Campaign structure, match types and negative keywords

Good search campaigns are built from small, tidy pieces. When structure is right, ads match searches closely, Quality Score improves and reports are easy to read.

The account structure

• Account: billing and overall access.
• Campaign: budget, locations, languages, networks and bidding strategy.
• Ad group: a tight theme, with its own keywords and ads.
• Keywords and ads: what triggers the ad and what the searcher sees.

A common mistake is putting unrelated products in one ad group. If one ad has to cover "laptop repair" and "phone screen replacement", it will be weakly relevant to both. Split them into separate ad groups with their own ads and landing pages.

The three match types

Broad:  running shoes      widest reach, related meanings
Phrase: "running shoes"    must include the meaning of the phrase
Exact:  [running shoes]    same meaning as the keyword

Broad match finds new searches but needs careful monitoring and usually works best with a conversion-based bidding strategy. Phrase match is a common middle ground. Exact match gives the most control and is useful for proven, high-value terms. Match types now consider meaning and close variants, so a misspelling or plural can still match.

Negative keywords

Negatives stop your ad showing for searches you do not want. Review the search terms report regularly and add terms that waste money.

• A paid course might add "free", "pdf" and "download".
• A repair shop might add "jobs" and "salary" to block job seekers.
• Add negatives at campaign level when they apply to every ad group.

Be careful not to block good traffic. Adding "cheap" as a negative for a budget brand would remove buyers you want.

A weekly routine

1. Open the search terms report and sort by cost.
2. Add irrelevant terms as negatives.
3. Move strong converting search terms into their own keywords.
4. Check each ad group still has one clear theme.

Doing this every week keeps budget on relevant searches and gives you clear evidence to talk about in interviews.