Google Ads: App of the day

There you are, just mindlessly browsing the internet one morning. Suddenly, it's lunchtime, and you've spent half your paycheck on artisan-made, seasonally appropriate cookie cutters—all because you saw a spiffy ad while checking your horoscope.

Chances are, that ad came from Google Ads (formerly Google AdWords), an online advertising platform developed by Google. With Google Ads, you can pay to display brief advertisements, product listings, and more to people surfing the web.

That's a hugely valuable tool if you sell any sort of product or service. And unlike creating a TV ad, ads run through Google Ads are easy to set up. Once you've logged in, just click the + sign in the Campaigns tab, and you'll be ready to set up your first ad campaign.

Google Ads will guide you through selecting a goal for your ad. Do you want to boost website traffic, sales, leads, brand awareness, or app promotion? From there, you're able to choose from Google ads types like search network ads (which appear in search results), display ads (which show up on Google partner sites), video ads (which appear before and during YouTube videos), or shopping campaigns (which advertise specific products). It's also easy to pick your campaign settings, like start and end date and targeted audiences—and, of course, budget. Budgets cap out monthly, though your daily ad spend may differ day-to-day.

Finally, Google can help you make sure people see your ad by selecting the right keywords. These keywords can vary in price based on how much competition there is for them. And if you don't want to set a bid for each of your keywords manually, you can let Google do it for you to maximize your budget.

Advertising isn't just for the pros. Google Ads can't stop you from spending your money on niche trinkets—but it can help other people find what you're selling.

You can automate your ads and conversion with Zapier's Google Ads integrations. Here are a few popular workflows to get you started: