How to Structure Your Standard Shopping Campaigns

By: Jyll Saskin Gales, Google Ads Coach

Let's say you're selling products online and want to use Google Shopping Ads to drive sales. Awesome! But when it comes to structuring your campaigns, you might be wondering: should you go with one product per ad group, one brand per ad group, or maybe something else entirely?

Let's explore the best way to structure your Google Shopping campaigns to maximize your return on ad spend (ROAS). We'll cover:

• Why you don't want one product per ad group
• Strategic reasons to split your products into different ad groups
• When (and why) to use multiple campaigns for your Shopping Ads
• How to leverage labels for better organization and reporting

One Product Per Ad Group? Not So Fast!

While it might seem logical at first, having a separate ad group for each individual product in your inventory is usually not the most efficient approach. Why? Simply put, it creates unnecessary complexity and makes it difficult to manage your campaigns effectively.

When to Split Products into Different Ad Groups

That being said, you may not want to go to the other extreme, which is throwing all of your products into a single ad group. There are a few valid reasons why you might want to segment your products into different ad groups within the same campaign:

• Manual Bidding: If you're using manual bidding and want to set different bids for certain groups of products, separate ad groups can let you control bids by ad group.
• Audience Targeting: Want to apply audience targeting to some products but not others? Ad group level targeting can help you achieve this.
• Negative Keywords: Using negative keywords at the ad group level can prevent your ads from showing for irrelevant searches related to specific products.
• Organization & Reporting: If you prefer to keep things tidy, you can use ad groups to separate products by brand or category. However, labels can also achieve this without the added complexity of multiple ad groups.

When to use Multiple Campaigns for Google Shopping

In many cases, it makes sense to split your Google Shopping efforts into multiple campaigns rather than just separate ad groups within a campaign. This is particularly useful when you want to:

• Allocate Different Budgets: Ensure your top-performing, high-profit products get a larger chunk of your budget while less profitable items receive a smaller allocation.
• Customize Bid Strategies: Set different ROAS targets for different product categories. For example, you might aim for a higher ROAS on lower-margin items and focus on maximizing clicks for your bestsellers.

Feed Labels: Very Helpful for Organization

Don't underestimate the power of feed labels! They can help you segment and filter your products within a campaign without needing to create separate ad groups. This allows you to analyze performance, track data, and optimize your campaigns more effectively.

Key Takeaways for Shopping Campaign Structure

• Avoid creating an ad group for every single product. It's just not worth the hassle!
• Consider separate ad groups for manual bidding, audience targeting, or negative keywords.
• Multiple campaigns are your friend! Use them to allocate budgets strategically and customize bid strategies.
• Leverage labels to organize your products and simplify reporting.

By following these strategies, you can structure your Google Shopping campaigns for success and make more money online.