AdWords Campaigns - Can There Be Too Many?

One concern expressed by clients employing a service to handle their Google AdWords PPC advertising is the question of spreading campaigns too thinly. For companies and businesses dealing in multiple ventures, especially, are aware of their budgets and interested in maximizing pay per click ads to the best use, while at the same they want to be certain the money is spent wisely. When you consider how companies budget advertising in other media, the realm of online advertising offers a bit of diversity, and it can be easy to get lost in multiple campaigns.

When to Consider Multiple Campaigns in AdWords

Say you operate a retail business specializing in collectibles. Between trading cards and action figures, plush toys and autographs, you have a wide range of keywords on which to draw when planning online ads. A general ad for your collectibles store may not attract the level of traffic you desire when you consider that collectors will use the Internet to search for specific objects, so in this case it is good to have different campaigns highlighting your products.

Sports cards
Sports memorabilia
Plush toys
Dolls
Movie memorabilia

On the other hand, if your business is limited to two primary purposes or products, there may not be a need spread out your advertising dollars. The owner of a camping store, for example, may wish to focus on ads detailing camping equipment in general, as customers searching for these items are apt to buy several different things for a trip.

One Ad Per Keyword?

In order to retain high quality ratings in Google (and consequently lower bid prices on desired keywords), PPC managers will keep keyword bids as close to the ad text as possible. The more relevant the keywords are to the ad, naturally the less you will be charged as Internet users click through to your site (or a landing page tailored to your ad). This may beg the question: how detailed should your keyword lists be? Going back to the sports collectibles example, if you only deal in baseball cards, do you want to split your campaign into several ads, each representing a different team:

Atlanta Braves keywords for an Atlanta Braves card ad
New York Yankees keywords for a Yankees card ad
and so on...

In the realm of PPC advertising, there really are no right or wrong answers, as each company must tailor ad plans to suit their budgets and other needs. The best recourse is to experiment with campaigns and ads, monitoring closely to see where the successes happen. The more you learn about how AdWords can work for you, the better return on investment you're likely to see.