Your Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are your brand’s first impression on the search results page. It’s the moment when a potential customer decides whether to click, explore, or move on to someone else.
Yet too often, RSAs are treated as an afterthought- hastily built, rarely tested, and left to “figure themselves out.”
The result is weak messaging and performance that never reaches its full potential. That’s why I decided to take a closer look at what truly makes Responsive Search Ads perform.
And here are the eight rules of thumb I personally follow when working with RSAs:
1. Should you use all the available headlines?
“Google recommends 15 headlines, so I should use all 15, right?”
Actually, it’s the opposite. I usually stick to around five strong headlines. This saves time, sharpens your messaging, and helps Google’s machine learning find winning combinations faster.
When you add too many headlines, you often dilute your message. Instead of 15 average lines, focus on 5 that clearly communicate your offer, product value, and intent.
Think of it less as “filling all the slots” and more as curating a set of your best angles.
Once those are live, the key is to understand which headlines are actually pulling their weight. Not every idea will perform equally well, and that’s okay.
The trick is to identify your winners and replace the weaker ones without wasting hours in spreadsheets or the Google Ads interface.
This tool breaks your Responsive Search Ads into individual parts: headlines, descriptions, and complete ads, and shows you how each is performing. You can instantly spot which headlines attract clicks/conversions and which ones might be holding you back.
It also offers AI-powered headline and description suggestions based on your ad data.
You can review, tweak, or apply those ideas directly, making it simple to test new variations without starting from scratch.
And if you need to clean up your ads in bulk, say, update an outdated offer or replace “AdWords” with “Google Ads” across all your campaigns, the Find & Replace feature handles it in seconds.
2. Combine broad and specific messages
When writing RSA headlines, I always mix broad messages with specific, intent-driven ones. Broad lines like “Shop the Latest Running Shoes” or “Free Shipping on All Orders” help your ad match a wide range of searches.
But it’s the specific ones, “Buy Nike Pegasus 40 Women’s Shoes” or “Trail Running Shoes for Rainy Weather,” that drive real relevance when users know exactly what they want.
The balance between the two is key.
Too broad, and your ads feel generic. Too narrow, and you miss bigger audiences. If you’re doing this manually, it can take time. That’s where Optmyzr’s A/B testing tool can help.
It automatically compares your ads in the same ad group and shows which ones are performing better based on real data, like CTR, conversions, or cost per conversion.
You can quickly spot which ad copy is winning, pause the weaker ones, and use insights from the best performers to create new variations.
And if you’re short on time, the AI suggestions are always there to help!
3. Use pinning thoughtfully
Pinning can be a great tool, but it’s one of the most misunderstood parts of Responsive Search Ads. I often see advertisers pinning far too many headlines or descriptions, trying to “lock in” what they think will perform best.
However, every time you pin, you reduce Google’s ability to test combinations and learn what actually works.
Pin only when it’s absolutely necessary, like keeping your brand name or a key promo message in a specific position (“Save 50% During Black Week,” for example).
Beyond that, trust the system to do its job.
Of course, it helps to have visibility into what’s pinned and how those assets perform, and that’s where the ad text optimization can help again!
4. Ensure relevance to keywords
I cannot emphasize this rule enough: include your main keywords in your headlines.
When someone searches for “Nike running shoes,” it feels natural and reassuring to see that exact phrase appear in the ad. It signals, “Yes, this ad matches what I’m looking for.”
Even small changes like swapping “Shop the Latest Shoes” for “Shop Nike Running Shoes” can lift your CTR and make your ads feel more personalized.
This isn’t just about optimization metrics; it’s about user experience.
People want to see their own language reflected back to them. It builds trust and helps Google understand your ad’s relevance, which can improve your Quality Score too.
So before you launch, take a moment to check: do your headlines truly echo what your customers are typing into the search bar?
5. Test, test, test
Responsive Search Ads are never “finished.” That’s the mindset I always keep. You don’t write a few headlines, launch the ad, and move on.
You test, learn, and adjust continuously. The trick is not to overhaul everything at once.
Small, gradual changes teach you more over time. Replace one weak headline, try a different call to action, or test a more specific message against a broader one.
Every small improvement compounds.
If you’re starting fresh or want to add new variations, the Create Responsive Search Ads tool can help you build them quickly.
It automatically looks at your existing ads, finds which headlines and descriptions have the best click-through rates, and suggests new combinations. You can review those suggestions, make tweaks, and upload them straight to your Google Ads account (without manual copy-pasting).
Once your new versions are running, you can also use A/B Testing for Ads in Optmyzr to compare their performance.
6. Use assets and extensions with RSAs
Responsive Search Ads work best when you support them with the right assets and extensions. Think of your RSA as the headline (the main story), and your extensions as the supporting details that make the ad more complete.
Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, and image extensions don’t just make your ads bigger; they make them more useful.
A sitelink can guide people to your most popular products or landing pages. A callout like “Free Returns” or “24/7 Support” adds confidence.
And image extensions help you stand out visually on a crowded results page.
These extra pieces do more than fill space: they give your ad context, personality, and a stronger reason to click.
7. Focus on a clear CTA
Even though Responsive Search Ads combine multiple headlines and descriptions, you still need one clear, consistent call to action.
Your CTA should tell the user exactly what to do next: “Shop Now,” “Book a Demo,” “Get a Free Quote.” Simple and direct always beats clever but confusing.
The mistake many advertisers make is trying to include too many CTAs in one ad. When every headline says something different: “Learn More,” “Buy Today,” “Sign Up Now,” the message becomes scattered, and the intent gets lost.
Pick one direction, make it visible in at least one headline and one description, and let the rest of the copy support that message.
A clear, confident CTA is like a final nudge; it turns attention into action.
8. Avoid pitfalls
If you can offer next-day delivery, definitely use it; it’s a strong selling point.
But if your delivery time is 14 days, it’s better to leave that out of your headline. Overpromising might win the click, but it will cost you trust later.
The same goes for exaggerated claims or outdated offers.
Your ad copy should be as honest as it is persuasive. If a competitor is promising something you can’t realistically match, focus instead on what you do best, maybe reliability, product quality, or customer service.
Still, mistakes and weak ads can slip through, especially when you’re running hundreds of campaigns. That’s where Optmyzr’s Rule Engine can save you time.
You can set simple rules, like “show me all RSAs that haven’t had any conversions in the past 30 days but are still getting clicks.”
Once you set that rule, Optmyzr will automatically flag those ads and group them in a report, so you can review and fix them before they waste more budget.
It’s a quick way to spot underperforming or risky ads early, whether that means poor ad strength, outdated messaging, or just a copy that’s not connecting anymore.
That way, you spend less time hunting for problems and more time improving the ads that actually work.
Make every RSA work smarter with Optmyzr.
Responsive Search Ads can look unpredictable from the outside, but once you understand how they learn, they become much easier to shape.
Follow these rules, keep testing, and stay honest in your messaging. Over time, small improvements add up to big wins.
And when you combine a clear strategy with the right tools, RSAs start feeling like one of the most powerful parts of your account. That’s exactly where Optmyzr can help.
Start your 14-day free trial today and see how smarter automation and better insights can take your RSAs and your overall account to the next level!
Sign up for more Google Ads tips at SavvyRevenue’s newsletter.
Morten Paamejer is a Senior PPC Specialist at SavvyRevenue, where he helps eCommerce brands grow through data-driven Google Ads strategies and smart account optimization. With a background in digital marketing and several years of experience at agencies like LAZZAWEB, Morten has developed a strong focus on scaling campaigns efficiently while keeping profitability top of mind.
This article is a reflection of the author’s experiences and opinions. Optmyzr believes that there are many ways to win in digital advertising, and is committed to presenting a diverse range of ideas and approaches.
If you’re new to search marketing and Google Ads and feel like a lost child in a busy market trying to figure out how the platform or even campaign setup works, you’re exactly where I was when I launched my first campaign.
Back then, I had no idea what terms like PPC or search marketing even meant. It wasn’t until I became a content and product marketer at Optmyzr that I had to dive in, learn the ropes, and start writing about the industry and our tools.
But there was one problem. I couldn’t truly understand what advertisers go through without ever having run an ad myself. So I set up my first campaign… and realized there was a whole other layer of learning I’d missed. Even with AI-driven bidding and Performance Max simplifying some things, there are still plenty of details that can trip you up if you’re not prepared.
This article is my attempt to help PPC newbies feel a little less lost as they set up their first Google Ads campaign.
7 things to do before setting up your first campaign
Here is a quick checklist of things you need to keep in mind when setting up your first Google Ads campaign.
1. Know your audience
Before you even begin to create your Google Ads account and create ads, you need to understand your market and audience.
I know this sounds cliché, but there are three important things in the process of understanding your audience:
1. Dig into market needs and audience behavior
Businesses don’t run in isolation or independently from their audiences, and if you wish to run successful ads, you need to identify your target audience’s pain points. You need to really pay attention to the needs of prospective customers and the market problem.
Advertisers often use tools like GA4 reports, CRM data, and search intent insights to define key audience signals.
If you’re an Optmyzr customer, you have access to two tools to help you with this:
Search Term N-Grams breaks down search queries to reveal the most impactful words or phrases, helping you spot patterns in audience behavior that you might otherwise miss.
2. Connect your product to real customer demand
Once you understand your audience, define how your product or service fills the gap. Why would someone choose your brand over competitors? What makes your offer stand out?
These answers should shape your ad messaging, targeting, and even your landing page strategy. For example, if you’re a local bakery that delivers gluten-free treats faster than national brands, highlight that speed and specialty in your copy, and test variations to see what drives conversions.
3. Build your ad copy around your product’s real value
Your ad messaging should align with the needs of your audience and your business goals. Start by identifying what you want to achieve—whether that’s more sign-ups, sales, or brand awareness, and build your messaging to support that outcome.
To make sure your messaging resonates, focus on the value your product delivers. What problem are you solving? How does your offer make life easier, better, or more efficient for your audience?
Optmyzr’s Ad Text Optimization tool helps break down which headlines and descriptions are actually performing and where you can improve. And with AB Testing for Ads, you can compare ad variations to see which messages drive clicks and conversions. These insights ensure your creative is clear and effective.
2. Learn the basics of Google Ads.
Going in without any knowledge of Google Ads, and terms like Campaigns, Ad Groups, Keywords, Bids, and Budgets might make your experience of creating your first campaign quite overwhelming.
Before getting into setting up your campaigns and ads, you need to know what the different ad types are and when to use them. The next step is to understand what a campaign structure is and how to create winning campaign structures. We’ll see why account and campaign structures are important in the following section.
What campaign types are available?
Google Ads offers a variety of campaign types:
Search (text ads on search results)
Display (visual banner ads across websites)
Video (YouTube ads)
Shopping (product-based ads)
Performance Max (automated, all-in-one campaigns using AI)
Each serves a different goal, so choose based on what you’re trying to achieve—brand visibility, direct conversions, or a mix.
How campaign structure affects performance
A well-structured campaign helps Google understand your goals and serve your ads more efficiently. Campaigns are broken down into ad groups, which contain keywords and ads. Think of it like organizing a store: the clearer your aisles and shelves, the easier it is for shoppers (and algorithms) to find what they need.
💡Pro Tip: Even if you start with Smart Campaigns or Performance Max, understanding the underlying structure (like assets, audience signals, and feed inputs) can give you a serious edge. It helps you diagnose what’s working and what needs adjusting, faster.
And if you’re entirely new to PPC and need more basic-level courses to get you started, Google Skillshop has some great resources. These were some of the first courses I took before writing about Google Ads and setting up a campaign of my own.
You can also follow our video podcasts, PPC Town Hall to level up your PPC game.
3. Organize your account for clarity and control
Even after you understand product-market fit and get the basics of Google Ads right, the Google Ads interface might look a little tricky to navigate. A sorted account structure makes this task a little easier.
Categorizing your ads gives you more control over when and where your ads appear, and when they are triggered. Think of it like a well-organized cabinet where everything has its place, and you always know where to find what you need.
The three most important things in account structure are:
1. Naming
Many marketers who start out to create campaigns and ads, including myself, come up with campaign names out of the blue; I named my first campaign “CA without a goal guidance” because I didn’t know any better. While random naming might make sense as we start creating campaigns, managing the account as we keep adding campaigns becomes chaotic.
If you do not have a consistent and clear naming process, it becomes difficult to go in and look for specific campaigns and ad groups in the future.
Having a proper naming convention in place allows for better control, organization, and data filtering. Moreover, if there’s a new addition to your team and they need to find their way around the account, it helps to have a clear naming convention.
2. Know your account split
Having a clear account split and keeping different campaign types separate makes it easier to track your progress and identify winning strategies. You can segment your campaigns based on bidding strategies, keyword types, languages, budget, and more.
Splitting campaigns by geography, audience intent, or budget control helps you tailor messaging, allocate spend more efficiently, and evaluate what’s working in specific contexts. For example, a high-intent audience might respond better to aggressive bidding, while a broader awareness campaign may need different creatives or budget pacing.
There’s no one best way to split your campaigns. Whether you separate campaigns by location, funnel stage, or product category depends on your business model and performance goals. The key is to choose a structure that makes optimization easier, not harder.
3. Flexibility to go in and change
Remember, your account structure is not set in stone. You can always go in and change it in a way that you’re most comfortable with and brings you the best results.
But account flexibility is better when the previous two steps are in place.
Learn some of the common mistakes people make while structuring accounts and how you can create an adaptable account structure from Aaron Levy, Brand Evangelist at Optmyzr and former VP of Paid Search at Tinuiti.
4. Identify the right keywords for your ads
Having the right keywords is the most crucial stepping stone to having a good ad campaign. When picking keywords, your goal is to find terms that you think people will use to search for your product or service.
The three most important things in keyword research are:
1. Keyword match types
Keyword match types tell you how closely a keyword needs to match the user’s search query for the ad to qualify for an auction.
There are three keyword match types, each allowing a different reach and audience targeting. Broad match allows you to cover wider audiences and search intents. It now uses Google’s AI to evaluate signals like user intent, past search behavior, and conversion likelihood. While it offers expansive reach, it works best when paired with Smart Bidding and robust conversion tracking to steer the algorithm effectively.
On the other hand, Exact match gives you tighter control and is ideal for bottom-funnel, high-intent searches. However, “exact” isn’t as literal as it once was—close variants, plurals, and even misspellings can still trigger your ads.
Understanding how each match type behaves in today’s AI-driven environment helps you align keyword strategy with campaign goals more confidently.
2. Keywords for relevance
Your keywords should be as relevant as possible to the ad and landing page they trigger. Go to your website and your competitors’ websites and ads for inspiration. Think of what your ideal customer will type in if they’re looking for the kind of products or services you sell.
💡Pro Tip: Use your landing page copy, customer reviews, sales call transcripts, and even competitor ads to uncover the exact language your audience uses. This not only sparks keyword ideas but also strengthens the alignment between search term, ad message, and landing page, boosting both relevance and your Ad Strength rating in responsive ads.
3. Identify good and bad keywords
Identifying bad keywords is just as important—if not more—than finding the good ones. Irrelevant search terms can drive up your CPA without delivering results. That’s why it’s essential to regularly monitor your Search Terms Report and exclude any queries that attract the wrong audience. Adding these as negative keywords helps keep your budget focused on what actually converts.
This becomes especially critical in broad match or Performance Max campaigns, where Google’s automation casts a wide net based on user intent and signals. Using account-level negative keyword lists gives you a layer of control across multiple campaigns, helping prevent wasted spend while still benefiting from automation.
To streamline this process, tools like Search Term N-Grams and the Negative Keyword Finder in Optmyzr can help identify irrelevant or low-performing terms more efficiently. They break down queries into individual components and surface recurring patterns—making it easier to catch the terms you might miss manually.
Once you’ve tightened up your targeting, you can turn to your favorite keyword tools to find keywords that are both cost-effective and competitive. You don’t have to go after the most expensive terms right away—start with relevant, mid-range keywords that align with your goals and test from there.
5. Target the right people with the right signals
Google Ads defines a conversion as “an action that’s counted when someone interacts with your ad or free product listing.” But in real life, conversions come in all shapes and sizes, and they’re not always a sale.
Sometimes it’s a newsletter signup. Sometimes it’s someone filling out a form or spending time on a pricing page. These micro-conversions might seem small, but they’re powerful clues that someone’s moving closer to buying.
That’s why it’s so important to set up conversion tracking early and to be thoughtful about what you’re tracking. Define your primary conversion actions clearly so Smart Bidding knows what success looks like. If you’re optimizing for the wrong goal, the algorithm can’t help you hit the right one.
Why track conversions?
To see what’s actually working—not just what’s getting clicks
To spot which ads and keywords are moving people forward
To guide your budget toward results, not just traffic
To learn how your customers really behave
And once you’ve got conversions coming in, Optmyzr’s Conversion Grabber can help you find the keywords driving results but not getting enough visibility. That way, you’re not leaving easy wins on the table.
7. Optimize your landing page for conversions
Your landing page is where users “land” after clicking your ad—so it plays a huge role in whether or not they convert. A strong landing page doesn’t just support the ad—it finishes the story the ad started.
Google evaluates landing page experience as part of your Quality Score, which directly affects your ad rank and cost-per-click. A poor experience can hurt both performance and spend efficiency.
To improve your landing page experience, focus on:
Message match: Make sure the page clearly connects to the promise in your ad
Ease of use: Navigation should be simple and mobile-friendly
Keyword relevance: Your core terms should appear naturally on the page
Fast loading: Speed impacts both user experience and Google’s evaluation
Focused CTA: Tell users exactly what you want them to do next
A mismatch between ad and landing page (e.g., promoting a discount in your ad that isn’t visible on the page) creates confusion and frustration. Google notices, and so do your potential customers.
💡Pro Tip: Optmyzr’s Landing Page Analysis helps you quickly identify which landing pages are underperforming, which ones are high-converting, and where you might need to adjust content, structure, or speed. It’s a fast way to make sure your pages are not just working but working well.
You’ve got the checklist. Now what?
Setting up your first Google Ads campaign can feel like stepping into a maze. But it doesn’t have to.
From understanding your audience to dialing in keywords, crafting strong messages, and aligning your landing pages, every step plays a role in how confidently your ads perform. And while automation and AI have changed how campaigns are built, your understanding of the basics is what makes those systems work for you, not the other way around.
Use this checklist as your launchpad, and remember, even the most experienced advertisers are still learning, testing, and tweaking. The more you do, the more you’ll uncover what works for your brand, your goals, and your audience.
Many advertisers jump into Smart Bidding, hoping it will solve everything, only to end up with wasted budget and disappointing results. The truth is, Smart Bidding isn’t a magic switch.
It’s a set of strategies, each designed for different goals, and success comes from knowing which one to use in which situation.
This article breaks down when and how to use each Smart Bidding strategy. It highlights where they shine, where they fall short, and the best practices that keep Google’s automation working for you.
Choosing the right smart bidding strategy (at a glance)
Strategy
When to Use
What You Need
Optmyzr Tools that Help
Target CPA
You want steady lead costs and predictable CPAs
At least 30 conversions/month; consistent budget
Spend Projection ensures your budget doesn’t starve the algorithm.
You care about revenue impact, not just conversion counts
Accurate conversion values; solid tracking setup
Budget Optimization + Alerts reallocate spend to higher-ROAS campaigns and notify you before overspending or underpacing hurts performance.
How do Smart Bidding strategies work?
To better understand Smart Bidding strategies, let’s look at how they work.
As discussed before, Smart Bidding uses machine learning to optimize bids for each auction based on four key factors:
Contextual signals, for example, device, location, and time of day.
Predicted conversion rate
Search query performance
Target budget (e.g., CPA, ROAS)
This allows Smart Bidding to deliver the most conversions or conversion value within your budget. Let’s now dive into the different smart bidding strategies to choose the one most suitable for your needs:
Target CPA
Target CPA automatically adjusts your bids to get as many conversions as possible while keeping your average cost per conversion at or below your target.
When to use it:
Lead gen campaigns with a clear acceptable cost per lead
Campaigns with at least 30 conversions in the past month
When conversion volume matters more than revenue value
How to make it work:
Set a realistic Target CPA based on your historical cost per conversion, but remember that Target CPA needs a consistent budget flow to learn effectively.
Use Optmyzr’s Spend Projection to forecast if your current budget will pace correctly through the month. If you’re underspending, Target CPA can’t gather enough conversion signals to optimize properly.
Target CPA only works as well as your landing pages convert.
High Potential → converts well but has low traffic
Expensive → high traffic, poor conversions
Others → everything else
Focus your Target CPA budget on High Performers and fix or pause the Expensive ones bleeding money.
💡Recent Update: Google’s recent ad quality changes affect how Target CPA campaigns perform, especially in lead gen. As Ginny Marvin (Google Ads Liaison) explains: "We will likely show ads that have landing pages with limited to no navigation less often because we found it is a poor user experience."
📌 What this means: stripped-down, form-only landing pages may see reduced impressions. To maintain performance, add simple navigation while keeping pages fast and relevant. Watch the full video here:
And remember, Target CPA works only if the clicks it buys are relevant.
If irrelevant clicks keep eating up spend, the algorithm is learning from the wrong audience. Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder scans your search terms and flags words that drive costs without conversions.
You can then add them as negatives across campaigns or build lists to keep them organized.
Target ROAS
Target ROAS automatically adjusts bids to maximize the revenue you generate for every dollar spent. Instead of simply chasing conversions, it focuses on the value of those conversions by predicting which clicks are likely to drive higher revenue.
When to use it
Ecommerce businesses or lead gen models with clear revenue attribution
Campaigns with at least 50 conversions in the past month (to give the algorithm solid ground to optimize)
Advertisers who prioritize profitability and return over sheer conversion volume
How to make it work
Assign accurate values to all conversions (online sales, closed deals, contract values, etc.).
Feed back as much data as possible into Google Ads, including enhanced conversions, customer match, and offline CRM data.
The more context you provide, the better Google can differentiate between high- and low-value leads.
Optimize Value Rules – VBB makes it easy to apply conversion value rules directly in Google Ads. Instead of treating every conversion the same, you can tell Google that some audiences, devices, or locations are worth more.
Let’s take an example to understand this better.
Each row represents a traffic segment (e.g., Austin, United States or Berlin, Germany)
The Score column shows how valuable that segment is compared to others, based on your performance history
Optmyzr then recommends a Suggested Adjustment (like x1.05), meaning you can tell Google that conversions from Austin are worth 5% more
You can review or edit the New Adjustment column before applying, and even control how aggressive the system should be
When you hit Apply, these rules are pushed directly into Google Ads.
That way, Smart Bidding strategies like Target ROAS or Maximize Conversion Value learn that certain locations, audiences, or devices deserve higher bids because they drive higher revenue for your business.
Test before you commit
Not sure if Target ROAS will beat another strategy like Max Conversion Value? Optmyzr’s Express Optimization lets you spin up controlled experiments in just a few clicks.
You can test different bidding models side by side, monitor results, and then switch to the winner permanently without rebuilding campaigns from scratch.
Maximize Conversions
Maximize Conversions automatically spends your budget to drive the highest possible number of conversions. It works a lot like “Maximize Clicks,” but instead of clicks, it optimizes for conversions.
When to use it
Campaigns where the goal is to scale conversion volume, not control CPA or ROAS
New campaigns where you don’t yet know your ideal CPA or ROAS targets
Situations where you want to quickly capture as many leads or sign-ups as possible within your daily budget
How to make it work
The strength of Maximize Conversions is speed, but that can also be its biggest weakness.
Since it will aggressively spend your entire daily budget, pacing becomes critical. As we saw with Target CPA, Smart Bidding only works if it has consistent fuel. Optmyzr’s Spend Projection helps you keep that flow steady, showing whether you’re likely to overspend early in the month or starve the algorithm of signals by underspending.
Traffic quality is just as important.
Maximize Conversions will happily chase any conversion, even low-quality ones, if irrelevant clicks are slipping into your campaigns.
We’ve already seen how Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder helps filter those out, but you can also go deeper with rule-based negative keyword management. With rule-based optimizations, Optmyzr can automatically add non-converting terms as negatives at the campaign or ad group level.
Maximize Conversion Value automatically adjusts your bids to generate the highest total revenue possible from your budget. Instead of chasing more conversions, it prioritizes conversions that bring in more value.
When to use it
Ecommerce businesses with a clear revenue-per-conversion model
Lead gen accounts where different deals carry very different values
Campaigns with stable tracking and enough conversion data to support value-based optimization
How to make it work
Since this strategy focuses on value over volume, it depends on the quality of your value signals. If every conversion is tracked as equal, Google won’t know which ones truly matter for your business.
As we discussed with Target ROAS, Optmyzr’s Value-Based Bidding (VBB) tool makes it easy to refine conversion value rules in Google Ads.
Next, you need to focus on budget pacing. Optmyzr’s Budget Optimization tools show impression share lost to budget and suggest reallocations.
For example, if brand campaigns are spending heavily but competitor campaigns generate a higher ROAS, Optmyzr will flag it so you can shift spend to maximize revenue impact.
Instead of manually checking whether campaigns are overspending or starving throughout the month, Optmyzr notifies you when spend drifts off target.
That way, you can catch pacing issues early and reallocate before Smart Bidding wastes budget on low-value clicks. Alerts can even be sent directly to Slack or Teams, so you and your team don’t miss critical changes.
5 best practices for Google Ads Smart Bidding strategies
1. Have sufficient budget
Smart Bidding needs room to work. Google’s algorithm learns by testing, so if your budget is too tight, it won’t gather enough data to optimize effectively. Always check whether you’re at risk of overspending or underspending, and adjust pacing before performance suffers.
2. Give Smart Bidding time to learn
Machine learning doesn’t optimize overnight. Campaigns usually need at least two weeks to gather enough conversion data to make reliable adjustments. Avoid making constant changes during this learning period, or you’ll reset progress.
One expert advised: "If you don't have 50+ conversions per campaign, you need to wrap it in a portfolio bid where the individual campaigns then meet that threshold.”
This allows Smart Bidding to learn from the combined conversion data across all campaigns, reaching Google's 50+ conversion learning threshold even when individual campaigns fall short. Check out the full thread here!
3. Segment campaigns thoughtfully
Well-structured campaigns give Smart Bidding clearer signals. Group ads by similar themes or target audiences, and use bidding rules to automate adjustments for factors like device, location, or time of day.
Remember not to over-segment. Modern AI systems often perform better with consolidated data, so find the right balance between structure and flexibility.
4. Use conversion adjustments to steer performance
Not all conversions are equal. Seasonal shifts, lead quality, and business priorities should all influence how you value them. Conversion adjustments and value rules let you guide Smart Bidding toward the conversions that matter most for profitability.
💡Reddit Tip: Channel-Weighted Values. One Redditor shared that you should use phone and form tracking with offline conversion uploads to assign different values to lead types. For example, if your clients consider phone calls less valuable than form submissions, weight them accordingly so your campaigns optimize for what truly matters.
Smart Bidding can bring the right traffic, but it can’t fix weak creative or poor user experience. Ads should align closely with search intent, and landing pages should deliver on the promise in the ad. If there’s a mismatch, the algorithm ends up paying for wasted clicks.
💡 Remember: As Google leans more on AI to generate creative assets, inconsistent messaging or poor page experience will only amplify bad results.
Steer smart bidding with Optmyzr
At the end of the day, Smart Bidding isn’t a magic switch. Each strategy has its moment:
Target CPA if you want steady lead costs.
Target ROAS if revenue predictability drives your business.
Maximize Conversions when sheer volume matters.
Maximize Conversion Value if profitability is the north star.
The real skill isn’t choosing one strategy forever. It’s knowing when to change lanes, when your campaign outgrows Max Conversions, or when your CPA target no longer reflects reality.
Optmyzr helps you spot those inflection points before they become expensive mistakes.
From pacing budgets with Spend Projection, to testing new strategies with Express Optimization, to uncovering weak pages with Landing Page Analysis, we give you the needed guardrails.
Thousands of advertisers already manage $5B+ in ad spend with Optmyzr. The question is: are you ready to stop reacting to Smart Bidding and start steering it?
1. What exactly is Smart Bidding, and how is it different from regular automated bidding? A. Smart Bidding is a subset of Google Ads automated bid strategies that uses AI to set bids for every single auction, known as “auction-time bidding,” to maximize conversions or conversion value.
It includes strategies like Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, and Maximize Conversion Value. Unlike regular automated bidding options (like Maximize Clicks or Target Impression Share) that focus on volume or visibility, Smart Bidding specifically optimizes for your conversion goals.
2. What signals does Smart Bidding use to optimize bids? A. Smart Bidding taps into a wide range of auction-time data, not just the usual device, location, or time of day. It also considers signals like browser, operating system, language, search query context, and combinations of those factors. This depth allows it to bid more precisely on long-tail or low-volume keywords by modeling query-level performance.
3. How much conversion history do I need before switching to Smart Bidding? A. Google suggests waiting until your campaign has at least 30 conversions in the past month to lean into Smart Bidding, or 50 conversions for Target ROAS to give the algorithm solid ground to operate on.
4. What’s Smart Bidding Exploration, and when should I use it? A. Smart Bidding Exploration is an opt-in add-on that helps the algorithm identify high-potential queries outside your existing reach, especially when you’re using broad match, DSA, or AI Max for Search targeting.
Instead of uniformly lowering your ROAS target, it bids selectively on new segments with higher conversion likelihood. It’s ideal for scaling, but only when your budget isn’t constrained. It’s best to run for at least six weeks to give the algorithm enough time to learn and perform.
Even the most carefully planned PPC campaigns can go off the rails when not monitored closely. You can be spending big on ads, and they may even be racking up clicks. But you’ll soon find they’re delivering little to no actual value.
That’s where a Google Ads audit comes in handy. It’s like a health checkup for your account. One that allows you to identify what’s working, spot inefficiencies, and maximize every dollar spent.
Without a clear auditing strategy, you run the risk of missing key optimization opportunities, poor campaign performance, and worse—wasted budgets.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step audit checklist to help you take control of your campaigns and make them work smarter.
When should you perform an audit?
A Google Ads audit is not just about fixing what’s broken. PPC audits are key to identifying growth opportunities and just making sure that your campaigns are working as intended. That being said, here are some of the most common scenarios where an audit is necessary.
During routine health checks
A routine, systematic audit of your account can help catch hidden inefficiencies, ensure your budget spends are in check, and prevent any major performance issues. A good practice is to schedule these checks depending on account size and campaign complexity.
For instance, an enterprise-level account may do well with quick weekly health checks, monthly deep performance reviews, and quarterly structural audits.
Here are some key elements to review during a routine audit:
Basic performance metrics like CTR, conversion rates, quality scores, etc.
Budget allocation and spends
Search term relevance
Negative keyword lists
In one of our PPC Town Hall episodes, Melissa Mackey from Compound Growth Marketing recommends auditing your accounts at least every quarter to prevent small mistakes from escalating into costly problems.
When you take over a new account
If you’ve recently started managing a new account, you may want to consider conducting a comprehensive account review to deep dive into historical performance data. This can help assess the account’s current health and identify quick wins. Focus on:
Performance trends over the past 3-6 months
Account structure and campaign naming conventions
Conversion tracking accuracy
Targeting settings across campaigns
When you see a performance decline
Some audits are reactive—focused, on-emergency reviews triggered by sudden dips in performance. For example, when conversion rates drop by 50% overnight, you’ll want to:
Review all recent account changes (past 1–2 weeks)
Inspect landing pages and verify conversion tracking
Check for increased competition via auction insights and impression share shifts
Investigate rising CPCs or expensive keyword anomalies
But here’s the challenge: by the time you notice the drop manually, you’ve already lost valuable spend.
💡 Pro Tip: Automate anomaly detection with Optmyzr’s Anomaly Alerts. These built-in alerts scan your Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and Facebook Ads accounts daily, and flag sudden spikes or drops in cost, clicks, impressions—or even feed disapprovals—before they spiral.
During campaign restructuring
If you’ve recently overhauled your campaign structure or targeting, an audit helps ensure the changes are doing what they’re supposed to—driving performance without overlap or waste. Be sure to:
Review the new account structure to verify alignment with updated goals
Assess keyword coverage and update negative lists accordingly
Check audience segments for ongoing relevance
Reallocate budgets if campaign priorities or targets have shifted
Compare performance of the new setup against historical benchmarks
For automated campaign types like Performance Max, don’t stop at structure. Audits should also evaluate the quality of foundational signals such as:
Are your asset groups diverse enough to support varied placements?
Are your audience signals relevant?
Is your conversion tracking clean and aligned with business outcomes?
Modern campaigns run on inputs. An audit is how you make sure you’re feeding the machine the right ones.
When making seasonal adjustments
Audits during seasonal campaigns ensure aspects like messaging, budget allocation, and targeting are optimized for the season. During seasonal adjustments you’ll need to:
Review trends in seasonal performance from past campaigns
Audit ad copy and creatives for seasonal relevance
Adjust bids and budgets for peak traffic periods
Check if audience targeting matches seasonal behavior
Here’s a step-by-step checklist for performing a Google Ads audit
If your account has structural issues, it can impact ad performance, reporting, costs, and CTR. For instance, if the same high-intent keywords are used in multiple campaigns, you may end up with a higher CPC since you’re essentially bidding against yourself. To avoid these misses, consider auditing two aspects of your account structure.
1. Assess your account structure
Effective campaign management starts with a well-organized account. During an audit, focus on both naming conventions and segmentation to ensure everything is aligned with performance goals.
Campaign naming conventions
Use consistent naming formats across the account for easier filtering, navigation, and reporting.
Include campaign type (Search, Display, Shopping, PMax, etc.) and objective (LeadGen, BrandAwareness, BOFU) in each campaign name.
Consider adding status-based or seasonal tags (e.g., Paused_Q1, BackToSchool, Holiday2025) to quickly surface relevant campaigns when analyzing performance or filtering for optimization.
Campaign segmentation
Separate campaigns by objective: brand vs. non-brand, retargeting vs. prospecting, or product line.
Evaluate ad group structure for bloated or redundant groupings. Overly broad ad groups can hurt relevance and reduce quality score.
Ensure key themes (e.g., SKAGs or tightly grouped variants) are maintained to improve targeting precision.
Verify that bidding strategies and budget allocation align with campaign intent and hierarchy.
Check for audience overlap or keyword cannibalization between campaigns that might reduce efficiency.
Analyze budget-to-performance alignment: High-performing segments may deserve more investment; poor performers may need adjustments or down-scaling.
2. Conduct a thorough performance review
During a performance review, the goal is to spot underperforming campaigns and figure out how you can improve them. For this, you can:
Analyze key metrics to spot trends and identify areas for improvement
1. Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
CTR is a metric that measures the percentage of people who clicked on your ad after seeing it.
A low CTR means your targeting needs improvement or that your ads are not resonating with your audience. But you also want to be cautious of a high CTR with low conversions since you may inadvertently be advertising on brand terms or attracting irrelevant clicks.
2. Cost Per Click (CPC)
CPC is the cost you pay per click and is determined by the bidding strategy you choose (manual, automatic, or smart).
Achieving a higher quality score can help you secure cheaper CPCs. A high CPC might mean you’re getting pulled into auctions you don’t intend to be pulled into.
Conversely, lower CPCs might mean:
Branded traffic is unintentionally entering your non-branded campaign.
Search partners with display expansion are enabled.
Broad match keywords are matching to competitor terms.
👉Remember: Quality Score based on expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience impacts both CPC and Ad Rank. Improving these elements can help reduce CPCs and improve your auction position.
3. Cost Per Action (CPA)
CPA is the average cost you’re willing to pay for an action the user takes after seeing your ad. This could include a purchase, registration, or signup.
A low CPA with high conversions indicates that your campaign is effective. You can consider scaling your budgets to increase conversions. On the other hand, a high CPA with low conversions means you’re spending too much. Review targeting settings, ad quality, ad messaging, and landing page experience so you’re able to resonate better with your audience.
4. Return on Ad Spend
ROAS is a measure of profitability. It compares the ROI you receive from your campaigns against how much you’re spending on them.
If you notice a low ROAS despite high conversions, it could signal that the audience you’re attracting isn’t valuable enough. You may want to refine your targeting settings to attract high-value customers to increase your conversion value. On the other hand, although a high ROAS is good, it doesn’t always mean better results.
For instance, a high ROAS with low conversion volume can mean you’re not reaching a wide enough audience even though your campaign is cost-effective. Similarly, a high ROAS with high spend means you’re not generating additional revenue. It may be a good idea to think of ways to make your campaign more sustainable.
Identify trends over time
Ensure you collect enough data over a sufficient time period for a meaningful analysis.
Compare performance across different campaigns and segments so you can pinpoint where variations are happening.
Cross-reference trends with seasonal peaks, industry events, or changes in competition to account for fluctuations due to external factors.
According to Melissa, it’s also a good practice to set up alerts so you’re immediately notified if there are any sudden changes in your campaign performance.
“One way to catch issues early is to use tools like Optmyzr or scripts to set alerts. You want to know immediately if your CPCs, conversions, or impressions suddenly change.”
In such cases, if you want to dig deeper, Optmyzr’s PPC Investigator tells you why your account saw a sudden increase/decrease in clicks or conversions. There are two parts to the tool. One is the cause chart which essentially highlights the metric that impacted the performance.
The next part is the Root Cause Analysis which tells you the elements in your account (keywords, ad groups, campaigns) that contributed to the observed change.
Here’s a quick walkthrough of how this feature works for a better understanding.
5. Impression Share
Don’t overlook Impression Share (IS) and its derivatives:
Lost IS (Budget): Missed auctions due to insufficient budget
Lost IS (Rank): Missed auctions due to poor Ad Rank (i.e., low Quality Score or low bids)
Tracking these helps diagnose whether performance issues are due to budget limitations or competitive shortcomings.
3. Fine-tune your keyword strategy
Your keyword strategy should evolve with your audience’s behavior and search trends. Regularly auditing and refining keywords is key to staying competitive and relevant.
Monitor keyword alignment with search intent
Ensure your keywords reflect intent-driven phrasing—whether users are ready to buy, comparing options, or just researching. For example:
“Nike Air Max vs Adidas Ultraboost” = product comparison
Label queries by intent using custom labels like “high_intent”, “comparison”, or “top_product”. These labels help segment your keyword data for better performance analysis and strategy refinement.
Negative keyword management
Avoid irrelevant or low-converting traffic by:
Excluding expired seasonal keywords (e.g., “Black Friday 2024” after November)
Blocking industry-specific terms that draw in unqualified users
Checking for brand terms that may be leaking into non-brand campaigns
💡Pro Tip: Optmyzr’s Rule Engine (Search Terms Scope) can automatically detect and flag underperforming or irrelevant search queries for exclusion—saving time and preserving budget.
Match type audits
Balance match types to maximize reach while maintaining relevance:
Use exact match for tight control on high-performing queries
Phrase match for flexibility with moderate control
Broad match with Smart Bidding for scalability—paired with strong intent filtering
Eliminate duplicate keywords
Wasted budgets and ad fatigue often stem from overlapping or duplicate keywords across ad groups or campaigns.
💡 Pro Tip: Optmyzr’s Keyword De-Duper checks within or across campaigns for duplicate keywords. It gives you an automatic recommendation of which ones to remove based on performance data.
4. Audit your ad creatives for better engagement and conversions
Strong ad creatives are essential for driving better engagement and increased conversions.
Check for outdated ad formats since they could result in lower ad visibility, ad disapprovals, and inefficient budget use. For instance, if you still have Expanded Text Ads in your account, you can convert them to Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) for better results.
If ads get disapproved, review policy violation notifications to understand why it happened. Examples include restricted content, misleading messaging, or technical issues.
Use relevant ad extensions like site links, structured snippets, and callouts to improve your ad’s relevance and visibility.
Navah Hopkins, one of our former in-house PPC experts also suggests pinning assets to specific spots in RSAs so you can control how they’re displayed in the final ad.
Unless you’re A/B testing landing pages, there’s no need to run multiple ads in the same ad group anymore. This is because RSAs (as well as PMax) have built-in testing in the format.
Instead, focus on pinning specific assets to certain positions and compare the performance of AI-generated creative with human-created content.
A strong landing page experience is essential for driving conversions and maintaining ad performance. During your audit, evaluate whether your pages are helping or hurting your results.
Check page health and functionality
Ensure all landing pages load quickly and don’t return 404 or “product not found” errors
Prioritize mobile optimization and fast loading speeds
Align landing page copy closely with your ad text and keywords for relevance and Quality Score
💡Pro Tip: Use Optmyzr’s landing page URL checker to scan and verify the integrity of the landing pages in your Google Ads account.
Improve UX with behavior insights
Use heatmapping tools to monitor user interactions. Track where users click, how far they scroll, and where they drop off. These insights help pinpoint friction points that aren’t obvious through performance metrics alone.
Test and personalize
For high-traffic campaigns or top-performing audiences:
A/B test layout elements, call-to-actions (CTAs), and headline copy to find the best-converting combinations
In ecommerce, personalize landing content based on campaign targeting (like product categories or geo-location) to increase relevancy and engagement
A consistent and frictionless post-click experience is as critical as the pre-click strategy. Optimize both to maximize results.
6. Fine-tune your budget allocation and bidding strategies.
Assess budget allocation
the historical performance data of your campaigns over a defined period to get insights into which campaigns, ad groups, or keywords have been underperforming or need budget adjustments.
Allocate more budgets to high-performing campaigns. Consider pausing or decreasing the budget for low-priority, underperforming ads to free up spend for reallocation.
Adjust location targeting and device bids so budgets are allocated to regions and devices that perform better.
Review bidding strategies
Check whether your campaigns are using bidding strategies that work best to drive the desired results. For example, target ROAS is best for revenue generation while target CPA is better for conversion-focused campaigns.
Use aggressive bidding strategies such as target impression share if you’re looking to outbid your competitors.
Study the impact of different bidding strategies by running split tests.
If your ads are not getting enough impressions or conversions, consider adjusting your bid caps for more flexibility.
7. Track key performance metrics with the right tools.
Make sure your Google Ads and GA4 are properly linked so you can track and analyze the entire customer journey, all the way from ad clicks to conversions. If you want to get a closer look at conversions, bounce rates, and other KPIs, we recommend using the following tools.
1. Rule Engine Define ‘if-and-then’ conditions using Rule Engine to automate campaign management tasks like pausing underperforming ads or allocating more budget to high-converting ones. This saves time and ensures your campaigns are consistently optimized.
2. Budget pacing tool Avoid overspending and optimize your daily budgets with the budget pacing tool. It efficiently manages your campaign budget throughout the day or month so you don’t exhaust your budgets too early or miss out on important opportunities.
8. Check your audience settings
Validate your remarketing lists and audience settings so you’re targeting the right audience with your campaigns.
Segment larger audiences into smaller cohorts based on parameters like behavior, interests, preferences, etc. This helps in fine-tuning your campaigns for better conversions.
Review your audience exclusion lists periodically to make sure you’re not excluding high-value audiences or including irrelevant ones.
Double-check Google Tag Manager so that your data sources are functioning appropriately.
Adjust audience settings based on campaign goals.
Tweak your audience segmentation and targeting criteria based on how different audience lists perform on your campaigns.
9. Validate scripts, recommendations, and automation logic
PPC automations are a game-changer for scaling audits and managing campaigns efficiently if used thoughtfully. Regularly reviewing and optimizing scripts, automated rules, and recommendations ensures they align with your goals and don’t create inefficiencies.
Custom scripts are super useful for optimizing the performance of your ad campaigns. However, they need to be reviewed regularly, especially during changes to platforms or account structure.
If you’re using automation, validate rule logic periodically to avoid conflicting actions. If there are conflicting rules, decide which rule would take precedence and prioritize it to avoid unintentional overlaps.
You’ll need to assess which recommendations to execute based on your unique performance goals. If a recommendation does not seem to be meaningful, dismiss it, especially if they don’t fit your targeting strategy. For example, the Google Ads optimization score, which Google often recommends may prioritize increasing ad spend instead of genuinely improving your campaign. So, approach such recommendations cautiously.
What comes after your PPC audit?
Once you’ve successfully ticked off the items in this checklist, it’s time to use your findings to refine your campaigns. Here’s how you can do this:
1. Prioritize your improvements
To start with, divide your insights according to their importance and urgency and assign a priority level to each of them. A good way to do this is to use the ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) prioritization framework. This will help you differentiate your quick wins from long-term actions by evaluating and ranking your ideas. To do this, you need to:
Identify the potential impact from implementing each of the ideas you’ve identified. Examples include reducing wasted spend, improving landing page experience etc.
Assess your confidence in making these changes actually work based on past data and experiences.
Evaluate how easy it is to implement the suggested change. How much resources or effort would it take?
Assign a score for each of the improvements based on their priority.
Multiply the scores for different improvements to get the ICE weightage.
Once you have the scores, see which actions have the highest score and prioritize implementing those first since they are likely to have the most impact.
If you find that some recommendations have a high impact score but lower overall ICE score, it could indicate a difficulty with implementation or a lack of confidence. In such cases you might want to consider going ahead with recommendations that are relatively easy to implement despite low confidence. You can test such ideas and measure their impact for better decision-making.
2. Create a roadmap for your post audit actions
After you’ve finalized your priorities, you’ll need to create a detailed roadmap to manage your implementation process. This would include:
Timelines for implementation
Tasks under each recommendation
Owners and deadlines for each action item
Key milestones to track
Approvals from stakeholders for all the assets required to implement the recommendations (e.g. ad copies, landing pages, budgets, messaging, etc.)
3. Monitor the progress
Implementation is one part of the post-audit process. The other is to closely monitor the impact of the changes you’ve implemented. For this you’ll need to:
Create dashboards to track the impact of changes on key metrics like conversions, CPC, etc.
Share your insights with stakeholders and clients using comprehensive reports.
Identify areas that are working well and the ones that need improvement and create action items to address these.
“For our monthly audits, we use a checklist that our team has created to go through the audit. We used Optmyzr’s PPC Audits once a month and work through changes on that list from the most impactful first.”
-Amy McClain-Ponder
Streamline your Google Ads audits with Optmyzr.
Regular audits are critical to the health of your Google Ads campaigns. They identify inefficiencies and missed opportunities that may be hiding in plain sight. Not only does this lead to better campaign performance and budget allocation, but it also ensures your ads are driving a higher ROI.
Tools like Optmyzr offer a comprehensive suite of features that take the complexity out of auditing. It takes care of the repetitive tasks while you focus on what’s important—getting the best out of your ad campaigns.
If you’re curious to know more about how Optmyzr can help you optimize your Google Ad campaigns, sign up for a free 14-day trial. Or you can even talk to one of our experts for a consultation call.
Sales and profit are the ultimate goals of ecommerce and retail advertising. For brands and agencies pursuing these objectives through Google Ads, Shopping campaigns offer greater control, structure, and reporting visibility than Performance Max.
While Google continues its shift toward Performance Max, many advertisers still find Standard Shopping campaigns essential—particularly those who prioritize control, transparency, and margin-aware strategies.
Whether you’re switching back from Performance Max or building from scratch, your Shopping campaigns’ structure significantly impacts your ability to get the most out of your ad spend. Cobbling together products with varying profit margins, levels of demand, and supply chain constraints is a recipe for budget under-optimization.
Let’s go through:
Structural components of Google Ads Shopping campaigns
Six ways to build a Shopping campaign
Best practices for Shopping campaign structure
Campaign management and optimization advice
The basics of campaign structure for Google Shopping ads
Campaigns: A collection of assets with a shared budget and targeting parameters
Ad groups: A group of related advertising assets oriented around what people are
searching for
Product groups: Collections of for-sale products with a shared set of attributes
Products: The individual items in your catalog
Each level allows you to specify and modify certain parameters, which I’ll explain in the sections below.
Campaign level
Campaigns cover settings that apply across ad groups, product groups, and products. These include:
Goals, such as a ROAS or CPA target
Budget
Bidding strategy
Interest-based targeting
Location targeting
Language
If you’re using smart bidding strategies like Target ROAS (tROAS) or Target CPA (tCPA), it’s important to set realistic performance goals. These strategies rely on high-quality conversion data and sufficient volume to optimize bids effectively. Without enough signals, even the most sophisticated bidding can fall short.
Ad group level
Google allows you to create multiple ad groups in Shopping campaigns. At this level, negative keywords (which filter out irrelevant queries, intents, and audiences) are crucial.
Negative keywords are one of the biggest advantages of Shopping campaigns. With Performance Max, your options are limited to account-level negative keywords, campaign-level brand exclusions, and a cumbersome form to manually request campaign-level negative keywords.
This limits your ability to sculpt traffic, requiring you to absorb more irrelevant visitors in order to get incremental conversions, affecting overall campaign profitability if your budgets are constrained.
To avoid waste, it’s critical to regularly audit your campaigns for irrelevant queries or expensive terms that aren’t driving performance. Keeping your negative keyword lists fresh helps your Shopping ads stay aligned with buyer intent. Tools like Optmyzr’s Rule Engine, specifically the Search Terms scope, can automate this process, helping you spot and exclude underperforming queries by analyzing aggregated performance across match types and keywords within each ad group.
Product group level
Product groups are collections of individual products that sit within an ad group. There are multiple ways to group products into categories and subcategories. The two broad approaches use:
Some advertisers also implement dynamic grouping strategies, where products are automatically moved between groups based on real-time performance or inventory levels. This helps ensure that campaigns remain agile and focused on what’s working.
Shopping campaign priority levels
You can assign your Shopping campaigns one of three priority levels: high, medium, and low. These priority levels govern which campaign enters the auction for a query and allow you to create multiple campaigns for the same products.
Campaign priority is a powerful tool for query sculpting—controlling which campaign wins a particular search query and ensuring the right message or bid is applied at each funnel stage.
Use priorities to build a tiered campaign strategy:
High priority + low bids: Ideal for broad, awareness-phase searches. Capture upper-funnel traffic cost-effectively.
Medium priority: Target branded queries or comparison-stage shoppers.
Low priority: Reserve for high-intent, bottom-of-funnel searches. Bid more aggressively here to maximize conversions.
This setup allows you to allocate budget and bid intensity based on purchase intent, optimizing efficiency across the full customer journey.
6 ways advertisers set up their Google Shopping campaigns
There’s no right or wrong way to set up a Shopping campaign; only what works for your account’s budget, business goals, and available resources.
Here are six common tactics to consider when building your next ecommerce or retail campaign in Google Ads:
Single campaign, single ad and product group
Single campaign, multiple ad and product groups
Two or three campaigns using campaign priorities
Multiple campaigns, multiple ad and product groups with query sculpting
Suitable for brands selling a single product line with similar pricing, such as flavored sparkling water
Works well for accounts with limited budgets and resources
Difficult to classify and track product performance for larger catalogs
Tough to customize bidding and negative keywords to individual SKUs
💡Pro Tip: Split traffic using search term reports—labeling queries as low-intent vs. high-intent, to improve efficiency, even for smaller catalogs. This allows tighter control over spend and more relevant ad targeting
Single campaign, multiple ad and product groups
Good for brands with a single product line with wide pricing variety, such as footwear
Allows for more variation and product grouping based on factors other than sale price
Requires additional negative keyword management
Difficult to increase spend on more favorable products
Dynamic pricing tiers can help respond more quickly to market changes and support smoother budget pacing across varied product categories.
2 or 3 campaigns using campaign priorities
Allows accounts limited by the previous structures (single campaign, mentioned above) to exercise more control over budget allocation, making it good for brands with limited but not singular product lines
Priorities help you tell Google which campaign to favor for an auction
Use high priority campaigns for low-intent, broad searches; medium for mid-funnel or branded queries; and low for high-intent, product-specific searches where ROAS is the goal
Typically requires a higher budget than previously listed strategies
Multiple campaigns, multiple ad and product groups with query sculpting
Ideal for mass retailers, resellers, or accounts with a wide variety of product types and brands
Allows for tighter budget controls but requires additional monitoring
Query sculpting uses negative keywords and priorities to drive traffic to the desired campaigns
Challenging to maintain without automation when product feed values change, inventory and procurement fluctuate, and product lines are introduced and discontinued
Prone to risks such as overspending and inefficient targeting when not monitored adequately
Automation tools are essential here—especially for maintaining negative keyword lists and adjusting campaign priorities dynamically to keep your sculpting strategy aligned with current inventory and performance
Performance-based approach
Suitable for advertisers that need to exercise budgetary control over Shopping campaigns
Incorporates CPA/ROAS targets and product grouping based on traits like production cost, contribution margin, etc.
Allows you to allocate budget to the best-performing products
Requires trial and error to find the optimal CPA/ROAS target
Difficult to build and maintain without automation
Margin-informed bidding—where smart bidding strategies are guided by live profitability data—helps ensure you’re not just chasing conversions but prioritizing the ones that actually drive returns. This approach is especially valuable for ROI-focused structures where every ad dollar needs to pull its weight
Groups of individual products
Limits products to one per product group for maximum control over bids
Ideal for accounts with single-digit SKUs
Viable way to test new catalog entrants and uncover performance metrics
Best practices for building Google Shopping campaigns
Now that you’ve chosen a structure for your Shopping campaign, these industry-standard tactics will help you shape traffic and keep campaigns organized:
Product grouping
Merchant feed audit and optimization
Budget allocation and bid strategy
Negative keyword management
Conversion tracking
Audience tracking
Before you get started, remember: A best practice is only ‘best’ if it serves you. For the greatest results, use the theory behind these tactics but adapt them to your specific circumstances.
Product grouping
Organize your product groups based on what works for your business. You might use feed attributes (such as brand and color) to target queries that include those elements. Other effective strategies include grouping products by category or subcategory, bundling bestsellers to move inventory faster, or consolidating items with similar margins to support your bottom line.
For even more precision, build product groups using custom labels tied to dynamic data like profit margin, seasonality, and stock levels.
Tools like Shopping Campaign Management can automate this process—whether you’re setting up Standard or PMax campaigns—by syncing to your Merchant Center and recommending structure based on performance or feed attributes. This ensures your campaign structure always reflects real-time business needs.
Organize your product feed based on performance and build smarter campaigns:
Merchant feed audit and optimization
Product feeds are the lifeblood of your Shopping campaigns. Organized feeds make money, while incomplete or messy ones cost money.
It helps to periodically review your feed for issues, such as:
Excessively long product titles
Products with missing attributes (especially critical ones like the GTIN)
Pixelated or unattractive product imagery
Clean up your source file to keep your campaigns error-free. Since feeds directly impact what gets shown (and how well it performs), ongoing audits are quite essential.
Optmyzr’s Shopping Feed Audit tool helps you stay ahead of common issues by automatically scanning your Merchant Center feed and flagging missed opportunities like disapproved products, missing data, and weak product group structures. The built-in dashboard widget gives you a quick view of feed health, so you can catch problems early.
For deeper monitoring at scale, the Rule Engine lets you set up proactive alerts and automated actions tied to feed quality, disapprovals, or underperforming groups—ensuring your campaigns stay efficient and aligned with your business goals.
Budget allocation and bid strategy
Managing your money well is critical in all forms of advertising, but particularly when selling physical goods on a comparison shopping platform like Google Ads.
Brands can succeed with Shopping ads on Google, whether they spend $5,000 a month or $50,000 a day. The key is to structure your campaigns to suit your budget. For example, a modest budget spread across multiple campaigns with multiple product groups creates internal competition and limits your ability to enter enough auctions to reach profitability.
Choose a bidding strategy that aligns with your business needs. Shopping campaigns offer granular control over structure, but Smart Bidding can often outperform even the most skilled human advertisers. If you can only afford to spend a certain amount to make a sale, using a CPA target provides Google with a clear constraint.
For more margin-driven control, consider margin-informed bidding: use custom labels to inject profit data (like contribution margin or cost) directly into your campaign setup. This allows Smart Bidding to optimize not for ROAS alone, but for actual profitability—helping you prioritize ads that generate the best return in real time.
There is so much outside the ad account that affects performance and profitability. Always account for factors and real world events that influence supply and demand, such as seasonality and spending patterns. Be aware of your target audience, their needs, and their mindset.
Negative keyword management
Adding unwanted or irrelevant search terms to the negative keyword list for an ad group prevents all the associated products from showing up for those searches. Remember that negative keywords use the same match types as positive ones (broad, phrase, exact), so use the correct format for the match type you want to prohibit.
To keep your campaigns efficient and your spend clean, make it a habit to review search queries regularly. This helps you catch expensive or irrelevant terms that may be slipping through. Update your negative keyword lists accordingly and refresh your SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups) to reflect evolving trends and product performance.
Conversion tracking
If the product feed is the beating heart of a Shopping campaign, then conversion tracking is its mind. It’s critical that you choose the right conversion actions (both micro-conversions, like cart additions, and final conversions, like purchases) and that you track them correctly.
Without these in place, your account will register and learn from incomplete or inaccurate data, causing it to optimize in the wrong direction for the wrong outcomes. Using an algorithmic layer like Smart Bidding will amplify these unwanted consequences by several orders of magnitude.
That’s why it’s essential to validate your tracking setup end-to-end. Regularly audit for pixel accuracy, attribution delays, and consent-mode consistency to ensure that Smart Bidding has a clean, reliable foundation to optimize from. Even small gaps in data capture can derail campaign performance.
Audience tracking
Use this setting if you’d like to target specific audiences, such as remarketing lists of people who’ve visited your website before. Audience tracking will then let you show up for searches from people who’ve already shown some level of interest in your brand or products.
To improve bidding precision, segment your audiences by customer lifecycle stage—from new visitors to cart abandoners to repeat purchasers. This allows you to assign more appropriate bids based on where users are in their journey.
Also take advantage of dynamic remarketing in Shopping, which pulls in product-level data to show users the exact items they viewed or left in their cart—boosting relevancy and increasing the chance of conversion.
Faster, easier, error-free shopping campaigns with Optmyzr
Choosing the right campaign structure is important, but it’s still only one part of running a solid Google Ads shopping program. Maintaining a healthy feed, filtering out low-quality queries, and keeping campaigns synced with inventory are just as important to success.
Keeping up with the flux in your accounts and feeds can get overwhelming. That’s without factoring in multiple accounts and feeds, and additional campaign types and platforms to manage.
Optmyzr gives you full control over your Shopping campaigns. Automate maintenance and monitoring tasks with freedom and flexibility, while enjoying the full visibility and total control that ad platforms are taking away from you.
Keep campaigns up to date with inventory and feed changes. These changes are crucial yet daunting to keep track of manually, particularly when using a performance-based structure. Optmyzr allows you to sync your feed and automate campaign maintenance. Automatically move products from one campaign to another based on performance changes, where doing so manually for each product is practically impossible yet critical to maintaining campaign strategy.
Quickly find and fix product feed errors and product disapprovals. Audit and optimize your merchant feed and disapproved products that limit the visibility and auction-worthy status of your products.
Simplify search query management and traffic sculpting. Review search queries and add negative keywords with a click. No more sifting through multiple tabs and reports. Handle all your keyword and query management from one window in Optmyzr.
Find the ideal ROAS or CPA target. Trial and error is inescapable, but Optmyzr minimizes the hassle. Make target adjustments and know immediately when performance begins to decline so you can roll back to the sweet spot.
Reduce wasted ad spend. Spend money where you’ll make money. Automate a variety of actions for expensive product groups, including reducing bids and pausing ads altogether.
Q. What’s the best structure for a small product catalog?
A. For smaller catalogs, a single campaign with one or a few ad and product groups is usually sufficient. You can simplify setup while still exercising control by using search term reports to segment traffic by intent level—helping you tailor bids for low- vs. high-intent searches. Even small catalogs benefit from this layered approach to maintain efficiency and relevance.
Q. Can I still use Shopping Campaigns alongside PMax?
A. Yes. While Google is moving toward Performance Max, Standard Shopping campaigns remain valuable, especially for advertisers who prioritize manual control, budget segmentation, and negative keyword management. Tools like Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management support both formats, allowing you to keep them in sync and maintain a unified strategy.
Q. How do I keep my shopping structure up to date as my inventory changes?
A. The key is automation. Manually shifting products between campaigns based on performance or inventory changes is time-consuming and error-prone. Tools like Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management allow you to automatically restructure campaigns, sync with your Merchant Center, and dynamically adjust product groups as conditions evolve.
Q. What are some common feed issues that hurt Shopping Campaign performance?
A. Poor product feed quality is a major performance killer. Common issues include:
Long or vague product titles
Missing GTINs or required attributes
Low-quality or pixelated images
Disapproved or inactive products
With Optmyzr’s Shopping Feed Audit, you can scan your Merchant Center for these problems and stay ahead of potential disruptions.
Q. How do campaign priority settings impact performance?
A. Campaign priority levels (high, medium, low) determine which campaign serves for a given query when the same products appear in multiple campaigns. This enables intent-based bidding strategies, where you bid lower on broad, high-funnel traffic (high priority) and more aggressively on bottom-funnel, product-specific searches (low priority). It’s also essential for query sculpting, a tactic that directs search traffic to the most relevant campaigns using negative keywords and priorities together.
Reporting is a must for PPC marketers, but it often turns into a time-consuming headache—especially when juggling multiple clients and ad platforms.
Native tools don’t cut it as they lack cross-platform insights. Looker Studio needs heavy customization, and Google Analytics isn’t built for PPC deep dives.
You need a reporting tool that not only saves time, but integrates data across platforms seamlessly and presents clear insights. With so many options available, let’s explore the best PPC reporting tools in the market.
But first, what should you look for in a PPC reporting tool?
You need to look at eight factors while looking for a PPC reporting tool irrespective of your business type and size.
Functionality: Does it offer essential features like data analysis, visualization, static & ad-hoc reports, and dashboards?
Performance: Can it handle large data volumes from various sources quickly and efficiently?
Reliability: Can it help you pull the data you need every time you need it?
Ease of use: Is it user-friendly for everyone, from beginners to experts?
Customization: Can the reports be tailored to your needs with different formats and visualizations?
Speed of deployment: Is it easy to set up and integrate with your existing tools?
Scalability: Can it grow with your agency’s needs and add new features?
Security: Does it guarantee data confidentiality with strict protocols and regulations compliance?
Considering these factors here are the 12 best PPC reporting tools in the market.
Best PPC reporting tools
Name of the Tool
Top Feature
Pricing
Optmyzr
Drag-and-drop reporting with pre-built widgets, cross-platform data integration, and automated scheduling
From $209/month for $25K spend, up to 25 accounts
Skai
Unified platform for managing PPC campaigns across various channels
From $90,000/year
Adalysis
Automated PPC audits and health checks
From $149/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Marin
Cross-channel campaign management with advanced reporting
From $500/month for up to 50 accounts
TrueClicks
Comprehensive auditing and budget pacing tools
From $208/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Opteo
Continuous account monitoring with performance-based recommendations
From $129/month for $25K spend, up to 10 accounts
DashThis
Easy-to-use and attractive dashboard tool to stop wasting time gathering data
From $49/month
ReportGarden
Automate cross-channel reporting, manage campaign budgets, and create invoices
From $89/month
Supermetrics
Move data from various sources to preferred reporting, analytics, or storage platform
Pricing is platform-specific
Databox
Pulls all your data into one place to track performance and discover insights in real-time
Free plan available; paid plans from $59/month
Whatagraph
Automatically collects data from multiple channels and creates visual reports
On request
Swydo
Create, schedule, and share reports for your marketing campaigns
From $49/month
Optmyzr
Best for: PPC agencies & in-house teams from small companies to enterprises needing automated, cross-platform reports with real-time insights
Pricing: From $209/month ($25K spend, upto 25 accounts)
Optmyzr is a powerful, award-winning PPC management software that gives search marketers the tools they need for detailed insights, optimization, reporting, and automation. It is built for accounts of any size, diversity, or complexity.
From search to shopping to Performance Max, you can run Google Ads campaigns the way each account demands with Optmyzr.
And if you think of PPC as more than just Google, you’ll advertise with creativity and insight across several platforms. Our proven automation capabilities mean you can supervise and run campaigns your way, even when you’re working on other things.
What kinds of teams use Optmyzr?
Optmyzr is used by a variety of teams such as:
Digital marketing agencies: Helps scale their operations and improve their client service by providing them with the tools they need to manage multiple PPC campaigns and clients efficiently.
In-house marketing teams: Helps save time and improve their PPC performance by automating many of the tasks involved in managing campaigns. This frees up team members to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Enterprise marketing teams: Helps manage their PPC spending much better by providing them with data-driven insights and recommendations.
Individual PPC consultants: Helps streamline their workflow and manage multiple campaigns without the need for extensive resources.
Optmyzr’s key reporting features
Offers an easy drag-and-drop interface with pre-built widgets and templates to build reports
Creates single- and multi-account reports, annual reports, executive reports, and more
Supports cross-platform reporting on multiple platforms like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta Ads, Amazon Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Google Analytics
Automates report generation and scheduling with the updated performance data
Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
Offers an easy-to-understand reporting UI with powerful analysis tools
Monitors anomalies and automatically notifies account owners to make sure they’re not missed
Supports real-time data refresh
Known for top-quality customer support and fast response times
Cons
Among social media ad platforms, Optmyzr supports Meta and LinkedIn Ads only at the moment; lacks support for TikTok, Snapchat, and other social media platforms
Some users may find the vast number of tools and features that are available overwhelming at first
What do users say about Optmyzr?
Users have praised Optmyzr for its significant reporting and time-saving capabilities, particularly through custom-built automations in its Rule Engine, which effectively streamline tasks that would typically require a team of PPC managers.
The platform’s workflow design allows for systematic account management, ensuring comprehensive optimization without overlooking any tasks.
Additionally, users appreciate the user-friendly interface and the exceptional support team, which collectively enhance productivity and facilitate the implementation of tailored strategies.
Sign up for our14-day free trialtoday 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.
Skai
Best for: Enterprise brands & agencies managing omnichannel media strategies
Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
Pros and Cons
Pros
Offers an easy-to-understand reporting UI
Ideal for enterprise teams
Cons
Expensive, complicated pricing and free trial structure
Has a longer support response time (6-24 hours) than Optmyzr (2 hours)
What do users say about Skai?
Users praise Skai for its user-friendly interface, responsive customer support, and powerful automation features that streamline campaign management. They also value its actionable insights, robust analytics, and regular updates that keep the platform current and effective.
Adalysis is a PPC management solution designed to help marketers manage advertising campaigns on Google and Bing search engines.
Key reporting features of Adalysis
Supports Google and Microsoft Ads
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy reporting interface
Pros and Cons
Pros
Periodic campaign/account health checks
Fast and intuitive onboarding
Cons
No support for social media ad reporting
Limited capabilities for rule-based automation
Offers only a few integrations
What do users say about Adalysis?
Users have praised Adalysis for its ability to streamline PPC optimization by highlighting areas that need attention and automating ad testing. They also appreciate the platform’s capability to provide valuable insights and facilitate changes without the need to log into Google Ads.
Marin is a campaign management tool that helps marketers create & optimize campaigns for Google, Facebook & Amazon Ads.
Marin’s key reporting features
Good rule-based automation
A good number of tools for reporting
Pros and Cons
Pros
Powerful reporting tools
Really good product training content
Cons
Marin’s solutions for search, social, and reporting are very fragmented with complicated pricing
The access to their tool is gated by a mandatory demo
Poor reviews on G2 (3.8) and Capterra (3.4) compared to Optmyzr (4.7 G2 / 4.6 Capterra)
Offers only a few integrations
What do users say about Marin?
Users praised Marin Software for its intuitive interface and custom reporting capabilities, which streamline campaign management. They also highlighted its versatility in creating and modifying diverse marketing components effectively.
TrueClicks is a cloud-based marketing software, which helps organizations create, launch, and manage PPC marketing campaigns on a unified portal.
Key reporting features of TrueClicks
Support for Google and Microsoft Ads
Good reporting capabilities for Google Ads
Pros and Cons
Pros
Free up to $50K monthly ad spend
Great integrations with Looker Studio, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, and Tableau
Cons
Lacks support for social media ad reporting
Doesn’t support multi-account reporting
Limited rule-based automation
No support for scripts or native reporting
Offers only a few integrations
What do users say about TrueClicks?
Users have praised TrueClicks for its user-friendly interface, effective automation of routine tasks, and actionable suggestions that enhance campaign performance. Additionally, TrueClicks is recognized for its ongoing development and responsiveness to user feedback, continually updating the platform to align with industry best practices.
Opteo is a Google Ads management tool that recommends optimizations based on continuous account monitoring of account performance data.
Opteo’s key reporting features
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy reporting interface
Integrates with Slack
Pros and Cons
Pros
Good support for Google Ads reporting
Easy-to-understand UI
Cons
No support for Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon Ads
Uses a 6-hour to 24-hour refresh cycle, not real-time like Optmyzr
Very limited automation capabilities
Offers only a few integrations
What do users say about Opteo?
Users praise Opteo for its time-saving features, user-friendly interface, and actionable recommendations that improve campaign performance. Additionally, its responsive customer support enhances the overall experience.
DashThis helps digital marketers and agencies by providing an easy-to-use and attractive dashboard tool so that marketers can stop wasting time gathering data, and instead do what they do best: make decisions based on that data.
Key reporting features of DashThis
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy drag-and-drop interface with pre-built widgets and templates
Integrates with 34 of the most commonly used digital marketing tools
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI
Suitable for advertisers who run ads on multiple platforms
Cons
Steep pricing especially for small businesses or freelancers, not a big issue if you only need a few dashboards, but the cost can add up quickly if you need a lot of dashboards
Some users reported errors and inconsistencies in dashboard data.
What do users say about DashThis?
Users appreciate DashThis for its excellent dashboards that are easy to understand and good for business analysis. However, some users feel that basic features, like improved chart manipulation, could enhance usability.
ReportGarden
Best for: Marketing agencies looking for an all-in-one reporting and invoicing tool
ReportGarden is a dashboard & reporting tool for ad agencies to automate cross-channel reporting, manage campaign budgets, create invoices, perform SEO audit, and track keywords rankings for your clients.
ReportGarden’s key reporting features
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy drag-and-drop interface with pre-built widgets and templates
Integrates with most commonly used digital marketing tools
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI
Suitable for marketers who run paid search, paid social, and SEO
Cons
Steep pricing especially for small businesses or freelancers; not a big issue if you only need a few dashboards, but the cost can add up quickly if you need a lot of dashboards
Occasional report errors and inconsistencies in dashboard data
What do users say about ReportGarden?
ReportGarden is valued for reducing the time spent on reporting, allowing for more productive work elsewhere. However, some users feel it takes time to get accustomed to the UI/UX, which is a common occurrence with such platforms.
Supermetrics
Best for: Data-driven marketers & analysts needing advanced data extraction for custom reports
Supermetrics streamlines the delivery of data from sales and marketing platforms into the analytics and reporting tools marketers use to make better decisions.
Key reporting features of Supermetrics
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy drag-and-drop interface with pre-built widgets and templates
Integrates with most commonly used digital marketing tools
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI with great reporting and data analysis tools
Cons
On the pricier side for small businesses or freelancers considering its biggest use cases are analysis and reporting
Reports of substandard customer support
What do users say about Supermetrics?
Supermetrics is praised for its ability to integrate multiple data sources into a single platform, which is beneficial for creating comprehensive dashboards and automating reporting. Some have encountered minor issues with data integration and connection bugs, although the platform generally enhances workflow productivity.
Databox helps growing businesses know how they’re performing at all times, make better decisions, and find opportunities to improve their performance.
Databox’s key reporting features
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy drag-and-drop interface with pre-built widgets and templates
Integrates with most commonly used digital marketing tools
Creates custom metrics useful to your business
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI with great reporting and data analysis tools
Cons
On the pricier side for small businesses or freelancers considering its biggest use cases are analysis and reporting
What do users say about Databox?
Databox is praised for its efficient setup process and intuitive dashboard that makes understanding traffic and analytics straightforward. However, some users mention the initial learning curve associated with understanding the platform’s full potential and how to best utilize its features. While generally user-friendly, it may take some time for new users to become fully comfortable with its functionality.
Whatagraph
Best for: Agencies & in-house teams needing customizable, automated multi-channel reports
Whatagraph is an intuitive all-in-one marketing data platform that easily removes data-related manual work and hassle from a marketer’s day-to-day.
Whatagraph’s key reporting features
Groups and aggregates data from different sources to identify trends and patterns
Offers a library of pre-built widgets and templates that you can use to quickly create reports and dashboards
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI with great reporting and data analysis tools
Cons
Adjustments within reports don’t happen in real-time
Known to be buggy occasionally
What do users say about Whatagraph?
Users praise Whatagraph for its ease of use, intuitive interface, and robust ability to integrate multiple data sources like social media and web analytics tools. On the downside, some users feel that the pricing can be on the higher side, especially for small businesses, and there are occasional challenges with customization and integration with certain apps. Additionally, performance issues such as speed during report generation and the limited duration of stored historical data are noted as areas needing improvement.
Swydo
Best for: Agencies & freelancers looking for budget-friendly PPC & SEO reporting
Swydo is an easy to use reporting and monitoring platform to retrieve data from multiple sources and create professional, customizable marketing reports.
Swydo’s key reporting features
Offers a library of pre-built widgets and templates that you can use to quickly create reports and dashboards
Automates report scheduling
Integrates with popular digital marketing tools
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI with great reporting and data analysis tools
Cons
Reports of substandard customer support
What do users say about Swydo?
Users praise its ease of use, seamless integration with major platforms like Google Ads and Meta, and ability to create visually appealing, customizable reports. However, some users express a desire for automated reporting on specific metrics and enhanced data source activity detection.
Track. Monitor. Report.
The best PPC reporting provides context, and analysis, and finds the reasons behind wins or losses. It serves as a source of meaningful data and insights, helping you to make informed decisions and optimize the overall effectiveness of your PPC campaigns.
And if you think Optmyzr is the tool for you, sign up for a 14-day free trial today. Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a PPC reporting tool?
A PPC reporting tool is software that aggregates and analyzes data from your pay-per-click campaigns across multiple platforms. It provides insights, helps you visualize performance trends, and simplifies campaign reporting across client accounts.
Why do I need a PPC reporting tool?
Native ad platform dashboards often fall short when managing campaigns across multiple networks. Reporting tools save time, centralize campaign metrics, and produce clear, actionable insights and visual reports—without heavy customization.
How do PPC reporting tools deliver broader value compared to manual reporting?
They enable:
Automated data aggregation from multiple platforms
Visual dashboards for quick insights
Scheduled reports that save time and reduce manual tasks
Deeper, more consistent reporting that’s often unattainable via native tools or spreadsheets
Regular PPC audits help maximize ROAS, but they can be time-consuming. That’s where PPC audit tools come in—they simplify analysis, automate tasks, and provide a clear audit roadmap, saving you time and effort.
The best tools go beyond basic checks. They offer deeper insights and actionable tips to improve your campaigns. In this guide, we’ll cover the top PPC audit tools that make the process easier and help you get better results.
What should you look for in a PPC audit tool?
There are so many PPC auditing tools available catering to different levels of expertise, campaign complexity, and budget constraints. So, choosing the right audit tool requires careful consideration.
We believe there are five factors you need to consider when choosing the right audit tool. They are:
Ease of use
Dedicated auditing features
Customized reporting
Transparent scoring and actionable insights
Cross-platform auditing support
Criteria
Description
Ease of use
The tool should guide you through the audit process, step-by-step, making it manageable even if you are a newer PPC professional. Plus, it should present data clearly, so you can quickly spot issues like irrelevant keywords, underperforming ads, or landing page problems that might drag down your campaigns.
Dedicated auditing features
The tool should focus on PPC auditing as its primary function or as a prominent feature within a broader suite of features. It must also offer detailed analyses of critical PPC metrics that matter to you.
Customized reporting
The tool should enable you to create reports with various formats and visualizations that align with your budget, campaign goals, and the needs of your stakeholders.
Transparent scoring and actionable insights
The tool should be transparent about its performance grading or scoring methodology. It should also be able to explain your campaign’s performance and provide actionable insights and recommendations suited to you.
Cross-platform auditing support
The tool should integrate with and retrieve data from multiple platforms seamlessly, since you may be running campaigns across various platforms. It should also give you the power to conduct comprehensive audits anytime, regardless of where your ads are running.
What are the best PPC audit tools in the market today?
Considering the factors listed above (on the condition that the tool satisfies at least four out of the five criteria), we’ve listed six tools, including their key features and publicly available user feedback:
Name of the Tool
Top Feature
Pricing
Optmyzr
Provides detailed audits via powerful rule-based automation
From $209/month for $25K spend, up to 25 accounts
TrueClicks
Offers insights and recommendations to enhance campaign performance
From $208/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Skai
Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier for real-time notifications during audits
From $90,000/year
Opteo
Provides scorecards to understand performance, aiding in audit processes
From $129/month for $25K spend, up to 10 accounts
Madgicx
Offers an all-in-one automation and management solution for Meta Ads, facilitating comprehensive audits
From $31/month for the basic plan; 7-day free trial available
Adalysis
Provides audits via rule-based automation to identify campaign issues
From $127/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
1. Optmyzr
Best for: Agencies and in-house teams managing multiple PPC accounts who need advanced automation and deep audit insights
Platforms supported: Google, Microsoft, Meta, LinkedIn, and Amazon Ads
Pricing: From $209/month ($25K spend, up to 25 accounts), with a 14-day free trial
Built for accounts of any size, diversity, or complexity, Optmyzr is an award-winning PPC management software solution that gives paid media marketers the tools they need for auditing, optimization, reporting, and automation.
Optmyzr’s key features:
Provides detailed audits via powerful rule-based automation
Comprehensive insights via historical trends, conversion anomalies, competitor analysis, change history analysis, and more. Offers historical trends, conversion anomalies, competitor analysis, change history analysis, customized audits, and a lot more
Sends real-time notifications via integrations with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
Watch Navah Hopkins explain how Optmyzr’s audit tools make every advertiser’s day-to-day tasks easier.
What users think of Optmyzr:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The Good:
Offers customized, step-by-step, guided audits
Monitors for anomalies and automatically notifies account owners
Provides actionable recommendations and growth opportunities with detailed insights
Supports real-time data refresh
Excellent customer support (typically a two-hour response time)
Detailed product training (a free in-depth Udemy course and a biweekly product tutorial video program called Learn with Optmyzr)
The Bad:
Some users may find the platform overwhelming to use
No free plan
2. TrueClicks
Best for: PPC managers who want a detailed, AI-driven analysis with clear recommendations to improve account performance
Platforms supported: Google and Microsoft Ads
Pricing: From $208/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
Skai is an omnichannel platform performance marketers use to unlock insights, streamline execution, and measure holistically across walled garden media.
Skai’s key features:
Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier for real-time notifications
What users think of Skai:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The Good:
Offers automation, auditing, and reporting capabilities for almost all of the major ad platforms
Practical for enterprise teams
The Bad:
Expensive, complicated pricing and free trial structure
Doesn’t support scripts for Performance Max campaigns (unreliable for advertisers who run audit scripts)
Longer support response time (6-24 hours) than Optmyzr (2 hours)
Madgicx is a cloud platform for Meta Ads ecommerce advertisers that offers a range of solutions to optimize multiple areas of their advertising, including Facebook tracking, automation, targeting, creatives, and ad management.
Madgicx’s key features:
Offers an all-in-one automation and management solution for Meta Ads
Provides deep attribution capabilities for Meta Ads
What users think of Madgicx:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The Good:
Features rule-based automation and reporting tools
Offers deep Meta Ads insights features
Offers detailed product training
The Bad:
Very limited Google Ads support and no support for Microsoft and Amazon Ads
Gets expensive after reaching certain ad spend levels
6. Adalysis
Best for: PPC professionals who prefer rule-based automation to streamline audits and identify optimization opportunities
Platforms supported: Google and Microsoft Ads
Pricing: From $127/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
Spend less time buried in audits and more time doing work that drives conversions.
The modern PPC advertiser’s job is no longer about pulling levers and pushing buttons in an ad interface. Your real value is your ability to contextualize, think creatively, and execute well. And a great PPC audit tool helps you do that.
If you think Optmyzr is the tool for you, sign up for a 14-day free trial today.
Thousands of advertisers—from small agencies to big brands—worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, schedule a consultation call today to talk to one of our experts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a PPC auditing tool?
A PPC auditing tool is software that analyzes your pay-per-click campaigns—such as those on Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, or Meta—to assess performance, identify inefficiencies, and recommend optimizations for better ROI.
Why do I need a PPC auditing tool?
Conducting PPC audits manually is time-consuming. A dedicated audit tool streamlines the process, automates analysis, uncovers issues more efficiently, and delivers actionable insights to boost campaign results and ROAS.
How do PPC audit tools deliver value beyond manual analysis?
They simplify audits by automating the evaluation of campaign structure, keyword relevance, ad performance, and landing pages—while producing clear scoring, recommendations, and visual reports that manual processes often lack.
PPC bid management is all about setting and adjusting bids to maximize ad performance while staying within your budget. As ad platforms become more automated, you need tools that provide visibility, control, and efficiency.
A reliable bid management tool provides you with those while automating optimizations and preventing overspending. But choosing the right tool is crucial. It should align with your goals, budget, and level of automation needed to drive the best results.
With so many options available, let’s explore the best bid management tools in the market.
What should you look for in a PPC bid management tool?
There are so many bid management tools available catering to different levels of expertise, campaign complexity, and budget constraints. So, choosing the right one requires careful consideration.
We believe there are ten factors you need to consider when choosing the right bid management tool. They are:
Automation capabilities
Cross-platform support
Real-time bid adjustments
Data insights and reporting
Budget management and pacing
Ease of use and customization
A/B testing for bid strategies
Anomaly detection and alerts
Scalability
Pricing and ROI
Factor
Why it matters
What to look for
Automation capabilities
Reduces manual work and optimizes bids in real-time
Auto-bid adjustments based on conversion data, anomaly detection, and budget pacing
Cross-platform support
Ensures seamless bid adjustments across various ad platforms like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta Ads
Seamless integration with multiple ad platforms for a unified bidding strategy
Real-time bid adjustments
Reacts quickly to competition and user behavior changes
Tools that update bids dynamically based on real-time data
Data insights and reporting
Provides transparency and actionable insights for better decisions
Customizable reports, conversion tracking, and integration with analytics tools
Budget management and pacing
Prevents overspending and ensures consistent performance
Features like budget pacing, forecasting, and spend distribution across campaigns
Ease of use and customization
Simplifies bid management without requiring technical expertise
Intuitive dashboards, drag-and-drop UI, and customizable rule-based automations
A/B testing for bid strategies
Helps identify the most effective bid strategies through testing
Tools with built-in A/B testing or bid experimentation capabilities
Anomaly detection and alerts
Notifies users of bid spikes or inefficiencies to prevent wasted ad spend
Real-time notifications and alerts for unusual performance trends
Scalability
Adapts as your business grows and manages larger budgets
A tool that supports different business sizes, from SMBs to enterprises
Pricing and ROI
Ensures the tool fits within your budget while maximizing return on investment
Transparent pricing with flexible plans for different levels of ad spend
What are the best PPC bid management tools in the market today?
Considering the factors listed above (on the condition that the tool satisfies at least seven out of the ten criteria), we’ve listed six tools, including their key features and publicly available user feedback:
Name of the tool
Top feature
Pricing
Optmyzr
Advanced bid optimization with powerful rule-based automation
From $209/month for $25K spend, up to 25 accounts
TrueClicks
Data-driven insights for bid adjustments
From $208/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Skai
Omnichannel bid optimization for enterprises
From $90,000/year
NinjaCat
Bid and budget automation with advanced analytics
Custom pricing
Adalysis
Automated bid suggestions and A/B testing
From $149/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Marin
AI-powered bid management across search, social, and ecommerce
From $500/month for up to 50 accounts
1. Optmyzr
Best for: Agencies and in-house teams looking to automate bid management, optimize PPC performance, and maintain control over budgets across multiple platforms
Pricing: From $209/month ($25K spend, up to 25 accounts), with a 14-day free trial
Built for accounts of any size, diversity, or complexity, Optmyzr is an award-winning PPC management software solution that gives paid media marketers the tools they need for auditing, optimization, reporting, and automation.
Optmyzr’s key features:
Rule-based bidding – Allows users to set custom bid adjustments based on specific performance metrics and conditions.
Smart bidding optimization – Enhances Google’s Smart Bidding by providing better data inputs and controls.
Budget-based bid adjustments – Automatically adjusts bids to keep spend aligned with budget pacing and performance goals.
Historical performance-based bidding – Analyzes past data to suggest bid changes that maximize ROAS and conversion rates.
What users think of Optmyzr:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
Pros:
Advanced customization: Users appreciate the ability to do advanced bidding, identify errors, and automate manual tasks through customized scripts.
Efficiency and time-saving capabilities: Optmyzr provides tools that help save time and improve campaign efficiency, such as streamlining campaign creation and robust day-parting features.
Comprehensive analysis tools: The platform offers excellent tools for quick analysis and performance overviews, helping users identify opportunities like location targeting or negative keywords.
Cons:
Complexity: Some features are not intuitive or clear on how to use them effectively, which may lead to underutilization.
2. TrueClicks
Best for: PPC agencies and consultants who need automated audits, optimization recommendations, and performance monitoring to ensure accounts follow best practices
Pricing: From $208/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
TrueClicks is a cloud-based marketing solution, which helps businesses create, launch, and manage PPC marketing campaigns within a unified portal.
TrueClicks’s key features:
Bid strategy auditing – Evaluates bid settings and strategies to identify inefficiencies and optimization opportunities.
Automated bid recommendations – Suggests bid adjustments based on performance trends and account goals.
What users think of TrueClicks:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
Pros:
Personalization: TrueClicks allows you to optimize based on individual account needs, which is appreciated for managing different client requirements.
Budget control: Users find it effective in controlling budgets across accounts.
Up-to-date insights: It provides real-time adjustments and recommendations, keeping in line with Google Ads updates.
Cons:
Google AI dependence: Some users feel TrueClicks relies heavily on Google AI for bidding strategies, which might be less useful for advanced marketers.
Manual bid management: Not suited for manual bid adjustments as users mentioned it can result in a lower score.
Connectivity issues: Occasionally, issues with Google Analytics connections can persist, affecting performance insights.
Best for: Large enterprises and agencies managing omnichannel PPC campaigns and needing advanced AI-driven bidding, predictive analytics, and deep cross-platform insights
Skai is an omnichannel platform performance marketers use to unlock insights, streamline execution, and measure holistically across walled garden media.
Skai’s key features:
AI-powered bid optimization – Uses machine learning to adjust bids based on historical and predictive data.
Cross-channel budgeting – Optimizes bids across search, social, and ecommerce platforms for better budget allocation.
What users think of Skai:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
Pros:
Integration and automation: Skai allows integration across retail, social, and search channels, managing spending efficiently with automated rules.
Comprehensive analytics: Users appreciate customizable KPIs and the ability to perform detailed auditing and dashboard tracking, especially useful for Amazon campaigns.
Reliability: Known for high speed and reliability when adjusting bids and finding actionable insights.
Support and continuous improvement: Excellent customer support and a strong commitment to new features and platform updates.
Cons:
Learning curve: Some users find the platform requires a significant amount of learning, suitable primarily for those with a technical background in PPC.
Cost: Skai can be expensive, which might be a consideration for some organizations.
Interface complexity: The user interface sometimes receives criticism for being overly complex and not very intuitive.
Best for: Agencies and multi-location businesses that require automated reporting, budget pacing, and campaign performance tracking across multiple PPC platforms
NinjaCat is a unified marketing analytics platform designed for agencies, media companies, and multi-location brands. They acquired shape.io, a PPC management platform.
NinjaCat’s key features:
Automated bid and budget pacing – Adjusts bids dynamically to ensure spending stays on track with budget targets.
Cross-platform bid management – Consolidates bidding data from multiple platforms for a unified strategy.
What users think of NinjaCat:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
Pros:
Easy to use – NinjaCat is praised for its ease of use and ability to consolidate data from multiple channels into cohesive reports.
Automated & scalable reporting – It’s appreciated for enabling professional, automated, and scalable reports that save time.
Strong customer support – The support team is often mentioned as being friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful in providing custom solutions.
Cons:
Performance issues – Some users reported issues related to performance and speed, especially when dealing with large data volumes.
Best for: Advertisers and PPC managers focused on data-driven bid adjustments, A/B testing, and automated optimizations for Google and Microsoft Ads
Pricing: From $149/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
Rating: Not enough reviews
Adalysis is a PPC management solution designed to help marketers manage advertising campaigns on Google and Microsoft Ads.
Adalysis’s key features:
Automated A/B testing for bidding strategies – Tests different bid strategies and provides insights on the best-performing ones.
Bid adjustment suggestions – Recommends bid changes based on CTR, conversion rates, and ROAS trends.
What users think of Adalysis:
Users have praised Adalysis for its ability to streamline PPC optimization by highlighting areas that need attention and automating ad testing. They also appreciate the platform’s capability to provide valuable insights and facilitate changes without the need to log into Google Ads.
Best for: Large advertisers and enterprises managing PPC, social, and ecommerce campaigns who need AI-powered bid management and cross-channel reporting
Marin is a campaign management tool that helps marketers create & optimize campaigns for Google, Microsoft, Facebook & Amazon Ads.
Marin’s key features:
AI-driven bid optimization – Uses machine learning to set bids based on predictive performance models.
Rule-based bid adjustments – Allows customization of bidding rules based on business goals and KPIs.
What users think of Marin:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
Pros:
Automated bidding: Helps in optimizing bids constantly, even when not actively managing campaigns, leading to better ROAS.
Batch management: Features like bulk sheets allow for mass changes efficiently, saving time.
Effective for various scale campaigns: It’s known for being reliable across different scales of campaigns, and some users report improved profits using Marin compared to Google or Bing strategies.
Cons:
Slow to adjust to new features: Marin can be slow in adopting new features rolled out by platforms like Google Ads.
Complex to use: Some users find the platform difficult and not as user-friendly compared to other platforms.
Outdated bidding algorithm: The algorithm has not kept pace with advancements in smart bidding offered by newer features in platforms like Google Ads.
Managing PPC bids effectively is about more than just automating adjustments—it’s about making smarter, data-driven decisions that align with your business goals. The right bid management tool helps you automate where necessary while keeping you in control of your budget and strategy.
If you think Optmyzr is the tool for you, sign up for a 14-day free trial today.
Thousands of advertisers—from small agencies to big brands—worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, schedule a consultation call today to talk to one of our experts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a PPC bid management tool?
A PPC bid management tool is software that automates and optimizes the process of setting and adjusting bids for pay-per-click campaigns. It uses data and algorithms to help advertisers get the most clicks, conversions, or ROI for their budget.
Why do I need a PPC bid management tool?
Managing bids manually is time-consuming and prone to error, especially in large or multi-channel campaigns. A bid management tool saves time, improves efficiency, and ensures your bids respond to real-time performance changes—maximizing ROAS.
How do PPC bid management tools help prevent overspending while optimizing performance?
They adjust bids dynamically based on conversion data, budget pacing, and performance trends—helping you stay within budget while driving better results.
Google Ads has become much more sophisticated — and more of a black box — in recent years, due to advancements in AI and machine learning.
Although the shift towards more automation is great for advertisers, Google has also reduced the control and visibility for you, the advertiser over your ad spend.
And, in light of the recent antitrust lawsuits and scrutiny over its ad business practices, advertisers are becoming more concerned that Google is overextending their ad budgets. That’s why savvy advertisers need to be vigilant to ensure they are getting true value from their ad spend.
The good news is that there are several tools out there that can help you take back control and manage your Google Ads campaigns the way that works for your business.
In this article, you’ll learn:
Why do you even need a Google Ads management tool and
The best Google Ads management tools today with their pricing and top features
Best Google Ads management tools
Name of the tool
Top feature
Pricing
Optmyzr
Powerful rule-based automation for optimization and reporting
From $209/month for $25K spend, up to 25 accounts
Google Ads Editor
Bulk editing tools for managing multiple campaigns offline
Free
Opteo
Continuous account monitoring with performance-based recommendations
From $129/month for $25K spend, up to 10 accounts
TrueClicks
Comprehensive auditing and budget pacing tools
From $208/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Acquisio
AI-powered bid and budget management across multiple platforms
Pricing available upon request
Marin
Cross-channel campaign management with advanced reporting
From $500/month for up to 50 accounts
Skai
Unified platform for managing PPC campaigns across various channels
From $90,000/year
Adalysis
Automated PPC audits and health checks
From $149/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Adpulse
Visual workflow builder for custom automation
From $25/month for $3K spend
HubSpot Campaign Assistant
Copy generation for ads, landing pages, and emails
Free
Adzooma
User-friendly interface with automation and optimization features
Free plan available; premium features at additional cost
Optmyzr
Best for: Detailed insights, optimization, reporting, and automation across various campaign types
Pricing: From $208/month ($25K spend, upto 25 accounts)
Optmyzr is a powerful, award-winning PPC management software that gives search marketers the tools they need for detailed insights, optimization, reporting, and automation. It is built for accounts of any size, diversity, or complexity.
From search to shopping to Performance Max, you can run Google Ads campaigns the way each account demands with Optmyzr.
In-depth tools for Responsive Search Ads, Value-Based Bidding, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns (including support for scripts)
PPC vertical benchmarks, competitor, and auction insights for Google Ads
Integration with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
What kinds of teams use Optmyzr?
Optmyzr is used by a variety of teams such as:
Digital marketing agencies: Helps scale their operations and improve their client service by providing them with the tools they need to manage multiple Google Ads campaigns efficiently.
In-house marketing teams: Helps save time and improve their Google Ads performance by automating many of the tasks involved in managing campaigns. This frees up team members to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Enterprise marketing teams: Helps manage their Google Ads spending much better by providing them with data-driven insights and recommendations.
Individual Google Ads consultants: Helps streamline their workflow and manage multiple campaigns without the need for extensive resources.
Pros & cons
Pros
Offers powerful automation layering capabilities to protect your Google Ads accounts and give you back control
Monitors anomalies and automatically notifies account owners
Supports real-time data refresh
Helps you build shopping campaigns 10 times faster than Google Ads
Cons
While Optmyzr’s feature-rich platform is designed to empower users, some may find it overwhelming due to the extensive range of tools and customization options available.
There’s no free version of the platform.
What do users say about Optmyzr?
Users have praised Optmyzr for its significant time-saving capabilities, particularly through custom-built automations in its Rule Engine, which effectively streamline tasks that would typically require a team of PPC managers.
The platform’s workflow design allows for systematic account management, ensuring comprehensive optimization without overlooking any tasks.
Additionally, users appreciate the user-friendly interface and the exceptional support team, which collectively enhance productivity and facilitate the implementation of tailored strategies.
Sign up for our14-day free trialtoday 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.
Google Ads Editor
Best for: Beginners managing multiple campaigns offline with bulk editing capabilities
Google Ads Editor is a free, downloadable application for managing your Google Ads campaigns.
Google Ads Editor’s key features
Provides bulk editing tools, allowing advertisers to make multiple changes quickly across campaigns
Users can manage, edit, and view multiple Google Ads accounts simultaneously
Insights and recommendations to improve campaign performance
Pros and Cons
Pros
A great tool for beginners who may not have a budget to opt for paid software
Helps you manage ads or make bulk changes to your campaigns offline across multiple accounts
Native integration with Google Sheets, Google Analytics, Looker Studio, and other Google tools
Cons
Extremely limited capabilities for monitoring and reporting compared to most tools in the market
Although it’s a free tool, you’re subject to what Google allows and that’s usually to their benefit
The bid management tools are a black box
Provides little to no automation to give you back the control
Often enforces auto-apply recommendations that don’t really help your campaigns
Analyzing PPC performance can be a chore
Tasks like building and refreshing shopping campaigns which take minutes in Optmyzr take hours in the Google Ads Editor
What do users say about Google Ads Editor?
Users have praised Google Ads Editor for its robust bulk editing capabilities, which facilitate efficient management of multiple campaigns and ads simultaneously. Additionally, the user-friendly interface simplifies navigation and campaign management, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced advertisers.
Opteo
Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses seeking easy-to-understand performance recommendations
Pricing: From $129/month ($25K spend, 10 accounts)
Opteo is a Google Ads management tool that recommends optimizations based on continuous account monitoring of account performance data.
Opteo’s key features
Monitoring, reporting, bidding, and budget management capabilities
Integrates with Slack
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI
Suitable for SMBs with limited Google Ads needs
Cons
Uses a 12-hour refresh cycle, not real-time like Optmyzr
Very limited automation and spend projection capabilities
Limited support for shopping, RSA, and Performance Max
Does not integrate with Microsoft Teams or Zapier
What do users say about Opteo?
