Aaron Young argues for a "less is more" approach to Google Ads campaigns. Start with one campaign and one ad group, then add more only when they serve a clear purpose: matching different search intents, controlling budgets by geography, targeting different networks, or separating high-performing products that need more spend.
I get asked this question all the time when it comes to Google Ads, and that is how many Google Ads campaigns should you be running inside of your account? And the way that I want you to think about is this, is that more campaigns does not mean more results. And when you add in more campaigns, you're just adding in more complexity, which means there's more chances that things can go wrong. What I want you to think about, and I know inside of Define Digital Academy What we really run on is this principle is that less is more. And what we really look at is that we have a starting point of one campaign and one ad group. Now, 99% of the time we need more than one campaign or one ad group, but by positioning it as that as our starting point, it means that every campaign that we create or every extra ad group that we create needs to have a specific purpose. And the core reasons for why we're doing that is quite simple. Let me give you 3 quick reasons for why you'd need to add in a new campaign or a new ad group. Firstly, adding in a new ad group, quite simple, is if the ad copy and the landing page is no longer relevant to the user's initial search term. So think, for example, if you're selling different types of shoes, you'd have an ad group for running shoes and then an ad group for trail shoes. Two different products, two different landing pages. When it comes to creating campaigns, what you really need to be thinking about, there's two core drivers. Remembering inside of Google Ads is that the campaign level is where the budget is sitting and where it is controlled. So if you want to separate out that spend or you want to force spending in different areas, it could be because you need to target different locations or, or different countries or different cities or different business units. Break out your campaigns. If you want to target different networks, so say for example if you're an e-commerce brand, it makes sense you have a search campaign and a shopping campaign. Ads are on search, ads are on shopping. Or if you want to layer in YouTube or layer in Display Network ads, you have different campaigns for that. And then the other reason for why you'd break it out is if it is due to performance. And what I mean by that is that you've got some products or services that are getting really good results, but Google just isn't spending money in those areas. That's another reason for why you can break out some different campaigns. The golden thing I want you to remember is this, is that every single campaign or every single ad group inside of your Google Ads account needs to have a specific strategic reason to exist. If it doesn't have that, don't just create it. But remember, the core goal is less is more when it comes to Google Ads campaigns in 2026. Stay well.
