Just as business owners take inventory to inform operating expense decisions, so too should savvy search engine marketers take the time to structure campaigns so that reporting data informs optimization strategies.  It’s fairly common for novice campaign managers to create one campaign with one ad group and one ad for their first foray into search engine marketing (SEM), but in most cases, that’s not a practical solution for long term campaign management.  Not only does having a well thought out campaign structure introduce reporting efficiencies, it can also help keep costs-per-click low and click-through rates high.  Whether you’re just getting started on your first campaign or you’re tackling your first re-structure, follow these tips and tricks to get the most out of your new campaign structure.

Your Structure: Just Like Web Site Navigation - General to Specific

Your campaign structure should make sense; group similar products and services together, just as you would if you were creating a virtual grocery store (you wouldn’t put the bread next to the bathroom cleaners). 

Start with the most generalized category for each that you have, you may get some guidance looking at the navigation hierarchy on your web site – the biggest “buckets” are the highest up with more specific information accessible by clicking further in – those biggest “buckets” are your campaigns.

Now consider the next level moving towards specificity in your products/services – those are your ad groups.  Using the grocery store analogy, if I were running a PPC campaign for online grocery shopping, one of my campaigns might be “Dairy” and within that campaign, my ad groups could be “Milk”, “Cheese” and “Yogurt”… the more specific you can get with your ad groups, the better as it can help in keeping your ads and keywords relevant. 

TIP: If you want to introduce another level of granularity into your structure, you can further split your ad groups up by having all items within an ad group be of only 1 match type.  So “Milk”, “Cheese” and “Yogurt” would each have 1 ad group for exact match keywords, 1 ad group for phrase match keywords and 1 ad group for broad match keywords, turning 3 ad groups into 9.

Relevancy: Ads and Keywords

When you get to creating ads, again, consider the next level of specificity.  Do you want to advertise by type of milk – low fat, chocolate, soy, or by brand, or both?  The higher the level of detail in your ad text, the better.  You want to ensure that your ads tell users exactly what it is they’ll find after clicking on your ad, and you want to make sure the associated keywords are highly relevant to both the ads and the landing page.

To find suitable keywords, your best bet is to use Microsoft Advertising Intelligence, a keyword research and monetization tool that you can download for free.  Alternately, you can also do some keyword research through the “Research” tab in adCenter.

TIP: Don’t be tempted to add irrelevant keywords to your account for the sake of boosting traffic. Not only will they most likely be disapproved, those that might get through could result in a negative effect on your campaign over time, possibly leading to lower CTRs and higher CPCs. Don't forget to add negative keywords to avoid any unwanted traffic.

Fine Tune Match-Types

Using all 3 match-types is typically the best approach, but there are circumstances where you may not need them all:

- If you’re trying to improve your CTR, try using Exact & Phrase match-types only to see if that helps.

- If you spend a lot on high-volume keywords across all match-types, cutting back to just Exact, just Phrase or both (no Broad match) can help you keep costs down.

- If 1 or 2 match-types aren’t working well, then only use those that do, or else increase bids for the top performers.

Monitor Your Reports

One of the biggest mistakes search engine marketers make is to set up their campaigns, send them live and then forget about them.  If you want your campaigns to have long term success, you need to set them up for it at the start and that involves being a little vigilant for the first few weeks after they’ve begun accumulating reporting data.

Keep an eye out for any red flags like underperforming keywords (delete them), low positioning (increase bids) and any other issues that may signal something needs your attention.  After making those initial adjustments, your campaigns should need less tweaking; positive campaign history creates a solid foundation you can build future successes on.