PPC management done properly: structure, match types, negatives, bidding and how to judge an agency

Paid search is run well when four things are in place: an account structured so each campaign owns one budget decision, match types chosen deliberately with the search terms report read weekly, a negative keyword list that is maintained rather than written once, and a bid strategy fed by conversion tracking you trust. A good agency shows you all four inside your own Google Ads account, in your name, with the search terms report open. An agency that reports only clicks, impressions and a position number is hiding the part that costs you money.

This page covers how a Google Ads search account is built and run, and how to judge an agency. For the organic side, read a comparison of paid search and SEO.

Account structure: one decision per campaign

Structure is not tidiness, it is control. A campaign is where budget, location, language, bid strategy and schedule live, so the right question is: what do I want to turn up and down on its own? Google's guide to account organization sets out the levels.

• Split by budget decision. If you would ever want to spend more on commercial cleaning than on domestic, those are two campaigns, not two ad groups.
• Split by geography when economics differ. Same service, different cost per lead by city, means separate campaigns with separate targets.
• Split brand from non brand, always. Brand searches convert cheaply and flatter every average they are mixed into.
• Keep ad groups tight enough to write one honest ad. If a single headline cannot speak to every keyword in the group, the group is too wide.
• Do not build hundreds of single keyword ad groups by habit. They starve each other of the data modern bidding needs most.

Match types, and the report that governs them

Broad match is the default type for a new keyword, and it reaches the widest set of searches. Phrase narrows it, exact narrows it further. Google's own guidance on keyword matching options notes that broader match types capture everything the narrower ones do, plus more, and that broad match is designed to be used with Smart Bidding, because the right bid for an unpredictable query has to be set at auction time.

Let match type follow confidence. Use exact and phrase where you know the query converts and want a specific ad and landing page. Use broad where you are still discovering demand, and only with conversion based bidding and a disciplined negative list.

Either way, the search terms report is the control panel. It shows what people actually typed. Read it weekly, and treat every expensive non converting term as a decision: add a negative, or build a proper ad group for it.

Negatives: the half of the job most accounts skip

Negative keywords are how you stop paying for searches that were never yours. One detail changes how you write them: Google states that negative keywords do not match close variants or other expansions. Exclude the negative broad keyword "flowers" and your ad will not serve on "red flowers", but it can still serve on "red flower". Plurals, misspellings and singulars each need listing.

• Build three lists. A permanent account level list for terms you never want, such as free, jobs, salary, DIY and torrent. A category list per service line. A campaign list for its own cross contamination.
• Use account level negatives for the global list, so it applies across search and shopping inventory rather than being pasted into each campaign.
• Add negatives at the right level. Cross campaign leakage belongs in a shared list, one bad query belongs in its ad group.
• Check what the negatives blocked. An over negated account goes quiet. Review impressions after a big negative push.

Bidding, and the data it needs

Conversion tracking comes first. A bid strategy aiming at cost per action or return on spend is only as good as the conversion it chases, so define the conversion as the thing you would be happy to pay for, and deduplicate it.

Strategy	Use it when	Watch for
Manual or maximise clicks	Brand new account with no conversion history, or pure traffic goals	Clicks rising while leads do not
Maximise conversions	You want volume at whatever cost the budget allows	Cost per lead drifting up as it spends the budget
Target CPA	Lead generation with a known acceptable cost per lead	A target set so tight that volume collapses
Target ROAS	Ecommerce with reliable revenue values passed back	Revenue sent without margin, so the strategy optimises for discounts
Target impression share	Brand defence on your own name	Paying for visibility that organic already had

For ecommerce, send real values. Google supports conversions with cart data, which reports what was actually bought rather than one order total. Where margins differ sharply by product, feed margin rather than revenue, so bidding optimises for profit.

Two diagnostics are worth knowing properly. Quality Score is a 1 to 10 keyword level diagnostic built from expected clickthrough rate, ad relevance and landing page experience, each rated against advertisers who showed for the exact same search in the last 90 days. Google is explicit that it is not a key performance indicator and not an input in the auction, so use it to find weak ad groups and ignore account wide averages. Ad Rank decides eligibility and position, and Google builds it from six factors including your bid, ad and landing page quality, the Ad Rank thresholds, the context of the search and the expected impact of your assets. That is why a better landing page can lower your cost per click.

How to tell a good PPC agency from a bad one

Ask this	A good answer	A bad sign
Whose Google Ads account is it?	Yours, billed in your name, with them on manager access	Their account, their billing, no admin access for you
Can I see the search terms report?	Shown on the call, with this week's negatives	A branded PDF of clicks and impressions
What is your fee?	A flat retainer, or a percentage with a floor and a cap, stated in writing	A percentage of spend only, which rewards spending more
What will you do in month one?	Fix conversion tracking, restructure, write negatives, then test	Promises you a position, or quotes a fixed cost per lead
Who writes the landing pages?	A named owner and a plan, because Ad Rank includes landing page quality	Not our scope
How do you report?	Leads and revenue from your CRM, reconciled with the ads platform	Conversions counted only in the ad platform

Read Google's own guidance on managing spend before you sign, so the budget conversation is yours. In a restricted category, read the Google Ads policies too.

A weekly and monthly rhythm

• Weekly. Search terms report, add negatives, check budget pacing, check the top ten spending terms for conversions, look at disapprovals.
• Monthly. Structure review, ad tests with enough data to call, landing page conversion rates, bid targets against actual cost per lead, Quality Score components on the weakest ad groups.
• Quarterly. Rebuild the worst campaign, review the negative list for over blocking, reconcile platform conversions against closed business.

Asked and answered: PPC management done properly

How much should I spend on Google Ads to start?

Enough for the bid strategy to learn, which means enough clicks on your core terms to produce conversions in a month rather than a quarter. Work it backwards: your acceptable cost per lead times the number of leads you need to judge the channel. If that number is beyond the budget, start with a narrower set of terms rather than a thinner spread.

Should I pay an agency a percentage of ad spend?

It is a common model and it is workable with a floor and a cap written in. On its own it rewards your agency for raising spend rather than for lowering cost per lead, so pair it with a flat component and a target that both of you sign.

Do I need to bid on my own brand name?

Bid on it when competitors are appearing on your name, when you are running promotions you want controlled, or when your organic listing does not answer the query. Keep it in its own campaign so it never flatters the rest of the account.

Why is my cost per click rising?

Check four things in order: competition in the auction, your ad and landing page quality signals, how much broad match has widened your reach, and whether a bid strategy target was changed. Ad Rank combines your bid with quality and context, so a weak landing page shows up as a higher price.

How long before paid search works?

Clicks arrive on day one. Useful judgement arrives once you have enough conversions to compare one thing with another, which is weeks rather than days. Set the review date when you launch, and do not change bids, ads and budgets in the same week.

The line your PPC report leaves out

A PPC report covers impressions, clicks, cost and conversions inside the accounts you manage. It leaves out the buyers who asked an assistant for a provider, got three names and never saw an ad. When one of them later searches your brand name and clicks, the credit may go to paid search.

Ask your agency whether they check it. If not, do it monthly: five category questions, three assistants, a record of names and sources. AI Knows Us automates that record across the major assistants.