From Beginner to Pro: 22 Free Google Ads Tutorials

As PPC budgets continue to grow, so will the demand for experienced pay-per-click services.

It's no surprise that PPC and SEM jobs are rising, and the need for quality PPC analysts and Google Ads (formerly Google Adwords) managers continues to increase.

That said, Google Ads can be overwhelming. With frequent changes, it’s necessary for professionals to continuously adapt and hone their skills, lest they find themselves left without a seat when the music stops.

Here’s the good news: Although brands allocate large portions of their marketing budget to multiple campaigns on the Google Ads platform, perfecting your pay-per-click strategies doesn't have to break the bank.

 If you want to improve your agency’s Google ad campaign tactics, you don't need to buy into expensive training programs or monthly subscription services–a free Google Ads tutorial will teach you everything you need about the platform without spending money.

Look no further if you’re looking for the best free Google Ads tutorials on the web today. We've compiled the ones covering every facet of the Google Ads universe—from beginner to pro—to help you equip everyone on your marketing agency team with the necessary skills.

Let's get started.

Beginner-Level Google Ads Tutorials

These tutorials are tailored specifically for newcomers to pay-per-click advertising or those just starting their journey with Google Ads. They may be an excellent inroad for interns or junior-level team members at your agency.

They provide a solid foundation, covering the essentials of setting up your first campaigns, understanding basic functionalities, and grasping the fundamental strategies for successful advertising.

1. A Google Ads Tutorial for Beginners (Spyfu)

Written by the search marketing software company Spyfu, this seven-step tutorial is the perfect introduction to Google Ads. 

The guide includes everything from choosing relevant keywords, writing strong ad copy, adjusting your default settings, navigating the Google Ads interface and finding your ad data using your Google Analytics account, advanced features like dynamic search ads and responsive search ads, and much more. 

At the end of the guide, you'll find Google Ads templates to fast-track your search campaign setup in the Google Ads Editor.

2. Google Ads Guide for Beginners (AdEspresso)

This Google Ads guide from AdEspresso is split into 11 in-depth chapters and covers everything you need to start advertising on the platform.

The guide includes the basics, such as getting your Google Ads account set up properly, keyword research, and bidding optimization. What separates it from other guides is that they help you understand what to do after your new Google Ads are up and running, including Google Ads reporting and account maintenance.

With so much detail in each chapter, this is a resource you can keep coming back to.

3. Google Ads Basics: A Guide To Setting Up Your First Google Ads Campaign (Unbounce)

Unbounce is the leading authority on conversion rate optimization. They consistently write content that explains complex ideas in simple terms, and their Noob Guide to PPC is no different. 

The guide covers the absolute essentials, from ad types (including video ads for YouTube videos) and campaign setup (e.g., connecting an ad and landing page) to keyword targeting and Google ad rank. It’s perfect if you have an agency team member just getting started and looking for help setting up their first small campaign.

4. The Beginner’s Guide to Using Negative Keywords (Neil Patel)

PPC consultants spend a large part of their careers searching for the ideal keywords to target—those that lead to the most clicks and conversions. However, fewer devote as much time and energy to building a negative keyword list despite the crucial role that negative keywords play in maximizing the ROI of Google Ads campaigns.

Negative keywords are equally important to the success of any PPC marketing campaign, and this tutorial explains how to identify and use negative keywords effectively.

Author Igor Belogolovsky points out that building a negative keyword list is more than omitting keywords like "free," "torrent," or adult-related search terms. While that aspect is important, it's also about identifying "blind-side" keywords that may drive up conversion costs—i.e., keywords you would not expect to show up for search results unrelated to your brand.

This negative keyword tutorial is simple, straightforward, and a quick read for anyone looking to optimize their keyword lists.

5. How To Use Google AdWords [Infographic] (WordStream)

Many of the other guides in this list are extremely detailed, but if you're looking for a quick Google AdWords tutorial overview, check out this infographic from WordStream.

Of course, the infographic just gives a high-level overview of getting started with Google Ads, but it also provides additional resources for each step of the journey.

Intermediate-Level Google Ads Tutorials

Intermediate tutorials are a great way for agency team members who are more comfortable with the basics of Google Ads to expand their skills. These guides delve into more specific techniques and tools to enhance agency campaigns. 

These resources are designed to refine your strategies and improve campaign performance, from writing compelling ad copy to optimizing client landing pages. They’re perfect for those who have mastered the basics and are ready to take their Google Ads proficiency to the next level.

6. The Ultimate Guide To Google Ads (HubSpot)

The HubSpot blog contains useful sales and marketing resources; this Google Ads guide is no exception. The guide teaches all the PPC terms your team needs to know, how to set up an active Google Ads account, and useful bidding strategies to optimize client campaigns.

