Often, little thought is put into the initial structure of an SEM campaign. Needless to say, we don’t build a house without the help of plans and an architect. The same should apply for Paid Search Accounts. Google and Yahoo! are here to make money. They aren’t going to come knocking like the local building inspector when you haven’t planned.
A strong, well planned account structure is key to the success of any paid search campaign. A solid account structure will make it easy to expand and identify new trends within your industry, to apply budgets appropriately and assist you to take full advantage of search engine tools that reward well structured accounts.
5 Must Do’s for Paid Search Account Structure
1. Utilise match types
Google: Broad | Phrase | Exact
Yahoo: Standard | Advanced
Broad match (aka:Advanced match at Yahoo!) is generally over-used, and other match types generally over-looked. Best practice would suggest to use: phrase and exact (standard) match for words you know work and utilise broad match to discover new ones.
2. Start small
Starting out? Don’t feel like you need to think of every possible keyword variation, campaign or the best ad. This will happen over time. It’s best to start small, evaluate performance and build from there.
For established Search Accounts; don’t be afraid to pause / delete. If something is under-performing, pause it and use that money to test some other keywords variations or maybe increase the budget and visibility of other campaigns that have performed well.
3. Create themes.
Themes should be focused around your text ad. if the keywords in an ad group don’t directly relate to an ad. Create another ad group. Themes can be categorised many ways – brand, type of product, size, high / low volume words. Always remember that the purpose of creating these themes is to maximise performance. The main focus of creating themes is so the best performing campaigns always have budget available to them. Other groups are for discovery, used to continually optimise and improve your SEM performance.
4. Keep ads & keyword groups relevant.
Generally speaking, more ad groups with fewer keywords are easier to manage. It also makes the task of removing poorly performing keywords a cinch. Ads should always be clear and relate directly to the search query. Highly relevant ads will increase the chances of a higher CTR% and better quality score. Use tools like dynamic keyword insertion and negative match to eliminate any irrelevant matches and make your ads highly relevant to visitors who search using long-tail keyword phrases.
5. Keep brand related keywords separate
Always have a separate campaign for brand related words. Brand words should be visible 100% of the time. Visibility is often limited budget and if brand words are competing with other more expensive terms. Always separate brand words from broader, more generic terms.
Why these SEM tips really work.
We all know search engines reward relevancy, in the form of lower CPCs and higher ad rank. A good SEM account structure ensures you tick all the boxes and if done right will mean everything is rightly relevant. A clear structure will allow you to measure apples to apples and help identify whats working. Invest the time in a good SEM account structure, this will keep you ahead of your competition, have you paying less and hopefully growing your profits!
