Setting your Google Ads campaign structure isn't as complicated as it sounds. You start by picking a campaign type that works with your business's goals. Then you outline settings and a budget. From there, you'll determine your ad groups and assign keywords for each one.
With us so far?
If not, don't worry. We're going to break everything down. We'll start with types of Google Ads campaigns and a brief discussion about which one's right for your business.
Before you start any pay-per-click campaign -- especially a Google Ads Campaign -- you need to know your marketing goals and brand strategy. Depending on what those are, you'll be able to pick the right campaign type.
Below is a list of the campaign types Google offers, along with a brief description of each one.
If you own a local plumbing business, for example, you probably want to start a local campaign. However, if you're the happy owner of a bustling e-commerce site, a search campaign or shopping campaign might be the better option.
Once you have the type of campaign chosen, you're well on your way to building an ideal ad campaign structure. But before we get too far into things, let's define a few critical elements. Understanding these key terms and concepts will make building your ad campaign a breeze!
Now that you understand the basics, let's dig into the details. No two Google Ads campaign structures are exactly the same. However, there are tried-and-true strategies that work best in most situations.
The most popular way to structure your ads campaign is by mimicking your website's structure. However, if you have a chain of retail locations, structuring by geographic position is a better option.
When you set a bid, you tell Google how much you're willing to pay if someone clicks on your ad. Since Google uses an ad auction to decide which ads will appear and when, setting an appropriate bid strategy and budget is vital to an effective ads campaign.
Determining your bid strategy is dependent on your goals. Do you want more clicks? Conversions? Impressions? Google offers Smart Bidding, CPC Bidding, and many other bidding strategies to fit your needs.
Smart bidding is ideal if you're focusing on conversions (i.e. gaining sales or subscribers). CPC (cost-per-click) bidding is best if you want to generate more website traffic overall. If you don't have time to plan a bidding strategy manually, Google's automated bidding strategies also work well.
Set a daily budget by looking at your overall marketing dollars. Decide how much you want to spend on your Google Ads campaign. Is it $10 per day? More? Google lets you set a daily budget you can change at any time.
It's finally time to organize your campaigns and ad groups with keywords. As mentioned, you can group your campaign by targets, creating ad groups. Under each ad group is a list of keywords that will trigger your ads to run.
That means keyword research is critical. You can use Google's Keyword Planner to find relevant keywords and ad groups. The planner gives search volume for each keyword you type in, so you can ensure you're targeting keywords that have actual traffic behind them.
When choosing keywords, you can also set keyword match types. All that means is that you can determine how exact the search term needs to be to trigger your ad.
A broad match setting means your ad could show on any related keywords. For example, if your keyword is strawberry, your ad may also run for the search term berries. Alternatively, an exact match setting means your ad will only show when the user's search query matches your keyword exactly.
In general, you want to avoid using branded keywords in your ad groups. Those are keywords that include your company name. That's not to say branded keywords aren't valuable. You can use them to find your competition and to learn how your audience perceives your brand, but you probably don't want to run ads on them.
Once you have your Google Ads Campaign Structure set, it's a matter of tracking and revising your strategy. You can use Google Analytics to track your ad campaign's success. You can also utilize Google's ad quality score to see how you compare to your competition.
No campaign is perfect from the start; make changes and adjustments until you reach your marketing goals. Remember, your Google Ads campaign structure is changeable, and you don't have to settle on one particular way until you've found what works for your business.
If you want better results with your Google Ads, set up your free ads review today!