Google Ads Search Campaign Optimisation Training Course

Course overview

Search campaigns can consume substantial budget while producing weak lead quality, inflated cost per acquisition, or little clarity about what actually drives conversion. Marketing professionals need more than the ability to create keywords and ads: they need a repeatable optimisation process that diagnoses performance problems, prioritises changes by commercial impact, and protects account quality. This course focuses on improving active Google Ads Search campaigns using evidence from search terms, auction data, conversion measurement and landing-page behaviour.

Participants learn how to structure Search campaigns around intent, evaluate keyword and match-type performance, build negative-keyword controls, and use ad assets and responsive search ads to improve relevance. They work with Quality Score signals, impression share, bid strategies, budget allocation, audience observation and attribution reporting. The course also covers conversion action design, Google Analytics 4 analysis, Google Tag Manager validation, experiment planning and practical reporting for stakeholders who need to understand spend, pipeline contribution and return on ad spend.

Delivered over five instructor-led days in the classroom or live online, the programme combines guided demonstrations in Google Ads with account-style datasets, optimisation workshops and peer review. Participants leave with a documented Search Campaign Optimisation Plan: a prioritised audit, search-term and negative-keyword actions, bidding recommendations, measurement checks, experiment roadmap and reporting framework that can be adapted to their own account. A certificate is awarded on completion.

The course is designed for practitioners who already work with Google Ads or support paid-search activity and now need to improve results systematically. It is particularly valuable where campaigns generate leads, ecommerce sales or high-value enquiries and performance decisions must be justified to commercial leaders.

Course objectives

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

• Audit Google Ads Search campaign structure, settings and conversion actions against a defined optimisation checklist
• Analyse search term reports to identify waste, query themes and negative-keyword opportunities
• Restructure keyword portfolios using intent groups, match types and shared negative-keyword lists
• Diagnose Quality Score and ad relevance issues using keyword, ad and landing-page evidence
• Build responsive search ad improvement plans using asset performance, pinning and message-to-query alignment
• Select and evaluate Smart Bidding strategies using conversion volume, targets and learning-period requirements
• Configure an optimisation experiment with a hypothesis, success metric, control and decision rule
• Produce a prioritised Search Campaign Optimisation Plan with forecast assumptions, owners and reporting metrics

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Paid Search Specialists — who manage Google Ads accounts and need a rigorous optimisation routine
• Digital Marketing Managers — who oversee acquisition budgets and must improve lead or revenue efficiency
• Performance Marketing Executives — who need to turn campaign data into defensible bidding and budget decisions
• PPC Account Managers — who optimise client Search campaigns and report commercial outcomes
• Ecommerce Marketing Managers — who need to connect Search spend with product-level revenue and margin signals
• Marketing Analysts — who support paid-media reporting and need to interpret Google Ads and GA4 data correctly

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical familiarity with the Google Ads interface and the core components of a Search campaign: campaigns, ad groups, keywords, ads, budgets and basic conversion tracking. They should be able to read standard metrics such as clicks, impressions, click-through rate, cost, conversions and cost per conversion. Experience making campaign changes is helpful, though not essential. Participants need access to a laptop and ideally a Google Ads account or anonymised account data for later application. Advanced statistical modelling, coding, Google Ads certification and prior use of Google Tag Manager or GA4 are not required.

Training methodology

An experienced paid-search instructor leads focused demonstrations in Google Ads, followed by hands-on work with realistic Search campaign data. Participants inspect campaign settings, search terms, keywords, ads, conversion actions and auction metrics, then make and defend optimisation recommendations in small groups. Case studies cover lead-generation and ecommerce scenarios, including poor-quality leads, declining impression share and unstable automated bidding. Each day ends with a practical output that feeds into the final Search Campaign Optimisation Plan, followed by instructor feedback and an individual workplace application plan.

Course outline

Day 1: Diagnosing Search campaign performance

• Google Ads Search auction mechanics and account hierarchy
• Commercial objectives, conversion actions and optimisation guardrails
• Campaign settings audit: networks, locations, languages and schedules
• Core Search metrics: CTR, conversion rate, CPA, ROAS and value per cost
• Segmenting performance by device, location, time and audience
• Impression share, lost impression share and auction insights
• Building a prioritised optimisation backlog from account evidence

Workshop: Participants complete a structured audit of a declining Search account and produce a ranked list of performance issues, evidence and recommended next actions.

Day 2: Controlling queries and keyword intent

• Search term report analysis and query classification
• Broad, phrase and exact match behaviour in current Google Ads
• Keyword intent mapping across research, comparison and purchase stages
• Negative-keyword types, shared lists and conflict checking
• Search campaign and ad group structure for thematic control
• Keyword consolidation and duplicate-traffic diagnosis
• Brand, non-brand and competitor keyword governance

Workshop: Participants classify a search-term dataset, create a negative-keyword list and redesign an ad group structure around high-value intent themes.

Day 3: Improving ads, relevance and landing-page alignment

• Quality Score components and diagnostic limitations
• Responsive search ad asset design and message variation
• Ad strength versus business-relevant ad quality
• Headline and description mapping to keyword intent
• Ad assets: sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, images and lead forms
• Landing-page relevance, message match and conversion-friction checks
• Ad variation tests and RSA asset performance interpretation

Workshop: Participants write and review responsive search ads and assets for a selected intent cluster, producing an ad-to-landing-page relevance matrix.

Day 4: Bidding, budgets and measurement confidence

• Manual CPC, Maximise Conversions, target CPA and target ROAS selection
• Smart Bidding prerequisites, learning periods and data sufficiency
• Budget allocation using marginal performance and impression-share evidence
• Seasonality adjustments, portfolio strategies and bid limits
• Google Ads conversion action settings and primary versus secondary goals
• Google Tag Manager conversion-tag validation and consent considerations
• GA4 acquisition, conversion and attribution reports for Search analysis

Workshop: Participants validate a measurement scenario and build a bidding-and-budget recommendation with assumptions, risks and monitoring thresholds.

Day 5: Experiments, reporting and optimisation governance

• Writing optimisation hypotheses and defining testable interventions
• Google Ads campaign experiments and draft comparison methods
• Sample-size, duration and decision criteria for practical PPC tests
• Attribution models, conversion lag and reporting caveats
• Looker Studio dashboard design for Search performance reviews
• Weekly, monthly and quarterly optimisation cadences
• Stakeholder recommendations, action ownership and change logs

Workshop: Participants assemble and present a Search Campaign Optimisation Plan containing audit findings, priority actions, experiment design, reporting measures and a 90-day implementation schedule.

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