Strategies for Long-Term Success in Google Ads Management

Majority of digital marketers might not know this. But every time you run an ad campaign in a platform like Facebook, Google, or LinkedIn something amazing is happening. In a fraction of a second every active campaign calculates: - expected click-through rate (CTR), - expected conversion rate, and - expected conversion value. The product of these 3 parameters gives you an optimal bid your campaigns place on a real-time advertising auction. The reality is a little more complex, of course. But this gives you the idea. Why is this important and what you can do about it? (1) Make sure your campaigns produce A LOT of conversion data. Ad robots need to predict 3 separate variables (2 if you’re using CPA-based bidding like tCPA or max conversions). And multiplying multiple random variables multipliers the margin of error. So the more data you feed to ad platforms >> less error there is in their predictions >> your campaigns place more optimal bids >> your revenue and ROI is maximized. (2) Value-based bidding (tROAS or max conversion value) is always a winning strategy for the long term. One more degree of freedom to optimize bids for (conversion value) means a difference between being swamped by low quality leads and consistently getting a greater number of ever more qualified leads. If you know how to assign conversion value to a lead, of course (comment or DM if you don’t). And in the long term your chances of having enough data are very high. (3) Try to give your campaigns as much time to learn as you can. Relaunching a campaign resets the learning to basically ground zero. And we just discussed why feeding more data means more revenue and higher ROI. What aspects of biddable paid media did you find most insightful? Please share in the comments. #ppc #paidsearch #paidsocial #programmaticadvertising

“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.

It's time to add portfolio bid strategies to your Google Ads playbook. We use portfolio bids in almost every account we work on. Portfolio bids allow you to run multiple campaigns without losing data on bidding because they're separate. One of our favorite tactics is to have 3 different portfolio bid strategies for 3 different targets. Scale: This has the lowest ROAS / highest CPA target. We run this when we're looking for volume more than efficiency. Base: Our middle target. It's balanced in terms of spend and efficiency. High Margin: Our highest ROAS / lowest CPA target. This sacrifices volume for high profit margin percentage. If you're running multiple campaigns with the same goals and targets, throw them onto a portfolio bid strategy. You'll get better stability and will be more likely to hit your targets.

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.

Building a successful PPC campaign for new businesses can be challenging, but it’s achievable with the right strategy. Here's how we helped AmishCo launch their online sales strategy and drive high-quality leads 👇 ✅ Understand the Client’s Unique Selling Points AmishCo's strength lies in their Amish-built structures. By capitalizing on the exceptional reputation of Amish builders, we attracted a lot of attention from potential customers. Tip: Focus on what makes your client stand out. Unique selling points can drive significant traffic when highlighted correctly. ✅ Create Targeted Landing Pages We designed and optimized product-specific landing pages to convert high-intent visitors. Through A/B testing, we increased conversion rates by 160% with optimized CTAs. Tip: Continuously test and optimize your landing pages. Small changes can lead to big results in conversion rates. ✅ Leverage Smart Bidding Strategies Using Google’s smart bidding algorithms, we experimented and found the most effective strategy: max conversions. This approach consistently drove high-quality leads. Tip: Don’t be afraid to experiment with bidding strategies. The right approach can drastically reduce cost per lead and improve overall campaign performance. ✅ Ongoing Campaign Optimization Over four months, our diligent campaign maintenance reduced the cost per lead from $216 to $117. This included reallocating budget, negating irrelevant keywords, and more. Tip: PPC campaigns require ongoing optimization. Regular adjustments ensure you’re getting the best results from your ad spend. _____________ How do you optimize PPC campaigns for new businesses? Share your tips in the comments 👇 ____________ #PPC #DigitalMarketing #GoogleAds #MarketingStrategy

What is most important now? Don’t obsess over things that don’t matter as much as they once did. Meta advertising has changed, and you should redirect your time and energy to make an impact. Here are the four things to focus on... 1. Dedicate most of your time on creative. Ad copy and imagery could be the most important factors now. They help direct who sees your ads and adjustments here can make the biggest impact on results. If your ads are attracting the wrong audience, the initial focus was on targeting. But now that audiences often expand, your changes in those inputs make less of an impact. You can help control who sees your ads by making sure that the copy and creative attract the specific action that you want from the specific audience you hope to reach. 2. Prioritize performance goals. This is what defines success for the algorithm, around which changes to ads optimization for delivery are made. The wrong performance goal can lead to bad or misleading results. In most cases, use a performance goal that represents the action that you want. Don't get cute. Avoid upper funnel actions for performance goals. 3. Get attribution right. It's become a greater challenge post-iOS 14, and it will only get more difficult. Set up the pixel, API, standard and custom events, and custom conversions. Your ability to properly and thoroughly define and pass events will help provide a fuller picture for Ads Manager reporting, but it will also help deliver your ads to the right people. Know how to interpret results, and validate them with third-party tracking. 4. Understand the importance of your budget. Not everyone has the luxury of big budgets. But know that more volume can help you get better results. You can do this by spending more or by consolidating and limiting competing campaigns and ad sets. Start with these four things. They are where you can make the greatest impact on performance. Everything else is secondary.

