What Modern PPC Strategy Actually Is
A modern PPC strategy is the deliberate shaping of inputs into Google's and Microsoft's auction systems so that automated bidding has high-quality signals to optimize against. The old craft — manual bids, exact-match keyword lists, ad-copy A/B tests at the ad-group level — has been steadily automated away. What's left is more strategic, not less: account architecture, conversion definition, audience signals, feed quality, and the negative work that prevents algorithms from spending your money on the wrong queries.
The teams that still treat PPC as a tactical exercise — keyword research, ad copy, bid adjustments — get outperformed by teams that treat it as a feedback-loop design problem. Give the algorithm a clean conversion signal and a tight enough query universe, and it will work. Give it noise, and it will spend efficiently against noise.
Account Structure: Less Is More, Mostly
Account structure has swung decisively away from the old single-keyword ad group (SKAG) orthodoxy. With smart bidding pooling conversion data across ad groups, fragmenting your account into hundreds of micro-units now starves each one of the volume the algorithm needs to learn. The current best practice is themed ad groups — grouped by intent or product line — with broad-match keywords and tight conversion signals.
Performance Max is its own conversation. It works well when you have clean product feeds, strong creative assets, and a willingness to give Google's models room to roam. It works badly when you have a thin asset library, unclear conversions, or a brand that needs careful placement control. Use audience signals as a starting point, not a guarantee. And segment brand traffic into its own campaign — letting Performance Max absorb branded queries inflates ROAS and obscures what's actually working.
For most accounts, the structure that works in 2026 looks like: a tightly controlled brand search campaign, a small number of themed non-brand search campaigns, a Performance Max campaign with brand exclusions, and a Demand Gen campaign if there's a video or visual story worth telling. That's it. Resist the urge to add more.
Bidding: Choose the Goal, Then the Strategy
The bidding strategy debate is downstream of the goal definition. The three that matter:
- Target CPA (tCPA). Best when you have a stable conversion definition and enough volume — generally 30+ conversions in the last 30 days per campaign. Optimizes toward a cost ceiling.
- Target ROAS (tROAS). Better for ecommerce and any business with variable conversion values. Requires accurate conversion-value tracking, which most accounts get wrong on first setup.