7. How To Write The Best Google Ads Copy (Unbounce)

Unbounce has created this useful tutorial for writing PPC ad copy to improve click-through rates (CTR). The biggest takeaway here is, not surprisingly, to write like a human speaking to other humans. Focus on the target audience's end needs, wants, and outcomes.

Speak their language, get personal in the ad copy, and explain what your client does for their customers.

8. Ad Writing 101: Writing Headlines (White Shark Media)

Without a doubt, the most important part of PPC text ad copy is the headline. It's the largest part of the ad, the part we see first, and what triggers an emotional reaction. In this tutorial for writing PPC headlines that convert, PPC expert Andrew Lolk at White Shark Media takes a deep dive into the art and science of writing amazing ad copy.

The guide then outlines eight common pitfalls to avoid when writing ad copy that converts, including tips for saving space and which words to use to build customer trust.

But, without a doubt, the biggest takeaway from this guide is that writing effective headlines is about much more than throwing your main keyword in the headline and hoping for the best. As Andrew points out, the best headlines on multiple ads today omit the keyword entirely. So next time you're writing ad headlines, test a few sans-keywords.

9. The Most Entertaining Guide To Landing Page Optimization You'll Ever Read (Moz)

This "Entertaining" Guide to building and optimizing landing pages was written by Oli Gardner, the founder of Unbounce and leading PPC expert.

This tutorial takes a more light-hearted approach. It covers many of the same ideas as the PPC Landing Page eBook, sprinkling in various fun examples and light-hearted memes. This laid-back writing style makes it easier to absorb material and new information.

10. The Ultimate Guide to PPC Landing Pages (Unbounce)

Oli Gardner and the Unbounce team continue to unleash their PPC knowledge with this epic 50-page eBook for building the ultimate PPC landing pages. This is Unbounce's bread and butter—building better landing pages for PPC marketers—and it's worth the read.

The ebook covers everything from user intent and attention ratio (the number of pages dedicated to converting the visitor) to optimizing mobile landing pages.

For example, the guide explains the difference between responsive design and dedicated mobile landing pages and when to use each. Once again, Unbounce distills complex concepts in the PPC marketing space into a clear, concise tutorial.

11. A 14-Point Checklist for Designing a PPC Landing Page (Search Engine Watch)

This incredible PPC tutorial covers every detail for building PPC landing pages. The author, Graham Charlton, is a long-time authority in digital advertising and the pay-per-click space, so, unsurprisingly, this article is very detailed.

The checklist overlaps with Unbounce guides in many areas but stands out in others. Namely, it provides a high-level view of the different types of landing pages and when to use them. Graham also shares a few points for capturing visitors who don't convert but may convert later in some other way.

Overall, this sequential checklist summarizes the essential steps to build PPC landing pages and is worth a read!

12. How To Harness Google Ads Scripts To Keep Your Account In Tip-Top Shape (Search Scientists)

Using scripts for Google Ads is certainly more advanced and will take some time to learn, but with the time you can save automating tasks, it's usually worth a try. In this guide on Google Ads scripts, the author explains why you should use them and how to set them up with an eight-step process.

Pro-Level Google Ads Tutorials

For advanced Google Ads users, pro-level tutorials offer deep dives into complex strategies and advanced features of Google Ads. These guides address high-level optimization techniques, intricate account structuring, and sophisticated tools like remarketing and ad extensions. 

If your agency wants to leverage Google Ads at an expert level, these tutorials provide the detailed insights needed to master the platform and maximize client returns.

13. The Ultimate Agency Guide To Google Ads Optimization (AgencyAnalytics)

You can't afford to waste your client’s Google Ads budget, so checking every piece of the advertising puzzle is important.

Created by AgencyAnalytics' in-house experts, this Google Ads Optimization Checklist covers everything from targeting options (age range/gender) to dayparting periods or time zones used by users.

Plus, there's a free downloadable PDF version to stash as a handy reference guide as you create Google Ads.

14. 6 Steps To Building a Brilliant Paid Search Account Structure (WordStream)

The folks at WordStream are trusted experts in pay-per-click advertising. Yet despite their extensive expertise, they explain technical concepts in a way that is generally accessible and easy to absorb. Such is the case with their guide, 6 Steps To Building a Brilliant Paid Search Account Structure.

Laid out sequentially, each step covers a defense aspect of the campaign structure. As they point out, chief among these is doing your due diligence in the two phases before the campaign even starts: planning and keyword research.

For many PPC consultants, including (and perhaps, specifically) the veterans, there is a temptation to rush through the planning and keyword research phases. The fact is that these do not scale well—every campaign is different and will be structured differently.

Website structure, products and services, and location targeting all play a part in the PPC campaign structure and should be considered to help the campaign succeed over time.