Users praise Opteo for its time-saving features, user-friendly interface, and actionable recommendations that improve campaign performance. Additionally, its responsive customer support enhances the overall experience.
TrueClicks is a cloud-based marketing software, which helps organizations create, launch, and manage PPC marketing campaigns on a unified portal.
TrueClicks’s key features
Powerful auditing, monitoring, and budget pacing tools
Pros and Cons
Pros
Free forever up to $50K monthly ad spend
Great integrations with Looker Studio, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, and Tableau
Cons
Limited rule-based automation
No support for scripts or native reporting
Limited capabilities for Performance Max and value-based bidding
Limited insights and optimization capabilities compared to Optmyzr
Doesn’t integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zapier
What do users say about TrueClicks?
Users have praised TrueClicks for its user-friendly interface, effective automation of routine tasks, and actionable suggestions that enhance campaign performance. Additionally, TrueClicks is recognized for its ongoing development and responsiveness to user feedback, continually updating the platform to align with industry best practices.
Acquisio is an AI-powered solution for marketers, agencies, and local SEM resellers to scale their PPC offerings on advertising platforms like Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
Acquisio’s key features
Has tools for group optimization, feed audits, and bid management for shopping campaigns
Offers single-account and multi-account reports, audit reports, and automated delivery for reporting
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI
Suitable for SMBs with limited PPC management needs
Cons
Limited rule-based automation
Limited capabilities for Performance Max and value-based bidding
Minimal support for shopping campaigns
Bidding tools are fully black-box with limited recommendations and user control
You’ll see a drop in performance when working with a high number of campaigns
Doesn’t integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zapier
What do users say about Acquisio?
Users praise Acquisio for its intuitive interface, responsive customer support, and AI-driven bid and budget optimization. Its comprehensive reporting tools also save time and enhance campaign management efficiency.
Marin is a campaign management tool that helps marketers create & optimize campaigns for Google, Facebook & Amazon Ads.
Marin’s key features
Good rule-based automation, RSA capabilities, and audits
A good number of tools for shopping
Pros and Cons
Pros
Powerful budgeting and reporting tools
Really good product training content
Cons
Marin’s bid management seems very black-box with no ability to apply your own insights
Limited capabilities for Performance Max and value-based bidding
Marin’s solutions for search, social, and reporting are very fragmented with complicated pricing
The access to their tool is gated by a mandatory demo
Poor reviews on G2 (3.8) and Capterra (3.4) compared to Optmyzr (4.7 G2 / 4.6 Capterra)
Doesn’t integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
What do users say about Marin?
Users praised Marin Software for its intuitive interface and custom reporting capabilities, which streamline campaign management. They also highlighted its versatility in creating and modifying diverse marketing components effectively.
Skai is a cloud-based marketing solution, which helps organizations create, launch, and manage PPC marketing campaigns on a unified portal.
Skai’s key features
Powerful automation, RSA, audits, and reporting capabilities
Integration with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
Pros and Cons
Pros
Good rule-based automation, RSA capabilities, and audits
Good reporting features
Ideal for enterprise teams
Cons
Expensive, complicated pricing and free trial structure
No script support for Google Ads Performance Max campaigns
Has a longer support response time (6-24 hours) than Optmyzr (2 hours)
What do users say about Skai?
Users praise Skai for its user-friendly interface, responsive customer support, and powerful automation features that streamline campaign management. They also value its actionable insights, robust analytics, and regular updates that keep the platform current and effective.
Best for: Advertisers seeking automated PPC audits and health checks to maintain account performance
Pricing: From $149/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
Rating: Not enough reviews
Adalysis is a PPC management solution designed to help marketers manage advertising campaigns on Google and Bing search engines.
Adalysis’s key features
Great tools for budgeting, bidding, auditing, and reporting
Pros and Cons
Pros
Periodic campaign/account health checks
Fast and intuitive onboarding
Cons
Limited capabilities for Performance Max, value-based bidding, shopping, and rule-based automation
Doesn’t integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zapier
What do users say about Adalysis?
Users have praised Adalysis for its ability to streamline PPC optimization by highlighting areas that need attention and automating ad testing. They also appreciate the platform’s capability to provide valuable insights and facilitate changes without the need to log into Google Ads.
Best for: Teams looking to create custom automation workflows through a visual interface
Pricing: From $25/month (3K spend, 100 accounts)
Rating: Not enough reviews
Adpulse provides PPC analysis, marketing automation, automatic testing, and
shopping campaign management.
Adpulse’s key features
Supports RSAs and shopping
Powerful reporting and auditing tools
Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
Pros and Cons
Pros
Great tools for reporting and audits
Good rule-based automation capabilities
Cons
Can sometimes be a little slow
Limited support for Performance Max
Lacks spend projection capabilities for budgets
Support for RSAs and shopping could be better
What do users say about Adpulse?
Adpulse has received positive feedback from users, highlighting its effectiveness in managing PPC campaigns. Users appreciate its user-friendly interface and actionable insights, which help in optimizing account performance and saving time.
HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant is simple, free, and effective. It’s a copy generator that allows you to generate texts across Instagram, Facebook, and Google Ads, as well as landing pages and emails — all in one go.
This makes the platform an excellent choice if you’re looking to develop cross-channel marketing campaigns and ensure your messaging remains consistent on each particular touchpoint.
HubSpot Campaign Assistant’s key features
Preview generated ad copy to see exactly how it would look like on search results
The option to deploy ads directly from the platform
Access to other free features, like HubSpot’s web page builder and email marketing tools to further refine your campaigns
Pros and cons
Pros
No learning curve involved
Multi-channel support
100% free to use
Cons
Lacks advanced tools like reporting, auditing, and budgeting
AI-generated copy can sometimes be slightly bland
Currently in public Beta—not a finished product
What do users say about Campaign Assistant?
Users enjoy Campaign Assistant’s simplicity and effectiveness, as the platform’s copy generator saves them a lot of time that would have otherwise been spent on copy editing and fine-tuning.
Adzooma
Best for: Small businesses seeking a user-friendly platform with optimization features, including a free plan option
Pricing: Has a free plan. The paid plan starts from $99 a month.
Reporting, bidding, and budget management capabilities
Pros and Cons
Pros
Offers a free plan with some useful, but limited features
Decent capabilities for RSAs and Performance Max
Good reporting tools
Cons
Limited support for Performance Max, shopping campaigns, and RSAs
Longer data refresh cycle of 12 hours compared to Optmyzr’s real-time refresh cycle
Limited rule-based automation
No integration with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
What do users say about Adzooma?
Users praise Adzooma for its intuitive interface and real-time campaign optimization insights. They also appreciate its multi-channel support and responsive customer service, making it a reliable tool for advertisers.
Using a Google Ads management tool isn’t just about managing your campaigns better—though it absolutely does that. It also makes your life as an advertiser easier by many orders of magnitude. Hopefully, we did our part to help you find a tool that does that for you.
And after what you read here, if you think Optmyzr is the tool for you, sign up for a 14-day free trial today.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Google Ads management tool?
A Google Ads management tool is third-party software that helps you create, monitor, optimize, and report on your Google Ads campaigns more efficiently—often offering features beyond what Google’s native interface provides.
What features should I look for in a Google Ads management tool?
Multi-platform support (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, social channels, etc.)
Customizable reports and dashboards
Real-time monitoring and alerts
Efficiency in managing bidding, budgeting, ad creation, and campaign scaling
Why you should use a Google Ads management tool
A third-party Google Ads management tool helps you create, optimize, and manage your campaigns more efficiently and effectively than you ever can using Google’s default platform. Here are a few reasons why you should use one:
1. Google doesn’t always have your best interests when making product decisions.
Google is a business. So its goal is to do what’s best for its shareholders. The more money you spend on its platform, the more beneficial that is for its shareholders. That’s a big reason for its push to increase ad prices, encourage broad match, and auto-applied recommendations so that your ads are shown for a higher number of search queries, which means more clicks and ultimately more money for Google.
2. Google’s native platform has extremely limited capabilities for advertisers.
A third-party tool can offer features that are not available or limited in Google Ads, such as competitor analysis, cross-channel integration, custom reporting, and AI-powered optimization. These features can help you gain more insights into your market and your campaigns and improve your ROI.
3. Third-party tools can save you time and money.
A third-party tool can automate many tasks that would otherwise take you hours to do manually on Google Ads, such as keyword research, bid management, ad creation, and performance tracking. This can free up your time to focus on much more important aspects of your business and reduce your advertising costs.
Negative keywords serve as the gatekeepers of your ad campaigns, allowing you to refine your targeting and ensure your ads are displayed to the most relevant audience. In this article, you will learn in detail about:
What negative keywords are
The advantages of using negative keywords
Negative keyword match types
How to find negative keywords, and
Strategies to maximize benefits from the use of negative keywords
Whether you’re new to search advertising or seeking to optimize your existing campaigns, understanding negative keywords is essential for maximizing your ROI and achieving your advertising goals.
What are negative keywords?
Negative keywords are search terms that prevent your ads from showing when those words or phrases are part of a user’s search query in Google Ads or Microsoft Ads. They act as filters, helping advertisers exclude irrelevant traffic, reduce wasted ad spend, and improve campaign performance.
Standard vs Negative Keywords:
Standard keyword: Show my ads when someone searches this term.
Negative keyword: Don’t show my ads when someone searches this term.
Example: A luxury travel agency might target “luxury vacations” but exclude terms like “cheap vacation packages” or “budget travel deals.”
With a well-structured negative keyword list, you ensure your ads reach the right audience, improving CTR, conversion rates, and overall PPC efficiency.
How to evaluate search terms to find negative keywords
Evaluating search terms is the first step in building an effective negative keyword list. The goal is simple: identify queries that waste budget, don’t match your audience, or have low conversion potential and exclude them.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Reviewing search terms one by one is slow and easy to get wrong. Optmyzr’s Negative Keywords Finder makes it easier by analyzing your Search Terms Report, breaking down queries into single words, and flagging the ones that consistently underperform.
You can quickly review these suggestions with data like impressions, clicks, CPC, and conversions, and add them as negative keywords (at the query, word, campaign, or even account level) in just a few clicks.
How do negative keyword match types work?
Negative keyword match types work similarly to regular keyword match types but in reverse, allowing you to control which search terms your ads are not shown for. There are three main types of negative keyword match types: broad, phrase, and exact.
The following table gives you an idea of how each of the match types functions for the keyword ‘free shipping’.
Negative Broad Match
Negative Phrase Match
Negative Exact Match
Search Term
Will the Ad show?
Search Term
Will the Ad show?
Search Term
Will the Ad show?
"free shipping options"
No
"free shipping options"
No
"free shipping options"
No
"shipping services with free returns"
No
"shipping services with free returns"
No
"shipping services with free returns"
No
"fast shipping options"
Yes
"fast shipping options"
Yes
"fast shipping options"
Yes
"get fast shipping"
Yes
"get fast shipping"
Yes
"get fast shipping"
Yes
"fast shipping near me"
Yes
"fast shipping near me"
Yes
"fast shipping near me"
Yes
"shipping services with fast and reliable delivery"
Yes
"shipping services with fast and reliable delivery"
Yes
"shipping services with fast and reliable delivery"
Yes
"overnight shipping services"
Yes
"overnight shipping services"
Yes
"overnight shipping services"
No
"overnight shipping tracking"
Yes
"overnight shipping tracking"
Yes
"overnight shipping tracking"
No
"fast overnight shipping"
Yes
"fast overnight shipping"
Yes
"fast overnight shipping"
No
Broad match negative keywords
Broad match negative keywords prevent your ads from showing for any search term that contains the keywords in any order, along with any additional words.
For example, if you add the negative keyword ‘free shipping’, your ads will not be shown for searches like ‘free shipping options’, ‘shipping services with free returns’, or ‘free express shipping’. This match type provides the broadest coverage but may also exclude some relevant searches.
Phrase match negative keywords
Phrase match negative keywords prevent your ads from showing only when the search term contains the exact keyword phrase, along with any additional words before or after it.
For example, if you add the negative keyword ‘fast delivery’, your ads will not be shown for searches like ‘get fast delivery’, ‘fast delivery options’, or ‘fast delivery near me’. However, they may still appear for searches like ‘delivery services with fast and reliable shipping’.
Exact match negative keywords
Exact match negative keywords prevent your ads from showing only for the exact keyword phrase specified, without any additional words before, after, or in between. For example, if you add the negative keyword ‘overnight delivery’, your ads will not be shown for searches like ‘overnight delivery services’, ‘overnight delivery tracking’, or ‘fast overnight delivery’, ensuring that your ads are not displayed for any variation of the specified phrase.
Using negative keyword match types effectively requires understanding the nuances of each match type and selecting the most appropriate option based on your advertising goals and target audience. Additionally, regularly reviewing and updating your negative keyword lists to reflect changes in search behavior and campaign performance is essential for optimizing the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.
These apply across your entire ad account and are ideal for excluding broad, irrelevant queries, like “free,” “jobs,” “make your own,” or “shops near me.”
These keywords indicate search intents that are irrelevant to your ad and can include job searches, mistaken searches, address searches, brand-specific searches, etc. Building a list of account-wide negatives will save you a lot of time and money.
The benefits of this function will amplify with each addition to the list.
But here’s a warning from the experts: don’t overdo it.
PPC expert Andrew Lolk pointed this out in our town hall episode that account-level negatives can easily cut off valuable traffic without you realizing it, especially as your product lines evolve:
“Advertisers often forget to revisit old negatives, and those can quietly block exactly the audience you’re trying to reach today.” — Andrew Lolk
💡Action Step: Build a universal negative keyword list for terms you never want to trigger ads, then audit it regularly to ensure it still aligns with your current offerings.
Campaign-level negative keywords
Campaign-level negative keywords apply only to the specific campaign they are added.
If you implement a list of negative keywords at the campaign level, you’re telling the ad platform that you do not want to show ads to anyone searching for these keywords in the entire campaign.
These negative keywords will apply to all ad groups within the campaign.
They allow advertisers to tailor their exclusions to the theme or focus of each campaign. For example, a campaign promoting luxury watches may exclude terms related to inexpensive or budget watches.
🚨Update Alert: Google recently rolled out a long‑awaited update- you can now add campaign‑level negative keywords directly in Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. This change gives you far greater control over what traffic PMax drives and helps prevent wasted spend.
Want to catch up on what’s new with Google in 2025?
Watch our exclusive discussion with Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Liaison, where we break down the latest updates and what they mean for your campaigns. Spoiler alert: insider intel ahead!
Ad group-level negative keywords
Ad group-level negative keywords apply only to the ad group they are added to, providing even more granular control. Advertisers can use ad group-level negative keywords to further refine targeting within a campaign.
For instance, within a campaign promoting men’s clothing, an ad group focusing on suits may exclude terms related to casual wear.
You can also use negative keywords to ensure that different ad groups don’t overlap. You can use targeted keywords from one group as negative keywords for another to avoid wasting multiple ads on a single search.
💡Action Step: Use ad group‑level negatives to keep queries where they belong. Optmyzr's Traffic Sculptor can look at how search terms are matching across your account and recommend exact‑match negatives where queries are landing in the wrong ad group. Just a few clicks, and you can make sure the right ads are showing for the right searches.
Tips to find effective negative keywords
Reviewing thousands of search terms every week isn’t realistic. But that doesn’t mean you settle for a “good enough” negative keyword list.
Adam Gorecki from Intigress puts it simply:
“If you don’t have time to review everything, start with the search terms getting the most impressions — then move on to the ones costing you the most.”
In other words, prioritize by impact. Ignore the one-off impressions. Go after what’s driving cost and volume.
From there, make your list work harder:
Build once, use everywhere. Create single‑word phrase match negatives that work on both Google and Microsoft Ads (since Microsoft doesn’t support broad match negatives).
Clean up ad group targeting. Broad and phrase match keywords will always pull in some outliers. Use exact‑match negatives at the ad group level to keep search queries aligned with the right ads (this is where Optmyzr’s Traffic Sculptor shines).
Automate the heavy lifting. Driva, a fintech based in Australia, used Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder to spot and eliminate non‑performing queries at scale. Their team freed up hours of manual review while actually improving results.
Here are some negative keyword strategies we’ve seen many experts using in their campaigns
These strategies come from seasoned PPC experts and regular practitioners like Navah Hopkins, Duane Brown, Melissa Mackey, and Nicholas Woodward.
Use match types effectively
Merely knowing match types might not be enough. Navah Hopkins points out that negative keywords do not account for close variants.
For instance, you add ‘cheap’ as a negative keyword to prevent your luxury hotel ads from showing for budget-related searches. If you use ‘cheap" as a phrase match or broad match negative keyword, it will block any search query containing the word ‘cheap’ along with additional words before or after it. This ensures that your ads won’t appear for terms like ‘cheap luxury hotel" or ’luxury hotel deals cheap’.
On the other hand, if you set ‘cheap’ as an exact match negative keyword, it will only exclude search queries that exactly match the word ‘cheap’ without any additional words. While this protects against direct mentions of ‘cheap’, it may still allow variations like ‘affordable luxury hotel’ to trigger your ads. Therefore, understanding the nuances of negative keyword match types is crucial for effective ad targeting and campaign optimization.
Look beyond the search terms report
Duane Brown from Take Some Risk Inc. offers insightful advice on expanding negative keyword strategies beyond the conventional Search Term report. He suggests “using synonym finder tools to identify closely related terms to add to your negative keyword lists”.
Additionally, GPT can be used to rank search terms by relevance. You can save a lot of time by using GPT’s AI to easily score long lists of search terms and find the ones with the lowest relevance for your business.
Exclude irrelevant keywords based on current events
Nicholas Woodward from Pack and Send says, “Major events, shocking news, and viral content can disrupt a search campaign like an earthquake. Take preemptive measures to ensure that current events or a sudden rise in related searches do not affect your campaign.”
For example, you’re running ads for ‘banana milkshake’. Meanwhile, some celebrity spills a banana milkshake on their dress and this incident goes viral in the news. Your ad campaign could experience unexpected fluctuations.
As your campaign is targeting the words ‘banana milkshake’, people searching for the celebrity mishap will also see your ad. Negative keywords can help you exclude all people searching for the celebrity.
Avoid competing with your own ads
If you’re planning to run Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) you might want to consider adding your active keywords as negatives in those campaigns. Many PPC experts including Navah have observed that despite Google’s stance that DSA campaigns won’t compete with keywords and ads from Standard campaigns, the results were much better when the two were not mixed and when negatives were used.
Leverage negative keyword lists
Despite their potential, negative keyword lists are often underutilized. Melissa Mackey says, “Every ads account should use negative keyword lists. Advertisers should have lists at least for Universal Negatives, Brand terms to negate from non-brand campaigns, and Competitor Negatives.” There might be a 20-list constraint, but they serve as valuable tools for managing extensive themed lists and maintaining campaign precision.
Additionally, Duane recommends building strong negative keyword lists to exclude irrelevant searches effectively- “Most brands can also look at building a source of truth negative keyword list and making sure they don’t show up for jobs, YouTube, video game and other odd searches.”
What are the advantages of using negative keywords?
Refined targeting
Negative keywords allow you to refine your targeting by excluding searches that are not relevant to your business or offering. This helps you focus your advertising efforts on reaching the most qualified audience for your products or services.
Improved quality score
By excluding irrelevant searches, your ads become more targeted, leading to higher click-through rates (CTRs) and improved ad relevance. This can, in turn, positively impact your Quality Score, resulting in better ad positions.
Relevant ads that convert better
Negative keywords help ensure that your ads are shown to users who are more likely to be interested in your offering. By filtering out irrelevant traffic, you increase the chances of reaching potential customers who are more likely to convert, leading to higher conversion rates and a better ROI.
Money saved on CPCs
Google’s control over ad auction pricing and changes in minimum bids are causing CPCs to rise year after year, and you should do what you can to safeguard your PPC campaigns against increasing costs.
One of the simplest ways to do that is by excluding irrelevant searches, in other words, by using negative keywords to prevent your ads from being triggered by users who are unlikely to convert. This helps you avoid wasting your budget on clicks that are unlikely to result in a desired action, ultimately saving you money on CPCs and improving the overall ROI of your ad campaigns.
Ready to implement? Use our comprehensive negative keywords worksheet
This is just a glimpse of our detailed negative keywords worksheet. Here’s a link to the full worksheet that can help you get rid of the stubborn terms eating away at your budget!
Find the positive impact of negative keywords
Finding negative keywords will always be a work in progress. The more campaigns you run, the more negative keywords you will discover, and each negative keyword helps you filter out people you don’t want. But it is important to strike a balance. If you have too many negative keywords, you might also filter out potential customers. Target keywords and negative keywords work like yin-yang. They are opposites, yet they function harmoniously.
With the right tools and strategies, you can navigate this delicate balance efficiently. Take control of your keyword management and overall account health with Optmyzr’s suite of solutions. Sign up for a 14-day free trial.
People also ask
Q. What is the primary purpose of using negative keywords in PPC campaigns A. The primary purpose of using negative keywords in PPC campaigns is to prevent your ads from appearing for irrelevant search queries. It ensures your ads are shown only to users genuinely interested in your products or services, significantly improving ad relevance, click-through rates (CTR), and return on investment (ROI) by reducing wasted ad spend on non-converting clicks.
Q. How do negative keyword match types (broad, phrase, exact) differ, and when should each be used? A. Negative keyword match types control how strictly your negatives block search queries:
Broad match: Blocks any search containing all your negative terms, in any order. Best for catch‑all exclusions like “free” or “jobs.”
Phrase match: Blocks searches that include your terms in the exact order you write them. Ideal for universal negatives (e.g., “cheap software”) and cross‑platform lists since they work in both Google and Microsoft Ads
Exact match: Blocks only searches that exactly match your negative keyword. Great for fine‑tuning at the ad group level or traffic sculpting to keep queries in the right ad groups
Q. What are the key benefits of regularly using negative keywords in my ad campaigns? A. Using negative keywords regularly helps you avoid showing ads to people who aren’t really looking for what you offer. That way, you are not stuck wasting money on irrelevant clicks. Instead, your ads reach the right audience, the ones more likely to engage and convert. Over time, this means better results, lower costs, and a campaign more in control.
Q. How often should I review my Search Terms Report to find new negative keywords? A. You should review your Search Terms Report at least once a week, especially for new or actively managed campaigns. For mature, stable campaigns, a bi-weekly or monthly review might suffice.
The frequency depends on:
Campaign budget and volume: High-volume campaigns require more frequent review.
Campaign performance: If performance is declining, more frequent checks are needed.
Industry seasonality/trends: During peak seasons or trend shifts, review more often.
Q. Can using too many negative keywords negatively impact my ad campaigns? A. Yes, using too many negative keywords or overly broad negative keywords can negatively impact your ad campaigns. Your ads might fail to show for relevant queries, reducing reach and impression volume. That’s where you need to ensure your exclusions are not unintentionally starving your campaign of the needed traffic.
There’s nothing more frustrating than launching a Google Ads campaign with carefully chosen budgets, precisely defined targeting, and ad copy you’re proud of, only to be met with… silence.
No clicks, no conversions, just the nagging question: “Why aren’t my Google Ads working?”
It’s a challenge that more advertisers are facing today. As Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin shared during our recent PPC Town Hall, “We’re experiencing a transformation as significant as the mobile revolution. Search queries are evolving from short keyword phrases to longer, more conversational queries.”
This makes traditional troubleshooting even more critical as the new shifts take over.
In this blog, we’ll break down the real reasons your Google Ads aren’t working and give you step-by-step solutions to turn things around.
Throughout this guide, we’ll also share exclusive insights and perspectives from our in-depth discussions with Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin for more informed decisions.
How to investigate if your Google Ads is actually working?
If you’re wondering, “Why aren’t my Google Ads showing or driving traffic?”, the first step is to verify whether they’re even running properly. Here’s how:
1. Review your campaign performance metrics
Go to your Google Ads and Google Analytics dashboards and check:
Impressions: Are people even seeing your ads?
Clicks & CTR: Are they engaging with them?
Conversions: Are those clicks leading to results?
If impressions or clicks are consistently low, it’s a sign that your ads may not be serving effectively, or they are not resonating with your audience.
2. Check your ad status in Google Ads
Log in to your account, click “Ads & assets,” and look at the “Status” column. This tells you if your ads are:
Active: Running normally.
Under Review: Waiting for approval.
Disapproved or Limited: Blocked or restricted due to policy or settings.
Having an idea of your ad’s status gives you a starting point for troubleshooting, whether that means fixing targeting, adjusting bids, or resolving policy issues.
Now, let’s explore the common issues that can affect the performance of your Google Ads campaigns.
Why are my Google Ad campaigns not working and how to fix the issues?
Issues with the preliminary account setup
1. Your ad has been paused, removed, or disapproved
It may seem obvious, but ads, ad groups, and campaigns can get paused, removed, or disapproved quite often. Sometimes, these issues are overlooked, especially if multiple team members manage the account. In fact, users sometimes set up a campaign but forget to turn it on, leaving it in a “paused” or “disabled” state.
Solutions:
Check “Change History”: Review this feature in your Google Ads account to track changes and discover any accidental pauses or removals in your campaigns. You can also use Optmyzr’s automated Change History reports to streamline this monitoring process further.
Understand Disapprovals: Consult Google Ads policies to identify and resolve disapproval reasons.
💡AI Tip: Optmyzr's new AI-powered Sidekick can now access change history information and handle advanced queries. Instead of manually digging through change logs, you can ask questions like "Which recent changes to the account could have contributed to the 5% decline in performance?" to quickly identify issues.
Check out more of our AI updates and how they simplify your PPC efforts here!
2. Your account is still under review
Google reviews ads to ensure they comply with its policies, but the system reviews most ads within one business day. However, more complex reviews may take longer.
Solutions:
If your ad remains under review for over 2 business days, keep an eye on your ad’s status, and if the issue continues, contact the Support team.
To avoid time constraints, submit your ad a few days ahead of any specific review deadlines. This prevents a delay in launching your PPC campaigns.
3. There’s a billing issue
Addressing billing issues is vital as they can result in account suspension once Google’s grace period expires. Common billing challenges include:
Insufficient funds on your credit card for payment
Exceeding the maximum allowable charge for a single payment
Cards that don’t accept online charges
Solutions:
Regularly verify that the credit card linked to your account is active and functioning correctly.
When switching to a new card, ensure there are no issues to prevent payment problems and potential account suspension.
4. Your IP address could be blocked
Some advertisers block their own IP addresses to study their competitors, inadvertently preventing their ads from displaying.
Solution: In your campaign settings, check if your IP address is listed in the IP exclusions section. If found, remove it to ensure your ads show up as intended.
Issues arising from managing the account
1. Your keyword search volume is too low
Google Ads automatically pauses keywords with low activity to help advertisers focus on more relevant and impactful terms. This means if a keyword has received no impressions in the past 13 months, it will be automatically paused. If you re-enable a paused keyword, it could be paused again after 3 months if it remains inactive.
Solution: Check the “Keywords” section in your account and review the “Status” column to identify low-search-volume keywords. Consider using broader terms or match types and targeting more relevant locations. Use Google’s Keyword Planner or Optmyzr’s high-performing search terms report for keyword ideas.
Poorly performing landing pages due to irrelevance, URL errors, or even hacking can negatively impact your ad ranking and cause your ads not to show on SERPs.
Solutions:
Ensure your landing pages are relevant to the ad’s intent and triggered keywords
Run an audit on your account’s landing pages to ensure that all of them use secure (https) URLs
💡Google’s Update: Landing page issues have become even more critical following Google’s latest quality update. Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin revealed:
Check out the following PPC Town Hall episode that highlights the common mistakes you should avoid while creating high-converting landing pages.
4. Bid and budgeting issues
In Google Ads, how much you bid and budget can make or break your success:
Strike a balance in your bids by efficiently optimizing your bids across ad groups. Avoid bidding too low, which could jeopardize your ad’s visibility, or bidding too high, which may deplete your budget prematurely
Utilize sitelinks to lead users to specific landing pages and enhance CTR
Google’s approach to relevance hasn’t changed, but the execution has become more sophisticated.
As Ginny pointed out, “The whole goal is to serve an ad and a landing page that is highly relevant to the user, what their need is, what their problem is that they’re searching for.”
6. Negative keywords are canceling out positive keywords
Overlapping positive and negative keywords can prevent your ad from showing for specific searches.
Solution: Regularly audit your positive and negative keyword lists to avoid overlaps and keep them updated. Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder tool can help identify conflicting keywords and suggest negative keywords to add, ensuring your positive keywords aren’t being blocked by overly broad negative terms.
7. Using the wrong keyword match types: Google Ads Coach Jyll talks about how this impacts their client
Sometimes, when you use a Broad or Phrase match type for your keywords to capture more traffic, it could match with your competitor’s brand keywords and cause your top-performing campaigns to suddenly decline.
This happened with an e-commerce client that one of our customers, Jyll Saskin Gales (Google Ads Coach and Consultant at Jyll.ca), manages. Their top-performing brand search campaign saw a sudden dip in ROAS, though they hadn’t changed anything in their campaign.
On reviewing their search term report, they found that their Phrase match keywords started matching competitor brand names. These competitors had higher search volume and higher CPCs, which ate up the client’s budget without producing good results.
Solution: “Rather than play whack-a-mole with negatives, we decided to change her brand keywords from phrase match to exact match, and performance stabilized within a few days. Phew!” - Jyll Saskin Gales, Google Ads coach & consultant, Jyll.ca
💡Google's perspective: According to Ginny, Google is addressing match type issues through AI improvements: "With automation advancements and AI advancements, we're now able to infer a lot more about what that query intent is" through AI-based keyword prioritization that helps select the most relevant keyword and ad combinations for user queries.
8. You are not providing Google with enough conversion data
One of the most overlooked reasons for poor Google Ads performance is inadequate data sharing. Smart Bidding algorithms rely heavily on conversion data to optimize your campaigns effectively. Without sufficient quality data, Google’s machine learning can’t properly identify your best customers or optimize toward your business goals.
As Ginny emphasizes, “Please give Google the data it needs to help you and your business succeed. The more you withhold information, the harder time you’ll have seeing success.”
Solutions:
Set up enhanced conversions: This feature improves conversion measurement accuracy by sending hashed first-party customer data to Google, helping the platform better understand which clicks lead to valuable actions.
Implement customer match: Upload your customer lists to help Google find similar high-value prospects and improve campaign targeting.
Feed offline conversion data back to Google: If you track phone calls, in-store purchases, or other offline conversions, import this data into Google Ads to give the algorithm a complete picture of your customer journey.
Use proper conversion tracking tags: Ensure your Google Ads conversion tracking is correctly implemented across all important actions on your website, from form submissions to purchases.
9. Campaign structure is fragmenting your conversion data
If you have multiple campaigns targeting the same audience with identical ROAS goals but they’re separated unnecessarily, each campaign operates with limited conversion data. This prevents Google’s machine learning from understanding your best customers and optimizing bids effectively.
As Ginny explains, “What matters to your business should inform your structure. That would be if you have campaigns that necessitate different ROAS targets, for example, that will dictate a structure.
But if you look across your account now and have five, ten campaigns that essentially have the same goal, that could be an opportunity to consolidate under that one goal.”
Solutions:
Audit campaigns with identical business objectives and ROAS targets
Consolidate unnecessarily fragmented campaigns into fewer, data-rich campaigns
Ensure each campaign has sufficient conversion volume for AI learning (aim for 30+ conversions per month)
Keep campaigns separate only when they serve genuinely different business goals or require different bidding strategies
Checklist used by most of Optmyzr’s power users to troubleshoot why their Google Ads aren’t working as expected
Now let’s take a look at the checklist used by our power users to investigate if their campaigns aren’t working as intended, whether it’s a sharp decline in cost or a drop in conversions. Sharing these tips below (most of them were discussed earlier too):
Check the auction insights: Is there an unexpected competitor in the market since your decline started?
Review your negative keyword lists to see if any negatives are unintentionally blocking your traffic.
Check if your conversion tracking is set up properly: This is more important than ever with Smart Bidding since the ML solely relies on the conversions coming through.
Ad schedules: You might’ve missed an important day or two while adding your ad schedules, which means that your ad could shut off altogether.
Landing Page Issues: If your conversion tracking is properly set up but conversions are down, review the entire checkout process on your website to spot any errors, unexpected out-of-stock products, or breakages.
Along with the checklist our customer used, here’s a full, comprehensive step-by-step checklist covering every fix.
Take back control of your Google Ads campaigns with Optmyzr
While Google Ads can be a powerful tool for your marketing campaigns, various issues can hinder their performance. However, with regular monitoring and troubleshooting, you can address these problems and get your ads back on track, driving the results you desire.
Don’t let the frustration of underperforming Google Ads campaigns discourage you; instead, take action to optimize your campaigns and achieve your advertising goals.
If you’re looking for an efficient way to monitor and troubleshoot your Google Ads campaigns, consider scheduling a demo with Optmyzr. Their tools can help you quickly identify and optimize for these issues.
You will get all 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.
FAQs
Q. Why is Google Ads not loading in Chrome?
A. One of the most common reasons Google Ads might not load in Chrome is due to ad blockers. Disable your ad blocker or add an exception for Google Ads to resolve this issue.
Browser settings, like pop-up blockers or JavaScript blockers, can also prevent Google Ads from loading. Adjust these settings to allow Google Ads to display.
Q. What are some common mistakes made in Google Ads setup?
Failed conversion tracking
Using the wrong keyword match types
Irrelevant or faulty landing pages
Not trademarking branded keywords
Not setting alerts for anomalies in campaign performance
Q. How long does it take for Google to start showing ads?
A. After activating your Google Ads account, it typically takes 24-48 hours for Google to review and approve it.
Following approval, Google gathers essential data about your business, learns about your target audience, and examines your desired topic. This process can take longer for larger or more complex businesses.
Q. Why are my Google Ads campaigns not showing at the top of the page?
A. If your ads aren’t appearing on the first page or at the top of search results, it’s usually because your bids are too low compared to competitors.
To fix this, check the “Est. first page bid” and “Est. top of page bid” for your keywords in Google Ads. Adjust your bids to meet or exceed these estimates to improve your ad position and ensure better visibility.
Q. Should I search for my own ads on Google to check if they’re appearing?
A. No, avoid manually searching for your own ads on Google’s search results.
When you or your team repeatedly search for your ads without clicking them, it artificially inflates impressions while lowering the click-through rate (CTR). This drop in CTR can hurt your Quality Score, leading to lower ad rankings. In some cases, it may even cause your ads to stop appearing altogether.
Instead, use Google’s “Ad Preview and Diagnosis” tool to see if your ads are showing for specific keywords. This tool simulates a search without increasing impressions, preserving your performance stats.
Amazon has pulled out of Google Shopping ads in 20 global markets. For years, they’ve been a dominant force in the auction, accounting for up to 30% of impression share in many verticals.
Their absence changes the landscape. CPC trends may shift. Impression share could be redistributed. And advertisers will need to monitor performance more closely to stay on track.
Here’s how to respond and how Optmyzr can help.
Monitor campaign changes as they happen
When a major player exits an auction, campaign performance can shift quickly. Small changes in CPC or impression share can add up, especially across large accounts or portfolios.
Optmyzr helps you stay informed with:
KPI alerts for impression share, CPC, spend, conversions, and more
Get notified when something’s off with your campaigns, like unexpected underspending or overspending.
For example:
Underspending: Catch campaigns that are spending far less than expected (e.g., 82% below average).
Overspending: Spot potential issues early, like a mistakenly entered budget or overspending triggered by an unexpected surge in available traffic now that Amazon’s out of the auction.
With Optmyzr’s Anomaly Alerts (also called Auto Alerts), you’ll get automatic notifications across any linked Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, or Facebook Ads account.
You’ll find these alerts by default under the Alert Settings page in Optmyzr.
Notifications via email, Slack, or MS Teams
Track key metrics like impression share, CPC, spend, conversions, and more, and get notified when they move in the wrong direction.
For example:
CPC spike: Get alerted when costs suddenly jump above normal levels.
Drop in conversions: Catch issues early if performance starts to slip.
Root-cause analysis with the PPC Investigator tool
The PPC Investigator is an insights tool that’ll help you find exactly which element in a given account caused a metric to increase or decrease, and whether it’s a keyword, placement, or an entire network that caused the changes.
It has two components:
Cause Chart
Root Cause Analysis
Cause Chart
The Cause Chart is based on the fact that the performance of every metric depends on the performance of other underlying metrics. It uses the relationships between different metrics to show potential causality.
Root Cause Analysis
After identifying which metric needs to be worked on, the Root Cause Analysis goes a step further and highlights the exact Campaigns/Ad groups/Product partition/Keywords, etc. that were responsible for the change in an account.
It shows top movers who are significant contributors to the change in the account when compared across the two date ranges. You can view the top three positive and negative movers for a particular account.
“It’s as if [Amazon] have completely disconnected from Merchant Center.” — David Kyle, National Positions
These tools make it easier to catch unexpected changes early, before they impact broader performance.
Adjust budgets based on changing conditions
With Amazon gone, some sectors may see reduced CPCs. Others might see more aggressive bidding. Either way, advertisers should review budget pacing to ensure it still aligns with current performance.
Optmyzr’s budget tools include:
Budget pacing dashboards for accounts or portfolios
Campaign auto-pause features to prevent over-delivery
Automatic resumption of campaigns on a new budget cycle
Daily pacing trends, weekday breakdowns, and AI-generated summaries
Effective budget pacing makes sure your campaigns stay on track throughout the month. You can use automated alerts to track monthly budgets across Google Ads combined, allowing for seamless cross-platform management.
In Optmyzr, these pacing alerts get automatically added on the Alert Settings page, where you can manage some more advanced options like notifying multiple users.
You can edit the Cycle Date or Monthly Budget target, and any update will get automatically reflected on the All Portfolio Dashboard.
For example: Monitoring spend by the 15th of the month to ensure campaigns hit 50-60% of their budget.
Why it matters: This prevents wild budget swings and makes sure the performance stays consistent.
“I always emphasize the importance of showing my clients how their budget is being utilized. The Budget Pacing tool has made this process so much easier for me, helping my team and me understand what to expect for the rest of the month and figure out where to invest the next advertising dollar for my clients.”
— Mike Rhodes, Founder, WebSavvy
“Amazon appears in ~30% of Shopping auctions across our client base — so this is a big shift. CPCs haven’t dropped… but it’s definitely one to review.” — Josh Duggan, Vervaunt
Stay flexible while the market shifts
There’s some speculation that this exit might be temporary, possibly related to Prime Day, while others see it as a broader test. In either case, advertisers who can monitor trends and respond quickly will be better positioned.
Optmyzr can help teams:
Set alerts to flag post-Amazon shifts in performance
Adjust budgets as CPCs and impression share fluctuate
Compare results across Google and Amazon Ads
Make informed changes using up-to-date campaign data
“Now is the perfect time for brands and agencies to run their own Google Search to Amazon ads with attribution, since they no longer get free coverage via Google Shopping Ads from Amazon.” — Brandon Yann, VML
Summary: What to focus on now
If you manage Shopping or Amazon Ads, consider these next steps:
✅ Review campaign performance for changes in CPC or impression share ✅ Set up alerts for key metrics across channels ✅ Monitor budget pacing to avoid overspending ✅ Compare results across platforms for short-term opportunities
Optmyzr helps advertisers respond effectively
Optmyzr’s tools support faster diagnosis, clearer reporting, and more controlled budget management across ad platforms.
In a changing market, that kind of visibility helps advertisers make practical decisions without scrambling to react after the fact.
That’s one question many PPC marketers ask us during a sales conversation. It’s a fair one. Google Ads has grown more sophisticated with tools like Editor, Automated Rules, and custom scripts.
So, where does Optmyzr fit in?
This article lays out the answer clearly and in depth. We’ll highlight what Google Ads does well, but also spotlight where it falls short and how Optmyzr fills those gaps. The reality is that Optmyzr doesn’t replace Google Ads. It complements it with automation, analytics, scalability, and workflow capabilities designed for modern paid media teams.
What Google Ads gets right and where it ends
Let’s start by acknowledging the strengths of Google’s native tools:
Google Ads Editor: A fast and powerful tool for campaign builds, bulk uploads, and offline changes.
Automated Rules: A simple way to apply changes when conditions are met.
Scripts: Ideal for advertisers with the technical know-how to write and maintain custom JavaScript.
That said, Google’s tools often lack:
Cross-account or cross-campaign visibility
Example: A PPC manager at an agency wants to compare budget pacing across 15 ecommerce clients in one view, not jump between individual accounts. Optmyzr’s Account Dashboard solves this.
Custom data inputs or business context
Example: A retailer wants to adjust bids based on profit margin per SKU, which exists in their Google sheet but isn’t available inside Google Ads. Optmyzr’s Rule Engine can ingest and act on it.
UI for complex logic or workflows
Example: Setting up layered logic like “Pause if CTR drops by 10% AND CPC rises by 10% AND ad relevance is below average” is impossible in native rules, but you can do the same as a simple drag-and-drop operation in the Rule Engine.
Predictive insights or root cause analysis
Example: A client’s conversions dropped 40% last week. Instead of pulling 5 different reports, PPC Investigator identifies that it’s due to PMax shifting budget from a high-ROAS asset group.
Team collaboration tools
Example: An agency wants its analysts to review all automated changes before they’re applied. Optmyzr enables scheduled suggestions with human-in-the-loop review via Blueprints.
As teams scale, these gaps turn into bottlenecks.
What you can’t do in Google Ads but can in Optmyzr
Feature
Google Ads
Optmyzr
Campaign grouping by performance
❌
✅
Feed-based automation
❌
✅
Cross-entity analysis
❌
✅
Creating Shopping campaigns at scale*
❌
✅
Industry insights
❌
✅
Multi-account dashboards
❌
✅
Team task assignment and SOPs
❌
✅
Real-time anomaly detection
❌
✅
Integrated competitor insights
❌
✅
Channel-specific PMax audits
❌
✅
Example: *Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management tool lets you build campaigns with hundreds of ad groups and thousands of product groups in minutes, not hours. It’s impossible to do this manually in Google Ads without risking errors and delays.
What you can do in Google Ads but tediously
Google Ads doesn’t make certain workflows easy. You can technically complete them, but only with time, spreadsheets, and workarounds. Here’s where Optmyzr streamlines the process:
Task
Google Ads
Optmyzr
Finding high- and low-performing keywords
Manual spreadsheets
Search Terms N-Grams
Investigating why CPAs rose
Multi-report exports
PPC Investigator
PMax asset-level auditing
Click through 1-by-1
Optmyzr Express (Audit in bulk)
Forecasting and budget reallocation
A long, multi-step process
Spend Projection, Optimize Budgets tools
Google Ads Automated Rules Vs. Optmyzr’s Rule Engine
Google’s Automated Rules let you:
Run a simple rule on one condition (e.g., Pause keyword if CTR < 1%)
Choose from preset date ranges
Set static thresholds
Optmyzr’s Rule Engine is built for powerful automation. It allows you to:
✅ Combine multiple rules
Use if–then–else logic
Run multiple actions per entity
Example: Pause expensive keyword, label it, and trigger a Slack alert
✅ Use multiple or custom date ranges
Compare “last 7 days” vs. “previous 7 days”
Build custom lookback windows like 14 to 8 days vs. 7 to 1 days
✅ Relative comparisons
Find keywords with CPA > campaign average by 50%
Compare CTR at different levels (e.g., ad group vs. campaign)
✅ Pull external data
Connect Google Sheets for margin, weather, seasonality, stock levels, etc.
Example: Pull profitability scores from your CRM and adjust bids accordingly
✅ Review or schedule
Preview suggestions before applying
Run manually or set recurring automations
✅ Exclude recent changes
Prevent bid stacking
Stabilize long-term optimizations
“Rule Engine is certainly one of the amazing sections of Optmyzr because it’s really like your dedicated, highly flexible, and scalable optimization hub where you can automate a lot of very valuable optimizations for your clients with infinite customizations.” - Matthieu Tran-Van
Optmyzr offers automation with accountability (what we like to call PPC insurance)
Score philosophy: Transparent, not self-serving
Google’s Optimization Score often nudges advertisers toward recommendations that increase ad spend, not always results. In contrast, Optmyzr offers its own scoring framework that:
Aligns with your business goals (e.g., ROAS targets, conversion value)
Isn’t incentivized by click volume or Google’s revenue
Reflects adherence to best practices, not just product adoption
This matters when your job is to balance performance with cost efficiency, not simply to check off Google’s to-do list.
Google’s AI-driven recommendations and campaigns like PMax have introduced helpful features, but also unexpected risks:
“Google re-enabled expanded targeting without notice and cost us thousands.” — Melissa Mackey
Pull data from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, LinkedIn, and more
Allow full customization of metrics (e.g., ROAS, cost/revenue ratios)
Include annotations, client commentary, and agency branding
Can be scheduled for recurring delivery
For agencies, this means less time formatting spreadsheets and more time showing value to clients.
Built-in workflows and safeguards
Optmyzr goes beyond single-user control to support complex PPC teams:
Assign optimization tasks via Blueprints
Set rule reviews so that junior team members can’t accidentally push changes live
Enable approval workflows for client-side or stakeholder review before launch
Example: An analyst sets up a budget reallocation in Rule Engine. Instead of applying immediately, the task is queued for approval from the account lead.
Optmyzr was designed for agencies and enterprises, not just individual account managers.
For agencies:
View performance across all clients from one dashboard
Create account templates and SOPs using Blueprints
Collaborate with analysts, interns, and specialists
For in-house teams:
Clone campaign structures across markets or business units
Build shopping campaigns in bulk
Use opt-in workflows to review changes before they’re live
Optmyzr doesn’t compete with Google Ads. It complements it.
If you’re a solo advertiser managing one account, Google’s native tools might be enough. But if you’re:
Managing multiple accounts or clients
Juggling various channels (Google, Microsoft, Meta)
Needing reports, automations, and alerts that reflect your business, not Google’s preferences
…then Optmyzr becomes indispensable.
Use Google’s tools where they shine. But when you need clarity across accounts, custom automations that scale, protection from black-box automation, and workflow visibility for teams, Optmyzr is your edge.
A CPC spike is one of the most frustrating things in paid search: your costs shoot up overnight, and nothing in your campaign has changed. No new keywords, no bid adjustments, no budget tweaks… and yet, your performance tanks.
The reality is that CPC spikes can occur for several reasons: a new competitor enters the auction, Google quietly updates its algorithm, or Smart Bidding starts chasing the wrong signals.
This guide breaks down the most common causes behind unexpected CPC jumps and, more importantly, shows you how to identify them early and prevent them from damaging your budget again.
Step 1: Check auction conditions
“Was I outbid, or did a competitor suddenly enter the auction?”
That’s the first question to ask when your Google Ads CPC suddenly spikes. A shift in the auction landscape, like new entrants or a bidding war, can quickly push your costs higher.
🚩 New competitors may be driving up auction prices
When CPCs rise overnight, a common culprit is a shift in the competitive landscape. Perhaps a new advertiser entered the space, or an existing one got aggressive with their bids.
Either way, their moves can drive up auction prices and put you at a disadvantage.
What to do:
Google’s auction insights report is useful, but it can be challenging to interpret in spreadsheet form. Optmyzr’s Auction Insights Visualizer makes that data instantly understandable by turning it into clear, visual charts.
Just download your auction insights report from Google Ads, upload it to the tool, and you’ll get a visual breakdown of competitor activity.
Here’s a table summarizing key Auction Insights metrics and their implications for CPC:
Metric
What it means
What does a change indicate for your CPC
Impression share
The percentage of eligible impressions received compared to the estimated total possible
A drop in your impression share, coupled with a rise for a competitor, suggests increased competitive bidding, leading to higher CPCs.
Overlap rate
It shows how often your ad and a competitor's ad appeared together in search results.
A spike indicates a competitor is more actively bidding on shared keywords, intensifying the auction and potentially increasing CPC.
Outranking share
It shows how often your ad ranked higher than a specific competitor's ad.
A decline against a competitor, even with stable bids, suggests their increased aggressiveness, potentially forcing a higher actual CPC to maintain position.
🧠 Bonus Insight: Use the Top Competitors AI Summary in Optmyzr to get a high-level view of competitor activity in the last 30 days.
See how many new competitors entered, how many exited, and who changed their keyword volume most dramatically.
For instance, if 72 new competitors entered, and a few are bidding on 3+ of your keywords, that sudden pressure could explain the CPC spike.
Likewise, if a long-time rival doubled their keyword share, it’s a signal they’ve ramped up spend.
🚩Are you competing with yourself?
Yes, it happens. If you’re running both Performance Max and Search campaigns, there’s a good chance your campaigns are bidding against each other. Google doesn’t always prioritize the cheaper one, and that can push your CPCs up for no real gain.
What to do:
Check for campaign overlap. Optmyzr’s PMax vs. Search cannibalization report can help you identify where your budget might be duplicating efforts and competing against itself.
🚩Has Google Changed the Auction Rules?
Sometimes, it’s not you or your competitors but the auction environment itself.
Google frequently updates its ad policies, expands match types, and tweaks how ads appear, such as promoting multi-page placements to increase ad density.
These shifts can make auctions more competitive without any change on your end.
What to do: Keep tabs on policy changes and monitor auction behavior regularly.
💡Pro Tip: Google Ads may automatically apply changes like bid adjustments, keyword match type shifts, or new keyword additions, without you manually approving them.
These changes can disrupt your bidding strategy and increase CPC without warning.
Go to the Recommendations > Auto-applied tab in your Google Ads account and audit which changes are being made automatically. Disable any that don’t align with your campaign goals.
Step 2: Audit your campaign setup
“Is something misconfigured in my bidding or targeting?”
Sometimes, the reason your CPC spiked isn’t external; it’s a setting change or automation quirk inside your own campaign structure. Misalignment between targeting, bidding strategy, and automation signals can lead to higher costs.
🚩 Performance Max is eating your budget
PMax can silently reallocate spend toward higher-cost asset groups or audiences. This often happens when Google detects “potential” performance, but those segments may not actually convert.
→ Fix it: Segment your PMax campaign into distinct asset groups with clear goals and messaging. If performance is suffering, break PMax into more targeted campaigns (e.g., by product category or funnel stage).
Monitor asset group-level reporting in Google Ads, and consider manually allocating budget back to high-performing standard campaigns where you retain more control.
🚩Broad match with optimized targeting overreach
Broad match keywords paired with optimized targeting can unlock reach, but they can also go too far. Your ads might start showing for loosely related, high-volume searches that aren’t really a great fit, driving up costs while conversion intent drops.
→ Fix it: Run a Search Terms Report and use Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder to cut out low-intent queries.
🚩Smart bidding and AI query expansion
Smart Bidding is powerful, but it’s not infallible. With AI-driven expansion, your ads could start bidding more aggressively on edge-case queries, ones you didn’t intend to target. If those clicks don’t convert, you’re stuck footing the bill for irrelevant traffic.
Raise Target CPA / Lower Target ROAS for converting ad groups that are losing impression share due to low ad rank, helping them win more qualified auctions.
Lower Target CPA / Raise Target ROAS for ad groups that are already converting well, ensuring you don’t overpay when results can still be optimized.
🚩 Your bidding strategy changed without warning
With Enhanced CPC deprecated as of March 2025, many accounts were migrated to fully automated Smart Bidding. If you didn’t update your goals, the system might be working with outdated assumptions.
→ Fix it: Revisit your bidding strategies in Campaign Settings. Make sure each campaign has a clear and up-to-date conversion goal (in Google Ads > Tools > Conversions).
If you were migrated from eCPC to Maximize Conversions or Manual CPC, validate that your target CPA or ROAS is realistic based on recent performance.
Step 3: Look for platform shifts
“Did Google change something in the algorithm or ad environment?”
Not all CPC spikes are caused by your bids or your competitors. Sometimes, it’s the platform itself: Google’s algorithms, auction mechanics, or even unexpected bugs, reshaping how the game is played.
🚩Algorithmic price floor changes
Google frequently adjusts the “price floor,” the minimum CPC needed to enter an auction. While official reports suggest modest CPC increases, agencies managing high-intent accounts often report higher CPC growth every year.
This gap points to deeper systemic inflation, especially where Performance Max and Shopping campaigns overlap, pushing average costs higher even without visible auction pressure.
→ What to do: Benchmark your CPC trends against industry averages and inflation metrics like CPI. A sudden spike might not be an anomaly; it could be Google recalibrating its revenue model.
🚩 Matching Behavior Shifts
Even with exact match keywords, your ads might now show less-relevant queries.
→ What to do: Regularly audit your search terms and lean on first-party data and audience signals to regain relevance and reduce waste.
🚩Bugs or unexpected system changes
Advertisers often report sharp CPC increases or conversion drops, without any campaign edits.
Sometimes, these are linked to Google-side bugs or auction-level shifts that haven’t been announced. These moments require shifting your focus from internal troubleshooting to external validation.
→ What to do: Check community forums (like Reddit or the Google Ads Help Community) and compare with peer accounts. If it’s systemic, the best response is to pause aggressive changes and wait for rebalancing.
🚩Click fraud and invalid traffic (IVT)
Fraudulent clicks can trick Smart Bidding into thinking a keyword is performing well, even if it’s not converting. This is especially dangerous when Quality Score metrics (like Expected CTR) are misleadingly high due to bot behavior.
→ What to do:
Cross-check Google Ads with GA4 or server logs. Look for:
It shows a map-based breakdown of traffic performance by city, region, or country, using clear red/green markers to highlight underperforming or efficient locations.
💡 For example: If you’re seeing a spike in clicks from a region where your business doesn’t operate and those clicks aren’t converting, the Geo HeatMap will highlight that zone in red.
From there, you can:
Exclude the region directly from your targeting settings
Create a separate campaign to test further or limit budget exposure
💬 Wondering if your CPC spike is just part of a bigger trend? You’re not alone.
Sometimes it’s not your setup, it’s a strategic shift happening inside Google Ads.
“Is this a temporary CPC surge due to events or seasonality?”
Before sounding the alarm over a CPC spike, take a step back and ask:
Could this be seasonal? Or driven by something outside my account’s control?
🚩 Holidays, industry events, or news cycles can temporarily distort auction behavior
Spikes in competition often happen when more advertisers enter the market simultaneously. Some common external triggers include:
Holidays and major shopping events (e.g., Black Friday, Prime Day, Back to School)
Seasonal demand shifts (e.g., tax season, spring travel, holiday gifting)
Media spikes or viral trends (e.g., a product gets featured in the press or on TikTok)
Economic or geopolitical news (e.g., supply chain delays, regulation changes)
These events often lead to more advertisers entering the auction at once, inflating CPCs even if you’ve made no changes on your end.
What to do:
Set up the Anomaly Detector Script in Optmyzr for real-time alerts. This tool acts as your early warning system by flagging unusual changes in CPC, impressions, clicks, or conversions, based on your account’s historical data by day and hour.
Here’s how it helps:
Detects performance spikes as they’re happening; perfect for catching short-term, event-driven surges (like viral product interest).
Calculates expected behavior based on the last X weeks and triggers alerts if actual CPC or spend deviates beyond your set thresholds.
Sends alerts via a centralized Google Sheet and notifies your team by email.
🧠 Bonus: Set a lower sensitivity threshold (e.g., 10%) for CPC or conversion alerts during known high-competition windows to monitor spikes without drowning in noise.
Step 5: Review relevance and quality
“Did my Quality Score or landing page experience drop?”
When CPCs increase unexpectedly, it’s easy to focus on competitors. But sometimes, the issue lies within your own ads. Even a small dip in Quality Score can, at times, cause your cost-per-click to spike, without your competitors doing a thing.
🚩 Ad relevance and user experience still matter Google prioritizes ads that match user intent. If your ads suddenly feel less relevant or if your landing page experience degrades, your CPCs can quietly rise as your ad rank suffers.
Common culprits include:
A mismatch between your ad copy and the landing page content
Recent edits to your page that affected performance or removed key keywords
Slower page speed or mobile usability issues
Poor keyword-to-landing-page alignment
What to do:
Use Optmyzr’s Landing Page Analysis tool to find out what changed. It scans your entire account and categorizes landing pages into four performance types:
High Performer: Strong CTR and conversion rate, a model to replicate
High Potential: Strong conversion rate but low CTR, signals misaligned ad copy
Expensive: High CTR but low conversion rate, points to poor landing page experience or relevance
Others: Top-spending pages that underperform silently
Instead of guessing why your conversions dropped or CPC rose, this tool highlights exactly which pages need work and how they’re impacting your Quality Score and ROI.
Step 6: Set up future protection
“How do I prevent CPC spikes going forward?”
Once you’ve diagnosed what caused the spike, the next move is defense. Your goal isn’t just to fix what went wrong; it’s to make sure future CPC surges are detected early or prevented entirely.
Whether you’re using Google Ads or a tool like Optmyzr, it’s a good idea to set up alerts that notify you when CPCs start rising unexpectedly. In Google Ads, you can create simple automated rules or use custom reports to flag cost increases.
If you’re using Optmyzr, tools like the Anomaly Detector or custom rules in the Rule Engine can alert you in real time when something’s off.
💡 Pro Tip: Set CPC alerts at the campaign or keyword level, not just account-wide. A spike in one campaign can get buried in overall averages. By setting more granular alerts, you’ll catch issues right where they start and stop small problems before they become expensive ones.
Stay ahead of CPC spikes with Optmyzr
CPC spikes are stressful, especially when they catch you off guard. But once you understand what causes them and put the right checks in place, they stop feeling random and start feeling manageable.
From auction insights to bidding strategy tweaks, every step you take gives you more control.
If you’re tired of trying to figure out why your costs jumped overnight, maybe it’s time to try a better way. Start your fully functional 14-day trial and see how Optmyzr can help you prevent CPC surprises before they hit your budget.
FAQs
1. Why did my Google Ads CPC suddenly spike overnight? A. CPCs can jump unexpectedly for several reasons, some within your control, others not. Often, it’s due to increased competition in the auction (like a new advertiser bidding on your keywords), a drop in Quality Score, or automated bidding reacting to shifting performance signals.
In some cases, it’s platform-driven: algorithm updates or auction changes on Google’s side can cause spikes without any changes in your account.
2. How do I know if competition is the cause behind rising CPCs in Google Ads? A. One of the clearest ways to check is by looking at your Auction Insights report. If your impression share has dropped while competitors’ has risen, you’ve likely been outbid. You may also see a spike in the overlap rate or a dip in the outranking share. These metrics give you a behind-the-scenes look at how the auction dynamics are shifting and who’s driving them.
3. Can a CPC spike be caused by changes I made? A. Yes, and it happens more often than most advertisers realize. Switching to Smart Bidding, loosening keyword match types, or expanding your targeting can all inadvertently increase your average CPC. Even changes you didn’t make manually, like Google’s auto-applied recommendations, can silently impact how aggressively you’re bidding or how broadly your ads are matching.
4. How can I prevent sudden CPC spikes in the future? A. The best defense is early detection. Set up CPC alerts using Google Ads rules or external tools so you’re notified the moment things go off track. Monitor your search terms regularly, review match types, and scale budget or bid changes gradually. Also, avoid relying too heavily on automation without oversight. Smart Bidding still needs boundaries, especially in volatile markets.
Are you noticing that your PPC budget doesn’t go as far as it used to, while targeting options now seem more limited than ever? You’re not alone, and you’re certainly not imagining it.
Google’s recent GML2025 updates made one thing clear: the rules of audience targeting are changing fast. We now have AI Max, a new keywordless campaign type that expands on the automation model of Performance Max.
With these shifts, traditional account management approaches like keyword targeting and general lookalike audiences are no longer sufficient.
This calls for an audience-first PPC strategy: one that focuses on understanding and targeting specific audience segments, and tailoring ads to match their behaviors and preferences.
A more impactful tactic in this new era is competitor audience targeting. It’s a strategic shortcut to reaching high-intent prospects faster. This guide covers what it is, why it works, and how to do it right to lower CPC, boost ROAS, and future-proof your PPC strategy in 2025.
What is competitor audience targeting in PPC?
Competitor audience targeting involves building highly targeted custom audiences based on the websites your competitors are attracting traffic to. Unlike competitor keyword targeting, which focuses on bidding for the same search terms, this approach targets actual audiences that have shown interest in your competitors.
This is one of the most powerful audience targeting tactics available today, since it can be associated with campaign types that don’t use keyword-based targeting, like Performance Max, Demand Gen, Display, etc., to get more control on their reach and spending.
Why traditional keyword targeting alone isn’t enough
1. Auction saturation and cost inflation
As CPCs rise and market competition intensifies, relying solely on keyword targeting and bidding, especially during peak seasons like BFCM, can quickly drain your ad budget. Overcrowded auctions drive costs sky-high, often without delivering proportional returns, particularly if your ad rank isn’t competitive.
2. Limited control in AI-led campaign types
Campaign types like Performance Max and Demand Gen don’t support keyword targeting and offer limited visibility into search term data. Relying on them without strong audience input means surrendering control to Google’s algorithm. While you may hit your conversion goals, it often comes at the cost of wasted spend on irrelevant audiences across multiple channels.
3. Keywords show queries, not people
Traditional competitor keyword targeting may help you compete on the same search terms, but it doesn’t reveal who you’re actually reaching. Without visibility into the audiences behind those queries, you’re missing the chance to target high-intent users directly. You need tools that turn competitor engagement into actionable audience segments for your own campaigns.
Why competitor audience targeting works
1. Behavioral affinity > guesswork on intent
Unlike traditional audience targeting, which covers a wide spectrum of users across different stages of the funnel, competitor audience targeting zeroes in on users who are already solution-aware. These users are actively considering alternatives.
Your goal? Persuade them that your solution offers more value than your competitor’s. This approach boosts advertising efficiency by focusing the budget on those most likely to convert.
2. Unlocks smarter audience seeds for Google’s algorithms to target
In AI-driven campaign types, the quality of your inputs determines the quality of your outputs. Competitor audiences act as high-quality seeds that inform Google’s machine learning models more precisely, leading to more efficient budget use.
3. Reduces waste and speeds up results
Starting with audiences that are already high-probability converters shortens the learning curve of black-box campaign types like Performance Max. It leads to faster stabilization, improved ROAS, and reduced spend on irrelevant impressions.
Real use cases for competitor-based audience targeting
1. Prospect smarter (not broader)
Launching a Display campaign for a SaaS project management tool? Instead of going broad with interest-based targeting, build a custom audience of users who visit competitors like Zoho Projects or Asana.
The result? Lower CAC, better CTR, and more marketing-qualified leads within the first two weeks.
2. Boost PMax performance with external audience signals
A DTC apparel brand runs a PMax campaign and adds a custom audience built from URLs of top competitors. This arms Google’s machine learning algorithms with more relevant audience signals, accelerating learning for asset groups and improving cost efficiency across placements.
3. Run win-back or contrast campaigns
Suppose you’re managing an account of a fintech startup. Build campaigns targeting audiences from larger players like Intuit. The ad messaging should focus on speed, agility, and personalized support, contrasting the pain points associated with larger companies.
Result: Higher engagement from users open to alternatives.
4. Category expansion
Suppose you’re managing campaigns for a meal delivery service that’s expanding into wellness-related products. Identify adjacent competitors and target their audiences. This opens up new revenue streams via cross-category interest, with less money spent on prospecting.
How to build competitor-targeted audiences
1. The manual approach
To create competitor URL-based audience segments in Google Ads, you need to create a custom segment within the Audience Manager, selecting “people who browse types of websites” and adding your competitor’s URLs. This allows you to target users who have recently visited those websites.
Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Access Audience Manager: Navigate to your Google Ads account. Go to “Tools & settings” > “Audience manager”.
Create a Custom Segment: Click the “Custom segments” tab, then the plus button to create a new custom segment.
Define the Audience: Choose “People who browse types of websites”. Enter your competitor’s URLs and, optionally, relevant search terms. These segments are inferred by Google based on user behavior, not direct visits.
Name and Save: Give your segment a clear name (e.g., “Competitor A Visitors”) and save.
Add to Campaign: In your chosen campaign or ad group, go to “Audiences” > “Edit audience segments” > select your new segment > click “Save”.
While powerful, this process is fragmented and manual. Here’s an easier way.
2. The smarter way: Building competitor audiences through Optmyzr
We recently introduced a new feature that makes it easy to create targeted custom audiences using competitor website URLs, right from the Top Competitors Widget on your Account Dashboard.
This widget identifies competitor domains based on overlapping keyword activity. You can immediately build an audience by clicking “Create Audience”, opening a side-tray where you can:
Pre-fill with the top 5 competitor URLs
Add related search terms or interests to your custom audience segments
Assign audiences to campaigns (Display, Performance Max, Demand Gen, etc.)
Apply and manage across ad groups/asset groups from one place
This turns a previously complex, multi-step task into a streamlined workflow, giving you smarter reach in minutes.
Why this matters now (and what’s coming next)
Ad platforms are increasingly adopting keywordless targeting models like AI Max and Demand Gen, where traditional controls no longer apply. In this landscape:
Audiences, and not just keywords, will define success.
The advertiser’s advantage lies in audience signal quality.
Most ad tools are still playing catch-up in this regard. Optmyzr is building for what’s next: smarter, faster, audience-led PPC workflows.
It’s time to move from keyword strategy to audience strategy
PPC success in 2025 is not just about showing up for the right searches; it’s about showing up for the right people.
If you’re ready to avoid broad guesswork and start using your competitors’ success as your targeting strategy, Optmyzr can help. If you’re not an Optmyzr user yet, sign up for a free trial to explore this feature and see how it gives you a competitive edge.
Key questions answered
Q. What is competitor audience targeting?
A. It’s the strategy of creating audience segments from competitor website URLs, allowing you to target users already interested in similar products or services.
Q. How does competitor audience targeting improve ROAS?
A. By targeting high-intent users who have already engaged with competitor sites, you reduce wasted impressions and increase the likelihood of conversions.
Q. What are common tools or methods for competitor audience targeting?
A. You can use Google Ads Custom Segments and Optmyzr’s new feature to build competitor-targeted audience segments.
Q. Why is this feature not available in my Optmyzr plan?
A. The “Create Audiences Using Competitor Websites” feature is available only in Premium and Enterprise plans. Contact support@optmyzr.com to upgrade.
Q. How does competitor audience targeting help with PMax campaigns?
A. It feeds Google’s machine learning with high-quality audience signals, accelerating learning and improving performance across asset groups.
Q. What challenges does competitor audience targeting solve?
A. It solves inefficiencies in targeting by focusing ad spend on known high-intent segments, improves relevance, and provides greater control in AI-led campaigns.
Managing multiple ad accounts can feel like an endless to-do list—analyzing search terms, avoiding wasted spend, monitoring performance, and keeping track of audiences. And that’s just the start.
When the holiday season hits, the workload multiplies. The common solution? Automation Layering.
Our customers rely on the Rule Engine to handle this, but we know that with so many new features available, it can be tricky to unlock its full potential.
We analyzed several high-performing customer accounts to compile a list of innovative strategies they’ve used to boost performance. These customers are enterprise brands and agencies managing hundreds of accounts across industries (with a heavy focus on e-commerce PPC strategies).
We’ve also included setup instructions so you can build them for your own accounts.
Pro tip: Set your favorite strategies as Global ones by clicking on the “3-dot” menu—this allows you to create one template and apply it across multiple accounts without setting them up individually.
For example, apply a global budget management strategy across all your e-commerce accounts to save time during the holiday season. This will give you an extra layer of automation and save countless hours!
What is the Rule Engine?
For those new to the Rule Engine, here’s a quick overview: it combines the best of both worlds—control over your campaigns with automation working behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly. It uses simple “If-This-Then-That” rules to monitor your campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and more, with minimal effort on your part.
If Google Ads’ automated rules feel too limiting and you want more control, the Rule Engine is the perfect tool. Need help getting started? Check out our resources below!
To make things easier, we also offer pre-built strategy templates that you can add to your accounts and customize as needed.
And don’t forget, you can automate your strategies to save time. You can choose whether to let the system make changes for you or just notify you with suggestions for review.
Here’s what our Pro Plus $500K customer and Google Ads expert, Matthieu Tran-Van, had to say about the Rule Engine:
“Rule Engine is certainly one of the amazing sections of Optmyzr because it’s really like your dedicated, highly flexible, and scalable optimization hub where you can automate a lot of very valuable optimizations for your clients with infinite customizations.”
Matthieu saw a 28% revenue increaseat the same ROAS through automated optimizations and saved 20 hours per client weekly using automated custom strategies. Here’s a video where he explains popular automations that save him time and prevent burnout:
Now, let’s dive into those innovative strategies!
1. Find products that previously converted
Rule Engine scope: Shopping/PMax Products
This strategy helps you identify products that aren’t currently converting but performed well in the past. Set conditions to check how much they’ve cost and how many clicks they’ve received.
This generates a report of non-converting products that converted in the past. You can place these in performance-based campaigns and give them a budget boost to revive their performance if necessary.
Sample Conditions:
Recommendation: Duplicate this rule to compare product conversions across different time frames—e.g., last 30 days vs. last 90 days, or last quarter vs. previous quarter.
2. Monitor ad copy relevance to season
Rule Engine scope: Ads
Ensure that your ad copy remains relevant to the current season. This strategy provides automated reports of RSAs and/or ETAs containing text related to holiday sales like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or Valentine’s Day.
However, it’s important to note that you’ll need to manually adjust the trigger phrases (like “Black Friday”) for each season or event. The Rule Engine can’t automatically detect the time of year, so setting the right conditions is key for ensuring your ad copy aligns with the season.
Sample Conditions:
Recommendation: Duplicate this rule for each holiday season by swapping text (e.g., from “Black Friday” to “Valentine’s Day”). You can also add KPIs to evaluate performance and adjust low-performing ads to boost engagement.
3. Adjust ROAS/CPA targets based on the weather
Rule Engine scope: Campaigns
This strategy is especially useful because spending ad budget on weather-sensitive products like air conditioners during the US winter is unlikely to drive conversions. Conversely, snow boots will perform better in colder climates, so making weather-related adjustments can help you focus your spend where it matters most.
Set conditions to check the temperature and weather forecasts in your target locations and automatically modify ROAS/CPA targets based on these conditions.
Sample Conditions (if you’re selling winter equipment, for example):
Recommendation: Set up similar conditions to adjust keyword bids, ad group bids, and campaign budgets, or generate reports based on weather data. If your goal is to change campaign statuses and/or location targeting alone based on weather conditions, try our Weather-Based Campaign Optimization tool!
Recommendation: Add additional conditions to check if campaigns are converting or hitting your ROAS targets. You can also create reports for campaigns that exceed different spending thresholds, such as 150% of your daily budget, or check for underspending campaigns that could benefit from a budget boost.
If you prefer not to auto-pause, you can choose to receive daily reports or alerts instead by selecting the action “Include in Report”.
4b. Advanced budget monitoring strategy that considers campaign-level metrics
How do you modify campaign budgets based on metrics like impression share (which are available at the campaign level only)? Since Google Ads treats campaigns and budgets as separate entities, you can’t directly create rules to adjust budgets using campaign-level metrics.
But there’s a workaround! Use a 2-strategy approach with the advanced “Key Value Pairs” feature in the Rule Engine:
Step 1: Create a strategy at the Campaign scope to identify campaigns that meet your chosen conditions, like specific impression share levels. These campaigns will act as “Keys.”
Step 2: Use those “Keys” in a second strategy at the Budget scope to update budgets for the identified campaigns.
For a clearer explanation, we’ve recorded a video based on a real use case from one of our customers. Check it out here:
4c. Automating budget pacing for Demand Gen campaigns
Looking for a smarter way to manage budgets for Demand Gen and Performance Max campaigns?
Google’s native budget scripts don’t support these newer formats and often lead to overspending or underspending due to rigid assumptions about daily budget pacing. Manual checks take time, increase the risk of errors, and add stress, especially at month-end.
Our customer, Heather Darab from Blue Yarn Media created a strategy that offered more control and adapted to real-time campaign performance. Her setup essentially evens out budget pacing across the month using a formula-driven approach, with no manual checks or custom scripts required.
Sample conditions inspired by her strategy:
You can use custom metrics in both the conditions and actions of your rule, such as Monthly Budget, Days Remaining in Month, etc., using data recorded in a sample sheet like this:
“With a Rule Engine strategy I’ve set up to manage budgets for Demand Gen, I would say I save at least an hour a week. But beyond that, there’s also the intangible stress, wondering if I missed a campaign going over budget or whether we’ll hit the client’s goals because a detail was missed.
Peace of mind is a huge benefit. Now, there’s much less manual work and fewer errors, which helps maintain client trust too.” - Heather Darab, Founder, Blue Yarn Media
5. Monitor account changes made by your team
Rule Engine scope: Change History
Tracking changes in large teams is tough, especially during busy seasons. This rule generates a report of all changes made, including the email addresses of those making the changes and when they were applied.
Why do this?
Having a regular report of all changes helps you identify what made a campaign shine during the last month or troubleshoot underperforming ones.
Sample Conditions:
Recommendation: For large accounts, create separate rules for specific campaigns or team members by using conditions like “Campaign Name contains XYZ” or “User Email contains abc@example.com”. Pull these reports into a spreadsheet, using separate tabs for different accounts or team members.
6. Monitor keyword match types
Rule Engine scope: Keywords
Using this strategy ensures your keyword match types are correctly aligned with your campaign structure. This is crucial because keywords in the wrong match type groups can drastically affect your performance. Broad match types, for example, might bring in too many irrelevant searches if not carefully placed, and exact matches might restrict traffic if misused. This strategy flags such instances, helping you maintain a cleaner account structure.
Sample Conditions:
Recommendation: Apply this approach to monitor branded vs. non-branded keywords, ensuring they’re placed in the correct campaigns. Create conditions like “Campaign Name contains <Brand name>” & “Keyword does not contain <Brand name>” for this strategy.
Set these strategies up in your accounts now
This list barely scratches the surface of what’s possible with the Rule Engine, but it’s a great starting point to take your optimizations to the next level and stay ahead of competitors this season.
Need help setting up these rules? Reach out to our Support team!
If you’re not an Optmyzr customer yet, start a 14-day free trial and explore how Rule Engine can supercharge your campaigns.
FAQs
1. What is the Rule Engine?
The Rule Engine is Optmyzr’s custom rule builder, allowing you to generate reports, perform optimizations, and set custom alerts using “If-This-Then-That” rules. You can also automate these rules to run at your preferred frequency, combining automation with control.
2. What ad platforms does Rule Engine support?
You can use Rule Engine to optimize and analyze Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Amazon Ads, and Facebook Ads.
3. Does the Rule Engine automation directly apply any changes to the ad platforms without my approval?
You can choose whether the system directly applies changes based on your rules or sends you email or Slack/MS Teams notifications with suggestions, allowing you to review and apply changes manually.
Advertisers loved the automation. But they hated flying blind. No channel-level insights, clunky exclusions, and zero clarity on creative performance or budget split.
Now, in 2025, Google’s PMax updates are finally closing those gaps. Here’s what changed, and why it matters.
Gap #1: Attribution blindness → Solution: Channel reporting
Our study revealed something interesting: 82% of advertisers were running PMax campaigns alongside other types, such as Search, Shopping, or Display.
However, PMax consistently underperformed when run alongside those other campaigns.
Advertisers could tell their PMax campaigns weren’t pulling their weight compared to, say, Search or Shopping. But they couldn’t dig into why, as channel-level visibility just wasn’t there.
See how the data showed clear wins for Search, and even Shopping held its own pretty well.
But without being able to break things down by channel, advertisers were stuck guessing what was holding PMax back.
Budget allocation was a problem
The study also showed that 51% of advertisers allocated more than 50% of their budget to PMax. While these high allocation accounts achieved the strongest ROAS (652.03%), they also showed mixed performance on other key metrics like conversion rate and CPA.
The study noted that “there are also potential conversion rate and CPA advantages when keeping PMax limited to 10%–25% of the budget.”
Yet, advertisers had no way to understand which specific channels within PMax were consuming their budget or delivering these varied results.
This made it difficult to make informed decisions about optimal budget allocation.
The study also found that campaigns using video assets performed well while maintaining effectiveness across different intent levels.
However, advertisers still couldn’t see whether their video budget within PMax was actually going to YouTube, Display, or other visual placements, leaving them unable to optimize their creative strategy effectively.
How channel-level reporting fills these gaps
One of the most requested updates for Performance Max is finally here: channel-level performance reporting. It is now available as a dedicated tab in the PMax interface.
This new tab gives advertisers clear insights into key metrics like impressions, clicks, cost, and conversions across individual Google channels: Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail, Discover, and Maps.
For example, video assets can now be optimized specifically for YouTube or Display, while more transactional messaging can be focused on Search or Shopping.
Here’s how this update addresses the gaps we found in our study:
You can now gain a better view of how your PMax budget is being distributed across channels like Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail, Discover, and Maps.
No more guessing why PMax underperforms next to other campaigns. You can now identify which specific channels within PMax are falling short and make smarter adjustments.
You can also see exactly which channels are driving conversions and create tailored assets for those high-performing placements, instead of relying on one-size-fits-all creatives that get wasted on low-impact inventory.
You can move away from trial-and-error budgeting. With real performance data by channel, you can confidently decide whether PMax deserves 50 %+ of your spend, or if scaling it back to the 10–25% range makes more sense.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use the "Exclude Low-Performing Placements" optimization in Optmyzr Express to reduce wasted spend across your PMax campaigns. With one click, you can exclude underperforming websites, mobile apps, YouTube videos, or channels that eat up budget without driving conversions.
Gap #2: All-or-nothing exclusions → Solution: Campaign-level negatives
Until recently, Performance Max gave advertisers limited control over what search queries to block. Without campaign-level negative keywords, the only option was broad, account-wide exclusions, which often meant sacrificing performance for brand safety.
The result? Irrelevant impressions, wasted spend, and a growing sense of frustration, especially among brands concerned with suitability and efficiency.
What did our study say?
Surprisingly, 58% of advertisers saw flat or slightly better performance with no exclusions at all, suggesting that overly restrictive filters can stifle PMax’s automation.
This aligns with our study’s broader finding that performance remained relatively flat across accounts with or without exclusions, implying that excessive advertiser bias might hinder machine learning more than help it.
The key lies in precise, purposeful exclusions, not blanket blocks.
What’s new: Campaign-level negative keywords
Now, advertisers can exclude specific search terms directly within each PMax campaign, a long-awaited update that brings PMax closer to the flexibility of Search campaigns.
This change allows advertisers to:
Filter out low-intent, irrelevant, or brand-damaging queries
Preserve budget for high-value terms
Build confidence in scaling PMax, knowing they have finer control
It also signals a shift in Google’s approach, acknowledging that advertisers want both automation and precision.
How it works (and why it matters)
Campaign-level negatives apply only to the PMax campaign, where they’re set, unlike account-level exclusions, which are broader and less targeted.
Retail brands now have more flexibility to avoid branded or competitor queries without hurting discovery-based reach across channels.
Best practices: When (and when not) to use negatives
Use them to block clearly irrelevant or non-converting queries that don’t align with your goals.
Avoid overuse, especially early on, as excessive exclusions can limit learning and prevent PMax from identifying valuable new opportunities.
With the rollout of search term reporting alongside campaign-level exclusions, advertisers can actively improve PMax campaigns, blending automation with strategic human input.
💡Note: Initially, the limit for campaign-level negative keywords in Performance Max campaigns was set at 100. However, Google has since increased this limit to 10,000 negative keywords per campaign, aligning with the limits in Search campaigns.
Gap #3: Asset performance mystery → Solution: Enhanced asset reporting
For years, advertisers were flying blind when it came to creative performance in PMax. You’d get a vague “Ad Strength” score, but little clarity on which specific assets were actually driving results. It was anyone’s guess which headlines, videos, or images were pulling their weight.
And the data backs this up: in our study, 57% of advertisers used full creative sets (images, videos, headlines, descriptions), yet only saw average performance. Surprisingly, text-only assets often outperformed “complete” sets, raising more questions than answers about creative strategy.
What’s new: Enhanced asset-level reporting
Google’s updates roll out rich, downloadable performance metrics for every asset in your PMax campaigns and RSAs, and RDAs, too. You can now track:
Impressions, Clicks, and Cost for each asset
Conversions and Conversion Value per Asset
Average CPC and Conversion Value/Cost
Performance breakdowns across images, videos, headlines, descriptions, and even final URLs (in RSAs)
You’ll also see enhanced asset group reporting that segments data by device, time, and more, right from the Google Ads interface.
With asset data now segmentable by device or time of day, advertisers can also optimize creative sequencing or match different creatives to mobile vs. desktop journeys.
Why it matters
With real asset-level data, you can stop relying on broad “Ad Strength” labels and start making decisions based on what actually performs. You can easily pinpoint underperforming visuals or messaging, retire what’s not working, and double down on high-converting assets.
Furthermore, performance, creative, and merchandising teams can work from the same dataset, especially critical for DTC brands where visuals and messaging drive sales.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use Optmyzr’s Google Ads Audits to identify weak spots in your Performance Max creatives. These audits surface:
Assets labeled 'Low' performance
Asset groups missing audience signals
Too few headlines, descriptions, logos, or image assets
Campaigns with Final URL Expansion turned off
These insights give you a checklist to improve creative coverage and avoid performance penalties tied to incomplete or unoptimized asset groups.
Optimization strategy: how to make it work
Identify creative patterns: Look at top-performing headlines or videos—what themes, formats, or tones do they share?
Simplify when needed: If your “complete” set isn’t outperforming, don’t hesitate to scale back. Focus on fewer, stronger assets.
Test intentionally: Use data to guide experiments—not just what looks good, but what works.
Gap #4: One-size-fits-all conversions → Solution: High-value new customer acquisition goals
The study made one thing clear: conversion volume still matters, especially with a benchmark of 60+ conversions per month for PMax’s AI to function effectively.
But it also exposed a deeper issue: not all conversions are created equal.
Treating every customer the same, regardless of their lifetime value, leads to missed opportunities and inflated acquisition costs.
This issue is especially relevant for businesses with high LTV customers, like subscription, luxury, or SaaS models, where a single quality acquisition has significantly more impact than multiple low-intent leads.
What’s new: High-value new customer mode
Google rolled out a smarter solution: New Customer Acquisition Goals with High-Value Customer Targeting. This feature lets advertisers go beyond just “new vs. existing” and start prioritizing new customers who are predicted to deliver greater long-term value.
Using Customer Match lists and the Maximize Conversion Value bidding strategy, Google’s AI can now:
Identify your existing customers
Predict which new users are most likely to become high-value customers
Automatically bid more aggressively to acquire them
This approach lets advertisers align Google’s bidding logic with their internal profitability models, shifting optimization away from surface-level metrics and toward true customer value.
Why it matters
This update solves a key gap uncovered in the study: performance optimization shouldn’t stop at surface-level conversions. For many businesses, especially those with repeat purchase or subscription models, the value of acquiring one loyal customer outweighs five low-intent leads.
By integrating first-party data, advertisers can now:
Separate acquisition from retention goals
Focus the budget on net new revenue, not recycled users
Align PMax strategy with real business outcomes, not vanity metrics
This feature is especially impactful for subscription-based, high-ticket, or recurring-revenue models where the LTV of a single customer dramatically outweighs one-time conversions.
🔧 Optmyzr Tip: Use the “Hourly Stats Report” and “Anomaly Detector”scripts to track fluctuations in Performance Max performance. These tools now include PMax data and help you catch unexpected dips, spikes, or delivery issues before they impact ROAS.
Gap #5 Unclear impact of search themes → Solution: Usefulness indicators + source column
According to the study, 71% of advertisers used Search Themes, but the results were mixed or flat, leaving marketers in a bind.
Are these themes actually guiding the algorithm? Are they being ignored? Should advertisers keep using them or remove them altogether?
This lack of clarity created a strategy black hole.
Advertisers were investing time in crafting themes without knowing if they influenced campaign behavior, or worse, if they were hurting performance.
Why this mattered
Without transparency into how Search Themes affected targeting or results, advertisers couldn’t:
Tell if their inputs were working
Fine-tune or confidently remove underperforming themes
Incorporate Search Themes into broader keyword strategies
What the new feature solves
Google’s new Search Theme Usefulness Indicator and Search Term Source column directly address this ambiguity. With these tools, advertisers can now:
See whether a Search Theme was actually used to trigger an impression (Usefulness Indicator)
Understand whether a search term was triggered by Search Themes, Audience Signals, or organic campaign learning (Source Column)
Adjust or remove themes with confidence based on clear attribution and impact
These indicators allow advertisers to turn Search Themes into a testable input, adding themes intentionally, reviewing results, and iteratively refining their list.
Over time, this creates a feedback loop similar to keyword optimization in traditional Search.
Guide and grow your PMax strategy with Optmyzr
The 2025 updates to Performance Max represent a turning point, offering the transparency and control advertisers have long asked for. But navigating these new capabilities effectively still takes the right tools and insights.
That’s where Optmyzr comes in. It helps you manage Performance Max campaigns with greater confidence, identifying wasted spend and uncovering actionable insights across creatives, budgets, and placements.
With tools for negative keyword workflows, budget optimization, and PMax performance audits, we make it easier to guide automation with strategic intent.
1. How can I see where my Performance Max budget is being spent across different Google channels, and how can I optimize it? A. Advertisers can now use the new Channel Performance reporting tab directly within the PMax interface. It provides a detailed breakdown of impressions, clicks, cost, and conversions across specific Google channels like Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
This transparency allows you to identify which channels are driving value versus those consuming budget with little return.
2. Can I add negative keywords to my Performance Max campaigns to prevent irrelevant traffic, and how does this work? A. Yes, a highly anticipated update in 2025 allows advertisers to add negative keywords directly at the campaign level within Performance Max. This means you can explicitly exclude specific search queries from triggering your PMax ads, providing crucial control over irrelevant or brand-unsuitable traffic.
3. How can I get detailed performance data for my individual creative assets (headlines, images, videos) within Performance Max, and how do I use it to optimize? A. Google has expanded asset-level reporting to provide granular performance data for individual assets within PMax, Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), and Responsive Display Ads (RDAs). You can now view impressions, clicks, cost, conversions, conversion value/cost, and average CPC for each image, video, headline, and description.
This data moves beyond vague “Ad Strength” scores, allowing for true data-driven creative optimization, helping you find underperforming assets and scale what’s working.
4. How can Performance Max help me acquire high-value new customers, and what data do I need to provide? A. PMax now offers a “high-value new customer mode” for customer acquisition goals, rolling out to all advertisers. This feature allows you to prioritize and bid more aggressively for new customers predicted to maximize lifetime value (LTV). To leverage this, your bidding strategy must be set to “Maximize Conversion Value,” and you need to integrate Customer Match lists with a minimum of 1,000 active members to help Google’s AI recognize existing customers and identify high-value prospects.
5. Are Search Themes in Performance Max effective, and how can I tell if they are driving incremental traffic? A. Google has introduced a “usefulness indicator” for each search theme, showing how effectively it is driving additional traffic beyond what PMax would have found independently. Moreover, a “Search Term Source” column clarifies whether queries originate from PMax’s keywordless targeting or from your specified search themes.
These insights help advertisers determine if their provided search themes are genuinely adding value and if they require refinement. The limit for Search themes has also been expanded to 50, offering more flexibility.
Brands selling across multiple channels are adapting to how people actually shop — blending performance with discovery, and tailoring touchpoints around real behavior. A journey might start with a Google search, continue through a YouTube ad, and end with a purchase on Amazon.
But here’s the problem: these campaigns are often run in silos. Separate budgets, separate teams, and disconnected strategies.
This creates friction.
A shopper might click a YouTube ad, read your blog, then buy on Amazon—yet your data shows three disconnected actions. Attribution breaks, messaging misaligns, and worse, you may end up bidding against yourself for the same customer.
This is why advertisers who run both shouldn’t just run them side-by-side. Instead, they should consider a dual platform strategy.
It’s not just about doubling your spend. Rather, it’s about aligning platforms to the right funnel stages, routing traffic based on intent, and retargeting users where they’re most likely to convert.
In this blog, we’ll show you how to leverage a cross-platform ad strategy for your business and turn it into a smart system for better ROI.
Why combine Google and Amazon ads?
As consumers, we rarely move neatly from search to purchase. Instead, we zigzag between discovery and research, backtrack, and switch between tabs like the digital window shoppers we are.
Both Google and Amazon represent two distinct stages in this journey.
🔎Google: Often, where the journey begins, customers type in questions, compare different options, read reviews, and scan prices. It’s the platform for intent-based discovery and top-to-mid funnel engagement. You catch them while they’re curious.
🛒Amazon: Here, the mindset shifts. Shoppers come here with a higher intent to purchase. This is the platform for transactional behavior where searches more often than not translate into purchases.
🔑Key takeaway: If you’re looking to maximize visibility while guiding intent toward action, the strategic move is to leverage both platforms in tandem. When you show up at both the moment of consideration and the moment of conversion, you build a presence that moves with the customer across the funnel.
Mapping the funnel: Google + Amazon
An efficient ad strategy combines both Google and Amazon so that they complement each other. The goal is to align each platform with the stage of the customer journey it best supports.
Top of funnel
This is where discovery happens.
The goal is not to really convert but to spark interest and highlight your USP. A great place for your brand story to shine.
Use YouTube, Display, and broad-match Search ads to build awareness around your brand, especially for category-defining terms.
📌Example: A prebiotic granola brand runs a YouTube ad titled “Why Your Breakfast May Be Missing Gut Health Support”, paired with broad-match Search ads targeting queries like “healthy cereal alternatives” or “foods for digestion”. The goal is to educate and attract interest from wellness-conscious shoppers who may not know the brand but are open to the category.
Mid-funnel
This is the consideration phase where shoppers are evaluating their options.
The objective is to reinforce the interest you’ve earned. That means reminding shoppers why they engaged with your brand in the first place. Serve ads that help customers make informed decisions. It could be through product comparison pages, customer reviews, or even a ‘why choose us’ page.
Retargeting through Google Display campaigns brings them back to your product or educational pages, while your Amazon Storefront acts as a trust-building touchpoint, offering social proof, pricing, and delivery clarity.
📌Example: A shopper who searched for “healthy granola for gut health” is retargeted with a Display ad linking to a blog post titled “3 Reasons Our Prebiotic Blend Works”. Meanwhile, they visit Amazon to compare reviews and see Prime delivery. The brand stays top-of-mind across both platforms.
Bottom funnel
Here the goal is simple— conversion.
Once the shopper knows what they want, Amazon becomes the closer. Sponsored Product and Sponsored Display ads work well here—capturing high-intent searches like brand or product names and retargeting users who’ve already shown interest.
📌Example: A shopper who previously viewed a prebiotic granola brand on Google now searches “[Brand Name] granola” on Amazon. A Sponsored Product ad appears at the top of results. It features a familiar name, a Prime badge, and a discount! One click, and they convert.
How to launch a dual-platform funnel
Step 1: Set up your Google ads for broad reach and high-intent targeting
Top of Funnel (ToF): Use YouTube, Display, and broad-match Search to capture interest through category keywords or competitor terms. This stage is about discovery and brand introduction.
Mid Funnel (MF): Focus on branded search terms and set up retargeting via Display for users who visited your site but didn’t convert.
Also consider layering in custom intent and in-market audiences to identify users who are actively researching products in your category.
Use Customer Match to re-engage CRM audiences by uploading email lists (e.g. newsletter subscribers or past customers).
💡Pro tip: Use Optmyzr’s Keyword Lasso to identify high-performing search queries from the Search Terms Report and add them as mid-funnel keywords or SKAGs. This helps capture proven intent and tighten campaign structure as performance data grows.
Step 2: Optimize your Amazon storefront to function like a high-converting landing page
Design a clean, mobile-optimized layout with clear product sections and benefits-first messaging.
Highlight USPs, reviews, product comparisons, and FAQs to remove friction.
Set up Amazon Attribution links to measure how your external Google Ads influence Amazon conversions.
Build Sponsored Brand campaigns that drive traffic to your Storefront, not just product listings—especially during branded or competitive search phases.
💡Pro Tip: Use the “ASINs with Higher Orders” audit in Optmyzr to identify your top-selling products and prioritize them in your Storefront layout—feature them in hero sections, comparison blocks, or as bestsellers to increase shopper trust and drive faster conversions.
Step 3: Route traffic smartly to get the best out of your ads
Send top-of-the-funnel Google traffic (e.g. YouTube viewers or broad search clicks) to brand.com for education and lead capture.
Send middle-of-the-funnel and bottom-of-the-funnel traffic, like branded searches or remarketing audiences, to your Amazon storefront, where they’re highly likely to convert.
Avoid pushing high-intent users to bare product pages with no context or proof.
💡 Pro Tip: Use custom conversions in Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to identify high-interest, low-purchase search terms. These users are still in the research phase. Route them to brand.com for nurturing, not to Amazon, where conversion pressure is higher.
Step 4: Stay visible and relevant after shoppers show interest
Retarget customers who have visited your website but didn’t purchase with ads on the Google Display Network or YouTube to remind them of your product and bring them back to continue where they left off.
Use Sponsored Display ads on Amazon to retarget people who viewed your product or added it to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase.
Upload customer segments (like past buyers, newsletter subscribers, or high-LTV customers) into Google Ads using Customer Match for personalized follow-up across Search, YouTube, and Gmail ads.
💡Pro Tip: Use Explore Traffic Segments to identify high-engagement audience groups from Google Analytics and score them by performance. Sync top segments into Google Ads (via Customer Match or audiences) for behavior-based retargeting and smarter routing decisions.
Pitfalls to avoid
Launching a dual-platform strategy without proper guardrails can be a dangerous gamble and hurt your ROI before you can even catch it. Here are some things to keep in mind:
1. Overlapping audiences
Avoid targeting the same set of users in both brand and Amazon campaigns without segmentation.
For example, say you run a Google Ads campaign targeting “gut health granola” and direct users to brand.com. Simultaneously, you run a YouTube campaign using the same Custom Intent audience and drive that traffic to your Amazon Storefront.
Without exclusions, the same user could be shown both ads, driving up CPMs and CPCs across platforms. Plus, if they convert on Amazon, it’s unclear which campaign deserves credit, and your attribution gets muddled.
✅The fix: Use clear audience exclusions or labels to make sure each campaign targets the right people with the right message. This way you make sure every stage of your marketing funnel targets the right users with the right message and that your ad budget is being used smartly.
2. Poorly designed landing pages
When a user clicks on your ad, especially if it’s for a high-intent search, they’re definitely expecting a page that gives them all the information they need and makes it easy to convert.
A landing page with no clear explanation of benefits, reviews, trust signals, or product details can create doubt and may cause the user to bounce. You’re wasting a very valuable click and hurting your return on ad spend (ROAS).
✅The fix: Think of the landing page as your salesperson. Make sure you highlight the value props, include customer reviews and ratings, add FAQs, and use high-quality images and benefit-focused descriptions.
3. Gaps in internal readiness
You run great ads and manage to attract several high-intent customers. But all of this amounts to nothing if your backend systems aren’t running properly. Even the best ads won’t convert effectively, and worse, you’ll end up creating a poor customer experience.
✅The fix: The most important thing is to make sure your Amazon inventory levels are healthy. Avoid running ads on products that are or on the verge of going out-of-stock. Also ensure shipping, handling, and customer support are ready to handle increased volume.
Measuring what matters across platforms
So you’ve set up a cross-platform ad strategy across the funnel. Now you want to measure how this adds value over time.
Here are a few different things you can do to measure and optimize your ad strategy.
1. Amazon Attribution
This is essentially a free, advertising and analytics measurement solution that gives you insights into how your marketing strategies across non-Amazon channels like search, social, display, video, email, and other campaigns helped customers discover and purchase your products on Amazon.
You can simply add Amazon Attribution tags to your Google ads to understand whether upper- or mid-funnel Google campaigns are assisting conversions that close on Amazon.
📌Example: You discover that 25% of users who clicked your Google ad didn’t buy on brand.com but later bought the product on Amazon. This makes it clear that your Google Ads are influencing Amazon sales.
2. Google Analytics
Pair Amazon Attribution insights with Google Analytics to map user journeys and track how many touchpoints it takes before a user converts. You can also see whether your brand content plays a role in educating or nurturing a customer before a purchase.
📌Example: GA shows that users often visit your blog before they buy, indicating that your brand.com content plays a key role in assisting customers during their purchase journey even when the final sale happens on Amazon.
