If you spend enough time in PPC forums or Reddit threads, you’ll notice a recurring complaint: “My ads keep showing in places I don’t serve, and my budget is disappearing.”
Or, “Google Ads says I’m targeting the right city, but half my leads are from somewhere else.”
Location targeting is supposed to help advertisers reach the right people in the right place.
But the reality? It’s one of the trickiest parts of PPC campaign management. Between confusing default settings, unreliable location signals, and the sheer volume of data to sift through, advertisers are likely to get confused and waste spend.
It takes what would otherwise be hours of spreadsheet-wrangling and turns it into an at-a-glance view of where your ads are winning and where they’re draining your budget.
Let’s walk through some of the most common challenges advertisers face and see how the Geo HeatMap makes them easy to solve.
Ads showing in the wrong places
One of the most common ways advertisers unintentionally waste budget in Google Ads comes from the “Presence or Interest” location setting.
By default, Google Ads doesn’t just show your ads to people physically located in your target area; it also shows them to anyone, anywhere in the world, who hasshown interestin that location.
That means a Chicago plumbing company could end up paying for clicks from someone overseas who once Googled “apartments in Chicago.”
On the surface, it looks like your ads are reaching people connected to your area, but in practice, those clicks rarely turn into customers.
How Geo HeatMap helps
With Geo HeatMap, you don’t just see where your ads are showing; you also see how those places are performing.
For example, if you set the view to Region and look at Clicks, areas with more clicks than average will show up in green, and those with fewer will show up in red.
But here’s the important part: green doesn’t always mean “good.”
A region outside your service area might light up green on clicks simply because it’s generating lots of traffic. To know if that traffic is valuable, you can switch the metric to Conversions or ROAS.
If that same region turns red, it means the clicks aren’t turning into business, and that’s your sign that the “Presence or Interest” setting is wasting budget.
In other words, the Geo HeatMap helps you see both the volume and the value of traffic by geography. This helps you spot leaks quickly and fix them by switching to Presence only and excluding irrelevant locations.
Overlapping or overbroad target areas
A lot of advertisers try to “play it safe” by stacking multiple target areas in Google Ads. Say, a 10-mile radius, a 20-mile radius, and the whole city all at once.
Or they pick a very wide radius around their business.
On the surface, this seems harmless. In practice, it makes reporting messy and often pushes the budget into areas that are too far away to actually convert. You end up with clicks spread across overlapping zones, and no clear idea which area is really delivering results.
How Geo HeatMap helps
Just switch to the Bubble Mode, available in the top right corner.
When you click on a bubble in Bubble Mode, you see a roll-up of performance across multiple locations in that cluster.
In this example, the bubble combines data from several states and regions: Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and even areas like the San Francisco Bay and Silicon Valley.
Instead of looking at each one individually, you get the total picture:
1,562 impressions and 77 clicks show the reach and engagement.
$307.16 cost tells you how much spend is tied up in this cluster.
5.21 conversions and a conversion value of 6.52 tell you what you actually got back.
This cumulative view is especially useful if you’ve set a broad radius or overlapping targets.
Google might be serving across multiple states, but in Bubble Mode, you can instantly see how that entire cluster is performing overall. If the conversions or ROAS are weak compared to spend, you know the outer parts of your radius aren’t pulling their weight.
From there, you can zoom in or switch to Non-Bubble Mode to break it down further and decide whether to exclude specific states or carve them into a separate campaign.
Broad radius targeting around physical locations
It’s tempting to set a large radius around your business location, say, 50 miles, just to “make sure” you capture everyone nearby. But the problem is that broad radii don’t distinguish between customers who are close enough to buy and those who are technically within the circle but unlikely to convert.
A pizza shop 30 miles away, or a dental clinic 45 minutes out, probably isn’t going to win much local business. The result? Your ads rack up clicks from people who are outside your true service zone, wasting budget.
How Geo HeatMap helps
The tool lets you break down performance by city, region, or country and instantly see where traffic is coming from and whether it’s actually producing results.
If you start with Clicks, you’ll see the cities or regions driving the most traffic.
Then, by switching to Conversions or ROAS, you can see which of those are actually delivering value.
This makes it clear that not every location in your broad targeting pool is worth the spend.
You may discover that a handful of key markets consistently light up green for conversions, while dozens of others fade red.
With that insight, you can focus your budget where the real demand is, and stop paying for geographies that look busy but don’t drive results.
Not segmenting campaigns by geography
One of the biggest mistakes in location targeting is lumping too many geographies into a single campaign. When that happens, strong-performing regions are forced to share budget with weaker ones.
The result? High-value areas don’t get the attention or spend they deserve, while underperformers quietly eat up budget.
How Geo HeatMap helps
The tool makes this problem visible in seconds. By breaking performance down by country, region, or city, you’ll see exactly which areas are pulling their weight and which ones aren’t.
If certain locations consistently show up green on conversions or ROAS, they may deserve their own dedicated campaign or budget. If others are glowing red, it’s a clear sign they’re dragging performance down and need to be excluded or bid down.
Ignoring “Happy Accidents” outside target regions
A common reaction when advertisers see traffic from outside their target area is to exclude it immediately.
The assumption is simple: “If it’s not in my target, it must be wasted.” But that isn’t always true.
Sometimes, ads leak into unexpected geographies, and those clicks actually convert. By cutting them off too quickly, advertisers risk missing out on profitable new markets.
How Geo HeatMap helps
This is where the red vs. green visual is so powerful.
Instead of treating all “off-target” traffic as bad, the Geo HeatMap shows you whether those clicks are actually driving results. If a city you never planned to target lights up green for conversions or ROAS, that’s not waste, it’s an opportunity.
Rather than excluding it, you can test it in its own campaign and see if it deserves more investment.
Using generic ad copy for all regions
Another mistake advertisers make is running the same ad copy everywhere, regardless of location. While it saves time, it ignores the fact that different regions often respond to different messaging.
What feels relevant in one city, state, or country may fall flat in another.
This leads to lower click-through rates, weaker engagement, and missed opportunities to connect with local audiences.
How Geo HeatMap helps
By breaking down performance by city, region, or country, you can see which areas respond well to your current messaging and which don’t.
If a region is driving clicks but failing to convert, it might not be just the targeting; it could be that the ad copy doesn’t resonate with that audience. For example, you might see two regions with similar click volumes, but only one delivers strong conversions.
That’s a signal that your messaging is connecting in one place but not the other.
Instead of running generic ads everywhere, you can create region-specific campaigns or ad variations that speak directly to local needs, language nuances, or cultural references.
One budget covering too many time zones or countries
It’s tempting to simplify campaign management by running one campaign across multiple countries or time zones. On the surface, it might look efficient—one budget, one set of ads, one place to manage performance.
But in reality, this approach forces very different markets to fight over the same budget.
High-performing regions often lose out, because spend is eaten up by less effective locations or by markets that activate earlier in the day due to time zone differences.
How Geo HeatMap helps
By mapping performance at the country or region level, the tool makes it obvious where budget cannibalization is happening.
You may notice that one country consistently shows up green for ROAS or conversions, while others lag behind in red.
That’s your cue to spin the top performers into their own campaigns or portfolio strategies with dedicated budgets, ensuring they’re no longer starved of spend by weaker regions.
Forgetting to pair geo insights with bid strategy
Spotting weak or strong regions is only half the battle. A common mistake is seeing poor results in a geography but leaving the bid strategy untouched. When that happens, Smart Bidding will keep funneling budget into those underperforming areas because it has no corrective signal.
The insight is there, you just haven’t acted on it.
How Geo HeatMap helps
The tool highlights exactly where performance is strong (green) or weak (red), but the real magic happens when you connect those insights to Optmyzr’s Rule Engine.
You can set automated rules like:
If ROAS < threshold in [region], apply a -20% bid adjustment
If conversions > X in [region], apply a +15% bid adjustment
This way, the regions that waste money get dialed down, and the ones that drive results get more support, without you having to manually tweak settings every week.
Simplify Google Ads location targeting with Optmyzr
Poor location targeting is one of the biggest silent budget killers in Google Ads.
Whether it’s wasted spend in irrelevant geographies, strong regions being cannibalized by weaker ones, or missed opportunities in untapped markets, the cost of not having clarity is real.
Optmyzr’s Geo HeatMap turns scattered location data into actionable intelligence.
You see exactly where your ads are working, where they’re wasting money, and where untapped growth potential exists.
1. How can I optimize location targeting in Google Ads?
Start by reviewing the Locations report to see where clicks and conversions are actually coming from. Exclude areas with high spend but no conversions, and consider creating separate campaigns for top-performing regions so they don’t have to share budget with weaker ones. Over time, refine your targeting by city, region, or country rather than leaving it too broad.
2. Should I run one Google Ads campaign across multiple countries?
It’s usually better to avoid running a single campaign across multiple countries or time zones. Budgets get stretched too thin, and time zone differences can cause high-performing regions to lose spend to weaker ones. Splitting campaigns by country or region gives you more control and ensures each market gets the right budget allocation.
3. How do I know when to exclude a location in Google Ads?
If a location is consistently driving clicks without conversions, or showing poor return on ad spend (ROAS), it’s a strong candidate for exclusion. Look at at least 30 days of data before making decisions, since short-term results can be misleading.
4. Can location insights improve Smart Bidding strategies?
Yes. Smart Bidding works best when it has accurate signals. If you know certain regions convert better, applying bid adjustments or splitting them into their own campaigns ensures Smart Bidding can optimize more effectively. Likewise, lowering bids in poor-performing areas prevents wasted budget.
5. Does location targeting work for both eCommerce and lead generation campaigns?
Yes. For eCommerce, precise location targeting helps direct budget to regions with strong ROAS and shipping coverage. For lead generation, it ensures you’re reaching prospects in serviceable geographies, preventing wasted spend on leads you can’t fulfill.
Most PPC problems don’t start with a disaster. They start with a slow bleed.
A report that takes three hours instead of one. A budget that stalls for no clear reason. A CPC that spikes without warning. An “urgent” client email that lands at 9:01 AM, and again at 9:05.
None of these issues are catastrophic. But stacked together, they grind teams down and make performance flatline. And if you’ve spent any time on r/PPC, you know this isn’t rare, it’s the norm.
We picked out five of the most common challenges PPC managers vent about and looked at how to actually solve them.
In this article, we’ll break down each pain point and show practical, time-saving ways Optmyzr can help turn those frustrations into wins.
Challenge 1: Client reporting is dreadful
Ask any PPC manager what consumes their time, and reporting is likely to be on the list.
It’s not just pulling numbers but wrestling with endless spreadsheets, formatting charts for picky clients, and answering the dreaded “so… how are we doing compared to last month?”
The problem? Advertisers spend hours packaging data when they’d rather be optimizing accounts. Worse, generic reports often overwhelm clients with raw numbers but fail to tell a story.
That’s why reporting often becomes a constant pain point.
How Optmyzr fixes it
Start with templates, not a blank page.
Pre-built templates like the Executive Summary Report pull in account-wide performance and instantly highlight wins and losses.
You can customize them so clients see what actually matters: conversions, ROAS, or top performers, without drowning in irrelevant metrics.
Reports that answer back.
Instead of static dashboards, Optmyzr gives you reports with a built-in AI sidekick.
You can click on pre-set questions like “Summarize the key points of this report” or “Identify 3 areas needing attention” and get instant answers.
It feels less like sifting through numbers and more like having a mini-analyst inside the report.
Add tools that explain thewhy.
Numbers alone don’t satisfy clients. If conversions drop, they’ll ask, “But why?” and that’s where the PPC investigator comes in.
It’s a widget you can drop right into your report.
Instead of you manually digging through campaigns, the tool maps how impressions, clicks, and conversions are connected, showing exactly what caused the change.
Turn data into stories with AI
Another widget, the PPC Narrator, auto-writes a summary of what happened in the account.
Think of it as a plain-English “executive note” that lives inside the report. You choose the sentiment (positive, neutral, critical), and it generates a narrative like:
“Conversions increased by 12% last month, driven by mobile traffic. CPCs remained stable, while impression share improved due to higher ad rank.”
Now, even if clients skim the report, they’ll still walk away with the big picture.
Automate delivery
Schedule reports to hit inboxes (or Slack/Teams) on the 1st or 5th of the month, so you’re not hesitating when a client asks for an update.
Running Google Ads simply means balancing a lot of moving parts. PPC managers are flooded with metrics, reports, and errors to check, so there’s rarely enough time to give every campaign the attention it deserves.
On top of that, Google Ads keeps throwing in asset optimization suggestions, random errors, and new features to monitor. It feels like almost every time you open the account, there are ten new fires to put out.
But the biggest challenge is there’s simply not enough time in the day.
Between reporting, client calls, and strategy, PPC managers struggle to give ads the optimization they really need. Important improvements get delayed, and campaigns run on autopilot longer than they should.
How Optmyzr helps
Think of Optmyzr Express as your daily to-do list for ad accounts.
Instead of digging through endless reports and dashboards, Optmyzr Express shows you optimization suggestions across Google Ads, Amazon Ads, Microsoft Ads, and even Yahoo Japan Ads, all in one place.
Quick wins in minutes: It works like an inbox. You log in, see suggestions (like “pause low-performing ads” or “add high-converting search terms”), and take action with just one click.
Fast actions: Each suggestion comes with an Apply button to make the change instantly, or a Snooze option if you want to revisit it later.
Stay organized: You can filter suggestions by account or type, and archive the ones you don’t ever want to see again.
Backed by data: Recommendations are based on performance data from the last 30–90 days, so they’re timely and relevant.
Multi-account support: Whether you manage one account or dozens, everything shows up in one dashboard.
With Optmyzr Express, what normally takes hours of checking reports and accounts can be done within a few minutes. It saves time, reduces overwhelm, and ensures that important optimizations actually get implemented instead of being pushed aside.
👉 Check all the available optimizations in the tool here!
Challenge 3: Getting clicks but not conversions
Sometimes campaigns look healthy on the surface: clicks and impressions are steady, search terms look relevant, and the landing page is solid.
But conversions just don’t happen.
This is one of the most frustrating challenges for PPC managers. You try new campaigns, pause old ones, even reset your strategy, but leads still don’t come in.
And you’re left wondering: Was it the new keywords? A change in audience behavior? Competition? Or something in the account setup that’s blocking conversions?
How Optmyzr helps
Our PPC Investigator makes it easier to understand exactly why performance shifted. It shows not just what happened, but where and why it happened.
Cause Chart
The Cause Chart helps you trace how a change in one metric flows through the rest of your performance data.
In the example below, conversions increased by 46 during the selected period.
The chart shows that this growth was driven by a higher conversion rate (+42%) and an increase in clicks (+16%), which in turn came from a small lift in impressions (+0.86%) and a stronger CTR (+15%).
By mapping the relationships between impressions, clicks, CPC, CTR, and conversions, the Cause Chart makes it easy to see not just what changed, but how each metric contributed to the overall result.
Root Cause Analysis
Drill down to see whether the drop is tied to a specific campaign, ad group, keyword, placement, or device. In the example below, PPC Investigator shows conversions rising sharply from 9 to 84 in just 30 days.
The Optmyzr AISummary explains the change clearly: growth came mainly from the keyword “X” (+42 conversions), users in the “Not a parent” audience segment (+29 conversions), and the male demographic (+29 conversions).
This makes it easy to see why conversions increased and which audience segments or keywords drove the improvement.
While PPC Investigator helps you uncover why conversions dropped or shifted, Conversion Grabber helps you recover lost leads and capture more.
The tool finds keywords that are already bringing conversions but aren’t showing often enough, and suggests a bid increase so they can capture more leads.
You can apply bid changes automatically (e.g., +10%) or set custom bids manually, depending on how aggressive you want to be.
Challenge 4: Google Ads won’t spend the full budget
You set the budget, but Google Ads doesn’t always spend it fully.
Campaigns crawl, pacing falls behind, and you end up explaining why the account isn’t using the money that was allocated.
The tough part is figuring out what’s actually causing the slowdown.
Sometimes there’s not enough search volume. Other times, the budget sits in campaigns that can’t scale, while stronger ones are left underfunded.
Either way, underspending means missed opportunities and accounts that feel stuck in first gear.
How Optmyzr helps
Our Spend Projection tool makes it easy to see whether you’re on track to hit your budget or if spend will fall short. It analyzes past performance, daily spend patterns, and seasonality to forecast how much of your budget will actually be spent by the end of the cycle.
Here’s how it helps with budget pacing:
Clear Forecasts: Instead of guessing, you’ll know if your campaigns are likely to underspend, overspend, or hit the target.
Daily Guidance: The tool shows how much you need to spend each day to reach your goal, helping you take corrective action early.
AI Summaries: Get plain-language insights about trends, weekday patterns, or seasonal shifts so you don’t waste time digging through charts.
But spotting the pacing problem is only half the battle.
Sometimes campaigns don’t spend the full budget because funds are tied up in places where they simply can’t scale, while other high-performing campaigns remain underfunded.
You pick the campaigns and set your monthly budget. The tool then checks if you’re on track, underspending, or overspending, and shows you options to fix it.
For example, say the advertiser wants to spend $7,000 this month.
But based on current performance, Google Ads is only on track to spend about $5,987 (that’s just 85.5% of the target). The tool points this out clearly and even shows that you’d need to average $262 per day to hit the full budget, which is $78 more per day than what you’re currently spending.
The table below then gives you options. For example:
If nothing changes, you’ll finish around $5,987 spend with 97 conversions.
If you could push spend up to $7,157 (+20%), the model estimates you could reach about 102 conversions (a +5% lift).
Going further to $7,287 (+22%) could push you to 103 conversions (+6%), though at a higher cost per conversion.
So in this view, Optmyzr is showing: “Here’s the gap between what you want to spend and what’s actually being spent. Here are scenarios for reallocating budget to help you capture more volume and get closer to the target.”
Challenge 5: Paying high CPC even with no competition
It can be confusing to see impression share at 90–100% and still notice CPCs holding steady around $1. Even in markets with limited competition (niche markets), advertisers often expect lower costs but don’t see them reflected in their reports.
The problem is that Google doesn’t only use competition to set CPCs.
Even if you’re the only bidder, other factors, like ad relevance, expected CTR, and landing page experience, decide how much you pay. Google also has minimum bid requirements for each auction, and those don’t vanish just because you’re the only one bidding.
If your ads or pages don’t hit Google’s thresholds, CPCs stay higher than you’d expect.
That gap between “no competition” and “still paying a dollar per click” creates doubt and frustration. Advertisers start wondering if Google is overcharging, and clients get concerned about costs eating into margins.
How Optmyzr helps
Optmyzr gives you visibility into why CPCs are high and the tools to bring them down.
The Quality Score Tracker breaks down each component: CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience, to help you spot exactly what’s dragging down performance.
If CPCs are being pushed up because of low relevance or weak CTR, you’ll see it right away.
The PPC Investigator takes this a step further by showing whether a spike in CPC is tied to a drop in CTR, a change in keyword performance, or shifts in impressions.
Instead of guessing, you know what triggered the increase.
When it comes to improving ad quality, Optmyzr has Ad Text Optimization (RSAs). This tool helps you test variations, refine headlines, and improve CTR, so your Quality Score goes up and CPC naturally comes down.
You can also clean up wasted spend with query mining tools like Search Term N-Grams and the Negative Keyword Finder, which help remove irrelevant clicks that hurt efficiency and CTR.
Finally, the URL Checker ensures landing pages aren’t quietly working against you.
If a page is broken, slow, or showing “out of stock” messages, Optmyzr flags it before it damages your landing page experience score.
Overcome your PPC challenges with Optmyzr
Running Google Ads will always come with hurdles: reports, optimizations, CPC swings, or budgets that don’t pace the way they should.
The hard part is keeping on top of all of it without losing focus on growth.
Optmyzr is built to take those frustrations off your plate. From reporting to optimizations, from CPC analysis to budget pacing, it gives you the visibility and automation you need to fix issues before they spiral.
Book a free trial and see how Optmyzr can help you run PPC campaigns more smoothly.
FAQs
1. What are the biggest challenges in Google Ads?
Common challenges include time-consuming reporting, budgets that don’t pace correctly, rising CPCs even with low competition, and campaigns that generate clicks but not conversions. PPC managers often struggle to balance these while still focusing on strategy.
2. Why is my Google Ads budget not spending?
Budgets may underspend if there’s limited search volume, if Google directs spend to campaigns that can’t scale, or if targeting settings restrict reach. Tools like budget pacing reports can highlight where money is stuck and how to reallocate it.
3. Why are my CPCs high with little competition?
High CPCs aren’t always caused by competitors. Google also factors in Quality Score, expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Even with 90–100% impression share, weak Quality Score signals can keep CPCs elevated.
4. Why am I getting clicks but no conversions in Google Ads?
Clicks without conversions may be caused by mismatched keywords, poor audience targeting, landing page issues, or shifts in user behavior. Analyzing search terms, conversion paths, and audience segments can uncover the root cause.
5. How can PPC managers save time on Google Ads reporting?
Instead of manually building reports, using automated reporting tools with templates and AI summaries can speed up client reporting, highlight key wins and losses, and answer “why” performance shifted.
Marketers on Reddit recently opened up about the less obvious Google Ads optimizations that delivered outsized results. The kind of tweaks that don’t get much attention but drive serious performance gains.
The catch? These tactics are often manual, time-consuming, and hard to scale across multiple accounts.
That’s where Optmyzr comes in.
You can automate, scale, and monitor all five of these underrated (but powerful) optimizations without adding more to your plate.
Here’s how to put them into action today.
1. Automate negative keyword management
Negative keywords tell Google which searches not to show your ads for, so you don’t waste budget on irrelevant clicks.
Simple in concept but messy in execution.
That’s what makes this optimization underrated: It’s easy to overlook, hard to scale, and almost impossible to manage well across multiple campaigns without automation.
How Optmyzr helps
For Search Campaigns
The Negative Keyword Finder (Search) pulls your Google Ads or Microsoft Ads search terms report and breaks queries down, showing you exactly which ones are wasting spend.
See key metrics at a glance: impressions, clicks, CTR, cost, CPC, conversions.
Add individual words or full queries as negatives.
Bulk-edit match types, archive irrelevant suggestions, or apply changes to shared lists.
Push changes to accounts or campaigns instantly (no spreadsheets, no tab-hopping).
💡 Need more suggestions?Turbo Mode lowers data thresholds to uncover more underperformers.
Duplicate Queries: Finds search queries showing in multiple ad groups, identifies the underperforming one, and suggests adding it as an exact match negative.
Low-Performing Queries: Surfaces queries within an ad group that have low ROAS or high cost/conversion compared to the group average, and recommends them as negatives.
This ensures traffic is automatically funneled to the most profitable ad groups while cutting out generic or budget-draining clicks.
2. A/B testing ads
Running multiple ads per ad group is a smart move as it gives your account room to test, learn, and improve. But in the day-to-day of campaign management, it’s easy for ad copy to go untouched for weeks or months.
Ads stay live for months (sometimes longer) without being reviewed, rotated, or refreshed. And while Google may rotate ads automatically, it doesn’t always align with your actual business goals. Without a structured way to A/B test and replace ad copy, most campaigns face performance issues.
Why this optimization gets overlooked:
One ad quietly eats up the budget but doesn’t convert.
Another performs better, but never gets prioritized.
Google rotates ads, but not always in a way that aligns with your goals.
Without structured testing, performance flatlines, and you don’t know why.
A/B testing your ad copy is one of the easiest ways to improve CTRs and conversion rates. But only if it’s done consistently, which is tough to manage manually across multiple accounts.
How Optmyzr helps
Optmyzr makes it easy to test ad copy, find what works, and keep your best-performing ads live (all in one place).
Here’s how:
Automatically compare ad performance
Optmyzr’s A/B Testing tool compares ads within the same ad group and tells you which ones are underperforming. It will then suggest pausing these ads, and you can also create a new version right from the same tool.
3. Optimize budget allocation based on product profitability
Not all products are created equal, and they shouldn’t be treated that way in your ad campaigns.
Some products generate high profit margins, convert easily, and perform well even with minimal advertising spend. Others might look good on the surface but consistently drain your budget without delivering real returns.
However, standard campaign structures in Google Ads often treat all products the same.
Without clear segmentation based on actual performance, you might waste budget on the wrong products.
Why this optimization gets overlooked:
Profitability isn’t always reflected in campaign data.
High-performing, low-cost products often get buried.
Manually segmenting product groups is time-consuming and hard to scale.
Merchant Center feeds don’t automatically adjust to performance shifts.
Managing bids across large inventories without automation is nearly impossible.
This makes it easy for inefficiencies to creep in, especially when product catalogs grow or performance fluctuates quickly.
How Optmyzr helps
Optmyzr’s Smart Product Labeler is built specifically to solve this challenge in Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. It helps you automatically segment your product feed based on real-world performance, so you can allocate budget and bids where they’ll have the most impact.
Segment products by performance
The Smart Product Labeler assigns every product to one of five custom performance categories:
Heroes: Top-performing, high-ROAS products. Great candidates for increased bids and budgets.
Sidekicks: Solid performers close to breaking out. Gradually increase spend here.
Villains: High-spend, low-ROAS products. Reduce bids or consider excluding.
Zombies: Low-traffic items that haven’t had enough exposure yet. Use test-and-learn strategies.
Flukes: Surprisingly high-ROAS products with minimal exposure. Nurture with moderate bid increases.
The segmentation is based on ROAS and Cost, so you’re acting on what truly matters, not just impressions or clicks.
Keep labels automatically updated
No need to constantly download reports or adjust feeds manually.
As performance changes, the Smart Product Labeler automatically updates your product labels, keeping your strategy in sync with reality.
4. Selective conversion reporting on lead gen campaigns
Instead of counting every lead from your campaigns as a conversion (like anyone who fills out a form), only count the leads that are actually valuable, such as those that are qualified or result in a real sale.
When you do this, your cost per lead (CPL) may look a little higher, but it will be more accurate.
In the long run, your client will see a much better close rate (more sales from those leads) and will actually spend less money per sale overall.
👉 In short:Don’t focus on reporting every lead. Focus on the ones that matter; it saves money and gives a clearer picture of success.
How Optmyzr helps with selective conversion reporting
Optmyzr makes it easier to turn offline conversion data into actionable insights.
While the actual import of offline conversions happens in Google Ads (from your CRM or sales platform), once those conversions are in Google Ads, Optmyzr can help you report, analyze, and optimize campaigns around them.
Your ads can be perfectly targeted, but if the landing page falls flat, conversions won’t follow.
Small changes like making calls-to-action more prominent or trimming down long, cluttered pages can deliver massive lifts in performance.
Why this optimization gets overlooked:
Landing page testing often requires designers, developers, or third-party tools.
It’s hard to quickly see which pages are draining the budget without conversions.
Winning page elements don’t always get reused across the account.
How Optmyzr helps with landing page optimization
Optmyzr’s Landing Page Analysis tool helps you zero in on which pages need improvement and which are worth replicating.
Here’s how it works:
Aggregate data across the account: See performance metrics for the same landing page URL, no matter how many campaigns or ad groups use it.
Spot problem pages instantly: Find “expensive” pages (high CTR, low conversion rate) or those with high potential (good conversions but low CTR).
Learn from top performers: Identify pages with strong CTRs and conversion rates, then apply what works across weaker pages.
Download and share insights: Export suggestions into CSV to review with your team or client.
While performance is one side of the equation, ensuring that all your ads actually point to live, functional pages is just as critical.
That’s where you can use Optmyzr’s URL checker. It automatically scans your ads, keywords, sitelinks, and even Performance Max asset groups to catch broken links, 404 errors, or out-of-stock messages, before they waste budget.
You can even set it to automatically pause ads with broken URLs or simply generate reports for your team. Together, Landing Page Analysis and URL Checker make sure your campaigns not only lead people to the right pages but also to pages that convert profitably.
Put these Google ads optimizations to work with Optmyzr
The best Google Ads optimizations aren’t always the flashiest ones.
As we’ve seen, tactics like smarter negative keyword management, consistent ad testing, profit-based product segmentation, selective conversion reporting, and landing page improvements can lead to significant wins, especially when automated.
The challenge is that doing these consistently and at scale is tough without the right tools.
From analysis to automation, it helps you cut out the manual work and focus on strategies that actually help you improve your Google Ads performance.
1. Why are negative keywords important in Google Ads?
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing on irrelevant searches. This saves budget and ensures clicks come from users more likely to convert.
2. Can negative keyword management be automated?
Yes. Tools like Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder automate the process by scanning search terms, identifying wasted spend, and suggesting negatives across campaigns.
3. How does A/B testing improve ad performance?
A/B testing helps you compare multiple ads, identify the best-performing copy, and continually refresh underperforming ads to boost CTRs and conversions.
4. Does Google Ads rotate ads automatically?
Yes, but not always in a way that matches your business goals. Structured A/B testing ensures you’re optimizing toward meaningful results, not just impressions.
5. Why are landing pages critical for Google Ads success?
Even with great targeting, poor landing pages cause lost conversions. Testing layouts, CTAs, and copy can significantly boost conversion rates.
6. How does Optmyzr help with landing page optimization?
The Landing Page Analysis tool identifies high-performing and underperforming pages, showing where to improve and what to replicate.
7. How can I avoid broken or outdated landing page links in ads?
Optmyzr’s URL Checker scans your ads, sitelinks, and PMAX assets for broken links, 404 errors, or “out of stock” pages, and can even pause affected ads automatically.
It’s that time of year when PPC advertisers start feeling the heat of the busy shopping season.
So we’ve put together a comprehensive guide that will help you understand all aspects of running ecommerce campaigns with Google Ads, from choosing the right campaign type to creating campaigns and ads, as well as best practices for optimizing and managing them effectively.
Before we dive in, let’s take a step back and understand why Google Ads is a popular choice for many PPC advertisers.
Why use Google Ads for your ecommerce businesses?
Google Ads has long been a go-to for ecommerce brands and for good reason. It gives you access to potential customers across Google Search, Shopping, YouTube, and a massive network of partner sites.
And now, with placements showing up in things like AI Overviews, the competition for attention is getting even tougher.
What sets Google Ads apart is how targeted you can get. You’re not just casting a wide net; you’re reaching people based on what they’re searching for, what they care about, and how they behave online. That means your ads show up for the people most likely to buy.
It’s also flexible. You only pay when someone clicks, and you can adjust your spend based on what’s working and what your goals are.
In addition, Google Ads provides analytics that allows you to track the performance of your campaigns and see what’s working and what’s not. This data can be used to optimize your campaigns and improve results over time.
But while Google Ads makes it easy to get started, scaling campaigns profitably, especially across large product catalogs and dynamic markets, requires more than Google’s native tools. That’s where Optmyzr comes in, giving ecommerce advertisers the automation, feed control, and budget intelligence that Google doesn’t provide out of the box.
Running campaigns is just the start. Staying profitable, especially during busy seasons, takes a smart setup. You’ll need to choose the right campaign types, manage budgets with intention, and build in ways to keep reaching the right audience, even after they’ve clicked.
Read on to learn about it, from campaign types to budget strategies, audience targeting, and more.
Types of Google Ads campaigns for various objectives
In Google’s vast ad ecosystem, there’s a campaign type for nearly every channel. From Search and Shopping to YouTube, Gmail, and beyond.
Each has its place. But in ecommerce, it’s not just about picking the right type. It’s about managing them at scale. When you’re juggling hundreds of SKUs, multiple feeds, and dynamic budgets, it can quickly become overwhelming to manage.
Let’s walk through the main campaign types and what they offer, then we’ll zoom in on how to use them strategically for ecommerce growth.
Search Campaigns
Search campaigns are the most common type of Google Ad campaigns. They appear in Google’s search results when users look for specific keywords.
Advantage: Search campaigns are a great way to target audiences who are already interested in your offer, as they are actively searching for it. However, as your product catalog grows, so does the number of ad groups and keywords you have to manage.
Display Campaigns
Display campaigns allow you to show your ads across the Google Display Network on websites and apps.
Advantage: Display campaigns are an excellent way to reach a wider audience and build brand awareness. But they are less intent-driven and harder to control at the conversion level.
Shopping Campaigns
Shopping campaigns allow you to show your product listings in the Google Shopping tab and other search results.
Advantage: Shopping campaigns are a great way to drive traffic to your website (ecommerce store) and increase sales. It is important to have a consistent feed hygiene and repeatable processes when you’re managing SKUs, inventory, and product data at scale.
Local Campaigns
Local campaigns allow you to promote your business in Google Search results and Google Maps.
Advantage: Local campaigns are a great way to reach potential customers looking for businesses like yours in their area. However, they may not be as relevant for online only ecommerce businesses.
Performance Max Campaigns
PMax campaigns use machine learning and automation to optimize your ads for all of Google’s channels, including Search, Display, YouTube, and more.
Advantage: Performance Max campaigns are a good option for businesses that want to reach a broad audience and achieve business goals with a single campaign.
Discovery Campaigns
Discovery campaigns allow you to show your ads in the Google Discover feed. It’s the personalized content that users can see on Google Search, the Google app, and YouTube.
Advantage: Discovery campaigns are great for reaching audiences who are already interested in topics related to your business.
There’s more to Google Ads, but for now, we’ll get into campaign types specific to ecommerce: Search, Standard Shopping, and Performance Max.
Search Campaigns
Google Ads search campaigns involve bidding on specific keywords and displaying text ads on Google’s search engine results pages (SERP). Advertisers can tailor these ads to include additional information like prices, reviews, and images through ad extensions.
Search campaigns are often where ecommerce brands start. They capture high-intent shoppers right when they’re searching. But as your product catalog grows, so does the complexity. Managing keywords, budgets, and performance at scale takes more than a basic setup.
Where Do Search Ads Appear
Google Search results pages: When people search for keywords relevant to your ecommerce business, your ads may appear above or below the organic search results.
Google Display Network: Your ads can also appear on websites and apps across the Google Display Network. This includes websites like YouTube, Gmail, and popular news and entertainment websites.
💡Pro Tip: Search ads perform best when you’re showing up for the right queries and skipping the ones that waste budget. Optmyzr’s Keyword Lasso helps you spot high-converting search terms that aren’t yet keywords in your account, so you can add them quickly and grow coverage where it counts.
Ad Formats for Search Ads
Text ads: Text ads are the most common type of search ad. They consist of a headline, description, and display URL.
Product ads: Product ads are a type of search ads specifically designed for merchants. They include a product image, price, and title.
Search Ads Bidding Strategies
There are a variety of bidding strategies that you can use for your search campaigns. The best bidding strategy for you will depend on your ecommerce business goals and budget.
Some of the most common bidding strategies include:
Target cost-per-click (CPC): With target CPC bidding, you set the maximum amount you are willing to pay for each click on your ad.
Maximize conversions: With maximize conversions bidding, Google automatically sets your bids to get as many conversions as possible within your budget.
Manual CPC: With manual CPC bidding, you set your bids for each keyword individually.
Standard Shopping Campaigns
Standard Shopping campaigns give you more hands-on control over how your products show up across Google. You can manage everything from product groupings to bids and negative keywords—making it easier to shape performance around your ecommerce goals.
They help you promote product listings across the Shopping tab, Search results, and more, driving traffic to your store and supporting sales growth.
Where Do Shopping Ads Appear
Shopping tab: The Google Shopping tab is a dedicated page on Google where users can browse and compare products from different merchants.
Search results pages: Shopping ads may also appear above or below the organic search results when people search for relevant keywords for your products.
Display Network: Your shopping ads can also appear on websites and apps across the Google Display Network.
💡Pro tip: When you're juggling thousands of SKUs across multiple channels, having a clean, well-organized feed is essential. The Shopping Campaign Builder makes it easy to turn your product catalog into tightly grouped, performance-ready campaigns.
Ad Formats for Standard Shopping Campaigns
Standard Shopping campaigns include Shopping Ads and Local Inventory Ads.
Shopping Ads: Shopping Ads show detailed information about your products, including product images, prices, titles, and descriptions, on Google Search and other Google properties.
Local Inventory Ads: These are a type of Shopping Ad that shows your products in stock at your local stores.
⚠️Quick fix: Feed issues can silently tank performance. Shopping Feed Audits flag missing data, misgrouped items, or missing negatives and Feed Alerts notify you when approvals or prices go off-track.
Standard Shopping campaigns allow for automated strategies like Target ROAS and Maximize Clicks, as well as manual CPC.
Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): When you use Target ROAS bidding, Google Ads will automatically set bids to help you get as many conversions as possible within your budget while also trying to meet your ROAS target.
Maximize Clicks: With Maximize Clicks bidding, Google Ads will automatically set bids to help you get the most clicks possible for your budget, regardless of your conversion rate.
Manual CPC: Manual CPC bidding gives you the most control over your bids, but you’ll need to monitor your performance closely and adjust your bids as needed.
Performance Max (PMax) Campaigns
The buzz about Performance Max campaigns is all about its ability to use machine learning to optimize your ads for all of Google’s channels, including Search, Display, YouTube, and more. This campaign type uses robust automation across various aspects of the campaign, including bidding, budget optimization, audiences, creatives, and attribution.
Where Do PMax Ads Appear
Performance Max ads can appear in the following places and also automatically adapt to new inventory and formats:
Google Search results pages
Google Display Network
YouTube
Gmail
Google Maps
Discover pages
Ad Formats for Performance Max Campaigns
PMax offers a wide array of ad formats, including:
Shopping Ads
Display Ads
Text Ads
Video Ads
Responsive Search Ads
Performance Max Campaigns Bidding Strategies
Performance Max uses automated bidding strategies like Maximize Conversion Value and Maximize Conversions. And with automated bidding, Google automatically sets your bids to get as many conversions as possible within your budget.
This is where tools like Optmyzr’s Shopping Analysis come in. You can break down PMax performance by product attributes like brand, category, or custom labels, giving you insights Google doesn’t show natively. You’ll know which segments are pulling their weight and which ones might be eating spend.
Additional Features of Performance Max Campaigns
PMax has some additional features that can be helpful for both lead generation and ecommerce campaigns, including
Audience signals: This feature allows you to target your ads to people likely to be interested in your products or services. For example, if you’re selling shoes, you could target your ads to people recently searching for “shoes” or “shoe stores” online.
Final URL expansion: This feature allows you to show your ads on a broader range of Google properties, including websites, apps, and YouTube. This can help you reach more potential customers and increase your chances of getting conversions.
New customer acquisition goals: PMax allows you to set new customer acquisition goals in two modes:
New Customer Value mode: This mode allows you to bid higher for new customers than for existing ones. It is a great way to boost your overall revenue and attract new customers.
New Customer Only mode: This mode allows you to focus your efforts on acquiring new customers only. This is a good option if you have a special offer for first-time buyers or are more interested in generating leads than making direct sales.
Speaking of leads, it’s important to know how to use Google Ads campaigns to generate leads and drive sales for ecommerce businesses. While lead generation and sales are crucial parts of any ecommerce strategy, there is a difference between the two.
By understanding the different campaign types and targeting options available, you can create campaigns tailored to your specific business goals.
Let’s look at how you can approach Google Ads differently for lead generation and sales in ecommerce campaigns.
Google Ads for Lead Generation vs. Ecommerce Sales
When creating a Google Ads campaign, it is essential to first define your goals.
Are you looking to generate leads, drive sales, or increase brand awareness? Once you know your goals, you can choose the right campaign type and targeting options.
When leveraging Google Ads, the strategic goals include:
Encouraging immediate customer purchases.
Gathering valuable leads through engaging sign-up mechanisms.
Boosting website traffic to amplify brand visibility.
Lead generation attracts and converts new potential audiences and prospects into someone who has indicated interest in your company’s product or service. A lead is a person who has shown some interest in what you have to offer but hasn’t yet become a customer.
Sales is the process of converting leads into paying customers. It involves building relationships with leads, understanding their needs, and persuading them to buy from you.
Google Ads can be used for both lead generation and sales. However, there are some key differences between the two types of campaigns.
Aspect
Lead generation
Sales
Goal
Generate leads by collecting contact information from potential customers.
Convert leads into paying customers.
Target audience
People who have shown some interest in your company's product or service.
People who are already interested in your product or service.
Ad copy
Focuses on the benefits of your product or service and how it can solve the customer's problem.
Focuses on the value of your product or service and why the customer should buy it now.
Call to action
Typically, it includes a call to action to sign up for a free trial, download an ebook, or schedule a consultation.
Typically, it includes a call to action to buy your product or service.
Now, let’s get into how you can optimize the three main ecommerce campaign types (Search, Shopping, and PMax) differently for lead generation goals.
Use ad extensions: Ad extensions can provide additional information about your business and make your ads more appealing to potential customers. Some useful ad extensions for lead generation include call extensions, site link extensions, and lead form extensions.
Use landing pages optimized for lead generation: Your landing pages should be designed to capture leads. This means that they should have a clear call to action and a form that people can fill out to submit their contact information. You should also ensure that your landing pages are relevant to your target keywords.
Use lead qualification: Lead qualification is the process of identifying and prioritizing leads that are most likely to convert into customers. You can use lead qualification to identify leads that are a good fit for your business and are more likely to be interested in your products or services.
Use lead nurturing campaigns: Nurture campaigns are a great way to stay in touch with potential customers and move them closer to purchasing. You can use nurture campaigns to send potential customers educational content, special offers, and event invitations.
Now that we understand what options you have in terms of Google Ads campaigns for ecommerce, let’s look at how to create the three types of Google Ads ecommerce campaigns - Search, Standard Shopping, and Performance Max.
How to Create Search Campaigns
Here is a step-by-step process of creating search campaigns in Google Ads:
In your Google Ads account, click the plus button (+) and select New Campaign.
Select your advertising objective. This is the goal you want to achieve with your campaign. For example, you can increase website traffic, generate leads, or drive sales.
Select the campaign type. For a search campaign, select Search.
Set your budget and bidding strategy. Your budget is the maximum amount of money you will spend on your campaign daily. Your bidding strategy determines how much you will pay for each click on your ad.
Create your ad groups. Ad groups are groups of related keywords and ads. For example, you might have one ad group for your product or service name and another for related keywords.
Add keywords to your ad groups. Keywords are the words and phrases people are likely to search for when looking for what you have to offer.
Write your ads. Your ads should be relevant to your keywords and encourage people to click on them.
Review your campaign, click Save, and continue.
Once you’ve created your search campaign, it will go through a review process. Once your campaign is approved, it will start running, and your ads will appear in search results.
How to create Standard Shopping Campaigns
The steps to create a campaign remain the same until choosing the type of campaign. In this case, you select “Shopping” as your campaign type.
From there on, the steps are as follows:
Select your product feed. Your product feed is a file that contains information about your products, such as their titles, descriptions, prices, and images.
Select your conversion goals. Conversion goals are the actions you want people to take on your website after clicking on your ad, such as purchasing or signing up for your email list.
Add your ad assets. Ad assets are the different elements of your ad, such as your headlines, descriptions, images, and videos.
Review your campaign, click Save, and continue.
Once you’ve created your Performance Max campaign, it will first go through a review process. After your campaign is approved, it will start running, and your ads will appear in search results and other Google channels, such as Display, YouTube, and Maps.
Remember, creating a campaign is just the beginning. Running successful ecommerce campaigns is all about testing, monitoring, and making optimizations based on your results. Once you have a good understanding of what’s working and what’s not, you can start to implement more advanced strategies like remarketing.
Remarketing for Google Ads Ecommerce Campaigns
Remarketing is a powerful way to reach people who have visited your website or interacted with your brand. Today, however,, it’s less about “following” users around and more about using your data intentionally to stay relevant.
With third-party cookies disappearing and AI playing a bigger role in ad targeting, your remarketing strategy needs to lean on first-party data, thoughtful segmentation, and creative that’s built to convert.
How to use remarketing strategically in ecommerce
Segment based on buying intent, not just pageviews: Don’t treat all site visitors the same. Someone who viewed your return policy has a different intent than someone who added to the cart. Set up separate lists and customize messaging accordingly.
Rebuild trust with high-expectation shoppers: With an increasing number of brands using AI-generated product comparisons and offering endless deals, remarketing is your chance to stand out with value props, delivery confidence, or unique perks. Lead with what makes you different.
Use time-based windows wisely: If you have customers who have abandoned their carts, the first 24 hours is all about reaching out and hitting them with urgency. Or if you have lapsed buyers from over 3 months, a good idea would be to reintroduce them to what’s new or trending currently.
Protect your budget with exclusions: Always layer in audiences like recent purchasers or high-return customers so you’re not wasting impressions on people who are unlikely to convert again soon.
Let automation assist, but don’t go blind: Google’s audience expansion tools can be powerful, but they often blur the line between remarketing and prospecting. Use Custom Segments and Customer Match when possible to keep your targeting focused.
By using remarketing to target people who have already shown an interest in your products, you can increase your chances of converting them into customers.
In addition to remarketing, there are several other best practices that you can follow to improve your Google Ads ecommerce campaigns. We have curated five tips from expert PPCers in the industry, and some valuable articles and user guides by Optmyzr.
5 Best Practices For Successful Ecommerce Google Ads Campaigns
Showcase your best products
Put the spotlight on your top-selling products. They’re the winners for a reason. Give them catchy titles, descriptions, and eye-catching images or videos to attract more buyers. Allocate a good chunk of your budget to these rock stars.
💡Pro Tip: Stop wasting time treating every product the same. The Smart Product Labeler automatically sorts your catalog into performance tiers so you can double down on proven winners, give promising products the push they need, and cut wasted spend on underperformers with ease.
Set smart bids and budgets
Figure out your bidding strategy based on your profit margins and conversion rates. Smart bidding can be a game-changer, but keep an eye on it to ensure it works for your specific goals.
💡Pro Tip: With Optmyzr’s Optimize Budgets tools, you don’t have to keep shuffling money around manually. They automatically shift budget toward the campaigns and accounts that are performing best so your top performers never get starved, and your spend stays aligned with your goals
Keep out the irrelevant clicks
Use negative keywords to filter out searches that don’t match what you’re selling. Regularly review search terms to keep your ads from showing up where they shouldn’t.
Optimization is the key to any campaign’s success, but it can be difficult to keep track of your campaigns and ensure they perform optimally, especially if you’re operating on a larger scale. That’s where a Google Ads optimization schedule can help. It helps you track your progress and make data-driven decisions.
💡Pro Tip: Optmyzr’s Account Blueprints let you set a recurring workflow, automating optimization tasks across campaigns so you never miss a step
Track your performance to optimize for success
Tracking your ecommerce website’s performance is essential for optimizing your Google Ads campaigns. And setting up conversion code is the key to unlocking valuable insights into your website’s behavior.
We have another great resource for you to help you through this year’s ecommerce campaign management. Check out this PPC Town Hall episode on how to stand out in eCommerce advertising featuring Duane Brown and Andrew Goodman, who have been running top-quality eCommerce campaigns for years and helped brands exponentially grow revenue and smash prior financial records.
Streamline Your Ecommerce Google Ads with Optmyzr
Running ecommerce Google Ads can be a handful. It demands constant fine-tuning and attention to ensure your campaigns are at their prime. But there’s no need to stress. With Optmyzr, managing your ecommerce campaigns is a lot easier and more efficient.
Here are some of Optmyzr’s top tools and features to support you at every stage of your ecommerce campaign management journey.
Tools for creation
Shopping Campaign Builder 2.0
Structure your active shopping campaigns by creating multiple levels of product partitions through a single click. You can create hundreds of ad groups with thousands of product groups in a matter of minutes.
Shopping Campaign Builder 2.0 makes building Shopping or PMax campaigns easy based on performance. For example, you can group products with similar ROAS performance and set more targeted bids and budgets, leading to improved performance overall. And it helps you manage your campaigns more effectively by making it easy and quick to identify and address any low-performing campaigns.
With this tool, you can restructure your shopping campaign groups created through Shopping Campaign Builder 2.0. You can also restructure campaigns not part of a campaign group created through Optmyzr.
The Shopping Campaign Analysis tool from Google Ads is a powerful tool for getting insights into your Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. It allows you to aggregate data from your shopping feed by performance metrics and attributes, regardless of your campaign structure.
The Shopping Bidder lets you make bulk bid changes for product groups based on performance with a single click. The tool enables you to set bids for thousands of product groups in a matter of minutes. New bids can be uploaded to AdWords with a single click.
Manage your shopping bids in a more flexible way by aggregating and reviewing data from the attributes in your product feed. For example, you could change bids for product groups advertising the same product but with different attributes like size and color.
Stay on top of your Google Ads ecommerce campaigns with Optmyzr
Managing successful ecommerce Google Ad campaigns is an ongoing process that requires constant experimentation, testing, data analysis, and strategic thinking. It’s also important to be adaptable and willing to refine your campaigns based on changing market conditions and business goals.
And Optmyzr, with its array of solutions, helpful resources, and support team, is always there to assist you.
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
Sign up for our 14-day free trial today to give Optmyzr a try. You will also get the resources you need to get started and more. Our team will also be on hand to answer questions and provide any support we can.
The data said yes. Accounts with higher scores consistently delivered lower CPAs and stronger ROAS, beating sub-70 accounts by more than 180% on return.
Now, that doesn’t mean you should chase a perfect score blindly.
Many top-performing accounts in our study improved their OptiScore not by accepting every recommendation, but by being selective and fixing the gaps that mattered.
That’s exactly what this guide is about. We’ll walk you through eight actionable ways to improve your Optimization Score.
TL;DR: How to boost your Optimization Score
Track business-critical KPIs, not just the score itself
Audit account-level negatives, ad assets, and conversion tracking setup
Run ad variation tests; monitor RSA Ad Strength (including text customization)
Refresh and sync Customer Match lists regularly
Fix broken, inaccessible, or policy-violating URLs
Rebalance budgets with pacing insights; adjust for total-budget campaigns
Automate recurring optimizations with Optmyzr Blueprints
What to focus on (beyond just following Google’s suggestions)
While the account managers keep sifting through Google’s recommendations before taking action, Optmyzr provides you with a list of tools that can help you address the inevitable.
These are areas you should monitor and optimize to help improve the Optimization Score and drive your account towards better business results.
1. Track performance metrics most important to your business
Improving your Optimization Score starts with focusing on the right business KPIs, such as conversions, CPA, ROAS, or CTR. Set up alerts at the account, campaign, label, or bid strategy level to detect when metrics begin trending in the wrong direction, even if targets are technically being met.
Optmyzr makes these easier with its KPI and Budget alerts that work across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook, and more.
You can monitor metrics at multiple levels, get notified instantly via email, Slack, or Teams, and even automate actions like pausing campaigns when budgets are exhausted and re-enabling them at the start of the next cycle.
For example, when setting up a conversion rate alert (see screenshot below), you can:
Get notified if the rate drops by more than a set percentage (like 20%) over the last 28 days
Set an absolute threshold so you’re alerted if performance falls below a number you choose
Add a trend alert to catch metrics moving the wrong way, even if they’re still in range
Use advanced settings to ignore the most recent days if data is delayed
2. Remove redundant keywords and add high-performing queries
Duplicate keywords within the same account compete against each other and split traffic. This not only wastes impressions but can also lower your Optimization Score.
Optmyzr’s Keyword De-Duper helps by scanning your account to find duplicates and recommending which ones to keep and which to pause.
In Basic Mode, it looks for duplicates with the same match type in the same campaign.
In Advanced Mode, it scans across campaigns for repeated keywords.
You choose the ones to keep, and the rest are paused automatically. You can even export the list to a CSV or Google Ads Editor file for review.
💡Best Practice: Run the Keyword De-Duper every two weeks (or more often if you add keywords regularly). Since it only flags duplicates with at least one impression, you’ll focus on keywords that actually affect performance.
Once your duplicates are cleaned up, the next step is to expand with keywords that are already working for you.
Optmyzr’s Keyword Lasso automatically analyzes your Search Terms Report and suggests search queries that have conversions or a strong CTR but aren’t yet added as keywords in your account.
Best of all, the tool prevents duplicate suggestions, so you won’t clutter your account. You can also save custom views for your team to keep everyone aligned.
3. Audit negatives, assets, and conversion tracking
Since Optimization Score is closely tied to account health, regular audits are essential. Three areas need constant attention:
Since Optimization Score is closely tied to account health, regular audits are essential. Three areas need constant attention:
Conflicting negatives: If a negative keyword overlaps with a positive one, impressions drop unnecessarily. Regularly audit and resolve conflicts to avoid losing reach.
Ad assets: Assets (formerly extensions) like sitelinks, images, and callouts improve visibility and click-through rates. Missing assets directly hurt performance and Optimization Score.
Conversion tracking: Automated bidding relies on accurate conversion data. Make sure your tracking codes are installed properly and that you’re using the right attribution model (Google defaults to data-driven attribution).
You can run audits for ad groups, campaigns, keywords, and more, adjusting thresholds to match your needs. Results come with an AI-generated summary that highlights strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities across the account, along with a score out of 100.
You can dive deeper into each section, view actionable sidebars (like suggestions for new ads), and even use AI-powered recommendations for ad text.
Audits can be scheduled weekly, exported to Excel or PDF, and shared with your team.
4. A/B Test ad variations and monitor Ad Strength for RSAs
Testing ad copy is a proven way to improve both performance and Optimization Score.
Optmyzr’s A/B Testing for Ads tool makes this easier by comparing ads within the same ad group, highlighting winners and underperformers with statistically significant data.
You can quickly pause low-performing ads and create new ones using proven headlines and descriptions from past winners.
For Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), pay attention to Ad Strength, Google’s measure of how well your ad copy is set up to deliver relevant messages.
Optmyzr’s Ad Text Optimization tool takes this a step further by breaking down RSA performance at the asset level (headlines, descriptions, and full ads). It lets you spot weak assets, edit or replace them in bulk, and even use AI-powered suggestions to improve copy faster.
You can also use features like find-and-replace for quick text updates across ads, or run spell checks to polish your assets before uploading changes.
5. Automate refreshing Customer Match lists for personalization
Personalized ads perform better because they reach people at the right stage of their journey. Customer Match lets you upload customer data (like emails or phone numbers) and use it to target or re-engage audiences across Google Search, Shopping, Gmail, YouTube, and Display.
The challenge: these lists go stale quickly if they aren’t refreshed.
Google even flags outdated or missing audience lists as a recommendation that can hurt your Optimization Score.
Link a Google Spreadsheet with your customer data.
Choose how often the list should refresh (daily, weekly, or monthly).
The system automatically updates your list whenever changes are detected in the sheet.
You can pause or enable lists anytime.
This means you don’t have to manually upload CSVs or worry about missed updates.
Fresh lists will eventually lead to higher match rates, more relevant targeting, and stronger conversions.
6. Keep a constant check on destination URLs
Broken or non-working landing pages waste ad spend, frustrate users, and lower your Optimization Score.
Google often flags this as “Fix your ad destinations” in the Recommendations tab. Common issues include 404 errors, out-of-stock product pages, or policy violations that stop ads from serving.
👉Check multiple entities: Scan ads, keywords, sitelinks, and even Performance Max asset groups.
👉Preview or Apply mode: Run a report only, or let the system automatically pause ads/keywords with broken URLs and re-enable them once fixed.
👉Custom monitoring: Track specific error texts like “not available” or “out of stock,” and even monitor special response codes.
👉Exclusions: Use filters so important pages (e.g., pricing pages) aren’t paused by mistake.
👉Scheduling & alerts: Run URL checks daily, weekly, or monthly, and get email or spreadsheet notifications sent directly to your team.
7. Revise budgets and move unused budgets across campaigns in need
Sometimes the problem isn’t that you need more budget overall, it’s that the budget you already have isn’t being used where it should.
Some campaigns underspend, while others hit limits and lose impression share.
The Optimize Budgets tool in Optmyzr helps by analyzing spend across campaigns and shared budgets, then recommending how to reallocate money more effectively. Here’s what it does:
Spot underspending and overspending: Identifies campaigns unlikely to use their full budget and those constrained by low daily limits
Highlight lost opportunity: Surfaces impression share being lost due to budget caps, and showing where extra spend can make a difference
Run realistic simulations: Models different daily budget scenarios based on recent performance and seasonal patterns
Match to your goals: Suggests reallocation strategies to optimize for clicks, conversions, or conversion value, depending on your objectives
One key thing to note is that everything is transparent. You see current spend, projected spend, daily budget needs, and potential daily spend side by side. If a campaign can’t absorb more money because it’s already at saturation, the tool won’t suggest increases.
And if you’re targeting conversions or conversion value, the recommendations automatically align with that goal.
8. Tie the tactics together using a Blueprint
When you’re managing an account, it’s easy to think in terms of isolated fixes: cleaning up keywords one day, testing ad copy the next. The problem is that without a structure, those fixes can feel scattered and harder to repeat consistently.
That’s where blueprints help. You get hold of a working plan that maps out which tasks should be done, how often, and by whom.
Optmyzr’s AI Blueprints make this process even easier. Instead of manually choosing from dozens of tools, you can describe the problem you’re trying to solve, say, “I want to understand what’s happening in my Search and Performance Max campaigns.”
The system will then suggest a set of tasks and tools to answer that question.
For example, a blueprint like this might include:
PPC Investigator: PPC Investigator helps you find out why performance shifted. It breaks down changes by campaign elements like keywords, audiences, or devices, so you can quickly isolate what’s driving gains or losses.
Performance Comparison: The Performance Comparison tool helps you compare performance across different time periods (e.g., last 7 days vs. previous 7) to spot trends and measure the impact of changes. It’s a reliable way to validate if your optimizations are working. to track results over time.
Traffic Segment Explorer: Break down your campaigns by audience, geo, device, or network to see which segments are delivering the best ROI. Great for uncovering under-the-radar opportunities.
Reporting tools: Summarize insights into clean, automated reports that update on your schedule. These can be customized per client or stakeholder and include annotations, visuals, and performance highlights.
Each task is editable. You can assign it to a team member, add instructions for context, and decide how often it should repeat: weekly, monthly, or on a custom schedule. You can also add tasks outside of Optmyzr if there’s something you want tracked that isn’t directly in the platform.
What makes this approach powerful is that it connects your day-to-day optimizations to a larger workflow. Instead of keeping track of eight different tactics in separate places, you set them up once as a blueprint and run them regularly.
Over time, you can adjust the tasks as your needs change, so the process grows with your account.
Turn Google’s recommendations into results with Optmyzr
Improving your Google Ads Optimization Score in 2025 isn’t about blindly chasing 100%.
It’s about making smart, selective changes that align with your business goals. From removing redundant keywords to refreshing Customer Match lists, every step you take should connect back to stronger performance, healthier accounts, and ultimately better ROI.
The good news is that you don’t have to do it all manually. Optmyzr equips you with purpose-built tools that automate the majority of the tasks while keeping you in full control of strategy.
A. Optimization Score is a Google Ads metric (0–100%) that reflects how well your campaigns align with Google’s best practices. It’s located on the Recommendations tab and updates in real-time based on changes in performance, settings, and available features.
You don’t need to chase a 100% score, but it serves as a useful compass for identifying quick wins and enhancing campaign health.
2. How does Google calculate it?
A. Google looks at things like:
Missing ad extensions or assets
Budget allocation
Keyword targeting and match types
Audience signals
Bidding strategy alignment
Each recommendation shows the % increase it could bring. You can apply or dismiss them; both actions help your score.
3. Why should you improve your Optimization Score?
A. Improving your Google Ads Optimization Score helps you identify and fix performance gaps quickly, prioritize impactful changes, and stay aligned with Google’s latest features and best practices. A higher score can lead to better ad visibility, lower CPCs, and more conversions by ensuring your campaigns are running efficiently.
It also helps you capture quick wins, like adding assets or fixing tracking, and gives you a competitive edge by making your ads more likely to win auctions. For agencies, maintaining a strong Optimization Score is essential for retaining Google Partner status, making it a valuable metric for both performance and credibility.
