Are you trying to wrap your head around ad groups to figure out to use them? This post will help you understand how ad groups work and provide you with winning strategies to use ad groups to build highly relevant and effective ads.

What are ad groups

Ad groups are containers that hold a set of ads and the keywords (or other methods of targeting) that trigger those ads. They also contain a default bid for keywords in the ad group along with keyword-level bids, if specified.

Since ad groups live in larger campaigns, they inherit the settings and ad extensions from the campaign they’re housed in, though you can also apply unique settings and extensions to the ad group.

How to use ad groups

Here are a couple of scenarios to show how you should use ad groups to organize your ads around a common theme:

For single-product campaigns

If you have one main product you want to advertise, you could create an ad group for each search intent. This way you can write different ads for each intent and send clicks on those ads directly to the page of your website with the most relevant information.

This ad is very relevant for searches on "payroll software prices."

For example , a payroll software startup could create an ad group for 1) payroll software, 2) alternatives to quickbooks, 3 ) prices 4) etc.

The ad group for prices would then contain keywords like 1) payroll software prices, 2) how much is payroll software, 3) cheap payroll software, 4) etc. along with ads that promote your product to a potential customer that’s concerned about pricing.

For multi-product campaigns

If you have many products or services you want to advertise, you could create an ad group for each product. This way you can write different ads for each product and send clicks on those ads directly to that product’s page on your website.

This ad is very relevant for searches on "leaky pipes."

For example , a plumber may create ad groups for 1) pipes, 2) water heaters 3) septic systems, 4) etc.

The ad group for pipes would then contain keywords like 1) burst pipes, 2) leaky pipes, 3) pipe repair, 4) etc. along with ads that speak directly to the problem of leaky pipes.

Relevance is key

The main thing is to use ad groups to serve the most relevant ad to each potential customer. If your “Pipes” ad group is showing ads about leaky pipes to a customer that is searching for “copper repiping,” you’ll want to create another ad group about repiping so you can show them the best ads .

The main thing is to use ad groups to serve the most relevant ad to each potential customer.

Don’t have a lot of time? Not sure where to start? Focus on your high-margin and high-volume products and services. Then, expand your ad groups from there.