When you’re setting up a PPC account, there are general guidelines that you should follow to help your campaigns achieve success. It’s especially important that you understand the relationship between the different areas within a PPC account: the cost per click is affected by the quality score, which is affected by the click-through rate, which in turn is affected by the keywords and the overall structure of your account. As a result, proper account structure is crucial to reducing costs and achieving a higher quality score.
The PPC account structure can most easily be compared to a filing cabinet. When comparing the two, the breakdown would look something like this:
Filing cabinet = The account as a whole
Drawers in the cabinet = Campaigns
Files in a drawer = Ad groups
Papers within the folders = Keywords and ads
By utilizing this organization when setting up campaigns, advertisers can ensure that their ads will be more relevant to the users’ search queries. If I were a retailer who sold a wide variety of baseball gear, my campaigns may break down something like this:
Campaign: Baseball Bats
Ad Group: Baseball Bats
Keywords: baseball bats, black baseball bats, new baseball bats . . .
Ad Group: Fastpitch Bats
Keywords: fastpitch bat, fast-pitch bats . . .
Ad Group: Wooden Bats
Keywords: wooden bats, wooden baseball bats . . .
Etc.
Campaign: Baseball Gloves
Ad Group: Baseball Gloves
Keywords: baseball gloves, leather baseball gloves . . .
Ad Group: Fastpitch Gloves
Keywords: fastpitch gloves, left-handed fastpitch gloves . . .
Ad Group: Youth Gloves
Keywords: youth gloves, kids gloves . . .
Etc.
In addition to having targeted keywords within each ad group, I would also create ads specific to those keywords to make my ads more relevant. For example, an ad in the “Wooden Bats” ad group might look something like this:
20% Off Wooden Bats
Huge Selection of Wooden Bats.
Free Shipping—Shop Now!
www.BaseballGear.com/WoodenBats
Although it may seem easier to lump all of your keywords into one or two general ad groups, doing so will only hurt your campaigns in the long run. If you’re looking to improve the quality score of your account or just reduce your costs altogether, try reorganizing your account to ensure more relevant delivery of your ads.
Stacy Knapp said on November 19, 2009
Thanks for the great infomation. I will start using it right away.
Ben Merckling Jr. said on November 20, 2009
I AM A GUNSMITH AND HAVE JUST RECEIVED A $100.00 GIFT CARD TO TRY GOOGLE ADWORDS. BUT I AM CONFUSED ON HOW MUCH TO USE PER DAY AND DO I ONLY DO ONE AD OR TWO DIFFERENT ONES. THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR YOUR HELP.
BEN (OWNER) MERCKLINGS AMERICAN GUNSMITH SHOP LLC
Mackenzie McFarlane said on November 20, 2009
Hi Ben,
We usually recommend that advertisers run 2-3 ads a time. Once you run them for a while and can determine a clear winner, pause the underperforming ads and create new ones to test.
Your daily ad spend really just depends on what type of budget you’re working with. Are you only wanting to spend the $100 and nothing more? While I would recommend spending more in order to receive more accurate results, if that’s not an option, I would recommend setting a daily budget of $10/day. From there you can run the ads for 10 days and evaluate the results. If you get a chance, I would also recommend reading our blog article 5 Campaign-Killing Mistakes. This article describes some of the main pitfalls you’ll want to avoid as you set up and run your campaigns. Let us know if there’s anything else we can do to help!