4. Should you apply every recommendation?
A. Not always. Apply what aligns with your goals, whether that’s better ROI, more conversions, or a cleaner structure.
Smart Bidding uses Google’s AI to optimize for conversions or conversion value in each and every auction. Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value are all Smart Bidding strategies that include auction-time bidding.
They work with machine learning to continuously optimize your campaigns for the best results depending on the campaign goals you have set.
It’s worth noting that while Smart Bidding can be highly effective, it still requires careful monitoring and regular evaluation to ensure it aligns with your specific business goals and objectives.
How to make Smart Bidding work for you?
For starters, here are 4 ways.
1. Generate enough historical conversion data.
You need to generate enough historical data to make better decisions and optimize your campaigns. If you do not have enough conversions then the smart bidding algorithm will not work as expected.
2. Put a sufficient budget.
If your budget is limited, the algorithm may have fewer opportunities to make adjustments and find the most effective bidding approach. This can potentially limit the performance improvements that Smart Bidding can deliver.
3. Monitor the performance of your campaigns continuously.
Focus on key metrics such as conversions, cost per conversion, conversion value, and ROAS, and make adjustments to bidding strategies or campaign settings as needed.
4. Use conversion tracking to make informed bidding decisions.
Accurate tracking is crucial for Smart Bidding. Along with that, you need to let Google know the right value of each conversion.
As you can see, there are some very important things to note to get the best out of your Smart bidding campaigns. But managing them day in and out is not so easy.
5 ways to manage Smart Bidding Campaigns
Let’s see how you can manage them in an easier way.
1. Running experiments
It’s better to test what’s working and what’s not with a few experiments initially. Here’s how you can: Express optimization to create an Experiment to test Maximize conversion value, Target CPA, or Target ROAS bidding strategy.
This tool checks Google’s recommendations and lets you create trial campaigns to test the effectiveness of your smart bidding strategies with targets.
Once you create the trial campaigns, you can monitor their performance on the Campaign Experiments tool and get recommendations to turn the experiment you’re running into a campaign, if it is showing promising results.
Once the campaign starts running with smart bidding, you need to give Google the right set of information to make decisions.
2. Building a campaign structure
1. Select the right bidding strategy based on your business goal.
Use Maximize Conversions and Target CPA if your goal is to increase sales or leads.
Use Maximize conversion value and Target ROAS if your goal is to increase profit.
2. Find keywords that can drive conversions.
Broad match keywords can help you attract more visitors to your website, and allow the Smart Bidding machine to discover new opportunities for conversions. However, make sure to monitor broad match keywords to check if Google is really showing your ads for the right queries.
Identify search queries that are driving traffic to your account.
Find search terms that are sending you traffic without having to go through the entire Search Terms Report using the Search Terms N-Grams tool. This way, you can also make sure you don’t miss out on long-tail search terms.
Identify high-performing search queries for your account based on the search query report or Keyword Planner and add them to your ad groups as keywords.
The Keyword Lasso tool automatically analyzes search terms and suggests high-performing search queries that should be added as keywords (but are not already present in your account) to your account.
You can reduce clicks that are driving high costs but no conversions in the following two ways.
Add search terms as negative keywords in account negative lists.
You can use Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder (Search) to identify individual words that are part of the search queries but are not performing well. These can be turned into lists that can be linked to campaigns to make it easier to manage traffic.
If you are interested in managing negative keywords even more closely, you can use Optmyzr’s rule-based optimization that you can customize and automate to your preference. It even identifies non-converting search terms and adds them as negatives at the ad group level.
Once you structure your keywords, you then create relevant RSAs for your campaign.
Optmyzr can help you find the ad groups that have no active RSAs and help you create them easily. You will see a list of different ad groups across different accounts to add RSAs.
Managing bids(targets) and budgets is a crucial part of managing your smart bidding campaigns.
As discussed above, a limited budget can restrict your ads from showing to the right people and bear losses for you. Hence, it’s important to know if your monthly budget is good enough to make sure your ads are being shown enough.
With the Spend Projection tool, you can analyze spend data, historical seasonality, and recent performance to predict how much your account is likely to spend by the end of a certain time period. You can also monitor the daily spending and understand future projections about how your campaign should spend its budget in order to meet the simulation budget.
You can just analyze the projection and make changes as you see fit or, use the Optimize Budgets tool to reallocate the budget where it’s needed the most.
If you like a rule-based way to manage daily budgets for the campaigns based on their performance, you can use the Rule Engine to automate this flow.
Optimizing for budgets is just half the story. It is equally important to optimize for the campaign and/or ad group targets. Rule Engine can come in handy here too, where you can choose to modify campaign or ad group targets based on the performance. And, if you are working with portfolio bidding strategies, Rule Engine also helps you identify the ones that are limited by the max or min limit and change their limits.
Also, if you are interested in going one step further you can work with bid adjustments or seasonality experiments. For Maximize Conversions, device bid adjustments work as adjusting the targets themselves, for the rest of them you can choose to opt out from showing ads on a device by setting -100% bid adjustment.
To know more about what bid adjustments work with which bidding strategy, refer to thisarticle.
4. Managing targets and exclusions
Creating a proper campaign structure and managing bids and budgets helps you to make sure that when customers are looking for something you sell, your ads are shown. However, that doesn’t help you control where your ads are shown. Should they appear on YouTube channels? Should they be shown in New York City? Where should they not be shown?
Here are some targeting and exclusions that can help you get started:
1. Exclude the placements that are not converting for you at the ad group or even at the account level.
2. Target a certain set of placements that are working well for your ad groups so that the ads are shown at these sites or apps using Rule Engine.
Exclude the locations from campaigns that are not giving you good returns and are proving rather expensive using the Rule Engine.
3. Exclude universally poor-performing placements from your accounts to reduce wasted spend using the Smart Exclusions tool. Reach out to our support team if you’re interested in getting early access to this tool.
4. Keep your audiences in sync with your business data and Google’s audience repository using the Customer Match List Updates tool.
You would have noticed how bid adjustments have very limited options when it comes to smart bidding strategies. So it becomes rather difficult to define how a particular demographic segment should be recorded.
The answer to this problem is conversion value rules. Value Rules are set at the account level. The rules can be based on location (physical or location of interest), device, or audience.
Optmyzr helps you better express the value of your conversions as they relate to your business and easily adjust those values based on geographical location, device, or audience during auction time bidding in real-time. You can feed your offline business data through the Segment Scorer which in turn helps in the adjustment of value rules.
Setting up conversion value rules also helps in optimizing your account’s performance by teaching Google’s automation (like those that handle Smart Bidding to optimize Target ROAS and Maximize Conversion Value) more about your business.
Adaptability is the name of the game in PPC. Platforms bring new updates and market conditions fluctuate. You don’t want to be caught by surprise when things change fast. You can use our content library to navigate those changes. Here’s some reading to get you started:
So these are some tips to help you manage smart bidding campaigns easier. We’re sure at least some of these tools can come in handy for you.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world use these tools to manage over $4 billion in ad spend every year.
Sign up for our 14-day free trial today to give Optmyzr a try. You will also get the resources you need to get started and more. Our team will also be on hand to answer questions and provide any support we can.
With the ever-changing landscape of user online behavior, the importance of Display campaigns only increases. The logic is plain enough. Given the influx of businesses going online, not everyone will know about your business or what you do to search for you explicitly.
Hence, it becomes all the more important to ensure you reach your passive audience through ads in places they generally browse to create awareness and subsequent conversions.
In this article, you’ll learn:
What are display campaigns?
Why they’re important in a PPC strategy?
How to reduce wasted spend and optimize them to get the best ROI?
What are Google Display campaigns?
Google Ads Display campaigns are visually engaging ads to help you promote your business when people are browsing online, watching YouTube videos, checking Gmail, or using mobile devices and apps.
It is very common for people to see a banner ad or a native ad and then search for that product or service on search. According to recent studies, a remarkable 27% of consumers initiate a search for a business after being exposed to its display ad. An analysis of conversion data reveals a remarkable 59% increase in conversion rates when users conduct searches related to display ads. These figures prove how important a role display ads play in helping you achieve your business outcomes.
As Display ads are conventionally targeted toward your top-of-the-funnel audience, they commonly record lower returns on ad spend. Sometimes small or mid-size businesses do without them due to budget constraints. But today, when display ads are becoming more imperative to construct a full-fledged marketing funnel irrespective of the size of your business, it is required to chalk out a better-equipped strategy to stay on top.
How to reduce wasted spend in your Google Display campaigns?
Here are 9 ways to help you identify any wasted spend and optimize them to achieve your business goals.
1. Create real-time alerts to get notified of any significant deviation of your KPIs.
Monitoring your most important metrics is a tried-and-tested method for better campaign performance. It helps you take timely action when things go off track.
Optmyzr’s Advanced Alert Management System helps you create quick and customized alerts. You can create an alert for a KPI (say, Cost/Conv) for a single display campaign, a set of display campaigns, or all your display campaigns in an account together. You will get a notification whenever the KPI deviates from the standards you have defined.
Create real-time alerts to get notified of any signification deviation of your KPIs
You can also receive these notifications over Slack or Microsoft Teams if you are using either for internal communication.
Optmyzr Tip*: Check in the box to receive an alert when the metric just starts to trend in the wrong direction so that you can take proactive measures before the targets are exceeded.*
2. Analyze missed KPIs to understand the root cause.
When you don’t achieve the set targets you wanted for your business, it is always a good idea to dig deeper into the reasons. Understanding what exactly went wrong helps you identify the root cause and find a solution.
Optmyzr’s PPC Investigator tool helps you understand why a particular performance metric performed in a certain way. It helps you find the exact underlying metric that contributed to the change in a given account.
Analyze missed KPIs to understand the root cause
It might be an audience segment, a placement, or an entire network that may have caused the change. Answering questions such as why conversions/clicks dropped the previous month can give you better insights into overall account improvement.
3. Stay in control of the budget allocated to the Display campaigns.
When you have a stipulated budget allotted to your display campaigns, you may want to get notified and rather stop your ads from showing for the rest of the budget cycle. You want to ensure you don’t go over your target budget.
Optmyzr’s Optimize Budgets Across Platforms tool helps you notify when a significant portion (say, 50%, 75%, 90%) of your budget is spent and also helps automatically pause the campaigns when the defined budget amount is spent. It also automatically resumes those campaigns that were paused at the start of the next budget cycle.
Stay in control of the budget allocated to the Display campaigns
This tool also lets you create budget groups. A budget group can contain campaigns from different accounts across platforms (Google, Microsoft, or Facebook). So you can choose to create one for all your Google Display campaigns across accounts and control their spending from one place.
Or, you can combine all the display campaigns for a particular brand you are running over Google, Microsoft, or Facebook (for the ‘Awareness’ objective) in a single budget group and monitor them.
4. Identify and exclude poor-performing placements based on a business goal.
It is a common business practice to create display campaigns targeting specific domains for specific business outcomes: awareness, traffic, and sales. It is equally important to track if these placements are generating the desired results and, if not, to optimize them.
Optmyzr’s Display Placement Exclusion tool helps in consolidating placements that are resulting in wasted spend and excludes them based on a business goal – Branding, Traffic, or Conversions. You can also aggregate data for the same domain across campaigns.
Identify and exclude poor-performing placements based on a business goal
You can also break down the results by each of the individual campaigns that the placement has appeared for, allowing you to make the decision. Once you have selected the campaigns you want to exclude, you will be able to exclude them at the campaign level.
5. Automate excluding non-converting placements from the account.
Sometimes, there could be a set of placements across mobile apps, YouTube videos and channels, and websites that consistently accrue a considerable cost but have never converted for your account. After analyzing such placements for a while, it’d be a good idea to exclude them at the account level so that your ads do not show up on them any further.
Optmyzr’s Account Level Placement Exclusion tool gives a consolidated list of non-converting placements after aggregating performance data at the account level.
Excluding placements from an account helps prevent your ads from showing up on certain areas on the Display network or YouTube, overriding any campaign-level placement targeting. This is especially helpful for Smart Display campaigns, as Google doesn’t support excluding placements through a negative list or by excluding them at the ad group level.
Automate excluding non-converting placements from the account
You can use Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to customize this tool’s strategy according to your business requirements and automate the process of excluding such non-converting placements from the account. You can also tailor your Rule Engine strategy to specific conditions, like always exempting certain placements from exclusion irrespective of the performance.
6. Exclude your display ads from showing up on low-quality placements.
A proactive approach always helps you optimize more efficiently than a reactive approach. Say, if you already know about the low-quality placements on the Google Display Network, you can ensure that your ads do not show up on them from the beginning. This will save you the wasted spend your ads might face in the process that can be spent on more valuable clicks.
Optmyzr’s Smart Placement Exclusions for Apps and Display Network tool helps you do that exactly. This tool uses data from thousands of Optmyzr-wide Google Ads accounts to proactively find bad placements. Instead of waiting for these placements to spend money on wasted clicks and then excluding them, the tool proactively excludes them for you.
The tool recommends excluding websites, mobile app placements, and YouTube channels. Those will be excluded at the account level in your Google Ads account. However, it will not affect the placements that have been excluded manually outside of Optmyzr. You can also specify verticals you do not wish your placements to be excluded from.
Note: This is an Optmyzr add-on only for Pro Plan users. Contact our support team if you would like to learn more.
7. A/B Test your display ad copies and pause the ones that are underperforming.
A/B Testing your ad copies to find the winners and losers is a legacy PPC optimization strategy. Nevertheless, it still stands out to be one of the most effective strategies as it helps you quickly sift through the ads that are performing well and create more on their lines and eliminate the non-performing ones.
Optmyzr’s AB Testing for Ads optimization is a data-driven tool that helps you compare ads with statistically significant data in the same ad group. This identifies the best and worst-performing ads in active ad groups (including Image ads and Responsive Display Ads), allowing the analysis of the suggestions by comparing clicks and conversions parameters side-by-side before pausing the lowest-performance ads.
You can also choose to compare them by any other metric you are tracking, say ROAS or Conversion Rate.
A/B Test your display ad copies and pause the ones that are underperforming
A regular check-in for the performance of your display ads will help you take effective measures to tweak your ad copies to match their expected performance as soon as there is any deviation.
8. Pause those display ads that lead to broken landing pages.
When your ads take your users to broken landing pages, which leads to wasted clicks and spend, it is important to ensure all your website pages that your audience comes to load up fine without any errors.
Optmyzr’s URL Checker tool helps you schedule a check for all your URLs (you can have a separate setting for your display campaigns in the account). It will check for all the landing pages associated with your ads and automatically pause the ads associated with broken landing pages.
When those issues are resolved, it will also re-enable those ads automatically. This way, any advertising wasted spend due to faulty website pages will be taken care of automatically.
Pause those display ads that lead to broken landing pages
9. Keep a check on any display channel wasted spend for your Performance Max campaigns.
Google Ads’ most automated campaign type, Performance Max, is an all-channel inclusive campaign that does not allow excluding a specific channel type. So it becomes all the more important to ensure all of your budgets is not spent towards a channel your business is not targeting primarily.
Optmyzr’s PMax Channel Distribution Widget on the Account Dashboard shows you where your account’s Performance Max budget was spent across Shopping, Video, Display, and Other channels, as well as the top-performing channels based on metrics such as Conversions and Conversion Value.
On account of this widget, an Optmyzr customer recently figured out they were spending a lot of money on display via PMax that was actually bringing them poor-quality leads. You can also dig deeper to do a campaign-wise analysis of this distribution to find out if there is a specific campaign that needs more attention.
Keep a check on any display channel wasted spend for your Performance Max campaigns
With that information under your belt, you can quickly choose to exclude specific placements from the account or ensure you optimize your Performance Max campaigns toward any other specific channel (say, Search) in terms of budget and assets. This will ensure they don’t spend heavily on the display channel that’s not giving you any significant conversions.
Reduce your wasted spend with these 9 tips
Bottom line: there are several ways to reduce wasted spend on your display campaigns. In this article, we’ve presented you with 9 of them.
But if you want to implement these tips and start optimizing your Display ads now and don’t have access to our tools yet, consider signing up for our 14-day free trial. You’ll get access to all our tools, and our team would also show you how to best use Optmyzr to achieve your goals.
Performance Max campaigns are a new campaign type in Google Ads in which advertisers can create one campaign and get their ads wherever users are interacting with Google’s services, whether that’s on Search, Display, YouTube, Maps, Discover, or Gmail.
It promises to simplify advertising in a world where user behavior has become more fragmented. It’s an especially appealing promise for new advertisers who may have not known where to start with Google Ads.
But for existing advertisers, the introduction of yet another campaign type may be confusing. So here I’ll shed some light on how to think about Performance Max.
I also got a chance to speak to Google about it where they shared some best practices and even answered several FAQs from the PPC community. Here’s the full conversation:
Get actionable PPC tips, strategies, and tactics from industry experts twice a month.
Is Performance Max Replacing Other Campaigns?
At the end of September 2022, Performance Max replaced Smart Shopping and Local campaigns. Other campaign types will continue to exist until further notice according to Google.
Where Do Performance Max Campaigns Run?
Performance Max provides the equivalent of running the following current Google Ads campaign types: Search, Display, Shopping, Video, Gmail, and Discovery. It can then place ads across Google’s vast number of pages and properties as shown below.
**Source**: Google
What Do the Experts Say About Running Performance Max Instead of Other Campaigns?
As of writing this blog post, Performance Max campaigns have been around for over a year. Many advertisers have tested the campaign type, ran experiments with it, and learned a lot in the process.
I got a chance to speak to Menachem Ani and Andrew Lolk, two experts and practitioners on PPC Town Hall 71 to understand what they’ve learned from running Performance Max campaigns for a full year.
They’ve covered a wide range of topics from structuring asset groups to attribution and negative keywords.
Watch the full conversation below.
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What Inputs Do I Have With Performance Max Campaigns?
When setting up a Performance Max campaign, Google will ask you to provide the following inputs to help their artificial intelligence get started with good ads:
Your marketing objectives and goals
Budget
Creative assets including text, images, and video (optional, since this will auto-generate)
Geo-targets
Optional Feeds such as Google My Business, Google Merchant Center, Dynamic Ads Feed, and Business Data Feeds
Optional Audience Signals such as First-Party Audiences (including Remarketing Lists) and Google Audiences (including Custom Audiences)
With that information, automation is off to the races and will try to show your ad where it expects it may lead to a conversion.
Latest updates to Performance Max (as of February 2023)
Google announced some major updates to Performance Max on February 23, 2023, to provide greater control, flexibility, and insights to advertisers.
Here is the list of updates:
Campaign-level brand exclusions
Page feeds to refine Search inventory results
Video creation tools
Additional reporting available at the asset group level, along with budget pacing
Google Marketing Live 2023, an event hosted at Google’s Mountain View headquarters, had over 20 product announcements centered around artificial intelligence (AI) for advertisers. The key themes were around the 3 C’s of AI, (a play on the 4 P’s of marketing): customer connection, creative strategies, and confidence in ad campaign effectiveness.
Building Bridges to Customers with AI
First up on the Google agenda was making customer connection more intuitive and effective with AI. I can’t stress enough how crucial it is to reach your potential customers along their increasingly complex journeys.
Demand Gen campaigns from Google help advertisers drive demand for their products and services through highly visual ads.
To top it off, as we get closer to the migration deadline for Google Analytics 4, Google is stepping up its game with new predictive lookalike audiences. You can now export these audiences from GA4 directly to Google Ads, making it simpler than ever to find new customers wherever they are.
GA4 will replace universal analytics and become the new standard for data collection on Google. Advertisers can use cross-platform data to build predictive audiences for use in Google Ads.
AI and Creativity: A Match Made in Advertising Heaven
Google knows how crucial creativity is for ad success. With the rapid advancements in generative AI, it was no surprise to see this as a focal point. Imagine being able to have a real conversation with Google’s AI systems, which then suggest your ad text. Well, it’s happening as of July 2023, with the integration of conversational AI for Performance Max campaigns.
Product Studio was another creative tool unveiled at the event, aimed at making life easier for e-commerce advertisers. Now, you can effortlessly manipulate your product images, and Google will generate them and put them in your merchant feed.
And if you don’t have a feed, Google Merchant Center Next will even create one from your website data.
Google Merchant Center Next will replace the existing Google Merchant Center
Navigating AI: Boosting Confidence and Control
Transparency and control are key as AI starts to perform tasks previously done by humans. Google introduced a number of new features to provide more insight into AI’s actions. From new asset performance reports for Performance Max campaigns to deeper insights into search terms, Google is giving advertisers back some of the reins they initially lost when Performance Max was introduced
New insights are coming to Performance Max campaigns, including better reporting about asset performance and search queries that are driving interactions with ads.
The ability to set new goal types and the new brand restriction controls for broad match keywords are steps in the right direction. And with Google Analytics 4 becoming the new standard, you’re getting a robust cross channel measurement tool that offers a wealth of predictive capabilities and a direct connection back to Google Ads.
New goals like ‘high value new customers’ will help advertisers better steer Google’s AI to achieving the goals they care most about.
It’s Time to Embrace AI
Google’s closing message was clear: it’s time to figure out artificial intelligence. We’re not competing against AI, but against other advertisers who’re leveraging AI more effectively. So, grab your team, pull out Google’s handy AI checklist, and get ready to dive into the future of advertising.
The future of PPC ads includes ads shown inside chat experiences.
Google’s major focus at Marketing Live 2023 was offering advertisers better ways to reach customers, generate ad creative, and build confidence in AI’s ability to deliver results.
So, keep a close eye on Optmyzr’s blog and YouTube channel for updates, as Google continues to revolutionize advertising with AI. Let’s stay ahead of the game together!
A few days ago, we introduced a new tool/feature to check your change history and see if Google has made any automatic changes. This tool also lets you set up alerts to be notified when there is a budget change to a premium brand campaign.
I have been using it to track changes made to my account by my team members. I now receive one Slack alert in the morning and one in the evening to ensure that we are not making any unwanted changes or changes that could violate Google’s policies. This helps me to keep an eye on my account and prevent it from being suspended or underperforming.
Here are some ways this feature helps you stay on top:
Automate analyzing your change history for the last 30 days.
Filter your change history by type of change, user, or tool that made the change.
Set up alerts to be notified when there are changes to your account.
Export your change history to a CSV file.
In our continued effort to bring transparency and make it easier for you to identify what is happening in your Google Ads account, we have launched a change history widget on the Account Dashboard. This widget comes with improved visualization and analysis capabilities.
Where can you find the Change history widget?
You can find it just above one of our most-used widgets: Performance Max Channel Distribution. (This widget classifies your Performance Max campaign performance by channels. Read more here.)
What kind of insights can you get from the Change history widget?
Here are some of the things you can do with the change history widget:
Insights from the Change history widget:
View the changes made to your Google Ads account in the last 30 days.
See the top three types of changes made to your account at a glance.
Click on “View Details” and check out the line chart that plots the types of changes against the performance change in your account. (This is my personal favorite!)
Segment by campaign and ad group to see the breakdown (and impact on performance) by campaign and ad group. This can help you understand subtle shifts in performance and identify entities in your account that need extra attention.
The Change History widget offers multiple ways to optimize your Google Ads account. Here are a few to help you get started:
1. Gain instant insights.
The widget provides a comprehensive overview of the most frequent changes made in the past 30 days. For instance, if budget changes dominate, it suggests either there are new campaigns added or someone swayed by new ideas or information is making frequent changes to the account. In such cases, you might notice account performance fluctuating as and when budget changes.
Additionally, if you observe frequent budget and bidding changes together, it may indicate ongoing bidding strategy testing that requires further investigation to ensure it aligns with your objectives.
2. Analyze performance impact.
Utilize the line chart feature to visualize how changes have influenced your account’s performance. For example, if stopping targeting on the Search Partners network results in decreased impressions but an increased return on ad spend (ROAS), it signifies a positive direction toward more profitable traffic.
3. Analyze changes in detail.
Explore the widget to delve into campaign and ad group changes, including information on the user who applied the change and the application method (such as auto-apply by Google or changes made through the API). This eliminates the need to navigate to the Google Ads interface for a comprehensive list, allowing you to focus on the most relevant information.
4. Evaluate account strategy.
If the number of changes appears substantial, evaluate whether they are reactive or part of a well-defined strategy. Rather than making random adjustments, consider strategizing for seasonal events to ensure more effective management of account settings.
5. A/B test ad copies.
Consistent changes in ad copies present an opportunity for A/B testing. Instead of continuously tweaking the same ad copy, conducting experiments with different themes can provide insights into what works best for your account.
Final takeaways
By leveraging the Change History widget effectively, you can optimize your Google Ads account, make informed decisions, and drive improved performance.
Note: This feature is part of Optmyzr Core. Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Sign up for a free trial.
Monitoring your Google Ads campaigns is crucial to ensuring smooth performance, and achieving desired goals.
One of the best (and debatably underutilized) tools to do this is the change history report. While its insights are valuable, it can be daunting to find a specific change among hundreds (or even thousands) of entries.
We at Optmyzr wanted to make it easier for you to uncover these insights so we launched the Change History Querying tool.
What is the Change History Querying tool?
Change History Querying is a powerful tool that can help you stay informed about any changes made to your account and take action if necessary. You can find it here.
In this post, you’ll learn how this tool can help you monitor your PPC account.
How Change History Querying tool helps you monitor your PPC account?
1. Get notified about changes made by auto-apply recommendations
Auto-apply recommendations are a helpful tool provided by Google Ads, but they can also make changes to your campaigns without your knowledge. By getting a report of or getting notified about any change that was made by auto-apply recommendations, you can monitor these changes and ensure that they align with your overall campaign strategy.
Some of the changes you should look out for:
1. Removing redundant keywords: This might lead to converting keywords being removed. It’s important that you make the call on which keywords to keep. This recommendation triggers based on the rules of close variants, so analyzing what Google sees as redundant will help with account structure.
2. Adding in ad copy/assets: Creative isn’t automatically better because a human made it. However, brand standards might dictate certain language.
3. Adding in broad match keywords: Broad match can be useful and when used correctly, absolutely helps improve account performance. Changing existing keywords to broad match or adding broad match where it hasn’t been planned for can hurt the account because keywords have been removed and you might now be bidding against yourself.
4. Adding in search partners: While search partners can be useful, it often represents unknown inventory. Additionally, because it’s a campaign-wide decision, it typically requires human investigation to determine if it’s worth testing.
All of these changes can be achieved with the advertiser at the automation wheel through Optmyzr’s Express suggestions and Rule Engine.
2. Set up alerts to know if your campaign got paused
One way to stay informed about changes made to your campaigns is by setting up alerts for your higher-value campaigns. You can create an alert to check at the end of the day if your premium brand campaigns were paused today.
This will help you to stay informed about the status of your campaigns and make sure you don’t lose out on important traffic as your ads were not running. This is particularly important if you have lots of automated rules and scripts running (particularly budget pacing rules).
3. Check for the impact of work
You can use change history querying to see what kind of changes your team members or agency make, and check that there are no unexpected changes made to your important campaigns by junior team members.
Additionally, you can see what types of changes are made (high human involvement vs automation). This will help provide transparency on whether changes are coming from a strategic place, and more importantly providing value to your account.
For example, if you see that most of the changes are IP exclusions and there aren’t any ad copy, negative keyword, or placement changes, you might investigate whether the practitioners are actively working on the account.
4. Check changes made by a specific tool in last 14 days
Google Ads scripts and Automated rules can make changes to your campaigns automatically, and by using the change history querying feature, you can see what changes were made by them in the last 14 days and take any necessary action.
5. Analyze changes during declining performance
If you notice a decline in performance of a campaign in the last 14 days compared to the previous period, you can use change history querying to check the changes that were made during that period and analyze them. This can help you to identify any changes that might have contributed to the decline in performance and take action to improve your campaigns.
Optmyzr customers can start their investigation using the PPC Investigator too, which helps show connected metrics that might be pointing to positive or negative movement in the account.
6. Set up alerts to notify of any budget change for important campaigns
If there has been any change in the budget of your Branded campaigns in the last 14 days, you can get alerted and take required steps.
In conclusion, change history querying is a powerful tool that can help you monitor your PPC account and take action if necessary. By setting up alerts, analyzing changes, and keeping an eye on important campaigns and team members, you can ensure that your campaigns are running smoothly and achieving your desired goals.
Note: This feature is part of Optmyzr Core. Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Sign up for a free trial.
If you’re a PPC Advertiser you’re certainly no stranger to scores in your ads account, for example, quality score or optimization score. With Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) replacing Expanded Text Ads, advertisers are now increasingly exposed to a new type of score called Ad Strength.
In this post, I’ll explain what is the Responsive Search Ads ad strength, how much it matters, and how it compares to the other optimization scores that have been around longer.
What is Ad Strength?
Google defines Ad Strength as follows:
Ad Strength provides you with feedback to help you focus on providing the right messages to your customers. It shows how well an ad creative follows the best practices for optimal performance, ranging from “Incomplete”, “Poor”, “Average”, “Good”, to “Excellent”.
It is the newest type of score advertisers see in their accounts associated with Responsive Search Ads.
Does Ad Strength matter?
Google states this is a best practice score and is intended to make a great first impression. This is an important choice of words and means it’s not learning from your actual performance. And while a good first impression matters, long-term results matter even more.
Ad strength uses a machine learning model that looks at which ad attributes tend to correspond to good outcomes for an advertiser. For example, will an advertiser who has 10 different variations of a headline perform better than a similar advertiser who has 15 different variations of the same headline?
Do ads that include the primary keyword of an ad group tend to have better performance than ads that do not include the same keyword?
Will ads with too many redundant phrases perform worse than those that avoid redundancy?
These are super helpful insights to get things started and we can all learn something from history’s lessons.
However, once you’ve got a good baseline ad, forget ad strength because while it reflects what has worked well for the masses in the past, it doesn’t care about what works for you. An advertiser whose ad with ‘poor’ ad strength starts to perform very well will still be labeled as ‘poor’.
Let me say that again. Ad strength does not change based on your performance!
Hence it’s possible advertisers with fantastic conversion rates, low CPAs, and tons of profits could have poor ad strength. They’re not following the general wisdom but they’re still successful. To think differently is not rewarded by this model.
So if you’re an experienced marketer there’s nothing wrong with creating an ad that you think will perform really well, even if it happens to have a poor ad strength according to Google’s predictions.
What matters much more, in that case, is close monitoring and methodical experimentation to make sure that the actual performance is reflective of what you believe the ad can achieve.
Does Poor Ad Strength Impact Ad Serving?
If you’re worried that poor ad strength means your ad will serve less frequently, rest assured that ad strength does not impact ad rank or quality score. In other words, if your ad strength is poor, it does NOT mean Google is deprioritizing your ad in the ad auction.
However, it is possible that your ad really is bad and will hence also get a low quality score and a lower ad rank in auctions. Correlation, not causation.
Part of the reason some people believe poor ad strength causes their ad to show less is that Google for a while labeled some ads as ‘poor (limited eligibility)’. This status was confusing and has since been removed.
Is Ad Strength Static?
While my point is that ad strength can be ignored because it’s disconnected from performance, it’s not entirely static. For example, ad strength likes ads that contain the main keyword of the ad group in the headline text.
So if the keywords of an ad group change, or if the mix of which keywords get the most impressions changes, then the ad strength could change even when there were no changes to any of the ad’s assets.
Should You Pay Attention to Quality Score?
Quality Score (QS) is the original machine learning / artificial intelligence score in Google Ads. It’s been around for nearly 2 decades and its purpose has always been to predict the likelihood that an ad will be relevant enough to be clicked.
An important point about quality score is that an advertiser’s initial QS can quickly change as the system accrues more data about the keyword. In other words as an account has more of its own data the quality score number you see is more reflective of the true reality of that account’s quality and relevance.
Therefore it makes sense for advertisers to pay close attention to QS and try to get it as high as possible.
The number you see becomes a better representation of reality as time goes on. And remember that the higher the quality score the lower the cost-per-click an advertiser has to pay to maintain their position in the ad auction.
Should You Pay Attention to Optimization Score?
The Optimization Score, just like the quality score, has an element of machine learning to it. The purpose of the optimization score is to tell advertisers how much headroom is available in their accounts. For example, if they were to switch bids or budgets, how many more conversions could this change potentially cause.
The number that is estimated is based on machine learning and as with any prediction, it’s not always going to be entirely accurate. However, the optimization score is well worth paying attention to because if you have a low optimization score it means that Google’s machine learning believes you are leaving a lot of potential conversions on the table.
You should evaluate the suggestion and then make a decision based on how accurate you believe the impact to be. In Optmyzr, we selectively render some of Google’s opportunities to improve optimization score by comparing Google’s predictions to our own, to help advertisers take advantage of what we believe to be the best opportunities.
Beware of Closed-Loop Feedback Systems
The problem with a largely static feedback system like ad strength is that it allows you to get stuck in a closed loop. This concept is explained in the book “The Loop” by Jacob Ward of NBC News.
The idea is that machine learning influences our behaviors in undesirable ways. In the case of advertisers, machine learning is telling us how to be creative with our ads. But what it recommends is based on what worked for others in the past.
And when it tells everyone to do the same and we obey, we get stuck in a closed loop.
Here’s an example you may be able to better relate to. If we only look at recommendations from Netflix for what TV shows to watch next, Netflix’s algorithms are influencing our decisions, and those decisions feedback into the algorithm to make future recommendations.
Algorithm: Hey, you should watch this cool tv show, it’s trending where you live.
Me: Sure, I’ll check it out.
Algorithm: Wow, look at that, another person watching that show, I should recommend even more like that.
Me: Where are all the new and unique shows? Everything feels the same!
Ad strength score causes a similar problem for advertisers. When the algorithm tells us what we should do because of what has worked in the past, it is disincentivizing experimentation that can create new success stories that could have altered future predictions.
The ads are becoming homogenized and our creativity is no longer rewarded.
How Machine Learning Works for Responsive Search Ads
All of the scores mentioned above have an element in machine learning and artificial intelligence. So I think it’s important to briefly explain how that technology works. By understanding that, we will be able to see the shortcomings and potential pitfalls.
Some machine learning works by building a model that predicts the future based on what’s happened in the past. The first step in creating machine learning is to build the model, sometimes called the training phase. During the training phase, historical data is fed into the machine so that it can find correlations between the various attributes that correspond to the desired outcome.
Let’s take quality score for example. The machine is looking for signals that correspond to higher click-through rates, an indicator of ad relevance. It may find that the presence of the keyword in the ad text is a factor that correlates with higher CTR, and hence build that into its model so that keywords with such ads will get a higher score.
After the model has been tested and iterated on, it is deployed and starts making predictions. In the case of quality score, it makes a prediction about the likelihood of each ad trying to enter the auction getting a click. It makes this prediction each time a user does a search.
The model could be static, updated periodically, or continuously learn from the success of its own predictions to improve itself. For example, if the quality score model predicts an ad will get clicked and then it doesn’t get clicked, it will update its model so that future predictions will be more accurate. This is called reinforcement learning.
You should also understand that models can be built with different sets of data, and weigh different types of signals more or less. In the case of quality score, the models are built with all Google Ads data going back over a recent period of time but they are built to weigh an account’s own performance more heavily when that data is available.
So when an advertiser adds a new keyword to their account, their initial quality score is based more on system-wide data. When the keyword starts to build up its own history in the advertiser’s account, that will weigh more heavily on quality score.
Wrapping up
A higher ad strength doesn’t mean a better CTR or a better conversion rate or a better quality score. If you’re new to advertising or don’t know what’s going to work, consider this a piece of advice.
But if you’re an experienced advertiser, go ahead and do what you do best. Create the ad that resonates well with your target audience and keep the focus on performance. Don’t just be blinded by the ad strength.
We also carried out a study on RSA performance by covering over 13,671 randomly chosen Optmyzr user accounts and answered questions like:
Is RSA usage as common among advertisers as one thinks?
How does RSA performance compare to that of ETAs?
What effect do pinned headlines/descriptions have on performance?
There’s nothing worse than coming back to a dirty house. The washing is piled high, laundry is draped all over the furniture and there’s a ‘stench’ that fills the air.
Nobody wants to invite people into that situation and it can also be massively embarrassing. Well, no more is this metaphor true than when describing a Google Ads account structure.
As with the analogy above, a messy house can often be a sign of something else going on behind the scenes.
In a bid to help you avoid domestic chaos (from an ads perspective of course), we’ve compiled a list of reasons why having a straightforward account structure is so important and ensures you keep your house in order.
3 reasons why a Google Ads account structure is so important
1. Easier navigation
Firstly, just for your own sanity, having an easy-to-understand structure can save you LOADS of time. On an almost daily occurrence, clients, account managers, or wider members of the team may have general questions about the account and its performance.
When this is the case, there’s nothing worse for both parties than having to sit through someone muddling through a straightforward process. By having a clear and easy-to-navigate structure, you reduce the likelihood of this happening and can help to instruct those asking the question in a much more streamlined way.
2. More precise reporting
Whether working in-house, at an agency, or even for yourself, there’s nothing worse than pulling report data that’s a mess. Building on that, it can create extremely difficult situations for account managers who have to go into great detail about poorly defined accounts that contain irrelevant keywords and queries.
An enhanced structure can improve reporting and make optimization a lot smoother!
This is only going to lose the trust of the client so always ensure that the structure aligns with wider reporting goals.
3. Better results
Arguably the most important reason for a clearly defined structure is performance!
Not only does it help to clearly signpost what is and isn’t working (with poor results standing out like a sore thumb!), but a clear account structure can help improve quality scores.
Ensuring that everything from the campaign through to keyword and content matches up ensures you’re putting your best foot forward from a quality score perspective, which in turn can help to improve overall results.
Depending on how complex an account is there is also the added element of ensuring that the structure aligns with individual campaign KPIs.
For example, if you’re running campaigns that utilize different automated bid strategies (be it brand campaigns with target impression share versus product campaigns driving conversion metrics), it would be recommended to cover this element in the naming structure to help remind management teams of the campaign aims.
The flip side
There is an important element to note with structure and that is being ‘over structured’ - if you’re working across a large-scale account, where you know the inner workings like the back of your hand, just consider how an outsider may see it.
Is your detailed naming structure packed full of abbreviations really working for the client?
Do you have campaigns broken out by match type when there really isn’t enough data to warrant this approach?
While the previous hypothetical questions may work, on the one hand, it can often be beneficial to take a step back and think - ‘how can I make this easier to digest?’
The 4 important elements of a Google Ads account structure
So all of these ideas sound great, but I’m sure you’re thinking ‘but what can I do about it?’ - well fear not! Listed below are some key action points on how to set your campaign up for structure success! :
1. Clearly defined naming structures
PPC 101 here but always ensure the campaign name actually has a link to its contents! It’s such a basic thing but numerous accounts have fallen foul of ensuring keywords align with campaign names, leading to a mish-mash of everything and keyword chaos.
2. Labels
Always the lifesaver of an account. I’d always advise leaning on these when accounts scale. As mentioned though, try to ensure that these make sense, we don’t want to make more trouble for ourselves by having to spend time translating our own work!
3. Shared budgets
Shared budgets can be another great way of keeping a budget in line within a nicely ordered account. Why spend time worrying about underutilized budgets when you can automatically share this allocation with those which may be more stretched budget-wise?
Alongside our additional structure must-haves, shared budgets can be a great time saver!
4. Negative keyword lists
Please, please, please take time before launching to consider whether a campaign by campaign, account-level, or hybrid negative keyword list will be best for your account.
Nobody needs to be rueing misspent clicks when the negative keyword should have been set at the campaign level rather than the account level. Get everything tip-top by taking time to consider your approach to negatives.
Keep your house in order
So next time you’re staring into a messy account - stop for a minute, think about all the tips you’ve learned here, and ensure you’ve followed our key steps to ensure that your house is in the best shape of its life!
If you do Google Ads, you can barely go a minute these days without seeing auto-apply recommendations they want you to opt in to.
And just 4 days into 2023, they announced the Remove Redundant Keywords recommendation that got a lot of flak from advertisers for changing the scope of an existing recommendation.
Here’s a TL;DR:
For anyone who opted in, Google would combat redundancy by removing keywords with the same match type that show for the same queries in an ad group. And in January 2023, that scope changed to include all match types.
Now the question is, can you blindly trust automatically applied Google Ads recommendations?
Well, turns out you can’t.
Here’s what Google’s automatically applied recommendations did to our account.
We looked at our Google Ads account and found that our brand keyword, ‘Optmyzr’ all of a sudden wasn’t driving any more conversions.
Luckily, we were using our own tool in Optmyzr called the PPC investigator which flagged this error for us. So we knew something was up.
We jumped into our Google Ads account and went to the automatically applied recommendation history to investigate, and here’s what we found.
Google removed our brand keyword, ‘Optmyzr’ on January 12. Now, did they have a good reason to do this? We don’t know.
Google may have determined that it was a redundant keyword that was already getting traffic from another variation. But this is our brand name and the correct spelling of it.
Here’s how this specific keyword performed for us.
As you can see the keyword, ‘Optmyzr’, was driving 7 conversions before it was removed. And after it was removed by Google, it had no more conversions.
Maybe Google did this because they figured we’d get more overall conversions in the ad group because we were covered on that keyword anyway.
But if you look at those stats, you’ll see that after the change we had 5 conversions whereas we had more than 10 before Google made that change.
We thought, maybe Google actually sent more traffic to other ad groups in the campaign. So we looked at that too, and here’s the campaign.
The campaign is now almost entirely reliant on that one brand keyword ad group. Before Google made the change, the campaign was driving 10 conversions. After Google removed our brand name, it was only getting half as many conversions as before.
Okay, well maybe it was giving us cheaper conversions. That could be a good thing. I mean, I kind of liked the conversions, but sometimes cheaper is better.
So we looked at the CPC column and found that after Google’s automatically applied recommendations the CPC went up by more than 130 percent.
In short, Google identified our brand term “Optmyzr” as a redundant keyword, which made no sense because it was — and still is — one of our best-converting keywords.
This is exactly the reason you need automation layering or PPC insurance to protect your accounts. And that’s what a tool like Optmyzr or a great script will do for you.
How Optmyzr can protect your account from Google’s mistakes?
If you’re worried that Google’s redundant keyword removal is affecting your account in a negative way, Optmyzr’s Rule Engine can help.
Watch this video below to learn how it works.
Remember to monitor Google’s auto-applied recommendations closely
Taking back control with even the simplest of changes, like the one above that takes just a few minutes goes a long way in protecting your PPC accounts.
We caught it in time with our PPC Investigator and Rule Engine tools in Optmyzr before it could cause too much damage.
Make sure Google is not messing up your results with some of their automatically applied recommendations.
If you like what you’ve seen, go ahead and try the strategy shown above in your Optmyzr account. But if you don’t have one yet, consider starting a 14-day free trial.
You can use all of our tools with no limitations to manage your PPC more efficiently.
Google recently announced that starting in March 2023, all content targeting will be simplified into a single “Content” page in Google Ads.
With this upcoming change in content targeting many advertisers are understandably concerned about what that will mean for their ROI. Up until 2023, Google advertisers would be able to make “or” and “and” statements with their content targeting.
This meant that brands could fine-tune their personas and really do innovative message mapping across the Google ad network.
Removing the “and” functionality means brands may need to forgo important types of placements that would otherwise be viable due to the grab-bag nature of the quality.
For example, a pet retailer might have used affinity targeting to ensure placements have to do with “pets”. This was a reasonable volume booster for display and video campaigns because they could layer other targeting parameters.
However, affinity audiences tend to be much looser and without the additional stipulations would likely drag the budget into unviable placements.
It’s been speculated that advertisers might pull their budgets from Google and use other ad channels with slightly more control. However, to regain the lost contextual targeting, advertisers would need to look to programmatic advertising.
We’re going to explore which ad channel is better suited to advertisers and how to make the most of each.
What is Programmatic Advertising?
Programmatic advertising is an automated way of advertising that leverages software involving algorithms to purchase online ad placements to target specific audiences and serve contextually relevant ads in real-time.
How is Programmatic Advertising different from Google Display Network (GDN)?
The core difference between programmatic advertising and GDN is that GDN is a self-contained network that can be accessed through programmatic bidding, but also has other softer signals; whereas programmatic advertising covers any data-backed, individual-based visual creative.
The most relevant programmatic advertising channels are:
Display Ad Exchanges: Online hubs enabling brands to buy and sell ad impressions in real time.
Examples: Google AdX, AppNexus, and Rubicon Project.
Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs): DSPs are platforms allowing advertisers to purchase ad impressions from various sources, including display ad exchanges, in real time.
They equip advertisers to effectively target and bid profitably through data.
Examples: The Trade Desk, MediaMath, and LiveRamp.
Video Ad Networks: Video ad distribution platforms that specialize in reaching a robust network of websites and apps.
They connect advertisers to a large and engaged audience, and often offer advanced targeting capabilities, such as demographic and behavioral targeting.
Examples: TubeMogul and BrightRoll.
Social Media Platforms*: Social ad platforms are often overlooked in the programmatic conversation but are one of the most accessible channels.
While they don’t have the same levels of control and flexibility in targeting as they once did, they still represent far more robust targeting options than just the GDN.
Examples: Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Pinterest.
Private Marketplaces (PMPs): PMPs are exclusive networks of premium publishers that offer programmatic access to their inventory.
They provide advertisers with a more controlled environment, compared to open exchanges.
Here are some general ranges for the cost of programmatic advertising:
Display Ads: There is no real difference in cost between programmatic and GDN on cost.
The auctions are fairly comparable, and while the methods of bidding are slightly different (CPM vs CPC vs Conversion), the core prices are not that different.
Auction prices will range from a few cents to several dollars and are determined by the competitiveness of the placement, as well as the floor bid the publisher is willing to accept.
Video Ads: This is where GDN and Youtube really shine. Programmatic plays tend to be more expensive with CPMs starting at $10 and ranging as high as $100.
The cost of video ads is driven by targeting strategy, quality, the exclusivity of the inventory being purchased, and ad format.
Social Media Ads: a big part of social ads is how many variables an advertiser wants to test (creative, audience, format, etc).
Placements are charged on both a CPC and CPM billing schedule depending on the bidding strategy and campaign goal. It’s normal to pay a bit less per view on social video channels than on Youtube, but the quality is a bit more grab bag.
Will Google Display Network still be viable for you post the targeting change?
It depends.
Some brands with exacting brand standards will force a move due to placement liabilities. For many brands, this change isn’t actually as big of a deal as other recent setting changes from Google.
At the end of the day, advertisers will still be able to choose placements and set exclusions.
The panic around GDN and its viability create an interesting opportunity for programmatic-first advertisers to test volume plays. Yes, they won’t have the ability to make “or” targeting choices, but with all the other tools at their disposal, there are some mighty bargains to be had.
One of the biggest wins for GDN is how self-serve it is. Brands who might have felt that they had to work through a rep to get their campaigns set up have the opportunity to capture new market share.
This change is ultimately just like how Google took away the ability to exclude mobile games from display campaigns.
How to protect your Google Display Network investment?
The most important thing you can do is make sure your placement exclusion list is in order. You can set rules in your account to begin capturing low-value placements to exclude, as well as placements you want to ensure get captured.
If you’re stuck or need help, Optmyzr’s Smart Exclusions tool can help you do this automatically.
You can read all about the Smart Exclusions toolhere.
Another important step to consider is auditing your creative and confirming they translate to all personas your current placement eligibility represents. Non-programmatic advertisers can take a page from the programmatic handbook and begin thinking about each user and all the factors influencing their consideration.
While you are handing the real-time bidding to the Google algorithm, applying that level of segmentation on creative to audiences will improve your ROI.
Finally, consider testing your campaigns on the Microsoft Audience network (which is much cheaper than the GDN but behaves the same way) and prove which creative/audience types serve you best. Then take the winners to the GDN.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately the GDN continues to provide a lot of value for brands who need to increase their market share as well as recapture interest in warm leads. Adjusting for a looseness in placements is just as easy a change to account for as looseness in match types.
So long as brands are taking proactive measures to ensure their campaign structure is set up for success, the GDN will continue to provide value (if a bit more expensive than before).
On January 4th, 2023, Google sent an email to advertisers who run Google ads regarding a new change they made to the “remove redundant keywords recommendations”.
What was Google’s announcement on the “Remove Redundant Keywords Recommendation”?
Google announced that they are changing how automatically applied recommendations will work for deduping keywords.
Here’s why this is important.
If you’re an advertiser who previously accepted Google deduping your keywords automatically on your behalf, Google is now changing the rules for how they will define what a duplicate keyword is.
In the past, a duplicate keyword had to be the same match type. But, going forward, Google will also consider the same keyword text in different match types to be an equivalent keyword.
In other words, this recommendation now applies across match types.
Instead of keeping the more precise match type — so if you had an exact match and a phrase match — Google will decide to keep the broad match keyword.
The PPC community was clearly not a fan of this move
Greg Finn, Director of Marketing at Cypress North, was the first to report on this after he got a notification from Google that something was changing.
On what planet does this make sense?
Google Ads is changing the definition & execution of a recommendation AFTER IT HAS ALREADY BEEN APPLIED.
Several advertisers were upset and it showed on Twitter.
Specifically, what’s going to be different, as highlighted in yellow in the screenshot above, is the definition of what constitutes a duplicate keyword. Google will no longer look at the match type of the keyword.
In response, Google Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin took to Twitter to clear the confusion.
Yesterday we notified advertisers who’ve opted into auto-apply recommendations for removing redundant keywords. There’ve been some questions and confusion about the update and I’ll try to address them in this thread:
First of all, go and take a look at your account. If you’re already accepting the automatic deduplication of keywords in your account, consider whether you want that to continue to happen or whether you want to pause it and start deduping your account on your own.
Let me show you how you do this in Google Ads.
Navigate to the Recommendations section and look at the History section. If you’ve already accepted the automatic deduping, it will show up here as a historical event.
Now, from here, it’s very easy to change the status from green to red and disable this automatic optimization simply by clicking on ‘Disable’.
If this is not an optimization you were previously doing, you can go to the Manage section, then under Maintain your ads, and you will find the deduplication right here under Remove redundant Keywords.
You can check that to turn it on for an account where you want to use this.
How you can take back control?
If you’d prefer manual control and stay in charge of your account, you can use Optmyzr to find duplicate keywords and remove them on your own terms.
For that, as an Optmyzr user, you can go to Optimizations -> For Keywords -> Keyword De-duper.
The Keyword De-duper works in several ways. It can either check across campaigns or within the same campaign for duplicate keywords.
Whenever it finds duplicates, it will present them to you with an automatic recommendation of which ones to remove based on performance data.
But you can always go ahead and change those selections if you prefer to remove other keywords that are also considered to be duplicates.
This, of course, all falls under the realm of Google’s continued push towards more broad keywords.
It makes sense if you think about it from the perspective that AI and machine learning are getting progressively better at matching a user’s intent when they do a search for a company that can provide and service that intent.
But as you continue to use more broad match keywords in your account, we recommend you keep a close eye on what exactly your ads are showing for.
That’s another thing Optmyzr can help you with, using the Rule Engine. With the Rule Engine, you can automatically process search terms based on criteria that you set.
You could take one of Optmyzr’s pre-built strategies or create your own.
In the video above, I’ve explained how you can create your own strategy based on search terms.
You’ll have a lot of flexibility in how you use the Rule Engine to automatically manage and monitor your search terms as Google continues to push towards more broad match.
How to find keywords removed by Google?
If you’re already an Optmyzr user, you can create a Rule Engine strategy to generate a report on the recently removed keywords.
We recommend this if you’re running the auto-apply recommendation and would like to see the list of keywords Google has removed.
A big thanks again to Greg Finn from Search Engine Land for first reporting this and making advertisers aware that this is something to pay attention to.
I also had a chance to speak to Greg about this announcement recently. You can watch our full conversation here.
We’re here to help
This change by Google is one more clear indication that they’re moving toward broad match. But, it’s you, and not a machine who will know what’s best for your account.
Taking back control with even the smallest of changes, like the one above that takes just a few minutes goes a long way in protecting your PPC accounts.
So, if you like what you’ve seen, go ahead and try it in your Optmyzr account. But if you don’t have one yet, consider starting a 14-day free trial. You can use all of our tools with no limitations to manage your PPC more efficiently.
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Google’s Smart Bidding has evolved over the years to have a better understanding of what works for many PPC accounts. It wasn’t too long ago that advertisers preferred manual bidding outright.
Smart Bidding is now commonly used and much more effective than ever before — over 92% of Google Ads accounts linked to Optmyzr use Smart Bidding in at least one campaign.
But while Smart Bidding strategies aim to drive volume-based KPIs such as clicks or conversions, not all conversions are created equal.
With bid strategies like Target ROAS and Maximize Conversion Value, there’s a much stronger case to bid for value rather than volume.
The Optmyzr suite currently has three tools to help advertisers and agencies implement these strategies effectively and easily.
In this article, you’ll learn:
What these tools are
How to use them
Common use cases
Best practices to maximize effectiveness
Create training data using Segment Scorer
The Segment Scorerlets you easily rate segments from your online audiences based on their value to your business. These ratings should be based not on Google metrics like click-through rate, but on how they perform after converting.
With these scores, you create training data for Optmyzr to suggest the best Conversion Value Rules for your campaigns. Conversion Value Rules are similar to bid adjustments for Smart Bidding and put your scores in a format that Google can understand.
Let’s look at an example of this in practice. When you’re asked to score a segment like the one below (United States), you first need to analyze the value of this segment to your or your client’s business:
Are people from the US more likely to buy from you?
Do they return fewer products or have a shorter sales cycle?
Is the average order value higher among US customers?
Based on the angles important to the business, give it a score between 1 and 5 with 5 being the highest and 1 being the lowest.
You can score segments from five categories in this tool: City, Region, Country, Device, and Audience.
Adjust conversion values using Optimize Value Rules
The Optimize Value Rules tool suggests conversion value rules based on your data inputs from the Segment Scorer. Conversion Value Rules let you better express the importance of your conversions as they relate to your business.
This tool bridges the gap between your business knowledge and Google’s ability to use that knowledge to get you the most profitable conversions.
The magnitude of a suggested adjustment depends on the scores for the primary and secondary segments. However, you can always change the adjustment for each entry by editing the fields in the ‘New Adjustment’ column.
Note: Before applying adjustments, read up on the common pitfalls of value-based bidding so you can better monitor performance.
Discover insights using Segment Explorer
The Segment Explorer lets you visualize your Google Analytics audiences’ performance by multiple dimensions in Optmyzr.
Many times in Google Analytics, it’s difficult to segment and visualize multiple audiences together. But with Segment Explorer, getting those insights becomes straightforward.
Check out the performance of multiple audiences in terms of behavior, geography, and demographics — all at once. This lets you create targeted audiences for your Google Ads campaigns, faster than you could do manually.
How conversion values can vary: use cases
Let’s look at how different industries might use these tools to optimize the ROI of their ad spend. Remember that after Google reports a conversion, its final value to a business varies based on several factors including location, ticket size, product type, and more.
Home Services
Example: Roofing
Google conversion event: Lead gen form completed
What can happen afterward:
Roofing company contacts the lead to schedule a free estimate
Estimator meets the prospect
Prospect reviews the estimate
Prospect becomes a paying customer
What can affect the final value:
Some zip codes have bigger houses. Bigger houses mean bigger roofs. And bigger roofs mean higher average project values.
There are different types of roofing materials that vary with geography and customer preferences. For instance, customers in warmer locations like Los Angeles may prefer solar roofing. Different materials have different margins, making a job more or less profitable than usual.
Education
Example: University
Google conversion event: Lead gen form completed
What can happen afterward:
College contacts applicant to discuss the education program
Applicant may apply for financial assistance
Applicant is admitted and becomes a paying customer
What can affect the final value:
Depending on the area of study the prospect indicates, it can be a longer or shorter program and have a different total cost.
Applicant proximity to campus impacts the chance they attend virtual or in-person programs, which may have different associated costs like room and board.
Preferred degree may make them more or less likely to get a high-paying job, thus influencing their ability to make charitable donations to the university after they graduate.
Ecommerce
Example: Cosmetics
Google conversion event: Purchase/checkout
What can happen afterward:
Order is returned for a refund, either in part or in whole
Customer buys additional products of equal or greater value
What can affect the final value:
Someone who buys a big bottle of shampoo will be less likely to be a repeat customer in the short term than someone who buys a trial size of several shampoos.
Some customers will return more of their purchases. For example, different demographics may correlate with higher impulse purchase behavior i.e. they buy several products but return most of them.
Using ROI optimization as a control tool for Performance Max
Among all of Google’s advertising products, Performance Max is the most comprehensive example of automation yet. It promises a new way to advertise across all of Google’s channels, which also means fully automated bidding and budget allocation.
This calls for a new approach to ROI optimization that’s less about pushing buttons or turning dials and more about feeding the right first-party data that’s not accessible to Google or your campaign.
If you’re an ecommerce clothing store, that data can be detailed stock information like availability per size or color, margin, sell-through rate, return rate, etc.
Feeding this data to Google along with Conversion Value Rules offers you better control over your Performance Max campaigns. A good strategy here would be running Maximize Conversion Value with tROAS.
Best practices for ROI optimization
We suggest the following best practices to produce optimal results when using a value-based bidding strategy.
Score your segments based on their ultimate value to the business, not according to metrics or KPIs that Google can easily see.
Check your campaign performance after four weeks of making adjustments. The Smart Bidding algorithms need some time to learn what the right traffic looks like to you.
Re-score your segments in the Segment Scorer if there are changes in your business priorities (like a discontinued product), or when you have to optimize your campaign performance (a product that isn’t moving). We still recommend spacing adjustments four weeks apart.
Be sure to set your bidding strategy to Maximize Conversion Value (with or without a target ROAS) so that Smart Bidding can take different conversion values into account.
Solutions to common concerns around ROI Optimization
Errors in reporting due to ‘Adjusted Conversion Value’
When you work with Value Rules, there will be differences between your original conversion values and adjusted conversion values. This leads to discrepancies in reporting.
To overcome that, we added ‘Unadjusted Conversion Value’ to the ‘KPIs’, ‘Summary’, ‘Top Campaigns’, and ‘Performance Comparison’ widgets in our single account report. When you’re reporting metrics to your clients, you can clearly communicate the actual conversion value and the adjustment made to it.
Knowledge gap between you and your client
We’ve heard from some customers — especially agencies — that it can be challenging to obtain scores for the Segment Scorer. To make that easier, we’ve created a template you can share with clients or stakeholders to fill out.
In the ‘Start Scoring Segments’ dropdown, select ‘Bulk Score Segments’. You can download the template, add the scores and then upload it back to the tool.
This template can serve you in two ways:
You can score multiple segments at once without the need to score a large set of scoring cards one after another.
You can share this template with your clients requesting them to score the segments based on their business goals. This bridges the knowledge gap between you and your client, ultimately bringing more accurate Value Rules suggestions for your Google Ads account while respecting a client’s need for privacy.
Data is your most valuable asset
ROI optimization is the next evolution of account optimization after a conversion-based strategy. But for any optimization to work, you must collect the right data to enable smarter decisions from ad platforms like Google.
Unique business data is your most powerful asset, and the optimization tools that we’ve built can help you make the best use of that data in a smooth process.
Why optimize for numbers when you can optimize for actual profitability?
Google calls it value-based bidding. We think of it as ROI optimization. Other teams simply consider it maximizing conversion value.
Whatever the name, there’s one outcome: more valuable, higher quality leads that improve overall profitability.
Here’s an example of this strategy in action of our client which is a drug rehabilitation and mental health services facility in Florida.
