Here’s something I hear a lot from small biz owners and over-stretched digital marketers –

“I get that I should be doing Google Ads but I just find it so overwhelming. I don’t understand anything when I log in..”

And then the convo goes one of three ways:

  1. “So I just set up a smart campaign and let Google handle it all for me”
  2. “So I gave up and have put it at the end of my to-do list”
  3. “So I pay an agency $ to do it for me but I’m not sure if they do a good job or not”

The reason I hear this convo a lot is because all of the above points are 100% valid.

Google Ads can be overwhelming when you don’t understand how it works (or what any of the ridiculous jargon means).

Which is tough, because most people also get that it’s an extremely lucrative marketing tool.

Reach people who are already looking for what I offer? Um, yes please!

In this blog here, I talk about why smart campaigns shouldn’t be your go to.

And in this blog here, I talk about how you can tell if your agency is worth your investment in them.

So now I want to tackle the overwhelm, and I’m going to dish out a truth that may be something you haven’t thought about.

The only thing you need to have in place to run successful Google Ads that don’t overwhelm you on the daily is….(drum roll puh-lease)

Good account structure.

Stay with me. Here’s what good account structure will do for you:

  • Allow you to easily see what is working well and what needs tweaking.
  • Enable you to easily optimise your account so that you are making the most of profitable keywords and/or products.
  • Make it so that you can easily allocate budget based on performance.
  • Allow you to do all of the above in very little time each week.

That last point is really the crux of the matter.

One of the main reasons Google Ads feels overwhelming is because people assume that it requires a lot of time and effort.

And I’ll be honest and say that while you are learning about it, you are going to spend more time and effort on it than once your account is more well established.

BUT.

Setting things up correctly in the first place means you aren’t faffing about wasting time trying to figure out what you did and what to do next.

And guess what that feeling is folks?

Overwhelm.

It probably seems a bit boring. And vague (like, what is a good account structure anyway?).

So here are a couple of tips you can use right now:

  • You should only create a new campaign if the location is different OR the search intent is different. If you sell your products in Australia and New Zealand then they should each have their own campaign. Likewise, don’t put your brand keywords in with your non-brand keywords. They will generally perform completely differently.
  • Speaking of search terms – either have one ad group for each keyword (this is known as Single Keyword Ad Groups or SKAGS) OR one ad group for each category of keywords (Category Ad Groups). Pick a strategy and stick with it.
  • You only need one RSA (Responsive Search Ad) per ad group. Any more and they cannibalise each other (plus, who has more than 15 different headlines??).

And if you really want to dig into what a good account structure is, then you may be interested in my Google Ads course, Profitable Promotion.

Over 7 jam-packed modules I walk you through step by step exactly how I set up my own Google Ads accounts so that they are profitable and time efficient. I have a bunch of resources, cheat sheets and swipe files and while the course is live, my team and I are available to answer any q’s you have on twice weekly calls.

The next round is kicking off soon! You can go ahead and secure your spot now, and go from overwhelm to excitement with me 🙂