3. Amazon’s New-to-Brand metrics
New-to-brand metrics allow you to measure orders, sales, and detail page views of your products generated from first-time customers of your brand on Amazon. They can help measure customer acquisition and tailor your campaign strategies.
📌Example: Amazon’s dashboard reveals that 60% of purchases from Sponsored Brand ads are from first-time customers. This means your Amazon ads aren’t just converting but they’re also acquiring new customers, which boosts long-term value.
Align your ad strategy to match shopper behavior and not just platforms
Instead of treating Amazon ads and Google ads as two separate platforms, sequence them according to your shopper’s mindset. This allows you to keep up with your customers with the right messaging as they move from discovery to consideration and finally, conversion. It lets you capture high-intent traffic, track them, and optimize better so you aren’t simply spending more but actually driving results from your ad campaigns.
Optmyzr comes with a comprehensive set of tools that can be used to automate your campaigns, segment audiences, and even run-rule based optimizations to keep your funnel efficient across platforms.
Try out Optmyzr’s free 14-day trial and explore how you can scale your campaigns the smart way.
“Should I pause a keyword that has clicks but no sales… or just wait?”
It’s a question that recently surfaced on a PPC subreddit and one that captures a common frustration among advertisers dealing with a repetitive question: “Why are my Google Ads not converting?”
You’ve launched a campaign. One keyword is getting clicks, your CTR looks solid, and your landing page works well elsewhere, but this one term keeps spending without converting.
Is it just a matter of time, or are you wasting budget on non-converting keywords?
This article gives you a clear, data-driven framework to decide when to pause keywords, when to be patient, and how to spot underperformance that’s not really the keyword’s fault.
When to pause a keyword based on spend?
When a keyword spends steadily without converting, it’s a strong signal to intervene.
But the “right” threshold depends on factors like target CPA, product price point, and campaign goals.
Defining ‘Significant’ Spend
As a general rule of thumb:
For direct-response campaigns, a keyword that spends 2–3x your target CPA without converting should be flagged for review.
Forhigher-ticket products or long sales cycles, you can stretch the threshold to 4–5x CPA, especially if the keyword contributes to upper-funnel visibility.
Why it matters:
Non-converting keywords don’t just waste budget, they:
Lower your Quality Score, increasing CPCs platform-wide
Skew performance data, making it harder to optimize
Drain budget from high-converting keywords that actually drive ROI
What to check before pausing a keyword?
Before pausing a non-converting keyword, ask: Is the keyword underperforming, or is the setup flawed?
Match type: If it’s a broad match keyword, try switching to phrase or exact to tighten intent.
Search terms: Look for low-intent queries and add negative keywords.
Ad copy: Test variations with clearer value props or CTAs that better reflect your offer.
Offer alignment: Is it truly competitive for this search intent?
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use Optmyzr’s Pause Non-Converting Keywords tool to flag keywords with no conversions over time, whether that’s the last 3 months or even the past 365 days (great for catching long-running budget leaks). It also finds terms with high CTR but weak landing page engagement, so you can optimize, not just pause.
Fixing underperforming broad match keywords
Not all non-converting keywords are inherently bad. Broad match can attract off-intent searches. For example, a B2B SaaS company using the broad match term “employee management” might show for:
“How to discipline a difficult employee”
“employee motivation ppt”
“What is employee management theory?”
These aren’t buyers. They’re researchers, unlikely to convert in direct-response campaigns.
While they may help with top-of-funnel awareness, they’re unlikely to drive conversions within the current campaign goal.
If the objective is lead generation or direct demo sign-ups, allowing these clicks to continue without filters would dilute the budget and reduce efficiency.
Fix it with negative keywords
Instead of pausing a broad match keyword outright, tighten its focus. For example, you can keep the term “employee management,” but tell Google what not to show for it. Block terms like “ppt,” “definition,” or “examples,” queries that scream learning, not buying.
Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder helps identify queries costing you clicks without ROI. It can:
Block low-intent traffic
Protect the budget from irrelevant searches
Keep high-potential broad keywords focused
It’s a practical way to refine, not remove, especially when a keyword shows signs of potential but just needs cleaner targeting.
💡Update Insight: With the launch of AI Max for Search, Google is now layering smart features like final URL expansion, geo-targeting at the ad group level, and dynamic asset creation, directly into existing search campaigns.
But there’s a catch: these features only activate with broad match, Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), or other AI-compatible setups. If your campaign is built entirely on phrase or exact match, you’re likely missing out on how Google now interprets longer, more conversational queries using synthetic intent.
🎥 Want to see how these updates play out in practice? Watch the video below.
{{< youtube id=“GPKgUZPM3H0” title=“Google Marketing Live 2025 Exclusive Insider Intel With Ginny Marvin” >}}
Managing low-volume keywords in Google Ads
Not every non-converting keyword is underperforming because it’s irrelevant or expensive.
Sometimes, it simply isn’t getting enough impressions or clicks to make a fair judgment. Google refers to them as low-volume keywords, but that doesn’t mean they’re of low value.
These keywords have minimal search activity, and often:
Appear in niche industries
Attract a few impressions
Take longer to gather data
Yet, they can reflect high purchase intent. Premature pausing risks losing valuable long-tail traffic.
What does low volume look like?
A startup selling compliance training for biotech firms might target “FDA audit training for lab managers.”
A B2B service in fintech might bid on “multi-currency treasury management platform
Say these searches barely register on Google’s radar. They draw a handful of impressions over weeks. But the intent? Off the charts. One click could mean one enterprise deal.
The tragedy? Many of these keywords might get paused too soon, not because they failed, but because they never got a fair trial.
Strategy for low-volume keywords
Give them time to collect meaningful data, especially if they closely match your offer and ideal customer.
Expand reach using phrase match or tightly controlled broad match.
Review auction signals to address the root cause before deciding to pause them.
What the data suggests about low-volume keywords
When Google announced it would begin automatically pausing low-activity keywords (those with no impressions for 13+ months), the industry was split. While some advertisers welcomed the cleanup, others worried about losing control over keywords that take time to mature,
80%+ of accounts carried a significant number of low-volume keywords
There was no strong correlation between high counts of these keywords and worse account performance
Smaller accounts often punched above their weight on metrics like CPC, CPA, and ROAS, though the reasons weren’t entirely clear.
These findings suggest that the presence of low-volume keywords alone may not be harmful, but the impact likely varies by account type, structure, and goals. Some advertisers may see no change from Google’s auto-pausing policy, while others could experience shifts depending on how their accounts are set up.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to track keywords nearing Google's auto-pause threshold (13 months of inactivity). It can help you:
Track inactivity and get alerts before a keyword hits the 13-month silence mark
Adjust match types or bids to revive potential winners before they’re gone
Restructure campaigns to pull high-intent but underused keywords out of overstuffed ad groups and into the spotlight
These keywords might not flood you with traffic, but one of them could be your next whale.
The impact of the testing period on Google Ads performance
There’s no stopwatch for keyword testing. No universal benchmark that tells you, “This is when you’ll know.”
Whether you’re testing a fresh keyword, a new match type, or Smart Bidding strategies, the right wait time depends on context, much like how you wouldn’t expect a sapling and a redwood to grow at the same pace.
Several factors shape the testing timeline:
Budget: Higher budgets enable faster data accumulation and quicker decisions.
Search volume: Low-volume keywords naturally require more time to generate statistically significant results.
Conversion cycle: A quick, low-cost purchase (like a coffee subscription) will have a much shorter feedback loop than a high-consideration B2B software solution.
Industry and competition: More competitive spaces may require extended testing to break through and gather quality signals.
Try Smart Bidding Exploration
One of the newer tools advertisers can lean on is Smart Bidding Exploration.
If you’re running broad match, DSA, or AI Max with a TROAS strategy, it lets Google test more aggressively, finding new query variations and traffic sources, without increasing your targets across the board.
It’s a controlled way to expand reach and gather performance data, even when your current keyword set is stuck in a data drought.
Why assisted conversions matter now more than ever
Many keywords contribute earlier in the journey but don’t get last-click credit.
Last-click attribution, still a default in many reports, tends to spotlight the final step, while overlooking the chain of influence that led there.
This can be especially limiting in multi-touch paths common in B2B and high-consideration consumer purchases, where decisions unfold over time, across teams, and through multiple queries.
A simple scenario: The Multi-touch B2B journey
Let’s say a company is exploring project management software. Here’s how the journey might unfold:
A project manager types in “best project management software for teams”. They click an ad, scan the landing page, then move on, no sign-up, but the brand sticks in their mind.
A few days later, the VP of Operations searches for “resource management software for projects”. This time, they find a whitepaper from the same brand and download it. Still, no formal lead.
A team lead, doing final research, visits a competitor comparison page. After reading, the VP returns, this time typing the brand’s URL directly, and completes the sign-up.
How each keyword contributed:
“Best project management software for teams” sparked initial awareness, and a cold start turned warm.
“Resource management software for projects” provided mid-funnel validation and signaled growing interest.
Competitor comparison content helped shape the final evaluation, just before the direct visit that led to the conversion.
If your reporting only tracked last-click attribution, you’d see the final visit and assume the previous touchpoints didn’t matter. But in reality, they were instrumental in moving the deal forward.
Without assisted conversion data, you’d wrongly pause keywords that played critical early roles.
How to handle seasonal keywords: Pause or stay visible?
Seasonal keywords often follow predictable spikes. Terms like “Christmas gifts for Dad,” “Halloween costumes for couples,” and “Black Friday electronics deal” surge at specific points in the year and then drop off sharply.
In many cases, seasonal terms often warrant pausing after peak periods. But in some cases, off-season visibility pays off.
📌Example: Take a travel company offering guided trekking tours in Patagonia. A keyword like “Patagonia ice cave trekking summer” peaks between December and February, when conditions are ideal.
But travel planning often starts months in advance. Pausing the keyword in May or June might cause you to miss early planners, especially in a niche category where brand recall matters.
Instead, maintaining low-bid visibility can help you:
Stay top-of-mind during the research phase
Build early awareness and engagement
Capture interest that matures into bookings later
When off-season visibility pays off
This strategy isn’t limited to adventure travel. Some other examples where low-bid off-season visibility can make strategic sense include:
Events: Stay in front of wedding or event planners ahead of the season.
Legal services: Build awareness for time-bound needs.
Subscription boxes: Capture early adopters.
Software: Pre-position deals before end-of-quarter promos.
Nonprofits: Keep giving campaigns top-of-mind, even mid-year.
Why Google Ads don’t convert: Visibility problems explained
Sometimes, a keyword doesn’t convert because it’s not being seen.
A recent example shared by an advertiser illustrates this perfectly.
They were running a PPC campaign targeting keywords like “motorcycle accident lawyer.” The search volume was solid, the campaign setup was clean, and the ads were eligible to run.
After investigating, they discovered that Google’s Local Service Ads (LSAs) were dominating the results page. Their standard search ad, while technically eligible, was showing up far below the fold. In some cases, only one text ad was shown, and it appeared beneath LSAs and maps, buried in the layout.
Another advertiser shared a screenshot for the same keyword, but their version of the SERP displayed multiple PPC ads. Why the difference?
The search results page isn’t consistent. It changes based on factors like:
Location
Device (mobile vs. desktop)
Time of day
User behavior and history
One of the newer variables to consider? AI Overviews. These AI-generated snapshots now appear above standard results for certain queries, pushing traditional ads further down the visible area. If your ad isn’t converting, it may not be failing, it may just be invisible.
What to check before you pause
Before you pause a keyword that seems like it’s underdelivering:
Analyze Search Impression Share, Search Top Impression Share, and Absolute Top Impression Share.
Review Auction Insights for competitive positioning
Check whether your industry is LSA-heavy (e.g., legal, home services), where standard ads may be deprioritized.
Consider testing Local Service Ads if available in your category, especially if standard placements are being displaced.
Before you pause keywords, audit all layers
Poor performance isn’t always the keyword’s fault.
Keyword-level analysis
Review search term reports for intent misalignment or wasted spend.
Check match types and negative keyword coverage to avoid irrelevant traffic.
Evaluate CTR and Quality Score for signs of low relevance or engagement.
Analyze trends by device, location, time of day, and audience segments.
Ad-level analysis
Is your ad relevant to the search query?
Are you testing clear value propositions and strong CTAs?
Are your RSAs using distinct, testable messages or just slight variations?
Landing page analysis
Does the page match the ad promise?
Is the experience optimized for mobile and load speed?
Are your offers clear, with visible CTAs and trust signals?
💡Pro Tip: Landing pages aren’t always required anymore. As search becomes more conversational and agentic workflows gain ground, Google may sometimes move users directly from query to action, especially for simpler paths like purchases or form submissions.
While not yet the norm, it’s a growing shift. Clean product feeds, up-to-date pricing, and well-structured data are becoming just as important as traditional landing page UX in enabling conversion-ready experiences.
Campaign structure analysis
Often, poor performance stems from a flawed campaign structure, not the keyword. Recent updates from Google reinforce the idea that performance architecture matters.
Are keywords split across too many ad groups or campaigns?
Is your conversion tracking aligned with business goals?
Are secondary conversions (scroll depth, time on site) being used for low-data signals?
Don’t trap high-potential keywords in siloed setups that starve them of learning signals.
Offer and pricing alignment
Are you priced competitively compared to top ad rivals?
Does your offer speak to the pain points and expectations of your audience?
Taking time to audit each layer helps ensure you’re not pausing a keyword that’s simply being let down by its environment.
Final takeaway: Diagnose before you pause
Not every non-converting keyword is a bad keyword. Some need refinement, others need more time, and many are just victims of poor match types, off-target queries, or limited visibility.
With a structured, data-driven approach, you can avoid pausing keywords that quietly contribute to conversions, or that just need smarter targeting to deliver. From spend thresholds to assisted conversions, the key is simple: diagnose before you pause.
If you’re managing multiple campaigns or just want a faster way to spot what’s helping and what’s hurting, Optmyzr can help. It gives you the tools to quickly flag underperforming keywords, refine match types, and surface long-running budget leaks, without combing through endless reports.
1. Why are my Google Ads Keywords not converting? Ans. Your keywords may not be converting for several reasons. Common issues include poor match type targeting (like overly broad matches), irrelevant search queries, low ad visibility due to SERP features like Local Service Ads, or weak landing page alignment.
The keyword may also be playing an assistive role in the conversion path, but not getting last-click credit. A full audit of match type, ad relevance, landing page experience, and attribution model is the best way to identify the root cause.
2. What should I do with keywords that don’t convert? Ans. Start by diagnosing, not pausing. Check the match type and search term report for intent mismatches, add negative keywords to block irrelevant traffic, and test new ad copy. Also, review your offer to ensure it’s competitive and aligned with user expectations. In some cases, non-converting keywords contribute earlier in the funnel, so be sure to check assisted conversions before making a decision.
3. How long should I wait before pausing a keyword with no conversions? Ans. There’s no fixed timeframe, but a good rule of thumb is to evaluate after a keyword spends 2–3x your target CPA without a conversion. For high-ticket or long-sales-cycle products, you can stretch that to 4–5x CPA.
Also, consider factors like search volume, sales cycle length, and campaign budget. The goal is to collect enough data to make a statistically sound decision, don’t rush the pause button without context.
4. Should I pause non-converting keywords or keep them? Ans. Only pause a keyword after a full performance review. If it has significant spend with no conversions, poor engagement, and isn’t playing a role in assisted conversions, it’s likely safe to pause.
But if it’s low-volume, contributing to early funnel activity, or being limited by low visibility, it may be worth optimizing and monitoring instead. Always audit keyword, ad, and landing page alignment before removing terms.
It’s 2025, and Generative AI is everywhere: from writing social posts and turning vague client notes into actual meeting agendas, to planning your next trip. It’s undeniably impressive.
When it comes to PPC, there’s more at stake than convenience. Choose the wrong AI recommendation, and you risk wasting precious budget, losing valuable time, and eroding client or stakeholder trust.
That’s why more PPC professionals are asking a critical question: Is AI actually making ad management easier — or just adding more work?
Generic AI has limits. Marketers need AI tools for PPC that go beyond content generation: they need real-time insights, automation, and smart recommendations. That’s why more teams are moving toward dedicated AI in digital advertising platforms like Optmyzr.
Unlike general-purpose tools like ChatGPT, Optmyzr’s AI is trained on PPC data. It understands your campaigns, works with your goals, and helps you act, not just analyze.
Why PPC marketers are ditching generic AI for purpose-built tools
1. Manual analysis still eats up time.
Running audits, creating reports, and diagnosing issues takes hours. Multiply that by every account you manage, and the time drain becomes unsustainable.
That’s why more marketers are turning to intelligent automation in digital advertising. They want AI trained on billions in ad spend and platform-level trends (like Optmyzr’s), not just surface-level prompts. That difference leads to faster, sharper insights, and actually built for PPC decision-making.
2. Generic AI often adds more work than it solves.
Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity might sound impressive at first, but they’re not really built for PPC. They only know what you tell them, which means you have to constantly feed them data, explain your campaigns, describe your audience, and spell out your goals. Even then, their answers can be vague, off-target, or just not that helpful.
Instead of saving time, it often feels like you’re doing extra work just to get a decent response.
3. Fragmented workflows across many tools slow you down.
One of the biggest PPC headaches is jumping between too many tools: ad platforms, spreadsheets, chat apps, AI copywriting tools, and design platforms.
It gets messy fast. Things fall out of sync, mistakes creep in, and before you know it, you’re spending more time managing tools than managing campaigns.
And let’s not forget the cost of maintaining all those separate tools year after year.
4. There’s pressure to “use AI“ without a strategy.
With everyone jumping on the AI bandwagon, it’s easy to feel like you’re falling behind if you’re not using it. There’s a lot of pressure from clients and leadership to “do more with AI”, even if it’s not always clear what that really means.
The truth is, it’s not about using AI everywhere — it’s about using the right kind of AI. What you really need is something that delivers a real performance edge, not just another buzzword.
5. There’s a risk of costly mistakes.
When budgets are tight (like in this tough economic period), one wrong tweak can tank performance. Generic AI often doesn’t know your goals or data well, so it becomes difficult to trust it to make crucial decisions.
ChatGPT vs Optmyzr: Built for different jobs
| Feature | ChatGPT | Optmyzr | | — | — | — | | Purpose | General-purpose AI chatbot | PPC-specific automation, optimization, and monitoring | | Ad platform integration | No direct access | Full integration with ad platform API | | Campaign understanding | Needs constant prompting | Understands your structure & goals | | Actionability | Suggestions only | Instant execution from the same platform | | Output quality | Prone to AI hallucinations | Trained on PPC data, context-aware |
Generic AI might be useful for inspiration. But when it comes to high-stakes campaign decisions, marketers are choosing tools that offer deep context, reliable insights, and direct action — all in one place.
What do PPC pros actually want from AI?
Having tested the waters with generic AI, performance marketers now have a clearer picture of what actually drives value, and it’s not just clever suggestions. They want AI that works like a teammate, not another tool to manage.
That means looking for a smart automation platform that:
Understands your unique account setup, industry, and goals, and delivers trustworthy, ready-to-use insights
Lets you apply approved recommendations instantly, without switching tools or waiting around
Replaces scattered toolkits with a centralized command center
Gives suggestions that are aligned with performance and profitability
Is trained for PPC — not just another generic AI that “kind of works”
Let’s see what this looks like in action at Optmyzr.
4 real ways Optmyzr’s AI saves time and boosts ROI
1. Account & competitor analysis and optimization
Managing PPC used to mean hours spent digging through dashboards and spreadsheets just to figure out what was working and what wasn’t. It took time, effort, and often left you feeling drained.
But that changed with Optmyzr’s Sidekick, the AI PPC Assistant built right into your Account Dashboard. As soon as you log in, the Sidekick gives you a fresh summary: one win, one potential issue, and one smart recommendation. You don’t even have to ask.
Example: Say your conversions drop unexpectedly. You don’t have to play detective and analyze the Change History. Just ask Sidekick, and it tells you exactly which recent changes might have caused the shift.
While you’re focused on your own performance, the Dashboard is also keeping tabs on your competition. It shows you who’s entered or left your auction space, so you’re never caught off-guard.
When audit time comes, you don’t need to wade through long PDFs. Sidekick breaks down what’s working, what needs fixing, and even highlights key spend patterns — like which hours and days drive the best results. It’s like having an always-on strategist that keeps your account sharp.
2. Ad and campaign creation
Imagine you’re setting up campaigns for an online store: the product feed is ready, but turning it into structured, high-performing campaigns takes time. With Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator, all you have to do is connect your inventory data, and the system takes it from there.
Not sure how to structure it? AI can suggest a template based on your inventory, industry vertical, and goals. You can always tweak it, but now you’re starting with a strong foundation.
The AI also handles the smaller details, like sitelinks and callout extensions, suggesting multiple options at once so you can pick what fits best. And when it’s time to write ad copy, you’re not staring at a blank screen; the AI scans your site and offers relevant headline and description ideas, ready to go live or refine.
3. Reporting
Creating client reports is one of those tasks that eats up hours, even though most of it feels repetitive. With Optmyzr, reporting is as simple as typing a request. Want a conversion-focused summary for last month? Just say so, and the system generates a report draft instantly.
You can even fine-tune the tone or focus. Whether you want to highlight growth, cost-efficiency, or key shifts, the AI tailors the narrative to fit your goals.
Charts also come with plain-language summaries so stakeholders can grasp trends without needing to interpret graphs.
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4. Ecommerce campaign management
Shopping and Performance Max campaigns come with their own unique challenges, especially when it comes to structure. One of the biggest questions advertisers ask is, “How do I split my campaigns?”.
Optmyzr helps take the guesswork out of this. Much like how Campaign Automator helps with Search & Display, Optmyzr’s AI for e-commerce suggests the best structure for Shopping and PMax based on your goals and feed data.
It also ensures that your structure stays within Google’s limits, so you won’t end up creating more entities than the platform allows.
Missing product titles, brand fields, or descriptions in your feed? Optmyzr flags those gaps and uses AI to suggest best-practice and SEO-friendly content, pulling from your product pages and what’s working in the industry.
You spend less time cleaning up your feed and more time launching campaigns that work.
Spot high-spend days and shift budget to top-performing campaigns
Pause or exclude low-performing keywords, placements, or PMax listing groups
Update your ad copy with expert AI suggestions
Approve and push these changes directly to Google Ads
A smarter way to think about AI in PPC
AI in PPC shouldn’t be about chasing trends — it should be about solving real problems. You don’t need a chatbot that waits for instructions; you need a platform that understands your campaigns and acts with context.
Prompted AI like ChatGPT can generate ideas, but it requires constant input and rarely knows your goals or data. Trained AI like Optmyzr is built for paid search, so it surfaces the right insights fast and helps you act on them right away.
That’s the difference between a tool that talks, and one that truly works with you.
“Optmyzr’s value extends beyond features. Their agility in adapting to platform changes and introducing new capabilities ensures our PPC strategy stays future-proof. In short, Optmyzr isn’t just a tool; it’s a strategic partner, accelerating efficiency and growth in our PPC operations.”
They achieved a 7.34 ROAS while cutting Google Ads management time in half — all by switching to AI that’s actually built for PPC.
Now it’s your turn to stop managing AI and start letting it manage smarter for you. Start your 14-day free trial with Optmyzr’s PPC-trained AI today — and experience the difference that purpose-built automation makes.
Frequently asked questions about AI by advertisers
What are the benefits of AI-powered automation? It saves you hours by handling repetitive tasks like analysis, reporting, and optimization. You get faster insights, fewer errors, and more time to focus on strategy.
Which are the best AI tools for PPC? The best tools are those that understand PPC deeply. Optmyzr is a great example; it’s built specifically for paid search, unlike generic AI models like ChatGPT or Claude.
Are AI-powered insights accurate? When trained on real campaign data like Optmyzr’s AI, insights are highly reliable, especially compared to generic suggestions from AI not trained on PPC. That said, no AI is perfect. It’s always a good idea to review insights before applying changes, just like you would with any recommendation.
Can AI manage Google Ads campaigns? Not directly, but with tools like Optmyzr, AI can analyze your campaigns and recommend smart optimizations. While the AI itself won’t make changes automatically, you can review and apply those suggestions directly within Optmyzr without switching platforms.
How do I know if my AI tool is hurting performance?
If you’re spending more time validating AI suggestions than executing them, seeing vague or off-target insights, or noticing inconsistent results, your AI may be working against you. A good PPC AI should save time, align with your goals, and improve outcomes, not add friction.
When does AI actually help with ad optimization? AI helps most when you’re working with large volumes of ads and need quick, data-driven suggestions. Tools like Optmyzr’s AI can recommend high-performing headlines and descriptions, suggest sitelinks and callout assets, and even highlight underperforming ad copy to tweak. Instead of guessing what might work, you get suggestions based on your own performance data, which you can review and apply instantly.
It goes without saying that the key to growth for ecommerce businesses is selling more products. Sounds simple. And obvious. But a lot of businesses aren’t looking closely enough at each product when planning how to achieve sustainable growth and stand out amongst the competition.
Product feed optimization is increasingly important for AI-driven signals and intent in search results.
Yes, having an aesthetically pleasing website with good UX, easy navigation, desirable high-quality products, and good customer service is important.
But search engines don’t focus on the pretty stuff.
First, they read the details. The words. The descriptions. The most identifiable attributes and information that make your products unique and in demand. Think function over form.
Screenshot shows improvements after simple product feed optimizations completed for a high-value furniture manufacturer
Why is feed optimization so important?
In basic terms, a product feed (or datafeed) is a structured way of submitting product information from your website to another source, such as Google Merchant Center.
One of the best ways to improve results for ecommerce businesses is to focus on product feed optimization to increase visibility, relevancy, conversion rate, and conversion value. This is crucial for businesses running Google Ads, particularly Shopping and/or Performance Max campaigns.
Not only can this positively impact performance for paid shopping placements, but it can also improve results in organic search (free listings).
Note: While this also applies to Microsoft Ads and other PPC channels, this article focuses on opportunities specifically within Google Merchant Center (GMC).
Here are four ways to optimize your product feed for Google:
Directly add & optimize rich product attributes for all products.
Create feed attribute rules in GMC.
Create and upload a supplemental feed.
Use a 3rd party tool for feed management and support.
Now, let’s see what the most important attributes you should be using to improve your product listings, examples of attribute rules in GMC, supplemental feeds, and some of the shopping ads solutions offered by Optmyzr to help make management easier and more efficient.
Key product attributes for feed optimization
There are obvious things a customer needs to know before making a purchase, such as what a product does, what it looks like, and how much it costs.
Google specifications outline what information is needed to submit products to Google Merchant Center, including which details are required and which are optional.
Surprisingly, a lot of businesses only complete the minimum requirements for feed approval. This means there is an opportunity to further improve what is submitted, in addition to providing more meaningful and helpful product details that are optional.
From a paid search perspective, feed attributes have been a focus of optimization tactics for several years. There has now been even more awareness of the importance of product attributes for SEO since the launch of Google Merchant Center Next.
This is partly due to increased visibility and reporting capabilities in both Google Merchant Center and Google Search Console related to product performance and the buzz around product schema for rich organic results.
Note: Even newer AI-powered shopping experiences, like ChatGPT’s, are starting to rely on structured product data, which is another reason to get your schema in order.
Examples of key attributes for optimization include:
Product Title
Product Type
Google Product Category
Description
Inclusion of additional relevant attributes such as size, color, and material
Images
Let’s break this down in further detail for the most important opportunities.
Product Title
Product titles are weighted for search relevance. Do not ignore the opportunity to improve this for both paid and organic listings.
This attribute has a direct impact on user experience, CTR, and CVR, as well as influencing the algorithm. Include the most important details first, and note that the majority of users will only see around the first 70 characters of your title.
For most product categories, a well-optimized product title will use the following formula:
Brand + Product Title + Product Type + Attribute
Include rich keywords for long-tail visibility.
Keep it under 150 characters.
Include any attributes important for your product, such as size, color, and material, where appropriate.
Be consistent with the attributes you choose and the location within the title (ie, if you include color, don’t put it at the beginning of one title and at the end of another)
Avoid vague or duplicate titles.
Do not include promotional copy, such as free delivery.
Avoid using ALL CAPS unless part of a brand name or common abbreviation.
Note: In some cases, a business may wish to include the brand name at the end of the title if the business is a manufacturer or if the brand name is not significant.
Product Type
Product types are significantly weighted for search relevance and allow custom categorization. This optional attribute is one of the most underutilized and misunderstood attributes in a product feed.
Always include product type in your feed, even though it’s optional. This attribute operates behind the scenes and is not visible to users.
Use rich keywords to help the algorithm better understand how to categorize your product. This attribute helps organize and segment your shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
Keep it under 750 characters.
Aim to use at least 3 levels of breadcrumbs.
Use the greater than ‘>’ symbol to separate each level, similar to how Google Product Categories are shown. Usually, this would follow the breadcrumb structure on your website, so specify this with SEO in mind.
Google Product Category
This is another golden opportunity. Although the Google product category is automatically assigned by Google, in many cases, it can be improved. Product titles, brand, GTINs, and descriptions all influence the automated categorization, which is another reason it’s important to make these as accurate as possible. Be sure you check these using Google’s predefined taxonomy for the most specific option related to your products.
Choose the most specific category possible.
Only use product categories defined by Google; you cannot create your own.
Use Google’s product categories as a hint for how users might search. If you’re using older versions of Google product categories and updates are made to the taxonomy, Google will automatically map this to the latest version.
Understand the difference between Google product category and product type, as they are similar but serve different purposes.
In certain countries, such as the USA, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Brazil, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, you can use the Google product category to segment shopping and PMax campaigns.
Here’s an example of an improvement we made for a client selling outdoor chairs:
Here’s how we optimized the category: Furniture > Outdoor Furniture > Outdoor Seating > Outdoor Chairs
Description
Descriptions add context to products and help both users and search engines better understand the purpose and intent of a product. The primary goal is to sell your product to the right customer. Use this as an opportunity to highlight what your product is, what purpose it serves, what it looks like, and why customers need it.
Imagine a user cannot see the picture. Create a description that allows the customer to visualize the product with their eyes closed.
List the most important features first.
Include up to 500 characters.
Use the product description to list key features and benefits.
Include technical specifications, such as dimensions or weight, if appropriate.
Describe other key attributes in the written product description for visibility, such as colors, textures, materials, patterns, and size.
Don’t keyword stuff your descriptions, and don’t include promotional copy such as “free delivery” or sale pricing.
Avoid using ALL CAPS or emojis and special characters - this looks spammy and less trustworthy.
Identify descriptions created using generative AI with the structured_description attribute.
Images
An image is worth a thousand words. It is also often the first thing that catches our attention when viewing a page full of products. With the rise in popularity of image search, multiple quality product images are more important than ever.
Additionally, with recent enhancements in shopping features such as 3D spin and virtual try-on, you can future-proof your business by improving product photos now.
Use tightly framed, bright, vibrant photos
Include up to 10 images
Test various lifestyle formats in addition to product shots
Do not use text overlay on product images
Other attributes, such as colour, material, and size
As with the attribute examples outlined above, use every possible attribute that applies to a product.
Clearly define attributes that help sell a product to the right customer.
Be consistent and concise to enable insertion into product titles and descriptions.
Use words and phrases that will be easily understood by users and search engines. For example, instead of a color attribute “Marshmallow”, consider using the word “White”.
⭐ Important note related to any product optimizations above:
While these capabilities are in place to assist with optimizing your product feed, it’s not recommended to change any product attributes frequently. Doing so can adversely impact product performance for both paid and organic shopping.
Additionally, attributes such as product type, brand, and Google product category are often used to organize and segment Google Ads campaigns, so please DO NOT make any changes here without communicating with your Google Ads folks.
It can wreak havoc on paid campaigns or even break them fully without proper communication between business owners, Google Ads, and SEO teams. So please play nice and over-communicate any optimizations before they happen.
How to update product data?
Now that you know which attributes to update, there are a number of ways you can put them to work. For some businesses, this information will be updated behind the scenes in the website CMS (ie, Shopify, WordPress, etc) and automatically submitted to GMC.
For other businesses, there may be some challenges with getting this information to sync in Google Merchant Center if feed plugins or 3rd party sources are outdated or aren’t correctly configured or managed.
Fortunately, management of product feeds and product information is becoming easier and less technical, which was one of the key objectives of upgrading from classic GMC to GMC Next.
If you don’t already use a feed API or a 3rd party feed solution, the following 2 ways are ideal for easy setup and management:
Feed attribute rules
Supplemental feed uploaded via Google Sheets
If you do not find the option to add either of the above solutions, check your settings to confirm the add-on is enabled.
Go to: Settings > Add-Ons > Advanced data source management
Feed attribute rules
Feed attribute rules work well when there is a large volume of products that require bulk optimization updates directly in Google Merchant Center.
To use this feature, go to:
Settings > Data Sources > Primary Sources(click on the feed name)> Attribute Rules
From here, a number of rules can be created to automatically apply to any feed or supplemental feed already used in Google Merchant Center. You can use a variety of different data source operations, such as:
“Set to”
“Set to multiple”
“Extract”
“Extract multiple”
For example, you can create rules to:
Automatically add a brand name to the beginning (or end) of all product titles
Automatically detect keywords used in product titles and assign a product type
Automatically add key attributes such as color, size, or material to product descriptions if they are not already included
Creating rules within Google Merchant Center is an easy way to manage accounts with a high volume of products while maintaining consistency. You can also preview and test what the rules look like, as well as remove or update them at any point.
If you have never used feed attribute rules, it is recommended to dive deeper to gain a better understanding of how they work before you start making changes. Review Google’s official documentation on attribute rules (previously known as feed rules).
Alternatively, you can reach out to a third party for advice and support or choose a more manual method, such as supplemental feeds.
Supplemental feeds
Another option for updating product information and overriding attributes submitted in the product feed is a supplemental feed. Personal preference will indicate which method you use, but Google Sheets is a straightforward option.
To use this feature, go to:
Settings > Data Sources > Supplemental Sources > Add Supplemental Product Data
If using Google Sheets, remember to set your sharing permissions to allow anyone with the link to view the sheet (otherwise, Google won’t be able to read it).
Supplemental feeds are an ideal solution if:
You don’t use an API, third-party tool, or if you don’t feel comfortable creating attribute rules in Google Merchant Center
You have a manageable selection of products
You want to add or modify information already submitted in your primary feed
You would like to use formulas in Google Sheets to combine columns and optimise product titles directly in the spreadsheet (ie, Brand + Product Title + Product Type + Attribute)
If you need to create custom labels for products that meet certain criteria, such as seasonal products, bestsellers, high-margin products, or promotional products
You would like to use the find/replace function to make bulk changes to specific attributes
How to know what’s working?
Now that you have worked so hard to optimize your product feed and everything is updated in Google Merchant Center, how do you know what’s working? Of course, you will be able to see the actual performance metrics in GMC analytics along with your shop quality score, but how do you get under the hood and actually see the strengths and weaknesses of your feed optimization efforts?
Optmyzr offers a suite of tools specifically for shopping, including:
The Shopping Dashboard is a comprehensive tool designed to provide an overview of all Shopping and PMax Retail Campaigns, as well as the merchant feeds that support these campaigns. It allows you to view, monitor, and optimize retail campaigns from a single, user-friendly interface.
Screenshot shows the Shopping and Performance Max Retail Campaigns widget on the Shopping Dashboard
Shopping Feed Audit
The Shopping Feed Audit tool grades your merchant feed and shopping campaigns based on common parameters to identify quick opportunities for improvement. By providing a series of product, campaign, and product/listing group audits, the tool helps you maintain a well-structured and organized campaign setup.
Screenshot shows the Shopping Feed Audit
Screenshot shows the Feed Audit Score
Smart Product Labeler
The Smart Product Labeler helps you simplify and enhance product labeling in your shopping campaigns. You can create custom rules to label your products based on performance metrics and feed attributes.
You can also get custom suggestions for performance buckets and labels to help you segregate your products more efficiently.
When did feed optimization become so important?
Feed optimization is not a new concept, but it is one that has been gaining more interest since the launch of Google Merchant Center Next and the rise of AI-signaling.
A few reasons for the increased interest are due to growing awareness of the power of feed optimization, the AI signals it provides to assist results and match user intent, along with the rising interest from businesses and SEOs who have discovered the true power of GMC.
Other reasons for increased interest in product optimization:
Improved visibility and product reporting metrics in GMC, including the ability to view both paid and organic shopping results
The merchant opportunities report in Google Search Console
The ability to create custom reports and dashboards in Merchant Center
Go to: Settings > Add-Ons > Custom reports
While this article focuses on product-specific optimizations, it is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of merchant opportunities.
Some other items that directly influence performance on Google Shopping include:
Overall shop quality score
Price competitiveness
Promotions
Shipping and returns
Product ratings
Payment methods
The full rollout of GMC Next replaced the classic Merchant Center experience for all retailers in September 2024, however, many businesses opted to begin using it earlier to become familiar with the newest features. If you’re still getting familiar with the latest version of GMC, roll your sleeves up to acquaint yourself with the navigation, reports, and settings available.
Optimized feeds, optimized performance.
Product feed optimization is one of the most powerful ways to improve performance across Google Shopping and PMax campaigns. When you give Google rich, accurate, and structured product data, you make it easier for your ads to show up in the right places and for the right people. That means more visibility, better clicks, and higher conversions.
Optmyzr’s suite of Shopping tools, like the Shopping Feed Audit, Smart Product Labeler, and custom dashboards, makes it easier to spot issues, apply improvements, and scale your feed optimization efforts with confidence.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
Let your bidding strategy scale with your ambition.
Casey Gill is a Senior Google Ads Specialist atWebSavvywith global ecommerce experience across the USA, UK, Europe, UAE, and Australia. She was recently listed as a ‘Top 100 PPC Influencer’ worldwide by PPC Survey.
This article is a reflection of the author’s experiences and opinions. Optmyzr believes that there are many ways to win in digital advertising, and is committed to presenting a diverse range of ideas and approaches.
When it comes to PPC bidding, the conversation can sometimes sound more divided than it actually is. Native bidding, proprietary algorithms, and manual rules each have their place, and for many advertisers, the real strategy lies in how you blend them.
Most campaigns don’t succeed by choosing one method and sticking to it rigidly.
Instead, layering different levels of automation helps you adapt to changing goals, data availability, and platform dynamics.
Maybe your campaign isn’t ready for Smart Bidding yet. Maybe you’re migrating from a platform that offered more control.
Or perhaps even with automation in place, you’re still spending too much time micromanaging it.
This article breaks down when and why Smart Bidding makes sense, where it can still fall short, and how automation layering gives you a smarter way to guide rather than surrender to machine-driven strategies.
What is proprietary bidding?
Proprietary bidding refers to third-party bidding systems that use their own custom algorithms to manage bidding in online ad auctions.
Each proprietary algorithm has its distinct logic, mathematical models, and optimization strategies. These are the intellectual property of the developing entity and are often a key differentiator in the market.
These systems operate outside the ad platforms’ native Smart Bidding and typically require campaigns to run on manual strategies such as Manual CPC.
That’s because they need direct access to keyword-level or ad group-level bids to function, whereas Smart Bidding automatically adjusts bids in real time during the auction. The key distinction is that external systems make bidding decisions through API-based rules or scripts, rather than participating directly in the ad platform’s real-time bidding process.
Why do advertisers choose proprietary bidding?
Advertisers often turn to proprietary systems when they need more control, customization, or flexibility than native Smart Bidding allows.
This can include applying specialized industry knowledge, enforcing business-specific rules, optimizing for custom KPIs, or addressing a lack of trust that Smart Bidding will bid as efficiently for their specific needs.
However, proprietary systems face some limitations.
They don’t have access to many of the ad platforms’ real-time auction signals, which can impact their ability to optimize bids as precisely as Smart Bidding.
Some platforms have developed partial workarounds to layer proprietary logic on top of certain Smart Bidding strategies, but these approaches often come with constraints and are typically best suited for specific, well-defined scenarios.
How smart bidding stacks up
Let’s clear one thing up: Smart Bidding isn’t a “set it and forget it” strategy. It’s more like “set it, guide it, and check in regularly.”
At its core, Smart Bidding is auction-time bidding. That means ad platforms adjust your bid in real time, right as the auction happens, based on what they know about the person seeing your ad.
It taps into hundreds of signals, many of which you’ll never see in the Google Ads UI or even through the API.
That’s where Smart Bidding shines: it reacts instantly to signals humans (or rules) can’t process fast enough. In many cases, it outperforms even the most well-crafted manual strategies or proprietary bidding rules.
But not always.
Smart Bidding has important limitations you need to account for.
Limitations of Smart Bidding
It requires sufficient conversion data to make intelligent decisions
It needs a proper setup to effectively incorporate offline conversion data
Its optimization may sometimes align more with platform revenue goals than your specific business objectives
To its credit, Smart Bidding has improved significantly over time, especially in handling multiple conversion types, new customer acquisition goals, and broader campaign types like Performance Max.
But it’s still not a perfect fit for every advertiser or every campaign.
Sometimes Smart Bidding needs a nudge. Sometimes it needs to be tested against your legacy approach before you can trust it. Sometimes it just needs better inputs and oversight.
That brings us to the automation dilemma: how to get the best of Smart Bidding without giving up your ability to guide and refine it.
Finding the middle ground: where strategy meets automation
Automation was supposed to save time, and in many ways, it does. However, for a lot of advertisers, it’s become a new type of time sink.
Instead of adjusting bids manually, you’re now fine-tuning automated settings, testing scripts, unpausing rules, and double-checking if ad platforms’ automation really aligns with your goals.
Our CEO, Frederick Vallaeys, calls this the binary trap in his book Unlevel the Playing Field: The Biggest Mindshift in PPC History. You either give the ad platforms full control and risk mediocrity, or you micromanage every lever and lose scalability.
Some try to break out of this trap by turning to proprietary bidding platforms. These solutions offer specialized capabilities, particularly for certain industries or campaign types where more customized approaches deliver value.
However, there are important trade-offs to consider when using systems that operate independently from ad platforms’ native automation.
Ad platforms analyze numerous auction-time signals for each search in real time. These signals include everything from device type, location, time of day, to historical conversion likelihood and beyond.
While proprietary algorithms bring their own strengths, they may face challenges accessing the full range of real-time data that Smart Bidding utilizes directly.
That’s why many successful advertisers aren’t choosing between external solutions and native automation: they’re layering their own logic on top of native automation, combining the strengths of both approaches.
That’s where automation layering changes the game.
Automation layering: the smarter middle path
Automation layering is the antidote to that binary thinking. It’s a strategy-first approach that embraces native automation like Smart Bidding but surrounds it with intelligent, customized layers of control.
It’s a way to avoid blindly trusting the ad platform while still taking advantage of what it does well.
Instead of handing over the keys or constantly fighting the system, you guide automation in the right direction. You define the strategy. You intervene when needed. You keep your campaigns from drifting into inefficiency.
Think of it this way: if Smart Bidding is the engine, automation layering is your steering system.
The beauty of this approach is its flexibility.
Your automation layering strategy can be tailored to your specific situation, whether you’re managing high-volume ecommerce campaigns requiring minimal oversight or specialized B2B campaigns where every lead requires careful qualification.
You can dial the degree of control up or down based on factors like conversion volume, business seasonality, and your competitive landscape.
And it’s not just theory, it’s increasingly the go-to strategy for savvy advertisers looking to scale without sacrificing performance.
Four primary ways to layer automation
Google Ads has a wealth of automation options, but these principles are adaptable across other platforms like Microsoft, Meta, or Amazon.
While we’ll focus on Google Ads here, you’ll find that many of the same concepts can be applied wherever you’re managing campaigns.
Google’s built-in tools
These are native to the platform, meaning they don’t require third-party integrations or external platforms, but they do require advertiser input for setup and configuration.
Examples:
Automated rules (e.g., pause a campaign if CPA exceeds $X)
Custom alerts
Seasonality adjustments for Smart Bidding
Conversion value rules
Portfolio bid strategies with constraints
Great for: Simple safeguards or when you want to stay entirely within Google Ads
Imported scripts
Google Ads scripts let you automate using JavaScript, either by writing your own or importing them from an external library. These scripts provide more flexibility and customization compared to the built-in scripts in the Google Ads UI.
Great for: Mid-level customization, fast deployment, and tasks that need daily checks or actions
Third-party tools
Tools like Optmyzr, Skai, and Adalysis offer prebuilt automations, alerts, and optimization features that go beyond what the ad platforms provide.
Examples:
Automate bid adjustments based on your own logic
Run audits and recommendations with change tracking
Optimize negatives, ads, and budgets in bulk with a layer of intelligence
Great for: Advertisers and agencies who want powerful features without writing code
Custom solutions using the Google Ads API
For brands with dev resources or unique use cases, the Google Ads API enables full control.
Examples:
Build your own performance dashboard that triggers budget shifts
Enforce custom campaign naming and labeling rules
Integrate ad spend and ROAS with your internal BI or inventory systems
Great for: Advanced users or large-scale advertisers with unique business logic
What can automation layering help with?
Automation layering gives you the best of both worlds: the speed and scale of Smart Bidding, plus the strategic oversight and customization you need to hit your goals.
Let’s now go through some specific scenarios where automation layering makes a dramatic difference, along with the Optmyzr tools that make these strategies accessible. 👇
Catching performance fluctuations early
Automation layering is a powerful way to stay on top of performance changes and catch fluctuations before they turn into bigger issues.
With the right automation in place, you can get alerts the moment something goes off track.
Signal to watch:
Unusual spikes or drops in Cost, Impressions, or Clicks
Sudden surges in disapproved products (for ecommerce campaigns)
How to layer in control:
Set up automated alerts for core metrics across campaigns.
Native Google Ads tools like custom rules can flag these changes, or third-party solutions like Optmyzr’s Anomaly Alertscan detect and notify you automatically.
You don’t need to manually set them up as they are automatically triggered by the system.
📌Example: A sudden 40% drop in impressions on a top campaign could signal a budget cap, a bidding issue, or ad disapproval. Catching it early can help prevent a bigger revenue dip.
Adjusting targets without disrupting campaigns
When managing smart bidding strategies like Maximum Conversions or Maximum Conversion Value, you can’t manually adjust bids for individual keywords or product groups.
Instead, you optimize your campaigns by tweaking your Target CPA or Target ROAS.
However, it’s crucial to adjust these targets carefully. If you make drastic changes, you risk throwing your campaigns into learning mode, which can disrupt performance and cause delays as the system re-adjusts.
Signals to watch:
Ad groups are performing well, but are limited by impression share
Ad groups exceeding ROAS/CPA targets with room to optimize further
Campaigns stuck in perpetual learning periods
How to layer in control:
When adjusting Target CPA or Target ROAS, make small, incremental changes (5–10%) to avoid sending campaigns back into learning mode.
That’s where tools like Optimize Target CPA and Optimize Target ROAS come in. These tools let you adjust targets at the ad group level without upsetting the balance.
Here’s how it works: If an ad group is converting well but losing impression share due to a low ad rank, the tools will help increase the target CPA or lower the target ROAS.
This allows Google Ads to bid higher, improving ad rank and capturing more impressions.
On the flip side, if an ad group is already performing well, exceeding the target CPA or ROAS, you can gradually reduce the target CPA or increase the target ROAS.
This helps avoid over-allocating the budget and maximizes ROI.
Avoid budget surprises with smart pacing alerts
Budgets don’t usually fail all at once; they quietly drift off course. Maybe you overspend in the first half of the month and scramble to rein things in later.
Or you underspend and leave conversions on the table. Either way, performance takes a hit.
Signals to watch:
Percentage of monthly budget spent vs. percentage of month elapsed
Day-over-day and week-over-week spending velocity changes
Spend-to-conversion ratio shifts
How to layer in control:
Set up automated pacing alerts that track your spending against monthly targets and expected patterns. Configure these alerts to notify relevant team members when spending deviates from the expected pace.
It’s a simple way to keep your campaigns consistent and avoid those end-of-month surprises.
Pausing underperforming keywords
There’s a hidden cost to keeping underperforming keywords active for too long.
They don’t just waste money but dilute your campaign performance, slow down learning, and make it harder for automated bidding to focus on what actually works.
Yet, many accounts still let these keywords run unchecked because manually reviewing them takes time.
This is where automation layering can make a real difference.
Signals to watch:
Keywords with significant clicks but no conversions
High-spend keywords with conversion costs well above account averages
Keywords with declining Quality Scores despite stable landing pages
How to layer in control:
Implement systematic reviews that identify and pause non-converting keywords once they’ve received statistically significant traffic. Use tools like Optmyzr’s Pause Non-Converting Keywords that automatically identify keywords that have received enough traffic but haven’t converted during a selected date range.
Make hyper-specific DSAs doable at scale
Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) are powerful for capturing long-tail traffic, but they can quickly become a mess if everything’s lumped into one ad group. Microsoft Ads supports standalone DSAs, offering advertisers a valuable tool for campaign structure.
That’s why advanced advertisers go granular and create one ad group per product detail page (PDP) to align ad copy, keywords, and landing pages for better relevance and higher conversion rates.
Signals to watch:
Product feed updates and inventory changes
Broad DSA campaigns with mixed performance across product categories
Conversion rate variations between product types
The problem? Doing that manually for thousands of products isn’t practical.
How to layer in control:
With Microsoft Ads, you can still use feed-based automation to build and maintain granular DSA campaigns that mirror your product structure. Tools like Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator can help you build these granular campaigns in under an hour.
It pulls directly from your product feed to create ad groups and ads that reflect the actual product name, price, and promo, so you stay relevant and efficient.
Trigger campaigns based on real-world signals like weather
For seasonal businesses, showing ads at precisely the right moment can dramatically improve performance. Yet standard automation alone can’t respond accurately to external factors like weather conditions.
Signals to watch:
Weather conditions in target markets
Historical performance correlations with specific temperatures
Geographic performance variations that might be weather-related
How to layer in control:
Use weather APIs and geo-targeting rules to activate campaigns only when conditions are ideal for purchases. Combine these environmental triggers with Google’s native automation for maximum impact.
For example, Matthieu Van-Tran, a Google Ads consultant who has managed over $350M in ad spend, shared an interesting approach.
For a premium swimwear brand, he implemented weather-triggered automation that activates Performance Max campaigns only when temperatures reach 27°C or higher in top-converting cities. The system pushes fresh seasonal creative across Google’s network precisely when shoppers are most likely to buy, resulting in more sales.
Matthieu shares plenty of real-world advice on how he uses automation layering for his clients. If you want to learn more, check out the session here.
Excluding irrelevant YouTube placements
Excluding irrelevant YouTube placements is crucial to ensure that your ads only appear in front of the right audience.
Signals to watch:
Placements with high impressions but poor engagement metrics
Content categories consistently underperforming your campaign averages
Channel types misaligned with your target audience (gaming channels for B2B products)
For example, let’s say you’re launching a premium business software campaign, and you’ve allocated a significant portion of your advertising budget to YouTube.
But instead of reaching professionals, your analytics reveal that your ads are appearing on gaming channels, kids’ content, and other irrelevant placements, with minimal conversions to show for it.
How to layer in control:
Create automated rules that analyze placement performance and content categorization to exclude underperforming placements.
Use Google Ads exclusion lists or tools like Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to systematically refine placement quality.
Here’s a simple yet effective rule used by Amy McClain-Ponder, Group Director of Paid Search at Beeby Clark+Meyler (BCM), to deal with irrelevant YouTube placements:
The Rule Logic:
When a placement falls under the “Automatic” category
AND appears on YouTube channels, mobile apps, YouTube videos, websites, or Android apps
AND has received impressions in the last 30 days
AND contains content related to “cn, jp, kids, japan, chinese, china, games, music, sex, sounds, meditation”
AND the placement type contains “YouTube Channel”
The Action:
The rule automatically excludes these placements from your ad group
While still including them in your reporting (for transparency)
💡Optmyzr Tip: Rule Engine also has pre-built strategies to exclude Gaming and Kids placements for PMax campaigns to prevent wasted spend. Check out our full list of pre-built strategies here.
When Smart Bidding isn’t the right fit (yet)
Not every campaign is ready for Smart Bidding out of the gate. Maybe it’s too new. Maybe there’s not enough conversion data.
Or maybe you just want a little more control while things ramp up.
That’s where rule-based bidding can still play a big role, especially if you’re coming from a platform like Marin or have a performance-focused workflow you’re trying to replicate.
When you might need rule-based bidding
Before diving into the specific rule-based moves, let’s set the stage:
New campaigns: If your campaign has fewer than 30 conversions in the last 30 days, Smart Bidding might not have enough data to work its magic. Rule-based bidding can fill this gap
Highly seasonal businesses: If your business experiences seasonal fluctuations, historical data might not be as useful in predicting future performance. Rule-based bidding gives you control as you wait for new trends to emerge
Long sales cycles: If your sales cycle extends beyond the typical attribution window, Smart Bidding might be too slow to respond to real-time data. Rule-based bidding allows you to make adjustments based on more immediate metrics
If any of these sound familiar, rule-based bidding could be the right choice for now, with the flexibility to transition to Smart Bidding as you gather more data and insights.
Smart rule-based moves you can set up in Optmyzr
Now, let’s look at a few powerful rule-based automation strategies that you can create using Optmyzr’s Rule Engine. These rules are pre-built but fully customizable to suit your specific needs.
You can set your own thresholds, so you have the flexibility to refine them as you see fit.
Here’s what you can do:
Modify device bid adjustments at the ad group level
Some devices perform better than others in converting your ad clicks to actual sales or leads.
This rule helps you automatically adjust your bids to push more budget toward the devices that are performing well and away from those that aren’t.
How It Works:
If a device (like a mobile or desktop) is performing well (getting conversions at a lower cost), the rule raises the bid by 10%.
If a device is getting a lot of clicks but no conversions, the rule lowers the bid by 10% to avoid wasting money.
Reduce bids for expensive keywords
Even with all your keyword research and testing, some keywords just end up being budget drains. This rule automatically identifies and reins in keywords that are costing too much compared to their performance.
How It Works:
If a keyword’s cost per conversion is higher than your campaign average, the rule lowers the bid by 10%. This helps control spending on underperforming keywords.
If a keyword has received too many clicks but hasn’t generated a single conversion, the system will reduce its bid by 10% to prevent further waste.
And if you’re seeing similar performance issues at the product group or ad group level, you’re covered there too.
Optmyzr has prebuilt rules for adjusting bids on underperforming product groups and ad groups based on the same logic, whether it’s a high CPA, too many clicks without conversions, or just general inefficiency.
Set audience bid adjustments to target cost/conversion
The cost per conversion can sometimes fluctuate wildly across campaigns. This clever pair of rules helps you automatically keep your bids in check without constant checking.
The more expensive your conversions, the more aggressive the correction.
How It Works:
If the cost per conversion is more than 15% above your target, the rule will lower your bids to bring costs back in line.
If the cost per conversion is below 85% of your target, the rule will raise your bids to capture more of the efficient conversions at a lower cost.
The adjustments only trigger when you have meaningful data (minimum 100 impressions, 10 clicks, and 3 conversions).
And that’s not all! You can create additional tailored rules for gender, age range, household income, and device targeting to refine your approach even further.
Creating these demographic-specific rules helps by allowing you to automatically shift budget toward high-performing segments and away from underperforming ones.
Optimize bids to target ROAS
This clever sequence of rules automatically adjusts your ad group bids to hit your target return on ad spend (ROAS) based on the freshest reliable data available.
What makes this approach so brilliant is the progressive lookback windows.
The system first checks your most recent 7-day performance, then expands to 14 days, 30 days, 60 days, and finally 90 days until it finds enough conversion data to make confident decisions.
How It Works:
The rule looks at your campaign’s performance over different time periods, starting with the most recent 7 days.
If your ROAS is high, the rule raises your bids to capture more conversions.
If your ROAS is low, it lowers your bids to help stay on track.
The rules only trigger when you have at least one conversion in the lookback period and when your campaign uses CPC bidding. This prevents crazy bid adjustments when there’s insufficient data or when you’re using different bidding strategies.
There’s also a similar rule for keywords that works on the same principle.
It lets you set keyword-level bids to help you meet your target return on ad spend, using the same progressive lookback windows.
Optimize bids to Target CPA
This rule automatically sets your ad group bids to achieve your target cost per acquisition (CPA) goals based on reliable performance data.
How It Works:
The rule looks at your campaign’s performance over different periods (starting with 7 days).
If your cost per acquisition is too high, the rule lowers your bids.
If your cost per acquisition is below your target, the rule raises your bids.
And just like with target ROAS, there’s another strategy that lets you set keyword bids to optimize for a target CPA.
Reduce bid gaps in Shopping campaigns
In Shopping campaigns, bid gaps (where your bids are higher than what you’re actually paying) can lead to unexpected cost spikes.
This rule helps close those gaps to keep your bids in line with actual costs, which prevents overspending.
How It Works:
The rule looks for product groups where your bids are 10% higher than your average cost-per-click (CPC).
If it finds a significant gap, it will reduce your bid by 5% to bring it closer to the actual CPC you’re paying.
To make sure the adjustments are based on reliable data, the rule only triggers once a product group has received at least 3 clicks.
Striking the Balance: layering automation with strategic insight
When it comes to PPC, automation is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s essential. But it’s not just about letting the system run on autopilot.
Relying solely on Smart Bidding or any one-size-fits-all automation can leave room for inefficiencies and missed opportunities. The real power comes from combining the ad platforms’ automation with your own strategic insights.
Think of it as finding the balance: automation handles the repetitive tasks while you steer the campaign with your expertise. And with the right tools, you can apply this smarter, more flexible approach no matter the size of your account.
Managing bids across multiple campaigns shouldn’t feel like a daily firefight. But it often does. One campaign burns through the budget overnight. Another gets zero conversions.
Smart bidding helps, but only to a point. Especially when campaigns are isolated and goals aren’t aligned.
That’s where portfolio bidding and campaign groups come in. They help you group campaigns by goal, share data more effectively, and make smarter decisions with less micromanagement.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
When to use them (and when not to)
And most importantly, how to measure whether they’re actually working
Let’s break it down.
What is Portfolio Bidding?
Portfolio bidding is a feature available in both Google Ads and Microsoft Ads that lets you group multiple campaigns, ad groups, or keywords under a single automated bidding strategy, like Target ROAS (tROAS) or Target CPA (tCPA). The platform then uses real-time signals to adjust bids across the portfolio to hit your shared goal.
It’s especially useful for advertisers who want to let Smart Bidding distribute budget and optimize bids across campaigns based on performance potential, instead of managing each one in isolation.
Even if you’re not grouping multiple campaigns, portfolio bidding is how you unlock features like bid caps and bid floors. So it’s common to set up a portfolio strategy for a single campaign just to gain that control.
Here’s what makes it powerful:
It shares performance data across campaigns, which speeds up learning.
It reallocates budget to better-performing campaigns automatically.
It gives you extra levers, like setting Max CPC caps—even while using Smart Bidding (something you can’t do at the individual campaign level).
Example: A B2B advertiser on a tCPA strategy sees CPC spikes up to $25 on low-demand days. By switching to portfolio bidding and adding a Max CPC of $9, they put a “guardrail” in place to prevent budget blowouts, while still giving Smart Bidding enough flexibility to optimize toward their $30 CPA goal.
Is Portfolio Bidding right for any advertiser?
No. Portfolio bidding isn’t for everyone. It’s a smart way to unify and stabilize your bidding if you’re running multiple campaigns with the same conversion or revenue goals, or your campaigns suffer from low data volume.
When to use Portfolio Bidding?
When..
You’ve multiple campaigns aiming for the same performance goal (like a 700% ROAS or $50 CPA).
You want the platform to automatically shift budget and adjust bids across campaigns based on real-time signals.
You want to set bid caps and bid floors—a feature that’s only available when using portfolio bidding, even if it’s just for one campaign.
You need more control over Smart Bidding, like applying a Max CPC cap to avoid spikes or using a bid floor to compete more aggressively.
You’re using a platform like Optmyzr to manage and fine-tune these bid limits automatically, without manually adjusting them every day.
Example: You’re managing five ecommerce campaigns all targeting a ROAS of 700. With portfolio bidding, the platform treats them as a single unit, reallocates budget as needed, and Optmyzr helps you enforce smart guardrails using bid min/max automation.
When not to use Portfolio Bidding?
When..
Campaigns have different goals (e.g., one is brand awareness, another is conversion-driven).
You need manual control over individual campaign bids.
The campaigns are low volume and don’t generate enough conversions to benefit from pooled machine learning.
You want to track performance across campaigns without affecting their bidding behavior.
What are Campaign Groups?
Campaign Groups in Google Ads are a way to organize and evaluate multiple campaigns that share a common business objective. You can think of them as a container that holds campaigns together so you can track their combined performance using shared KPIs like conversions, CPA, or ROAS.
They don’t influence bidding, but they provide a higher-level performance lens and let you define specific targets across all included campaigns.
Example: An ecommerce brand runs a mix of Search and Shopping campaigns to promote its seasonal product lines. They create a campaign group for all campaigns focused on summer inventory and set a performance target of 500 conversions with a target ROAS of 4.5. Within a week, they monitor the group’s performance and spot one campaign with a much lower ROAS. They quickly adjust product targeting and bids, helping the group trend back toward the overall goal.
When to use Campaign Groups?
When…
You want to monitor performance across multiple campaigns that work toward the same business goal, without changing how those campaigns bid.
You want to set shared performance targets like “Get 70 conversions this quarter at a $200 CPA” and track if you’re on pace.
You’re running a multi-channel initiative (e.g., search + video + display) and want a holistic view.
You’re working on seasonal, product, or brand-based initiatives where campaigns are spread across types but share a common goal.
Example: You’re running 6 campaigns for a Mother's Day promo across YouTube, Search, and Display. Use a campaign group to track conversions and CPA from all of them combined.
When not to use Campaign Groups?
When…
You’re looking to automate bidding or optimize budgets (Campaign Groups are strictly for tracking, not optimization)
You need to group campaigns by channel type only (filters in Google Ads already allow this)
You need a campaign to belong to more than one group (a campaign can only be in one group at a time)
How to measure success at the portfolio and group level?
This is where most people get stuck. You’ve turned on tCPA across five campaigns, grouped them under a portfolio… now what?
Here’s how to make sure you’re tracking the right outcomes:
Conversion volume: Are conversions rising across the group?
tCPA or tROAS alignment: Are you within range? Trending better or worse?
Budget allocation: Is the portfolio shifting spend toward the campaigns that actually perform?
Alert conditions: Are there campaigns that are 3x better—or worse—than the group average?
💡 Pro tip: Use Optmyzr to create deviation-based alerts. You can set alerts to flag campaigns that are underperforming the portfolio average by, say, 50%, so you can course-correct quickly.
For campaign groups, Google lets you set performance targets that track your progress over time. You can define conversion goals, CPA ceilings, ROAS floors, and even track by time periods (monthly, quarterly, or custom windows).
Here are some common mistakes to avoid
1. Setting a Max CPC cap that’s too tight
In portfolio bidding, especially with tCPA, setting a Max CPC can be a smart guardrail. But if you set it too low, you’ll end up constraining smart bidding altogether.
Tip: Don’t treat Max CPC like a strict ceiling. Instead, use it as a flexible limit that allows for variation. Setting it at 50–100% above your average CPC gives enough breathing room for algorithms to work effectively without overspending.
2. Combining campaigns with unrelated objectives
When using portfolio bidding or campaign groups, mixing campaigns with different goals (like one focused on visibility and another on sales) can confuse Google’s algorithms and skew your results.
For example, if you group a brand awareness campaign with a performance-driven campaign in a portfolio, you’ll get inconsistent signals that make it harder for Google to optimize toward any one outcome.
Tip: Keep your groups clean. Align on goal type, like all campaigns driving purchases, or all campaigns aiming for a specific ROAS.
3. Optimizing only at the campaign level
One of the biggest missed opportunities with portfolio bidding is continuing to analyze performance campaign by campaign. The whole point of a portfolio strategy is that Google uses cross-campaign insights to optimize toward the shared goal.
If you don’t look at aggregate outcomes, you might mistakenly pause a campaign that’s strategically helping the portfolio overall.
Tip: Regularly review the overall performance of the portfolio (conversion volume, CPA, ROAS, and how budget is distributed). Use tools like Optmyzr’s deviation-based alerts to flag outliers so you can spot issues without losing sight of the bigger picture.
4. Failing to revisit performance targets regularly
Campaign group targets, like conversion or CPA goals, can drift out of alignment if market conditions change. If you’re not updating these benchmarks quarterly or after key campaigns, you could be aiming at the wrong outcome.
Tip: Use historical benchmarking in tools like Optmyzr to compare current performance against past time periods. This gives context to what’s working and what needs adjusting.
How Optmyzr helps you, the way Google Ads doesn’t
While Google Ads gives you the basics, Optmyzr adds advanced control, visibility, and automation to make portfolio bidding and campaign groups easier to manage and scale.
Here’s what you get:
Performance alerts for campaign portfolios based on deviation ratios
Cross-campaign monitoring via dashboards and KPIs
Quick identification of outliers to help make informed decisions on adjusting budgets, targeting, or tactics accordingly
Automated rules and scripts to adjust bids when metrics fall outside target ranges
1. Performance alerts based on deviation ratios
Why it matters:
Optmyzr’s alerts help you catch campaigns that aren’t pulling their weight, like one that’s spending three times more than others but failing to deliver results.
View performance across all your campaigns in one place using the All Accounts Dashboard. It makes it easier to compare trends and track progress without jumping between multiple accounts or spreadsheets.
Use it for:
Ecommerce: Track seasonal performance across Shopping + Search.
Lead gen: Monitor multiple lead magnets and their cost per result.
B2B: Keep tabs on campaigns by funnel stage or industry vertical.
3. Quickly identify outliers to make informed decisions
It’s not just about tracking totals. Benchmarking helps you quickly spot which campaigns in a group are outperforming or falling behind so you can adjust strategy before small issues become big problems.
“Our entire team loved the PPC Investigator tool for its capacity to deliver clear insights into the root causes of changes in campaign performance.”
You can adjust bids automatically based on how your campaigns are performing, so you don’t have to make changes manually every day. The Rule Engine is one of Optmyzr’s most powerful tools that allows for complex and customized bid management strategies.
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“At Anicca Digital, we use Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to manage bids to a target ROAS.”
Max Conversion Value usually delivers the best ROAS, especially in lead gen.
Max Clicks is underrated and works surprisingly well in early-stage accounts.
Manual CPC still has a place—but only when actively managed and paired with strong conversion volume.
So instead of asking “which is best?”, ask: “Do I’ve enough conversions?" “Are my goals realistic?” “Am I giving Google enough to work with?”
That’s when automation (and portfolio bidding) really starts to pay off.
It’s time to get strategic with automation.
Using portfolio bidding and campaign groups isn’t about giving up control. It’s about replacing micromanagement with strategy. These tools help you streamline bidding, share learnings, and prioritize what matters most—business goals.
With the right setup and the right tools (hey, Optmyzr), you can:
Run tighter campaigns
Hit performance goals faster
Spot inefficiencies before they blow your budget
So if you’ve been hesitant to give portfolio strategies a shot, or if you’ve used them but haven’t measured success properly, now’s the time to rethink your approach.
And if you want the best of both worlds — powerful optimization and clear reporting — use Optmyzr to fill the gaps with alerts, rules, and portfolio-level insight you won’t get natively in Google Ads.
Inventory moves fast. If your campaigns can’t keep up, you’re either missing revenue or wasting spend.
In today’s market, PPC teams are facing tighter budgets, shifting consumer demand, and mounting pressure from leadership to justify every dollar spent. With unpredictable costs and cautious spending across industries, there’s little room for error.
If you’re managing products or listings that change often, or juggling multiple accounts, manual campaign creation quickly becomes unsustainable. Rebuilding campaigns every time your inventory updates is a time sink. And if you’re transitioning from an older tech stack that no longer meets your needs, you’re likely searching for something more reliable and scalable.
You need a smarter, more adaptive system: one that responds in real time to changes in your inventory so your ads stay relevant, accurate, and efficient. This guide shows you how to do just that by creating inventory-based campaigns that update themselves using dynamic templates and your live product feed.
You’ll learn how to personalize messaging at scale, stay in control, and stop rebuilding from scratch. Whether you’re promoting cars, clothing, properties, travel packages, or job listings, this approach helps you save time, boost performance, and scale your campaigns without the chaos.
What are inventory-based campaigns?
Inventory-based campaigns are created using a live feed of your products or services. Instead of manually updating every ad, you build a reusable template that pulls in real-time attributes like price, availability, or model. As the feed changes, your ads update automatically.
If your stock changes daily or you manage many campaigns across accounts, manual updates aren’t practical. Automated campaigns built from templates keep your ads accurate, timely, and efficient—perfect for industries like ecommerce, travel, real estate, jobs, and automotive.
Glossary: Key terms in this guide
Inventory-Based Campaigns: Ad campaigns built dynamically using a live feed of your products or listings.
Feed: A structured file that lists your inventory, used to automate ad creation and updates.
Templates: Campaign structures that define how ads, ad groups, and keywords are generated from your feed.
Dynamic Insertion: Placeholders like {Brand}, {Price}, or {Location} are auto-filled from your feed.
Inventory Filters: Rules to control what gets advertised based on stock, discounts, or attributes.
Campaign Automator: Optmyzr’s tool for creating and managing inventory-based campaigns.
Rule Engine: A simple yet powerful tool in Optmyzr that lets you set up rules to automatically make changes to your PPC campaigns based on performance data. Think of it as your assistant that checks how things are going and suggests or applies updates, so your campaigns keep improving without needing constant manual work.
Why templates are the smartest way to scale
Let’s say you manage thousands of SKUs, like sports gear or seasonal products. Manually creating campaigns for every category or product line would take days. One catch-all campaign might be faster, but it gives you zero control.
Templates solve this. You set one campaign structure, define how to pull in key data from your feed, and let automation do the rest. You get targeted ads, organized ad groups, and relevant keywords—without starting from scratch.
You’re not locked into generic messaging. You can create dynamic rules like: “Prices starting from $<min(Price)>” or insert values like {Brand}, {Category}, or {Discount}. That’s flexible, scalable, and personalized automation.
Building campaigns that adapt automatically
Templates are only useful if they stay in sync with your inventory. That’s where Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator comes in:
Set up templates in minutes with AI-powered suggestions that use your feed and website to automatically generate a campaign structure you can customize.
Automatically sync ads, keywords, and ad groups with your live feed
Define the logic once—Campaign Automator handles the rest
Example: Add a new product line to your feed? A new campaign is auto-created with the right structure, ads, and targeting.
Inventory filters: Show what’s relevant
You don’t need to advertise everything. With Inventory Filters, you can:
Exclude out-of-stock items: Stock not equal to “Not Available”
Skip certain brands: Brand not equal to XYZ
Focus on discounted products during a particular season: Discount > 0
This keeps your budget focused on what really matters.
Dynamic ads, assets, and keywords
Templates shine when paired with dynamic content—this means using placeholders in your campaign setup that pull live data from your feed. For example:
Use {Brand} and {Category} in your keywords
Sample ad headline with dynamic insertion: “Limited Time Offer: {Brand} {ProductType} at ${Price}”. This is a dynamic template that automatically inserts product data. For example, if your feed lists “Nike” as the brand, “Trainers” as the product type, and $40 as the price, the generated ad will read: “Limited Time Offer: Nike Trainers at $40”.
Your campaigns stay relevant, even as inventory and pricing evolve.
Automating without losing control
Automation doesn’t mean giving up control. Campaign Automator includes helpful features that let you stay on top of everything:
Preview Mode: See what changes will be made before anything goes live
Paused Campaigns: Set campaigns to launch in a paused state so you can review them first
Fallback Ads: Automatically use a backup ad if one can’t be created properly from the feed (like when a product name is too long)
Scheduled Updates: Choose how often the system checks and updates your campaigns—daily, weekly, or monthly
Labels: Add custom labels to easily organize and track campaigns created through Campaign Automator
Manual Approval Flows: Get notified of changes first and decide if you want to approve them—great for sensitive campaigns or high-budget accounts
Use cases by industry: What this looks like in the real world
Ecommerce
Promote only in-stock or discounted items
Generate price-based messaging
Use {Category} and {Brand} in structure and copy
Automotive
Pause ads for sold-out models
Campaigns by Make, Model, Trim
Include price, mileage, and location in the copy
What our customers achieved:
Bruce Automotive Groupdoubled its click-through rate and cut ad spend by 40% using flexible templates and inventory syncing.
SearchLab Digitalincreased conversions by 42% by switching to a scalable, feed-driven campaign structure.
Constellation Agencyreduced cost per lead by 25% by automating across accounts, without losing control.
These aren’t just improvements—they’re proof that smarter automation leads to bigger wins.
Real estate
Promote new listings dynamically
Pause sold listings automatically
Segment by location and price tier
Travel
Show only available packages
Use dynamic sitelinks for destinations
Insert {Location}, {Duration}, and {Price} into ad text
Campaign Automator is purpose-built to create, manage, and scale inventory-based campaigns without compromise:
Utilizes AI to auto-generate campaign templates based on your feed and website and to suggest sitelinks and callout assets, speeding up setup and reducing manual work.
Uses dynamic insertion in every element—ads, URLs, keywords, etc.
Accepts any source feed: Google Sheets, Merchant Center, XML, etc.
Automates updates on your preferred schedule
Global Templates let you scale one structure across many accounts. Just link the right data, and each account generates tailored campaigns.
All activity is tracked via Optimization History
Campaign Automator is just one part of Optmyzr’s all-in-one PPC platform. That means you don’t need separate tools to build, monitor, or improve your campaigns. You can create search, display, or DSA campaigns from your inventory, track performance trends using built-in reports, and use tools like Rule Engine to analyze what’s working and update your templates to make everything better.
It’s a full loop of creation, optimization, and scale—all in one place, without the chaos. And because everything is trackable and adjustable, you’re not only saving time. You’re also making smarter, more defensible decisions. So when your CFO asks how your ad budget is driving growth, you’ve got clear, data-backed answers.
Next steps: Build it once, evolve it always
Templates aren’t a hack, they’re a strategy. One that supports Optmyzr’s core philosophy: automation layering with PPC insurance. You scale fast, but stay safe.
You’re not stuck with rigid black-box automation or bloated workflows. You get:
Simple templates to get started fast—plus ready-to-use industry examples
Dynamic logic to adapt to your inventory
Controls like preview, filters, and labeling to stay in charge
No more manual rebuilds every time your catalog changes. Just evolving campaigns that do the heavy lifting without losing relevance, performance, or visibility.
Try Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator now
Launch your first dynamic inventory-based campaign in under 30 minutes—no repetitive work, no stress. Campaign Automator turns your product feed into high-performing, real-time ads with zero manual rebuilds.
Start your 14-day free trialand use our plug-and-play templates, designed for common industry verticals, so you can pick what fits and customize it quickly to get started.
Already a customer? Campaign Automator is free for one Google or Microsoft Ads account, and you can easily upgrade to manage more.
1. What is an inventory-based campaign, and how does it work?
A campaign built using your live product or service feed. Templates dynamically update ads based on real-time attributes like price, availability, or product type.
2. How do I create scalable PPC campaigns from a product feed?
Use a tool like Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator to turn your feed into dynamic campaigns using templates, filters, and real-time syncing.
3. What is Campaign Automator, and how much does it cost?
It’s Optmyzr’s tool for automating the creation and update of inventory-based search, display, and DSA campaigns. It’s free for one Google or Microsoft Ads account for existing Optmyzr customers. For non-customers, pricing starts at $89/month.
4. Is Campaign Automator a good fit for managing large or complex inventories?
Yes. It’s built for advertisers managing frequent inventory updates across ecommerce, automotive, real estate, travel, and job verticals.
Analysis plays a critical role in modern PPC advertising. Right now, where there’s less insight into your data and more control being taken away by the ad platforms, it becomes even more important to understand what’s happening in your account.
However, most advertisers struggle with it. Some of them don’t know where to start. Some don’t have the time or the expertise to do it themselves. And some make costly mistakes while performing an analysis.
In this article, you’ll learn:
What PPC analysis is
A framework to analyze PPC reports
Tactics to improve your PPC campaigns + a thorough checklist and
Tools and strategies for a thorough and effective PPC analysis
What is PPC analysis?
PPC analysis is the process of examining and evaluating the performance of your PPC campaigns. It involves tracking and measuring key metrics such as clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), quality score, conversion rate, cost per click (CPC), etc. By analyzing this data, you can identify areas where your campaigns are performing well and where they need to improve.
What is the purpose of PPC analysis?
The purpose of PPC analysis is to:
Set clear goals and objectives: By analyzing historical data and understanding the competitive landscape, you can set realistic and achievable goals for your PPC campaigns.
Plan and execute campaigns: It can help you identify the right keywords to target, create effective ad copy, and set appropriate bids.
Monitor and optimize campaigns: PPC analysis is essential for monitoring the performance of your campaigns and making necessary adjustments to improve results.
Measure and report on results: It can help you track your progress toward your goals and report on the results to your stakeholders.
And how does it help? It helps you prove ROI, track progress and trends, and brief leadership or clients on the performance of your campaigns.
A framework for analyzing PPC reports
The way you present your PPC analysis report can impact the rest of your project.
If your clients don’t understand your analysis, it can lead to more questions for everyone involved, even if you’re doing a great job.
For starters, you’ll need to know where to look and what to look for.
Where to look?
The ad platforms already offer a bunch of reporting tools. But if you need better insight into what’s going on with your account performance, you can use a third-party tool.
What to look for?
During the analysis, look at the key metrics that are relevant to your goals. These metrics will vary depending on your specific business, but some of the most common metrics include:
Clicks: The number of times that your ads were clicked.
Impressions: The number of times that your ads were shown.
Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of times that your ads were shown that resulted in a click.
Conversion rate: The percentage of clicks that resulted in a desired action, such as a sale or lead generation.
Cost per click (CPC): The average amount you paid for each click.
Cost per conversion (CPA): The average amount you paid for each conversion.
3 tips to cleanly interpret PPC reporting data
1. Segment your data: Segmenting helps you identify specific areas of your campaigns that need more detailed evaluation. For example, you can segment your data by campaign, ad group, or keyword and find where things need to improve.
2. Identify causes for performance swings.
This is where you can flex your PPC expertise. If an important metric sees a rise or a fall, it’s time to find the reason that caused that shift.
Why the Google Ads editor isn’t ideal for PPC analysis
If you run Google Ads, chances are that you use the Google Ads editor to evaluate those shifts. Although it is a decent tool to help you with simpler analysis tasks, it’s not the ideal tool for deeper analysis like pinpointing the exact problems with your campaign performance.
Here’s a video where Juan, our Senior Customer Success Manager explains it in detail.
The data we’ve shown in the video is only from a demo account that only has a few ad groups. Imagine analyzing campaign performance in a bigger account with dozens of campaigns, hundreds of ad groups, and hundreds of keywords. It can be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
3. Compare your performance to benchmarks: How your campaigns compare relative to your competitors or your industry is an area you can’t overlook. If you need help with this, look no further than Optmyzr’s PPC Vertical Benchmarks dashboard which lets you compare the performance of your account against other accounts in the same industry vertical or across verticals.
Tactics to improve your PPC campaigns + a post-analysis checklist
We reached out to a few experts and daily practitioners to learn what they do to improve their campaigns. Here’s what they suggest.
Amy McClain-Ponder, Group Director - Performance Media at Beeby Clark+Meyler said you should regularly check in on your Search Partners’ performance and exclude low-performing search queries. And speaking about if you should go broad, she said exact match worked wonders for them over broad and phrase match.
Exclude search queries that are low performers or are completely irrelevant to your business. While there are many search queries we can’t see, we do see that Google has gotten better about matching to at least the right realm of our clients’ businesses. But, we still see irrelevant keywords that are close, but still miss the mark – for example, for a homeowners insurance client, we might still see “car insurance” queries come through.
Regularly check in on Search Partners’ performance, especially if you start to see a dip in your lead quality or lower conversion rates for ecommerce. We have seen Search Partners be the culprit of low lead quality many times.
Consolidate your campaigns. Since Google smart bidding emerged, we have found that segmenting campaigns out too strictly - whether by match type, device, or even categories can be detrimental to performance. We’ve done tests where we have consolidated device, match type, and similar themes into one campaign to feed the Google algorithm, and we have seen improvements in CPA and ROAS.
“On a day-to-day basis, make sure all your efforts are approved. Any disapprovals should be addressed and fixed immediately. Analyze the search term report to ensure that your keywords match with relevant searches and the correct search intent.
Exclude all that are irrelevant and add them to your negative keyword list. And checking notifications for disapprovals and other issues allows you to make fixes as soon as they come up.” - Benjamin Sulka, Cleveland Clinic
He also listed several other tips below:
Make sure your conversion actions are tracking properly.
Check budget pacing regularly.
Know your competition and how your PPC efforts stack up with theirs. Look over the auction insights report for individual campaigns and ad groups. Focus on how these numbers change over time.
Add “Search Lost IS (impression share) due to rank”, “Search Lost IS due to budget”, and “Search Impr Share” to your reports and compare how these metrics change over time. This will give you an idea of how you can make adjustments to regain impression share in competitive auctions.
Check the Content report and look at performance for “Where Ads Showed”. For display campaigns, look at all of your placements regularly and exclude anything irrelevant.
Consider device performance and make sure your landing pages are mobile-optimized. Especially if most of your traffic is from mobile.
Compare performance over different date ranges as much as you possibly can.
Look at keyword quality scores. Low scores imply poor messaging in your ads and landing pages. This has implications for your CPC as well.
Consider your business’s seasonality when making changes or decisions within your account. If there is a certain time when your company tends to sell more, it might make sense to put an extra budget into that period.
After consolidating all these tips, here’s a daily, weekly, and monthly PPC analysis checklist for you.
Daily PPC analysis checklist
Check Ad Spend: Review your daily budget to ensure you’re not overspending. Monitor for any unexpected spikes in spending.
Monitor CTR: Monitor your CTR daily to catch any sudden drops or spikes in click performance.
Keep an eye on search query performance: Keep an eye on the performance of your high-value or high-cost keywords to prevent overspending or identify opportunities for bid adjustments.
Check Ad Position: Check your ad positions to ensure they remain within your target range. Adjust bids as needed to maintain position.
Review Search Term Report: Regularly review search term reports to identify irrelevant or costly search terms. Add negative keywords to filter out unwanted traffic.
Review Negative Keywords: Review your negative keyword list and add any new negative keywords based on the week’s search term report.
Review Ad Extensions: Check the performance of ad extensions, such as site links and callout extensions. Optimize or pause underperforming extensions.
Adjust bids: Make real-time bid adjustments based on performance data. Increase bids for top-performing keywords or decrease bids for low-performing ones.
Weekly PPC analysis checklist
Conduct a performance review: Assess the overall weekly performance of your campaigns. Look for trends and changes that need further investigation.
Review A/B tests: Review the results of any A/B tests you’re running, such as ad copy, landing pages, or bidding strategies. Make adjustments based on your findings.
Check Quality Score: Check Quality Scores for your keywords. Identify keywords with low scores and work on improving ad relevance and landing page quality.
Review ad copy performance: Evaluate the performance of different ad copies and test new variations based on the data.
Monitor competitors: Monitor competitors’ ads and strategies to stay competitive. Identify new competitors or changes in ad copy.
Monitor budget allocation: Ensure your budget is being allocated efficiently. Shift the budget to campaigns or ad groups that are performing well.
Review geographical performance: Analyze how different regions are performing and adjust geo-targeting settings as needed.
Review device performance: Check how your ads perform on various devices (desktop, mobile, tablet). Adjust bids and ad copy for each device based on performance.
Monthly PPC analysis checklist
Conduct a comprehensive monthly performance review: Conduct a comprehensive review of your monthly performance comparing it to previous months and assessing progress toward your goals.
Conduct ROI Analysis: Calculate the ROI for your campaigns to ensure they align with your business objectives.
Analyze your conversion funnel: Review the customer conversion journey and identify potential areas for improvement in the funnel.
Check your audience segments: Analyze audience data and create or refine custom audience segments for more targeted advertising.
Review all landing pages: Evaluate the performance of your landing pages. Make any necessary improvements to enhance user experience and conversions.
Plan budgets: Plan your budget allocation for the upcoming month based on the performance data and goals.
Adjust ad schedules: Review ad scheduling performance. Adjust the timing of your ads as needed based on monthly insights.
Review ad messaging: Refresh your ad copy and messaging to keep it relevant and engaging.
Easily identify performance changes in your PPC account using the PPC Investigator and PPC Policy & Audits
PPC Investigator
The PPC Investigator is an insights tool that’ll help you find exactly which element in a given account caused a metric to increase or decrease, and whether it’s a keyword, placement, or an entire network that caused the changes.
It has two components:
Cause Chart
Root Cause Analysis
Cause Chart
The Cause Chart is based on the fact that the performance of every metric depends on the performance of other underlying metrics. It uses the relationships between different metrics to show potential causality.
Root Cause Analysis
After identifying which metric needs to be worked on, the Root Cause Analysis goes a step further and highlights the exact Campaigns/Ad groups/Product partition/Keywords, etc. that were responsible for the change in an account.
It shows top movers who are significant contributors to the change in the account when compared across the two date ranges. You can view the top three positive and negative movers for a particular account.
Here’s an example of how you can use the PPC Investigator. You can ask, “Why did my clicks change during this quarter as compared to the previous quarter?”
Or, if you want to be specific about the date range, you can construct a question like, “Why did my Cost per conversion change during Aug. 10, 2023, and Aug. 15, 2023, compared to July 5, 2023, to July 10, 2023?”
And then wait for the tool to give you a visual answer.
You can see in the image above how the tool starts with one question or one ‘Why’ from you and then charts out the reasons by asking multiple whys in the process automatically.
Or if you’d like to know how your traffic from mobile devices has changed over say the last 30 days, this tool can figure out the root causes for the improved performance on mobile devices. This insight will help you plan future strategies for different devices.
Now, you need not necessarily use this tool only to identify problems in performance. You’d also want to know why something was working for you. For example, in the same image above, the display impression share has actually increased, which helps you understand what you are doing right.
The PPC Investigator is a favorite among our users and we don’t doubt why. If you’re serious about learning how your campaign performance has changed, you should give this tool a try.
PPC Policy and Audits
The PPC Policy and Audits is a tool to audit your accounts, specifying the parameters to be considered, and receiving an overall average performance grade to see how everything is doing.
The tool lets you find if you have the right number of ads and keywords based on the latest best practices and suggests fixes if there are any issues. It can also detect missing RSAs, duplicate keywords, conflicting keywords, and more.
A way toward effective PPC performance analysis
Analyzing your campaigns is an ongoing process. It requires continuous evaluation, strategic thinking, and a commitment to adapt and refine campaigns based on changing market conditions and business goals.
However, many advertisers still neglect it, either because they don’t have the time or expertise to do it themselves, or they haven’t found an effective tool that can make it easier for them, or because they don’t see the value in it.
We would advise this: Start small. Focus on the most important metrics that matter to your bottom line. Don’t try to analyze every aspect of your campaigns at once.
And if you need help, make use of the Optmyzr tools mentioned in this article.
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world 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.
Coke vs. Pepsi, ketchup vs. mustard, caring about Quality Score vs. ignoring it – some debates are as old as time itself.
With more advertisers relying on first- and third-party automation to deliver great performance with less hassle, everybody has access to the same bid management tools. The assumption is that ad rank is impacted solely by bids and so the effort that goes into raising Quality Score (QS) is less important or rewarding.
Now, before going into the details, let’s back up a bit and understand what quality score actually is and the factors that contribute to it.
Quality Score is an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. Higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions.
How is Quality Score calculated?
Image courtesy Instapage.com
Factors affecting Quality Score
Advertisers tend to depend largely on bidding strategies to gain a winning position in the ad auction, but overlooking Quality Score can actually harm your position. That’s because the things that improve your QS also make your ad more appealing to search users:
1. Ad Relevance
This component looks at how close your ad is to the search query. Google is looking at how closely the message in your ad matches the search term and its intent. This component is something you can manage more easily than the others on this list.
2. Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR)
This component is based on the historical performance of your keywords and ads. Google estimates how likely your ad is to be clicked based on things like ad text relevance, ad creativity, keyword relevance, and historical performance.
3. Landing Page Experience
Are your customers happy with what they see after clicking on your ad? Google is looking at how relevant your landing page is to the keyword and ad. But it also takes into account factors like transparency, ease of navigation, original content, and page load times, as they affect the overall user experience.
Google compiles these three factors to assign a score of 1 through 10 to every keyword. What this means is that this number is only a representation of the aggregate relevance of the keyword across auctions. It is not used to rank ads as a whole.
Since your ad rank is recalculated each time your ad is eligible to appear, your ad position can fluctuate each time. This makes auction time QS more granular than a 1-10 number.
It depends on several other factors, which not only fluctuate all the time but are also different for every single search that happens on Google. These contextual elements include:
User location
Day and time of day
Search term intent and proximity to keyword
Competing ads (if any)
Your Quality Score at that moment
Many other targeting factors
Because QS is so granular and volatile, ignoring your ads (even ones that started out with a great score) can harm your performance over time. But what it also means is that you can always improve your ads and revitalize your low QS. All you have to do is keep optimizing your ads.
Essentially, Google’s machine learning algorithms monitor how and what users interact with on the SERP to make predictions about future interactions. User behavior is constantly changing, so what may be relevant today may not seem so in the next few months. In other words, a history of not caring about your ad relevance and putting all your eggs in the bid basket will count against you.
Keep an eye on how relevant your ads are to users, how closely they relate to what people search for, and their experience after the click.
Why is Quality Score still worth your time?
Here are 3 reasons why you should still care about Quality Score:
Quality Score was and continues to be the key way to understand what Google thinks of the quality and relevance of your ads.
Automation backed by machine learning delivers good results, but it can’t do much about relevance problems, so focusing on relevant ads will improve your performance further.
A better Quality Score always has and always will help you save money.
The finer points of Quality Score calculation might seem complex, but that shouldn’t discourage you. Quality Score still plays a significant part in ad rank calculation. Unless your brand has bottomless pockets and can afford to bid crazy amounts to rank first, neglect Quality Score at your own risk.
Max Bid x Quality Score = Ad Rank
The above formula is a simplified version of the actual calculation, but the core principle behind it is still valid, and Ad Rank is still based on these two components – Quality Score and Maximum Bid – so a low Quality Score can hurt your position as much as a low bid. Of course, the upside is that paying attention to Quality Score can bring down your CPC.
That’s because the ad in the highest position generally needs to bid less for a click than the ads below it. Advertisers with an excellent Quality Score get a discount that’s something of an open secret in PPC Land.
Want proof? Our customerZeller Mediamanaged to achieve a Quality Score of over 9.0, lower CPCs by 18%, and save $36,000 a month by using our Quality Score Tracker.
Not only does Optmyzr’s Quality Score Tracker show you the data that Google Ads gives you for quality score, but it goes above and beyond with great visuals while also aggregating account, campaign, and ad group quality score data.
It’s simple (if not easy) to get a high Quality Score: make your ads more relevant, target the right keywords, build a track record of ads with high CTR, and improve your landing page experience.
Improving keyword quality is probably the most crucial. If historical data shows that a keyword has a low CTR, that’s an indication to Google that users haven’t found your ad relevant to that search. This calls for more specific keywords and improved account structure.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again (and again and again, until the heat death of the universe) – never stop optimizing your ads. Use Quality Score as an indicator, not the end result. You know what’s best for your account, so don’t be afraid to deviate from our advice if your particular situation demands it.
Ultimately, all advertisers are looking to deliver the best possible performance within their available budget. So it’s almost a no-brainer to do things that can get you more clicks within the same budget. If you end up making the search and purchase experiences better for users along the way, all the better!
And if you need help with improving your Quality Score and reducing your CPCs, take our 14-day free trial today.
Ever looked at past PPC performance and wished you could tweak reality just a little? Now you can! Introducing Optmyzr RetroEdit™—the world’s first campaign-editing tool powered by quantum PPC technology and advanced time-travel algorithms.
How RetroEdit™ Works
Pick a Past Campaign: Choose any historical campaign.
Select Your Metrics: Want more conversions? Higher revenue? Lower CPC? Adjust any metric you like.
Edit the Results: Type in your desired number and hit “Apply Retroactively.”
Instantly, RetroEdit™ rewrites history to reflect your changes, updating metrics, financial reports, and even your actual bank balance!
Important (and slightly concerning) Warnings
Increasing Revenue: May lead to unexpected bonuses, spontaneous celebrations, or confused accountants.
Decreasing Metrics: Be cautious—reducing conversion values might lead to negative bank balances and awkward calls from finance.
“User Testimonials” from Alternative Timelines
“I boosted my conversions last quarter from 50 to 500. Now I’m employee of the decade and nobody seems to question it!”
— Marty McFly, Flux Capacitor Marketing
“Reduced CPC by 99% retroactively and started receiving random refund checks from Google. Thanks, RetroEdit™!”
— Doc Emmett, Founder, TimeTravel PPC Agency
Reality Check!
Of course, RetroEdit™ isn’t actually real—Happy April Fool’s Day!
While altering history isn’t possible (yet!), Optmyzr helps you optimize your PPC campaigns for real-world success with genuine insights and powerful tools.
Enjoy the laugh, and when you’re ready for real results (in this timeline), Optmyzr is here to help! Sign up for a14-day free trialtoday.
The biggest threat to your PPC performance isn’t competition; it’s outdated thinking. Advertisers have built their strategies around control for years: aggressively blocking “bad” traffic, over-segmenting campaigns, and setting safe ROAS targets.
But PPC has evolved, and if you’re still managing campaigns like it’s 2023, you’re already behind. So we sat down with Andrew Lolk and Julie Bacchini on our PPC Town Hall podcast to discuss the biggest mistakes advertisers are making today; and what’s actually working in 2025.
While some takeaways apply to other industries, this discussion is rooted in ecommerce. Some of what we found might confirm your suspicions. Some of it might challenge what you thought was a best practice. But one thing is clear: the advertisers winning this year aren’t the ones playing it safe.
You can watch the full Town Hall below:
The PPC strategies that no longer work
Here are some strategies that might have worked in the past but are now holding you back:
Mistake #1: Overusing negative keywords
Negative keywords are supposed to protect your budget by blocking bad traffic. However, too many advertisers go overboard, cutting off traffic that Smart Bidding could have optimized into profitable conversions.
Why it’s a problem: Negative keywords don’t just stop irrelevant clicks. They also block Smart Bidding from learning, forcing the system to work with less data and fewer opportunities. This leads to higher CPCs, fewer conversions, and campaigns that never scale.
In our recent PPC Town Hall, Andrew Lolk put it bluntly:
“People are trying to outsmart Google too much. Smart Bidding needs data to learn, and by being overly aggressive with negatives, you’re starving the system.”
But this isn’t a one-size-fits-all issue. Julie Bacchini highlighted that the right negative keyword strategy depends on the advertiser’s budget and conversion volume:
“If you have a lot of budget and plenty of runway to let the algorithms do their thing, you have more flexibility in how you approach negative keywords. If you’re more budget-limited or if your conversions take longer, you might need to be more precise in your strategy when deciding what to eliminate and what to experiment with.”
The takeaway? Advertisers with high-volume ecommerce accounts can afford to test loosening negative keyword restrictions, while lower-budget or long-sales-cycle accounts may need to be more selective.
📌Example: An ecommerce brand selling high-end running shoes might have added “cheap” as an account-level negative keyword years ago to keep out bargain hunters.
It made sense at the time: why pay for clicks from shoppers unlikely to convert?
Fast-forward to today, and they’ve launched a more affordable shoe line. But that old negative keyword? Still there. Still blocking traffic. So now, people actually looking for their budget-friendly shoes aren’t even seeing the ads.
The worst part? No one even realized it was happening. That one keyword, added years ago and never revisited, was quietly cutting them off from the exact audience they were trying to reach.
Andrew put this to the test with a bold experiment: he removed every negative keyword from an account. Most advertisers would expect this to open the floodgates to low-quality traffic and wasted spend. But that’s not what happened.
Instead of performance tanking, revenue skyrocketed 5.5x.
The reason was simple: the blocked traffic wasn’t bad. Smart Bidding just never had the chance to optimize it. And since this was an ecommerce account with plenty of data, Google’s algorithms had what they needed to adjust bids and find profitable conversions.
