How to Build a Thematic Campaign (Two Lists)

Thematic campaigns in SpeedPPC allow you to create campaigns according to traditional best practices in search engine marketing, where each ad group is built around a specific keyword. This enables you to create ads that are relevant to those keywords.


This contrasts the more finely-tuned Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) strategy. This approach allows you to create highly relevant ads, leading to higher quality scores and lower CPCs. However, SKAGs are not the best solution for every account and may not outperform thematic campaigns for every advertiser. The mantra "always be testing" applies here. 
We encourage you to try different things to determine your best campaign structure. Single Keyword Ad Groups also create very large campaigns and can push against the limit both Google and Microsoft have of 20,000 ad groups per campaign. In some cases, thematic campaigns are much more manageable and practical. They can be a handy tool in your PPC toolbox.

Thematic Campaign Visual Representation

Some benefits of using a thematic campaign

  • Better Control: Use fewer sets of keywords instead of hundreds, making it easier to control and manage. 
  • Performance Management: Easily check which ad copy performs best and which ad copy needs to be optimized.

How to create a thematic campaign

On the SpeedPPC Dashboard, click Campaigns and select Add New Campaign. You can also go to the Campaigns Section and click New Campaigns.


Add your campaign details like campaign name and description, targeted platform, and type of ad. Under Campaign type, choose Thematic Campaign and Combine Two Keywords List.


On the Keyword Setup screen, you'll see boxes for your seed keywords and expansion 1 list. Your seed keywords designate your keyword themes, and these will become your ad groups. Inside each ad group, the seed keyword will be paired with every keyword in the expansion 1 list.


Note that if you use more than one keyword match type (for example, exact match and broad match), SpeedPPC will put all the match type variations in the same ad group.


From here, the campaign builder will guide you in completing your thematic campaign.


Do some keywords sound clunky to you? If you want the expansion keyword to come first to sound more natural, you can add the additional variation via the Advanced Options section at the bottom of the Keyword Setup screen. Change Mix Type from Same as Column Order to Every Variation.


This would be important if you used the exact or phrase keyword match type, where word order matters. If you didn't want the original unnatural keyword version, you could eliminate those after exporting your campaign from SpeedPPC.


FAQs

How many keywords should I have per Ad Group?
For thematic campaigns, we recommend having at least 25 keywords. 
My ads haven't turned out correctly. What have I done wrong?
Our first recommendation is to work through the campaign steps methodically to ensure you haven't missed anything. Common mistakes include mistyping the tokens or trying to use an unavailable token. For example, you can only use the {seed} token in thematic campaigns. If you are having problems uploading, check out the Troubleshooting Guide for Campaign Uploading video, which covers the most common issues.

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