If you’ve got a blog, website, or other kind of online content property, you’ve probably thought about monetizing it with ads. And yeah, Google AdSense is great for newbies, but Google Ad Manager gives you so much more flexibility and potential to scale your ad revenue upwards. It can look completely intimidating to set up at first.
Don’t worry — I’ve got you! In this article, I’ll walk you through how to set up Google Ad Manager, step-by-step, without all the confusing tech lingo. Let’s get started!
Step 1: Sign Up for Google Ad Manager
First of all, go to admanager.google.com and log in using your Google account (preferably the one connected to your site).
Here’s what you do:
- Enter your company/site name
- Choose your time zone and currency(Tip: You cannot change these afterward!)
- Click on “I accept,” add in your information, and await authorization (about one or two days)
Step 2: Understand the Dashboard
Once logged in, you will find yourself in the Google Ad Manager dashboard. It can feel a little disorienting at first — do not worry!
These are the key sections that you’ll access most frequently:
- Inventory – where you create ad units (i.e. ad spaces on your website)
- Orders – where you set up your ad campaigns
- Line Items – the small little things of each campaign
- Creatives – the ads that appear
- Reports – all of your performance data in one place
- Take a few minutes to play around and get familiar!
Step 3: Create Your First Ad Unit
Time to construct the space where your ad appears!
- Go to Inventory > Ad Units
- Click New Ad Unit
- Enter the information:
- Name (e.g. “Sidebar Ad”)
- Ad sizes (like 300×250 or 728×90 — you can include more than one)
- Optional: targeting settings (like mobile only, etc.)
- Click Save
- You’ll have a code snippet (ad tag) — bookmark that. You’ll use it in the next step.
Step 4: Add the Ad Tag to Your Website
- Now that you’ve got your ad tag, it’s time to place it on your site.
- If you’re on WordPress, you can add it through a widget, plugin (like Ad Inserter), or manually into your theme.
- If you’re on a custom site, simply copy it and paste it into your site’s HTML where you’d like the ad to appear.
Step 5: Set up an Order + Line Items
We are finally arriving at where you tell Google which ads to show and how to show them.
- Go to Delivery > Orders
- Click on New Order
- Add a name and advertiser (you can simply use your own name if it’s self-serve)
- Create a line item and fill in:
- Ad type (Standard, Sponsorship, etc.)
- Start and end dates
- Targeting (e.g. show only on specific pages or devices)
- Impressions or clicks objective
- Upload your creative (your actual ad image or HTML)
Step 6: Test and Preview Your Ads
Once everything’s set up, test the ads to make sure they’re showing up as expected. You can use Google’s tools to test impressions and debug if needed.
Step 7: (Optional) AdSense or Ad Exchange Link
Not handling advertisers yet? Don’t panic!
You can still make money off your ad space using Google’s own ads:
AdSense – easy and fine for smaller publishers
Ad Exchange (AdX) – more advanced and approval-needed
Simply go to Admin > Linked Accounts and connect your already established accounts.
Step 8: Monitor & Optimize
Once ads are live, check in periodically under the Reports tab to see:
How many clicks and impressions you’re getting
Which ad units are performing best
What’s bringing in the most money
From there, you can tweak your ad placements, test new sizes, or tweak your targeting to boost results.
Final Thoughts
It does take a little time to get Google Ad Manager set up, but once it’s live, it gives you so much more flexibility and control over your ads compared to AdSense alone.
Whether you’re doing direct advertisers or you just want programmatic ads to perform better, this tool is completely worth learning.