In the Ad Groups Stage, you select and configure the Single Theme Ad Groups (STAGs) that Smart Ads automatically generates for each product. Your approve and disapprove decisions here directly control campaign performance, spend efficiency, and whether your campaign publishes successfully.
⚙️ Optimization Focus: Key Metrics for Evaluating Ad Groups
Select the most promising ad groups by evaluating each one on these four key metrics:
- CPC (Cost Per Click): Analyze the estimated cost per click. Aim for a balance between affordability and expected performance.
- Search Volume: Gauge how often users search for terms related to each ad group. Higher volume generally means greater potential reach.
- Competition: Assess the keyword competition level within each ad group. High competition typically drives up CPCs.
- Relevancy Score: A higher relevancy score — driven by tight alignment between keywords, ad copy, and landing page — improves Quality Scores, which can lower your CPCs and boost ad positioning.
Once you've scored each ad group across these four dimensions, you're ready to move to selection.
🚀 Selection Strategy: How Many Ad Groups to Choose
- Experiment with 2–4 ad groups per product. This lets you test different approaches and gather real performance data before scaling.
- Zero Search Volume? No problem. Ad groups showing a search volume of 0 are still worth testing. Smart Ads connects directly to Google Search Console and query networks, surfacing niche queries that Google's standard Keyword Planner may not report. These often perform exceptionally well despite the apparent lack of volume.
Starting with 2–4 ad groups gives you enough variety to identify what works without overextending your budget.
✅ How to Approve or Disapprove Each Ad Group
Every ad group in the Ad Groups Stage must be explicitly approved or disapproved before your campaign can publish. These controls appear directly on each ad group card.
- Approved ad groups are pushed to Google Ads, and Smart Ads generates ads for them automatically.
- Disapproved ad groups are skipped — they remain in your setup for reference but are excluded from the live campaign and receive no generated ads.
- Ad groups with no decision stay in Draft status and will block campaign publishing until resolved.
Review every ad group and make an explicit approve or disapprove decision before moving to the publish step.
➕ Manually Added Ad Groups in Imported Campaigns
If you are importing an existing campaign, the Edit Setup flow lets you manually add ad groups in addition to the STAGs that Smart Ads generates automatically. This is useful when you want to bring across ad groups Smart Ads did not propose, or to extend your imported structure.
- Same approve/disapprove workflow. Manually added ad groups use the exact same approve and disapprove controls as Smart Ads-generated STAGs.
- Pushed to Google Ads on approval. When you approve a manually added ad group, it is pushed to Google Ads and has ads generated automatically — identical to Smart Ads-generated groups.
- Same Draft rules apply. A manually added ad group left without a decision stays in Draft and blocks publishing.
Note: For new campaigns, Smart Ads creates the STAGs automatically and manual ad group creation is not part of the standard flow. For imported campaigns, manual ad group creation is available alongside Smart Ads-generated groups, and the same approve/disapprove workflow applies to both.
⚠️ Draft Ad Groups Block Campaign Publishing
Any ad group left in Draft status will prevent your entire campaign from publishing. You must approve or disapprove every ad group before you can complete the final publish step.
For each ad group still showing Draft status, choose one of the following actions:
- Approve it — confirm the ad group is ready to go live. Approved ad groups are pushed to Google Ads and have ads generated automatically.
- Disapprove it — exclude the ad group from this campaign run. Disapproved ad groups are skipped and remain in your setup for reference.
- Remove it — delete the ad group entirely if you do not want it in your campaign at all.
Once no ad groups remain in Draft status, the Publish button becomes active and you can proceed.
🔎 Match Type Guidance: Broad, Exact, and Phrase
- Branded Campaigns: For ad groups targeting your own brand terms, set the match type to Broad. This captures all variations of branded searches — including misspellings and related queries — ensuring maximum brand visibility.
- Non-Branded Campaigns (Initial): Start all other ad groups on Exact match. This shows your ads only for highly relevant searches, which is essential for efficient spending in the early stages.
- Scaling with Phrase Match: Once a non-branded ad group consistently delivers results under a CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) or ROAS (Return On Ad Spend) bidding strategy, consider switching its match type to Phrase. The modest CPC increase is typically offset by expanded reach and higher overall conversions as the algorithm applies its learned efficiencies.
Following this progression — Exact first, then Phrase as performance matures — protects your budget early and expands reach as the campaign proves itself.
🧠 Advanced Tactic: Targeting Competitor Brand Terms
Use with caution. This strategy can yield strong results but comes with important caveats.
If you identify a strong competitor who is not actively running ads on their own brand keywords, you can create an ad group specifically targeting those brand keywords (e.g., "Competitor X" or "Competitor Brand Name"). Because they are not defending that keyword space, your ads can appear prominently at a competitive CPC.
🎯 You've now configured your Ad Groups Stage — your approve/disapprove decisions and match types determine which STAGs enter your live campaign. Before moving forward, confirm that every ad group is approved or disapproved so no Draft groups remain to block publishing.