Staying ahead of the curve in the dynamic world of pay-per-click (PPC) account structure management can feel like an uphill battle. But getting your account structure right now is crucial to avoid major issues down the line that might make you feel like this:

With the constantly evolving landscape of audience engagement and economic uncertainties, it’s more important than ever to understand how to build and manage your accounts effectively and nimbly. There are seven key principles to keep in mind when designing a PPC account structure that will stand the test of time. Let’s explore each one!

Building a Future-Proof PPC Account Structure

Use these seven steps to develop a PPC account structure that can handle your industry’s demands both now and in the future.

1. Budget Allocation is Key

A successful PPC account structure must be financially viable. It’s essential to make sure your budget has enough resources to cover all your campaign goals. A good rule of thumb is to budget for a minimum of 10 clicks per day for searches that aren’t tied to your brand. This helps compensate for the lower conversion rates typically seen with non-branded traffic, as these visitors tend to be less ready to buy. While branded traffic usually enjoys higher conversion rates and costs less, allocating less than 10 clicks per day could put excessive pressure on your campaigns to achieve an unrealistic 10% conversion rate. The introduction of Google Ads Performance Max campaigns has also added new budget considerations. For instance, Google Ads auction prices can fluctuate across various channels, including display, search, video, and local. In essence, setting realistic budget goals for your PPC account is vital. It’s wise to begin with a limited number of campaigns to avoid overextending your budget. Additionally, be prepared to adjust and reallocate budgets as needed. Our latest Google Ads benchmarks can provide valuable insights when deciding what kind of account structure your budget can accommodate:

2. Stay Current with Audience Engagement Best Practices

Keeping up with and adapting to the ever-changing rules of audience engagement in PPC advertising can be tough. However, it’s crucial to make sure your Google Ads account always adheres to the most recent targeting best practices and policies. For instance, you might want to structure your account to include placement exclusions for display or video campaigns. This can enhance your account’s performance by avoiding wasted impressions or clicks on irrelevant audiences. More importantly, this can prevent your ads from appearing to sensitive audiences. Your placement exclusions can be proactive, using a predefined list of websites or apps where you prefer not to show, or reactive, based on historical data from the “where ads showed” report. Another example is Google’s upcoming update that will incorporate search volume into the search terms report. This exciting development allows you to assess the potential reach of a keyword in relation to its cost. This empowers you to make more informed decisions about which keyword concepts to prioritize within your account’s search campaign structure.

3. Finding the Right Balance: Human Control vs. Google’s AI Machine Learning

A hot topic in Google Ads for small businesses is finding the optimal balance between human oversight and AI. As AI becomes more prevalent in marketing, both its positive and negative effects on PPC have become apparent. For example, generative AI can help you develop assets for your PPC account, such as images, videos, and ad copy. However, Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) could potentially push ads lower on the page, making your Google Ads Quality Score a critical factor to consider in your PPC account structure. Whether you opt for a PPC account structure that leans more heavily on AI or manual control, each approach has its advantages and disadvantages. The key is to find the right mix that aligns with your specific needs and context. However, integrating AI into your PPC account structure to some extent is no longer optional, it’s a necessity. The manual single keyword ad group (SKAG) PPC account structure, for instance, has become outdated. Firstly, keywords are no longer the primary driver; they’ve essentially transformed into an “audience” due to Google’s updated keyword-matching logic. Secondly, from a budget allocation standpoint, it’s challenging to support numerous ad groups with a manual bidding strategy, especially when campaigns lack sufficient data for accurate bid estimations. A more effective approach in this situation would be to have a few core ad groups under one campaign that utilizes one of the automatic bidding strategies—which are powered by Google’s machine learning.

4. Don’t Underestimate the Power of Negatives

Negative keywords are essential for cost control and traffic optimization. They help you refine the searches your ads appear for, ensuring you target only your most relevant keywords. Keyword research tools can help you generate more negative keywords, like this:

An example of how nexus-security’s Free Keyword Tool can assist you in identifying relevant and irrelevant terms for your business. Additionally, utilizing negative audiences along with placements is a crucial yet often overlooked strategy. Relying solely on audiences for targeting means missing out on opportunities to proactively safeguard your budget from unforeseen factors.

5. Audiences and Placements: Essential for Success

Audiences in Google Ads offer a powerful way to target or exclude potential traffic based on observed behaviors or predictive indicators of future actions. Audiences can be applied at both the campaign and ad group levels of your PPC account structure and are integrated into broad match targeting. As keyword targeting shifts its focus from the literal keyword phrase to implied meaning and associated audiences, the importance of audiences continues to grow. When structuring your PPC campaigns, it’s vital to identify your key buyer personas and understand the most effective creative strategies to engage them. A good practice is to have distinct ad copy and visual strategies for each primary persona. This could involve having multiple ad groups per audience to enable tailored ads that resonate with each one. While both important, audiences and placements serve slightly different roles when optimizing Performance Max (PMax) campaigns within your PPC account. In standard campaigns, audiences act as active targets or exclusions. However, in PMax, they primarily function as signals for Google to determine the most suitable placements. That said, we are seeing more opportunities to exclude irrelevant targets.

6. Leverage First-Party Data (or Find Alternatives)

First-party data plays a significant role in where your ads are served and who sees them. If you’re unable to utilize first-party data—meaning you don’t have consent from prospects to track them and store their email addresses—consider leveraging algorithmically generated audiences such as in-market or custom intent based on search terms. While these audiences may not be as effective as those derived from first-party data, they offer a better alternative than not using audiences at all.

7. Privacy and Conversion Tracking: Finding the Right Balance

The final element in future-proofing your PPC account structure involves your conversion tracking setup. It’s essential to balance privacy compliance with maintaining clear insights into your campaign’s performance. Weigh the pros and cons of using GA4 events or other analytic events against the native advertising conversion actions provided by Google Ads. While native ad platform tracking can capture more detailed information, utilizing external sources like GA4 introduces the need for some degree of attribution data modeling. However, Google Marketing Live 2023 revealed upcoming updates designed to simplify the process of building and tracking your PPC account’s audiences using GA4:

A recent development allows for the use of enhanced conversions to create customer-match audience lists. If you choose to utilize this powerful tool, keep in mind that your audiences from enhanced conversions still need to meet minimum targeting thresholds—typically at least 1,000 individuals on the list. Nevertheless, this strategy can be highly effective for building new lists or bolstering existing data within the ad platform. In conclusion, neglecting audiences and placements in your PPC account structure can have detrimental effects. By harnessing their potential, considering the importance of first-party data, and finding the right balance between privacy and conversion tracking, you’ll be well-positioned for success in the constantly changing world of digital advertising.

Your PPC Account Structure: More Important Than Ever

While creating a future-proof PPC account structure may seem daunting, focusing on these seven core principles will guide you through the process. Remember to continuously evaluate and update your strategies to adapt to evolving trends and industry changes. The effort you invest in your PPC account structure now will pay dividends in the future! To summarize, here are the seven components of a future-proof PPC account structure:

1. Strategic budget allocation
2. Effective audience engagement
3. A blend of AI-powered and manual elements
4. Strategic use of negative keywords and audiences
5. Robust audience and placement strategies
6. Utilizing first-party data or leveraging in-market and custom-intent audiences
7. Sound privacy management and conversion tracking