Yes, SKAG Are Still Working in 2021, Here's Why

As summer is here, we can add some more heat to one of the hottest and controversial topics, SKAG. SKAG stands for Single Keyword Ad Group that has gained influential recognition in the PPC (Pay-Per-Click) universe. Why is that? On the whole, many marketers and advertisers believe it to be one of the many different yet highly productive practices to structure an ad campaign. It gives more control over Adwords accounts, helps achieve higher performance, skyrocket expected click through rate, enhance landing page experience, and drive more conversions.

Sounds great, but what makes SKAG lose its luster? Well, the reason is its time-consuming configuration and maintenance. You'll have to re-configure the Single Keyword Ad Group format for every keyword while building out ad sets per keyword. Some marketers loved it, and some denied it. Still, it is the best way to give a more exacting account structure.

Are SKAG Dead or Alive?

Sort of yes to the fact that Single Keyword Ad Group had faded out its omnipresence in PPC. It held the crown of a hallmark PPC strategy for many years, but it got lost in the landscape for its complexity. Let's understand why it happened with a simplified example!

If you're planning to run a standard ad structure with 1500 keywords, targeting three ads and five keywords per ads, you'll have to manage only 900 ads as a whole. However, if you convert this standard structure into a Single Keyword Ad Group, the ads count would rise to 4500, which is quite difficult to maintain. As a result, chances of unexpectedly blocking traffic to keywords increases, and your ad copy gets overlooked due to poor quality of maintenance.

However, something happened that brought SKAG back from the dead!

Over time, all Google search ads' advancements, made to improve the paid marketing results, helped Single Keyword Ad Group return to its original position. It is back with the same power to give you ultra-specific control over who clicks your ad so that you can improve your ad copy for each keyword. When you prepare a dynamic search ad model for your PPC campaign, rethink your strategies, and focus on semantic keyword relevance performance. In this situation, you're more likely to win better advertising results with more clicks & conversions. So, it's worth saying; Single Keyword Ad Group is still holding a bright future.

How is SKAG different from STAG?

Google Ads' universe is full of simple to complicated deciphering acronyms that seem similar but have different meaning and functionalities. For example, CR is the conversion rate that measures how many people clicked through your ad and bought your product. CTR, on the other hand, is a click-through rate that measures your ads performance. Both sound similar but possess huge differences.

Similarly, Single Keyword Ad Group & Single Theme Ad Group sound identical, many people even misheard, but they are purely different from one another and show different Google ads strategies.

What is SKAG

Single Keyword Ad Group describes an ad group strategy cherry-picked by many PPC marketers and advertisers. Let's dive deep into the comprehensive concept of this fabulous strategy.

Let's say you're running a local stationery business. You sell pens, bags, books, and other stationery items. Your Single Keyword Ad Group strategy would consist of one stationary campaign. In that campaign, you would have separate ad groups for each keyword you want to target. For example, you can create one ad group for books, one for pens and so on. The great thing here is you can tailor your ad groups according to the low to high displayed and clicked ads. In short. Single Keyword Ad Group offers excellent customization abilities, more relevant search results and better targeting opportunities.

The illustration shared below reflects an understanding of how SKAG is structured.

What is STAG

Single Theme Ad Group describes an ad groups strategy that heavily depends on more than one keyword. It focuses more on the search intent rather than keywords (SKAG does). Let's understand the concept with the stationary example as mentioned above. STAG strategy for the campaign would have only one ad group, let's say the best storybooks. This strategy would consist of the best storybooks and deliver content to the search intent accordingly. As a result, the searcher looking for the best storybooks in your region would receive the same ad. In short, it is a completely different approach to deliver search results.

The illustration shared below reflects an understanding of how Single Theme Ad Group is structured.

Understanding the Difference

Since you have an understanding of SKAG and STAG, let's investigate the core differences while setting up these two. The steps for setting up SKAG and STAG are almost the same, with the primary difference- STAG needs fewer ad groups than SKAG.

The first step involves comprehensive keywords research for SKAG and STAG both before creating a campaign. If you are running a stationery shop, you can perform keyword research on the products you offer, such as books, pens, cartridges, etc.

While going ahead with SKAGs, you'll have to create one ad group per keyword while ensuring you include the keyword in the eventual ad copy for your campaign. For effective ad copy, try to include all the different match types of keywords in the same ad group. Otherwise, you will end up creating separate ad groups of the same keyword with different matches, leading to complexity and cross-bidding of ads.

However, with a Single Keyword Ad Group, you will need to perform the same keyword research based on your products, but that's not the end of the story. You will have to identify the main themes for each campaign, such as purchase, cost, quote, and delivery. Once you're done with this, you can name the ad groups by theme name such as 'exclusive storybook must read', low-priced and much more.

If you think about which one you use, it depends on what you want to achieve from your Google ads. If SKAG is renowned for achieving better conversion rates, STAG, on the other hand, is best to gain more impressions.

Why SKAG Still Have an Edge?

Interesting question! Well, there are a tonne of benefits that SKAG brings to the table. Hence, it is still in the spotlight and has a competitive edge in the digital advertising space. A few reasons have been outlined below:

Improved Click-Through-Rate

When you use a Single Keyword Ad Group, your CTR (Click-Through Rate) will be supercharged! It makes your ad copy tone with the search queries of the users. Thus, it is likely to get more clicks. Otherwise, having different keywords for each ad is like landing into a stage where your ads will be hard to find relevant clicks.

Improved Quality Score

CTR has a great impact on the quality score. If your CTR is improved, you'll eventually observe an improved quality score. Infact, you'll start observing more impression shares, cost per clicks, and many other things that can help your ads' with high visibility and greater reach. So guess what? SKAG helps you achieve an improved quality score.

Increased Ad Relevance

With SKAG, you can make sure that your keywords are specific to fine-tune the search terms. When your ads are relevant to what users are searching for, it will experience an increased ad relevance, and Google will reward you with higher average positions. This would be the core reason you'll start outranking your competitors.

More Relevant Landing Page Experience

Using a Single Keyword Ad Group, you can better analyze and control your landing page as it helps you understand how many users have clicked your ad and visited your landing page. With the information and analytics, you can provide a more personalized landing page experience to your users. Ideally, you'll move one step ahead to create a streamlined experience for your potential customers that will keep them focused from clicking on your ad to visiting your page.

High Conversion Rates

Single Keyword Ad Group allows you to present search terms as new keywords that enhance your control and help you halt bids on lower-performing keywords. It helps you draw high conversion rates and intents because a large share of your clicks will likely convert. When you see higher CR and expected click through, you'll eventually experience better conversions.

Are SKAG Still Evolving in 2021?

Absolutely. SKAG is evolving in 2021 and will continue to shine in the PPC world for years to come. SKAG has proven to be the most effective way of improving quality score and conversion rate and is still considered the perfect choice to create ads copy as relevant & engaging as possible. Though Google ads weren't in favour of this strategy when it originated, surprisingly, all the changes rolled out in Google algorithms have brought back the real fighter of the relevant search ad setup in the ring.

The Bottom Line

If you'd ask us what we feel about Single Keyword Ad Group, then, to be honest, this technique is highly effective and robust in terms of performance. The way it boosts conversions, landing page experience, quality score, expected click through, and ad relevance is highly commendable. However, it is also doing a great job by helping marketers and advertisers like you control your account. To sum it up, Single Keyword Ad Group is worth testing. Don't underestimate their power for Google ads. Just implement them correctly and reap the many benefits.

Need help with setting up a Single Keyword Ad Group? Please shoot us an email! We'd love to help you out.