Watch Taylor Mathauer and Will Gray from WebMechanix share how they used Value-Based Bidding to generate higher-quality leads for their client.
You will learn: - Why they decided to use value-based bidding - Success with value-based bidding - The state of smart bidding and limitations with value-based bidding - Where they’ve seen value-based bidding not work - Requirements for using value-based bidding - When is value-based bidding appropriate - How to track success with value-based bidding
Designing the next step for our client
For our client, volume is the name of the game. Over the course of our campaigns, we’ve optimized for both form fills and phone calls, but calls have historically been our North Star.
While other conversion actions like form fills or insurance verifications are still valuable to their business (and check the box of volume for their admissions team), they wanted to increase the number of calls sourced via Google Ads spend due to their much higher MQL and SQL rate.
The challenge was finding a solution that could prioritize calls while not completely eliminating other conversion actions that are still valuable to their business.
Answering the call to maximize ad spend value
Our solution was to use a value-based bidding strategy to teach Google’s bid strategies which conversion actions are most valuable to our client’s business.
By setting conversion values for our conversion actions and using a value-based bid strategy, we were able to train Smart Bidding to prioritize the action that provides the most value without sacrificing overall lead volume.
Step 1: We did some funnel math to ensure we were setting the correct value for each conversion action. We started by assessing the average revenue each conversion action had driven over a certain time period.
Step 2: We looked at down-funnel metrics such as MQLs, SQLs, and Closed Deals to assign an appropriate value to each conversion action. Below is an example of the math we did to get the accurate conversion value for each action:
Step 3: After setting the correct conversion values for each action, we needed to decide what bid strategy to use. We landed on Target ROAS (tROAS) because we believed that this would increase the number of calls for our clients while improving efficiency.
Note: tROAS works by predicting the value of each query and bidding higher on queries that are more likely to drive a high-value conversion.
Monitoring the outcome for optimal success
We implemented our value-based bid strategy on October 29, 2021.
There are two lenses of performance here: the first looks at the first 4.5 months of implementation, while the second looks at performance since implementing this bid strategy vs. the previous period, to show overall account growth.
The purpose of the latter is to show that as the Smart Bidding algorithms adjust to these users, they’re able to have a rolling impact.
Looking at the last 4.5 months compared to the previous period, we saw a 161% increase in phone calls, 58% increase in form submissions, and a 31.5% drop in cost per lead.
Looking at October 30, 2021 to July 25, 2022 compared with February 3, 2021 to October 29, 2021, we observed a 96% increase in phone calls, 267% more form submissions, and a 54% reduction in account-wide cost per lead.
Conclusion
If the primary goal of your PPC account is to generate leads to be nurtured, there’s a strong case to be made that value-based bidding is your best bet at stretching your ad budget to its fullest capability.
Learn more about how to use this approach to optimize the ROI of your Google Ads campaigns with these resources:
Generating high-quality leads for B2B businesses is not easy.
No, my intention is not to discourage you right off the bat. But with sustained effort over a period of time, you can definitely build a solid, high-quality pipeline of leads that you can pass on to your sales team.
In this article, you’re going to learn how to generate leads for your B2B business using PPC, specifically using Google Ads.
On a side note, we spoke to two of the best B2B PPC experts in the industry on PPC Town Hall, our must-see show for all things search marketing. You can watch the full episode below.
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Now, if you’re somebody who has worked in ecommerce or B2C before and has now started in B2B, there are some important things to know.
How is B2B PPC different from B2C or ecommerce PPC?
On the surface level, there are many similarities between B2B PPC and B2C PPC. The ad platforms are the same and the ad copy and landing page principles are also the same. But there’s a fundamental difference in the approaches between the two.
B2B PPC comes with some unique challenges like the two mentioned below.
1. The length of the sales cycle is longer in B2B.
In B2C or ecommerce buying process, there are fewer stakeholders involved in decision-making. Hence, sales cycles are shorter.
But in the case of B2B sales, the decision-making process happens across various stakeholders. And companies prefer to get into longer contracts. As a result, it takes a lot more time to complete a sale.
The size of the audience is larger in B2C and ecommerce. Hence there’s a better chance of generating a higher lead volume in a given period.
In B2B though, the audience size is narrower, so you don’t usually see as many leads in the same period.
Keeping the above challenges in mind, managing your client’s expectations is crucial. Andrea Cruz, Director of Client Strategy at Tinuiti says that when you onboard a new client, it’s important to have an upfront conversation with them and set realistic expectations.
“When you onboard a new client, you need to have a discussion with them and understand what their expectations are and make sure that they are aligned with what can happen.
So when I talk to them, I say, look, there are things that are already happening that you are doing that we can leverage and those will have a quicker impact. That’s the low-hanging fruit. But now there are campaigns that we are going to be running and results from them can take a while.
I believe that agencies say yes a lot and that we should say no more often and tell them why and create realistic expectations of what can happen.”
How to deal with low lead volume in B2B PPC campaigns?
If your campaign’s objective is to generate demos or free trials, you will likely get a lower lead volume. So your first PPC campaign should not be focused on generating demos. Nobody wants to buy a product or jump on a sales call right away as soon as the first time they’ve heard of a company, right?
Your first campaign should focus on generating demand for your product. And its objective should be to generate a higher-value, lower-friction micro-conversion that generates demand for your product.
What are micro conversions?
Micro conversions are the events that lead up to a bigger conversion like a demo or a purchase of your product.
Examples: Resource downloads, webinar signups, etc.
So instead of focusing on optimizing for demos, you should optimize for such micro conversions. And if you have a lower volume even there, try going further into even smaller conversions like on-page events, page engagements, etc.
Pro tips:
Set up smart goals to turn your most engaged website visits into conversions.
Install a heat mapping tool such as Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar to track clicks, scroll depth, etc. This gives you more insights into the full behavior of your visitors until their final conversion such as a demo.
Best Bidding Strategies for B2B Lead Generation
Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC)
ECPC is a bidding strategy in which Google makes automatic adjustments to your manual bids rather than you having to do it completely manually.
If you’re running a campaign, especially with a low conversion volume or a new account, you can start with ECPC bidding. Although it is a form of smart bidding, it’s not entirely automated.
Here, you set the initial bids and can later adjust them manually (for example, for really high intent keywords) whenever you want.
Maximize Clicks
Unlike ECPC, Maximize Clicks is a fully automated bidding strategy where the focus is, as the name says, on getting you the most clicks.
There’s no focus on conversions here. So this is a good strategy for branding campaigns.
Note: Because the goal is to get you the most clicks and Google has complete control over the bids, it looks to spend your daily budget even if it becomes expensive to get you those clicks. So before running this strategy, set a maximum cost per click. And ensure that the average cost per click isn’t getting too expensive.
Target Impression Share
In Target Impression Share, you set a percentage for your goal impression share. If your objective is brand awareness or reach, this is a good strategy.
Note: After setting a max CPC bid and seeing it run for some time, keep an eye on it to make sure you don’t spend too much for a click. If you’re skeptical, set the bid a bit lower. If it’s working well, then good. If it’s not, increase the bid.
Maximize Conversions
Maximize Conversions is an automated bidding strategy where Google sets the bids for you to get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your daily budget.
This is a good strategy for campaigns in the middle or lower funnel.
Note: Just like Target Impression Share and Maximize Clicks, keep an eye on the CPCs as you’re giving Google’s algorithm the control to bid whatever it needs to bid to get the most conversions possible. And, before you start using this strategy, you’ll have to set up conversion tracking, something we recommend all advertisers do as soon as they start advertising on Google.
If you want to improve the accuracy of your conversion measurement and unlock more powerful bidding, try enhanced conversions.
Setting up enhanced conversions can take some time, especially in organizations where the marketing team needs to work with engineering to make changes to the website and the company’s CRM systems.
To get started more quickly, there are also conversion value rules. Here’s how it works: You tell Google’s algorithm that a specific type of lead is more valuable to you than others.
For example, everything else being equal, if you get a lead from New York and California, and if you tell Google that California’s lead turns into a better lifetime value customer for you than from New York, the algorithm works to bring you more of those leads that you want the most, in this case, those from California.
A great-converting landing page is just as important
Aside from choosing a bid strategy, you should also build a great landing page for your campaign that can convert. If you need tips and inspiration, check out this great landing page guide by KlientBoost.
**Source**: KlientBoost
Do not forget your funnel
“Always know where your audience is before starting your campaign”, says Brandon Coward, Director of Paid Media at Powered by Search.
And once a lead has spoken to your sales team, exclude them from your remarketing campaigns.
Brandon adds ->
”The first thing we do when we audit any account is taking a look at whether it’s a remarketing or prospecting campaign and see what the exclusions are.”
“And if you’re not either doing the manual upload or pushing those directly from CRM systems to exclude your customers or if it’s sales accepted leads or opportunities, for that matter, from early-stage campaigns, then that’s the first thing we do because you’re likely paying for people who might already be your customer.“
How to pick the suitable keyword match types?
Picking the right match type depends on the campaign and where you’re running it in the funnel. If you’re running a campaign to generate demo requests, experts suggest using ‘exact match’ because you want to be very precise with what your audience is looking for.
But if you don’t have enough volume there, switch to ‘phrase match’.
What about excluding negative keywords?
Early on, you’ve got to keep an eye on negative keywords to ensure you’re getting the right traffic for your campaign. But if you want to make that process easier, Optmyzr helps you keep them in check, using the Negative Keywords Finder tool.
This tool makes recommendations for keywords that you may consider adding as negatives by finding non-converting queries from your search terms report that are driving costs to help you avoid wasted spend.
Date first, marry later.
Remarketing works really well for B2B. Offer something of value to your audience before you ask them to get on a call with your team. Don’t ask for something in return too soon. Selling becomes easier after they learn more about you or your brand. And to conclude here’s a great piece of advice from Andrea ->
“The best PPC managers are the ones who monitor their accounts regularly. Yes, automation is inevitable, but it’s incredibly rewarding to keep an eye on your accounts, understanding what’s working and what’s not, and optimizing for the right conversions to get the best ROI for your ad spend”.
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Shopping campaigns have to be managed differently from Search and Display campaigns in order to improve their performance. We spoke to some of our customers and learned that leveraging shopping campaign priorities is one of the best strategies to do that.
Here we’ll share those best practices with you. But first, a bit about campaign priorities.
What are campaign priorities?
Campaign priorities in Google Ads are used to select the bid when a product is advertised through multiple campaigns. Though every new shopping campaign is automatically created on “low priority” as a default setting, you can modify this and set your campaigns to either high, medium, or low priority.
Keep in mind that campaign priorities are not the same as using negatives, as you aren’t driving or excluding traffic, but rather giving first or second priority for participation in auctions.
Priority levels outweigh the bid amount at auction time, so if a campaign on high priority has a lower bid than a campaign on medium priority, the high priority campaign’s bid will be used. In another case, if multiple campaigns have the same priority, then the campaign with the highest bid is the one that will be used in the auction.
Note that budget issues can cause the priorities to be ignored. For example, if the highest priority campaign runs out of budget, then the bid from the runner-up in terms of priority levels will be used.
When are campaign priorities useful?
Campaign priorities are mostly useful when you’re advertising the same product, for the same country, in multiple Shopping campaigns.
How to use Campaign priorities
1. Prioritize best sellers for generic searches
Campaign priorities can be used to give first participation in the auction for a campaign with your best sellers, or a campaign with the products you want to prioritize or highlight in appearing.
To avoid your shopping ads showing up for unqualified searches you can make your campaigns “compete smarter”, as detailed in this CPC Strategy article.
Example:
Let’s say your inventory contains a variety of wireless speakers. You have different brands and models, but the Bose Minilink II and the JBL Flip speakers are your best-selling items. And as bestsellers, you want to make sure that they have first participation in auction upon a generic “wireless speakers” search.
The way to do this would be to create a campaign for best-sellers and include the Bose Minilink II and the JBL Flip speakers, and then set the priority of this campaign to “High Priority”.
This doesn’t exclude any campaigns from participating, it just helps you define where you first want to place the bid from.
2. Prioritize flighted budgets
Another case would be to use campaign priorities to spend flighted or seasonal budgets before spending evergreen budgets.
Example:
Say you are creating a winter campaign that runs on a specific budget and focuses on winter clothing items only. One of the products in this campaign is a jacket, which is also included in the outdoor apparel campaign that runs year-round.
Considering the winter campaign has its own specific budget, you can make sure that budget is used first, before that of the outdoor apparel campaign.
To do this, you’d set the winter campaign on a high priority, and the outdoor apparel campaign with a medium or low priority.
3. Bid less for generic searches and more for product searches
Somewhat counterintuitively, CPCs for generic queries tend to run higher than those for specific product searches.
Here’s an illustration of that effect from Andreas Reiffen and Crealytics:
The higher the bid, the more one-word (generic) queries the ad is shown for.
This is generally bad because generic searches tend to happen long before the conversion. The more specific, multi-word queries tend to immediately precede the sale. So ROAS-focused advertisers will want to bid more for specific queries and less for generic queries but that’s the opposite of what happens when you have just one campaign for your products.
A strategy that lets you bid more for specific product searches involves a mix of campaign priorities, different bids, and different negative keywords. Kirk Williams wrote a detailed step-by-step article on the benefits of setting up an SKU-level shopping strategy.
This strategy was pioneered by Martin Roettgerding. Here’s how it works:
So for the Generic Campaign, the one that is supposed to attract clicks for the most generic queries related to what you sell, you set high priority, low bids, and add negative keywords for the brands and product names.
Now if a branded search happens, the high priority campaign is skipped because it has a negative brand keyword so the medium campaign will pick up the traffic with a reasonable bid.
Closing thoughts
If you’ve tried some of these techniques or explored others that leverage shopping campaign priorities, let us know. We’d love to feature your story in an upcoming blog post.
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“A customer’s typical conversion path ends after they convert, but this isn’t always the case. Customers return retail purchases, cancel reservations, or perform actions that increase their value to your business. To account for these changes in conversion value, you can adjust the value of a conversion after it’s reported in Google Ads.”
Why Conversion Value Adjustments Are Useful?
Let me explain this with an example.
If you’re an ecommerce business, and you report a conversion after somebody checks out from the shopping cart, then that means your ad was clicked, and your product was bought. And that’s a good thing.
But, how many times does somebody buy something and then return it? It’s actually pretty frequent.
Are you adjusting your conversion value for that?
And on the flip side, let’s say, somebody buys something from you and then goes on to sign up for your company’s credit card, or they become a super loyal customer and they make a bunch more purchases. Or they go on social media and recommend your products to their friends.
These are all great behaviors.
But are you valuing them? Spoiler alert: you should.
Of course, all of these behaviors happen offline after the initial conversion. And it’s really important that you report them because automated bidding systems from Google will try to get you more clicks that drive high value.
If you skip reporting returned purchases, Google may get you conversions from customers who return a lot of stuff. But if you report about when returns happen, Google will stop bringing you such conversions and instead gets you better conversions.
So as illustrated in the image above, by using conversion adjustments, you can go back into Google Ads after that initial purchase, which you reported in step one, and then in step two, you can adjust that value.
To do this, you have to give Google just a little bit of information in the form of either the transaction ID or the order ID.
And then in the next 55 days (that’s how much time Google gives you), you can restate that conversion value.
How to Do Conversion Value Adjustments in Google Ads?
First, you should put the transaction ID on the page that has the conversion pixel associated with Google Ads.
And that’s likely going to be the page after somebody has checked out from their shopping cart.
Now, how do you put in that transaction ID? First, go to this page. Then, scroll down to the section where the ‘Event snippet example’ is shown. Over here, you’ll see the line ’transaction_id’: ‘<%= orderId %>’,
You’re going to put in this piece of text on the page that has the conversion pixel and that’s dynamically going to insert the ‘orderId’.
The ‘orderId’ here isn’t really important. But the key thing is it has to be unique. You don’t want to have two transactions with the same order ID, because if you were to go and update it later, Google wouldn’t know which one you were talking about.
After you’ve got that set, you have to start collecting data on your end and import that into Google Ads.
In the Google Ads editor, go to ‘Tools and Settings’ -> ‘Measurement’ -> ‘Conversions’.
On the left-side panel, click ‘Uploads’. Then, click the ‘+’ button where you’re going to make a new upload. Here, you can even check out the templates by clicking on ‘View templates’.
There are different templates depending on what you’re trying to do. But in our case, we’re trying to update existing conversions using the Order ID.
The templates are available in Excel, CSV, and Google Sheets formats. In this case, let’s use Google Sheets. When you click on the sheet, you will see a list of columns. I’ve taken this template and made my own copy of it.
Now put in the transaction ID in the Order ID field. Then, check the conversion name that was associated with the original conversion, and the adjustment time, including the time zone. Here you also have an option of restating or retracting the value.
In this case, we’re restating a conversion that used to be $100 to $50, but you can also retract a conversion entirely. Now keep in mind, that if you retract a conversion, that action cannot be undone. So be careful with that one.
As I’ve made my own spreadsheet here, I’m going to go back into the Google Ads editor and make sure that this user is given permission to the spreadsheet.
Now go back into Google Ads and open that spreadsheet for updating the transactions. You can also select and preview it. To adjust the conversion values, make sure you hit the ‘Apply’ button and don’t just run the preview.
Wrapping Up
So there you have it. That’s how you use conversion adjustments with Google Ads to better inform Google about what’s really happening with your conversions.
And remember, this is a technique that can help you get better results, especially when you’re using Google’s automations like smart bidding, broad match keywords, responsive search ads, etc. Go ahead and try this out and let us know how you do it.
Google has a tremendous amount of data about how people interact with ads and the computing power and machine learning models to find useful patterns within this.
Combine that with the fact they make bid management available for free to all advertisers and it’s no surprise that their bidding tools are some of the most widely used in the PPC world.
Optmyzr’s tools are the perfect complement for Google’s bid automation, enabling advertisers to monitor and analyze results and to bring their own business data into the mix to further improve results.
For example, Optmyzr can suggest geo bid adjustments while you’re doing smart bidding on Google ads (check out the video below) or use product margin data to enable bidding for profitability, taking things a step further than Google’s target ROAS.
But in working with thousands of advertisers to help take their bid management to the next level, we noticed a fair bit of confusion stemming from the fact that there are 11 types of Google bid strategies that each interact differently with campaign and ad group bid adjustments.
Here’s a fairly common example of why there is confusion: as advertisers transition between bid management strategies, it’s not always obvious which bid adjustments still matter so advertisers with a target ROAS strategy continue to spend time on setting demographic bid adjustments. This is unfortunately a complete waste of time as those bid adjustments are simply ignored by Google.
Advertisers don’t realize they’re wasting time because bid adjustments can be added in the Google Ads interface but depending on the selected bid strategy they may be ignored without warning.
While Optmyzr points out these issues with our Policy and Audit Report, we wanted to help demystify this for all advertisers regardless of whether or not they use Optmyzr so we worked with Google and PPCers on Twitter (shout outs to @BertOnckelinx and @navahf) to create a table of interactions between bid strategies and bid adjustments.
We’ve documented the places in the Google Help Center where our findings came from and tested the settings ourselves. Some of Google’s help materials offer conflicting statements but we’ve done our best to reflect what we see in the real world. Google Ads is constantly evolving so please get in touch with us if you have a suggestion for how to make the table better.
[Click here to see a larger version](https://www.optmyzr.com/forestry/interactions-of-bid-strategies-table.webp) of this image.
Google Help Center References:
1. Unlike bid adjustments for manual CPC, your bid adjustments for Target CPA modify the value of your CPA target, rather than the bids themselves.
2. Because Target ROAS helps optimize your bids based on real-time data, your existing bid adjustments are not used. There is one exception: You can still set mobile bid adjustments of -100%. Note that you don’t need to remove bid adjustments—they just won’t be used.
4. Smart Bidding will use your audiences as signals to bid more efficiently and help get you more conversions and conversion value. Bid adjustments work differently when you’ve applied a conversion-based automated bid strategy and the campaign or ad group contains multiple lists with overlapping users. Rather than adjusting your bids, your bid adjustments will instead prioritize the audience list to which an impression, click, etc. will be attributed.
5. ECPC automatically takes into account different conversion rates for all types of traffic but sets bids separately for mobile devices. This means you don’t need to set any bid adjustments (aside from mobile) for ECPC to maximize conversions. However, if you want to bid more aggressively for certain types of traffic you can still choose to set a bid adjustment. This adjustment will be applied on top of ECPC’s automatic adjustments.
6. Google does not recommend setting bid adjustments unless those adjustments are being made for reasons that wouldn’t be captured in the conversions such as LTV.
7. Starting in late June 2019, advertisers will no longer be able to add new Target Search Page Location or Target Outranking Share bid strategies. Later this year, existing campaigns still using these strategies will automatically be migrated to the Target Impression Share strategy based on previous target locations and historical impression share.
If the last two years have taught me anything, it’s to expect the unexpected…and the unpredictable. While I don’t have a crystal ball, I do have some thoughts on where PPC is headed. Here’s what I think will matter in 2022.
The Three Truths
There are three ongoing trends that I expect will continue to shape our industry. These are the “three truths” of PPC advertising:
Ad platforms will continue to automate.
Advertisers will get less access to data.
Control over targeting, bidding, and messaging will keep decreasing.
We’ll Shift to Managing Goals Rather than Details
As automation continues to improve, the need for granular controls will decline. Instead of managing PPC details inside the ad platforms, our roles will shift to managing higher-level goals at these systems’ periphery. Less managing search terms, more managing how we identify good leads and conversions.
Even Facebook recently added “Lead Conversions” to their platform. Advertisers are getting smart to the fact that leads are meaningless if they don’t convert into customers.
We’ll Rethink Old Assumptions
In the good ol’ days, if you were selling something on the internet, you could assume that there was basically an unlimited supply of the thing you were selling. You could go full steam ahead, offering big discounts and special promotions, and aggressively pursue campaign expansion. You knew the limiting factor was how many buyers you could drum up and not how much stuff you had in inventory. The supply-chain disruptions of 2021 changed that. You can no longer assume unlimited supplies. That means a modern PPC marketer needs to be more nimble than ever.
Here’s another assumption we’ve had to challenge. It used to be that, to get more traffic to an ad group, you had to add keywords or raise bids. That was true before RSAs, which are now the default and will soon replace ETAs. In our recent study of the RSA ad format, we found they can drive four times as many impressions as ETAs, simply because Google’s machine learning is able to boost the relevance of an ad by constructing it on the fly, based on a user’s query and circumstances.
Our decades-old best practice of using the metric “conversions per impression” to find the best ad in an A/B ad test was based on an assumption that is no longer true. To do A/B ad testing right, you now also need to consider that each ad has a unique impact on the ad group’s impressions and hence its ability to drive incremental conversions.
Here’s another false assumption: the higher the ROAS, the better. That was never really true, but advertisers are finally coming to realize this and are beginning to favor POAS (profit over ad spend) instead, since this metric better reflects actual business goals.
We’ll Have to Continue Grappling with New Questions
If you’re selling new cars, you’re faced with the question: do you actually need to advertise? You may already have a one-year backlog due to supply-chain disruptions. Why advertise just so that people can sign up on a waitlist? Is that really necessary? Or is tight supply your opportunity to reset the expectation that cars will be sold below MSRP into one that they will now command a premium over MSRP and you want to double down on ads while the margins are high?
If you sell fitness bikes, and orders get canceled in droves when patience with shipping delays runs thin, do you allow your systems that adjust order values to Google to continue as before? Do you mark these conversions as bad? Or was the fault actually not with marketing finding low-quality buyers? The answer may seem obvious, but whatever you decide has implications on what the machine learns and therefore does next, so tread carefully.
We’ll Need to Rely More on First-Party Data
Before ads became personalized, they were just annoying. Personalized ads are much more useful and relevant. That advertisers are willing to pay a premium for better targeted ads is what’s been floating the rapid development of the web in the last couple decades.
The most important method of personalization has been third-party cookies, which enable the system to draw a far more detailed demographic and psychographic picture of each individual user. But third-party cookies are now considered invasions of privacy and being eliminated. What happens when third-party cookies are gone?
If we can no longer do some of the personalization that made the internet useful, many websites are going to lose considerable revenue. Google did a study and concluded that in the absence of personalization, 62 percent of revenue for online newspapers would go away.
That is a real problem. As is so often the case, a major shift has unintended consequences. Privacy is a desirable goal that may well cause the web as a whole to decline in value. That could be catastrophic. But it’s a problem only if there’s no replacement for third-party-cookie technology. To prevent this, new ways to let advertisers continue to subsidize a free web need to be developed.
Several initiatives to protect user data, while still enabling interest-based advertising and remarketing without third-party cookies, are in development. The most prominent has been Google’s now-discontinued FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts).
While we can’t predict the exact solution, it is certain that it will involve machine learning, which draws inferences from masses of data. The more data a machine-learning system is trained on, the more accurate it will become at audience segmentation and personalization.
One possibility is that audience segmentation will be based on devices surveyed, not individual users. I tend to use my laptop for business and my iPhone for personal matters. Under the new system, it’s possible that I’d fall into different cohorts depending on my device and that could actually be really helpful to advertisers who could then target cohorts of work personas or personal personas.
All of us as individuals have many dimensions, which so far have been hard for advertisers to target. Our technical problem-solvers may be able to make a virtue of the necessity of restoring personalization by other means.
The problem is so urgent that we can expect any number of solutions to be developed in the coming year. As always, there will be a competitive shake-out of the various approaches, with one or two eventually emerging as the favorites. We’re well-advised to keep an eye on this trend in 2022. Cliché though it is, it’s also true that every crisis brings new opportunities.
And while waiting to see how things shake out, advertisers should work overtime to increase the first-party data they collect, so they can cut back their dependence on data from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and the other platforms.
Happy New Year
In a recent PPC Town Hall, Chris Moreno from Google said, “The only thing that we know is that we don’t know anything.” Basically, 2022 is going to be as full of surprises as the last two years were. We need to be ready to be nimble and able to respond to whatever may happen.
One thing that’s constant in PPC is change. To thrive in this industry, you have to be flexible and ready to adapt. But if it seems like right now there’s even more change than typical, it’s not just your imagination. One of the reasons is that Google is sunsetting the AdWords API on April 27, 2022 and after that date, all calls to the API will fail.
There are many questions I’ve heard related to this announcement and I’ll answer them in this post.
Can I still use a 3rd party PPC tool?
Yes, 3rd party PPC management tools will continue to exist. Google is merely transitioning from one API to another. Everything you could automate before will still be possible to automate with the new API.
Google is not killing off 3rd party ad management tools. In April 2021, Google released version 7 of their new Ads API which had all the same capabilities as the old AdWords API. At that time, they announced the old API would stop functioning in 2022. But any developer who is willing to make the effort to rewrite their code can continue to offer their software to advertisers. Optmyzr is on track for the transition and will continue to support advertisers with great PPC tools.
Why do advertisers have to use a new Ads API?
Google normally updates its API for advertisers 3 times per year. Each new version adds some new capabilities to bring it on par with what advertisers have access to when they log into the Google Ads website. New versions may also deprecate features that have been removed from the ads system. And there are always some housekeeping changes, like capabilities that get renamed to be more consistent with other parts of the API.
To make it possible for developers to migrate to the latest version of the API without breaking their tools for existing users, Google keeps several versions of their API available at any given time. However, they announce sunset dates for versions that are more than 2 cycles old. So when they go from version 8 to version 9, they announce the date when version 7 will stop working.
To keep up with this constant change, Optmyzr makes significant investments in its PPC tools every year. While we’re always building new features to make advertisers more successful, we also spend a lot of time updating existing tools so that they keep working even when Google makes changes behind the scenes in their API. Recently we’ve also started investing more in improving our user experience with new, more modern designs. We are planning even bigger investments in all these areas for 2022 to make our users happier.
What’s different about going from the AdWords API to the Ads API?
Changing from the AdWords API to the Ads API is a much more significant project and one we’ve been busy working on for many months. Our customers won’t notice any difference, but some of our tools already use the new API while others are waiting their turn to be migrated by our engineering team. A good tool like Optmyzr just keeps working even when there are big changes behind the scenes in terms of how we fetch data and how we make changes to an advertiser’s account when they apply changes to their account.
The level of effort in migrating to the Ads API is significant enough that some tools, like Wordstream, and some agencies with their own software, are changing their business models so they will no longer build tools for the Ads API.
Should advertisers build their own tools?
Some advertisers who are able to build tools using the API may still decide to use third party tools like Optmyzr so they don’t have to constantly spend money to keep things working. It’s one thing to build a cool new in-house PPC tool, but it’s quite another to have to spend a lot of time to keep it working with each new API version.
Optmyzr’s core business is PPC software so we can invest in the constant updates needed to keep things working with the latest APIs from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Yahoo because it’s an investment that benefits advertisers who spend a combined $4 billion per year on PPC. Individual advertisers on the other hand may not be able to afford the level of engineering resources required to manage this level of change when it benefits just their own business which spends far less than $4 billion per year on ads.
Why is Wordstream shutting down?
Another piece of news that’s making the rounds in the PPC world is that Wordstream is shutting down its Advisor software and asking existing customers to sign up for agency services. The timing of this may be somewhat related to the news about the Google Ads API.
As a complete outsider to Wordstream, let me share what I suspect happened. Wordstream was acquired by Gannett, a large media conglomerate, in 2018. Gannett made several acquisitions in the digital marketing space around that time.
After the acquisition, the pace of change in the Wordstream software slowed. The timing of this acquisition was fortunate for Gannett because Google temporarily halted their API sunset schedule. The reason is that they had just introduced the Ads API as a replacement for the AdWords API but the new API had significant performance issues. Since the new Ads API wasn’t working well, they couldn’t sunset the old AdWords API and so for almost 3 years, while Google was working on making the new Ads API better, developers could keep their software running with only very minimal investments in API updates. Wordstream was able to continue existing, even when Gannett wasn’t investing much in their technology.
Now that the AdWords API is shutting down, some companies may decide to scrap their tools and go in a different direction. For Gannett, it appears that they are prioritizing managed agency services over self-service software. And that means the end of Wordstream.
What are alternatives for Wordstream?
Optmyzr is one of many great alternatives for advertisers who want to manage their own PPC accounts with software. Over the years, we’ve had many Wordstream users successfully transition to Optmyzr.
If you loved their 20-minute workweek, you might enjoy Optmyzr Express which helps you quickly fix the biggest issues and capitalize on the biggest opportunities in your Google Ads or Microsoft Ads account.
If you liked their account audit and performance grader, you might enjoy Optmyzr’s PPC Policy and Audits which helps ensure your account is following best practices like how your account is structured, what types of ads and extensions you’re using, and much more.
Wordstream clients always ask if we have an alternative to Query Stream (we have the powerful Keyword Lasso), and if we have reporting where delivery to clients can be automated (we do, with a backup in case certain metric thresholds aren’t met).
Some of the other capabilities we offer include multi-platform budget controls to create budget groups that includes changing and pausing budgets in Facebook Ads; optimization, reporting and alerts for platforms like Amazon Ads; and metric and budget alerts for Facebook Ads (plus reporting)
Another key benefit of Optmyzr is that it’s more customizable than Wordstream. We’ll start you off quickly with a set of recommendations based on industry best practices but as you develop your own expertise, you can tweak any tool so that it recommends more of the things you like. And when you’re ready, you can even start to fully automate many of these optimizations.
What are alternatives to building in-house PPC tools?
If your agency is losing some PPC tools when the AdWords API sunsets in April 2022, first consider some of the many great tools built by 3rd parties like Optmyzr. Many of the PPC problems your tools were trying to solve are probably not unique to just your agency.
When you shop for a tool, be sure to ask how much it can be customized so that you can still add your own secret sauce to it. For example, at Optmyzr, we have a PPC rule builder which lets advertisers build and automate sophisticated strategies that are completely custom to your own operations. The tool can even bring in your own first-party data, something increasingly more important as privacy regulations make it harder to rely on 3rd party targeting signals.
Also ask whether the company you’re considering working with is able to customize things for your needs. At Optmyzr we have a custom PPC solutions team that works with top advertisers to do some really cool PPC projects. When we bring together smart advertisers with our team that knows Google Ads really well, we can do some unique things to give advertisers an edge in an ever-more competitive PPC market.
Google Ads dropped two big announcements recently, including an update to how keywords match queries and a change to the default attribution model. Here’s what advertisers need to know about these updates.
Keyword prioritization rules are changing
Let’s break down Google’s latest announcement about keyword match types and see what it says:
With BERT, Google’s pre-training for natural language processing, getting more advanced, understanding search intent is now easier. Even broad match can now help you find relevant traffic with fewer keywords.
Google supported this with the example, “a highly specific query like ‘1995 5 speed transmission seal input shaft’ is now able to match with the broad match keyword ‘auto parts’ because we can tell they’re related, even though none of the words in the query and in the keyword actually match.”
A phrase match or broad match keyword identical to a query will now be preferred, as long as it is eligible to match.
Google has extended what it did with exact match earlier this year to broad and phrase match. Here’s Google’s example to explain this: “let’s say someone searches for ‘sushi delivery near me,’ and you have the broad match keywords ‘sushi delivery’ and ‘sushi delivery near me’. Before this update, both of these keywords would be eligible to serve. Now, the keyword ‘sushi delivery near me’ is preferred because it is identical to the search term.”
Rest easy though. Google goes on to say “that if you have an eligible exact match keyword that is identical to the query, it will still be preferred over the phrase and broad match keyword.”
Relevancy and Ad Rank will be the deciding factors when a search isn’t identical to any of your keywords.
In addition to Ad Rank, Google will now consider relevancy signals when determining which keyword will be selected. Explaining what these relevancy signals are, Google said, “Relevance is determined by looking at the meaning of the search term, the meaning of all the keywords in the ad group, and the landing pages within the ad group.” The different scenarios were broken down in the following table.
As with most significant announcements by Google, this one was also met with mixed responses from the PPC industry.
Julie Bacchini wrote: “So what exactly have you been doing up until now? Seriously. Was it foolish as an advertiser to think that was what you’d always done?" Read her thoughts on this change on her blog.
Others like Amy Bishop and Greg Finn argued that there is still value in maintaining multiple match types for the same keyword despite Google’s push to get advertisers to switch to a combo of smart bidding + broad match.
Data-Driven is now the default attribution model
In a move away from last-click attribution, Google announced that data-driven attribution (DDA) will be the default attribution model for all new conversion actions, starting October 2021.
Google acknowledged that the last-click attribution model falls short of advertisers’ needs because it ignores all but the final search before a user converts. Until now, advertisers without enough conversion volume to qualify for data-driven attribution were advised to switch to a position based or a time-decay model.
Google addressed the minimum data requirements for using DDA and said, “we’re removing the data requirements and adding support for additional types of conversions. With these improvements, we’re also making data-driven attribution the default attribution model for all new conversion actions in Google Ads.”
How is data-driven attribution better?
Let’s take an example of a user looking for running shoes. This user goes through several different searches before she converts. She might start with searches for ‘sneakers’ or ‘running shoes’, and after discovering Adidas’ line of running shoes, do another search for a specific model in her favorite color and size, and buy the shoes.
The problem with last-click attribution is that it gives all the credit to the last click. It’s going to ignore the fact that the user engaged with several of your ads; it’s going to ignore the fact that she got to the final keyword because she was exposed to upper-funnel keywords first. All these different keywords that the user searched for before converting are completely ignored.
Data-driven gives you a better picture of the entire purchase journey. Google now looks at the sequence of searches and sees how an individual query fits into that sequence. It estimates each keyword’s contribution to the eventual conversion. The following illustration from Google’s DDA methodology whitepaper shows how a particular query could be weighed.
Ultimately, data-driven attribution helps you better understand the value of all your keywords. With that improved knowledge, your manual and automated optimizations can get better. For example, when you find a non-converting search term, you might add it as a negative keyword, decide not to bid on it at all, or bid less. If you did this based on incomplete conversion data, like with data you’d get from LCA, you could hurt the performance of an account. Thanks to DDA, you can make better optimizations.
No attribution model will give you 100% accurate information, but data-driven comes closest to giving you the information that’ll allow you to reduce wasteful spending.
Finally, encouraging advertisers to combine data-driven attribution with automated bidding, Google said, “ When combined with automated bidding strategies, data-driven attribution can drive additional conversions at the same cost-per-acquisition. This is because our systems can better predict the incremental impact a specific ad will have on driving a conversion and adjust bids accordingly to maximize your ROI.”
If you don’t already know the perils of combining Smart Bidding and last-click attribution, you can read about it here.
Anybody can track conversions. Smart marketers track leads. Why is this lead identification information important?
It’s not enough to know that someone called your business. You need to know more such as:
Who are they?
What do they want?
Do they have the budget for your product?
Are they a quotable lead?
A conversion is not necessarily a lead, which is why it’s a bad idea to base your marketing decisions on conversions alone. In this article, we’ll explain how leads are different from conversions.
We’ll also go into detail regarding how Google Ads tracks conversions. As you’ll see, there are some limitations to the amount of information that Google Ads can track.
Next, we’ll describe how you can track individual leads instead of simply tracking conversions. We’ll also reveal how this enhanced data can be used with a tool like Optmyzr to improve your entire Google Ads strategy.
The Limitations of Google Ads Conversion Tracking
Google Ads is a powerful tool that does have some limitations. Issues arise when you try to track individual leads and measure lead quality.
Conversions vs. Leads
Conversion numbers tell you how many people took an action; lead data tells you who took action and whether they’re a sales-ready lead.
When tracking forms, chats, and calls, individual lead data tells you more than raw conversion numbers do. Google Ads can track these conversion actions, but it only shows total conversion numbers.
You’ll see the total number of leads from each conversion action, but not the identifying information for individual leads.
Google Ads has a phone call conversion tracking system that can track calls from call extensions on ads. It can also track calls from ads that have a location extension with a call option.
Unfortunately for marketers, Google’s built-in call tracking tool is not as effective as the third-party call tracking tools on the market.
Google’s call tracking feature tells you call conversions are coming in from ads, but you won’t know anything about the lead except that they saw your ad and called your business. You won’t know if they’re quotable leads.
Identifying quotable leads
Every business identifies quotable leads differently. Some simply look at the lead’s budget. Others look at their geographic location. Still, others look at the product fit.
All this information can usually be found in call transcripts, but Google does not provide these.
Screening non-qualified leads in Google Ads
Google Ads does have one way to screen non-qualified leads; by only passing along conversions if the call lasted over a minute.
The problem is that many calls can last 60-seconds and still not result in a qualified lead:
What if a solicitor calls your company and manages to stay on the phone for 60 seconds?
What if an existing customer calls your company to speak with support for over a minute?
What if a prospective customer calls your company but their budget doesn’t fit your product?
These are all non-qualified leads, and passing them along to Google Ads as conversions can skew your marketing reports. You may end up thinking an ad is working when it’s not. The longer you think that, the more marketing dollars you waste.
Google Ads can also track forms and chats, but the same limitations apply. Your Google Ads reports will only show the total number of conversions from each ad, separated by conversion type. You will not be able to see call transcripts, chat transcripts, or lead contact information.
This is where all the important lead information is contained; the data that tells you whether or not the lead is worth your time.
Running a Google Ads campaign costs money. In return, you want leads that drive revenue. Conversions alone are not necessarily worth any revenue, but quotable leads are.
Let’s find out how to make sure we’re getting quotable leads in return for ad spend.
How to track individual lead data with Google Ads
Lead tracking software fills in the gaps in your Google Ads data. Software like WhatConverts can integrate with Google Ads so you can see individual lead data, mark leads as quotable, then pass them to Google Ads as rock-solid conversions. Passing only quotable leads into Google Ads will improve your entire PPC strategy.
You won’t know what ads work if you’re only tracking conversions. If you can identify the ads that actually drive quotable leads, however, you can optimize accurately.
How to send quotable leads to Google Ads
A lead tracking system like WhatConverts allows you to easily mark leads as quotable or not quotable. For phone call leads, you can simply press “1” after the call if the lead is qualified or “2” if they aren’t. You can also assign sales value for phone call leads during this step.
For all leads, you can mark leads as quotable with one click of a button in your leads dashboard or in the email notification for the lead. Once you’re marking leads as qualified, it can greatly improve your marketing reporting. Here’s an example of how qualified lead reporting reveals more about how many leads come from individual keywords.
You can use WhatConverts to only pass conversions to Google Ads if they meet certain parameters such as, “only pass along the conversion if the lead is marked as qualified" (quotable). You can also choose to only pass along conversions if the lead is assigned a sales value in WhatConverts or your CRM.
Use Optmyzr and Lead Tracking Software to optimize Google Ads
Running a successful Google Ads campaign involves measuring a lot of variables. You don’t just want to know that your Google Ads drive quotable leads; you want to know which ad groups, ads, keywords, and landing pages drive quotable leads.
Once you have this information, you can optimize ads with a tool like Optmyzr. The more information you feed into the optimization system, the easier it is for Optmyzr to make useful suggestions about how to optimize ads.
If you pass every conversion to Google Ads without marking them as quotable, Optmyzr will make suggestions based on the conversion data alone. That means you could end up shifting marketing spend towards keywords and campaigns that drive solicitations or support calls from existing customers.
Taking the extra step to pass only quotable leads to Google Ads gives Optmyzr better data. Optmyzr can make suggestions to shift marketing spend towards keywords and campaigns that drive quotable leads and revenue.
This is a better way to increase return-on-investment for Google Ads. Since Optmyzr makes suggestions based on your Google Ads data, it’s important to make sure that Google Ads data is accurate and actionable.
Lead Tracking Tools work with Optmyzr to Improve PPC Performance
The more you optimize Google Ads based on sales-ready leads, the easier it is to identify the ads that drive the most revenue. When it comes time to show reports detailing how your Google Ads performed, you want to be able to prove that the business is getting a return on investment.
The best way to do that is by showing which ads delivered quotable leads. Using lead tracking tools with Optmyzr makes this possible, and easy.
This is a guest post. The views and opinions expressed by the author are solely their own and do not represent that of Optmyzr.
About the author
Mac Mischke is the Content Marketing Manager at WhatConverts, a call tracking software company for marketing agencies.
Every few months, advertisers hear about the latest change or update from Google Ads, and it usually means parting ways with a degree of control: goodbye Broad Match Modifier, hidden data in the search terms report, phasing out third-party cookies, etc.
Each new update takes the PPC world a step closer to completely automated ad platforms. But a step closer towards automation can also mean reduced control over advertising and fewer insights.
It’s been almost a year since Google Ads announced to advertisers that the search terms report would only include terms that are searched for by a “significant” number of users.
In an article published soon after Google’s announcement, Matthew Umbro of Brainlabs included findings that indicated the extent to which clicks were omitted after the revision. The percentages have been much higher for other accounts since, driving up costs significantly.
Like many other Google decisions to hide data in the past, the notice was backed by reasons of improving privacy standards and protecting user data. But how hiding low-volume queries serve that purpose is not an answer we have yet.
While many PPC agencies and account managers have expressed concerns over the effect of this change, it’s also important that we look for possible solutions. At this point, Google’s tendency to increase automation and reduce data access shouldn’t be a surprise.
Solutions to work around hidden data on Google Ads
Not being able to identify all the search terms that your ads showed on – and not knowing how Google is matching queries to keywords – makes for a bit of a “black box” situation. You might see changes to your budget or impression share, but have limited insight into how to fix it.
While there are no foolproof, permanent solutions to the problems that stem from restricted performance data, there are a few things that might help lessen their effects.
1. See search terms data in Google Analytics
For now, Google Analytics provides somewhat of a temporary workaround to potentially view hidden search terms data. To find that information, visit this path:
What you’ll see is all of your search query data for a campaign, excluding the (not provided) tag. For now, you’ll need to manually compare this list against the ones in your Search Terms Report, in order to identify anything not visible in Google Ads.
2. Optmyzr Solutions
Third-party tools like Optmyzr can help you not just identify sources of new traffic that Google Ads might not show you, but take steps to reduce or amplify their impact once you know whether they’re good or bad. Some of the things you can do are:
Optimize search queries by filtering out irrelevant traffic, pause low-converting keywords, and adding expensive keywords as negatives.
Monitor drastic changes in performance at the search query level. The New and Declining Search Queries strategy in our Rule Engine lets you find search terms that are new, declining, trending, and losing impressions.
Find search terms with impressions in the last 7 days but no impressions in the 7 days before that. Great for identifying spikes of new traffic, with or without clicks.
What increased automation means for PPC managers
It’s not news that Google Ads is moving towards a more automated way of doing things. Over the past few years, Google’s machine learning algorithms have improved significantly and taken over several manual PPC tasks. While this means reduced control over some parts of PPC, it also reduces the amount of time that marketers need to spend on manual optimizations.
It’s important to look at the big picture; the long-term benefits that automation can bring (when done right) increase efficiency, save time, and lead to more profitable advertising.
And apart from tackling the day-to-day issues involved with campaign management, PPC automation also seeks to reinvent how we approach the larger marketing picture.
While some advertisers look primarily for a lift in indicative metrics, the future will demand a more audience-centric approach in order to succeed. Advertisers would do well to pay more attention to things like account structure, lead quality, and stronger creative/copy to build a better customer experience.
Conclusion
Automation in paid search is inevitable, and this trend has only been accelerated by the challenges presented by prevailing global conditions. Advertisers and PPC managers would do well to start determining what this means for their teams and strategize accordingly.
Fortunately for PPC advertisers, there may be some hope on the horizon if this message from Google Ads community liaison Ginny Marvin pans out soon:
The team is exploring ways to share more data in Search Terms Reports while remaining privacy safe. I’ll have more to share in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, remember that performance metrics are important to learn whether your optimizations are working. But building a more holistic approach alongside that effort will put you ahead of your competitors. Some key points to remember are:
Identify your business goals and align the same with your marketing efforts.
Focus on full-funnel metrics that may or may not be in an ads interface (like Customer Lifetime Value), not just KPIs that look good on paper
Finally, building well-structured accounts with well-researched ad campaigns and keywords is more important than ever.
Google recently announced they will start to charge surcharges related to regional taxes in 2 additional markets: India and Italy. This brings the list of jurisdictions where advertisers pay additional fees to 7.
Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid these extra charges and because they get tacked on at the end of the month, and are not shown as part of average CPCs and advertising costs in reports, they can make it somewhat difficult for PPC professionals to manage ads to a true ROAS or CPA goal.
Say for example you spent €100 to get 5 leads. You think your CPA was €20. But then you get billed another 5% because you’re advertising in Austria and all of a sudden that €20 CPA becomes a €21 CPA.
Reports are wrong, CPAs are wrong, budgets are exceeded, and things get generally messy for agencies and PPC consultants when they have to explain why this is happening to their clients.
Fortunately, there are a few simple solutions for Optmyzr users:
Solution 1
Use calculated metrics in reports to add the surcharge to any cost-related field automatically.
Solution 2
Use calculated metrics in the MCC dashboard to always see the true cost of an ads account.
Solution 3
Use calculations in Rule Engine to add the surcharge automatically before doing any optimization, like one that manages bids or finds expensive keywords.
Google announced earlier this year that video and discovery campaigns using audience expansion will transition to a new automation called optimized targeting, starting in June 2021. This feature will automatically show ads to people who are likely to convert. So how’s this different from audience expansion, which has been around since 2019 and works for a broader set of campaigns?
What is Audience Expansion in Google Ads?
Audience expansion looks for similar audiences to show ads to more users. An advertiser who’s selected the audience of in-market SUV buyers may see their audience expand to in-market car buyers because there is a similarity between these audiences. Assuming advertisers are using smart bidding, their CPA or ROAS results should remain consistent because smart bidding will automatically lower bids for related, but less relevant audiences.
Think of audience expansion as a system that starts from an advertiser’s selected inputs and expands from there. That works fine if the advertiser has done a good job selecting audiences. But it won’t capture new sales from entirely different audiences advertisers may have overlooked because they seemed too dissimilar for audience expansion to even try.
What is Optimized Targeting in Google Ads?
Optimized targeting on the other hand starts not from an advertiser’s targeting settings, but from the results they report. When an advertiser gets conversions, Google analyzes attributes of the converting users. If they find a pattern, like what types of searches lots of converting users recently did, then the system will automatically start to show ads to other users with similar behaviors.
This is another example of the huge shift in how PPC is optimized. Rather than managing details like targeting, Google wants us to optimize how we teach their machines to do their job better, in this case by reporting conversions more accurately using systems like offline conversion tracking, value adjust or value rules, all 3 tools we recently covered on this blog.
Let me explain optimized targeting in a more visual way.
How old school PPC management works
In traditional PPC optimization, a lot of time is spent managing lots of dials and settings. This is all done for the ultimate goal of getting conversions whether that means more sales, more revenue, more profits, or new customers.
Old school PPC is about limiting who sees ads using multiple settings
So in a universe of all people, our settings limit which people we want to show ads to. We assume we are good at guessing the right settings to get our ads in front of all prospective customers.
Audience expansion uses your settings to show more ads
Audience expansion works by expanding on one of the many settings we’ve dialed in, specifically which audiences or remarketing lists we’ve selected in order to limit who can see our ads.
Thanks to audience expansion, ads are now shown to some additional people. But there’s no guarantee that they’re being shown to people who would likely convert because that depends a great deal on how well the account manager set up their campaign targeting in the first place.
Modern PPC management teaches the machine what we want
Optimized targeting is interesting in that it completely doesn’t care about advertiser decisions about how to manage the myriad settings in Google Ads. Instead it starts from how we reported conversions and looks at what commonalities exist between actual converters.
From there it finds pockets of similar users to show the ads to. The assumption is that even if these users are wildly different from a targeting perspective, the thing that really matters is their similar behaviors. The system only worries about finding clones or doppelgängers of converting users. That’s a totally different approach but actually makes a ton of sense.
Pretty cool, Google!
The only way to really get results: Monitor them
While I love the innovative machine learning implementation here, as always it’s up to advertisers to monitor that these new automations are functioning as intended. Put on your PPC pilot hat and use tools like Optmyzr PPC alerts to immediately know when an automation fails.
Put on your PPC teacher hat to make sure you’ve done the best possible job reporting true conversions (e.g. good leads vs just leads). And put on your PPC doctor hat to make sure this new tool from Google is the right fit for your goals. You can after all still opt out of this feature by changing your targeting settings.
Adding Google’s Click ID (GCLID) to Google Analytics is a powerful way to better understand the behavior of people who come to your site after clicking on one of your ads. But to see GCLID data in Google Analytics requires a few steps. We’ll walk you through these in this article.
1. Create a new custom dimension in Google Analytics
Here are the steps to help get the first part of GCLID tracking set up in Google Analytics:
Go to the Admin section of your Google Analytics profile by clicking the settings wheel at the bottom left.
Click Custom Definitions and the Custom Dimensions in the middle column.
Click the button to create a new Custom Dimension.
Name the new custom dimension ‘gclid’.
For scope, select “User”.
Save your changes.
Look at the table with all your custom dimensions and write down the index number for the one you just created. We’ll need this shortly for another step.
2. Use Google Tag Manager (GTM) to capture the GCLID from the URL
The GCLID is passed in the URL by Google when a user clicks on your ad. Google Analytics doesn’t natively know what to do with this so we need to tell it that the GCLID’s value should be stored in the custom dimension we just created.
There are many ways to do this, but one of the most easily repeatable ways is by using Google Tag Manager. Here we’ll tell it to grab the GCLID from the URL.
In the Variables section, add a new User-Defined variable.
For Variable Type, select ‘URL’.
For Component Type, select ‘Query’.
For Query Key, type in ‘gclid’.
Leave all other settings as they are and save the variable.
3. Use Google Tag Manager to send the GCLID to Google Analytics
Now that GTM knows how to grab the GCLID from the URL, we need to send that value to Google Analytics. GTM can do this for us as well.
This is where everything comes together so the steps refer back to the things you did in the previous two instruction lists. We’ve included ample screenshots to make it as easy as possible to follow along.
If you already use GTM to put Google Analytics on your website, go to your existing tag. Otherwise, create a new tag for Universal Analytics.
In the tag configuration, open the dropdown for Google Analytics Settings and create a New Variable.
Add a Custom Dimension under ‘More Settings’.
For the index field, enter the number you wrote down from step 7 in the first instruction list on this page (create a new custom dimension in Google Analytics).
For Dimension Value, click on the brick icon to open your available list of variables.
Select the variable you created in the previous set of steps (use Google Tag Manager to capture the GCLID from the URL).
Save the tag, test your GTM changes and publish them.
4. Use Google Analytics to see GCLID data
Note that the GCLID custom dimensions data will not be retroactively added into your old Google Analytics reports so you’ll have to wait a few hours for new data that does include the GCLID to appear.
As an example of a report you can now run, go to a report like ‘Behavior > Site Content > All Pages’ and in the Secondary Dimensions dropdown select ‘gclid’.
Your report will now include both the URL and the gclid.
You can download this data and using lookups in spreadsheets, start to build a more holistic view into the behavior resulting from clicks on your Google Ads.
When you add GCLID as a custom dimension in Google Analytics, Optmyzr will help you explore, build, and optimize audiences, as well as help with offline conversion import (OCI).
If you want to scale the growth of your Apps, then Google’s UACs (Universal App Campaigns) must be one of the focal points of your marketing strategy. An automated type of campaign, UACs are an excellent choice for driving both installations and in-app actions, like purchases. This campaign type allows targeting audiences across Google Search, Google Display, Youtube, Google Play, and Apple Store. Google has an excellent course that can help you learn more about Universal App Campaigns.
UACs were launched to make in-app advertising easier and quicker. In line with this, to set up your UACs – you only require minimal initial data like texts, images, or videos. Google’s machine learning-based algorithms then work to show your App’s ads to your target audience. Since, these are automated campaigns – unlike your search ads – you won’t need to manually test the ads to find the best performers. Google does this bit for you.
No doubt Google does a decent job of driving high-quality traffic for UACs, but did you know that you can lend Google a hand to bring you better results? This can help you save money being spent on the wrong placements and audience and at the same time help you use your budget efficiently.
Here are some tips to try out that will help you exert a higher level of control over your UACs using Optmyzr:
1. Manage location targeting
Google doesn’t translate your ads for specific spoken languages for locations. This makes it imperative to run ads for only those locations that align with the languages in which an App is available. Therefore, while you work on making your app available in more languages, don’t forget to target locations for your campaigns accordingly.
You can also go granular within these locations and manage targeting based on how regions and cities perform. Some ways to optimize location targeting are:
• Find cities that are driving expensive clicks and zero conversions and exclude them.
• Find cities or regions driving high numbers of conversions, and target them in separate campaigns with separate budgets. This will help get more traffic from such locations.
Pro Tip: Use theGeo HeatMaporRule Enginefrom Optmyzr to get a report of cities, regions and postal codes that are performing best or worst – to target or exclude them respectively.
2. Optimize for in-app goals
How cool would it be to find campaigns which are driving registrations or in-app purchases and manage the Target CPA for them? Optmyzr’s Rule Engine can help you achieve this.
Take a look at the screenshot below of the Optmyzr Rule Engine, wherein we are pulling the in-app actions and even action values that are being tracked as conversions and conversion values. You can base optimizations on any such custom conversions which you might be tracking for your campaigns.
For example, here’s a rule that finds all the campaigns which have brought in registrations and recommends increasing the Target CPA for them by 10%.
Check out the campaigns below, which have had the “Registrations” type of conversions, and the system is recommending tweaking target values for them. Just like this, you can optimize for any in-app action as required. Eg: If you’re driving “Registrations”, and losing impression share, increasing TCPA can help.
3. Ensure sufficient budget for your CPA
It is recommended that these campaigns have a daily budget of at least 20-30 times of your CPA (cost-per-action). Create a rule in the Rule Engine to label campaigns on which you need to consider increasing your budgets.
Conclusion
UACs have helped unburden advertisers from needing to try out ad combinations to find what drives good results i.e. acquisitions/conversions. While you should make use of Google’s machine learning, don’t forget to optimize and control your campaigns from time to time.
To start setting up UACs, sign in to your Google Ads account. Then go to the page menu → Campaigns → Universal App.
Once you’ve accrued traffic on UACs – try out the tricks I shared above using Optmyzr (14-day free trial) and improve the performance of your campaigns. Feel free to reach out to support@optmyzr.com if you have any questions.
As the doom and gloom of COVID-19 fades, we’re hearing fewer conversations about troubleshooting and more about solving problems. The world is settling into its ‘new normal’ — at least for the near future.
Google is playing a key role in helping PPC professionals shift from just weathering the storm to being creative once more. So if you work in digital marketing or paid search, here are 3 recent Google developments in PPC and why you should care.
1. Google Shopping reintroduces free listings
First up, in what is arguably the most significant announcement from Google since the current economic crisis began, a portion of Shopping Ads will now be free listings. That means any advertiser who hasn’t prioritized them due to budgetary considerations now needs to rethink their approach.
Free listings allow more advertisers to get their products noticed at a lower investment, and somewhat levels the playing field for SMBs who might ordinarily lose out to far larger competitors.
It’s important to note that Google hasn’t entirely demonetized this product. While some listings will be free, paid ads will still appear at the top and bottom like a normal SERP.
A lower entry threshold also means a surge in interest from advertisers, which subsequently leads to the need to optimize your shopping campaigns with tools like Optmyzr.
Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Builder 2.0 lets you connect a Google Merchant Feed, and our machine provides intelligent suggestions to help you group products, manage bids and budgets, and adjust parameters to your preference.
Once you have some campaigns running, you can further strengthen existing campaigns — add negative keywords, manage bids by product attribute, or automate the Product Group Refresher 2.0 to periodically update campaigns to reflect your inventory.
By the way, we’re starting to see these free listings in use already. PPC influencer Kirk Williams of Zato Marketing has seen outliers of 0.5-11% of Google shopping clicks coming from this free channel (perhaps 5-6% is a more accurate estimate). This is limited to the US, but it appears Google is ahead of schedule in rolling it out across other markets.
Action Item for Advertisers: Make sure you have given Google permission toshow your products on all surfacesif you want to be in consideration for free Shopping listings.
“Users should be empowered to make informed decisions about the ads they see online. That’s why we’re launching advertiser identity verification, a policy that requires advertisers to verify their identities for ads served through Google Ads.”
Image courtesy of Google.com
Let’s break down the implications for both consumers and advertisers.
If you’re a consumer, this is probably a very welcome move. For one thing, it means your chances of buying a counterfeit product when you click on a Google ad are about to drop to virtually zero.
On top of that, it enables a high degree of customization. Consumers can block advertisers whose content they find irrelevant, out of touch, distasteful or uninteresting. Or you can simply blacklist advertisers based on your experience buying from them.
That means if you buy an NBA jersey and it’s a knock-off, you can block that seller’s future ads altogether. Ordered a birthday gift for your spouse and got it two weeks later than promised? You never have to see that company’s ads again.
Call it a huge win for Google’s reputation when it comes to privacy and trust.
Advertisers will be affected as well. In addition to filtering out questionable sellers, Google’s new policy poses questions about data privacy.
What information will they need to verify advertiser identity?
Will that information be stored and if so, where?
How safe is that information? Who will be able to access it?
Scam artists will wither, but legitimate advertisers will rightly have some concerns.
For anyone unfamiliar with this category (previously known as Call-only Ads), it’s a type of mobile ad that includes a phone number. A ‘click’ leads to a call — to the advertiser’s front desk, a sales rep or other destination.
Image courtesy of Google.com
Now, the addition of an optional ‘Visit website’ call to action enables advertisers to split traffic between a phone number and a landing page.
Let’s take a look at two examples of how businesses can leverage these ads, keeping in mind the current economic and logistical landscapes.
