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The Optimizer’s Guide to Google AdWords: How to setup and organize your account
Setting up a Google AdWords account can be a daunting task. As I described in my previous post about structure and options, there are many variables to consider when setting up and organizing a Google AdWords account. Below I have laid out a simple set of steps to get you going.
Getting started
A good way to get started with your own Google AdWords (SEM) account is to list all of the keywords that you want your ads to appear for. Next start to think of how these keywords relate to each other and common themes between certain keywords. Natural groupings should start to form in your mind. In the illustration below, I use colors to illustrate how keywords relate to each other.
Now it is time to start thinking of segments that describe groups of your keywords. In the example above, it appears that all the keywords can be described at a high level as a type of either green, blue, yellow or red. These will become your adgroups. Now is also the time to start thinking of text ads that would provide a good experience for people looking for red, blue green, or yellow keywords. Some ads might be better suited for certain keywords but make them general enough so they can rotate amongst all the keywords in the adgroup.
The next step is to determine which adgroups are related to each other and group these into campaigns. Remember that budget is set at the campaign level so if you want to increase the budget for one adgroup in a campaign, you will also be increasing the budget for the other adgroups in the campaign. Finally, set some high level settings in your account and you are done! This is just one way to approach organizing your account, there are plenty of other ways out there.
Simple Customizations
The most common variables to play with (in addition to building out your keyword list) are the relative number of campaigns and adgroups. Many people like having fewer adgroups per campaign and more campaigns so they have tighter control over the budget of groups of keywords. Others like to use more adgroups so that their text ads are better targeted to their keywords. Experiment to find out what works best for you!
In a future post, I will explain how to properly use landing pages in conjunction with a Google AdWords account to get the highest conversion rates and lowest cost per conversion.
Check out the following URL for a more extensive list of Google Adwords features and tips: https://services.google.com/advertisers/us/media/searchadvertising
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