How To Structure

Your PPC
Campaigns To Drive
Results?

08.09.2022
Presenter: Cathal Melinn

● In Digital Marketing for 17 years

● Worked at Yahoo!, Digital Agencies,
Digital Marketing Institute (DMI), former
Head of SEO, PPC & Affiliates at Aer
Lingus
● Runs a Digital Marketing Consultancy
called Digital Basics
● Lectures at DMI digitalmarketinginstitute.com 2
 How Keyword Lists/Ad Groups Work
Limitations with Large Ad Groups
Prioritizing Keywords based on
Performance

AGENDA Lead Gen Case Study

eCommerce Case Study
7 Steps to Implementing this Structure
Evolution of keywords
•

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 3
Ad Groups and How They Work
Ad Groups are lists of keywords

Each Ad Group/list of keywords has

at least one ad associated with it

This ad will show anytime someone

searches for any of your keywords on
the list

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 4
Ad Groups can Contain Multiple Keywords

Then we add more keywords

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 5
Ad Groups can Contain Multiple Keywords

..and more keywords

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 6
Ad Groups can Contain Multiple Keywords

..and more keywords

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 7
Ad Groups can Contain Multiple Keywords

..and more keywords

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 8
Ad Group Copy Loses Relevance with More
Keywords

One Piece of Ad Text that tries

to service many different
keywords won’t be relevant to
all of them

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 9
Top Performing Keywords are Negatively Impacted by
Irrelevant Ad Copy

Your Top Keywords suffer because

they are using less specific Ad Copy

This is because your copy tries to be

relevant ALL keywords in the ad
group/keyword list which is
impossible in large ad groups

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 10
The Solution: Single Keyword Ad Groups in a
Top Keyword Campaign or Campaigns

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 11
Why It Works
•Allows you to ringfence daily campaign daily budget to invest effectively in priority
keywords

•Allows you to write uncompromised ads for top keywords

•Allows you to test match type performance and to prioritize budget for lower CPA
keywords

•Allows you to control automated bidding by setting Target CPAs for keywords on an
Ad Group level

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 12
Ecommerce Case Study
● Horseware Ireland
● Industry: Online Retail USA
● Results: Revenue +122%, Conv Rate +102%, Revenue per User 181%

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 13
Ecommerce Case Study

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 14
Lead Gen Case Study
● Digital Learning Institute
● Industry: Edtech
● Results: Leads +247%, Conv Rate +69.5%, Revenue up 128%

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 15
Lead Gen Case Study

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 16
How To Do It - GA4
● Step #1 – Identify your top 10-20 keywords in your Analytics tool or your CRM

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 17
How To Do It - GA4
● Step #1 – Identify your top 10-20 keywords in your Analytics tool or your CRM

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 18
How To Do It - Universal Analytics
● Step #1 – Identify your top 10-20 keywords in your Analytics tool or your CRM

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 19
How To Do It
● Step #2 – Add a Label to your top Keywords in Google Ads

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 20
How To Do It
● Step #3 – Create as many New Search campaigns for these top keywords as
is necessary

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 21
How To Do It
● Step #4 – Create Ad Groups in these new campaigns that contain just one
Keyword on Exact Match in each Ad group

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 22
How To Do It
● Step #5 – Name your ad groups after the keyword and include the Match Type
in the name, e.g. Customer Experience – Exact”

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 23
How To Do It
● Step #6 – Create responsive search ads for a that keyword and direct to a
relevant landing page to that keyword that will deliver on your goals

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 24
Evolution of Keywords
● As machine learning, automated bidding and targeting features more
heavily in Google Ads campaigns we should start to think in terms of
inputs to help the machine to learn

● Keywords are the first and most explicit input, then we can layer in
audience signals, custom segments, conversion data and negative
targeting to speed up the machine learning process

● Also with ads, use pinning in responsive ads to prioritize key headlines
digitalmarketinginstitute.com 25
Build Custom Segments in Audience Manager

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 26
Pin Key Headlines to create better ads

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 27
Your TakeAways
● Understand how Keyword Lists/Ad Groups Work
● Prioritize Keywords based on Performance
● Create Top Keyword Campaigns that contain single keyword ad groups
● Write hyper-relevant ads for each of your priority keywords
● Invest daily campaign budget in priority keywords
● Set Target CPAs on an Ad Group level to control automated bidding for
keywords
● Be mindful of the inputs to assist and speed up the machine learning process

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 28
NOW…..

TIME TO TAKE YOUR

QUESTIONS

digitalmarketinginstitute.com 29