Example A: Steaks
If you eat meat, chances are you enjoy a good steak. It’s why companies like Omaha Steaks have turned online fulfillment into a cornerstone of their business model.
Right now, since people can’t go out to restaurants, they’re probably buying a lot more steak to grill at home. So in other words, demand is through the roof. If you’re a steak company, you have no way of coping with the surge.
So you place some of these new Call Ads to direct some of that traffic to a phone line, while the rest of it ends up on a landing page with all your products and an order form. Now you’re able to cater to all your potential customers instead of sitting on supply you can’t move.
This example applies to any business that fulfills orders via e-commerce but is also useful if you’ve recently moved from brick and mortar to online fulfillment. It lets you absorb and service traffic without having to make a significant investment in sales staff.
Example B: Hotels
Travel and hospitality are arguably the worst-hit industries right now. But if you’re a hotel trying to get by during this crisis, the last thing you want to do is go out of sight and mind.
Imagine you’re a popular hotel situated downtown in one of the world’s most visited cities, like Rome or New York. Until recently, you probably enjoyed a significant chunk of Impression Share for your search terms.
As part of your wider digital marketing strategy for the Coronavirus crisis, you change your messaging to offer hope for the future instead of trying to achieve conversions. You share your plans to reopen, tell visitors how you’ll facilitate social distancing when it happens, and provide some sweet incentives to tempt them.
And because you know people crave travel (especially when they can’t have it), you fully expect to keep getting calls. But due to local restrictions, your front desk is now staffed by one person instead of your full crew.
So you adjust your Call Ads to include a link to your website or landing page with the new messaging, you split the traffic that would otherwise overwhelm your one-person front desk, and you maintain visibility for your brand while your competitors fade into the background.
Conclusion
It’s heartening to see Google embrace its influence and make the web a safer, more convenient place for consumers and advertisers alike. In times like these, every industry needs its leading organizations to keep the right values in mind as they set the pace.
Each of us — agency or consultant, enterprise or startup — needs to follow suit.
We’ll be using these developments to make sure Optmyzr customers continue to experience optimal value by using our product.
In the last couple of weeks, Google has both altered existing plans and announced new measures to deal with the ramifications of COVID-19 on PPC and paid search. Some of these aim to make campaign management a bit easier; others are in response to what agencies and advertisers are experiencing.
Here’s our take on some of the recent changes in Google Ads.
Google Ads Editor version 1.3
It’s always interesting for us to see Google make changes to Ads Editor. Optmyzr CEO Fred Vallaeys, one of Google’s first 500 employees, helped build the initial version of the tool when it was called the AdWords Editor. It’s great to see that the product is still in use and receiving steady support many years later.
Create and edit shared budgets from Shared Library
Access Optimization Score (account and campaign levels)
See weighted average Optimization Score
Improvements to edit pane
Updated Features
Full support for Discovery carousel ads
Full support for shared budgets
New Display and Smart Display campaigns default to target CPA with bidding set to pay for conversions (for campaigns with conversion tracking)
Optimization Score in Google Ads Editor. Image courtesy of Google.com.
Optimization score, which is now more present in the new Ads Editor, is Google’s way of guiding advertisers to make common best-practice optimizations. But it’s important to remember that Google’s advice is just a suggestion and may not be relevant for your account.
As a simple example, Google may suggest increasing budget when there is impression share lost in a campaign with conversions. This may ignore that your account has a strict monthly budget cap and raising the campaign budget would bump the total account spend over the limits. Of course Optmyzr’s tools and scripts to help manage and optimize monthly account budgets would still work, regardless of whether an advertiser accepts Google’s budget suggestions.
Also, PPC marketers have the freedom to make changes in the tool they’re most comfortable with. It’s not necessary to make all changes from the Google Ads interface.
“Contrary to what many PPC pros think, Google doesn’t care where you make your edits,” Fred revealed.
“Many marketers believe you have to log into Google Ads and press that final button to get the improvement to your Optimization Score, but that’s not the case. You can continue to use a tool like the Ads Editor, or Optmyzr to audit and optimize your campaigns.”
Fred Vallaeys, Optmyzr
Google Partner Program
COVID-19 is affecting us all, and the world’s largest search engine is no exception.
In February, Google announced sweeping changes to its Partners Program that would start to be enforced from June. Some of these included a minimum 90-day ad spend of $20,000 and requiring accounts to follow Google’s recommendations for Optimization Score.
As Susan Wenograd writes in Search Engine Journal, recent events have forced Google to postpone these new rules to 2021, allowing existing Partners to retain their status and specialization badges and non-Partners to apply using current criteria.
Fred believes this is the right move.
“It’s good that Google has pushed this to give agencies more time and space to deal with the challenges their clients are facing. But at the same time, it’s important that existing and prospective Partners take the time to push ahead and prepare for these changes to take hold in 2021.”
-Fred Vallaeys, Optmyzr
Optmyzr Tip: While existing Google Partner agencies should prioritize client success, don’t wait until it’s too late to get moving on the new goals. If you’re just now applying to become one, let the 2021 criteria serve as your north star.
Ad Credits for Google SMBs
Another widely-lauded move from Google is the announcement of $340 million in ad credits to help “alleviate some of the cost from small and medium-sized businesses to stay in touch with their customers during this challenging time”.
Much like we advised agencies to do all they can to ensure their clients don’t envision a future without them in this earlier post, it seems Google is also wary of losing steady income from a segment that makes up a significant portion of its ad revenue.
Image courtesy of Google.com.
In the midst of a $1.7 billion European Commission fine, the last thing Google needed was a sharp drop in ad revenue — but that’s just what COVID brought to the table. Alphabet’s first quarter earnings were well below expectations, and there’s little evidence to suggest that Q2 will be any different.
Perhaps Google is playing the long game, looking at 2021 revenues and hoping that keeping SMBs on their ad network yields a better payoff than waiting for them to bounce back on their own.
Dynamic Trends
Google recognizes how volatile the current market is and how rapidly it’s shifting — it’s why they recommend that advertisers plan weekly rather than monthly for the near future.
Google Trends reflects this sentiment in search behavior. A tool that’s normally used to reliably find and compare popular search terms, discover related topics and queries, and observe geographic trends is painting incredibly different pictures from one week to the next.
So what’s the value of Google Trends in a dynamic environment?
“The business value is that it can help you figure out what you want to put in your ads. Your value propositions might change based on what people are experiencing and searching for,” Fred says.
“For example, while travel might have once been about the cheapest tickets or the most luxurious hotels, when it opens back up the popular searches might revolve around cleanliness or low-density properties.
“If you dive even deeper, you can unravel more insights. If people want to travel but are still wary of taking flights, they might decide to drive. So in this scenario, hotels might notice a surge in search volume for something like ‘free overnight parking’.”
Fred Vallaeys, Optmyzr
Google Trends. Image courtesy of Google.com.
Businesses might have to explore qualities that they never looked at before. And while they may have an inkling of what’s to come, they have no idea of the degree to which it may occur. In this case, Google Trends serves as a good barometer of demand and search behavior.
Optmyzr Tip: TheRule Engineallows you to build custom strategies to optimize your Google Ads accounts based on fluctuations you observe in Google Trends, such as identifying keywords that exceeded the CPA target for the last 7 days but met the CPA target for the previous 30 days.
Conclusion
As the world’s leading search engine, Google’s actions set the pace for the majority of the PPC community. During both peaks and troughs, many agencies take their cue from Google or use their behavior to influence strategy.
It’ll be interesting to see what more they do to revitalize hard-hit industries and keep paid search on the radar for businesses, especially once the market has experienced a full quarter of COVID-related challenges.
Google is finally putting the venerable Average Position metric out to pasture. It’s one of the oldest metrics on the books for PPC pros and a mainstay on client reports for many years. After all these years, did the metric really help? Maybe not that much.
Many PPC pros have become a bit numb to changes from Google. Seems like we spend a great deal of our time just keeping up with the updates and new features they seem to constantly toss into the PPC world. And while it may seem Google is haphazard in making changes, I can tell that as a former Googler, they are very purposeful and methodical about altering our shared universe. It just isn’t always evident why they do so.
Average Position, however, has held a place in our common PPC vernacular longer than most metrics. Yet saying goodbye to this old friend later this year really won’t be that difficult.
AP just wasn’t all that helpful.
Sorry.
In this age of AI-energized PPC, Average Position has become little more than a vague barometer of conditions in a PPC program when PPC pros need actionable, granular data to make specific and smart decisions.
AP was of rapidly diminishing value when you consider the vast amount of highly specific performance data from which we can pull.
Google is replacing Average Position with the following more precise metrics to identify those opportunities to get more impressions at the top:
Impressions (Absolute Top) %, which tells us more precisely about the impressions at the very top of the page.
Impressions (Top) %, which denotes performance above the organic results.
In addition, two metrics help give critical insight into what we actually should optimize to get there (which AP never told us):
Search Absolute Top IS, which tells us the percentage of opportunities to appear at the absolute top that we’re actually turning into impressions in that space.
Search Top IS, which does the same, but with regard to opportunities appearing above the organic results.
Here’s what it will look like in your Google Ads Manager:
You’ll be able to easily select the more exacting metrics to meet your needs and start to get much more granular as you assess strategies and determine the best optimizations.
If you want to dig into very specific scenarios that show where the soon-to-be-retired Average Position metric could lead to confusion, check out my recent Search Engine Journal contributed post.
In that SEJ post, we examine real-world case studies that demonstrate how these new metrics also bring new importance to the trusty old Quality Score. It’s worth a read.
Okay…shouldn’t we just optimize impression share by adjusting bids?
Given the greater view into Impression Share vs. Average Position with the new metrics, it could be easy for some PPC pros to jump on the “fix it by changing the bid” approach.
Pause please.
For an ad to appear at the top of the page, it needs to meet certain relevance and Ad Rank thresholds that are set by Google. The levels of these thresholds are not published so it can be a game of trial-and-error. It’s worth remembering, however, that Google really wants ads to be relevant, so you may need to set an exorbitantly high CPC to get an ad with low QS to move to the top of the page.
A smarter optimization will address QS issues first, for example, by moving the low QS keyword to an ad group by itself (this is called a SKAG – single keyword ad group.) This is a good way to fix QS issues because it lets you write an ad and pick a landing page that are optimized for that unique keyword.
Once the quality of the keyword and the ad are fixed, you may be able to gain the desired top position with a much smaller bid increase than if you’d skipped the QS optimization.
How a PPC pro can stay on top of things
First, it’s important to start tapping into the new metrics that will replace the aging Average Position. AP goes into retirement in September, but it’s not really doing us much good anyway. Send our old friend a “happy retirement” card and then make the shift today. Start to understand the improved insight and how it will help you make decisions.
Second, keep tuned in to Optmyzr. Our dev teams are always working with the never-ending changes that come from Google (and Bing – and other platforms) to automate optimizations and simplify the tasks and decisions you need to make. The more changes they create and the more they automate, the more confusing things can get for even the most advanced PPC rockstars.
We welcome the ongoing changes in the platforms, in particular the innovations by the big search engines thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning. The challenge for the practitioner in the trenches, however, is keeping up with all of these changes and integrating them into new and existing strategies, something we hope to help you with!
Google Ads has announced it will no longer report on ‘average position’ later this year. To learn more about this change, check out my post on Search Engine Land. Optmyzr can help make the transition smoother as one of the most frequently used original AdWords metrics sails into the sunset later this year.
Average Position in Reports
When the ‘average position’ metric disappears from all reports, Optmyzr will automatically handle this in scheduled, automated reports. Specific details will be shared as we get closer to the sunset date but we plan to make this a seamless transition for our customers.
For example, any report templates that include the ‘average position’ metric will continue to work even if you don’t make any change. We will simply remove the metric that is no longer supported by Google so that your reports will continue to be delivered uninterrupted to your clients and stakeholders.
Average Position in Rule Engine recipes
Some advertisers have used the Optmyzr Rule Engine to automate a bid-to-position strategy that relies on ‘average position.’ Rules that contain the deprecated metric will stop working when Google no longer reports average position because any comparisons will fail. In other words, if your rule says to change a bid if the average position > 2, that comparison against ‘greater than 2’ will fail so the rule will be broken.
To make the transition easier, advertisers who have active rules that are impacted will receive a notification from us as we get closer to the date in September when average position will no longer be available.
Alternatives to Average Position in Automated Rules
The Optmyzr Rule Engine can still be used to change bids (among many other things it can automate) based on position goals. Instead of using the ‘average position’, you can use one of the newer metrics like ‘Impression (Absolute Top) %’.
For example, for a brand term where you’d like your ad to be in first position and appear above the organic results, you could check if the impressions at the absolute top are close to 100%. If they are not, this could be because your bid or quality score (QS) are too low. Remember Google has a top promotion threshold and if you’re below that level, even if your ad is ranked first, it won’t be eligible to show at the top of the page. So if you then find that QS is good (7 or higher), you could boost your bid to try and cross the threshold to get your ad at the top.
The beauty of the Rule Engine is that you have the ultimate flexibility in turning your optimization process into an easily repeatable automation that you can deploy quickly across all your accounts. The example above is just one way to do it but our hope is that you will leverage the full power of the tool to help you manage accounts the way you like.
What’s next
Optmyzr is committed to building tools to make PPC pros more efficient and that includes making this transition to a post-average position world easier, and offering alternative ways to achieve your position-based goals. Stay tuned for more details soon.
Over the last several days, many Google Ads account owners have been getting noticesfrom Google notifying of something the search giant is calling “complimentary campaign support.” The gist of the notification is pretty straightforward: Google Ads experts (and the powerful suite of tools at their disposal) promise to help you get more out of your ads. Essentially do nothing and you let Google take a load off your plate.
Here’s a screenshot of the message from Google:
The offer may be tempting. Google (and Bing – although not pertinent for this specific topic) are both making great strides automating many tasks associated with PPC, with an expressed goal of simplifying processes and enhancing performance for its advertisers.
The question to ask yourself: Do you want/need to take advantage of this genuine offer from our friends at Google?If you receive the offer notice, you better decide – otherwise they automatically will start this campaign support within 7 business days. Here are three thoughts to help you decide:
We’ve covered concepts around automation at great length and we plan to continue exploring the topic throughout 2019. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are, without question, changing PPC. But should the technology take humans out of the equation? We see AI and machine learning as additive and powerful tools that yield best results when humans and machines collaborate. Google has never taken the stance that people are no longer needed. You need to ask yourself how much control you want to cede to the machines at this point and with this offer from Google, it’s not clear how much will be done by machines vs humans.
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Google Ads has seemingly countless settings and levers that help PPC pros go way beyond the basics. Choosing the right ones, though, can be challenging. Your own value as a PPC rockstar is that YOU know the levers as well as your clients’ needs and human needs of the searching public. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Google’s notification, they say flat out that their team has gained knowledge from 800,000 accounts and will apply the learnings to your accounts. To us, that actually validates that experience is a huge factor. If you are using Optmyzr, you’re not a PPC newbie. YOU provide the value. Tools in Google and those in Optmyzr give you your powers to manage accounts efficiently, but you bring the expertise from having done this for many other campaigns. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></p>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Ask yourself which human will be in charge? Will it be YOU or a Google person. I’m not knocking Google’s team at all. They truly do know their stuff. But do they know your business, your clients and your audience the way you do? </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">This offer from Google seems geared more toward those in PPC who perhaps lack the time, knowledge and experiences to strategically run PPC programs. We recommend you keep the reigns for now. Let others commoditize their PPC. You have even greater opportunity to stand out as the PPC rockstar that you are. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></p>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">We do see Google’s offer as legitimate and well-intended. In fact, it may be just the ticket for lesser PPC pros to help them get through their day. As you’ll hear from us throughout 2019, though, the AI- and machine learning-driven automation we’re seeing from Google (and Bing) are really about removing tasks and simplifying processes. All of that is great for really smart PPC pros to spend more energy and time on strategy, creative and other critical elements to blast past competitors. </span>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Keep your PPC programs in your control. Use the tools at your disposal, but be the one to lead your PPC initiatives to new heights in 2019. Keep this all in mind if you get the offer for complimentary campaign support. </span>
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Google Ads recently introduced a new type of shopping campaign – Goal-based Shopping Campaigns. These are similar to Universal App campaigns and are completely automated. To start a goal-based shopping campaign, all you need to do is link your merchant center account, set a budget, upload products, and let Google know your country of sale.
You don’t have any control over the bids or the campaign structure. Google will show shopping ads across networks based on your goal. With this new shopping campaign type, Google snuck in a new type of network that shows up as cross-network in reports.
Goal-based shopping campaigns show product shopping ads on Google as well as on display. The campaign also includes remarketing ads and ads to similar audiences. Ads from these campaigns are eligible to appear on Google Search, Display, Gmail, and YouTube.
Cross-Network in Google Ads
When you segment data by networks in Google Ads, you’ll see a new network type called cross-network. This will only have data if you’re running the new goal-based shopping campaigns. As of today, if you’re not running goal-based shopping campaigns, you won’t see data under this network.
However, this may change if Google introduces additional campaign types that are fully automated. In all, there are now six different network types available in Google Ads. Based on the kind of campaign you’re running, you can get traffic from one or more networks.
Google Search
Search Partners
Google Display Network
YouTube Search
YouTube Videos
Cross-network
Networks vs. Campaign Types
Google Ads segments data in two ways – Advertising Channel/Campaign Type (Search, Shopping, Display, Video, App) and Networks (Google Search, Search Partners, Google Display Network, YouTube Search, YouTube Videos, Cross-network).
There is some overlap between the two which sometimes causes confusion. The biggest difference between networks and channels is that networks are the mediums or properties on which ads are shown whereas, campaign types or channels refer to the type of ads that are shown.
One campaign type can show ads across different networks. For example, search is an advertising channel as well as a network. However, when you look at Google search as a network, it includes data from both regular search campaigns and shopping campaigns because ads from both campaign types can show on the search network.
When you select search as a campaign type/channel (All campaigns) from the left menu in your Google Ads account you’ll see data for multiple networks. This is because ads from search campaigns can show on Google Search, Search Partners, and YouTube search. They can also show on the Google Display Network if you’re running search display select campaigns.
In Google Ads, when you select a campaign type on the left (Search, Shopping, Display…) it selects the advertising channel/campaign type and not the network. Understanding the difference between networks and channels becomes important when you’re running different types of campaigns.
At Google’s annual launch event for AdWords, Analytics, and DoubleClick, the key theme for 2017 is that machine learning is enabling marketers to do things we’ve long wanted to, but have been unable to due to their complexity. Here is what they announced.
Some of the highlights of what they are announcing:
In-market audiences for Search
Google Attribution
Better store visit data and integration with YouTube video ads
Measure store sales generated by online clicks
For Optmyzr it means we will now be able to do some cool things that we couldn’t before:
Our bid adjustment tools will help you set the right bids for in-market audiences
Our Rule Engine will be able to set bids based on more complete conversion data that you can now gather through Google Attribution.
Using that same data our budget allocation and prediction tools will lead to improved suggestions for how to allocate the most budget to the most profitable campaigns.
Our automated reports will include more accurate conversion data, as well as store sales data.
Note that as usual, many of the announced features are in beta or planned for later this year and Optmyzr will make the new capabilities available to our customers as soon as AdWords Scripts or the AdWords API supports it.
Introducing in-market audiences for search
In-market audiences help advertisers target consumers who appear to be in the market for something. This is incredibly valuable because AdWords, which is all about targeting the right user, at the right moment, and turning that interaction into more money for your company, now lets you know more about how likely the user is interested in what you offer.
The in-market audience is a layer on top of all the traditional targeting methods that carry bids like keywords, location, time of day, etc. Now you will be able to bid higher for in-market audiences.
Optmyzr already offers optimizations to help you set the right bid adjustments for geographies, devices, and dayparts, and now we will be able to add in-market audiences to that list.
Available in-market audiences include:
Apparel and Accessories
Autos & Vehicles
Baby & Children’s Products
Beauty Products & Services*
Business Services*
Computers & Peripherals
Consumer Electronics
Consumer Software
Dating Services*
Education
Employment
Financial Services
Gifts & Occasions
Home & Garden
Real Estate
Sports & Fitness*
Telecom
Travel
In beta
Introducing Google Attribution
During the most recent Google Partners livestream, Ben Tyson, Program Lead at Google, and I discussed PPC for home services companies. The average consumer checked an average of 4.2 resources before purchasing a home service 6 years ago. Today that number has ballooned to 22.4 resources on average. Touchpoints can include a variety of ad and content formats like video, display, search, and social on multiple devices and smartphones.
The promise of online advertising is that it’s very measurable and hence it’s possible to avoid wasted spend. But the reality is that measuring correctly has become exceedingly complex. Valuing the interactions and coming up with a sensible attribution model is complex enough to get right for large companies with dedicated analysts, so how is a small local company to make sense of it all.
That’s where Google Attribution comes in. It simplifies three things that have traditionally been a pain about attribution:
Track all data without extra tags
Analyze the performance using sophisticated attribution models
Act on insights
Attribution includes Unified Tracking
There are several issues with tracking today. A big one is that adding utm_tags for Google Analytics is a pain so it often gets overlooked or done incorrectly. Then an advertiser might use multiple systems to analyze data and when those systems are not unified, things get double counted like in the following example:
With unified data, advertisers will have clean data to make smart decisions with.
Data-driven attribution model is now free
But even with clean data, it’s still hard to value all the interactions that lead up to a conversion. This is what attribution models are all about. How to assign the right value to every interaction… Google will now make it easier to test different attribution models. The key to this part of the announcement is that data-driven attribution is included and will now be free for everyone.
Data driven attribution models use big data and machine learning to make some very specific predictions about what combinations of touchpoints are likely to lead to a conversion.
Here’s an example of how data driven attribution works. It uses machine learning to find correlations between the millions of unique ways in which a consumer’s path could lead to a conversion and it assigns weights to the importance of each possible step. It can then present advertisers with a custom attribution model that reflects the real world as closely as possible.
Keep in mind that attribution models are just approximations that help advertisers connect the impact of their campaigns to the outcomes that happen in the real world. When Google makes its amazing computing resources available to help marketers get a better model, that’s a big deal.
Attribution data flows into AdWords so you can take action
The third prong of the announcement is that it will become easier to take action. Even when I worked at Google, the frequent disconnect between an insight and the ability to act on that insight was something we frequently discussed and which led to an overhaul of the AdWords front-end.
It’s also an issue we try to address with our tools at Optmyzr. For example, the Shopping Attribute Bidder which we launched last week makes it easy for a retailer to get an insight about what aspects make certain products into bestsellers, and instantly lets them change bids for all products that share those desirable combinations of attributes.
With today’s announcement, Google is promising that the enhanced insights they get as part of Google Attribution will be pushed back into AdWords where it will be easy for advertisers to use to set better bids, or reallocate budgets.
Improved store visit measurements
Machine learning has improved significantly since Google introduced store visits measurement back in 2014. That means they can now provide more and better store visit data for all advertisers. Advertisers don’t need to do anything more than enable location extensions to get this data. There’s no complicated technology to install at stores because advanced machine learning and mapping technology from Google handles it all.
And when advertisers enable location extensions, those will now also be able to drive store traffic from YouTube video ads.
Store sales data for any retailer
Retailers track sales data from online orders so that they can measure return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) and set more profitable bids. Something that Optmyzr also helps to achieve with our variety of bid management tools. Now Google will make it super easy for retailers of any size to get sales data into AdWords. Advertisers simply provide Google with sales data and the associated email address from their loyalty program, and Google connects the dots to the online activities that led up to the in-store purchase.
And for retailers who don’t track email addresses, they can still benefit from the program because Google has third-party partnerships which capture approximately 70% of credit and debit card transactions in the United States.
Conclusion
There are many more announcements from AdWords coming today but these are the most important ones for now. We’ll cover more details in the coming days.
This is a guest post written by Phil Frost, Founder and COO of Main Street ROI. Phil will be presenting a webinar, “How to Improve Adwords Profits With Proper Conversion Tracking” on October, 5th at 12:00PM EST. Click here to register.
Google AdWords is the sports car of online marketing. It’s fast, intuitive and draws a lot of attention. When firing on all cylinders, there’s really nothing like it.
Neglect or disrespect it, though, and your campaigns can quickly lose traction.
A number of issues can stall your AdWords efforts. Some issues are easily fixable, while others require a closer look under the hood. Here we’ll review nine common problems that keep advertisers’ campaigns out of the fast lane.
Mistake #1: Targeting both networks at once
AdWords is powered by Google’s massive search and display networks, connecting businesses with endless scores of potential customers. The Search Network includes Google.com and partners such as Ask.com and AOL.com. The Display Network encompasses websites such as YouTube, Gmail and Blogger as well as millions of other websites, blogs, and apps.
Unfortunately, AdWords urges advertisers to run their campaigns on both networks. This is problematic because Web users on each network behave entirely different. People on the Search Network are usually shopping or doing research, while folks on the Display Network are often just surfing the Web. Different approaches are required to market toward each group.
Don’t follow Google’s advice here. Instead, create separate campaigns for each network. You’ll see the payoff when optimizing for better results.
Mistake #2: Using the wrong keyword settings
Are you getting tons of clicks but few conversions? Or is your campaign getting a high volume of impressions with very low CTRs? If so, check to make sure you’re not using broad-match keywords.
Broad-match keywords are undesirable because they’re far less likely to send relevant traffic to your website. Even if those uninterested users don’t click on your ad, you could still end up paying if low CTRs drag down your quality scores. You’ll get less traffic from phrase- and exact-match keywords, but you’ll also get better CTRs and landing page conversions, and your quality scores won’t suffer.
Mistake #3: Ignoring negative keywords
Negative keywords can stop your ads from being shown to completely irrelevant users, boosting your CTRs and conversions. However, many advertisers completely overlook them. Always, always, always set negative keywords when building your campaigns.
An example of a negative keyword: If you owned a barber shop, then you’d want to set variations of “dog,” “cat” and “pet” as negative keywords. Otherwise, you’ll be inundated with traffic from people seeking haircuts for their four-legged friends.
Mistake #4: Not using AdWords Conversion Tracking
AdWords Conversion Tracking helps you understand what happens after Web users click on your ads. Do they respond to your landing page by calling your business, downloading apps or making online purchases? Do they click around your site or bounce without taking any meaningful actions? This information is absolutely essential when optimizing for better performance.
Installing AdWords Conversion Tracking is fairly simple, though you might need help from a Web developer. You need to add a snippet of code to your website and/or mobile app. You can also use a Google forwarding number to track phone calls resulting from website visits.
Mistake #5: Not linking your AdWords account to Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides you with data you can’t get within AdWords alone. With Google Analytics, you can run various reports to get detailed information about your campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords and traffic sources. It’s free and easy to set up, although you’ll need to install code throughout your website.
Mistake #6: No separation of mobile and desktop traffic
More people view the Internet now using smartphones and tablets than desktop PCs. And while online shoppers share similar motivations, key differences in the mobile and desktop experiences mean people behave differently when using their smartphones. For advertisers, that means remembering that campaigns optimized for desktop users probably won’t appeal as much to smartphone users, and vice versa.
The easy mistake here is setting up your campaigns to run across all devices. Instead, create separate campaigns for mobile and desktop users. Also, make sure your mobile campaigns are using responsive landing pages that display properly in smartphone Web browsers. Don’t even think about campaigns for mobile traffic if your website isn’t optimized for mobile viewing.
Mistake #7: Ads lack important keywords
Writing compelling ad copy is anything but an exact science. However, an easy way to attract eyeballs is to include your best keyword terms in your ads. People are more likely to click your ad if it literally contains what they’re looking for.
As your campaigns pick up steam, you’ll eventually learn which of your keywords drive the most high-quality traffic to your ads and landing pages. Use this information to build new ads and ad groups around your top-performing keywords.
Mistake #8: Incongruent landing pages
Does your landing page deliver on the promises you make in your ad copy? If not, there’s a good chance people are bouncing as soon as they hit your landing page.
Make sure that whatever you claim in your ad copy is clearly represented on your landing page. If your ad offers free shipping, then your landing page should have information about your free shipping policy.
When advertising a sale, your landing page should prominently feature the sale event or items. Nothing sinks conversions faster than incongruent landing pages. And you definitely don’t want to draw complaints about using bait-and-switch tactics.
Mistake #9: Refusal to seek help
Anyone is capable of cultivating AdWords campaigns that help their bottom lines. However, it’s common for marketers and business owners to plateau or experience diminishing returns. Sometimes, seeking help from a knowledgeable third party is the key to further progress.
That said, don’t be too quick to hand over the keys to your AdWords account. The more you learn about AdWords, the more you’ll know whether your account is in good hands with a third-party professional.
Conclusion
Google AdWords is as powerful a vehicle as you’ll find in online marketing, but you won’t get far without knowing which features can help your campaigns. It’s easy to get in the driver’s seat and launch a few campaigns, but there aren’t any shortcuts to long-term success.
Fortunately, using AdWords is much less risky than driving a high-powered sports car. You just need to know the rules of the road.
Google just revealed some exciting changes to be announced at its annual AdWords event, the Global Performance Summit, held at the Fairmont hotel in San Francisco. Here are the changes I am most excited about…
Text Ads are getting longer
Jerry Dischler, Vice President of AdWords Product Management said that text ads have fundamentally not changed since the introduction of AdWords but in a mobile-first world, his team thought they should rethink that. The result of this work is the first exciting update for advertisers: Expanded Text Ads will offer nearly 50% more space to write ads than before!
In the coming months, ads will have 2 headlines of 30 characters each and a single description line of 80 characters. That’s a whopping 45% more characters than before and because the description will be consolidated in one line vs two, it means we can finally start to write in a more natural way without needing to find a short enough word to bring description line 1 as close as possible to its old 35 character limit.
So what’s the impact of this? According to Google’s measurements, the CTRs of expanded text ads were up 20% compared to regular text ads. Seems normal given that they occupy more space. I’m curious to see how this normalizes once every advertiser can take advantage of the new format and once it becomes the new normal for users looking at ads.
Set bid adjustments for tablets
Ever since the introduction of Enhanced Campaigns, advertisers have been clamoring for more control over bids on different devices. While we’ve been able to control the mobile bid adjustments between -100% and +300%, tablet traffic was grouped with the same bids as computers.
AdWords will be rolling out tablet bid adjustments to give advertisers the additional control they asked for but the bid adjustments will still only be available down to the ad group level. Advertisers won’t be able to set keyword-level device bid adjustments unless they create single keyword ad groups (SKAGs). Speaking of which, did you know we recently introduced support for automatically adding good queries to single keyword ad groups in the updated version of our Keyword Lasso One-Click Optimization™? Try it out if you haven’t already.
According to Jerry Dischler, some advertisers have seen more value from mobile traffic and as a result they will increase the limit for bid increases from 300% to 900%.
In a more subtle but equally important change, bids will no longer be anchored to computer traffic. You’ll be able to set a bid based on the device you choose and then set adjustments for the remaining 2 device types. This opens up the intriguing capability to easily run mobile-only campaigns by setting computer bids to -100%.
Here’s why all this matters… In this hypothetical example from Optmyzr, you can see a case where tablet (and mobile) cost outweighs conversion value from those devices.
A smart advertiser would optimize this to bring value in line with cost. With mobile, they already could, but tablet traffic simply came along with computer traffic so it was either a money-pit because it was too expensive and couldn’t be scaled down, or it was a lost opportunity because it outperformed desktops and the bids couldn’t be raised without impacting desktop traffic.
Other announcements
In addition to my 2 favorite announced product updates, there were a few other announcements from Google:
• Responsive display ads based on an advertiser-provided headline, image, description, and URL.
• New customizable local business pages with data from inventory feeds and promotion feeds.
• New promoted pins on Maps
• Enhancements to how Google measures store-visits that result from an interaction with an ad, possibly with the use of a beacon based technology.
Google made a big change this month in how it displays ads on its search results pages (SERPs). They will no longer serve text ads on the right side of the organic results, a location where there used to be as many as 9 text ads before. Instead of showing up to 11 ads on a page, there is now only room for 7 ads. While this is a 36% decrease in the number of ads that can show, I think this will result in 18% more clicks for advertisers without changing anything to their accounts. While the removal of ads may sound like a negative, I think this is a big win for Google and for advertisers. Let me explain why.
The end of ads on the right side concludes Google’s longest experiment
Google is known for keeping products in beta for a long timebut this one may have been the longest of them all. While Search Engine Land reports this experiment has been going on since 2011, the original work that led up to this month’s big change started well before that. I was on the Google team originally working on this back in 2008 when we added new ad slots below the search results in Australia and Japan.
Our goal was to test if bottom ads could be launched in larger markets as well. The reason we didn’t launch back then is that we weren’t considering turning off the ads on the right side but were merely going to add new slots at the bottom. Because we knew that bottom ads had better CTRs than those on the right, we thought it would be logical to award those slots to ads with better ad ranks.
The highest ranked ads would continue to show above the organic results, the next highest ranked ones would get the bottom slots, and the lowest ranked ones would fill out the right side. That proposal drew fire from advertisers who were more interested in seeing their ads above-the-fold than getting more clicks. It was a situation where the numbers clearly made a case for continuing with bottom ads but we could not convince the advertiser-base at the time that this was the right thing to do.
Then a few years later, Google started experimenting with 4 ads above the results with mortgage adsin 2010 and in 2011 they started serving ads below the search resultsin cases where they didn’t show ads on the right. These experiments have now culminated in the permanent removal of right side ads in favor of new ads below the organic results.
The new layout has been active on the majority of traffic for over a year
Remember that Google told us last year that the majority of queries happen on mobilein the US and 8 other countries and these devices have always had the ad layout we’re now getting on desktops. The layout of a mobile SERP has never had ads on the right side, and has instead shown ads above and below the organic results. Now the layout of ads on desktops and laptops looks more like what we’re already used to on mobile devices.
The number of searches on desktops has been declining for some time whereas mobile search volume has been growing.
The overall number of queries on desktops is decreasing.
Fighting for RHS ads was no longer a viable long-term strategy since those slots were part of a shrinking market. Competing aggressively for top positions on the other hand is a great long-term strategy because it goes after the most important ad positions for a growing segment of all searches. Now that mobile and desktop layouts look very similar, all advertisers will basically compete for the same positions. This reduces some of the complexities that advertisers had to deal with because one ad position meant different things depending on the device.
Clicks from right side ads are a small fraction of top ad clicks
Ads that show above the search results outperform ads on the right side in terms of CTR. Optmyzr’s data shows that ads shown at the top easily get 10 times the CTR of the same ads shown on the right side. This is consistent with recent reports from iProspectthat their clients get 14 times better CTRs in top positions than on the right.
This change instantly increases clicks by 18%
Let’s take iProspect’s numbers to calculate how this change might impact the number of clicks available in AdWords, assuming all else remains the same.
iProspect says that the CTR of the top ads is 14 times that of RHS ads:
top ad CTR: 14_x
RHS ad CTR: 1_x
Let’s simplify our scenario by assuming there used to always be 3 ads at the top and 8 on the RHS. This is how many clicks there used to be to go around:
3_14_x (for the 3 top ads) + 8_1_x (for the 8 RHS ads) = 50*x clicks (the total clicks of a page)
If they just removed the RHS ads, that’d be 6.25% of all clicks on Google that they just relinquished:
8_1_x (for the 8 RHS ads) / 50*x (the total clicks of a page) = 6.25%
But remember they are adding one new ad at the top, that one may also get 14 times the clicks of a RHS ad.
4_14_x (for the 4 top ads) = 56*x clicks
That’s a 12% improvement from before but we’re not done because a few of the old RHS ads now move to the bottom where we expect them to get a better CTR than before, but let’s just say their CTR stays exactly the same:
4_14_x (for the 4 top ads) + 3_1_x (for the 3 bottom ads) = 59*x clicks
So with this change Google may have very well gone from 50_x clicks to 59_x clicks, an increase of 18%.
Advertisers should rejoice that there are now 18% more clicks to be gotten without doing a single thing.
Bottom ads have better CTR than sidebar ads
Back in 2011 Google said “On average, this [bottom ad] placement performed better than side ads in terms of click-through rate in our tests.” I suspect a large part of the reason is that the average user treats ads shown inline with organic results as another organic result and any decrease in CTR due to an aversion to advertising goes away.
CPCs will not go up
Let me be crass. While it is true that advertisers who used to occupy positions 8 through 11 may start to bid more aggressively, let’s remember they were bidding for a tiny fraction of the available clicks and the only reason for this behavior is that they didn’t care or couldn’t afford to bid more. These advertisers will need to fix the issues that prevented them from being more competitive in the ad auction in the past, whether it was a poor conversion rate, lower margins than their competitors or something else. They can’t afford to bid more so they won’t apply new pressure on the auction that would cause CPCs to increase.
But is it possible that first page bid estimates will start to increase now that a higher rank is required to be on page 1? I believe this will not be the case though I will monitor it and am happy to be proven wrong. I believe the increase in CTR of the new positions will offset any required increase in CPC. Remember that Ad Rank is a complex formula, but it all goes back to the days when it was simply as follows:
Ad Rank = Max CPC * CTR
Hence if the CTR goes up because of the new location where the ad is shown, the required CPC to maintain the same position will decrease. Hopefully Google doesn’t tune their formula to immediately remove the CPC discount from the new higher CTRs.
SEO will be hurt by this change
Companies with high organic rankings will see those listings get pushed further down the page, often below the fold. Organic advertisers are the losers with this change.
Advertisers who appear on page 2 will be hurt by this change
Advertisers whose ads have been relegated to page 2 of the results won’t simply make up lost volume with more clicks from the second page of results. A 2013 study shows that page 2 represents less than 5% of all traffic, and page 3 gets only about 1.1%.
Very little traffic comes from any page after the first page of Google search results.
Furthermore, ads relegated to the second page won’t get the top ad positions on page 2. Those premium slots remain reserved for ads that are known to be better so Google will just repeat ads from page 1 at the top of page 2.
Ads at the bottom convert as well as on the right Side
One fear is that ads at the bottom of the page may not convert as well as RHS ads. While this study is now quite old and didn’t account specifically for bottom ads, Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian, said that there is less than 5% variance in conversion ratefor the same ad when it is shown in different locations on the SERP. Maybe they can update that study but this is the most authoritative information I have on the point of conversion rate.
Product Listing Ads are winners
While traditional text ads no longer appear on the right side, Product Listing Ads (PLAs), also known as Shopping Ads will continue to show there and this feed-based ad format has been a fast-growing segment of AdWords for retailers. It is good for e-commerce advertisers that Google is making shopping ads more prominent by removing the clutter around them.
What advertisers need to do
AdWords changes constantly and this is actually a change that requires most advertisers whose accounts are already in good shape to do very little, if anything at all. I recommend the following:
Monitor performance more closely for a few weeks. Changes in AdWords usually cause advertisers to react and that may cause some fluctuations in your positions and other metrics. Our MCC Dashboard and Anomaly Detection Enhanced Script™ can help you find anomalies.
If you need to improve ad rank, consider doing a Quality Score (QS) optimization. Optmyzr has tools to help with Quality Score and I’ve also written extensively about how QS works.
Monitor keywords that may be falling off page 1. Optmyzr has a One-Click Optimization™ that automates this.
Update #1 – I was asked to offer more data for the statement that bottom ads have better CTR than sidebar ads. Here’s a Google post on that topic which I also added to the original blog post.
My monthly post on PPCHero just went live this morning and I share the code for an AdWords Script you can use to pause your account if there is an issue with the site.
We already have a script that automatically checks for broken URLs and pauses the associated ads but the idea for this script is that it should also work for emergencies where the site may still be running, like when the payment processor is down and people can’t place orders. This script will help quickly stop and then resume any ad groups using the impacted domain.
If you want a free copy of the AdWords Script code, you can grab it here or you can use this tool through our Enhanced Scripts where it works on MCC accounts and where we provide ongoing support so that the script will work even when Google changes their APIs.
The way I have set up the Enhanced Script in our own AdWords account looks like this:
As you can see I took advantage of the ability to create multiple settings of any script. I created one setting that will pause ad groups when my site breaks and another to resume the ad groups as soon as the issue is resolved. I only have 1 of these active at any time!
Another important difference from most of our scripts is that I haven’t scheduled this one to run automatically. Instead, if the need arises, I will go into AdWords to manually run the script once. At that time, it will pause ad groups.
Then when the issue is resolved I will change the status of both settings so that the resume option becomes active and manually run the script again.
I hope nobody needs this script but it’s a good one to have at the ready in case a site issue happens, especially during the holidays when CPCs can skyrocket.
One of the features that makes Optmyzr’s tools effective is that they are data-driven. The suggestions that you see in the one-click optimizations are all based on data. While the data-driven methodology works very well for accounts that have a sizable amount of traffic, it may not show a lot of suggestions for accounts that are still growing. This is because accounts that are relatively small in size may never get enough traffic to make decisions based on statistically significant data. Keeping this in mind, we recently launched the Turbo Mode in our most popular optimizations.
What is Turbo Mode?
In the Turbo mode, our system lowers the traffic threshold required to show optimization suggestions and gives you access to a larger, less-refined data set. The idea is that you can view a larger number of suggestions and then implement your own optimization strategy on them through custom filters.
Which optimizations is the Turbo mode available in?
1. Keyword Lasso
Adding new keywords is critical to any AdWords account which is why the Keyword Lasso is probably one of our most important optimizations. When you enable the Turbo mode in this optimization, it shows you all the search terms that received traffic but are not present as keywords in your account. You can apply custom filters to these suggestions to find positive and negative keywords and then add them with a single click.
2. Non-converting keywords
Our system uses stringent parameters when recommending non-converting keywords that should be paused. We understand that many times you want to find non-converting keywords in your account early on and optimize or pause them. For this reason, we added the turbo mode to the non-converting keywords optimization. The turbo mode displays any keyword that received more than 20 clicks and did not convert during the selected date range. Some ways in which you can use the non-converting keywords optimization are mentioned below:
• Optimize or pause keywords that have not converted in the last three months and haven’t converted in the last 365 days.
• Investigate keywords that have a high CTR and high Bounce Rate because this means that the keyword is relevant to the ad but the landing page is probably not correct.
3. AB Testing for Ads
The AB Testing for ads optimization identifies winning and losing ads in each ad group. However, it requires data to be statistically significant before making a recommendation and only displays ad groups that have winning and losing ads. However, there are times when an account doesn’t have enough traffic to make a decision based on statistical significance. Or, you want to optimize your ads early on. To enable this, we launched the turbo mode in the AB Testing for Ads tool. This lets you see ads that have traffic in all ad groups and also create new ads in these ad groups.
One of the most common questions we get asked is how can Optmyzr help me or, what is Optmyzr? I’ve tried to answer these questions here.
At a high level, Optmyzr has API based Tools and Enhanced Scripts™ for AdWords. This blog post gives a quick overview of the tools available to users when they sign up for an account. The tools fall under three broad categories based on which function of AdWords management they will help you with.
Data Insights
The tools under this section help you see trends and find optimization opportunities by converting rows of data into easy-to-understand visualizations. The tools that fall under this category are:
Dashboard: Quick snapshot of how your AdWords account is performing across devices and networks. Data can be aggregated by labels.
Hour of the Week: Find the best and worst-performing time-slots during the week for your AdWords campaigns.
Geo HeatMap: Find the best and worst-performing geographic areas for ads in terms of traffic, conversions and ROAS.
Performance Comparison: Compare performance of campaigns, ad groups, categories, devices and networks. Do quick post-optimization analysis.
Quality Score Tracker: Get the historical Quality Score of your account, campaigns, ad groups and keywords. Compare how Quality Score affects Avg. CPC. Get a list of ad groups that need to be optimized.
Landing Page Analysis: Find which Landing Pages in your AdWords account need to be worked on.
Search Terms Word Cloud: Get aggregate data for all the long-tail queries that get drive traffic to your AdWords account.
Spend Projection: Get an estimate of how much your account will spend using simple linear regression analysis.
One-Click Optimizations™
The tools under this section help you perform optimizations in your AdWords account with just one click. The system does all the data crunching to make intelligent recommendations. All you have to do is review and implement. The optimizations suggestions are made real-time.
One-Click Optimizations that help you optimize keywords:
Conversion Lasso: Add converting and high CTR search terms to your AdWords account. It doesn’t recommend search terms that are already present as keywords.
First Page Bridger: High-Quality Score keywords that are just below the first page bid.
Keyword De-Duper: Shows keywords that are absolute duplicates. Recommends which one to keep and pauses the rest.
Conversion Grabber: Finds high converting keywords that are losing impression share due to ad rank. Recommends selective bid increases for those keywords.
One-Word Keywords: Finds one-word keywords in broad and phrase match that are accruing cost and traffic.
Traffic Sculptor: Helps direct traffic to the right ads by recommending exact match negative keywords.
A/B Testing for Ads: Uses statistical analysis to identify the best and worst-performing ads in an ad group including image ads for display.
Display Placements Exclusion: Recommends placements to exclude based on your goal – Branding, Traffic or Conversions.
Non-converting Keywords: Identifies non-converting keywords that are driving up cost.
Hour of the Week Bidder: Set bid modifiers for different times of the week based on performance.
Shopping Bidder: Let’s you change bids for product groups in shopping campaigns with one-click. Product Groups can be selected based on ROAS.
Shopping Campaign Builder: This lets you create well-structured product groups from your Google Merchant Feed in minutes. You can manage bids and exclusions with just few clicks.
Reporting
This section has the Custom Report Designer and some other tools designed specifically for reporting on AdWords account performance. The tools under this section are:
Report Designer: This lets you create report templates for AdWords reports that can be used across accounts. You can whitelabel and schedule reports to be emailed automatically as PDF attachments. It gives you access to unique widgets like Hour of the Week, Quality Score Tracker and Geo HeatMap that are unique to Optmyzr reports. Don’t want to create a template from scratch? The section also has some pre-built templates that can be used. The icing on the cake is the ability to automatically schedule reports on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Instant Reports: Don’t have time to create a report template from scratch? You can use one of the instant report templates for AdWords or Google Analytics as is or customize them.
If you have questions or, need help getting started with Optmyzr, please feel free to write to us at support@optmyzr.com.
Both Google and Optmyzr launched updates to their MCC dashboards for AdWords today offering exciting new functionality. Here’s what’s new.
AdWords MCC changes
Here are the new capabilities launched in the AdWords MCC update:
Segment MCC data
Filter MCC data
Graph MCC data
See data further back than 90 days
Now you can segment the data the same way you already could in individual accounts, for example by day of week, network, device, click type, location on page (top or other), and conversion name. Here’s what that looks like when you segment the data by quarters:
You can also filter the data, for example to see just the accounts managed by a particular account manager or for a particular vertical. There are the same filters for metrics and conversion data we already know from individual AdWords accounts but here are the new filters associated with the MCC level:
You can now view any two metrics on a chart. This is cool because it works together with the filters so it’s easy to get a chart for accounts that meet particular criteria, like who is managing them.
The most subtle but possibly most important change is that you can now look at data further back than 90 days.
Optmyzr MCC changes
At Optmyzr, here’s what we updated today along with a few other recent changes to our MCC that you may have missed:
Filter data by network and device
Include Google Analytics data
Include account Quality Score data
Redesigned account picker
Birds eye view improvements
Enhanced account Cues
Faster access to the Optimizations Inbox
Before today’s updates we already offered a date range picker that can use any date range, date range comparisons, and the ability to filter data for different segments and networks. Here’s what our filters look like:
By linking your GA accounts to Optmyzr (a capability in our Pro plan), you can add goals, goal conversion rate, and e-commerce directly to the MCC dashboard where you can even use date range comparisons to get a quick view into how your results are changing.
We also offer a column that shows the account Quality Score, a metric we calculate from the keyword level QS numbers Google shows in their UI. It’s useful to track this number in the MCC dashboard to find out if all the optimization work you do is paying off in terms of improving relevancy.
Here’s the new account picker we launched. When you star accounts, you can see just those accounts in a separate view. Because every user gets to star their own accounts, this is particularly useful for teams where every person may be working on different accounts and wants to track those accounts most closely.
Our birds eye view has a new icon to make it easier to find. This view can be very useful when you quickly need to see if a change in performance is due to a one-day anomaly or part of a longer trend.
Our account Cues feature is still in whitelist beta (contact us for access) and it lets you compare each account’s recent performance against historical expectations for a set of typical KPIs that depend on the business model of each account. The cues look like red or green dots next to each account.
Here is the detail view you get when you click on the Cue:
Finally we’ve given our Optimizations Inbox a new home on the MCC dashboard. If you haven’t tried it yet, it’s a great place to find out which optimizations have the most changes available for all your accounts.
Sending reports of AdWords results to clients is one of the more time-consuming tasks agencies deal with so it’s not surprising that our scheduled reports are one of the more popular tools in Optmyzr. So for everyone using our scheduled reports, here’s a big mistake to avoid: don’t send your reports before the data is locked in!
The mistake we see is that agencies report too soon after the month ends which may lead some metrics to be incomplete for the simple reason that it takes time for AdWords and Analytics (GA) to publish all the data to advertisers’ accounts.
For example, did you know that Impression Share data won’t be ready until 13 hours after the day ends! Even click and impression data can take 3 hours to be completely posted to your account. AdWords sheds some light on reporting delays here. When it comes to conversion data from GA that is imported to AdWords, this can take up to 3 days.
Source: Google.com, May 2015
Because you don’t want to report incomplete data to your clients, we recommend sending monthly reports no sooner than the 2nd of the month, and no sooner than the 4th if you include goals from GA.
Weekly reports (for weeks ending Sunday) should be sent no sooner than Tuesday morning or Thursday morning if you include GA data.
You get the picture… it takes time for AdWords and GA to get the data ready so keep this in mind when deciding when to send your reports to clients or stakeholders. Review and edit all your own scheduled reports in Optmyzr.
We recently launched a more powerful version of the Optmyzr MCC dashboard. What makes this dashboard so powerful is that it lets you:
1. View and compare goal data from Google Analytics along with data from AdWords You can link your Google Analytics account to Optmyzr and view goal and e-commerce data alongside AdWords data. In the favorite accounts tab, you can compare this data to a different date range and see how performance has changed.
2. Add notes and labels to accounts With the Pro dashboard you can add labels and notes at the account level and these will be visible to your team members. The search box at the top will help you filter accounts by label.
3. Add more data fields like monthly budget, percentage of budget spent When managing multiple AdWords accounts it becomes difficult to see if all accounts are on track to spend the amount allocated for that period. With this feature you can specify a monthly budget for each account and then use the % Monthly Budget spent field to identify accounts that may not meet or may exceed the allocated budget. Even as a company if you’re managing multiple AdWords accounts, this feature will definitely come in handy.
4. Segment data by network and device at the account level This is one of the most powerful features of the Pro dashboard. You can use the filters on the left side of the dashboard to see how much each account is spending on a particular network and device. You can see how performance for all your accounts has changed on mobile phones.
This version of the dashboard is available to users on the Pro and Enterprise subscription plans
It can be quite tedious to manage multiple AdWords accounts and stay on top of them all the time. In this post we want to highlight features and tools in Optmyzr that are designed to help you manage multiple AdWords accounts more efficiently.
MCC account dashboard
In your MCC account in AdWords, you can get a list of accounts and can see metrics over a given period of time. However, figuring out which account needs your attention is entirely up to you. The new MCC account dashboard from Optmyzr helps with this. It lets you see how the performance of your favorite AdWords accounts has changed over two periods of time. This instantly tells you which accounts had the biggest drops and need immediate investigation. You can also compare performance to the same period last year to see if it is a seasonal trend.
Add accounts to favorites by clicking on the star next to the account name
Select which metrics you want to see from ‘Choose Columns’
Select the date range to compare
Hover over the account name to see a birds eye view of performance
Optimization inbox
Don’t know which AdWords accounts to start optimizing? The Optimization Inbox gives a quick snapshot of the number of optimization suggestions available in each AdWords account. You can filter and sort data by account name, the type of optimization (keywords or bids), number of suggestions and the last time an optimization was implemented in the account. A great way to prioritize your work week and save time.
Favorite report templates
You can favorite the most frequently used report templates for each AdWords account in Optmyzr. The advantage is that they show up at the top under favorite templates and you can get to them without sifting through a huge list. Also, the rest of the templates are available at the bottom of the page in case you need to use or replicate one for an account. You can schedule weekly/monthly reports to be emailed automatically, download a PDF or, share a link to an interactive report.
A great way to set yourself or your agency apart when trying to land new SEM clients is to show them that you are AdWords certified. There are many sub-par agencies that say they know AdWords but who really don’t, so having the certification and the agency badge that comes along with it, is a good way to show prospective clients you’re serious about AdWords.
To be AdWords certified, you have to pass 2 exams: AdWords fundamentals and one of the advanced exams, like Advanced Display.
Recently Google asked me to host two live Hangout On Air events to give agencies a crash course to prep for both of these tests. If you’ve been wanting to get your certification but you’re not sure you’re up-to-date with all the latest material, these videos are a great refresher.
Watch the AdWords Fundamentals Video Prep for the Google AdWords certification program with this crash course to get you ready to pass the AdWords Fundamentals exam.
Watch the Display Advertising Video Prep for the certification exam with this crash course to get you ready to pass the AdWords Advanced Display test.
We’re also posting these videos on our AdWords video tutorials page, along with some of our best other videos that explain our tools, and explain how to use AdWords best.
Doing an AdWords account audit essentially means using data to get a quick snapshot of where the account stands and what are the optimization opportunities. In this blog post, we’ll give you an account audit checklist that you can follow using Optmyzr’s tools.
Use Cases for an Account Audit
Taking on a new customer: As an agency when you’re taking on a new account it helps to know how much work the account requires. It is also a great way to give that extra piece of information that shows that you’ve gone the extra mile to analyze the account.
Keeping existing clients happy: While it’s important to get new clients on board it is equally important to keep existing clients happy. Account audits help keep a tab on account performance as well as create a road map for the next few months.
Quarterly audits: As an advertiser, it is important to know how your AdWords account is performing and which parts of an AdWords account need to be worked on. It helps isolate and prioritize which areas of an account need to be optimized.
Audit Checklist – The questions to ask
Step 1: Is the account using all the latest features and best practices?
Network targeting – Does it have separate campaigns for search and display? If not, splitting out the campaigns is a good optimization suggestion.
Account structure – Does it have too many keywords per ad group? Having too many keywords in an ad group makes the ads in the ad group less relevant to each of the keywords. It dilutes the keyword-ad text relevance which affects Quality Score.
Conversion Tracking – Does the account have conversion tracking set up? If the sales and leads in an AdWords account are not being tracked you can’t accurately measure ROI.
Remarketing – Does the account have remarketing lists? If yes, does it have at least one campaign targeting those lists?
Is the Quality Score of the account good?
The Quality Score Tracker gives you the current Quality Score of the account. Since this is weighted by impressions it will give you an idea of the general QS of the keywords that get the most traffic.
Also, look at the distribution of keywords by Quality Score. If most keywords have a QS of less than five, the account can benefit from a Quality Score optimization. This also lists the number of keywords that are getting traffic giving you an idea of the size of the account.
In the Quality Score Tracker, the list of ad groups to optimize tells you which ad groups need immediate QS optimization.
Step 2: Are the keywords in the account well structured?
Tools used: Optimization Dashboard
A quick view at the Optimization dashboard will give you an idea of the kind of optimizations the keywords in the account require. For example, the keyword de-duper tell you if there are duplicate keywords in the account that are competing against each other?
You don’t need to run the optimizations as the approximate number of suggestions are mentioned next to each optimization technique. This gives an idea of the opportunity in the account.
Step 3: Segmentation Analysis – Get more granular with the data
Are there day-parting opportunities?
Tools used: Hour of the Week
Different times of the day work for different products. The Hour of the Week tool tells you which time slots are not driving conversions or leads and it would be better to schedule your ads to not run during that time.
You can also compare Search Impression Share and Conversion Rate to find the best converting time slots and increase bids during the time that has low impression share but high conversion rate.
Are bid modifiers set up correctly? Tools Used: Dashboard
With enhanced campaigns becoming the norm ads show on all devices – desktops, tablets and mobile. One way to optimize for devices is to set bid modifiers. You can segment data and see how the account is performing on mobile vs. desktops to decide whether bid modifiers will help improve performance. For example, on the dashboard compare the percentage of spend on mobile with the percentage of conversions to get an idea of the cost/conversion on mobile.
Are there opportunities to optimize by geography? Tools used: Geo HeatMap
In the Geo HeatMap, take a look at the return on ad spend (ROAS) data broken down by city to find cities that have a higher return on investment. Based on this, you can recommend increasing bids for geographies that have a higher ROAS. Even having this insight into how campaigns are performing by location is beneficial.
Also, make sure that the account is getting data from the right geographies. For example, if you notice a lot of clicks coming from a country/city that has zero conversions then it may be a good idea to either exclude that geography or, create a separate campaign and optimize for it.
Step 4: Trends
Is the account headed in the right direction? Tools used: Performance Comparison
Doing a quick before and after comparison of data for the last 30 days or quarter can tell you if the account is growing or not. You can also go into details and see which metrics are growing and which ones are dropping. For example, if conversions have dropped and clicks have increased then it may be a good idea to see if the landing page or conversion process has changed.
Are the different segments and networks trending in the right direction? Tools used: Performance Comparison
You can also see which segment or device has had the maximum change in traffic and conversions using the Performance Comparison Tool. For example, it is possible that conversion on desktops actually increased but the overall number is showing a drop because conversions on mobile dropped drastically.
These comparisons can be done with one-click in a single report using the pre-built audit templates in your Optmyzr account.
Don’t have time to read the entire post? Watch Frederick Vallaeys walk you through this audit process in here.
One-Click Optimizations are automated, time-saving and easy to implement. When things are automated and don’t take much time, we sometimes tend to do overdo them 🙂
In this post, we’ve given suggestions on how often should you run each of the One-Click Optimizations. The time interval between optimizations may vary for different accounts depending on size and traffic. The suggested times are only directional.
Keyword Lasso
This optimization suggests adding search queries that converted/performed well as keywords to your account. The Keyword Lasso does take into account traffic when suggesting search terms that should be added to an AdWords account. Should you be running this everyday? Probably not. Traffic from just one day is not enough to make a decision on whether you should add a search term as a keyword even if the search term converted. You could end up adding a lot of keywords that just converted once.
Suggested time interval: 7 – 14 days.
The time interval also depends on how much traffic you get on average. You could be getting 100K impressions a day or, just 100 impressions.
Keyword De-duper
This optimization removes keywords that are absolute duplicates (same match type, same targeting etc.) and compete against each other. This is particularly useful when adding keywords in bulk.
Suggested time interval: 14 days (If you add keywords every day, then run it more often.)
First Page Bridger
This optimization finds keywords with a good Quality Score that have bids that are just below the first-page bid and can benefit from a slight bid increase. There is no point running this optimization every day because it will keep increasing bids unnecessarily for the same keywords. Wait for at least 7 days after a bid increase to see performance.
Suggested time interval: 7 -14 days
Keyword Sculptor
This optimization ensures that the right ad shows for each search query by adding exact match negative keywords at the ad group level. Google sometimes broad or phrase matches search queries to keywords in an account even though the search query exists as a keyword in the account. You can run this report as often as you want but you may not get results if you run it every day.
Suggested time interval: At least once in 30 days
Have questions? Write to us at support@optmyzr.com, we’d love to hear from you!
If you spend enough time in PPC forums or Reddit threads, you’ll notice a recurring complaint: “My ads keep showing in places I don’t serve, and my budget is disappearing.”
Or, “Google Ads says I’m targeting the right city, but half my leads are from somewhere else.”
