Google Ads account structure that still works
The old advice was to build hundreds of tiny ad groups. Automation has made most of that structure pointless, and some of it actively harmful.
Split campaigns only where you need separate budgets, separate targets or separate reporting. Within that, keep themes tight enough that one ad can answer every query in the group, run broad match only with solid conversion data and an active negative list, and review the search terms report weekly.
Structure used to be how you controlled Google Ads. Bidding automation now does most of that job, and an account carved into two hundred ad groups starves each of the data the system needs to work.
Split for a reason, not for tidiness
There are three good reasons to separate campaigns: different budgets, different targets, different reporting needs. Geography when budgets differ by market. Brand versus non-brand, always, because mixing them hides the truth about both. Product lines where the economics genuinely differ.
Everything else can sit together. Consolidation gives the bidding more signal, and signal is what the system runs on.
Match types, practically
Exact for the terms you know convert. Phrase for the controlled middle. Broad only when the account has steady conversion volume and a maintained negative list, because broad without either is a budget donation to adjacent intent.
Negative keywords are the real work
Read the search terms report weekly. Add negatives at the right level, keep a shared list for the obvious category exclusions, and watch for the slow drift where a campaign starts matching informational queries that will never buy. Most wasted spend in a mature account is here, not in bidding.
Legacy habits to drop
- Single keyword ad groups at scale. They fragment data for a control you no longer have.
- Duplicating campaigns per match type. It splits volume and teaches the system nothing.
- Bidding hard on your own brand at saturation without testing what organic absorbs.
- Leaving Performance Max unsegmented and unexamined, then wondering where the money went.
What actually moves the number
The landing page, usually. A well-structured account pointing at a weak page is an expensive way to test copy, which is the argument in landing pages that convert.
Questions we get asked
How many campaigns should a Google Ads account have?
As few as the budgets, targets and reporting needs allow. Consolidation gives automated bidding more signal; fragmentation starves it.
Is broad match safe now?
With steady conversion data and an actively maintained negative list, yes. Without either, it spends against adjacent intent that will not convert.
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