Google Ads · Account structure
Most accounts are organised around whatever made sense on day one. Ours are organised around your margins. We group campaigns by product, service, location and profit, so your budget flows to the parts of your business that earn the most, not just the parts that get the most clicks.
Account · example trades business
Each campaign has one job, one budget and one target.
Why it matters
In Google Ads, budgets and targets are mostly set at the campaign level. Whatever you group together shares one pot of money and one goal. Put a $300 service and a $3,000 service in the same campaign, and Google will happily spend on whichever gets cheaper clicks. That is usually the one that earns you less.
Good structure fixes that. Each campaign has a clear job, a clear budget and a clear target. You can see exactly what each part of your business costs to win, and move money to what works.
It’s also about feeding Google’s AI properly. Split things too finely and each campaign starves for data. Lump everything together and you lose control. The skill is finding the middle: enough data for smart bidding to learn, enough separation to protect your priorities.
Structure only works on top of honest numbers, so we always check your conversion tracking first.
Try it
Pick the closest match. Every account is different, but these are the patterns we start from.
Why this works: each service has its own budget, so a cheap-click service can’t swallow the money meant for your best work.
Why this works: products are grouped by profit, not just by category, so each ad dollar goes where it returns the most. More on our eCommerce growth work.
Why this works: each location has its own budget and results, so a busy city doesn’t swallow the budget for a smaller one.
Why this works: bidding learns from leads your team actually qualifies, not just form fills. See offline conversion imports.
Worked example
Two services, $1,000 a month each. Service A gets cheaper leads. Service B makes far more money.
| Service A | Service B | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per lead | $50 | $100 |
| Leads from $1,000 | 20 | 10 |
| Leads that become jobs (30%) | 6 | 3 |
| Profit per job | $400 | $1,500 |
| Profit from those jobs | $2,400 | $4,500 |
| Profit after ad spend | $1,400 | $3,500 |
Campaign types
Each type has a job. The skill is giving each one a clear lane so they don’t compete with each other.
Text ads on Google when people search for what you sell. The most control, and usually the backbone for service businesses.
Google’s AI features inside Search campaigns: broader search matching, tailored ad text and landing page choice. In September 2026 Google began upgrading older settings, like automatically created assets and campaign-level broad match, to AI Max. We use it on purpose, with negative keywords and brand controls in place.
One campaign across Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail and Maps. Strong for online stores and businesses with good conversion data. It now supports campaign-level negative keywords, which gives back useful control.
Product ads for online stores, and visual ads that build demand before people search. Useful alongside Search, rarely instead of it. See our YouTube advertising service.
What we find
These are the patterns that quietly waste the most money.
Budget flows to the cheapest clicks, not the most profitable work.
We split campaigns by margin and priority, each with its own budget and target.
No single part of the account gets enough data for smart bidding to learn.
We consolidate into clear themes that smart bidding can learn from.
Cheap brand searches make results look far better than they are.
Brand goes in its own campaign, so you see what your ads really achieve.
Performance Max takes your brand traffic and the credit for sales Search would have won.
Brand exclusions and negatives give each campaign its own lane.
Location set to people “interested in” your area, so ads show to people far away.
We target people in or regularly in your area, and exclude places you can’t serve.
How we restructure
A restructure done badly can reset months of learning. We plan it so you keep what works.
Margins, capacity, seasons and priorities. What do you want more of, and what can you actually handle?
We look at what has converted, and at what cost, before we change anything.
We map out campaigns, budgets and targets, and you approve it before we build.
Where it makes sense we launch new campaigns alongside the old ones, so you keep your history and don’t lose momentum.
Targets are matched to the margin of each campaign, not one number for the whole account.
We check closely every week for the first month, then keep optimising as part of your Google Ads management.
Keep exploring
Each of these works best alongside the others. Here is how the rest of our tracking and setup work fits together.
We manage Google Ads for businesses right across Australia, including Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Rockingham, Mandurah and Busselton.
Questions
What owners and marketing managers ask before a restructure.
As many as you have genuinely different budgets or goals, and no more. For a small local business that might be three to five. A large online store may need more. Each campaign needs enough conversions for smart bidding to learn.
New campaigns go through a learning period, usually a week or two. We plan changes to keep history where it matters, and move in stages rather than rebuilding everything at once.
If you sell online or have strong conversion tracking, often yes, alongside Search. For service businesses with less data, Search usually comes first. We decide based on your numbers, not on Google’s default recommendation.
It’s a set of AI features you switch on inside a Search campaign. It can match your ads to more searches, adjust your ad text and choose landing pages. Google started automatically upgrading some older campaign settings to AI Max in September 2026, so it’s worth checking what is switched on in your account.
Almost always. Brand searches are cheap and convert well. Mixed in with other searches, they make everything look better than it is and hide what your ads are really achieving.
When locations have different demand, competition or budgets, yes. We manage accounts for businesses in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and regional WA, each set up to match how people search there.
About the author
Director and Lead Consultant, Anahaw Media
John Conigliaro is the Director and Lead Consultant at Anahaw Media, a Perth digital marketing agency focused on performance. A Filipino-Australian digital marketer now based in Perth, WA, with more than 15 years’ experience across Singapore and Australia, he has led agencies in Australia on technical execution and growth strategy, founded a globally recognised eCommerce brand, and managed almost 300 campaigns, from small businesses to multinational brands, including Canon, Uniqlo, Benefit Cosmetics, Asiana Airlines, Changi Recommends, APM and Golfbox. He completed an MBA and a dissertation on Digital Transformation, holds a specialisation in Computer Applications from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde (DLSU-CSB), and is also a consumer tech critic and publisher. His mission is to use his talent and passion for digital marketing to change businesses for the better, in how they win customers and how they build their brand.
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Free guides
Plain-English, step-by-step guides from our team. Use them to do it yourself, or to know what good looks like before you hire anyone. See all guides
How to Structure a Google Ads Account That ScalesHow to structure Google Ads campaigns, ad groups, match types and negatives so your budget goes where it should and the account…Read the guide 
How to Use Performance Max Without Wasting BudgetHow to set up and run Google Performance Max with the right tracking, asset groups, brand exclusions, negatives and reports.Read the guide 
How to Write Google Ads That Get Clicks (and the Right Ones)How to write Google Ads that get clicks from people who buy: headlines, descriptions, pinning, assets, qualifying copy and honest claims.Read the guide 
