AdWords tips – building ad groups

May 17th, 2016

Ad groups can be difficult to set up properly, but if done well they can save both time and money for any PPC campaign


Google recommends that a minimum of two ad groups are created, implying, for good reason, that more is in actual fact more at least when it comes to ad groups – depending on the campaign this can rise into the thousands. The reasons for this are numerous, but essentially boil down to the fact that the more ad groups you have, the greater the specificity and targeting options you have to ensure your ads are getting in front of the right people.

Ad groups are where you will:

  1. Write your ads.
  2. Choose the keywords that will trigger the ads.

Assuming best practice has been adhered to in the set-up of your campaigns, you will have a number of fairly broad scope campaign titles generally associated with top level product categories or services. Your ad groups represent a broadening of these campaigns by variations of these products or services.

If we use a cosmetics supplier or manufacturer as a basic example, it could be assumed that it has three key products it wishes to promote (apologies in advance for my clear lack of cosmetics knowledge), which in this case are lipstick, foundation and eye shadow. These broad product descriptions become your campaigns while subsections of them become your ad groups.


ad group diagram


These can then be segmented further (and further stretch my failing knowledge of cosmetics) to the level of keywords.


keywords chart


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Once you have set up your campaigns and have worked out how you are going to organise your ad groups, the next stage is to actually create them. In order to do this, you will sign in to your AdWords account, and select the campaigns tab.


AdWords Toolbar (campaigns)


Then select the campaign you wish to add ad groups to.


AdWords sidebar (campaign select)


Click the ‘+AD GROUP’ button (virtually unmissable).


Ad groups button


The following steps are reasonably self-explanatory – insofar as you can’t go too far wrong if you follow the instructions provided next to the boxes – which ask you to name the ad group and create the ad (for tips on creating ad copy, see here)


AdWords ad creation


Then select the keywords your research process has produced (checking for search volume using the ‘estimate search traffic’ button if necessary).


AdWords Keyword section


Then set a maximum CPC for the ad group.


CPC entry area


This process is repeatable for any number of campaigns and ad groups, with one of the main benefits of ad groups being the possibility to effect bulk changes so that, as you monitor the data that comes in from campaigns, it is possible to implement the lessons learned to batches of ads, gradually refining your ad groups to ensure the best possible results.


To find out what Click Consult can do to enhance your brand’s PPC performance contact us today or request your free PPC analysis today.

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