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Reference file

account-structure.md

account-structure-md.md

Account Structure

Structure exists to control budget, read performance cleanly, and feed the algorithm tight signals. Over-engineering it is as bad as ignoring it.

Separate by intent first

At minimum, split campaigns so you can budget and read them independently:

  • Brand - own campaign, own budget. Cheap, high CVR. Never let it share a budget with non-brand or it eats the cheap clicks and hides the truth.
  • Non-brand (high intent) - your core. One campaign, themed ad groups by solution.
  • Competitor - own campaign. Different CPC and CVR profile, needs its own budget and messaging.
  • Remarketing (Display/Demand Gen) - own campaign, separate from Search entirely.

Why separate budgets: a shared budget lets the cheapest, highest-CVR campaign (usually brand) starve the campaigns you actually need data on. You end up "profitable" on paper and blind on everything that matters.

Ad group structure: themed, not SKAG

Single-keyword ad groups (SKAGs) are mostly dead. Broad/phrase match plus Smart Bidding made tight 1:1 keyword-to-ad-group structures pointless and starve each group of data. Instead:

  • Themed ad groups: 5-15 closely related keywords that share one search intent and can honestly be answered by one set of ads.
  • One ad group = one promise. If two keywords need different landing pages or different value props, split them.
  • 2-3 Responsive Search Ads per ad group. Let Google rotate, then read asset performance.

Naming convention

Consistency makes reporting and filtering possible at scale.

Campaign: [Type] - [Intent] - [Region]

  • Search - Brand - US
  • Search - NonBrand - Global
  • Search - Competitor - EMEA
  • PMax - Retargeting - US

Ad group: [Theme]

  • Cold Email Software
  • Sales Engagement Platform

Geo, language, network settings (the defaults Google sets against you)

  • Network: turn OFF "Search Partners" and "Display Network" on Search campaigns until proven. They're on by default and usually serve junk.
  • Location: set "Presence" (people in your target locations), not the default "Presence or interest", which serves people merely interested in the location.
  • Language: match your market. This targets the user's Google UI language, not the query language - account for that.

How many campaigns is too many

If a campaign can't get roughly 15-30 conversions per month, Smart Bidding can't learn and the structure is too fragmented. Consolidate. In low-volume B2B, fewer, better-fed campaigns win. Add structure only when a campaign has enough volume to split without starving the halves.

By Ivan Falco - Frontal