Now, we’re not saying you should remove every negative keyword overnight. Andrew’s case was an extreme test to prove a point. But his results highlight something critical: most advertisers are too aggressive with negatives and are limiting Smart Bidding’s ability to optimize.
A better move? Be open to testing
Instead of assuming old negatives are still necessary, test selectively removing a few and monitor the impact. If you have a high-volume ecommerce account, Smart Bidding may be able to optimize some of the traffic you previously blocked.
But if your budget is tighter or conversions take longer, you may need to take a more cautious approach. Either way, blindly keeping negatives from years ago isn’t a strategy; it’s just a habit. It’s time to review, test, and refine.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Not all negatives are bad but not all of them are helping, either. Before making changes, sanity check your list. Are these negatives still blocking wasted spend, or could Smart Bidding turn some of that traffic into conversions?
It also matters where you apply negatives:
Account-level negatives can be too broad, especially if your business has evolved
Campaign-level negatives help steer traffic between different campaign types
Ad group-level negatives can direct budget toward priority search terms by preventing overlap between ad groups, ensuring each one focuses on the right queries.
Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder makes this process easy by analyzing your search terms and performance data. It helps you identify overly broad negatives and spot underperforming keywords, so you can make informed decisions—blocking only what truly isn’t relevant.
And if you’re working through a long list of search terms, AI can also help speed things up. We tested how ChatGPT can rank search terms by relevance, making it easier to spot low-value queries to consider as negatives.
See how we did it in this video:
Mistake #2 – Splitting too many Performance Max campaigns
Splitting Performance Max campaigns excessively is a critical error many advertisers make.
When you fragment your PMax campaigns, each individual segment needs to reach a minimum conversion threshold to be effective—about 30 conversions monthly just to function, but closer to 300 for genuine optimization.
There’s no data sharing between these split campaigns. Your conversions aren’t pooled, you can’t implement shared budgets, and you can’t consolidate data in a bidding strategy.
You’re essentially forcing each campaign to learn from scratch with insufficient data.
Consider an advertiser selling apparel who creates separate PMax campaigns for t-shirts, jeans, jackets, and accessories—all targeting a 400% ROAS. While this organization seems logical, they’re actually handicapping Google’s algorithm by restricting each campaign’s data.
Now you might argue “But my product categories genuinely require different ROAS targets based on their margins and competition. Consolidation would sacrifice this precision.”
This is the only legitimate reason to split campaigns: when you have significantly different ROAS targets. If your jeans can sustain a 500% ROAS while shoes need a 300% target, separation makes sense.
But be honest: are your targets truly that different?
Andrew observes that in 80% of accounts, the ROAS targets vary negligibly (like 700%, 725%, and 715%)—differences that only hurt performance while providing no strategic benefit. Unless your margin structures demand dramatically different targets, consolidation will almost always outperform fragmentation by giving the algorithm the comprehensive data it needs to truly optimize.
He further says that, if you’re doing this today, it might be the one case where you should “blow your account up” and rebuild with a consolidated approach.
But this challenge isn’t limited to ecommerce. Julie further pointed out that lead generation advertisers often struggle even more with split PMax campaigns because they don’t generate enough conversion volume for Smart Bidding to work efficiently.
“Performance Max on the lead gen side can be a little tricky, right? Because for a lot of lead gen accounts, that threshold Andrew was talking about with conversions really comes into play. Lead gen accounts often don’t reach a point where the machine learning and smart bidding hit the level of efficiency they can on a high-volume ecommerce account.”
That’s why consolidation matters even more for lead gen.
If your campaigns aren’t getting enough conversions, Smart Bidding won’t have the data it needs to optimize. Instead of breaking things down too much, it’s better to group similar conversions together so the system has a real chance to learn and improve performance.
🔍Dig deeper: We analyzed 9,199 accounts and 24,702 PMax campaigns to find out what’s actually driving ROI. Spoiler: there’s no one-size-fits-all approach.
Our findings show that ecommerce and lead gen campaigns perform differently in PMax and the best results often come from running multiple campaigns, each with a single asset group.
Want to see what else we found? Check out the full analysis here.
Mistake #3: Holding on to SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups)
Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) had their moment, but that moment is long gone. What used to be a go-to strategy for tight control over search campaigns is now outdated, inefficient, and actively working against automation.
Why it’s a problem: Back when exact match actually meant exact match, SKAGs made sense. They helped advertisers control which ads showed for specific queries. But today? Google’s matching system has changed. Phrase and broad match are smarter, and Smart Bidding is designed to adjust for relevance in ways SKAGs simply don’t support.
Julie made her stance clear:
“The single keyword ad group’s time has come and gone, people. No more.”
She explained that over-segmentation can limit the system’s ability to optimize efficiently across intent signals and can lead to unnecessary complexity.
Instead of trying to fight Google’s automation with rigid structures, the smarter move is to group keywords by intent rather than forcing a one-keyword-per-ad-group rule.
She further adds, “The platforms are trying to get us to be broader and broader in everything that we’re doing.” Instead of resisting, advertisers need to adapt their structure to give Smart Bidding enough data while keeping control where it matters.
📌 Example: An advertiser running a campaign for men’s running shoes might have historically set up SKAGs like this:
Ad Group 1: "men’s running shoes"
Ad Group 2: "buy men’s running shoes"
Ad Group 3: "best men’s running shoes"
Each with its own ad and exact match targeting. But with Google’s close variants, intent-based matching, and automation, these SKAGs will likely end up competing against each other and over-segmentation could reduce optimization efficiency.
Julie highlighted why keeping some separation still makes sense, but not at the SKAG level:
“I prefer to try to, even if it’s just for my thought processes and managing things, sometimes, for budget allocations, I’m a fan of the stack, the single theme, trying to keep things a little bit separated.”
This is where Single-Theme Ad Groups (STAGs) come in. Instead of isolating individual keywords, STAGs group keywords by intent while still allowing for control over ad messaging and landing pages.
A better move? Shift to STAGs and let automation work for you
Instead of clinging to SKAGs, shift to Single-Theme Ad Groups (STAGs). This keeps keywords logically grouped while still giving Google enough data to optimize effectively.
Julie summed it up perfectly:
“You have more flexibility in the language that you’re using in your ad copy. You could be sending to different landing pages depending on how sophisticated you are on that side of things.”
That flexibility is key to making automation work in your favor rather than fighting against it.
Mistake #4: Relying on last-click attribution
If you’re still using last-click attribution in 2025, you’re making bid decisions on incomplete data. It might feel familiar, but it’s fundamentally flawed as it credits 100% of a conversion to the last interaction while ignoring every touchpoint that led up to it.
Think about your own behavior. Do you ever see a single ad, click, and purchase instantly? Probably not. You research, compare, and interact with multiple touchpoints before making a decision. Last-click ignores this entirely.
It gives all the credit to the final click while ignoring SEO, social, email, upper-funnel ads, and remarketing—all of which play a role in driving conversions.
Andrew shares that: “Last-click attribution is absolutely dead. It should never be used for anyone outside the baby stage of an account.” He goes even further, calling it “100% wrong” – and this is coming from someone who manages millions in ad spend.
Julie goes even further calling attribution “a bit of fairy dust and wishes rather than hard data.” And with privacy restrictions making tracking more fragmented than ever, traditional attribution models are becoming even less reliable.
“We sold it as a strong, reliable factor—this is why you should do digital advertising instead of other types. But I think that’s starting to unravel as we move from 2024 into 2025. So, I think we’ll need to change the way we talk about attribution; more as a weighting or contributing factor rather than some absolute piece of data.”
How last-click distorts reality
Let’s say a customer:
Finds your product through a Google Search ad
Sees your remarketing ad while browsing news
Clicks a promotional email a week later
Finally converts after clicking a social ad
Last-click would give 100% credit to social, completely ignoring the critical role each previous interaction played. Advertisers then mistakenly shift budgets away from channels that actually contribute to conversions; just because last-click says they don’t.
What should you do instead?
First, align attribution with your bidding strategy. As our CEO, Frederick Vallaeys suggests, “If you’re going to trust your bidding to these systems, it probably makes sense to have a similarly run system to assign value.”
Data-driven attribution (DDA) is your best option here, even with its limitations. It distributes credit across the customer journey instead of rewarding only the last touchpoint.
Second, change how you think about attribution. It’s not absolute truth; it’s a directional signal. Instead of chasing a “perfect” model, look for patterns in the data and optimize accordingly.
Finally, go beyond attribution altogether.
Metrics like the Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) provide a more holistic view by measuring overall revenue impact rather than assigning credit to individual channels.
The bottom line? If you’re still using last-click in 2025, you’re making decisions with one eye closed. Your competitors who’ve moved beyond it are seeing the full picture – and taking full advantage of it.
Mistake #5: “Set and forget” ROAS targets
Many advertisers fall into the trap of setting a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) target and treating it as an unchangeable rule. While establishing a baseline ROAS is essential, rigidly adhering to it can stifle growth by overlooking valuable scaling opportunities. Market shifts, competitive pressures, and seasonal fluctuations necessitate a more dynamic approach.
The pitfall of a fixed ROAS
Take an ecommerce brand selling high-end electronics. They’ve set a 500% ROAS target across all campaigns. At first, things look great. But over time, they notice impressions drop, conversion volume stalls, and competitors start gaining traction.
Instead of adjusting their target, they hold firm without realizing that lowering ROAS slightly might actually drive more conversions at a profitable scale.
Andrew sees this resistance all the time:
“Most advertisers treat ROAS like a hard rule instead of a flexible lever. But if you’re never adjusting, you’re never discovering opportunities to scale.”
A good rule of thumb is to start by lowering or raising your ROAS target by 10-20% in a controlled test. This helps you understand if a small tweak can lead to additional conversions without drastically increasing costs.
Instead of reacting on assumptions, you’ll have real performance data to guide future decisions. Julie further adds:
“Many advertisers fear lowering their ROAS targets because they assume it will tank profitability. But sometimes, easing up on ROAS actually increases total revenue and profit because you’re allowing Smart Bidding to compete in more auctions.”
It’s understandable: tight margins make strict ROAS targets feel necessary.
But look beyond ROAS and focus on actual business impact. Many advertisers chase high ROAS numbers without realizing that a slightly lower ROAS can drive more total revenue and profit.
A 500% ROAS might sound great, but if a 400% target leads to double the conversions at a strong margin, which one is really better for your business?
For instance, a high ROAS with low conversion volume can mean you’re not reaching a wide enough audience even though your campaign is cost-effective. Similarly, a high ROAS with high spend means you’re not generating additional revenue. It may be a good idea to think of ways to make your campaign more sustainable.
Start analyzing blended metrics that provide a comprehensive view of your campaigns like:
Profit per Conversion: This metric reveals the actual profit generated by each conversion, offering a clearer picture of profitability
Lifetime Value (LTV): Understanding the long-term value of a customer helps you make informed decisions about acceptable acquisition costs
Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER): This measures the overall effectiveness of your marketing spend, providing a broader perspective than ROAS alone
Another hesitation advertisers have is whether adjusting ROAS will confuse Smart Bidding. In reality, small, controlled shifts (10-20%) won’t disrupt learning but just help you see if you’re losing out.
Mistake #6 Neglecting video as a marketing channel
AI has made writing too easy. Every brand can churn out ad copy and blog posts in seconds. This leads to a flood of generic, soulless content that all sounds the same. If you want to grab attention, video isn’t optional anymore; it’s your best shot at actually standing out.
Yet, most PPC advertisers are completely failing to take advantage of it.
“YouTube is the best ad channel, the best ad inventory in the world, and yet, most advertisers completely ignore it.”
—Andrew Lolk
Let that sink in. The biggest untapped goldmine in PPC is sitting right in front of you, and you’re still prioritizing static search ads?
Even worse, many advertisers still believe YouTube is just a branding play.
The brands winning right now are using video to drive direct conversions, crush their remarketing, and influence branded search behavior.
And it’s not just about ads as video is changing how businesses communicate.
Andrew’s agency stopped sending long email reports and switched to quick Loom videos. Clients actually paid attention to performance updates instead of skimming over walls of text.
Still think video isn’t for you? That mindset won’t cut it anymore.
“For brands, if we’re talking about the people we work with, the time for simply saying, ‘No, we don’t do video,’ is probably not going to be sustainable much longer. So, if you’re not already doing it, at the very least, you need to be talking about it, putting resources in place, and planning for it.”
—Julie Bacchini
The excuses for avoiding video are dead. You don’t need Hollywood-level production. Simple screen recordings, casual smartphone clips, or short-form videos will put you ahead of 90% of advertisers still stuck in 2019.
Case study: how one simple video ad took Dr. Squatch from unknown to $100M
Take Dr. Squatch, a brand selling natural soap for men. They weren’t a household name until they ran a low-budget, personality-driven video ad on YouTube.
What they did: Instead of a polished, high-production video, they shot a simple, direct-response ad featuring a charismatic spokesperson walking through the benefits of their soap with humor and energy.
The video was raw, fun, and felt real. Here are the results they achieved:
12M+ views in just four months (122.3M as of today)
They didn’t have a massive budget. They didn’t use fancy effects. They just leveraged video in a way that static ads never could.
Evolve your strategy and dominate PPC in 2025
If this list made you rethink how you run your campaigns, that’s a good thing. The worst mistake you can make in PPC isn’t bidding too high or picking the wrong keyword; it’s refusing to evolve.
So take a step back, audit your approach, and ask yourself: Are you running PPC for the way it worked in the past, or the way it works today?
Need help making that shift? Optmyzr helps you stay ahead of the curve with powerful automation, smarter insights, and tools designed for how PPC actually works in 2025.
Start your 14-day trial today and see the difference.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
⚠️ Disclaimer: Opinions and suggestions shared by experts in this article are their own and do not reflect those of Optmyzr.
Whether you’re looking to drive more traffic, raise brand awareness, or boost conversions using Google Ads, your bid management strategy can make or break your results.
Choosing the right bidding strategy and scaling it properly can make a huge difference in getting the best results from your campaigns.
However, with so many bidding strategies to choose from, constant updates, and the delicate balance between automation and manual tweaks, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
In this article, we discuss the different bid strategies in Google ads and provide tips on choosing the best one for your business and scaling it for the best results.
A step-by-step guide to setting up bid strategies
We’re starting with a guide on how you can access and configure bid strategies in your Google Ads account. Feel free to skip ahead if you’re already familiar with the setup.
Sign in to your Google Ads Account.
Choose ‘Campaigns’ from the menu on the left.
Choose the campaign you want to modify, hover your mouse over the campaign name, and click on the gear icon. Alternatively, you can also click the campaign and access the settings at the top.
In the menu that opens up, click on ‘Bidding’.
Click on ‘Change Bidding Strategy’.
In the dropdown menu that appears, you’ll be able to choose between Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversion Values.
6. There are also some hidden bidding strategies. To opt for these, click on ‘Select Bid Strategy Directly’.
7. Here you will be able to choose from Maximize Clicks, Target Impression Share, and Manual CPC.
To make the best out of your Google Ads budget, it’s always best to understand how these bidding strategies work for different campaign types. And that’s what we’ll cover below.
Examples of bidding strategies for different campaign types
Google offers various types of bidding strategies based on different campaign types and business goals. Choosing the right strategy is highly dependent on whether you want to increase brand awareness, maximize conversions, drive traffic, or achieve a specific ROAS (return on ad spend).
Here are some practical examples to illustrate this:
1. Search campaigns
A B2B SaaS company wants businesses to sign up for a free demo. Since each demo could be a potential customer, the company would want to bring in as many sign-ups as possible within a defined budget.
Opting for tCPA (target cost per acquisition) is telling Google to strive for a target CPA while getting as many conversions as possible. You get the most sign-ups without exceeding your cost per lead.
If your campaigns don’t have enough conversion data (~30 conversions in the past 30 days), our latest study on bidding strategies finds it effective to start with Maximize Clicks with a bid cap (so you don’t spend too much per click) to gather the initial conversion data. You can figure out what your traffic costs and if it fits within your budget.
When setting a bid cap, ensure it’s not more than 10% of your daily budget or you’ll risk not getting enough clicks. Also, since Maximize Clicks focuses more on volume of clicks, ensure you’re only running Google search, opting out of search partners and display expansion.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Configure Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to adjust keyword bids based on campaign-level CPA. For example, if a keyword’s CPA is 50% higher than the campaign average, lower its bid by 20%.
2. Shopping campaigns
An online ecommerce store selling gadgets has an inventory in which some products have higher profit margins than others. Their aim is to sell enough of the right products to maximize revenue without sacrificing profitability.
Setting a tROAS (target return on ad spend) translates to Google trying to bid higher for products or users that are likely to generate high-value transactions. Instead of simply prioritizing more sales, tROAS optimizes for more revenue.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use the Smart Product Labeler to segment your products based on their performance — targeting top sellers with higher bids and lowering bids for others. This ensures budgets are allocated according to product potential, increasing the overall ROAS.
3. Display campaigns
A company selling an online course on its website wants to retarget users who’ve started enrolling but did not complete it. Since these users have shown a high level of interest in the course, the company uses a display retargeting campaign for two reasons.
A user who has abandoned the enrollment is just a few steps away from converting. Visual ads with clear USPs might be more effective in nudging such users to complete their enrollment than text ads.
Display campaigns can re-engage qualified users and remind them to complete the enrollment by reaching them across websites, apps, and even YouTube even if they’re not searching
Since a successful enrollment counts as a conversion, the company calculates it can afford $100 per conversion. Based on this, they choose Target CPA bidding, allowing Google to optimize bids at $100 or lower for placements most likely to drive enrollments.
Ensure Google tracks the right conversions. In this case, completed enrollments would count as the primary goal, while actions like clicking “Enroll Now” or viewing the course page count as secondary conversions. This helps the algorithm optimize for actual enrollments and not other website interactions.
It is also important to secure user consent according to regulations like GDPR before using cookies and other tracking technologies for retargeting and other remarketing audience types such as video RLSA.
4. Video campaigns
A business just launched a new product and they use a video ad to create brand awareness. Since people are not aware of the product and not actively searching for it, the aim is to push the video ad to a large audience for maximum visibility.
Using tCPM (target cost per thousand impressions) maximizes the number of people who see your ad within the budget you’ve defined. It increases visibility and is good for brand recall but may not result in immediate clicks or engagement.
💡Pro Tip: Layering tCPM with YouTube remarketing audiences can be useful in converting viewers to customers. Link your YouTube channel to your Google Ads account and create data segments based on different actions like viewing a specific video. Use these lists in your Google Ads campaigns to target them with relevant ads.
5. Performance Max campaigns
A custom home decor brand wants to maximize profitability by reaching potential customers across various Google platforms like Search, YouTube, and Display.
Since they want to maximize ad efficiency across these channels with minimum manual intervention, the seller considers running PMax campaigns to automate ad placements according to their revenue goals.
Opting for Maximize Conversion Value in this case allocates budgets across channels so as to prioritize high-value sales and increase revenue. Bids are optimized more aggressively on customers who are more likely to indulge in high-value purchases.
To enhance this strategy it is important to connect your CRM with Google Ads. This helps in tracking actual customer conversions and their revenue, allowing Google to optimize bids based on real sales value rather than low-value actions.
How to make the most of Google’s Smart Bidding strategies?
Smart bidding is a subset of automated bidding that focuses on conversions. Also known as auction-time bidding, it optimizes bids based on real-time auction insights.
Bids are optimized based on 60+ signals exclusive to Google’s smart bidding, including:
Contextual signals like browser, operating system, language, and others in addition to device, location, and time of day.
Search query-level data
Predicted conversions
Target budgets
Smart bidding uses these signals to adjust bids in real time to optimize ad spend. This means that the algorithm might increase bids if a user is more likely to convert. Conversely, it can also lower bids in cases where the likelihood of a conversion is low.
This is why advertisers switching from manual (where they have more control over individual bids) to smart bidding may see fluctuations in their CPC.
Now if you want some degree of control, smart bidding allows you to set bid floors and ceilings (min and max bid limits) through portfolio bidding so you avoid overspending without sacrificing profitability and visibility.
When to use smart bidding for maximum results
1. When you have enough conversion data Since smart bidding utilizes machine learning and historical data, you need to have sufficient data to optimize conversions. Google recommends at least 15 conversions over a month or longer for every campaign for target ROAS. But, we found that most advertisers clear 50+ conversions in a 30-day period and see better performance compared to accounts with fewer conversions.
This is because smart bidding strategies need extensive historical data to identify the patterns and signals that correlate to conversions. Our study shows that campaigns with more conversion data and stable performance give better results with smart bidding.
If you don’t have enough conversions, start with simpler strategies like Maximize Clicks to collect initial conversion data and then switch.
2. When you have a relatively stable ad spend Smart bidding strategies require something called a ‘learning period’ which is the time it takes for Google’s algorithm to adjust to changes in your campaign.
If your campaigns have predictable patterns in spends, it becomes easier for the algorithm to identify what works and adjust bids in response. This is especially important for Target ROAS or Target CPA where consistent spending is key to predicting the likelihood of conversions.
On the other hand, inconsistent ad spend results in longer learning periods, delaying bid optimizations.
Our studies indicate that the sweet spot for ad spend when it comes to smart bidding seems to be between $10K-$50K.
3. When you want to maximize revenue and not just conversions If your primary business goal is to grow your revenue rather than simply increasing the volume of conversions, smart bidding is a good strategy since it can optimize for both conversion count and value.
Accurately tracking conversion values will give you a clear picture of the revenue generated by your ad campaigns. This is key to testing out different strategies to figure out how to strike a balance between profit and volume.
4. When you have clearly defined and properly valued conversion actions Some advertisers think that smart bidding works only for higher ad spends. However, this is not entirely true. Smart bidding can be used effectively even if you have lower budgets if your conversion tracking is set up accurately.
For instance, you can consider including micro-conversions in your conversion tracking if you have limited data to work with. But each action needs to be assigned an appropriate value so Google allocates budgets to actions that matter most.
Bid smarter, not harder: Solutions to common bidding issues
Effective bid management can be a useful tool to maximize the ROI of your PPC campaigns. However, when bids are not optimized correctly, they can lead to wasted spend, missed opportunities, and poor campaign performance.
In such instances, you need to first identify your underperforming bids.
Signs your bids are underperforming
Low impressions: A low search impression share indicates that your ads are not showing up too often in search results. This can happen if your bids are too low in comparison to your competitors.
High CPCs: If you notice your cost-per-click keeps increasing without any improvement in conversions or ROAS, there’s a chance you’re overbidding.
Low CTR: A declining click-through-rate despite stable search volume could mean your ads are appearing lower on the page if your bids are too low.
Low conversion volume: If your conversion volume is low despite stable budgets, your ads are attracting less relevant people possibly due to lower bids.
Fixing overbidding and wasted ad spend
Overbidding your ads can deplete your budgets too quickly and reduce profit margins. It can even result in your ads showing up for loosely related searches, attracting low or mismatched-intent audiences. To fix this:
Review your search terms and implement negative keywords as much as possible to avoid irrelevant searches from triggering your ads.
Optimize bids for profitability using target CPA or target ROAS if you have enough conversion data.
Instead of bidding higher through the entire day or week, consider increasing bids during high-converting periods. Optmyzr’s Hour of the Week Bidder allows you to identify the most profitable times and set bid adjustments for them. It helps set up your ad schedules so that you get the flexibility to show your ads on a particular day or time of the week.
Improve ad copy and landing page relevance since it boosts your Quality Score and ad rank, allowing you to compete even with lower bids.
If you’re using ROAS-oriented bidding strategies, consider implementing bid caps so you can control ad spend.
Identify underperforming segments and lower bids on them
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use geo-bid adjustments in Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to identify locations that have higher CPA or no conversions at all and reduce bid adjustments on them to reduce wasted ad spends.
Solving underbidding and lost opportunities
Keeping your bids too low your ads may not show up at all or have reduced visibility in high-traffic areas. This results in lower CTR, reduced conversions, and put you at a disadvantage if your competitors are bidding higher for valuable ad placements.To counter this you can:
Use Auction Insights in Google Ads to see how your bids stand relative to competitors. Consider gradual bid increases for valuable keywords.
Identify high-value, high-intent keywords that are driving conversions and increase bids on them.
Use ad extensions to improve the relevance and visibility of your ads. They make your ad more engaging and informative, improving the likelihood of conversions even if you’re working with low to moderate bids in comparison to your competitors.
If you’re using smart bidding strategies, make sure to periodically review your settings so that they are aligned with your current business objectives. This ensures you’re not underbidding for the right kind of conversions. For example, an e-commerce seller previously prioritizing sales volume to establish their product line might want a higher ROAS in the upcoming months to increase profitability. In this case the seller may want to switch from Maximize Conversions to Target ROAS to avoid underbidding for profitability and efficiency.
When to use automated vs manual bidding in Google Ads?
As an advertiser, it’s easy to be confused between choosing automated or manual bidding for your campaigns. The key is to understand your goals and the type of campaign you want to run. Here’s a quick overview of both approaches to help you choose the right bid management strategy for your ads.
Criteria
Automated Bidding
Manual Bidding
Control
Less granular control, more automation
Full control over each bid
Efficiency
More efficient for large-scale campaigns
Requires constant monitoring and adjustments
Data dependency
Needs sufficient historical conversion data
Doesn’t rely on a lot of data
Adaptability
Highly adaptive to changes in auction dynamics
Less adaptive to real-time changes
Complexity
Simplifies bid management
More complex since it requires manual adjustments
Best for
Large campaigns, goal-based objectives, businesses with consistent data
Niche campaigns, specific keywords, small budgets
Automated bidding
Pros:
Highly efficient and time-saving
Adapts quickly to changes in factors like seasonality, competitor bids, etc.
Optimizes bids for your campaign goals without requiring manual intervention
Cons:
Heavily dependent on data
Can lead to overbidding if goals are poorly defined or there’s not enough conversion data
Advertisers do not have much control over individual bids
Manual bidding
Pros:
Advertisers have full control over bids
Budgets can be tweaked at a very granular level so costs can be managed
Complete visibility into what’s happening with every keyword
Cons:
Needs frequent monitoring and adjustments for optimal campaign performance
Not very adaptive to changes in auction environment
Higher chances of missing optimization opportunities
When to use automated or smart bidding for ads
Automated bidding: Best when you have clear goals like maximizing revenue, sufficient conversion data, and a large enough budget. It improves efficiency and makes it easier to scale campaigns.
Manual bidding: Ideal if you’re working with tighter budgets or targeting very specific keywords and need total control but limited conversion data (like in the case of a new campaign). It also gives room for experimentation since you can test out different bid amounts, keyword variations, and strategies.
Best practices for scaling bids based on campaign performance
Scaling bids too quickly can exhaust your budgets while doing it too slow can make it difficult to reach your campaign goals. The key is to make gradual, informed decisions that drive growth without overspending. Here’s how you can do it.
1. Leverage performance data
Identify strengths and weaknesses in your campaigns by tracking metrics like CTR, CPC, ROAS, and CPA. Regularly tracking these metrics can give you insights into trends or patterns that can inform bid adjustments.
If you individual campaigns don’t have enough data to make informed data, Optmyzr’s bid management capabilities allow you to pull up data for similar campaigns so you can study them. It puts data into easy-to-visualize formats like charts or graphs so its easier to understand and spot opportunities.
Tip: Segment performance data based on factors like device, audience, and location to identify where the highest value conversions occur and refine bid adjustments
2. Use incremental bid increases
Scaling your bids too fast can push you into expensive auctions and spike your costs. It’s always best to increase your bids gradually (e.g. 10-15%) and then monitor the impact of changes for a few days before adjusting it even further.
Optmyzr customers can use if-then statements in Rule Engine to automate bid increases. For instance, if a campaign achieves a 10% increase in ROAS, then raise bids by 10%.
Tip: Instead of making bid adjustments across several campaigns at once, try running tests on a subset of ad groups or keywords to minimize risks. It also gives you a glimpse into what works before you implement the changes at scale.
3. Prioritize high-converting segments
If you find that certain keywords or audience segments are giving you consistent conversions at a lower cost, you may want to consider increasing bids for these high-converting segments. Even a slight increase in bids can capture more clicks, conversions, and impressions and scale without losing profitability.
Tip: Use audience bid adjustments to increase or decrease bids based on conversion data. For instance, you can increase bids for users who have visited your site or fall into the demographic profile of high-converting audience segments.
4. A/B test bid adjustments
Run experiments to find out which bidding strategies are the most effective for you (e.g. manual vs smart bidding). For instance, you can target ROAS in smart bidding against manual bidding to see which one delivers better ROI.
Similarly, if you find that retargeting audiences are converting well, you might want to try increasing bids for them first before doing it for a broader segment.
Tip: For an effective A/B test, choose a campaign with consistent traffic and conversion volume—this ensures you use statistically meaningful results when comparing smart bidding vs manual bidding strategies.
Maximize your Google Ads performance with effective bid management
Effective bid management in Google Ads is a blend of strategic planning, continuous optimization, and leveraging automation where appropriate.
Whether you’re opting for manual, automated, or smart bidding, the key is to make careful, data-driven adjustments, balancing automation with manual control so your campaigns stay agile and you’re getting the most out of your ad spend.
Try Optmyzr’s bid management tools to streamline your Google Ads strategy. Sign up for a 14-day free trial today!
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
Every time you advertise online, you’re entering an auction. And like any auction, winning or losing comes down to your bidding strategy.
As platforms like Google, Microsoft, and Meta advance, we’re at a fascinating crossroads between human intuition and machine learning. Some campaigns thrive on smart automation that processes thousands of signals in real time. Others benefit from a more hands-on approach to strategy.
So, how do you manage bids in a way that drives results? When does manual bidding make sense, and when should you let automation take over? Let’s break down what goes into a winning bid strategy.
What is PPC bid management?
PPC bid management is the process of strategically setting and adjusting bids for your ads in platforms like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, etc. The goal is to maximize ad visibility while controlling costs, ensuring you get the best ROI for every click.
And bids matter—they help determine both where your ad shows up and how much you’ll actually pay when someone clicks. The challenge is that bidding is dynamic. What works today might be too expensive tomorrow or too low to keep your ad visible.
Effective bid management means staying ahead of these shifts, using automation wisely, and making data-driven adjustments to ensure your campaigns deliver results.
Types of bid management
There are three primary approaches to managing bids, each offering different levels of control and automation. The right choice depends on your campaign goals, available data, and how much hands-on management you prefer.
1. Manual bidding
Manual bidding gives you complete control over your bids. You set and adjust your bids at the keyword, ad group/ad set, or campaign level based on your own analysis.
This is ideal for advanced advertisers who know their bids should be and are comfortable adjusting bids based on market conditions. You can layer in bid adjustments, such as for device type or location, but it requires ongoing monitoring and frequent tweaks.
The strategy requires time and expertise, but that doesn’t mean you must do everything by hand. Many advertisers build their own automated bidding systems using scripts and rules. Optmyzr makes this even easier with ready-to-use strategies that help you stay on top of shifting factors like seasonality, competitor activity, and user behavior.
2. Automated bidding
Automated bidding simplifies bid adjustments by using predefined strategies to optimize for specific goals, such as increasing traffic or maintaining ad visibility. Instead of manually setting bids, advertisers choose a strategy that aligns with their objectives, and the system automatically adjusts bids based on performance signals.
Unlike Smart Bidding, which focuses on getting conversions, automated bidding is more about hitting broader goals. You choose a strategy that fits your goal, whether it’s getting more clicks, showing your ads more often, or staying within a budget, and the system adjusts your bids accordingly.
Different platforms offer a variety of automated bidding strategies. Here’s the breakdown:
📌Google Ads: Options like Maximize Clicks (aims to get the most clicks within budget) and Target Impression Share (adjusts bids to maintain ad visibility in a specific position) help advertisers optimize for reach and traffic
📌Amazon Ads: Features like Dynamic Bidding – Up and Down automatically increase bids when an ad is more likely to convert and decrease them when it’s less likely. This approach helps sellers compete for high-intent traffic while controlling cost
📌Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram): You can use Lowest Cost Bidding (bids are set to get the most results at the lowest cost) or Bid Cap (sets a maximum bid to maintain cost control). These strategies focus on balancing reach, engagement, and cost efficiency
📌Other Platforms (LinkedIn, TikTok, Microsoft Ads, etc.): Each platform has variations of automated bidding, often with options to maximize clicks, impressions, or engagement based on advertiser goals
Choosing the right automated bidding strategy for your goals
Want more traffic? → Use Maximize Clicks (Google), Lowest Cost Bidding (Meta), or Dynamic Bidding – Up and Down (Amazon)
Want to keep costs in check → Use Bid Cap (Meta) or Fixed Bidding (Amazon) to control maximum bids. In Google Ads, Smart Bidding strategies like Maximize Conversions with a Target CPA aim to hit a specific cost per acquisition
Focusing on visibility? → Use Target Impression Share (Google), Reach & Frequency Buying (Meta), or Sponsored Brands (Amazon)
3. Smart bidding (conversion-driven)
Smart Bidding is all about helping you get more conversions, like sales or sign-ups, by automatically adjusting your bids in real-time. Instead of manually setting bids, it uses machine learning to figure out the best bid for each situation based on the chances of a conversion happening.
It looks at things like user behavior and auction data to make sure your ads are shown to the right people at the right time. This makes it a great choice if your main goal is to drive more valuable actions from your ads.
📌Example: You're running an eCommerce campaign for a seasonal sale on winter jackets. With Smart Bidding, the system can analyze data such as whether someone is using a mobile device or desktop, their location (are they in a cold area?), and even the time of day.
If it's a chilly evening and someone is searching for jackets on their phone, Smart Bidding can increase your bid for that specific user, maximizing the chances of conversion.
While Smart Bidding can be highly effective, many advertisers default to it without checking if they have enough data. Our research revealed that smart bidding works best with at least 50+ conversions per month. Without this, performance can be volatile and unpredictable.
It also revealed that many advertisers start with one strategy and then transition to the other as their campaign picks up. This approach allows them to maintain control early on and switch once they have enough data for automation to work effectively.
If you’re considering Smart Bidding, here are the key strategies to know:
📌Maximize Conversions (with optional Target CPA): This strategy automatically adjusts your bids to get the most conversions (sales, sign-ups, leads) possible within your budget. It’s a good option if you are focused on driving volume and have a consistent budget.
While it aims to maximize conversions, it’s often beneficial to pair this strategy with a Target CPA. This tells Google the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for each conversion, and it will try to get you as many conversions as possible at that cost.
The combination is ideal when you have a specific CPA goal in mind and want to maximize conversions within that cost constraint.
📌 Maximize Conversion Value (with optional Target ROAS): Instead of just increasing the number of conversions, this strategy focuses on driving the highest total revenue from your ad spend. It’s ideal if you have different conversion values (e.g. different purchase amounts) and want to prioritize higher-value conversions.
It’s often recommended to use this strategy with a Target ROAS. Target ROAS lets you set a specific return you want to achieve on your ad spend (e.g., a 300% ROAS). Smart Bidding will then optimize your bids to maximize conversion value while trying to hit your target ROAS.
This combination is best when you have a specified ROAS target and want to maximize the overall value of your conversions.
Conversion-focused bidding strategies on other platforms
While Google Ads offers Smart Bidding, other advertising platforms also provide automated bidding strategies designed to help you achieve similar conversion-focused goals. Here’s a look at what some other platforms offer:
📌Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram): If your goal is to drive conversions or maximize the conversion value of Facebook and Instagram, Meta Ads offers several relevant bidding strategies. Highest Value Bidding optimizes your bids to target users most likely to make high-value purchases.
This is particularly useful for eCommerce businesses with varying product prices. Meta also offers other conversion-focused strategies like Lowest Cost and Value Bidding.
📌Amazon ads: For sellers on Amazon, Dynamic Bidding can help optimize conversions. The Up and Down variation automatically adjusts your bids on the likelihood of a conversion, increasing them when a sale is highly probable and decreasing them when it’s less so. This allows you to compete effectively for high-intent shoppers.
📌LinkedIn ads: If your focus is on lead generation or other B2B conversions, LinkedIn’s Bid for Conversions is designed to optimize your campaigns for specific actions, such as form submissions, sign-ups, or website visits.
📌Microsoft ads: Microsoft ads offer a similar suite of conversion-focused bidding strategies. Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, and Maximize Conversions Value function much like their Google Ads counterparts, allowing you to optimize for specific cost or return targets.
Choosing the right conversion-focused bidding strategy for your goals
Increase overall conversion volume within a set budget→ Maximize Conversion (Google Ads), Lowest Cost (Meta ads), Maximize Conversion (Microsoft ads)
Maximize the value of conversions from online sales→ Maximize Conversion Value (Google ads), Highest Value (Meta ads), Maximize Conversion Value (Microsoft ads), Dynamic Bidding- Up and Down (Amazon ads)
Achieve a specific CPA for lead generation campaigns→ Target CPA (Google ads), Cost Cap (Meta ads)
Achieve a specific ROAS for shopping campaigns→ Target ROAS (Google ads), ROAS targeting (Meta ads)
Drive conversions while prioritizing high-value customers who spend $A or more per purchase→Value Bidding (Meta ads), Target ROAS (Google ads), Maximize Conversion Value (Microsoft ads)
Maximize conversions for product sales on Amazon with a specific ACoS target→Dynamic Bidding- Up and Down
Drive a specific number of conversions (e.g. 500 sales) within a timeframe of X days/weeks/months→Maximize Conversions (Google Ads)- requires careful monitoring and budget adjustments. Consider adding a Target CPA after enough conversion data is gathered
💡Pro Tip: Use express optimization suggestions in Optmyzr to test smart bidding strategies like Maximize Conversion Value, Target CPA, or Target ROAS before fully committing to a strategy. It reviews Google’s recommendations and lets you run trial campaigns to measure performance before making full-scale changes.
Manual Bidding vs. Automated Bidding vs. Smart Bidding: When should you choose which?
Choosing between manual, automated, and Smart Bidding depends on your goals, experience, and the level of control you need.
When to use manual bidding?
Manual bidding can be suitable in the following instances:
📌Limited data availability: Smart Bidding relies on conversion data to optimize bids. When there’s not enough data, bids may be set too high or too low based on incomplete signals. In such scenarios, manual bidding gives you control to align bids with actual auction conditions rather than relying on uncertain automation
📌Targeting brand keywords: For campaigns targeting brand-specific keywords, manual bidding can offer tighter control over bids, ensuring optimal positioning without over-reliance on automated systems.
📌Resetting data: When there’s a need to reset or clear historical data, manual bidding can be employed temporarily to establish a new performance baseline before transitioning back to automated strategies.
📌Ensuring specific ad positions: If maintaining a particular ad position is crucial, manual bidding provides the control necessary to achieve and hold desired placements.
📌Managing low-performing segments: In scenarios where certain segments underperform, manual bidding allows for targeted adjustments to improve efficiency and performance.
Shawn Walker of Symphonic Digital suggests manual bidding can be especially valuable when you’re just starting with a new campaign: * *
“A lot of the time if we’re starting a brand new campaign where there’s not much background and the client doesn’t know exactly who the audience is, we will start with manual bidding… just to get some volume out there.”
When to use automated bidding?
Automated bidding is ideal when you want to optimize for clicks or visibility without constant manual adjustments. It’s a great fit:
📌 When your goal is traffic or visibility (brand awareness campaigns) – Strategies like Maximize Clicks and Target ImpressionShare prioritize getting the most clicks within your budget or securing a specific ad placement. However, remember that more clicks don’t always equal more conversions. These strategies are less focused on direct conversions and more on expanding reach.
📌 When you don’t have enough conversion data – If you lack sufficient conversion data to leverage Smart Bidding, automated bidding can be a good starting point. It allows you to optimize for clicks or impressions while you gather more conversion data. However, note that these strategies do not optimize for conversions. They are a stepping stone towards conversion-focused bidding once you have enough data.
📌 When you’re managing large-scale campaigns – If you’re running campaigns with a lot of keywords and ad groups, it can be overwhelming to adjust bids manually. Automated bidding can help by adjusting bids across all your campaigns to save you time. However, if you have enough conversion data, Smart Bidding can take it a step further and optimize specifically for conversions, helping you meet your goals more effectively.
📌When competition and costs keep changing: In industries where CPCs are constantly shifting, automated bidding can help you stay on top of things by adjusting bids quickly. One big advantage is the ability to set bid caps, which let you control the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for a click. This helps prevent overspending while still keeping your bids competitive.
That said, if the market is really volatile, you’ll still want to check in regularly to make sure your strategy is working.
When to use smart bidding?
Smart Bidding works best when:
📌 You have enough conversion data – While the minimum threshold can vary, more conversion data generally leads to better performance. Aim for a significant number of conversions (e.g. 50-100+ per month per conversion action) for more reliable optimization. The more data, the better Smart Bidding can understand patterns and predict future conversions.
📌 Your tracking is accurate – Smart bidding works best with precise conversion tracking. Make sure your setup is correct across all platforms.
Google Ads: Use the Google tag (gtag.js) or Google Tag Manager (GTM) for flexibility. GTM’s new form tracking feature allows codeless conversion tracking.
Microsoft Ads: Relies on Universal Event Tracking (UET) for conversion measurement.
Meta Ads: Uses the Meta Pixel to track and optimize conversions.
Each platform has its own tracking system. Check their documentation to ensure accurate data collection. The better your tracking, the smarter your bids.
📌 You’re optimizing for revenue, not just trafficvolume– If your goal is to maximize the value of your conversions, Smart Bidding strategy like Maximize Conversion Value is the way to go. It focuses on getting the highest value for each conversion, even if that means you get fewer conversions overall.
On the other hand, Max Conversions aims to drive as many conversions as possible, so it’s important to make sure that those conversions (and the leads they generate) are actually profitable.
📌 You’re in a competitive market – Smart Bidding’s real-time adjustments are especially useful in competitive markets with fluctuating CPCs. While automated bidding adjusts based on general trends and manual bidding relies on constant manual adjustments or scripts, Smart Bidding makes real-time adjustments using auction-time signals.
This makes Smart Bidding particularly effective when your goal is to drive conversions or revenue, not just clicks or visibility. It adapts quickly to market changes and targets high-value actions, making it ideal for competitive environments.
Still, it’s important to monitor performance, particularly during major market changes.
💡 Pro Tip: Smart Bidding helps automate your bids, but it’s not always perfect. Sometimes, your best ad groups don’t show up as often as they should. Since Smart Bidding controls bids, you can’t change them directly, but you can adjust the targets to guide it in the right direction.
Lowering Target ROAS or raising Target CPA can increase volume, while stricter targets improve efficiency but may limit traffic. Since Smart Bidding factors in signals not available in manual bidding device, location, and time of day, adjusting targets for these variables can improve results.
Optmyzr’sRule Engine helps by identifying when your targets need adjusting and providing data-backed suggestions, so you can keep your campaigns performing at their best.
How to choose the right bid strategy?
When it comes to selecting a bid strategy, it’s essential to choose one that aligns with your campaign goals. Below are some of the most common bid strategies, each tailored to different objectives.
Maximize Clicks
Ideal for: brand awareness campaigns, new campaigns where you want to drive early traffic, and building an audience list for future retargeting
The Maximize Clicks strategy is designed to drive as much traffic to your site as possible within your budget. It’s useful for:
✔️ Growing an audience list for future retargeting ✔️ Driving early traffic before optimizing for conversions ✔️ Understanding auction dynamics and keyword costs
However, not all clicks turn into conversions, so monitor engagement metrics like bounce rate and time on site.
📌Example: If you’re launching a new campaign and need to attract a broad audience, Maximize Clicks will help you generate traffic to your site, gathering valuable data before shifting to a more conversion-focused approach.
When to switch: Once you’ve gathered enough data (typically a few weeks or a certain number of clicks/impressions) and have a clearer understanding of your target audience and keyword performance, it’s time to consider switching to a more conversion-focused strategy. Look for patterns in which keywords or audiences are driving the most engaged traffic, even if it’s not the most traffic.
Conversions (CPA/ROAS - Cost Per Acquisition/Return On Ad Spend)
Conversion-focused bidding strategies including Target CPA (Cost per Acquisition) and Maximize Conversions, are ideal when your primary objective is to drive specific measurable actions on your website or app.
These strategies empower the ad platforms to automatically optimize bids for maximum conversions within your budget or at your desired cost. They are particularly well suited for businesses with clear conversion goals and accurate tracking.
📌Example: For an online course platform, you could use CPA bidding to pay only when a user registers and completes a course purchase. This ensures that your ad spend is focused on actual conversions, not just clicks.
When to switch: Begin with Maximize Conversions/Value when you have sufficient conversion data, well-defined goals, and accurate tracking. Refine this strategy by adding a Target CPA/ROAS constraint when you want to:
➡️Stabilize spending: If your cost per acquisition or return on ad spend is too volatile, a target constraint will create more predictable spending
➡️Increase efficiency: If you’re achieving a good volume of conversions but believe you can do so more cost-effectively, a target constraint will optimize your budget
➡️Meet profitability goals: If you need to maintain a specific profit margin, a target constraint allows you to directly manage customer acquisition cost
You’re not necessarily switching strategies; you’re enhancing Maximize Conversions/Value with a target constraint to balance conversion volume with cost control. Later, you can adjust or remove the constraint if you want to prioritize volume growth.
Brand Awareness (CPM - Cost Per Thousand Impressions)
Ideal for: New product launches, entering a new market, building brand recognition, reputation management, programmatic display ads
Brand awareness campaigns have a different objective than direct response campaigns focused on conversions. They’re about getting your name, product, or message in front of a broad audience to increase familiarity and recognition.
With CPM bidding, you’re paying for impressions rather than clicks or conversions. This approach is ideal when your focus is on maximizing visibility, ensuring your ads reach as many people as possible rather than driving direct interactions.
📌Example: A streaming service launching a new show could run CPM ads on YouTube, Instagram Stories, and connected TV platforms (Roku, Hulu) to build hype. They’d prioritize high-impact placements, such as homepage takeovers or in-feed video ads.
When to switch: Brand awareness campaigns are often ongoing. However, you might consider switching to a different strategy for specific campaigns focused on driving direct response or conversions, such as limited-time promotion. You may also switch to a different awareness-focused strategy like CPV if you’re shifting to a video-centric approach.
Views (CPV - Cost Per View)
Ideal for: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram Reels, in-stream video ads
CPV is an ideal bidding strategy for video campaigns, where your goal is to drive views and engagement with your video content. You only pay when a user watches your video or engages with it (such as liking, commenting, or sharing).
This strategy is particularly valuable for campaigns focused on building engagement with video ads rather than driving immediate conversions.
📌Example: A fitness brand launching a new workout app could run CPV ads on YouTube, paying only when users watch 30+ seconds. To boost engagement, they might A/B test different video hooks and CTA placements.
When to switch: If your video campaign objective shifts from views to conversions (e.g. app installs or website visits), you’ll want to switch to a conversion-focused bidding strategy like CPA or ROAS. If you find your CPV is too high, you might want to experiment with different video creatives or targeting options.
Goal
Clicks (CPC)
Conversions (CPA)
Brand Awareness (CPM)
Views (CPV)
Increase Website Traffic
✅
❌
❌
❌
Drive Sales or Conversions
❌
✅
❌
❌
Boost Brand Visibility
❌
❌
✅
❌
Maximize Video Engagement
❌
❌
❌
✅
Poor bid management can cost you dearly
Bid management isn’t just about adjusting numbers—it’s the difference between a profitable campaign and one that drains your budget. Without the right strategy, you risk:
❌ Overpaying for low-quality clicks that don’t convert ❌ Losing valuable traffic because your best keywords aren’t getting the bids they deserve ❌ Wasting time on manual adjustments that never quite hit the mark
That’s where Optmyzr can help by putting your bids on autopilot—without losing control. Instead of manually adjusting bids and hoping for the best, it helps you automate the process based on your specific goals, so you don’t have to worry about missing the mark.
Here’s how:
Automated bid adjustments: Optimize for your specific goals (like hitting a target CPA or maximizing ROAS) without constant tweaking
Custom rules: Create custom rules that fit your unique campaign needs. If a keyword or campaign is underperforming, you can set it to lower the bid automatically
Data-driven insights: Get to the root cause of performance issues with our PPC investigator tool and see exactly what’s driving performance and adjust bids with confidence
Efficient budget allocation: Ensure your best-performing areas get the investment they need
Choose the bid strategy that works for your goals
The right bid strategy really comes down to what you’re aiming for and how much control you want. If you’re an experienced advertiser, manual bidding gives you total control to adjust bids based on things like device, location, and time.
Automated bidding is perfect if you want to drive traffic without worrying too much about conversions. And if your main goal is to drive conversions, Smart Bidding is the way to go.
Still unsure which bidding strategy truly delivers: manual, auto, or smart?
Stay tuned for our next article, where we’ll walk you through the best strategies for each campaign goal and share valuable insights from analyzing over 14,000 accounts to help you choose the winning approach.
Or, skip the wait and try Optmyzr free for 14 days. Test different bidding strategies, optimize faster, and see what works (before competitors do).
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
When ad platforms provide guidance, it is often taken as absolute truth. The expectation is that their help documentation and support channels offer accurate, actionable advice.
However, despite providing clear guidance after reviewing the findings from Optmyzr’s experiment, Google spent months telling advertisers PMax exclusions would not be respected if they came from the API.
Here’s Google’s previous documentation:
Here’s Google’s answer in their AI overviews:
The same was shared in their communications with advertisers.
This post outlines an experiment conducted to determine if API placement exclusions work for PMax campaigns, contrary to Google’s previous claims.
It’s worth noting that as a result of this experiment, Google did some digging into their own systems and came up with the following response:
As the screenshot shows, this is how to think about placement exclusions:
We’ll also explore what this means for advertisers and how to navigate support discrepancies moving forward.
What we uncovered from our experiment
Details of the experiment
Optmyzr conducted a controlled experiment to test whether placements excluded via the API would be respected for PMax campaigns. Here’s what we did:
1. Setting up the campaign
We launched a brand new PMax campaign in our brand’s ad account on December 30th 2024. We gave the campaign till Jan 13, 2025 to accrue clicks, impressions, and placements.
2. Applying exclusions
Identifying placements we wanted to exclude, we implemented these exclusions through our API connection. The exclusions appeared at the account level, despite Google’s documentation stating that placement exclusions must be done through the UI. We applied these exclusions on Jan 13, 2025.
3. Monitoring the results
No ad spend occurred on the excluded placements as of Jan 21, 2025, proving the API exclusions were effective. The example placement we chose to follow was “Mobile App: Vita Mahjong (iTunes App Store), by VITA STUDIO PTE. LTD.”
This experiment’s results reveal a stark contrast between Google’s official guidance and the platform’s actual functionality.
What are the implications for advertisers?
1. Documentation vs. reality
This finding underscores the importance of questioning and testing platform limitations. While help documentation serves as a baseline, advertisers can no longer treat it as definitive. PMax, as an evolving ad type, requires a proactive approach to testing features and functionalities.
2. Efficiency through the API
Excluding placements via the API is significantly more efficient than using the UI. The UI process involves cumbersome formatting and limitations, which can deter advertisers from making necessary exclusions.
The API’s effectiveness, as demonstrated in our experiment, offers a faster, more scalable alternative.
The miscommunication around how placement exclusions are respected came from the very real issue all SAAS faces: innovation happens faster than support documentation can keep up.
What advertisers should do next
1. Embrace testing
Treat every rule or limitation as an opportunity to test. The findings from this experiment reinforce the need to verify functionality instead of relying solely on documentation.
2. Leverage tools and expertise
If you’re an Optmyzr customer, rest assured that our rule engine and smart exclusions protect your accounts effectively. For non-customers, consider engaging with experts like Nils Rooijmans and Mike Rhodes, who offer many scripting solutions and insights.
3. Active account management
Ensure your accounts are actively monitored. Automated rules are valuable but should not replace ongoing oversight. Regular checks are critical to adapting to platform changes and discrepancies.
A balanced perspective
Despite these challenges, Google remains a meaningful channel for advertisers. Properly applied exclusions and strategic management can yield exceptional results. Optmyzr customers can use our Smart Exclusion tool to quickly identify and exclude wasteful exclusions. We also encourage testing alternatives like Microsoft’s PMax and exploring other platforms.
At Optmyzr, our mission is to safeguard your ad investments. By staying informed and proactive, you can navigate the complexities of digital advertising and adapt to the fast-changing industry
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Now’s the best time to sign up for a full functionality 14-day free trial.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
Managing small Google Ads accounts isn’t easy—it’s like trying to juggle while walking a tightrope. With tight budgets, fewer clicks to work with, and AI taking over more and more of the process, keeping your campaigns under control can feel like a real uphill battle.
In one of the recent episodes of our video series, Automation Layering Masterclass, Amy McClain-Ponder, Group Director of Paid Search at Beeby Clark+Meyler (BCM), shared 9 powerful automations her team uses to handle these challenges.
Anomaly alerts for quick issue detection
Automated budget pacing alerts
Pausing underperforming keywords
Managing search queries
High CTR alerts
Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) for discovery
Monitoring declining keywords
YouTube placement exclusions
AI-generated insights for reporting
Watch the following video where Amy explains these automations in detail:
1. Get notified of unusual performance shifts.
Amy’s team sets alerts that notify them of unusual performance shifts, such as campaigns underspending or overspending.
Overspending: Identifying potential errors, like an incorrectly entered budget
Her team uses Optmyzr’s Anomaly Alerts, also called Auto Alerts, which are generated automatically by the Optmyzr system for any Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, or Facebook Ads account linked.
You can find these anomaly alerts listed under the Alert Settings page by default.
💡Optmyzr tip: Customize thresholds for different metrics (e.g., clicks, conversions, or spend) to avoid overloading your inbox.
Effective budget pacing makes sure your campaigns stay on track throughout the month. BCM uses automated alerts to track monthly budgets across Google and Microsoft Ads combined, allowing for seamless cross-platform management.
In Optmyzr, these pacing alerts get automatically added on the Alert Settings page, where you can manage some more advanced options like notifying multiple users.
You can edit the Cycle Date or Monthly Budget target, and any update will get automatically reflected on the All Portfolio Dashboard.
For example: Monitoring spend by the 15th of the month to ensure campaigns hit 50-60% of their budget.
Why it matters: This prevents wild budget swings and makes sure the performance stays consistent.
“I always emphasize the importance of showing my clients how their budget is being utilized. The Budget Pacing tool has made this process so much easier for me, helping my team and me understand what to expect for the rest of the month and figure out where to invest the next advertising dollar for my clients.”
- Mike Rhodes, Founder, WebSavvy
3. Pause underperforming keywords automatically.
BCM uses codified rules to pause keywords that fail to meet performance benchmarks.
For example: Keywords with no conversions in 60 days and a spend exceeding 3x the CPA goal are paused automatically.
You can try Optmyzr’s Pause Non-Converting Keywords tool for this use case. It helps you find keywords that have received enough traffic but have not converted during a selected date range.
Key benefit: Saves manual effort and ensures that budgets aren’t wasted on non-converting keywords.
4. Negate irrelevant search queries.
Search queries that drain budgets without driving conversions are automatically negated and added to a curated list for review.
Example Rule: Negate queries with ad spend exceeding $400 and no conversions in 30 days.
Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder is one such tool that, as the name suggests, identifies search terms in your Google and Microsoft accounts that are non-converting or not performing well.
💡Optmyzr tip: Periodically revisit these lists to identify opportunities for retesting under new campaign strategies.
5. Flag high CTR queries for review.
CTR spikes can signal relevance—or irrelevance. BCM uses alerts to flag high-CTR queries for manual review to determine if they align with client goals.
Amy’s team uses Optmyzr’s Rule Engine automation for this use case. In one example (shown below), she says her team reports queries that generate a high CTR to check for their relevance.
Action step: Investigate whether the query represents a valuable opportunity or irrelevant traffic.
“What Optmyzr allows us to do through custom-built automations in its Rule Engine typically takes a team of PPC managers to manage. It’s a HUGE time saver and far more reliable than humans.”
- Lesley Van De Mortel, Co-founder & CDO, APAS® Cloud
6. Discover opportunities with dynamic search ads.
Dynamic Search Ads remain a valuable discovery tool, even in Performance Max-dominated accounts. BCM identifies high-performing queries from DSA campaigns and evaluates them for broader adoption.
7. Identify and address declining keyword performance.
Keywords that perform well but later decline in conversions require special attention. Here’s a Rule Engine automation that Amy’s team uses to catch low-performing keywords.
Example rule: Flag keywords with no conversions in 30 days but past conversions in 90 days. This ensures you can address root causes like landing page changes or increased competition.
8. Exclude irrelevant YouTube placements.
Managing YouTube placements can be a brand safety minefield. BCM automates exclusions for:
Irrelevant placements (e.g., children’s content).
Low-performing placements with low view rates or CTRs.
Once again, the Rule Engine comes to the rescue. Here’s an example.
Why it’s critical: Protects brand reputation and ensures ad spend is directed toward the right audience.
9. Generate insights with AI-powered reporting.
Manual reporting is time-consuming. BCM leverages Optmyzr’s AI-powered reports to generate insights that highlight performance trends, helping their team and clients focus on the bigger picture.
“I am in love with not just the reporting capabilities of this tool but the superpowers it gives me & my team by being able to analyze deeper than other individual tools.”
- Kita Eserve, CEO, Metrik Marketing Inc.
Take back control of your ad campaigns.
These days, it feels like ad platforms like Google Ads want to run everything for us. But let’s be real—nobody knows your campaigns better than you do. You can take back the reins by setting up automations you control, like tracking KPIs, catching anomalies, and sticking to your strategies.
A tool like Optmyzr makes it easy to layer these automations so you stay in charge while saving time and boosting ROI. It’s all about making automation work for you—not the other way around.
For years, Cyber Monday has held the title of the biggest online shopping day, and recent reports like Adobe’s 2024 study confirm this with $13.3 billion in total e-commerce sales, compared to Black Friday’s $10.8 billion.
But here’s where things get interesting: when we narrow the focus to Google Ads-driven sales, the narrative flips. Optmyzr’s analysis of 11,423 accounts found that Black Friday consistently outperforms Cyber Monday in ad-driven conversion value.
Does this mean advertisers may be focused on the wrong day to drive most of their sales? Let’s dig into the findings and see what they mean for marketers.
The data that flips the script
From Optmyzr’s perspective based on a subset of accounts:
Black Friday 2024 (Nov 29) drove $94.62 million in Google Ads-attributed conversion value, eclipsing Cyber Monday’s $64.07 million.
The average value per conversion on Black Friday was $85.09, significantly higher than Cyber Monday’s $74.82.
These findings reveal that for advertisers leveraging paid media, Black Friday is the clear leader—not Cyber Monday.
Optmyzr’s study about Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday
Ad Spend
Conversion Value
Value per Conversion
ROAS
2024
Black Friday
$15,321,664
$94,624,043
$85.09
617.58%
Cyber Monday
$14,121,621
$64,070,399
$74.82
453.70%
Ad Spend
Conversion Value
Value per Conversion
ROAS
2023
Black Friday
$13,990,189
$101,574,600
$78.37
726.04%
Cyber Monday
$13,250,633
$71,587,342
$69.88
540.26%
This Optmyzr data is as of Dec 7, 2024 for 11,423 accounts that advertised on Google Ads on Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year and last year. Note that conversion values are self-reported by advertisers, and that the 2024 conversion value numbers are likely going to be higher than what is shown here due to conversion delays.
Why Cyber Monday isn’t always the clear winner for ecommerce
So, why does Adobe’s data crown Cyber Monday the overall e-commerce champion, while Optmyzr’s data gives the edge to Black Friday? The answer lies in segmentation and shopping behavior:
1. Broader ecommerce vs. paid media attribution
Adobe tracks all e-commerce sales, regardless of traffic source. Cyber Monday’s strength comes from organic and direct channels like email marketing, bookmarked deals, and returning visitors. Optmyzr focuses specifically on sales attributed to Google Ads, where Black Friday’s urgency and high-ticket deals drive stronger ad-driven performance.
2. The role of urgency in Black Friday ads
Black Friday is a high-advertising day, with retailers flooding paid media with aggressive promotions for big-ticket items. Shoppers are primed to click and convert, leading to higher ad-attributed sales.
3. Cyber Monday’s organic advantage
By the time Cyber Monday arrives, many shoppers have bookmarked deals or received email reminders, reducing reliance on ads. The day’s strength lies in smaller, follow-up purchases driven by organic and direct traffic.
Why should you care
For advertisers, understanding the segmentation between total e-commerce sales and ad-driven performance isn’t just an exercise in analytics—it’s the key to making smarter budget decisions. If you rely on Google Ads to drive your holiday sales, the conventional wisdom that Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day might lead you to misallocate resources.
Optmyzr’s data shows that Black Friday drives more value for paid media campaigns, suggesting that ad budgets and strategies should align with the day’s urgency and consumer behavior. Recognizing these nuances enables advertisers to optimize their campaigns for maximum return, standing out in a crowded holiday marketplace.
What you should take away
Advertisers should rethink how they approach Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 in their holiday strategies. Here’s how to act on these insights:
1. Double down on Black Friday ads
If you’re running Google Ads, Black Friday offers unparalleled opportunities for high-value conversions. Allocate larger budgets to capture the wave of motivated shoppers and focus on premium products and bundled deals.
2. Leverage Cyber Monday’s organic strength
Cyber Monday remains vital, but its strength lies outside of paid channels. Use retargeting and email campaigns to re-engage shoppers who browsed during Black Friday.
3. Reevaluate attribution models
The segmentation between total sales and ad-attributed sales underscores the importance of understanding your channel performance. A broader e-commerce win for Cyber Monday doesn’t diminish the fact that Black Friday delivers better results for paid media campaigns.
Tailor your campaigns based on data
The holiday shopping narrative has long been dominated by Cyber Monday’s total sales supremacy. But Optmyzr’s data suggests that for advertisers using paid media, Black Friday is the real champion.
This insight challenges conventional wisdom and opens up new possibilities for advertisers looking to make the most of their holiday budgets. By recognizing the strengths of both days and tailoring campaigns accordingly, you can drive performance that outpaces competitors who stick to the old playbook.
And after what you read here, if you think Optmyzr is the tool for you to drive higher performance, sign up for a 14-day free trial today.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.
Value-based bidding and smart bidding are two powerful tools that have evolved considerably since their introduction. These bidding strategies allow Google to set the bids in each auction with the goal of achieving a desired business outcome.
For example, if you were using TROAS, which is a value-based bid strategy, you would set the desired return on ad spend, and Google would try to achieve that number over a 30-day period.
In this video, Taylor Mathauer and I share how we used Value-Based Bidding to generate higher-quality leads for our 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
Let’s understand the state of Smart Bidding for a minute.
Some marketers make the mistake of viewing smart bidding as a quick fix or hack to improve the performance of underperforming campaigns. The truth is that smart bidding is most effective when implemented on campaigns that are already performing well.
It can help take those campaigns from good to great by optimizing bids and targeting more precisely.
One challenge with smart bidding is that it requires a solid understanding of the underlying data and the algorithms driving the bidding process. Achieving success with smart bidding requires striking a balance between automation and human expertise.
The best results are often obtained through a combination of data-driven bidding strategies and human insights.
4 limitations of value-based bidding
Limitation #1: Micro conversions often fail to drive meaningful downstream actions.
Micro conversions have been explored as a way to increase the quality of traffic from Google Ads when there is not enough conversion volume to switch to a value-based bidding model. By focusing on engagement conversion actions that signal high intent from users, it was hoped that the downstream conversion actions such as form fills, MQLs, and SQLs would increase.
However, the results showed that while engagement conversion actions increased, there was no corresponding increase in downstream conversion actions.
Limitation #2: Limited conversion data makes value-based bidding less reliable.
Working with limited conversion data can be challenging when implementing value-based bidding. This is because unlike max conversions and tCPA, where Google only has to calculate the likelihood of a user converting at the time of query, tROAS requires an additional calculation of the conversion’s value.
Therefore, it is important to have sufficient conversion data to implement this strategy successfully.
Limitation #3: Large portfolios with diverse geographies and keywords create signal inconsistencies.
Working in large portfolios with vastly different geographies and keywords can pose challenges for bid strategies. Google uses many contextual signals to determine bids for each auction, and if the geographies and keywords vary greatly within a portfolio, the signals used by Google to determine bids may differ between campaigns.
This can lead to poor performance of the portfolio and should be taken into consideration when implementing portfolio bidding.
Limitation #4: Frequent adjustments to bid strategies can disrupt performance.
It is important to give bid strategies time to adjust to new performance goals, and not to adjust them too frequently or aggressively. Shifting to a value-based bid strategy or smart bid strategy can result in fluctuations in performance, and patience is needed to see the best results.
What are the requirements for using value-based bidding?
GCLID needs to be passed into CRM and down to each milestone in the CRM or you need to have enhanced conversions setup. So that the data being passed from the CRM into Google Ads can be linked to the specific ad click.
Typically, to use value-based bidding, we like to have 45 conversions over the last 30 days for the specific conversion action that we are optimizing towards at the level we will be setting the bid strategy at. It is necessary to have more data than when using tCPA or Max Conversions to ensure that Google has sufficient data to optimize bids effectively.
How to track success with value-based bidding?
Value-based bidding effectively maximizes revenue and increases efficiency for clients. To achieve this, focus on improving the targeted conversion action, whether it’s an MQL or SQL. Discuss expectations and goals extensively with the client before switching to a value-based bidding approach.
Although lead volume may decrease initially, the quality of leads should improve, driving more revenue for the client. By filtering out unprofitable leads, you ensure marketing efforts generate higher revenue and deliver better results.
Shift your campaign conversion actions
When it comes to switching from Pixel-based tracked conversions to imported CRM conversion actions, it’s important to take a staged approach. At WebMechanix, we typically take a step-by-step approach when transitioning to value-based bidding that looks like this:
Standard Form Fill conversion tracked via Pixel.
Qualified Form Fill conversion tracked via Pixel.
MQL conversion from CRM import.
SQL conversion from CRM import.
Closed Deal conversion from CRM import.
The funnel stage you can actually optimize towards will depend on the volume of the particular conversion action and the time it takes for the conversion to happen. It’s important to note that Google’s maximum conversion window is 90 days. Therefore, if your client has an extended sales cycle, you can only optimize toward a conversion action that occurs within 90 days from the ad click.
When setting up your new conversion actions it is essential that you add them as secondary conversion actions. If you set them as primary conversion actions Google will start including them in your conversions column and in your smart bidding strategies. This is an issue because it can lead to overcounting conversions and throwing off the bid strategies that are already in use.
If you were already tracking form fills then added a conversion action for MQL and SQL and had a user make it to each stage Google would count 3 conversions for that one user.
Maintain and improve campaigns while using value-based bidding
Once value-based bidding is implemented, there is still a need to optimize campaigns to meet clients’ expectations. They not only desire enhanced efficiency but also a steady increase in volume on a monthly and quarterly basis. To achieve this, it remains crucial for us to concentrate on improving front-end metrics such as click-through rate, average cost per click, and form fill rates.
By continuously refining these key indicators, you can ensure that your campaigns are not only efficient but also deliver the desired growth in results.
During client onboarding, I’ve encountered a situations where value-based bidding had been implemented successfully, but the client expressed dissatisfaction with the volume of results. In this particular case, the previous agency had adopted VBB and focused solely on marketing qualified leads as the primary conversion action, neglecting to monitor the form fill rate.
Fortunately, we swiftly improved performance by establishing custom columns and conducting conversion rate optimization tests to enhance the form fill rate. These actions allowed us to address the client’s concerns effectively and achieve better outcomes.
When implementing value-based bidding, one common issue that arises is a noticeable spike in the average cost per click. This is to be expected since VBB involves paying more to display ads on queries where users are more likely to convert into the down funnel action you are optimizing towards.
While an increase in Avg. CPC is typical while using a VBB strategy, I have also been successful in reducing it while using VBB. The cost per click and ad rank for each auction are determined by two factors: the bid and the quality score. Since we relinquish control over setting specific bids, we can bring down the average cost per click by improving the quality score.
By focusing on enhancing the quality score, you can optimize the cost-effectiveness of VBB and achieve more favorable results.
Optmyzr can make value-based bidding work for you
Optmyzr’s tools have been built to help advertisers like yourself find success with value-based bidding.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
Managing multiple Google Ads accounts can feel like spinning plates. Add in the ever-changing ecommerce trends and seasonal demands, and it’s no wonder burnout is a common struggle for paid search marketers.
In one of the recent episodes of our video series, Automation Layering Masterclass, Matthieu Tran-Van, a Google Ads specialist who has managed over $350 million in ad spend shared seven simple yet powerful automations that transformed his clients’ results and gave him back his sanity.
Shopping campaign automations
Dynamic Search Ad (DSA) automations
Seasonality-based automations
Automated bidding automations
Keyword automations
Performance Max (PMax) automations
Responsive Search Ad (RSA) automations
Watch the following video where Matthieu explains these strategies in detail:
1. Set up the foundation using Shopping campaign automations.
“Shopping campaigns are the bread and butter for many ecommerce advertisers,” Matthieu explained.
However, the success of your campaign depends on the product feed. If your feed has missing attributes or vague product titles, no amount of optimization can save your campaign.
Matthieu uses Optmyzr’s Shopping Feed Audits, a tool that performs a one-click audit of your Merchant Center feed. It highlights issues like missing product identifiers, pricing errors, or unoptimized descriptions.
For example, if a product title is too vague (e.g., “Blue Dress”), the audit might recommend something more descriptive, like “Women’s Blue Summer Dress – Cotton Blend.”
💡Optmyzr tip: Set a schedule to audit your feeds monthly. Ecommerce inventory changes frequently, and regular audits ensure you stay ahead of issues.
Matthieu also uses supplemental feeds to tweak problematic data without disrupting the client’s main feed.
“I’ve been using Optmyzr for nearly 6 years now and they are always making things better, smarter, and faster. We started getting more ecommerce accounts and with the help of Optmyzr, we’re able to create a more granular shopping campaign that allows us to get a much higher ROAS for our clients.”
- David Johnson, VP of Paid Media, Constellation Agency
2. Go granular with Dynamic Search Ad (DSA) automations.
Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) are great for scaling campaigns, but Matthieu takes them a step further. He creates one ad group for every product detail page (PDP).
Why?
Because this setup aligns the ad copy, keywords, and landing page clearly, increasing ad relevance and boosting conversions.
Using Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator, Matthieu builds these campaigns in under an hour—even for catalogs with thousands of products. The tool pulls data directly from the product feed, creating hyper-specific ads matching search queries with product names, prices, and promotions.
💡Optmyzr tip: Test this strategy for your top-selling products. Start small, track performance, and scale from there.
3. Leverage seasonality-based automations based on seasons and weather patterns.
For clients in highly seasonal industries, like swimwear, timing is everything. Matthieu shares a smart automation that uses weather data to turn campaigns on and off based on temperature.
For example, his campaigns targeting top-performing cities go live when it’s sunny and 27°C or warmer.
This automation, built into Optmyzr, combines Performance Max campaigns with geo-targeting and contextual triggers. When the temperature hits the sweet spot, ads showcasing new collections and lifestyle imagery are pushed across Google’s networks, from YouTube to Display.
💡Optmyzr tip: Think beyond weather-related changes. Other contextual triggers, like stock market trends or traffic data, can also inform your campaigns. Discuss ideas with your clients—they’ll appreciate the extra effort.
4. Train Google’s algorithms using automated bidding.
Automated bidding is great, but it’s not a “set it and forget it” solution.
Matthieu uses a step-by-step approach to train Google’s algorithms using automated bidding. For instance, if a client wants a ROAS of 500%, he doesn’t jump straight to that target. Instead, he starts at a lower goal (say, 300%), then gradually increases it by a few percentage points each week.
With Optmyzr’s Rule Engine, this process runs on autopilot. If the ROAS target is met, the rule nudges the goal higher. If not, the tool lowers bids slightly. This incremental adjustment avoids wild swings in performance and keeps campaigns stable.
💡Optmyzr tip: Be patient. Automations are like training wheels for smart bidding—they need time to learn and adapt to your goals.
“The best part of Optymzr is the Rule Engine with advanced optimizations and the Projected Spend report!”
5. Add and exclude search terms smartly using keyword automations.
Managing keywords can feel like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Matthieu automates this with rules that automatically add profitable search terms as exact-match keywords.
For instance, if a search term generates 100 clicks and has a low CPA, it instantly gets added to the ad group. On the flip side, any non-performing terms are excluded as negative keywords.
For Dynamic Search Ads, non-relevant search terms are added to a shared negative keyword list daily, keeping campaigns focused.
💡Optmyzr tip: Regularly review your keyword automations to ensure they align with client goals. It’s not a “set it and forget it” strategy—automation still needs oversight.
6. Steer Performance Max in the right direction using the search terms script.
PMax campaigns can feel like a black box, but Matthieu flips the script by using scripts to extract search term data. This data reveals what’s working and what’s not, giving him more control over optimizations.
For example, if PMax identifies a high-performing search term, he adds it to a search campaign for even more control over messaging and bidding. Conversely, underperforming terms are excluded.
💡Optmyzr tip: Use PMax insights to uncover new audience segments or product opportunities you hadn’t considered.
7. Find winners using Responsive Search Ad (RSA) automations.
Testing RSA performance can be tricky. Matthieu developed a checklist to flag ads that need improvement based on metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and Google’s ad strength score.
Using Optmyzr’s Rule Engine, he automated this process, so a list of underperforming RSAs lands in his inbox every week.
This approach allows him to focus on writing better ads instead of wasting time hunting for problem areas. He also experiments with different templates to see what resonates most with audiences.
💡Optmyzr tip: Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. Let automation handle the grunt work, so you can spend time on creative solutions.
Bonus: Save hours every month using reporting automations.
We all know reporting can be a time-sink. Matthieu uses Optmyzr’s Report Designer to create tailored, automated reports for his clients.
The best part? If a report shows a sudden drop in performance (like missing conversions due to tracking issues), it’s sent to him for review instead of the client.
💡Optmyzr tip: Customize reports to highlight what matters most to each client. One-size-fits-all templates rarely deliver the insights clients care about.
“I searched high and low for a tool that could help me provide beautiful reports that could connect multiple tools into an appealing report that didn’t just look like a data dump.
I am in love with not just Optmyzr’s reporting capabilities but the superpowers it gives me & my team by being able to analyze deeper than other individual tools.”
- Kita Eserve, CEO, Metric Marketing
Simplify, Optimize, and Scale.
Matthieu’s strategies are a testament to how automation can simplify complex PPC management. By leveraging Optmyzr’s tools, he has achieved remarkable results while avoiding burnout.
The idea is simple: different products perform differently, and therefore, they should be treated differently.
By dividing products into performance-based categories, you can assign unique bids and budgets to each segment.
For example, products that deliver high returns can receive higher bids, while underperforming products can either be placed in a different campaign or targeted with lower budgets until their performance improves.
However, product segmentation can quickly become labor-intensive if done manually, especially for large product catalogs.
Of course, there are always Google Ads scripts. But if you don’t have coding knowledge, scripts may seem to be quite intimidating at first. Also, editing an existing script can result in more mistakes. And, before you implement any script, you have to first test it extensively.
Product segmentation made easy with Optmyzr’s Smart Product Labeler
What is the Smart Product Labeler?
The Smart Product Labeler tool lets you build a strategy to easily label products based on performance metrics or feed attributes, creating a supplemental feed with minimal effort.
It also automatically updates labels as performance changes, enabling you to use the performance-based approach for campaigns without exceeding Google Ads limits.
You can find the tool under Manage & Optimize -> Shopping & PMax Retail -> Smart Product Labeler.
There are three steps to building a strategy using the Smart Product Labeler.
Select the Merchant Center Account
Build rules based on performance metrics and feed attributes
Upload as a supplemental data source to the Merchant Center
Why use this strategy to group products by performance?
Segmenting products into different performance tiers and creating targeted campaigns for each is a tried-and-true strategy. Here’s why:
1. It helps you optimize campaigns based on performance.
As we’ve said in the introduction, different products in an inventory perform at different levels. Some products generate high returns, while others underperform.
Grouping products by performance metrics—such as impressions, clicks, or conversions—enables you to manage budgets, bids, and strategies more effectively for each performance group.
2. It helps increase ROAS.
By targeting high-performing products with higher bids or budgets, you can improve the chances of increasing their exposure and revenue.
On the other hand, lower-performing products can be assigned lower bids to optimize spend. This increases the overall ROAS for the campaign by making sure that budget allocation matches product potential.
3. It allows scalable segmentation.
With the Smart Product Labeler, you can automatically segment products into performance-based buckets such as “hero products,” “learning products,” or “poor performers.” This automation is especially valuable for large accounts, where managing thousands of products manually would be highly inefficient.
4. It’s flexible across campaign types.
With Smart Product Labeler, the same set of rules can be used across both Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns. This allows you to create campaigns for top-tier products using PMax, while simultaneously using Standard Shopping for products that need more granular optimization and budget management.
When should you use this strategy?
1. When you’ve got a high product volume
If you’re managing a large inventory of products, manually adjusting bids and campaigns for each product is not feasible. Automating the segmentation of products with the Smart Product Labeler allows you to efficiently handle large volumes of data without sacrificing accuracy.
2. When specific product grouping adds value
If you have products that behave differently (e.g., high-selling products with low margins and low-selling products with high margins), it makes sense to group them into separate campaigns with tailored strategies for each. Segmenting by performance helps to implement this kind of differentiation easily.
3. When you need granular control
This strategy helps you gain more granular control over your shopping campaigns. By dividing products into performance-based categories, you gain the ability to target them with tailored bidding strategies, specific ad copy, or even varying budgets.
When should you not use this strategy?
While grouping products by performance can be an effective strategy, it’s not always the best approach in every situation. Here are some scenarios where it may not be ideal:
1. When you lack adequate data
For new accounts or campaigns with insufficient performance data, segmenting products by performance may not be beneficial. The Smart Product Labeler relies on historical performance metrics to create the rules, so it works best when there is enough data to draw meaningful insights.
If your campaign is still in the early stages, waiting until sufficient data is collected will yield better results.
2. When you have highly niche product lines
For smaller, niche product lines with few items in the catalog, segmenting by performance may not yield substantial value. In such cases, a more holistic approach to the campaign—focusing on general optimizations rather than product segmentation—might be more efficient.
3. When you don’t want to overcomplicate simple campaigns
If your product catalog is limited in size or you’ve got a straightforward campaign structure, complex segmentation strategies may add unnecessary layers of management. Sometimes, sticking with a simpler approach can be just as effective and easier to manage.
For example, let’s say you have a few brands in your inventory, and each performs differently. In such a case, you can allocate budgets and bids based on their performance rather than treating them equally.
In another instance, for ‘Product Type’, consider someone selling t-shirts, shorts, and denim jeans. If the ROI varies across these categories, creating separate campaigns for each category would simplify management while optimizing performance.
How does Smart Product Labeler make segmentation easier?
1. It helps you set up performance-based rules.
You can create rules based on performance metrics such as impressions, clicks, cost, conversions, conversion value, cost/conv., or ROAS. Products are automatically labeled based on these criteria, which can then be used to segment those products into different performance tiers.
2. It also helps you create feed attribute-based rules.
In addition to performance metrics, feed attributes can also be used for labeling products. For example, you could create labels based on product categories, price points, or brand information.
3. It automatically updates your supplemental feed.
The Smart Product Labeler automates the process of updating product labels in the Google Merchant Center. As product performance changes, the tool keeps updating the supplemental feed, making sure that your segmentation strategy stays current without requiring manual intervention.
4. It allows for unified campaign management.
The tool allows you to create a unified rule set that can be applied to both Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns, making it easier to manage multiple campaign types with consistent strategies.
You can use the Shopping Campaign Management tool to quickly create these campaigns and automatically update them in Google Ads as needed. This ensures that if your campaign structure changes over time, the updates will be applied without manual intervention, saving you time and reducing errors.
“Managing a massive product catalog of nearly 30,000 SKUs used to be a time-consuming challenge. Previously, with native Google Ads and Microsoft Ads tools, team members would spend 8-12 hours each week simply managing product churn. Optmyzr’s specialized tool for managing Shopping and Performance Max products slashed this time in half, freeing up 4-6 hours per week.”
-Deki Hoek, Channel Manager, BBQGuys
Save time on product segmentation with the Smart Product Labeler
If you’re looking to streamline your product segmentation and improve your shopping campaign performance, the Smart Product Labeler is a tool worth exploring. It’s available (right now in beta) to Optmyzr Pro plan users and above.
At the height of the Roman Empire, pepper was so highly prized that spice traders’ wealth grew faster than they could spend it. And nowhere was it more available and expensive than in Italia province where Rome stood – and where the average income was higher than that of the entire empire.
In a way, Roman traders were the progenitors of value-based bidding by putting their most profitable merchandise in front of those likeliest to pay the most for it.
Today, it’s a Google Ads’ methodology to help advertisers maximize the conversion value of their ad spend, and one of several cards you can play to unlevel a playing field where every advertiser is using the same automation.
But things have changed a little bit since the Romans were in charge, and there’s more to value-based bidding than starting a price war over spices.
In 2021, around 80% of Alphabet’s $257 billion in revenue came from Google’s advertising channels including search, shopping, and YouTube – that’s a huge ecosystem of people searching for products and information.
With it, Google has acquired a staggeringly large data set rich with consumer intent to inform its decisions. This is paired with world-class AI and machine learning that helps advertisers make the right decisions for their clients and businesses.
But that data is incomplete; it doesn’t account for account-specific information like who bought from you via a Google advertisement but later returned their purchase, or how one customer from geo 1 may have 10x the value of a customer from geo 2.
Value-based bidding closes that information gap by telling Google what your business considers to be the most and least valuable sources of traffic.
On our video podcast, PPC Town Hall, Google explained to us everything about Value-Based Bidding: how it works, best practices to follow, and common pitfalls to avoid.
Get actionable PPC tips, strategies, and tactics from industry experts twice a month.
Bidding to value happens when you tell Google things that Smart Bidding can’t measure, such as:
How much a customer is worth to your business, revenue stream, and profitability
Which conversions turned out to be money in the bank and which ones didn’t
The steps a lead took online or offline after converting via Google that resulted in revenue, and how much you value each of these conversion action steps
This graph is a hypothetical example of how value-based bidding helps you maximize your conversion value; it’s not how value-based bidding works in all cases. It’s possible to generate a higher volume of lower conversion value customers as well. The goal is to maximize conversion value, not the number of conversions.
Traditional conversion-based bidding methods don’t account for this level of nuance. With value-based strategies, you spend more of your budget acquiring customers most likely to create profit for your business.
In short:
Differentiate your customers. It’s likely you already segment customers based on their value to your business, but Google doesn’t have this information.
Bid on what matters. With a value-based bid strategy, Google learns which potential customers are most valuable to you.
Drive increased performance. Bidding higher on more valuable customers delivers incremental revenue lift and profitability.
Remember that different Google channels have different prerequisites and settings to enable value-based bidding. With Smart Shopping migrated to Performance Max, the only option is bidding to value. Search and Standard Shopping give you a choice between conversion-based or value-based strategies.
There are two broad ways to share data with Google.
Online Conversions
Global Site Tag and Google Tag Manager help you pass back online data points with additional tag parameters at the time of conversion, to help Google understand a conversion’s value.
Conversion data makes or breaks your success with value-based bidding. Be sure to set up and track more accurate conversions that match your business goals.
Some advertisers still use pageviews and other low-touch actions as conversions. We suggest something more indicative of interest, such as a form submission or purchase.
Offline Conversions
Offline Conversion Imports let you directly import conversions that took place offline, which you can pass back to Google via tools like Zapier, direct CRM integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot, or by uploading formatted spreadsheets. Anyone who clicks on your ad gets assigned a Google Click ID (GCLID). Use this anonymous identifier to report back on their conversion path while keeping customer data private.
For an advertiser who sells cosmetic products using an omnichannel strategy, using Offline Conversion Imports can tell Google data associated with different GCLIDs. For example:
True transaction value after a customer makes a full or partial return
Different values for first-time vs. repeat customers
The purchase value of a transaction in-store, with or without clicking on a digital ad
Offline Conversion Imports applies data up to 90 days old to the bidding algorithm (anything outside is used for reporting purposes only). You can either share the information daily and use conversion adjustments later on (Google-recommended best practice), or delay uploading conversions until you know more as long as it meets this threshold.
You can also use the Offline Conversions API in Google Marketing Platform to upload offline actions into Campaign Manager, Search Ads 360, and Display & Video 360 keyed to a DoubleClick User ID, GCLID, Device ID, or Match ID to view offline conversions.
We’ve talked about the importance of using conversion values, but how do you decide what numbers to use? Consider these elements the next time you set them up for an account.
Estimated Value: This is your most educated guess as to how much money a conversion has or will generate. Depending on your needs, you could consider immediate top-line (revenue), bottom-line (profit and margin), forecasted profit, or customer lifetime value.
Implementation: With conversion tracking enabled, different conversions can have different values. You can also choose to assign the same value to all conversions if your business model demands it. Three ways to assign values include:
Ecommerce Transaction Value: For online stores with shopping carts, your conversion values can vary based on the item. One conversion could be worth $25, while another could be worth many multiples.
Profit Margin: If your average order value (AOV) is $3,000 with a 45% profit margin, and your CRM shows that 20% of leads become customers, your conversion value would be (3,000 x .45 x .20) $270.
Lifetime Value: For the same AOV but using LTV modeling, you find that customers spend an additional $5,000 on average over their lifetime. At the same profit margin, your profit per customer is $3,600 ($3,000 + $5,000)*(.45). With a 20% conversion rate, your conversion value is $720.
Frequency: Pass value data back to Google as quickly and consistently as possible, ideally daily. This allows your account to get as close as possible to real-time optimization – especially necessary for ecommerce and verticals where inventory is limited.
Remember not to get caught up with exact figures – it’s fine to use estimates. Ensuring the values closely represent your business objectives is the most important part of this strategy.
Conversion Value Rules is a Google Ads feature that lets you tell their system more about how you value traffic based on three conditions:
Location
Audience (including first-party and Google Audience lists)
Device
Value Rules are applied at the account or cross-account level on top of your base conversion value. This makes it critical that you work with your clients or other teams to understand the hierarchy of audiences, locations, and devices for your business.
Software businesses that generate leads can use Value Rules to share business insights with Google such as:
Users in the United States are 3x more valuable (LTV or transaction value) than the average conversion (location)
Users who signed up for their newsletter are 20% more valuable (audience)
Users who browse on a desktop are 50% less valuable (device)
You should only create Conversion Value Rules that can’t be observed by or shared with Google through other means. For example, the profit margin isn’t known to Google; customer LTV per lead can only be inferred from your CRM database.
If you already share ecommerce transaction value through Google Shopping, for example, then Google already knows the differential in transaction value for consumers in geos and will take this into account within the Smart Bidding algorithm. So no Conversion Value Rules are needed in this case.
Outside of Value Rules, you can also use these other techniques to adjust conversion values:
Conversion adjustments to retract and restate previously reported conversions reported online or through Offline Conversion Import.
Data exclusions tell Smart Bidding to ignore all data from a particular date range when conversion tracking data was inactive or broken. This tool does not adjust for fluctuations in conversions.
Pre-import adjustments allow you to modify the value based on a variety of factors that you control. This will help guide Smart Bidding to achieve your value objectives.
Maximize Conversion Value (with or without a target ROAS) is the definitive Smart Bidding strategy for businesses with varied products or customers with different values.
Maximize Conversions isn’t recommended unless you only sell a single product variant, or have no information to differentiate the value of one type of lead vs. another. When using this bid strategy, Google will optimize for conversion number and will not consider differences in conversion values.
The addition of a target ROAS simply tells Smart Bidding to maximize your conversion value within a certain spend threshold. But remember that too high a target can limit conversions, and too low a target can eat into profits. Be sure to experiment with your ROAS target to find the sweet spot.
The Impact Of Value-Based Bidding On PPC Performance
The numbers speak for themselves – Google’s internal data from 2021 shows clear gains from bidding to value using Maximize Conversion Value with a target ROAS. Search campaigns enjoy a 14% lift in conversion value at a similar ROAS, while Standard Shopping campaigns with tROAS can see a lift upwards of 30%.
Aside from the tangibles, value-based bidding offers operational and strategic advantages for any agency or brand.
Closer Alignment With Google
Bidding to value – and setting up the systems that make it possible – allows Google to focus on the quality and total conversion value of people who see your ads. This allows you to optimize campaigns to match your true business goals, better reflect your business’ observable data, and optimize to what matters – like revenue, profit, or customer lifetime value.
Better Post-Conversion Optimization
With better traffic comes a more manageable post-conversion process. If your business engages with customers extensively between online conversion and sale, you can optimize for customer LTVs rather than lead volume. What’s most important is that you report conversions (with values) back to Google to better align bidding with business outcomes and marketing objectives.
Showcase Strategic Value
It’s easier to make a case for how your agency or team adds value to the marketing landscape with value-based bidding. This will become increasingly important as Google automates more of its platform and uses Smart Bidding to help advertising capture the most business value with your Google campaigns.
Simply optimizing keywords and optimizing manual campaigns is no longer a viable role. With real-time optimization, you can account for nuances in value when using target ROAS and Maximize Conversion Value.
You can help to translate the performance of Google Marketing campaigns to be directly aligned with ultimate business goals for your client and bring first-party data in to assert your competitive advantage.
Implementing Your Value-Based Bid Strategy: A Checklist
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
Most advertisers have now made the transition from manual to automated bidding, but that’s not where the road to PPC optimization should end. There are many forms of automated bidding, some more powerful than others.
Value-based bidding is the current state-of-the-art in bid management for Google Ads, but it relies on advertisers assigning a value to conversions so Google’s algorithms can prioritize more lucrative conversions.
Bidding to value works for a wide variety of advertising goals, but because it uses a target ROAS, it’s sometimes incorrectly assumed that it’s only for ecommerce.
Even lead-gen advertisers can use value-based bidding because they also get different values from different types of leads. The trick is simply in how to communicate these different values to the automated bidding systems.
This next part is the guide that will help you be successful as you transition your campaigns to a value-based optimization methodology. Like the rest of this article, it was put together in collaboration with Google, the company that created many of the systems advertisers use to implement value-based bidding.
Optmyzr took the theory behind these tools, analyzed what real advertisers did, and distilled it down into this guide. Read on to get the best advice from both the creators of the tools and the advertisers who use those tools to deliver winning outcomes.
We’ve split this up into the four key parts of doing value-based bidding the right way. They’re all equally important, but we’ve listed them here in the order that most closely follows the implementation timeline. So start from the top and work your way down as you deploy a value-based bidding strategy for your account.
Value-Based Bidding Best Practices You Should Follow
Conversion Tracking and Assigning Value
For any optimization strategy to work well (manual or automated), advertisers must collect the right data to help make smart decisions.
Google takes care of reporting accurate data about impressions, clicks, costs, etc. But it’s up to advertisers to ensure they get accurate data about results-driven by these clicks. This means setting up conversion tracking correctly.
Most accounts already have conversion tracking set up. In lead gen, a conversion might be when someone fills out the lead-gen form on a landing page. In ecommerce, it might be when the consumer checks out and pays for their cart.
Here are some considerations related to conversion tracking:
Create multiple conversion actions to reflect the multiple stages of a conversion. This can include micro-conversions (good things that happen before the conversion) or additional macro-conversions (good things that happen after the initial conversion) e.g. when a lead becomes a sales qualified lead, and when a lead turns into a customer. In ecommerce, additional conversions could happen when a new customer exhibits signals they will become a high-LTV customer.
Create reasonable values for the different conversion actions. Not every action should carry the same weight. For example, a sales-qualified lead is probably worth more than a lead, and a sale is worth more than a sales-qualified lead. In ecommerce, a user who returns half their purchase should be valued lower than if they’d kept all their items.
When using relative rather than exact values for different conversions, ensure these values are at a similar scale as the cost of clicks. For example, if an average click costs $10, don’t report that a lead is worth ‘1’ and a sale is worth ‘2’, because then every click will look like it was a money-loser and automated bidding will scale back your ads. Instead, scale up the relative values, for example, value a lead at 100 and a sale at 200. That way, when 8 clicks lead to 1 lead, the ROAS will look much healthier and your ads won’t be throttled.
Consider which conversion actions should be used for bidding optimization and whether you may be stacking the values too high. For example, if you have 3 conversion actions related to leads – a lead ($10), a sales qualified lead ($20), and a sale ($50) – and each is a primary action, then their values will get added. So a sale, which presumably started as a lead and then became a sales-qualified lead before turning into a sale will get a value of $10 + $20 + $50 = $80.
Make sure this makes sense as you consider the next section of guidelines about targets. If you haven’t heard of primary and secondary conversion actions, these are Google’s new way of asking advertisers what to count towards bidding optimization. It used to be a checkbox “include in conversions”, but now they call it primary conversion actions (which are used by automation) and secondary conversion actions which are merely used for observation and reporting, but won’t influence the behavior of automated bidding.
As an ecommerce advertiser, consider setting a conversion value based on a sale’s profitability rather than its revenue, to account for varying margins for different products. Aligning the values you report with the KPIs your business cares about can simplify a lot of things – for example, choosing the right target ROAS.
If some of your conversion value increases or decreases based on things that happen offline, use one of the offline conversion tracking tools described earlier in this article.
If you report conversions to Google after they happened, or you restate values later on, try to do this at least daily so the machine learning gets fresh data all the time.
When using Conversion Value Rules, only communicate to Google things that may not be observable through Smart Bidding e.g. profit margin, customer lifetime value, upsell opportunities, etc.
Use one of these key product features from Google to adjust values:
Structure and Targets
Account structure and targets go hand-in-hand because which targets you can set depends on how your account is structured. If you need to have different targets for different parts of your business, you should maintain at least one campaign for each.
While many advertisers may have heard Google’s call for a simpler account structure, bear in mind they’re asking advertisers to remove unnecessary complexity. So don’t maintain multiple campaigns for the sake of having the same keywords in different match types. But do maintain separate campaigns if you sell seasonal products that will have different targets as the seasons change.
Decide at what level your conversion actions make sense. You can set them cross-account, at the account level, or by campaign or groups of campaigns. When Google’s algorithm predicts conversion rates, it uses all data associated with a conversion action’s scope. This means you can have a single conversion action at the MCC level that guides all bid decisions across multiple accounts for the same company. Or if you have a campaign with a unique one-off goal where you don’t want other campaigns to impact its predictions, set it up with a campaign-level conversion action.
Maintaining a minimum conversion volume is becoming less important as Google’s machine learning improves and is able to draw inferences from system-wide data. That said, most advertisers we talk to find automation performs better with campaigns that have more conversions. Target at least 30-50 conversions per month before enabling automated bids. Before then, use Enhanced CPC bidding or Maximize Conversion Value (with no tROAS) to build up data. And consider adding micro-conversions if you find yourself struggling to meet the conversion threshold when relying solely on your primary conversion action.
When testing value-based bidding with Google’s Experiments framework, you need double the number of conversions. So building on the previous point, aim for 30-50 conversions per month for both the control and experiment groups. Otherwise, you may need to expand your testing period beyond 1-2 months to reach conclusive results.
If you followed the advice from the previous section and are reporting profits rather than revenue, you can now set targets based on true goals. Before reporting profits in conversion tracking, some advertisers use the tROAS to emulate profits. For example, in a campaign where the typical product has a 50% margin (the cost of the goods sold is half the price charged for the item), an advertiser can set a 200% tROAS knowing that if they hit that ROAS exactly, they will break even. Instead, when they report profits, they can now set a tROAS of 100% to achieve the same thing and avoid confusion about why they have a 200% tROAS when they would have been happy with 100%.
Set the initial target ROAS based on historical performance. The simple math is conversion value (such as revenue) divided by ad cost, for at least the past 30 days. Setting it too aggressively may severely limit volume.
Use profitability as a guide for setting the right budgets & ROAS targets with Performance Planner.
When you expect a sudden fluctuation in user behavior that will impact conversions, consider setting a seasonality adjustment or modifying the tROAS. The benefit of a seasonality adjustment is that you can set an end date and machine learning will ignore data from the seasonality event for its future predictions.
Testing and Hygiene
With conversion tracking reporting the right thing and targets set to achieve actual business goals, advertisers are ready to start experimenting with value-based bidding. But just like with any test, here are a few considerations to keep in mind:
Build up enough conversion history before starting a test. At least 3 conversion cycles or 4 weeks is recommended, whichever is longer. That means that if your typical conversion takes 15 days, you should wait 45 days before turning on your target ROAS. Use the Path Metrics report in the Attribution section in Google Ads to learn what your typical conversion delay is.
