Campaigns
Campaigns are the largest container within an Ads account. Learn what settings are set at the campaign level here.
Ad Groups
The Ad Group is where we decide intent on a specific ad/landing page. Campaigns contain ad groups and ad groups contain keywords and ads. The keywords within an ad group trigger the ads within the same ad group. Because of this, it is very important to match the intent of the keyword with the ad/landing page. If you are targeting the keyword “running shoes”, the ad should contain the phrase “running shoes” and should point to a landing page selling running shoes. If someone searched for running shoes and saw an ad that promoted dancing shoes, they wouldn’t click.
Other than adding the keywords and ads, you can also set a max. CPC for the keywords within the ad group. The max. CPC for the individual keywords will supersede the ad group’s, but if a keyword doesn’t have a specified max. CPC, it will default to the ad group max. CPC. Please note, you can only set keyword-level max. CPC if you are using manual bidding. If you are using an automated bidding strategy, only “Maximize Clicks” will allow you to set a max. CPC (and only at the campaign level).
You can also set Ad rotation specific to an ad group in its settings. This can be useful if you are testing multiple ads within just one ad group and want to try a different ad rotation than the campaign.
Best Practices:
- The best range for number of keywords within an ad group is 3-10
- If you are going to use the “Optimize: Prefer best performing ads” setting, then you should have 3 ads per ad group.
- If you are going to set to “Do not optimize: Rotate ads indefinitely” you must keep an eye on the ads and pause the clear loser when enough data has come in.
- It’s best to set max. CPC at the keyword level (if using manual bidding)
- The less variation in keywords within an ad group the better.
Keywords
Keywords are how you show the correct ads to the right people. When someone types a query in the search bar, they are showing their intent. As digital marketers, it’s our job to match our client’s service to those showing the right intent. This is how we should approach keyword research. Keyword research is using tools such as Keyword Planner to find what people are searching for that match the services of the client.
As previously stated it is important to keep the theme of the keywords within an ad group the same. If the theme is running shoes, make sure all the keywords match that idea. If there are a lot of keywords, say 40, that match the theme of an ad group, consider breaking up the ad group. If the original theme is running shoes, but through keyword research you find 40 keywords having to do with running shoes, then you can break up the ad group into marathon running shoes, and track and field running shoes. It’s important to keep in mind the services of the client. If the client sells marathon running shoes but not track and field running shoes, obviously you should only have a marathon running shoes ad group.
The two main things that can be set at the keyword level are max. CPC and keywords match type. We’ve already discussed max.CPC, so we’ll move on to match type. There are five match types within AdWords: negative, exact, phrase, modified broad, and broad. Learn about keyword matching option.