How To Set Up & Optimize Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs)

Single keyword Ad Groups (SKAG’s) are not a new PPC concept, they’ve been around for some time. But the best approach to using them has changed over the years.

In this article, I’ll lay down the best approach to using SKAGs in 2019 and offer you a free Google Sheets tool that will help you build them faster than you can in Google Ads Editor alone.

Quick Recap - What are Single Keyword Ad Groups?

The name kinda gives it away but not quite. The idea is to use one keyword per Ad Group. In doing so, you align your ad copy with the users search query more precisely. This is good for several reasons,

• Improves Ad Relevance
• Increases CTR
• Improves Quality Score
• Precise bidding and budgeting control
• Lowers CPC’s
• Lowers cost per conversion

Additional compounded benefits as a byproduct of the above.

Creating highly customised ads that precisely match the users query will take your SKAG's structure to new performance heights. And going one step further and creating customised landing pages will push the needle even further… Cha Ching!

The caveat to SKAG's is that they can include multiple match types of the same keyword. So that means your “single” keyword Ad Group can contain multiple keywords.

For example,

• [survey software]
• “survey software”
• +survey +software

How Do Match Types Effect SKAG’s in 2019?

It depends if you see your glass half full or half empty but “back in the good old days” when exact match used to be just that, SKAG’s were a little easier to control.

It helps to understand how match types work in 2019.

Did you notice “close variants”? Well that’s kind of a big deal.

To make things a little more confusing Google defines close variants for each match type differently. Loosely, close variants include, misspellings, singular and plural forms, abbreviations and acronyms, and stemmings (like “floor” and “flooring”).

The biggest change to match types is with Exact. This really has PPC managers up in arms.

With exact match, your ads may appear when the meaning of someone’s search matches the meaning of your keyword.

Implied words (for example, if your exact match keyword is [daydream vr headset], your ads may show on searches for “daydream headset” since “vr” is implied)

Synonyms and paraphrases (for example, if your exact match keyword is [bathing suits], ads may also show on searches for “swimming suits”)

Same search intent (for example, if your exact match keyword is [images royalty free], ads may also show on searches for “free copyright images”)

Exact! That’s hardly exact now is it. As voted by a Search Engine Land contest perhaps a better name is Exactish :)

You can argue from both sides whether close variants are good or bad. Many PPC managers complain of a lack of precise control which is a valid point but on the flip side if you consider that approximately 20% of queries each day are unique close variants help drive extra search volume without the need to constantly create new keywords.

So what does this all mean for SKAG’s?

Query mapping is harder than it’s ever been.

Before the match type updates it made sense to include singular and plural Ad Groups in your SKAG structure. These days it’s possible by adding cross negatives but is it worth the hassle? I would argue in most cases probably not.

It’s a balance between granularity and data dilution. The more volume you have, the greater the need for granularity.

The Perfect SKAG structure

Let me start by saying there isn’t one.

This goes for SKAG’s and any other PPC structure.

Should you have 1 Ad Group per match type? 1 campaign? How about Alpha / Beta?

There are multiple factors that will dictate the best structure for your account.

• Search volume
• Lead gen VS E-commerce
• Hours available to manage your account

I would say for the vast majority of advertisers keep it simple. That means each Ad Group should contain 1 keyword with 3 match types (BMM, Phrase & Exact).

Don’t create separate Ad Groups for close variants and don’t separate your match types into dedicated Ad Groups or campaigns.

Once a search query hits a decent amount of volume, you can break it out into its own SKAG and use a cross negative in the original.

There are exceptions, this is not a hard and fast rule but in our experience the extra work required to break them out doesn’t pay off unless you hit some serious volume. You’ll end up diluting your data across multiple Ad Groups and campaigns.

As we move more towards automation and hand the keys over to the algorithms, the need for extra granularity diminishes even further. Smart bidding is getting more and more sophisticated. It can predict the likelihood of conversion at query level. Unlike manual bidding where you’re looking backwards smart bidding is predicting and looking forwards.

How To Build SKAG’s

If you’re sold on SKAG’s you’re probably looking for a simple solution to implement them. The obvious choice is to jump straight into Google Ads Editor or excel. I built a Google Sheets tool to help build SKAGs for our client accounts. Using the tool and Google Ads Editor together you can turbo-charge your SKAG’s build.

Fortunately you can download a free copy here.

I also created this short tutorial video which walks you through how to build SKAG’s using the tool.

SKAG’s optimisation

Once you’ve built your SKAG’s, you need to continuously optimise them. The focus is query refinement.

After your campaigns have collected some data, you need to monitor your search query reports. The idea is to ensure your search queries (the actual search the user made, not the keyword) matches your SKAG closely.

Let’s say, for example, you have an Ad Group for “Survey Software Companies” and within this Ad Group you notice many queries “The Best Survey Software Companies”. You need to break this query out into its own SKAG. When you do this ensure you add “best” as a cross negative to the original Ad Group. We show you how to do this in our tutorial video.

This process can be time-consuming but it will pay over the long term. Over time your search queries will more closely match your ad copy and your account will receive all the benefits we touched on in the beginning of the article.

You also really need to stay on top of duplicate search queries. This is where the same search query is being triggered in more than 1 Ad Group. When this happens, it dilutes your data and optimisation potential.

If you have never implemented a Google Ads script, don’t panic they are actually not that complicated. Check out this article which explains how to implement a cross query checking script. When you run it the results are output into your designated Google sheet. The report will look something like this: 

You can quickly see which queries are being triggered across multiple Ad Groups. Unfortunately the recent close variant changes can create a real mess here so take the time to build out and refine your SKAG structure for optimal performance.

Closing Thoughts

SKAGs, when done right, will improve the performance of your account. Just don’t forget to customise your ads and landing pages because ultimately this is what will make the difference.

I would love to hear your thoughts on SKAGs in 2019 and if you have any improvements for the tool I would be happy to upgrade it.