If you have a tROAS, uncap your budgets so that the system can find incremental conversions within your target. If you do not have a tROAS, use Maximum Conversion Value as the bid strategy and keep your budget cap in line with your expected daily spend goals.
Google recommends not changing targets more than 20% or more frequently than every 2 weeks. These are guidelines and it’s okay if you don’t follow them. Your business objectives should take priority. Keep in mind that a big change in your target can bump Smart Bidding into its learning phase, but that does not mean Google’s machine learning forgot everything from the past. It simply means that a large swing in your target is making your ads eligible for a significantly different set of queries for which Google may not know much about your expected performance. For the same queries you’ve had before, it’ll be business as usual. For the new queries, performance may fluctuate and that may make your averages look a little strange for a while, but you didn’t break machine learning.
A best practice of gathering conversion value at observation mode first (without setting bids) for Offline Conversion Imports is 2-4 weeks.
If something goes wrong and conversion data is broken – for example, if your website goes down – use a data exclusion to let machine learning know that it should ignore data from that period for making future predictions.
As with any test, minimize big changes. For example, changing the landing page or your offer could dramatically impact conversion rates and Google’s algorithms won’t necessarily know if the change was due to this or something within its own control like bids or broad matches. If you have to make changes to your campaigns during the test period, make the same change to both the control and experimental groups.
Keep in mind when switching to value-based bidding:
Evaluating Performance
Finally, with tests underway, it’s important to understand how to evaluate performance the right way so you avoid making incorrect decisions.
Machine learning needs a bit of time to learn; it’s called machine learning after all! So give it 1-2 weeks to get through the ramp-up period and then ONLY consider data from that point forward when deciding what’s the winner and what’s the loser. Optmyzr’s [Campaign Experiments](Campaign Experiments by Optmyzr: Google Ads Experiments Made Easy) tool will help you see all experiments in one place and accounts for the ramp-up period.
Experiments shouldn’t be terminated too soon; 4-8 weeks is generally the right amount of time to let an experiment accrue enough data that isn’t biased by time factors. Of course, the exact amount of time depends on the volume of the campaigns so be sure to look for statistically significant results.
When automating value-based bids, your metrics for deciding winners and losers should focus on revenue maximization or conversion value maximization, so don’t pick a winner based on an unrelated metric like CTR for example.
Keep in mind that most campaigns have conversion lag. So when analyzing performance, ignore the most recent days where conversion reporting is likely still incomplete. You can use Google’s attribution reports to find the typical conversion lag for each of your campaigns.
Google’s Bid Strategy Report already does a lot of the performance analysis for you. Use tools like Optmyzr to delve deeper into the numbers and produce additional reports your clients or boss might be asking for.
Common Pitfalls (As Identified by Technical Specialists)
Besides using the above best practices for starting with value-based bidding in your account, beware of some of the most common pitfalls we’ve seen.
1. Your ROAS goal should not be too aggressive
It would be nice if automation was a magic bullet that could instantly quadruple your performance, but chances are this won’t work. It’s better to start with the recommended tROAS based on historical performance so that the system gets a good baseline. From there, you can slowly change the tROAS and periodically review if these small tweaks are getting you closer to where you’d like to be. The Optmyzr Rule Engine is a great tool that can automate these periodic small tweaks to your targets.
2. Don’t analyze performance during the learning period
We said it in the guidelines but we’ll say it again because too many advertisers can’t wait to see results so they jump the gun and make decisions too quickly. The system takes time to calibrate and settle in, so give it the required 1-2 weeks to do this before you start analyzing results.
3. Don’t forget about conversion delays
We said this one before too but it’s another all-too-common mistake to judge a campaign by the most recent performance we have access to. And while Google Ads will report clicks/cost/etc. in a matter of minutes for most campaigns, conversions take time because people take time to make up their minds. If you judge a campaign on this partial data, you’re bound to make bad decisions. Said another way, remember that Google Ads data is click-centric. If a click today leads to a conversion in 5 days, that conversion will show up in the report for today’s data after 5 days. The data you look at may not tell you the complete and final picture. So be sure to exclude performance during the conversion delay period.
4. Don’t look at the wrong metrics
For better or for worse, Google has really trained advertisers to care about click-through rate, conversion rate, and yes, even ROAS. But don’t lose sight of how those metrics relate to your business goals. We once talked to an advertiser who told their agency they had to get a 400% ROAS to keep the business. They dutifully met that target until one day they asked the client why they insisted on a ROAS that was actually decreasing profits. The client sheepishly admitted they got 300% ROAS from the last agency and thought 400% would be better.
5. Not assigning value to conversions that matter
The whole premise of value-based bidding is to help machine learning understand the true value of conversions to your business. So don’t skip assigning values to all your conversion actions. But also don’t get stuck on setting the exact right amount. It’s fine to estimate, measure and iterate.
6. Poor campaign structure
Old campaign structures can really hamper results. For example, you should not separate campaigns by keyword match type, or by device type. The former is almost always unnecessary, the latter likely is less necessary than it once was. Your account structure should be as simple as possible while still enabling you to set different goals based on your business needs.
What A Successful Value-Based Bid Strategy Looks Like
The transition from a conversion-based mindset to value-based bidding can be rewarding, but only when done right. That starts with understanding how Smart Bidding makes decisions in order to meet it halfway.
Advertisers around the world have made mistakes like jumping into Smart Bidding without taking prerequisite measures, evaluating performance too early when testing a new bid strategy, and not realizing that Smart Bidding already takes into account observable conversion data from all your campaigns.
Value-based bidding is the next level of account optimization after you’ve run the course with a conversion-based methodology. The guidelines we’ve covered in this article will help you see better results more quickly by avoiding some of the most common pitfalls we’ve seen advertisers fall for when deploying the tools from Google.
Be the advertiser who succeeds by having a plan, sets things up to succeed from the outset, understands the limitations of Google’s decision-making algorithms, and feeds updated and relevant data to align the algorithm with your business goals.
In March of 2024, Google fixed a glitch that blocked Search terms from showing in the PMax scripts that would pull search categories. This means that you can see the categories PMax matched your budget with, as well as the specific Search terms.
Just like in traditional search campaigns, understanding what your users are searching for helps you bid more effectively, and know which negatives to add to eliminate waste. However, this still requires a script—meaning that you need to have knowledge of applying scripts, or your own API tokens, or use a tool like Optmyzr.
Optmyzr customers have access to our PMax search terms report and a number of other tools. But, in this article, we’re going to focus primarily on solutions for advertisers who don’t have access to Optmyzr’s solutions for PMax because it’s important to us that everyone has access to budget-saving resources.
Before we dive into analysis and optimization we need to know what we’re working with. So, let’s quickly define a few important terms.
What Are Search Categories, Search Terms, Search Keywords, & Search Themes?
A search category is specific to PMax. It groups similar search terms giving you an eagle-eye insight into what is going on in your account. It’ll also give you a sense of the main themes for searches.
It’s important to note that the categories do not spill over into placements, so you shouldn’t take the categories you get for search as an indication of your placements. Understanding the places you’re serving for requires different tools.
A search term is the actual thing—a word or a group of words—a user searches for. Typically, you will see something related to the keyword (which we’ll go over in a bit in the search term) but sometimes due to the nature of close variants, the words in the search term will actually be completely different. This can happen due to broad match or the way that PMax matches.
Part of the reason that search terms are so important to audit is that you can sometimes get cheaper ways of searching off of those search terms. You also can get insights into potential ideas for negatives.
A search keyword is the thing that you bid on in traditional search campaigns. It has different match types and uses different signals to match user queries. In PMax you don’t actually bid on keywords. Instead, you use something called search themes.
Search themes, behave sort of like broad keywords. However, they have interesting ranking rules. If you have a keyword in your traditional search campaigns that is an exact match, there’s a very high likelihood that that keyword will win for other match types.
It’s much more likely that the search theme will win out, especially if the user semantically searches exactly the way that the PMax search theme is written. Understanding the difference between keywords and themes will help create the best strategies for your account going forward.
What Can You Do With The Data From The PMax Reports?
Now that we have a basic understanding of all the pieces in play, we can dive into what to do with the data available through our PMax search term and search category reports.
You start with an audit of your PMax search themes, confirming that you’ve got the right ones in place. If you see a lot of search terms that are the same as your search themes and keywords in your traditional search campaigns, you may want to switch out your search themes. This is because you are setting yourself up to cannibalize your search budget with your PMax campaign.
A better way to go about it is to pick exact match keyword concepts that you want for your traditional search and test new potential candidates in PMax. In this way, you can get that incremental traffic by testing new ideas without having the repercussions of limiting your search campaigns that may need more data to ramp up.
The other really important point is around negative keywords. PMax doesn’t behave like a traditional campaign. It requires you to send a list of “normal” negatives through a form to Google support reps, and brand terms that you want as negatives.
This can apply to both your brand and your competitors.
While you can only eliminate waste, you can’t necessarily direct traffic. This is an important mechanic because many will treat asset groups like ad groups and the lack of ability to have asset group level negatives means you can’t do this without hurting your account.
You will likely have asset groups that don’t perform and may have parts of your business that don’t get access to budgets.
Finally, having a sense of how much of your budget is going to search in general is useful. If you see that the auction prices in your PMax campaign are drastically cheaper than your traditional search, especially for search categories that are important to you, that could be a sign that your PMax campaign isn’t budgeting enough for what you’re going after, and the lion’s share of your budget is being soaked up by visual content.
Visual content isn’t inherently bad, but it can create false positives in terms of how much keyword concepts cost.
How to Audit Your PMax Search Terms?
We talked quite a bit about the analysis. Here are the main action items that you’ll want to do in relation to PMax and auditing your search themes, categories, and terms.
Make sure that there is minimal overlap between the search themes and your traditional search keywords. If you have a lot of overlap, consider swapping out your search themes.
Don’t forget negatives! Also, remember asset groups do not allow for negatives. You have to make the choice at the campaign level through the form or at the account level and just eliminate waste.
Remember that different channels have different auction prices. If you’re seeing a high level of spend that’s cheaper than your traditional search, consider reworking your structure so that PMax either can get a little bit more budget, or be mindful that you probably don’t have the budget for PMax to hit the minimum 60 conversions in a 30-day period and Google is doing the best it can with the limited resources.
As a reminder, Optmyzr customers have access to the PMax Search term script and can use our other suite of tools including Rule Engine, Campaign Automator, and many other resources to build out account structures that serve them best.
If you’re not an Optmyzr customer, our co-founder Fred Valleays released a free version of the script which you can test out in your own accounts. And if you’d like to explore becoming a customer, you can click this link for a free full-functionality 14-day trial.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
If you use Google Ads primarily as a growth tool, it stands to reason that you would dedicate your budget in part or in whole to acquiring new customers.
While there are certainly strong use cases to drive repeat business through search advertising, you have other arguably better (and certainly less expensive) ways to engage existing customers once you’ve met their initial demand – like email and SMS marketing.
Whether you’re running lead generation campaigns or ecommerce in Google Ads, the cost of advertising is high enough that it makes sense to focus on those users who haven’t bought from you before.
New Customer Acquisition is a functionality in Performance Max and Search that allows you to exclude users who have done business with you using a customer list. Accurate data is essential if you want to use this setting to ensure good results.
Why New Customer Acquisition Is Important
If you have New Customer Acquisition activated without having a good handle on your data, there’s a good chance that your ROAS is lower than it appears to be.
If you do not properly define existing customers or the value of new customers, this can result in your account overpaying for existing customers, thus distorting ROAS.
Each of the columns in the image above adds context to how your New Customer Acquisition is performing:
Conversions: The total number of conversions, as defined by the primary conversion action of the campaign
New customers: How many of the conversions stem from customers who are not present on your customer list
Conv. value: The total value of all conversions, including any extra conversion value attributed to new customers
New customer lifetime value: How much of the conversion value is attributed as incremental value from new customers
Two Strategies for New Customer Acquisition Explained
Google Ads does a good job of allowing advertisers who know how to set up ad accounts to do so in a way that makes financial sense of their investment.
One of the ways this shows up is in how New Customer Acquisition offers two approaches to optimize bids for new customers. Both of these approaches are viable with the right data, so choose the one that makes sense for your account’s campaign and business goals.
1. Bidding Exclusively On New Customers
If your sole focus is to reach people who have never done business with you, you can tell Google to only serve your ads to new customers and ignore those who have converted in the past.
In this approach, you only need to define existing customers when you set up audience segments in the campaign. This way, Google knows which customers are existing ones and can therefore focus on others who are searching for what you offer.
2. Bidding Higher On New Customers Than Existing Customers
At other times, you may still wish to show your ad to people who have done business with you in the past – but they may be less valuable and therefore take a lower priority.
For this second approach, in addition to defining existing customers, you must also define a value attributed to the conversion of new customers. This provides a signal to Smart Bidding that this customer type is more valuable, so that it can begin to bid higher on similar signals.
How to Succeed with New Customer Acquisition in Google Ads
If you do not properly define your existing customers and the value of new customers, it can result in overpaying for existing customers and thus distorting ROAS.
Take these steps to prepare your campaign ahead of prospecting for new business:
Ensure that you can create a detailed audience segment with existing customers. You will need at least 1,000 active customers on the list. Not every business and account will be able to do this, and they should refrain from using Customer Acquisition to avoid overpaying for existing customers and distorting ROAS.
Assess whether you can assign an additional value to new customers. You can use considerations like buying patterns, fee structures, and other financial details to arrive at a value. Keep in mind, this value is attributed the same regardless of the conversion’s original value, so even a small extra value can significantly enhance your ROAS and Smart Bidding.
If testing New Customer Acquisition, include the “New customers” and “New customer lifetime value” columns in your campaign overview. This allows you to monitor conversions from new customers and the total additional value attributed to them, letting you better assess the impact on your overall ROAS.
The difference between Google Shopping Ads and traditional Search Ads
The types of Google Shopping Ads, and when and how to use them
The requirements for setting up Google Shopping Ads and how to set them up
Optymzr capabilities to help you set up and manage Shopping Ads easily
What are Google Shopping Ads?
Remember the last time you turned to Google to search for a product — let’s say, “Air Jordans.” You would have come across something like this:
This is Google Shopping Ads at work. The product listings you see on the top of Google search results and the Google Shopping tab are all Google Shopping Ads.
When customers search for a product online, these ads display relevant products from ecommerce businesses, along with their prices, images, and merchant information.
The purpose of Shopping ads, like all other ad formats, is to connect users with a purchase intent to relevant products and deals from retailers. And for ecommerce businesses, shopping ads are a way to get their products in front of people searching for what they sell.
How Much Do Google Shopping Ads Cost?
Figuring out the cost of Google Shopping ads can be tricky since there is no one-size-fits-all answer. But here are some factors that can give you an idea of how much they might cost you:
Your industry: Competitive industries like legal services tend to have higher costs per click ($9.21), while less competitive industries like arts and entertainment have lower CPC ($1.55). Here are the search advertising benchmarks for 2023:
Customer lifecycle stage: Acquiring new customers for new products or services may require higher costs, while more established brands with existing demand can have lower CPCs.
Current trends: CPCs fluctuate based on factors like seasonality, economic conditions, and current events. For example, CPCs in the apparel industry dropped during the peak of COVID.
Account optimization: Better optimized accounts through strategies like bidding adjustments and landing page testing can lead to higher returns and lower CPCs. Poorly managed accounts end up wasting budgets.
While it’s impossible to predict an exact cost-per-click, understanding these key factors provides a better sense of what to expect and allows you to allocate a budget for your Google Shopping campaigns accordingly. Apart from these factors, closely monitoring performance and making data-driven decisions is also crucial to maximizing ROI.
How Do Shopping Ads Differ From Traditional Search or Text Ads?
While both are PPC ad formats served by Google, Shopping ads have some key differences from regular text-based search ads:
Feature
Google Shopping Ads
Google Standard Text Ads
Ad Type
Product-based
Text-based
Primary Use
Promoting specific products and their features. Ideal for ecommerce sites looking to promote and sell products directly
Promoting a website or service through text. Ideal for businesses aiming to increase site visits, calls, or spread awareness
Ad Visuals
Includes product images, title, price, store name
No images, only text
Placement
Google Shopping tab, Google Search results, Google Display Network, YouTube, and Gmail
Google Search results, Google Network sites
Targeting
Based on product data submitted through Google Merchant Center
Based on keywords chosen by the advertiser
Pricing Model
Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
Cost-Per-Click (CPC), others depending on campaign settings
Campaign Management
Managed through Google Merchant Center and Google Ads
Managed through Google Ads
Ad Creation
Generated automatically from the product data in Google Merchant Center
Created by the advertiser
Required Account(s)
Google Merchant Center account is required in addition to Google Ads account
Only a Google Ads account is required
Audience Targeting
Based on user searches, product categories, and more detailed product attributes
Based on keywords, user interests, demographics, etc.
Optimization & Bidding Strategies
Focuses on product groups, feed optimization, and bidding strategies specific to product categories
Focuses on keyword selection, match types, and ad copy effectiveness
When to Use Shopping Ads?
For ecommerce advertisers, Shopping ads have several benefits over other ad formats. The comparison between shopping ads and search ads often boils down to competitiveness and cost-effectiveness. Shopping ads tend to be more competitive and pricier in terms of cost-per-click (CPC). However, they often result in higher conversion rates, making them a worthwhile investment despite the higher CPCs.
On the other hand, search ads can sometimes be overlooked as a tool for ecommerce brands. While they generally come at a lower cost compared to shopping ads, they may not always attract as much attention from searchers. This is because searchers are more inclined to click on shopping ads, potentially overshadowing search ads in terms of visibility and click-through rates.
Shopping ads allow multiple product ads in search results, giving more real estate.
Most ecommerce verticals are price and impression-sensitive, and they might benefit from Shopping ads more than text ads. For example, if you’re selling shoes, people are more likely to click on a picture of a nice pair of shoes rather than an ad that says “Comfortable sports shoes.”
Ultimately, the choice between shopping ads and search ads depends on various factors, including budget, target audience, and campaign objectives. Finding the right balance between the two can lead to a comprehensive advertising strategy that maximizes ROI and drives sales effectively in the competitive digital landscape.
You can also split your budget between Shopping and Search Campaigns to drive traffic to your site. Shopping and text ads can also appear together, doubling your visibility.
Types of Google Shopping Campaigns
You can create two types of Google Shopping Campaigns: Standard Shopping Campaigns and Performance Max Campaigns. Let’s discuss more about these two in detail:
1. Standard Shopping Campaigns
Standard Shopping campaigns have been a part of Google Advertising for a long time now. You organize ad groups in a campaign, each group bundling similar products with matching settings like location and language. Inside these ad groups, you can showcase ads for individual items.
To use Standard Shopping campaigns, you set up a Merchant Center account and submit your product data feed. Then, within your shopping campaign, you can create ad groups and add products to them from your feed. This approach allows granular control over your campaigns and ad group settings.
2. Performance Max Campaigns
Performance Max is Google’s automated campaign type that accesses all of a user’s advertising inventory from one campaign.
It uses advanced automation and machine learning to optimize bids, ad placement, budget allocation, and other factors to maximize ROI. It also shifts spending to better-performing ads and products to drive results.
The key difference between Standard Shopping and Performance Max is that, in the latter, Google handles targeting and optimization for you. You provide assets such as ads and landing pages, while Google’s AI decides how the ad is served.
Both Standard and Performance Max Shopping campaigns can be effective. While Standard campaigns give more control over the ads, Performance Max takes a broader cross-channel approach with automation.
We’ll take a broader look at the differences between the two types of Shopping Ads in the following section.
Differences Between Performance Max and Standard Shopping Campaigns
Here are some key differences between Standard Shopping campaigns and Performance Max campaigns:
Aspect
Performance Max Campaigns
Standard Shopping Campaigns
Setup Process
Moderately complex setup process. You will have to create a campaign in Google Ads, set campaign objectives, and configure bidding strategy, integrate with Merchant Center and other Google services. You will also have to set up ad creatives and assets
Relatively straightforward. You will have to create a campaign in Google Ads, link your Merchant Center account, define campaign settings, create product groups, and set bids and negative keywords
Level of Automation
Almost full automation using Google's AI
Full manual control over campaigns, along with the option to run with automated bidding
Ad Placement
Ads are displayed across the Google network- Search, Display, YouTube, etc.
Limited to Google Images, Shopping tab, and Search
Optimization
Relies fully on Google's automation for optimizations
Manual control allows granular adjustments and optimizations
Reporting
Limited reporting information is currently available
Detailed reports available on search queries and performance
Negative Keywords
Can add negative keywords only at the account level
Can add negative keywords at the ad group, campaign, and account level
Targeting Accuracy
Potentially less accurate unless relevant audiences are added
Highly accurate, product-based targeting
Bid Adjustments
Not possible to make manual bid adjustments
Full control to make bid adjustments as and when needed
Should You Run Standard Shopping and Performance Max Together?
Dhiraj, our in-house Shopping expert at Optmyzr says, “Technically speaking, if the same products are being advertised through both campaign types, Standard Shopping is likely to not get anything.
The debate is that if you’re using products from the same Merchant Center, will Performance Max cannibalize standard shopping even though they advertise on different products?
It’s possible, especially if the final URL expansion is ON. But even if it is not, there is a possibility that with the way Performance Max works, it can broadly match with other products too. If the final URL expansion is OFF, you can use Performance Max and Standard Shopping for different sets of products and it should ideally work better.”
If you run a Performance Max campaign concurrently with a Standard campaign for the same set of products, Google’s algorithm kicks into action to ensure your advertising investments produce the best output for you. This means that ad prioritization is likely to favor the Performance Max campaign and is most likely to take precedence over the Standard one.
So should you run Standard Shopping and Performance Max together? It really depends on your specific goals and strategies.
Ryan Wilton from The Co-operative Group says, “We run standard shopping alongside Performance Max in all of our accounts. They get traffic if the Performance Max budget is exhausted or for whatever reason don’t trigger in the auction. (Running them simultaneously can also come) handy to get some search term data too.”
Running these campaigns together can help you maximize exposure and use Google’s advanced algorithms for ad prioritization. However, it is important to monitor and optimize your campaigns regularly to make the most of this combination.
Advertisers have seen some advantages of running Performance Max campaigns with brand negatives and then running Standard campaigns with exact-match brand keywords.
Nibha Gupta from Digital Champ says, “I have always run Performance Max with shopping ads as that setup has helped me limit Performance Max to only non-brand keywords. Once I solely ran a Performance Max campaign with brand negatives and another Performance Max campaign without any, I saw that the overall ROAS I got from this setup was lower than when I had a shopping brand campaign.”
Requirements for Setting up Google Shopping Ads
There are a few requirements you’ll need to meet to be able to set up Shopping Campaigns using the Merchant Center feed:
1. Merchant Center Setup
Product Data: Ensure your product data is accurate and up-to-date according to Google’s product data specification guidelines. This includes details like titles, descriptions, images, prices, and availability.
Policy Compliance: Verify that your business type, products, promotions, and website comply with Google’s Shopping ads policies to avoid disapproval or suspension.
You can read more about the policies and guidelines here.
What is Google Merchant Center?
Simply put, the Google Merchant Center account, allows you to upload and manage your product data so that your products appear across Google Search, Maps, YouTube, and more.
How to Set up a Google Merchant Center Account?
You can find a quick walkthrough of how to set up your Merchant Center Account in this video.
For further assistance and details regarding the Merchant Center, you can refer to this article.
Merchant Center Next Is Replacing Merchant Center
Google unveiled a more simplified version of the Merchant Center at the Google Marketing Live 2023. Apart from a simpler look and easier navigation, Merchant Center Next also allows you to populate products on the campaign directly from your website.
You can read more about what to expect from Merchant Center Next in this article.
How to Create a Google Shopping Campaign?
Using Google Ads
You can create and manage Shopping campaigns, including updating campaign settings and product groups directly in your Google Ads account.
1. Start a New Campaign:
In your Google Ads account, click the plus button, then select “New campaign.”
Choose your campaign objective: Sales, Leads, Website traffic, Local store visits, and promotions, or Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance.
Select “Shopping” as your campaign type.
2. Connect Merchant Center:
Choose the Merchant Center account with the products you want to advertise. If needed, link your Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts first.
3. (Optional) Select Feeds:
Pick feeds by feed label or Country of Sale to specify which products to advertise in this campaign.
4. Choose Campaign Settings:
Select “Standard Shopping campaign” as your campaign subtype.
Customize advertising preferences such as campaign name, inventory filter, local products, URL options, bidding, daily budget, campaign priority, networks, devices, locations, and local inventory ads.
5. Click “Save and continue” to proceed.
6. Create Ad Group:
Enter ad group details including name and bid.
Click “Save.”
7. Manage Product Groups:
Navigate to the product groups page where you can view and manage all products in the campaign.
Utilize subdivisions to make bidding as specific as needed.
You can find a quick video walkthrough of the steps here:
Using Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Builder
The Optmyzr Shopping Campaign Management tool simplifies the creation and oversight of Shopping and Performance Max Retail campaigns. By integrating it with your Merchant Center, you can streamline repetitive tasks and free up your time for more meaningful tasks
Here’s how you can do it:
Creating a Shopping Campaign with Optmyzr takes significantly less time compared to using Google Ads. This means less hassle and more opportunity to focus on refining your campaign strategies.
Automation from Performance Max and Merchant Center Next has made running ads accessible and convenient to more advertisers than ever before.
And Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management Tool gives you the ability to create your own automations that you can control and security over your ad spend, bidding, and targeting, instead of relying on those created by Google’s platform.
A strategic approach to Shopping Campaigns is what can set you apart from PPC novices who depend on system automations, and help you unlevel the playing field yet again.
How to Sync Your Shopping Campaigns With the Merchant Center Feed?
Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management Tool offers customizable automations that complement Google Ads’ existing platform features.
You can refresh product groups and listing groups manually or schedule automatic syncs using the tool. Refreshing or syncing your campaigns/campaign groups will allow you to
Update your already existing product groups and listing groups
Create new ad groups and even entire campaigns in accordance with the structure and feed changes.
The Automatic Sync Schedule option allows you to set up automated sync at intervals of your choice. You can also use the tool to see if a sync schedule has been set up, and when it’s scheduled to run if no automation has been set up, or if the automation has been paused.
Google Ads has become very competitive over the years. But it’s still a tremendous channel for high growth if you do it right. Combine automation layering with that and you will be able to run campaigns where you hold the control.
And if you need help with that, try using Optmyzr’s toolkit. You can sign up for a 14-day free trial here.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.
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.
Have you ever wondered how many products you have overlapping or present in your various shopping (Standard or Performance Max) campaigns?
In Optmyzr, we have a set of tools that provide rich insights at different levels, to not only solve the question about overlapping but also help you make better decisions on your campaigns.
Here’s a 3-step process to help you compare your products’ performance across those campaigns.
Step 1: Get an Audit of the Products and Campaigns.
In Shopping Feed Audits, you can get among other relevant audits from your merchant feed, a list of products active in various campaigns in the same ads account; just make sure to enable this individual audit before you run the preview mode:
In the full audit report, you will find this audit in the Product level section, along with the full list of item IDs, number of repetitions (campaigns), and the campaign names. You can download this audit individually as well:
For the next step, we recommend creating a Google Sheet with the information on the product IDs.
Step 2: Load Your Results in Rule Engine.
With the help of our solution for custom optimizations and automation - Rule Engine, you can create a strategy and report your products from shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
Under Rule Engine, create a new strategy at the Shopping/PMax Product scope:
If you have a Google Sheet ready with the information from the previous audit, you can connect it to the Rule Engine strategy with the help of External List Data and use the column containing the item IDs:
This attribute will help us report the products with the same IDs from the audit results.
In your first rule, you can create a condition in the form of “Item ID (aggregated by Account) in (ignore case) list (column from the Google Sheet)”:
Once this is ready, you are free to add more conditions in the rule with performance metrics at the product level, such as impressions, clicks, ROAS, cost, etc, and the thresholds you prefer (for example >= 0).
Something worth mentioning is that products with no impressions during the selected date range will be excluded from the analysis. Plus, it’s important to consider a date range similar to the audit to have consistency in the analysis.
Step 3: Compare the Products’ Performance Across the Campaigns.
Finally, on the View Suggestions page, you can visualize all the matching results.
Here we recommend clicking on the “Product Item ID” header so the sorting groups the same IDs in the list:
Based on this view you can easily identify in which campaigns the products performed better and then apply the adjustments or decisions you prefer.
So, those are 3 simple steps that’ll help you compare your products’ performance across your Standard Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
If this looks like something you’re interested, go ahead and try it out in Rule Engine. And if you have any questions, or if you’d like us to have a look at your recipe before you start running it just email us at support@optmyzr.com – we’ll be glad to help you.
In the ever-evolving world of paid search advertising, understanding the intricacies of platforms like Google and Microsoft is critical for campaign success. While these platforms are similar in many aspects, there are a range of distinct features that can significantly impact your advertising outcomes.
This article tells you what those differences are and how you can take advantage of them for maximum account performance.
Campaign Level Settings
At the campaign level, both Google and Microsoft provide a suite of settings designed to tailor your advertising efforts to your specific needs. Both allow for the following campaign-level settings:
Budget
Location
Ad schedule
Bidding strategies
Placements outside the “core” channel (search partners, display expansion, etc.)
Google
Google allows advertisers to set a daily budget of $20 for a local bakery looking to target customers within a 30-mile radius. This bakery can also schedule ads to run only during business hours, ensuring the ads are seen by potential customers when the bakery is open. The Google advertiser could include image assets to enhance their search with display select campaigns and would need to make that choice at the campaign level.
Microsoft
Conversely, Microsoft takes it a step further by allowing ad scheduling and location targeting at the ad group level. This means our local bakery could create one ad group targeting morning commuters with breakfast offerings from 6-9 AM and another targeting the lunch crowd from 11 AM-2 PM, each within specific areas known for high commuter traffic. While Google advertisers could do this, they’d need a campaign per schedule. Additionally, they’d be able to pick and choose which ad groups get added to search partners including Duck Duck Go and Baidu.
Keywords and Negatives
The approach to keywords in Google and Microsoft can make or break a campaign. Targeting keywords helps advertisers reach prospective customers, while negative keywords block wasteful/irrelevant traffic.
Google
Three distinct targeting match types (broad, phrase, and exact), and three distinct negative match types exist. Targeting keywords allow for close variants, while negative keywords do not. As a reminder, broad match negative means the words as they are spelled can be anywhere in the query to block traffic.
Microsoft
Three distinct targeting keywords, but only phrase and exact match negatives exist. I personally tend to just include phrase match negatives for single words I want to exclude so I can use the same lists for both networks.
Bidding
The bidding strategies offered by Google and Microsoft are critical for managing how your budget is spent and how your ads are positioned.
Google
Smart bidding can be turned on at any conversion threshold (though it’s not recommended under 30-50 conversions in a 30-day period), devices can be completely excluded, and portfolio bidding with bid caps. Google allows for impression share and max clicks bidding to help advertisers ramp up while they wait for conversions.
Microsoft
For the most part, things are the same in Microsoft. However, the minimum bid is $0.05, Smart Bidding is still “Target ___”, and no turning on Smart Bidding till you have at least 15 conversions. Note that Microsoft still supports Smart Shopping (though portfolio bids are not compatible with it).
Audience Targeting
Effective audience targeting is essential for reaching potential customers who are most likely to convert.
Google
First-party lists must have at least 1000 people and at least one new person added every week. There should be a minimum spend of $50K and at least 90 days of data to use. Additionally, Google serves ads in the time zone of the account. And YouTube audiences (who interacted with your video/channel) can be leveraged for targeting or observation.
Microsoft
While Microsoft requires 1000 people in the first-party lists, it does not require the same spend. Audiences can include LinkedIn data (company/job title). Note that Microsoft serves ads in the time zone of the user.
Performance Max Campaigns
Performance Max campaigns offer a holistic approach to PPC, blending various ad formats and platforms.
Google
The originator of the campaign type. This campaign type covers text, image, and video ads across search, shopping, display, YouTube, discover, Gmail, and local ads (not to be confused with local service ads). They can have up to 100 asset groups and 25 search themes per asset group.
Microsoft
Almost every mechanic is the same save for requiring a video component. This is because the Audience Network (which includes Duck Duck Go and Baidu) is image and text-heavy. Additionally (as of this post’s publication date), Microsoft does not have search themes.
In sum, while Google and Microsoft share foundational similarities in their PPC offerings, the nuanced differences between them can greatly influence the effectiveness of your advertising efforts. By delving into specific settings and examples, as we’ve done here, you can gain a deeper understanding of how to navigate and take advantage of these nuances, crafting campaigns that are not only more targeted and relevant but also more cost-efficient and successful.
At Optmyzr, our goal is to empower advertisers to fully harness the capabilities of both platforms, ensuring that your PPC campaigns are primed for success in the dynamic digital advertising landscape. By embracing the unique features and opportunities presented by Google and Microsoft, you can achieve unparalleled results, driving growth and maximizing ROI in your digital marketing endeavors.
Not advertising on Microsoft yet? Take advantage of the auto-import functionality and account creation within Optmyzr.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.
Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are text ads that allow PPC marketers to create multiple headlines and descriptions that are tested over time by Google’s machine learning and turned into relevant ads customized for the end-user based on their search query.
They were introduced in 2018 as a way to help advertisers find the winning combination of headlines and descriptions for effective text ads.
You create a bunch of different text components (a maximum of 15 headlines and 4 descriptions) and Google finds the best combination and serves ads to the end-users that lead to the highest CTR and best conversion rates.
The more headlines and descriptions you provide, the more combinations it can generate.
Responsive Search Ads Examples
Here’s an example of a Responsive Search Ad. On the left, there are 10 headline variations and 3 different descriptions. On the right, you see a couple of possible ad combinations.
**Source**: Google
Keep in mind that headlines and descriptions may appear in any order.
Initially, there’s a learning period for any new RSA, which means performance may not be what you’re used to right away. But once Google finds the best combination, you can see great results.
At Optmyzr, we carried out a study in 2022 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?
We’ve presented the results by category so you can quickly find what’s most relevant to your goals.
One of our observations was we found that RSAs drive 4x of the impressions of a typical Expanded Text Ad (ETA).
This means that even with a slightly lower conversion rate, this 400% lift in impressions nets a lot of incremental conversions that should make advertisers very happy.
In August 2021, Google announced that starting from July 2022, Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) will be the only search ad type in standard search campaigns.
Starting June 30, 2022, responsive search ads will be the only Search ad type that can be created or edited in standard Search campaigns. (Existing expanded text ads will still serve.)
The official announcement, posted by Sylvanus Bent, Product Manager at Google Ads, added, “However, your existing Expanded Text Ads will continue to serve alongside Responsive Search Ads, and you’ll still see reports on their performance going forward. Additionally, you’ll be able to pause and resume your Expanded Text Ads or remove them if needed. You’ll also still be able to create and edit Call Ads and Dynamic Search Ads.”
This is a pretty big shift in how PPC marketers approach text ads. To know more about this, we spoke to Mark Irvine and Julie Bacchini, in June 2022 on our 58th episode of PPC Town Hall to learn how to make the most out of your RSAs moving forward.
Watch the full episode below:
Get actionable PPC tips, strategies, and tactics from industry experts twice a month.
What does this mean for PPC Marketers who still use Expanded Text Ads?
Expanded Text Ads are comfortable, and reliable, and offer you more control over what messages get shown and when. On the other hand, Responsive Search Ads can improve performance when combined with human optimization and creativity.
But since none of us can force Google to roll back its announcement, the best thing to do is adapt to RSAs.
As with any other updates from Google, what we can do is unlearn, relearn, and adapt. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you get started with the transition from ETAs to RSAs:
1. Decide whether to pin headlines and descriptions.
Pinning headlines or descriptions to specific positions in your Responsive Search Ads is one way to show certain messages that always need to be visible. But be warned – pinning may affect ad strength, visibility, and performance.
**Source**: Optmyzr’s RSA study 2022
Verticals like pharmaceuticals (which require specific information in ads) and legal services (which require approval of each ad variant) might need to pin specific pieces of text, such as disclaimers and warnings in their ads. Google is yet to announce whether these industries with obligations will be assessed differently, or if there will be a workaround.
But should you be really pinning your assets? Here’s a clip from one of our Town Halls where Julie, Mark, and Fred discuss pinning.
As our CEO, Frederick Vallaeys says in this Search Engine Land article, unless you’re working in a field that absolutely requires certain information to be displayed, try not to pin components and instead put in the work to craft great RSAs.
2. Test your ad copy.
Create and test different versions of your ad assets at scale, and review their performance across multiple campaigns.
Yes, this means putting more effort than usual into high-quality ad copy that can work across combinations and permutations. But the payoff is rewarding when you have RSAs (up to 3 per ad group) that Google’s machine learning can test to find the best variants.
Repurposing high-performing content from your Expanded Text Ads
Evaluating the success of your ads based on incremental absolute metrics – impressions, clicks, and conversions
Let the machines learn!
Responsive Search Ads are right in the sweet spot of machine learning within PPC. But for the machines to learn, you must give them a little time and space to explore.
Resist the urge to pin ad components when you don’t have to. And allow time for a test. It’s essential to feed the machine the appropriate ad components.
The machines are not coming up with new ad text on their own. They use the elements YOU provide, which means the machines can only be as successful as you’ve set them up to be.
It sort of goes without saying, but deploying the proven winners across your ads gives you a better chance at success.
If you’ve already created some Responsive Search Ads in your account but they’re underperforming, here’s how you can fix them:
At the heart of every successful Google Ads campaign lies a well-structured and meticulously managed budget. It’s the lifeblood of your campaign, dictating its reach, visibility, and effectiveness.
However, advertisers often struggle to manage their Google Ads budgets due to a combination of factors — some of which are in their control, and some that aren’t: campaigns overspending and underspending, lack of budget monitoring, seasonal fluctuations, a changing competitive landscape, and Google manipulating ad prices.
In this article, you’ll learn:
How Google Ads budgets work
How to manage your Google Ads budget
The common problems while managing budgets (and how to fix them) and
The best practices while managing Google Ads budgets
Google Ads budgets: What they do and how they work
What is a Google Ads budget?
A Google Ads budget is the maximum amount you’re willing to spend on a campaign per day. However, your actual daily spending may vary depending on how well your ads perform. Some days, Google might spend less than your daily budget, and on others, you might spend up to twice as much.
How do Google Ads budgets work?
After you set a budget and start running your campaign, Google “paces” your budget spending throughout the day or month. This means that it’ll try to spend your budget evenly over the selected period of time. However, there may be days when you spend more or less than your daily budget, depending on factors such as competition and consumer demand.
Google Ads has two spending limits:
Daily spending limit: This is the maximum amount you can be billed for a campaign on a given day. It’s calculated as 2 times your average daily budget.
Monthly spending limit: This is the maximum amount you can be billed for a campaign in a given month. It’s calculated as 30.4 times your average daily budget.
Google Ads’ daily spending limits (Source: Google Ads Help)
How to set a Google Ads budget?
Before setting your budget, there are 3 things you need to consider:
Your business goals: Be clear about what you want to achieve with your Google Ads campaigns. Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales? Your budget should be aligned with your business goals.
Your target audience: The next thing to consider is your audience. Who are you trying to reach with your ads? How competitive is the market for your keywords? The more competitive the market, the higher your budget will need to be.
Your budget: And, lastly, the budget. How much money can you afford to spend on Google Ads each day or month? It’s important to set a budget that you’re comfortable with but that won’t break the bank.
Here’s how to set a Google Ads budget:
Determine your budget type: Google Ads offers two primary budget types: daily budgets and shared budgets. Daily budgets control your spending on individual campaigns or ad groups each day, while shared budgets allow you to allocate a single budget across multiple campaigns. Choose the budget type that aligns with your campaign structure and objectives.
Set a competitive budget: Research your industry and competition to determine what a competitive budget might be. What are other advertisers in your space spending? While you don’t need to match their budgets, understanding the competitive landscape can tell you what number you should set.
Set a daily limit: Decide how much you want to set as a daily budget for your campaign.
Set a bid strategy: Choose a bidding strategy that aligns with your goals. Whether it’s maximizing clicks, optimizing for conversions, or targeting a specific return on ad spend (ROAS), your bidding strategy influences how much budget is utilized.
How are budgets applied at the campaign level?
At the campaign level: Google Ads uses a hierarchical structure, with campaigns being the top-level entities. Each campaign has its own budget. You allocate a budget to a specific campaign when you create it.
At the ad group level: Within each campaign, you can further structure your budgeting by creating ad groups. Ad group budgets are optional and allow you to allocate a portion of the campaign’s budget to specific sets of ads and keywords.
Distribution of budgets: Your daily or monthly budget is distributed evenly over the selected time frame by default. However, as we told you earlier, Google Ads may spend more on high-performing days and less on slower days, as long as it doesn’t exceed the budget cap for the entire time frame.
4 tips to efficiently manage your Google Ads budget
1. Use historical data to predict future ad spend.
Why is historical data important?
When you know how much money you have spent on Google Ads in the past, you get a better idea of running a campaign and hence can set a budget that is realistic and achievable. Historical data can help you to identify trends and patterns in your ad spend.
For example, you may notice that your ad spend tends to increase during the holiday season or that certain keywords are more expensive than others. This information can help you make more informed decisions about your future ad spend.
It can also help you track your progress better over time.
How to predict your future ad spend?
1. Gather all your historical data: This includes your daily or monthly ad spend, clicks, conversions, and other relevant metrics. You can export this data from your Google Ads account.
2. Analyze your data: Look for trends and patterns in your historical data. For example, do you spend more money on advertising during certain months of the year? Do certain campaigns or keywords consistently drive more clicks and conversions?
3. Use a forecasting tool: There are a number of tools available that can help you forecast your future ad spend based on your historical data. These tools typically take into account factors such as seasonality, trends, and competition.
Or, you can try this script to forecast your ad performance.
4. Adjust your budget as needed: Once you have a forecast for your future ad spend, you can adjust your budget accordingly. You may need to increase your budget if you are planning to launch a new campaign or expand into new markets.
2. Allocate your budget efficiently for better performance.
Efficient budget allocation is important for various reasons: to reduce costs, improve performance, and maximize ROI. Here are some tips:
If you ran ad campaigns in the past, look at that historical data to identify which campaigns and keywords drove the best results. It should give you a fair idea of how much to set aside for your current keywords and campaigns.
Look at industry benchmarks for Google Ads spending and ROI. That gives you a general idea of how much other businesses in your industry are spending on similar campaigns.
Set aside the majority of your budget for the campaigns and keywords that are driving you the best results.
You can find more tips in the best practices section below.
3. Identify and fix lost impression share.
Lost impression share is the percentage of impressions that your ads were eligible to receive but didn’t receive. A few reasons why you could be losing impression share are lower budget, lower ad rank, and higher competition.
While it may seem like simply increasing your budget and ad rank while targeting lesser competitive keywords is enough to counter that, it’s not that straightforward.
Some PPC experts suggest you do the following:
Identify the campaigns and ad groups with the highest lost impression share and fix them first. This is a priority.
Then, look at your search terms report to find the irrelevant search queries that you are wasting money on and add them as negative keywords to your campaigns and ad groups.
In addition, use the Google Ads keyword planner to find search queries relevant to your business and add them as keywords to your campaigns and ad groups.
4. Automate budgeting for more effective management.
Considering how powerful Google Ads’ machine learning has become, it’s a no-brainer to make use of it to run almost any campaign for any kind of use case these days.
Here’s one: if yours is a business that sees a higher demand for your product or service during certain days of the week or times of the day, you can use Google Ads automation to set higher budgets during those periods.
If you’ve got a similar use case, you should check out this really powerful script by Andrea Atzori.
Common Google Ads budget problems (and how to fix them)
Let’s break down some common problems advertisers face while managing budgets with possible causes and solutions.
Problem #1: Your campaigns are frequently overspending.
Cause #1: You’re not monitoring your broad match keywords.
How to fix it?
Utilize all relevant ad extensions to reach a wider audience and provide valuable information.
Diversify your messaging in ad extensions to avoid repetition and convey differentiating messages.
Cause #2: You’re bidding on too many or irrelevant search terms.
How to fix it?
Regularly review the search terms report to identify irrelevant or non-converting keywords and add them as negative keywords.
Ensure your keywords align with your product or service to improve targeting and budget efficiency.
Cause #3: You’re not using relevant or any ad extensions.
How to fix it?
Utilize all relevant ad extensions to reach a wider audience and provide valuable information.
Diversify your messaging in ad extensions to avoid repetition and convey differentiating messages.
Cause #4: Your post-click user experience needs work.
How to fix it?
Ensure that the post-click experience matches the user’s expectations set by the ad.
Conduct thorough testing to identify and rectify issues such as incorrect landing pages, slow-loading pages, or message mismatches.
Cause #5: Your campaign has conversion tracking issues.
How to fix it?
Review and streamline your conversion tracking to focus on meaningful metrics.
Avoid excessive tracking of micro-conversions and prioritize tracking sales or primary goals.
Cause #6: It’s not you, it’s Google.
How to fix it?
Don’t blindly follow all of Google’s recommendations. Test them and only implement those that make sense for you.
Check your Change History tool for any strange occurrences in your account. Sometimes Google Ads faces glitches or runs experiments that can waste your budget.
Problem #2: Your campaigns are frequently underspending.
Cause #1: You’re overemphasizing saving costs rather than growing returns.
How to fix it?
Experiment with increasing bids.
Strike a balance between reducing costs and achieving a healthy ROI.
Cause #2: You added too few keywords or those with low search volume.
How to fix it?
Add more relevant keywords that give you more room to spend.
Remove keywords that are not working for you, those that are yielding little to no impressions.
Cause #3: Your CTR is too low.
How to fix it?
Make your offer more relevant to the searcher’s intent.
Test the ads with a more compelling ad copy or creative.
Cause #4: Your target location is not broad enough or incorrect.
How to fix it?
Check your location settings and fix any issues regarding limitations.
Cause #5: You’re running the ads during inactive hours or for a very short time.
How to fix it?
Schedule your ads for peak activity hours or during the period that tends to get a higher CTR.
Expand your ad schedule to make your ads run for a longer time period.
Problem #3: Your daily ad spend is constantly fluctuating.
Cause #1: You may have set up scheduled bid adjustments.
How to fix it?
Unless the fluctuations are really big, there’s nothing much you can do as Google typically adjusts your daily budget for you depending on the supply and demand for that period.
If the fluctuations seem abnormal, make adjustments by putting more budget on keywords that are generating conversions and do the opposite on keywords that are generating less.
Cause #2: Google is optimizing your ad spend based on your goals.
How to fix it?
This is a frequent case of smart bidding. People’s search and shopping behavior changes every day so Google will adjust your daily bids and budgets if it thinks it can deliver the results you’re looking for. You can keep track of any abnormal deviations with the help of scripts or a good monitoring tool.
Scott Ostermiller, a PPC consultant based in Utah shared his experience regarding such fluctuations.
“One thing I generally do is anticipate my budgets to spend somewhat wildly on the 1st (and sometimes 2nd) of every month because Google likes to “test” things out and use its leeway to spend up to double your daily budget.
I combat this by gradually trimming my budget down in the last 7-10 days of the month so that we come in at around 70-80% of our average daily budget. And then I start to gradually ramp up to around 120% of the daily average by the middle of the month. Then the trimming starts again. Imagine a bell curve.
The trick is to ramp/trim budgets in such a way that it doesn’t throw the campaign back into learning mode (which shouldn’t happen if your changes are less than 10% difference).”
Google Ads budget benchmarks + answers to FAQs
Whether you’re just starting out in Google Ads or are a seasoned veteran, it helps to know how the trends are shaping up and where the industry stands today. Granted, the budget benchmarks vary depending on the industry, business size, and marketing goals.
But it can give you a general idea of what to expect in terms of advertising costs in your industry. Speaking of which, Databox conducted a Google Ads survey across 15 industries and we thought it’d be a good idea to answer some questions you may have below.
What does the average business spend on Google Ads?
Across all industries, the monthly median business spend on Google Ads is $2,266.7.
Source: Databox
How much should I spend on Google Ads?
While there’s no minimum spend on Google Ads, you can’t go too low and expect to see any practical results with $2 or $5 as your daily budget. However, for beginners, several PPC practitioners suggest spending anywhere from $10 to $50 per day at least considering factors such as your client’s business, industry, objectives, location, etc. On a monthly basis, they suggest increasing it to $5,000 with regular monitoring.
What does it cost to run Google Ads?
If you’re just starting out and want to see a tangible ROI, it’s better to get some expert help. So, taking into account their service fee plus your Google Ads budget, it should cost you anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 at least per month.
Does Google Ads work for small businesses?
Like most other answers in PPC, the answer to this question too is: it depends. You need to realize that Google Ads follows a cycle of “test, learn, iterate, and repeat”. So you can’t guarantee which search queries or ads leading to which landing pages will bring you good results. It’s a process where you constantly learn from experience.
With that said, don’t spend too much or spread your budget too thin in the initial stages. Experts suggest testing a larger budget for a shorter period of time to
Make Google’s automated systems learn what works for your business as quickly as possible and
Give yourself the experience you need as soon as possible to manage future campaigns.
For example, spend $5000 each month for 3 months instead of spending $2000 each month for 12 months.
Maximize ROI and boost performance with these Google Ads budget best practices
1. Set clear goals for your campaigns.
As cliched as this may sound before you dive into budget management, define your advertising objectives. Whether it’s increasing website traffic, generating leads, or driving sales, clear objectives will guide your budget allocation.
2. Choose the right keywords.
Keywords are still the major signals that direct your campaigns in the right direction. Choose relevant keywords that can drive growth and use negatives to cut through the noise.
3. Start with a test budget.
If you’re new to Google Ads or launching a new campaign, start with a modest test budget to assess performance and refine your strategy before committing to a larger budget.
4. Allocate ad spend strategically.
Allocate your budget strategically across your campaigns and ad groups. Prioritize higher-performing campaigns that drive the most value, but don’t ignore lower-performing ones that have the potential to improve with optimization.
5. Understand your (or your client’s) sales cycle.
This is more of a general piece of advice, but clearly understanding the length of your sales cycle really helps you allocate budgets better. For businesses with longer sales cycles, be prepared to allocate budget over a more extended period to capture leads at various stages.
6. Use Google Ads Smart Bidding.
Make use of Google’s Smart Bidding strategies (e.g., Target CPA, Target ROAS) to automate bid adjustments based on your performance goals. Smart Bidding can help you optimize your budget by bidding more efficiently.
7. Adjust budgets for seasonality.
Be prepared to increase or decrease your budget based on seasonal trends in your industry. For instance, retail businesses may need to allocate more budget during this upcoming holiday season.
8. Make performance-based adjustments.
Increase budgets for high-performing campaigns when they are limited by budget. You don’t want to cap the success of a campaign that’s delivering a strong ROI. Similarly, decrease or pause budgets for underperforming campaigns.
9. Optimize your Quality Score and make use of ad extensions.
Invest in ad extensions and ensure that your ad copy and landing pages are optimized. Relevant, higher-quality ads earn a higher quality score which means better ad placements and less budget to maintain visibility.
10. Use budget alerts.
Set up budget alerts to notify you when your spending reaches a certain threshold.
When to increase your budgets
You are seeing a good ROI from your campaigns.
You want to expand your reach and generate more leads and sales.
You are launching new products or services.
You are entering new markets.
When to decrease your budgets
You are not seeing a good ROI from your campaigns.
You need to reduce your marketing costs.
You are experiencing seasonal fluctuations in traffic and sales.
Manage Google Ads budgets using Optmyzr.
1. Monitor budgets and project future spend.
With Optmyzr’s Spend Projection tool, you can analyze your recent and historical performance and trends, and calculate a projected spend range. This way, you can monitor your spending throughout the month, proactively identify potential overspending or underspending, and ensure that you stay within your desired budget limits.
Screenshot: Spend Projection Tool
You can also share a projection by scheduling a report to the appropriate people at the right time.
Screenshot: Performance Reports
2. Avoid overspending and underspending.
With the Optimize Budgets tools, you can avoid common budgeting issues like over and underspending.
Let’s take a couple of examples:
Example 1: Avoid overspending.
In the below example, it becomes evident that the account is at risk of exceeding the allocated monthly budget of $11,000. To address this issue and effectively manage costs, you have the option to select specific performance metrics for analysis and experiment with different daily budgets. This enables you to observe the changes in the Projected Spend column and make necessary adjustments to ensure optimal budget allocation.
Screenshot: Optimize Budgets - Avoid Overspending
To optimize costs without compromising conversions, consider reducing the daily budget for the Retail Campaign, which has lower potential and average daily spend compared to the budget amount. Meanwhile, note that the Non-Brand Pri campaign is currently the highest spender. By prioritizing budget reductions on the Retail Campaign, you can effectively control costs while minimizing the impact on conversions.
Example 2: Avoid underspending.
In our second example, we have clicked on the ‘Get Optimization Suggestions’ button, which provides us with various spending scenarios to consider. By analyzing these scenarios, you can evaluate the impact of reallocating budgets on campaign performance. Use this feature to explore different budget allocations and assess how they would influence KPIs.
In this scenario, the budget group is unlikely to reach the $1,500 monthly target. To optimize budget allocation and maximize conversions, you must identify campaigns where excess budget can be effectively utilized. By selecting the second row, you can explore suggestions for new daily budgets in specific campaigns that can potentially generate 110 additional conversions by month-end. Implementing these suggestions would increase overall spend by 27% and bring you closer to your monthly target.
3. Find and fix lost impression share.
The Fix Impression Share Lost Due To Budget - Campaign Budget express optimization focuses on boosting the budget for campaigns experiencing impression share loss due to budget constraints. By increasing the budget, you can capture a greater number of impressions and improve visibility. The tool provides initial suggestions and allows for further adjustments, giving you flexibility in optimizing your campaign’s budget allocation.
Screenshot: Fix Lost Impression Share tool
4. Manage budgets using automation that’s in your control.
Flexible Budgets is an Enhanced Script™ for Google Ads that provides automation for budget management. If you’ve been spending time manually checking budgets on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to make sure you’re not overshooting the target, this script will automatically do this for you every single hour.
By setting up this script, you can automate the process of pausing campaigns, ad groups, and keywords and labeling them when the cost exceeds the specified maximum. You can also have the script re-enable the same entities when your budget resets.
Let’s take an example: Pause campaigns when the weekly spend cap is reached.
Here’s how you’d set this one up to prevent an account from spending significantly more than $5,000 per week:
Screenshot: Pause Campaigns When Weekly Spend Cap Is Reached
This script can be copied and pasted into Google Ads (either at the Manager/MCC or individual account level) and scheduled to run automatically every hour.
5. Allocate different budgets for different days of the week.
With the Rule Engine, you have the power to tailor your daily budgets to align with performance metrics and even external factors like the day of the week.
Imagine having the ability to fine-tune your budget allocation with precision. The Rule Engine empowers you to do just that; you can set logical rules that automatically adjust your daily budgets based on specific criteria and schedule your strategies to run on partial or full automation.
Here’s an example: Lower budget for weekends and holidays.
Depending on your business, you may see lower conversion rates or potential customer activity on specific days - e.g. on public holidays or certain days of the week.
Screenshot: Lower Budget For Weekends And Holidays
To maintain a consistent ad presence throughout the week while prioritizing higher budgets for weekdays, you can easily implement a rule similar to the example provided above: “Allocate a daily budget of $100 if today is Saturday or Sunday. For all other days, set the daily budget to $120.”
By employing this rule, you gain precise control over your budget allocation, tailoring it to specific days of the week. This approach enables you to maintain visibility and engagement over the weekend while strategically allocating higher budgets to weekdays.
Managing budgets in Google Ads isn’t just about numbers and figures. It’s a process that involves strategic thinking, continuous monitoring, and timely adjustments.
That’s why it’s very important you learn the critical aspects of Google Ads budgets, including setting budgets, avoiding overspending, and preventing underspending and common issues advertisers face along with possible causes and fixes.
With these best practices and the Optmyzr tools mentioned here, you now have the superpowers to effectively manage Google Ads budgets in your hands.
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world 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.
Imagine this scenario: Your Google Ads campaigns are operating at peak performance, delivering a torrent of conversions and captivating your target audience. The twist? You’re not grappling with the complexities of optimizing them manually for each account. Instead, you’re navigating the Google Ads landscape with grace and ease, all thanks to Optmyzr Express.
This remarkable tool streamlines your advertising efforts, making optimization feel like a walk in the park. Whether you’re managing one account or many, Optmyzr Express revolutionizes your approach. It’s akin to having a dedicated optimization expert at your service, offering valuable insights and actionable suggestions. In this article, we’ll delve into the wealth of optimization categories and techniques Optmyzr Express provides. We’ll illustrate how it enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of your Google Ads PPC campaigns, ultimately boosting your ROI and giving you a competitive edge. Prepare to optimize your way to digital marketing triumph!
Ad Suggestions
1. Add Missing Ads (RSA)
Optmyzr Express kicks off by identifying ad groups without active responsive search ads (RSAs). Don’t let these ad groups sit idle when you can craft new RSAs with high-performing components in them from existing Expanded Text Ads (ETAs). With the help of Open AI’s suggestions in Optmyzr, you can create compelling ads that resonate with your audience, all with a single click.
2. Fix Ads with Issues (RSA)
For those underperforming RSAs, Optmyzr Express offers an array of suggestions to revamp them. Fine-tune your RSA assets using recommendations from existing ads and suggestions from Open AI. The tool also reveals top-performing keywords and search queries to help you craft relevant ads.
3. Pause Low-Performing RSAs
Don’t let underperforming RSAs drag down your ad group’s overall effectiveness. Optmyzr Express provides proactive suggestions to identify and pause low-performing RSAs, ensuring that high-performing RSAs receive more traffic. It’s a simple yet effective way to optimize your ad groups and improve results.
4. Add Missing Sitelink Assets
Enhance the relevance and click-through rate of your ads by adding sitelink assets. Optmyzr Express identifies campaigns lacking sitelinks and allows you to quickly add multiple assets, hence helping you boost your ad’s appeal and improve user experience.
PMax Asset Groups with no Audience Signal
Optmyzr Express helps you maximize your audience targeting efforts for PMax campaigns by identifying asset groups without any audience signals. You can add existing audience signals from your account or create new ones. Customize your audience segments based on interests, purchase intentions, or top-performing search queries.
Create Experiments to Test Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, and Target ROAS Bidding Strategies
For campaigns currently running on manual bidding, Optmyzr Express suggests creating experiments to test automated bidding strategies like Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, and Target ROAS. By comparing the performance of the new strategy with the current manual bidding approach, you can determine which strategy works best for your goals.
Bid Suggestions - Manual Bidding Campaigns
1. Gender Bid Adjustments
Gain valuable insights into how different genders perform in your ad groups and set bid adjustments accordingly. Optmyzr Express identifies significant differences in click-through rates (CTR) among genders and provides bid adjustment recommendations. Customize these adjustments to fine-tune your campaign targeting.
2. Age Range Bid Adjustments
Similar to gender bid adjustments, Optmyzr Express helps you optimize bids based on age ranges. Identify age groups with varying CTRs and adjust your bids accordingly. This fine-grained control can enhance your campaign’s performance and ROI.
3. More Traffic for Converting Keywords
Boost the impression share of converting keywords that are losing impressions due to low bids. Optmyzr Express recommends bid increases for these keywords, providing them with more opportunities to drive conversions.
4. Push Keywords to First Page
Ensure your keywords make it to the coveted first page of search results. Optmyzr Express suggests bid increases for keywords with a good Quality Score, helping you achieve better visibility and click-through rates.
Shopping Campaign Suggestions
1. More Traffic for Converting Products
Apply bid adjustments to converting product groups that are losing impression share due to their current bids. This optimization allows you to increase your bids strategically and maximize your product visibility to potential customers.
2. Simplify Merchant Feed Optimization with Optmyzr Express
Optmyzr Express identifies products with missing essential attributes like Title, Description, Price, Link, Image Link, and Brand and helps you add these attributes through the tool.
What’s even better is that you don’t have to laboriously set up rules for every single product with missing attributes, just input the changes through a Supplemental Feed. Optmyzr Express lets you focus on improving just five products at a time, making the process manageable and efficient.
Budget Suggestions
1. Budget Suggestions from Google
Optmyzr Express works seamlessly with Google’s budget recommendations and analyzes them to give you the best set of suggestions for Google Ads budget optimization. It shows predicted changes in cost, conversions, and cost per conversion, and helps you make informed decisions about budget adjustments to enhance your campaign’s performance.
2. Fix Impression Share Lost Due to Budget - Campaign Budget and Shared Budget
Identify campaigns that are losing impression share due to budget constraints, even though they bring in conversions. Optmyzr Express empowers you to modify campaign budgets strategically, ensuring you capture more impressions and conversions. The tool provides suggestions for both campaigns with individual budgets and campaigns belonging to shared budgets.
Keyword Suggestions
1. Add New Keywords
Expand your keyword arsenal by adding relevant queries as keywords to your Google Ads account. Optmyzr Express identifies well-performing search terms that are absent from your keywords. Quickly add them and manage their bids and ad copies for optimal results.
2. Enable Converting Keywords
Revive dormant converting keywords that have been removed from your campaigns. Optmyzr Express highlights keywords that have generated conversions in the past 120 days but are currently inactive. Re-enable relevant ones (that may have been paused by Google’s auto-apply recommendations) to capitalize on their performance.
3. Fix Conflicting Negative Keywords
Eliminate conflicts between negative and positive keywords that may reduce ad impressions. Optmyzr Express provides a curated list of conflicting negative keywords, allowing you to resolve conflicts by pausing positive or negative keywords strategically.
4. Keyword Suggestions by Google
Leverage Google’s keyword recommendations within Optmyzr Express. The tool offers an extra layer of analysis on top of Google’s recommendations to present you with valuable and relevant keyword ideas.
5. Use Broad Match Keywords
Turbocharge your keyword strategy by identifying low-traffic keywords in exact and phrase matches and converting them to broad match if you prefer. Optmyzr Express goes the extra mile by analyzing Google’s recommendations and presenting you with the most relevant keyword suggestions in the tool. It’s all about expanding your reach and targeting a broader audience, effortlessly.
Trim wasted ad spend by identifying and excluding low-performing placements from your campaigns. Optmyzr Express helps you pinpoint placements that drain your budget without delivering conversions. Exclude placements on websites, mobile applications, YouTube videos, and YouTube channels to boost your ROI.
2. Exclude Low-Performing Placements for Performance Max - Account Level
Extend the power of placement exclusions to Performance Max campaigns at the account level. Eliminate unproductive placements across websites, mobile applications, YouTube videos, and YouTube channels to optimize your advertising spend effectively.
Expand Your Reach with Search Partners
Optmyzr Express takes the guesswork out of expanding your Google Ads reach. It identifies campaigns with untapped budget potential and strategically suggests opting them into the search partner network. By analyzing Google’s recommendations, Optmyzr Express ensures that your Google Ads budget is distributed well, connecting with audiences who share relevant interests on partner sites.
In Conclusion
Optmyzr Express is a powerhouse of optimization techniques designed to elevate your Google Ads campaigns. Whether you’re fine-tuning ad creatives, experimenting with bidding strategies, or expanding your keyword and placement reach, this tool streamlines the process and helps you achieve better results in less time. The suggestions are data-driven and can be applied with a single click, making optimization effortless. Make Optmyzr Express a part of your daily workflow, and watch your accounts’ performance soar. Your path to PPC success starts here!
Note: Optmyzr Express is part of Optmyzr Core. If you’re not an Optmyzr customer yet, sign up for a free trial now and experience the power of quick, effective Google Ads optimizations.
If you’ve ever felt that sinking disappointment as you watch your Google Ads campaigns struggle to convert, take a deep breath. You’re not alone.
The frustration of not knowing where to start optimizing or what’s causing your conversions to plummet is definitely real. But here’s the good news: In most cases, there’s hope on the horizon.
By optimizing landing pages, refining your targeting, and being patient while the machine learning algorithm finds new buyers or leads, you can turn the tide and start seeing those conversions you’ve been longing for. In this article, we’ll explore eight common reasons your Google Ads campaigns might be faltering and present potential fixes.
Why your Google Ads campaigns aren’t converting and how to fix them
1. Not allowing enough time
Your Google Ads campaigns, particularly Performance Max campaigns and those running on automated bidding, may struggle to convert due to insufficient time allocated for learning and optimization. Machine learning algorithms require data to calibrate towards your business goals. The learning period depends on the number of conversions and the duration of your conversion cycles.
Solutions
Utilize conversion data from previous campaigns to speed up the initial learning period.
Simplify your account structure by avoiding excessive granularity. Google often optimizes ad groups and campaigns with higher impressions, clicks, and conversions more effectively.
2. Failing to set up conversion tracking
The importance of conversion tracking cannot be overstated when it comes to understanding your campaign’s performance. Its absence can create the illusion of non-converting campaigns.
Solution
Prioritize the correct setup of conversion tracking. Google offers valuable free tools to monitor customer interactions, so be sure to maximize their benefits for your campaigns.
3. Ineffective targeting and audience settings
If your campaigns are underperforming, it could be due to targeting issues. Choosing the wrong keywords can hamper your success, so it’s crucial to research popular topics and phrases in your niche.
Solutions
Improve your keyword targeting by adding trending search terms to your keyword lists and excluding less relevant queries as negative keywords.
Concentrate on audience targeting that matches both intent and location. Keep in mind that campaigns targeting more intent-driven audiences tend to yield better conversion rates.
Ever found yourself wondering which match type to pick for your keywords? Well, here’s a little insider tip that can help you decide. Optmyzr Evangelist Navah Hopkins took a deep dive into different keyword match types to find out which one delivers the most conversions. The results are pretty eye-opening. So, if you’re curious to see which match type got the maximum conversions, check out her study!
4. Seasonal factors
If you’re running new campaigns and they’re not generating immediate conversions, it’s worth considering the impact of seasonality. The demand for your product can ebb and flow, so it might take some time before it aligns with specific seasons. In such cases, patience is not just a virtue but a necessity. It’s crucial to adapt your campaigns to synchronize with the periods when your product is in high demand.
Solutions
To tackle seasonality effectively, it’s recommended to review your seasonal KPI drops on a quarterly basis. This practice aids in predicting the budget you’ll need to allocate to your campaigns during seasons with moderate performance.
Conversely, it’s equally important to be prepared for sudden traffic spikes that might occur ahead of peak seasons, potentially consuming (and wasting) your budget. You might also encounter increased CPCs, thereby elevating your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and reducing your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
5. Budget matters
Your budget plays a critical role in the success of your Google Ads campaigns. If your bids are too low, Google might have trouble finding the right auctions where your ads can shine. This can reduce your impression share, limiting the opportunities to showcase your ads to potential customers.
Conversely, if your bids are high, but your budget is too low, Google could either halt your advertising once the budget limit is reached or lower your bids to meet the budget. In both cases, it’s not an ideal situation.
Solution
Consider optimizing your budget allocation across your campaigns. By doing this, you can redirect any unspent budget to the campaigns that need it the most, boosting their impression share and increasing your chances of success.
6. Landing page pitfalls
Your landing page plays a critical role in converting visitors into customers. If it’s not well-designed, it can actually drive potential customers away. To fix this, make sure that your landing page perfectly matches what your ad promised. Also, include a clear call to action, like ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Learn More,’ to guide your visitors. Adding social proof, such as customer reviews and testimonials, can boost their confidence.
Solutions
Keep your message on the landing page short, sweet, and directly related to what you’re offering.
Ensure that your landing page aligns seamlessly with the intent of your ad, creating a consistent experience for your visitors.
7. Outmatched by competition
In fiercely competitive industries, achieving conversions can be an uphill battle. If you find that your competition is investing more heavily than you are, it’s time to take action. You can boost your chances of success by either increasing your budget or making your ads more appealing with elements like sitelinks and callout extensions. These additions can help your ads stand out in a crowded field, even if you’re not the biggest spender.
8. Macroeconomic factors
External economic factors can significantly influence your campaign’s conversion rates. These conditions are often beyond your control and can vary based on your industry. To set realistic expectations, it’s important to consider industry-specific benchmarks. Keep in mind that some industries inherently have lower conversion rates, and this can be influenced by broader economic trends.
Effortless PPC Audits: Optmyzr’s PPC Policy and Audits tool helps you quickly troubleshoot issues with your campaigns, unveiling opportunities to enhance your conversions.
Landing page quality monitoring: Receive automated reports on landing page quality, including error codes and issues like “Not found” and “Out of stock.” Optmyzr can also temporarily pause keywords, ads, and asset groups associated with problematic landing pages and reactivate them once issues are resolved.
Real-time monitoring and investigation: Keep an eye on key metrics and swiftly uncover ad groups, keywords, or audience segments that are affecting your conversions negatively using PPC Investigator.
Keyword and placement management: Easily manage non-converting keywords, listing groups, placements, and more using Optmyzr’s Rule Engine. The tool offers automated options to pause or exclude them, safeguarding your ad budget.
In the world of digital advertising, it’s typical to encounter challenges with your Google Ads campaigns. The good news is that most of these issues can be resolved. By fine-tuning your landing pages, optimizing your targeting, and managing your budget and competition wisely, you can improve your conversion rates. Remember, it’s crucial to troubleshoot the dip in conversions systematically.
If you’re in search of expert guidance and effective tools to remedy your conversion challenges, browse our library of panel discussions with digital marketing experts: PPC Town Hall.
You can also try Optmyzr for free with a 14-day trial. With the right strategies and tools at your disposal, you can steer your campaigns toward achieving the conversions you desire.
Google Ads Conversion FAQs
Why do my Google Ads campaigns get clicks but not conversions?
If you’re getting clicks on your Google Ads campaign but no one’s taking the desired actions, it can be due to a few reasons.
Your website’s landing page might not be as attractive as it should be
Your ad wording may not be convincing enough
You could be showing your ads to the wrong people
You might need to allocate more budget to your campaign, or
Your competitors could be spending more.
What is conversion tracking in Google Ads?
Conversion tracking is an invaluable feature, offered for free, which offers a comprehensive look into the actions customers take after engaging with your ads. It enables you to track whether they’ve made a purchase, registered for your newsletter, reached out to your business, or downloaded your app. Employing conversion tracking helps you gain insights into the effectiveness of your campaigns and empowers you to make data-driven adjustments for improved ad performance. You can also explore Enhanced Conversions to make the adoption of conversion tracking even easier!
How can I fix Google Ads conversion tracking errors?
If you’re experiencing issues with tracking conversions in your Google Ads, don’t worry. You can follow Google’s step-by-step guide to diagnose and repair common conversion tracking problems. Regularly check your tracking setup and stick to Google’s instructions to ensure your conversion tracking is accurate.
“This is your Google Ads rep speaking. Please fasten your seatbelt—it’s about to get reeeeeal bumpy.”
No, that’s not a real message anyone’s ever received from their ad rep. But after reading some of the news headlines and PPC practitioner stories in recent months, you can’t fault them for expecting a message like this next.
Between dubious advice and pushing automated recommendations that prioritize Google’s bottom line over account performance, it’s understandable that many agencies and practitioners have grown wary of speaking to ad reps.
But it wasn’t always like this, especially before ad revenue saw a few consecutive quarters of decline.
I’ve heard firsthand accounts of reps taking agency owners out to dinner, getting them into beta tests and events, and of course conducting deep strategy sessions with agency and client goals at their heart.
Unfortunately, those new to paid search missed that “golden age” of Google Ad reps and only know the sales-aligned approach.
What exactly does a Google Ads rep do?
When a Google Partner agency reaches a certain threshold of managed spend, they gain a degree of importance. Given how much revenue contribution they influence (and how much more they could), it’s no surprise that Google would want to stay in their good graces.
Part of this process included assigning a dedicated product expert—someone with a deep understanding of the Google Ads product as well as marketing objectives—to manage the relationship with an agency and keep the money flowing (and growing).
Critically, these reps’ goals aligned with those of the agency.
Clients who got great results with Google Ads would be happy to keep spending (or spend more) instead of diverting any budget to new platforms. And this would keep agencies invested, since many of them would bill based on the amount of ad spend managed.
But somewhere along the way, Google Search and its adjoining ad products became too important to revenue generation and too big to ignore. With the balance of power now in the ad engine’s favor, everything became about tech adoption and revenue maximization.
The difference between in-house and third-party reps
Today, ad reps are split between those employed full-time by Google and those who work for third parties contracted by Google to manage client relationships.
Paid search specialists and agency owners report a stark difference in approach between the two types of reps, with the latter typically focused on increasing spend and hitting adoption metrics with little concern for what best benefits the account.
This prioritization of “quota attainment” over a product-centric one is the source of agencies’ frustration, along with some unprofessional responses when practitioners choose not to align with their goals.
Unfortunately, Google measures the reps based on the OptiScore in their book of business. They have no choice but to push it. 😢 (It's only one of many KPIs, to my understanding)
To truly understand the two reps’ difference in approach and knowledge, you have to first understand what motivates someone employed by one of the companies to which Google outsources this function.
When a vendor is told that they will be measured on certain numbers and targets, that’s what they’ll put first and get their people to prioritize as well. One independent Google Ads expert’s foray into that world reveals more.
How third-party reps are incentivized
Boris Beceric is a freelance Google Ads consultant. Like several of his colleagues, he faced issues with Teleperformance, one EU-based company that handles partner agency relationships on behalf of Google.
Being the mad scientist he is, Boris decided the best way to get to the bottom of why Teleperformance does what they do was to interview with them and get a job offer.
Sounds reasonable.
I’ll let you go through this Twitter thread from Boris explaining what he discovered.
Most complaints about ad reps these days center on them being pushy or unaware of the Google Ads product. Sometimes, reps will go further and disrespect the sanctity of the business relationships that have existed in advertising for decades.
They push too hard on communication
The PPC practitioners and agency owners I know are busy folks, managing multiple accounts and servicing those clients on a daily basis.
It’s unrealistic for them to get on calls that don’t actively move those goals forward—and unwise when those calls are aimed at achieving adoption and increasing ad spend with no consideration for whether those are the right actions for the account.
I understand their frustration with third-party ad reps whose own performance is measured by how many calls they book, how many automated recommendations they enable, and how much additional ad spend they influence—conversions be damned.
From an actual Google rep - Email subject line "Let's Chat and 10X the Results On Your Google Ads Account".
Really? lol.
Of course results more than likely mean spend, impressions and poor conversion performance, but hey it makes a great email subject line. #PPCChat
With ad engines obscuring more data than they show, it’s understandable that agencies and the advertisers they represent don’t want to provide them with any more information than is absolutely necessary.
But even in the best of times, asking for client data that has no bearing on campaign performance or account security is a dubious request. That goes double when the ask comes from a third party acting on behalf of the ad engine, and even more so when they already have read-only access to what they need to see.
Got my first Google Ads outsourced rep call from Accenture...asking for CIDs of our accounts so they can add to their support roster? 🤨 #ppcchat
They disregard the relationship between agency and client
So the partner agency says “no” to calls and “no” to requests for client data. What’s the right thing to do here?
If you said “back off”, you won’t make it as a third-party ad rep.
Truly unfortunate PPC practitioners like Jonni Lomax have to deal with reps who break the sanctity of the client/agency relationship, choosing to bypass the service provider and go straight to the folks who pay the advertising bill.
It’s a bold move, Cotton, but one that’s sure to tarnish an ad engine’s reputation.
How top Google Ads practitioners work with ad reps
As much as it surely bugs them to have to fight this fire on top of the many others raging in PPC land, the best practitioners know that it’s a battle they must face. More importantly, they have a process to address issues and maintain client trust.
But not all of it is bad. Several practitioners have good stories and praise for their reps, even if there are conditions and limitations attached.
“Everything we do had better relate to our goals”
If ad reps are going over our head, we often don’t hear about it. When I get emails from a rep, I often don’t reply. I let the client know the first few times and tell them why I won’t be talking with them. I’ve never had an issue in seven years of running the agency.
A few Facebook reps went directly to the client. One client met a few more times with the rep last year, but I’m unsure what happened after. Another met them a couple of times and then stopped as they found it to be a waste of time.
Regardless of where the rep works, if they want to have our clients’ best interests in mind, having us in the loop is key. When you are managing 10-20 clients and each client is on three or four platforms, it can be hard to do two hours of calls a month with reps. I think that is the part each platform does not take into account.
If I do meet with a rep, I state our goals, why they are what they are, and what our focus is. Everything we do from that point had better relate to our goals; I won’t accept anything less. If reps have an issue emailing ideas, I won’t talk with them either. No one has the time to do two hours of calls a month per client, and that doesn’t even take into account all the reps from ad platforms who want our business.
Since our clients trust us and we have shown what we can do, we don’t have an issue with them letting us lead. We don’t take on clients who want to micromanage or have ad platforms call the shots; there would be no reason to have us.
We do work with a few members of Google’s growth team who have helped with industry reports, getting access to betas, and sometimes coming up with campaign ideas for brands. Even Google’s support team has moved fast to add a client’s GMC to our agency MCA when onboarding a client.
I want to offer praise for our Google Ads rep, who has worked hard to try to resolve an issue that we’ve been having with remarketing campaigns serving to expanded audiences despite that setting being turned off.
#ppcchat I've kept quiet about this @GoogleAds issue I've been having, but the latest reply from support has me seething. 1/8
From the beginning of our relationship with this rep, prior to the expanded audience issue, he’s been helpful and valuable. Stories abound of Google reps who just want to push auto-apply recommendations and higher budgets, but ours has focused on our client’s goals and offered useful recommendations to achieve them. He’s been a great partner in working with us to get results for the client.
When the expanded audience issue cropped up, the rep jumped in and escalated the support ticket immediately. He’s followed the issue all the way to a (less than ideal) resolution, and has continued to fight for us to get a refund despite the official word from Google support saying we are not due one.
All in all, we’ve been extremely happy with our Google Ads rep!
Melissa Mackey, Director of Paid Search, Compound Growth Marketing
“The higher the budget, the more experienced the rep”
When getting in touch with Google reps, I’ve had both positive and negative experiences.
In one scenario, a representative caused issues between the marketing agency I worked at and their client. Without ever getting in touch with the PPC specialist, this rep directly emailed the client stating that they found very important issues in the account that need to be resolved as soon as possible: “Poor ad strength”, “Poor ad rank” and “Selected features that are impacting the performance of the campaign”.
Obviously, the client got very upset and emailed the agency demanding answers.
An email that’s been signed by “Google” has stronger authority of expertise over a PPC specialist, and it’s easy to harm the client/agency relationship this way—especially if it happens in the early stages of the relationship, as it was in this case.
But I’ve also dealt with an ad rep who was knowledgeable and provided recommendations relevant to the business. A few months ago, I had a discussion with a Google representative who took the time to understand the client’s business and main goals.
Based on the discussion, the representative suggested relevant optimizations that could be implemented in the account, while also mentioning that things like Broad Match keywords (recommended in every other instance by every other rep I’ve talked to) should be avoided in this specific account considering the niche terms that were required.
Even when going through the Recommendations tab, there was no pressure to select all of them. Instead, they explained each of the options while insisting that I should avoid most of them.
I should note, though, that this client has a significant budget. I’ve learned that the more spend a Google Ads account has, the more experienced its allocated representative.
If you have been in paid search as long as I have you, you likely remember Google actively assisting agencies with tasks like campaign uploads and account restructuring, relieving us of significant workloads, particularly during periods of substantial account expansion.
During a frenzied Black Friday and Cyber Monday, our strategist went above and beyond, offering unwavering support, budget reports, and projections related to search volume. This exceptional dedication helped our advertiser navigate the peak demands of the ecommerce season.
Acknowledging the natural skepticism within the paid search community regarding this partnership, it’s essential to emphasize that successful collaboration can indeed thrive. In this case, the balance struck between strategists and advertisers—combining support and sales—proved not only effective but helpful for our collective success.
Dealing with pushy ad reps can be frustrating for agencies, but open communication with clients and firm boundaries can reduce some of the stress. And in the instance that you stumble upon a rep with your genuine interests at heart, do everything in your power to hold on to them.
Because when you add in the black box nature of auctions and the motives that drive Google Ads as a product, it can feel like it’s you against the world’s biggest ad network.
After all, there’s a fundamental clash of business priorities.
If you’ve ever wished you had a buffer, consider managing your campaigns via a third-party platform like Optmyzr. Not only will you save time on investigations and apply custom strategies at scale, but you’ll get a partner with an outstanding reputation for support; one whose growth goals align with your own.
PPC Optimization, or Pay-Per-Click Optimization, is a continuous process of analyzing and improving your ad campaigns to maximize their effectiveness and achieve specific business objectives.
Types of PPC Optimizations
PPC Optimization can involve a range of activities like:
Improving Ad Relevance: Ensuring that the ad copy, keywords, and landing pages are closely aligned with the user’s search intent or interests. Advertisers strive to create compelling and engaging ads that are highly relevant to their target audience.
Managing bids: Adjusting the bid amounts to control ad placement and maximize the return on investment (ROI). This includes setting bids to secure top positions for high-value keywords or lowering bids for less profitable ones.
A/B Testing: Conducting A/B tests and experimenting with different ad creatives, headlines, descriptions, and call-to-action elements to determine which versions perform best.
Let’s break it down and learn how to optimize each of these elements.
Optimize keywords
1. Get high-performing keyword suggestions with Keyword Lasso.
Since its launch, this has been one of our customers’ favorite tools for search term management.
The Keyword Lasso offers you a clean list of great keywords that do not yet exist in your account. It also lets you get suggestions from the Google Ads Keyword Planner as well. This means you can now see how some search terms you don’t yet have as keywords have performed compared to the competition and the average monthly searches they receive.
Pro tip: Use turbo mode with custom filters to identify new themes and even get negative keyword ideas.
2. Identify non-performing keywords easily with the Negative Keyword Finder.
This tool has helped some of our customers save thousands of dollars every month.
As the name suggests, the Negative Keyword Finder helps you quickly find negative keywords out of search terms that have not been performing well for the entire account over the past few days and are inefficiently spending your budget.
3. Get the right traffic by adding exact match negatives using the Traffic Sculptor.
If you’re using any broad or phrase match keywords, it is likely that some search queries will match less relevant keywords and show a less relevant ad.
The Traffic Sculptor analyzes search terms and keyword data and suggests adding some search terms as exact match negative keywords at the ad group level so that the right ads show for each search query in your account.
4. Find duplicate keywords within the same campaign or across campaigns using the Keyword De-Duper.
Duplicate keywords that are present more than once in the same account end up competing against each other and thus dividing the traffic.
The Keyword De-Duper finds absolute duplicate keywords in your Google Ads account, both within and across campaigns. The system analyzes the data and then suggests the best-performing duplicate keyword to keep.
1. Identify keywords with a high Quality Score that missed Google’s first page with the First Page Bridger.
The First Page Bridger analyzes the performance data for each keyword and gathers the ones with a high Quality Score but with a bid that’s slightly below the first-page bid (up to 20% lower).
It’ll then display the list of keywords that would have the largest impact through a minimum bid increase. By doing so, you’ll increase their chances of appearing on the first page of search results, which ultimately results in more traffic and sales.
Some tips for using the First Page Bridger
We suggest segmenting keywords into three sections based on impact and the required bid increase to meet the first page requirements:
Minimum increase - maximum impact: Keywords with high QS (7 -10) (bid increase 10 - 20%).
Medium increase - high impact: Keywords with QS between 5-6 (bid increase 20 - 40%).
Maximum increase - least impact: Keywords with a QS lower than 5 (bid increase 40% +).
Because the bid increase can take some time to affect the account performance, we recommend running the optimization every 7-14 days. Keep in mind that the lower the Quality Score, the higher the required bid to get a good ad rank.
2. Get more conversions using the Conversion Grabber.
The Conversion Grabber looks for keywords in your Google Ads account that have had conversions, but which are currently losing impression share due to ad rank. It’ll then recommend selective bid increases for the keywords that would have the most positive impact on conversions.
The analysis looks at data for the last 30 days. You can change the date range to look at a different period as well.
We recommend running this optimization every two weeks.
3. Reduce bids of expensive keywords with the Find Expensive Keywords tool.
We created this optimization using the Rule Engine to help you find expensive keywords and reduce their bids.
The keywords suggested are ones with a higher CPA than a keyword would typically have in the campaign, or keywords without conversions but which have still undergone more clicks than normally required to get at least 1 conversion.
4. Adjust bids by the hour based on performance with the Hour of Week Bidder.
The Hour of the Week Bidder recommends time-based bid adjustments based on the performance of KPIs.
Unlike Google Ads where you have to create time slots first, and then set bid adjustments one by one, this optimization recommends and lets you set bid adjustments with a single click. You can also create custom time slots to analyze performance and create ad schedules.
Important note for Microsoft Ads accounts: As you may know, unlike with Google Ads, in Microsoft Ads each campaign can have a different time zone. In the Hour of Week tool, this translates into the following:
The system fetches data for the selected campaigns irrespective of each campaign’s time zone, which means that if a campaign accrues, for example, 5 impressions from 12:00 AM to 4:00 AM, the data will be fetched properly for that hour range, no matter what the time zone is. This also works when selecting multiple campaigns.
5. Set bid adjustments to a geolocation using the Geo Bid Adjustment tool.
The Geo Bid Adjustment tool makes recommendations for bid adjustments on locations based on performance. It analyzes the performance for each location your ads show in and makes recommendations at a campaign level.
Even if you’re not directly targeting a location, you can analyze the performance and the tool will add it as a target, and set the bid adjustment. You can set bid adjustments at country, region, city, and zip code/pin code level.
When your campaigns have automated bidding strategies set up in Google Ads, it is not possible to manually edit the bids for keywords (except Enhanced CPC). The way to optimize the campaign’s performance is by modifying the target Cost-per-Acquisition (CPA) or Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) values at the ad group or campaign level for the strategies Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value.
You can also teach Google more about how you value conversions from different segments when your campaigns run on value-based bidding.
For this purpose, we have created 6 optimizations using the Rule Engine to help you manage and optimize your campaigns on automated bidding: Optimize Target ROAS for Ad Groups and Campaigns, Optimize Target CPA for Ad Groups and Campaigns, Non-Converting Queries (Search), and Non-Converting Queries (Shopping).
Add non-converting queries with zero conversions, high cost, and low CTR as negative keywords.
You can find these optimizations under the Optimizations tab > For Automated Bidding.
We built these strategies using the Rule Engine. Read morehereto see how you can get started creating your own custom strategies. If you need any help on how the Rule Engine works, feel free to reach out to our support team or at support@optmyzr.com, and we’ll be more than happy to help!
2. Bonus tools for automated bidding
Score segments of your audience based on how valuable they are to your business with the Segment Scorer.
The Segment Scorer provides you with the Analytics data that could be assessed while scoring a segment. It serves to consider other important business aspects like Customer Long Term Value or Expected Contract Value while making value adjustments.
It’s not just the usual machine data that is already observable by Google, but your own knowledge and understanding that’s put into work.
Adjust conversion values using Optimize Value Rules.
The ‘Optimize Value Rules’ tool suggests conversion value rules that you can set up in your Google Ads account. It gives you these suggestions by using the data from the segments you scored in Segment Scorer. You can read more about how it works here.
Optimize ad text
1. Fix underperforming RSAs with the Ad Text Optimization tool.
This optimization tool helps you identify the high-performing ad text components in your account. Sort by metric to see what’s working and what isn’t, modify or edit text in bulk, and create new ads while pausing the old ones.
2. Pause underperforming ads and create and A/B test new ads with the A/B testing tool.
Once you make changes to ad text, visit the A/B Testing for Ads tool to see ads by performance breakdown. Here you can filter by ad type to see only Responsive Search Ads and create new ads. Modify headlines and descriptions, then run more tests.
1. Optimize Budgets for a single account (Google Ads or Microsoft Ads)
The Optimize Budgets - Single Account tool lets you optimize budgets for Google Ads and Microsoft Ads by translating them from monthly to daily budgets. This can be done to achieve a target or allocate more budget to campaigns that are driving more leads/sales.
If you want help with managing your campaigns for this Q4 holiday season, watch the video below:
For more tips on managing your Performance Max campaigns, implementing seasonality bid adjustments, and more, watch this video.
Other optimizations
1. Breeze through multiple optimization tasks in minutes with the Optmyzr Express.
Going through Optmyzr Express is like going through your email inbox every morning. It shows you optimization suggestions across accounts. It is designed to work as a to-do list for your Google Ads, Amazon Ads, Microsoft Ads, and Yahoo Japan Ads accounts.
This tool enables you to target or exclude locations and even pause/enable your campaigns based on the weather conditions of the specified locations, whether they are directly targeted in your campaigns or not.
Finally, it’s important to regularly analyze the performance of your campaigns and exclude any placements that are not performing well. This will ensure that your campaigns are optimized for performance and that your budget is being spent on the most valuable products.
Mobile Apps Exclusion
This optimization allows you to exclude all the low-performing mobile app placements that are costing you money but not resulting in any conversion.
The tool will list out all your mobile app placements with exactly 0 conversions in the last 30 days and with costs greater than zero.
You can exclude both types of automatic placements; for IOS and Android apps at the ad-group level in bulk.
You can access the tool here and the detailed user guide here.
Display Placements Exclusion
With the Display Placements Exclusion optimization, you can find placements that are resulting in wasted spend and exclude them based on a business goal – Branding, Traffic, or Conversions. This tool also makes it possible to see sites that are part of search partners and exclude them.
You can access the tool here and the detailed user guide here.
Account-Level Placement Exclusions
Excluding placements from an account helps prevent your ads from showing up on certain placements on the Display network or YouTube, overriding any campaign-level placement targeting.
For some cases, as with Smart Shopping and Smart Display campaigns, account-level placement exclusions are a great solution, as Google doesn’t support excluding placements through a negative list or by excluding them at the ad group level.
You can access the tool here and the detailed user guide here.
Execute, measure, and optimize
Optimizing ad campaigns is an ongoing process. It requires experimentation, continuous testing, data analysis, strategic thinking, and a commitment to adapt and refine campaigns based on changing market conditions and business goals.
And if you need help, make use of these tools.
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world 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.
In light of recent antitrust lawsuits and scrutiny over its ad business practices, advertisers are becoming more concerned that Google may be wasting their ad budgets in subtle ways. While Google provides a powerful platform for targeting customers, savvy advertisers need to be vigilant to ensure they are getting true value from their ad spend.
With Google controlling the auction dynamics and having full access to advertisers’ account data, it has the means and potential incentive to make advertisers spend more than required.
Advertisers should be aware of areas where Google Ads may subtly lead to inflated spending and take steps to optimize their accounts accordingly. Here are seven causes of inflated ad spend and ways to address the issue.
How Google May Lead Advertisers to Overspend
There are several ways Google encourages advertisers to spend more than intended or extract higher revenues from accounts, such as:
1. Using Broad Match Without Negative Keywords
One of the most powerful targeting capabilities of Google Ads is the ability to use Broad Match keywords. This allows your ad to show up for a wide range of searches related to your keywords, even if the query doesn’t contain the exact keyword.
However, some of these searches could be for more competitive terms that result in much higher cost-per-click (CPC) than expected. Other search terms may be less relevant and while costing less per click, may return poor ROAS due to lower conversion rates.
The solution is to set up a robust list of negative keywords to exclude any searches that are not highly relevant or fail to convert at justified CPCs. Otherwise, a Broad Match keyword that normally costs $1 per click could trigger ads for $5 clicks, quickly inflating your costs.
Optmyzr’s Keyword Lasso, Negative Keyword Finder, and its many prebuilt strategies for Rule Engine can all help advertisers more effectively manage keyword targeting.
When employing a Broad Match approach, it’s best practice to enable Smart Bidding strategies like Target CPA or Target ROAS. With Broad Match, an ad can appear for a wide range of searches with different expected conversion rates. Smart Bidding leverages Google’s machine learning to determine the optimal bid for each variation based on your targets.
For example, it may bid $5 for a commercial query that’s more likely to convert, versus $0.50 for a low-intent query seeking only information. This automatically adjusts bids based on the search to help control CPCs to keep CPA and ROAS within your targets.
By pairing Broad Match and Smart Bidding, advertisers can capitalize on Google’s reach while controlling spending. The combination provides expanded exposure at optimized CPCs tailored to each search query.
3. Changing Budgets Too Frequently
Google will cap your total monthly ad spend based on the daily budgets you set multiplied by the average number of days in a month. If you frequently change your daily budgets, the system will add up all those temporary budget levels over the month.
Google may also overdeliver on any day because it expects traffic on other days to be lower.
There are good reasons why advertisers may change budgets frequently — for example, in response to short-term offers, or changes in inventory and the accompanying changes in spend prioritization.
This means your actual monthly spend could far exceed the level you intended. And knowing how much you may be on the hook for can get very confusing when you change budgets throughout the month.
It is recommended that advertisers use automated tools like Optmyzr’s budget management features to ensure that Google doesn’t exceed your true budget. For example, by optimizing budgets throughout the month, while resting assured that campaigns will be paused for the remainder of a budget period when your ad budget has been exhausted.
Tools like Optmyzr even allow you to deploy flighted budgets that are not bound to the first and last days of a calendar month.
4. Ignoring Quality Score
Your ad’s Quality Score is a major factor that Google uses in determining your cost-per-click in the auction. Quality Score is influenced by expected click-through rate, ad relevance, landing page experience, and other factors. The higher your Quality Score, the lower your CPC for the same ad position.
Optimizing factors like landing page speed, ad copy, keywords, and extensions can improve Quality Score. But if you ignore it, CPCs will be higher than necessary to maintain your position, needlessly inflating your costs.
Optmyzr’s Quality Score tool helps you monitor for changes and identify opportunities for improvement by breaking out low-Quality Score keywords into new ad groups, where you can add a more relevant ad and landing page.
5. Turning On Auto-Applied Recommendations
Google Ads offers optimizations called auto-apply recommendations that it can apply automatically to your account (with your consent). These are based on its analysis of potential “headroom” to increase conversions. However, Google’s algorithm may not have a full understanding of your true conversion value.
For example, if you run a B2B lead gen campaign but only track form submissions as conversions, the system does not know the downstream value of a lead. Google may ramp up spend while chasing unqualified leads.
Advertisers should connect Google to their CRM data and review recommendations from Google manually to focus on true conversion value.
Optmyzr’s Rule Engine can connect your PPC campaigns to your business data and a variety of different conversion goals, so that you’re always in charge of determining what should be automatically changed and when.
The majority of Optmyzr’s optimization suggestions are calculated using our own algorithms that prioritize advertiser results over Google profits. But we also use a handful of Google’s optimization suggestions as the basis for further analysis.
For example, where Google recommends raising a budget to capture more conversions, Optmyzr applies an additional layer of logic to predict the incremental cost of those new conversions. Only if that cost is reasonable do our tools recommend increasing the budget.
6. Not Tracking High-Value Conversions
Similarly, if you do not properly track high-value conversions beyond simple form submissions, Google will optimize purely for form submissions. The system bases spend on whichever conversion you specify, so you need to make sure it reflects your actual desired outcome.
For a B2B company, that may require tracking CRM data on closed sales attached to converted leads. For ecommerce, connect your back-end order data.
This focuses Google’s algorithms on your real goals versus whatever limited conversion you happened to initially set up tracking for in your account.
When you use an independent third-party PPC tool like Optmyzr, you can connect your business data without that data flowing to Google. Use Optmyzr to create rules and logic with your business data, and then send only the resulting Target ROAS and Target CPA to guide Google in how it treats your ads in its auctions.
7. Using the Display Network, Performance Max, and YouTube Without Excluding Placements
A major mistake advertisers make is not proactively excluding unwanted placements in the Google Display Network, which has long faced quality control concerns from more advanced practitioners.
By default, your Display ads can run across millions of websites, videos, and apps that Google partners with for its Display network. However, many of these sites may be irrelevant to your offer or have very poor conversion rates.
Savvy advertisers will use placement exclusions to restrict Display ads only to highly relevant sites that have been proven to generate conversions. Otherwise, your budget gets wasted as Google serves your ads across its vast Display network to meet your daily budget.
How to Optimize Spending With Google Ads
Given Google’s incentives and control, PPC advertisers must take smart steps to ensure their budgets drive true value and performance. Some of these solutions include:
1. Use Independent Optimization Tools
Google Ads and the Google Ads Editor let you do a lot to optimize your ads, but they still have a number of issues related to convenience, sharing of data, and managing large numbers of accounts in little time.
