Ad group

The ad group is where a search meets an ad. If its keywords mean different things, one ad cannot answer them all well, and click-through rate, Quality Score and conversion rate all suffer.

It is also the level where you compare ads, set some bids and choose the landing page, so a clear ad group makes the rest of the account easier to manage.

1. Open Campaigns, then a campaign, then Ad groups.
2. Open an ad group to see its keywords, ads and settings.
3. Check the Ads tab to see how many ads are enabled in it.
4. Use the keywords report filtered by ad group to see what it actually matched.

A florist splits a campaign into two ad groups: wedding flowers and funeral flowers. Each has its own keywords and an ad that speaks to that occasion, pointing to the right page, instead of one ad trying to cover both.

• Mixing keywords with different meanings in one ad group, so no ad fits them all.
• Running a single ad, so pausing it takes the group off air.
• Counting ad groups by name: copied campaigns reuse names, so check by ID.

The audit checks Oppy runs on this, each with its own page.

• Ad groups running on a single ad
• Ad groups where only one ad is still getting shown
• The same keyword bidding against itself in two campaigns

• Campaign: The level of a Google Ads account that holds the budget, the bid strategy, the networks, the locations and the languages.
• Keyword: A word or phrase you bid on, with a match type that decides how closely a search must match it.
• Responsive search ad: The standard search ad: up to 15 headlines and 4 descriptions that Google combines and tests for each search.