Building Better Google Ads: Campaigns and Ad Groups Explained

Picture your Google Ads account like a large house you’re building. Your campaigns are the main rooms, each with its own function, budget, and design. Within each room, you’ll find smaller cupboards or sections - these are your ad groups. Just as you wouldn’t cram everything you own into one giant cupboard, you don’t want to stuff hundreds of keywords into a single ad group.

Structuring your campaigns and ad groups properly ensures everything is neatly organised and easy to manage, allowing you to make adjustments without turning your account into a chaotic mess.

Google Ads - Campaigns

A Google Ads campaign is your top-level container, housing multiple ad groups, settings, and targets. Think of a campaign like the master plan for a particular ‘room’ in the house. For instance, if you’re an online aromatherapy retailer, you might have one campaign for the UK and another for the USA. Why? Because for each market you may want to have different budgets, bidding strategies, and objectives.

• Budget and Location
  At this level, you decide how much money you’re willing to allocate to each campaign and where you’d like those ads to appear. If the UK campaign focuses on profitability and you know your customers well, you might choose a maximised conversion value strategy. Meanwhile, the US campaign might concentrate on brand visibility if you’re just stepping into that market and choose maximise clicks bid strategy.
• Bidding Strategy
  Your bidding strategy reflects your goal. Imagine hosting a dinner party: you might spend more on decorations and marketing for your VIP guests (high-value shoppers) than you would for a casual get-together. Similarly, in one campaign, your aim could be conversions, while in another, you might go for impressions or clicks to build brand recognition.
• Other Settings
  You’ll also decide which networks to include (e.g. Search Partners or Display Network) and whether to use presence or interest-based targeting. These choices are like selecting the colour schemes or fixtures for your room - critical decisions that shape how it all comes together. Refer back to my earlier blog for a deeper dive into these settings.

Google Ads - Ad Groups

If campaigns are the rooms, ad groups are the cupboards within those rooms. Each cupboard (ad group) stores specific items (keywords) and the messages (ads) that go with them. For example, in a UK aromatherapy campaign, one ad group might focus on peppermint essential oils, while another targets orange essential oils. This approach lets you write more relevant ad copy and refine your keywords for each specific product.

• Keywords and Ads
  Having all your keywords in one ad group is like throwing your spices, pots, pans, and dishes into a single cupboard - complete chaos! Separate your keywords by theme or product to keep things tidy and profitable. That way, you can tailor your ad copy to what people are actually searching for.
• Granularity vs. Manageability
  Go too granular, and you risk needing an army of staff just to keep your campaigns in check. Not granular enough, and your ads won’t resonate with your audience. The trick is balancing the two. Start small with a few carefully chosen ad groups and grow as you see success.

Best Structure? It Depends…

Every business is different, so your structure depends on factors like your objectives, budget, time, and product/service range. If you’re a small business with only a handful of products/services, you might manage fine with a single campaign and a few ad groups. If you have a wide range, multiple locations, or varied goals, you’ll likely need several campaigns, each containing multiple ad groups.

Like building a house extension, sometimes it’s easiest to start with one room (campaign), see how it functions, and then add more rooms (campaigns) and cupboards (ad groups) if needed.

Out-of-Control Structures

If your structure is already out of hand - perhaps due to auto-apply suggestions that added thousands of keywords into a single ad group - don’t panic. One option is to create a new, more organised setup in Experiments, then split your budget between the old structure and the new. This approach allows you to see if the restructure genuinely brings better results without losing everything your current campaigns might still be delivering.

Planning is Key

I always suggest mapping out your ideas in a spreadsheet before setting anything live. It’s a bit like drawing up architectural plans before you start building. You’ll see exactly where each campaign (room) and ad group (cupboard) will live, and how they’ll serve their purpose. If something isn’t working, you can revisit your plan, make changes, and test again.

Final Thoughts

Just remember: campaigns handle the big-picture settings like budget, location, and objectives, while ad groups handle the smaller details such as keywords and ads. Each stage requires thoughtful planning, a bit like decorating a house: you need the right paint (strategy), furniture (keywords), and décor (ads) to make sure everything looks and feels cohesive.

If you’re unsure about any of this, consider booking a Power Hour with me. We can work through your existing setup or plan a brand-new one from scratch. And if you’d rather skip the stress altogether, my Google Ads Management Service can do all the heavy lifting for you so you can focus on running your business.

Happy building (and advertising)!