How do you structure your PPC account for optimal performance?

1. Campaign Segmentation: Divide campaigns by product/service type or geographic location for targeted management. 2. Ad Group Organization: Group keywords with similar themes to create tightly themed ad groups. 3. Keyword Research: Use tools to find relevant keywords with high search volume and low competition. 4. Ad Copy Optimization: Write compelling ads with clear calls-to-action (CTAs) tailored to each ad group. 5. Bid Management: Adjust bids based on keyword performance, aiming for a balance between cost and conversions. 6. Conversion Tracking: Implement tracking to measure the effectiveness of campaigns and optimize accordingly.

Your account should be structured so that you can easily determine what needs to be improved based on your goals. If the goal is 25 Leads/month, and you're not driving enough Leads, you should look at your Conversion Rate and Clicks. If Conversion Rate is in line but Clicks are low - is this due to low CTR, high CPC, or low budget? If it's due to low CTR, is this due to low Ad Rank, irrelevant search terms, or ad copy? If it's due to low Ad Rank, is this due to low Quality Score or low bids? Suppose your account isn't structured to quickly identify these bottlenecks. In that case, it will take much more time, effort, and resources to identify and resolve issues within your campaign, let alone issues within the business or product.

When setting up your PPC campaigns, start by thinking about what your business is really good at and what your customers are looking for. Use this to organise your campaigns. You might group them by different steps in the customer journey or by the special things each product offers. Test different ad messages to see which ones people like best. Remember, it's not just about keywords; a good message that speaks directly to your audience can make them more likely to click. Keep checking how your ads are doing and change things if needed. This way, your PPC account doesn't just stay organised; it keeps getting better and really helps your ads do well.

To start setting up your PPC campaigns, it's a good idea to review historical campaigns or, if you work with multiple clients, consider what campaigns were ran for them. It's a great resource to understand what has worked successfully and provide the baseline for ideas that can carry over the your new campaigns or tailored to align with the goals and objectives.

Knowing your objective and sales/leads aim for the next quarter is essential before making a PPC structure. Once you have these key data points, you can determine the most suitable structure. For instance, consider a saxophone manufacturing company with a $5000 monthly budget. The objective is to gauge the conversion rate and revenue from this initial probe. The minimum ROAS for a successful test would be 600%. As a key player in this process, your role is pivotal. The first step is conducting thorough keyword research, a task that will empower you to craft a robust PPC structure. Here´s what I would do in terms of structure: Search | brand Shopping | standard (negative brand) Search | non-brand ([buy student saxophones])

The account structure can be based on the website structure, e.g. product categories or services. For example, a fashion store may have campaigns for blouses, dresses, pants, etc. As an ad group, the pants campaign would have, for example, jeans, jogging pants, etc. Don't forget to differentiate your campaigns and ad groups accordingly with negative keywords, otherwise the best structure is useless!

Whether tackling campaigns that are evergreen or short-flighted its important to follow the hierarchy but also to make room for any changes or restructuring that may occur down the road. Search is all about testing and learning to find out what performs well and can be included in the strategy. Your structure should help support this kind of environment and be flexible enough to accommodate.

Think of your PPC account like a well-organised filing system. Start with Campaigns, then move down to Ad Groups, and finally, your individual Ads. Each level should serve a specific purpose that ties back to your goals. This makes it easier to manage and ensures your budget is used effectively.

Less is more. In the old days, best practice would be to add 1000s of exact match keywords seperating out misspells, plurals etc. These days, all of that is covered by broad match + smart bidding so it's better to think thematically and categorise with the fewest possible variations to boost algorithmic signals

It's important to be strategic about your keywords and add in terms that are not only relevant to your campaign goal and objective but also have some search volume behind them. Layering in keywords that align with your business but do not have strong volume behind them are likely not going to serve unless there's a change in search behaviour. Leveraging tools like Google Keyword Planner and SEMRush can help you scope out your initial list and give you direction as to which terms have historical volume or future reach.

Keywords are the backbone of your PPC campaigns. Do thorough research to find the terms your audience is searching for, and group them into tightly themed ad groups. This keeps your ads relevant, which can improve your Quality Score and lower costs. Use negative keywords to filter out irrelevant traffic.

It's quite common to see the location/regional approach to PPC which works especially well for the retail, restaurant and travel verticals. Similarly, Google have improved their audience targeting capabilities quite a lot recently which make it easy to segment by age range, gender, affinity interest or in-market behaviour

Layering in different audience segments can give Google a lot to work with in terms of targeting for your campaign. It also provides the opportunity for testing new audiences to see what performs better. The use of audiences is also becoming more important with cookie deprecation increasing the need for Customer Match and 1st party data lists to continue to target qualified audiences. New products, like Performance Max, also prove there's an increased need for audiences given its lack of keyword targeting.

Not all customers are the same, so your ads shouldn’t be either. Segment your audience based on data, demographics, and behaviour. Tailor your messaging to each group to increase relevance and impact. For example, new customers might see a different ad than returning ones.

Testing and optimizing are two of the most fundamental pillars in paid search marketing. Investigating ways to improve keywords, ads, bids, landing pages, etc. can help your campaign performance and inform better insights that you can share with clients. It's important that when considering testing and learning to create a project roadmap or plan as to when these tests will occur to avoid too much simultaneous testing which can impact results. Consider the timeframe of your campaign and create a list of potential tests that could be done while your campaign is in market.

No PPC account is perfect from the start. Regularly test different ad copy, landing pages, and CTAs to see what works best. Use this data to make informed decisions and keep your campaigns performing well. Stay flexible, what works today might not work tomorrow.