15. How To Do Keyword Research the Smart Way: Targeting Interest and Intent (Neil Patel)

If you've been anywhere near the pay-per-click advertising industry in the past 15 years, then you probably feel like the keyword search topic has been beaten to death by now. However, the fact is that smart advertisers know that success comes from the fundamentals, and nothing is more essential to PPC than effective keyword selection.

In this keyword research PPC tutorial, veteran marketer Beth Morgan shows us how to truly identify the types of keywords that will convert Google searchers into buyers. The right target keywords are an exact match to the interest and intent of a searcher when they are at a particular stage of the buying cycle.

According to Beth, rather than putting keywords into ad groups based on their grammatical similarities (the 'traditional' way of doing keyword research), we should ad group them according to their likelihood of converting. In doing so, we can allocate more of the daily budget to the keywords with the highest ROI.

16. PPC Keyword Research Guide: How To Find the Words for Your Paid Search Campaigns (WordStream)

This keyword research tutorial offers a value bomb tip that almost every PPC consultant I know completely overlooks. It's quite simple: put yourself in the customer's shoes.

So often, we set out to create the perfect Google Ads campaign with the perfect keywords (as if such ad campaigns were even possible) without asking the customer about their needs. "Me! Me! Me!" is the default way our minds work, so we must take a step back and remember why we're doing paid advertising campaigns in the first place: Deliver an amazing experience to another human being through the advertised product or service.

17. The Ultimate Guide To Google AdWords Ad Extensions (WordStream)

This eBook from Wordstream contains everything you could possibly want to know about Ad Extensions—seriously, everything. 

The eBook is divided into six sections, one for each of the different extension types: Location Extensions, Product Extensions, Sitelinks, Call Extensions, Communication Extensions, and Offer Extensions.

Google constantly releases new extensions, a tool that most PPC marketers don't understand or use well. This guide clears the confusion, giving use cases and examples with visuals for each extension type. Save and bookmark this PPC Ad extension guide—it's a resource worth coming back to.

18. Ultimate Guide To Google Ads Remarketing (PPC Hero)

Remarketing, through both Google Search Network and the Google Display Network, is perhaps the most powerful and effective marketing tool on the web today. Yet many PPC marketers don't know exactly what remarketing campaigns are or how to use them properly.

In Google's words, "Remarketing lets you show ads to people who have visited your website or used your mobile app. When people leave your website without buying anything, remarketing helps you reconnect with them by showing relevant ads as they browse the web, use mobile apps, or search on Google."

This in-depth tutorial from PPC Hero explains Google Ads remarketing, covering everything from list building, member duration windows, custom combinations, and the interaction of all three.

There's a lot of information here, so it's best to move through it at your own pace. Remarketing can take some time to set up, but once it's up and running, it's a powerful tool in any PPC marketer's arsenal.

Additional Learning & Tools

This section features tutorials that provide additional insights and tools to support your Google Ads journey. 

Whether you're looking for free tools to enhance client campaigns, ways to automate reporting, or just some extra tips and tricks, these resources offer valuable add-ons to help you manage and optimize your clients’ advertising efforts more effectively.

19. 7 Totally Underrated Free Google Ads Tools (WordStream)

Mastering Google search ads takes a lot of work. Luckily, many tools are available to help make your life easier. With these seven free tools for Google Ads, you don't need to break the bank to get the most out of your online advertising.

20. Google Ads Support Center (Google)

The Google Ads support center is another excellent resource for any and every PPC consultant, from beginner to expert. But it wasn't always this way—the support was outdated and sporadically updated for a long time. Times have changed, though, and Google regularly updates the tutorials as the platform evolves.

The best thing about the Google Ads support guides is that many tutorials are in video format. If you're a visual learner, these videos are an excellent resource. They explain detailed PPC concepts and best practices with simple, short cartoons. Given that Google is one of the major PPC platforms (and the world's largest search engine), it's worth visiting the support site to stay up-to-date on the latest happenings with the platform.

21. How To Use Google Keyword Planner (Backlinko)

Google Keyword Planner (formerly Google Keyword Tool) is a free tool. In this incredibly detailed guide from Backlinko, Brian Dean shows you exactly how to get started and an interesting GKP "hack" you've probably never heard of.

22. Get Started With Google Ads Scripts (Google)

To conclude this article, we've got another resource from Google Ads on getting started with scripts. After you've checked out this Getting Started guide, check out their other articles on scripting concepts and Google Ads features to become a true expert on the platform.

Further Resources

If you want to learn more, check out these other resources from AgencyAnalytics:

• The Only SEO Tutorials You Need

• Google Ads Report Template

• Google Ads Dashboard

• SEM Report Template

• PPC Dashboard Template

• PPC Report Template

• Digital Marketing Report Template