My last article focused on separating your keyword match types into different campaigns. Today, I would like to discuss details on implementing this strategy, as well as clarify the benefits of separating match types into separate ad groups (not campaigns).
As I mentioned previously, for robust accounts with optimized campaign structures, separating your match types for your mission critical, high-traffic keywords into individual ad groups can be beneficial. However, the accounts we have recently restructured had implemented this tactic poorly.
First, I’d like to describe the accounts we have been inheriting and why their methodology for match type segregation was not well executed. The campaign structure for each account was driven almost solely by match type. Each match type, including broad, phrase and exact, had its own campaign – not its own ad group within a campaign.
For example, with this structure in place, my keyword for tennis shoes was in three different campaigns – not three different ad groups within the same campaign.
The campaigns for each match type also had poorly structured ad groups. Each ad group contained too many keywords without much thought given to ad text relevancy and Quality Score. Here is a quick list of why this doesn’t work:
- The ad groups were too broad, and too general. The previous manager thought that since they had lumped large groups of keywords together, and separated their campaigns out by match type, that their work was done.
- The ad texts for each campaign and ad group were the same. As we discussed in the comments from my last article, separating out your match types can help you write more targeted ads. But this was not the case here.
- Even though the match types were in their own campaigns, they all still had the same bids. Each match type for a specific keyword can have its own individual bid.
- There was only one landing page for the entire account. Another benefit of well structured campaigns is to have targeted landing pages. And this account did not.
- With this campaign structure in place, management and reporting was unnecessarily complicated.
There are benefits to properly separating your high-traffic keywords by match type, but these accounts were not receiving any of them. Such as:
- For your high-traffic, mission critical keywords you can segment your match types to write very targeted ad texts.
- Separating your match types for these keywords can help you determine which variations work best, and where you should adjust your bids.
- You may need different negative keywords for different match types and breaking your match types out into separate ad groups can help with targeting.
- Creating granular ad groups can improve your keyword/landing page relevancy, therefore increasing your conversion rate and your AdWords Quality Score.
This was the difference I wanted to explore further: segregating match types out into separate campaigns vs. separate ad groups. Also, these accounts had the entire account separated by match type, when they should really implement this tactic for their most important keywords at a more granular level.
I certainly think that there are benefits to creating granular ad groups down to the match type for your high-traffic keywords, but I think it just needs to be done correctly. Otherwise, you don’t receive the positive effects this can generate, you only make more work for your self.