Location targeting is supposed to help advertisers reach the right people in the right place.
But the reality? It’s one of the trickiest parts of PPC campaign management. Between confusing default settings, unreliable location signals, and the sheer volume of data to sift through, advertisers are likely to get confused and waste spend.
It takes what would otherwise be hours of spreadsheet-wrangling and turns it into an at-a-glance view of where your ads are winning and where they’re draining your budget.
Let’s walk through some of the most common challenges advertisers face and see how the Geo HeatMap makes them easy to solve.
Ads showing in the wrong places
One of the most common ways advertisers unintentionally waste budget in Google Ads comes from the “Presence or Interest” location setting.
By default, Google Ads doesn’t just show your ads to people physically located in your target area; it also shows them to anyone, anywhere in the world, who hasshown interestin that location.
That means a Chicago plumbing company could end up paying for clicks from someone overseas who once Googled “apartments in Chicago.”
On the surface, it looks like your ads are reaching people connected to your area, but in practice, those clicks rarely turn into customers.
How Geo HeatMap helps
With Geo HeatMap, you don’t just see where your ads are showing; you also see how those places are performing.
For example, if you set the view to Region and look at Clicks, areas with more clicks than average will show up in green, and those with fewer will show up in red.
But here’s the important part: green doesn’t always mean “good.”
A region outside your service area might light up green on clicks simply because it’s generating lots of traffic. To know if that traffic is valuable, you can switch the metric to Conversions or ROAS.
If that same region turns red, it means the clicks aren’t turning into business, and that’s your sign that the “Presence or Interest” setting is wasting budget.
In other words, the Geo HeatMap helps you see both the volume and the value of traffic by geography. This helps you spot leaks quickly and fix them by switching to Presence only and excluding irrelevant locations.
Overlapping or overbroad target areas
A lot of advertisers try to “play it safe” by stacking multiple target areas in Google Ads. Say, a 10-mile radius, a 20-mile radius, and the whole city all at once.
Or they pick a very wide radius around their business.
On the surface, this seems harmless. In practice, it makes reporting messy and often pushes the budget into areas that are too far away to actually convert. You end up with clicks spread across overlapping zones, and no clear idea which area is really delivering results.
How Geo HeatMap helps
Just switch to the Bubble Mode, available in the top right corner.
When you click on a bubble in Bubble Mode, you see a roll-up of performance across multiple locations in that cluster.
In this example, the bubble combines data from several states and regions: Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, and even areas like the San Francisco Bay and Silicon Valley.
Instead of looking at each one individually, you get the total picture:
1,562 impressions and 77 clicks show the reach and engagement.
$307.16 cost tells you how much spend is tied up in this cluster.
5.21 conversions and a conversion value of 6.52 tell you what you actually got back.
This cumulative view is especially useful if you’ve set a broad radius or overlapping targets.
Google might be serving across multiple states, but in Bubble Mode, you can instantly see how that entire cluster is performing overall. If the conversions or ROAS are weak compared to spend, you know the outer parts of your radius aren’t pulling their weight.
From there, you can zoom in or switch to Non-Bubble Mode to break it down further and decide whether to exclude specific states or carve them into a separate campaign.
Broad radius targeting around physical locations
It’s tempting to set a large radius around your business location, say, 50 miles, just to “make sure” you capture everyone nearby. But the problem is that broad radii don’t distinguish between customers who are close enough to buy and those who are technically within the circle but unlikely to convert.
A pizza shop 30 miles away, or a dental clinic 45 minutes out, probably isn’t going to win much local business. The result? Your ads rack up clicks from people who are outside your true service zone, wasting budget.
How Geo HeatMap helps
The tool lets you break down performance by city, region, or country and instantly see where traffic is coming from and whether it’s actually producing results.
If you start with Clicks, you’ll see the cities or regions driving the most traffic.
Then, by switching to Conversions or ROAS, you can see which of those are actually delivering value.
This makes it clear that not every location in your broad targeting pool is worth the spend.
You may discover that a handful of key markets consistently light up green for conversions, while dozens of others fade red.
With that insight, you can focus your budget where the real demand is, and stop paying for geographies that look busy but don’t drive results.
Not segmenting campaigns by geography
One of the biggest mistakes in location targeting is lumping too many geographies into a single campaign. When that happens, strong-performing regions are forced to share budget with weaker ones.
The result? High-value areas don’t get the attention or spend they deserve, while underperformers quietly eat up budget.
How Geo HeatMap helps
The tool makes this problem visible in seconds. By breaking performance down by country, region, or city, you’ll see exactly which areas are pulling their weight and which ones aren’t.
If certain locations consistently show up green on conversions or ROAS, they may deserve their own dedicated campaign or budget. If others are glowing red, it’s a clear sign they’re dragging performance down and need to be excluded or bid down.
Ignoring “Happy Accidents” outside target regions
A common reaction when advertisers see traffic from outside their target area is to exclude it immediately.
The assumption is simple: “If it’s not in my target, it must be wasted.” But that isn’t always true.
Sometimes, ads leak into unexpected geographies, and those clicks actually convert. By cutting them off too quickly, advertisers risk missing out on profitable new markets.
How Geo HeatMap helps
This is where the red vs. green visual is so powerful.
Instead of treating all “off-target” traffic as bad, the Geo HeatMap shows you whether those clicks are actually driving results. If a city you never planned to target lights up green for conversions or ROAS, that’s not waste, it’s an opportunity.
Rather than excluding it, you can test it in its own campaign and see if it deserves more investment.
Using generic ad copy for all regions
Another mistake advertisers make is running the same ad copy everywhere, regardless of location. While it saves time, it ignores the fact that different regions often respond to different messaging.
What feels relevant in one city, state, or country may fall flat in another.
This leads to lower click-through rates, weaker engagement, and missed opportunities to connect with local audiences.
How Geo HeatMap helps
By breaking down performance by city, region, or country, you can see which areas respond well to your current messaging and which don’t.
If a region is driving clicks but failing to convert, it might not be just the targeting; it could be that the ad copy doesn’t resonate with that audience. For example, you might see two regions with similar click volumes, but only one delivers strong conversions.
That’s a signal that your messaging is connecting in one place but not the other.
Instead of running generic ads everywhere, you can create region-specific campaigns or ad variations that speak directly to local needs, language nuances, or cultural references.
One budget covering too many time zones or countries
It’s tempting to simplify campaign management by running one campaign across multiple countries or time zones. On the surface, it might look efficient—one budget, one set of ads, one place to manage performance.
But in reality, this approach forces very different markets to fight over the same budget.
High-performing regions often lose out, because spend is eaten up by less effective locations or by markets that activate earlier in the day due to time zone differences.
How Geo HeatMap helps
By mapping performance at the country or region level, the tool makes it obvious where budget cannibalization is happening.
You may notice that one country consistently shows up green for ROAS or conversions, while others lag behind in red.
That’s your cue to spin the top performers into their own campaigns or portfolio strategies with dedicated budgets, ensuring they’re no longer starved of spend by weaker regions.
Forgetting to pair geo insights with bid strategy
Spotting weak or strong regions is only half the battle. A common mistake is seeing poor results in a geography but leaving the bid strategy untouched. When that happens, Smart Bidding will keep funneling budget into those underperforming areas because it has no corrective signal.
The insight is there, you just haven’t acted on it.
How Geo HeatMap helps
The tool highlights exactly where performance is strong (green) or weak (red), but the real magic happens when you connect those insights to Optmyzr’s Rule Engine.
You can set automated rules like:
If ROAS < threshold in [region], apply a -20% bid adjustment
If conversions > X in [region], apply a +15% bid adjustment
This way, the regions that waste money get dialed down, and the ones that drive results get more support, without you having to manually tweak settings every week.
Simplify Google Ads location targeting with Optmyzr
Poor location targeting is one of the biggest silent budget killers in Google Ads.
Whether it’s wasted spend in irrelevant geographies, strong regions being cannibalized by weaker ones, or missed opportunities in untapped markets, the cost of not having clarity is real.
Optmyzr’s Geo HeatMap turns scattered location data into actionable intelligence.
You see exactly where your ads are working, where they’re wasting money, and where untapped growth potential exists.
1. How can I optimize location targeting in Google Ads?
Start by reviewing the Locations report to see where clicks and conversions are actually coming from. Exclude areas with high spend but no conversions, and consider creating separate campaigns for top-performing regions so they don’t have to share budget with weaker ones. Over time, refine your targeting by city, region, or country rather than leaving it too broad.
2. Should I run one Google Ads campaign across multiple countries?
It’s usually better to avoid running a single campaign across multiple countries or time zones. Budgets get stretched too thin, and time zone differences can cause high-performing regions to lose spend to weaker ones. Splitting campaigns by country or region gives you more control and ensures each market gets the right budget allocation.
3. How do I know when to exclude a location in Google Ads?
If a location is consistently driving clicks without conversions, or showing poor return on ad spend (ROAS), it’s a strong candidate for exclusion. Look at at least 30 days of data before making decisions, since short-term results can be misleading.
4. Can location insights improve Smart Bidding strategies?
Yes. Smart Bidding works best when it has accurate signals. If you know certain regions convert better, applying bid adjustments or splitting them into their own campaigns ensures Smart Bidding can optimize more effectively. Likewise, lowering bids in poor-performing areas prevents wasted budget.
5. Does location targeting work for both eCommerce and lead generation campaigns?
Yes. For eCommerce, precise location targeting helps direct budget to regions with strong ROAS and shipping coverage. For lead generation, it ensures you’re reaching prospects in serviceable geographies, preventing wasted spend on leads you can’t fulfill.
Most PPC problems don’t start with a disaster. They start with a slow bleed.
A report that takes three hours instead of one. A budget that stalls for no clear reason. A CPC that spikes without warning. An “urgent” client email that lands at 9:01 AM, and again at 9:05.
None of these issues are catastrophic. But stacked together, they grind teams down and make performance flatline. And if you’ve spent any time on r/PPC, you know this isn’t rare, it’s the norm.
We picked out five of the most common challenges PPC managers vent about and looked at how to actually solve them.
In this article, we’ll break down each pain point and show practical, time-saving ways Optmyzr can help turn those frustrations into wins.
Challenge 1: Client reporting is dreadful
Ask any PPC manager what consumes their time, and reporting is likely to be on the list.
It’s not just pulling numbers but wrestling with endless spreadsheets, formatting charts for picky clients, and answering the dreaded “so… how are we doing compared to last month?”
The problem? Advertisers spend hours packaging data when they’d rather be optimizing accounts. Worse, generic reports often overwhelm clients with raw numbers but fail to tell a story.
That’s why reporting often becomes a constant pain point.
How Optmyzr fixes it
Start with templates, not a blank page.
Pre-built templates like the Executive Summary Report pull in account-wide performance and instantly highlight wins and losses.
You can customize them so clients see what actually matters: conversions, ROAS, or top performers, without drowning in irrelevant metrics.
Reports that answer back.
Instead of static dashboards, Optmyzr gives you reports with a built-in AI sidekick.
You can click on pre-set questions like “Summarize the key points of this report” or “Identify 3 areas needing attention” and get instant answers.
It feels less like sifting through numbers and more like having a mini-analyst inside the report.
Add tools that explain thewhy.
Numbers alone don’t satisfy clients. If conversions drop, they’ll ask, “But why?” and that’s where the PPC investigator comes in.
It’s a widget you can drop right into your report.
Instead of you manually digging through campaigns, the tool maps how impressions, clicks, and conversions are connected, showing exactly what caused the change.
Turn data into stories with AI
Another widget, the PPC Narrator, auto-writes a summary of what happened in the account.
Think of it as a plain-English “executive note” that lives inside the report. You choose the sentiment (positive, neutral, critical), and it generates a narrative like:
“Conversions increased by 12% last month, driven by mobile traffic. CPCs remained stable, while impression share improved due to higher ad rank.”
Now, even if clients skim the report, they’ll still walk away with the big picture.
Automate delivery
Schedule reports to hit inboxes (or Slack/Teams) on the 1st or 5th of the month, so you’re not hesitating when a client asks for an update.
Running Google Ads simply means balancing a lot of moving parts. PPC managers are flooded with metrics, reports, and errors to check, so there’s rarely enough time to give every campaign the attention it deserves.
On top of that, Google Ads keeps throwing in asset optimization suggestions, random errors, and new features to monitor. It feels like almost every time you open the account, there are ten new fires to put out.
But the biggest challenge is there’s simply not enough time in the day.
Between reporting, client calls, and strategy, PPC managers struggle to give ads the optimization they really need. Important improvements get delayed, and campaigns run on autopilot longer than they should.
How Optmyzr helps
Think of Optmyzr Express as your daily to-do list for ad accounts.
Instead of digging through endless reports and dashboards, Optmyzr Express shows you optimization suggestions across Google Ads, Amazon Ads, Microsoft Ads, and even Yahoo Japan Ads, all in one place.
Quick wins in minutes: It works like an inbox. You log in, see suggestions (like “pause low-performing ads” or “add high-converting search terms”), and take action with just one click.
Fast actions: Each suggestion comes with an Apply button to make the change instantly, or a Snooze option if you want to revisit it later.
Stay organized: You can filter suggestions by account or type, and archive the ones you don’t ever want to see again.
Backed by data: Recommendations are based on performance data from the last 30–90 days, so they’re timely and relevant.
Multi-account support: Whether you manage one account or dozens, everything shows up in one dashboard.
With Optmyzr Express, what normally takes hours of checking reports and accounts can be done within a few minutes. It saves time, reduces overwhelm, and ensures that important optimizations actually get implemented instead of being pushed aside.
👉 Check all the available optimizations in the tool here!
Challenge 3: Getting clicks but not conversions
Sometimes campaigns look healthy on the surface: clicks and impressions are steady, search terms look relevant, and the landing page is solid.
But conversions just don’t happen.
This is one of the most frustrating challenges for PPC managers. You try new campaigns, pause old ones, even reset your strategy, but leads still don’t come in.
And you’re left wondering: Was it the new keywords? A change in audience behavior? Competition? Or something in the account setup that’s blocking conversions?
How Optmyzr helps
Our PPC Investigator makes it easier to understand exactly why performance shifted. It shows not just what happened, but where and why it happened.
Cause Chart
The Cause Chart helps you trace how a change in one metric flows through the rest of your performance data.
In the example below, conversions increased by 46 during the selected period.
The chart shows that this growth was driven by a higher conversion rate (+42%) and an increase in clicks (+16%), which in turn came from a small lift in impressions (+0.86%) and a stronger CTR (+15%).
By mapping the relationships between impressions, clicks, CPC, CTR, and conversions, the Cause Chart makes it easy to see not just what changed, but how each metric contributed to the overall result.
Root Cause Analysis
Drill down to see whether the drop is tied to a specific campaign, ad group, keyword, placement, or device. In the example below, PPC Investigator shows conversions rising sharply from 9 to 84 in just 30 days.
The Optmyzr AISummary explains the change clearly: growth came mainly from the keyword “X” (+42 conversions), users in the “Not a parent” audience segment (+29 conversions), and the male demographic (+29 conversions).
This makes it easy to see why conversions increased and which audience segments or keywords drove the improvement.
While PPC Investigator helps you uncover why conversions dropped or shifted, Conversion Grabber helps you recover lost leads and capture more.
The tool finds keywords that are already bringing conversions but aren’t showing often enough, and suggests a bid increase so they can capture more leads.
You can apply bid changes automatically (e.g., +10%) or set custom bids manually, depending on how aggressive you want to be.
Challenge 4: Google Ads won’t spend the full budget
You set the budget, but Google Ads doesn’t always spend it fully.
Campaigns crawl, pacing falls behind, and you end up explaining why the account isn’t using the money that was allocated.
The tough part is figuring out what’s actually causing the slowdown.
Sometimes there’s not enough search volume. Other times, the budget sits in campaigns that can’t scale, while stronger ones are left underfunded.
Either way, underspending means missed opportunities and accounts that feel stuck in first gear.
How Optmyzr helps
Our Spend Projection tool makes it easy to see whether you’re on track to hit your budget or if spend will fall short. It analyzes past performance, daily spend patterns, and seasonality to forecast how much of your budget will actually be spent by the end of the cycle.
Here’s how it helps with budget pacing:
Clear Forecasts: Instead of guessing, you’ll know if your campaigns are likely to underspend, overspend, or hit the target.
Daily Guidance: The tool shows how much you need to spend each day to reach your goal, helping you take corrective action early.
AI Summaries: Get plain-language insights about trends, weekday patterns, or seasonal shifts so you don’t waste time digging through charts.
But spotting the pacing problem is only half the battle.
Sometimes campaigns don’t spend the full budget because funds are tied up in places where they simply can’t scale, while other high-performing campaigns remain underfunded.
You pick the campaigns and set your monthly budget. The tool then checks if you’re on track, underspending, or overspending, and shows you options to fix it.
For example, say the advertiser wants to spend $7,000 this month.
But based on current performance, Google Ads is only on track to spend about $5,987 (that’s just 85.5% of the target). The tool points this out clearly and even shows that you’d need to average $262 per day to hit the full budget, which is $78 more per day than what you’re currently spending.
The table below then gives you options. For example:
If nothing changes, you’ll finish around $5,987 spend with 97 conversions.
If you could push spend up to $7,157 (+20%), the model estimates you could reach about 102 conversions (a +5% lift).
Going further to $7,287 (+22%) could push you to 103 conversions (+6%), though at a higher cost per conversion.
So in this view, Optmyzr is showing: “Here’s the gap between what you want to spend and what’s actually being spent. Here are scenarios for reallocating budget to help you capture more volume and get closer to the target.”
Challenge 5: Paying high CPC even with no competition
It can be confusing to see impression share at 90–100% and still notice CPCs holding steady around $1. Even in markets with limited competition (niche markets), advertisers often expect lower costs but don’t see them reflected in their reports.
The problem is that Google doesn’t only use competition to set CPCs.
Even if you’re the only bidder, other factors, like ad relevance, expected CTR, and landing page experience, decide how much you pay. Google also has minimum bid requirements for each auction, and those don’t vanish just because you’re the only one bidding.
If your ads or pages don’t hit Google’s thresholds, CPCs stay higher than you’d expect.
That gap between “no competition” and “still paying a dollar per click” creates doubt and frustration. Advertisers start wondering if Google is overcharging, and clients get concerned about costs eating into margins.
How Optmyzr helps
Optmyzr gives you visibility into why CPCs are high and the tools to bring them down.
The Quality Score Tracker breaks down each component: CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience, to help you spot exactly what’s dragging down performance.
If CPCs are being pushed up because of low relevance or weak CTR, you’ll see it right away.
The PPC Investigator takes this a step further by showing whether a spike in CPC is tied to a drop in CTR, a change in keyword performance, or shifts in impressions.
Instead of guessing, you know what triggered the increase.
When it comes to improving ad quality, Optmyzr has Ad Text Optimization (RSAs). This tool helps you test variations, refine headlines, and improve CTR, so your Quality Score goes up and CPC naturally comes down.
You can also clean up wasted spend with query mining tools like Search Term N-Grams and the Negative Keyword Finder, which help remove irrelevant clicks that hurt efficiency and CTR.
Finally, the URL Checker ensures landing pages aren’t quietly working against you.
If a page is broken, slow, or showing “out of stock” messages, Optmyzr flags it before it damages your landing page experience score.
Overcome your PPC challenges with Optmyzr
Running Google Ads will always come with hurdles: reports, optimizations, CPC swings, or budgets that don’t pace the way they should.
The hard part is keeping on top of all of it without losing focus on growth.
Optmyzr is built to take those frustrations off your plate. From reporting to optimizations, from CPC analysis to budget pacing, it gives you the visibility and automation you need to fix issues before they spiral.
Book a free trial and see how Optmyzr can help you run PPC campaigns more smoothly.
FAQs
1. What are the biggest challenges in Google Ads?
Common challenges include time-consuming reporting, budgets that don’t pace correctly, rising CPCs even with low competition, and campaigns that generate clicks but not conversions. PPC managers often struggle to balance these while still focusing on strategy.
2. Why is my Google Ads budget not spending?
Budgets may underspend if there’s limited search volume, if Google directs spend to campaigns that can’t scale, or if targeting settings restrict reach. Tools like budget pacing reports can highlight where money is stuck and how to reallocate it.
3. Why are my CPCs high with little competition?
High CPCs aren’t always caused by competitors. Google also factors in Quality Score, expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience. Even with 90–100% impression share, weak Quality Score signals can keep CPCs elevated.
4. Why am I getting clicks but no conversions in Google Ads?
Clicks without conversions may be caused by mismatched keywords, poor audience targeting, landing page issues, or shifts in user behavior. Analyzing search terms, conversion paths, and audience segments can uncover the root cause.
5. How can PPC managers save time on Google Ads reporting?
Instead of manually building reports, using automated reporting tools with templates and AI summaries can speed up client reporting, highlight key wins and losses, and answer “why” performance shifted.
Marketers on Reddit recently opened up about the less obvious Google Ads optimizations that delivered outsized results. The kind of tweaks that don’t get much attention but drive serious performance gains.
The catch? These tactics are often manual, time-consuming, and hard to scale across multiple accounts.
That’s where Optmyzr comes in.
You can automate, scale, and monitor all five of these underrated (but powerful) optimizations without adding more to your plate.
Here’s how to put them into action today.
1. Automate negative keyword management
Negative keywords tell Google which searches not to show your ads for, so you don’t waste budget on irrelevant clicks.
Simple in concept but messy in execution.
That’s what makes this optimization underrated: It’s easy to overlook, hard to scale, and almost impossible to manage well across multiple campaigns without automation.
How Optmyzr helps
For Search Campaigns
The Negative Keyword Finder (Search) pulls your Google Ads or Microsoft Ads search terms report and breaks queries down, showing you exactly which ones are wasting spend.
See key metrics at a glance: impressions, clicks, CTR, cost, CPC, conversions.
Add individual words or full queries as negatives.
Bulk-edit match types, archive irrelevant suggestions, or apply changes to shared lists.
Push changes to accounts or campaigns instantly (no spreadsheets, no tab-hopping).
💡 Need more suggestions?Turbo Mode lowers data thresholds to uncover more underperformers.
Duplicate Queries: Finds search queries showing in multiple ad groups, identifies the underperforming one, and suggests adding it as an exact match negative.
Low-Performing Queries: Surfaces queries within an ad group that have low ROAS or high cost/conversion compared to the group average, and recommends them as negatives.
This ensures traffic is automatically funneled to the most profitable ad groups while cutting out generic or budget-draining clicks.
2. A/B testing ads
Running multiple ads per ad group is a smart move as it gives your account room to test, learn, and improve. But in the day-to-day of campaign management, it’s easy for ad copy to go untouched for weeks or months.
Ads stay live for months (sometimes longer) without being reviewed, rotated, or refreshed. And while Google may rotate ads automatically, it doesn’t always align with your actual business goals. Without a structured way to A/B test and replace ad copy, most campaigns face performance issues.
Why this optimization gets overlooked:
One ad quietly eats up the budget but doesn’t convert.
Another performs better, but never gets prioritized.
Google rotates ads, but not always in a way that aligns with your goals.
Without structured testing, performance flatlines, and you don’t know why.
A/B testing your ad copy is one of the easiest ways to improve CTRs and conversion rates. But only if it’s done consistently, which is tough to manage manually across multiple accounts.
How Optmyzr helps
Optmyzr makes it easy to test ad copy, find what works, and keep your best-performing ads live (all in one place).
Here’s how:
Automatically compare ad performance
Optmyzr’s A/B Testing tool compares ads within the same ad group and tells you which ones are underperforming. It will then suggest pausing these ads, and you can also create a new version right from the same tool.
3. Optimize budget allocation based on product profitability
Not all products are created equal, and they shouldn’t be treated that way in your ad campaigns.
Some products generate high profit margins, convert easily, and perform well even with minimal advertising spend. Others might look good on the surface but consistently drain your budget without delivering real returns.
However, standard campaign structures in Google Ads often treat all products the same.
Without clear segmentation based on actual performance, you might waste budget on the wrong products.
Why this optimization gets overlooked:
Profitability isn’t always reflected in campaign data.
High-performing, low-cost products often get buried.
Manually segmenting product groups is time-consuming and hard to scale.
Merchant Center feeds don’t automatically adjust to performance shifts.
Managing bids across large inventories without automation is nearly impossible.
This makes it easy for inefficiencies to creep in, especially when product catalogs grow or performance fluctuates quickly.
How Optmyzr helps
Optmyzr’s Smart Product Labeler is built specifically to solve this challenge in Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. It helps you automatically segment your product feed based on real-world performance, so you can allocate budget and bids where they’ll have the most impact.
Segment products by performance
The Smart Product Labeler assigns every product to one of five custom performance categories:
Heroes: Top-performing, high-ROAS products. Great candidates for increased bids and budgets.
Sidekicks: Solid performers close to breaking out. Gradually increase spend here.
Villains: High-spend, low-ROAS products. Reduce bids or consider excluding.
Zombies: Low-traffic items that haven’t had enough exposure yet. Use test-and-learn strategies.
Flukes: Surprisingly high-ROAS products with minimal exposure. Nurture with moderate bid increases.
The segmentation is based on ROAS and Cost, so you’re acting on what truly matters, not just impressions or clicks.
Keep labels automatically updated
No need to constantly download reports or adjust feeds manually.
As performance changes, the Smart Product Labeler automatically updates your product labels, keeping your strategy in sync with reality.
4. Selective conversion reporting on lead gen campaigns
Instead of counting every lead from your campaigns as a conversion (like anyone who fills out a form), only count the leads that are actually valuable, such as those that are qualified or result in a real sale.
When you do this, your cost per lead (CPL) may look a little higher, but it will be more accurate.
In the long run, your client will see a much better close rate (more sales from those leads) and will actually spend less money per sale overall.
👉 In short:Don’t focus on reporting every lead. Focus on the ones that matter; it saves money and gives a clearer picture of success.
How Optmyzr helps with selective conversion reporting
Optmyzr makes it easier to turn offline conversion data into actionable insights.
While the actual import of offline conversions happens in Google Ads (from your CRM or sales platform), once those conversions are in Google Ads, Optmyzr can help you report, analyze, and optimize campaigns around them.
Your ads can be perfectly targeted, but if the landing page falls flat, conversions won’t follow.
Small changes like making calls-to-action more prominent or trimming down long, cluttered pages can deliver massive lifts in performance.
Why this optimization gets overlooked:
Landing page testing often requires designers, developers, or third-party tools.
It’s hard to quickly see which pages are draining the budget without conversions.
Winning page elements don’t always get reused across the account.
How Optmyzr helps with landing page optimization
Optmyzr’s Landing Page Analysis tool helps you zero in on which pages need improvement and which are worth replicating.
Here’s how it works:
Aggregate data across the account: See performance metrics for the same landing page URL, no matter how many campaigns or ad groups use it.
Spot problem pages instantly: Find “expensive” pages (high CTR, low conversion rate) or those with high potential (good conversions but low CTR).
Learn from top performers: Identify pages with strong CTRs and conversion rates, then apply what works across weaker pages.
Download and share insights: Export suggestions into CSV to review with your team or client.
While performance is one side of the equation, ensuring that all your ads actually point to live, functional pages is just as critical.
That’s where you can use Optmyzr’s URL checker. It automatically scans your ads, keywords, sitelinks, and even Performance Max asset groups to catch broken links, 404 errors, or out-of-stock messages, before they waste budget.
You can even set it to automatically pause ads with broken URLs or simply generate reports for your team. Together, Landing Page Analysis and URL Checker make sure your campaigns not only lead people to the right pages but also to pages that convert profitably.
Put these Google ads optimizations to work with Optmyzr
The best Google Ads optimizations aren’t always the flashiest ones.
As we’ve seen, tactics like smarter negative keyword management, consistent ad testing, profit-based product segmentation, selective conversion reporting, and landing page improvements can lead to significant wins, especially when automated.
The challenge is that doing these consistently and at scale is tough without the right tools.
From analysis to automation, it helps you cut out the manual work and focus on strategies that actually help you improve your Google Ads performance.
1. Why are negative keywords important in Google Ads?
Negative keywords prevent your ads from showing on irrelevant searches. This saves budget and ensures clicks come from users more likely to convert.
2. Can negative keyword management be automated?
Yes. Tools like Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder automate the process by scanning search terms, identifying wasted spend, and suggesting negatives across campaigns.
3. How does A/B testing improve ad performance?
A/B testing helps you compare multiple ads, identify the best-performing copy, and continually refresh underperforming ads to boost CTRs and conversions.
4. Does Google Ads rotate ads automatically?
Yes, but not always in a way that matches your business goals. Structured A/B testing ensures you’re optimizing toward meaningful results, not just impressions.
5. Why are landing pages critical for Google Ads success?
Even with great targeting, poor landing pages cause lost conversions. Testing layouts, CTAs, and copy can significantly boost conversion rates.
6. How does Optmyzr help with landing page optimization?
The Landing Page Analysis tool identifies high-performing and underperforming pages, showing where to improve and what to replicate.
7. How can I avoid broken or outdated landing page links in ads?
Optmyzr’s URL Checker scans your ads, sitelinks, and PMAX assets for broken links, 404 errors, or “out of stock” pages, and can even pause affected ads automatically.
It’s that time of year when PPC advertisers start feeling the heat of the busy shopping season.
So we’ve put together a comprehensive guide that will help you understand all aspects of running ecommerce campaigns with Google Ads, from choosing the right campaign type to creating campaigns and ads, as well as best practices for optimizing and managing them effectively.
Before we dive in, let’s take a step back and understand why Google Ads is a popular choice for many PPC advertisers.
Why use Google Ads for your ecommerce businesses?
Google Ads has long been a go-to for ecommerce brands and for good reason. It gives you access to potential customers across Google Search, Shopping, YouTube, and a massive network of partner sites.
And now, with placements showing up in things like AI Overviews, the competition for attention is getting even tougher.
What sets Google Ads apart is how targeted you can get. You’re not just casting a wide net; you’re reaching people based on what they’re searching for, what they care about, and how they behave online. That means your ads show up for the people most likely to buy.
It’s also flexible. You only pay when someone clicks, and you can adjust your spend based on what’s working and what your goals are.
In addition, Google Ads provides analytics that allows you to track the performance of your campaigns and see what’s working and what’s not. This data can be used to optimize your campaigns and improve results over time.
But while Google Ads makes it easy to get started, scaling campaigns profitably, especially across large product catalogs and dynamic markets, requires more than Google’s native tools. That’s where Optmyzr comes in, giving ecommerce advertisers the automation, feed control, and budget intelligence that Google doesn’t provide out of the box.
Running campaigns is just the start. Staying profitable, especially during busy seasons, takes a smart setup. You’ll need to choose the right campaign types, manage budgets with intention, and build in ways to keep reaching the right audience, even after they’ve clicked.
Read on to learn about it, from campaign types to budget strategies, audience targeting, and more.
Types of Google Ads campaigns for various objectives
In Google’s vast ad ecosystem, there’s a campaign type for nearly every channel. From Search and Shopping to YouTube, Gmail, and beyond.
Each has its place. But in ecommerce, it’s not just about picking the right type. It’s about managing them at scale. When you’re juggling hundreds of SKUs, multiple feeds, and dynamic budgets, it can quickly become overwhelming to manage.
Let’s walk through the main campaign types and what they offer, then we’ll zoom in on how to use them strategically for ecommerce growth.
Search Campaigns
Search campaigns are the most common type of Google Ad campaigns. They appear in Google’s search results when users look for specific keywords.
Advantage: Search campaigns are a great way to target audiences who are already interested in your offer, as they are actively searching for it. However, as your product catalog grows, so does the number of ad groups and keywords you have to manage.
Display Campaigns
Display campaigns allow you to show your ads across the Google Display Network on websites and apps.
Advantage: Display campaigns are an excellent way to reach a wider audience and build brand awareness. But they are less intent-driven and harder to control at the conversion level.
Shopping Campaigns
Shopping campaigns allow you to show your product listings in the Google Shopping tab and other search results.
Advantage: Shopping campaigns are a great way to drive traffic to your website (ecommerce store) and increase sales. It is important to have a consistent feed hygiene and repeatable processes when you’re managing SKUs, inventory, and product data at scale.
Local Campaigns
Local campaigns allow you to promote your business in Google Search results and Google Maps.
Advantage: Local campaigns are a great way to reach potential customers looking for businesses like yours in their area. However, they may not be as relevant for online only ecommerce businesses.
Performance Max Campaigns
PMax campaigns use machine learning and automation to optimize your ads for all of Google’s channels, including Search, Display, YouTube, and more.
Advantage: Performance Max campaigns are a good option for businesses that want to reach a broad audience and achieve business goals with a single campaign.
Discovery Campaigns
Discovery campaigns allow you to show your ads in the Google Discover feed. It’s the personalized content that users can see on Google Search, the Google app, and YouTube.
Advantage: Discovery campaigns are great for reaching audiences who are already interested in topics related to your business.
There’s more to Google Ads, but for now, we’ll get into campaign types specific to ecommerce: Search, Standard Shopping, and Performance Max.
Search Campaigns
Google Ads search campaigns involve bidding on specific keywords and displaying text ads on Google’s search engine results pages (SERP). Advertisers can tailor these ads to include additional information like prices, reviews, and images through ad extensions.
Search campaigns are often where ecommerce brands start. They capture high-intent shoppers right when they’re searching. But as your product catalog grows, so does the complexity. Managing keywords, budgets, and performance at scale takes more than a basic setup.
Where Do Search Ads Appear
Google Search results pages: When people search for keywords relevant to your ecommerce business, your ads may appear above or below the organic search results.
Google Display Network: Your ads can also appear on websites and apps across the Google Display Network. This includes websites like YouTube, Gmail, and popular news and entertainment websites.
💡Pro Tip: Search ads perform best when you’re showing up for the right queries and skipping the ones that waste budget. Optmyzr’s Keyword Lasso helps you spot high-converting search terms that aren’t yet keywords in your account, so you can add them quickly and grow coverage where it counts.
Ad Formats for Search Ads
Text ads: Text ads are the most common type of search ad. They consist of a headline, description, and display URL.
Product ads: Product ads are a type of search ads specifically designed for merchants. They include a product image, price, and title.
Search Ads Bidding Strategies
There are a variety of bidding strategies that you can use for your search campaigns. The best bidding strategy for you will depend on your ecommerce business goals and budget.
Some of the most common bidding strategies include:
Target cost-per-click (CPC): With target CPC bidding, you set the maximum amount you are willing to pay for each click on your ad.
Maximize conversions: With maximize conversions bidding, Google automatically sets your bids to get as many conversions as possible within your budget.
Manual CPC: With manual CPC bidding, you set your bids for each keyword individually.
Standard Shopping Campaigns
Standard Shopping campaigns give you more hands-on control over how your products show up across Google. You can manage everything from product groupings to bids and negative keywords—making it easier to shape performance around your ecommerce goals.
They help you promote product listings across the Shopping tab, Search results, and more, driving traffic to your store and supporting sales growth.
Where Do Shopping Ads Appear
Shopping tab: The Google Shopping tab is a dedicated page on Google where users can browse and compare products from different merchants.
Search results pages: Shopping ads may also appear above or below the organic search results when people search for relevant keywords for your products.
Display Network: Your shopping ads can also appear on websites and apps across the Google Display Network.
💡Pro tip: When you're juggling thousands of SKUs across multiple channels, having a clean, well-organized feed is essential. The Shopping Campaign Builder makes it easy to turn your product catalog into tightly grouped, performance-ready campaigns.
Ad Formats for Standard Shopping Campaigns
Standard Shopping campaigns include Shopping Ads and Local Inventory Ads.
Shopping Ads: Shopping Ads show detailed information about your products, including product images, prices, titles, and descriptions, on Google Search and other Google properties.
Local Inventory Ads: These are a type of Shopping Ad that shows your products in stock at your local stores.
⚠️Quick fix: Feed issues can silently tank performance. Shopping Feed Audits flag missing data, misgrouped items, or missing negatives and Feed Alerts notify you when approvals or prices go off-track.
Standard Shopping campaigns allow for automated strategies like Target ROAS and Maximize Clicks, as well as manual CPC.
Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend): When you use Target ROAS bidding, Google Ads will automatically set bids to help you get as many conversions as possible within your budget while also trying to meet your ROAS target.
Maximize Clicks: With Maximize Clicks bidding, Google Ads will automatically set bids to help you get the most clicks possible for your budget, regardless of your conversion rate.
Manual CPC: Manual CPC bidding gives you the most control over your bids, but you’ll need to monitor your performance closely and adjust your bids as needed.
Performance Max (PMax) Campaigns
The buzz about Performance Max campaigns is all about its ability to use machine learning to optimize your ads for all of Google’s channels, including Search, Display, YouTube, and more. This campaign type uses robust automation across various aspects of the campaign, including bidding, budget optimization, audiences, creatives, and attribution.
Where Do PMax Ads Appear
Performance Max ads can appear in the following places and also automatically adapt to new inventory and formats:
Google Search results pages
Google Display Network
YouTube
Gmail
Google Maps
Discover pages
Ad Formats for Performance Max Campaigns
PMax offers a wide array of ad formats, including:
Shopping Ads
Display Ads
Text Ads
Video Ads
Responsive Search Ads
Performance Max Campaigns Bidding Strategies
Performance Max uses automated bidding strategies like Maximize Conversion Value and Maximize Conversions. And with automated bidding, Google automatically sets your bids to get as many conversions as possible within your budget.
This is where tools like Optmyzr’s Shopping Analysis come in. You can break down PMax performance by product attributes like brand, category, or custom labels, giving you insights Google doesn’t show natively. You’ll know which segments are pulling their weight and which ones might be eating spend.
Additional Features of Performance Max Campaigns
PMax has some additional features that can be helpful for both lead generation and ecommerce campaigns, including
Audience signals: This feature allows you to target your ads to people likely to be interested in your products or services. For example, if you’re selling shoes, you could target your ads to people recently searching for “shoes” or “shoe stores” online.
Final URL expansion: This feature allows you to show your ads on a broader range of Google properties, including websites, apps, and YouTube. This can help you reach more potential customers and increase your chances of getting conversions.
New customer acquisition goals: PMax allows you to set new customer acquisition goals in two modes:
New Customer Value mode: This mode allows you to bid higher for new customers than for existing ones. It is a great way to boost your overall revenue and attract new customers.
New Customer Only mode: This mode allows you to focus your efforts on acquiring new customers only. This is a good option if you have a special offer for first-time buyers or are more interested in generating leads than making direct sales.
Speaking of leads, it’s important to know how to use Google Ads campaigns to generate leads and drive sales for ecommerce businesses. While lead generation and sales are crucial parts of any ecommerce strategy, there is a difference between the two.
By understanding the different campaign types and targeting options available, you can create campaigns tailored to your specific business goals.
Let’s look at how you can approach Google Ads differently for lead generation and sales in ecommerce campaigns.
Google Ads for Lead Generation vs. Ecommerce Sales
When creating a Google Ads campaign, it is essential to first define your goals.
Are you looking to generate leads, drive sales, or increase brand awareness? Once you know your goals, you can choose the right campaign type and targeting options.
When leveraging Google Ads, the strategic goals include:
Encouraging immediate customer purchases.
Gathering valuable leads through engaging sign-up mechanisms.
Boosting website traffic to amplify brand visibility.
Lead generation attracts and converts new potential audiences and prospects into someone who has indicated interest in your company’s product or service. A lead is a person who has shown some interest in what you have to offer but hasn’t yet become a customer.
Sales is the process of converting leads into paying customers. It involves building relationships with leads, understanding their needs, and persuading them to buy from you.
Google Ads can be used for both lead generation and sales. However, there are some key differences between the two types of campaigns.
Aspect
Lead generation
Sales
Goal
Generate leads by collecting contact information from potential customers.
Convert leads into paying customers.
Target audience
People who have shown some interest in your company's product or service.
People who are already interested in your product or service.
Ad copy
Focuses on the benefits of your product or service and how it can solve the customer's problem.
Focuses on the value of your product or service and why the customer should buy it now.
Call to action
Typically, it includes a call to action to sign up for a free trial, download an ebook, or schedule a consultation.
Typically, it includes a call to action to buy your product or service.
Now, let’s get into how you can optimize the three main ecommerce campaign types (Search, Shopping, and PMax) differently for lead generation goals.
Use ad extensions: Ad extensions can provide additional information about your business and make your ads more appealing to potential customers. Some useful ad extensions for lead generation include call extensions, site link extensions, and lead form extensions.
Use landing pages optimized for lead generation: Your landing pages should be designed to capture leads. This means that they should have a clear call to action and a form that people can fill out to submit their contact information. You should also ensure that your landing pages are relevant to your target keywords.
Use lead qualification: Lead qualification is the process of identifying and prioritizing leads that are most likely to convert into customers. You can use lead qualification to identify leads that are a good fit for your business and are more likely to be interested in your products or services.
Use lead nurturing campaigns: Nurture campaigns are a great way to stay in touch with potential customers and move them closer to purchasing. You can use nurture campaigns to send potential customers educational content, special offers, and event invitations.
Now that we understand what options you have in terms of Google Ads campaigns for ecommerce, let’s look at how to create the three types of Google Ads ecommerce campaigns - Search, Standard Shopping, and Performance Max.
How to Create Search Campaigns
Here is a step-by-step process of creating search campaigns in Google Ads:
In your Google Ads account, click the plus button (+) and select New Campaign.
Select your advertising objective. This is the goal you want to achieve with your campaign. For example, you can increase website traffic, generate leads, or drive sales.
Select the campaign type. For a search campaign, select Search.
Set your budget and bidding strategy. Your budget is the maximum amount of money you will spend on your campaign daily. Your bidding strategy determines how much you will pay for each click on your ad.
Create your ad groups. Ad groups are groups of related keywords and ads. For example, you might have one ad group for your product or service name and another for related keywords.
Add keywords to your ad groups. Keywords are the words and phrases people are likely to search for when looking for what you have to offer.
Write your ads. Your ads should be relevant to your keywords and encourage people to click on them.
Review your campaign, click Save, and continue.
Once you’ve created your search campaign, it will go through a review process. Once your campaign is approved, it will start running, and your ads will appear in search results.
How to create Standard Shopping Campaigns
The steps to create a campaign remain the same until choosing the type of campaign. In this case, you select “Shopping” as your campaign type.
From there on, the steps are as follows:
Select your product feed. Your product feed is a file that contains information about your products, such as their titles, descriptions, prices, and images.
Select your conversion goals. Conversion goals are the actions you want people to take on your website after clicking on your ad, such as purchasing or signing up for your email list.
Add your ad assets. Ad assets are the different elements of your ad, such as your headlines, descriptions, images, and videos.
Review your campaign, click Save, and continue.
Once you’ve created your Performance Max campaign, it will first go through a review process. After your campaign is approved, it will start running, and your ads will appear in search results and other Google channels, such as Display, YouTube, and Maps.
Remember, creating a campaign is just the beginning. Running successful ecommerce campaigns is all about testing, monitoring, and making optimizations based on your results. Once you have a good understanding of what’s working and what’s not, you can start to implement more advanced strategies like remarketing.
Remarketing for Google Ads Ecommerce Campaigns
Remarketing is a powerful way to reach people who have visited your website or interacted with your brand. Today, however,, it’s less about “following” users around and more about using your data intentionally to stay relevant.
With third-party cookies disappearing and AI playing a bigger role in ad targeting, your remarketing strategy needs to lean on first-party data, thoughtful segmentation, and creative that’s built to convert.
How to use remarketing strategically in ecommerce
Segment based on buying intent, not just pageviews: Don’t treat all site visitors the same. Someone who viewed your return policy has a different intent than someone who added to the cart. Set up separate lists and customize messaging accordingly.
Rebuild trust with high-expectation shoppers: With an increasing number of brands using AI-generated product comparisons and offering endless deals, remarketing is your chance to stand out with value props, delivery confidence, or unique perks. Lead with what makes you different.
Use time-based windows wisely: If you have customers who have abandoned their carts, the first 24 hours is all about reaching out and hitting them with urgency. Or if you have lapsed buyers from over 3 months, a good idea would be to reintroduce them to what’s new or trending currently.
Protect your budget with exclusions: Always layer in audiences like recent purchasers or high-return customers so you’re not wasting impressions on people who are unlikely to convert again soon.
Let automation assist, but don’t go blind: Google’s audience expansion tools can be powerful, but they often blur the line between remarketing and prospecting. Use Custom Segments and Customer Match when possible to keep your targeting focused.
By using remarketing to target people who have already shown an interest in your products, you can increase your chances of converting them into customers.
In addition to remarketing, there are several other best practices that you can follow to improve your Google Ads ecommerce campaigns. We have curated five tips from expert PPCers in the industry, and some valuable articles and user guides by Optmyzr.
5 Best Practices For Successful Ecommerce Google Ads Campaigns
Showcase your best products
Put the spotlight on your top-selling products. They’re the winners for a reason. Give them catchy titles, descriptions, and eye-catching images or videos to attract more buyers. Allocate a good chunk of your budget to these rock stars.
💡Pro Tip: Stop wasting time treating every product the same. The Smart Product Labeler automatically sorts your catalog into performance tiers so you can double down on proven winners, give promising products the push they need, and cut wasted spend on underperformers with ease.
Set smart bids and budgets
Figure out your bidding strategy based on your profit margins and conversion rates. Smart bidding can be a game-changer, but keep an eye on it to ensure it works for your specific goals.
💡Pro Tip: With Optmyzr’s Optimize Budgets tools, you don’t have to keep shuffling money around manually. They automatically shift budget toward the campaigns and accounts that are performing best so your top performers never get starved, and your spend stays aligned with your goals
Keep out the irrelevant clicks
Use negative keywords to filter out searches that don’t match what you’re selling. Regularly review search terms to keep your ads from showing up where they shouldn’t.
Optimization is the key to any campaign’s success, but it can be difficult to keep track of your campaigns and ensure they perform optimally, especially if you’re operating on a larger scale. That’s where a Google Ads optimization schedule can help. It helps you track your progress and make data-driven decisions.
💡Pro Tip: Optmyzr’s Account Blueprints let you set a recurring workflow, automating optimization tasks across campaigns so you never miss a step
Track your performance to optimize for success
Tracking your ecommerce website’s performance is essential for optimizing your Google Ads campaigns. And setting up conversion code is the key to unlocking valuable insights into your website’s behavior.
We have another great resource for you to help you through this year’s ecommerce campaign management. Check out this PPC Town Hall episode on how to stand out in eCommerce advertising featuring Duane Brown and Andrew Goodman, who have been running top-quality eCommerce campaigns for years and helped brands exponentially grow revenue and smash prior financial records.
Streamline Your Ecommerce Google Ads with Optmyzr
Running ecommerce Google Ads can be a handful. It demands constant fine-tuning and attention to ensure your campaigns are at their prime. But there’s no need to stress. With Optmyzr, managing your ecommerce campaigns is a lot easier and more efficient.
Here are some of Optmyzr’s top tools and features to support you at every stage of your ecommerce campaign management journey.
Tools for creation
Shopping Campaign Builder 2.0
Structure your active shopping campaigns by creating multiple levels of product partitions through a single click. You can create hundreds of ad groups with thousands of product groups in a matter of minutes.
Shopping Campaign Builder 2.0 makes building Shopping or PMax campaigns easy based on performance. For example, you can group products with similar ROAS performance and set more targeted bids and budgets, leading to improved performance overall. And it helps you manage your campaigns more effectively by making it easy and quick to identify and address any low-performing campaigns.
With this tool, you can restructure your shopping campaign groups created through Shopping Campaign Builder 2.0. You can also restructure campaigns not part of a campaign group created through Optmyzr.
The Shopping Campaign Analysis tool from Google Ads is a powerful tool for getting insights into your Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. It allows you to aggregate data from your shopping feed by performance metrics and attributes, regardless of your campaign structure.
The Shopping Bidder lets you make bulk bid changes for product groups based on performance with a single click. The tool enables you to set bids for thousands of product groups in a matter of minutes. New bids can be uploaded to AdWords with a single click.
Manage your shopping bids in a more flexible way by aggregating and reviewing data from the attributes in your product feed. For example, you could change bids for product groups advertising the same product but with different attributes like size and color.
Stay on top of your Google Ads ecommerce campaigns with Optmyzr
Managing successful ecommerce Google Ad campaigns is an ongoing process that requires constant experimentation, testing, data analysis, and strategic thinking. It’s also important to be adaptable and willing to refine your campaigns based on changing market conditions and business goals.
And Optmyzr, with its array of solutions, helpful resources, and support team, is always there to assist you.
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
Sign up for our 14-day free trial today to give Optmyzr a try. You will also get the resources you need to get started and more. Our team will also be on hand to answer questions and provide any support we can.
The data said yes. Accounts with higher scores consistently delivered lower CPAs and stronger ROAS, beating sub-70 accounts by more than 180% on return.
Now, that doesn’t mean you should chase a perfect score blindly.
Many top-performing accounts in our study improved their OptiScore not by accepting every recommendation, but by being selective and fixing the gaps that mattered.
That’s exactly what this guide is about. We’ll walk you through eight actionable ways to improve your Optimization Score.
TL;DR: How to boost your Optimization Score
Track business-critical KPIs, not just the score itself
Audit account-level negatives, ad assets, and conversion tracking setup
Run ad variation tests; monitor RSA Ad Strength (including text customization)
Refresh and sync Customer Match lists regularly
Fix broken, inaccessible, or policy-violating URLs
Rebalance budgets with pacing insights; adjust for total-budget campaigns
Automate recurring optimizations with Optmyzr Blueprints
What to focus on (beyond just following Google’s suggestions)
While the account managers keep sifting through Google’s recommendations before taking action, Optmyzr provides you with a list of tools that can help you address the inevitable.
These are areas you should monitor and optimize to help improve the Optimization Score and drive your account towards better business results.
1. Track performance metrics most important to your business
Improving your Optimization Score starts with focusing on the right business KPIs, such as conversions, CPA, ROAS, or CTR. Set up alerts at the account, campaign, label, or bid strategy level to detect when metrics begin trending in the wrong direction, even if targets are technically being met.
Optmyzr makes these easier with its KPI and Budget alerts that work across Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Facebook, and more.
You can monitor metrics at multiple levels, get notified instantly via email, Slack, or Teams, and even automate actions like pausing campaigns when budgets are exhausted and re-enabling them at the start of the next cycle.
For example, when setting up a conversion rate alert (see screenshot below), you can:
Get notified if the rate drops by more than a set percentage (like 20%) over the last 28 days
Set an absolute threshold so you’re alerted if performance falls below a number you choose
Add a trend alert to catch metrics moving the wrong way, even if they’re still in range
Use advanced settings to ignore the most recent days if data is delayed
2. Remove redundant keywords and add high-performing queries
Duplicate keywords within the same account compete against each other and split traffic. This not only wastes impressions but can also lower your Optimization Score.
Optmyzr’s Keyword De-Duper helps by scanning your account to find duplicates and recommending which ones to keep and which to pause.
In Basic Mode, it looks for duplicates with the same match type in the same campaign.
In Advanced Mode, it scans across campaigns for repeated keywords.
You choose the ones to keep, and the rest are paused automatically. You can even export the list to a CSV or Google Ads Editor file for review.
💡Best Practice: Run the Keyword De-Duper every two weeks (or more often if you add keywords regularly). Since it only flags duplicates with at least one impression, you’ll focus on keywords that actually affect performance.
Once your duplicates are cleaned up, the next step is to expand with keywords that are already working for you.
Optmyzr’s Keyword Lasso automatically analyzes your Search Terms Report and suggests search queries that have conversions or a strong CTR but aren’t yet added as keywords in your account.
Best of all, the tool prevents duplicate suggestions, so you won’t clutter your account. You can also save custom views for your team to keep everyone aligned.
3. Audit negatives, assets, and conversion tracking
Since Optimization Score is closely tied to account health, regular audits are essential. Three areas need constant attention:
Since Optimization Score is closely tied to account health, regular audits are essential. Three areas need constant attention:
Conflicting negatives: If a negative keyword overlaps with a positive one, impressions drop unnecessarily. Regularly audit and resolve conflicts to avoid losing reach.
Ad assets: Assets (formerly extensions) like sitelinks, images, and callouts improve visibility and click-through rates. Missing assets directly hurt performance and Optimization Score.
Conversion tracking: Automated bidding relies on accurate conversion data. Make sure your tracking codes are installed properly and that you’re using the right attribution model (Google defaults to data-driven attribution).
You can run audits for ad groups, campaigns, keywords, and more, adjusting thresholds to match your needs. Results come with an AI-generated summary that highlights strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities across the account, along with a score out of 100.
You can dive deeper into each section, view actionable sidebars (like suggestions for new ads), and even use AI-powered recommendations for ad text.
Audits can be scheduled weekly, exported to Excel or PDF, and shared with your team.
4. A/B Test ad variations and monitor Ad Strength for RSAs
Testing ad copy is a proven way to improve both performance and Optimization Score.
Optmyzr’s A/B Testing for Ads tool makes this easier by comparing ads within the same ad group, highlighting winners and underperformers with statistically significant data.
You can quickly pause low-performing ads and create new ones using proven headlines and descriptions from past winners.
For Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), pay attention to Ad Strength, Google’s measure of how well your ad copy is set up to deliver relevant messages.
Optmyzr’s Ad Text Optimization tool takes this a step further by breaking down RSA performance at the asset level (headlines, descriptions, and full ads). It lets you spot weak assets, edit or replace them in bulk, and even use AI-powered suggestions to improve copy faster.
You can also use features like find-and-replace for quick text updates across ads, or run spell checks to polish your assets before uploading changes.
5. Automate refreshing Customer Match lists for personalization
Personalized ads perform better because they reach people at the right stage of their journey. Customer Match lets you upload customer data (like emails or phone numbers) and use it to target or re-engage audiences across Google Search, Shopping, Gmail, YouTube, and Display.
The challenge: these lists go stale quickly if they aren’t refreshed.
Google even flags outdated or missing audience lists as a recommendation that can hurt your Optimization Score.
Link a Google Spreadsheet with your customer data.
Choose how often the list should refresh (daily, weekly, or monthly).
The system automatically updates your list whenever changes are detected in the sheet.
You can pause or enable lists anytime.
This means you don’t have to manually upload CSVs or worry about missed updates.
Fresh lists will eventually lead to higher match rates, more relevant targeting, and stronger conversions.
6. Keep a constant check on destination URLs
Broken or non-working landing pages waste ad spend, frustrate users, and lower your Optimization Score.
Google often flags this as “Fix your ad destinations” in the Recommendations tab. Common issues include 404 errors, out-of-stock product pages, or policy violations that stop ads from serving.
👉Check multiple entities: Scan ads, keywords, sitelinks, and even Performance Max asset groups.
👉Preview or Apply mode: Run a report only, or let the system automatically pause ads/keywords with broken URLs and re-enable them once fixed.
👉Custom monitoring: Track specific error texts like “not available” or “out of stock,” and even monitor special response codes.
👉Exclusions: Use filters so important pages (e.g., pricing pages) aren’t paused by mistake.
👉Scheduling & alerts: Run URL checks daily, weekly, or monthly, and get email or spreadsheet notifications sent directly to your team.
7. Revise budgets and move unused budgets across campaigns in need
Sometimes the problem isn’t that you need more budget overall, it’s that the budget you already have isn’t being used where it should.
Some campaigns underspend, while others hit limits and lose impression share.
The Optimize Budgets tool in Optmyzr helps by analyzing spend across campaigns and shared budgets, then recommending how to reallocate money more effectively. Here’s what it does:
Spot underspending and overspending: Identifies campaigns unlikely to use their full budget and those constrained by low daily limits
Highlight lost opportunity: Surfaces impression share being lost due to budget caps, and showing where extra spend can make a difference
Run realistic simulations: Models different daily budget scenarios based on recent performance and seasonal patterns
Match to your goals: Suggests reallocation strategies to optimize for clicks, conversions, or conversion value, depending on your objectives
One key thing to note is that everything is transparent. You see current spend, projected spend, daily budget needs, and potential daily spend side by side. If a campaign can’t absorb more money because it’s already at saturation, the tool won’t suggest increases.
And if you’re targeting conversions or conversion value, the recommendations automatically align with that goal.
8. Tie the tactics together using a Blueprint
When you’re managing an account, it’s easy to think in terms of isolated fixes: cleaning up keywords one day, testing ad copy the next. The problem is that without a structure, those fixes can feel scattered and harder to repeat consistently.
That’s where blueprints help. You get hold of a working plan that maps out which tasks should be done, how often, and by whom.
Optmyzr’s AI Blueprints make this process even easier. Instead of manually choosing from dozens of tools, you can describe the problem you’re trying to solve, say, “I want to understand what’s happening in my Search and Performance Max campaigns.”
The system will then suggest a set of tasks and tools to answer that question.
For example, a blueprint like this might include:
PPC Investigator: PPC Investigator helps you find out why performance shifted. It breaks down changes by campaign elements like keywords, audiences, or devices, so you can quickly isolate what’s driving gains or losses.
Performance Comparison: The Performance Comparison tool helps you compare performance across different time periods (e.g., last 7 days vs. previous 7) to spot trends and measure the impact of changes. It’s a reliable way to validate if your optimizations are working. to track results over time.
Traffic Segment Explorer: Break down your campaigns by audience, geo, device, or network to see which segments are delivering the best ROI. Great for uncovering under-the-radar opportunities.
Reporting tools: Summarize insights into clean, automated reports that update on your schedule. These can be customized per client or stakeholder and include annotations, visuals, and performance highlights.
Each task is editable. You can assign it to a team member, add instructions for context, and decide how often it should repeat: weekly, monthly, or on a custom schedule. You can also add tasks outside of Optmyzr if there’s something you want tracked that isn’t directly in the platform.
What makes this approach powerful is that it connects your day-to-day optimizations to a larger workflow. Instead of keeping track of eight different tactics in separate places, you set them up once as a blueprint and run them regularly.
Over time, you can adjust the tasks as your needs change, so the process grows with your account.
Turn Google’s recommendations into results with Optmyzr
Improving your Google Ads Optimization Score in 2025 isn’t about blindly chasing 100%.
It’s about making smart, selective changes that align with your business goals. From removing redundant keywords to refreshing Customer Match lists, every step you take should connect back to stronger performance, healthier accounts, and ultimately better ROI.
The good news is that you don’t have to do it all manually. Optmyzr equips you with purpose-built tools that automate the majority of the tasks while keeping you in full control of strategy.
A. Optimization Score is a Google Ads metric (0–100%) that reflects how well your campaigns align with Google’s best practices. It’s located on the Recommendations tab and updates in real-time based on changes in performance, settings, and available features.
You don’t need to chase a 100% score, but it serves as a useful compass for identifying quick wins and enhancing campaign health.
2. How does Google calculate it?
A. Google looks at things like:
Missing ad extensions or assets
Budget allocation
Keyword targeting and match types
Audience signals
Bidding strategy alignment
Each recommendation shows the % increase it could bring. You can apply or dismiss them; both actions help your score.
3. Why should you improve your Optimization Score?
A. Improving your Google Ads Optimization Score helps you identify and fix performance gaps quickly, prioritize impactful changes, and stay aligned with Google’s latest features and best practices. A higher score can lead to better ad visibility, lower CPCs, and more conversions by ensuring your campaigns are running efficiently.
It also helps you capture quick wins, like adding assets or fixing tracking, and gives you a competitive edge by making your ads more likely to win auctions. For agencies, maintaining a strong Optimization Score is essential for retaining Google Partner status, making it a valuable metric for both performance and credibility.
