If you expect greatness to come from your paid search campaign, lay the right groundwork first. Of course you can make changes and optimizations along the way, but starting off with the right structure from the very beginning will make your job MUCH easier. Once the keywords are determined, follow these three basic tips for segmenting your campaigns and you’re already off to a better start.
1. Keep Devices Segmented
Whether searching at work on your desktop, in the car on your phone, or on the couch with your tablet, the searches are most likely different. Tablet and desktop searches closely resemble each other (for now), while mobile searches tend to be highly local, more focused and timely, and contain more misspellings. Given these fundamental differences by device, by creating device specific campaigns there will be better control of available ad extensions, cost, CPCs, CTR, keyword optimizations, and conversions.
2. Separate Branded and Non-Branded Campaigns
The “bidding on branded keywords” battle, is one us search marketers have to face quite often. While the importance of branded keywords has been proven time and time again, that’s not my focus here. Let’s assume the importance of branded keywords is already understood. When structuring your search account, it’s imperative to keep branded and non-branded keywords separate, not just by adgroups, but by campaigns. By separating branded and non-branded keywords into different campaigns, you are better able to control budget and ensure one group isn’t cannibalizing another.
3. Organize with Adgroups
Adgroups not only help manage and organize campaigns, but also help performance. By having sets of keywords and ads that are focused and directly related to each other, you are able to improve quality score and in turn help keep costs low. By creating these tightly niched groups under the campaign umbrella, the campaign will be better organized, easier to optimize, and will help simplify reporting.
These simple campaign structure tips will help you better identify strengths and weaknesses, and in return make the needed optimizations to boost performance.
