CPCs are rising fast - up 10% year-over-year across all industries, to be precise. And with no sign of slowing down, ad budgets are under pressure like never before.

But while many marketers scramble for quick wins, the smartest are tackling the root cause: inefficient account structure. In this episode of the Paid Media Lab, Inny Vaiciute shares a step-by-step framework to reduce CPCs through smarter PPC structure.

Inny is the Senior PPC Manager at Circus PPC, where she delivers outstanding results for a wide range of lead gen and eCommerce clients. She’s known for blending data-driven decision making with creative problem solving, and delivering strategies that always move the needle.

In the episode, we unpack Inny’s approach to controlling costs through strategic PPC structure. From breaking down common account design mistakes to unpacking campaign type selection, geographic setup, and ad group theory.

This is your playbook for taming CPC inflation in 2025 and beyond.

Watch the full discussion with Inny here - or keep reading for the full breakdown.

Timestamps:

0:00 - Intro

1:59 - Inny’s key focuses in PPC right now 

3:32 - Why does account structure matter with high CPCs?

5:04 - Common account structure issues that inflate costs

7:27 - How to decide when to segment campaigns

9:27 - Blending campaign types to keep costs down

12:36 - Pros/cons of Demand Gen campaigns

14:45 - Single keyword ad groups vs Themed ad groups

17:19 - Structuring campaigns around funnel stages

20:22 - How geographic campaign structuring affects CPCs

22:54 - Predicting campaign changes / Google performance planner

26:14 - Final thoughts 

Why are CPCs rising?

Before we talk account structure, let’s take a closer look at why CPCs have soared in recent years. 

To quickly summarize, CPC inflation mostly comes down to:

• Increased competition
• Broader macroeconomic inflation
• Shifts in advertiser behaviour
• Changes in how Google’s ad platform actually works

A big part of the shift comes down to how bidding works nowadays. Instead of setting manual CPCs, advertisers are feeding Google performance targets - like a Target CPA or ROAS - and trusting the algorithm to hit them. 

That sounds fine in theory. But in practice, it means you’re no longer bidding on keywords. You’re bidding on audience signals, behaviours, and Google’s confidence in conversion outcomes.

And because Google’s machine learning models are designed to chase efficiency, they’ll prioritise advertisers whose account structures give them clear, consistent conversion data. Let’s talk about why that should be a priority:

Why account structure matters more than ever

“Increasing CPCs are a hot topic every single year. And account structure becomes even more important when they’re going up. You have to squeeze the maximum value out of every click.”

That’s the key: you can’t control market-wide CPC trends, but you can control how efficiently your clicks convert. And smart structure is the bridge that connects the right audience to the right message and landing page.

Done well, structure helps you:

• Match high-intent queries to high-converting landing pages
• Maintain relevance between search term, ad, and destination
• Avoid wasteful overlaps and irrelevant placements
• Feed the algorithm clean, consistent data for smarter learning

It’s less about rigid templates, and more about engineering clarity and intent into your PPC system.

The two major structure mistakes driving CPC waste

When an account’s structure is flawed, Inny finds it’s usually due to one of two extremes:

1. Too broad

When campaigns lump too many different products, services, or themes together, ads often trigger for irrelevant queries. That kills conversion rates and bleeds ad spend.

“If you’re selling kitchen tables and someone searches for outdoor furniture, and you land them on the wrong page, you’ve already lost them. Grouping too many things together makes it impossible to show the right ad with the right copy on the right page.”

2. Too granular

The opposite problem is over-segmentation - or what Inny calls “shooting yourself in the foot.”

“If your structure is too granular, you starve the algorithm of data. You might split campaigns by table shape, material, and size - but then each one only gets a trickle of conversions, and machine learning can’t optimize.”

The general rule of thumb is that structure should be as simple as possible, without compromising user intent, landing page relevance, or business control.

How to strike the right balance

Before making structural changes, evaluate:

• Audience overlap: Are users searching for Product A likely to also consider Product B?
• Landing page differences: Do these search intents need different experiences?
• Business goals: Does the client care more about selling specific products or just overall efficiency?

“If a business tells me, ‘sell anything as long as the ROI is right,’ I have more freedom. But if they’re prioritizing certain products, I need to reflect that in the structure.”

When to use SKAGs (single keyword ad groups)

Short answer? Never. 

Once hailed as the golden rule for relevance, single keyword ad groups (SKAGs) have officially passed their sell-by date.

“I hate single keyword ad groups. They’re too granular. They hinder algorithm learning, they’re a nightmare to manage, and they just don’t make sense anymore.”

Why? Google’s AI thrives on volume. The more data your campaigns generate, the faster and smarter the learning. SKAGs fragment data so severely that nothing scales.

