here you will enter it in the name listed on the card you plan on using to pay, along with the card number, expiration date, and security code. When all the information is entered correctly, click “Submit and Activate.”

You can choose between automation and manual payments. Automatic payments are automatically charged to your payment method, and with manual payments, you will need to add a predetermined amount to your account. Fill payment instructions can be found here.

Now that your billing information has been added and accepted by Google, the ads and campaigns you create can begin to run.

Google Analytics

You’ll want to have Google Analytics running on your website, too. This will help you understand who visits your website, where they go, and how they got there.

If you don’t already have a Google Analytics account, create an account for free. We have a similar blog post on how to navigate the sign-up process for Google Analytics, and you can find that here.