How do I actually prepare my iPads before using Apple Configurator?

I had a (hopefully) simple question. I'm trying to deploy a large number of iPads. I've got a whole bunch of brand new iPads set up here, but I'm not sure what, if anything, I have to do to them before I start using them with Apple Configurator.

Each iPad will have some configuration profiles, and one free app from the app store. So far, I've set up one iPad, I made a new Apple ID so I could distribute the free application, then I set it all up the way I'd like the rest to be set up, and I made a backup of it using Configurator.

I then took another brand new iPad, plugged it in (I didn't run through the intial iPad setup), and then restored the backup from the first one to it. I got an error that said "Apple ID not authorized." I tried the backup again without installing the free application, and it went smoothly.

This begs the question, for every single iPad that I want to set up, do I need to run through that initial setup (country, language, enable location services) and type in the Apple ID?