Consider PPC management software like Optmyzr that can connect to your Google Ads accounts, but also integrate broader business data. This allows you to optimize bid strategies based on profitability metrics and other data, without fully exposing it to Google.
Advertisers get the benefit of Google’s targeting power but use independent tools to set optimal bids and targets based on their confidential business data. Google sees the optimal bids and targets — not your proprietary data driving it.
Third-party tools (particularly Optmyzr) also provide a high degree of support that advertisers typically crave then they regularly deal with long waits for Google’s support tickets and pushy reps.
2. Refine Tracking for True Conversions
As discussed above, advertisers need to look beyond basic form submissions and make sure they’re tracking true conversion KPIs in their accounts. This may require linking CRM data on lead quality or closed deals back to clicks and conversions.
Ecommerce advertisers can adjust conversion values to exclude returns or account for bundles/subscriptions to offer Google a more complete picture of the value they get from ads.
3. Actively Manage Quality Score
Don’t just set it and forget it when it comes to Quality Score. Actively monitor scores for keywords, ads, and landing pages. Test changes to copy, headlines, ad extensions, site speed, etc. to maintain optimal scores that minimize CPCs.
Quality Scores can suffer without ongoing optimization, so you end up paying more for the same results. So think of Quality Score management as a constant optimization loop.
Conclusion
In today’s complex digital advertising ecosystem, maximizing return on ad spend ultimately comes down to the advertiser’s savvy. While Google provides incredibly powerful targeting capabilities, its incentives may not fully align with advertisers’ need to get the highest value from their budgets.
By understanding areas where Google may cause advertisers to overspend, focusing optimization on true conversion metrics, using independent tools like Optmyzr, and constantly honing quality, advertisers can fulfill the promise of pay-per-click advertising.
With the right optimization approach, Google Ads can deliver phenomenal ROI. But it requires an expert human touch to ensure subtle factors don’t lead to wasted spend.
Online shopping has changed how people search for items they need and want. A simple search yields hundreds of thousands of results in a second.
It can be overwhelming for a customer. It can be downright damaging to a business not named Nike, Home Depot, or Target. This is because big companies have the resources to invest in large SEO campaigns and PPC advertising.
For smaller businesses, this is where Google Shopping campaigns come in. They can help your products get found. Google Ads make up around 76% of retail ad spend. That results in over 85% of all clicks on Google Shopping campaigns.
But deciding to invest in Google Shopping campaigns is not enough though. You and your team need to take the time to optimize these campaigns otherwise it is simply money down the proverbial drain.
In this article, we’ll go through 12 best practices to optimize your Google Shopping Campaigns.
If you need help with managing and optimizing your shopping campaigns this upcoming season, watch the following video.
12 Best Practices to Optimize Your Google Shopping Campaigns
1. Conduct Product Research.
Your Google Shopping campaign will only be as successful as your product research. Before even crafting your campaign, you must dive deep into understanding your target audience and their preferences.
Product research involves exploring market trends, analyzing competitors, and identifying gaps in the market that your products can fill.
Begin by delving into demographic data to find the age, gender, location, and interests of your potential customers. This information is your campaign’s “north star.” Next, analyze your competitors’ products and strategies. Examine their strengths and weaknesses, identifying opportunities to position your offerings advantageously.
Then look into consumer behavior. Uncover their pain points and motivations driving purchasing decisions. By understanding what triggers conversions, you can tailor your product listings to directly address these factors.
Use tools like Google Trends, keyword research platforms, and social media insights to view current market demand. These insights will help refine your product offerings, craft compelling descriptions, and optimize your titles for the greatest visibility.
2. Craft Compelling Product Titles and Descriptions.
With your insights from product research, the next step in optimizing your Google Shopping campaign is to craft compelling product titles and descriptions. These elements are the virtual shopfront of your offerings. It’s what makes your products enticing to the consumer.
For product titles, strike a balance between being concise and descriptive. Incorporate key attributes like brand, size, color, and unique features. This captures users’ attention and aligns your titles with their search queries.
Descriptions should go beyond mere functionality. Highlight your product’s benefits. Address the customer’s pain points and showcase its value. Inject persuasive language while maintaining accuracy to evoke emotions that drive conversions.
As always, use relevant keywords. Consumers often look for keywords in a product title. A recent study showed that one or more search keywords were present on an ad’s product title 94% of the time. Keywords should fit within titles and descriptions. These keywords also improve how easily your products are found in Google searches.
Find opportunities to improve the quality of your Google Merchant Center feed using Optmyzr’sShopping Feed Auditstool.
The visual appeal of your products holds immense power. Upload high-quality product images that vividly depict your offerings from various angles.
Images must be at least 250x250 pixels and have an alt text.
Consider incorporating engaging videos that showcase your products in real-life scenarios. Images should spotlight intricate details and unique features. Videos should provide an immersive experience that images can’t replicate.
You may want to give A/B testing a try on product images. In one ad, use a stock image, while another uses a lifestyle image. Over time, you’ll discover which images perform better.
For example, if your company sells Apple Watches, from your research you’ll discover that almost every image looks the same on the Google Shopping page. How can you optimize and stand out from the crowd?
A/B testing different images whether that is different angles, colors, or maybe even a more eye-catching Apple watch band could help you figure out what is giving you the best results on your Google shopping campaigns.
4. Set Competitive Bids and Budgets.
We’ll just briefly scratch the surface of setting your Google shopping campaign bids here. Bidding is a big topic that can feel overwhelming.
Begin by evaluating your product margins and conversion rates to determine a bidding strategy that aligns with your goals. Use smart bidding: it has vastly improved in recent years.
But it’s worth noting that while Smart Bidding can be highly effective, it still requires careful monitoring and management to ensure it’s working to help you achieve your specific business goals and objectives.
The Google Merchant Center is a powerhouse for enhancing the effectiveness of your Google Shopping campaigns. It’s also free. This platform helps you manage your product data, ensuring accuracy and relevance. Begin by organizing your product feed, including essential attributes such as titles, descriptions, prices, and availability.
Use structured data markup to provide search engines with deeper insights into your products, improving your Google search rankings.
Remember: if your data feed doesn’t match your website’s products, Google doesn’t show your product ads. So it’s vital to keep this info up-to-date and in sync with your website. Use Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Refresher 2.0 to sync your campaigns with your merchant feed.
Be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to optimizing shopping ads. You can use the Feed Audit tool to:
Identify missing values and fields
Find disapproved products with reasons
Get suggestions to improve feed quality
The audit examines all of GMC’s parameters, so you can make the necessary adjustments before the problem arises.
6. Advertise Your Best-Selling Products.
Of all the products in your inventory, focus on your best-selling items. These are products that have already demonstrated their appeal to customers. By featuring them prominently in your Google Shopping campaigns, you capitalize on their popularity and increase the chances of conversions.
Highlight these products with compelling titles, vivid images, and informative descriptions. Consider using a significant part of your budget for these high-performing items.
You can also use the aforementioned Feed audit tool to find opportunities to improve your product title, descriptions, and other relevant information.
In Google Shopping campaigns, refining your targeting is as crucial as pinpointing your audience. Implementing negative keywords empowers you to filter out irrelevant searches and avoid wasting your budget on clicks that won’t convert.
Regularly review search terms to identify keywords that trigger your ads but don’t align with your offerings. Strategically add these terms to your negative keyword list to prevent your ads from appearing for unrelated searches.
Use Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder - Shopping tool to direct traffic for search queries to the most profitable ad groups in your campaigns. This is like an A/B test for search queries.
For example, a good negative keyword for a business like Drake Injury Lawyers could be “jobs” or “employment.” Using these negative keywords helps prevent your ads from showing up in searches related to job opportunities within the legal field. Now your ads will be directed towards someone seeking legal representation, not an attorney job.
8. Use Ad Extensions.
Ad extensions enhance the visibility and relevance of your ads. These snippets give users more reasons to click on your listings, increasing the chances of conversions.
Here are a few examples:
“Price Extensions” showcase product prices directly in your ads
“Promotion Extensions” highlight special offers and discounts
“Location Extensions” to provide physical store information
The goal is to offer more information to users within search results. These extensions establish credibility, boost confidence, and entice customers to click through.
9. Track and Analyze Performance.
Regularly review key performance metrics to obtain insights into what’s working and where adjustments are needed. This is where reporting your results is absolutely essential.
Treat your reports as a way to understand what you can do to take your campaigns to the next level — better conversions, lower CPCs, more revenue, etc.
What should you pay attention to? Here are some important metrics to track:
Return On Investment (ROI)
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Cost Per Click (CPC)
Conversion Rate
Keyword Performance
Customer Actions
Check out PPC Investigator to get insights that’ll help you find exactly which element in a given account caused a metric to increase or decrease, and whether it’s a keyword, placement, or an entire network that caused the changes.
With this data in hand, identify top-performing products, as well as underperforming ones that may need refinements. Then refine your bidding strategies, budgets, and targeting parameters. (See tactic #12 for more on this.)
10. Refine Targeting and Segmentation.
Precision in targeting is pivotal to Google Shopping campaign success. You take the data from the previous tactic and refine your approach with advanced segmentation techniques. Segment your campaigns based on demographics, geographic locations, device types, etc.
The goal is to tailor your product listings to each segment to enhance relevance.
Analyze data to identify high-performing segments and divide resources as necessary. Once again, adjust bids and budgets to maximize visibility where it matters most.
Review and adjust your targeting parameters to align with evolving consumer behavior and market trends. This approach ensures that your campaign resonates with specific audience segments, increasing the potential for meaningful engagement and conversions.
11. Implement Seasonal and Promotional Strategies.
Seasonal and special promotions can amplify your Google Shopping campaign’s impact. Your strategies should align with peak shopping periods, holidays, and events.
Craft engaging promotions that entice users, such as limited-time offers, discounts, and bundles. Update your product titles and descriptions to reflect the special nature of these deals.
You can create a seasonality adjustment to help inform Google’s Smart Bidding when you expect changes in conversion rates.
Capitalizing on seasonal trends and offering compelling promotions creates a sense of urgency that drives conversions.
12. Make Adjustments.
The culmination of effective Google Shopping campaign optimization involves continuous analysis and agile adjustments. We’ve mentioned this several times already. Let’s focus on some elements:
Take time to review the results of your strategies, pinpointing what’s driving success and what needs improvement.
Leverage A/B testing to experiment with different approaches, from product titles to visuals.
Use performance data to inform your decisions, focusing on elements that resonate best with your audience.
Stay informed about industry trends, algorithm updates, and shifts in consumer behavior.
Be prepared to adapt your strategies, ensuring your campaign remains aligned with the ever-evolving consumer behavior trends.
Wrapping it Up
Make sure your shopping campaigns are in the best shape possible with these 12 tactics. Over time, you’ll notice increased ROI, qualified leads, and higher conversion rates.
And if you need help, Optmyzr makes it easier to showcase the value of your campaigns.
It is hard to change a strategic perspective. We form our ideas on the world based on data and inferring causation and correlation. Acknowledging that an outcome is no longer viable means that either the circumstances changed or the logic wasn’t sound. Both are uncomfortable.
We’re going to dive into a lot of data in this post and I’m also going to outline my old perspective and how I got there.
An important disclaimer: Just because this post looks at a lot of data and there is a high probability that one path is correct, it does not mean that the other path is outright incorrect.
It simply means that there is a significantly lower probability that you will see the profit and victory your brand deserves going with the “loser” in the data.
Our conclusion, up front
This is a really long post. So, for the sake of time, here’s a TL;DR of the study we conducted.
We analyzed 2637 accounts, conducting a study to explore the effectiveness of Broad Match vs. Exact Match. Due to how closely tied Smart Bidding and Broad Match are, we also analyzed Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value (1334 accounts). Key findings include:
Broad vs. Exact Match
Exact Match outperformed Broad Match in terms of CPC, CTR, CPA, ROAS, and conversion rate for the majority of accounts.
Conversion-oriented metrics like CPA and ROAS favored Exact Match.
Both conversion volume and click volume were better with Exact Match. Conversion value was flat between both match types.
The data suggests not making drastic changes if Broad Match is already performing well but considering testing for potential benefits.
Maximize Conversions vs. Maximize Conversion Value
Maximize Conversion Value performed better in terms of CPC, CTR, CPA, and ROAS for most accounts.
Max Conversion Value had cheaper CPC, possibly due to bid caps and practical ROAS goals.
CPA was generally better with Max Conversion Value, challenging the belief that higher CPA can lead to higher-value customers.
The data also recommends using Max Conversion Value and determining conversion value based on customer value and channel conversion rates.
Takeaways:
Test your assumptions and don’t take conventional wisdom for granted.
Keep evaluating your accounts and bidding strategies to optimize costs and performance.
Only test Broad if you go in with protections in place and have budgeted for data acquisition.
My original point of view
I strongly supported Broad Match for a long time and would defend the match type in posts that attacked it. I did this for the following reasons:
The pragmatist in me could see that match types as a mechanic were not really as powerful as they had been (or so I thought). Rather than fighting the current, it made more sense to just make the best with Broad Match.
Broad Match would often provide Phrase and Exact Match “matched by” in the search terms report, so there was no reason to pay the perceived premium for Exact Match if we could get it with Broad Match.
Broad Match was enhanced to include audiences that otherwise would not be included unless Smart Bidding was selected.
I strongly favored Max Conversion Value because it leans in to how ad channel algorithms function. However, I would often recommend Max Conversions because setting ROAS goals and customer values represented a struggle for lead generation accounts.
I hate DKI (dynamic keyword insertion) because the syntax ends up being weird and was a strong believer in pinning creative.
DKI would force keywords into ads regardless of whether it would sound “correct”.
DKI often gets paired with formulaic ads that don’t speak to the prospect in a meaningful way.
The Details of The Study
We wanted to make sure the data would be as clean as possible so set some pretty strict criteria for accounts we would include in the study.
We went through four different versions of the data and questioned the outcomes to make sure we could confidently stand behind the data.
Here are the considerations we factored in:
Accounts had to have both things we were comparing (Broad and Exact, Max Conversions and Max Conversion Value).
Accounts had to have at least 90 days of spend data at the start point of the analysis (we looked at Q1 of 2023).
Accounts could be any vertical and any spend level. However, outliers (accounts spending more than $5 million per month and accounts that had periods of no spend) were excluded from the study.
Data looks at the following: which thing had more accounts that did better with the mechanic in question, as well as what was the improvement over the other mechanic.
In the Broad vs. Exact Match study, we had 2637 accounts that met the criteria. These accounts come from all over the globe and vary in vertical and spend; 1402 accounts exceeded $10K per month. Additionally, 1235 accounts had less than $10K per month in spend.
When examining Max Conversions vs. Max Conversion Value, we had 1334 accounts that met the criteria. They were a mix of including and not including goals for tCPA and tROAS.
We first wanted to look at overall performance and performance gains. It’s important to note that Optmyzr customers tend to be more advanced than the average advertiser, which means we are taking it as a given that the accounts on the whole will have healthy account structures.
We do not enforce a particular structure on our customers, so there will be a mix of all account structures in the data set. All comparisons are looking at how Broad compared to Exact within the same account.
Overall Data
For Cost Per Click (CPC):
56.55% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 77.96%.
27.34% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 36.96%.
For Click-Through Rate (CTR):
85.65% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 84%.
13.88% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 36%.
For Cost Per Action (CPA):
70.79% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 100.71%.
27.48% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 52.52%.
For Conversion Value/Cost:
64.12% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 122.40%.
19.91% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 79.87%.
For Return On Ad Spend (ROAS):
72.52% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 113.47%.
26.47% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 64.71%.
For Conversion Rate (CVR):
56.73% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 68.63%.
22.72% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 50.12%.
We can see that the majority of the accounts perform better with Exact Match, and the median percentage difference is also better for those users that performed better with Exact Match.
For accounts spending over $10,000:
There were a total of 1402 accounts.
76.03% of the accounts present had better ROAS with EXACT match. 22.54% had better ROAS with BROAD match. 1.43% had no difference.
74.61% of the accounts had better CPA with EXACT match. 24.54% had better CPA with BROAD match. 0.86% had no difference.
57.49% of the accounts had better CPC with EXACT match. 29.24% had better CPC with BROAD match. 13.27% had no difference.
88.23% of the accounts had better CTR with EXACT match. 11.34% had better CTR with BROAD match. 0.43% had no difference.
66.98% of the accounts had better Conversion Value/Cost with EXACT match. 16.98% had better Conversion Value/Cost with BROAD match. 16.05% had no difference.
57.20% of the accounts had better Conversion Rate with EXACT match. 17.76% had better ROAS with BROAD match. 25.04% had no difference.
For accounts spending less than $10,000:
There were a total of 1235 accounts.
69.07% of the accounts present had better ROAS with EXACT match. 30.36% had better ROAS with BROAD match. 0.57% had no difference.
67.21% of the accounts had better CPA with EXACT match. 30.04% had better CPA with BROAD match. 2.75% had no difference.
55.71% of the accounts had better CPC with EXACT match. 24.45% had better CPC with BROAD match. 19.84% had no difference.
83.00% of the accounts had better CTR with EXACT match. 16.44% had better CTR with BROAD match. 0.57% had no difference.
61.78% of the accounts had better Conversion Value/Cost with EXACT match. 23.00% had better Conversion Value/Cost with BROAD match. 15.22% had no difference.
56.36% of the accounts had better Conversion Rate with EXACT match. 27.53% had better ROAS with BROAD match. 16.11% had no difference.
The number of accounts using Exact Match wins irrespective of whether or not their spend is over $10,000. But we can see a slight drop in percentages of accounts that had better metrics with Exact Match for those who spend below $10,000.
Spend may not be the biggest factor at play here, but it does affect the numbers slightly.
Does the data translate over to the volume of conversions or other KPIs?
While we can’t show the average volume of the individual metrics (because of the amount of variables in each account), we can show which account had a higher percentage of the volume within the same account.
For Clicks:
51.28% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 113.36%.
48.56% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 115.06%.
For Conversions:
50.32% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 131.82%.
47.26% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 130.37%.
For Conversion Value:
52.09% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 158.10%.
47.29% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 161.27%.
For Cost:
49.30% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 99.37%.
50.36% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 104.31%.
For Interactions:
51.28% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 113.16%.
48.56% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 115.06%.
For Impressions:
47.11% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 111.38%.
52.89% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 103.46%.
Broad performs a hair better than exact in terms of cost and impressions. Exact performs in every other metric. However, the difference doesn’t seem to be too large. In terms of magnitude, Broad is better in every case except impressions and conversions.
Breaking down each metric and its respective findings
Average CPC
I was genuinely surprised that Broad Match lost to Exact in terms of auction price. There are a few reasons for this:
An assumption is that Google would give Broad Match preferential treatment in the auction and therefore discounted rates. While this ended up being incorrect, it is worth noting that this category was one of the closer ones between Broad and Exact. As such, I’m not surprised that some advertisers will still see better CPCs on Broad than on Exact.
Broad Match tends to have an assumption about it that it will be lower quality, so I thought the human element of bidding down would come into play.
What I didn’t think about until the data came in was how many accounts would be on manual bidding vs. Smart Bidding. Ironically, the enhancements to Broad (e.g. improved audiences) may have made the algorithm bid more than it should have on Broad, while Exact picked up the cheaper rates. This is pure speculation and I would have no way of proving it, but it is an interesting idea.
Average CPC tends to be higher for higher quality leads (or so we’ve been conditioned to believe).
The revelation that Google had been raising the CPC floor by 5%-10% is just enough to bridge the gap between what savings we would expect from Broad vs. Exact. It’s possible if we had run this study a few years ago, the difference in CPC would have been much wider.
The big takeaway from this data point (especially looking at how close low and high spending accounts are) is that you can’t use Broad Match for discounted clicks anymore.
If you use it, you’re using it to gather data on what you should be investing in (and potentially which terms to add as negatives to your account).
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
I don’t think anyone was surprised to see Broad Match had a worse CTR than Exact Match. Broad Match by its very nature is going to expose itself to more queries and therefore be predisposed to lower CTR.
CPA (Cost Per Action)
This is another “not that surprised” category. However, there’s a bit more to dig into here than CTR.
One of the assumptions I and the Optmyzr data team made when we were going through the data is that anything conversion-oriented would be flawed. This was a big reason we only looked at performance in relation to individual accounts and aggregated those results.
However what I was surprised by is how Exact Match did 100% better than Broad when it was the winner, yet Broad Match did 50% better than Exact.
I have a few thoughts on why this might be:
The sophistication of advertisers can mean they know to set more realistic CPA goals as well as budgets to help the campaigns achieve those goals. This likely contributes to why Broad Match advertisers who did well, saw the respectable average of 50% improvement over Exact.
CPA is tied to which conversion actions are considered primary and secondary. While this data set looks at Q1 2023 (before the summer 2023 glitch where advertisers saw new conversion actions being created in their accounts in the migration away from UA), it still is in the sphere of influence. As advertisers were migrating to GA4, it is 100% possible that extra conversion actions could have been factored in.
Because we looked at performance within the accounts, these potential errors/glitches would have been baked in and accounted for. This is more in reference to why the numbers aren’t completely one-sided.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Similarly to CPA, there is a certain degree of human error baked into anything conversion-related. However, unlike CPA, this metric is very one-sided favoring Exact (even in accounts with less than $10,000 in ad spend).
I was not expecting this to be true due to the perceived hesitation to adopt customer values and value-based bidding. I was expecting this to lead to reduced ROAS adoption.
If anything, this is a great testament to the value of ROAS and value-based bidding because Exact Match would be operating from a perceived point of weakness (lacking the enhancements of Broad Match).
CVR (Conversion Rate)
While this metric feels like CTR, it’s a little less obvious that Exact would win over Broad. There are a few reasons for that:
Given how much audiences factor into Broad match, there’s an assumption that the conversion rates would have been closer. Additionally, since Exact match got more clicks/interactions than Broad on average, it’s reasonable to expect the conversion rate would be lower because of more leads in the pool.
Conversion rates are very much dependent on the ad copy and the landing page. I would have expected both match types to struggle or be closer if ad copy/landing pages were a problem, however Exact clearly won.
Match-Type Action Plan
This is not the time to make drastic changes in accounts if things are working for you. If your account is currently running Broad Match and doing well, do not feel you need to pause those winning keywords.
However, if you’ve been considering “upgrading” to Broad, it’s worthwhile to take a pause and consider whether your account will benefit from the test.
If you do decide to test, make sure you pause your existing keywords and add the Broad Match variants manually. If you remove a keyword, you can’t get it back and you’ll likely want to have the ability to backtrack if you don’t like how broad behaved.
Optmyzr does not have a single “recommended” account structure as we see our customers succeed with different strategies. However, one fairly universal theme is that if you run match-type campaigns/ad groups you will likely get hit with impression share lost due to rank and budget.
Consider consolidating these so that you can have fewer but stronger ad groups and campaigns. Again, there is no conclusive “winning” structure. However, if you’re struggling with impression share, that’s a way to mitigate it.
Finally, there is no data to suggest (quite the opposite) that Performance Max is bad. I’d strongly recommend reallocating any paused Broad Match budget into Performance Max. Absolutely use the search themes in Performance Max to help focus those campaigns.
Which does better: Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversion Value?
We did not include manual bidding in this analysis. However, it is worth noting that 12% of Optmyzr customers currently use manual bidding, while 66% use some form of Smart Bidding (Max Conversions or Max Conversion Value). We attribute this in large part to the heavy adoption of Performance Max, as well as the average size of Optmyzr customers (we tend to focus on $10,000 or higher monthly ad spend).
Overall Data
For CPC:
44.98% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion Value, and the median percentage difference is 64.30%.
36.73% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion, and the median percentage difference is 60.61%.
For CTR:
52.02% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion Value, and the median percentage difference is 62.43%.
46.48 accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion, and the median percentage difference is 51.15%.
For CPA:
52.55% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion Value, and the median percentage difference is 86.29%.
46.40% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion, and the median percentage difference is 81.04%.
For ROAS:
60.19% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion Value, and the median percentage difference is 107%.
39.58% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion Value, and the median percentage difference is 91.31%.
When we compared all the accounts the majority performed better with Maximize Conversion Value and the median percentage gains were better as well.
The 645 accounts with over $10,000 spend in Search
For CPC:
46.67% of accounts had better CPC with Maximize Conversion Value, 36.9% had better CPC with Maximize Conversion
For CTR:
52.09% of accounts had better CTR with Maximize Conversion Value, and 45.74% had better CTR with Maximize Conversion
For CPA:
53.18% of accounts had better CPA with Maximize Conversion Value, 46% had better CPA with Maximize Conversion
For ROAS:
63.26% of accounts had better ROAS with Maximize Conversion Value, 36.4% had better ROAS with Maximize Conversion
The 662 accounts with under $10,000 spend in Search campaigns
For CPC:
43.50% of accounts had better CPC with Maximize Conversion Value, 36.86% had better CPC with Maximize Conversion
For CTR:
52.57% of accounts had better CTR with Maximize Conversion Value, and 46.53% had better CTR with Maximize Conversion
For CPA:
51.81% of accounts had better CPA with Maximize Conversion Value, 46.83% had better CPA with Maximize Conversion
For ROAS:
57.4% of accounts had better ROAS with Maximize Conversion Value, 42.45% had better ROAS with Maximize Conversion
Spend did not impact Max Conversion Value winning and there was very little change in performance looking at accounts that had over $10,000 vs. less than $10,000 in monthly ad spend.
Breaking Down Each Metric
Average CPC
The biggest surprise for me was that Max Conversion Value had the better (cheaper) CPC because it runs counter to what we know of how the algorithm bids. Traditionally we’d expect the algorithm to bid more aggressively for a lead that would have a higher probability of meeting the objective (conversion value goal).
That Max Conversion Value had the cheaper CPC implies the following:
The ROAS goals were more practical than I tend to give folks credit for, so the algorithm didn’t spike bids as much as they might have otherwise. This speaks to the data source and the higher probability that Optmyzr customers will manage their accounts at a higher level.
Bid floors are leveling the playing field so those who are using value-based bidding are getting access to a “smarter” algorithm.
The main takeaway here is that advertisers should not default to thinking cheaper is inherently worse, however getting discounts on clicks is much more about giving data to the algorithm than having a perfect quality score.
CTR
I was not terribly surprised that CTR would be better with conversion value because if an advertiser takes the time to put in conversion values, they likely will put more effort into message mapping creative.
That said, both were close, which implies that it’s more on the human running the campaigns as opposed to the bidding strategy directly influencing the CTR.
CPA
To be honest, I was expecting Max Conversion Value to have a worse CPA because we’ve been trained to believe that CPA can be higher to get higher value customers. However that it had the cheaper CPA overall is more of a wake-up call than anything not to get complacent on CPAs.
It is worth noting higher spending accounts did slightly better with CPA than lower spending accounts (but ultimately it was negligible).
If you’re struggling with your CPA, consider whether you’re asking your budget to do too many things or if the campaign can get enough clicks in the day to lead to conversions. Both those mechanics can influence CPAs being artificially high.
ROAS
It should not come as a surprise that the majority of Max Conversion Value campaigns did better than Max Conversions on ROAS. What is interesting is that there were accounts that saw better ROAS using Max Conversions.
I have a few theories on this:
Some brands are not allowed to use conventional conversions and it’s possible that in those accounts max conversions can do better than ROAS simply because users will represent more than one conversion (and the advertiser intends this).
Max Conversions might have been in older campaigns which would be predisposed to do well.
It’s important to note that we did not include conversion rate in the data because it was essentially the same.
Bidding Strategy Action Plan
There is no good reason not to use Max Conversion Value. Hiding behind a lack of clear customer value is just giving your competitors the chance to overtake you.
When determining your conversion value the best way to do it is to consider your average customer value against the conversion rate of each channel. If you’re unsure what the average would be, you can start with a minimum SQL (sales-qualified lead) or minimum subscription price. While this won’t be perfectly accurate, it will give you a place to start.
My new outlook
The biggest takeaway from looking at the data is not taking anything for granted. Just because we’re told something is true, it’s important to test and prove whether it’s viable in our accounts before committing to it or discarding it.
Additionally, given that the conventional wisdom—that Exact Match and Max Conversion Values are more expensive because they provide more value—didn’t play out at scale, it’s worth doing a deep dive into your accounts if they are driving up your costs.
Consider being more aggressive with negatives and exclusions, as well as owning whether you have the budget to go after desired transactional traffic or if you’d be better served leveraging your budgets on cheaper networks (Microsoft) or top of the funnel (Performance Max, social, video).
We’re very grateful to our customers for allowing us to enable them on the path to profit and victory and it means a lot to get to continue to empower them through automation and freedom of structure.
And if you aren’t an Optmyzr customer, but need help with running more profitable campaigns, sign up for our 14-day free trial today to give our tools a try.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. 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.
Google is currently on trial for antitrust allegations from the US Justice Department, and Google employees have acknowledged what we’ve long known about how the ad auction works: Google controls the pricing — and sometimes raises auction minimums.
Here’s a rundown of just how Google controls auction pricing and what advertisers can do to protect their own interests.
Antitrust Trial: How Google Controls Advertising Costs
The trial has focused on Google allegedly using exclusionary tactics to maintain its dominance as the world’s leading search engine. But the US Justice Department is also making the case that Google has monopolistic power over search advertising as a specific industry.
Search ads make up the bulk of Google’s massive revenue, so how Google runs these auctions has become a point of scrutiny.
Ads May Be Promoted Out of Order to Boost Revenue
During the trial, a Google executive shared that the company frequently tweaks its ad auctions in ways that can raise prices for advertisers. One method is out-of-order ad promotion, where a lower-ranked ad gets promoted above a higher-ranked ad. This allows Google to generate more revenue by showing ads in locations with higher minimum prices.
In the ad auction, Google ranks all the eligible ads competing for each ad position on the search engine results page (SERP). The highest-ranked ad usually occupies the most prominent top position.
However, sometimes the top-ranked ad may be ineligible to show in that top spot due to certain rules Google has, even though it won the top rank. For example, Google may require ads in the top position to meet certain editorial or relevance standards that the top ad does not fulfill.
In this case, rather than leave the top spot empty, Google will do an out-of-order promotion. This means they will take the next highest-ranking eligible ad and promote it out of order above the ineligible top ad.
So if ad one ranks highest in the auction but cannot show in the top position, ad two (which ranked second) may get promoted to the top spot ahead of ad one. This allows Google to still show a relevant ad in the most visible placement, while adhering to their eligibility rules.
The key takeaway is that out-of-order promotion allows lower-ranked ads to jump ahead of higher-ranked ads when those top ads break rules about where they can appear on the SERP. It ensures Google can serve ads on premium real estate while enforcing editorial or relevance guidelines.
This helps Google make more money and is beneficial to advertisers because lower-ranked ads aren’t artificially held back by editorial or other issues with higher ranked ads.
Google Ads Auction Has Reserve Prices and Thresholds
The other technique Google deploys to improve its revenue is changing auction thresholds and reserve minimum pricing. Over time, this can increase the cost for advertisers to maintain an ad’s position.
The auction minimum CPM is the lowest amount an advertiser must pay to have their ad shown in a particular ad slot. The corresponding minimum CPC bid is determined by a combination of the auction reserve price and the Quality Score of each ad. Quality Score itself is based on factors like expected clickthrough rate and ad relevance.
Remember that Ad Rank is effectively the equivalent of CPM because in simple terms, Ad Rank is predicted CTR multiplied by CPC, which is predicted CPM.
When Google asks for a minimum CPM to show an ad in a particular location, and that ad’s predicted CTR is a static value determined by AI, the only lever the advertiser can control is their bid. So long as there is headroom with their maximum CPC, Google can raise the effective CPC to meet the new CPM threshold.
How Reserve Prices Raise Auction Prices
If Google increases an auction’s minimum bid, it raises the floor price to get into the auction. Advertisers who previously met the minimum bid at lower CPCs now have to bid higher just to participate and have a chance to show their ads.
So when the auction floor is raised, the only variable that can instantly change is the effective CPC. And so long as that effective CPC is below the maximum CPC, the automated auction can collect a higher cost for the click.
This not only increases costs for advertisers who were bidding near the floor price, but it can also raise costs across the board. Even advertisers who were bidding well above the minimum previously may see their costs go up.
Here’s why: In the auction, the top ad position goes to the highest bidder. When the minimum bid goes up, advertisers bidding near that level must increase their bids to participate. This then bumps up the amounts that slightly higher bidders need to pay to maintain their ad positions. Essentially it has a cascading effect across all bids.
So while the advertisers most impacted are those near the auction minimum, an increase to the minimum bid lifts the overall cost of entry and makes the auction more expensive for everyone. It raises the bar across the board in terms of the bids required to capture various ad positions on the page.
How to Safeguard Against Google’s Black Box of CPC Inflation
As we learned from testimony at the trial, these tactics are sometimes implemented to help Google meet financial targets. More importantly, Google does not notify advertisers when these pricing changes occur.
This may leave advertisers believing their optimizations were counterproductive and led to increased costs, when it was an external factor outside of advertisers’ control that caused the change in price.
Luckily, there are steps advertisers can take to manage this uncertainty.
Quality Score Remains an Important Cost Optimization Lever in PPC
The fundamentals of optimizing for quality score and predicted click-through rate remain essential. Focusing on these factors will help minimize what you pay in ad auctions, even as Google changes minimum price thresholds.
Google’s Quality Score algorithm is complex, but essentially it boils down to predicting clickthrough rate (CTR). The higher a keyword’s Quality Score, the more relevant Google thinks your ad will be for searches on that keyword.
This relevance translates into a better Ad Rank, and when your Ad Rank is higher, you pay less per click to maintain it.
Quality Score is calculated in part based on historical CTR data for your keywords and ads. But many other contextual factors are considered each time your ad enters the auction – like query intent, location, time of day, and more.
So Quality Score is very granular and constantly fluctuating.
The core factors that make up Quality Score are ad relevance to the search query, expected CTR, and landing page experience. When these elements are strong, your Quality Score improves, boosting Ad Rank and leading to lower average CPC.
So time invested in improving Quality Score by enhancing relevance has a clear payoff – maintained visibility at a lower cost.
Monitoring and Alerts Are Critical to Detect CPC Changes
PPC monitoring is critical to get alerts on price changes, and automated rules can pause campaigns if extreme anomalies are detected.
PPC management tools like Optmyzr provide (among other things) automated alerts when metrics deviate from goals. You can get notifications for changes in KPIs, budget pacing, or hitting targets. This allows you to address issues before they become larger problems.
Optmyzr also has customizable rules to tell campaigns what actions to take, like pausing or adding keywords to a report. And when a major performance shift occurs— both positive and negative—PPC Investigator can help analyze its root cause.
With Optmyzr’s robust PPC monitoring capabilities, you ensure the prices of your search ads don’t skyrocket out of control. It’s like insurance for your PPC account. This level of monitoring and automation is now table stakes, and imperative for any modern advertiser who wishes to stay on top of volatile auction dynamics.
Use Vertical Benchmarks to Know Whether CPC Increases Are Your Doing
PPC Vertical Benchmarks in Optmyzr helps advertisers understand the performance of their account relative to that of similar advertisers.
Comparing your metrics to vertical-specific benchmarks lets you assess whether a price increase is an industry-wide trend or unique to your account. This context helps determine the best optimization approach:
If your CPC went up but others’ CPCs increased by more, you’re probably on the right path.
If your CPC increased more than those of your industry peers, it may be time to enable additional optimizations – deploying more negative keywords, adjusting target CPA and target ROAS, and rewriting your responsive search ads to be more relevant.
Watch the Trial – And Your Google Ads Accounts
Google’s antitrust trial is still ongoing and may reveal more about the tech giant’s ad practices. If Google is found to be a monopoly, structural changes to auctions could follow.
As the situation evolves, advertisers need the flexibility and control to respond swiftly. The core principles of automation, vigilance, and relying on data hold true to navigate an ever-changing auction landscape.
Conversion tracking is one of the most important tools in a PPC marketer’s toolkit. By tracking post-click actions that indicate value - like lead submissions, purchases, or registrations - you can understand the true ROI of your keywords, ads, and targeting parameters. This enables you to optimize bids and budgets to drive more of the conversions that impact your bottom line.
However, implementing conversion tracking has never been easy. Traditionally, it requires adding code snippets on your site to track conversions and/or integrating your CRM data with your Google Ads account through their API. For many advertisers, this involves engineering resources or dependency on other teams to execute the technical integration. Even for experienced PPC experts, this process can be time-intensive and risky to implement.
That’s why Google’s new Enhanced Conversions for Leads is a potential game-changer. By streamlining the implementation entirely within Google Ads, this new tracking method can help more advertisers unlock the benefits of conversion data in their campaigns. In this post, we’ll cover what Enhanced Conversions offers, how you can benefit, and best practices for getting started.
What are Enhanced Conversions for leads?
Enhanced Conversions provides an alternative way to enable offline conversion tracking without modifications to your existing CRM or analytics systems. Here’s an overview of how it works:
When a potential customer fills out a lead form on your site, that data including their email address, name, and contact details is captured by your site’s form handler or CRM. With Enhanced Conversions, that first-party lead data can be hashed and sent directly to Google Ads to match it with any corresponding ad clicks.
Later, when that lead converts into a sale or other goal, you upload the hashed lead information to Google. They match that lead to the original ad click, closing the loop on the conversion process. This gives Google a more complete picture of the customer journey and lead quality when optimizing your bids and ad placements.
The key difference from traditional methods is that this integration happens entirely within your Google Ads account, instead of via an API or manual uploads. You don’t need engineering resources to modify your CRM and can leverage the lead data you already have on hand.
Why do existing conversion tracking methods fall short?
To understand why Enhanced Conversions is an exciting update, it helps to know why existing conversion tracking has not been widely adopted.
Advertisers are used to being able to control most elements of their campaigns through self-service tools. But those same marketers usually don’t control the CRM systems where this valuable offline conversion data lives inside their organization. This dependency on other teams and sometimes even engineering significantly reduces the adoption of conversion tracking.
Modifying underlying CRM or analytics systems requires technical expertise that is beyond the access of most marketing teams. Even for those with engineering resources, it can be time-consuming and risky to build out a conversion data pipeline securely and accurately. Testing and troubleshooting errors add further delays.
As a result, many PPC marketers have simply avoided the hassle of offline conversion tracking. But that means missing out on critically valuable data to optimize bids and drive ROI.
Benefits of the New Enhanced Conversions
By removing the dependency on engineering resources, Enhanced Conversions makes this kind of conversion tracking far more accessible. PPC experts can enable it directly within their Google Ads interface in a simpler process.
More importantly, activating this deeper conversion data can significantly improve campaign performance:
Gain a more complete view of the customer journey.
What first touchpoints drive the most valuable leads? Enhanced Conversions connects those initial ad clicks all the way through the conversion process.
Optimize bids for quality over quantity.
Focus ad spend on conversions that impact ROI rather than vanity metrics like clicks. Value-based bidding leverages enhanced conversion data.
Eliminate wasted spend.
Identify low-quality leads that don’t convert and avoid bidding on them. Enhanced Conversions provides that feedback loop.
Improve targeting.
Conversion data reveals your best-performing audience segments, placement types, ad formats, and other factors to refine targeting.
Calculate true ROAS.
Without conversions, ROI metrics are only guesses. Enhanced Conversions provides real data on your return from ad spend.
The bottom line is that this richer conversion data powers more efficient spending and better quality leads. For savvy PPC marketers, it’s essential insights for driving campaigns to the next level.
Best practices for implementing Enhanced Conversion Tracking
Here are some best practices to follow as you enable it in your accounts:
Choose the Right Conversion Action.
Your first step is deciding what conversion or goal you want to track. A few key pointers:
Don’t start by tracking final conversions only.
Look for meaningful mid-funnel steps first like lead submissions, demo sign-ups, or email registrations.
Consider volume.
If you track final conversions and they occur infrequently, the system won’t have enough data to optimize well.
Factor in time to conversion.
Longer time lags make optimizations slower. Shorter time-to-convert metrics are better.
Don’t merge all conversions together.
Isolate specific actions to avoid “junk” conversions skewing data.
Thoughtfully Estimate Conversion Value.
Next, think carefully about assigning monetary values to your conversion actions. Some tips:
Leverage data from your CRM on customer LTV or average order value to estimate downstream revenue.
If exact values aren’t known, use reasonable ranges or tiers for each conversion type. Just avoid only 2-3 wide buckets.
Values don’t have to be precise! Relative differences between your conversion types are what matters most.
Manage the Transition to New Conversion Tracking.
Once you’ve decided on conversion actions and values, you can enable Enhanced Conversions in your accounts. But take care with the transition:
Add the new conversion tracking but don’t change your bid strategy at the same time. Let the data accumulate first.
Allow for an adjustment period of at least 1-2 weeks before optimizing bids based on the data. Avoid major changes in short periods.
Watch performance metrics closely and pause aggressive changes if you see volatility or a decline in conversions.
Implement in smaller campaigns first before rolling out more widely. This minimizes risk.
While proper setup takes patience, taking the time to do it right will pay dividends through improved performance.
Looking Ahead with Enhanced Conversions
Now that Enhanced Conversions removes major barriers to implementation, PPC marketers have an opportunity to more fully realize the benefits of offline conversion tracking.
As this method gains adoption, we should see more granular data-driven bidding, spent aimed squarely at profitable outcomes, and continuously improving performance as the system learns. When conversion tracking is democratized beyond just the most sophisticated enterprises, it raises the bar for sophistication across the whole industry.
And that’s greatly accelerated by inventory-level bidding technologies like smart bidding. The combination of conversion data and automated optimization makes PPC campaigns smarter and more efficient than ever.
For savvy PPC experts, staying ahead of these curves by implementing Enhanced Conversions today means you can outperform competitors who fail to level up their conversion tracking capabilities. That advantage will only compound over time as conversion data accumulation enables greater optimizations.
The opportunity is now yours. Get started with Enhanced Conversions and watch your ad spend get smarter.
And if you need help, Optmyzr makes it easier to protect your account!
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? 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.
Ad platform giants like Google Ads and Meta Ads are always testing new features and functionalities. And, these tests require real-world data, which comes from ad accounts like yours.
Sometimes the platforms inform you’re part of a test group when they run their experiments. But most of the time, you’re not given a heads-up. As a result, you may observe varying results in your campaigns—sometimes they perform better, and sometimes they don’t.
However, it’s unusual for a test to go totally wrong, so wrong that it costs your brand real money. This is precisely what happened to Melissa Mackey, Director of Paid Search at Compound Growth Marketing.
What exactly happened?
Expanded targeting is a feature that grants Google permission to reach people beyond your specified target audience if it believes there’s a high likelihood of conversion. While most platforms have this feature enabled by default nowadays, in Google Ads, you can choose to disable it.
Melissa said she contacted Google Ads support, they apologized, told her it was a bug, and they’d refund her.
Client's ads started showing in "expanded targeting" despite being opted out of that setting. 2/8
But then, it happened again. Even though she’d turned it off, Google opted her clients’ ads back into expanded targeting.
She reached out to Google Ads support once again, and they told her:
Now we're being told "From time to time the Google Ads team runs incremental experiments on campaigns to test the impact of a proposed change... Team confirmed that for this issue we might not provide any credit or refund." 5/8
Google’s Ad Liaison, Ginny Marvin, assured her that she would investigate the matter.
While it is not clear if this is a widespread issue, such glitches aren’t necessarily new. Earlier this year, Chelsea So, Founder of Leadocity, discovered that Google Ads was ignoring placement exclusions for her client.
But it happened in one specific instance: for video campaigns with Optimized Targeting enabled.
A workaround—while far from ideal—does exist. Watch the video below to listen to Chelsea’s story and how Leadocity fixed things for their client.
And recently, Odi Caspi, Founder of UK-based agency, EffectiveMarketing said this on X (formerly Twitter).
#ppcchat It looks like Google is going into account and enabling GA4 conversion as primary. This specific account has a Google ads conversion and as a result has been double counting conversion. @adsliaison how could Google possibly do such a think under our noses? pic.twitter.com/ohBjWRAl8D
Here’s one more: this happened to us back in January of this year. Watch the video below where our CEO, Frederick Vallaeys explains what happened in detail.
TL;DR, 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.
But we caught it in time with our PPC Investigator and Rule Engine tools in Optmyzr before it could cause too much damage (more on them below).
All these instances are a clear reminder that you can never “set it and forget it” in PPC. 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 can you protect your account from Google Ads glitches?
Our evangelist, Navah Hopkins, shares a few ways in this video about how Optmyzr can help you proactively protect your account from any accidental or automated additions to your campaign targeting.
1. Set up alerts.
One way to stay informed about such unexpected changes made to your campaigns is by setting up alerts for your budget spend.
This will help you to stay informed about the status of your campaigns and make sure you don’t waste unnecessary ad spend. This is particularly important if you have lots of automated rules and scripts running (especially budget pacing rules).
However, Optmyzr can automatically look for anomalies or deviations for you without you setting them up yourself using anomaly alerts.
You can also generate them for Microsoft Ads or Facebook Ads, not just for Google Ads.
2. Protect your account from showing your ads on low-quality placements.
Optmyzr’s Smart Placement Exclusions can proactively find bad ad placements for you. Instead of waiting for these placements to spend money on wasted clicks and then excluding them, the tool proactively excludes them.
If you want to exclude placements for your Display Campaigns, you can use the Display Placements Exclusion tool.
Or, if you want to exclude placements at the account level, you can use Optmyzr’s Rule Engine.
3. Track performance changes using the Change History widget.
The Change History widget allows you to report on status changes for the account, ads, audience, budgets, keywords, network, placements, and targeting, on an individual basis.
Here are some insights you can get 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.
4. Get a detailed view of your account performance using the PPC Investigator.
The PPC Investigator is an insights tool that’ll help you find exactly which element in a given account caused a metric to increase or decrease, and whether it’s a keyword, placement, or an entire network that caused the changes.
It has two components:
Cause Chart
Root Cause Analysis
Cause Chart
The Cause Chart is based on the fact that the performance of every metric depends on the performance of other underlying metrics. It uses the relationships between different metrics to show potential causality.
Root Cause Analysis
After identifying which metric needs to be worked on, the Root Cause Analysis goes a step further and highlights the exact Campaigns/Ad groups/Product partition/Keywords, etc. that were responsible for the change in an account.
It shows top movers who are significant contributors to the change in the account when compared across the two date ranges. You can view the top three positive and negative movers for a particular account.
The video below explains how you can use this tool for PPC analysis.
Run your campaigns with confidence and peace of mind
As Navah said in her video above, we want to reiterate that we truly do not believe these glitches are intentional, rather they are accidents made by Google Ads’s automated system. This is why it’s critical that you’re always documenting what actions you take and why in account management. And if you need help, Optmyzr makes it easier to protect your account!
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? 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.
Considering how important and chaotic the Q4 shopping season can be for advertisers, it’s never too late to start setting up your campaigns. Buyer behavior trends have changed over the years during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and December holidays and now we’re seeing consumers shopping earlier than before.
One thing is for sure: billions of dollars will be up for grabs.
With all that said, let’s see how you can prepare in advance and make this 2023 shopping season a profitable one for your business.
On that note, our CEO, Frederick Vallaeys recently spoke to Marcel Smal of Roots Network on PPC Town Hall. Marcel shared how his agency is gearing up for Q4 and how he recommends you set up your Performance Max and other campaigns.
Watch the full episode below.
This article is a collection of tips shared by Marcel during that conversation.
5 Tips to Get Started With Setting up Your Campaigns
1. Start early.
Initiate preparations well in advance. Briefings for creatives, alignment, budgets, etc. take time. Allocate sufficient time for planning.
2. Set efficiency targets.
Set aggressive efficiency targets before promotional days. Use seasonality adjustments during promotions. Use negative seasonality adjustments afterwards, or conversion exclusion events.
Note: Seasonality adjustments don’t work for Video and App campaigns.
3. Try Discovery ads.
Use a ramp-up period before promotion. Allow time for the campaign to gain traction. It can take a few days to a week to start seeing some volume.
4. Build a pre and post-Black Friday strategy.
For instance, during pre-Black Friday, you can focus on lead generation, app downloads, and audience building. Push those goals during the promotion days.
And post-Black Friday, plan to promote follow-up products (e.g. accessories for products your audiences have bought, refills, etc.).
5. Don’t ignore ad extensions and customizers.
For retail campaigns, add promotions to your Merchant Center. Use site links and ad customizers.
Performance Max tips for 2023 Q4 Shopping
Marcel suggests the following tips for Performance Max.
1. Align your goals with your business objectives.
Make sure your measurement and reporting are aligned with your business objectives: revenue, profit, CLV, etc. If new customers are worth more to you than existing customers, then use ‘New Customer Acquisition’ as your goal.
2. Give Performance Max time to learn.
Performance Max campaigns look promising and Google is pretty active in adding more features to improve it. I suggest Pmax be included in your setup, but don’t make them your top priority over other campaign types. And don’t create too many Pmax campaigns.
If you see an uplift of +30%, analyze where that uplift came from. Is that traffic from existing customers? Or from branded traffic? Also, check which interactions drove the conversions.
4. Make use of Mike Rhodes’s PMax script.
It’s clear that insights and reporting in PMax campaigns are limited. So Marcel suggests taking the help of Mike Rhodes’s (of WebSavvy) PMax script which allows you to see the performance per platform.
5. Don’t create too many asset groups.
Creating too many asset groups can take quite a bit of manual work to optimize and make adjustments. Again, use the script by Mike Rhodes to find out which asset groups get the most volume.
You can use these insights to decide if it is necessary to split up your asset groups further. And, based on the volume, you can check if it is worthwhile to create or refresh new assets.
Also, add your own video assets. And check with Google if its automatically-created videos can be turned off.
6. Set up good targeting settings.
Take your time to set up targeting. Prepare an extensive list for custom intent audiences, competitor websites, competitor apps, brand websites, etc.
Bonus tips
1. Bidding
tROAS or tCPA? If your conversions have different values (retail, travel, leads with different values), then you can choose tROAS bidding. If you are a lead-gen advertiser with multiple types of leads and multiple CPA targets, then assign that CPA value to the different conversion actions.
And if you then let a tROAS bid strategy optimize towards a ROAS of 1.0, you will work towards your original CPA targets.
Should you prioritize revenue or profit? If profit is your bottom line KPI, and this information is available, then always optimize towards profit. Implement this in your measurement if possible so that you can actively steer towards profit instead of revenue.
Make sure you measure everything that adds value to your company. If you have physical stores, measure store visits and store sales. If people can also buy via telephone, track phone calls. If you run app campaigns, track app downloads and assign a value. If account sign-ups have a value, track them too and assign a value.
Try to measure as close to the business objectives as possible.
Conversions -> Revenue -> Profit -> CLV
The Bottom Line
As we near the end of Q3, last-minute preparations for Q4 are in full swing. Search marketing has changed, and we need to be watchful of these changes as they affect data analytics and audience behaviors.
At Optmyzr, we’ve seen a massive shift across industries as more and more marketers and agencies are starting to trust machine learning, automation, and data-driven optimizations.
But in order to thrive with automation, you need to look for powerful search systems and highly effective management tools.
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? 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.
How often have you landed on a broken landing page, or a page with a ‘product not found or out of stock’ message after clicking on an ad?
The experience is the same as visiting a store after seeing the promotion of a product only to discover it is not available. It is a very bad user experience and you’ll probably think twice before visiting that store or website again.
Consequences of broken landing pages
1. You will lose money.
As an advertiser, you lose money by paying for a click on an ad that leads to a broken landing page.
When an ad is created as part of the approval process, Google checks if your ad leads to a functioning landing page. However, it only checks if the page is working and not if the ad leads to a ‘product out of stock’ page.
2. You will lose customers.
Once an ad is approved by Google, even if the landing page stops working, Google will still continue to show the ad.
Your potential customers will land on a broken page and as a result, may never visit your site again.
This means the person who is at the purchase decision stage will leave your website and most likely visit a competitor page and buy from them, costing you a customer.
Finding broken landing pages
Finding broken landing pages is a common problem, especially for large shopping and ticketing sites.
Due to the size of the accounts, it is not possible for you to manually check the landing page of each and every ad. That is when we decided to build the URL Checker Tool.
It automatically checks the landing pages of all the active ads in your Google Ads account and pauses ads leading to errors or out-of-stock pages. It also re-checks these ads and resumes them when their landing pages start working.
Visit this page to learn more about the URL Checker Tool.
Your Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are your brand’s first impression on the search results page. It’s the moment when a potential customer decides whether to click, explore, or move on to someone else.
Yet too often, RSAs are treated as an afterthought- hastily built, rarely tested, and left to “figure themselves out.”
The result is weak messaging and performance that never reaches its full potential. That’s why I decided to take a closer look at what truly makes Responsive Search Ads perform.
And here are the eight rules of thumb I personally follow when working with RSAs:
1. Should you use all the available headlines?
“Google recommends 15 headlines, so I should use all 15, right?”
Actually, it’s the opposite. I usually stick to around five strong headlines. This saves time, sharpens your messaging, and helps Google’s machine learning find winning combinations faster.
When you add too many headlines, you often dilute your message. Instead of 15 average lines, focus on 5 that clearly communicate your offer, product value, and intent.
Think of it less as “filling all the slots” and more as curating a set of your best angles.
Once those are live, the key is to understand which headlines are actually pulling their weight. Not every idea will perform equally well, and that’s okay.
The trick is to identify your winners and replace the weaker ones without wasting hours in spreadsheets or the Google Ads interface.
This tool breaks your Responsive Search Ads into individual parts: headlines, descriptions, and complete ads, and shows you how each is performing. You can instantly spot which headlines attract clicks/conversions and which ones might be holding you back.
It also offers AI-powered headline and description suggestions based on your ad data.
You can review, tweak, or apply those ideas directly, making it simple to test new variations without starting from scratch.
And if you need to clean up your ads in bulk, say, update an outdated offer or replace “AdWords” with “Google Ads” across all your campaigns, the Find & Replace feature handles it in seconds.
2. Combine broad and specific messages
When writing RSA headlines, I always mix broad messages with specific, intent-driven ones. Broad lines like “Shop the Latest Running Shoes” or “Free Shipping on All Orders” help your ad match a wide range of searches.
But it’s the specific ones, “Buy Nike Pegasus 40 Women’s Shoes” or “Trail Running Shoes for Rainy Weather,” that drive real relevance when users know exactly what they want.
The balance between the two is key.
Too broad, and your ads feel generic. Too narrow, and you miss bigger audiences. If you’re doing this manually, it can take time. That’s where Optmyzr’s A/B testing tool can help.
It automatically compares your ads in the same ad group and shows which ones are performing better based on real data, like CTR, conversions, or cost per conversion.
You can quickly spot which ad copy is winning, pause the weaker ones, and use insights from the best performers to create new variations.
And if you’re short on time, the AI suggestions are always there to help!
3. Use pinning thoughtfully
Pinning can be a great tool, but it’s one of the most misunderstood parts of Responsive Search Ads. I often see advertisers pinning far too many headlines or descriptions, trying to “lock in” what they think will perform best.
However, every time you pin, you reduce Google’s ability to test combinations and learn what actually works.
Pin only when it’s absolutely necessary, like keeping your brand name or a key promo message in a specific position (“Save 50% During Black Week,” for example).
Beyond that, trust the system to do its job.
Of course, it helps to have visibility into what’s pinned and how those assets perform, and that’s where the ad text optimization can help again!
4. Ensure relevance to keywords
I cannot emphasize this rule enough: include your main keywords in your headlines.
When someone searches for “Nike running shoes,” it feels natural and reassuring to see that exact phrase appear in the ad. It signals, “Yes, this ad matches what I’m looking for.”
Even small changes like swapping “Shop the Latest Shoes” for “Shop Nike Running Shoes” can lift your CTR and make your ads feel more personalized.
This isn’t just about optimization metrics; it’s about user experience.
People want to see their own language reflected back to them. It builds trust and helps Google understand your ad’s relevance, which can improve your Quality Score too.
So before you launch, take a moment to check: do your headlines truly echo what your customers are typing into the search bar?
5. Test, test, test
Responsive Search Ads are never “finished.” That’s the mindset I always keep. You don’t write a few headlines, launch the ad, and move on.
You test, learn, and adjust continuously. The trick is not to overhaul everything at once.
Small, gradual changes teach you more over time. Replace one weak headline, try a different call to action, or test a more specific message against a broader one.
Every small improvement compounds.
If you’re starting fresh or want to add new variations, the Create Responsive Search Ads tool can help you build them quickly.
It automatically looks at your existing ads, finds which headlines and descriptions have the best click-through rates, and suggests new combinations. You can review those suggestions, make tweaks, and upload them straight to your Google Ads account (without manual copy-pasting).
Once your new versions are running, you can also use A/B Testing for Ads in Optmyzr to compare their performance.
6. Use assets and extensions with RSAs
Responsive Search Ads work best when you support them with the right assets and extensions. Think of your RSA as the headline (the main story), and your extensions as the supporting details that make the ad more complete.
Sitelinks, callouts, structured snippets, and image extensions don’t just make your ads bigger; they make them more useful.
A sitelink can guide people to your most popular products or landing pages. A callout like “Free Returns” or “24/7 Support” adds confidence.
And image extensions help you stand out visually on a crowded results page.
These extra pieces do more than fill space: they give your ad context, personality, and a stronger reason to click.
7. Focus on a clear CTA
Even though Responsive Search Ads combine multiple headlines and descriptions, you still need one clear, consistent call to action.
Your CTA should tell the user exactly what to do next: “Shop Now,” “Book a Demo,” “Get a Free Quote.” Simple and direct always beats clever but confusing.
The mistake many advertisers make is trying to include too many CTAs in one ad. When every headline says something different: “Learn More,” “Buy Today,” “Sign Up Now,” the message becomes scattered, and the intent gets lost.
Pick one direction, make it visible in at least one headline and one description, and let the rest of the copy support that message.
A clear, confident CTA is like a final nudge; it turns attention into action.
8. Avoid pitfalls
If you can offer next-day delivery, definitely use it; it’s a strong selling point.
But if your delivery time is 14 days, it’s better to leave that out of your headline. Overpromising might win the click, but it will cost you trust later.
The same goes for exaggerated claims or outdated offers.
Your ad copy should be as honest as it is persuasive. If a competitor is promising something you can’t realistically match, focus instead on what you do best, maybe reliability, product quality, or customer service.
Still, mistakes and weak ads can slip through, especially when you’re running hundreds of campaigns. That’s where Optmyzr’s Rule Engine can save you time.
You can set simple rules, like “show me all RSAs that haven’t had any conversions in the past 30 days but are still getting clicks.”
Once you set that rule, Optmyzr will automatically flag those ads and group them in a report, so you can review and fix them before they waste more budget.
It’s a quick way to spot underperforming or risky ads early, whether that means poor ad strength, outdated messaging, or just a copy that’s not connecting anymore.
That way, you spend less time hunting for problems and more time improving the ads that actually work.
Make every RSA work smarter with Optmyzr.
Responsive Search Ads can look unpredictable from the outside, but once you understand how they learn, they become much easier to shape.
Follow these rules, keep testing, and stay honest in your messaging. Over time, small improvements add up to big wins.
And when you combine a clear strategy with the right tools, RSAs start feeling like one of the most powerful parts of your account. That’s exactly where Optmyzr can help.
Start your 14-day free trial today and see how smarter automation and better insights can take your RSAs and your overall account to the next level!
Sign up for more Google Ads tips at SavvyRevenue’s newsletter.
Morten Paamejer is a Senior PPC Specialist at SavvyRevenue, where he helps eCommerce brands grow through data-driven Google Ads strategies and smart account optimization. With a background in digital marketing and several years of experience at agencies like LAZZAWEB, Morten has developed a strong focus on scaling campaigns efficiently while keeping profitability top of mind.
This article is a reflection of the author’s experiences and opinions. Optmyzr believes that there are many ways to win in digital advertising, and is committed to presenting a diverse range of ideas and approaches.
If you’re new to search marketing and Google Ads and feel like a lost child in a busy market trying to figure out how the platform or even campaign setup works, you’re exactly where I was when I launched my first campaign.
Back then, I had no idea what terms like PPC or search marketing even meant. It wasn’t until I became a content and product marketer at Optmyzr that I had to dive in, learn the ropes, and start writing about the industry and our tools.
But there was one problem. I couldn’t truly understand what advertisers go through without ever having run an ad myself. So I set up my first campaign… and realized there was a whole other layer of learning I’d missed. Even with AI-driven bidding and Performance Max simplifying some things, there are still plenty of details that can trip you up if you’re not prepared.
This article is my attempt to help PPC newbies feel a little less lost as they set up their first Google Ads campaign.
7 things to do before setting up your first campaign
Here is a quick checklist of things you need to keep in mind when setting up your first Google Ads campaign.
1. Know your audience
Before you even begin to create your Google Ads account and create ads, you need to understand your market and audience.
I know this sounds cliché, but there are three important things in the process of understanding your audience:
1. Dig into market needs and audience behavior
Businesses don’t run in isolation or independently from their audiences, and if you wish to run successful ads, you need to identify your target audience’s pain points. You need to really pay attention to the needs of prospective customers and the market problem.
Advertisers often use tools like GA4 reports, CRM data, and search intent insights to define key audience signals.
If you’re an Optmyzr customer, you have access to two tools to help you with this:
Search Term N-Grams breaks down search queries to reveal the most impactful words or phrases, helping you spot patterns in audience behavior that you might otherwise miss.
2. Connect your product to real customer demand
Once you understand your audience, define how your product or service fills the gap. Why would someone choose your brand over competitors? What makes your offer stand out?
These answers should shape your ad messaging, targeting, and even your landing page strategy. For example, if you’re a local bakery that delivers gluten-free treats faster than national brands, highlight that speed and specialty in your copy, and test variations to see what drives conversions.
3. Build your ad copy around your product’s real value
Your ad messaging should align with the needs of your audience and your business goals. Start by identifying what you want to achieve—whether that’s more sign-ups, sales, or brand awareness, and build your messaging to support that outcome.
To make sure your messaging resonates, focus on the value your product delivers. What problem are you solving? How does your offer make life easier, better, or more efficient for your audience?
Optmyzr’s Ad Text Optimization tool helps break down which headlines and descriptions are actually performing and where you can improve. And with AB Testing for Ads, you can compare ad variations to see which messages drive clicks and conversions. These insights ensure your creative is clear and effective.
2. Learn the basics of Google Ads.
Going in without any knowledge of Google Ads, and terms like Campaigns, Ad Groups, Keywords, Bids, and Budgets might make your experience of creating your first campaign quite overwhelming.
Before getting into setting up your campaigns and ads, you need to know what the different ad types are and when to use them. The next step is to understand what a campaign structure is and how to create winning campaign structures. We’ll see why account and campaign structures are important in the following section.
What campaign types are available?
Google Ads offers a variety of campaign types:
Search (text ads on search results)
Display (visual banner ads across websites)
Video (YouTube ads)
Shopping (product-based ads)
Performance Max (automated, all-in-one campaigns using AI)
Each serves a different goal, so choose based on what you’re trying to achieve—brand visibility, direct conversions, or a mix.
How campaign structure affects performance
A well-structured campaign helps Google understand your goals and serve your ads more efficiently. Campaigns are broken down into ad groups, which contain keywords and ads. Think of it like organizing a store: the clearer your aisles and shelves, the easier it is for shoppers (and algorithms) to find what they need.
💡Pro Tip: Even if you start with Smart Campaigns or Performance Max, understanding the underlying structure (like assets, audience signals, and feed inputs) can give you a serious edge. It helps you diagnose what’s working and what needs adjusting, faster.
And if you’re entirely new to PPC and need more basic-level courses to get you started, Google Skillshop has some great resources. These were some of the first courses I took before writing about Google Ads and setting up a campaign of my own.
You can also follow our video podcasts, PPC Town Hall to level up your PPC game.
3. Organize your account for clarity and control
Even after you understand product-market fit and get the basics of Google Ads right, the Google Ads interface might look a little tricky to navigate. A sorted account structure makes this task a little easier.
Categorizing your ads gives you more control over when and where your ads appear, and when they are triggered. Think of it like a well-organized cabinet where everything has its place, and you always know where to find what you need.
The three most important things in account structure are:
1. Naming
Many marketers who start out to create campaigns and ads, including myself, come up with campaign names out of the blue; I named my first campaign “CA without a goal guidance” because I didn’t know any better. While random naming might make sense as we start creating campaigns, managing the account as we keep adding campaigns becomes chaotic.
If you do not have a consistent and clear naming process, it becomes difficult to go in and look for specific campaigns and ad groups in the future.
Having a proper naming convention in place allows for better control, organization, and data filtering. Moreover, if there’s a new addition to your team and they need to find their way around the account, it helps to have a clear naming convention.
2. Know your account split
Having a clear account split and keeping different campaign types separate makes it easier to track your progress and identify winning strategies. You can segment your campaigns based on bidding strategies, keyword types, languages, budget, and more.
Splitting campaigns by geography, audience intent, or budget control helps you tailor messaging, allocate spend more efficiently, and evaluate what’s working in specific contexts. For example, a high-intent audience might respond better to aggressive bidding, while a broader awareness campaign may need different creatives or budget pacing.
There’s no one best way to split your campaigns. Whether you separate campaigns by location, funnel stage, or product category depends on your business model and performance goals. The key is to choose a structure that makes optimization easier, not harder.
3. Flexibility to go in and change
Remember, your account structure is not set in stone. You can always go in and change it in a way that you’re most comfortable with and brings you the best results.
But account flexibility is better when the previous two steps are in place.
Learn some of the common mistakes people make while structuring accounts and how you can create an adaptable account structure from Aaron Levy, Brand Evangelist at Optmyzr and former VP of Paid Search at Tinuiti.
4. Identify the right keywords for your ads
Having the right keywords is the most crucial stepping stone to having a good ad campaign. When picking keywords, your goal is to find terms that you think people will use to search for your product or service.
The three most important things in keyword research are:
1. Keyword match types
Keyword match types tell you how closely a keyword needs to match the user’s search query for the ad to qualify for an auction.
There are three keyword match types, each allowing a different reach and audience targeting. Broad match allows you to cover wider audiences and search intents. It now uses Google’s AI to evaluate signals like user intent, past search behavior, and conversion likelihood. While it offers expansive reach, it works best when paired with Smart Bidding and robust conversion tracking to steer the algorithm effectively.
On the other hand, Exact match gives you tighter control and is ideal for bottom-funnel, high-intent searches. However, “exact” isn’t as literal as it once was—close variants, plurals, and even misspellings can still trigger your ads.
Understanding how each match type behaves in today’s AI-driven environment helps you align keyword strategy with campaign goals more confidently.
2. Keywords for relevance
Your keywords should be as relevant as possible to the ad and landing page they trigger. Go to your website and your competitors’ websites and ads for inspiration. Think of what your ideal customer will type in if they’re looking for the kind of products or services you sell.
💡Pro Tip: Use your landing page copy, customer reviews, sales call transcripts, and even competitor ads to uncover the exact language your audience uses. This not only sparks keyword ideas but also strengthens the alignment between search term, ad message, and landing page, boosting both relevance and your Ad Strength rating in responsive ads.
3. Identify good and bad keywords
Identifying bad keywords is just as important—if not more—than finding the good ones. Irrelevant search terms can drive up your CPA without delivering results. That’s why it’s essential to regularly monitor your Search Terms Report and exclude any queries that attract the wrong audience. Adding these as negative keywords helps keep your budget focused on what actually converts.
This becomes especially critical in broad match or Performance Max campaigns, where Google’s automation casts a wide net based on user intent and signals. Using account-level negative keyword lists gives you a layer of control across multiple campaigns, helping prevent wasted spend while still benefiting from automation.
To streamline this process, tools like Search Term N-Grams and the Negative Keyword Finder in Optmyzr can help identify irrelevant or low-performing terms more efficiently. They break down queries into individual components and surface recurring patterns—making it easier to catch the terms you might miss manually.
Once you’ve tightened up your targeting, you can turn to your favorite keyword tools to find keywords that are both cost-effective and competitive. You don’t have to go after the most expensive terms right away—start with relevant, mid-range keywords that align with your goals and test from there.
5. Target the right people with the right signals
Google Ads defines a conversion as “an action that’s counted when someone interacts with your ad or free product listing.” But in real life, conversions come in all shapes and sizes, and they’re not always a sale.
Sometimes it’s a newsletter signup. Sometimes it’s someone filling out a form or spending time on a pricing page. These micro-conversions might seem small, but they’re powerful clues that someone’s moving closer to buying.
That’s why it’s so important to set up conversion tracking early and to be thoughtful about what you’re tracking. Define your primary conversion actions clearly so Smart Bidding knows what success looks like. If you’re optimizing for the wrong goal, the algorithm can’t help you hit the right one.
Why track conversions?
To see what’s actually working—not just what’s getting clicks
To spot which ads and keywords are moving people forward
To guide your budget toward results, not just traffic
To learn how your customers really behave
And once you’ve got conversions coming in, Optmyzr’s Conversion Grabber can help you find the keywords driving results but not getting enough visibility. That way, you’re not leaving easy wins on the table.
7. Optimize your landing page for conversions
Your landing page is where users “land” after clicking your ad—so it plays a huge role in whether or not they convert. A strong landing page doesn’t just support the ad—it finishes the story the ad started.
Google evaluates landing page experience as part of your Quality Score, which directly affects your ad rank and cost-per-click. A poor experience can hurt both performance and spend efficiency.
To improve your landing page experience, focus on:
Message match: Make sure the page clearly connects to the promise in your ad
Ease of use: Navigation should be simple and mobile-friendly
Keyword relevance: Your core terms should appear naturally on the page
Fast loading: Speed impacts both user experience and Google’s evaluation
Focused CTA: Tell users exactly what you want them to do next
A mismatch between ad and landing page (e.g., promoting a discount in your ad that isn’t visible on the page) creates confusion and frustration. Google notices, and so do your potential customers.
💡Pro Tip: Optmyzr’s Landing Page Analysis helps you quickly identify which landing pages are underperforming, which ones are high-converting, and where you might need to adjust content, structure, or speed. It’s a fast way to make sure your pages are not just working but working well.
You’ve got the checklist. Now what?
Setting up your first Google Ads campaign can feel like stepping into a maze. But it doesn’t have to.
From understanding your audience to dialing in keywords, crafting strong messages, and aligning your landing pages, every step plays a role in how confidently your ads perform. And while automation and AI have changed how campaigns are built, your understanding of the basics is what makes those systems work for you, not the other way around.
Use this checklist as your launchpad, and remember, even the most experienced advertisers are still learning, testing, and tweaking. The more you do, the more you’ll uncover what works for your brand, your goals, and your audience.
Many advertisers jump into Smart Bidding, hoping it will solve everything, only to end up with wasted budget and disappointing results. The truth is, Smart Bidding isn’t a magic switch.
It’s a set of strategies, each designed for different goals, and success comes from knowing which one to use in which situation.
This article breaks down when and how to use each Smart Bidding strategy. It highlights where they shine, where they fall short, and the best practices that keep Google’s automation working for you.
Choosing the right smart bidding strategy (at a glance)
Strategy
When to Use
What You Need
Optmyzr Tools that Help
Target CPA
You want steady lead costs and predictable CPAs
At least 30 conversions/month; consistent budget
Spend Projection ensures your budget doesn’t starve the algorithm.
You care about revenue impact, not just conversion counts
Accurate conversion values; solid tracking setup
Budget Optimization + Alerts reallocate spend to higher-ROAS campaigns and notify you before overspending or underpacing hurts performance.
How do Smart Bidding strategies work?
To better understand Smart Bidding strategies, let’s look at how they work.
As discussed before, Smart Bidding uses machine learning to optimize bids for each auction based on four key factors:
Contextual signals, for example, device, location, and time of day.
Predicted conversion rate
Search query performance
Target budget (e.g., CPA, ROAS)
This allows Smart Bidding to deliver the most conversions or conversion value within your budget. Let’s now dive into the different smart bidding strategies to choose the one most suitable for your needs:
Target CPA
Target CPA automatically adjusts your bids to get as many conversions as possible while keeping your average cost per conversion at or below your target.
When to use it:
Lead gen campaigns with a clear acceptable cost per lead
Campaigns with at least 30 conversions in the past month
When conversion volume matters more than revenue value
How to make it work:
Set a realistic Target CPA based on your historical cost per conversion, but remember that Target CPA needs a consistent budget flow to learn effectively.
Use Optmyzr’s Spend Projection to forecast if your current budget will pace correctly through the month. If you’re underspending, Target CPA can’t gather enough conversion signals to optimize properly.
Target CPA only works as well as your landing pages convert.
High Potential → converts well but has low traffic
Expensive → high traffic, poor conversions
Others → everything else
Focus your Target CPA budget on High Performers and fix or pause the Expensive ones bleeding money.
💡Recent Update: Google’s recent ad quality changes affect how Target CPA campaigns perform, especially in lead gen. As Ginny Marvin (Google Ads Liaison) explains: "We will likely show ads that have landing pages with limited to no navigation less often because we found it is a poor user experience."
📌 What this means: stripped-down, form-only landing pages may see reduced impressions. To maintain performance, add simple navigation while keeping pages fast and relevant. Watch the full video here:
And remember, Target CPA works only if the clicks it buys are relevant.
If irrelevant clicks keep eating up spend, the algorithm is learning from the wrong audience. Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder scans your search terms and flags words that drive costs without conversions.
You can then add them as negatives across campaigns or build lists to keep them organized.
Target ROAS
Target ROAS automatically adjusts bids to maximize the revenue you generate for every dollar spent. Instead of simply chasing conversions, it focuses on the value of those conversions by predicting which clicks are likely to drive higher revenue.
When to use it
Ecommerce businesses or lead gen models with clear revenue attribution
Campaigns with at least 50 conversions in the past month (to give the algorithm solid ground to optimize)
Advertisers who prioritize profitability and return over sheer conversion volume
How to make it work
Assign accurate values to all conversions (online sales, closed deals, contract values, etc.).
Feed back as much data as possible into Google Ads, including enhanced conversions, customer match, and offline CRM data.
The more context you provide, the better Google can differentiate between high- and low-value leads.
Optimize Value Rules – VBB makes it easy to apply conversion value rules directly in Google Ads. Instead of treating every conversion the same, you can tell Google that some audiences, devices, or locations are worth more.
Let’s take an example to understand this better.
Each row represents a traffic segment (e.g., Austin, United States or Berlin, Germany)
The Score column shows how valuable that segment is compared to others, based on your performance history
Optmyzr then recommends a Suggested Adjustment (like x1.05), meaning you can tell Google that conversions from Austin are worth 5% more
You can review or edit the New Adjustment column before applying, and even control how aggressive the system should be
When you hit Apply, these rules are pushed directly into Google Ads.
That way, Smart Bidding strategies like Target ROAS or Maximize Conversion Value learn that certain locations, audiences, or devices deserve higher bids because they drive higher revenue for your business.
Test before you commit
Not sure if Target ROAS will beat another strategy like Max Conversion Value? Optmyzr’s Express Optimization lets you spin up controlled experiments in just a few clicks.
You can test different bidding models side by side, monitor results, and then switch to the winner permanently without rebuilding campaigns from scratch.
Maximize Conversions
Maximize Conversions automatically spends your budget to drive the highest possible number of conversions. It works a lot like “Maximize Clicks,” but instead of clicks, it optimizes for conversions.
When to use it
Campaigns where the goal is to scale conversion volume, not control CPA or ROAS
New campaigns where you don’t yet know your ideal CPA or ROAS targets
Situations where you want to quickly capture as many leads or sign-ups as possible within your daily budget
How to make it work
The strength of Maximize Conversions is speed, but that can also be its biggest weakness.
Since it will aggressively spend your entire daily budget, pacing becomes critical. As we saw with Target CPA, Smart Bidding only works if it has consistent fuel. Optmyzr’s Spend Projection helps you keep that flow steady, showing whether you’re likely to overspend early in the month or starve the algorithm of signals by underspending.
Traffic quality is just as important.
Maximize Conversions will happily chase any conversion, even low-quality ones, if irrelevant clicks are slipping into your campaigns.
We’ve already seen how Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder helps filter those out, but you can also go deeper with rule-based negative keyword management. With rule-based optimizations, Optmyzr can automatically add non-converting terms as negatives at the campaign or ad group level.
Maximize Conversion Value automatically adjusts your bids to generate the highest total revenue possible from your budget. Instead of chasing more conversions, it prioritizes conversions that bring in more value.
When to use it
Ecommerce businesses with a clear revenue-per-conversion model
Lead gen accounts where different deals carry very different values
Campaigns with stable tracking and enough conversion data to support value-based optimization
How to make it work
Since this strategy focuses on value over volume, it depends on the quality of your value signals. If every conversion is tracked as equal, Google won’t know which ones truly matter for your business.
As we discussed with Target ROAS, Optmyzr’s Value-Based Bidding (VBB) tool makes it easy to refine conversion value rules in Google Ads.
Next, you need to focus on budget pacing. Optmyzr’s Budget Optimization tools show impression share lost to budget and suggest reallocations.
For example, if brand campaigns are spending heavily but competitor campaigns generate a higher ROAS, Optmyzr will flag it so you can shift spend to maximize revenue impact.
Instead of manually checking whether campaigns are overspending or starving throughout the month, Optmyzr notifies you when spend drifts off target.
That way, you can catch pacing issues early and reallocate before Smart Bidding wastes budget on low-value clicks. Alerts can even be sent directly to Slack or Teams, so you and your team don’t miss critical changes.
5 best practices for Google Ads Smart Bidding strategies
1. Have sufficient budget
Smart Bidding needs room to work. Google’s algorithm learns by testing, so if your budget is too tight, it won’t gather enough data to optimize effectively. Always check whether you’re at risk of overspending or underspending, and adjust pacing before performance suffers.
2. Give Smart Bidding time to learn
Machine learning doesn’t optimize overnight. Campaigns usually need at least two weeks to gather enough conversion data to make reliable adjustments. Avoid making constant changes during this learning period, or you’ll reset progress.
One expert advised: "If you don't have 50+ conversions per campaign, you need to wrap it in a portfolio bid where the individual campaigns then meet that threshold.”
This allows Smart Bidding to learn from the combined conversion data across all campaigns, reaching Google's 50+ conversion learning threshold even when individual campaigns fall short. Check out the full thread here!
3. Segment campaigns thoughtfully
Well-structured campaigns give Smart Bidding clearer signals. Group ads by similar themes or target audiences, and use bidding rules to automate adjustments for factors like device, location, or time of day.
Remember not to over-segment. Modern AI systems often perform better with consolidated data, so find the right balance between structure and flexibility.
4. Use conversion adjustments to steer performance
Not all conversions are equal. Seasonal shifts, lead quality, and business priorities should all influence how you value them. Conversion adjustments and value rules let you guide Smart Bidding toward the conversions that matter most for profitability.
💡Reddit Tip: Channel-Weighted Values. One Redditor shared that you should use phone and form tracking with offline conversion uploads to assign different values to lead types. For example, if your clients consider phone calls less valuable than form submissions, weight them accordingly so your campaigns optimize for what truly matters.
Smart Bidding can bring the right traffic, but it can’t fix weak creative or poor user experience. Ads should align closely with search intent, and landing pages should deliver on the promise in the ad. If there’s a mismatch, the algorithm ends up paying for wasted clicks.
💡 Remember: As Google leans more on AI to generate creative assets, inconsistent messaging or poor page experience will only amplify bad results.
Steer smart bidding with Optmyzr
At the end of the day, Smart Bidding isn’t a magic switch. Each strategy has its moment:
Target CPA if you want steady lead costs.
Target ROAS if revenue predictability drives your business.
Maximize Conversions when sheer volume matters.
Maximize Conversion Value if profitability is the north star.
The real skill isn’t choosing one strategy forever. It’s knowing when to change lanes, when your campaign outgrows Max Conversions, or when your CPA target no longer reflects reality.
Optmyzr helps you spot those inflection points before they become expensive mistakes.
From pacing budgets with Spend Projection, to testing new strategies with Express Optimization, to uncovering weak pages with Landing Page Analysis, we give you the needed guardrails.
Thousands of advertisers already manage $5B+ in ad spend with Optmyzr. The question is: are you ready to stop reacting to Smart Bidding and start steering it?
1. What exactly is Smart Bidding, and how is it different from regular automated bidding? A. Smart Bidding is a subset of Google Ads automated bid strategies that uses AI to set bids for every single auction, known as “auction-time bidding,” to maximize conversions or conversion value.
It includes strategies like Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, and Maximize Conversion Value. Unlike regular automated bidding options (like Maximize Clicks or Target Impression Share) that focus on volume or visibility, Smart Bidding specifically optimizes for your conversion goals.
2. What signals does Smart Bidding use to optimize bids? A. Smart Bidding taps into a wide range of auction-time data, not just the usual device, location, or time of day. It also considers signals like browser, operating system, language, search query context, and combinations of those factors. This depth allows it to bid more precisely on long-tail or low-volume keywords by modeling query-level performance.
3. How much conversion history do I need before switching to Smart Bidding? A. Google suggests waiting until your campaign has at least 30 conversions in the past month to lean into Smart Bidding, or 50 conversions for Target ROAS to give the algorithm solid ground to operate on.
4. What’s Smart Bidding Exploration, and when should I use it? A. Smart Bidding Exploration is an opt-in add-on that helps the algorithm identify high-potential queries outside your existing reach, especially when you’re using broad match, DSA, or AI Max for Search targeting.
Instead of uniformly lowering your ROAS target, it bids selectively on new segments with higher conversion likelihood. It’s ideal for scaling, but only when your budget isn’t constrained. It’s best to run for at least six weeks to give the algorithm enough time to learn and perform.
Even the most carefully planned PPC campaigns can go off the rails when not monitored closely. You can be spending big on ads, and they may even be racking up clicks. But you’ll soon find they’re delivering little to no actual value.
That’s where a Google Ads audit comes in handy. It’s like a health checkup for your account. One that allows you to identify what’s working, spot inefficiencies, and maximize every dollar spent.
Without a clear auditing strategy, you run the risk of missing key optimization opportunities, poor campaign performance, and worse—wasted budgets.
In this guide, we’ll walk you through a step-by-step audit checklist to help you take control of your campaigns and make them work smarter.
When should you perform an audit?
A Google Ads audit is not just about fixing what’s broken. PPC audits are key to identifying growth opportunities and just making sure that your campaigns are working as intended. That being said, here are some of the most common scenarios where an audit is necessary.
During routine health checks
A routine, systematic audit of your account can help catch hidden inefficiencies, ensure your budget spends are in check, and prevent any major performance issues. A good practice is to schedule these checks depending on account size and campaign complexity.
For instance, an enterprise-level account may do well with quick weekly health checks, monthly deep performance reviews, and quarterly structural audits.
Here are some key elements to review during a routine audit:
Basic performance metrics like CTR, conversion rates, quality scores, etc.
Budget allocation and spends
Search term relevance
Negative keyword lists
In one of our PPC Town Hall episodes, Melissa Mackey from Compound Growth Marketing recommends auditing your accounts at least every quarter to prevent small mistakes from escalating into costly problems.
When you take over a new account
If you’ve recently started managing a new account, you may want to consider conducting a comprehensive account review to deep dive into historical performance data. This can help assess the account’s current health and identify quick wins. Focus on:
Performance trends over the past 3-6 months
Account structure and campaign naming conventions
Conversion tracking accuracy
Targeting settings across campaigns
When you see a performance decline
Some audits are reactive—focused, on-emergency reviews triggered by sudden dips in performance. For example, when conversion rates drop by 50% overnight, you’ll want to:
Review all recent account changes (past 1–2 weeks)
Inspect landing pages and verify conversion tracking
Check for increased competition via auction insights and impression share shifts
Investigate rising CPCs or expensive keyword anomalies
But here’s the challenge: by the time you notice the drop manually, you’ve already lost valuable spend.
💡 Pro Tip: Automate anomaly detection with Optmyzr’s Anomaly Alerts. These built-in alerts scan your Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, and Facebook Ads accounts daily, and flag sudden spikes or drops in cost, clicks, impressions—or even feed disapprovals—before they spiral.
During campaign restructuring
If you’ve recently overhauled your campaign structure or targeting, an audit helps ensure the changes are doing what they’re supposed to—driving performance without overlap or waste. Be sure to:
Review the new account structure to verify alignment with updated goals
Assess keyword coverage and update negative lists accordingly
Check audience segments for ongoing relevance
Reallocate budgets if campaign priorities or targets have shifted
Compare performance of the new setup against historical benchmarks
For automated campaign types like Performance Max, don’t stop at structure. Audits should also evaluate the quality of foundational signals such as:
Are your asset groups diverse enough to support varied placements?
Are your audience signals relevant?
Is your conversion tracking clean and aligned with business outcomes?
Modern campaigns run on inputs. An audit is how you make sure you’re feeding the machine the right ones.
When making seasonal adjustments
Audits during seasonal campaigns ensure aspects like messaging, budget allocation, and targeting are optimized for the season. During seasonal adjustments you’ll need to:
Review trends in seasonal performance from past campaigns
Audit ad copy and creatives for seasonal relevance
Adjust bids and budgets for peak traffic periods
Check if audience targeting matches seasonal behavior
Here’s a step-by-step checklist for performing a Google Ads audit
If your account has structural issues, it can impact ad performance, reporting, costs, and CTR. For instance, if the same high-intent keywords are used in multiple campaigns, you may end up with a higher CPC since you’re essentially bidding against yourself. To avoid these misses, consider auditing two aspects of your account structure.
1. Assess your account structure
Effective campaign management starts with a well-organized account. During an audit, focus on both naming conventions and segmentation to ensure everything is aligned with performance goals.
Campaign naming conventions
Use consistent naming formats across the account for easier filtering, navigation, and reporting.
Include campaign type (Search, Display, Shopping, PMax, etc.) and objective (LeadGen, BrandAwareness, BOFU) in each campaign name.
Consider adding status-based or seasonal tags (e.g., Paused_Q1, BackToSchool, Holiday2025) to quickly surface relevant campaigns when analyzing performance or filtering for optimization.
Campaign segmentation
Separate campaigns by objective: brand vs. non-brand, retargeting vs. prospecting, or product line.
Evaluate ad group structure for bloated or redundant groupings. Overly broad ad groups can hurt relevance and reduce quality score.
Ensure key themes (e.g., SKAGs or tightly grouped variants) are maintained to improve targeting precision.
Verify that bidding strategies and budget allocation align with campaign intent and hierarchy.
Check for audience overlap or keyword cannibalization between campaigns that might reduce efficiency.
Analyze budget-to-performance alignment: High-performing segments may deserve more investment; poor performers may need adjustments or down-scaling.
2. Conduct a thorough performance review
During a performance review, the goal is to spot underperforming campaigns and figure out how you can improve them. For this, you can:
Analyze key metrics to spot trends and identify areas for improvement
1. Click-Through-Rate (CTR)
CTR is a metric that measures the percentage of people who clicked on your ad after seeing it.
A low CTR means your targeting needs improvement or that your ads are not resonating with your audience. But you also want to be cautious of a high CTR with low conversions since you may inadvertently be advertising on brand terms or attracting irrelevant clicks.
2. Cost Per Click (CPC)
CPC is the cost you pay per click and is determined by the bidding strategy you choose (manual, automatic, or smart).
Achieving a higher quality score can help you secure cheaper CPCs. A high CPC might mean you’re getting pulled into auctions you don’t intend to be pulled into.
Conversely, lower CPCs might mean:
Branded traffic is unintentionally entering your non-branded campaign.
Search partners with display expansion are enabled.
Broad match keywords are matching to competitor terms.
👉Remember: Quality Score based on expected CTR, ad relevance, and landing page experience impacts both CPC and Ad Rank. Improving these elements can help reduce CPCs and improve your auction position.
3. Cost Per Action (CPA)
CPA is the average cost you’re willing to pay for an action the user takes after seeing your ad. This could include a purchase, registration, or signup.
A low CPA with high conversions indicates that your campaign is effective. You can consider scaling your budgets to increase conversions. On the other hand, a high CPA with low conversions means you’re spending too much. Review targeting settings, ad quality, ad messaging, and landing page experience so you’re able to resonate better with your audience.
4. Return on Ad Spend
ROAS is a measure of profitability. It compares the ROI you receive from your campaigns against how much you’re spending on them.
If you notice a low ROAS despite high conversions, it could signal that the audience you’re attracting isn’t valuable enough. You may want to refine your targeting settings to attract high-value customers to increase your conversion value. On the other hand, although a high ROAS is good, it doesn’t always mean better results.
For instance, a high ROAS with low conversion volume can mean you’re not reaching a wide enough audience even though your campaign is cost-effective. Similarly, a high ROAS with high spend means you’re not generating additional revenue. It may be a good idea to think of ways to make your campaign more sustainable.
Identify trends over time
Ensure you collect enough data over a sufficient time period for a meaningful analysis.
Compare performance across different campaigns and segments so you can pinpoint where variations are happening.
Cross-reference trends with seasonal peaks, industry events, or changes in competition to account for fluctuations due to external factors.
According to Melissa, it’s also a good practice to set up alerts so you’re immediately notified if there are any sudden changes in your campaign performance.
“One way to catch issues early is to use tools like Optmyzr or scripts to set alerts. You want to know immediately if your CPCs, conversions, or impressions suddenly change.”
In such cases, if you want to dig deeper, Optmyzr’s PPC Investigator tells you why your account saw a sudden increase/decrease in clicks or conversions. There are two parts to the tool. One is the cause chart which essentially highlights the metric that impacted the performance.
The next part is the Root Cause Analysis which tells you the elements in your account (keywords, ad groups, campaigns) that contributed to the observed change.
Here’s a quick walkthrough of how this feature works for a better understanding.
5. Impression Share
Don’t overlook Impression Share (IS) and its derivatives:
Lost IS (Budget): Missed auctions due to insufficient budget
Lost IS (Rank): Missed auctions due to poor Ad Rank (i.e., low Quality Score or low bids)
Tracking these helps diagnose whether performance issues are due to budget limitations or competitive shortcomings.
3. Fine-tune your keyword strategy
Your keyword strategy should evolve with your audience’s behavior and search trends. Regularly auditing and refining keywords is key to staying competitive and relevant.
Monitor keyword alignment with search intent
Ensure your keywords reflect intent-driven phrasing—whether users are ready to buy, comparing options, or just researching. For example:
“Nike Air Max vs Adidas Ultraboost” = product comparison
Label queries by intent using custom labels like “high_intent”, “comparison”, or “top_product”. These labels help segment your keyword data for better performance analysis and strategy refinement.
Negative keyword management
Avoid irrelevant or low-converting traffic by:
Excluding expired seasonal keywords (e.g., “Black Friday 2024” after November)
Blocking industry-specific terms that draw in unqualified users
Checking for brand terms that may be leaking into non-brand campaigns
💡Pro Tip: Optmyzr’s Rule Engine (Search Terms Scope) can automatically detect and flag underperforming or irrelevant search queries for exclusion—saving time and preserving budget.
Match type audits
Balance match types to maximize reach while maintaining relevance:
Use exact match for tight control on high-performing queries
Phrase match for flexibility with moderate control
Broad match with Smart Bidding for scalability—paired with strong intent filtering
Eliminate duplicate keywords
Wasted budgets and ad fatigue often stem from overlapping or duplicate keywords across ad groups or campaigns.
💡 Pro Tip: Optmyzr’s Keyword De-Duper checks within or across campaigns for duplicate keywords. It gives you an automatic recommendation of which ones to remove based on performance data.
4. Audit your ad creatives for better engagement and conversions
Strong ad creatives are essential for driving better engagement and increased conversions.
Check for outdated ad formats since they could result in lower ad visibility, ad disapprovals, and inefficient budget use. For instance, if you still have Expanded Text Ads in your account, you can convert them to Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) for better results.
If ads get disapproved, review policy violation notifications to understand why it happened. Examples include restricted content, misleading messaging, or technical issues.
Use relevant ad extensions like site links, structured snippets, and callouts to improve your ad’s relevance and visibility.
Navah Hopkins, one of our former in-house PPC experts also suggests pinning assets to specific spots in RSAs so you can control how they’re displayed in the final ad.
Unless you’re A/B testing landing pages, there’s no need to run multiple ads in the same ad group anymore. This is because RSAs (as well as PMax) have built-in testing in the format.
Instead, focus on pinning specific assets to certain positions and compare the performance of AI-generated creative with human-created content.
A strong landing page experience is essential for driving conversions and maintaining ad performance. During your audit, evaluate whether your pages are helping or hurting your results.
Check page health and functionality
Ensure all landing pages load quickly and don’t return 404 or “product not found” errors
Prioritize mobile optimization and fast loading speeds
Align landing page copy closely with your ad text and keywords for relevance and Quality Score
💡Pro Tip: Use Optmyzr’s landing page URL checker to scan and verify the integrity of the landing pages in your Google Ads account.
Improve UX with behavior insights
Use heatmapping tools to monitor user interactions. Track where users click, how far they scroll, and where they drop off. These insights help pinpoint friction points that aren’t obvious through performance metrics alone.
Test and personalize
For high-traffic campaigns or top-performing audiences:
A/B test layout elements, call-to-actions (CTAs), and headline copy to find the best-converting combinations
In ecommerce, personalize landing content based on campaign targeting (like product categories or geo-location) to increase relevancy and engagement
A consistent and frictionless post-click experience is as critical as the pre-click strategy. Optimize both to maximize results.
6. Fine-tune your budget allocation and bidding strategies.
Assess budget allocation
the historical performance data of your campaigns over a defined period to get insights into which campaigns, ad groups, or keywords have been underperforming or need budget adjustments.
Allocate more budgets to high-performing campaigns. Consider pausing or decreasing the budget for low-priority, underperforming ads to free up spend for reallocation.
Adjust location targeting and device bids so budgets are allocated to regions and devices that perform better.
Review bidding strategies
Check whether your campaigns are using bidding strategies that work best to drive the desired results. For example, target ROAS is best for revenue generation while target CPA is better for conversion-focused campaigns.
Use aggressive bidding strategies such as target impression share if you’re looking to outbid your competitors.
Study the impact of different bidding strategies by running split tests.
If your ads are not getting enough impressions or conversions, consider adjusting your bid caps for more flexibility.
7. Track key performance metrics with the right tools.
Make sure your Google Ads and GA4 are properly linked so you can track and analyze the entire customer journey, all the way from ad clicks to conversions. If you want to get a closer look at conversions, bounce rates, and other KPIs, we recommend using the following tools.
1. Rule Engine Define ‘if-and-then’ conditions using Rule Engine to automate campaign management tasks like pausing underperforming ads or allocating more budget to high-converting ones. This saves time and ensures your campaigns are consistently optimized.
2. Budget pacing tool Avoid overspending and optimize your daily budgets with the budget pacing tool. It efficiently manages your campaign budget throughout the day or month so you don’t exhaust your budgets too early or miss out on important opportunities.
8. Check your audience settings
Validate your remarketing lists and audience settings so you’re targeting the right audience with your campaigns.
Segment larger audiences into smaller cohorts based on parameters like behavior, interests, preferences, etc. This helps in fine-tuning your campaigns for better conversions.
Review your audience exclusion lists periodically to make sure you’re not excluding high-value audiences or including irrelevant ones.
Double-check Google Tag Manager so that your data sources are functioning appropriately.
Adjust audience settings based on campaign goals.
Tweak your audience segmentation and targeting criteria based on how different audience lists perform on your campaigns.
9. Validate scripts, recommendations, and automation logic
PPC automations are a game-changer for scaling audits and managing campaigns efficiently if used thoughtfully. Regularly reviewing and optimizing scripts, automated rules, and recommendations ensures they align with your goals and don’t create inefficiencies.
Custom scripts are super useful for optimizing the performance of your ad campaigns. However, they need to be reviewed regularly, especially during changes to platforms or account structure.
If you’re using automation, validate rule logic periodically to avoid conflicting actions. If there are conflicting rules, decide which rule would take precedence and prioritize it to avoid unintentional overlaps.
You’ll need to assess which recommendations to execute based on your unique performance goals. If a recommendation does not seem to be meaningful, dismiss it, especially if they don’t fit your targeting strategy. For example, the Google Ads optimization score, which Google often recommends may prioritize increasing ad spend instead of genuinely improving your campaign. So, approach such recommendations cautiously.
What comes after your PPC audit?