Inny’s advice is, well, straightforward: 

“Unless there’s a very specific reason - like a custom landing page that’s totally different - ditch SKAGs. Please.”

Making smart use of campaign types

Account structure isn’t just about ad groups and keywords. It’s also about how you blend different campaign types to meet your objectives without bloating costs.

Here’s the lowdown on each:

Search & Shopping

“If the business wants maximum return, this is where you should start.”

• Best for: Lower funnel, direct intent
• Focus: Efficiency, cost control

Performance Max

“Google sells it like ‘just give us the budget and go.’ But that’s not how it works. You still need strategy to guide it.”

• Best for: Scaling lower funnel with automation
• Warning: Needs supervision

Demand Gen

“Google wants you to spend 15x your CPA per day for 3 months. That’s not feasible for many B2B clients.”

• Best for: Mid-to-upper funnel awareness plays
• Caveat: Big budget required

Display & YouTube

“Only run these if your strategy includes brand-building. Otherwise they’re just noise.”

• Best for: Brand awareness at scale

As Inny points out, choosing campaign types should always flow from business goals - not platform incentives.

“It’s not ‘five solutions fits all’. That’s why AI won’t replace good PPC specialists.”

How to structure for B2B without blowing the budget

A common question B2B advertisers often find themselves asking is "should we split campaigns by funnel stage?"

In most cases, it’s not worth doing.

“There’s still so much untapped value in the lower funnel. If I’m handed another £50k per month, most accounts would benefit more from maximizing that lower funnel first - rather than jumping to upper funnel display or remarketing.”

Why?

• Remarketing CPCs are high. Sometimes 4-6x more than standard search.
• Tracking is difficult. Especially in long sales cycles with anonymous buyers.
• Intent is ambiguous. Just because someone visited your site doesn’t mean they’re ready to buy.

Unless you’ve already maxed out your lower funnel efficiency, Inny recommends holding off on complex funnel-based splits.

Geo structure: The hidden money drain

Many advertisers are wasting budget without even knowing it - thanks to a default setting in Google Ads.

“Google often defaults to targeting ‘People in, or interested in’ your locations. That means someone from the other side of the world googling ‘British gardens’ could end up seeing your ad.”

The fix? Always dive into the advanced location settings and switch to “People in your targeted locations only.”

For global accounts, go a step further:

• Split campaigns by country. Language, currency, and search habits vary.
• Use custom landing pages. Localized content = higher conversion rates.
• Track country-level spend. Automated scripts can help keep tabs monthly or quarterly.

Simple change, big budget saver.

Why forecasting is flawed (but still worth doing)

Many marketers try to estimate the potential uplift of a restructure - but the tools don’t always help.

Take Google’s Performance Planner, for example:

“I haven’t had a single case where it was accurate. It relies heavily on your tracking setup, and it can miscount or inflate goals - especially if your primary conversions are misaligned.”

Even worse? It assumes a static competitive landscape.

“If your competitor increases bids by 10%, your CPCs go up, clicks drop, conversions drop - it all shifts. One penny can make a massive difference.”

Still, forecasting can be valuable if approached with humility:

• Do it regularly.
• Compare actuals vs forecast.
• Learn from the variance.

“It’s about managing expectations and understanding your blind spots.”

The three-step process to restructure an account

If you’ve got a bloated, underperforming setup and want to turn things around, here’s how Inny recommends approaching it:

1. Audit existing structure

• Are ad groups too broad or too narrow?
• Are high-performing search terms buried or isolated?
• Are landing pages mismatched with intent?

2. Define business priorities

• What must be sold?
• What counts as a conversion?
• What’s the acceptable ROI or CPA?

3. Rebuild with learning in mind

• Group similar intents together to fuel machine learning.
• Avoid over-complication. Every split should have a clear rationale.
• Use broad match only alongside strong signals (e.g. exact and phrase in the same ad group).

And of course, monitor performance closely post-launch - especially in volatile verticals where external forces (like tax changes or privacy rollouts) can skew results.

Final thoughts: Structure as a strategy

There’s no silver bullet for CPC inflation. But smart account structure is your best long-term bet.

When you align campaigns with real-world user journeys, when you respect the algorithm’s need for data, and when you stay laser-focused on business outcomes - you put yourself in a far stronger position than your competitors simply setting and forgetting.

“It’s not about giving Google your budget and hoping for the best. It’s about making structure work for you - so every click counts.”

So take a hard look at your accounts, then:

• Kill any remaining SKAGs, if you have them 
• Audit your geo settings 
• Rebuild with intent
• And start outsmarting CPC inflation one ad group at a time

Huge thanks to Inny for sharing her expert insights with us. Make sure you’re following Inny on LinkedIn for additional PPC insights and expertise. 

And for more expert PPC guides and insights, subscribe to the Paid Media Lab on YouTube, or follow the Paid Media Lab on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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