Most Google Ads performance problems I diagnose trace back to account structure. Not keywords. Not bids. Not ad copy. Structure.
A poorly structured account makes every other optimization harder. A well-structured account gives you clean data, clear levers, and the ability to actually see what’s working.
What Is the Basic Structure of a Google Ads Account?
Google Ads organizes in three levels:
Campaign → Sets budget, location, network, bidding strategy, and schedule.
Ad Group → Contains related keywords and the ads that serve for those keywords.
Ads + Keywords → The actual ads users see and the keywords that trigger them.
Most structuring problems happen at the ad group level — either too many themes crammed into one ad group, or too granular with ad groups that don’t have enough traffic to generate data.
How Should You Structure Ad Groups for Lead Generation?
One theme per ad group. That’s the rule.
An ‘emergency plumbing’ ad group should contain only keywords about emergency plumbing, and ads that specifically mention emergency plumbing. Not ‘drain cleaning,’ not ‘water heater repair,’ not ‘plumbing services.’ Those get their own ad groups.
Why it matters: when ad copy is specific to the search query, relevance goes up, Quality Score goes up, and CPC goes down. When ad copy is generic to cover a wide range of keywords, relevance suffers across all of them.
How Many Campaigns Should a Lead Gen Account Have?
For most local service businesses starting out: 1-3 campaigns is the right range.
Campaign 1: Core services, phrase/exact match. Your most important service categories, tightly targeted, controlled budget.
Campaign 2 (optional): Competitor or branded terms. Separate campaign so you can control budget specifically for competitor bidding without it competing with your main campaigns.
Campaign 3 (optional): Geographic expansion. If you’re testing a new service area, isolate it in a separate campaign so you can turn it off without affecting your core markets.
Don’t build 12 campaigns because it feels more organized. More campaigns mean more split budget, smaller data pools, and more complexity for no benefit.
What Keywords Should You Put in Each Ad Group?
For each theme, I recommend:
- 3-5 exact match keywords covering the main variations
- 2-3 phrase match keywords for slightly broader coverage
- No broad match in new campaigns (build negative keyword list first)
Example for ‘emergency plumbing’ ad group:
- [emergency plumber] — exact
- [emergency plumbing near me] — exact
- [24 hour plumber] — exact
- “emergency plumber” — phrase
- “emergency plumbing service” — phrase
Then negative keywords: ‘DIY,’ ‘how to,’ ‘free,’ ‘school,’ ‘training.‘
How Do You Know If Your Campaign Structure Is the Problem?
Three signs:
Low Quality Scores across your keywords. Usually means keywords, ads, and landing page aren’t aligned — which is a structural problem.
Search terms report showing a mix of very different queries. If your ‘plumbing services’ ad group is triggering for everything from drain cleaning to water heater installation to pipe repair, those should be separate ad groups.
Can’t tell which service is driving leads. If your campaigns are structured with broad themes, you can’t see which specific service type produces the best leads. Granular structure gives you that visibility.
What About Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs)?
SKAGs — one keyword per ad group — were popular a few years ago for maximum control and Quality Score optimization. With Responsive Search Ads and Google’s improved matching, they’ve become less necessary and harder to manage.
Modern best practice: small, tightly themed ad groups with 3-8 keywords of the same theme. Better than SKAGs for data volume. Better than large mixed ad groups for relevance.