4. Should you apply every recommendation?
A. Not always. Apply what aligns with your goals, whether that’s better ROI, more conversions, or a cleaner structure.
Smart Bidding uses Google’s AI to optimize for conversions or conversion value in each and every auction. Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize conversions, and Maximize conversion value are all Smart Bidding strategies that include auction-time bidding.
They work with machine learning to continuously optimize your campaigns for the best results depending on the campaign goals you have set.
It’s worth noting that while Smart Bidding can be highly effective, it still requires careful monitoring and regular evaluation to ensure it aligns with your specific business goals and objectives.
How to make Smart Bidding work for you?
For starters, here are 4 ways.
1. Generate enough historical conversion data.
You need to generate enough historical data to make better decisions and optimize your campaigns. If you do not have enough conversions then the smart bidding algorithm will not work as expected.
2. Put a sufficient budget.
If your budget is limited, the algorithm may have fewer opportunities to make adjustments and find the most effective bidding approach. This can potentially limit the performance improvements that Smart Bidding can deliver.
3. Monitor the performance of your campaigns continuously.
Focus on key metrics such as conversions, cost per conversion, conversion value, and ROAS, and make adjustments to bidding strategies or campaign settings as needed.
4. Use conversion tracking to make informed bidding decisions.
Accurate tracking is crucial for Smart Bidding. Along with that, you need to let Google know the right value of each conversion.
As you can see, there are some very important things to note to get the best out of your Smart bidding campaigns. But managing them day in and out is not so easy.
5 ways to manage Smart Bidding Campaigns
Let’s see how you can manage them in an easier way.
1. Running experiments
It’s better to test what’s working and what’s not with a few experiments initially. Here’s how you can: Express optimization to create an Experiment to test Maximize conversion value, Target CPA, or Target ROAS bidding strategy.
This tool checks Google’s recommendations and lets you create trial campaigns to test the effectiveness of your smart bidding strategies with targets.
Once you create the trial campaigns, you can monitor their performance on the Campaign Experiments tool and get recommendations to turn the experiment you’re running into a campaign, if it is showing promising results.
Once the campaign starts running with smart bidding, you need to give Google the right set of information to make decisions.
2. Building a campaign structure
1. Select the right bidding strategy based on your business goal.
Use Maximize Conversions and Target CPA if your goal is to increase sales or leads.
Use Maximize conversion value and Target ROAS if your goal is to increase profit.
2. Find keywords that can drive conversions.
Broad match keywords can help you attract more visitors to your website, and allow the Smart Bidding machine to discover new opportunities for conversions. However, make sure to monitor broad match keywords to check if Google is really showing your ads for the right queries.
Identify search queries that are driving traffic to your account.
Find search terms that are sending you traffic without having to go through the entire Search Terms Report using the Search Terms N-Grams tool. This way, you can also make sure you don’t miss out on long-tail search terms.
Identify high-performing search queries for your account based on the search query report or Keyword Planner and add them to your ad groups as keywords.
The Keyword Lasso tool automatically analyzes search terms and suggests high-performing search queries that should be added as keywords (but are not already present in your account) to your account.
You can reduce clicks that are driving high costs but no conversions in the following two ways.
Add search terms as negative keywords in account negative lists.
You can use Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder (Search) to identify individual words that are part of the search queries but are not performing well. These can be turned into lists that can be linked to campaigns to make it easier to manage traffic.
If you are interested in managing negative keywords even more closely, you can use Optmyzr’s rule-based optimization that you can customize and automate to your preference. It even identifies non-converting search terms and adds them as negatives at the ad group level.
Once you structure your keywords, you then create relevant RSAs for your campaign.
Optmyzr can help you find the ad groups that have no active RSAs and help you create them easily. You will see a list of different ad groups across different accounts to add RSAs.
Managing bids(targets) and budgets is a crucial part of managing your smart bidding campaigns.
As discussed above, a limited budget can restrict your ads from showing to the right people and bear losses for you. Hence, it’s important to know if your monthly budget is good enough to make sure your ads are being shown enough.
With the Spend Projection tool, you can analyze spend data, historical seasonality, and recent performance to predict how much your account is likely to spend by the end of a certain time period. You can also monitor the daily spending and understand future projections about how your campaign should spend its budget in order to meet the simulation budget.
You can just analyze the projection and make changes as you see fit or, use the Optimize Budgets tool to reallocate the budget where it’s needed the most.
If you like a rule-based way to manage daily budgets for the campaigns based on their performance, you can use the Rule Engine to automate this flow.
Optimizing for budgets is just half the story. It is equally important to optimize for the campaign and/or ad group targets. Rule Engine can come in handy here too, where you can choose to modify campaign or ad group targets based on the performance. And, if you are working with portfolio bidding strategies, Rule Engine also helps you identify the ones that are limited by the max or min limit and change their limits.
Also, if you are interested in going one step further you can work with bid adjustments or seasonality experiments. For Maximize Conversions, device bid adjustments work as adjusting the targets themselves, for the rest of them you can choose to opt out from showing ads on a device by setting -100% bid adjustment.
To know more about what bid adjustments work with which bidding strategy, refer to thisarticle.
4. Managing targets and exclusions
Creating a proper campaign structure and managing bids and budgets helps you to make sure that when customers are looking for something you sell, your ads are shown. However, that doesn’t help you control where your ads are shown. Should they appear on YouTube channels? Should they be shown in New York City? Where should they not be shown?
Here are some targeting and exclusions that can help you get started:
1. Exclude the placements that are not converting for you at the ad group or even at the account level.
2. Target a certain set of placements that are working well for your ad groups so that the ads are shown at these sites or apps using Rule Engine.
Exclude the locations from campaigns that are not giving you good returns and are proving rather expensive using the Rule Engine.
3. Exclude universally poor-performing placements from your accounts to reduce wasted spend using the Smart Exclusions tool. Reach out to our support team if you’re interested in getting early access to this tool.
4. Keep your audiences in sync with your business data and Google’s audience repository using the Customer Match List Updates tool.
You would have noticed how bid adjustments have very limited options when it comes to smart bidding strategies. So it becomes rather difficult to define how a particular demographic segment should be recorded.
The answer to this problem is conversion value rules. Value Rules are set at the account level. The rules can be based on location (physical or location of interest), device, or audience.
Optmyzr helps you better express the value of your conversions as they relate to your business and easily adjust those values based on geographical location, device, or audience during auction time bidding in real-time. You can feed your offline business data through the Segment Scorer which in turn helps in the adjustment of value rules.
Setting up conversion value rules also helps in optimizing your account’s performance by teaching Google’s automation (like those that handle Smart Bidding to optimize Target ROAS and Maximize Conversion Value) more about your business.
Adaptability is the name of the game in PPC. Platforms bring new updates and market conditions fluctuate. You don’t want to be caught by surprise when things change fast. You can use our content library to navigate those changes. Here’s some reading to get you started:
So these are some tips to help you manage smart bidding campaigns easier. We’re sure at least some of these tools can come in handy for you.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world use these tools to manage over $4 billion in ad spend every year.
Sign up for our 14-day free trial today to give Optmyzr a try. You will also get the resources you need to get started and more. Our team will also be on hand to answer questions and provide any support we can.
With the ever-changing landscape of user online behavior, the importance of Display campaigns only increases. The logic is plain enough. Given the influx of businesses going online, not everyone will know about your business or what you do to search for you explicitly.
Hence, it becomes all the more important to ensure you reach your passive audience through ads in places they generally browse to create awareness and subsequent conversions.
In this article, you’ll learn:
What are display campaigns?
Why they’re important in a PPC strategy?
How to reduce wasted spend and optimize them to get the best ROI?
What are Google Display campaigns?
Google Ads Display campaigns are visually engaging ads to help you promote your business when people are browsing online, watching YouTube videos, checking Gmail, or using mobile devices and apps.
It is very common for people to see a banner ad or a native ad and then search for that product or service on search. According to recent studies, a remarkable 27% of consumers initiate a search for a business after being exposed to its display ad. An analysis of conversion data reveals a remarkable 59% increase in conversion rates when users conduct searches related to display ads. These figures prove how important a role display ads play in helping you achieve your business outcomes.
As Display ads are conventionally targeted toward your top-of-the-funnel audience, they commonly record lower returns on ad spend. Sometimes small or mid-size businesses do without them due to budget constraints. But today, when display ads are becoming more imperative to construct a full-fledged marketing funnel irrespective of the size of your business, it is required to chalk out a better-equipped strategy to stay on top.
How to reduce wasted spend in your Google Display campaigns?
Here are 9 ways to help you identify any wasted spend and optimize them to achieve your business goals.
1. Create real-time alerts to get notified of any significant deviation of your KPIs.
Monitoring your most important metrics is a tried-and-tested method for better campaign performance. It helps you take timely action when things go off track.
Optmyzr’s Advanced Alert Management System helps you create quick and customized alerts. You can create an alert for a KPI (say, Cost/Conv) for a single display campaign, a set of display campaigns, or all your display campaigns in an account together. You will get a notification whenever the KPI deviates from the standards you have defined.
Create real-time alerts to get notified of any signification deviation of your KPIs
You can also receive these notifications over Slack or Microsoft Teams if you are using either for internal communication.
Optmyzr Tip*: Check in the box to receive an alert when the metric just starts to trend in the wrong direction so that you can take proactive measures before the targets are exceeded.*
2. Analyze missed KPIs to understand the root cause.
When you don’t achieve the set targets you wanted for your business, it is always a good idea to dig deeper into the reasons. Understanding what exactly went wrong helps you identify the root cause and find a solution.
Optmyzr’s PPC Investigator tool helps you understand why a particular performance metric performed in a certain way. It helps you find the exact underlying metric that contributed to the change in a given account.
Analyze missed KPIs to understand the root cause
It might be an audience segment, a placement, or an entire network that may have caused the change. Answering questions such as why conversions/clicks dropped the previous month can give you better insights into overall account improvement.
3. Stay in control of the budget allocated to the Display campaigns.
When you have a stipulated budget allotted to your display campaigns, you may want to get notified and rather stop your ads from showing for the rest of the budget cycle. You want to ensure you don’t go over your target budget.
Optmyzr’s Optimize Budgets Across Platforms tool helps you notify when a significant portion (say, 50%, 75%, 90%) of your budget is spent and also helps automatically pause the campaigns when the defined budget amount is spent. It also automatically resumes those campaigns that were paused at the start of the next budget cycle.
Stay in control of the budget allocated to the Display campaigns
This tool also lets you create budget groups. A budget group can contain campaigns from different accounts across platforms (Google, Microsoft, or Facebook). So you can choose to create one for all your Google Display campaigns across accounts and control their spending from one place.
Or, you can combine all the display campaigns for a particular brand you are running over Google, Microsoft, or Facebook (for the ‘Awareness’ objective) in a single budget group and monitor them.
4. Identify and exclude poor-performing placements based on a business goal.
It is a common business practice to create display campaigns targeting specific domains for specific business outcomes: awareness, traffic, and sales. It is equally important to track if these placements are generating the desired results and, if not, to optimize them.
Optmyzr’s Display Placement Exclusion tool helps in consolidating placements that are resulting in wasted spend and excludes them based on a business goal – Branding, Traffic, or Conversions. You can also aggregate data for the same domain across campaigns.
Identify and exclude poor-performing placements based on a business goal
You can also break down the results by each of the individual campaigns that the placement has appeared for, allowing you to make the decision. Once you have selected the campaigns you want to exclude, you will be able to exclude them at the campaign level.
5. Automate excluding non-converting placements from the account.
Sometimes, there could be a set of placements across mobile apps, YouTube videos and channels, and websites that consistently accrue a considerable cost but have never converted for your account. After analyzing such placements for a while, it’d be a good idea to exclude them at the account level so that your ads do not show up on them any further.
Optmyzr’s Account Level Placement Exclusion tool gives a consolidated list of non-converting placements after aggregating performance data at the account level.
Excluding placements from an account helps prevent your ads from showing up on certain areas on the Display network or YouTube, overriding any campaign-level placement targeting. This is especially helpful for Smart Display campaigns, as Google doesn’t support excluding placements through a negative list or by excluding them at the ad group level.
Automate excluding non-converting placements from the account
You can use Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to customize this tool’s strategy according to your business requirements and automate the process of excluding such non-converting placements from the account. You can also tailor your Rule Engine strategy to specific conditions, like always exempting certain placements from exclusion irrespective of the performance.
6. Exclude your display ads from showing up on low-quality placements.
A proactive approach always helps you optimize more efficiently than a reactive approach. Say, if you already know about the low-quality placements on the Google Display Network, you can ensure that your ads do not show up on them from the beginning. This will save you the wasted spend your ads might face in the process that can be spent on more valuable clicks.
Optmyzr’s Smart Placement Exclusions for Apps and Display Network tool helps you do that exactly. This tool uses data from thousands of Optmyzr-wide Google Ads accounts to proactively find bad placements. Instead of waiting for these placements to spend money on wasted clicks and then excluding them, the tool proactively excludes them for you.
The tool recommends excluding websites, mobile app placements, and YouTube channels. Those will be excluded at the account level in your Google Ads account. However, it will not affect the placements that have been excluded manually outside of Optmyzr. You can also specify verticals you do not wish your placements to be excluded from.
Note: This is an Optmyzr add-on only for Pro Plan users. Contact our support team if you would like to learn more.
7. A/B Test your display ad copies and pause the ones that are underperforming.
A/B Testing your ad copies to find the winners and losers is a legacy PPC optimization strategy. Nevertheless, it still stands out to be one of the most effective strategies as it helps you quickly sift through the ads that are performing well and create more on their lines and eliminate the non-performing ones.
Optmyzr’s AB Testing for Ads optimization is a data-driven tool that helps you compare ads with statistically significant data in the same ad group. This identifies the best and worst-performing ads in active ad groups (including Image ads and Responsive Display Ads), allowing the analysis of the suggestions by comparing clicks and conversions parameters side-by-side before pausing the lowest-performance ads.
You can also choose to compare them by any other metric you are tracking, say ROAS or Conversion Rate.
A/B Test your display ad copies and pause the ones that are underperforming
A regular check-in for the performance of your display ads will help you take effective measures to tweak your ad copies to match their expected performance as soon as there is any deviation.
8. Pause those display ads that lead to broken landing pages.
When your ads take your users to broken landing pages, which leads to wasted clicks and spend, it is important to ensure all your website pages that your audience comes to load up fine without any errors.
Optmyzr’s URL Checker tool helps you schedule a check for all your URLs (you can have a separate setting for your display campaigns in the account). It will check for all the landing pages associated with your ads and automatically pause the ads associated with broken landing pages.
When those issues are resolved, it will also re-enable those ads automatically. This way, any advertising wasted spend due to faulty website pages will be taken care of automatically.
Pause those display ads that lead to broken landing pages
9. Keep a check on any display channel wasted spend for your Performance Max campaigns.
Google Ads’ most automated campaign type, Performance Max, is an all-channel inclusive campaign that does not allow excluding a specific channel type. So it becomes all the more important to ensure all of your budgets is not spent towards a channel your business is not targeting primarily.
Optmyzr’s PMax Channel Distribution Widget on the Account Dashboard shows you where your account’s Performance Max budget was spent across Shopping, Video, Display, and Other channels, as well as the top-performing channels based on metrics such as Conversions and Conversion Value.
On account of this widget, an Optmyzr customer recently figured out they were spending a lot of money on display via PMax that was actually bringing them poor-quality leads. You can also dig deeper to do a campaign-wise analysis of this distribution to find out if there is a specific campaign that needs more attention.
Keep a check on any display channel wasted spend for your Performance Max campaigns
With that information under your belt, you can quickly choose to exclude specific placements from the account or ensure you optimize your Performance Max campaigns toward any other specific channel (say, Search) in terms of budget and assets. This will ensure they don’t spend heavily on the display channel that’s not giving you any significant conversions.
Reduce your wasted spend with these 9 tips
Bottom line: there are several ways to reduce wasted spend on your display campaigns. In this article, we’ve presented you with 9 of them.
But if you want to implement these tips and start optimizing your Display ads now and don’t have access to our tools yet, consider signing up for our 14-day free trial. You’ll get access to all our tools, and our team would also show you how to best use Optmyzr to achieve your goals.
Performance Max campaigns are a new campaign type in Google Ads in which advertisers can create one campaign and get their ads wherever users are interacting with Google’s services, whether that’s on Search, Display, YouTube, Maps, Discover, or Gmail.
It promises to simplify advertising in a world where user behavior has become more fragmented. It’s an especially appealing promise for new advertisers who may have not known where to start with Google Ads.
But for existing advertisers, the introduction of yet another campaign type may be confusing. So here I’ll shed some light on how to think about Performance Max.
I also got a chance to speak to Google about it where they shared some best practices and even answered several FAQs from the PPC community. Here’s the full conversation:
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Is Performance Max Replacing Other Campaigns?
At the end of September 2022, Performance Max replaced Smart Shopping and Local campaigns. Other campaign types will continue to exist until further notice according to Google.
Where Do Performance Max Campaigns Run?
Performance Max provides the equivalent of running the following current Google Ads campaign types: Search, Display, Shopping, Video, Gmail, and Discovery. It can then place ads across Google’s vast number of pages and properties as shown below.
**Source**: Google
What Do the Experts Say About Running Performance Max Instead of Other Campaigns?
As of writing this blog post, Performance Max campaigns have been around for over a year. Many advertisers have tested the campaign type, ran experiments with it, and learned a lot in the process.
I got a chance to speak to Menachem Ani and Andrew Lolk, two experts and practitioners on PPC Town Hall 71 to understand what they’ve learned from running Performance Max campaigns for a full year.
They’ve covered a wide range of topics from structuring asset groups to attribution and negative keywords.
Watch the full conversation below.
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What Inputs Do I Have With Performance Max Campaigns?
When setting up a Performance Max campaign, Google will ask you to provide the following inputs to help their artificial intelligence get started with good ads:
Your marketing objectives and goals
Budget
Creative assets including text, images, and video (optional, since this will auto-generate)
Geo-targets
Optional Feeds such as Google My Business, Google Merchant Center, Dynamic Ads Feed, and Business Data Feeds
Optional Audience Signals such as First-Party Audiences (including Remarketing Lists) and Google Audiences (including Custom Audiences)
With that information, automation is off to the races and will try to show your ad where it expects it may lead to a conversion.
Latest updates to Performance Max (as of February 2023)
Google announced some major updates to Performance Max on February 23, 2023, to provide greater control, flexibility, and insights to advertisers.
Here is the list of updates:
Campaign-level brand exclusions
Page feeds to refine Search inventory results
Video creation tools
Additional reporting available at the asset group level, along with budget pacing
Google Marketing Live 2023, an event hosted at Google’s Mountain View headquarters, had over 20 product announcements centered around artificial intelligence (AI) for advertisers. The key themes were around the 3 C’s of AI, (a play on the 4 P’s of marketing): customer connection, creative strategies, and confidence in ad campaign effectiveness.
Building Bridges to Customers with AI
First up on the Google agenda was making customer connection more intuitive and effective with AI. I can’t stress enough how crucial it is to reach your potential customers along their increasingly complex journeys.
Demand Gen campaigns from Google help advertisers drive demand for their products and services through highly visual ads.
To top it off, as we get closer to the migration deadline for Google Analytics 4, Google is stepping up its game with new predictive lookalike audiences. You can now export these audiences from GA4 directly to Google Ads, making it simpler than ever to find new customers wherever they are.
GA4 will replace universal analytics and become the new standard for data collection on Google. Advertisers can use cross-platform data to build predictive audiences for use in Google Ads.
AI and Creativity: A Match Made in Advertising Heaven
Google knows how crucial creativity is for ad success. With the rapid advancements in generative AI, it was no surprise to see this as a focal point. Imagine being able to have a real conversation with Google’s AI systems, which then suggest your ad text. Well, it’s happening as of July 2023, with the integration of conversational AI for Performance Max campaigns.
Product Studio was another creative tool unveiled at the event, aimed at making life easier for e-commerce advertisers. Now, you can effortlessly manipulate your product images, and Google will generate them and put them in your merchant feed.
And if you don’t have a feed, Google Merchant Center Next will even create one from your website data.
Google Merchant Center Next will replace the existing Google Merchant Center
Navigating AI: Boosting Confidence and Control
Transparency and control are key as AI starts to perform tasks previously done by humans. Google introduced a number of new features to provide more insight into AI’s actions. From new asset performance reports for Performance Max campaigns to deeper insights into search terms, Google is giving advertisers back some of the reins they initially lost when Performance Max was introduced
New insights are coming to Performance Max campaigns, including better reporting about asset performance and search queries that are driving interactions with ads.
The ability to set new goal types and the new brand restriction controls for broad match keywords are steps in the right direction. And with Google Analytics 4 becoming the new standard, you’re getting a robust cross channel measurement tool that offers a wealth of predictive capabilities and a direct connection back to Google Ads.
New goals like ‘high value new customers’ will help advertisers better steer Google’s AI to achieving the goals they care most about.
It’s Time to Embrace AI
Google’s closing message was clear: it’s time to figure out artificial intelligence. We’re not competing against AI, but against other advertisers who’re leveraging AI more effectively. So, grab your team, pull out Google’s handy AI checklist, and get ready to dive into the future of advertising.
The future of PPC ads includes ads shown inside chat experiences.
Google’s major focus at Marketing Live 2023 was offering advertisers better ways to reach customers, generate ad creative, and build confidence in AI’s ability to deliver results.
So, keep a close eye on Optmyzr’s blog and YouTube channel for updates, as Google continues to revolutionize advertising with AI. Let’s stay ahead of the game together!
A few days ago, we introduced a new tool/feature to check your change history and see if Google has made any automatic changes. This tool also lets you set up alerts to be notified when there is a budget change to a premium brand campaign.
I have been using it to track changes made to my account by my team members. I now receive one Slack alert in the morning and one in the evening to ensure that we are not making any unwanted changes or changes that could violate Google’s policies. This helps me to keep an eye on my account and prevent it from being suspended or underperforming.
Here are some ways this feature helps you stay on top:
Automate analyzing your change history for the last 30 days.
Filter your change history by type of change, user, or tool that made the change.
Set up alerts to be notified when there are changes to your account.
Export your change history to a CSV file.
In our continued effort to bring transparency and make it easier for you to identify what is happening in your Google Ads account, we have launched a change history widget on the Account Dashboard. This widget comes with improved visualization and analysis capabilities.
Where can you find the Change history widget?
You can find it just above one of our most-used widgets: Performance Max Channel Distribution. (This widget classifies your Performance Max campaign performance by channels. Read more here.)
What kind of insights can you get from the Change history widget?
Here are some of the things you can do with the change history widget:
Insights from the Change history widget:
View the changes made to your Google Ads account in the last 30 days.
See the top three types of changes made to your account at a glance.
Click on “View Details” and check out the line chart that plots the types of changes against the performance change in your account. (This is my personal favorite!)
Segment by campaign and ad group to see the breakdown (and impact on performance) by campaign and ad group. This can help you understand subtle shifts in performance and identify entities in your account that need extra attention.
The Change History widget offers multiple ways to optimize your Google Ads account. Here are a few to help you get started:
1. Gain instant insights.
The widget provides a comprehensive overview of the most frequent changes made in the past 30 days. For instance, if budget changes dominate, it suggests either there are new campaigns added or someone swayed by new ideas or information is making frequent changes to the account. In such cases, you might notice account performance fluctuating as and when budget changes.
Additionally, if you observe frequent budget and bidding changes together, it may indicate ongoing bidding strategy testing that requires further investigation to ensure it aligns with your objectives.
2. Analyze performance impact.
Utilize the line chart feature to visualize how changes have influenced your account’s performance. For example, if stopping targeting on the Search Partners network results in decreased impressions but an increased return on ad spend (ROAS), it signifies a positive direction toward more profitable traffic.
3. Analyze changes in detail.
Explore the widget to delve into campaign and ad group changes, including information on the user who applied the change and the application method (such as auto-apply by Google or changes made through the API). This eliminates the need to navigate to the Google Ads interface for a comprehensive list, allowing you to focus on the most relevant information.
4. Evaluate account strategy.
If the number of changes appears substantial, evaluate whether they are reactive or part of a well-defined strategy. Rather than making random adjustments, consider strategizing for seasonal events to ensure more effective management of account settings.
5. A/B test ad copies.
Consistent changes in ad copies present an opportunity for A/B testing. Instead of continuously tweaking the same ad copy, conducting experiments with different themes can provide insights into what works best for your account.
Final takeaways
By leveraging the Change History widget effectively, you can optimize your Google Ads account, make informed decisions, and drive improved performance.
Note: This feature is part of Optmyzr Core. Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Sign up for a free trial.
Monitoring your Google Ads campaigns is crucial to ensuring smooth performance, and achieving desired goals.
One of the best (and debatably underutilized) tools to do this is the change history report. While its insights are valuable, it can be daunting to find a specific change among hundreds (or even thousands) of entries.
We at Optmyzr wanted to make it easier for you to uncover these insights so we launched the Change History Querying tool.
What is the Change History Querying tool?
Change History Querying is a powerful tool that can help you stay informed about any changes made to your account and take action if necessary. You can find it here.
In this post, you’ll learn how this tool can help you monitor your PPC account.
How Change History Querying tool helps you monitor your PPC account?
1. Get notified about changes made by auto-apply recommendations
Auto-apply recommendations are a helpful tool provided by Google Ads, but they can also make changes to your campaigns without your knowledge. By getting a report of or getting notified about any change that was made by auto-apply recommendations, you can monitor these changes and ensure that they align with your overall campaign strategy.
Some of the changes you should look out for:
1. Removing redundant keywords: This might lead to converting keywords being removed. It’s important that you make the call on which keywords to keep. This recommendation triggers based on the rules of close variants, so analyzing what Google sees as redundant will help with account structure.
2. Adding in ad copy/assets: Creative isn’t automatically better because a human made it. However, brand standards might dictate certain language.
3. Adding in broad match keywords: Broad match can be useful and when used correctly, absolutely helps improve account performance. Changing existing keywords to broad match or adding broad match where it hasn’t been planned for can hurt the account because keywords have been removed and you might now be bidding against yourself.
4. Adding in search partners: While search partners can be useful, it often represents unknown inventory. Additionally, because it’s a campaign-wide decision, it typically requires human investigation to determine if it’s worth testing.
All of these changes can be achieved with the advertiser at the automation wheel through Optmyzr’s Express suggestions and Rule Engine.
2. Set up alerts to know if your campaign got paused
One way to stay informed about changes made to your campaigns is by setting up alerts for your higher-value campaigns. You can create an alert to check at the end of the day if your premium brand campaigns were paused today.
This will help you to stay informed about the status of your campaigns and make sure you don’t lose out on important traffic as your ads were not running. This is particularly important if you have lots of automated rules and scripts running (particularly budget pacing rules).
3. Check for the impact of work
You can use change history querying to see what kind of changes your team members or agency make, and check that there are no unexpected changes made to your important campaigns by junior team members.
Additionally, you can see what types of changes are made (high human involvement vs automation). This will help provide transparency on whether changes are coming from a strategic place, and more importantly providing value to your account.
For example, if you see that most of the changes are IP exclusions and there aren’t any ad copy, negative keyword, or placement changes, you might investigate whether the practitioners are actively working on the account.
4. Check changes made by a specific tool in last 14 days
Google Ads scripts and Automated rules can make changes to your campaigns automatically, and by using the change history querying feature, you can see what changes were made by them in the last 14 days and take any necessary action.
5. Analyze changes during declining performance
If you notice a decline in performance of a campaign in the last 14 days compared to the previous period, you can use change history querying to check the changes that were made during that period and analyze them. This can help you to identify any changes that might have contributed to the decline in performance and take action to improve your campaigns.
Optmyzr customers can start their investigation using the PPC Investigator too, which helps show connected metrics that might be pointing to positive or negative movement in the account.
6. Set up alerts to notify of any budget change for important campaigns
If there has been any change in the budget of your Branded campaigns in the last 14 days, you can get alerted and take required steps.
In conclusion, change history querying is a powerful tool that can help you monitor your PPC account and take action if necessary. By setting up alerts, analyzing changes, and keeping an eye on important campaigns and team members, you can ensure that your campaigns are running smoothly and achieving your desired goals.
Note: This feature is part of Optmyzr Core. Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Sign up for a free trial.
If you’re a PPC Advertiser you’re certainly no stranger to scores in your ads account, for example, quality score or optimization score. With Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) replacing Expanded Text Ads, advertisers are now increasingly exposed to a new type of score called Ad Strength.
In this post, I’ll explain what is the Responsive Search Ads ad strength, how much it matters, and how it compares to the other optimization scores that have been around longer.
What is Ad Strength?
Google defines Ad Strength as follows:
Ad Strength provides you with feedback to help you focus on providing the right messages to your customers. It shows how well an ad creative follows the best practices for optimal performance, ranging from “Incomplete”, “Poor”, “Average”, “Good”, to “Excellent”.
It is the newest type of score advertisers see in their accounts associated with Responsive Search Ads.
Does Ad Strength matter?
Google states this is a best practice score and is intended to make a great first impression. This is an important choice of words and means it’s not learning from your actual performance. And while a good first impression matters, long-term results matter even more.
Ad strength uses a machine learning model that looks at which ad attributes tend to correspond to good outcomes for an advertiser. For example, will an advertiser who has 10 different variations of a headline perform better than a similar advertiser who has 15 different variations of the same headline?
Do ads that include the primary keyword of an ad group tend to have better performance than ads that do not include the same keyword?
Will ads with too many redundant phrases perform worse than those that avoid redundancy?
These are super helpful insights to get things started and we can all learn something from history’s lessons.
However, once you’ve got a good baseline ad, forget ad strength because while it reflects what has worked well for the masses in the past, it doesn’t care about what works for you. An advertiser whose ad with ‘poor’ ad strength starts to perform very well will still be labeled as ‘poor’.
Let me say that again. Ad strength does not change based on your performance!
Hence it’s possible advertisers with fantastic conversion rates, low CPAs, and tons of profits could have poor ad strength. They’re not following the general wisdom but they’re still successful. To think differently is not rewarded by this model.
So if you’re an experienced marketer there’s nothing wrong with creating an ad that you think will perform really well, even if it happens to have a poor ad strength according to Google’s predictions.
What matters much more, in that case, is close monitoring and methodical experimentation to make sure that the actual performance is reflective of what you believe the ad can achieve.
Does Poor Ad Strength Impact Ad Serving?
If you’re worried that poor ad strength means your ad will serve less frequently, rest assured that ad strength does not impact ad rank or quality score. In other words, if your ad strength is poor, it does NOT mean Google is deprioritizing your ad in the ad auction.
However, it is possible that your ad really is bad and will hence also get a low quality score and a lower ad rank in auctions. Correlation, not causation.
Part of the reason some people believe poor ad strength causes their ad to show less is that Google for a while labeled some ads as ‘poor (limited eligibility)’. This status was confusing and has since been removed.
Is Ad Strength Static?
While my point is that ad strength can be ignored because it’s disconnected from performance, it’s not entirely static. For example, ad strength likes ads that contain the main keyword of the ad group in the headline text.
So if the keywords of an ad group change, or if the mix of which keywords get the most impressions changes, then the ad strength could change even when there were no changes to any of the ad’s assets.
Should You Pay Attention to Quality Score?
Quality Score (QS) is the original machine learning / artificial intelligence score in Google Ads. It’s been around for nearly 2 decades and its purpose has always been to predict the likelihood that an ad will be relevant enough to be clicked.
An important point about quality score is that an advertiser’s initial QS can quickly change as the system accrues more data about the keyword. In other words as an account has more of its own data the quality score number you see is more reflective of the true reality of that account’s quality and relevance.
Therefore it makes sense for advertisers to pay close attention to QS and try to get it as high as possible.
The number you see becomes a better representation of reality as time goes on. And remember that the higher the quality score the lower the cost-per-click an advertiser has to pay to maintain their position in the ad auction.
Should You Pay Attention to Optimization Score?
The Optimization Score, just like the quality score, has an element of machine learning to it. The purpose of the optimization score is to tell advertisers how much headroom is available in their accounts. For example, if they were to switch bids or budgets, how many more conversions could this change potentially cause.
The number that is estimated is based on machine learning and as with any prediction, it’s not always going to be entirely accurate. However, the optimization score is well worth paying attention to because if you have a low optimization score it means that Google’s machine learning believes you are leaving a lot of potential conversions on the table.
You should evaluate the suggestion and then make a decision based on how accurate you believe the impact to be. In Optmyzr, we selectively render some of Google’s opportunities to improve optimization score by comparing Google’s predictions to our own, to help advertisers take advantage of what we believe to be the best opportunities.
Beware of Closed-Loop Feedback Systems
The problem with a largely static feedback system like ad strength is that it allows you to get stuck in a closed loop. This concept is explained in the book “The Loop” by Jacob Ward of NBC News.
The idea is that machine learning influences our behaviors in undesirable ways. In the case of advertisers, machine learning is telling us how to be creative with our ads. But what it recommends is based on what worked for others in the past.
And when it tells everyone to do the same and we obey, we get stuck in a closed loop.
Here’s an example you may be able to better relate to. If we only look at recommendations from Netflix for what TV shows to watch next, Netflix’s algorithms are influencing our decisions, and those decisions feedback into the algorithm to make future recommendations.
Algorithm: Hey, you should watch this cool tv show, it’s trending where you live.
Me: Sure, I’ll check it out.
Algorithm: Wow, look at that, another person watching that show, I should recommend even more like that.
Me: Where are all the new and unique shows? Everything feels the same!
Ad strength score causes a similar problem for advertisers. When the algorithm tells us what we should do because of what has worked in the past, it is disincentivizing experimentation that can create new success stories that could have altered future predictions.
The ads are becoming homogenized and our creativity is no longer rewarded.
How Machine Learning Works for Responsive Search Ads
All of the scores mentioned above have an element in machine learning and artificial intelligence. So I think it’s important to briefly explain how that technology works. By understanding that, we will be able to see the shortcomings and potential pitfalls.
Some machine learning works by building a model that predicts the future based on what’s happened in the past. The first step in creating machine learning is to build the model, sometimes called the training phase. During the training phase, historical data is fed into the machine so that it can find correlations between the various attributes that correspond to the desired outcome.
Let’s take quality score for example. The machine is looking for signals that correspond to higher click-through rates, an indicator of ad relevance. It may find that the presence of the keyword in the ad text is a factor that correlates with higher CTR, and hence build that into its model so that keywords with such ads will get a higher score.
After the model has been tested and iterated on, it is deployed and starts making predictions. In the case of quality score, it makes a prediction about the likelihood of each ad trying to enter the auction getting a click. It makes this prediction each time a user does a search.
The model could be static, updated periodically, or continuously learn from the success of its own predictions to improve itself. For example, if the quality score model predicts an ad will get clicked and then it doesn’t get clicked, it will update its model so that future predictions will be more accurate. This is called reinforcement learning.
You should also understand that models can be built with different sets of data, and weigh different types of signals more or less. In the case of quality score, the models are built with all Google Ads data going back over a recent period of time but they are built to weigh an account’s own performance more heavily when that data is available.
So when an advertiser adds a new keyword to their account, their initial quality score is based more on system-wide data. When the keyword starts to build up its own history in the advertiser’s account, that will weigh more heavily on quality score.
Wrapping up
A higher ad strength doesn’t mean a better CTR or a better conversion rate or a better quality score. If you’re new to advertising or don’t know what’s going to work, consider this a piece of advice.
But if you’re an experienced advertiser, go ahead and do what you do best. Create the ad that resonates well with your target audience and keep the focus on performance. Don’t just be blinded by the ad strength.
We also carried out a study on RSA performance by covering over 13,671 randomly chosen Optmyzr user accounts and answered questions like:
Is RSA usage as common among advertisers as one thinks?
How does RSA performance compare to that of ETAs?
What effect do pinned headlines/descriptions have on performance?
There’s nothing worse than coming back to a dirty house. The washing is piled high, laundry is draped all over the furniture and there’s a ‘stench’ that fills the air.
Nobody wants to invite people into that situation and it can also be massively embarrassing. Well, no more is this metaphor true than when describing a Google Ads account structure.
As with the analogy above, a messy house can often be a sign of something else going on behind the scenes.
In a bid to help you avoid domestic chaos (from an ads perspective of course), we’ve compiled a list of reasons why having a straightforward account structure is so important and ensures you keep your house in order.
3 reasons why a Google Ads account structure is so important
1. Easier navigation
Firstly, just for your own sanity, having an easy-to-understand structure can save you LOADS of time. On an almost daily occurrence, clients, account managers, or wider members of the team may have general questions about the account and its performance.
When this is the case, there’s nothing worse for both parties than having to sit through someone muddling through a straightforward process. By having a clear and easy-to-navigate structure, you reduce the likelihood of this happening and can help to instruct those asking the question in a much more streamlined way.
2. More precise reporting
Whether working in-house, at an agency, or even for yourself, there’s nothing worse than pulling report data that’s a mess. Building on that, it can create extremely difficult situations for account managers who have to go into great detail about poorly defined accounts that contain irrelevant keywords and queries.
An enhanced structure can improve reporting and make optimization a lot smoother!
This is only going to lose the trust of the client so always ensure that the structure aligns with wider reporting goals.
3. Better results
Arguably the most important reason for a clearly defined structure is performance!
Not only does it help to clearly signpost what is and isn’t working (with poor results standing out like a sore thumb!), but a clear account structure can help improve quality scores.
Ensuring that everything from the campaign through to keyword and content matches up ensures you’re putting your best foot forward from a quality score perspective, which in turn can help to improve overall results.
Depending on how complex an account is there is also the added element of ensuring that the structure aligns with individual campaign KPIs.
For example, if you’re running campaigns that utilize different automated bid strategies (be it brand campaigns with target impression share versus product campaigns driving conversion metrics), it would be recommended to cover this element in the naming structure to help remind management teams of the campaign aims.
The flip side
There is an important element to note with structure and that is being ‘over structured’ - if you’re working across a large-scale account, where you know the inner workings like the back of your hand, just consider how an outsider may see it.
Is your detailed naming structure packed full of abbreviations really working for the client?
Do you have campaigns broken out by match type when there really isn’t enough data to warrant this approach?
While the previous hypothetical questions may work, on the one hand, it can often be beneficial to take a step back and think - ‘how can I make this easier to digest?’
The 4 important elements of a Google Ads account structure
So all of these ideas sound great, but I’m sure you’re thinking ‘but what can I do about it?’ - well fear not! Listed below are some key action points on how to set your campaign up for structure success! :
1. Clearly defined naming structures
PPC 101 here but always ensure the campaign name actually has a link to its contents! It’s such a basic thing but numerous accounts have fallen foul of ensuring keywords align with campaign names, leading to a mish-mash of everything and keyword chaos.
2. Labels
Always the lifesaver of an account. I’d always advise leaning on these when accounts scale. As mentioned though, try to ensure that these make sense, we don’t want to make more trouble for ourselves by having to spend time translating our own work!
3. Shared budgets
Shared budgets can be another great way of keeping a budget in line within a nicely ordered account. Why spend time worrying about underutilized budgets when you can automatically share this allocation with those which may be more stretched budget-wise?
Alongside our additional structure must-haves, shared budgets can be a great time saver!
4. Negative keyword lists
Please, please, please take time before launching to consider whether a campaign by campaign, account-level, or hybrid negative keyword list will be best for your account.
Nobody needs to be rueing misspent clicks when the negative keyword should have been set at the campaign level rather than the account level. Get everything tip-top by taking time to consider your approach to negatives.
Keep your house in order
So next time you’re staring into a messy account - stop for a minute, think about all the tips you’ve learned here, and ensure you’ve followed our key steps to ensure that your house is in the best shape of its life!
If you do Google Ads, you can barely go a minute these days without seeing auto-apply recommendations they want you to opt in to.
And just 4 days into 2023, they announced the Remove Redundant Keywords recommendation that got a lot of flak from advertisers for changing the scope of an existing recommendation.
Here’s a TL;DR:
For anyone who opted in, Google would combat redundancy by removing keywords with the same match type that show for the same queries in an ad group. And in January 2023, that scope changed to include all match types.
Now the question is, can you blindly trust automatically applied Google Ads recommendations?
Well, turns out you can’t.
Here’s what Google’s automatically applied recommendations did to our account.
We looked at our Google Ads account and found that our brand keyword, ‘Optmyzr’ all of a sudden wasn’t driving any more conversions.
Luckily, we were using our own tool in Optmyzr called the PPC investigator which flagged this error for us. So we knew something was up.
We jumped into our Google Ads account and went to the automatically applied recommendation history to investigate, and here’s what we found.
Google removed our brand keyword, ‘Optmyzr’ on January 12. Now, did they have a good reason to do this? We don’t know.
Google may have determined that it was a redundant keyword that was already getting traffic from another variation. But this is our brand name and the correct spelling of it.
Here’s how this specific keyword performed for us.
As you can see the keyword, ‘Optmyzr’, was driving 7 conversions before it was removed. And after it was removed by Google, it had no more conversions.
Maybe Google did this because they figured we’d get more overall conversions in the ad group because we were covered on that keyword anyway.
But if you look at those stats, you’ll see that after the change we had 5 conversions whereas we had more than 10 before Google made that change.
We thought, maybe Google actually sent more traffic to other ad groups in the campaign. So we looked at that too, and here’s the campaign.
The campaign is now almost entirely reliant on that one brand keyword ad group. Before Google made the change, the campaign was driving 10 conversions. After Google removed our brand name, it was only getting half as many conversions as before.
Okay, well maybe it was giving us cheaper conversions. That could be a good thing. I mean, I kind of liked the conversions, but sometimes cheaper is better.
So we looked at the CPC column and found that after Google’s automatically applied recommendations the CPC went up by more than 130 percent.
In short, Google identified our brand term “Optmyzr” as a redundant keyword, which made no sense because it was — and still is — one of our best-converting keywords.
This is exactly the reason you need automation layering or PPC insurance to protect your accounts. And that’s what a tool like Optmyzr or a great script will do for you.
How Optmyzr can protect your account from Google’s mistakes?
If you’re worried that Google’s redundant keyword removal is affecting your account in a negative way, Optmyzr’s Rule Engine can help.
Watch this video below to learn how it works.
Remember to monitor Google’s auto-applied recommendations closely
Taking back control with even the simplest of changes, like the one above that takes just a few minutes goes a long way in protecting your PPC accounts.
We caught it in time with our PPC Investigator and Rule Engine tools in Optmyzr before it could cause too much damage.
Make sure Google is not messing up your results with some of their automatically applied recommendations.
If you like what you’ve seen, go ahead and try the strategy shown above in your Optmyzr account. But if you don’t have one yet, consider starting a 14-day free trial.
You can use all of our tools with no limitations to manage your PPC more efficiently.
Google recently announced that starting in March 2023, all content targeting will be simplified into a single “Content” page in Google Ads.
With this upcoming change in content targeting many advertisers are understandably concerned about what that will mean for their ROI. Up until 2023, Google advertisers would be able to make “or” and “and” statements with their content targeting.
This meant that brands could fine-tune their personas and really do innovative message mapping across the Google ad network.
Removing the “and” functionality means brands may need to forgo important types of placements that would otherwise be viable due to the grab-bag nature of the quality.
For example, a pet retailer might have used affinity targeting to ensure placements have to do with “pets”. This was a reasonable volume booster for display and video campaigns because they could layer other targeting parameters.
However, affinity audiences tend to be much looser and without the additional stipulations would likely drag the budget into unviable placements.
It’s been speculated that advertisers might pull their budgets from Google and use other ad channels with slightly more control. However, to regain the lost contextual targeting, advertisers would need to look to programmatic advertising.
We’re going to explore which ad channel is better suited to advertisers and how to make the most of each.
What is Programmatic Advertising?
Programmatic advertising is an automated way of advertising that leverages software involving algorithms to purchase online ad placements to target specific audiences and serve contextually relevant ads in real-time.
How is Programmatic Advertising different from Google Display Network (GDN)?
The core difference between programmatic advertising and GDN is that GDN is a self-contained network that can be accessed through programmatic bidding, but also has other softer signals; whereas programmatic advertising covers any data-backed, individual-based visual creative.
The most relevant programmatic advertising channels are:
Display Ad Exchanges: Online hubs enabling brands to buy and sell ad impressions in real time.
Examples: Google AdX, AppNexus, and Rubicon Project.
Demand-Side Platforms (DSPs): DSPs are platforms allowing advertisers to purchase ad impressions from various sources, including display ad exchanges, in real time.
They equip advertisers to effectively target and bid profitably through data.
Examples: The Trade Desk, MediaMath, and LiveRamp.
Video Ad Networks: Video ad distribution platforms that specialize in reaching a robust network of websites and apps.
They connect advertisers to a large and engaged audience, and often offer advanced targeting capabilities, such as demographic and behavioral targeting.
Examples: TubeMogul and BrightRoll.
Social Media Platforms*: Social ad platforms are often overlooked in the programmatic conversation but are one of the most accessible channels.
While they don’t have the same levels of control and flexibility in targeting as they once did, they still represent far more robust targeting options than just the GDN.
Examples: Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Pinterest.
Private Marketplaces (PMPs): PMPs are exclusive networks of premium publishers that offer programmatic access to their inventory.
They provide advertisers with a more controlled environment, compared to open exchanges.
Here are some general ranges for the cost of programmatic advertising:
Display Ads: There is no real difference in cost between programmatic and GDN on cost.
The auctions are fairly comparable, and while the methods of bidding are slightly different (CPM vs CPC vs Conversion), the core prices are not that different.
Auction prices will range from a few cents to several dollars and are determined by the competitiveness of the placement, as well as the floor bid the publisher is willing to accept.
Video Ads: This is where GDN and Youtube really shine. Programmatic plays tend to be more expensive with CPMs starting at $10 and ranging as high as $100.
The cost of video ads is driven by targeting strategy, quality, the exclusivity of the inventory being purchased, and ad format.
Social Media Ads: a big part of social ads is how many variables an advertiser wants to test (creative, audience, format, etc).
Placements are charged on both a CPC and CPM billing schedule depending on the bidding strategy and campaign goal. It’s normal to pay a bit less per view on social video channels than on Youtube, but the quality is a bit more grab bag.
Will Google Display Network still be viable for you post the targeting change?
It depends.
Some brands with exacting brand standards will force a move due to placement liabilities. For many brands, this change isn’t actually as big of a deal as other recent setting changes from Google.
At the end of the day, advertisers will still be able to choose placements and set exclusions.
The panic around GDN and its viability create an interesting opportunity for programmatic-first advertisers to test volume plays. Yes, they won’t have the ability to make “or” targeting choices, but with all the other tools at their disposal, there are some mighty bargains to be had.
One of the biggest wins for GDN is how self-serve it is. Brands who might have felt that they had to work through a rep to get their campaigns set up have the opportunity to capture new market share.
This change is ultimately just like how Google took away the ability to exclude mobile games from display campaigns.
How to protect your Google Display Network investment?
The most important thing you can do is make sure your placement exclusion list is in order. You can set rules in your account to begin capturing low-value placements to exclude, as well as placements you want to ensure get captured.
If you’re stuck or need help, Optmyzr’s Smart Exclusions tool can help you do this automatically.
You can read all about the Smart Exclusions toolhere.
Another important step to consider is auditing your creative and confirming they translate to all personas your current placement eligibility represents. Non-programmatic advertisers can take a page from the programmatic handbook and begin thinking about each user and all the factors influencing their consideration.
While you are handing the real-time bidding to the Google algorithm, applying that level of segmentation on creative to audiences will improve your ROI.
Finally, consider testing your campaigns on the Microsoft Audience network (which is much cheaper than the GDN but behaves the same way) and prove which creative/audience types serve you best. Then take the winners to the GDN.
Final Thoughts
Ultimately the GDN continues to provide a lot of value for brands who need to increase their market share as well as recapture interest in warm leads. Adjusting for a looseness in placements is just as easy a change to account for as looseness in match types.
So long as brands are taking proactive measures to ensure their campaign structure is set up for success, the GDN will continue to provide value (if a bit more expensive than before).
On January 4th, 2023, Google sent an email to advertisers who run Google ads regarding a new change they made to the “remove redundant keywords recommendations”.
What was Google’s announcement on the “Remove Redundant Keywords Recommendation”?
Google announced that they are changing how automatically applied recommendations will work for deduping keywords.
Here’s why this is important.
If you’re an advertiser who previously accepted Google deduping your keywords automatically on your behalf, Google is now changing the rules for how they will define what a duplicate keyword is.
In the past, a duplicate keyword had to be the same match type. But, going forward, Google will also consider the same keyword text in different match types to be an equivalent keyword.
In other words, this recommendation now applies across match types.
Instead of keeping the more precise match type — so if you had an exact match and a phrase match — Google will decide to keep the broad match keyword.
The PPC community was clearly not a fan of this move
Greg Finn, Director of Marketing at Cypress North, was the first to report on this after he got a notification from Google that something was changing.
On what planet does this make sense?
Google Ads is changing the definition & execution of a recommendation AFTER IT HAS ALREADY BEEN APPLIED.
Several advertisers were upset and it showed on Twitter.
Specifically, what’s going to be different, as highlighted in yellow in the screenshot above, is the definition of what constitutes a duplicate keyword. Google will no longer look at the match type of the keyword.
In response, Google Ads Liaison, Ginny Marvin took to Twitter to clear the confusion.
Yesterday we notified advertisers who’ve opted into auto-apply recommendations for removing redundant keywords. There’ve been some questions and confusion about the update and I’ll try to address them in this thread:
First of all, go and take a look at your account. If you’re already accepting the automatic deduplication of keywords in your account, consider whether you want that to continue to happen or whether you want to pause it and start deduping your account on your own.
Let me show you how you do this in Google Ads.
Navigate to the Recommendations section and look at the History section. If you’ve already accepted the automatic deduping, it will show up here as a historical event.
Now, from here, it’s very easy to change the status from green to red and disable this automatic optimization simply by clicking on ‘Disable’.
If this is not an optimization you were previously doing, you can go to the Manage section, then under Maintain your ads, and you will find the deduplication right here under Remove redundant Keywords.
You can check that to turn it on for an account where you want to use this.
How you can take back control?
If you’d prefer manual control and stay in charge of your account, you can use Optmyzr to find duplicate keywords and remove them on your own terms.
For that, as an Optmyzr user, you can go to Optimizations -> For Keywords -> Keyword De-duper.
The Keyword De-duper works in several ways. It can either check across campaigns or within the same campaign for duplicate keywords.
Whenever it finds duplicates, it will present them to you with an automatic recommendation of which ones to remove based on performance data.
But you can always go ahead and change those selections if you prefer to remove other keywords that are also considered to be duplicates.
This, of course, all falls under the realm of Google’s continued push towards more broad keywords.
It makes sense if you think about it from the perspective that AI and machine learning are getting progressively better at matching a user’s intent when they do a search for a company that can provide and service that intent.
But as you continue to use more broad match keywords in your account, we recommend you keep a close eye on what exactly your ads are showing for.
That’s another thing Optmyzr can help you with, using the Rule Engine. With the Rule Engine, you can automatically process search terms based on criteria that you set.
You could take one of Optmyzr’s pre-built strategies or create your own.
In the video above, I’ve explained how you can create your own strategy based on search terms.
You’ll have a lot of flexibility in how you use the Rule Engine to automatically manage and monitor your search terms as Google continues to push towards more broad match.
How to find keywords removed by Google?
If you’re already an Optmyzr user, you can create a Rule Engine strategy to generate a report on the recently removed keywords.
We recommend this if you’re running the auto-apply recommendation and would like to see the list of keywords Google has removed.
A big thanks again to Greg Finn from Search Engine Land for first reporting this and making advertisers aware that this is something to pay attention to.
I also had a chance to speak to Greg about this announcement recently. You can watch our full conversation here.
We’re here to help
This change by Google is one more clear indication that they’re moving toward broad match. But, it’s you, and not a machine who will know what’s best for your account.
Taking back control with even the smallest of changes, like the one above that takes just a few minutes goes a long way in protecting your PPC accounts.
So, if you like what you’ve seen, go ahead and try it in your Optmyzr account. But if you don’t have one yet, consider starting a 14-day free trial. You can use all of our tools with no limitations to manage your PPC more efficiently.
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Google’s Smart Bidding has evolved over the years to have a better understanding of what works for many PPC accounts. It wasn’t too long ago that advertisers preferred manual bidding outright.
Smart Bidding is now commonly used and much more effective than ever before — over 92% of Google Ads accounts linked to Optmyzr use Smart Bidding in at least one campaign.
But while Smart Bidding strategies aim to drive volume-based KPIs such as clicks or conversions, not all conversions are created equal.
With bid strategies like Target ROAS and Maximize Conversion Value, there’s a much stronger case to bid for value rather than volume.
The Optmyzr suite currently has three tools to help advertisers and agencies implement these strategies effectively and easily.
In this article, you’ll learn:
What these tools are
How to use them
Common use cases
Best practices to maximize effectiveness
Create training data using Segment Scorer
The Segment Scorerlets you easily rate segments from your online audiences based on their value to your business. These ratings should be based not on Google metrics like click-through rate, but on how they perform after converting.
With these scores, you create training data for Optmyzr to suggest the best Conversion Value Rules for your campaigns. Conversion Value Rules are similar to bid adjustments for Smart Bidding and put your scores in a format that Google can understand.
Let’s look at an example of this in practice. When you’re asked to score a segment like the one below (United States), you first need to analyze the value of this segment to your or your client’s business:
Are people from the US more likely to buy from you?
Do they return fewer products or have a shorter sales cycle?
Is the average order value higher among US customers?
Based on the angles important to the business, give it a score between 1 and 5 with 5 being the highest and 1 being the lowest.
You can score segments from five categories in this tool: City, Region, Country, Device, and Audience.
Adjust conversion values using Optimize Value Rules
The Optimize Value Rules tool suggests conversion value rules based on your data inputs from the Segment Scorer. Conversion Value Rules let you better express the importance of your conversions as they relate to your business.
This tool bridges the gap between your business knowledge and Google’s ability to use that knowledge to get you the most profitable conversions.
The magnitude of a suggested adjustment depends on the scores for the primary and secondary segments. However, you can always change the adjustment for each entry by editing the fields in the ‘New Adjustment’ column.
Note: Before applying adjustments, read up on the common pitfalls of value-based bidding so you can better monitor performance.
Discover insights using Segment Explorer
The Segment Explorer lets you visualize your Google Analytics audiences’ performance by multiple dimensions in Optmyzr.
Many times in Google Analytics, it’s difficult to segment and visualize multiple audiences together. But with Segment Explorer, getting those insights becomes straightforward.
Check out the performance of multiple audiences in terms of behavior, geography, and demographics — all at once. This lets you create targeted audiences for your Google Ads campaigns, faster than you could do manually.
How conversion values can vary: use cases
Let’s look at how different industries might use these tools to optimize the ROI of their ad spend. Remember that after Google reports a conversion, its final value to a business varies based on several factors including location, ticket size, product type, and more.
Home Services
Example: Roofing
Google conversion event: Lead gen form completed
What can happen afterward:
Roofing company contacts the lead to schedule a free estimate
Estimator meets the prospect
Prospect reviews the estimate
Prospect becomes a paying customer
What can affect the final value:
Some zip codes have bigger houses. Bigger houses mean bigger roofs. And bigger roofs mean higher average project values.
There are different types of roofing materials that vary with geography and customer preferences. For instance, customers in warmer locations like Los Angeles may prefer solar roofing. Different materials have different margins, making a job more or less profitable than usual.
Education
Example: University
Google conversion event: Lead gen form completed
What can happen afterward:
College contacts applicant to discuss the education program
Applicant may apply for financial assistance
Applicant is admitted and becomes a paying customer
What can affect the final value:
Depending on the area of study the prospect indicates, it can be a longer or shorter program and have a different total cost.
Applicant proximity to campus impacts the chance they attend virtual or in-person programs, which may have different associated costs like room and board.
Preferred degree may make them more or less likely to get a high-paying job, thus influencing their ability to make charitable donations to the university after they graduate.
Ecommerce
Example: Cosmetics
Google conversion event: Purchase/checkout
What can happen afterward:
Order is returned for a refund, either in part or in whole
Customer buys additional products of equal or greater value
What can affect the final value:
Someone who buys a big bottle of shampoo will be less likely to be a repeat customer in the short term than someone who buys a trial size of several shampoos.
Some customers will return more of their purchases. For example, different demographics may correlate with higher impulse purchase behavior i.e. they buy several products but return most of them.
Using ROI optimization as a control tool for Performance Max
Among all of Google’s advertising products, Performance Max is the most comprehensive example of automation yet. It promises a new way to advertise across all of Google’s channels, which also means fully automated bidding and budget allocation.
This calls for a new approach to ROI optimization that’s less about pushing buttons or turning dials and more about feeding the right first-party data that’s not accessible to Google or your campaign.
If you’re an ecommerce clothing store, that data can be detailed stock information like availability per size or color, margin, sell-through rate, return rate, etc.
Feeding this data to Google along with Conversion Value Rules offers you better control over your Performance Max campaigns. A good strategy here would be running Maximize Conversion Value with tROAS.
Best practices for ROI optimization
We suggest the following best practices to produce optimal results when using a value-based bidding strategy.
Score your segments based on their ultimate value to the business, not according to metrics or KPIs that Google can easily see.
Check your campaign performance after four weeks of making adjustments. The Smart Bidding algorithms need some time to learn what the right traffic looks like to you.
Re-score your segments in the Segment Scorer if there are changes in your business priorities (like a discontinued product), or when you have to optimize your campaign performance (a product that isn’t moving). We still recommend spacing adjustments four weeks apart.
Be sure to set your bidding strategy to Maximize Conversion Value (with or without a target ROAS) so that Smart Bidding can take different conversion values into account.
Solutions to common concerns around ROI Optimization
Errors in reporting due to ‘Adjusted Conversion Value’
When you work with Value Rules, there will be differences between your original conversion values and adjusted conversion values. This leads to discrepancies in reporting.
To overcome that, we added ‘Unadjusted Conversion Value’ to the ‘KPIs’, ‘Summary’, ‘Top Campaigns’, and ‘Performance Comparison’ widgets in our single account report. When you’re reporting metrics to your clients, you can clearly communicate the actual conversion value and the adjustment made to it.
Knowledge gap between you and your client
We’ve heard from some customers — especially agencies — that it can be challenging to obtain scores for the Segment Scorer. To make that easier, we’ve created a template you can share with clients or stakeholders to fill out.
In the ‘Start Scoring Segments’ dropdown, select ‘Bulk Score Segments’. You can download the template, add the scores and then upload it back to the tool.
This template can serve you in two ways:
You can score multiple segments at once without the need to score a large set of scoring cards one after another.
You can share this template with your clients requesting them to score the segments based on their business goals. This bridges the knowledge gap between you and your client, ultimately bringing more accurate Value Rules suggestions for your Google Ads account while respecting a client’s need for privacy.
Data is your most valuable asset
ROI optimization is the next evolution of account optimization after a conversion-based strategy. But for any optimization to work, you must collect the right data to enable smarter decisions from ad platforms like Google.
Unique business data is your most powerful asset, and the optimization tools that we’ve built can help you make the best use of that data in a smooth process.
Why optimize for numbers when you can optimize for actual profitability?
Google calls it value-based bidding. We think of it as ROI optimization. Other teams simply consider it maximizing conversion value.
Whatever the name, there’s one outcome: more valuable, higher quality leads that improve overall profitability.
Here’s an example of this strategy in action of our client which is a drug rehabilitation and mental health services facility in Florida.
Watch Taylor Mathauer and Will Gray from WebMechanix share how they used Value-Based Bidding to generate higher-quality leads for their client.
