Last Updated on 2021-03-19 by ppcguybklyn
Designing an ad account is one of the basic skills of paid search advertising.A while ago, my ad account audit article mentioned the concept of ad account structure and some basic principles.I want to use this article to introduce in more detail how to design a good advertising account structure and some rules of thumb that should be followed when designing.
What is the account structure and why is it so important?
Account structure is how we categorize keywords, ad copy, and other advertising content. Generally speaking, PPC advertising accounts follow the following hierarchical design:
Campaign> Ad group> Keywords and ad copy
How to effectively set up advertising campaigns according to different goals, and put the keywords and ad copy of the campaigns in the appropriate ad groups is a very important thing when operating an advertising account. If all keywords are placed in the same group and campaign, there will be no way to effectively separate advertising traffic, which will result in a waste of advertising budget. Similarly, a good account structure design can increase the click-through rate of ads and reduce conversion costs.
How to design an efficient account structure
After briefly introducing the basic concepts, we can discuss how to design an efficient account structure. I think the following points should be paid attention to when designing an account structure:
Detailed keyword research is the first step to success
In order to have enough and diverse keywords to put in different campaigns and groups, it is very important to conduct detailed keyword research when starting to design the account structure. Use keyword research tools to know which keywords are most relevant to our products and services and that can bring the most traffic, and to understand the differences between the extended words based on these keywords. Then use the keyword research results to categorize advertising campaigns and groups, so that different ad groups can be used to separate ad traffic from different keywords
Spending a little more time on keyword research can save you a lot of trouble in managing your ad account. Of course, paid search advertising is a process of continuous testing and optimization. After designing the structure, remember to regularly use keyword research to find new opportunities and add them to appropriate advertising campaigns and groups.
Principles to pay attention to at different advertising levels
After completing the keyword research, we can then categorize the keywords found according to different principles. I think we should be paid attention to the following levels:
Campaign level: the same advertising goal or the same product category
Advertising campaigns are the highest level in the account structure. When designing an advertising account, we do not need to set this level too specific. It would be a better practice to first use the advertising goals or the types of advertising products and services to categorize the advertising campaigns, and then subdivide down by ad group level. For example, we can first distinguish between brand search and non-brand search ads at the advertising campaign level, and non-brand search ads can then be set into their own advertising campaigns according to different types of products and services. Assuming that we are advertising a brand that sells shoes and belts today, our advertising campaign can be designed like this:
| Campaign 1 | Branded Search |
| Campaign 2 | Non-branded Search – Shoes |
| Campaign 3 | Non-branded Search – Belts |
We can also set up different advertising campaigns through other different advertising goals, such as increasing brand exposure, promotion of specific activities, etc. Since the advertising budget of the PPC account is set at the campaign level, the advantages of setting up advertising campaigns in this way are that we can have better control over advertising costs and avoid unnecessary waste.
If the keywords we use bring high search traffic, we can also consider setting different match options into different advertising campaigns to better monitor the bidding status of different match type keywords.
| Campaign 1 | Branded Search |
| Campaign 2 | Non-branded Search –Shoes – Exact |
| Campaign 3 | Non-branded Search –Shoes – Phrase |
| Campaign 4 | Non-branded Search –Belts – Exact |
| Campaign 5 | Non-branded Search –Belts – Phrase |
Ad group level: categorize keywords according to different base words
Because we can create different ad copy in different ad groups, after we have determined the types of keywords that should be included at the campaign level, we must change these keywords at the ad group level according to their different roots with detailed categorizations. This way we can make the ad copy more relevant to the keywords in the group, and thereby increase the click-through rate. Using the example of our advertising campaign above, suppose the shoes we sell can be divided into men's casual shoes and formal shoes. Our ad group can be designed like this:
| Campaign | Ad Group |
| Non-branded Search –Shoes – Exact | Men’s Casual Shoes |
| Non-branded Search –Shoes – Exact | Men’s Dress Shoes |
Keywords and ads: make sure the two are highly relevant
As mentioned earlier, the correct classification of keywords into the right ad group can effectively increase the click-through rate. This is also what we should pay attention to when we are at the keyword and advertising level. The ad copies must use keywords in the corresponding ad group, or text and information that are highly relevant to the search content, so as to ensure that the ad audience can see the ads that match their search results when searching. Keeping keywords and advertising content highly relevant also helps to improve the quality score of keywords, giving us the opportunity to use lower bids to beat other competitors, thereby lowering our CPC.
The next step after designing the account structure
As mentioned earlier, paid search advertising is a process of continuous testing and optimization, so after using the previous principles to design the account structure, our work is not over. In addition to observing the performance of advertising campaigns, we have to observe the following things to continue to optimize our advertising account:
Search terms
Sometimes even if we have conducted a very thorough and careful keyword research, in the actual advertising process, there may still be some search terms that we did not expect but can effectively bring about conversion. We can consider adding these search terms to our advertising campaigns to expand our keyword list. In contrast, we may also find some search terms that are completely unrelated to the content of the advertisement. We should add them to the negative keywords to save advertising costs.
Quality score and CTR
A good account structure should bring us a good quality score and click-through rate, so when we find that the performance of these two indicators in the account is not as good as expected, we should consider making adjustments. For example, change the ad copy, update the landing page, or find more appropriate keywords, and so on. Constantly weeding out keywords and copywriting with low quality scores and low clickthrough rates until we find the most efficient advertising combination is a very important work item when operating search ads.
Conclusion
Although designing the structure of an advertising account is a very tedious task, if you can correctly and effectively lay a foundation for the advertising account, future account optimization will be much simpler. So whether you are creating a new advertising account or want to improve an existing advertising account, you can try to start from the account structure and find the most suitable design for the advertising account.
