Are you already familiar with your top-performing keywords and considering SKAG structure? We've got you covered. SplitMetrics Acquire streamlines and automates SKAG campaign creation, saving you hours of manual work and maximizing your brand's impact.
☝️ SKAG is an acronym for Single Keyword Ad Group. This term is used by growth marketers in reference to an account structure strategy, that entails using a single keyword for each ad group.
SKAGs revolutionize ad campaign management by offering enhanced control, relevance, and ultimately, better performance when done right. However, the traditional creation and management of SKAGs can be labor-intensive and time-consuming. Whether you're diving into SKAGs or exploring alternative strategies, our goal is to make campaign management effortless, so you can focus on driving results ⚡️
⭐️ Save Time and Effort: You say goodbye to manual SKAG creation. Create single-keyword ad groups 30 times faster with our intelligent in-bulk SKAG management automation feature.
⭐️ Automated Settings: Copy ad group settings from another ad group with a click of a button, use quick macros for naming, and assign CPT Bid to all keywords and CPA CAP to all ad groups simultaneously.
⭐️ Efficient Cross-Negation: Automate cross-group negatives to avoid ad competition and target distinct keywords.
⭐️ Enhanced Control Over Spending: With SKAG you can adjust CPA caps for specific keywords, fine-tune CPA and spend, while targeting top-performing brand and high-intent keywords.
⭐️ Painless Scale and Revenue Growth: SKAGs enable precise targeting, driving up CTR and conversions. Scale top-performing keywords and test new storefronts while focusing on profitability.
⭐️ Optimized ROI: Deliver highly relevant, keyword-specific ads that sync perfectly with users' search queries. Drive better engagement, TTR, and CR while keeping costs low and impact high.
Whether you're discovering new keywords or managing your campaigns in the Ads Manager, the Add as SKAG modal makes it easy to create single keyword ad groups and set their parameters. This modal is accessible through the Create and Actions menus in the Ads Manager, as well as in the Keyword Discovery and Market Intelligence tools.
Step 1. Access the Add as SKAG modal
There are two simple ways to access SKAG creation in the Ads Manager.
➡️ From the Keywords, Negative Keywords or Search Term dashboards, select the desired keywords or search terms you wish to include in your SKAG campaigns, and choose the Add as SKAG option from the Actions menu.
➡️ Alternatively, click the + button from any tab in the Ads Manager and select Add keywords as SKAG.
To access SKAG creation in Keyword Discovery, Keyword Gap or CPP Intelligence tools, simply select the checkboxes next to the keywords you'd like to add to single-keywords ad groups, unfold the list by clicking Open and choose Add keywords > Add as SKAG.
Step 2. Specify SKAG settings
Once you click the Add as SKAG modal, the Create single keyword ad group pop-up window will appear. From here, you can effortlessly provide settings for the ad groups in bulk and quickly generate ad groups for all the keywords you want.
1. Choose the target campaign where you want to add keywords. You can create SKAGs for multiple Search Results campaigns at once.
2. Next, determine the ad group settings. Ad group settings, such as Search Match, Devices, Age Range, Gender, Location, Customer Type, Dayparting may be copied from any other existing ad group, or set by default.
💡 Tip: To enable Search match for an ad group during its creation, select the Copy settings from another ad group option and choose an ad group where Search match is already enabled. This way, you can skip the extra step of adjusting settings in the new ad group after it’s created.
Note. The settings from the selected ad group will be applied to each newly created ad group. Location settings will not be copied if the storefronts differ.
3. Customize SKAG naming template by including macros to use in newly created ad group names. For instance, you can set such templates as SKAG_{keyword}_{storefront} or any other. We've included the 'SKAG-{keyword}' as a mandatory part of the template so you won't have to worry about the duplicates.
4. Specify the CPT bid and CPA cap to apply in bulk to all the SKAG campaigns.
If you'd like to set CPT bid and CPA cap individually for each ad group, select the corresponding checkbox and provide values for each keyword manually.
5. In the keywords list, you'll find the keywords you selected along with their match types. Here, you can remove keywords, change match type and add new keywords by typing their names separated with commas or from a new line.
❗ If you'd like to ensure that all keywords remain unique within the target campaign(s) you've selected, enable the checkbox Check for duplicate keywords in the target campaign.
When this checkbox is selected, we will validate keywords in the target campaign(s) to help you ensure their uniqueness, and will let you know if any duplicates were detected before you can proceed with publishing single-keyword ad groups.
When unselected, we will only check for duplicate ad groups within the target campaign (ignoring keyword duplication), giving you more control over the validation process.
Step 3. Publish your SKAG campaigns
Review your settings and configurations, then click the Create Ad Groups button. As simple as that!
Adding keywords as cross-negatives means excluding those keywords from triggering ads in other ad groups within the same campaign. Cross-negatives help you avoid keyword cannibalization, a common issue that can dilute your ad spend and lower conversion rates. By strategically implementing cross-negatives, you ensure that each ad precisely targets a specific search term, maximizing relevance and improving your overall campaign ROI.
With SplitMetrics Acquire, you can automate this process, making it seamless to add cross-group negatives to your ad groups and campaigns in bulk ✨
Adding cross-group negatives from the Action menu
When managing your Ad Groups within a SKAG campaign, you can update negative keywords in other Ad Groups to maintain the SKAG structure without the need to edit them manually.
➡️ Keywords from each selected ad group will be added as negative keywords to all other selected ad groups within the same campaign.
➡️ Negative keywords will be added with the ‘Exact Match’ setting to ensure precise targeting.
❗ Important. Cross-negation will be performed only between ad groups under the same campaign. For example, when you select multiple campaigns for cross-negation, the negative keyword lists will be updated independently within each campaign’s ad groups.
For instance, if you choose Campaign A (with ad groups 1 and 2) and Campaign B (with ad groups 3 and 4):
Cross-negation will happen between ad groups 1 and 2 within Campaign A.
Cross-negation will happen between ad groups 3 and 4 within Campaign B.
Cross-negation will not happen between ad groups from different campaigns, e.g. 1 and 3, or 2 and 4.
👈 Click on the arrow to reveal the diagram illustrating how cross-negation works.
👈 Click on the arrow to reveal the diagram illustrating how cross-negation works.
To add cross-group negatives, follow the steps below:
1. Navigate to the Campaign, Ad Groups or Ad Groups Settings dashboards.
2. Select the checkboxes next to the Campaigns or Ad Groups you want to add cross negatives to.
3. From the Actions menu, select Add cross-group negatives.
4. In the pop-up window, you can select whether you’d like to cross-negate keywords between specific ad groups or all ad groups within the campaigns you specify.
5. Click Add negative keywords to apply the changes. We will add all keywords from the selected ad groups as negative keywords to all other selected ad groups within the selected campaign.
💡 Note. Certain keywords will not be added as negatives under specific conditions:
If the keyword already exists as a negative keyword in the target ad group.
If the keyword is identical to an existing target keyword in another ad group (full duplicate).
Partial duplicates, differing only in special symbols (e.g. '&', '%', etc.)or spaces, will also be skipped. Since Apple Ads logic ignores special characters in negative keywords, presence of similar keywords with and without special characters may otherwise lead to blocking impressions.
That's it! Now you can finally unleash the full potential of SKAGs with SplitMetrics Acquire and drive the maximum scale of your top performing brand or high intent keywords. Try our streamlined flow and see the difference 🚀