Once you’ve successfully ticked off the items in this checklist, it’s time to use your findings to refine your campaigns. Here’s how you can do this:
1. Prioritize your improvements
To start with, divide your insights according to their importance and urgency and assign a priority level to each of them. A good way to do this is to use the ICE (Impact, Confidence, Ease) prioritization framework. This will help you differentiate your quick wins from long-term actions by evaluating and ranking your ideas. To do this, you need to:
Identify the potential impact from implementing each of the ideas you’ve identified. Examples include reducing wasted spend, improving landing page experience etc.
Assess your confidence in making these changes actually work based on past data and experiences.
Evaluate how easy it is to implement the suggested change. How much resources or effort would it take?
Assign a score for each of the improvements based on their priority.
Multiply the scores for different improvements to get the ICE weightage.
Once you have the scores, see which actions have the highest score and prioritize implementing those first since they are likely to have the most impact.
If you find that some recommendations have a high impact score but lower overall ICE score, it could indicate a difficulty with implementation or a lack of confidence. In such cases you might want to consider going ahead with recommendations that are relatively easy to implement despite low confidence. You can test such ideas and measure their impact for better decision-making.
2. Create a roadmap for your post audit actions
After you’ve finalized your priorities, you’ll need to create a detailed roadmap to manage your implementation process. This would include:
Timelines for implementation
Tasks under each recommendation
Owners and deadlines for each action item
Key milestones to track
Approvals from stakeholders for all the assets required to implement the recommendations (e.g. ad copies, landing pages, budgets, messaging, etc.)
3. Monitor the progress
Implementation is one part of the post-audit process. The other is to closely monitor the impact of the changes you’ve implemented. For this you’ll need to:
Create dashboards to track the impact of changes on key metrics like conversions, CPC, etc.
Share your insights with stakeholders and clients using comprehensive reports.
Identify areas that are working well and the ones that need improvement and create action items to address these.
“For our monthly audits, we use a checklist that our team has created to go through the audit. We used Optmyzr’s PPC Audits once a month and work through changes on that list from the most impactful first.”
-Amy McClain-Ponder
Streamline your Google Ads audits with Optmyzr.
Regular audits are critical to the health of your Google Ads campaigns. They identify inefficiencies and missed opportunities that may be hiding in plain sight. Not only does this lead to better campaign performance and budget allocation, but it also ensures your ads are driving a higher ROI.
Tools like Optmyzr offer a comprehensive suite of features that take the complexity out of auditing. It takes care of the repetitive tasks while you focus on what’s important—getting the best out of your ad campaigns.
If you’re curious to know more about how Optmyzr can help you optimize your Google Ad campaigns, sign up for a free 14-day trial. Or you can even talk to one of our experts for a consultation call.
Sales and profit are the ultimate goals of ecommerce and retail advertising. For brands and agencies pursuing these objectives through Google Ads, Shopping campaigns offer greater control, structure, and reporting visibility than Performance Max.
While Google continues its shift toward Performance Max, many advertisers still find Standard Shopping campaigns essential—particularly those who prioritize control, transparency, and margin-aware strategies.
Whether you’re switching back from Performance Max or building from scratch, your Shopping campaigns’ structure significantly impacts your ability to get the most out of your ad spend. Cobbling together products with varying profit margins, levels of demand, and supply chain constraints is a recipe for budget under-optimization.
Let’s go through:
Structural components of Google Ads Shopping campaigns
Six ways to build a Shopping campaign
Best practices for Shopping campaign structure
Campaign management and optimization advice
The basics of campaign structure for Google Shopping ads
Campaigns: A collection of assets with a shared budget and targeting parameters
Ad groups: A group of related advertising assets oriented around what people are
searching for
Product groups: Collections of for-sale products with a shared set of attributes
Products: The individual items in your catalog
Each level allows you to specify and modify certain parameters, which I’ll explain in the sections below.
Campaign level
Campaigns cover settings that apply across ad groups, product groups, and products. These include:
Goals, such as a ROAS or CPA target
Budget
Bidding strategy
Interest-based targeting
Location targeting
Language
If you’re using smart bidding strategies like Target ROAS (tROAS) or Target CPA (tCPA), it’s important to set realistic performance goals. These strategies rely on high-quality conversion data and sufficient volume to optimize bids effectively. Without enough signals, even the most sophisticated bidding can fall short.
Ad group level
Google allows you to create multiple ad groups in Shopping campaigns. At this level, negative keywords (which filter out irrelevant queries, intents, and audiences) are crucial.
Negative keywords are one of the biggest advantages of Shopping campaigns. With Performance Max, your options are limited to account-level negative keywords, campaign-level brand exclusions, and a cumbersome form to manually request campaign-level negative keywords.
This limits your ability to sculpt traffic, requiring you to absorb more irrelevant visitors in order to get incremental conversions, affecting overall campaign profitability if your budgets are constrained.
To avoid waste, it’s critical to regularly audit your campaigns for irrelevant queries or expensive terms that aren’t driving performance. Keeping your negative keyword lists fresh helps your Shopping ads stay aligned with buyer intent. Tools like Optmyzr’s Rule Engine, specifically the Search Terms scope, can automate this process, helping you spot and exclude underperforming queries by analyzing aggregated performance across match types and keywords within each ad group.
Product group level
Product groups are collections of individual products that sit within an ad group. There are multiple ways to group products into categories and subcategories. The two broad approaches use:
Some advertisers also implement dynamic grouping strategies, where products are automatically moved between groups based on real-time performance or inventory levels. This helps ensure that campaigns remain agile and focused on what’s working.
Shopping campaign priority levels
You can assign your Shopping campaigns one of three priority levels: high, medium, and low. These priority levels govern which campaign enters the auction for a query and allow you to create multiple campaigns for the same products.
Campaign priority is a powerful tool for query sculpting—controlling which campaign wins a particular search query and ensuring the right message or bid is applied at each funnel stage.
Use priorities to build a tiered campaign strategy:
High priority + low bids: Ideal for broad, awareness-phase searches. Capture upper-funnel traffic cost-effectively.
Medium priority: Target branded queries or comparison-stage shoppers.
Low priority: Reserve for high-intent, bottom-of-funnel searches. Bid more aggressively here to maximize conversions.
This setup allows you to allocate budget and bid intensity based on purchase intent, optimizing efficiency across the full customer journey.
6 ways advertisers set up their Google Shopping campaigns
There’s no right or wrong way to set up a Shopping campaign; only what works for your account’s budget, business goals, and available resources.
Here are six common tactics to consider when building your next ecommerce or retail campaign in Google Ads:
Single campaign, single ad and product group
Single campaign, multiple ad and product groups
Two or three campaigns using campaign priorities
Multiple campaigns, multiple ad and product groups with query sculpting
Suitable for brands selling a single product line with similar pricing, such as flavored sparkling water
Works well for accounts with limited budgets and resources
Difficult to classify and track product performance for larger catalogs
Tough to customize bidding and negative keywords to individual SKUs
💡Pro Tip: Split traffic using search term reports—labeling queries as low-intent vs. high-intent, to improve efficiency, even for smaller catalogs. This allows tighter control over spend and more relevant ad targeting
Single campaign, multiple ad and product groups
Good for brands with a single product line with wide pricing variety, such as footwear
Allows for more variation and product grouping based on factors other than sale price
Requires additional negative keyword management
Difficult to increase spend on more favorable products
Dynamic pricing tiers can help respond more quickly to market changes and support smoother budget pacing across varied product categories.
2 or 3 campaigns using campaign priorities
Allows accounts limited by the previous structures (single campaign, mentioned above) to exercise more control over budget allocation, making it good for brands with limited but not singular product lines
Priorities help you tell Google which campaign to favor for an auction
Use high priority campaigns for low-intent, broad searches; medium for mid-funnel or branded queries; and low for high-intent, product-specific searches where ROAS is the goal
Typically requires a higher budget than previously listed strategies
Multiple campaigns, multiple ad and product groups with query sculpting
Ideal for mass retailers, resellers, or accounts with a wide variety of product types and brands
Allows for tighter budget controls but requires additional monitoring
Query sculpting uses negative keywords and priorities to drive traffic to the desired campaigns
Challenging to maintain without automation when product feed values change, inventory and procurement fluctuate, and product lines are introduced and discontinued
Prone to risks such as overspending and inefficient targeting when not monitored adequately
Automation tools are essential here—especially for maintaining negative keyword lists and adjusting campaign priorities dynamically to keep your sculpting strategy aligned with current inventory and performance
Performance-based approach
Suitable for advertisers that need to exercise budgetary control over Shopping campaigns
Incorporates CPA/ROAS targets and product grouping based on traits like production cost, contribution margin, etc.
Allows you to allocate budget to the best-performing products
Requires trial and error to find the optimal CPA/ROAS target
Difficult to build and maintain without automation
Margin-informed bidding—where smart bidding strategies are guided by live profitability data—helps ensure you’re not just chasing conversions but prioritizing the ones that actually drive returns. This approach is especially valuable for ROI-focused structures where every ad dollar needs to pull its weight
Groups of individual products
Limits products to one per product group for maximum control over bids
Ideal for accounts with single-digit SKUs
Viable way to test new catalog entrants and uncover performance metrics
Best practices for building Google Shopping campaigns
Now that you’ve chosen a structure for your Shopping campaign, these industry-standard tactics will help you shape traffic and keep campaigns organized:
Product grouping
Merchant feed audit and optimization
Budget allocation and bid strategy
Negative keyword management
Conversion tracking
Audience tracking
Before you get started, remember: A best practice is only ‘best’ if it serves you. For the greatest results, use the theory behind these tactics but adapt them to your specific circumstances.
Product grouping
Organize your product groups based on what works for your business. You might use feed attributes (such as brand and color) to target queries that include those elements. Other effective strategies include grouping products by category or subcategory, bundling bestsellers to move inventory faster, or consolidating items with similar margins to support your bottom line.
For even more precision, build product groups using custom labels tied to dynamic data like profit margin, seasonality, and stock levels.
Tools like Shopping Campaign Management can automate this process—whether you’re setting up Standard or PMax campaigns—by syncing to your Merchant Center and recommending structure based on performance or feed attributes. This ensures your campaign structure always reflects real-time business needs.
Organize your product feed based on performance and build smarter campaigns:
Merchant feed audit and optimization
Product feeds are the lifeblood of your Shopping campaigns. Organized feeds make money, while incomplete or messy ones cost money.
It helps to periodically review your feed for issues, such as:
Excessively long product titles
Products with missing attributes (especially critical ones like the GTIN)
Pixelated or unattractive product imagery
Clean up your source file to keep your campaigns error-free. Since feeds directly impact what gets shown (and how well it performs), ongoing audits are quite essential.
Optmyzr’s Shopping Feed Audit tool helps you stay ahead of common issues by automatically scanning your Merchant Center feed and flagging missed opportunities like disapproved products, missing data, and weak product group structures. The built-in dashboard widget gives you a quick view of feed health, so you can catch problems early.
For deeper monitoring at scale, the Rule Engine lets you set up proactive alerts and automated actions tied to feed quality, disapprovals, or underperforming groups—ensuring your campaigns stay efficient and aligned with your business goals.
Budget allocation and bid strategy
Managing your money well is critical in all forms of advertising, but particularly when selling physical goods on a comparison shopping platform like Google Ads.
Brands can succeed with Shopping ads on Google, whether they spend $5,000 a month or $50,000 a day. The key is to structure your campaigns to suit your budget. For example, a modest budget spread across multiple campaigns with multiple product groups creates internal competition and limits your ability to enter enough auctions to reach profitability.
Choose a bidding strategy that aligns with your business needs. Shopping campaigns offer granular control over structure, but Smart Bidding can often outperform even the most skilled human advertisers. If you can only afford to spend a certain amount to make a sale, using a CPA target provides Google with a clear constraint.
For more margin-driven control, consider margin-informed bidding: use custom labels to inject profit data (like contribution margin or cost) directly into your campaign setup. This allows Smart Bidding to optimize not for ROAS alone, but for actual profitability—helping you prioritize ads that generate the best return in real time.
There is so much outside the ad account that affects performance and profitability. Always account for factors and real world events that influence supply and demand, such as seasonality and spending patterns. Be aware of your target audience, their needs, and their mindset.
Negative keyword management
Adding unwanted or irrelevant search terms to the negative keyword list for an ad group prevents all the associated products from showing up for those searches. Remember that negative keywords use the same match types as positive ones (broad, phrase, exact), so use the correct format for the match type you want to prohibit.
To keep your campaigns efficient and your spend clean, make it a habit to review search queries regularly. This helps you catch expensive or irrelevant terms that may be slipping through. Update your negative keyword lists accordingly and refresh your SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups) to reflect evolving trends and product performance.
Conversion tracking
If the product feed is the beating heart of a Shopping campaign, then conversion tracking is its mind. It’s critical that you choose the right conversion actions (both micro-conversions, like cart additions, and final conversions, like purchases) and that you track them correctly.
Without these in place, your account will register and learn from incomplete or inaccurate data, causing it to optimize in the wrong direction for the wrong outcomes. Using an algorithmic layer like Smart Bidding will amplify these unwanted consequences by several orders of magnitude.
That’s why it’s essential to validate your tracking setup end-to-end. Regularly audit for pixel accuracy, attribution delays, and consent-mode consistency to ensure that Smart Bidding has a clean, reliable foundation to optimize from. Even small gaps in data capture can derail campaign performance.
Audience tracking
Use this setting if you’d like to target specific audiences, such as remarketing lists of people who’ve visited your website before. Audience tracking will then let you show up for searches from people who’ve already shown some level of interest in your brand or products.
To improve bidding precision, segment your audiences by customer lifecycle stage—from new visitors to cart abandoners to repeat purchasers. This allows you to assign more appropriate bids based on where users are in their journey.
Also take advantage of dynamic remarketing in Shopping, which pulls in product-level data to show users the exact items they viewed or left in their cart—boosting relevancy and increasing the chance of conversion.
Faster, easier, error-free shopping campaigns with Optmyzr
Choosing the right campaign structure is important, but it’s still only one part of running a solid Google Ads shopping program. Maintaining a healthy feed, filtering out low-quality queries, and keeping campaigns synced with inventory are just as important to success.
Keeping up with the flux in your accounts and feeds can get overwhelming. That’s without factoring in multiple accounts and feeds, and additional campaign types and platforms to manage.
Optmyzr gives you full control over your Shopping campaigns. Automate maintenance and monitoring tasks with freedom and flexibility, while enjoying the full visibility and total control that ad platforms are taking away from you.
Keep campaigns up to date with inventory and feed changes. These changes are crucial yet daunting to keep track of manually, particularly when using a performance-based structure. Optmyzr allows you to sync your feed and automate campaign maintenance. Automatically move products from one campaign to another based on performance changes, where doing so manually for each product is practically impossible yet critical to maintaining campaign strategy.
Quickly find and fix product feed errors and product disapprovals. Audit and optimize your merchant feed and disapproved products that limit the visibility and auction-worthy status of your products.
Simplify search query management and traffic sculpting. Review search queries and add negative keywords with a click. No more sifting through multiple tabs and reports. Handle all your keyword and query management from one window in Optmyzr.
Find the ideal ROAS or CPA target. Trial and error is inescapable, but Optmyzr minimizes the hassle. Make target adjustments and know immediately when performance begins to decline so you can roll back to the sweet spot.
Reduce wasted ad spend. Spend money where you’ll make money. Automate a variety of actions for expensive product groups, including reducing bids and pausing ads altogether.
Q. What’s the best structure for a small product catalog?
A. For smaller catalogs, a single campaign with one or a few ad and product groups is usually sufficient. You can simplify setup while still exercising control by using search term reports to segment traffic by intent level—helping you tailor bids for low- vs. high-intent searches. Even small catalogs benefit from this layered approach to maintain efficiency and relevance.
Q. Can I still use Shopping Campaigns alongside PMax?
A. Yes. While Google is moving toward Performance Max, Standard Shopping campaigns remain valuable, especially for advertisers who prioritize manual control, budget segmentation, and negative keyword management. Tools like Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management support both formats, allowing you to keep them in sync and maintain a unified strategy.
Q. How do I keep my shopping structure up to date as my inventory changes?
A. The key is automation. Manually shifting products between campaigns based on performance or inventory changes is time-consuming and error-prone. Tools like Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management allow you to automatically restructure campaigns, sync with your Merchant Center, and dynamically adjust product groups as conditions evolve.
Q. What are some common feed issues that hurt Shopping Campaign performance?
A. Poor product feed quality is a major performance killer. Common issues include:
Long or vague product titles
Missing GTINs or required attributes
Low-quality or pixelated images
Disapproved or inactive products
With Optmyzr’s Shopping Feed Audit, you can scan your Merchant Center for these problems and stay ahead of potential disruptions.
Q. How do campaign priority settings impact performance?
A. Campaign priority levels (high, medium, low) determine which campaign serves for a given query when the same products appear in multiple campaigns. This enables intent-based bidding strategies, where you bid lower on broad, high-funnel traffic (high priority) and more aggressively on bottom-funnel, product-specific searches (low priority). It’s also essential for query sculpting, a tactic that directs search traffic to the most relevant campaigns using negative keywords and priorities together.
Reporting is a must for PPC marketers, but it often turns into a time-consuming headache—especially when juggling multiple clients and ad platforms.
Native tools don’t cut it as they lack cross-platform insights. Looker Studio needs heavy customization, and Google Analytics isn’t built for PPC deep dives.
You need a reporting tool that not only saves time, but integrates data across platforms seamlessly and presents clear insights. With so many options available, let’s explore the best PPC reporting tools in the market.
But first, what should you look for in a PPC reporting tool?
You need to look at eight factors while looking for a PPC reporting tool irrespective of your business type and size.
Functionality: Does it offer essential features like data analysis, visualization, static & ad-hoc reports, and dashboards?
Performance: Can it handle large data volumes from various sources quickly and efficiently?
Reliability: Can it help you pull the data you need every time you need it?
Ease of use: Is it user-friendly for everyone, from beginners to experts?
Customization: Can the reports be tailored to your needs with different formats and visualizations?
Speed of deployment: Is it easy to set up and integrate with your existing tools?
Scalability: Can it grow with your agency’s needs and add new features?
Security: Does it guarantee data confidentiality with strict protocols and regulations compliance?
Considering these factors here are the 12 best PPC reporting tools in the market.
Best PPC reporting tools
Name of the Tool
Top Feature
Pricing
Optmyzr
Drag-and-drop reporting with pre-built widgets, cross-platform data integration, and automated scheduling
From $209/month for $25K spend, up to 25 accounts
Skai
Unified platform for managing PPC campaigns across various channels
From $90,000/year
Adalysis
Automated PPC audits and health checks
From $149/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Marin
Cross-channel campaign management with advanced reporting
From $500/month for up to 50 accounts
TrueClicks
Comprehensive auditing and budget pacing tools
From $208/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Opteo
Continuous account monitoring with performance-based recommendations
From $129/month for $25K spend, up to 10 accounts
DashThis
Easy-to-use and attractive dashboard tool to stop wasting time gathering data
From $49/month
ReportGarden
Automate cross-channel reporting, manage campaign budgets, and create invoices
From $89/month
Supermetrics
Move data from various sources to preferred reporting, analytics, or storage platform
Pricing is platform-specific
Databox
Pulls all your data into one place to track performance and discover insights in real-time
Free plan available; paid plans from $59/month
Whatagraph
Automatically collects data from multiple channels and creates visual reports
On request
Swydo
Create, schedule, and share reports for your marketing campaigns
From $49/month
Optmyzr
Best for: PPC agencies & in-house teams from small companies to enterprises needing automated, cross-platform reports with real-time insights
Pricing: From $209/month ($25K spend, upto 25 accounts)
Optmyzr is a powerful, award-winning PPC management software that gives search marketers the tools they need for detailed insights, optimization, reporting, and automation. It is built for accounts of any size, diversity, or complexity.
From search to shopping to Performance Max, you can run Google Ads campaigns the way each account demands with Optmyzr.
And if you think of PPC as more than just Google, you’ll advertise with creativity and insight across several platforms. Our proven automation capabilities mean you can supervise and run campaigns your way, even when you’re working on other things.
What kinds of teams use Optmyzr?
Optmyzr is used by a variety of teams such as:
Digital marketing agencies: Helps scale their operations and improve their client service by providing them with the tools they need to manage multiple PPC campaigns and clients efficiently.
In-house marketing teams: Helps save time and improve their PPC performance by automating many of the tasks involved in managing campaigns. This frees up team members to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Enterprise marketing teams: Helps manage their PPC spending much better by providing them with data-driven insights and recommendations.
Individual PPC consultants: Helps streamline their workflow and manage multiple campaigns without the need for extensive resources.
Optmyzr’s key reporting features
Offers an easy drag-and-drop interface with pre-built widgets and templates to build reports
Creates single- and multi-account reports, annual reports, executive reports, and more
Supports cross-platform reporting on multiple platforms like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Meta Ads, Amazon Ads, LinkedIn Ads, and Google Analytics
Automates report generation and scheduling with the updated performance data
Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
Offers an easy-to-understand reporting UI with powerful analysis tools
Monitors anomalies and automatically notifies account owners to make sure they’re not missed
Supports real-time data refresh
Known for top-quality customer support and fast response times
Cons
Among social media ad platforms, Optmyzr supports Meta and LinkedIn Ads only at the moment; lacks support for TikTok, Snapchat, and other social media platforms
Some users may find the vast number of tools and features that are available overwhelming at first
What do users say about Optmyzr?
Users have praised Optmyzr for its significant reporting and time-saving capabilities, particularly through custom-built automations in its Rule Engine, which effectively streamline tasks that would typically require a team of PPC managers.
The platform’s workflow design allows for systematic account management, ensuring comprehensive optimization without overlooking any tasks.
Additionally, users appreciate the user-friendly interface and the exceptional support team, which collectively enhance productivity and facilitate the implementation of tailored strategies.
Sign up for our14-day free trialtoday 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.
Skai
Best for: Enterprise brands & agencies managing omnichannel media strategies
Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
Pros and Cons
Pros
Offers an easy-to-understand reporting UI
Ideal for enterprise teams
Cons
Expensive, complicated pricing and free trial structure
Has a longer support response time (6-24 hours) than Optmyzr (2 hours)
What do users say about Skai?
Users praise Skai for its user-friendly interface, responsive customer support, and powerful automation features that streamline campaign management. They also value its actionable insights, robust analytics, and regular updates that keep the platform current and effective.
Adalysis is a PPC management solution designed to help marketers manage advertising campaigns on Google and Bing search engines.
Key reporting features of Adalysis
Supports Google and Microsoft Ads
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy reporting interface
Pros and Cons
Pros
Periodic campaign/account health checks
Fast and intuitive onboarding
Cons
No support for social media ad reporting
Limited capabilities for rule-based automation
Offers only a few integrations
What do users say about Adalysis?
Users have praised Adalysis for its ability to streamline PPC optimization by highlighting areas that need attention and automating ad testing. They also appreciate the platform’s capability to provide valuable insights and facilitate changes without the need to log into Google Ads.
Marin is a campaign management tool that helps marketers create & optimize campaigns for Google, Facebook & Amazon Ads.
Marin’s key reporting features
Good rule-based automation
A good number of tools for reporting
Pros and Cons
Pros
Powerful reporting tools
Really good product training content
Cons
Marin’s solutions for search, social, and reporting are very fragmented with complicated pricing
The access to their tool is gated by a mandatory demo
Poor reviews on G2 (3.8) and Capterra (3.4) compared to Optmyzr (4.7 G2 / 4.6 Capterra)
Offers only a few integrations
What do users say about Marin?
Users praised Marin Software for its intuitive interface and custom reporting capabilities, which streamline campaign management. They also highlighted its versatility in creating and modifying diverse marketing components effectively.
TrueClicks is a cloud-based marketing software, which helps organizations create, launch, and manage PPC marketing campaigns on a unified portal.
Key reporting features of TrueClicks
Support for Google and Microsoft Ads
Good reporting capabilities for Google Ads
Pros and Cons
Pros
Free up to $50K monthly ad spend
Great integrations with Looker Studio, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, and Tableau
Cons
Lacks support for social media ad reporting
Doesn’t support multi-account reporting
Limited rule-based automation
No support for scripts or native reporting
Offers only a few integrations
What do users say about TrueClicks?
Users have praised TrueClicks for its user-friendly interface, effective automation of routine tasks, and actionable suggestions that enhance campaign performance. Additionally, TrueClicks is recognized for its ongoing development and responsiveness to user feedback, continually updating the platform to align with industry best practices.
Opteo is a Google Ads management tool that recommends optimizations based on continuous account monitoring of account performance data.
Opteo’s key reporting features
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy reporting interface
Integrates with Slack
Pros and Cons
Pros
Good support for Google Ads reporting
Easy-to-understand UI
Cons
No support for Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon Ads
Uses a 6-hour to 24-hour refresh cycle, not real-time like Optmyzr
Very limited automation capabilities
Offers only a few integrations
What do users say about Opteo?
Users praise Opteo for its time-saving features, user-friendly interface, and actionable recommendations that improve campaign performance. Additionally, its responsive customer support enhances the overall experience.
DashThis helps digital marketers and agencies by providing an easy-to-use and attractive dashboard tool so that marketers can stop wasting time gathering data, and instead do what they do best: make decisions based on that data.
Key reporting features of DashThis
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy drag-and-drop interface with pre-built widgets and templates
Integrates with 34 of the most commonly used digital marketing tools
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI
Suitable for advertisers who run ads on multiple platforms
Cons
Steep pricing especially for small businesses or freelancers, not a big issue if you only need a few dashboards, but the cost can add up quickly if you need a lot of dashboards
Some users reported errors and inconsistencies in dashboard data.
What do users say about DashThis?
Users appreciate DashThis for its excellent dashboards that are easy to understand and good for business analysis. However, some users feel that basic features, like improved chart manipulation, could enhance usability.
ReportGarden
Best for: Marketing agencies looking for an all-in-one reporting and invoicing tool
ReportGarden is a dashboard & reporting tool for ad agencies to automate cross-channel reporting, manage campaign budgets, create invoices, perform SEO audit, and track keywords rankings for your clients.
ReportGarden’s key reporting features
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy drag-and-drop interface with pre-built widgets and templates
Integrates with most commonly used digital marketing tools
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI
Suitable for marketers who run paid search, paid social, and SEO
Cons
Steep pricing especially for small businesses or freelancers; not a big issue if you only need a few dashboards, but the cost can add up quickly if you need a lot of dashboards
Occasional report errors and inconsistencies in dashboard data
What do users say about ReportGarden?
ReportGarden is valued for reducing the time spent on reporting, allowing for more productive work elsewhere. However, some users feel it takes time to get accustomed to the UI/UX, which is a common occurrence with such platforms.
Supermetrics
Best for: Data-driven marketers & analysts needing advanced data extraction for custom reports
Supermetrics streamlines the delivery of data from sales and marketing platforms into the analytics and reporting tools marketers use to make better decisions.
Key reporting features of Supermetrics
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy drag-and-drop interface with pre-built widgets and templates
Integrates with most commonly used digital marketing tools
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI with great reporting and data analysis tools
Cons
On the pricier side for small businesses or freelancers considering its biggest use cases are analysis and reporting
Reports of substandard customer support
What do users say about Supermetrics?
Supermetrics is praised for its ability to integrate multiple data sources into a single platform, which is beneficial for creating comprehensive dashboards and automating reporting. Some have encountered minor issues with data integration and connection bugs, although the platform generally enhances workflow productivity.
Databox helps growing businesses know how they’re performing at all times, make better decisions, and find opportunities to improve their performance.
Databox’s key reporting features
Creates automated, custom dashboards
Offers an easy drag-and-drop interface with pre-built widgets and templates
Integrates with most commonly used digital marketing tools
Creates custom metrics useful to your business
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI with great reporting and data analysis tools
Cons
On the pricier side for small businesses or freelancers considering its biggest use cases are analysis and reporting
What do users say about Databox?
Databox is praised for its efficient setup process and intuitive dashboard that makes understanding traffic and analytics straightforward. However, some users mention the initial learning curve associated with understanding the platform’s full potential and how to best utilize its features. While generally user-friendly, it may take some time for new users to become fully comfortable with its functionality.
Whatagraph
Best for: Agencies & in-house teams needing customizable, automated multi-channel reports
Whatagraph is an intuitive all-in-one marketing data platform that easily removes data-related manual work and hassle from a marketer’s day-to-day.
Whatagraph’s key reporting features
Groups and aggregates data from different sources to identify trends and patterns
Offers a library of pre-built widgets and templates that you can use to quickly create reports and dashboards
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI with great reporting and data analysis tools
Cons
Adjustments within reports don’t happen in real-time
Known to be buggy occasionally
What do users say about Whatagraph?
Users praise Whatagraph for its ease of use, intuitive interface, and robust ability to integrate multiple data sources like social media and web analytics tools. On the downside, some users feel that the pricing can be on the higher side, especially for small businesses, and there are occasional challenges with customization and integration with certain apps. Additionally, performance issues such as speed during report generation and the limited duration of stored historical data are noted as areas needing improvement.
Swydo
Best for: Agencies & freelancers looking for budget-friendly PPC & SEO reporting
Swydo is an easy to use reporting and monitoring platform to retrieve data from multiple sources and create professional, customizable marketing reports.
Swydo’s key reporting features
Offers a library of pre-built widgets and templates that you can use to quickly create reports and dashboards
Automates report scheduling
Integrates with popular digital marketing tools
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI with great reporting and data analysis tools
Cons
Reports of substandard customer support
What do users say about Swydo?
Users praise its ease of use, seamless integration with major platforms like Google Ads and Meta, and ability to create visually appealing, customizable reports. However, some users express a desire for automated reporting on specific metrics and enhanced data source activity detection.
Track. Monitor. Report.
The best PPC reporting provides context, and analysis, and finds the reasons behind wins or losses. It serves as a source of meaningful data and insights, helping you to make informed decisions and optimize the overall effectiveness of your PPC campaigns.
And if you think Optmyzr is the tool for you, sign up for a 14-day free trial today. Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a PPC reporting tool?
A PPC reporting tool is software that aggregates and analyzes data from your pay-per-click campaigns across multiple platforms. It provides insights, helps you visualize performance trends, and simplifies campaign reporting across client accounts.
Why do I need a PPC reporting tool?
Native ad platform dashboards often fall short when managing campaigns across multiple networks. Reporting tools save time, centralize campaign metrics, and produce clear, actionable insights and visual reports—without heavy customization.
How do PPC reporting tools deliver broader value compared to manual reporting?
They enable:
Automated data aggregation from multiple platforms
Visual dashboards for quick insights
Scheduled reports that save time and reduce manual tasks
Deeper, more consistent reporting that’s often unattainable via native tools or spreadsheets
Regular PPC audits help maximize ROAS, but they can be time-consuming. That’s where PPC audit tools come in—they simplify analysis, automate tasks, and provide a clear audit roadmap, saving you time and effort.
The best tools go beyond basic checks. They offer deeper insights and actionable tips to improve your campaigns. In this guide, we’ll cover the top PPC audit tools that make the process easier and help you get better results.
What should you look for in a PPC audit tool?
There are so many PPC auditing tools available catering to different levels of expertise, campaign complexity, and budget constraints. So, choosing the right audit tool requires careful consideration.
We believe there are five factors you need to consider when choosing the right audit tool. They are:
Ease of use
Dedicated auditing features
Customized reporting
Transparent scoring and actionable insights
Cross-platform auditing support
Criteria
Description
Ease of use
The tool should guide you through the audit process, step-by-step, making it manageable even if you are a newer PPC professional. Plus, it should present data clearly, so you can quickly spot issues like irrelevant keywords, underperforming ads, or landing page problems that might drag down your campaigns.
Dedicated auditing features
The tool should focus on PPC auditing as its primary function or as a prominent feature within a broader suite of features. It must also offer detailed analyses of critical PPC metrics that matter to you.
Customized reporting
The tool should enable you to create reports with various formats and visualizations that align with your budget, campaign goals, and the needs of your stakeholders.
Transparent scoring and actionable insights
The tool should be transparent about its performance grading or scoring methodology. It should also be able to explain your campaign’s performance and provide actionable insights and recommendations suited to you.
Cross-platform auditing support
The tool should integrate with and retrieve data from multiple platforms seamlessly, since you may be running campaigns across various platforms. It should also give you the power to conduct comprehensive audits anytime, regardless of where your ads are running.
What are the best PPC audit tools in the market today?
Considering the factors listed above (on the condition that the tool satisfies at least four out of the five criteria), we’ve listed six tools, including their key features and publicly available user feedback:
Name of the Tool
Top Feature
Pricing
Optmyzr
Provides detailed audits via powerful rule-based automation
From $209/month for $25K spend, up to 25 accounts
TrueClicks
Offers insights and recommendations to enhance campaign performance
From $208/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Skai
Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier for real-time notifications during audits
From $90,000/year
Opteo
Provides scorecards to understand performance, aiding in audit processes
From $129/month for $25K spend, up to 10 accounts
Madgicx
Offers an all-in-one automation and management solution for Meta Ads, facilitating comprehensive audits
From $31/month for the basic plan; 7-day free trial available
Adalysis
Provides audits via rule-based automation to identify campaign issues
From $127/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
1. Optmyzr
Best for: Agencies and in-house teams managing multiple PPC accounts who need advanced automation and deep audit insights
Platforms supported: Google, Microsoft, Meta, LinkedIn, and Amazon Ads
Pricing: From $209/month ($25K spend, up to 25 accounts), with a 14-day free trial
Built for accounts of any size, diversity, or complexity, Optmyzr is an award-winning PPC management software solution that gives paid media marketers the tools they need for auditing, optimization, reporting, and automation.
Optmyzr’s key features:
Provides detailed audits via powerful rule-based automation
Comprehensive insights via historical trends, conversion anomalies, competitor analysis, change history analysis, and more. Offers historical trends, conversion anomalies, competitor analysis, change history analysis, customized audits, and a lot more
Sends real-time notifications via integrations with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
Watch Navah Hopkins explain how Optmyzr’s audit tools make every advertiser’s day-to-day tasks easier.
What users think of Optmyzr:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The Good:
Offers customized, step-by-step, guided audits
Monitors for anomalies and automatically notifies account owners
Provides actionable recommendations and growth opportunities with detailed insights
Supports real-time data refresh
Excellent customer support (typically a two-hour response time)
Detailed product training (a free in-depth Udemy course and a biweekly product tutorial video program called Learn with Optmyzr)
The Bad:
Some users may find the platform overwhelming to use
No free plan
2. TrueClicks
Best for: PPC managers who want a detailed, AI-driven analysis with clear recommendations to improve account performance
Platforms supported: Google and Microsoft Ads
Pricing: From $208/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
Skai is an omnichannel platform performance marketers use to unlock insights, streamline execution, and measure holistically across walled garden media.
Skai’s key features:
Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier for real-time notifications
What users think of Skai:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The Good:
Offers automation, auditing, and reporting capabilities for almost all of the major ad platforms
Practical for enterprise teams
The Bad:
Expensive, complicated pricing and free trial structure
Doesn’t support scripts for Performance Max campaigns (unreliable for advertisers who run audit scripts)
Longer support response time (6-24 hours) than Optmyzr (2 hours)
Madgicx is a cloud platform for Meta Ads ecommerce advertisers that offers a range of solutions to optimize multiple areas of their advertising, including Facebook tracking, automation, targeting, creatives, and ad management.
Madgicx’s key features:
Offers an all-in-one automation and management solution for Meta Ads
Provides deep attribution capabilities for Meta Ads
What users think of Madgicx:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
The Good:
Features rule-based automation and reporting tools
Offers deep Meta Ads insights features
Offers detailed product training
The Bad:
Very limited Google Ads support and no support for Microsoft and Amazon Ads
Gets expensive after reaching certain ad spend levels
6. Adalysis
Best for: PPC professionals who prefer rule-based automation to streamline audits and identify optimization opportunities
Platforms supported: Google and Microsoft Ads
Pricing: From $127/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
Spend less time buried in audits and more time doing work that drives conversions.
The modern PPC advertiser’s job is no longer about pulling levers and pushing buttons in an ad interface. Your real value is your ability to contextualize, think creatively, and execute well. And a great PPC audit tool helps you do that.
If you think Optmyzr is the tool for you, sign up for a 14-day free trial today.
Thousands of advertisers—from small agencies to big brands—worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, schedule a consultation call today to talk to one of our experts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a PPC auditing tool?
A PPC auditing tool is software that analyzes your pay-per-click campaigns—such as those on Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, or Meta—to assess performance, identify inefficiencies, and recommend optimizations for better ROI.
Why do I need a PPC auditing tool?
Conducting PPC audits manually is time-consuming. A dedicated audit tool streamlines the process, automates analysis, uncovers issues more efficiently, and delivers actionable insights to boost campaign results and ROAS.
How do PPC audit tools deliver value beyond manual analysis?
They simplify audits by automating the evaluation of campaign structure, keyword relevance, ad performance, and landing pages—while producing clear scoring, recommendations, and visual reports that manual processes often lack.
PPC bid management is all about setting and adjusting bids to maximize ad performance while staying within your budget. As ad platforms become more automated, you need tools that provide visibility, control, and efficiency.
A reliable bid management tool provides you with those while automating optimizations and preventing overspending. But choosing the right tool is crucial. It should align with your goals, budget, and level of automation needed to drive the best results.
With so many options available, let’s explore the best bid management tools in the market.
What should you look for in a PPC bid management tool?
There are so many bid management tools available catering to different levels of expertise, campaign complexity, and budget constraints. So, choosing the right one requires careful consideration.
We believe there are ten factors you need to consider when choosing the right bid management tool. They are:
Automation capabilities
Cross-platform support
Real-time bid adjustments
Data insights and reporting
Budget management and pacing
Ease of use and customization
A/B testing for bid strategies
Anomaly detection and alerts
Scalability
Pricing and ROI
Factor
Why it matters
What to look for
Automation capabilities
Reduces manual work and optimizes bids in real-time
Auto-bid adjustments based on conversion data, anomaly detection, and budget pacing
Cross-platform support
Ensures seamless bid adjustments across various ad platforms like Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta Ads
Seamless integration with multiple ad platforms for a unified bidding strategy
Real-time bid adjustments
Reacts quickly to competition and user behavior changes
Tools that update bids dynamically based on real-time data
Data insights and reporting
Provides transparency and actionable insights for better decisions
Customizable reports, conversion tracking, and integration with analytics tools
Budget management and pacing
Prevents overspending and ensures consistent performance
Features like budget pacing, forecasting, and spend distribution across campaigns
Ease of use and customization
Simplifies bid management without requiring technical expertise
Intuitive dashboards, drag-and-drop UI, and customizable rule-based automations
A/B testing for bid strategies
Helps identify the most effective bid strategies through testing
Tools with built-in A/B testing or bid experimentation capabilities
Anomaly detection and alerts
Notifies users of bid spikes or inefficiencies to prevent wasted ad spend
Real-time notifications and alerts for unusual performance trends
Scalability
Adapts as your business grows and manages larger budgets
A tool that supports different business sizes, from SMBs to enterprises
Pricing and ROI
Ensures the tool fits within your budget while maximizing return on investment
Transparent pricing with flexible plans for different levels of ad spend
What are the best PPC bid management tools in the market today?
Considering the factors listed above (on the condition that the tool satisfies at least seven out of the ten criteria), we’ve listed six tools, including their key features and publicly available user feedback:
Name of the tool
Top feature
Pricing
Optmyzr
Advanced bid optimization with powerful rule-based automation
From $209/month for $25K spend, up to 25 accounts
TrueClicks
Data-driven insights for bid adjustments
From $208/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Skai
Omnichannel bid optimization for enterprises
From $90,000/year
NinjaCat
Bid and budget automation with advanced analytics
Custom pricing
Adalysis
Automated bid suggestions and A/B testing
From $149/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Marin
AI-powered bid management across search, social, and ecommerce
From $500/month for up to 50 accounts
1. Optmyzr
Best for: Agencies and in-house teams looking to automate bid management, optimize PPC performance, and maintain control over budgets across multiple platforms
Pricing: From $209/month ($25K spend, up to 25 accounts), with a 14-day free trial
Built for accounts of any size, diversity, or complexity, Optmyzr is an award-winning PPC management software solution that gives paid media marketers the tools they need for auditing, optimization, reporting, and automation.
Optmyzr’s key features:
Rule-based bidding – Allows users to set custom bid adjustments based on specific performance metrics and conditions.
Smart bidding optimization – Enhances Google’s Smart Bidding by providing better data inputs and controls.
Budget-based bid adjustments – Automatically adjusts bids to keep spend aligned with budget pacing and performance goals.
Historical performance-based bidding – Analyzes past data to suggest bid changes that maximize ROAS and conversion rates.
What users think of Optmyzr:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
Pros:
Advanced customization: Users appreciate the ability to do advanced bidding, identify errors, and automate manual tasks through customized scripts.
Efficiency and time-saving capabilities: Optmyzr provides tools that help save time and improve campaign efficiency, such as streamlining campaign creation and robust day-parting features.
Comprehensive analysis tools: The platform offers excellent tools for quick analysis and performance overviews, helping users identify opportunities like location targeting or negative keywords.
Cons:
Complexity: Some features are not intuitive or clear on how to use them effectively, which may lead to underutilization.
2. TrueClicks
Best for: PPC agencies and consultants who need automated audits, optimization recommendations, and performance monitoring to ensure accounts follow best practices
Pricing: From $208/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
TrueClicks is a cloud-based marketing solution, which helps businesses create, launch, and manage PPC marketing campaigns within a unified portal.
TrueClicks’s key features:
Bid strategy auditing – Evaluates bid settings and strategies to identify inefficiencies and optimization opportunities.
Automated bid recommendations – Suggests bid adjustments based on performance trends and account goals.
What users think of TrueClicks:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
Pros:
Personalization: TrueClicks allows you to optimize based on individual account needs, which is appreciated for managing different client requirements.
Budget control: Users find it effective in controlling budgets across accounts.
Up-to-date insights: It provides real-time adjustments and recommendations, keeping in line with Google Ads updates.
Cons:
Google AI dependence: Some users feel TrueClicks relies heavily on Google AI for bidding strategies, which might be less useful for advanced marketers.
Manual bid management: Not suited for manual bid adjustments as users mentioned it can result in a lower score.
Connectivity issues: Occasionally, issues with Google Analytics connections can persist, affecting performance insights.
Best for: Large enterprises and agencies managing omnichannel PPC campaigns and needing advanced AI-driven bidding, predictive analytics, and deep cross-platform insights
Skai is an omnichannel platform performance marketers use to unlock insights, streamline execution, and measure holistically across walled garden media.
Skai’s key features:
AI-powered bid optimization – Uses machine learning to adjust bids based on historical and predictive data.
Cross-channel budgeting – Optimizes bids across search, social, and ecommerce platforms for better budget allocation.
What users think of Skai:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
Pros:
Integration and automation: Skai allows integration across retail, social, and search channels, managing spending efficiently with automated rules.
Comprehensive analytics: Users appreciate customizable KPIs and the ability to perform detailed auditing and dashboard tracking, especially useful for Amazon campaigns.
Reliability: Known for high speed and reliability when adjusting bids and finding actionable insights.
Support and continuous improvement: Excellent customer support and a strong commitment to new features and platform updates.
Cons:
Learning curve: Some users find the platform requires a significant amount of learning, suitable primarily for those with a technical background in PPC.
Cost: Skai can be expensive, which might be a consideration for some organizations.
Interface complexity: The user interface sometimes receives criticism for being overly complex and not very intuitive.
Best for: Agencies and multi-location businesses that require automated reporting, budget pacing, and campaign performance tracking across multiple PPC platforms
NinjaCat is a unified marketing analytics platform designed for agencies, media companies, and multi-location brands. They acquired shape.io, a PPC management platform.
NinjaCat’s key features:
Automated bid and budget pacing – Adjusts bids dynamically to ensure spending stays on track with budget targets.
Cross-platform bid management – Consolidates bidding data from multiple platforms for a unified strategy.
What users think of NinjaCat:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
Pros:
Easy to use – NinjaCat is praised for its ease of use and ability to consolidate data from multiple channels into cohesive reports.
Automated & scalable reporting – It’s appreciated for enabling professional, automated, and scalable reports that save time.
Strong customer support – The support team is often mentioned as being friendly, knowledgeable, and helpful in providing custom solutions.
Cons:
Performance issues – Some users reported issues related to performance and speed, especially when dealing with large data volumes.
Best for: Advertisers and PPC managers focused on data-driven bid adjustments, A/B testing, and automated optimizations for Google and Microsoft Ads
Pricing: From $149/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
Rating: Not enough reviews
Adalysis is a PPC management solution designed to help marketers manage advertising campaigns on Google and Microsoft Ads.
Adalysis’s key features:
Automated A/B testing for bidding strategies – Tests different bid strategies and provides insights on the best-performing ones.
Bid adjustment suggestions – Recommends bid changes based on CTR, conversion rates, and ROAS trends.
What users think of Adalysis:
Users have praised Adalysis for its ability to streamline PPC optimization by highlighting areas that need attention and automating ad testing. They also appreciate the platform’s capability to provide valuable insights and facilitate changes without the need to log into Google Ads.
Best for: Large advertisers and enterprises managing PPC, social, and ecommerce campaigns who need AI-powered bid management and cross-channel reporting
Marin is a campaign management tool that helps marketers create & optimize campaigns for Google, Microsoft, Facebook & Amazon Ads.
Marin’s key features:
AI-driven bid optimization – Uses machine learning to set bids based on predictive performance models.
Rule-based bid adjustments – Allows customization of bidding rules based on business goals and KPIs.
What users think of Marin:
The following is a synopsis of feedback from G2 and Capterra reviews.
Pros:
Automated bidding: Helps in optimizing bids constantly, even when not actively managing campaigns, leading to better ROAS.
Batch management: Features like bulk sheets allow for mass changes efficiently, saving time.
Effective for various scale campaigns: It’s known for being reliable across different scales of campaigns, and some users report improved profits using Marin compared to Google or Bing strategies.
Cons:
Slow to adjust to new features: Marin can be slow in adopting new features rolled out by platforms like Google Ads.
Complex to use: Some users find the platform difficult and not as user-friendly compared to other platforms.
Outdated bidding algorithm: The algorithm has not kept pace with advancements in smart bidding offered by newer features in platforms like Google Ads.
Managing PPC bids effectively is about more than just automating adjustments—it’s about making smarter, data-driven decisions that align with your business goals. The right bid management tool helps you automate where necessary while keeping you in control of your budget and strategy.
If you think Optmyzr is the tool for you, sign up for a 14-day free trial today.
Thousands of advertisers—from small agencies to big brands—worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, schedule a consultation call today to talk to one of our experts.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a PPC bid management tool?
A PPC bid management tool is software that automates and optimizes the process of setting and adjusting bids for pay-per-click campaigns. It uses data and algorithms to help advertisers get the most clicks, conversions, or ROI for their budget.
Why do I need a PPC bid management tool?
Managing bids manually is time-consuming and prone to error, especially in large or multi-channel campaigns. A bid management tool saves time, improves efficiency, and ensures your bids respond to real-time performance changes—maximizing ROAS.
How do PPC bid management tools help prevent overspending while optimizing performance?
They adjust bids dynamically based on conversion data, budget pacing, and performance trends—helping you stay within budget while driving better results.
Google Ads has become much more sophisticated — and more of a black box — in recent years, due to advancements in AI and machine learning.
Although the shift towards more automation is great for advertisers, Google has also reduced the control and visibility for you, the advertiser over your ad spend.
And, in light of the recent antitrust lawsuits and scrutiny over its ad business practices, advertisers are becoming more concerned that Google is overextending their ad budgets. That’s why savvy advertisers need to be vigilant to ensure they are getting true value from their ad spend.
The good news is that there are several tools out there that can help you take back control and manage your Google Ads campaigns the way that works for your business.
In this article, you’ll learn:
Why do you even need a Google Ads management tool and
The best Google Ads management tools today with their pricing and top features
Best Google Ads management tools
Name of the tool
Top feature
Pricing
Optmyzr
Powerful rule-based automation for optimization and reporting
From $209/month for $25K spend, up to 25 accounts
Google Ads Editor
Bulk editing tools for managing multiple campaigns offline
Free
Opteo
Continuous account monitoring with performance-based recommendations
From $129/month for $25K spend, up to 10 accounts
TrueClicks
Comprehensive auditing and budget pacing tools
From $208/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Acquisio
AI-powered bid and budget management across multiple platforms
Pricing available upon request
Marin
Cross-channel campaign management with advanced reporting
From $500/month for up to 50 accounts
Skai
Unified platform for managing PPC campaigns across various channels
From $90,000/year
Adalysis
Automated PPC audits and health checks
From $149/month for $50K spend, unlimited accounts
Adpulse
Visual workflow builder for custom automation
From $25/month for $3K spend
HubSpot Campaign Assistant
Copy generation for ads, landing pages, and emails
Free
Adzooma
User-friendly interface with automation and optimization features
Free plan available; premium features at additional cost
Optmyzr
Best for: Detailed insights, optimization, reporting, and automation across various campaign types
Pricing: From $208/month ($25K spend, upto 25 accounts)
Optmyzr is a powerful, award-winning PPC management software that gives search marketers the tools they need for detailed insights, optimization, reporting, and automation. It is built for accounts of any size, diversity, or complexity.
From search to shopping to Performance Max, you can run Google Ads campaigns the way each account demands with Optmyzr.
In-depth tools for Responsive Search Ads, Value-Based Bidding, Shopping, and Performance Max campaigns (including support for scripts)
PPC vertical benchmarks, competitor, and auction insights for Google Ads
Integration with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
What kinds of teams use Optmyzr?
Optmyzr is used by a variety of teams such as:
Digital marketing agencies: Helps scale their operations and improve their client service by providing them with the tools they need to manage multiple Google Ads campaigns efficiently.
In-house marketing teams: Helps save time and improve their Google Ads performance by automating many of the tasks involved in managing campaigns. This frees up team members to focus on more strategic initiatives.
Enterprise marketing teams: Helps manage their Google Ads spending much better by providing them with data-driven insights and recommendations.
Individual Google Ads consultants: Helps streamline their workflow and manage multiple campaigns without the need for extensive resources.
Pros & cons
Pros
Offers powerful automation layering capabilities to protect your Google Ads accounts and give you back control
Monitors anomalies and automatically notifies account owners
Supports real-time data refresh
Helps you build shopping campaigns 10 times faster than Google Ads
Cons
While Optmyzr’s feature-rich platform is designed to empower users, some may find it overwhelming due to the extensive range of tools and customization options available.
There’s no free version of the platform.
What do users say about Optmyzr?
Users have praised Optmyzr for its significant time-saving capabilities, particularly through custom-built automations in its Rule Engine, which effectively streamline tasks that would typically require a team of PPC managers.
The platform’s workflow design allows for systematic account management, ensuring comprehensive optimization without overlooking any tasks.
Additionally, users appreciate the user-friendly interface and the exceptional support team, which collectively enhance productivity and facilitate the implementation of tailored strategies.
Sign up for our14-day free trialtoday 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.
Google Ads Editor
Best for: Beginners managing multiple campaigns offline with bulk editing capabilities
Google Ads Editor is a free, downloadable application for managing your Google Ads campaigns.
Google Ads Editor’s key features
Provides bulk editing tools, allowing advertisers to make multiple changes quickly across campaigns
Users can manage, edit, and view multiple Google Ads accounts simultaneously
Insights and recommendations to improve campaign performance
Pros and Cons
Pros
A great tool for beginners who may not have a budget to opt for paid software
Helps you manage ads or make bulk changes to your campaigns offline across multiple accounts
Native integration with Google Sheets, Google Analytics, Looker Studio, and other Google tools
Cons
Extremely limited capabilities for monitoring and reporting compared to most tools in the market
Although it’s a free tool, you’re subject to what Google allows and that’s usually to their benefit
The bid management tools are a black box
Provides little to no automation to give you back the control
Often enforces auto-apply recommendations that don’t really help your campaigns
Analyzing PPC performance can be a chore
Tasks like building and refreshing shopping campaigns which take minutes in Optmyzr take hours in the Google Ads Editor
What do users say about Google Ads Editor?
Users have praised Google Ads Editor for its robust bulk editing capabilities, which facilitate efficient management of multiple campaigns and ads simultaneously. Additionally, the user-friendly interface simplifies navigation and campaign management, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced advertisers.
Opteo
Best for: Small to medium-sized businesses seeking easy-to-understand performance recommendations
Pricing: From $129/month ($25K spend, 10 accounts)
Opteo is a Google Ads management tool that recommends optimizations based on continuous account monitoring of account performance data.
Opteo’s key features
Monitoring, reporting, bidding, and budget management capabilities
Integrates with Slack
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI
Suitable for SMBs with limited Google Ads needs
Cons
Uses a 12-hour refresh cycle, not real-time like Optmyzr
Very limited automation and spend projection capabilities
Limited support for shopping, RSA, and Performance Max
Does not integrate with Microsoft Teams or Zapier
What do users say about Opteo?
Users praise Opteo for its time-saving features, user-friendly interface, and actionable recommendations that improve campaign performance. Additionally, its responsive customer support enhances the overall experience.
TrueClicks is a cloud-based marketing software, which helps organizations create, launch, and manage PPC marketing campaigns on a unified portal.
TrueClicks’s key features
Powerful auditing, monitoring, and budget pacing tools
Pros and Cons
Pros
Free forever up to $50K monthly ad spend
Great integrations with Looker Studio, Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, Power BI, and Tableau
Cons
Limited rule-based automation
No support for scripts or native reporting
Limited capabilities for Performance Max and value-based bidding
Limited insights and optimization capabilities compared to Optmyzr
Doesn’t integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zapier
What do users say about TrueClicks?
Users have praised TrueClicks for its user-friendly interface, effective automation of routine tasks, and actionable suggestions that enhance campaign performance. Additionally, TrueClicks is recognized for its ongoing development and responsiveness to user feedback, continually updating the platform to align with industry best practices.
Acquisio is an AI-powered solution for marketers, agencies, and local SEM resellers to scale their PPC offerings on advertising platforms like Google, Meta, and Microsoft.
Acquisio’s key features
Has tools for group optimization, feed audits, and bid management for shopping campaigns
Offers single-account and multi-account reports, audit reports, and automated delivery for reporting
Pros and Cons
Pros
Easy-to-understand UI
Suitable for SMBs with limited PPC management needs
Cons
Limited rule-based automation
Limited capabilities for Performance Max and value-based bidding
Minimal support for shopping campaigns
Bidding tools are fully black-box with limited recommendations and user control
You’ll see a drop in performance when working with a high number of campaigns
Doesn’t integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zapier
What do users say about Acquisio?
Users praise Acquisio for its intuitive interface, responsive customer support, and AI-driven bid and budget optimization. Its comprehensive reporting tools also save time and enhance campaign management efficiency.
Marin is a campaign management tool that helps marketers create & optimize campaigns for Google, Facebook & Amazon Ads.
Marin’s key features
Good rule-based automation, RSA capabilities, and audits
A good number of tools for shopping
Pros and Cons
Pros
Powerful budgeting and reporting tools
Really good product training content
Cons
Marin’s bid management seems very black-box with no ability to apply your own insights
Limited capabilities for Performance Max and value-based bidding
Marin’s solutions for search, social, and reporting are very fragmented with complicated pricing
The access to their tool is gated by a mandatory demo
Poor reviews on G2 (3.8) and Capterra (3.4) compared to Optmyzr (4.7 G2 / 4.6 Capterra)
Doesn’t integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
What do users say about Marin?
Users praised Marin Software for its intuitive interface and custom reporting capabilities, which streamline campaign management. They also highlighted its versatility in creating and modifying diverse marketing components effectively.
Skai is a cloud-based marketing solution, which helps organizations create, launch, and manage PPC marketing campaigns on a unified portal.
Skai’s key features
Powerful automation, RSA, audits, and reporting capabilities
Integration with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
Pros and Cons
Pros
Good rule-based automation, RSA capabilities, and audits
Good reporting features
Ideal for enterprise teams
Cons
Expensive, complicated pricing and free trial structure
No script support for Google Ads Performance Max campaigns
Has a longer support response time (6-24 hours) than Optmyzr (2 hours)
What do users say about Skai?
Users praise Skai for its user-friendly interface, responsive customer support, and powerful automation features that streamline campaign management. They also value its actionable insights, robust analytics, and regular updates that keep the platform current and effective.
Best for: Advertisers seeking automated PPC audits and health checks to maintain account performance
Pricing: From $149/month ($50K spend, unlimited accounts)
Rating: Not enough reviews
Adalysis is a PPC management solution designed to help marketers manage advertising campaigns on Google and Bing search engines.
Adalysis’s key features
Great tools for budgeting, bidding, auditing, and reporting
Pros and Cons
Pros
Periodic campaign/account health checks
Fast and intuitive onboarding
Cons
Limited capabilities for Performance Max, value-based bidding, shopping, and rule-based automation
Doesn’t integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, or Zapier
What do users say about Adalysis?
Users have praised Adalysis for its ability to streamline PPC optimization by highlighting areas that need attention and automating ad testing. They also appreciate the platform’s capability to provide valuable insights and facilitate changes without the need to log into Google Ads.
Best for: Teams looking to create custom automation workflows through a visual interface
Pricing: From $25/month (3K spend, 100 accounts)
Rating: Not enough reviews
Adpulse provides PPC analysis, marketing automation, automatic testing, and
shopping campaign management.
Adpulse’s key features
Supports RSAs and shopping
Powerful reporting and auditing tools
Integrates with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
Pros and Cons
Pros
Great tools for reporting and audits
Good rule-based automation capabilities
Cons
Can sometimes be a little slow
Limited support for Performance Max
Lacks spend projection capabilities for budgets
Support for RSAs and shopping could be better
What do users say about Adpulse?
Adpulse has received positive feedback from users, highlighting its effectiveness in managing PPC campaigns. Users appreciate its user-friendly interface and actionable insights, which help in optimizing account performance and saving time.
HubSpot’s Campaign Assistant is simple, free, and effective. It’s a copy generator that allows you to generate texts across Instagram, Facebook, and Google Ads, as well as landing pages and emails — all in one go.
This makes the platform an excellent choice if you’re looking to develop cross-channel marketing campaigns and ensure your messaging remains consistent on each particular touchpoint.
HubSpot Campaign Assistant’s key features
Preview generated ad copy to see exactly how it would look like on search results
The option to deploy ads directly from the platform
Access to other free features, like HubSpot’s web page builder and email marketing tools to further refine your campaigns
Pros and cons
Pros
No learning curve involved
Multi-channel support
100% free to use
Cons
Lacks advanced tools like reporting, auditing, and budgeting
AI-generated copy can sometimes be slightly bland
Currently in public Beta—not a finished product
What do users say about Campaign Assistant?
Users enjoy Campaign Assistant’s simplicity and effectiveness, as the platform’s copy generator saves them a lot of time that would have otherwise been spent on copy editing and fine-tuning.
Adzooma
Best for: Small businesses seeking a user-friendly platform with optimization features, including a free plan option
Pricing: Has a free plan. The paid plan starts from $99 a month.
Reporting, bidding, and budget management capabilities
Pros and Cons
Pros
Offers a free plan with some useful, but limited features
Decent capabilities for RSAs and Performance Max
Good reporting tools
Cons
Limited support for Performance Max, shopping campaigns, and RSAs
Longer data refresh cycle of 12 hours compared to Optmyzr’s real-time refresh cycle
Limited rule-based automation
No integration with Slack, Microsoft Teams, and Zapier
What do users say about Adzooma?
Users praise Adzooma for its intuitive interface and real-time campaign optimization insights. They also appreciate its multi-channel support and responsive customer service, making it a reliable tool for advertisers.
Using a Google Ads management tool isn’t just about managing your campaigns better—though it absolutely does that. It also makes your life as an advertiser easier by many orders of magnitude. Hopefully, we did our part to help you find a tool that does that for you.
And after what you read here, if you think Optmyzr is the tool for you, sign up for a 14-day free trial today.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a Google Ads management tool?
A Google Ads management tool is third-party software that helps you create, monitor, optimize, and report on your Google Ads campaigns more efficiently—often offering features beyond what Google’s native interface provides.
What features should I look for in a Google Ads management tool?
Multi-platform support (Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, social channels, etc.)
Customizable reports and dashboards
Real-time monitoring and alerts
Efficiency in managing bidding, budgeting, ad creation, and campaign scaling
Why you should use a Google Ads management tool
A third-party Google Ads management tool helps you create, optimize, and manage your campaigns more efficiently and effectively than you ever can using Google’s default platform. Here are a few reasons why you should use one:
1. Google doesn’t always have your best interests when making product decisions.
Google is a business. So its goal is to do what’s best for its shareholders. The more money you spend on its platform, the more beneficial that is for its shareholders. That’s a big reason for its push to increase ad prices, encourage broad match, and auto-applied recommendations so that your ads are shown for a higher number of search queries, which means more clicks and ultimately more money for Google.
2. Google’s native platform has extremely limited capabilities for advertisers.
A third-party tool can offer features that are not available or limited in Google Ads, such as competitor analysis, cross-channel integration, custom reporting, and AI-powered optimization. These features can help you gain more insights into your market and your campaigns and improve your ROI.
3. Third-party tools can save you time and money.
A third-party tool can automate many tasks that would otherwise take you hours to do manually on Google Ads, such as keyword research, bid management, ad creation, and performance tracking. This can free up your time to focus on much more important aspects of your business and reduce your advertising costs.
Negative keywords serve as the gatekeepers of your ad campaigns, allowing you to refine your targeting and ensure your ads are displayed to the most relevant audience. In this article, you will learn in detail about:
What negative keywords are
The advantages of using negative keywords
Negative keyword match types
How to find negative keywords, and
Strategies to maximize benefits from the use of negative keywords
Whether you’re new to search advertising or seeking to optimize your existing campaigns, understanding negative keywords is essential for maximizing your ROI and achieving your advertising goals.
What are negative keywords?
Negative keywords are search terms that prevent your ads from showing when those words or phrases are part of a user’s search query in Google Ads or Microsoft Ads. They act as filters, helping advertisers exclude irrelevant traffic, reduce wasted ad spend, and improve campaign performance.
Standard vs Negative Keywords:
Standard keyword: Show my ads when someone searches this term.
Negative keyword: Don’t show my ads when someone searches this term.
Example: A luxury travel agency might target “luxury vacations” but exclude terms like “cheap vacation packages” or “budget travel deals.”
With a well-structured negative keyword list, you ensure your ads reach the right audience, improving CTR, conversion rates, and overall PPC efficiency.
How to evaluate search terms to find negative keywords
Evaluating search terms is the first step in building an effective negative keyword list. The goal is simple: identify queries that waste budget, don’t match your audience, or have low conversion potential and exclude them.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Reviewing search terms one by one is slow and easy to get wrong. Optmyzr’s Negative Keywords Finder makes it easier by analyzing your Search Terms Report, breaking down queries into single words, and flagging the ones that consistently underperform.
You can quickly review these suggestions with data like impressions, clicks, CPC, and conversions, and add them as negative keywords (at the query, word, campaign, or even account level) in just a few clicks.
How do negative keyword match types work?
Negative keyword match types work similarly to regular keyword match types but in reverse, allowing you to control which search terms your ads are not shown for. There are three main types of negative keyword match types: broad, phrase, and exact.
The following table gives you an idea of how each of the match types functions for the keyword ‘free shipping’.
Negative Broad Match
Negative Phrase Match
Negative Exact Match
Search Term
Will the Ad show?
Search Term
Will the Ad show?
Search Term
Will the Ad show?
"free shipping options"
No
"free shipping options"
No
"free shipping options"
No
"shipping services with free returns"
No
"shipping services with free returns"
No
"shipping services with free returns"
No
"fast shipping options"
Yes
"fast shipping options"
Yes
"fast shipping options"
Yes
"get fast shipping"
Yes
"get fast shipping"
Yes
"get fast shipping"
Yes
"fast shipping near me"
Yes
"fast shipping near me"
Yes
"fast shipping near me"
Yes
"shipping services with fast and reliable delivery"
Yes
"shipping services with fast and reliable delivery"
Yes
"shipping services with fast and reliable delivery"
Yes
"overnight shipping services"
Yes
"overnight shipping services"
Yes
"overnight shipping services"
No
"overnight shipping tracking"
Yes
"overnight shipping tracking"
Yes
"overnight shipping tracking"
No
"fast overnight shipping"
Yes
"fast overnight shipping"
Yes
"fast overnight shipping"
No
Broad match negative keywords
Broad match negative keywords prevent your ads from showing for any search term that contains the keywords in any order, along with any additional words.
For example, if you add the negative keyword ‘free shipping’, your ads will not be shown for searches like ‘free shipping options’, ‘shipping services with free returns’, or ‘free express shipping’. This match type provides the broadest coverage but may also exclude some relevant searches.
Phrase match negative keywords
Phrase match negative keywords prevent your ads from showing only when the search term contains the exact keyword phrase, along with any additional words before or after it.
For example, if you add the negative keyword ‘fast delivery’, your ads will not be shown for searches like ‘get fast delivery’, ‘fast delivery options’, or ‘fast delivery near me’. However, they may still appear for searches like ‘delivery services with fast and reliable shipping’.
Exact match negative keywords
Exact match negative keywords prevent your ads from showing only for the exact keyword phrase specified, without any additional words before, after, or in between. For example, if you add the negative keyword ‘overnight delivery’, your ads will not be shown for searches like ‘overnight delivery services’, ‘overnight delivery tracking’, or ‘fast overnight delivery’, ensuring that your ads are not displayed for any variation of the specified phrase.
Using negative keyword match types effectively requires understanding the nuances of each match type and selecting the most appropriate option based on your advertising goals and target audience. Additionally, regularly reviewing and updating your negative keyword lists to reflect changes in search behavior and campaign performance is essential for optimizing the effectiveness of your ad campaigns.
These apply across your entire ad account and are ideal for excluding broad, irrelevant queries, like “free,” “jobs,” “make your own,” or “shops near me.”
These keywords indicate search intents that are irrelevant to your ad and can include job searches, mistaken searches, address searches, brand-specific searches, etc. Building a list of account-wide negatives will save you a lot of time and money.
The benefits of this function will amplify with each addition to the list.
But here’s a warning from the experts: don’t overdo it.
PPC expert Andrew Lolk pointed this out in our town hall episode that account-level negatives can easily cut off valuable traffic without you realizing it, especially as your product lines evolve:
“Advertisers often forget to revisit old negatives, and those can quietly block exactly the audience you’re trying to reach today.” — Andrew Lolk
💡Action Step: Build a universal negative keyword list for terms you never want to trigger ads, then audit it regularly to ensure it still aligns with your current offerings.
Campaign-level negative keywords
Campaign-level negative keywords apply only to the specific campaign they are added.
If you implement a list of negative keywords at the campaign level, you’re telling the ad platform that you do not want to show ads to anyone searching for these keywords in the entire campaign.
These negative keywords will apply to all ad groups within the campaign.
They allow advertisers to tailor their exclusions to the theme or focus of each campaign. For example, a campaign promoting luxury watches may exclude terms related to inexpensive or budget watches.
🚨Update Alert: Google recently rolled out a long‑awaited update- you can now add campaign‑level negative keywords directly in Performance Max (PMax) campaigns. This change gives you far greater control over what traffic PMax drives and helps prevent wasted spend.
Want to catch up on what’s new with Google in 2025?
Watch our exclusive discussion with Ginny Marvin, Google’s Ads Liaison, where we break down the latest updates and what they mean for your campaigns. Spoiler alert: insider intel ahead!
Ad group-level negative keywords
Ad group-level negative keywords apply only to the ad group they are added to, providing even more granular control. Advertisers can use ad group-level negative keywords to further refine targeting within a campaign.
For instance, within a campaign promoting men’s clothing, an ad group focusing on suits may exclude terms related to casual wear.
You can also use negative keywords to ensure that different ad groups don’t overlap. You can use targeted keywords from one group as negative keywords for another to avoid wasting multiple ads on a single search.
💡Action Step: Use ad group‑level negatives to keep queries where they belong. Optmyzr's Traffic Sculptor can look at how search terms are matching across your account and recommend exact‑match negatives where queries are landing in the wrong ad group. Just a few clicks, and you can make sure the right ads are showing for the right searches.
Tips to find effective negative keywords
Reviewing thousands of search terms every week isn’t realistic. But that doesn’t mean you settle for a “good enough” negative keyword list.
Adam Gorecki from Intigress puts it simply:
“If you don’t have time to review everything, start with the search terms getting the most impressions — then move on to the ones costing you the most.”
In other words, prioritize by impact. Ignore the one-off impressions. Go after what’s driving cost and volume.
From there, make your list work harder:
Build once, use everywhere. Create single‑word phrase match negatives that work on both Google and Microsoft Ads (since Microsoft doesn’t support broad match negatives).
Clean up ad group targeting. Broad and phrase match keywords will always pull in some outliers. Use exact‑match negatives at the ad group level to keep search queries aligned with the right ads (this is where Optmyzr’s Traffic Sculptor shines).
Automate the heavy lifting. Driva, a fintech based in Australia, used Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder to spot and eliminate non‑performing queries at scale. Their team freed up hours of manual review while actually improving results.
Here are some negative keyword strategies we’ve seen many experts using in their campaigns
These strategies come from seasoned PPC experts and regular practitioners like Navah Hopkins, Duane Brown, Melissa Mackey, and Nicholas Woodward.
Use match types effectively
Merely knowing match types might not be enough. Navah Hopkins points out that negative keywords do not account for close variants.
For instance, you add ‘cheap’ as a negative keyword to prevent your luxury hotel ads from showing for budget-related searches. If you use ‘cheap" as a phrase match or broad match negative keyword, it will block any search query containing the word ‘cheap’ along with additional words before or after it. This ensures that your ads won’t appear for terms like ‘cheap luxury hotel" or ’luxury hotel deals cheap’.
On the other hand, if you set ‘cheap’ as an exact match negative keyword, it will only exclude search queries that exactly match the word ‘cheap’ without any additional words. While this protects against direct mentions of ‘cheap’, it may still allow variations like ‘affordable luxury hotel’ to trigger your ads. Therefore, understanding the nuances of negative keyword match types is crucial for effective ad targeting and campaign optimization.
Look beyond the search terms report
Duane Brown from Take Some Risk Inc. offers insightful advice on expanding negative keyword strategies beyond the conventional Search Term report. He suggests “using synonym finder tools to identify closely related terms to add to your negative keyword lists”.
Additionally, GPT can be used to rank search terms by relevance. You can save a lot of time by using GPT’s AI to easily score long lists of search terms and find the ones with the lowest relevance for your business.
Exclude irrelevant keywords based on current events
Nicholas Woodward from Pack and Send says, “Major events, shocking news, and viral content can disrupt a search campaign like an earthquake. Take preemptive measures to ensure that current events or a sudden rise in related searches do not affect your campaign.”
For example, you’re running ads for ‘banana milkshake’. Meanwhile, some celebrity spills a banana milkshake on their dress and this incident goes viral in the news. Your ad campaign could experience unexpected fluctuations.
As your campaign is targeting the words ‘banana milkshake’, people searching for the celebrity mishap will also see your ad. Negative keywords can help you exclude all people searching for the celebrity.
Avoid competing with your own ads
If you’re planning to run Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) you might want to consider adding your active keywords as negatives in those campaigns. Many PPC experts including Navah have observed that despite Google’s stance that DSA campaigns won’t compete with keywords and ads from Standard campaigns, the results were much better when the two were not mixed and when negatives were used.
Leverage negative keyword lists
Despite their potential, negative keyword lists are often underutilized. Melissa Mackey says, “Every ads account should use negative keyword lists. Advertisers should have lists at least for Universal Negatives, Brand terms to negate from non-brand campaigns, and Competitor Negatives.” There might be a 20-list constraint, but they serve as valuable tools for managing extensive themed lists and maintaining campaign precision.
Additionally, Duane recommends building strong negative keyword lists to exclude irrelevant searches effectively- “Most brands can also look at building a source of truth negative keyword list and making sure they don’t show up for jobs, YouTube, video game and other odd searches.”
What are the advantages of using negative keywords?
Refined targeting
Negative keywords allow you to refine your targeting by excluding searches that are not relevant to your business or offering. This helps you focus your advertising efforts on reaching the most qualified audience for your products or services.
Improved quality score
By excluding irrelevant searches, your ads become more targeted, leading to higher click-through rates (CTRs) and improved ad relevance. This can, in turn, positively impact your Quality Score, resulting in better ad positions.
Relevant ads that convert better
Negative keywords help ensure that your ads are shown to users who are more likely to be interested in your offering. By filtering out irrelevant traffic, you increase the chances of reaching potential customers who are more likely to convert, leading to higher conversion rates and a better ROI.
Money saved on CPCs
Google’s control over ad auction pricing and changes in minimum bids are causing CPCs to rise year after year, and you should do what you can to safeguard your PPC campaigns against increasing costs.
One of the simplest ways to do that is by excluding irrelevant searches, in other words, by using negative keywords to prevent your ads from being triggered by users who are unlikely to convert. This helps you avoid wasting your budget on clicks that are unlikely to result in a desired action, ultimately saving you money on CPCs and improving the overall ROI of your ad campaigns.
Ready to implement? Use our comprehensive negative keywords worksheet
This is just a glimpse of our detailed negative keywords worksheet. Here’s a link to the full worksheet that can help you get rid of the stubborn terms eating away at your budget!
Find the positive impact of negative keywords
Finding negative keywords will always be a work in progress. The more campaigns you run, the more negative keywords you will discover, and each negative keyword helps you filter out people you don’t want. But it is important to strike a balance. If you have too many negative keywords, you might also filter out potential customers. Target keywords and negative keywords work like yin-yang. They are opposites, yet they function harmoniously.
With the right tools and strategies, you can navigate this delicate balance efficiently. Take control of your keyword management and overall account health with Optmyzr’s suite of solutions. Sign up for a 14-day free trial.
People also ask
Q. What is the primary purpose of using negative keywords in PPC campaigns A. The primary purpose of using negative keywords in PPC campaigns is to prevent your ads from appearing for irrelevant search queries. It ensures your ads are shown only to users genuinely interested in your products or services, significantly improving ad relevance, click-through rates (CTR), and return on investment (ROI) by reducing wasted ad spend on non-converting clicks.
Q. How do negative keyword match types (broad, phrase, exact) differ, and when should each be used? A. Negative keyword match types control how strictly your negatives block search queries:
Broad match: Blocks any search containing all your negative terms, in any order. Best for catch‑all exclusions like “free” or “jobs.”
Phrase match: Blocks searches that include your terms in the exact order you write them. Ideal for universal negatives (e.g., “cheap software”) and cross‑platform lists since they work in both Google and Microsoft Ads
Exact match: Blocks only searches that exactly match your negative keyword. Great for fine‑tuning at the ad group level or traffic sculpting to keep queries in the right ad groups
Q. What are the key benefits of regularly using negative keywords in my ad campaigns? A. Using negative keywords regularly helps you avoid showing ads to people who aren’t really looking for what you offer. That way, you are not stuck wasting money on irrelevant clicks. Instead, your ads reach the right audience, the ones more likely to engage and convert. Over time, this means better results, lower costs, and a campaign more in control.
Q. How often should I review my Search Terms Report to find new negative keywords? A. You should review your Search Terms Report at least once a week, especially for new or actively managed campaigns. For mature, stable campaigns, a bi-weekly or monthly review might suffice.
The frequency depends on:
Campaign budget and volume: High-volume campaigns require more frequent review.
Campaign performance: If performance is declining, more frequent checks are needed.
Industry seasonality/trends: During peak seasons or trend shifts, review more often.
Q. Can using too many negative keywords negatively impact my ad campaigns? A. Yes, using too many negative keywords or overly broad negative keywords can negatively impact your ad campaigns. Your ads might fail to show for relevant queries, reducing reach and impression volume. That’s where you need to ensure your exclusions are not unintentionally starving your campaign of the needed traffic.
There’s nothing more frustrating than launching a Google Ads campaign with carefully chosen budgets, precisely defined targeting, and ad copy you’re proud of, only to be met with… silence.
No clicks, no conversions, just the nagging question: “Why aren’t my Google Ads working?”
It’s a challenge that more advertisers are facing today. As Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin shared during our recent PPC Town Hall, “We’re experiencing a transformation as significant as the mobile revolution. Search queries are evolving from short keyword phrases to longer, more conversational queries.”
This makes traditional troubleshooting even more critical as the new shifts take over.
In this blog, we’ll break down the real reasons your Google Ads aren’t working and give you step-by-step solutions to turn things around.
Throughout this guide, we’ll also share exclusive insights and perspectives from our in-depth discussions with Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin for more informed decisions.
How to investigate if your Google Ads is actually working?
If you’re wondering, “Why aren’t my Google Ads showing or driving traffic?”, the first step is to verify whether they’re even running properly. Here’s how:
1. Review your campaign performance metrics
Go to your Google Ads and Google Analytics dashboards and check:
Impressions: Are people even seeing your ads?
Clicks & CTR: Are they engaging with them?
Conversions: Are those clicks leading to results?
If impressions or clicks are consistently low, it’s a sign that your ads may not be serving effectively, or they are not resonating with your audience.
2. Check your ad status in Google Ads
Log in to your account, click “Ads & assets,” and look at the “Status” column. This tells you if your ads are:
Active: Running normally.
Under Review: Waiting for approval.
Disapproved or Limited: Blocked or restricted due to policy or settings.
Having an idea of your ad’s status gives you a starting point for troubleshooting, whether that means fixing targeting, adjusting bids, or resolving policy issues.
Now, let’s explore the common issues that can affect the performance of your Google Ads campaigns.
Why are my Google Ad campaigns not working and how to fix the issues?
Issues with the preliminary account setup
1. Your ad has been paused, removed, or disapproved
It may seem obvious, but ads, ad groups, and campaigns can get paused, removed, or disapproved quite often. Sometimes, these issues are overlooked, especially if multiple team members manage the account. In fact, users sometimes set up a campaign but forget to turn it on, leaving it in a “paused” or “disabled” state.
Solutions:
Check “Change History”: Review this feature in your Google Ads account to track changes and discover any accidental pauses or removals in your campaigns. You can also use Optmyzr’s automated Change History reports to streamline this monitoring process further.
Understand Disapprovals: Consult Google Ads policies to identify and resolve disapproval reasons.
💡AI Tip: Optmyzr's new AI-powered Sidekick can now access change history information and handle advanced queries. Instead of manually digging through change logs, you can ask questions like "Which recent changes to the account could have contributed to the 5% decline in performance?" to quickly identify issues.
Check out more of our AI updates and how they simplify your PPC efforts here!
2. Your account is still under review
Google reviews ads to ensure they comply with its policies, but the system reviews most ads within one business day. However, more complex reviews may take longer.
Solutions:
If your ad remains under review for over 2 business days, keep an eye on your ad’s status, and if the issue continues, contact the Support team.
To avoid time constraints, submit your ad a few days ahead of any specific review deadlines. This prevents a delay in launching your PPC campaigns.
3. There’s a billing issue
Addressing billing issues is vital as they can result in account suspension once Google’s grace period expires. Common billing challenges include:
Insufficient funds on your credit card for payment
Exceeding the maximum allowable charge for a single payment
Cards that don’t accept online charges
Solutions:
Regularly verify that the credit card linked to your account is active and functioning correctly.
When switching to a new card, ensure there are no issues to prevent payment problems and potential account suspension.
4. Your IP address could be blocked
Some advertisers block their own IP addresses to study their competitors, inadvertently preventing their ads from displaying.
Solution: In your campaign settings, check if your IP address is listed in the IP exclusions section. If found, remove it to ensure your ads show up as intended.
Issues arising from managing the account
1. Your keyword search volume is too low
Google Ads automatically pauses keywords with low activity to help advertisers focus on more relevant and impactful terms. This means if a keyword has received no impressions in the past 13 months, it will be automatically paused. If you re-enable a paused keyword, it could be paused again after 3 months if it remains inactive.
Solution: Check the “Keywords” section in your account and review the “Status” column to identify low-search-volume keywords. Consider using broader terms or match types and targeting more relevant locations. Use Google’s Keyword Planner or Optmyzr’s high-performing search terms report for keyword ideas.
Poorly performing landing pages due to irrelevance, URL errors, or even hacking can negatively impact your ad ranking and cause your ads not to show on SERPs.
Solutions:
Ensure your landing pages are relevant to the ad’s intent and triggered keywords
Run an audit on your account’s landing pages to ensure that all of them use secure (https) URLs
💡Google’s Update: Landing page issues have become even more critical following Google’s latest quality update. Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin revealed:
Check out the following PPC Town Hall episode that highlights the common mistakes you should avoid while creating high-converting landing pages.
4. Bid and budgeting issues
In Google Ads, how much you bid and budget can make or break your success:
Strike a balance in your bids by efficiently optimizing your bids across ad groups. Avoid bidding too low, which could jeopardize your ad’s visibility, or bidding too high, which may deplete your budget prematurely
Utilize sitelinks to lead users to specific landing pages and enhance CTR
Google’s approach to relevance hasn’t changed, but the execution has become more sophisticated.
As Ginny pointed out, “The whole goal is to serve an ad and a landing page that is highly relevant to the user, what their need is, what their problem is that they’re searching for.”
6. Negative keywords are canceling out positive keywords
Overlapping positive and negative keywords can prevent your ad from showing for specific searches.
Solution: Regularly audit your positive and negative keyword lists to avoid overlaps and keep them updated. Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder tool can help identify conflicting keywords and suggest negative keywords to add, ensuring your positive keywords aren’t being blocked by overly broad negative terms.
7. Using the wrong keyword match types: Google Ads Coach Jyll talks about how this impacts their client
Sometimes, when you use a Broad or Phrase match type for your keywords to capture more traffic, it could match with your competitor’s brand keywords and cause your top-performing campaigns to suddenly decline.
This happened with an e-commerce client that one of our customers, Jyll Saskin Gales (Google Ads Coach and Consultant at Jyll.ca), manages. Their top-performing brand search campaign saw a sudden dip in ROAS, though they hadn’t changed anything in their campaign.
On reviewing their search term report, they found that their Phrase match keywords started matching competitor brand names. These competitors had higher search volume and higher CPCs, which ate up the client’s budget without producing good results.
Solution: “Rather than play whack-a-mole with negatives, we decided to change her brand keywords from phrase match to exact match, and performance stabilized within a few days. Phew!” - Jyll Saskin Gales, Google Ads coach & consultant, Jyll.ca
💡Google's perspective: According to Ginny, Google is addressing match type issues through AI improvements: "With automation advancements and AI advancements, we're now able to infer a lot more about what that query intent is" through AI-based keyword prioritization that helps select the most relevant keyword and ad combinations for user queries.
8. You are not providing Google with enough conversion data
One of the most overlooked reasons for poor Google Ads performance is inadequate data sharing. Smart Bidding algorithms rely heavily on conversion data to optimize your campaigns effectively. Without sufficient quality data, Google’s machine learning can’t properly identify your best customers or optimize toward your business goals.
As Ginny emphasizes, “Please give Google the data it needs to help you and your business succeed. The more you withhold information, the harder time you’ll have seeing success.”
Solutions:
Set up enhanced conversions: This feature improves conversion measurement accuracy by sending hashed first-party customer data to Google, helping the platform better understand which clicks lead to valuable actions.
Implement customer match: Upload your customer lists to help Google find similar high-value prospects and improve campaign targeting.
Feed offline conversion data back to Google: If you track phone calls, in-store purchases, or other offline conversions, import this data into Google Ads to give the algorithm a complete picture of your customer journey.
Use proper conversion tracking tags: Ensure your Google Ads conversion tracking is correctly implemented across all important actions on your website, from form submissions to purchases.
9. Campaign structure is fragmenting your conversion data
If you have multiple campaigns targeting the same audience with identical ROAS goals but they’re separated unnecessarily, each campaign operates with limited conversion data. This prevents Google’s machine learning from understanding your best customers and optimizing bids effectively.
As Ginny explains, “What matters to your business should inform your structure. That would be if you have campaigns that necessitate different ROAS targets, for example, that will dictate a structure.
But if you look across your account now and have five, ten campaigns that essentially have the same goal, that could be an opportunity to consolidate under that one goal.”
Solutions:
Audit campaigns with identical business objectives and ROAS targets
Consolidate unnecessarily fragmented campaigns into fewer, data-rich campaigns
Ensure each campaign has sufficient conversion volume for AI learning (aim for 30+ conversions per month)
Keep campaigns separate only when they serve genuinely different business goals or require different bidding strategies
Checklist used by most of Optmyzr’s power users to troubleshoot why their Google Ads aren’t working as expected
Now let’s take a look at the checklist used by our power users to investigate if their campaigns aren’t working as intended, whether it’s a sharp decline in cost or a drop in conversions. Sharing these tips below (most of them were discussed earlier too):
Check the auction insights: Is there an unexpected competitor in the market since your decline started?
Review your negative keyword lists to see if any negatives are unintentionally blocking your traffic.
Check if your conversion tracking is set up properly: This is more important than ever with Smart Bidding since the ML solely relies on the conversions coming through.
Ad schedules: You might’ve missed an important day or two while adding your ad schedules, which means that your ad could shut off altogether.
Landing Page Issues: If your conversion tracking is properly set up but conversions are down, review the entire checkout process on your website to spot any errors, unexpected out-of-stock products, or breakages.
Along with the checklist our customer used, here’s a full, comprehensive step-by-step checklist covering every fix.
Take back control of your Google Ads campaigns with Optmyzr
While Google Ads can be a powerful tool for your marketing campaigns, various issues can hinder their performance. However, with regular monitoring and troubleshooting, you can address these problems and get your ads back on track, driving the results you desire.
Don’t let the frustration of underperforming Google Ads campaigns discourage you; instead, take action to optimize your campaigns and achieve your advertising goals.
If you’re looking for an efficient way to monitor and troubleshoot your Google Ads campaigns, consider scheduling a demo with Optmyzr. Their tools can help you quickly identify and optimize for these issues.
You will get all 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.
FAQs
Q. Why is Google Ads not loading in Chrome?
A. One of the most common reasons Google Ads might not load in Chrome is due to ad blockers. Disable your ad blocker or add an exception for Google Ads to resolve this issue.
Browser settings, like pop-up blockers or JavaScript blockers, can also prevent Google Ads from loading. Adjust these settings to allow Google Ads to display.
Q. What are some common mistakes made in Google Ads setup?
Failed conversion tracking
Using the wrong keyword match types
Irrelevant or faulty landing pages
Not trademarking branded keywords
Not setting alerts for anomalies in campaign performance
Q. How long does it take for Google to start showing ads?
A. After activating your Google Ads account, it typically takes 24-48 hours for Google to review and approve it.
Following approval, Google gathers essential data about your business, learns about your target audience, and examines your desired topic. This process can take longer for larger or more complex businesses.
Q. Why are my Google Ads campaigns not showing at the top of the page?
A. If your ads aren’t appearing on the first page or at the top of search results, it’s usually because your bids are too low compared to competitors.
To fix this, check the “Est. first page bid” and “Est. top of page bid” for your keywords in Google Ads. Adjust your bids to meet or exceed these estimates to improve your ad position and ensure better visibility.
Q. Should I search for my own ads on Google to check if they’re appearing?
A. No, avoid manually searching for your own ads on Google’s search results.
When you or your team repeatedly search for your ads without clicking them, it artificially inflates impressions while lowering the click-through rate (CTR). This drop in CTR can hurt your Quality Score, leading to lower ad rankings. In some cases, it may even cause your ads to stop appearing altogether.
Instead, use Google’s “Ad Preview and Diagnosis” tool to see if your ads are showing for specific keywords. This tool simulates a search without increasing impressions, preserving your performance stats.
Amazon has pulled out of Google Shopping ads in 20 global markets. For years, they’ve been a dominant force in the auction, accounting for up to 30% of impression share in many verticals.
Their absence changes the landscape. CPC trends may shift. Impression share could be redistributed. And advertisers will need to monitor performance more closely to stay on track.
Here’s how to respond and how Optmyzr can help.
Monitor campaign changes as they happen
When a major player exits an auction, campaign performance can shift quickly. Small changes in CPC or impression share can add up, especially across large accounts or portfolios.
Optmyzr helps you stay informed with:
KPI alerts for impression share, CPC, spend, conversions, and more
Get notified when something’s off with your campaigns, like unexpected underspending or overspending.
For example:
Underspending: Catch campaigns that are spending far less than expected (e.g., 82% below average).
Overspending: Spot potential issues early, like a mistakenly entered budget or overspending triggered by an unexpected surge in available traffic now that Amazon’s out of the auction.
With Optmyzr’s Anomaly Alerts (also called Auto Alerts), you’ll get automatic notifications across any linked Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, or Facebook Ads account.
You’ll find these alerts by default under the Alert Settings page in Optmyzr.
Notifications via email, Slack, or MS Teams
Track key metrics like impression share, CPC, spend, conversions, and more, and get notified when they move in the wrong direction.
For example:
CPC spike: Get alerted when costs suddenly jump above normal levels.
Drop in conversions: Catch issues early if performance starts to slip.
Root-cause analysis with the PPC Investigator tool
The PPC Investigator is an insights tool that’ll help you find exactly which element in a given account caused a metric to increase or decrease, and whether it’s a keyword, placement, or an entire network that caused the changes.
It has two components:
Cause Chart
Root Cause Analysis
Cause Chart
The Cause Chart is based on the fact that the performance of every metric depends on the performance of other underlying metrics. It uses the relationships between different metrics to show potential causality.
Root Cause Analysis
After identifying which metric needs to be worked on, the Root Cause Analysis goes a step further and highlights the exact Campaigns/Ad groups/Product partition/Keywords, etc. that were responsible for the change in an account.
It shows top movers who are significant contributors to the change in the account when compared across the two date ranges. You can view the top three positive and negative movers for a particular account.
“It’s as if [Amazon] have completely disconnected from Merchant Center.” — David Kyle, National Positions
These tools make it easier to catch unexpected changes early, before they impact broader performance.
Adjust budgets based on changing conditions
With Amazon gone, some sectors may see reduced CPCs. Others might see more aggressive bidding. Either way, advertisers should review budget pacing to ensure it still aligns with current performance.
Optmyzr’s budget tools include:
Budget pacing dashboards for accounts or portfolios
Campaign auto-pause features to prevent over-delivery
Automatic resumption of campaigns on a new budget cycle
Daily pacing trends, weekday breakdowns, and AI-generated summaries
Effective budget pacing makes sure your campaigns stay on track throughout the month. You can use automated alerts to track monthly budgets across Google Ads combined, allowing for seamless cross-platform management.
In Optmyzr, these pacing alerts get automatically added on the Alert Settings page, where you can manage some more advanced options like notifying multiple users.
You can edit the Cycle Date or Monthly Budget target, and any update will get automatically reflected on the All Portfolio Dashboard.
For example: Monitoring spend by the 15th of the month to ensure campaigns hit 50-60% of their budget.
Why it matters: This prevents wild budget swings and makes sure the performance stays consistent.
“I always emphasize the importance of showing my clients how their budget is being utilized. The Budget Pacing tool has made this process so much easier for me, helping my team and me understand what to expect for the rest of the month and figure out where to invest the next advertising dollar for my clients.”
— Mike Rhodes, Founder, WebSavvy
“Amazon appears in ~30% of Shopping auctions across our client base — so this is a big shift. CPCs haven’t dropped… but it’s definitely one to review.” — Josh Duggan, Vervaunt
Stay flexible while the market shifts
There’s some speculation that this exit might be temporary, possibly related to Prime Day, while others see it as a broader test. In either case, advertisers who can monitor trends and respond quickly will be better positioned.
Optmyzr can help teams:
Set alerts to flag post-Amazon shifts in performance
Adjust budgets as CPCs and impression share fluctuate
Compare results across Google and Amazon Ads
Make informed changes using up-to-date campaign data
“Now is the perfect time for brands and agencies to run their own Google Search to Amazon ads with attribution, since they no longer get free coverage via Google Shopping Ads from Amazon.” — Brandon Yann, VML
Summary: What to focus on now
If you manage Shopping or Amazon Ads, consider these next steps:
✅ Review campaign performance for changes in CPC or impression share ✅ Set up alerts for key metrics across channels ✅ Monitor budget pacing to avoid overspending ✅ Compare results across platforms for short-term opportunities
Optmyzr helps advertisers respond effectively
Optmyzr’s tools support faster diagnosis, clearer reporting, and more controlled budget management across ad platforms.
In a changing market, that kind of visibility helps advertisers make practical decisions without scrambling to react after the fact.
That’s one question many PPC marketers ask us during a sales conversation. It’s a fair one. Google Ads has grown more sophisticated with tools like Editor, Automated Rules, and custom scripts.
So, where does Optmyzr fit in?
This article lays out the answer clearly and in depth. We’ll highlight what Google Ads does well, but also spotlight where it falls short and how Optmyzr fills those gaps. The reality is that Optmyzr doesn’t replace Google Ads. It complements it with automation, analytics, scalability, and workflow capabilities designed for modern paid media teams.
What Google Ads gets right and where it ends
Let’s start by acknowledging the strengths of Google’s native tools:
Google Ads Editor: A fast and powerful tool for campaign builds, bulk uploads, and offline changes.
Automated Rules: A simple way to apply changes when conditions are met.
Scripts: Ideal for advertisers with the technical know-how to write and maintain custom JavaScript.
That said, Google’s tools often lack:
Cross-account or cross-campaign visibility
Example: A PPC manager at an agency wants to compare budget pacing across 15 ecommerce clients in one view, not jump between individual accounts. Optmyzr’s Account Dashboard solves this.
Custom data inputs or business context
Example: A retailer wants to adjust bids based on profit margin per SKU, which exists in their Google sheet but isn’t available inside Google Ads. Optmyzr’s Rule Engine can ingest and act on it.
UI for complex logic or workflows
Example: Setting up layered logic like “Pause if CTR drops by 10% AND CPC rises by 10% AND ad relevance is below average” is impossible in native rules, but you can do the same as a simple drag-and-drop operation in the Rule Engine.
Predictive insights or root cause analysis
Example: A client’s conversions dropped 40% last week. Instead of pulling 5 different reports, PPC Investigator identifies that it’s due to PMax shifting budget from a high-ROAS asset group.
Team collaboration tools
Example: An agency wants its analysts to review all automated changes before they’re applied. Optmyzr enables scheduled suggestions with human-in-the-loop review via Blueprints.
As teams scale, these gaps turn into bottlenecks.
What you can’t do in Google Ads but can in Optmyzr
Feature
Google Ads
Optmyzr
Campaign grouping by performance
❌
✅
Feed-based automation
❌
✅
Cross-entity analysis
❌
✅
Creating Shopping campaigns at scale*
❌
✅
Industry insights
❌
✅
Multi-account dashboards
❌
✅
Team task assignment and SOPs
❌
✅
Real-time anomaly detection
❌
✅
Integrated competitor insights
❌
✅
Channel-specific PMax audits
❌
✅
Example: *Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management tool lets you build campaigns with hundreds of ad groups and thousands of product groups in minutes, not hours. It’s impossible to do this manually in Google Ads without risking errors and delays.
What you can do in Google Ads but tediously
Google Ads doesn’t make certain workflows easy. You can technically complete them, but only with time, spreadsheets, and workarounds. Here’s where Optmyzr streamlines the process:
Task
Google Ads
Optmyzr
Finding high- and low-performing keywords
Manual spreadsheets
Search Terms N-Grams
Investigating why CPAs rose
Multi-report exports
PPC Investigator
PMax asset-level auditing
Click through 1-by-1
Optmyzr Express (Audit in bulk)
Forecasting and budget reallocation
A long, multi-step process
Spend Projection, Optimize Budgets tools
Google Ads Automated Rules Vs. Optmyzr’s Rule Engine
Google’s Automated Rules let you:
Run a simple rule on one condition (e.g., Pause keyword if CTR < 1%)
Choose from preset date ranges
Set static thresholds
Optmyzr’s Rule Engine is built for powerful automation. It allows you to:
✅ Combine multiple rules
Use if–then–else logic
Run multiple actions per entity
Example: Pause expensive keyword, label it, and trigger a Slack alert
✅ Use multiple or custom date ranges
Compare “last 7 days” vs. “previous 7 days”
Build custom lookback windows like 14 to 8 days vs. 7 to 1 days
✅ Relative comparisons
Find keywords with CPA > campaign average by 50%
Compare CTR at different levels (e.g., ad group vs. campaign)
✅ Pull external data
Connect Google Sheets for margin, weather, seasonality, stock levels, etc.
