Best Practices for Google Ads Campaign Management

Running Google Ads is hard enough - don’t let these sneaky optimizations be the reason you won’t hit your goal this quarter: 1) FIRST thing you should do when starting to audit an account is Segment by Conversion Action to make sure the data you’re basing your conclusions on is reliable: Can’t tell you how many times I’ve audited an account that has duplicate conversions firing for the same event (double counting) or has 5-10 different conversion actions all firing in the conversion column (muddying the data and leading the account manager to make uninformed decisions about the direction of the account). Cleaning up your reported or “Primary” conversion actions is a cornerstone piece to having a healthy Ads account and even the most seasoned account managers will be ineffective if this isn’t cleaned up. 2) Segment by Search Partners & Display Network: In your Search campaign settings, there’s an option to run your ads on the Google Display Network (never do this) and on Google Search Partners (almost never do this). These additional placements beyond the Google Search Results Page (SRP) are greedy and often of less quality than the clicks you’ll be getting on Google Search. To see how much you’re spending here go to the Campaign view >> Segment by >> Network (with Search Partners). The rule of thumb here is - if you can spend all of your available budget on Google Search alone, then do it. If you’re tapping out your Google Search impr share and you still want to scale up your spend, then turn Search Partners on but expect less qualified traffic to come from that additional spend. 3) Segment by Device: Desktop, Mobile and Tablet. What are you spending on each and what are you getting one each? These three different device types can perform very differently. Some questions to answer are:  a) I’ve identified that one device is clearly outperforming the others over the last 90 days. What’s the search impr share for that device? Can I spend my full available budget there? Yes? Let’s do it! b) I’ve identified that the majority of my budget is going to mobile devices but my offline conversions for MQLs and SQLs is showing much cheaper results for desktop clicks for my enterprise cyber security services. You should add negative bid adjustments for mobile and tablet or remove them altogether if you can spend your full budget on Desktop.  c) I’ve identified that mobile and desktop are performing pretty similarly but tablet traffic is spending 10% of by budget and the CPA is 5x higher than the other two device types. Get rid of it. What are some easy wins you mine for when auditing active accounts?

You can’t sell to an empty room. But you also can’t sell in a crowded room of people who have zero need for your offering. This is the case with so many deployed marketing budgets. Excited about the impressions and traffic volumes, but fail to properly evaluate results downstream. We were spending $20k/mo on Google Ads. It was generating insane campaign results — solid impressions, healthy CVR (site visits), boosted MAUs. Looked great in theory and user charts were on the rise MoM. (Really easy to tell the story that I was doing a great job as CMO.) But demo requests should’ve also been on rise. They weren’t. So I began evaluating downstream metrics, site visits: - Bounce rate climbing. - Site engagement falling. - CVR (demo requests) plateauing. (Really easy to blame the product team for poor UX.) I was obsessed to understand. Kept digging. Evaluated those same metrics by source. - Paid Google: 99% bounce rate - Paid Google: 0.5% site engagement - Paid Google: 0% CVR (demo requests) Then by referral site. - Paid Google Referrer: recipesrus. com - Paid Google Referrer: mymomsblog. co - Paid Google Referrer: bestplacesinitaly. net My Google campaigns were 100% at fault. Impressive metrics on Campaign Manager. Terrible metrics once users hit our site. And is it any wonder? Referral traffic coming from recipe travel and personal blog sites??? I was selling vertical B2B software. 1. Take accountability for your job as a marketer to deliver high quality demos. 2. Know what is happening upstream, but get obsessed with how they move downstream. 3. Pay attention to diminishing returns. Slow changes over time likely mean something valuable to adjusting strategy. For us? We learned that paid Google campaigns were just not the right play anymore. No matter how tight and sophisticated our segmentation, our ad placement was still ending up in large rooms of completely irrelevant buyers. We added $20K/mo back to our budget to use in a smarter way. Our user counts dipped, but our CAC improved alongside other important user engagement metrics. Don’t be afraid to make a change that sacrifices quantity/volume for quality/return. Get obsessed with each phase of your funnel and how it converts. Know your CVR from: - Campaign/Channel > TOFU - From TOFU > MOFU. - And MOFU > BOFU. - BOFU > Customer. Dig deep. Your future CAC (and BOD) will thank you.

