Why structure matters more than anything else
A poorly structured Google Ads account is like a house built without a plan: you can make local improvements, but the foundation remains weak. We've taken over accounts with €5,000/month budgets that had a single campaign with 200 keywords in the same ad group. No control, no relevance, Quality Scores of 3–4 across the board.
Good structure gives you control, transparency, and clean data to make decisions from. Without it, you're optimizing blind.
Campaign organization: one campaign per major business objective
The basic rule: one campaign per major business objective. Not one campaign for everything you offer.
Example for a medical clinic: separate campaigns for general dentistry, dental implants (separate budget, higher CPC, higher intent), orthopedics, remarketing (Display, for visitors who didn't book), and brand (to block competitors from stealing branded searches).
Each campaign has its own budget, its own bidding strategy, and its own data. You can pause orthopedics without affecting dentistry.
Ad group structure: thematic groups in 2026
SKAG (Single Keyword Ad Groups) was the standard in 2018–2020. In 2026, with RSAs and Smart Bidding, thematic ad groups work better: 5–15 keywords with the same intent, 3–5 RSAs per group. Quality Score will be high for all keywords in the group because the theme is consistent.
Recommended bidding strategies in 2026
- New accounts (0–30 conversions/month): Maximize Clicks with a CPC cap, or Manual CPC. Not Smart Bidding — it doesn't have enough data.
- Growing accounts (30–80 conversions/month): Target CPA with a realistic value based on your current CPA.
- Mature accounts (80+ conversions/month): Target ROAS for eCommerce or Target CPA for lead gen. The algorithm has enough data to work well.
The biggest sabotage you can do to a new account is starting with Smart Bidding before you have data. You're letting the algorithm guess without information, and you'll waste budget in the learning phase.
Negative keyword structure
Negative keywords must be organized at three levels: account level (terms never relevant to your business), campaign level (terms not relevant to that specific campaign's objective), and ad group level (cross-negatives to prevent internal cannibalism between campaigns).
Why Restructuring Is Harder Than Initial Setup
Account structure is not a one-time decision. You add products, new services, new geographic markets. Each change affects the logic of ad groups, bidding strategies and negative keyword lists. A well-built account today will need partial restructuring in 12–18 months.
Restructuring an existing account is also more complex than building a new one: you need to preserve conversion history where the Smart Bidding algorithm has calibrated, avoid resetting the learning phase, and migrate gradually rather than all at once. A poorly executed restructure can make a profitable account underperform for 6–8 weeks.
Frequently asked questions
How should I structure a Google Ads account in 2026?
Recommended structure in 2026: separate campaigns by clear objectives (Search for direct intent, PMax for Shopping/discovery), thematic ad groups with 15–20 relevant keywords, responsive ads with minimum 5 headlines and 3 unique descriptions, and complete extensions (sitelinks, callouts, call extensions). Avoid overly broad ad groups with dozens of disparate keywords.
How many keywords should I have per ad group?
Recommended: 10–20 keywords per ad group, all relevant to the same topic. Too many keywords per group reduces ad relevance for each search, lowering Quality Score. Too few (1–2 per group) creates operational overhead without clear benefits. SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups) are no longer recommended in the era of broader match types.
What match types should I use for keywords in 2026?
In 2026, Exact Match and Phrase Match are the recommended base types for Search campaigns. Broad Match can be used with active Smart Bidding (Target CPA or Target ROAS) and sufficient conversion data — the algorithm handles it well under these conditions. Avoid Broad Match without active Smart Bidding: it generates uncontrolled irrelevant traffic.
How many campaigns should I have in a Google Ads account?
There's no universal optimal number — structure should follow your business logic. A practical rule: one campaign per major objective (e.g., Search for services, PMax for products, one for remarketing). Too many campaigns with small budgets prevent the algorithm from collecting enough data per campaign. Concentrate budget in fewer, stronger campaigns.
How do I organize Google Ads campaigns for multiple products or services?
Create a clear hierarchical structure: campaign level (product/service category or location), ad group level (sub-category or specific intent), ad level (message adapted to the group). If you have eCommerce with many products, PMax with a product feed organized by categories is more efficient than hundreds of individual Search campaigns.
At DAFE Digital we structure and manage your Google Ads account correctly from the start. Clear organisation, high Quality Score, interpretable data.
Google Ads account structure directly influences CPC, Quality Score and optimisation capability. A disorganised account costs more and produces less. We restructure or build from scratch, as needed.
Adela Mincea
Performance Marketer · Fondatoare DAFE Digital · Formator ANC
Adela is a Performance Marketer with 10+ years of paid media across Europe, the US and Asia. She founded DAFE Digital in 2023 after agency roles in London and Hong Kong, in-house work inside client organisations, and independent consulting across 27+ industries.