You will learn: - Why they decided to use value-based bidding - Success with value-based bidding - The state of smart bidding and limitations with value-based bidding - Where they’ve seen value-based bidding not work - Requirements for using value-based bidding - When is value-based bidding appropriate - How to track success with value-based bidding
Designing the next step for our client
For our client, volume is the name of the game. Over the course of our campaigns, we’ve optimized for both form fills and phone calls, but calls have historically been our North Star.
While other conversion actions like form fills or insurance verifications are still valuable to their business (and check the box of volume for their admissions team), they wanted to increase the number of calls sourced via Google Ads spend due to their much higher MQL and SQL rate.
The challenge was finding a solution that could prioritize calls while not completely eliminating other conversion actions that are still valuable to their business.
Answering the call to maximize ad spend value
Our solution was to use a value-based bidding strategy to teach Google’s bid strategies which conversion actions are most valuable to our client’s business.
By setting conversion values for our conversion actions and using a value-based bid strategy, we were able to train Smart Bidding to prioritize the action that provides the most value without sacrificing overall lead volume.
Step 1: We did some funnel math to ensure we were setting the correct value for each conversion action. We started by assessing the average revenue each conversion action had driven over a certain time period.
Step 2: We looked at down-funnel metrics such as MQLs, SQLs, and Closed Deals to assign an appropriate value to each conversion action. Below is an example of the math we did to get the accurate conversion value for each action:
Step 3: After setting the correct conversion values for each action, we needed to decide what bid strategy to use. We landed on Target ROAS (tROAS) because we believed that this would increase the number of calls for our clients while improving efficiency.
Note: tROAS works by predicting the value of each query and bidding higher on queries that are more likely to drive a high-value conversion.
Monitoring the outcome for optimal success
We implemented our value-based bid strategy on October 29, 2021.
There are two lenses of performance here: the first looks at the first 4.5 months of implementation, while the second looks at performance since implementing this bid strategy vs. the previous period, to show overall account growth.
The purpose of the latter is to show that as the Smart Bidding algorithms adjust to these users, they’re able to have a rolling impact.
Looking at the last 4.5 months compared to the previous period, we saw a 161% increase in phone calls, 58% increase in form submissions, and a 31.5% drop in cost per lead.
Looking at October 30, 2021 to July 25, 2022 compared with February 3, 2021 to October 29, 2021, we observed a 96% increase in phone calls, 267% more form submissions, and a 54% reduction in account-wide cost per lead.
Conclusion
If the primary goal of your PPC account is to generate leads to be nurtured, there’s a strong case to be made that value-based bidding is your best bet at stretching your ad budget to its fullest capability.
Learn more about how to use this approach to optimize the ROI of your Google Ads campaigns with these resources:
Generating high-quality leads for B2B businesses is not easy.
No, my intention is not to discourage you right off the bat. But with sustained effort over a period of time, you can definitely build a solid, high-quality pipeline of leads that you can pass on to your sales team.
In this article, you’re going to learn how to generate leads for your B2B business using PPC, specifically using Google Ads.
On a side note, we spoke to two of the best B2B PPC experts in the industry on PPC Town Hall, our must-see show for all things search marketing. You can watch the full episode below.
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Now, if you’re somebody who has worked in ecommerce or B2C before and has now started in B2B, there are some important things to know.
How is B2B PPC different from B2C or ecommerce PPC?
On the surface level, there are many similarities between B2B PPC and B2C PPC. The ad platforms are the same and the ad copy and landing page principles are also the same. But there’s a fundamental difference in the approaches between the two.
B2B PPC comes with some unique challenges like the two mentioned below.
1. The length of the sales cycle is longer in B2B.
In B2C or ecommerce buying process, there are fewer stakeholders involved in decision-making. Hence, sales cycles are shorter.
But in the case of B2B sales, the decision-making process happens across various stakeholders. And companies prefer to get into longer contracts. As a result, it takes a lot more time to complete a sale.
The size of the audience is larger in B2C and ecommerce. Hence there’s a better chance of generating a higher lead volume in a given period.
In B2B though, the audience size is narrower, so you don’t usually see as many leads in the same period.
Keeping the above challenges in mind, managing your client’s expectations is crucial. Andrea Cruz, Director of Client Strategy at Tinuiti says that when you onboard a new client, it’s important to have an upfront conversation with them and set realistic expectations.
“When you onboard a new client, you need to have a discussion with them and understand what their expectations are and make sure that they are aligned with what can happen.
So when I talk to them, I say, look, there are things that are already happening that you are doing that we can leverage and those will have a quicker impact. That’s the low-hanging fruit. But now there are campaigns that we are going to be running and results from them can take a while.
I believe that agencies say yes a lot and that we should say no more often and tell them why and create realistic expectations of what can happen.”
How to deal with low lead volume in B2B PPC campaigns?
If your campaign’s objective is to generate demos or free trials, you will likely get a lower lead volume. So your first PPC campaign should not be focused on generating demos. Nobody wants to buy a product or jump on a sales call right away as soon as the first time they’ve heard of a company, right?
Your first campaign should focus on generating demand for your product. And its objective should be to generate a higher-value, lower-friction micro-conversion that generates demand for your product.
What are micro conversions?
Micro conversions are the events that lead up to a bigger conversion like a demo or a purchase of your product.
Examples: Resource downloads, webinar signups, etc.
So instead of focusing on optimizing for demos, you should optimize for such micro conversions. And if you have a lower volume even there, try going further into even smaller conversions like on-page events, page engagements, etc.
Pro tips:
Set up smart goals to turn your most engaged website visits into conversions.
Install a heat mapping tool such as Microsoft Clarity or Hotjar to track clicks, scroll depth, etc. This gives you more insights into the full behavior of your visitors until their final conversion such as a demo.
Best Bidding Strategies for B2B Lead Generation
Enhanced cost-per-click (ECPC)
ECPC is a bidding strategy in which Google makes automatic adjustments to your manual bids rather than you having to do it completely manually.
If you’re running a campaign, especially with a low conversion volume or a new account, you can start with ECPC bidding. Although it is a form of smart bidding, it’s not entirely automated.
Here, you set the initial bids and can later adjust them manually (for example, for really high intent keywords) whenever you want.
Maximize Clicks
Unlike ECPC, Maximize Clicks is a fully automated bidding strategy where the focus is, as the name says, on getting you the most clicks.
There’s no focus on conversions here. So this is a good strategy for branding campaigns.
Note: Because the goal is to get you the most clicks and Google has complete control over the bids, it looks to spend your daily budget even if it becomes expensive to get you those clicks. So before running this strategy, set a maximum cost per click. And ensure that the average cost per click isn’t getting too expensive.
Target Impression Share
In Target Impression Share, you set a percentage for your goal impression share. If your objective is brand awareness or reach, this is a good strategy.
Note: After setting a max CPC bid and seeing it run for some time, keep an eye on it to make sure you don’t spend too much for a click. If you’re skeptical, set the bid a bit lower. If it’s working well, then good. If it’s not, increase the bid.
Maximize Conversions
Maximize Conversions is an automated bidding strategy where Google sets the bids for you to get the most conversions for your campaign while spending your daily budget.
This is a good strategy for campaigns in the middle or lower funnel.
Note: Just like Target Impression Share and Maximize Clicks, keep an eye on the CPCs as you’re giving Google’s algorithm the control to bid whatever it needs to bid to get the most conversions possible. And, before you start using this strategy, you’ll have to set up conversion tracking, something we recommend all advertisers do as soon as they start advertising on Google.
If you want to improve the accuracy of your conversion measurement and unlock more powerful bidding, try enhanced conversions.
Setting up enhanced conversions can take some time, especially in organizations where the marketing team needs to work with engineering to make changes to the website and the company’s CRM systems.
To get started more quickly, there are also conversion value rules. Here’s how it works: You tell Google’s algorithm that a specific type of lead is more valuable to you than others.
For example, everything else being equal, if you get a lead from New York and California, and if you tell Google that California’s lead turns into a better lifetime value customer for you than from New York, the algorithm works to bring you more of those leads that you want the most, in this case, those from California.
A great-converting landing page is just as important
Aside from choosing a bid strategy, you should also build a great landing page for your campaign that can convert. If you need tips and inspiration, check out this great landing page guide by KlientBoost.
**Source**: KlientBoost
Do not forget your funnel
“Always know where your audience is before starting your campaign”, says Brandon Coward, Director of Paid Media at Powered by Search.
And once a lead has spoken to your sales team, exclude them from your remarketing campaigns.
Brandon adds ->
”The first thing we do when we audit any account is taking a look at whether it’s a remarketing or prospecting campaign and see what the exclusions are.”
“And if you’re not either doing the manual upload or pushing those directly from CRM systems to exclude your customers or if it’s sales accepted leads or opportunities, for that matter, from early-stage campaigns, then that’s the first thing we do because you’re likely paying for people who might already be your customer.“
How to pick the suitable keyword match types?
Picking the right match type depends on the campaign and where you’re running it in the funnel. If you’re running a campaign to generate demo requests, experts suggest using ‘exact match’ because you want to be very precise with what your audience is looking for.
But if you don’t have enough volume there, switch to ‘phrase match’.
What about excluding negative keywords?
Early on, you’ve got to keep an eye on negative keywords to ensure you’re getting the right traffic for your campaign. But if you want to make that process easier, Optmyzr helps you keep them in check, using the Negative Keywords Finder tool.
This tool makes recommendations for keywords that you may consider adding as negatives by finding non-converting queries from your search terms report that are driving costs to help you avoid wasted spend.
Date first, marry later.
Remarketing works really well for B2B. Offer something of value to your audience before you ask them to get on a call with your team. Don’t ask for something in return too soon. Selling becomes easier after they learn more about you or your brand. And to conclude here’s a great piece of advice from Andrea ->
“The best PPC managers are the ones who monitor their accounts regularly. Yes, automation is inevitable, but it’s incredibly rewarding to keep an eye on your accounts, understanding what’s working and what’s not, and optimizing for the right conversions to get the best ROI for your ad spend”.
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Shopping campaigns have to be managed differently from Search and Display campaigns in order to improve their performance. We spoke to some of our customers and learned that leveraging shopping campaign priorities is one of the best strategies to do that.
Here we’ll share those best practices with you. But first, a bit about campaign priorities.
What are campaign priorities?
Campaign priorities in Google Ads are used to select the bid when a product is advertised through multiple campaigns. Though every new shopping campaign is automatically created on “low priority” as a default setting, you can modify this and set your campaigns to either high, medium, or low priority.
Keep in mind that campaign priorities are not the same as using negatives, as you aren’t driving or excluding traffic, but rather giving first or second priority for participation in auctions.
Priority levels outweigh the bid amount at auction time, so if a campaign on high priority has a lower bid than a campaign on medium priority, the high priority campaign’s bid will be used. In another case, if multiple campaigns have the same priority, then the campaign with the highest bid is the one that will be used in the auction.
Note that budget issues can cause the priorities to be ignored. For example, if the highest priority campaign runs out of budget, then the bid from the runner-up in terms of priority levels will be used.
When are campaign priorities useful?
Campaign priorities are mostly useful when you’re advertising the same product, for the same country, in multiple Shopping campaigns.
How to use Campaign priorities
1. Prioritize best sellers for generic searches
Campaign priorities can be used to give first participation in the auction for a campaign with your best sellers, or a campaign with the products you want to prioritize or highlight in appearing.
To avoid your shopping ads showing up for unqualified searches you can make your campaigns “compete smarter”, as detailed in this CPC Strategy article.
Example:
Let’s say your inventory contains a variety of wireless speakers. You have different brands and models, but the Bose Minilink II and the JBL Flip speakers are your best-selling items. And as bestsellers, you want to make sure that they have first participation in auction upon a generic “wireless speakers” search.
The way to do this would be to create a campaign for best-sellers and include the Bose Minilink II and the JBL Flip speakers, and then set the priority of this campaign to “High Priority”.
This doesn’t exclude any campaigns from participating, it just helps you define where you first want to place the bid from.
2. Prioritize flighted budgets
Another case would be to use campaign priorities to spend flighted or seasonal budgets before spending evergreen budgets.
Example:
Say you are creating a winter campaign that runs on a specific budget and focuses on winter clothing items only. One of the products in this campaign is a jacket, which is also included in the outdoor apparel campaign that runs year-round.
Considering the winter campaign has its own specific budget, you can make sure that budget is used first, before that of the outdoor apparel campaign.
To do this, you’d set the winter campaign on a high priority, and the outdoor apparel campaign with a medium or low priority.
3. Bid less for generic searches and more for product searches
Somewhat counterintuitively, CPCs for generic queries tend to run higher than those for specific product searches.
Here’s an illustration of that effect from Andreas Reiffen and Crealytics:
The higher the bid, the more one-word (generic) queries the ad is shown for.
This is generally bad because generic searches tend to happen long before the conversion. The more specific, multi-word queries tend to immediately precede the sale. So ROAS-focused advertisers will want to bid more for specific queries and less for generic queries but that’s the opposite of what happens when you have just one campaign for your products.
A strategy that lets you bid more for specific product searches involves a mix of campaign priorities, different bids, and different negative keywords. Kirk Williams wrote a detailed step-by-step article on the benefits of setting up an SKU-level shopping strategy.
This strategy was pioneered by Martin Roettgerding. Here’s how it works:
So for the Generic Campaign, the one that is supposed to attract clicks for the most generic queries related to what you sell, you set high priority, low bids, and add negative keywords for the brands and product names.
Now if a branded search happens, the high priority campaign is skipped because it has a negative brand keyword so the medium campaign will pick up the traffic with a reasonable bid.
Closing thoughts
If you’ve tried some of these techniques or explored others that leverage shopping campaign priorities, let us know. We’d love to feature your story in an upcoming blog post.
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“A customer’s typical conversion path ends after they convert, but this isn’t always the case. Customers return retail purchases, cancel reservations, or perform actions that increase their value to your business. To account for these changes in conversion value, you can adjust the value of a conversion after it’s reported in Google Ads.”
Why Conversion Value Adjustments Are Useful?
Let me explain this with an example.
If you’re an ecommerce business, and you report a conversion after somebody checks out from the shopping cart, then that means your ad was clicked, and your product was bought. And that’s a good thing.
But, how many times does somebody buy something and then return it? It’s actually pretty frequent.
Are you adjusting your conversion value for that?
And on the flip side, let’s say, somebody buys something from you and then goes on to sign up for your company’s credit card, or they become a super loyal customer and they make a bunch more purchases. Or they go on social media and recommend your products to their friends.
These are all great behaviors.
But are you valuing them? Spoiler alert: you should.
Of course, all of these behaviors happen offline after the initial conversion. And it’s really important that you report them because automated bidding systems from Google will try to get you more clicks that drive high value.
If you skip reporting returned purchases, Google may get you conversions from customers who return a lot of stuff. But if you report about when returns happen, Google will stop bringing you such conversions and instead gets you better conversions.
So as illustrated in the image above, by using conversion adjustments, you can go back into Google Ads after that initial purchase, which you reported in step one, and then in step two, you can adjust that value.
To do this, you have to give Google just a little bit of information in the form of either the transaction ID or the order ID.
And then in the next 55 days (that’s how much time Google gives you), you can restate that conversion value.
How to Do Conversion Value Adjustments in Google Ads?
First, you should put the transaction ID on the page that has the conversion pixel associated with Google Ads.
And that’s likely going to be the page after somebody has checked out from their shopping cart.
Now, how do you put in that transaction ID? First, go to this page. Then, scroll down to the section where the ‘Event snippet example’ is shown. Over here, you’ll see the line ’transaction_id’: ‘<%= orderId %>’,
You’re going to put in this piece of text on the page that has the conversion pixel and that’s dynamically going to insert the ‘orderId’.
The ‘orderId’ here isn’t really important. But the key thing is it has to be unique. You don’t want to have two transactions with the same order ID, because if you were to go and update it later, Google wouldn’t know which one you were talking about.
After you’ve got that set, you have to start collecting data on your end and import that into Google Ads.
In the Google Ads editor, go to ‘Tools and Settings’ -> ‘Measurement’ -> ‘Conversions’.
On the left-side panel, click ‘Uploads’. Then, click the ‘+’ button where you’re going to make a new upload. Here, you can even check out the templates by clicking on ‘View templates’.
There are different templates depending on what you’re trying to do. But in our case, we’re trying to update existing conversions using the Order ID.
The templates are available in Excel, CSV, and Google Sheets formats. In this case, let’s use Google Sheets. When you click on the sheet, you will see a list of columns. I’ve taken this template and made my own copy of it.
Now put in the transaction ID in the Order ID field. Then, check the conversion name that was associated with the original conversion, and the adjustment time, including the time zone. Here you also have an option of restating or retracting the value.
In this case, we’re restating a conversion that used to be $100 to $50, but you can also retract a conversion entirely. Now keep in mind, that if you retract a conversion, that action cannot be undone. So be careful with that one.
As I’ve made my own spreadsheet here, I’m going to go back into the Google Ads editor and make sure that this user is given permission to the spreadsheet.
Now go back into Google Ads and open that spreadsheet for updating the transactions. You can also select and preview it. To adjust the conversion values, make sure you hit the ‘Apply’ button and don’t just run the preview.
Wrapping Up
So there you have it. That’s how you use conversion adjustments with Google Ads to better inform Google about what’s really happening with your conversions.
And remember, this is a technique that can help you get better results, especially when you’re using Google’s automations like smart bidding, broad match keywords, responsive search ads, etc. Go ahead and try this out and let us know how you do it.
Google has a tremendous amount of data about how people interact with ads and the computing power and machine learning models to find useful patterns within this.
Combine that with the fact they make bid management available for free to all advertisers and it’s no surprise that their bidding tools are some of the most widely used in the PPC world.
Optmyzr’s tools are the perfect complement for Google’s bid automation, enabling advertisers to monitor and analyze results and to bring their own business data into the mix to further improve results.
For example, Optmyzr can suggest geo bid adjustments while you’re doing smart bidding on Google ads (check out the video below) or use product margin data to enable bidding for profitability, taking things a step further than Google’s target ROAS.
But in working with thousands of advertisers to help take their bid management to the next level, we noticed a fair bit of confusion stemming from the fact that there are 11 types of Google bid strategies that each interact differently with campaign and ad group bid adjustments.
Here’s a fairly common example of why there is confusion: as advertisers transition between bid management strategies, it’s not always obvious which bid adjustments still matter so advertisers with a target ROAS strategy continue to spend time on setting demographic bid adjustments. This is unfortunately a complete waste of time as those bid adjustments are simply ignored by Google.
Advertisers don’t realize they’re wasting time because bid adjustments can be added in the Google Ads interface but depending on the selected bid strategy they may be ignored without warning.
While Optmyzr points out these issues with our Policy and Audit Report, we wanted to help demystify this for all advertisers regardless of whether or not they use Optmyzr so we worked with Google and PPCers on Twitter (shout outs to @BertOnckelinx and @navahf) to create a table of interactions between bid strategies and bid adjustments.
We’ve documented the places in the Google Help Center where our findings came from and tested the settings ourselves. Some of Google’s help materials offer conflicting statements but we’ve done our best to reflect what we see in the real world. Google Ads is constantly evolving so please get in touch with us if you have a suggestion for how to make the table better.
[Click here to see a larger version](https://www.optmyzr.com/forestry/interactions-of-bid-strategies-table.webp) of this image.
Google Help Center References:
1. Unlike bid adjustments for manual CPC, your bid adjustments for Target CPA modify the value of your CPA target, rather than the bids themselves.
2. Because Target ROAS helps optimize your bids based on real-time data, your existing bid adjustments are not used. There is one exception: You can still set mobile bid adjustments of -100%. Note that you don’t need to remove bid adjustments—they just won’t be used.
4. Smart Bidding will use your audiences as signals to bid more efficiently and help get you more conversions and conversion value. Bid adjustments work differently when you’ve applied a conversion-based automated bid strategy and the campaign or ad group contains multiple lists with overlapping users. Rather than adjusting your bids, your bid adjustments will instead prioritize the audience list to which an impression, click, etc. will be attributed.
5. ECPC automatically takes into account different conversion rates for all types of traffic but sets bids separately for mobile devices. This means you don’t need to set any bid adjustments (aside from mobile) for ECPC to maximize conversions. However, if you want to bid more aggressively for certain types of traffic you can still choose to set a bid adjustment. This adjustment will be applied on top of ECPC’s automatic adjustments.
6. Google does not recommend setting bid adjustments unless those adjustments are being made for reasons that wouldn’t be captured in the conversions such as LTV.
7. Starting in late June 2019, advertisers will no longer be able to add new Target Search Page Location or Target Outranking Share bid strategies. Later this year, existing campaigns still using these strategies will automatically be migrated to the Target Impression Share strategy based on previous target locations and historical impression share.
If the last two years have taught me anything, it’s to expect the unexpected…and the unpredictable. While I don’t have a crystal ball, I do have some thoughts on where PPC is headed. Here’s what I think will matter in 2022.
The Three Truths
There are three ongoing trends that I expect will continue to shape our industry. These are the “three truths” of PPC advertising:
Ad platforms will continue to automate.
Advertisers will get less access to data.
Control over targeting, bidding, and messaging will keep decreasing.
We’ll Shift to Managing Goals Rather than Details
As automation continues to improve, the need for granular controls will decline. Instead of managing PPC details inside the ad platforms, our roles will shift to managing higher-level goals at these systems’ periphery. Less managing search terms, more managing how we identify good leads and conversions.
Even Facebook recently added “Lead Conversions” to their platform. Advertisers are getting smart to the fact that leads are meaningless if they don’t convert into customers.
We’ll Rethink Old Assumptions
In the good ol’ days, if you were selling something on the internet, you could assume that there was basically an unlimited supply of the thing you were selling. You could go full steam ahead, offering big discounts and special promotions, and aggressively pursue campaign expansion. You knew the limiting factor was how many buyers you could drum up and not how much stuff you had in inventory. The supply-chain disruptions of 2021 changed that. You can no longer assume unlimited supplies. That means a modern PPC marketer needs to be more nimble than ever.
Here’s another assumption we’ve had to challenge. It used to be that, to get more traffic to an ad group, you had to add keywords or raise bids. That was true before RSAs, which are now the default and will soon replace ETAs. In our recent study of the RSA ad format, we found they can drive four times as many impressions as ETAs, simply because Google’s machine learning is able to boost the relevance of an ad by constructing it on the fly, based on a user’s query and circumstances.
Our decades-old best practice of using the metric “conversions per impression” to find the best ad in an A/B ad test was based on an assumption that is no longer true. To do A/B ad testing right, you now also need to consider that each ad has a unique impact on the ad group’s impressions and hence its ability to drive incremental conversions.
Here’s another false assumption: the higher the ROAS, the better. That was never really true, but advertisers are finally coming to realize this and are beginning to favor POAS (profit over ad spend) instead, since this metric better reflects actual business goals.
We’ll Have to Continue Grappling with New Questions
If you’re selling new cars, you’re faced with the question: do you actually need to advertise? You may already have a one-year backlog due to supply-chain disruptions. Why advertise just so that people can sign up on a waitlist? Is that really necessary? Or is tight supply your opportunity to reset the expectation that cars will be sold below MSRP into one that they will now command a premium over MSRP and you want to double down on ads while the margins are high?
If you sell fitness bikes, and orders get canceled in droves when patience with shipping delays runs thin, do you allow your systems that adjust order values to Google to continue as before? Do you mark these conversions as bad? Or was the fault actually not with marketing finding low-quality buyers? The answer may seem obvious, but whatever you decide has implications on what the machine learns and therefore does next, so tread carefully.
We’ll Need to Rely More on First-Party Data
Before ads became personalized, they were just annoying. Personalized ads are much more useful and relevant. That advertisers are willing to pay a premium for better targeted ads is what’s been floating the rapid development of the web in the last couple decades.
The most important method of personalization has been third-party cookies, which enable the system to draw a far more detailed demographic and psychographic picture of each individual user. But third-party cookies are now considered invasions of privacy and being eliminated. What happens when third-party cookies are gone?
If we can no longer do some of the personalization that made the internet useful, many websites are going to lose considerable revenue. Google did a study and concluded that in the absence of personalization, 62 percent of revenue for online newspapers would go away.
That is a real problem. As is so often the case, a major shift has unintended consequences. Privacy is a desirable goal that may well cause the web as a whole to decline in value. That could be catastrophic. But it’s a problem only if there’s no replacement for third-party-cookie technology. To prevent this, new ways to let advertisers continue to subsidize a free web need to be developed.
Several initiatives to protect user data, while still enabling interest-based advertising and remarketing without third-party cookies, are in development. The most prominent has been Google’s now-discontinued FLoC (Federated Learning of Cohorts).
While we can’t predict the exact solution, it is certain that it will involve machine learning, which draws inferences from masses of data. The more data a machine-learning system is trained on, the more accurate it will become at audience segmentation and personalization.
One possibility is that audience segmentation will be based on devices surveyed, not individual users. I tend to use my laptop for business and my iPhone for personal matters. Under the new system, it’s possible that I’d fall into different cohorts depending on my device and that could actually be really helpful to advertisers who could then target cohorts of work personas or personal personas.
All of us as individuals have many dimensions, which so far have been hard for advertisers to target. Our technical problem-solvers may be able to make a virtue of the necessity of restoring personalization by other means.
The problem is so urgent that we can expect any number of solutions to be developed in the coming year. As always, there will be a competitive shake-out of the various approaches, with one or two eventually emerging as the favorites. We’re well-advised to keep an eye on this trend in 2022. Cliché though it is, it’s also true that every crisis brings new opportunities.
And while waiting to see how things shake out, advertisers should work overtime to increase the first-party data they collect, so they can cut back their dependence on data from Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and the other platforms.
Happy New Year
In a recent PPC Town Hall, Chris Moreno from Google said, “The only thing that we know is that we don’t know anything.” Basically, 2022 is going to be as full of surprises as the last two years were. We need to be ready to be nimble and able to respond to whatever may happen.
One thing that’s constant in PPC is change. To thrive in this industry, you have to be flexible and ready to adapt. But if it seems like right now there’s even more change than typical, it’s not just your imagination. One of the reasons is that Google is sunsetting the AdWords API on April 27, 2022 and after that date, all calls to the API will fail.
There are many questions I’ve heard related to this announcement and I’ll answer them in this post.
Can I still use a 3rd party PPC tool?
Yes, 3rd party PPC management tools will continue to exist. Google is merely transitioning from one API to another. Everything you could automate before will still be possible to automate with the new API.
Google is not killing off 3rd party ad management tools. In April 2021, Google released version 7 of their new Ads API which had all the same capabilities as the old AdWords API. At that time, they announced the old API would stop functioning in 2022. But any developer who is willing to make the effort to rewrite their code can continue to offer their software to advertisers. Optmyzr is on track for the transition and will continue to support advertisers with great PPC tools.
Why do advertisers have to use a new Ads API?
Google normally updates its API for advertisers 3 times per year. Each new version adds some new capabilities to bring it on par with what advertisers have access to when they log into the Google Ads website. New versions may also deprecate features that have been removed from the ads system. And there are always some housekeeping changes, like capabilities that get renamed to be more consistent with other parts of the API.
To make it possible for developers to migrate to the latest version of the API without breaking their tools for existing users, Google keeps several versions of their API available at any given time. However, they announce sunset dates for versions that are more than 2 cycles old. So when they go from version 8 to version 9, they announce the date when version 7 will stop working.
To keep up with this constant change, Optmyzr makes significant investments in its PPC tools every year. While we’re always building new features to make advertisers more successful, we also spend a lot of time updating existing tools so that they keep working even when Google makes changes behind the scenes in their API. Recently we’ve also started investing more in improving our user experience with new, more modern designs. We are planning even bigger investments in all these areas for 2022 to make our users happier.
What’s different about going from the AdWords API to the Ads API?
Changing from the AdWords API to the Ads API is a much more significant project and one we’ve been busy working on for many months. Our customers won’t notice any difference, but some of our tools already use the new API while others are waiting their turn to be migrated by our engineering team. A good tool like Optmyzr just keeps working even when there are big changes behind the scenes in terms of how we fetch data and how we make changes to an advertiser’s account when they apply changes to their account.
The level of effort in migrating to the Ads API is significant enough that some tools, like Wordstream, and some agencies with their own software, are changing their business models so they will no longer build tools for the Ads API.
Should advertisers build their own tools?
Some advertisers who are able to build tools using the API may still decide to use third party tools like Optmyzr so they don’t have to constantly spend money to keep things working. It’s one thing to build a cool new in-house PPC tool, but it’s quite another to have to spend a lot of time to keep it working with each new API version.
Optmyzr’s core business is PPC software so we can invest in the constant updates needed to keep things working with the latest APIs from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook, and Yahoo because it’s an investment that benefits advertisers who spend a combined $4 billion per year on PPC. Individual advertisers on the other hand may not be able to afford the level of engineering resources required to manage this level of change when it benefits just their own business which spends far less than $4 billion per year on ads.
Why is Wordstream shutting down?
Another piece of news that’s making the rounds in the PPC world is that Wordstream is shutting down its Advisor software and asking existing customers to sign up for agency services. The timing of this may be somewhat related to the news about the Google Ads API.
As a complete outsider to Wordstream, let me share what I suspect happened. Wordstream was acquired by Gannett, a large media conglomerate, in 2018. Gannett made several acquisitions in the digital marketing space around that time.
After the acquisition, the pace of change in the Wordstream software slowed. The timing of this acquisition was fortunate for Gannett because Google temporarily halted their API sunset schedule. The reason is that they had just introduced the Ads API as a replacement for the AdWords API but the new API had significant performance issues. Since the new Ads API wasn’t working well, they couldn’t sunset the old AdWords API and so for almost 3 years, while Google was working on making the new Ads API better, developers could keep their software running with only very minimal investments in API updates. Wordstream was able to continue existing, even when Gannett wasn’t investing much in their technology.
Now that the AdWords API is shutting down, some companies may decide to scrap their tools and go in a different direction. For Gannett, it appears that they are prioritizing managed agency services over self-service software. And that means the end of Wordstream.
What are alternatives for Wordstream?
Optmyzr is one of many great alternatives for advertisers who want to manage their own PPC accounts with software. Over the years, we’ve had many Wordstream users successfully transition to Optmyzr.
If you loved their 20-minute workweek, you might enjoy Optmyzr Express which helps you quickly fix the biggest issues and capitalize on the biggest opportunities in your Google Ads or Microsoft Ads account.
If you liked their account audit and performance grader, you might enjoy Optmyzr’s PPC Policy and Audits which helps ensure your account is following best practices like how your account is structured, what types of ads and extensions you’re using, and much more.
Wordstream clients always ask if we have an alternative to Query Stream (we have the powerful Keyword Lasso), and if we have reporting where delivery to clients can be automated (we do, with a backup in case certain metric thresholds aren’t met).
Some of the other capabilities we offer include multi-platform budget controls to create budget groups that includes changing and pausing budgets in Facebook Ads; optimization, reporting and alerts for platforms like Amazon Ads; and metric and budget alerts for Facebook Ads (plus reporting)
Another key benefit of Optmyzr is that it’s more customizable than Wordstream. We’ll start you off quickly with a set of recommendations based on industry best practices but as you develop your own expertise, you can tweak any tool so that it recommends more of the things you like. And when you’re ready, you can even start to fully automate many of these optimizations.
What are alternatives to building in-house PPC tools?
If your agency is losing some PPC tools when the AdWords API sunsets in April 2022, first consider some of the many great tools built by 3rd parties like Optmyzr. Many of the PPC problems your tools were trying to solve are probably not unique to just your agency.
When you shop for a tool, be sure to ask how much it can be customized so that you can still add your own secret sauce to it. For example, at Optmyzr, we have a PPC rule builder which lets advertisers build and automate sophisticated strategies that are completely custom to your own operations. The tool can even bring in your own first-party data, something increasingly more important as privacy regulations make it harder to rely on 3rd party targeting signals.
Also ask whether the company you’re considering working with is able to customize things for your needs. At Optmyzr we have a custom PPC solutions team that works with top advertisers to do some really cool PPC projects. When we bring together smart advertisers with our team that knows Google Ads really well, we can do some unique things to give advertisers an edge in an ever-more competitive PPC market.
Google Ads dropped two big announcements recently, including an update to how keywords match queries and a change to the default attribution model. Here’s what advertisers need to know about these updates.
Keyword prioritization rules are changing
Let’s break down Google’s latest announcement about keyword match types and see what it says:
With BERT, Google’s pre-training for natural language processing, getting more advanced, understanding search intent is now easier. Even broad match can now help you find relevant traffic with fewer keywords.
Google supported this with the example, “a highly specific query like ‘1995 5 speed transmission seal input shaft’ is now able to match with the broad match keyword ‘auto parts’ because we can tell they’re related, even though none of the words in the query and in the keyword actually match.”
A phrase match or broad match keyword identical to a query will now be preferred, as long as it is eligible to match.
Google has extended what it did with exact match earlier this year to broad and phrase match. Here’s Google’s example to explain this: “let’s say someone searches for ‘sushi delivery near me,’ and you have the broad match keywords ‘sushi delivery’ and ‘sushi delivery near me’. Before this update, both of these keywords would be eligible to serve. Now, the keyword ‘sushi delivery near me’ is preferred because it is identical to the search term.”
Rest easy though. Google goes on to say “that if you have an eligible exact match keyword that is identical to the query, it will still be preferred over the phrase and broad match keyword.”
Relevancy and Ad Rank will be the deciding factors when a search isn’t identical to any of your keywords.
In addition to Ad Rank, Google will now consider relevancy signals when determining which keyword will be selected. Explaining what these relevancy signals are, Google said, “Relevance is determined by looking at the meaning of the search term, the meaning of all the keywords in the ad group, and the landing pages within the ad group.” The different scenarios were broken down in the following table.
As with most significant announcements by Google, this one was also met with mixed responses from the PPC industry.
Julie Bacchini wrote: “So what exactly have you been doing up until now? Seriously. Was it foolish as an advertiser to think that was what you’d always done?" Read her thoughts on this change on her blog.
Others like Amy Bishop and Greg Finn argued that there is still value in maintaining multiple match types for the same keyword despite Google’s push to get advertisers to switch to a combo of smart bidding + broad match.
Data-Driven is now the default attribution model
In a move away from last-click attribution, Google announced that data-driven attribution (DDA) will be the default attribution model for all new conversion actions, starting October 2021.
Google acknowledged that the last-click attribution model falls short of advertisers’ needs because it ignores all but the final search before a user converts. Until now, advertisers without enough conversion volume to qualify for data-driven attribution were advised to switch to a position based or a time-decay model.
Google addressed the minimum data requirements for using DDA and said, “we’re removing the data requirements and adding support for additional types of conversions. With these improvements, we’re also making data-driven attribution the default attribution model for all new conversion actions in Google Ads.”
How is data-driven attribution better?
Let’s take an example of a user looking for running shoes. This user goes through several different searches before she converts. She might start with searches for ‘sneakers’ or ‘running shoes’, and after discovering Adidas’ line of running shoes, do another search for a specific model in her favorite color and size, and buy the shoes.
The problem with last-click attribution is that it gives all the credit to the last click. It’s going to ignore the fact that the user engaged with several of your ads; it’s going to ignore the fact that she got to the final keyword because she was exposed to upper-funnel keywords first. All these different keywords that the user searched for before converting are completely ignored.
Data-driven gives you a better picture of the entire purchase journey. Google now looks at the sequence of searches and sees how an individual query fits into that sequence. It estimates each keyword’s contribution to the eventual conversion. The following illustration from Google’s DDA methodology whitepaper shows how a particular query could be weighed.
Ultimately, data-driven attribution helps you better understand the value of all your keywords. With that improved knowledge, your manual and automated optimizations can get better. For example, when you find a non-converting search term, you might add it as a negative keyword, decide not to bid on it at all, or bid less. If you did this based on incomplete conversion data, like with data you’d get from LCA, you could hurt the performance of an account. Thanks to DDA, you can make better optimizations.
No attribution model will give you 100% accurate information, but data-driven comes closest to giving you the information that’ll allow you to reduce wasteful spending.
Finally, encouraging advertisers to combine data-driven attribution with automated bidding, Google said, “ When combined with automated bidding strategies, data-driven attribution can drive additional conversions at the same cost-per-acquisition. This is because our systems can better predict the incremental impact a specific ad will have on driving a conversion and adjust bids accordingly to maximize your ROI.”
If you don’t already know the perils of combining Smart Bidding and last-click attribution, you can read about it here.
Anybody can track conversions. Smart marketers track leads. Why is this lead identification information important?
It’s not enough to know that someone called your business. You need to know more such as:
Who are they?
What do they want?
Do they have the budget for your product?
Are they a quotable lead?
A conversion is not necessarily a lead, which is why it’s a bad idea to base your marketing decisions on conversions alone. In this article, we’ll explain how leads are different from conversions.
We’ll also go into detail regarding how Google Ads tracks conversions. As you’ll see, there are some limitations to the amount of information that Google Ads can track.
Next, we’ll describe how you can track individual leads instead of simply tracking conversions. We’ll also reveal how this enhanced data can be used with a tool like Optmyzr to improve your entire Google Ads strategy.
The Limitations of Google Ads Conversion Tracking
Google Ads is a powerful tool that does have some limitations. Issues arise when you try to track individual leads and measure lead quality.
Conversions vs. Leads
Conversion numbers tell you how many people took an action; lead data tells you who took action and whether they’re a sales-ready lead.
When tracking forms, chats, and calls, individual lead data tells you more than raw conversion numbers do. Google Ads can track these conversion actions, but it only shows total conversion numbers.
You’ll see the total number of leads from each conversion action, but not the identifying information for individual leads.
Google Ads has a phone call conversion tracking system that can track calls from call extensions on ads. It can also track calls from ads that have a location extension with a call option.
Unfortunately for marketers, Google’s built-in call tracking tool is not as effective as the third-party call tracking tools on the market.
Google’s call tracking feature tells you call conversions are coming in from ads, but you won’t know anything about the lead except that they saw your ad and called your business. You won’t know if they’re quotable leads.
Identifying quotable leads
Every business identifies quotable leads differently. Some simply look at the lead’s budget. Others look at their geographic location. Still, others look at the product fit.
All this information can usually be found in call transcripts, but Google does not provide these.
Screening non-qualified leads in Google Ads
Google Ads does have one way to screen non-qualified leads; by only passing along conversions if the call lasted over a minute.
The problem is that many calls can last 60-seconds and still not result in a qualified lead:
What if a solicitor calls your company and manages to stay on the phone for 60 seconds?
What if an existing customer calls your company to speak with support for over a minute?
What if a prospective customer calls your company but their budget doesn’t fit your product?
These are all non-qualified leads, and passing them along to Google Ads as conversions can skew your marketing reports. You may end up thinking an ad is working when it’s not. The longer you think that, the more marketing dollars you waste.
Google Ads can also track forms and chats, but the same limitations apply. Your Google Ads reports will only show the total number of conversions from each ad, separated by conversion type. You will not be able to see call transcripts, chat transcripts, or lead contact information.
This is where all the important lead information is contained; the data that tells you whether or not the lead is worth your time.
Running a Google Ads campaign costs money. In return, you want leads that drive revenue. Conversions alone are not necessarily worth any revenue, but quotable leads are.
Let’s find out how to make sure we’re getting quotable leads in return for ad spend.
How to track individual lead data with Google Ads
Lead tracking software fills in the gaps in your Google Ads data. Software like WhatConverts can integrate with Google Ads so you can see individual lead data, mark leads as quotable, then pass them to Google Ads as rock-solid conversions. Passing only quotable leads into Google Ads will improve your entire PPC strategy.
You won’t know what ads work if you’re only tracking conversions. If you can identify the ads that actually drive quotable leads, however, you can optimize accurately.
How to send quotable leads to Google Ads
A lead tracking system like WhatConverts allows you to easily mark leads as quotable or not quotable. For phone call leads, you can simply press “1” after the call if the lead is qualified or “2” if they aren’t. You can also assign sales value for phone call leads during this step.
For all leads, you can mark leads as quotable with one click of a button in your leads dashboard or in the email notification for the lead. Once you’re marking leads as qualified, it can greatly improve your marketing reporting. Here’s an example of how qualified lead reporting reveals more about how many leads come from individual keywords.
You can use WhatConverts to only pass conversions to Google Ads if they meet certain parameters such as, “only pass along the conversion if the lead is marked as qualified" (quotable). You can also choose to only pass along conversions if the lead is assigned a sales value in WhatConverts or your CRM.
Use Optmyzr and Lead Tracking Software to optimize Google Ads
Running a successful Google Ads campaign involves measuring a lot of variables. You don’t just want to know that your Google Ads drive quotable leads; you want to know which ad groups, ads, keywords, and landing pages drive quotable leads.
Once you have this information, you can optimize ads with a tool like Optmyzr. The more information you feed into the optimization system, the easier it is for Optmyzr to make useful suggestions about how to optimize ads.
If you pass every conversion to Google Ads without marking them as quotable, Optmyzr will make suggestions based on the conversion data alone. That means you could end up shifting marketing spend towards keywords and campaigns that drive solicitations or support calls from existing customers.
Taking the extra step to pass only quotable leads to Google Ads gives Optmyzr better data. Optmyzr can make suggestions to shift marketing spend towards keywords and campaigns that drive quotable leads and revenue.
This is a better way to increase return-on-investment for Google Ads. Since Optmyzr makes suggestions based on your Google Ads data, it’s important to make sure that Google Ads data is accurate and actionable.
Lead Tracking Tools work with Optmyzr to Improve PPC Performance
The more you optimize Google Ads based on sales-ready leads, the easier it is to identify the ads that drive the most revenue. When it comes time to show reports detailing how your Google Ads performed, you want to be able to prove that the business is getting a return on investment.
The best way to do that is by showing which ads delivered quotable leads. Using lead tracking tools with Optmyzr makes this possible, and easy.
This is a guest post. The views and opinions expressed by the author are solely their own and do not represent that of Optmyzr.
About the author
Mac Mischke is the Content Marketing Manager at WhatConverts, a call tracking software company for marketing agencies.
Every few months, advertisers hear about the latest change or update from Google Ads, and it usually means parting ways with a degree of control: goodbye Broad Match Modifier, hidden data in the search terms report, phasing out third-party cookies, etc.
Each new update takes the PPC world a step closer to completely automated ad platforms. But a step closer towards automation can also mean reduced control over advertising and fewer insights.
It’s been almost a year since Google Ads announced to advertisers that the search terms report would only include terms that are searched for by a “significant” number of users.
In an article published soon after Google’s announcement, Matthew Umbro of Brainlabs included findings that indicated the extent to which clicks were omitted after the revision. The percentages have been much higher for other accounts since, driving up costs significantly.
Like many other Google decisions to hide data in the past, the notice was backed by reasons of improving privacy standards and protecting user data. But how hiding low-volume queries serve that purpose is not an answer we have yet.
While many PPC agencies and account managers have expressed concerns over the effect of this change, it’s also important that we look for possible solutions. At this point, Google’s tendency to increase automation and reduce data access shouldn’t be a surprise.
Solutions to work around hidden data on Google Ads
Not being able to identify all the search terms that your ads showed on – and not knowing how Google is matching queries to keywords – makes for a bit of a “black box” situation. You might see changes to your budget or impression share, but have limited insight into how to fix it.
While there are no foolproof, permanent solutions to the problems that stem from restricted performance data, there are a few things that might help lessen their effects.
1. See search terms data in Google Analytics
For now, Google Analytics provides somewhat of a temporary workaround to potentially view hidden search terms data. To find that information, visit this path:
What you’ll see is all of your search query data for a campaign, excluding the (not provided) tag. For now, you’ll need to manually compare this list against the ones in your Search Terms Report, in order to identify anything not visible in Google Ads.
2. Optmyzr Solutions
Third-party tools like Optmyzr can help you not just identify sources of new traffic that Google Ads might not show you, but take steps to reduce or amplify their impact once you know whether they’re good or bad. Some of the things you can do are:
Optimize search queries by filtering out irrelevant traffic, pause low-converting keywords, and adding expensive keywords as negatives.
Monitor drastic changes in performance at the search query level. The New and Declining Search Queries strategy in our Rule Engine lets you find search terms that are new, declining, trending, and losing impressions.
Find search terms with impressions in the last 7 days but no impressions in the 7 days before that. Great for identifying spikes of new traffic, with or without clicks.
What increased automation means for PPC managers
It’s not news that Google Ads is moving towards a more automated way of doing things. Over the past few years, Google’s machine learning algorithms have improved significantly and taken over several manual PPC tasks. While this means reduced control over some parts of PPC, it also reduces the amount of time that marketers need to spend on manual optimizations.
It’s important to look at the big picture; the long-term benefits that automation can bring (when done right) increase efficiency, save time, and lead to more profitable advertising.
And apart from tackling the day-to-day issues involved with campaign management, PPC automation also seeks to reinvent how we approach the larger marketing picture.
While some advertisers look primarily for a lift in indicative metrics, the future will demand a more audience-centric approach in order to succeed. Advertisers would do well to pay more attention to things like account structure, lead quality, and stronger creative/copy to build a better customer experience.
Conclusion
Automation in paid search is inevitable, and this trend has only been accelerated by the challenges presented by prevailing global conditions. Advertisers and PPC managers would do well to start determining what this means for their teams and strategize accordingly.
Fortunately for PPC advertisers, there may be some hope on the horizon if this message from Google Ads community liaison Ginny Marvin pans out soon:
The team is exploring ways to share more data in Search Terms Reports while remaining privacy safe. I’ll have more to share in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, remember that performance metrics are important to learn whether your optimizations are working. But building a more holistic approach alongside that effort will put you ahead of your competitors. Some key points to remember are:
Identify your business goals and align the same with your marketing efforts.
Focus on full-funnel metrics that may or may not be in an ads interface (like Customer Lifetime Value), not just KPIs that look good on paper
Finally, building well-structured accounts with well-researched ad campaigns and keywords is more important than ever.
Google recently announced they will start to charge surcharges related to regional taxes in 2 additional markets: India and Italy. This brings the list of jurisdictions where advertisers pay additional fees to 7.
Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid these extra charges and because they get tacked on at the end of the month, and are not shown as part of average CPCs and advertising costs in reports, they can make it somewhat difficult for PPC professionals to manage ads to a true ROAS or CPA goal.
Say for example you spent €100 to get 5 leads. You think your CPA was €20. But then you get billed another 5% because you’re advertising in Austria and all of a sudden that €20 CPA becomes a €21 CPA.
Reports are wrong, CPAs are wrong, budgets are exceeded, and things get generally messy for agencies and PPC consultants when they have to explain why this is happening to their clients.
Fortunately, there are a few simple solutions for Optmyzr users:
Solution 1
Use calculated metrics in reports to add the surcharge to any cost-related field automatically.
Solution 2
Use calculated metrics in the MCC dashboard to always see the true cost of an ads account.
Solution 3
Use calculations in Rule Engine to add the surcharge automatically before doing any optimization, like one that manages bids or finds expensive keywords.
Google announced earlier this year that video and discovery campaigns using audience expansion will transition to a new automation called optimized targeting, starting in June 2021. This feature will automatically show ads to people who are likely to convert. So how’s this different from audience expansion, which has been around since 2019 and works for a broader set of campaigns?
What is Audience Expansion in Google Ads?
Audience expansion looks for similar audiences to show ads to more users. An advertiser who’s selected the audience of in-market SUV buyers may see their audience expand to in-market car buyers because there is a similarity between these audiences. Assuming advertisers are using smart bidding, their CPA or ROAS results should remain consistent because smart bidding will automatically lower bids for related, but less relevant audiences.
Think of audience expansion as a system that starts from an advertiser’s selected inputs and expands from there. That works fine if the advertiser has done a good job selecting audiences. But it won’t capture new sales from entirely different audiences advertisers may have overlooked because they seemed too dissimilar for audience expansion to even try.
What is Optimized Targeting in Google Ads?
Optimized targeting on the other hand starts not from an advertiser’s targeting settings, but from the results they report. When an advertiser gets conversions, Google analyzes attributes of the converting users. If they find a pattern, like what types of searches lots of converting users recently did, then the system will automatically start to show ads to other users with similar behaviors.
This is another example of the huge shift in how PPC is optimized. Rather than managing details like targeting, Google wants us to optimize how we teach their machines to do their job better, in this case by reporting conversions more accurately using systems like offline conversion tracking, value adjust or value rules, all 3 tools we recently covered on this blog.
Let me explain optimized targeting in a more visual way.
How old school PPC management works
In traditional PPC optimization, a lot of time is spent managing lots of dials and settings. This is all done for the ultimate goal of getting conversions whether that means more sales, more revenue, more profits, or new customers.
Old school PPC is about limiting who sees ads using multiple settings
So in a universe of all people, our settings limit which people we want to show ads to. We assume we are good at guessing the right settings to get our ads in front of all prospective customers.
Audience expansion uses your settings to show more ads
Audience expansion works by expanding on one of the many settings we’ve dialed in, specifically which audiences or remarketing lists we’ve selected in order to limit who can see our ads.
Thanks to audience expansion, ads are now shown to some additional people. But there’s no guarantee that they’re being shown to people who would likely convert because that depends a great deal on how well the account manager set up their campaign targeting in the first place.
Modern PPC management teaches the machine what we want
Optimized targeting is interesting in that it completely doesn’t care about advertiser decisions about how to manage the myriad settings in Google Ads. Instead it starts from how we reported conversions and looks at what commonalities exist between actual converters.
From there it finds pockets of similar users to show the ads to. The assumption is that even if these users are wildly different from a targeting perspective, the thing that really matters is their similar behaviors. The system only worries about finding clones or doppelgängers of converting users. That’s a totally different approach but actually makes a ton of sense.
Pretty cool, Google!
The only way to really get results: Monitor them
While I love the innovative machine learning implementation here, as always it’s up to advertisers to monitor that these new automations are functioning as intended. Put on your PPC pilot hat and use tools like Optmyzr PPC alerts to immediately know when an automation fails.
Put on your PPC teacher hat to make sure you’ve done the best possible job reporting true conversions (e.g. good leads vs just leads). And put on your PPC doctor hat to make sure this new tool from Google is the right fit for your goals. You can after all still opt out of this feature by changing your targeting settings.
Adding Google’s Click ID (GCLID) to Google Analytics is a powerful way to better understand the behavior of people who come to your site after clicking on one of your ads. But to see GCLID data in Google Analytics requires a few steps. We’ll walk you through these in this article.
1. Create a new custom dimension in Google Analytics
Here are the steps to help get the first part of GCLID tracking set up in Google Analytics:
Go to the Admin section of your Google Analytics profile by clicking the settings wheel at the bottom left.
Click Custom Definitions and the Custom Dimensions in the middle column.
Click the button to create a new Custom Dimension.
Name the new custom dimension ‘gclid’.
For scope, select “User”.
Save your changes.
Look at the table with all your custom dimensions and write down the index number for the one you just created. We’ll need this shortly for another step.
2. Use Google Tag Manager (GTM) to capture the GCLID from the URL
The GCLID is passed in the URL by Google when a user clicks on your ad. Google Analytics doesn’t natively know what to do with this so we need to tell it that the GCLID’s value should be stored in the custom dimension we just created.
There are many ways to do this, but one of the most easily repeatable ways is by using Google Tag Manager. Here we’ll tell it to grab the GCLID from the URL.
In the Variables section, add a new User-Defined variable.
For Variable Type, select ‘URL’.
For Component Type, select ‘Query’.
For Query Key, type in ‘gclid’.
Leave all other settings as they are and save the variable.
3. Use Google Tag Manager to send the GCLID to Google Analytics
Now that GTM knows how to grab the GCLID from the URL, we need to send that value to Google Analytics. GTM can do this for us as well.
This is where everything comes together so the steps refer back to the things you did in the previous two instruction lists. We’ve included ample screenshots to make it as easy as possible to follow along.
If you already use GTM to put Google Analytics on your website, go to your existing tag. Otherwise, create a new tag for Universal Analytics.
In the tag configuration, open the dropdown for Google Analytics Settings and create a New Variable.
Add a Custom Dimension under ‘More Settings’.
For the index field, enter the number you wrote down from step 7 in the first instruction list on this page (create a new custom dimension in Google Analytics).
For Dimension Value, click on the brick icon to open your available list of variables.
Select the variable you created in the previous set of steps (use Google Tag Manager to capture the GCLID from the URL).
Save the tag, test your GTM changes and publish them.
4. Use Google Analytics to see GCLID data
Note that the GCLID custom dimensions data will not be retroactively added into your old Google Analytics reports so you’ll have to wait a few hours for new data that does include the GCLID to appear.
As an example of a report you can now run, go to a report like ‘Behavior > Site Content > All Pages’ and in the Secondary Dimensions dropdown select ‘gclid’.
Your report will now include both the URL and the gclid.
You can download this data and using lookups in spreadsheets, start to build a more holistic view into the behavior resulting from clicks on your Google Ads.
When you add GCLID as a custom dimension in Google Analytics, Optmyzr will help you explore, build, and optimize audiences, as well as help with offline conversion import (OCI).
If you want to scale the growth of your Apps, then Google’s UACs (Universal App Campaigns) must be one of the focal points of your marketing strategy. An automated type of campaign, UACs are an excellent choice for driving both installations and in-app actions, like purchases. This campaign type allows targeting audiences across Google Search, Google Display, Youtube, Google Play, and Apple Store. Google has an excellent course that can help you learn more about Universal App Campaigns.
UACs were launched to make in-app advertising easier and quicker. In line with this, to set up your UACs – you only require minimal initial data like texts, images, or videos. Google’s machine learning-based algorithms then work to show your App’s ads to your target audience. Since, these are automated campaigns – unlike your search ads – you won’t need to manually test the ads to find the best performers. Google does this bit for you.
No doubt Google does a decent job of driving high-quality traffic for UACs, but did you know that you can lend Google a hand to bring you better results? This can help you save money being spent on the wrong placements and audience and at the same time help you use your budget efficiently.
Here are some tips to try out that will help you exert a higher level of control over your UACs using Optmyzr:
1. Manage location targeting
Google doesn’t translate your ads for specific spoken languages for locations. This makes it imperative to run ads for only those locations that align with the languages in which an App is available. Therefore, while you work on making your app available in more languages, don’t forget to target locations for your campaigns accordingly.
You can also go granular within these locations and manage targeting based on how regions and cities perform. Some ways to optimize location targeting are:
• Find cities that are driving expensive clicks and zero conversions and exclude them.
• Find cities or regions driving high numbers of conversions, and target them in separate campaigns with separate budgets. This will help get more traffic from such locations.
Pro Tip: Use theGeo HeatMaporRule Enginefrom Optmyzr to get a report of cities, regions and postal codes that are performing best or worst – to target or exclude them respectively.
2. Optimize for in-app goals
How cool would it be to find campaigns which are driving registrations or in-app purchases and manage the Target CPA for them? Optmyzr’s Rule Engine can help you achieve this.
Take a look at the screenshot below of the Optmyzr Rule Engine, wherein we are pulling the in-app actions and even action values that are being tracked as conversions and conversion values. You can base optimizations on any such custom conversions which you might be tracking for your campaigns.
For example, here’s a rule that finds all the campaigns which have brought in registrations and recommends increasing the Target CPA for them by 10%.
Check out the campaigns below, which have had the “Registrations” type of conversions, and the system is recommending tweaking target values for them. Just like this, you can optimize for any in-app action as required. Eg: If you’re driving “Registrations”, and losing impression share, increasing TCPA can help.
3. Ensure sufficient budget for your CPA
It is recommended that these campaigns have a daily budget of at least 20-30 times of your CPA (cost-per-action). Create a rule in the Rule Engine to label campaigns on which you need to consider increasing your budgets.
Conclusion
UACs have helped unburden advertisers from needing to try out ad combinations to find what drives good results i.e. acquisitions/conversions. While you should make use of Google’s machine learning, don’t forget to optimize and control your campaigns from time to time.
To start setting up UACs, sign in to your Google Ads account. Then go to the page menu → Campaigns → Universal App.
Once you’ve accrued traffic on UACs – try out the tricks I shared above using Optmyzr (14-day free trial) and improve the performance of your campaigns. Feel free to reach out to support@optmyzr.com if you have any questions.
As the doom and gloom of COVID-19 fades, we’re hearing fewer conversations about troubleshooting and more about solving problems. The world is settling into its ‘new normal’ — at least for the near future.
Google is playing a key role in helping PPC professionals shift from just weathering the storm to being creative once more. So if you work in digital marketing or paid search, here are 3 recent Google developments in PPC and why you should care.
1. Google Shopping reintroduces free listings
First up, in what is arguably the most significant announcement from Google since the current economic crisis began, a portion of Shopping Ads will now be free listings. That means any advertiser who hasn’t prioritized them due to budgetary considerations now needs to rethink their approach.
Free listings allow more advertisers to get their products noticed at a lower investment, and somewhat levels the playing field for SMBs who might ordinarily lose out to far larger competitors.
It’s important to note that Google hasn’t entirely demonetized this product. While some listings will be free, paid ads will still appear at the top and bottom like a normal SERP.
A lower entry threshold also means a surge in interest from advertisers, which subsequently leads to the need to optimize your shopping campaigns with tools like Optmyzr.
Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Builder 2.0 lets you connect a Google Merchant Feed, and our machine provides intelligent suggestions to help you group products, manage bids and budgets, and adjust parameters to your preference.
Once you have some campaigns running, you can further strengthen existing campaigns — add negative keywords, manage bids by product attribute, or automate the Product Group Refresher 2.0 to periodically update campaigns to reflect your inventory.
By the way, we’re starting to see these free listings in use already. PPC influencer Kirk Williams of Zato Marketing has seen outliers of 0.5-11% of Google shopping clicks coming from this free channel (perhaps 5-6% is a more accurate estimate). This is limited to the US, but it appears Google is ahead of schedule in rolling it out across other markets.
Action Item for Advertisers: Make sure you have given Google permission toshow your products on all surfacesif you want to be in consideration for free Shopping listings.
“Users should be empowered to make informed decisions about the ads they see online. That’s why we’re launching advertiser identity verification, a policy that requires advertisers to verify their identities for ads served through Google Ads.”
Image courtesy of Google.com
Let’s break down the implications for both consumers and advertisers.
If you’re a consumer, this is probably a very welcome move. For one thing, it means your chances of buying a counterfeit product when you click on a Google ad are about to drop to virtually zero.
On top of that, it enables a high degree of customization. Consumers can block advertisers whose content they find irrelevant, out of touch, distasteful or uninteresting. Or you can simply blacklist advertisers based on your experience buying from them.
That means if you buy an NBA jersey and it’s a knock-off, you can block that seller’s future ads altogether. Ordered a birthday gift for your spouse and got it two weeks later than promised? You never have to see that company’s ads again.
Call it a huge win for Google’s reputation when it comes to privacy and trust.
Advertisers will be affected as well. In addition to filtering out questionable sellers, Google’s new policy poses questions about data privacy.
What information will they need to verify advertiser identity?
Will that information be stored and if so, where?
How safe is that information? Who will be able to access it?
Scam artists will wither, but legitimate advertisers will rightly have some concerns.
For anyone unfamiliar with this category (previously known as Call-only Ads), it’s a type of mobile ad that includes a phone number. A ‘click’ leads to a call — to the advertiser’s front desk, a sales rep or other destination.
Image courtesy of Google.com
Now, the addition of an optional ‘Visit website’ call to action enables advertisers to split traffic between a phone number and a landing page.
Let’s take a look at two examples of how businesses can leverage these ads, keeping in mind the current economic and logistical landscapes.
