A Google Ads account has three layers. The account holds campaigns, campaigns hold ad groups, and ad groups hold keywords and the ads written for them. The ad group is where relevance is won or lost, because every keyword inside it has to be answered by the same handful of ads.
Briefly explained
- One theme of keywords, plus the ads that answer them.
- Campaigns hold budget and targeting. Ad groups hold relevance.
- Tight groups let one ad speak to every keyword in it.
- Both extremes fail: one group for everything, or one group per keyword.
What belongs in one?
Keywords that a single ad can answer without stretching. If you would write different headlines for two keywords, they belong in different groups.
A useful test: read your ad, then read each keyword in the group. If any of them makes the ad sound vague or beside the point, it is in the wrong place.
Why does tightness lower the cost?
Because position is decided by bid and relevance together. When one group holds three unrelated services, no ad can speak to all three, click-through rate falls, and the account pays more for worse positions. See Quality Score.
Tight groups also give you three things that have nothing to do with price:
- Ads that repeat the searcher’s own words
- A landing page per theme, about that exact job
- Numbers per service, so you can see which work the budget is buying
How does structure usually go wrong?
The same two mistakes turn up in most accounts.
- The single-group account. Everything in one bucket, one generic ad, one home page. It is quick to build and it quietly overpays on every click.
- Over-splitting. Dozens of one-keyword groups, none with enough data for anyone, including Google’s bidding, to learn from.
Group them the way you sell the work, one theme at a time.
What do the terms mean?
- Campaign: The level that controls spending, targeting and timing.
- Responsive search ad: The default ad format, where you supply headlines and descriptions and Google assembles combinations.
- Final URL: The page the ad sends people to.
- Theme: The single idea an ad group covers.
- Match type: How loosely each keyword in the group may be interpreted.
Owner questions
