Should You Ditch Single Keyword Ad Groups?

SKAG or Single Keyword Ad Groups was one of the best ways to manage Google Ads for a decade. 

Setting up Single Keyword Ad Groups was arduous but the concept was simple.

And Managing Google Ads SKAG was time-consuming, tedious and today, it is almost certainly not the way to go about it.

What is A Single Keyword Ad Group?

The general Strategy behind SKAG in Google Adwords was to have a 1:1 ratio between your ad group and the keyword.

With the old extended text ads, you controlled the three headlines and 2 descriptions that could show.

Not to mention, exact and phrase match types were much more precise/constricting those days. 

Most SKAG Google advertisers would have a campaign that encompassed one theme and each ad group represented one keyword variation in that theme. 

Often, within those ad groups would be one phrase, one broad modified, and one exact version of that precise keyword.

Some AdWords specialists would split the broad modified keywords into their own campaigns to control the wilder spend there.

Single Keyword Ad Group Strategy

The idea behind Single Keyword Ad Groups was that you were using the control that Google Ads (then Adwords) gave you to make a perfectly aligned experience for the searcher.

This came with laser-focused bidding and really high quality scores. It was a powerful thing to have this control over a specific phrase that you had identified as a cash cow.

Some even had custom keyword insertion on the landing pages to perfectly match the search term. 

SKAG gave Google Adwords advertisers the ability to outperform lazier account builds. Until Google’s shift towards automation.

Google Ads SKAG Downsides

I still have friends at big agencies that use SKAG. Even they see the writing on the wall and are shifting strategies fast.

The issue with SKAG in Google AdWords was and is that it’s work intensive. Just imagine an account with 15 themes and 100 variations of keywords in those themes. 

Management required hours per week (or custom rules, excel spreadsheet exports and some quality time with the Google Ads manager tool).

Google Ads SKAG in 2022

Now that we’ve reached the roaring 20’s, Google has further pushed simplicity in Google Ads to make it accessible to smaller businesses.

With that has come an emphasis on automation.

In reality, SKAG strength was in the control that you had over the keywords and ad copy. But no one has that anymore.

First, Google pushed responsive search ads (RSAs) to the point where you can no longer make the more controlled extended text ads.

RSAs require an input of 4-12 headlines that can interchange based on which combination Google thinks will get a click. 

Pinning your headlines in RSA will only restrict your volume and penalize your quality score.

Then came the loosening of match types. Google banished broad match modifier (BMM) keywords and phrase match became a sort of hybrid between their old selves and BMM.

And now you will see many variations of your exact keywords in your search terms report.

So in 2022, if you have one ad group with exact match [project management software] and another with exact match [project management tool], you will not only be unnecessarily limiting the volume of searches you could be eligible for but the same searches will trigger both of those ads, creating overlap in data which will make management harder.

SKAG Are Dead In 2022

Did I say that already?

Everything that you loved about SKAG is gone.

I’ve inherited a few accounts lately that still hold on to this hyper-controlled philosophy. They are suffering in the way they aggregate data and the volume they can achieve (even though they still can have good efficiency in terms of CaC).

I have seen a lot of success in conversion volume and valuable keyword discovery through loosening up my structure.

Enough negativity, what’s next?

Single Themed Ad Groups (B2B SaaS).

I’ve gone into this with more detail but the gist here is to loosen up

One “theme,” one ad group to start. It’s easier on you and it plays along with what Google Ads wants you to do. Don’t fight the system, you’ll lose. 

Think of the search terms.

Most of my B2B SaaS clients only offer one thing. For example, with my (make-believe) project management client, I’m going to start with a “medium value” campaign that includes some priority terms in 3-word phrase match.

My main ad group in that campaign will have things like “project management tool,” “task management software” and other relatively valuable words like that. 

If we have more budget, I might have a cheap campaign that has “project management” phrase match in it. 

Soon you’ll start seeing some terms like “Project management tool for small business” come through and you might want to create a campaign where you target terms like that if they are working for you. 

It’s a lot easier that way. Let the data guide you.

Single Keyword Ad Groups And Automation In Google Ads

Automation is so good these days that you probably want to make that your end goal.

In B2B SaaS, your market probably has much less data than say eCommerce or even high-volume SaaS areas like Meeting Scheduling solutions so you will have to give your account more data than other markets.

For this, you need to set up to optimize in max cpc but keep in mind that you will someday want to shift to ‘Max Conversions’ or ‘Target CPA.’ 

SKAG doesn’t work well with automation because you don’t give the account the wiggle room it wants to be able to discover what search terms and ad combos work well for your target user.

In my accounts, STAG had outperformed SKAG significantly across the board. I’m still not trusting pure broad on ‘the daily’ but even then, I use 4-5 keyword broad more than I would have 3 years ago.

How To Phase Out SKAG

In summary, you are going to want to start shifting out of SKAG in Google Ads sooner than later but you don’t want to just stop the campaigns you have in play.

I would suggest keeping your top-performing SKAG part intact (wherever you are getting conv. volume). Get rid of whatever is spending and not converting.

Create a campaign and take the keywords that are working in your account, move them to phrase match, and theme-ise them into ad groups with some RSAs.

You’ll have to decide what bid strategy to use but it’s always safe to start with Enhanced CPC and make the bids 20% higher than what their average was in their old groups.

You can run both in your account, they won’t compete, Google will just show the one with the better Ad Rank (Bid + Quality Score).

Ideally, you will get more volume and efficient conversions and you can turn your tedious SKAG campaigns off for good!

Thanks for reading!