Trying your luck to learn PPC yourself, Google Ads is your best companion to run the PPC campaigns for yourself or the clients.
And within your initial days, you would be surprised to learn the strange-sounding technical terms and Different Google Ad Extensions.
Before knowing some background on it, the first thing you would often do is find the complete tangible form of those terms before advancing to the next level.
Amongst many, these two terms can cause you a severe headache, and you would want to find out the complete form as soonest as possible to clear the confusion.
STAG and SKAG; these terms are known by every single PPC Manager who possesses deep knowledge about the ad copy and the connection between the keywords to create the intriguing ads to run through Google Ads.
But we are not here to make you learn what STAG or SKAG does, but we are rather inclined to cover STAG vs SKAG difference in Google Ads?
So, stay tuned and let us unriddle the difference between STAG and SKAG!
STAG vs SKAG difference in Google Ads?
Before digging into the clear difference between the two terms, let’s find out some basics!
What is STAG?
In short, it is Singe Theme Ad Groups.
To cover the broad about it, keywords found through STAG way relate to the specific theme.
Whether you are searching for ‘car services’, Google Ads would conceptually yield the close-matched keywords around ‘car services’, but you have to define the theme for the sake of getting the appropriate group list of keywords.
So, ‘price’, ‘near me’, ‘best’, ‘cost’, and more are just the heads up to get started with grouping the keywords under appropriate reasonings. And the STAG keywords are more accessible to the group and identifiable.
What is SKAG?
The Single Keyword Ad Group, or SKAG, creates the ad group inside Google Ads against a single keyword.
PPC guys love to manage this, as they are easy to retain; find the list of exact match keywords around a single keyword ad group and the happy clients!
There is no fluff added into your keyword list with this SKAG method, but these are hard to group as the keywords popup in the single list without any classification/grouping.
STAG vs SKAG: What is the difference between both in Google Ads?
STAG, as we already know, sounds like less work doing with more results. The result would form the keywords around the theme and not specific to the keyword, giving you more diversity to explore the pool of keywords which can go into your ad copy.
Though, the STAG method seems outdated in this current modern world of search engines. And the reason is apparent, and it lists more keywords quickly around the theme, which can turn out to be unintended, unnecessary for the ad copy to go in. So, this may generate useless keywords which cannot go into the ad copy despite their highest worth.
However, SKAG lets the PPC marketers define what they want to add to their ad copy. For example, ‘buy’, ‘inquiry’, ‘feature’, etc., are part of the ad copy for a particular keyword.
One ad group per keyword, and you can retrieve the dozens of supporting and high-converting keywords at your disposal.
When you know what to add to your ad copy, the SKAG method works best and is time-savvy to generate highly converting ad copies with your target keyword in place. This also helps in Improving your Google Ad’s Quality Score as well.
Although this may quickly get your mind fully haunted when you sneak through groups to groups per keyword, we suggest seeing through 2 or 3 ad groups at a time to look at the data with a fresh mind.
SKAG seems time-consuming
Unbelievable to believe, but keyword research through the SKAG method is super time-consuming.
You first have to dig out the main keyword and group them one by one by adding your core aspects around the ad copy.
STAG groups unnecessary keywords
Yes, the themed keywords always list unnecessary search queries that are not proportionally relevant to go into your ad copy.
It seems the fastest way to fill up the list, and the PPC marketers know what should go into the ad copy by keeping it minimalist.
So, the hoards of themed keywords go useless in most cases, and especially when working extensively on the ad copy.
Meanwhile, STAG keywords show more impression data to diversify the ad copy. Still, you might need to compromise on the relevancy of the given keyword if the themed one has to go into the ad copy, probably changing the entire meaning of the ad.
While STAG works for quick ad copy making, the themed keywords can be stressful sometimes as they may serve the same purpose while worded differently.
For the simple ad copy with no specific taglines to go with, STAG seems an excellent option to employ where you get all the themed keywords at your disposal.
And for deep building the ad copy with all aspects checked, SKAG can turn out to be an excellent way to add the best ROI keywords per keyword group. It is just as simple as finding the other converting keyword with the best CTR and ROI for ‘Buy’ with no question asked.
Conclusion!
The active and profound PPC marketers know the best methods to group the keywords for ad copy.
Before the keywords-hunting phase begins, it is the later stage for them. What they mostly go through on the initial days is planning. The theme and the concept are already worked out before moving to the keywords hunting.
No PPC marketers (except the newbies and the hobbyists learning PPC) mostly find STAG the absolute convenience.
Before they move their mind to accept which seems quite efficient to create the best ad copy, most would often pick the SKAG method.
To start, STAG seems convenient because that lists up the themed keywords, creating the hoards of keywords in a single list.
So, we hope you would have understood every aspect of the STAG vs SKAG difference in Google Ads?
Suppose you have not, no worries. Repeat reading this resource from the very beginning, and get yourself entirely taught and you never know, you can eventually succeed in Becoming Google Ads Master One day!
