I Just Released my first Google Ads course in years.

I've been doing PPC for 16 years.

Sixteen years of Google Ads. Sixteen years of shopping feed attributes and match types and ROAS targets and explaining to brand operators why their campaigns are doing exactly what they asked them to do, just not what they actually wanted. Sixteen years of watching smart, capable business owners either waste money because they didn't know what they were doing, or waste time trying to learn everything when they only needed to learn the right things.

At some point, you accumulate enough of that experience that you either keep it to yourself or you share it. I've always been a sharer. It's half why I started writing and speaking about PPC in the first place. So today, I'm sharing something I've been building for a while, and I want to tell you honestly what it is, who it's for, and why I think it's different from every other Google Ads course you've seen.

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What I Built (and Why)

The course is called From Strategy to Execution: The First Google Ads Course Built for the Busy DTC Operator

It's 31 video lessons across 5 modules, covering everything from the strategic foundations most courses skip entirely, to the exact campaign playbook my agency MAKROZ uses for paying ecommerce clients.

But here's what I want to be clear about upfront: this is a course for DTC brand operators, and people building brands in-house... people running real businesses who need Google Ads to work without becoming a full-time PPC nerd.

The philosophy behind the course is something I've called "minimum viable complexity for maximum profit." You don't need to know every button. You need to know the right buttons. You need to understand why you're doing what you're doing... so that when Google changes the UI (again), or when something isn't working, you can think your way through it rather than just following a checklist someone else made.

That's what I tried to build.

Satisfaction Guarantee - And hey, if you don't get value from the course that you put in, then I don't want your money... that's right, I have a standing "Money back guarantee" that I'm willing to offer to anyone who takes the course and doesn't find enough value in it to warrant the cost they paid. There's risk in that for sure. But that just shows how much I put into this, my heart and soul and knowledge... and I'm confident it will prove beneficial to you.

The Reason I Made This

I run ZATO, a Google Ads agency, and MAKROZ, our SMB-focused arm for smaller budgets. And here's something I tell potential clients fairly regularly: hiring an agency when you're just getting started isn't always the right move.

I know. An agency owner telling you not to hire an agency. But I mean it.

If you don't understand the basics of what you're asking someone to do in your account, you can't evaluate whether they're doing it well. You can't hold them accountable. You're flying blind and trusting that whoever you hired actually knows what they're doing and has your best interests at heart (which, in the agency world, is not a guarantee I'd stake my business on without doing some homework first).

So the goal of this course is exactly that: give you enough knowledge to run Google Ads yourself in the early stages, and (critically) give you enough knowledge to be a smart client if and when you do eventually hire someone. You'll know what questions to ask. You'll know what good looks like. You'll know when you're being sold something that sounds sophisticated but is actually just burning your budget.

What's In It

Here's the breakdown across 5 modules:

Module 1 - Strategy & Philosophy (7 lessons)The foundation most courses skip entirely. Demand capture vs. demand generation. How to use Keyword Planner before spending a dollar. The North Star metric (MER vs. ROAS vs. POAS). The Pre-Click/Click/Post-Click framework. And an honest look at whether Google Ads is even the right channel for you right now — because sometimes it isn't, and I'd rather tell you that upfront.

Module 2 - Account Setup & Infrastructure (5 lessons)Getting the train on the right tracks from day one. Account settings, conversion tracking, Google Merchant Center basics, campaign types, and attribution. The setup stuff that seems boring but determines everything that comes after.

Module 3 - Product Feed & Merchant Center Mastery (4 lessons)Your feed is either garbage or gold — and most brands treat it like garbage without realizing it. This module covers how to get your products into Merchant Center correctly, the one attribute you should almost never change (and why), deep attribute optimization for titles, images, and Product Type, and how to use custom labels strategically.

Module 4 - The MAKROZ Ecommerce Campaign Playbook (5 lessons)The exact four-campaign structure we typically build for our MAKROZ SMB ecommerce clients to start with. Not theory - the actual playbook, with real client account examples. Including how to build RSAs, when to use broad vs. exact match, and how to structure your Shopping campaigns for maximum control.

Module 5 - Ongoing Optimization (2 lessons)A repeatable optimization cadence  (daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly) designed for business owners, not full-time media buyers. Including the Search Terms report as a business diagnostic tool, ROAS adjustment best practices, and how to use your campaign data to make smarter business decisions.

One Week Only: 40% Off

To celebrate the launch, I'm running a one-week-only discount for anyone who enrolls before April 7th.

Use code START40 at checkout to get 40% off.

This is the only time I'm planning to run a discount at this level. If you've been on the fence, this week is the time.

👉 Start Learning Now — Use Code START40 for 40% Off

The code expires April 8th. After that, it's back up to the regular price.

A Few Straight-Shooting Notes Before You Enroll

This course is not for everyone. If you're an experienced media buyer or agency person, you'll probably find a lot of this foundational. It's built for operators, not practitioners.

The campaign playbook is opinionated. I'm sharing what we actually do for paying clients, not a comprehensive survey of every possible approach. There are other ways to structure Google Ads accounts, I'm showing you the way we've found works for SMB ecommerce brands.

The course will grow. Bonus lectures will be added over time as Google Ads continues to evolve. Subscribers get access to everything as it's released.

The Bottom Line

You don't need to master every button. You need to build a revenue engine.

This course gives you the playbook, the frameworks, and (crucially) a team you can ask questions to as you work through it. It's the closest thing I know of to having a 16-year Google Ads veteran looking over your shoulder as you build your account.

I hope it helps. And I genuinely mean that, because I've spent 16 years caring about this stuff, and I'd like to think that comes through in the course itself.

See you inside.

- Kirk

Use code START40 at checkout for 40% off your first month. Offer expires April 7, 2025.

Enroll Now →

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