How do you structure a Google Ads account, and why does structure matter?

The hierarchy is account → campaign → ad group → keywords and ads.

• Campaigns control budget, bidding strategy, location, language, network, and schedule. So split campaigns wherever those settings need to differ — by product line, by geography, by margin, or by intent.
• Ad groups hold tightly themed keywords with ads written specifically for them. The rule of thumb is that every keyword in an ad group should be answerable by the same ad.

Why structure matters:

• Relevance and Quality Score. Tight ad groups let the ad match the query closely, which lifts CTR and lowers cost per click.
• Budget control. Budgets are set at campaign level, so lumping high-margin and low-margin products together means you cannot fund them differently.
• Clear reporting. If a campaign mixes intents, the data cannot tell you which is working.

Note: The nuance worth adding is that structure has changed with smart bidding. Very granular single-keyword ad groups used to be best practice; now they can fragment conversion data so thinly that automated bidding cannot learn. The modern approach is consolidating enough to give the algorithm signal while keeping campaigns separate where settings or budget genuinely differ.