😵💫 There is a trend in Google Ads management that is driving me nuts! 😵💫 It has to do with the degree of hands-off most PPC managers tend to be these days when it comes to managing their accounts. What is being misunderstood as a need for control and refusal to accept automation is actually more about just not seeing the opportunities in front of us. It’s not that I have a need for control, but the way you build your Google Ads account will determine how much insight you get and how you can act on that insight. 💢 A simple example is running all products in one Performance Max campaign vs splitting them up. 💢 Another aspect is that accounts that run on a simple ROAS target without much optimization will hit a performance ceiling. Sometimes that ceiling is high — like during Covid — while other times, it’s low. What I’m talking about is how you work with an account that has hit its ceiling, and how you identify whether that’s a glass ceiling (you can break through with some extra work) — or it’s the actual maximum of what’s possible. 🍝 The Set and Forget approach to Google Ads management is basically like throwing a bunch of pasta on the wall and seeing what sticks. Advertisers will upload all their products, and whatever hits a good ROAS will be permitted to continue running. That’s it. It can be beneficial for some companies, especially those with simpler, more straightforward campaigns. 🌟 But if you’re working with a company that has higher growth potential, the Analyze and Grow approach can lead to better performance and higher ROI. Though it demands more hands-on work, it basically comes down to three steps to take what isn’t profitable and make it profitable: 1️⃣ Identify a bottleneck 2️⃣ Come up with solutions to circumvent the bottleneck 3️⃣ Test and implement solutions By understanding the difference between the two approaches, businesses can make informed decisions that will help them to maximize their Google Ads campaigns and achieve their desired performance goals. Go deeper: https://lnkd.in/eNZRRRJT

I've spent $142,000+ of my own money on Google Ads (my first channel). Here is my 1 top tip Intent is what matters Part of where so many go wrong in Google ads is they chase things like leads, clicks, and traffic volume vs peeling back the numbers and looking at real intent. Are they looking for information? Are they looking for a solution? Are they looking for a product/agency to solve? I see waaaaaaaaay too much ad budget wasted as companies are "leads" that are coming from super weak intent phrases So my actionable advice to startup leaders looking at their Google ads strategy? If it doesn't make sense to you...it's wrong. This isn't some overly technical thing that isn't expected to make sense to you as a normal non-marketing CEO. The search phrases that you are paying to show up for should make sense to YOU. YOU should be explaining to the google search specialist what terms make sense and what terms dont and be involved in the decision of main campaign and ad groupings because that's the fundamentals. The technical setup and structure can be left to the channel experts but the overarching strategy aligns perfectly with your overarching business strategy. They are not seperate. Lead your Google search strategy with the same business priorities you set in everything else. Google ads (specifically search) has always been one of my first loves and most foundational channels and I'm happy Impactable has finally taken this in-house and are offering to our clients as well now. #googleads #paidsearch #marketing

I’ve spent time with hundreds of CEOs and Founders to set up PPC campaigns. Here are the top 3 myths I encounter and how I obliterate them: 1. It takes months to see results from a PPC campaign. This couldn't be further from the truth. Well-crafted ads and competitive bidding can provide immediate visibility and traffic. The moment your campaign goes live, you can start seeing results if your offerings resonate with the target audience. 2. Your campaigns will just run on autopilot. This approach can actually lead to stagnant or even negative results. Effective PPC requires ongoing management, including → monitoring performance → making bid adjustments → refining ads based on data-driven insights Regular optimization helps your campaigns to continue to achieve optimal results and adapt to changing market conditions. 3. No one will even see the ad. Some skeptics argue that PPC ads are ineffective because users supposedly ignore them, preferring organic listings. However, studies reveal that between 45-55% of users do not differentiate between paid and organic results, often clicking on PPC ads without realizing it. Google is increasingly integrating these ads seamlessly with organic results. PPC remains a powerful tool for driving qualified traffic to your site. Businesses can maximize their online marketing effectiveness and achieve substantial growth with PPC. The key is to approach PPC with clear goals and flexibility. Interested in learning how a PPC campaign can drive business and deliver fresh leads to your doorstep? Send me a DM! P.S. - Get some value? Please reshare this.