🚀 My Google Ads pre-launch process: Before spending a penny on ads, I look to have a few things buttoned up to ensure I’m not wasting my PPC client’s money. 1️⃣ Conversion tracking  Side note: Having GTM and event tracking setup skills in your PPC toolbox is SO valuable. Before I launch campaigns for my clients, I make sure that conversion tracking is set up and that it’s working properly. I do this for both the client’s main site as well as for any landing pages we’re using. Quick conversion tracking checks: 👉 Use the Google Tag Manager debugger tool to see what kind of tags are on the site. You can start a free GTM account and use the debugger tool or the Chrome extension.  👉 I test event tracking by looking at what events are firing as I’m going through the site and landing pages.  👉 I make sure that the valuable events that I consider a conversion are in GA4 and in the Google Ads interface. 2️⃣ Landing pages  Before I spend money on ads, I want to make sure they have the best chance of converting. With that in mind, I want to use pages that are most relevant to the keywords I’m running. I look for a few things from a landing page (I also use these principles when creating them): 👉 Keywords in the campaign are represented in the content of the page. 👉 A clear (and obvious) call to action above the fold as well as throughout the page. 👉 As few clicks as possible to get the lead (I don’t want to make it hard for people to convert). 👉 Limited number of different CTAs. Ideally, just one CTA to keep prospects focused. 3️⃣ The campaign set up itself  I don’t want any wacky mistakes, so I go through a quick campaign check before I launch:  👉 Make sure the budget isn’t insanely high or low.  👉 Location targeting is correct for where my client does business. 👉 I like to start with a manual CPC bidding strategy since the campaign doesn’t have any conversions. With that in mind, I make sure my keyword bids are higher than the $0.01 default!  👉 Add the campaign to the global negative keyword list for the account.  👉 Double-check for typos in keywords or ad copy.  👉 Display network is not enabled (I want search only for search campaigns). 👉 Relevant ad extensions are applied to the campaign.  👉 Check the URL to make sure it works. Once all these checks are completed, it’s launch time! What’s your pre-launch process? Are there any different items you look for before activating a campaign? 👋 I'm Emily - a PPC and marketing analytics expert specializing in helping businesses get more leads from paid ads. Need someone to jumpstart your PPC program? Let’s chat! 🔔 Follow to stay up to date with my insights and findings. 

“I’m struggling to scale my PPC.” 99% of my account audit calls start that way. I’ve been staring at Google ads accounts for 15 years. And I know what to look for once I have account access. I check conversions and overall account structure. And the advice I give most often is: You need multiple campaigns. Everyone gets the importance of keywords. But without the ability to break out top performers . . . It’s like you’re running a 5K with your laces tied together. It’s crazy how often I see all the keywords stuffed into one campaign. Relying on “smart campaigns” or putting every keyword into one ad group lumps everything together and makes it all share the same budget. When you have more than one: - Product - Category - Customer …One keyword might be hitting its stride. But lower performers sharing the budget will hold it back. I’ll use my client Fleet Feet as an example: They’re a running shoe store with 250+ locations and a monster eCommerce business. They also sell: - Apparel - Watches - Sunglasses We give these categories their own campaigns. And break budgets down geographically as well. Here are some examples of what that looks like: → Maintain a running shorts budget year-round in FL. (But move it to pants for winter in the Midwest.) → Increase the accessories budget before the holidays. (Running sunglasses make great gifts.) → Shift it back to running shoes for the New Year. (Anyone else make a resolution to jog 3x/wk?) And we’re always ready for surges within shoe categories too: → Children’s shoes pick up their pace during back-to-school shopping. (So fire up any related keywords at the end of summer.) The right number of campaigns for any account is based on performance and budgeting. And the biggest benefits come from thinking about: - Geography - Seasonality - Demographics Google says it will make those adjustments for you. But you’ll get much better results when you’re in control. P. S. If you want me to take a look at your account and offer suggestions, I’m happy to do it. There’s a button in my bio and I’ll get right back to you — just as soon as I get back from my run.

