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Are SKAGs still the way to go?
Hi all, I am relatively new to digital marketing as a whole. I have a general understanding of how Google Ads work and have developed a few of my campaigns without much direction on what my configuration was actually doing to the results of the campaign. I know how to work the UI and understand the basic concepts related to PPC, but my knowledge doesn’t go much further than that.
I recently had a consultation with an ads specialist who recommended that I separate my campaigns’ keywords into separate ad groups, one per ad group. After brief research I discovered he was talking about SKAGs. I know that there have been a fair amount of changes to Google’s algorithms over the past year or two, wanted to get an opinion on SKAGs and if they’re worth the time. So far I’ve implemented SKAGs in more than half of my campaigns, but I’m wondering what the real value of this is? Yes I can see how each specific keyword is performing, but couldn’t I see that before as well just by clicking into the ad group?
I like the structure it provides for my campaigns, but is it worth the overall time and effort to create effectively identical ads for every ad group, of which there is one ad group per keyword? Just not so sure what SKAGs will actually do for the effectiveness of the campaign.
Thanks in advance,A PPC Rookie
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1 Reply
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No SKAGs are not the way to go. You should now group your ad groups thematically, also known as STAGs (single theme as groups). With the changes to Google’s matching rules, SKAGs don’t really work anymore.
I’d be cautious working with a specialist who recommended SKAGs because it’s a pretty outdated view.
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No. SKAG has no worked for many brands for years. I would be careful with what other advice this ad person gives you.
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Skags died a couple years ago.
Strategy will depends on the product you’re offering, I agree with the other commentor almost all of the Accounts I manage are STAG. I have one that’s broad match but still within a certain theme, just a bit broader of a theme.
I would definitely not follow that consultant, sounds like he hasn’t been following the changes going on with Google Ads.
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Change your specialist.
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I dropped skags two years ago and never looked back
Purify those ST and let’er rip
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Nope. Non-optimal for about the past 3 years, yet I find that when I audit accounts that have been run by large, reputable agencies (who probably have clients I can only dream of due to their size) they are still building them and running them. It’s 2023 people!!!
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Yeah they’re a bit behind the times and have been for a couple years at the very least
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I guess you could do SKAGs with KWs on broad match. But once you use broad match, you’re really destroying any advantage that the granular ad groups gave you anyway. I’m using closely related phrase and exact match keywords in ad groups. Keeping them thematically tight, but not separating by each slight variation of keyword that basically has the same intent anyway
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I do topic (or root keyword) based ad groups to theoretically get ad scores down so each headline doesn’t have to be keyword based.
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My current employer uses SKAG campaign structure format for their search campaigns. The industry of my employer is the travel industry and bidding on name terms is important (online travel agencies also bid on our name terms). I transitioned the majority of my accounts to the stag campaign structure, with each ad group consisting of 3 ads (minimum). At the end of the year I was happy to hear the majority of the accounts with the highest ROAS were of the STAG structure and managed by me.
The best part is some team members still talk shit about broad match, but of course it’s going to fail miserably in the SKAG structure
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You should group based on themes
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