How Campaign Structure Impacts Your ROAS

Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) is one of the most critical performance metrics in digital advertising. It tells you how much revenue you’re generating for every pound spent on ads. While many marketers focus on ad creative, targeting, or bidding strategy to improve ROAS, one often overlooked factor is the structure of your advertising campaigns. A well-organised campaign structure can significantly influence ROAS by improving efficiency, relevance, and optimisation potential.

What Is Campaign Structure?

Campaign structure refers to how your advertising account is organised, including how campaigns, ad groups (or asset groups), keywords, and ads are segmented. A typical Google Ads account might include multiple campaigns segmented by goal, product category, or geographic region. Each campaign contains ad groups, which contain sets of related keywords and ads.

A good structure ensures that your ads are shown to the right people at the right time, with relevant messaging. A poor structure, on the other hand, can result in wasted spend, low Quality Scores, and ultimately a lower ROAS.

Why Campaign Structure Affects ROAS

The structure of your campaigns directly affects how well you can control and optimise performance. Here are several ways this happens:

• Targeting Precision: Proper segmentation allows for more precise audience targeting, which reduces wasted impressions and increases conversion rates.
• Budget Allocation: Structuring campaigns around business goals or performance tiers makes it easier to allocate budget to high-performing areas.
• Ad Relevance: Tightly themed ad groups mean your ads and keywords align more closely, improving Quality Score and reducing cost-per-click (CPC).
• Data Clarity: Better structure leads to cleaner performance data, making it easier to identify what’s working and optimise accordingly.

Common Campaign Structure Models

1. Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs)

SKAGs are hyper-focused ad groups that contain only one keyword. The idea is to match the ad text exactly to the user’s search query, boosting relevance and CTR. While more difficult to scale, SKAGs give advertisers ultimate control over performance, often leading to higher ROAS.

2. Thematic Campaigns

This structure organises campaigns based on themes, such as product categories or services. For example, a clothing store might have separate campaigns for men’s, women’s, and children’s apparel. Each campaign would then have ad groups for specific items like shirts, pants, or accessories.

3. Performance-Based Segmentation

Segmenting campaigns based on performance levels (e.g., high, medium, and low-performing products) allows for budget prioritisation and focused optimisation. This approach can lead to a significant ROAS increase by doubling down on what works and minimising spend on underperforming assets.

4. Geographic Segmentation

Dividing campaigns by location helps tailor messaging, offers, and bids to specific markets. For businesses that operate in multiple regions, this can lead to more relevant ads and improved ROAS by adapting to local consumer behaviour.

Best Practices to Improve ROAS Through Campaign Structure

1. Align Structure With Business Goals

Start by mapping your campaigns to your core objectives. For example, if your goal is to drive online sales, separate campaigns by product line or margin category to focus on the most profitable items.

2. Maintain Tight Keyword Themes

Keep ad groups focused on closely related keywords. This ensures your ads are directly relevant to search queries, which improves Quality Score and lowers CPC—resulting in a better ROAS.

3. Use Negative Keywords Effectively

Structure allows for strategic placement of negative keywords at different levels (campaign or ad group). This prevents keyword overlap and cannibalisation, which can inflate costs and hurt your ROAS.

4. Separate Brand and Non-Brand Campaigns

Brand keywords typically have higher conversion rates and lower costs, which can skew performance data. Separating them allows you to measure ROAS more accurately and allocate budgets strategically.

5. Monitor and Optimise Budget Distribution

When your structure is logical, it’s easier to reallocate budgets from low-performing campaigns to high-performing ones. This dynamic budget management is key to maximising ROAS over time.

Conclusion

Campaign structure is a foundational element that significantly impacts your ROAS. It affects how well your ads are targeted, how effectively your budget is spent, and how easily you can analyse and optimise your campaigns. Whether you’re using SKAGs, thematic organisation, or performance-based segmentation, the key is to align your structure with your marketing goals and constantly optimise based on data.

If you’re struggling with inconsistent ROAS, your campaign structure might be the problem—and the solution. Take the time to audit, refine, and realign your campaigns. Your return on ad spend may depend on it.

For more information on How Campaign Structure Impacts Your ROAS contact Click Return.

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