The essentials
- The principle: one campaign per objective, budget and area; one ad group per tight theme; ads that pick up the terms of the group; one landing page per theme.
- Separate: the brand from generic queries, Search from Performance Max and Shopping, areas or products with a different target cost.
- 2026 : fewer groups than in the past (automated bidding and broad match bring variants together), but themes that stay distinct for readability and Quality Score.
- Naming: a stable convention (type, objective, area, theme) to read the account at a glance and feed the reports.
The structure of a Google Ads account decides three things: how readable the results are (knowing what pays off), control of the budget (not letting one campaign absorb it all) and the relevance of the ads (Quality Score, cost per click). A badly structured account can work, but nobody knows why, or how to improve it. This article gives the levels of the account, the rules for splitting it up, the place of Performance Max, a naming convention and two model structures. The overall strategy is in SEA strategy.
The levels of the account
| Level | What you set there | Rule for splitting |
|---|---|---|
| Account | Billing, access, conversion tracking, shared lists (negatives, audiences) | One account per company or legal entity; a manager account (MCC) above it for agencies |
| Campaign | Objective, type (Search, Shopping, PMax, Display, video), daily budget, bidding strategy, areas, languages, schedule, networks | One campaign per combination of objective + budget + area + type; anything that needs its own budget or its own bidding target is a campaign |
| Ad group | Keywords, ads, audiences in observation, group-level bids | One group per tight theme: the ads must be able to pick up the words of the keywords |
| Keywords and ads | Match types, text, extensions | 5 to 20 closely related keywords, 2 to 3 responsive ads per group |
The rules for splitting into campaigns
- By objective: a campaign aiming at quotes and a campaign aiming at webinar sign-ups have neither the same target cost nor the same bidding strategy.
- By budget: if two themes each need a guaranteed budget, they are two campaigns; within a single campaign, Google spreads the budget according to the bidding, not according to your priorities.
- By area: areas with a different target cost or a different seasonality (head office and branch, France and Belgium) are managed separately.
- Brand kept apart: the queries containing your name convert very well at a low cost; mixed in with the generic ones, they mask the real performance of the others and distort the bidding targets.
- By type: Search, Shopping, Performance Max, Display and video are separate campaigns by nature; do not switch the Display Network on inside a Search campaign.
- By intent when the messages differ: “emergency” and “comparing quotes” call for different ads and different pages.
A small services business generally has 3 to 8 campaigns; an e-commerce site 5 to 15. Beyond that, check that each campaign reaches the volume automated bidding needs (30 conversions a month); otherwise group them together.
Ad groups in 2026
The very granular structures of the past (one keyword per group, dozens of groups) have lost their point: automated bidding optimises at query level, and broad match with Smart Bidding brings the variants together. The current rule: one group per theme whose queries can all be served by the same ads, with 5 to 20 keywords in broad match or exact match depending on maturity, and 2 to 3 responsive ads whose headlines pick up the terms of the theme. The Quality Score, which measures ad-keyword relevance, remains sensitive to that consistency; see the Quality Score and match types.
The place of Performance Max
- One Performance Max campaign per major objective or per family of products with a distinct target cost; inside it, asset groups by theme and listing groups (e-commerce) by margin or priority.
- Exclusion of brand queries in Performance Max (brand exclusions) so that the brand Search campaign keeps its conversions and PMax really does go looking for new customers.
- Search campaigns kept running in parallel on the brand and the strategic queries: PMax gives little visibility by query.
- Tracking of the share of new customers and of the overlap with Search in the reports.
A naming convention
A campaign name must say its type, its objective, its area and its theme without opening the campaign: SEARCH | Devis | Nantes | Pompe à chaleur, SEARCH | Marque | FR, PMAX | Ventes | Marge haute, DISPLAY | Remarketing | Panier. Ad groups carry the theme: PAC air-eau, PAC prix, PAC installateur. This convention feeds the reports (filters by type or area) and the dashboard; it must be written down and respected by everyone who touches the account, provider included. Bulk work is done in Google Ads Editor.
Two model structures
| Local small services business (heating engineer, 3 main towns) | E-commerce (200 products, 3 ranges) |
|---|---|
|
SEARCH | Brand : the company name and its variants SEARCH | Quotes | Main area | Installation : groups for heat pumps, boilers, air conditioning SEARCH | Quotes | Main area | Repairs : groups for heating emergencies, leaks, breakdowns (extended schedule, higher bids) SEARCH | Quotes | Secondary area : same themes, with their own budget and target DISPLAY | Remarketing | Abandoned quote PMAX | Quotes (optional, once 30 conversions a month are reached in Search) |
SEARCH | Brand SEARCH | Categories : one group per range, category pages SEARCH | Competitors (if it is a deliberate strategy, on a limited budget) PMAX | Sales | High margin : listing group with margin > 40%, low target ROAS PMAX | Sales | Standard margin : high target ROAS SHOPPING | Launches : new products on manual bidding DISPLAY | Dynamic retargeting | Basket DEMAND GEN | Awareness | New range (seasonal) |
In both cases: negative keyword lists shared at account level (off-target, jobs, free, DIY), a single conversion tracking setup, audiences in observation on every Search campaign. The e-commerce logic is detailed in SEA and e-commerce.
Restructuring an existing account
- Export the last 90 days by campaign, group, keyword and search term.
- Spot the mixtures (brand and generic, areas, objectives) and the groups that are too broad (ads with no connection to half the keywords).
- Draw the new structure on one page, with budgets and targets.
- Create the new campaigns in Editor, copying across the ads and keywords that perform; keep the old ones running for one or two weeks in parallel on a reduced budget, then pause them (the account's performance history is not lost, the groups' history is).
- Start again on automated bidding with realistic targets; learning takes two to four weeks.
How GreenRed helps
Rather than juggling several tools, GreenRed's Google Ads module brings these metrics together in a single dashboard, compares them over time and tells you which actions come first. You can try it free, with no card, from the Pricing.
Frequently asked questions
How many campaigns should a Google Ads account have?
As many as there are genuinely distinct combinations of objective, budget, area and campaign type: 3 to 8 for a small services business, 5 to 15 for an e-commerce site. Each campaign should aim for 30 conversions a month for automated bidding to work; below that, group them rather than multiply them.
Should you still create one ad group per keyword?
No. That structure (SKAG) has lost its point since automated bidding started optimising at query level and responsive ads started assembling the headlines. One group per tight theme, with 5 to 20 closely related keywords and 2 to 3 ads that pick up the terms of the theme, is enough and stays readable.
Why separate brand queries?
Because they convert very well and at a low cost: mixed in with generic queries, they pull the averages up, mask the real performance of the other keywords and distort the bidding targets. An isolated brand campaign, on a modest budget, makes the rest of the account readable.
How do you fit Performance Max in without breaking the structure?
One Performance Max campaign per major objective or family of products, with brand exclusions to let the brand Search campaign capture its own conversions, asset groups by theme, and listing groups by margin in e-commerce. Keep the strategic Search campaigns running in parallel and track the overlap and the share of new customers.