A well-structured Google Ads campaign has three levels: Account (billing + settings), Campaigns (one per service/product line), and Ad Groups (tight keyword clusters of 5-15 related terms). This structure allows precise budget control, relevant ad copy, and meaningful performance data.
Campaign structure is one of the most impactful decisions you make in Google Ads — yet it gets far less attention than ad copy or bidding strategy. Good structure makes accounts easier to manage, more efficient to optimise, and easier to scale. Poor structure is often the root cause of wasted spend and poor conversion rates. This guide covers the right approach for South African advertisers. See also: How to set up a Google Ads campaign.
The Three-Level Google Ads Account Hierarchy
Every Google Ads account is organised in three nested levels, and understanding what decisions belong at each level is the foundation of good structure:
- Account level: Billing, access management, linked accounts (GA4, GSC, Merchant Center), notification settings. Decisions here affect everything.
- Campaign level: Budget, bid strategy, location targeting, ad schedule, network settings, language. Each campaign gets its own daily budget and targeting parameters.
- Ad group level: Keyword lists, individual keyword bids (when using manual bidding), and the ads themselves. Ad groups are where targeting meets messaging.
How to Organise Your Campaigns
The most important principle: separate campaigns that need different budgets, different locations, or different bid strategies. Common ways South African businesses should separate campaigns:
- By service line: ‘Plumbing’, ‘Electrical’, ‘HVAC’ — each with its own budget and keyword set
- By location: ‘Cape Town Search’, ‘Johannesburg Search’ — useful if CPCs or conversion rates differ significantly between markets
- By campaign type: ‘Search’, ‘Display’, ‘Shopping’, ‘Performance Max’ — always separate, as they serve different purposes
- By funnel stage: ‘Brand terms’ (people searching your company name), ‘Generic terms’ (people searching the service category) — separate to protect brand traffic
How to Structure Ad Groups Within Campaigns
Each ad group should contain a tight cluster of keywords that share the same intent and can be addressed with a single, highly relevant ad. The Single Keyword Ad Group (SKAG) approach — one keyword per ad group — was popular years ago but is now overkill given Google’s Responsive Search Ad format, which handles variation within an ad group. Today, 5-15 tightly related keywords per ad group is the practical sweet spot.
Example structure for a digital marketing agency in Cape Town:
- Campaign: SEO Services Cape Town | Ad Group: ‘SEO agency Cape Town’, Ad Group: ‘Local SEO Cape Town’, Ad Group: ‘Technical SEO’
- Campaign: Google Ads Management | Ad Group: ‘Google Ads management Cape Town’, Ad Group: ‘PPC management’, Ad Group: ‘Google Ads agency’
- Campaign: Brand | Ad Group: ‘[brand name]’, ‘[brand name] reviews’, ‘[brand name] pricing’
Common Structure Mistakes to Avoid
- Mixing service types in one campaign: Gives you no control over relative budget allocation between services
- Too many keywords per ad group: Forces generic ad copy that matches nothing closely
- No brand campaign: Allows competitors to capture searches for your own company name
- Search and Display in one campaign: Display traffic vastly differs in intent and should always be separate
- No negative keyword lists: Without shared negative keyword lists, the same irrelevant terms will need blocking in every campaign individually
Google’s campaign structure best practices provide the official guidance on organising accounts for maximum performance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I have separate campaigns for each city I target?
It depends on your budget and how differently the markets perform. If Cape Town and Johannesburg have similar CPC and conversion rates, targeting both in one campaign is fine. If Johannesburg has 2x the CPC and different top keywords, a separate campaign per city gives you better budget control. Start with combined targeting and split when you have enough data to justify it.
What is a shared negative keyword list?
A shared negative keyword list is a set of irrelevant terms that you apply across multiple campaigns simultaneously. It saves time compared to adding the same negatives to each campaign individually. In Google Ads, find these under Tools > Shared Library > Negative keyword lists. Maintain a master list of universally irrelevant terms (e.g., ‘jobs’, ‘free’, ‘DIY’) and apply it to all campaigns.
How many campaigns should a South African SMB have?
Most South African SMBs start with 1-3 campaigns: one per core service line, plus a brand campaign once they have established brand awareness worth protecting. More campaigns are appropriate as the account matures, budget increases, and you want more granular control over specific service/location combinations.
When should I restructure an existing account?
Restructure when the current structure is preventing optimisation — for example, when two very different services are in one campaign and you cannot allocate budget between them, or when ad groups are too broad to write relevant ads. Restructuring mid-flight causes performance disruption (Google’s algorithms need time to re-learn), so plan restructures during lower-priority periods.
Does account structure affect Quality Score?
Yes — indirectly. Tighter ad groups with more relevant keywords allow you to write more relevant ads, which improves expected CTR and ad relevance components of Quality Score. The relationship is: better structure enables better relevance, and better relevance improves Quality Score, which reduces costs and improves position.