The spirit of the Samurai comes to Google Ads with Hagakure

In recent weeks, a term has been ringing loudly among Google Ads experts: “Hagakure”. But what is Hagakure in Google Ads?

This is, in particular, a method used in Japan to structure and optimize Google Ads campaigns, taking full advantage of machine learning, automated bidding and dynamic search ads.

Since the launch of Google Ads, account structures have become more complex over the years, including a large number of campaigns, ad groups, ads and keywords.

Along with these changes, Google has been incorporating advances in the way its automatic algorithms optimize campaigns, and today they are capable of processing a large amount of data in real time. Hagakure, the Japanese structure, is simply a methodology that consists of structuring a complex Google Ads account in a simplified way. This new type of structure comes from Japan and is now being imported into Spain.

First of all, what does Hagakure mean?

The Hagakure (meaning “in the shade of the leaves” or “hidden in the leaves”). However, Hagakure is also a literary work about thoughts and sentences that provide knowledge about the philosophy and behavior of the Bushido spirit, that is, a book that all young samurai used to learn the rules that governed the lives of warriors.

So, What does Hagakure mean for our generation of digital warriors?

What is Hagakure?

This campaign structure uses two important automated tools in Google Ads search campaigns, which are:

• DSA (Dynamic Search Ads)
• Bid automation

The campaigns before Hagakure were very fractional and the data was too scattered, which prevented dynamic optimization. In other words, the algorithm is not able to bring out its full potential to shine in hyperpigmented or overly granular structures.

In Google Ads, the bid strategy method works at the campaign level. If you have multiple bidding strategies across multiple campaigns, you're decentralizing information. All of these bid strategies are less powerful separately than if you combined them all in one campaign..

Hagakure: Google ad strategy

To take full advantage of all the features, we must ensure that our account data is grouped efficiently.

These are the 5 recommended changes to follow the Hagakure method in Google Ads:

• Use one URL for each ad group.
• Keep only the URLs (landing pages) with a significant volume of visits.
• Create campaigns corresponding to product categories.
• Create dynamic search ads to capture lower volume queries
• Use audience-based IF functions to generate ultra-relevant ads.

Below we detail these 5 points to have a good advertising strategy in Google Ads with the Hagakure method:

1. Use a single URL (landing page) per ad group

In this new method, all the keywords that are linked to the same URL are grouped together so that the data we generate is unified and as much as possible. In this way, algorithms can provide us with faster and much better results.

If you're used to using Google ads you may have noticed that this is nothing new. If you've been using SKAG (Single Keyword Ad Groups) or any other structure to keep your ads as relevant as possible, you may have already done so.

2. Keep only URLs that have a significant volume

The purpose of this account structure is to allow Google's machine learning to work for us, so everything possible must be done to make the algorithms as efficient as possible.

What do we define as a “significant volume”?

Google estimates that to optimize automation and machine learning, a URL (landing page) must receive at least 1,000 impressions per week. Assuming that you have to learn and optimize three ads within the ad group, it's ideally around 3,000 impressions per week, which is the same thing, about 12,000 impressions per month.

3. Campaigns belong to product categories

For the Hagakure method to work, we need to establish a more natural way of configuring our campaigns. Each category of products or services that we advertise would have its own campaign.

For example, for a clothing web store you could create a campaign for coats and jackets, another for t-shirts and a last one for footwear.

As we can see in the following image, the Hagakure method suggests a structure with the least possible number of campaigns consisting of large ad groups where we could detect the different products that constitute it.

This would be ours Example of campaigns for a clothing store following the Hagakure method:

4. Dynamic search ads for lower-volume search terms

As we have seen, the Hagakure method discourages the use of landing pages with low traffic because they don't provide a large amount of data to the algorithms. DSAs are created to ensure that these search terms are not lost and that an advertisement meets your demand.

Again, we are focusing on machine learning as much as possible. Make sure to use all possible resources to optimize ads, also for the different keywords that have the lowest volume and allow Google to test different options. Remember to create ads that match to avoid creating strange compositions.

5. Using IF functions to personalize audience-based ads

According to the official Google Ads blog:

The IF functions allow you to insert a specific message in your text ad when a condition is met, and a default text when it isn't. This makes your ads adapt to each search and are more relevant to potential customers.

In Hagakure, this is used to personalize ads based on your audience. Obviously, this means that you first need to set up multiple audiences, depending on your target market. You can then use the IF condition to display personalized content based on the user's query.

Advantages of using the Hagakure method

This approach offers us a number of advantages, but it's up to you and your team to decide if you want to implement this type of structure. The following are the main advantages of using the Hagakure method:

• More appropriate account management to meet the challenges of our business.
• More efficient bidding strategies.
• A structure oriented towards the most interesting URLs and that does not neglect the long queue.
• More time for in-depth analysis
• Focus on our business objectives (margin, turnover or sales) rather than on operations.
• Make the most of Google's automation features. If done well, this should yield better results than those of a human manager.
• We will have more time for other tasks, such as a deeper investigation of our potential customer's expectations or A/B testing.
• The account structure is simplified, which in turn makes it easier to report, manage and optimize our campaigns.
• The bid is automated. The more data we obtain, the better we will be able to return on our investment.
• Hagakure focuses on what happens on the most interesting landing pages, without neglecting long-tail keywords.

Configuring the structure of a Hagakure account

If we have opted for the Japanese way of structuring a Google Ads account and want to try Hagakure, the predefined landing page report will help us to take the first steps.

As mentioned before, only URLs that receive enough monthly impressions (around 12,000 per ad group) should be used to ensure that enough data is available.

The landing page report quickly gives us an overview of landing pages that are above this threshold.

When we look at the total impressions that a given landing page has received within a predetermined period of time, we can begin to filter out those that are below the threshold. We keep the URLs with more than 12,000 impressions in the last 30 days (3,000 per week) and will create a new structure based on these pages.

In addition to these new campaigns, it's probably a good idea to keep a classic brand campaign up and running. If there are categories that you can't include in the new structure, you can set up another DSA ad group to also capture search terms within these categories.

We must always consider the structure and objectives of our business. If Hagakure doesn't align with our strategic plan, it's best to think carefully before changing an account's settings.

SKAG vs. Hagakure

The most important question remains: If we structure our account this way, will we achieve better results? While an approach such as SKAG (-Single Keyword Ad Group- single-keyword ad groups) focuses on delivering the most relevant ad for the user, Hagakure, focuses on the automation features available in Google Ads and makes them work for your company. This improves relevance, as well as your ROAS (Return on Advertising Investment).

Conclusion on the Hagakure method

Hagakure, in short, is a new way of structuring your Google Ads account, based on a series of principles that I described above. Regrounding your data is the key to making Hagakure work.

If you use the automation functions and algorithms within Google's advertising platform, you won't have to perform so many repetitive tasks, this will be possible thanks to a combination of the human factor combined with robotic optimization.

Do you want to adapt to this structure? Not sure what might work best for your campaigns?

How can we help you?

If you need more information, do not hesitate to contact get in touch with us.