These are 6 things that kept me up between Christmas and the New Year. My wish for 2024 is that when I am asked to review an organization's Google Ads account that I don't see any of the following: 1️⃣ You set up your account to focus only on branded keywords. Pro tip: Use a mix of branded and non-branded keywords to expand your reach and target potential clients searching for legal services in your area of expertise. 2️⃣ Thinking that more is better and overloading your account with ad groups. Pro tip: Keep your ad groups lean and focused on distinct themes or services. This simplified structure makes it easier to continually optimize your campaigns. 3️⃣ Just because you don't understand it, you ignore it, particularly when it comes to ad extensions. Pro tip: Take advantage of ad extensions, like sitelinks, callouts, and call extensions, to provide more context and showcase your law firm's unique selling points. 4️⃣ The 'I'm not sure what to write' excuse so you stick to single ad variations. Pro tip: Experiment with multiple ad variations in each ad group, testing headlines, descriptions, and CTAs. Let the data guide you to the most effective combinations! 5️⃣ Not taking advantage of what Google has to offer and relying on search ads only. Pro tip: Expand your reach and improve brand recognition by leveraging display and remarketing campaigns, alongside your search campaigns. 6️⃣ The amazed look when you realize that you can track offline conversions. Pro tip: Track vital offline interactions like phone calls and walk-ins, and integrate them with your online campaign data. This holistic view of your conversions will help you make more informed decisions. Let's start the year off right with some fine-tuning! Shoot me a private message if you'd like more tips on boosting your PPC success! #googleads #advertising #marketingagency

🚀 Achieve Desired Results from Your PPC Campaigns with These Golden Tips! Over the past six months, we've audited more than 60 accounts and discovered some common advertising mistakes that you need to avoid. 1️⃣ Optimize Your Campaign Structure: A well-structured campaign is the foundation of your PPC success. We often come across accounts where branded and non-branded keywords are mixed in the same campaigns, and 50 keywords with different match types are targeted together. This makes it challenging to evaluate results accurately and manage bids and budgets effectively. To optimize your campaign structure, follow these rules: ▶ Limit each campaign to a maximum of 10 keywords. ▶ Ensure that all keywords within a campaign have similar search volume ranges. ▶ Use only one match type per campaign. ▶ For ranking campaigns, have only one keyword with one match type per campaign. ▶ Keep branded and non-branded keywords separate. ▶ Avoid targeting different product categories in the same campaign; create separate portfolios for each category. 2️⃣ Conduct Comprehensive Data Analysis: Many advertisers only view performance at the campaign level, leading to oversimplified decision-making. To get a more accurate picture of your PPC performance, analyze at least these five variables: (using pivot table, calculate % of sales, % of spend, CTR, CVR, CPC & CPA) at each level) ▶ Campaign Level: Evaluate performance across different campaign types. ▶ Match Type Level: Assess how different match types perform within a particular campaign type. ▶ Placement Type: Understand how your ads perform on different placements. ▶ Bidding Type: Analyze the effectiveness of different bidding strategies. ▶ Branded vs. Non-Branded: Compare the performance of your branded and non-branded campaigns. Highlight exceptional results in green 🔰 and focus your budget on them, while identify poor-performing combinations in red and consider adjustments. 🛑 3️⃣ Mind Your Keyword Selection: Avoid wasting your ad spend on irrelevant or overly broad keywords. Thorough keyword research is crucial to select relevant, targeted keywords that align with your product and audience. 4️⃣ Harness the Power of Negative Keywords: Don't overlook negative keywords! By adding them to your campaigns, you can prevent your ads from showing up for irrelevant search terms, ensuring they reach a more qualified audience. 5️⃣ Optimize Your Product Detail Page: Driving traffic to your product detail page is essential, but if it's not optimized, you may struggle to convert visitors into customers. Pay attention to product titles, descriptions, images, and reviews to ensure they are compelling and relevant. 6️⃣ Be Patient for Results: PPC campaigns require time to gather data and optimize effectively. Avoid making drastic changes too quickly; instead, allow your campaigns sufficient time to generate valuable data, enabling you to make informed decisions based on performance trends.

