Google Ads Campaign Optimisation Training Course

Course overview

Google Ads accounts often accumulate inefficient search terms, overlapping campaigns, weak conversion signals and automated bidding settings that are not supported by reliable data. Marketing professionals are expected to improve qualified lead volume, revenue or return on ad spend while explaining performance changes to senior stakeholders. This course addresses the operational work behind those outcomes: diagnosing wasted spend, prioritising optimisation actions, protecting brand and compliance requirements, and building a repeatable process for improving account performance rather than making isolated bid changes.

Participants work through Google Ads campaign optimisation across Search, Performance Max, Display and remarketing activity. They learn to audit account structure, assess conversion tracking quality, analyse search term and auction insights reports, refine keyword and audience strategies, improve ad assets and landing-page alignment, and select bidding approaches based on business objectives and data maturity. The course also covers budget allocation, experiments, attribution considerations, automated rules, optimisation scoring limitations, and performance reporting using Google Analytics 4 and Looker Studio.

Delivery combines instructor-led demonstrations with guided work in realistic account scenarios and optimisation workshops. Participants use structured audit templates, performance data and campaign reports to make and justify changes. By the end of the week, each participant produces a Google Ads Campaign Optimisation Plan containing a prioritised issue log, KPI framework, campaign recommendations, testing roadmap, budget actions and reporting requirements that can be adapted for their own account.

The course is designed for professionals already responsible for paid search or paid media performance, as well as managers who need a disciplined method for reviewing agency or in-house Google Ads activity. It is particularly valuable where spend has grown faster than governance, measurement or optimisation capability.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Audit a Google Ads account using a structured checklist covering settings, structure, targeting, assets, budgets and conversion actions
• Diagnose wasted spend through search term reports, negative keyword analysis, placement exclusions and geo-device performance segments
• Configure a KPI and conversion measurement framework linking Google Ads actions to leads, sales, revenue or qualified pipeline
• Select and justify Smart Bidding strategies using conversion volume, value data, targets and learning-period constraints
• Build keyword, audience and campaign segmentation plans that prevent overlap and improve budget control
• Create an ad asset and landing-page relevance improvement plan using Quality Score components and message matching
• Design statistically credible Google Ads experiments for bidding, creative, targeting and campaign-structure changes
• Produce a prioritised 90-day Google Ads Campaign Optimisation Plan with owners, expected impact, risks and reporting measures

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• PPC Specialists — who manage Google Ads campaigns and need a repeatable optimisation method beyond routine bid adjustments
• Digital Marketing Managers — who oversee paid media budgets, channel performance and agency or in-house delivery
• Performance Marketing Executives — who need to connect campaign changes to conversion quality, revenue and return on ad spend
• Paid Search Account Managers — who must present evidence-based optimisation recommendations to clients or internal stakeholders
• E-commerce Managers — who rely on Google Ads to improve product visibility, transaction value and profitable customer acquisition
• Marketing Analysts — who interpret Google Ads and GA4 data to identify actionable performance improvements

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience navigating Google Ads and understand the basic concepts of campaigns, ad groups, keywords, match types, ads, budgets, impressions, clicks, conversions and cost per acquisition. They should be comfortable working with spreadsheets and interpreting core performance metrics such as CTR, CPC, conversion rate and ROAS. Access to a live account is helpful but not essential; training scenarios and sample data are provided. This is not a beginner setup course: prior account creation, billing configuration and basic campaign-launch knowledge are assumed. No coding, advanced statistics or prior GA4 implementation experience is required.

Training methodology

The five-day programme uses short instructor-led explanations followed by guided analysis in Google Ads-style account scenarios. Participants work with campaign exports, search term reports, auction insights, GA4 conversion data and budget-performance tables to diagnose issues and recommend actions. Workshops include bid-strategy selection, negative keyword development, asset review, experiment design and dashboard specification. Small-group account reviews require participants to defend prioritisation decisions against commercial objectives and data constraints. The final day is an application-planning workshop in which each participant assembles and presents a 90-day Google Ads Campaign Optimisation Plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Account diagnosis and measurement foundations

• Google Ads account architecture and optimisation hierarchy
• Business objectives, media KPIs and leading versus lagging indicators
• Conversion action audit: primary, secondary, enhanced and imported conversions
• Google Analytics 4 and Google Ads conversion-data alignment
• Campaign settings review: networks, locations, languages and ad schedules
• Account-level governance: naming conventions, labels, change history and access controls
• Optimisation prioritisation using impact, confidence and effort scoring

Workshop: Participants complete an account health audit from a campaign data pack and produce a ranked issue log with evidence for each finding.

Day 2: Search campaign efficiency and relevance

• Keyword intent mapping and match-type portfolio design
• Search terms report analysis for query mining and waste identification
• Negative keyword lists, shared exclusions and conflict prevention
• Quality Score diagnostics: expected CTR, ad relevance and landing-page experience
• Responsive Search Ad asset evaluation and pinning decisions
• Landing-page message matching and conversion-friction analysis
• Auction Insights interpretation for competitor and impression-share decisions

Workshop: Participants optimise a declining Search campaign by producing a keyword action sheet, negative keyword list and revised responsive search ad assets.

Day 3: Bidding, budgets and value-based optimisation

• Smart Bidding strategy selection: Maximise Conversions, tCPA, Maximise Conversion Value and tROAS
• Conversion volume thresholds, learning periods and bid-strategy diagnostics
• Value rules, conversion values and profit-aware optimisation principles
• Budget pacing, limited-by-budget analysis and marginal return assessment
• Device, location, audience and time-of-day performance segmentation
• Portfolio bid strategies and campaign grouping decisions
• Automated rules and alerts for budget, spend and conversion anomalies

Workshop: Participants allocate a fixed monthly budget across campaigns and recommend bid-strategy changes using conversion volume, value and marginal-return data.

Day 4: Audience, Performance Max and controlled testing

• First-party data activation with Customer Match and GA4 audiences
• Remarketing audience design, membership duration and exclusion logic
• Performance Max asset groups, audience signals and listing-group controls
• Performance Max insights reports and channel-level diagnostic limitations
• Display placement reports, content exclusions and brand suitability settings
• Google Ads Experiments setup for campaign, bidding and creative tests
• Test hypotheses, success metrics and practical statistical significance

Workshop: Participants design a controlled experiment for a Performance Max or Search campaign, including hypothesis, treatment, control, duration, guardrails and decision rule.

Day 5: Reporting, governance and optimisation planning

• Attribution models, conversion windows and interpretation limits
• Google Ads reporting segments, custom columns and saved report structures
• Looker Studio dashboard design for executive and operational audiences
• Weekly, monthly and quarterly optimisation cadences
• Agency and in-house performance review questions
• Change documentation, approval controls and optimisation risk management
• Ninety-day optimisation roadmap development and stakeholder presentation

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a 90-day Google Ads Campaign Optimisation Plan containing priorities, test backlog, budget actions, owners, KPI targets and reporting requirements.

Tools & standards covered

Google Ads, Google Analytics 4, Google Tag Manager, Looker Studio

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions