Ad Group Structure: A How-to Guide for SEMs
Building a solid foundation of the right ad group structure is vital to search engine marketing success. Here's how SEMs can greatly improve the success of their search marketing campaigns.
Building a solid foundation of the right ad group structure is vital to search engine marketing success. Here's how SEMs can greatly improve the success of their search marketing campaigns.
The process of creating ad groups is complex, even for the most seasoned search engine marketers (SEMs). While each one grows and changes to reflect current advertising objectives, too many ad groups end up like a house of cards — awkward, disorganized, and teetering on the brink of collapse.
Ad group structure is far more important than most search marketers think. Even though Google requires advertisers to put keywords into ad groups, few advertisers know how to do it effectively.
Solid ad group structure is vital to search marketing success because ads are assigned to ad groups, not keywords. The structure of the ad group will impact the relevance of the ad to all of the keywords in the group — not to mention to the consumer who views it.
Two common construction issues undermine ad group structures today:
It’s difficult to deliver targeted ads and relevant landing pages to consumers if you’re using heavyweight or featherweight ad groups.
For example, a Chevrolet dealer has dozens of items to advertise, such as cars, trucks, new models, used models, service offers, leases, and accessories. If you put all of your products into one ad group, your ad copy would be reduced to the lowest common denominator: “Downtown Chevrolet — We Meet All Your Chevy Needs.” Even ad groups set up by major product line can seem too generic “Test Drive a 2011 Chevy at Downtown Chevrolet.”
Making ad groups more tightly themed will improve results. Compare the relevance of the ads above to more targeted offers such as, “Top Waitlist Spots for Chevy Volts” or “Best Prices on Snow Tires for Chevy Tahoes.” The more specific the ad group, the more relevant the ad copy can be. A more compelling offer for the target searcher results in a better response rate.
Basically, a poorly structured ad group will be plagued by underperformance. Without properly structured ad groups, SEMs will have campaigns with:
SEMs need relevant ad group structure to deliver relevant ad copy — automatically. It’s still possible, however, to build a relevant ad group and yet deliver irrelevant ad copy. The relevance of the ad and landing page are all fundamentally driven by creating the right ad group structure.
Here are two checks SEMs can perform to ensure their ad groups are structured as soundly as possible:
Emerging technologies will help SEMs create focused ad groups within a few clicks of a mouse, and then automatically create relevant ad copy for each of those ad groups. SEMs who build a solid foundation of the right ad group structure, which employs the latest technologies to help maintain and evolve that structure, can greatly improve the success of their search marketing campaigns.