Paid Search isn't "dead". But perhaps: — The channel has evolved — What worked once, doesn't anymore — New settings/nuances impact performance — You're sending users to non-relevant pages — You're over-indexing on accessory campaigns For any channel: it's garbage in, garbage out. The audits from the last month have been 🤯 😭 For one B2B SaaS company, in particular, they lost 80% of their budget because of a single setting. Small tweaks that make a very, very large impact. Let's cover some of those today. (And a PSA to run and check these immediately) 1. Search Partners + Display Networks If these are turned on, it could result in 99.8% of ad budget running everywhere except on Google. Lots of traffic and conversions but mostly junk. 2. Presence or Interest Location Targeting Google is a sneaky lil b*tch. Even if you select your locations of choice, selecting Google's recommendation for "People in or who have shown interest in your targeted locations" means your ads are Mr. Worldwide like Pitbull. Note: Highly recommend not targeting all countries even if you technically serve all countries. 3. Automatic Broad Keyword Targeting There's an option to allow Google to turn your keywords into broad keywords. Don't do this, especially if you are starting out and have lower budgets. After you feel like you've exhausted a narrower keyword strategy, you can run a broad match test. 4. Auto-Applied Recommendations Not all are bad but you want to assume as much control over your account and ads as you can. Some can be good tests to run but don’t confuse high optimization scores as synonymous with high performance. 5. Bad Conversion Tracking Feed bad data to your campaigns and you’ll get more bad conversions. Shoot for the lowest in the funnel possible (ex. actual meetings vs leads). --- Request an audit if you need a fresh set of eyes on your Google Ads accounts.

Default Google Ads settings you should never use: ▶ Broad match without smart bidding or audiences. Doing this will just drive random traffic. ▶ Broad match campaign setting. Even if you’re intentionally using broad match and doing so correctly, using this setting in a campaign will prohibit you from using other match types. ▶ All the networks. Think carefully about whether you want to opt in to Google Search Partners. And you should still never run search and display together. ▶ People in or interested in location setting. If you choose “People in or interested in” your target locations, you’ll get traffic from all over the place. Switch your location setting to “people in or regularly in.” ▶ Exclude locations that charge tax. As of this writing, 7 countries charge DST fees on advertising: United Kingdom, Italy, India, France, Spain, Austria, and Turkey. If you’re not explicitly targeting these locations, exclude them to keep from being charged. What default settings do you regularly change or opt out of?

12 lessons I learned about Google Ads that I wish I knew earlier! 1. Don't dismiss automation. It can really change the game if you understand its impact. 2. Exact match keywords can actually work pretty well, contrary to what I thought. 3. Quality Score matters more than I realized. It tells you a lot about your ads and landing pages. 4. Remember, conversion value doesn't mean revenue. Always calculate your net profit. 5. Performance Max can be great, but only if you have enough data in your account. 6. On the flip side, Performance Max can be bad if you're not using scripts to monitor spending. 7. Not every account structure works for everyone. It's not one-size-fits-all. 8. Display campaigns can work if you exclude mobile app placements. 9. Launching two campaigns with different strategies won't necessarily make them compete. It's worth experimenting with different approaches. 10. Google Recommendations might seem useless at first, but they can reveal important insights about your account health. Don't ignore them completely. 11. Ad scheduling can make a big difference - I discovered that timing your ads to show up at specific hours or days can significantly impact their performance. 12. Negative keywords are crucial - I used to overlook them, but now I see how important they are in preventing wasted ad spend on irrelevant searches. #googleads

Everyone is always looking for ways to be more efficient in their Google Ads management. Here are 4 common time wasting mistakes and how you can fix them. 1. Overly complicated account set up with excessive segmentation. With smart bidding and other automations, accounts are more streamlined than ever. Maintaining a highly segmented accounts requires time to manage and hurts algorithm learning. 2. Not using negative keyword lists. There's common negative keywords you will want to use in every campaign. For example, searches related to hiring. Negative keyword lists save you time and energy when reviewing your SQR. 3. No clear optimization routine. You should have a standard optimization routine you follow for your account. Otherwise you'll be blindly clicking around and struggling to remember what you did last. 4. No clear strategy or goal for the account. More sales or get the most conversions isn't a real goal. Focus on actionable goals like increasing the ROAS by 15% so you can focus your optimizations on how you reach that goal. It's easy to waste time managing Google Ads so make sure you have a plan in place to be as efficient as possible!