Example A: Steaks
If you eat meat, chances are you enjoy a good steak. It’s why companies like Omaha Steaks have turned online fulfillment into a cornerstone of their business model.
Right now, since people can’t go out to restaurants, they’re probably buying a lot more steak to grill at home. So in other words, demand is through the roof. If you’re a steak company, you have no way of coping with the surge.
So you place some of these new Call Ads to direct some of that traffic to a phone line, while the rest of it ends up on a landing page with all your products and an order form. Now you’re able to cater to all your potential customers instead of sitting on supply you can’t move.
This example applies to any business that fulfills orders via e-commerce but is also useful if you’ve recently moved from brick and mortar to online fulfillment. It lets you absorb and service traffic without having to make a significant investment in sales staff.
Example B: Hotels
Travel and hospitality are arguably the worst-hit industries right now. But if you’re a hotel trying to get by during this crisis, the last thing you want to do is go out of sight and mind.
Imagine you’re a popular hotel situated downtown in one of the world’s most visited cities, like Rome or New York. Until recently, you probably enjoyed a significant chunk of Impression Share for your search terms.
As part of your wider digital marketing strategy for the Coronavirus crisis, you change your messaging to offer hope for the future instead of trying to achieve conversions. You share your plans to reopen, tell visitors how you’ll facilitate social distancing when it happens, and provide some sweet incentives to tempt them.
And because you know people crave travel (especially when they can’t have it), you fully expect to keep getting calls. But due to local restrictions, your front desk is now staffed by one person instead of your full crew.
So you adjust your Call Ads to include a link to your website or landing page with the new messaging, you split the traffic that would otherwise overwhelm your one-person front desk, and you maintain visibility for your brand while your competitors fade into the background.
Conclusion
It’s heartening to see Google embrace its influence and make the web a safer, more convenient place for consumers and advertisers alike. In times like these, every industry needs its leading organizations to keep the right values in mind as they set the pace.
Each of us — agency or consultant, enterprise or startup — needs to follow suit.
We’ll be using these developments to make sure Optmyzr customers continue to experience optimal value by using our product.
In the last couple of weeks, Google has both altered existing plans and announced new measures to deal with the ramifications of COVID-19 on PPC and paid search. Some of these aim to make campaign management a bit easier; others are in response to what agencies and advertisers are experiencing.
Here’s our take on some of the recent changes in Google Ads.
Google Ads Editor version 1.3
It’s always interesting for us to see Google make changes to Ads Editor. Optmyzr CEO Fred Vallaeys, one of Google’s first 500 employees, helped build the initial version of the tool when it was called the AdWords Editor. It’s great to see that the product is still in use and receiving steady support many years later.
Create and edit shared budgets from Shared Library
Access Optimization Score (account and campaign levels)
See weighted average Optimization Score
Improvements to edit pane
Updated Features
Full support for Discovery carousel ads
Full support for shared budgets
New Display and Smart Display campaigns default to target CPA with bidding set to pay for conversions (for campaigns with conversion tracking)
Optimization Score in Google Ads Editor. Image courtesy of Google.com.
Optimization score, which is now more present in the new Ads Editor, is Google’s way of guiding advertisers to make common best-practice optimizations. But it’s important to remember that Google’s advice is just a suggestion and may not be relevant for your account.
As a simple example, Google may suggest increasing budget when there is impression share lost in a campaign with conversions. This may ignore that your account has a strict monthly budget cap and raising the campaign budget would bump the total account spend over the limits. Of course Optmyzr’s tools and scripts to help manage and optimize monthly account budgets would still work, regardless of whether an advertiser accepts Google’s budget suggestions.
Also, PPC marketers have the freedom to make changes in the tool they’re most comfortable with. It’s not necessary to make all changes from the Google Ads interface.
“Contrary to what many PPC pros think, Google doesn’t care where you make your edits,” Fred revealed.
“Many marketers believe you have to log into Google Ads and press that final button to get the improvement to your Optimization Score, but that’s not the case. You can continue to use a tool like the Ads Editor, or Optmyzr to audit and optimize your campaigns.”
Fred Vallaeys, Optmyzr
Google Partner Program
COVID-19 is affecting us all, and the world’s largest search engine is no exception.
In February, Google announced sweeping changes to its Partners Program that would start to be enforced from June. Some of these included a minimum 90-day ad spend of $20,000 and requiring accounts to follow Google’s recommendations for Optimization Score.
As Susan Wenograd writes in Search Engine Journal, recent events have forced Google to postpone these new rules to 2021, allowing existing Partners to retain their status and specialization badges and non-Partners to apply using current criteria.
Fred believes this is the right move.
“It’s good that Google has pushed this to give agencies more time and space to deal with the challenges their clients are facing. But at the same time, it’s important that existing and prospective Partners take the time to push ahead and prepare for these changes to take hold in 2021.”
-Fred Vallaeys, Optmyzr
Optmyzr Tip: While existing Google Partner agencies should prioritize client success, don’t wait until it’s too late to get moving on the new goals. If you’re just now applying to become one, let the 2021 criteria serve as your north star.
Ad Credits for Google SMBs
Another widely-lauded move from Google is the announcement of $340 million in ad credits to help “alleviate some of the cost from small and medium-sized businesses to stay in touch with their customers during this challenging time”.
Much like we advised agencies to do all they can to ensure their clients don’t envision a future without them in this earlier post, it seems Google is also wary of losing steady income from a segment that makes up a significant portion of its ad revenue.
Image courtesy of Google.com.
In the midst of a $1.7 billion European Commission fine, the last thing Google needed was a sharp drop in ad revenue — but that’s just what COVID brought to the table. Alphabet’s first quarter earnings were well below expectations, and there’s little evidence to suggest that Q2 will be any different.
Perhaps Google is playing the long game, looking at 2021 revenues and hoping that keeping SMBs on their ad network yields a better payoff than waiting for them to bounce back on their own.
Dynamic Trends
Google recognizes how volatile the current market is and how rapidly it’s shifting — it’s why they recommend that advertisers plan weekly rather than monthly for the near future.
Google Trends reflects this sentiment in search behavior. A tool that’s normally used to reliably find and compare popular search terms, discover related topics and queries, and observe geographic trends is painting incredibly different pictures from one week to the next.
So what’s the value of Google Trends in a dynamic environment?
“The business value is that it can help you figure out what you want to put in your ads. Your value propositions might change based on what people are experiencing and searching for,” Fred says.
“For example, while travel might have once been about the cheapest tickets or the most luxurious hotels, when it opens back up the popular searches might revolve around cleanliness or low-density properties.
“If you dive even deeper, you can unravel more insights. If people want to travel but are still wary of taking flights, they might decide to drive. So in this scenario, hotels might notice a surge in search volume for something like ‘free overnight parking’.”
Fred Vallaeys, Optmyzr
Google Trends. Image courtesy of Google.com.
Businesses might have to explore qualities that they never looked at before. And while they may have an inkling of what’s to come, they have no idea of the degree to which it may occur. In this case, Google Trends serves as a good barometer of demand and search behavior.
Optmyzr Tip: TheRule Engineallows you to build custom strategies to optimize your Google Ads accounts based on fluctuations you observe in Google Trends, such as identifying keywords that exceeded the CPA target for the last 7 days but met the CPA target for the previous 30 days.
Conclusion
As the world’s leading search engine, Google’s actions set the pace for the majority of the PPC community. During both peaks and troughs, many agencies take their cue from Google or use their behavior to influence strategy.
It’ll be interesting to see what more they do to revitalize hard-hit industries and keep paid search on the radar for businesses, especially once the market has experienced a full quarter of COVID-related challenges.
Google is finally putting the venerable Average Position metric out to pasture. It’s one of the oldest metrics on the books for PPC pros and a mainstay on client reports for many years. After all these years, did the metric really help? Maybe not that much.
Many PPC pros have become a bit numb to changes from Google. Seems like we spend a great deal of our time just keeping up with the updates and new features they seem to constantly toss into the PPC world. And while it may seem Google is haphazard in making changes, I can tell that as a former Googler, they are very purposeful and methodical about altering our shared universe. It just isn’t always evident why they do so.
Average Position, however, has held a place in our common PPC vernacular longer than most metrics. Yet saying goodbye to this old friend later this year really won’t be that difficult.
AP just wasn’t all that helpful.
Sorry.
In this age of AI-energized PPC, Average Position has become little more than a vague barometer of conditions in a PPC program when PPC pros need actionable, granular data to make specific and smart decisions.
AP was of rapidly diminishing value when you consider the vast amount of highly specific performance data from which we can pull.
Google is replacing Average Position with the following more precise metrics to identify those opportunities to get more impressions at the top:
Impressions (Absolute Top) %, which tells us more precisely about the impressions at the very top of the page.
Impressions (Top) %, which denotes performance above the organic results.
In addition, two metrics help give critical insight into what we actually should optimize to get there (which AP never told us):
Search Absolute Top IS, which tells us the percentage of opportunities to appear at the absolute top that we’re actually turning into impressions in that space.
Search Top IS, which does the same, but with regard to opportunities appearing above the organic results.
Here’s what it will look like in your Google Ads Manager:
You’ll be able to easily select the more exacting metrics to meet your needs and start to get much more granular as you assess strategies and determine the best optimizations.
If you want to dig into very specific scenarios that show where the soon-to-be-retired Average Position metric could lead to confusion, check out my recent Search Engine Journal contributed post.
In that SEJ post, we examine real-world case studies that demonstrate how these new metrics also bring new importance to the trusty old Quality Score. It’s worth a read.
Okay…shouldn’t we just optimize impression share by adjusting bids?
Given the greater view into Impression Share vs. Average Position with the new metrics, it could be easy for some PPC pros to jump on the “fix it by changing the bid” approach.
Pause please.
For an ad to appear at the top of the page, it needs to meet certain relevance and Ad Rank thresholds that are set by Google. The levels of these thresholds are not published so it can be a game of trial-and-error. It’s worth remembering, however, that Google really wants ads to be relevant, so you may need to set an exorbitantly high CPC to get an ad with low QS to move to the top of the page.
A smarter optimization will address QS issues first, for example, by moving the low QS keyword to an ad group by itself (this is called a SKAG – single keyword ad group.) This is a good way to fix QS issues because it lets you write an ad and pick a landing page that are optimized for that unique keyword.
Once the quality of the keyword and the ad are fixed, you may be able to gain the desired top position with a much smaller bid increase than if you’d skipped the QS optimization.
How a PPC pro can stay on top of things
First, it’s important to start tapping into the new metrics that will replace the aging Average Position. AP goes into retirement in September, but it’s not really doing us much good anyway. Send our old friend a “happy retirement” card and then make the shift today. Start to understand the improved insight and how it will help you make decisions.
Second, keep tuned in to Optmyzr. Our dev teams are always working with the never-ending changes that come from Google (and Bing – and other platforms) to automate optimizations and simplify the tasks and decisions you need to make. The more changes they create and the more they automate, the more confusing things can get for even the most advanced PPC rockstars.
We welcome the ongoing changes in the platforms, in particular the innovations by the big search engines thanks to artificial intelligence and machine learning. The challenge for the practitioner in the trenches, however, is keeping up with all of these changes and integrating them into new and existing strategies, something we hope to help you with!
Google Ads has announced it will no longer report on ‘average position’ later this year. To learn more about this change, check out my post on Search Engine Land. Optmyzr can help make the transition smoother as one of the most frequently used original AdWords metrics sails into the sunset later this year.
Average Position in Reports
When the ‘average position’ metric disappears from all reports, Optmyzr will automatically handle this in scheduled, automated reports. Specific details will be shared as we get closer to the sunset date but we plan to make this a seamless transition for our customers.
For example, any report templates that include the ‘average position’ metric will continue to work even if you don’t make any change. We will simply remove the metric that is no longer supported by Google so that your reports will continue to be delivered uninterrupted to your clients and stakeholders.
Average Position in Rule Engine recipes
Some advertisers have used the Optmyzr Rule Engine to automate a bid-to-position strategy that relies on ‘average position.’ Rules that contain the deprecated metric will stop working when Google no longer reports average position because any comparisons will fail. In other words, if your rule says to change a bid if the average position > 2, that comparison against ‘greater than 2’ will fail so the rule will be broken.
To make the transition easier, advertisers who have active rules that are impacted will receive a notification from us as we get closer to the date in September when average position will no longer be available.
Alternatives to Average Position in Automated Rules
The Optmyzr Rule Engine can still be used to change bids (among many other things it can automate) based on position goals. Instead of using the ‘average position’, you can use one of the newer metrics like ‘Impression (Absolute Top) %’.
For example, for a brand term where you’d like your ad to be in first position and appear above the organic results, you could check if the impressions at the absolute top are close to 100%. If they are not, this could be because your bid or quality score (QS) are too low. Remember Google has a top promotion threshold and if you’re below that level, even if your ad is ranked first, it won’t be eligible to show at the top of the page. So if you then find that QS is good (7 or higher), you could boost your bid to try and cross the threshold to get your ad at the top.
The beauty of the Rule Engine is that you have the ultimate flexibility in turning your optimization process into an easily repeatable automation that you can deploy quickly across all your accounts. The example above is just one way to do it but our hope is that you will leverage the full power of the tool to help you manage accounts the way you like.
What’s next
Optmyzr is committed to building tools to make PPC pros more efficient and that includes making this transition to a post-average position world easier, and offering alternative ways to achieve your position-based goals. Stay tuned for more details soon.
Over the last several days, many Google Ads account owners have been getting noticesfrom Google notifying of something the search giant is calling “complimentary campaign support.” The gist of the notification is pretty straightforward: Google Ads experts (and the powerful suite of tools at their disposal) promise to help you get more out of your ads. Essentially do nothing and you let Google take a load off your plate.
Here’s a screenshot of the message from Google:
The offer may be tempting. Google (and Bing – although not pertinent for this specific topic) are both making great strides automating many tasks associated with PPC, with an expressed goal of simplifying processes and enhancing performance for its advertisers.
The question to ask yourself: Do you want/need to take advantage of this genuine offer from our friends at Google?If you receive the offer notice, you better decide – otherwise they automatically will start this campaign support within 7 business days. Here are three thoughts to help you decide:
We’ve covered concepts around automation at great length and we plan to continue exploring the topic throughout 2019. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are, without question, changing PPC. But should the technology take humans out of the equation? We see AI and machine learning as additive and powerful tools that yield best results when humans and machines collaborate. Google has never taken the stance that people are no longer needed. You need to ask yourself how much control you want to cede to the machines at this point and with this offer from Google, it’s not clear how much will be done by machines vs humans.
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Google Ads has seemingly countless settings and levers that help PPC pros go way beyond the basics. Choosing the right ones, though, can be challenging. Your own value as a PPC rockstar is that YOU know the levers as well as your clients’ needs and human needs of the searching public. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">In Google’s notification, they say flat out that their team has gained knowledge from 800,000 accounts and will apply the learnings to your accounts. To us, that actually validates that experience is a huge factor. If you are using Optmyzr, you’re not a PPC newbie. YOU provide the value. Tools in Google and those in Optmyzr give you your powers to manage accounts efficiently, but you bring the expertise from having done this for many other campaigns. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></p>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Ask yourself which human will be in charge? Will it be YOU or a Google person. I’m not knocking Google’s team at all. They truly do know their stuff. But do they know your business, your clients and your audience the way you do? </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"><br /> </span><span style="font-weight: 400;">This offer from Google seems geared more toward those in PPC who perhaps lack the time, knowledge and experiences to strategically run PPC programs. We recommend you keep the reigns for now. Let others commoditize their PPC. You have even greater opportunity to stand out as the PPC rockstar that you are. </span><span style="font-weight: 400;"></p>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">We do see Google’s offer as legitimate and well-intended. In fact, it may be just the ticket for lesser PPC pros to help them get through their day. As you’ll hear from us throughout 2019, though, the AI- and machine learning-driven automation we’re seeing from Google (and Bing) are really about removing tasks and simplifying processes. All of that is great for really smart PPC pros to spend more energy and time on strategy, creative and other critical elements to blast past competitors. </span>
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<span style="font-weight: 400;">Keep your PPC programs in your control. Use the tools at your disposal, but be the one to lead your PPC initiatives to new heights in 2019. Keep this all in mind if you get the offer for complimentary campaign support. </span>
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Google Ads recently introduced a new type of shopping campaign – Goal-based Shopping Campaigns. These are similar to Universal App campaigns and are completely automated. To start a goal-based shopping campaign, all you need to do is link your merchant center account, set a budget, upload products, and let Google know your country of sale.
You don’t have any control over the bids or the campaign structure. Google will show shopping ads across networks based on your goal. With this new shopping campaign type, Google snuck in a new type of network that shows up as cross-network in reports.
Goal-based shopping campaigns show product shopping ads on Google as well as on display. The campaign also includes remarketing ads and ads to similar audiences. Ads from these campaigns are eligible to appear on Google Search, Display, Gmail, and YouTube.
Cross-Network in Google Ads
When you segment data by networks in Google Ads, you’ll see a new network type called cross-network. This will only have data if you’re running the new goal-based shopping campaigns. As of today, if you’re not running goal-based shopping campaigns, you won’t see data under this network.
However, this may change if Google introduces additional campaign types that are fully automated. In all, there are now six different network types available in Google Ads. Based on the kind of campaign you’re running, you can get traffic from one or more networks.
Google Search
Search Partners
Google Display Network
YouTube Search
YouTube Videos
Cross-network
Networks vs. Campaign Types
Google Ads segments data in two ways – Advertising Channel/Campaign Type (Search, Shopping, Display, Video, App) and Networks (Google Search, Search Partners, Google Display Network, YouTube Search, YouTube Videos, Cross-network).
There is some overlap between the two which sometimes causes confusion. The biggest difference between networks and channels is that networks are the mediums or properties on which ads are shown whereas, campaign types or channels refer to the type of ads that are shown.
One campaign type can show ads across different networks. For example, search is an advertising channel as well as a network. However, when you look at Google search as a network, it includes data from both regular search campaigns and shopping campaigns because ads from both campaign types can show on the search network.
When you select search as a campaign type/channel (All campaigns) from the left menu in your Google Ads account you’ll see data for multiple networks. This is because ads from search campaigns can show on Google Search, Search Partners, and YouTube search. They can also show on the Google Display Network if you’re running search display select campaigns.
In Google Ads, when you select a campaign type on the left (Search, Shopping, Display…) it selects the advertising channel/campaign type and not the network. Understanding the difference between networks and channels becomes important when you’re running different types of campaigns.
At Google’s annual launch event for AdWords, Analytics, and DoubleClick, the key theme for 2017 is that machine learning is enabling marketers to do things we’ve long wanted to, but have been unable to due to their complexity. Here is what they announced.
Some of the highlights of what they are announcing:
In-market audiences for Search
Google Attribution
Better store visit data and integration with YouTube video ads
Measure store sales generated by online clicks
For Optmyzr it means we will now be able to do some cool things that we couldn’t before:
Our bid adjustment tools will help you set the right bids for in-market audiences
Our Rule Engine will be able to set bids based on more complete conversion data that you can now gather through Google Attribution.
Using that same data our budget allocation and prediction tools will lead to improved suggestions for how to allocate the most budget to the most profitable campaigns.
Our automated reports will include more accurate conversion data, as well as store sales data.
Note that as usual, many of the announced features are in beta or planned for later this year and Optmyzr will make the new capabilities available to our customers as soon as AdWords Scripts or the AdWords API supports it.
Introducing in-market audiences for search
In-market audiences help advertisers target consumers who appear to be in the market for something. This is incredibly valuable because AdWords, which is all about targeting the right user, at the right moment, and turning that interaction into more money for your company, now lets you know more about how likely the user is interested in what you offer.
The in-market audience is a layer on top of all the traditional targeting methods that carry bids like keywords, location, time of day, etc. Now you will be able to bid higher for in-market audiences.
Optmyzr already offers optimizations to help you set the right bid adjustments for geographies, devices, and dayparts, and now we will be able to add in-market audiences to that list.
Available in-market audiences include:
Apparel and Accessories
Autos & Vehicles
Baby & Children’s Products
Beauty Products & Services*
Business Services*
Computers & Peripherals
Consumer Electronics
Consumer Software
Dating Services*
Education
Employment
Financial Services
Gifts & Occasions
Home & Garden
Real Estate
Sports & Fitness*
Telecom
Travel
In beta
Introducing Google Attribution
During the most recent Google Partners livestream, Ben Tyson, Program Lead at Google, and I discussed PPC for home services companies. The average consumer checked an average of 4.2 resources before purchasing a home service 6 years ago. Today that number has ballooned to 22.4 resources on average. Touchpoints can include a variety of ad and content formats like video, display, search, and social on multiple devices and smartphones.
The promise of online advertising is that it’s very measurable and hence it’s possible to avoid wasted spend. But the reality is that measuring correctly has become exceedingly complex. Valuing the interactions and coming up with a sensible attribution model is complex enough to get right for large companies with dedicated analysts, so how is a small local company to make sense of it all.
That’s where Google Attribution comes in. It simplifies three things that have traditionally been a pain about attribution:
Track all data without extra tags
Analyze the performance using sophisticated attribution models
Act on insights
Attribution includes Unified Tracking
There are several issues with tracking today. A big one is that adding utm_tags for Google Analytics is a pain so it often gets overlooked or done incorrectly. Then an advertiser might use multiple systems to analyze data and when those systems are not unified, things get double counted like in the following example:
With unified data, advertisers will have clean data to make smart decisions with.
Data-driven attribution model is now free
But even with clean data, it’s still hard to value all the interactions that lead up to a conversion. This is what attribution models are all about. How to assign the right value to every interaction… Google will now make it easier to test different attribution models. The key to this part of the announcement is that data-driven attribution is included and will now be free for everyone.
Data driven attribution models use big data and machine learning to make some very specific predictions about what combinations of touchpoints are likely to lead to a conversion.
Here’s an example of how data driven attribution works. It uses machine learning to find correlations between the millions of unique ways in which a consumer’s path could lead to a conversion and it assigns weights to the importance of each possible step. It can then present advertisers with a custom attribution model that reflects the real world as closely as possible.
Keep in mind that attribution models are just approximations that help advertisers connect the impact of their campaigns to the outcomes that happen in the real world. When Google makes its amazing computing resources available to help marketers get a better model, that’s a big deal.
Attribution data flows into AdWords so you can take action
The third prong of the announcement is that it will become easier to take action. Even when I worked at Google, the frequent disconnect between an insight and the ability to act on that insight was something we frequently discussed and which led to an overhaul of the AdWords front-end.
It’s also an issue we try to address with our tools at Optmyzr. For example, the Shopping Attribute Bidder which we launched last week makes it easy for a retailer to get an insight about what aspects make certain products into bestsellers, and instantly lets them change bids for all products that share those desirable combinations of attributes.
With today’s announcement, Google is promising that the enhanced insights they get as part of Google Attribution will be pushed back into AdWords where it will be easy for advertisers to use to set better bids, or reallocate budgets.
Improved store visit measurements
Machine learning has improved significantly since Google introduced store visits measurement back in 2014. That means they can now provide more and better store visit data for all advertisers. Advertisers don’t need to do anything more than enable location extensions to get this data. There’s no complicated technology to install at stores because advanced machine learning and mapping technology from Google handles it all.
And when advertisers enable location extensions, those will now also be able to drive store traffic from YouTube video ads.
Store sales data for any retailer
Retailers track sales data from online orders so that they can measure return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) and set more profitable bids. Something that Optmyzr also helps to achieve with our variety of bid management tools. Now Google will make it super easy for retailers of any size to get sales data into AdWords. Advertisers simply provide Google with sales data and the associated email address from their loyalty program, and Google connects the dots to the online activities that led up to the in-store purchase.
And for retailers who don’t track email addresses, they can still benefit from the program because Google has third-party partnerships which capture approximately 70% of credit and debit card transactions in the United States.
Conclusion
There are many more announcements from AdWords coming today but these are the most important ones for now. We’ll cover more details in the coming days.
This is a guest post written by Phil Frost, Founder and COO of Main Street ROI. Phil will be presenting a webinar, “How to Improve Adwords Profits With Proper Conversion Tracking” on October, 5th at 12:00PM EST. Click here to register.
Google AdWords is the sports car of online marketing. It’s fast, intuitive and draws a lot of attention. When firing on all cylinders, there’s really nothing like it.
Neglect or disrespect it, though, and your campaigns can quickly lose traction.
A number of issues can stall your AdWords efforts. Some issues are easily fixable, while others require a closer look under the hood. Here we’ll review nine common problems that keep advertisers’ campaigns out of the fast lane.
Mistake #1: Targeting both networks at once
AdWords is powered by Google’s massive search and display networks, connecting businesses with endless scores of potential customers. The Search Network includes Google.com and partners such as Ask.com and AOL.com. The Display Network encompasses websites such as YouTube, Gmail and Blogger as well as millions of other websites, blogs, and apps.
Unfortunately, AdWords urges advertisers to run their campaigns on both networks. This is problematic because Web users on each network behave entirely different. People on the Search Network are usually shopping or doing research, while folks on the Display Network are often just surfing the Web. Different approaches are required to market toward each group.
Don’t follow Google’s advice here. Instead, create separate campaigns for each network. You’ll see the payoff when optimizing for better results.
Mistake #2: Using the wrong keyword settings
Are you getting tons of clicks but few conversions? Or is your campaign getting a high volume of impressions with very low CTRs? If so, check to make sure you’re not using broad-match keywords.
Broad-match keywords are undesirable because they’re far less likely to send relevant traffic to your website. Even if those uninterested users don’t click on your ad, you could still end up paying if low CTRs drag down your quality scores. You’ll get less traffic from phrase- and exact-match keywords, but you’ll also get better CTRs and landing page conversions, and your quality scores won’t suffer.
Mistake #3: Ignoring negative keywords
Negative keywords can stop your ads from being shown to completely irrelevant users, boosting your CTRs and conversions. However, many advertisers completely overlook them. Always, always, always set negative keywords when building your campaigns.
An example of a negative keyword: If you owned a barber shop, then you’d want to set variations of “dog,” “cat” and “pet” as negative keywords. Otherwise, you’ll be inundated with traffic from people seeking haircuts for their four-legged friends.
Mistake #4: Not using AdWords Conversion Tracking
AdWords Conversion Tracking helps you understand what happens after Web users click on your ads. Do they respond to your landing page by calling your business, downloading apps or making online purchases? Do they click around your site or bounce without taking any meaningful actions? This information is absolutely essential when optimizing for better performance.
Installing AdWords Conversion Tracking is fairly simple, though you might need help from a Web developer. You need to add a snippet of code to your website and/or mobile app. You can also use a Google forwarding number to track phone calls resulting from website visits.
Mistake #5: Not linking your AdWords account to Google Analytics
Google Analytics provides you with data you can’t get within AdWords alone. With Google Analytics, you can run various reports to get detailed information about your campaigns, ad groups, ads, keywords and traffic sources. It’s free and easy to set up, although you’ll need to install code throughout your website.
Mistake #6: No separation of mobile and desktop traffic
More people view the Internet now using smartphones and tablets than desktop PCs. And while online shoppers share similar motivations, key differences in the mobile and desktop experiences mean people behave differently when using their smartphones. For advertisers, that means remembering that campaigns optimized for desktop users probably won’t appeal as much to smartphone users, and vice versa.
The easy mistake here is setting up your campaigns to run across all devices. Instead, create separate campaigns for mobile and desktop users. Also, make sure your mobile campaigns are using responsive landing pages that display properly in smartphone Web browsers. Don’t even think about campaigns for mobile traffic if your website isn’t optimized for mobile viewing.
Mistake #7: Ads lack important keywords
Writing compelling ad copy is anything but an exact science. However, an easy way to attract eyeballs is to include your best keyword terms in your ads. People are more likely to click your ad if it literally contains what they’re looking for.
As your campaigns pick up steam, you’ll eventually learn which of your keywords drive the most high-quality traffic to your ads and landing pages. Use this information to build new ads and ad groups around your top-performing keywords.
Mistake #8: Incongruent landing pages
Does your landing page deliver on the promises you make in your ad copy? If not, there’s a good chance people are bouncing as soon as they hit your landing page.
Make sure that whatever you claim in your ad copy is clearly represented on your landing page. If your ad offers free shipping, then your landing page should have information about your free shipping policy.
When advertising a sale, your landing page should prominently feature the sale event or items. Nothing sinks conversions faster than incongruent landing pages. And you definitely don’t want to draw complaints about using bait-and-switch tactics.
Mistake #9: Refusal to seek help
Anyone is capable of cultivating AdWords campaigns that help their bottom lines. However, it’s common for marketers and business owners to plateau or experience diminishing returns. Sometimes, seeking help from a knowledgeable third party is the key to further progress.
That said, don’t be too quick to hand over the keys to your AdWords account. The more you learn about AdWords, the more you’ll know whether your account is in good hands with a third-party professional.
Conclusion
Google AdWords is as powerful a vehicle as you’ll find in online marketing, but you won’t get far without knowing which features can help your campaigns. It’s easy to get in the driver’s seat and launch a few campaigns, but there aren’t any shortcuts to long-term success.
Fortunately, using AdWords is much less risky than driving a high-powered sports car. You just need to know the rules of the road.
Google just revealed some exciting changes to be announced at its annual AdWords event, the Global Performance Summit, held at the Fairmont hotel in San Francisco. Here are the changes I am most excited about…
Text Ads are getting longer
Jerry Dischler, Vice President of AdWords Product Management said that text ads have fundamentally not changed since the introduction of AdWords but in a mobile-first world, his team thought they should rethink that. The result of this work is the first exciting update for advertisers: Expanded Text Ads will offer nearly 50% more space to write ads than before!
In the coming months, ads will have 2 headlines of 30 characters each and a single description line of 80 characters. That’s a whopping 45% more characters than before and because the description will be consolidated in one line vs two, it means we can finally start to write in a more natural way without needing to find a short enough word to bring description line 1 as close as possible to its old 35 character limit.
So what’s the impact of this? According to Google’s measurements, the CTRs of expanded text ads were up 20% compared to regular text ads. Seems normal given that they occupy more space. I’m curious to see how this normalizes once every advertiser can take advantage of the new format and once it becomes the new normal for users looking at ads.
Set bid adjustments for tablets
Ever since the introduction of Enhanced Campaigns, advertisers have been clamoring for more control over bids on different devices. While we’ve been able to control the mobile bid adjustments between -100% and +300%, tablet traffic was grouped with the same bids as computers.
AdWords will be rolling out tablet bid adjustments to give advertisers the additional control they asked for but the bid adjustments will still only be available down to the ad group level. Advertisers won’t be able to set keyword-level device bid adjustments unless they create single keyword ad groups (SKAGs). Speaking of which, did you know we recently introduced support for automatically adding good queries to single keyword ad groups in the updated version of our Keyword Lasso One-Click Optimization™? Try it out if you haven’t already.
According to Jerry Dischler, some advertisers have seen more value from mobile traffic and as a result they will increase the limit for bid increases from 300% to 900%.
In a more subtle but equally important change, bids will no longer be anchored to computer traffic. You’ll be able to set a bid based on the device you choose and then set adjustments for the remaining 2 device types. This opens up the intriguing capability to easily run mobile-only campaigns by setting computer bids to -100%.
Here’s why all this matters… In this hypothetical example from Optmyzr, you can see a case where tablet (and mobile) cost outweighs conversion value from those devices.
A smart advertiser would optimize this to bring value in line with cost. With mobile, they already could, but tablet traffic simply came along with computer traffic so it was either a money-pit because it was too expensive and couldn’t be scaled down, or it was a lost opportunity because it outperformed desktops and the bids couldn’t be raised without impacting desktop traffic.
Other announcements
In addition to my 2 favorite announced product updates, there were a few other announcements from Google:
• Responsive display ads based on an advertiser-provided headline, image, description, and URL.
• New customizable local business pages with data from inventory feeds and promotion feeds.
• New promoted pins on Maps
• Enhancements to how Google measures store-visits that result from an interaction with an ad, possibly with the use of a beacon based technology.
Google made a big change this month in how it displays ads on its search results pages (SERPs). They will no longer serve text ads on the right side of the organic results, a location where there used to be as many as 9 text ads before. Instead of showing up to 11 ads on a page, there is now only room for 7 ads. While this is a 36% decrease in the number of ads that can show, I think this will result in 18% more clicks for advertisers without changing anything to their accounts. While the removal of ads may sound like a negative, I think this is a big win for Google and for advertisers. Let me explain why.
The end of ads on the right side concludes Google’s longest experiment
Google is known for keeping products in beta for a long timebut this one may have been the longest of them all. While Search Engine Land reports this experiment has been going on since 2011, the original work that led up to this month’s big change started well before that. I was on the Google team originally working on this back in 2008 when we added new ad slots below the search results in Australia and Japan.
Our goal was to test if bottom ads could be launched in larger markets as well. The reason we didn’t launch back then is that we weren’t considering turning off the ads on the right side but were merely going to add new slots at the bottom. Because we knew that bottom ads had better CTRs than those on the right, we thought it would be logical to award those slots to ads with better ad ranks.
The highest ranked ads would continue to show above the organic results, the next highest ranked ones would get the bottom slots, and the lowest ranked ones would fill out the right side. That proposal drew fire from advertisers who were more interested in seeing their ads above-the-fold than getting more clicks. It was a situation where the numbers clearly made a case for continuing with bottom ads but we could not convince the advertiser-base at the time that this was the right thing to do.
Then a few years later, Google started experimenting with 4 ads above the results with mortgage adsin 2010 and in 2011 they started serving ads below the search resultsin cases where they didn’t show ads on the right. These experiments have now culminated in the permanent removal of right side ads in favor of new ads below the organic results.
The new layout has been active on the majority of traffic for over a year
Remember that Google told us last year that the majority of queries happen on mobilein the US and 8 other countries and these devices have always had the ad layout we’re now getting on desktops. The layout of a mobile SERP has never had ads on the right side, and has instead shown ads above and below the organic results. Now the layout of ads on desktops and laptops looks more like what we’re already used to on mobile devices.
The number of searches on desktops has been declining for some time whereas mobile search volume has been growing.
The overall number of queries on desktops is decreasing.
Fighting for RHS ads was no longer a viable long-term strategy since those slots were part of a shrinking market. Competing aggressively for top positions on the other hand is a great long-term strategy because it goes after the most important ad positions for a growing segment of all searches. Now that mobile and desktop layouts look very similar, all advertisers will basically compete for the same positions. This reduces some of the complexities that advertisers had to deal with because one ad position meant different things depending on the device.
Clicks from right side ads are a small fraction of top ad clicks
Ads that show above the search results outperform ads on the right side in terms of CTR. Optmyzr’s data shows that ads shown at the top easily get 10 times the CTR of the same ads shown on the right side. This is consistent with recent reports from iProspectthat their clients get 14 times better CTRs in top positions than on the right.
This change instantly increases clicks by 18%
Let’s take iProspect’s numbers to calculate how this change might impact the number of clicks available in AdWords, assuming all else remains the same.
iProspect says that the CTR of the top ads is 14 times that of RHS ads:
top ad CTR: 14_x
RHS ad CTR: 1_x
Let’s simplify our scenario by assuming there used to always be 3 ads at the top and 8 on the RHS. This is how many clicks there used to be to go around:
3_14_x (for the 3 top ads) + 8_1_x (for the 8 RHS ads) = 50*x clicks (the total clicks of a page)
If they just removed the RHS ads, that’d be 6.25% of all clicks on Google that they just relinquished:
8_1_x (for the 8 RHS ads) / 50*x (the total clicks of a page) = 6.25%
But remember they are adding one new ad at the top, that one may also get 14 times the clicks of a RHS ad.
4_14_x (for the 4 top ads) = 56*x clicks
That’s a 12% improvement from before but we’re not done because a few of the old RHS ads now move to the bottom where we expect them to get a better CTR than before, but let’s just say their CTR stays exactly the same:
4_14_x (for the 4 top ads) + 3_1_x (for the 3 bottom ads) = 59*x clicks
So with this change Google may have very well gone from 50_x clicks to 59_x clicks, an increase of 18%.
Advertisers should rejoice that there are now 18% more clicks to be gotten without doing a single thing.
Bottom ads have better CTR than sidebar ads
Back in 2011 Google said “On average, this [bottom ad] placement performed better than side ads in terms of click-through rate in our tests.” I suspect a large part of the reason is that the average user treats ads shown inline with organic results as another organic result and any decrease in CTR due to an aversion to advertising goes away.
CPCs will not go up
Let me be crass. While it is true that advertisers who used to occupy positions 8 through 11 may start to bid more aggressively, let’s remember they were bidding for a tiny fraction of the available clicks and the only reason for this behavior is that they didn’t care or couldn’t afford to bid more. These advertisers will need to fix the issues that prevented them from being more competitive in the ad auction in the past, whether it was a poor conversion rate, lower margins than their competitors or something else. They can’t afford to bid more so they won’t apply new pressure on the auction that would cause CPCs to increase.
But is it possible that first page bid estimates will start to increase now that a higher rank is required to be on page 1? I believe this will not be the case though I will monitor it and am happy to be proven wrong. I believe the increase in CTR of the new positions will offset any required increase in CPC. Remember that Ad Rank is a complex formula, but it all goes back to the days when it was simply as follows:
Ad Rank = Max CPC * CTR
Hence if the CTR goes up because of the new location where the ad is shown, the required CPC to maintain the same position will decrease. Hopefully Google doesn’t tune their formula to immediately remove the CPC discount from the new higher CTRs.
SEO will be hurt by this change
Companies with high organic rankings will see those listings get pushed further down the page, often below the fold. Organic advertisers are the losers with this change.
Advertisers who appear on page 2 will be hurt by this change
Advertisers whose ads have been relegated to page 2 of the results won’t simply make up lost volume with more clicks from the second page of results. A 2013 study shows that page 2 represents less than 5% of all traffic, and page 3 gets only about 1.1%.
Very little traffic comes from any page after the first page of Google search results.
Furthermore, ads relegated to the second page won’t get the top ad positions on page 2. Those premium slots remain reserved for ads that are known to be better so Google will just repeat ads from page 1 at the top of page 2.
Ads at the bottom convert as well as on the right Side
One fear is that ads at the bottom of the page may not convert as well as RHS ads. While this study is now quite old and didn’t account specifically for bottom ads, Google’s Chief Economist, Hal Varian, said that there is less than 5% variance in conversion ratefor the same ad when it is shown in different locations on the SERP. Maybe they can update that study but this is the most authoritative information I have on the point of conversion rate.
Product Listing Ads are winners
While traditional text ads no longer appear on the right side, Product Listing Ads (PLAs), also known as Shopping Ads will continue to show there and this feed-based ad format has been a fast-growing segment of AdWords for retailers. It is good for e-commerce advertisers that Google is making shopping ads more prominent by removing the clutter around them.
What advertisers need to do
AdWords changes constantly and this is actually a change that requires most advertisers whose accounts are already in good shape to do very little, if anything at all. I recommend the following:
Monitor performance more closely for a few weeks. Changes in AdWords usually cause advertisers to react and that may cause some fluctuations in your positions and other metrics. Our MCC Dashboard and Anomaly Detection Enhanced Script™ can help you find anomalies.
If you need to improve ad rank, consider doing a Quality Score (QS) optimization. Optmyzr has tools to help with Quality Score and I’ve also written extensively about how QS works.
Monitor keywords that may be falling off page 1. Optmyzr has a One-Click Optimization™ that automates this.
Update #1 – I was asked to offer more data for the statement that bottom ads have better CTR than sidebar ads. Here’s a Google post on that topic which I also added to the original blog post.
My monthly post on PPCHero just went live this morning and I share the code for an AdWords Script you can use to pause your account if there is an issue with the site.
We already have a script that automatically checks for broken URLs and pauses the associated ads but the idea for this script is that it should also work for emergencies where the site may still be running, like when the payment processor is down and people can’t place orders. This script will help quickly stop and then resume any ad groups using the impacted domain.
If you want a free copy of the AdWords Script code, you can grab it here or you can use this tool through our Enhanced Scripts where it works on MCC accounts and where we provide ongoing support so that the script will work even when Google changes their APIs.
The way I have set up the Enhanced Script in our own AdWords account looks like this:
As you can see I took advantage of the ability to create multiple settings of any script. I created one setting that will pause ad groups when my site breaks and another to resume the ad groups as soon as the issue is resolved. I only have 1 of these active at any time!
Another important difference from most of our scripts is that I haven’t scheduled this one to run automatically. Instead, if the need arises, I will go into AdWords to manually run the script once. At that time, it will pause ad groups.
Then when the issue is resolved I will change the status of both settings so that the resume option becomes active and manually run the script again.
I hope nobody needs this script but it’s a good one to have at the ready in case a site issue happens, especially during the holidays when CPCs can skyrocket.
One of the features that makes Optmyzr’s tools effective is that they are data-driven. The suggestions that you see in the one-click optimizations are all based on data. While the data-driven methodology works very well for accounts that have a sizable amount of traffic, it may not show a lot of suggestions for accounts that are still growing. This is because accounts that are relatively small in size may never get enough traffic to make decisions based on statistically significant data. Keeping this in mind, we recently launched the Turbo Mode in our most popular optimizations.
What is Turbo Mode?
In the Turbo mode, our system lowers the traffic threshold required to show optimization suggestions and gives you access to a larger, less-refined data set. The idea is that you can view a larger number of suggestions and then implement your own optimization strategy on them through custom filters.
Which optimizations is the Turbo mode available in?
1. Keyword Lasso
Adding new keywords is critical to any AdWords account which is why the Keyword Lasso is probably one of our most important optimizations. When you enable the Turbo mode in this optimization, it shows you all the search terms that received traffic but are not present as keywords in your account. You can apply custom filters to these suggestions to find positive and negative keywords and then add them with a single click.
2. Non-converting keywords
Our system uses stringent parameters when recommending non-converting keywords that should be paused. We understand that many times you want to find non-converting keywords in your account early on and optimize or pause them. For this reason, we added the turbo mode to the non-converting keywords optimization. The turbo mode displays any keyword that received more than 20 clicks and did not convert during the selected date range. Some ways in which you can use the non-converting keywords optimization are mentioned below:
• Optimize or pause keywords that have not converted in the last three months and haven’t converted in the last 365 days.
• Investigate keywords that have a high CTR and high Bounce Rate because this means that the keyword is relevant to the ad but the landing page is probably not correct.
3. AB Testing for Ads
The AB Testing for ads optimization identifies winning and losing ads in each ad group. However, it requires data to be statistically significant before making a recommendation and only displays ad groups that have winning and losing ads. However, there are times when an account doesn’t have enough traffic to make a decision based on statistical significance. Or, you want to optimize your ads early on. To enable this, we launched the turbo mode in the AB Testing for Ads tool. This lets you see ads that have traffic in all ad groups and also create new ads in these ad groups.
One of the most common questions we get asked is how can Optmyzr help me or, what is Optmyzr? I’ve tried to answer these questions here.
At a high level, Optmyzr has API based Tools and Enhanced Scripts™ for AdWords. This blog post gives a quick overview of the tools available to users when they sign up for an account. The tools fall under three broad categories based on which function of AdWords management they will help you with.
Data Insights
The tools under this section help you see trends and find optimization opportunities by converting rows of data into easy-to-understand visualizations. The tools that fall under this category are:
Dashboard: Quick snapshot of how your AdWords account is performing across devices and networks. Data can be aggregated by labels.
Hour of the Week: Find the best and worst-performing time-slots during the week for your AdWords campaigns.
Geo HeatMap: Find the best and worst-performing geographic areas for ads in terms of traffic, conversions and ROAS.
Performance Comparison: Compare performance of campaigns, ad groups, categories, devices and networks. Do quick post-optimization analysis.
Quality Score Tracker: Get the historical Quality Score of your account, campaigns, ad groups and keywords. Compare how Quality Score affects Avg. CPC. Get a list of ad groups that need to be optimized.
Landing Page Analysis: Find which Landing Pages in your AdWords account need to be worked on.
Search Terms Word Cloud: Get aggregate data for all the long-tail queries that get drive traffic to your AdWords account.
Spend Projection: Get an estimate of how much your account will spend using simple linear regression analysis.
One-Click Optimizations™
The tools under this section help you perform optimizations in your AdWords account with just one click. The system does all the data crunching to make intelligent recommendations. All you have to do is review and implement. The optimizations suggestions are made real-time.
One-Click Optimizations that help you optimize keywords:
Conversion Lasso: Add converting and high CTR search terms to your AdWords account. It doesn’t recommend search terms that are already present as keywords.
First Page Bridger: High-Quality Score keywords that are just below the first page bid.
Keyword De-Duper: Shows keywords that are absolute duplicates. Recommends which one to keep and pauses the rest.
Conversion Grabber: Finds high converting keywords that are losing impression share due to ad rank. Recommends selective bid increases for those keywords.
One-Word Keywords: Finds one-word keywords in broad and phrase match that are accruing cost and traffic.
Traffic Sculptor: Helps direct traffic to the right ads by recommending exact match negative keywords.
A/B Testing for Ads: Uses statistical analysis to identify the best and worst-performing ads in an ad group including image ads for display.
Display Placements Exclusion: Recommends placements to exclude based on your goal – Branding, Traffic or Conversions.
Non-converting Keywords: Identifies non-converting keywords that are driving up cost.
Hour of the Week Bidder: Set bid modifiers for different times of the week based on performance.
Shopping Bidder: Let’s you change bids for product groups in shopping campaigns with one-click. Product Groups can be selected based on ROAS.
Shopping Campaign Builder: This lets you create well-structured product groups from your Google Merchant Feed in minutes. You can manage bids and exclusions with just few clicks.
Reporting
This section has the Custom Report Designer and some other tools designed specifically for reporting on AdWords account performance. The tools under this section are:
Report Designer: This lets you create report templates for AdWords reports that can be used across accounts. You can whitelabel and schedule reports to be emailed automatically as PDF attachments. It gives you access to unique widgets like Hour of the Week, Quality Score Tracker and Geo HeatMap that are unique to Optmyzr reports. Don’t want to create a template from scratch? The section also has some pre-built templates that can be used. The icing on the cake is the ability to automatically schedule reports on a daily, weekly and monthly basis.
Instant Reports: Don’t have time to create a report template from scratch? You can use one of the instant report templates for AdWords or Google Analytics as is or customize them.
If you have questions or, need help getting started with Optmyzr, please feel free to write to us at support@optmyzr.com.
Both Google and Optmyzr launched updates to their MCC dashboards for AdWords today offering exciting new functionality. Here’s what’s new.
AdWords MCC changes
Here are the new capabilities launched in the AdWords MCC update:
Segment MCC data
Filter MCC data
Graph MCC data
See data further back than 90 days
Now you can segment the data the same way you already could in individual accounts, for example by day of week, network, device, click type, location on page (top or other), and conversion name. Here’s what that looks like when you segment the data by quarters:
You can also filter the data, for example to see just the accounts managed by a particular account manager or for a particular vertical. There are the same filters for metrics and conversion data we already know from individual AdWords accounts but here are the new filters associated with the MCC level:
You can now view any two metrics on a chart. This is cool because it works together with the filters so it’s easy to get a chart for accounts that meet particular criteria, like who is managing them.
The most subtle but possibly most important change is that you can now look at data further back than 90 days.
Optmyzr MCC changes
At Optmyzr, here’s what we updated today along with a few other recent changes to our MCC that you may have missed:
Filter data by network and device
Include Google Analytics data
Include account Quality Score data
Redesigned account picker
Birds eye view improvements
Enhanced account Cues
Faster access to the Optimizations Inbox
Before today’s updates we already offered a date range picker that can use any date range, date range comparisons, and the ability to filter data for different segments and networks. Here’s what our filters look like:
By linking your GA accounts to Optmyzr (a capability in our Pro plan), you can add goals, goal conversion rate, and e-commerce directly to the MCC dashboard where you can even use date range comparisons to get a quick view into how your results are changing.
We also offer a column that shows the account Quality Score, a metric we calculate from the keyword level QS numbers Google shows in their UI. It’s useful to track this number in the MCC dashboard to find out if all the optimization work you do is paying off in terms of improving relevancy.
Here’s the new account picker we launched. When you star accounts, you can see just those accounts in a separate view. Because every user gets to star their own accounts, this is particularly useful for teams where every person may be working on different accounts and wants to track those accounts most closely.
Our birds eye view has a new icon to make it easier to find. This view can be very useful when you quickly need to see if a change in performance is due to a one-day anomaly or part of a longer trend.
Our account Cues feature is still in whitelist beta (contact us for access) and it lets you compare each account’s recent performance against historical expectations for a set of typical KPIs that depend on the business model of each account. The cues look like red or green dots next to each account.
Here is the detail view you get when you click on the Cue:
Finally we’ve given our Optimizations Inbox a new home on the MCC dashboard. If you haven’t tried it yet, it’s a great place to find out which optimizations have the most changes available for all your accounts.
Sending reports of AdWords results to clients is one of the more time-consuming tasks agencies deal with so it’s not surprising that our scheduled reports are one of the more popular tools in Optmyzr. So for everyone using our scheduled reports, here’s a big mistake to avoid: don’t send your reports before the data is locked in!
The mistake we see is that agencies report too soon after the month ends which may lead some metrics to be incomplete for the simple reason that it takes time for AdWords and Analytics (GA) to publish all the data to advertisers’ accounts.
For example, did you know that Impression Share data won’t be ready until 13 hours after the day ends! Even click and impression data can take 3 hours to be completely posted to your account. AdWords sheds some light on reporting delays here. When it comes to conversion data from GA that is imported to AdWords, this can take up to 3 days.
Source: Google.com, May 2015
Because you don’t want to report incomplete data to your clients, we recommend sending monthly reports no sooner than the 2nd of the month, and no sooner than the 4th if you include goals from GA.
Weekly reports (for weeks ending Sunday) should be sent no sooner than Tuesday morning or Thursday morning if you include GA data.
You get the picture… it takes time for AdWords and GA to get the data ready so keep this in mind when deciding when to send your reports to clients or stakeholders. Review and edit all your own scheduled reports in Optmyzr.
We recently launched a more powerful version of the Optmyzr MCC dashboard. What makes this dashboard so powerful is that it lets you:
1. View and compare goal data from Google Analytics along with data from AdWords You can link your Google Analytics account to Optmyzr and view goal and e-commerce data alongside AdWords data. In the favorite accounts tab, you can compare this data to a different date range and see how performance has changed.
2. Add notes and labels to accounts With the Pro dashboard you can add labels and notes at the account level and these will be visible to your team members. The search box at the top will help you filter accounts by label.
3. Add more data fields like monthly budget, percentage of budget spent When managing multiple AdWords accounts it becomes difficult to see if all accounts are on track to spend the amount allocated for that period. With this feature you can specify a monthly budget for each account and then use the % Monthly Budget spent field to identify accounts that may not meet or may exceed the allocated budget. Even as a company if you’re managing multiple AdWords accounts, this feature will definitely come in handy.
4. Segment data by network and device at the account level This is one of the most powerful features of the Pro dashboard. You can use the filters on the left side of the dashboard to see how much each account is spending on a particular network and device. You can see how performance for all your accounts has changed on mobile phones.
This version of the dashboard is available to users on the Pro and Enterprise subscription plans
It can be quite tedious to manage multiple AdWords accounts and stay on top of them all the time. In this post we want to highlight features and tools in Optmyzr that are designed to help you manage multiple AdWords accounts more efficiently.
MCC account dashboard
In your MCC account in AdWords, you can get a list of accounts and can see metrics over a given period of time. However, figuring out which account needs your attention is entirely up to you. The new MCC account dashboard from Optmyzr helps with this. It lets you see how the performance of your favorite AdWords accounts has changed over two periods of time. This instantly tells you which accounts had the biggest drops and need immediate investigation. You can also compare performance to the same period last year to see if it is a seasonal trend.
Add accounts to favorites by clicking on the star next to the account name
Select which metrics you want to see from ‘Choose Columns’
Select the date range to compare
Hover over the account name to see a birds eye view of performance
Optimization inbox
Don’t know which AdWords accounts to start optimizing? The Optimization Inbox gives a quick snapshot of the number of optimization suggestions available in each AdWords account. You can filter and sort data by account name, the type of optimization (keywords or bids), number of suggestions and the last time an optimization was implemented in the account. A great way to prioritize your work week and save time.
Favorite report templates
You can favorite the most frequently used report templates for each AdWords account in Optmyzr. The advantage is that they show up at the top under favorite templates and you can get to them without sifting through a huge list. Also, the rest of the templates are available at the bottom of the page in case you need to use or replicate one for an account. You can schedule weekly/monthly reports to be emailed automatically, download a PDF or, share a link to an interactive report.
A great way to set yourself or your agency apart when trying to land new SEM clients is to show them that you are AdWords certified. There are many sub-par agencies that say they know AdWords but who really don’t, so having the certification and the agency badge that comes along with it, is a good way to show prospective clients you’re serious about AdWords.
To be AdWords certified, you have to pass 2 exams: AdWords fundamentals and one of the advanced exams, like Advanced Display.
Recently Google asked me to host two live Hangout On Air events to give agencies a crash course to prep for both of these tests. If you’ve been wanting to get your certification but you’re not sure you’re up-to-date with all the latest material, these videos are a great refresher.
Watch the AdWords Fundamentals Video Prep for the Google AdWords certification program with this crash course to get you ready to pass the AdWords Fundamentals exam.
Watch the Display Advertising Video Prep for the certification exam with this crash course to get you ready to pass the AdWords Advanced Display test.
We’re also posting these videos on our AdWords video tutorials page, along with some of our best other videos that explain our tools, and explain how to use AdWords best.
Doing an AdWords account audit essentially means using data to get a quick snapshot of where the account stands and what are the optimization opportunities. In this blog post, we’ll give you an account audit checklist that you can follow using Optmyzr’s tools.
Use Cases for an Account Audit
Taking on a new customer: As an agency when you’re taking on a new account it helps to know how much work the account requires. It is also a great way to give that extra piece of information that shows that you’ve gone the extra mile to analyze the account.
Keeping existing clients happy: While it’s important to get new clients on board it is equally important to keep existing clients happy. Account audits help keep a tab on account performance as well as create a road map for the next few months.
Quarterly audits: As an advertiser, it is important to know how your AdWords account is performing and which parts of an AdWords account need to be worked on. It helps isolate and prioritize which areas of an account need to be optimized.
Audit Checklist – The questions to ask
Step 1: Is the account using all the latest features and best practices?
Network targeting – Does it have separate campaigns for search and display? If not, splitting out the campaigns is a good optimization suggestion.
Account structure – Does it have too many keywords per ad group? Having too many keywords in an ad group makes the ads in the ad group less relevant to each of the keywords. It dilutes the keyword-ad text relevance which affects Quality Score.
Conversion Tracking – Does the account have conversion tracking set up? If the sales and leads in an AdWords account are not being tracked you can’t accurately measure ROI.
Remarketing – Does the account have remarketing lists? If yes, does it have at least one campaign targeting those lists?
Is the Quality Score of the account good?
The Quality Score Tracker gives you the current Quality Score of the account. Since this is weighted by impressions it will give you an idea of the general QS of the keywords that get the most traffic.
Also, look at the distribution of keywords by Quality Score. If most keywords have a QS of less than five, the account can benefit from a Quality Score optimization. This also lists the number of keywords that are getting traffic giving you an idea of the size of the account.
In the Quality Score Tracker, the list of ad groups to optimize tells you which ad groups need immediate QS optimization.
Step 2: Are the keywords in the account well structured?
Tools used: Optimization Dashboard
A quick view at the Optimization dashboard will give you an idea of the kind of optimizations the keywords in the account require. For example, the keyword de-duper tell you if there are duplicate keywords in the account that are competing against each other?
You don’t need to run the optimizations as the approximate number of suggestions are mentioned next to each optimization technique. This gives an idea of the opportunity in the account.
Step 3: Segmentation Analysis – Get more granular with the data
Are there day-parting opportunities?
Tools used: Hour of the Week
Different times of the day work for different products. The Hour of the Week tool tells you which time slots are not driving conversions or leads and it would be better to schedule your ads to not run during that time.
You can also compare Search Impression Share and Conversion Rate to find the best converting time slots and increase bids during the time that has low impression share but high conversion rate.
Are bid modifiers set up correctly? Tools Used: Dashboard
With enhanced campaigns becoming the norm ads show on all devices – desktops, tablets and mobile. One way to optimize for devices is to set bid modifiers. You can segment data and see how the account is performing on mobile vs. desktops to decide whether bid modifiers will help improve performance. For example, on the dashboard compare the percentage of spend on mobile with the percentage of conversions to get an idea of the cost/conversion on mobile.
Are there opportunities to optimize by geography? Tools used: Geo HeatMap
In the Geo HeatMap, take a look at the return on ad spend (ROAS) data broken down by city to find cities that have a higher return on investment. Based on this, you can recommend increasing bids for geographies that have a higher ROAS. Even having this insight into how campaigns are performing by location is beneficial.
Also, make sure that the account is getting data from the right geographies. For example, if you notice a lot of clicks coming from a country/city that has zero conversions then it may be a good idea to either exclude that geography or, create a separate campaign and optimize for it.
Step 4: Trends
Is the account headed in the right direction? Tools used: Performance Comparison
Doing a quick before and after comparison of data for the last 30 days or quarter can tell you if the account is growing or not. You can also go into details and see which metrics are growing and which ones are dropping. For example, if conversions have dropped and clicks have increased then it may be a good idea to see if the landing page or conversion process has changed.
Are the different segments and networks trending in the right direction? Tools used: Performance Comparison
You can also see which segment or device has had the maximum change in traffic and conversions using the Performance Comparison Tool. For example, it is possible that conversion on desktops actually increased but the overall number is showing a drop because conversions on mobile dropped drastically.
These comparisons can be done with one-click in a single report using the pre-built audit templates in your Optmyzr account.
Don’t have time to read the entire post? Watch Frederick Vallaeys walk you through this audit process in here.
One-Click Optimizations are automated, time-saving and easy to implement. When things are automated and don’t take much time, we sometimes tend to do overdo them 🙂
In this post, we’ve given suggestions on how often should you run each of the One-Click Optimizations. The time interval between optimizations may vary for different accounts depending on size and traffic. The suggested times are only directional.
Keyword Lasso
This optimization suggests adding search queries that converted/performed well as keywords to your account. The Keyword Lasso does take into account traffic when suggesting search terms that should be added to an AdWords account. Should you be running this everyday? Probably not. Traffic from just one day is not enough to make a decision on whether you should add a search term as a keyword even if the search term converted. You could end up adding a lot of keywords that just converted once.
Suggested time interval: 7 – 14 days.
The time interval also depends on how much traffic you get on average. You could be getting 100K impressions a day or, just 100 impressions.
Keyword De-duper
This optimization removes keywords that are absolute duplicates (same match type, same targeting etc.) and compete against each other. This is particularly useful when adding keywords in bulk.
Suggested time interval: 14 days (If you add keywords every day, then run it more often.)
First Page Bridger
This optimization finds keywords with a good Quality Score that have bids that are just below the first-page bid and can benefit from a slight bid increase. There is no point running this optimization every day because it will keep increasing bids unnecessarily for the same keywords. Wait for at least 7 days after a bid increase to see performance.
Suggested time interval: 7 -14 days
Keyword Sculptor
This optimization ensures that the right ad shows for each search query by adding exact match negative keywords at the ad group level. Google sometimes broad or phrase matches search queries to keywords in an account even though the search query exists as a keyword in the account. You can run this report as often as you want but you may not get results if you run it every day.
Suggested time interval: At least once in 30 days
Have questions? Write to us at support@optmyzr.com, we’d love to hear from you!
