Objective: Understand the structure of an AdWords account — from the account level to the ad group level. Then, start thinking about how you can take advantage of AdWords versatility to suit your advertising needs.

An AdWords account is structured like a pyramid, which expands from the top down. It's broken down into three main levels. At the top level is account, followed by campaign and then ad group. Each level has its own components:

• Account: unique email address, password, billing information and account preferences
• Campaign: start and end dates, daily budget, Google Network preferences, target languages and locations and advanced options
• Ad group: ads, keyword and/or placement list and CPC or CPM bids

The basic idea behind AdWords structure is versatility. An advertiser has many options - to run one ad on a few keywords and placements, or hundreds of ads on thousands of keywords and placements. You can organise your campaigns in any way that you wish. Successful advertisers, however, tend to build many small, highly targeted ad groups around individual products or services.