Example: Pull profitability scores from your CRM and adjust bids accordingly
✅ Review or schedule
Preview suggestions before applying
Run manually or set recurring automations
✅ Exclude recent changes
Prevent bid stacking
Stabilize long-term optimizations
“Rule Engine is certainly one of the amazing sections of Optmyzr because it’s really like your dedicated, highly flexible, and scalable optimization hub where you can automate a lot of very valuable optimizations for your clients with infinite customizations.” - Matthieu Tran-Van
Optmyzr offers automation with accountability (what we like to call PPC insurance)
Score philosophy: Transparent, not self-serving
Google’s Optimization Score often nudges advertisers toward recommendations that increase ad spend, not always results. In contrast, Optmyzr offers its own scoring framework that:
Aligns with your business goals (e.g., ROAS targets, conversion value)
Isn’t incentivized by click volume or Google’s revenue
Reflects adherence to best practices, not just product adoption
This matters when your job is to balance performance with cost efficiency, not simply to check off Google’s to-do list.
Google’s AI-driven recommendations and campaigns like PMax have introduced helpful features, but also unexpected risks:
“Google re-enabled expanded targeting without notice and cost us thousands.” — Melissa Mackey
Pull data from Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta, LinkedIn, and more
Allow full customization of metrics (e.g., ROAS, cost/revenue ratios)
Include annotations, client commentary, and agency branding
Can be scheduled for recurring delivery
For agencies, this means less time formatting spreadsheets and more time showing value to clients.
Built-in workflows and safeguards
Optmyzr goes beyond single-user control to support complex PPC teams:
Assign optimization tasks via Blueprints
Set rule reviews so that junior team members can’t accidentally push changes live
Enable approval workflows for client-side or stakeholder review before launch
Example: An analyst sets up a budget reallocation in Rule Engine. Instead of applying immediately, the task is queued for approval from the account lead.
Optmyzr was designed for agencies and enterprises, not just individual account managers.
For agencies:
View performance across all clients from one dashboard
Create account templates and SOPs using Blueprints
Collaborate with analysts, interns, and specialists
For in-house teams:
Clone campaign structures across markets or business units
Build shopping campaigns in bulk
Use opt-in workflows to review changes before they’re live
Optmyzr doesn’t compete with Google Ads. It complements it.
If you’re a solo advertiser managing one account, Google’s native tools might be enough. But if you’re:
Managing multiple accounts or clients
Juggling various channels (Google, Microsoft, Meta)
Needing reports, automations, and alerts that reflect your business, not Google’s preferences
…then Optmyzr becomes indispensable.
Use Google’s tools where they shine. But when you need clarity across accounts, custom automations that scale, protection from black-box automation, and workflow visibility for teams, Optmyzr is your edge.
A CPC spike is one of the most frustrating things in paid search: your costs shoot up overnight, and nothing in your campaign has changed. No new keywords, no bid adjustments, no budget tweaks… and yet, your performance tanks.
The reality is that CPC spikes can occur for several reasons: a new competitor enters the auction, Google quietly updates its algorithm, or Smart Bidding starts chasing the wrong signals.
This guide breaks down the most common causes behind unexpected CPC jumps and, more importantly, shows you how to identify them early and prevent them from damaging your budget again.
Step 1: Check auction conditions
“Was I outbid, or did a competitor suddenly enter the auction?”
That’s the first question to ask when your Google Ads CPC suddenly spikes. A shift in the auction landscape, like new entrants or a bidding war, can quickly push your costs higher.
🚩 New competitors may be driving up auction prices
When CPCs rise overnight, a common culprit is a shift in the competitive landscape. Perhaps a new advertiser entered the space, or an existing one got aggressive with their bids.
Either way, their moves can drive up auction prices and put you at a disadvantage.
What to do:
Google’s auction insights report is useful, but it can be challenging to interpret in spreadsheet form. Optmyzr’s Auction Insights Visualizer makes that data instantly understandable by turning it into clear, visual charts.
Just download your auction insights report from Google Ads, upload it to the tool, and you’ll get a visual breakdown of competitor activity.
Here’s a table summarizing key Auction Insights metrics and their implications for CPC:
Metric
What it means
What does a change indicate for your CPC
Impression share
The percentage of eligible impressions received compared to the estimated total possible
A drop in your impression share, coupled with a rise for a competitor, suggests increased competitive bidding, leading to higher CPCs.
Overlap rate
It shows how often your ad and a competitor's ad appeared together in search results.
A spike indicates a competitor is more actively bidding on shared keywords, intensifying the auction and potentially increasing CPC.
Outranking share
It shows how often your ad ranked higher than a specific competitor's ad.
A decline against a competitor, even with stable bids, suggests their increased aggressiveness, potentially forcing a higher actual CPC to maintain position.
🧠 Bonus Insight: Use the Top Competitors AI Summary in Optmyzr to get a high-level view of competitor activity in the last 30 days.
See how many new competitors entered, how many exited, and who changed their keyword volume most dramatically.
For instance, if 72 new competitors entered, and a few are bidding on 3+ of your keywords, that sudden pressure could explain the CPC spike.
Likewise, if a long-time rival doubled their keyword share, it’s a signal they’ve ramped up spend.
🚩Are you competing with yourself?
Yes, it happens. If you’re running both Performance Max and Search campaigns, there’s a good chance your campaigns are bidding against each other. Google doesn’t always prioritize the cheaper one, and that can push your CPCs up for no real gain.
What to do:
Check for campaign overlap. Optmyzr’s PMax vs. Search cannibalization report can help you identify where your budget might be duplicating efforts and competing against itself.
🚩Has Google Changed the Auction Rules?
Sometimes, it’s not you or your competitors but the auction environment itself.
Google frequently updates its ad policies, expands match types, and tweaks how ads appear, such as promoting multi-page placements to increase ad density.
These shifts can make auctions more competitive without any change on your end.
What to do: Keep tabs on policy changes and monitor auction behavior regularly.
💡Pro Tip: Google Ads may automatically apply changes like bid adjustments, keyword match type shifts, or new keyword additions, without you manually approving them.
These changes can disrupt your bidding strategy and increase CPC without warning.
Go to the Recommendations > Auto-applied tab in your Google Ads account and audit which changes are being made automatically. Disable any that don’t align with your campaign goals.
Step 2: Audit your campaign setup
“Is something misconfigured in my bidding or targeting?”
Sometimes, the reason your CPC spiked isn’t external; it’s a setting change or automation quirk inside your own campaign structure. Misalignment between targeting, bidding strategy, and automation signals can lead to higher costs.
🚩 Performance Max is eating your budget
PMax can silently reallocate spend toward higher-cost asset groups or audiences. This often happens when Google detects “potential” performance, but those segments may not actually convert.
→ Fix it: Segment your PMax campaign into distinct asset groups with clear goals and messaging. If performance is suffering, break PMax into more targeted campaigns (e.g., by product category or funnel stage).
Monitor asset group-level reporting in Google Ads, and consider manually allocating budget back to high-performing standard campaigns where you retain more control.
🚩Broad match with optimized targeting overreach
Broad match keywords paired with optimized targeting can unlock reach, but they can also go too far. Your ads might start showing for loosely related, high-volume searches that aren’t really a great fit, driving up costs while conversion intent drops.
→ Fix it: Run a Search Terms Report and use Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder to cut out low-intent queries.
🚩Smart bidding and AI query expansion
Smart Bidding is powerful, but it’s not infallible. With AI-driven expansion, your ads could start bidding more aggressively on edge-case queries, ones you didn’t intend to target. If those clicks don’t convert, you’re stuck footing the bill for irrelevant traffic.
Raise Target CPA / Lower Target ROAS for converting ad groups that are losing impression share due to low ad rank, helping them win more qualified auctions.
Lower Target CPA / Raise Target ROAS for ad groups that are already converting well, ensuring you don’t overpay when results can still be optimized.
🚩 Your bidding strategy changed without warning
With Enhanced CPC deprecated as of March 2025, many accounts were migrated to fully automated Smart Bidding. If you didn’t update your goals, the system might be working with outdated assumptions.
→ Fix it: Revisit your bidding strategies in Campaign Settings. Make sure each campaign has a clear and up-to-date conversion goal (in Google Ads > Tools > Conversions).
If you were migrated from eCPC to Maximize Conversions or Manual CPC, validate that your target CPA or ROAS is realistic based on recent performance.
Step 3: Look for platform shifts
“Did Google change something in the algorithm or ad environment?”
Not all CPC spikes are caused by your bids or your competitors. Sometimes, it’s the platform itself: Google’s algorithms, auction mechanics, or even unexpected bugs, reshaping how the game is played.
🚩Algorithmic price floor changes
Google frequently adjusts the “price floor,” the minimum CPC needed to enter an auction. While official reports suggest modest CPC increases, agencies managing high-intent accounts often report higher CPC growth every year.
This gap points to deeper systemic inflation, especially where Performance Max and Shopping campaigns overlap, pushing average costs higher even without visible auction pressure.
→ What to do: Benchmark your CPC trends against industry averages and inflation metrics like CPI. A sudden spike might not be an anomaly; it could be Google recalibrating its revenue model.
🚩 Matching Behavior Shifts
Even with exact match keywords, your ads might now show less-relevant queries.
→ What to do: Regularly audit your search terms and lean on first-party data and audience signals to regain relevance and reduce waste.
🚩Bugs or unexpected system changes
Advertisers often report sharp CPC increases or conversion drops, without any campaign edits.
Sometimes, these are linked to Google-side bugs or auction-level shifts that haven’t been announced. These moments require shifting your focus from internal troubleshooting to external validation.
→ What to do: Check community forums (like Reddit or the Google Ads Help Community) and compare with peer accounts. If it’s systemic, the best response is to pause aggressive changes and wait for rebalancing.
🚩Click fraud and invalid traffic (IVT)
Fraudulent clicks can trick Smart Bidding into thinking a keyword is performing well, even if it’s not converting. This is especially dangerous when Quality Score metrics (like Expected CTR) are misleadingly high due to bot behavior.
→ What to do:
Cross-check Google Ads with GA4 or server logs. Look for:
It shows a map-based breakdown of traffic performance by city, region, or country, using clear red/green markers to highlight underperforming or efficient locations.
💡 For example: If you’re seeing a spike in clicks from a region where your business doesn’t operate and those clicks aren’t converting, the Geo HeatMap will highlight that zone in red.
From there, you can:
Exclude the region directly from your targeting settings
Create a separate campaign to test further or limit budget exposure
💬 Wondering if your CPC spike is just part of a bigger trend? You’re not alone.
Sometimes it’s not your setup, it’s a strategic shift happening inside Google Ads.
“Is this a temporary CPC surge due to events or seasonality?”
Before sounding the alarm over a CPC spike, take a step back and ask:
Could this be seasonal? Or driven by something outside my account’s control?
🚩 Holidays, industry events, or news cycles can temporarily distort auction behavior
Spikes in competition often happen when more advertisers enter the market simultaneously. Some common external triggers include:
Holidays and major shopping events (e.g., Black Friday, Prime Day, Back to School)
Seasonal demand shifts (e.g., tax season, spring travel, holiday gifting)
Media spikes or viral trends (e.g., a product gets featured in the press or on TikTok)
Economic or geopolitical news (e.g., supply chain delays, regulation changes)
These events often lead to more advertisers entering the auction at once, inflating CPCs even if you’ve made no changes on your end.
What to do:
Set up the Anomaly Detector Script in Optmyzr for real-time alerts. This tool acts as your early warning system by flagging unusual changes in CPC, impressions, clicks, or conversions, based on your account’s historical data by day and hour.
Here’s how it helps:
Detects performance spikes as they’re happening; perfect for catching short-term, event-driven surges (like viral product interest).
Calculates expected behavior based on the last X weeks and triggers alerts if actual CPC or spend deviates beyond your set thresholds.
Sends alerts via a centralized Google Sheet and notifies your team by email.
🧠 Bonus: Set a lower sensitivity threshold (e.g., 10%) for CPC or conversion alerts during known high-competition windows to monitor spikes without drowning in noise.
Step 5: Review relevance and quality
“Did my Quality Score or landing page experience drop?”
When CPCs increase unexpectedly, it’s easy to focus on competitors. But sometimes, the issue lies within your own ads. Even a small dip in Quality Score can, at times, cause your cost-per-click to spike, without your competitors doing a thing.
🚩 Ad relevance and user experience still matter Google prioritizes ads that match user intent. If your ads suddenly feel less relevant or if your landing page experience degrades, your CPCs can quietly rise as your ad rank suffers.
Common culprits include:
A mismatch between your ad copy and the landing page content
Recent edits to your page that affected performance or removed key keywords
Slower page speed or mobile usability issues
Poor keyword-to-landing-page alignment
What to do:
Use Optmyzr’s Landing Page Analysis tool to find out what changed. It scans your entire account and categorizes landing pages into four performance types:
High Performer: Strong CTR and conversion rate, a model to replicate
High Potential: Strong conversion rate but low CTR, signals misaligned ad copy
Expensive: High CTR but low conversion rate, points to poor landing page experience or relevance
Others: Top-spending pages that underperform silently
Instead of guessing why your conversions dropped or CPC rose, this tool highlights exactly which pages need work and how they’re impacting your Quality Score and ROI.
Step 6: Set up future protection
“How do I prevent CPC spikes going forward?”
Once you’ve diagnosed what caused the spike, the next move is defense. Your goal isn’t just to fix what went wrong; it’s to make sure future CPC surges are detected early or prevented entirely.
Whether you’re using Google Ads or a tool like Optmyzr, it’s a good idea to set up alerts that notify you when CPCs start rising unexpectedly. In Google Ads, you can create simple automated rules or use custom reports to flag cost increases.
If you’re using Optmyzr, tools like the Anomaly Detector or custom rules in the Rule Engine can alert you in real time when something’s off.
💡 Pro Tip: Set CPC alerts at the campaign or keyword level, not just account-wide. A spike in one campaign can get buried in overall averages. By setting more granular alerts, you’ll catch issues right where they start and stop small problems before they become expensive ones.
Stay ahead of CPC spikes with Optmyzr
CPC spikes are stressful, especially when they catch you off guard. But once you understand what causes them and put the right checks in place, they stop feeling random and start feeling manageable.
From auction insights to bidding strategy tweaks, every step you take gives you more control.
If you’re tired of trying to figure out why your costs jumped overnight, maybe it’s time to try a better way. Start your fully functional 14-day trial and see how Optmyzr can help you prevent CPC surprises before they hit your budget.
FAQs
1. Why did my Google Ads CPC suddenly spike overnight? A. CPCs can jump unexpectedly for several reasons, some within your control, others not. Often, it’s due to increased competition in the auction (like a new advertiser bidding on your keywords), a drop in Quality Score, or automated bidding reacting to shifting performance signals.
In some cases, it’s platform-driven: algorithm updates or auction changes on Google’s side can cause spikes without any changes in your account.
2. How do I know if competition is the cause behind rising CPCs in Google Ads? A. One of the clearest ways to check is by looking at your Auction Insights report. If your impression share has dropped while competitors’ has risen, you’ve likely been outbid. You may also see a spike in the overlap rate or a dip in the outranking share. These metrics give you a behind-the-scenes look at how the auction dynamics are shifting and who’s driving them.
3. Can a CPC spike be caused by changes I made? A. Yes, and it happens more often than most advertisers realize. Switching to Smart Bidding, loosening keyword match types, or expanding your targeting can all inadvertently increase your average CPC. Even changes you didn’t make manually, like Google’s auto-applied recommendations, can silently impact how aggressively you’re bidding or how broadly your ads are matching.
4. How can I prevent sudden CPC spikes in the future? A. The best defense is early detection. Set up CPC alerts using Google Ads rules or external tools so you’re notified the moment things go off track. Monitor your search terms regularly, review match types, and scale budget or bid changes gradually. Also, avoid relying too heavily on automation without oversight. Smart Bidding still needs boundaries, especially in volatile markets.
Are you noticing that your PPC budget doesn’t go as far as it used to, while targeting options now seem more limited than ever? You’re not alone, and you’re certainly not imagining it.
Google’s recent GML2025 updates made one thing clear: the rules of audience targeting are changing fast. We now have AI Max, a new keywordless campaign type that expands on the automation model of Performance Max.
With these shifts, traditional account management approaches like keyword targeting and general lookalike audiences are no longer sufficient.
This calls for an audience-first PPC strategy: one that focuses on understanding and targeting specific audience segments, and tailoring ads to match their behaviors and preferences.
A more impactful tactic in this new era is competitor audience targeting. It’s a strategic shortcut to reaching high-intent prospects faster. This guide covers what it is, why it works, and how to do it right to lower CPC, boost ROAS, and future-proof your PPC strategy in 2025.
What is competitor audience targeting in PPC?
Competitor audience targeting involves building highly targeted custom audiences based on the websites your competitors are attracting traffic to. Unlike competitor keyword targeting, which focuses on bidding for the same search terms, this approach targets actual audiences that have shown interest in your competitors.
This is one of the most powerful audience targeting tactics available today, since it can be associated with campaign types that don’t use keyword-based targeting, like Performance Max, Demand Gen, Display, etc., to get more control on their reach and spending.
Why traditional keyword targeting alone isn’t enough
1. Auction saturation and cost inflation
As CPCs rise and market competition intensifies, relying solely on keyword targeting and bidding, especially during peak seasons like BFCM, can quickly drain your ad budget. Overcrowded auctions drive costs sky-high, often without delivering proportional returns, particularly if your ad rank isn’t competitive.
2. Limited control in AI-led campaign types
Campaign types like Performance Max and Demand Gen don’t support keyword targeting and offer limited visibility into search term data. Relying on them without strong audience input means surrendering control to Google’s algorithm. While you may hit your conversion goals, it often comes at the cost of wasted spend on irrelevant audiences across multiple channels.
3. Keywords show queries, not people
Traditional competitor keyword targeting may help you compete on the same search terms, but it doesn’t reveal who you’re actually reaching. Without visibility into the audiences behind those queries, you’re missing the chance to target high-intent users directly. You need tools that turn competitor engagement into actionable audience segments for your own campaigns.
Why competitor audience targeting works
1. Behavioral affinity > guesswork on intent
Unlike traditional audience targeting, which covers a wide spectrum of users across different stages of the funnel, competitor audience targeting zeroes in on users who are already solution-aware. These users are actively considering alternatives.
Your goal? Persuade them that your solution offers more value than your competitor’s. This approach boosts advertising efficiency by focusing the budget on those most likely to convert.
2. Unlocks smarter audience seeds for Google’s algorithms to target
In AI-driven campaign types, the quality of your inputs determines the quality of your outputs. Competitor audiences act as high-quality seeds that inform Google’s machine learning models more precisely, leading to more efficient budget use.
3. Reduces waste and speeds up results
Starting with audiences that are already high-probability converters shortens the learning curve of black-box campaign types like Performance Max. It leads to faster stabilization, improved ROAS, and reduced spend on irrelevant impressions.
Real use cases for competitor-based audience targeting
1. Prospect smarter (not broader)
Launching a Display campaign for a SaaS project management tool? Instead of going broad with interest-based targeting, build a custom audience of users who visit competitors like Zoho Projects or Asana.
The result? Lower CAC, better CTR, and more marketing-qualified leads within the first two weeks.
2. Boost PMax performance with external audience signals
A DTC apparel brand runs a PMax campaign and adds a custom audience built from URLs of top competitors. This arms Google’s machine learning algorithms with more relevant audience signals, accelerating learning for asset groups and improving cost efficiency across placements.
3. Run win-back or contrast campaigns
Suppose you’re managing an account of a fintech startup. Build campaigns targeting audiences from larger players like Intuit. The ad messaging should focus on speed, agility, and personalized support, contrasting the pain points associated with larger companies.
Result: Higher engagement from users open to alternatives.
4. Category expansion
Suppose you’re managing campaigns for a meal delivery service that’s expanding into wellness-related products. Identify adjacent competitors and target their audiences. This opens up new revenue streams via cross-category interest, with less money spent on prospecting.
How to build competitor-targeted audiences
1. The manual approach
To create competitor URL-based audience segments in Google Ads, you need to create a custom segment within the Audience Manager, selecting “people who browse types of websites” and adding your competitor’s URLs. This allows you to target users who have recently visited those websites.
Here’s a step-by-step guide:
Access Audience Manager: Navigate to your Google Ads account. Go to “Tools & settings” > “Audience manager”.
Create a Custom Segment: Click the “Custom segments” tab, then the plus button to create a new custom segment.
Define the Audience: Choose “People who browse types of websites”. Enter your competitor’s URLs and, optionally, relevant search terms. These segments are inferred by Google based on user behavior, not direct visits.
Name and Save: Give your segment a clear name (e.g., “Competitor A Visitors”) and save.
Add to Campaign: In your chosen campaign or ad group, go to “Audiences” > “Edit audience segments” > select your new segment > click “Save”.
While powerful, this process is fragmented and manual. Here’s an easier way.
2. The smarter way: Building competitor audiences through Optmyzr
We recently introduced a new feature that makes it easy to create targeted custom audiences using competitor website URLs, right from the Top Competitors Widget on your Account Dashboard.
This widget identifies competitor domains based on overlapping keyword activity. You can immediately build an audience by clicking “Create Audience”, opening a side-tray where you can:
Pre-fill with the top 5 competitor URLs
Add related search terms or interests to your custom audience segments
Assign audiences to campaigns (Display, Performance Max, Demand Gen, etc.)
Apply and manage across ad groups/asset groups from one place
This turns a previously complex, multi-step task into a streamlined workflow, giving you smarter reach in minutes.
Why this matters now (and what’s coming next)
Ad platforms are increasingly adopting keywordless targeting models like AI Max and Demand Gen, where traditional controls no longer apply. In this landscape:
Audiences, and not just keywords, will define success.
The advertiser’s advantage lies in audience signal quality.
Most ad tools are still playing catch-up in this regard. Optmyzr is building for what’s next: smarter, faster, audience-led PPC workflows.
It’s time to move from keyword strategy to audience strategy
PPC success in 2025 is not just about showing up for the right searches; it’s about showing up for the right people.
If you’re ready to avoid broad guesswork and start using your competitors’ success as your targeting strategy, Optmyzr can help. If you’re not an Optmyzr user yet, sign up for a free trial to explore this feature and see how it gives you a competitive edge.
Key questions answered
Q. What is competitor audience targeting?
A. It’s the strategy of creating audience segments from competitor website URLs, allowing you to target users already interested in similar products or services.
Q. How does competitor audience targeting improve ROAS?
A. By targeting high-intent users who have already engaged with competitor sites, you reduce wasted impressions and increase the likelihood of conversions.
Q. What are common tools or methods for competitor audience targeting?
A. You can use Google Ads Custom Segments and Optmyzr’s new feature to build competitor-targeted audience segments.
Q. Why is this feature not available in my Optmyzr plan?
A. The “Create Audiences Using Competitor Websites” feature is available only in Premium and Enterprise plans. Contact support@optmyzr.com to upgrade.
Q. How does competitor audience targeting help with PMax campaigns?
A. It feeds Google’s machine learning with high-quality audience signals, accelerating learning and improving performance across asset groups.
Q. What challenges does competitor audience targeting solve?
A. It solves inefficiencies in targeting by focusing ad spend on known high-intent segments, improves relevance, and provides greater control in AI-led campaigns.
Managing multiple ad accounts can feel like an endless to-do list—analyzing search terms, avoiding wasted spend, monitoring performance, and keeping track of audiences. And that’s just the start.
When the holiday season hits, the workload multiplies. The common solution? Automation Layering.
Our customers rely on the Rule Engine to handle this, but we know that with so many new features available, it can be tricky to unlock its full potential.
We analyzed several high-performing customer accounts to compile a list of innovative strategies they’ve used to boost performance. These customers are enterprise brands and agencies managing hundreds of accounts across industries (with a heavy focus on e-commerce PPC strategies).
We’ve also included setup instructions so you can build them for your own accounts.
Pro tip: Set your favorite strategies as Global ones by clicking on the “3-dot” menu—this allows you to create one template and apply it across multiple accounts without setting them up individually.
For example, apply a global budget management strategy across all your e-commerce accounts to save time during the holiday season. This will give you an extra layer of automation and save countless hours!
What is the Rule Engine?
For those new to the Rule Engine, here’s a quick overview: it combines the best of both worlds—control over your campaigns with automation working behind the scenes to keep everything running smoothly. It uses simple “If-This-Then-That” rules to monitor your campaigns, ad groups, keywords, and more, with minimal effort on your part.
If Google Ads’ automated rules feel too limiting and you want more control, the Rule Engine is the perfect tool. Need help getting started? Check out our resources below!
To make things easier, we also offer pre-built strategy templates that you can add to your accounts and customize as needed.
And don’t forget, you can automate your strategies to save time. You can choose whether to let the system make changes for you or just notify you with suggestions for review.
Here’s what our Pro Plus $500K customer and Google Ads expert, Matthieu Tran-Van, had to say about the Rule Engine:
“Rule Engine is certainly one of the amazing sections of Optmyzr because it’s really like your dedicated, highly flexible, and scalable optimization hub where you can automate a lot of very valuable optimizations for your clients with infinite customizations.”
Matthieu saw a 28% revenue increaseat the same ROAS through automated optimizations and saved 20 hours per client weekly using automated custom strategies. Here’s a video where he explains popular automations that save him time and prevent burnout:
Now, let’s dive into those innovative strategies!
1. Find products that previously converted
Rule Engine scope: Shopping/PMax Products
This strategy helps you identify products that aren’t currently converting but performed well in the past. Set conditions to check how much they’ve cost and how many clicks they’ve received.
This generates a report of non-converting products that converted in the past. You can place these in performance-based campaigns and give them a budget boost to revive their performance if necessary.
Sample Conditions:
Recommendation: Duplicate this rule to compare product conversions across different time frames—e.g., last 30 days vs. last 90 days, or last quarter vs. previous quarter.
2. Monitor ad copy relevance to season
Rule Engine scope: Ads
Ensure that your ad copy remains relevant to the current season. This strategy provides automated reports of RSAs and/or ETAs containing text related to holiday sales like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, or Valentine’s Day.
However, it’s important to note that you’ll need to manually adjust the trigger phrases (like “Black Friday”) for each season or event. The Rule Engine can’t automatically detect the time of year, so setting the right conditions is key for ensuring your ad copy aligns with the season.
Sample Conditions:
Recommendation: Duplicate this rule for each holiday season by swapping text (e.g., from “Black Friday” to “Valentine’s Day”). You can also add KPIs to evaluate performance and adjust low-performing ads to boost engagement.
3. Adjust ROAS/CPA targets based on the weather
Rule Engine scope: Campaigns
This strategy is especially useful because spending ad budget on weather-sensitive products like air conditioners during the US winter is unlikely to drive conversions. Conversely, snow boots will perform better in colder climates, so making weather-related adjustments can help you focus your spend where it matters most.
Set conditions to check the temperature and weather forecasts in your target locations and automatically modify ROAS/CPA targets based on these conditions.
Sample Conditions (if you’re selling winter equipment, for example):
Recommendation: Set up similar conditions to adjust keyword bids, ad group bids, and campaign budgets, or generate reports based on weather data. If your goal is to change campaign statuses and/or location targeting alone based on weather conditions, try our Weather-Based Campaign Optimization tool!
Recommendation: Add additional conditions to check if campaigns are converting or hitting your ROAS targets. You can also create reports for campaigns that exceed different spending thresholds, such as 150% of your daily budget, or check for underspending campaigns that could benefit from a budget boost.
If you prefer not to auto-pause, you can choose to receive daily reports or alerts instead by selecting the action “Include in Report”.
4b. Advanced budget monitoring strategy that considers campaign-level metrics
How do you modify campaign budgets based on metrics like impression share (which are available at the campaign level only)? Since Google Ads treats campaigns and budgets as separate entities, you can’t directly create rules to adjust budgets using campaign-level metrics.
But there’s a workaround! Use a 2-strategy approach with the advanced “Key Value Pairs” feature in the Rule Engine:
Step 1: Create a strategy at the Campaign scope to identify campaigns that meet your chosen conditions, like specific impression share levels. These campaigns will act as “Keys.”
Step 2: Use those “Keys” in a second strategy at the Budget scope to update budgets for the identified campaigns.
For a clearer explanation, we’ve recorded a video based on a real use case from one of our customers. Check it out here:
4c. Automating budget pacing for Demand Gen campaigns
Looking for a smarter way to manage budgets for Demand Gen and Performance Max campaigns?
Google’s native budget scripts don’t support these newer formats and often lead to overspending or underspending due to rigid assumptions about daily budget pacing. Manual checks take time, increase the risk of errors, and add stress, especially at month-end.
Our customer, Heather Darab from Blue Yarn Media created a strategy that offered more control and adapted to real-time campaign performance. Her setup essentially evens out budget pacing across the month using a formula-driven approach, with no manual checks or custom scripts required.
Sample conditions inspired by her strategy:
You can use custom metrics in both the conditions and actions of your rule, such as Monthly Budget, Days Remaining in Month, etc., using data recorded in a sample sheet like this:
“With a Rule Engine strategy I’ve set up to manage budgets for Demand Gen, I would say I save at least an hour a week. But beyond that, there’s also the intangible stress, wondering if I missed a campaign going over budget or whether we’ll hit the client’s goals because a detail was missed.
Peace of mind is a huge benefit. Now, there’s much less manual work and fewer errors, which helps maintain client trust too.” - Heather Darab, Founder, Blue Yarn Media
5. Monitor account changes made by your team
Rule Engine scope: Change History
Tracking changes in large teams is tough, especially during busy seasons. This rule generates a report of all changes made, including the email addresses of those making the changes and when they were applied.
Why do this?
Having a regular report of all changes helps you identify what made a campaign shine during the last month or troubleshoot underperforming ones.
Sample Conditions:
Recommendation: For large accounts, create separate rules for specific campaigns or team members by using conditions like “Campaign Name contains XYZ” or “User Email contains abc@example.com”. Pull these reports into a spreadsheet, using separate tabs for different accounts or team members.
6. Monitor keyword match types
Rule Engine scope: Keywords
Using this strategy ensures your keyword match types are correctly aligned with your campaign structure. This is crucial because keywords in the wrong match type groups can drastically affect your performance. Broad match types, for example, might bring in too many irrelevant searches if not carefully placed, and exact matches might restrict traffic if misused. This strategy flags such instances, helping you maintain a cleaner account structure.
Sample Conditions:
Recommendation: Apply this approach to monitor branded vs. non-branded keywords, ensuring they’re placed in the correct campaigns. Create conditions like “Campaign Name contains <Brand name>” & “Keyword does not contain <Brand name>” for this strategy.
Set these strategies up in your accounts now
This list barely scratches the surface of what’s possible with the Rule Engine, but it’s a great starting point to take your optimizations to the next level and stay ahead of competitors this season.
Need help setting up these rules? Reach out to our Support team!
If you’re not an Optmyzr customer yet, start a 14-day free trial and explore how Rule Engine can supercharge your campaigns.
FAQs
1. What is the Rule Engine?
The Rule Engine is Optmyzr’s custom rule builder, allowing you to generate reports, perform optimizations, and set custom alerts using “If-This-Then-That” rules. You can also automate these rules to run at your preferred frequency, combining automation with control.
2. What ad platforms does Rule Engine support?
You can use Rule Engine to optimize and analyze Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, Amazon Ads, and Facebook Ads.
3. Does the Rule Engine automation directly apply any changes to the ad platforms without my approval?
You can choose whether the system directly applies changes based on your rules or sends you email or Slack/MS Teams notifications with suggestions, allowing you to review and apply changes manually.
Advertisers loved the automation. But they hated flying blind. No channel-level insights, clunky exclusions, and zero clarity on creative performance or budget split.
Now, in 2025, Google’s PMax updates are finally closing those gaps. Here’s what changed, and why it matters.
Gap #1: Attribution blindness → Solution: Channel reporting
Our study revealed something interesting: 82% of advertisers were running PMax campaigns alongside other types, such as Search, Shopping, or Display.
However, PMax consistently underperformed when run alongside those other campaigns.
Advertisers could tell their PMax campaigns weren’t pulling their weight compared to, say, Search or Shopping. But they couldn’t dig into why, as channel-level visibility just wasn’t there.
See how the data showed clear wins for Search, and even Shopping held its own pretty well.
But without being able to break things down by channel, advertisers were stuck guessing what was holding PMax back.
Budget allocation was a problem
The study also showed that 51% of advertisers allocated more than 50% of their budget to PMax. While these high allocation accounts achieved the strongest ROAS (652.03%), they also showed mixed performance on other key metrics like conversion rate and CPA.
The study noted that “there are also potential conversion rate and CPA advantages when keeping PMax limited to 10%–25% of the budget.”
Yet, advertisers had no way to understand which specific channels within PMax were consuming their budget or delivering these varied results.
This made it difficult to make informed decisions about optimal budget allocation.
The study also found that campaigns using video assets performed well while maintaining effectiveness across different intent levels.
However, advertisers still couldn’t see whether their video budget within PMax was actually going to YouTube, Display, or other visual placements, leaving them unable to optimize their creative strategy effectively.
How channel-level reporting fills these gaps
One of the most requested updates for Performance Max is finally here: channel-level performance reporting. It is now available as a dedicated tab in the PMax interface.
This new tab gives advertisers clear insights into key metrics like impressions, clicks, cost, and conversions across individual Google channels: Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail, Discover, and Maps.
For example, video assets can now be optimized specifically for YouTube or Display, while more transactional messaging can be focused on Search or Shopping.
Here’s how this update addresses the gaps we found in our study:
You can now gain a better view of how your PMax budget is being distributed across channels like Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Gmail, Discover, and Maps.
No more guessing why PMax underperforms next to other campaigns. You can now identify which specific channels within PMax are falling short and make smarter adjustments.
You can also see exactly which channels are driving conversions and create tailored assets for those high-performing placements, instead of relying on one-size-fits-all creatives that get wasted on low-impact inventory.
You can move away from trial-and-error budgeting. With real performance data by channel, you can confidently decide whether PMax deserves 50 %+ of your spend, or if scaling it back to the 10–25% range makes more sense.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use the "Exclude Low-Performing Placements" optimization in Optmyzr Express to reduce wasted spend across your PMax campaigns. With one click, you can exclude underperforming websites, mobile apps, YouTube videos, or channels that eat up budget without driving conversions.
Gap #2: All-or-nothing exclusions → Solution: Campaign-level negatives
Until recently, Performance Max gave advertisers limited control over what search queries to block. Without campaign-level negative keywords, the only option was broad, account-wide exclusions, which often meant sacrificing performance for brand safety.
The result? Irrelevant impressions, wasted spend, and a growing sense of frustration, especially among brands concerned with suitability and efficiency.
What did our study say?
Surprisingly, 58% of advertisers saw flat or slightly better performance with no exclusions at all, suggesting that overly restrictive filters can stifle PMax’s automation.
This aligns with our study’s broader finding that performance remained relatively flat across accounts with or without exclusions, implying that excessive advertiser bias might hinder machine learning more than help it.
The key lies in precise, purposeful exclusions, not blanket blocks.
What’s new: Campaign-level negative keywords
Now, advertisers can exclude specific search terms directly within each PMax campaign, a long-awaited update that brings PMax closer to the flexibility of Search campaigns.
This change allows advertisers to:
Filter out low-intent, irrelevant, or brand-damaging queries
Preserve budget for high-value terms
Build confidence in scaling PMax, knowing they have finer control
It also signals a shift in Google’s approach, acknowledging that advertisers want both automation and precision.
How it works (and why it matters)
Campaign-level negatives apply only to the PMax campaign, where they’re set, unlike account-level exclusions, which are broader and less targeted.
Retail brands now have more flexibility to avoid branded or competitor queries without hurting discovery-based reach across channels.
Best practices: When (and when not) to use negatives
Use them to block clearly irrelevant or non-converting queries that don’t align with your goals.
Avoid overuse, especially early on, as excessive exclusions can limit learning and prevent PMax from identifying valuable new opportunities.
With the rollout of search term reporting alongside campaign-level exclusions, advertisers can actively improve PMax campaigns, blending automation with strategic human input.
💡Note: Initially, the limit for campaign-level negative keywords in Performance Max campaigns was set at 100. However, Google has since increased this limit to 10,000 negative keywords per campaign, aligning with the limits in Search campaigns.
Gap #3: Asset performance mystery → Solution: Enhanced asset reporting
For years, advertisers were flying blind when it came to creative performance in PMax. You’d get a vague “Ad Strength” score, but little clarity on which specific assets were actually driving results. It was anyone’s guess which headlines, videos, or images were pulling their weight.
And the data backs this up: in our study, 57% of advertisers used full creative sets (images, videos, headlines, descriptions), yet only saw average performance. Surprisingly, text-only assets often outperformed “complete” sets, raising more questions than answers about creative strategy.
What’s new: Enhanced asset-level reporting
Google’s updates roll out rich, downloadable performance metrics for every asset in your PMax campaigns and RSAs, and RDAs, too. You can now track:
Impressions, Clicks, and Cost for each asset
Conversions and Conversion Value per Asset
Average CPC and Conversion Value/Cost
Performance breakdowns across images, videos, headlines, descriptions, and even final URLs (in RSAs)
You’ll also see enhanced asset group reporting that segments data by device, time, and more, right from the Google Ads interface.
With asset data now segmentable by device or time of day, advertisers can also optimize creative sequencing or match different creatives to mobile vs. desktop journeys.
Why it matters
With real asset-level data, you can stop relying on broad “Ad Strength” labels and start making decisions based on what actually performs. You can easily pinpoint underperforming visuals or messaging, retire what’s not working, and double down on high-converting assets.
Furthermore, performance, creative, and merchandising teams can work from the same dataset, especially critical for DTC brands where visuals and messaging drive sales.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use Optmyzr’s Google Ads Audits to identify weak spots in your Performance Max creatives. These audits surface:
Assets labeled 'Low' performance
Asset groups missing audience signals
Too few headlines, descriptions, logos, or image assets
Campaigns with Final URL Expansion turned off
These insights give you a checklist to improve creative coverage and avoid performance penalties tied to incomplete or unoptimized asset groups.
Optimization strategy: how to make it work
Identify creative patterns: Look at top-performing headlines or videos—what themes, formats, or tones do they share?
Simplify when needed: If your “complete” set isn’t outperforming, don’t hesitate to scale back. Focus on fewer, stronger assets.
Test intentionally: Use data to guide experiments—not just what looks good, but what works.
Gap #4: One-size-fits-all conversions → Solution: High-value new customer acquisition goals
The study made one thing clear: conversion volume still matters, especially with a benchmark of 60+ conversions per month for PMax’s AI to function effectively.
But it also exposed a deeper issue: not all conversions are created equal.
Treating every customer the same, regardless of their lifetime value, leads to missed opportunities and inflated acquisition costs.
This issue is especially relevant for businesses with high LTV customers, like subscription, luxury, or SaaS models, where a single quality acquisition has significantly more impact than multiple low-intent leads.
What’s new: High-value new customer mode
Google rolled out a smarter solution: New Customer Acquisition Goals with High-Value Customer Targeting. This feature lets advertisers go beyond just “new vs. existing” and start prioritizing new customers who are predicted to deliver greater long-term value.
Using Customer Match lists and the Maximize Conversion Value bidding strategy, Google’s AI can now:
Identify your existing customers
Predict which new users are most likely to become high-value customers
Automatically bid more aggressively to acquire them
This approach lets advertisers align Google’s bidding logic with their internal profitability models, shifting optimization away from surface-level metrics and toward true customer value.
Why it matters
This update solves a key gap uncovered in the study: performance optimization shouldn’t stop at surface-level conversions. For many businesses, especially those with repeat purchase or subscription models, the value of acquiring one loyal customer outweighs five low-intent leads.
By integrating first-party data, advertisers can now:
Separate acquisition from retention goals
Focus the budget on net new revenue, not recycled users
Align PMax strategy with real business outcomes, not vanity metrics
This feature is especially impactful for subscription-based, high-ticket, or recurring-revenue models where the LTV of a single customer dramatically outweighs one-time conversions.
🔧 Optmyzr Tip: Use the “Hourly Stats Report” and “Anomaly Detector”scripts to track fluctuations in Performance Max performance. These tools now include PMax data and help you catch unexpected dips, spikes, or delivery issues before they impact ROAS.
Gap #5 Unclear impact of search themes → Solution: Usefulness indicators + source column
According to the study, 71% of advertisers used Search Themes, but the results were mixed or flat, leaving marketers in a bind.
Are these themes actually guiding the algorithm? Are they being ignored? Should advertisers keep using them or remove them altogether?
This lack of clarity created a strategy black hole.
Advertisers were investing time in crafting themes without knowing if they influenced campaign behavior, or worse, if they were hurting performance.
Why this mattered
Without transparency into how Search Themes affected targeting or results, advertisers couldn’t:
Tell if their inputs were working
Fine-tune or confidently remove underperforming themes
Incorporate Search Themes into broader keyword strategies
What the new feature solves
Google’s new Search Theme Usefulness Indicator and Search Term Source column directly address this ambiguity. With these tools, advertisers can now:
See whether a Search Theme was actually used to trigger an impression (Usefulness Indicator)
Understand whether a search term was triggered by Search Themes, Audience Signals, or organic campaign learning (Source Column)
Adjust or remove themes with confidence based on clear attribution and impact
These indicators allow advertisers to turn Search Themes into a testable input, adding themes intentionally, reviewing results, and iteratively refining their list.
Over time, this creates a feedback loop similar to keyword optimization in traditional Search.
Guide and grow your PMax strategy with Optmyzr
The 2025 updates to Performance Max represent a turning point, offering the transparency and control advertisers have long asked for. But navigating these new capabilities effectively still takes the right tools and insights.
That’s where Optmyzr comes in. It helps you manage Performance Max campaigns with greater confidence, identifying wasted spend and uncovering actionable insights across creatives, budgets, and placements.
With tools for negative keyword workflows, budget optimization, and PMax performance audits, we make it easier to guide automation with strategic intent.
1. How can I see where my Performance Max budget is being spent across different Google channels, and how can I optimize it? A. Advertisers can now use the new Channel Performance reporting tab directly within the PMax interface. It provides a detailed breakdown of impressions, clicks, cost, and conversions across specific Google channels like Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display, Discover, Gmail, and Maps.
This transparency allows you to identify which channels are driving value versus those consuming budget with little return.
2. Can I add negative keywords to my Performance Max campaigns to prevent irrelevant traffic, and how does this work? A. Yes, a highly anticipated update in 2025 allows advertisers to add negative keywords directly at the campaign level within Performance Max. This means you can explicitly exclude specific search queries from triggering your PMax ads, providing crucial control over irrelevant or brand-unsuitable traffic.
3. How can I get detailed performance data for my individual creative assets (headlines, images, videos) within Performance Max, and how do I use it to optimize? A. Google has expanded asset-level reporting to provide granular performance data for individual assets within PMax, Responsive Search Ads (RSAs), and Responsive Display Ads (RDAs). You can now view impressions, clicks, cost, conversions, conversion value/cost, and average CPC for each image, video, headline, and description.
This data moves beyond vague “Ad Strength” scores, allowing for true data-driven creative optimization, helping you find underperforming assets and scale what’s working.
4. How can Performance Max help me acquire high-value new customers, and what data do I need to provide? A. PMax now offers a “high-value new customer mode” for customer acquisition goals, rolling out to all advertisers. This feature allows you to prioritize and bid more aggressively for new customers predicted to maximize lifetime value (LTV). To leverage this, your bidding strategy must be set to “Maximize Conversion Value,” and you need to integrate Customer Match lists with a minimum of 1,000 active members to help Google’s AI recognize existing customers and identify high-value prospects.
5. Are Search Themes in Performance Max effective, and how can I tell if they are driving incremental traffic? A. Google has introduced a “usefulness indicator” for each search theme, showing how effectively it is driving additional traffic beyond what PMax would have found independently. Moreover, a “Search Term Source” column clarifies whether queries originate from PMax’s keywordless targeting or from your specified search themes.
These insights help advertisers determine if their provided search themes are genuinely adding value and if they require refinement. The limit for Search themes has also been expanded to 50, offering more flexibility.
Brands selling across multiple channels are adapting to how people actually shop — blending performance with discovery, and tailoring touchpoints around real behavior. A journey might start with a Google search, continue through a YouTube ad, and end with a purchase on Amazon.
But here’s the problem: these campaigns are often run in silos. Separate budgets, separate teams, and disconnected strategies.
This creates friction.
A shopper might click a YouTube ad, read your blog, then buy on Amazon—yet your data shows three disconnected actions. Attribution breaks, messaging misaligns, and worse, you may end up bidding against yourself for the same customer.
This is why advertisers who run both shouldn’t just run them side-by-side. Instead, they should consider a dual platform strategy.
It’s not just about doubling your spend. Rather, it’s about aligning platforms to the right funnel stages, routing traffic based on intent, and retargeting users where they’re most likely to convert.
In this blog, we’ll show you how to leverage a cross-platform ad strategy for your business and turn it into a smart system for better ROI.
Why combine Google and Amazon ads?
As consumers, we rarely move neatly from search to purchase. Instead, we zigzag between discovery and research, backtrack, and switch between tabs like the digital window shoppers we are.
Both Google and Amazon represent two distinct stages in this journey.
🔎Google: Often, where the journey begins, customers type in questions, compare different options, read reviews, and scan prices. It’s the platform for intent-based discovery and top-to-mid funnel engagement. You catch them while they’re curious.
🛒Amazon: Here, the mindset shifts. Shoppers come here with a higher intent to purchase. This is the platform for transactional behavior where searches more often than not translate into purchases.
🔑Key takeaway: If you’re looking to maximize visibility while guiding intent toward action, the strategic move is to leverage both platforms in tandem. When you show up at both the moment of consideration and the moment of conversion, you build a presence that moves with the customer across the funnel.
Mapping the funnel: Google + Amazon
An efficient ad strategy combines both Google and Amazon so that they complement each other. The goal is to align each platform with the stage of the customer journey it best supports.
Top of funnel
This is where discovery happens.
The goal is not to really convert but to spark interest and highlight your USP. A great place for your brand story to shine.
Use YouTube, Display, and broad-match Search ads to build awareness around your brand, especially for category-defining terms.
📌Example: A prebiotic granola brand runs a YouTube ad titled “Why Your Breakfast May Be Missing Gut Health Support”, paired with broad-match Search ads targeting queries like “healthy cereal alternatives” or “foods for digestion”. The goal is to educate and attract interest from wellness-conscious shoppers who may not know the brand but are open to the category.
Mid-funnel
This is the consideration phase where shoppers are evaluating their options.
The objective is to reinforce the interest you’ve earned. That means reminding shoppers why they engaged with your brand in the first place. Serve ads that help customers make informed decisions. It could be through product comparison pages, customer reviews, or even a ‘why choose us’ page.
Retargeting through Google Display campaigns brings them back to your product or educational pages, while your Amazon Storefront acts as a trust-building touchpoint, offering social proof, pricing, and delivery clarity.
📌Example: A shopper who searched for “healthy granola for gut health” is retargeted with a Display ad linking to a blog post titled “3 Reasons Our Prebiotic Blend Works”. Meanwhile, they visit Amazon to compare reviews and see Prime delivery. The brand stays top-of-mind across both platforms.
Bottom funnel
Here the goal is simple— conversion.
Once the shopper knows what they want, Amazon becomes the closer. Sponsored Product and Sponsored Display ads work well here—capturing high-intent searches like brand or product names and retargeting users who’ve already shown interest.
📌Example: A shopper who previously viewed a prebiotic granola brand on Google now searches “[Brand Name] granola” on Amazon. A Sponsored Product ad appears at the top of results. It features a familiar name, a Prime badge, and a discount! One click, and they convert.
How to launch a dual-platform funnel
Step 1: Set up your Google ads for broad reach and high-intent targeting
Top of Funnel (ToF): Use YouTube, Display, and broad-match Search to capture interest through category keywords or competitor terms. This stage is about discovery and brand introduction.
Mid Funnel (MF): Focus on branded search terms and set up retargeting via Display for users who visited your site but didn’t convert.
Also consider layering in custom intent and in-market audiences to identify users who are actively researching products in your category.
Use Customer Match to re-engage CRM audiences by uploading email lists (e.g. newsletter subscribers or past customers).
💡Pro tip: Use Optmyzr’s Keyword Lasso to identify high-performing search queries from the Search Terms Report and add them as mid-funnel keywords or SKAGs. This helps capture proven intent and tighten campaign structure as performance data grows.
Step 2: Optimize your Amazon storefront to function like a high-converting landing page
Design a clean, mobile-optimized layout with clear product sections and benefits-first messaging.
Highlight USPs, reviews, product comparisons, and FAQs to remove friction.
Set up Amazon Attribution links to measure how your external Google Ads influence Amazon conversions.
Build Sponsored Brand campaigns that drive traffic to your Storefront, not just product listings—especially during branded or competitive search phases.
💡Pro Tip: Use the “ASINs with Higher Orders” audit in Optmyzr to identify your top-selling products and prioritize them in your Storefront layout—feature them in hero sections, comparison blocks, or as bestsellers to increase shopper trust and drive faster conversions.
Step 3: Route traffic smartly to get the best out of your ads
Send top-of-the-funnel Google traffic (e.g. YouTube viewers or broad search clicks) to brand.com for education and lead capture.
Send middle-of-the-funnel and bottom-of-the-funnel traffic, like branded searches or remarketing audiences, to your Amazon storefront, where they’re highly likely to convert.
Avoid pushing high-intent users to bare product pages with no context or proof.
💡 Pro Tip: Use custom conversions in Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to identify high-interest, low-purchase search terms. These users are still in the research phase. Route them to brand.com for nurturing, not to Amazon, where conversion pressure is higher.
Step 4: Stay visible and relevant after shoppers show interest
Retarget customers who have visited your website but didn’t purchase with ads on the Google Display Network or YouTube to remind them of your product and bring them back to continue where they left off.
Use Sponsored Display ads on Amazon to retarget people who viewed your product or added it to their cart but didn’t complete the purchase.
Upload customer segments (like past buyers, newsletter subscribers, or high-LTV customers) into Google Ads using Customer Match for personalized follow-up across Search, YouTube, and Gmail ads.
💡Pro Tip: Use Explore Traffic Segments to identify high-engagement audience groups from Google Analytics and score them by performance. Sync top segments into Google Ads (via Customer Match or audiences) for behavior-based retargeting and smarter routing decisions.
Pitfalls to avoid
Launching a dual-platform strategy without proper guardrails can be a dangerous gamble and hurt your ROI before you can even catch it. Here are some things to keep in mind:
1. Overlapping audiences
Avoid targeting the same set of users in both brand and Amazon campaigns without segmentation.
For example, say you run a Google Ads campaign targeting “gut health granola” and direct users to brand.com. Simultaneously, you run a YouTube campaign using the same Custom Intent audience and drive that traffic to your Amazon Storefront.
Without exclusions, the same user could be shown both ads, driving up CPMs and CPCs across platforms. Plus, if they convert on Amazon, it’s unclear which campaign deserves credit, and your attribution gets muddled.
✅The fix: Use clear audience exclusions or labels to make sure each campaign targets the right people with the right message. This way you make sure every stage of your marketing funnel targets the right users with the right message and that your ad budget is being used smartly.
2. Poorly designed landing pages
When a user clicks on your ad, especially if it’s for a high-intent search, they’re definitely expecting a page that gives them all the information they need and makes it easy to convert.
A landing page with no clear explanation of benefits, reviews, trust signals, or product details can create doubt and may cause the user to bounce. You’re wasting a very valuable click and hurting your return on ad spend (ROAS).
✅The fix: Think of the landing page as your salesperson. Make sure you highlight the value props, include customer reviews and ratings, add FAQs, and use high-quality images and benefit-focused descriptions.
3. Gaps in internal readiness
You run great ads and manage to attract several high-intent customers. But all of this amounts to nothing if your backend systems aren’t running properly. Even the best ads won’t convert effectively, and worse, you’ll end up creating a poor customer experience.
✅The fix: The most important thing is to make sure your Amazon inventory levels are healthy. Avoid running ads on products that are or on the verge of going out-of-stock. Also ensure shipping, handling, and customer support are ready to handle increased volume.
Measuring what matters across platforms
So you’ve set up a cross-platform ad strategy across the funnel. Now you want to measure how this adds value over time.
Here are a few different things you can do to measure and optimize your ad strategy.
1. Amazon Attribution
This is essentially a free, advertising and analytics measurement solution that gives you insights into how your marketing strategies across non-Amazon channels like search, social, display, video, email, and other campaigns helped customers discover and purchase your products on Amazon.
You can simply add Amazon Attribution tags to your Google ads to understand whether upper- or mid-funnel Google campaigns are assisting conversions that close on Amazon.
📌Example: You discover that 25% of users who clicked your Google ad didn’t buy on brand.com but later bought the product on Amazon. This makes it clear that your Google Ads are influencing Amazon sales.
2. Google Analytics
Pair Amazon Attribution insights with Google Analytics to map user journeys and track how many touchpoints it takes before a user converts. You can also see whether your brand content plays a role in educating or nurturing a customer before a purchase.
📌Example: GA shows that users often visit your blog before they buy, indicating that your brand.com content plays a key role in assisting customers during their purchase journey even when the final sale happens on Amazon.
3. Amazon’s New-to-Brand metrics
New-to-brand metrics allow you to measure orders, sales, and detail page views of your products generated from first-time customers of your brand on Amazon. They can help measure customer acquisition and tailor your campaign strategies.
📌Example: Amazon’s dashboard reveals that 60% of purchases from Sponsored Brand ads are from first-time customers. This means your Amazon ads aren’t just converting but they’re also acquiring new customers, which boosts long-term value.
Align your ad strategy to match shopper behavior and not just platforms
Instead of treating Amazon ads and Google ads as two separate platforms, sequence them according to your shopper’s mindset. This allows you to keep up with your customers with the right messaging as they move from discovery to consideration and finally, conversion. It lets you capture high-intent traffic, track them, and optimize better so you aren’t simply spending more but actually driving results from your ad campaigns.
Optmyzr comes with a comprehensive set of tools that can be used to automate your campaigns, segment audiences, and even run-rule based optimizations to keep your funnel efficient across platforms.
Try out Optmyzr’s free 14-day trial and explore how you can scale your campaigns the smart way.
“Should I pause a keyword that has clicks but no sales… or just wait?”
It’s a question that recently surfaced on a PPC subreddit and one that captures a common frustration among advertisers dealing with a repetitive question: “Why are my Google Ads not converting?”
You’ve launched a campaign. One keyword is getting clicks, your CTR looks solid, and your landing page works well elsewhere, but this one term keeps spending without converting.
Is it just a matter of time, or are you wasting budget on non-converting keywords?
This article gives you a clear, data-driven framework to decide when to pause keywords, when to be patient, and how to spot underperformance that’s not really the keyword’s fault.
When to pause a keyword based on spend?
When a keyword spends steadily without converting, it’s a strong signal to intervene.
But the “right” threshold depends on factors like target CPA, product price point, and campaign goals.
Defining ‘Significant’ Spend
As a general rule of thumb:
For direct-response campaigns, a keyword that spends 2–3x your target CPA without converting should be flagged for review.
Forhigher-ticket products or long sales cycles, you can stretch the threshold to 4–5x CPA, especially if the keyword contributes to upper-funnel visibility.
Why it matters:
Non-converting keywords don’t just waste budget, they:
Lower your Quality Score, increasing CPCs platform-wide
Skew performance data, making it harder to optimize
Drain budget from high-converting keywords that actually drive ROI
What to check before pausing a keyword?
Before pausing a non-converting keyword, ask: Is the keyword underperforming, or is the setup flawed?
Match type: If it’s a broad match keyword, try switching to phrase or exact to tighten intent.
Search terms: Look for low-intent queries and add negative keywords.
Ad copy: Test variations with clearer value props or CTAs that better reflect your offer.
Offer alignment: Is it truly competitive for this search intent?
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use Optmyzr’s Pause Non-Converting Keywords tool to flag keywords with no conversions over time, whether that’s the last 3 months or even the past 365 days (great for catching long-running budget leaks). It also finds terms with high CTR but weak landing page engagement, so you can optimize, not just pause.
Fixing underperforming broad match keywords
Not all non-converting keywords are inherently bad. Broad match can attract off-intent searches. For example, a B2B SaaS company using the broad match term “employee management” might show for:
“How to discipline a difficult employee”
“employee motivation ppt”
“What is employee management theory?”
These aren’t buyers. They’re researchers, unlikely to convert in direct-response campaigns.
While they may help with top-of-funnel awareness, they’re unlikely to drive conversions within the current campaign goal.
If the objective is lead generation or direct demo sign-ups, allowing these clicks to continue without filters would dilute the budget and reduce efficiency.
Fix it with negative keywords
Instead of pausing a broad match keyword outright, tighten its focus. For example, you can keep the term “employee management,” but tell Google what not to show for it. Block terms like “ppt,” “definition,” or “examples,” queries that scream learning, not buying.
Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder helps identify queries costing you clicks without ROI. It can:
Block low-intent traffic
Protect the budget from irrelevant searches
Keep high-potential broad keywords focused
It’s a practical way to refine, not remove, especially when a keyword shows signs of potential but just needs cleaner targeting.
💡Update Insight: With the launch of AI Max for Search, Google is now layering smart features like final URL expansion, geo-targeting at the ad group level, and dynamic asset creation, directly into existing search campaigns.
But there’s a catch: these features only activate with broad match, Dynamic Search Ads (DSA), or other AI-compatible setups. If your campaign is built entirely on phrase or exact match, you’re likely missing out on how Google now interprets longer, more conversational queries using synthetic intent.
🎥 Want to see how these updates play out in practice? Watch the video below.
{{< youtube id=“GPKgUZPM3H0” title=“Google Marketing Live 2025 Exclusive Insider Intel With Ginny Marvin” >}}
Managing low-volume keywords in Google Ads
Not every non-converting keyword is underperforming because it’s irrelevant or expensive.
Sometimes, it simply isn’t getting enough impressions or clicks to make a fair judgment. Google refers to them as low-volume keywords, but that doesn’t mean they’re of low value.
These keywords have minimal search activity, and often:
Appear in niche industries
Attract a few impressions
Take longer to gather data
Yet, they can reflect high purchase intent. Premature pausing risks losing valuable long-tail traffic.
What does low volume look like?
A startup selling compliance training for biotech firms might target “FDA audit training for lab managers.”
A B2B service in fintech might bid on “multi-currency treasury management platform
Say these searches barely register on Google’s radar. They draw a handful of impressions over weeks. But the intent? Off the charts. One click could mean one enterprise deal.
The tragedy? Many of these keywords might get paused too soon, not because they failed, but because they never got a fair trial.
Strategy for low-volume keywords
Give them time to collect meaningful data, especially if they closely match your offer and ideal customer.
Expand reach using phrase match or tightly controlled broad match.
Review auction signals to address the root cause before deciding to pause them.
What the data suggests about low-volume keywords
When Google announced it would begin automatically pausing low-activity keywords (those with no impressions for 13+ months), the industry was split. While some advertisers welcomed the cleanup, others worried about losing control over keywords that take time to mature,
80%+ of accounts carried a significant number of low-volume keywords
There was no strong correlation between high counts of these keywords and worse account performance
Smaller accounts often punched above their weight on metrics like CPC, CPA, and ROAS, though the reasons weren’t entirely clear.
These findings suggest that the presence of low-volume keywords alone may not be harmful, but the impact likely varies by account type, structure, and goals. Some advertisers may see no change from Google’s auto-pausing policy, while others could experience shifts depending on how their accounts are set up.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to track keywords nearing Google's auto-pause threshold (13 months of inactivity). It can help you:
Track inactivity and get alerts before a keyword hits the 13-month silence mark
Adjust match types or bids to revive potential winners before they’re gone
Restructure campaigns to pull high-intent but underused keywords out of overstuffed ad groups and into the spotlight
These keywords might not flood you with traffic, but one of them could be your next whale.
The impact of the testing period on Google Ads performance
There’s no stopwatch for keyword testing. No universal benchmark that tells you, “This is when you’ll know.”
Whether you’re testing a fresh keyword, a new match type, or Smart Bidding strategies, the right wait time depends on context, much like how you wouldn’t expect a sapling and a redwood to grow at the same pace.
Several factors shape the testing timeline:
Budget: Higher budgets enable faster data accumulation and quicker decisions.
Search volume: Low-volume keywords naturally require more time to generate statistically significant results.
Conversion cycle: A quick, low-cost purchase (like a coffee subscription) will have a much shorter feedback loop than a high-consideration B2B software solution.
Industry and competition: More competitive spaces may require extended testing to break through and gather quality signals.
Try Smart Bidding Exploration
One of the newer tools advertisers can lean on is Smart Bidding Exploration.
If you’re running broad match, DSA, or AI Max with a TROAS strategy, it lets Google test more aggressively, finding new query variations and traffic sources, without increasing your targets across the board.
It’s a controlled way to expand reach and gather performance data, even when your current keyword set is stuck in a data drought.
Why assisted conversions matter now more than ever
Many keywords contribute earlier in the journey but don’t get last-click credit.
Last-click attribution, still a default in many reports, tends to spotlight the final step, while overlooking the chain of influence that led there.
This can be especially limiting in multi-touch paths common in B2B and high-consideration consumer purchases, where decisions unfold over time, across teams, and through multiple queries.
A simple scenario: The Multi-touch B2B journey
Let’s say a company is exploring project management software. Here’s how the journey might unfold:
A project manager types in “best project management software for teams”. They click an ad, scan the landing page, then move on, no sign-up, but the brand sticks in their mind.
A few days later, the VP of Operations searches for “resource management software for projects”. This time, they find a whitepaper from the same brand and download it. Still, no formal lead.
A team lead, doing final research, visits a competitor comparison page. After reading, the VP returns, this time typing the brand’s URL directly, and completes the sign-up.
How each keyword contributed:
“Best project management software for teams” sparked initial awareness, and a cold start turned warm.
“Resource management software for projects” provided mid-funnel validation and signaled growing interest.
Competitor comparison content helped shape the final evaluation, just before the direct visit that led to the conversion.
If your reporting only tracked last-click attribution, you’d see the final visit and assume the previous touchpoints didn’t matter. But in reality, they were instrumental in moving the deal forward.
Without assisted conversion data, you’d wrongly pause keywords that played critical early roles.
How to handle seasonal keywords: Pause or stay visible?
Seasonal keywords often follow predictable spikes. Terms like “Christmas gifts for Dad,” “Halloween costumes for couples,” and “Black Friday electronics deal” surge at specific points in the year and then drop off sharply.
In many cases, seasonal terms often warrant pausing after peak periods. But in some cases, off-season visibility pays off.
📌Example: Take a travel company offering guided trekking tours in Patagonia. A keyword like “Patagonia ice cave trekking summer” peaks between December and February, when conditions are ideal.
But travel planning often starts months in advance. Pausing the keyword in May or June might cause you to miss early planners, especially in a niche category where brand recall matters.
Instead, maintaining low-bid visibility can help you:
Stay top-of-mind during the research phase
Build early awareness and engagement
Capture interest that matures into bookings later
When off-season visibility pays off
This strategy isn’t limited to adventure travel. Some other examples where low-bid off-season visibility can make strategic sense include:
Events: Stay in front of wedding or event planners ahead of the season.
Legal services: Build awareness for time-bound needs.
Subscription boxes: Capture early adopters.
Software: Pre-position deals before end-of-quarter promos.
Nonprofits: Keep giving campaigns top-of-mind, even mid-year.
Why Google Ads don’t convert: Visibility problems explained
Sometimes, a keyword doesn’t convert because it’s not being seen.
A recent example shared by an advertiser illustrates this perfectly.
They were running a PPC campaign targeting keywords like “motorcycle accident lawyer.” The search volume was solid, the campaign setup was clean, and the ads were eligible to run.
After investigating, they discovered that Google’s Local Service Ads (LSAs) were dominating the results page. Their standard search ad, while technically eligible, was showing up far below the fold. In some cases, only one text ad was shown, and it appeared beneath LSAs and maps, buried in the layout.
Another advertiser shared a screenshot for the same keyword, but their version of the SERP displayed multiple PPC ads. Why the difference?
The search results page isn’t consistent. It changes based on factors like:
Location
Device (mobile vs. desktop)
Time of day
User behavior and history
One of the newer variables to consider? AI Overviews. These AI-generated snapshots now appear above standard results for certain queries, pushing traditional ads further down the visible area. If your ad isn’t converting, it may not be failing, it may just be invisible.
What to check before you pause
Before you pause a keyword that seems like it’s underdelivering:
Analyze Search Impression Share, Search Top Impression Share, and Absolute Top Impression Share.
Review Auction Insights for competitive positioning
Check whether your industry is LSA-heavy (e.g., legal, home services), where standard ads may be deprioritized.
Consider testing Local Service Ads if available in your category, especially if standard placements are being displaced.
Before you pause keywords, audit all layers
Poor performance isn’t always the keyword’s fault.
Keyword-level analysis
Review search term reports for intent misalignment or wasted spend.
Check match types and negative keyword coverage to avoid irrelevant traffic.
Evaluate CTR and Quality Score for signs of low relevance or engagement.
Analyze trends by device, location, time of day, and audience segments.
Ad-level analysis
Is your ad relevant to the search query?
Are you testing clear value propositions and strong CTAs?
Are your RSAs using distinct, testable messages or just slight variations?
Landing page analysis
Does the page match the ad promise?
Is the experience optimized for mobile and load speed?
Are your offers clear, with visible CTAs and trust signals?
💡Pro Tip: Landing pages aren’t always required anymore. As search becomes more conversational and agentic workflows gain ground, Google may sometimes move users directly from query to action, especially for simpler paths like purchases or form submissions.
While not yet the norm, it’s a growing shift. Clean product feeds, up-to-date pricing, and well-structured data are becoming just as important as traditional landing page UX in enabling conversion-ready experiences.
Campaign structure analysis
Often, poor performance stems from a flawed campaign structure, not the keyword. Recent updates from Google reinforce the idea that performance architecture matters.
Are keywords split across too many ad groups or campaigns?
Is your conversion tracking aligned with business goals?
Are secondary conversions (scroll depth, time on site) being used for low-data signals?
Don’t trap high-potential keywords in siloed setups that starve them of learning signals.
Offer and pricing alignment
Are you priced competitively compared to top ad rivals?
Does your offer speak to the pain points and expectations of your audience?
Taking time to audit each layer helps ensure you’re not pausing a keyword that’s simply being let down by its environment.
Final takeaway: Diagnose before you pause
Not every non-converting keyword is a bad keyword. Some need refinement, others need more time, and many are just victims of poor match types, off-target queries, or limited visibility.
With a structured, data-driven approach, you can avoid pausing keywords that quietly contribute to conversions, or that just need smarter targeting to deliver. From spend thresholds to assisted conversions, the key is simple: diagnose before you pause.
If you’re managing multiple campaigns or just want a faster way to spot what’s helping and what’s hurting, Optmyzr can help. It gives you the tools to quickly flag underperforming keywords, refine match types, and surface long-running budget leaks, without combing through endless reports.
1. Why are my Google Ads Keywords not converting? Ans. Your keywords may not be converting for several reasons. Common issues include poor match type targeting (like overly broad matches), irrelevant search queries, low ad visibility due to SERP features like Local Service Ads, or weak landing page alignment.
The keyword may also be playing an assistive role in the conversion path, but not getting last-click credit. A full audit of match type, ad relevance, landing page experience, and attribution model is the best way to identify the root cause.
2. What should I do with keywords that don’t convert? Ans. Start by diagnosing, not pausing. Check the match type and search term report for intent mismatches, add negative keywords to block irrelevant traffic, and test new ad copy. Also, review your offer to ensure it’s competitive and aligned with user expectations. In some cases, non-converting keywords contribute earlier in the funnel, so be sure to check assisted conversions before making a decision.
3. How long should I wait before pausing a keyword with no conversions? Ans. There’s no fixed timeframe, but a good rule of thumb is to evaluate after a keyword spends 2–3x your target CPA without a conversion. For high-ticket or long-sales-cycle products, you can stretch that to 4–5x CPA.
Also, consider factors like search volume, sales cycle length, and campaign budget. The goal is to collect enough data to make a statistically sound decision, don’t rush the pause button without context.
4. Should I pause non-converting keywords or keep them? Ans. Only pause a keyword after a full performance review. If it has significant spend with no conversions, poor engagement, and isn’t playing a role in assisted conversions, it’s likely safe to pause.
But if it’s low-volume, contributing to early funnel activity, or being limited by low visibility, it may be worth optimizing and monitoring instead. Always audit keyword, ad, and landing page alignment before removing terms.
It’s 2025, and Generative AI is everywhere: from writing social posts and turning vague client notes into actual meeting agendas, to planning your next trip. It’s undeniably impressive.
When it comes to PPC, there’s more at stake than convenience. Choose the wrong AI recommendation, and you risk wasting precious budget, losing valuable time, and eroding client or stakeholder trust.
That’s why more PPC professionals are asking a critical question: Is AI actually making ad management easier — or just adding more work?
Generic AI has limits. Marketers need AI tools for PPC that go beyond content generation: they need real-time insights, automation, and smart recommendations. That’s why more teams are moving toward dedicated AI in digital advertising platforms like Optmyzr.
Unlike general-purpose tools like ChatGPT, Optmyzr’s AI is trained on PPC data. It understands your campaigns, works with your goals, and helps you act, not just analyze.
Why PPC marketers are ditching generic AI for purpose-built tools
1. Manual analysis still eats up time.
Running audits, creating reports, and diagnosing issues takes hours. Multiply that by every account you manage, and the time drain becomes unsustainable.
That’s why more marketers are turning to intelligent automation in digital advertising. They want AI trained on billions in ad spend and platform-level trends (like Optmyzr’s), not just surface-level prompts. That difference leads to faster, sharper insights, and actually built for PPC decision-making.
2. Generic AI often adds more work than it solves.
Tools like ChatGPT, Claude, or Perplexity might sound impressive at first, but they’re not really built for PPC. They only know what you tell them, which means you have to constantly feed them data, explain your campaigns, describe your audience, and spell out your goals. Even then, their answers can be vague, off-target, or just not that helpful.
Instead of saving time, it often feels like you’re doing extra work just to get a decent response.
3. Fragmented workflows across many tools slow you down.
One of the biggest PPC headaches is jumping between too many tools: ad platforms, spreadsheets, chat apps, AI copywriting tools, and design platforms.
It gets messy fast. Things fall out of sync, mistakes creep in, and before you know it, you’re spending more time managing tools than managing campaigns.
And let’s not forget the cost of maintaining all those separate tools year after year.
4. There’s pressure to “use AI“ without a strategy.
With everyone jumping on the AI bandwagon, it’s easy to feel like you’re falling behind if you’re not using it. There’s a lot of pressure from clients and leadership to “do more with AI”, even if it’s not always clear what that really means.
The truth is, it’s not about using AI everywhere — it’s about using the right kind of AI. What you really need is something that delivers a real performance edge, not just another buzzword.
5. There’s a risk of costly mistakes.
When budgets are tight (like in this tough economic period), one wrong tweak can tank performance. Generic AI often doesn’t know your goals or data well, so it becomes difficult to trust it to make crucial decisions.
ChatGPT vs Optmyzr: Built for different jobs
| Feature | ChatGPT | Optmyzr | | — | — | — | | Purpose | General-purpose AI chatbot | PPC-specific automation, optimization, and monitoring | | Ad platform integration | No direct access | Full integration with ad platform API | | Campaign understanding | Needs constant prompting | Understands your structure & goals | | Actionability | Suggestions only | Instant execution from the same platform | | Output quality | Prone to AI hallucinations | Trained on PPC data, context-aware |
Generic AI might be useful for inspiration. But when it comes to high-stakes campaign decisions, marketers are choosing tools that offer deep context, reliable insights, and direct action — all in one place.
What do PPC pros actually want from AI?
Having tested the waters with generic AI, performance marketers now have a clearer picture of what actually drives value, and it’s not just clever suggestions. They want AI that works like a teammate, not another tool to manage.
That means looking for a smart automation platform that:
Understands your unique account setup, industry, and goals, and delivers trustworthy, ready-to-use insights
Lets you apply approved recommendations instantly, without switching tools or waiting around
Replaces scattered toolkits with a centralized command center
Gives suggestions that are aligned with performance and profitability
Is trained for PPC — not just another generic AI that “kind of works”
Let’s see what this looks like in action at Optmyzr.
4 real ways Optmyzr’s AI saves time and boosts ROI
1. Account & competitor analysis and optimization
Managing PPC used to mean hours spent digging through dashboards and spreadsheets just to figure out what was working and what wasn’t. It took time, effort, and often left you feeling drained.
But that changed with Optmyzr’s Sidekick, the AI PPC Assistant built right into your Account Dashboard. As soon as you log in, the Sidekick gives you a fresh summary: one win, one potential issue, and one smart recommendation. You don’t even have to ask.
Example: Say your conversions drop unexpectedly. You don’t have to play detective and analyze the Change History. Just ask Sidekick, and it tells you exactly which recent changes might have caused the shift.
While you’re focused on your own performance, the Dashboard is also keeping tabs on your competition. It shows you who’s entered or left your auction space, so you’re never caught off-guard.
When audit time comes, you don’t need to wade through long PDFs. Sidekick breaks down what’s working, what needs fixing, and even highlights key spend patterns — like which hours and days drive the best results. It’s like having an always-on strategist that keeps your account sharp.
2. Ad and campaign creation
Imagine you’re setting up campaigns for an online store: the product feed is ready, but turning it into structured, high-performing campaigns takes time. With Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator, all you have to do is connect your inventory data, and the system takes it from there.
Not sure how to structure it? AI can suggest a template based on your inventory, industry vertical, and goals. You can always tweak it, but now you’re starting with a strong foundation.
The AI also handles the smaller details, like sitelinks and callout extensions, suggesting multiple options at once so you can pick what fits best. And when it’s time to write ad copy, you’re not staring at a blank screen; the AI scans your site and offers relevant headline and description ideas, ready to go live or refine.
3. Reporting
Creating client reports is one of those tasks that eats up hours, even though most of it feels repetitive. With Optmyzr, reporting is as simple as typing a request. Want a conversion-focused summary for last month? Just say so, and the system generates a report draft instantly.
You can even fine-tune the tone or focus. Whether you want to highlight growth, cost-efficiency, or key shifts, the AI tailors the narrative to fit your goals.
Charts also come with plain-language summaries so stakeholders can grasp trends without needing to interpret graphs.
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4. Ecommerce campaign management
Shopping and Performance Max campaigns come with their own unique challenges, especially when it comes to structure. One of the biggest questions advertisers ask is, “How do I split my campaigns?”.
Optmyzr helps take the guesswork out of this. Much like how Campaign Automator helps with Search & Display, Optmyzr’s AI for e-commerce suggests the best structure for Shopping and PMax based on your goals and feed data.
It also ensures that your structure stays within Google’s limits, so you won’t end up creating more entities than the platform allows.
Missing product titles, brand fields, or descriptions in your feed? Optmyzr flags those gaps and uses AI to suggest best-practice and SEO-friendly content, pulling from your product pages and what’s working in the industry.
You spend less time cleaning up your feed and more time launching campaigns that work.
Spot high-spend days and shift budget to top-performing campaigns
Pause or exclude low-performing keywords, placements, or PMax listing groups
Update your ad copy with expert AI suggestions
Approve and push these changes directly to Google Ads
A smarter way to think about AI in PPC
AI in PPC shouldn’t be about chasing trends — it should be about solving real problems. You don’t need a chatbot that waits for instructions; you need a platform that understands your campaigns and acts with context.
Prompted AI like ChatGPT can generate ideas, but it requires constant input and rarely knows your goals or data. Trained AI like Optmyzr is built for paid search, so it surfaces the right insights fast and helps you act on them right away.
That’s the difference between a tool that talks, and one that truly works with you.
“Optmyzr’s value extends beyond features. Their agility in adapting to platform changes and introducing new capabilities ensures our PPC strategy stays future-proof. In short, Optmyzr isn’t just a tool; it’s a strategic partner, accelerating efficiency and growth in our PPC operations.”
They achieved a 7.34 ROAS while cutting Google Ads management time in half — all by switching to AI that’s actually built for PPC.
Now it’s your turn to stop managing AI and start letting it manage smarter for you. Start your 14-day free trial with Optmyzr’s PPC-trained AI today — and experience the difference that purpose-built automation makes.
Frequently asked questions about AI by advertisers
What are the benefits of AI-powered automation? It saves you hours by handling repetitive tasks like analysis, reporting, and optimization. You get faster insights, fewer errors, and more time to focus on strategy.
Which are the best AI tools for PPC? The best tools are those that understand PPC deeply. Optmyzr is a great example; it’s built specifically for paid search, unlike generic AI models like ChatGPT or Claude.
Are AI-powered insights accurate? When trained on real campaign data like Optmyzr’s AI, insights are highly reliable, especially compared to generic suggestions from AI not trained on PPC. That said, no AI is perfect. It’s always a good idea to review insights before applying changes, just like you would with any recommendation.
Can AI manage Google Ads campaigns? Not directly, but with tools like Optmyzr, AI can analyze your campaigns and recommend smart optimizations. While the AI itself won’t make changes automatically, you can review and apply those suggestions directly within Optmyzr without switching platforms.
How do I know if my AI tool is hurting performance?
If you’re spending more time validating AI suggestions than executing them, seeing vague or off-target insights, or noticing inconsistent results, your AI may be working against you. A good PPC AI should save time, align with your goals, and improve outcomes, not add friction.
When does AI actually help with ad optimization? AI helps most when you’re working with large volumes of ads and need quick, data-driven suggestions. Tools like Optmyzr’s AI can recommend high-performing headlines and descriptions, suggest sitelinks and callout assets, and even highlight underperforming ad copy to tweak. Instead of guessing what might work, you get suggestions based on your own performance data, which you can review and apply instantly.
It goes without saying that the key to growth for ecommerce businesses is selling more products. Sounds simple. And obvious. But a lot of businesses aren’t looking closely enough at each product when planning how to achieve sustainable growth and stand out amongst the competition.
Product feed optimization is increasingly important for AI-driven signals and intent in search results.
Yes, having an aesthetically pleasing website with good UX, easy navigation, desirable high-quality products, and good customer service is important.
But search engines don’t focus on the pretty stuff.
First, they read the details. The words. The descriptions. The most identifiable attributes and information that make your products unique and in demand. Think function over form.
Screenshot shows improvements after simple product feed optimizations completed for a high-value furniture manufacturer
Why is feed optimization so important?
In basic terms, a product feed (or datafeed) is a structured way of submitting product information from your website to another source, such as Google Merchant Center.
One of the best ways to improve results for ecommerce businesses is to focus on product feed optimization to increase visibility, relevancy, conversion rate, and conversion value. This is crucial for businesses running Google Ads, particularly Shopping and/or Performance Max campaigns.
Not only can this positively impact performance for paid shopping placements, but it can also improve results in organic search (free listings).
Note: While this also applies to Microsoft Ads and other PPC channels, this article focuses on opportunities specifically within Google Merchant Center (GMC).
Here are four ways to optimize your product feed for Google:
Directly add & optimize rich product attributes for all products.
Create feed attribute rules in GMC.
Create and upload a supplemental feed.
Use a 3rd party tool for feed management and support.
Now, let’s see what the most important attributes you should be using to improve your product listings, examples of attribute rules in GMC, supplemental feeds, and some of the shopping ads solutions offered by Optmyzr to help make management easier and more efficient.
Key product attributes for feed optimization
There are obvious things a customer needs to know before making a purchase, such as what a product does, what it looks like, and how much it costs.
Google specifications outline what information is needed to submit products to Google Merchant Center, including which details are required and which are optional.
Surprisingly, a lot of businesses only complete the minimum requirements for feed approval. This means there is an opportunity to further improve what is submitted, in addition to providing more meaningful and helpful product details that are optional.
From a paid search perspective, feed attributes have been a focus of optimization tactics for several years. There has now been even more awareness of the importance of product attributes for SEO since the launch of Google Merchant Center Next.
This is partly due to increased visibility and reporting capabilities in both Google Merchant Center and Google Search Console related to product performance and the buzz around product schema for rich organic results.
Note: Even newer AI-powered shopping experiences, like ChatGPT’s, are starting to rely on structured product data, which is another reason to get your schema in order.
Examples of key attributes for optimization include:
Product Title
Product Type
Google Product Category
Description
Inclusion of additional relevant attributes such as size, color, and material
Images
Let’s break this down in further detail for the most important opportunities.
Product Title
Product titles are weighted for search relevance. Do not ignore the opportunity to improve this for both paid and organic listings.
This attribute has a direct impact on user experience, CTR, and CVR, as well as influencing the algorithm. Include the most important details first, and note that the majority of users will only see around the first 70 characters of your title.
For most product categories, a well-optimized product title will use the following formula:
Brand + Product Title + Product Type + Attribute
Include rich keywords for long-tail visibility.
Keep it under 150 characters.
Include any attributes important for your product, such as size, color, and material, where appropriate.
Be consistent with the attributes you choose and the location within the title (ie, if you include color, don’t put it at the beginning of one title and at the end of another)
Avoid vague or duplicate titles.
Do not include promotional copy, such as free delivery.
Avoid using ALL CAPS unless part of a brand name or common abbreviation.
Note: In some cases, a business may wish to include the brand name at the end of the title if the business is a manufacturer or if the brand name is not significant.
Product Type
Product types are significantly weighted for search relevance and allow custom categorization. This optional attribute is one of the most underutilized and misunderstood attributes in a product feed.
Always include product type in your feed, even though it’s optional. This attribute operates behind the scenes and is not visible to users.
Use rich keywords to help the algorithm better understand how to categorize your product. This attribute helps organize and segment your shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
Keep it under 750 characters.
Aim to use at least 3 levels of breadcrumbs.
Use the greater than ‘>’ symbol to separate each level, similar to how Google Product Categories are shown. Usually, this would follow the breadcrumb structure on your website, so specify this with SEO in mind.
Google Product Category
This is another golden opportunity. Although the Google product category is automatically assigned by Google, in many cases, it can be improved. Product titles, brand, GTINs, and descriptions all influence the automated categorization, which is another reason it’s important to make these as accurate as possible. Be sure you check these using Google’s predefined taxonomy for the most specific option related to your products.
Choose the most specific category possible.
Only use product categories defined by Google; you cannot create your own.
Use Google’s product categories as a hint for how users might search. If you’re using older versions of Google product categories and updates are made to the taxonomy, Google will automatically map this to the latest version.
Understand the difference between Google product category and product type, as they are similar but serve different purposes.
In certain countries, such as the USA, UK, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Brazil, Norway, Sweden, Turkey, you can use the Google product category to segment shopping and PMax campaigns.
Here’s an example of an improvement we made for a client selling outdoor chairs:
Here’s how we optimized the category: Furniture > Outdoor Furniture > Outdoor Seating > Outdoor Chairs
Description
Descriptions add context to products and help both users and search engines better understand the purpose and intent of a product. The primary goal is to sell your product to the right customer. Use this as an opportunity to highlight what your product is, what purpose it serves, what it looks like, and why customers need it.
Imagine a user cannot see the picture. Create a description that allows the customer to visualize the product with their eyes closed.
List the most important features first.
Include up to 500 characters.
Use the product description to list key features and benefits.
Include technical specifications, such as dimensions or weight, if appropriate.
Describe other key attributes in the written product description for visibility, such as colors, textures, materials, patterns, and size.
Don’t keyword stuff your descriptions, and don’t include promotional copy such as “free delivery” or sale pricing.
Avoid using ALL CAPS or emojis and special characters - this looks spammy and less trustworthy.
Identify descriptions created using generative AI with the structured_description attribute.
Images
An image is worth a thousand words. It is also often the first thing that catches our attention when viewing a page full of products. With the rise in popularity of image search, multiple quality product images are more important than ever.
Additionally, with recent enhancements in shopping features such as 3D spin and virtual try-on, you can future-proof your business by improving product photos now.
Use tightly framed, bright, vibrant photos
Include up to 10 images
Test various lifestyle formats in addition to product shots
Do not use text overlay on product images
Other attributes, such as colour, material, and size
As with the attribute examples outlined above, use every possible attribute that applies to a product.
Clearly define attributes that help sell a product to the right customer.
Be consistent and concise to enable insertion into product titles and descriptions.
Use words and phrases that will be easily understood by users and search engines. For example, instead of a color attribute “Marshmallow”, consider using the word “White”.
⭐ Important note related to any product optimizations above:
While these capabilities are in place to assist with optimizing your product feed, it’s not recommended to change any product attributes frequently. Doing so can adversely impact product performance for both paid and organic shopping.
Additionally, attributes such as product type, brand, and Google product category are often used to organize and segment Google Ads campaigns, so please DO NOT make any changes here without communicating with your Google Ads folks.
It can wreak havoc on paid campaigns or even break them fully without proper communication between business owners, Google Ads, and SEO teams. So please play nice and over-communicate any optimizations before they happen.
How to update product data?
Now that you know which attributes to update, there are a number of ways you can put them to work. For some businesses, this information will be updated behind the scenes in the website CMS (ie, Shopify, WordPress, etc) and automatically submitted to GMC.
For other businesses, there may be some challenges with getting this information to sync in Google Merchant Center if feed plugins or 3rd party sources are outdated or aren’t correctly configured or managed.
Fortunately, management of product feeds and product information is becoming easier and less technical, which was one of the key objectives of upgrading from classic GMC to GMC Next.
If you don’t already use a feed API or a 3rd party feed solution, the following 2 ways are ideal for easy setup and management:
Feed attribute rules
Supplemental feed uploaded via Google Sheets
If you do not find the option to add either of the above solutions, check your settings to confirm the add-on is enabled.
Go to: Settings > Add-Ons > Advanced data source management
Feed attribute rules
Feed attribute rules work well when there is a large volume of products that require bulk optimization updates directly in Google Merchant Center.
To use this feature, go to:
Settings > Data Sources > Primary Sources(click on the feed name)> Attribute Rules
From here, a number of rules can be created to automatically apply to any feed or supplemental feed already used in Google Merchant Center. You can use a variety of different data source operations, such as:
“Set to”
“Set to multiple”
“Extract”
“Extract multiple”
For example, you can create rules to:
Automatically add a brand name to the beginning (or end) of all product titles
Automatically detect keywords used in product titles and assign a product type
Automatically add key attributes such as color, size, or material to product descriptions if they are not already included
Creating rules within Google Merchant Center is an easy way to manage accounts with a high volume of products while maintaining consistency. You can also preview and test what the rules look like, as well as remove or update them at any point.
If you have never used feed attribute rules, it is recommended to dive deeper to gain a better understanding of how they work before you start making changes. Review Google’s official documentation on attribute rules (previously known as feed rules).
Alternatively, you can reach out to a third party for advice and support or choose a more manual method, such as supplemental feeds.
Supplemental feeds
Another option for updating product information and overriding attributes submitted in the product feed is a supplemental feed. Personal preference will indicate which method you use, but Google Sheets is a straightforward option.
To use this feature, go to:
Settings > Data Sources > Supplemental Sources > Add Supplemental Product Data
If using Google Sheets, remember to set your sharing permissions to allow anyone with the link to view the sheet (otherwise, Google won’t be able to read it).
Supplemental feeds are an ideal solution if:
You don’t use an API, third-party tool, or if you don’t feel comfortable creating attribute rules in Google Merchant Center
You have a manageable selection of products
You want to add or modify information already submitted in your primary feed
You would like to use formulas in Google Sheets to combine columns and optimise product titles directly in the spreadsheet (ie, Brand + Product Title + Product Type + Attribute)
If you need to create custom labels for products that meet certain criteria, such as seasonal products, bestsellers, high-margin products, or promotional products
You would like to use the find/replace function to make bulk changes to specific attributes
How to know what’s working?
Now that you have worked so hard to optimize your product feed and everything is updated in Google Merchant Center, how do you know what’s working? Of course, you will be able to see the actual performance metrics in GMC analytics along with your shop quality score, but how do you get under the hood and actually see the strengths and weaknesses of your feed optimization efforts?
Optmyzr offers a suite of tools specifically for shopping, including:
The Shopping Dashboard is a comprehensive tool designed to provide an overview of all Shopping and PMax Retail Campaigns, as well as the merchant feeds that support these campaigns. It allows you to view, monitor, and optimize retail campaigns from a single, user-friendly interface.
Screenshot shows the Shopping and Performance Max Retail Campaigns widget on the Shopping Dashboard
Shopping Feed Audit
The Shopping Feed Audit tool grades your merchant feed and shopping campaigns based on common parameters to identify quick opportunities for improvement. By providing a series of product, campaign, and product/listing group audits, the tool helps you maintain a well-structured and organized campaign setup.
Screenshot shows the Shopping Feed Audit
Screenshot shows the Feed Audit Score
Smart Product Labeler
The Smart Product Labeler helps you simplify and enhance product labeling in your shopping campaigns. You can create custom rules to label your products based on performance metrics and feed attributes.
You can also get custom suggestions for performance buckets and labels to help you segregate your products more efficiently.
When did feed optimization become so important?
Feed optimization is not a new concept, but it is one that has been gaining more interest since the launch of Google Merchant Center Next and the rise of AI-signaling.
A few reasons for the increased interest are due to growing awareness of the power of feed optimization, the AI signals it provides to assist results and match user intent, along with the rising interest from businesses and SEOs who have discovered the true power of GMC.
Other reasons for increased interest in product optimization:
Improved visibility and product reporting metrics in GMC, including the ability to view both paid and organic shopping results
The merchant opportunities report in Google Search Console
The ability to create custom reports and dashboards in Merchant Center
Go to: Settings > Add-Ons > Custom reports
While this article focuses on product-specific optimizations, it is not intended to be an all-inclusive list of merchant opportunities.
Some other items that directly influence performance on Google Shopping include:
Overall shop quality score
Price competitiveness
Promotions
Shipping and returns
Product ratings
Payment methods
The full rollout of GMC Next replaced the classic Merchant Center experience for all retailers in September 2024, however, many businesses opted to begin using it earlier to become familiar with the newest features. If you’re still getting familiar with the latest version of GMC, roll your sleeves up to acquaint yourself with the navigation, reports, and settings available.
Optimized feeds, optimized performance.
Product feed optimization is one of the most powerful ways to improve performance across Google Shopping and PMax campaigns. When you give Google rich, accurate, and structured product data, you make it easier for your ads to show up in the right places and for the right people. That means more visibility, better clicks, and higher conversions.
Optmyzr’s suite of Shopping tools, like the Shopping Feed Audit, Smart Product Labeler, and custom dashboards, makes it easier to spot issues, apply improvements, and scale your feed optimization efforts with confidence.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
Let your bidding strategy scale with your ambition.
Casey Gill is a Senior Google Ads Specialist atWebSavvywith global ecommerce experience across the USA, UK, Europe, UAE, and Australia. She was recently listed as a ‘Top 100 PPC Influencer’ worldwide by PPC Survey.
This article is a reflection of the author’s experiences and opinions. Optmyzr believes that there are many ways to win in digital advertising, and is committed to presenting a diverse range of ideas and approaches.
When it comes to PPC bidding, the conversation can sometimes sound more divided than it actually is. Native bidding, proprietary algorithms, and manual rules each have their place, and for many advertisers, the real strategy lies in how you blend them.
Most campaigns don’t succeed by choosing one method and sticking to it rigidly.
Instead, layering different levels of automation helps you adapt to changing goals, data availability, and platform dynamics.
Maybe your campaign isn’t ready for Smart Bidding yet. Maybe you’re migrating from a platform that offered more control.
Or perhaps even with automation in place, you’re still spending too much time micromanaging it.
This article breaks down when and why Smart Bidding makes sense, where it can still fall short, and how automation layering gives you a smarter way to guide rather than surrender to machine-driven strategies.
What is proprietary bidding?
Proprietary bidding refers to third-party bidding systems that use their own custom algorithms to manage bidding in online ad auctions.
Each proprietary algorithm has its distinct logic, mathematical models, and optimization strategies. These are the intellectual property of the developing entity and are often a key differentiator in the market.
These systems operate outside the ad platforms’ native Smart Bidding and typically require campaigns to run on manual strategies such as Manual CPC.
That’s because they need direct access to keyword-level or ad group-level bids to function, whereas Smart Bidding automatically adjusts bids in real time during the auction. The key distinction is that external systems make bidding decisions through API-based rules or scripts, rather than participating directly in the ad platform’s real-time bidding process.
Why do advertisers choose proprietary bidding?
Advertisers often turn to proprietary systems when they need more control, customization, or flexibility than native Smart Bidding allows.
This can include applying specialized industry knowledge, enforcing business-specific rules, optimizing for custom KPIs, or addressing a lack of trust that Smart Bidding will bid as efficiently for their specific needs.
However, proprietary systems face some limitations.
They don’t have access to many of the ad platforms’ real-time auction signals, which can impact their ability to optimize bids as precisely as Smart Bidding.
Some platforms have developed partial workarounds to layer proprietary logic on top of certain Smart Bidding strategies, but these approaches often come with constraints and are typically best suited for specific, well-defined scenarios.
How smart bidding stacks up
Let’s clear one thing up: Smart Bidding isn’t a “set it and forget it” strategy. It’s more like “set it, guide it, and check in regularly.”
At its core, Smart Bidding is auction-time bidding. That means ad platforms adjust your bid in real time, right as the auction happens, based on what they know about the person seeing your ad.
It taps into hundreds of signals, many of which you’ll never see in the Google Ads UI or even through the API.
That’s where Smart Bidding shines: it reacts instantly to signals humans (or rules) can’t process fast enough. In many cases, it outperforms even the most well-crafted manual strategies or proprietary bidding rules.
But not always.
Smart Bidding has important limitations you need to account for.
Limitations of Smart Bidding
It requires sufficient conversion data to make intelligent decisions
It needs a proper setup to effectively incorporate offline conversion data
Its optimization may sometimes align more with platform revenue goals than your specific business objectives
To its credit, Smart Bidding has improved significantly over time, especially in handling multiple conversion types, new customer acquisition goals, and broader campaign types like Performance Max.
But it’s still not a perfect fit for every advertiser or every campaign.
Sometimes Smart Bidding needs a nudge. Sometimes it needs to be tested against your legacy approach before you can trust it. Sometimes it just needs better inputs and oversight.
That brings us to the automation dilemma: how to get the best of Smart Bidding without giving up your ability to guide and refine it.
Finding the middle ground: where strategy meets automation
Automation was supposed to save time, and in many ways, it does. However, for a lot of advertisers, it’s become a new type of time sink.
Instead of adjusting bids manually, you’re now fine-tuning automated settings, testing scripts, unpausing rules, and double-checking if ad platforms’ automation really aligns with your goals.
Our CEO, Frederick Vallaeys, calls this the binary trap in his book Unlevel the Playing Field: The Biggest Mindshift in PPC History. You either give the ad platforms full control and risk mediocrity, or you micromanage every lever and lose scalability.
Some try to break out of this trap by turning to proprietary bidding platforms. These solutions offer specialized capabilities, particularly for certain industries or campaign types where more customized approaches deliver value.
However, there are important trade-offs to consider when using systems that operate independently from ad platforms’ native automation.
Ad platforms analyze numerous auction-time signals for each search in real time. These signals include everything from device type, location, time of day, to historical conversion likelihood and beyond.
While proprietary algorithms bring their own strengths, they may face challenges accessing the full range of real-time data that Smart Bidding utilizes directly.
That’s why many successful advertisers aren’t choosing between external solutions and native automation: they’re layering their own logic on top of native automation, combining the strengths of both approaches.
That’s where automation layering changes the game.
Automation layering: the smarter middle path
Automation layering is the antidote to that binary thinking. It’s a strategy-first approach that embraces native automation like Smart Bidding but surrounds it with intelligent, customized layers of control.
It’s a way to avoid blindly trusting the ad platform while still taking advantage of what it does well.
Instead of handing over the keys or constantly fighting the system, you guide automation in the right direction. You define the strategy. You intervene when needed. You keep your campaigns from drifting into inefficiency.
Think of it this way: if Smart Bidding is the engine, automation layering is your steering system.
The beauty of this approach is its flexibility.
Your automation layering strategy can be tailored to your specific situation, whether you’re managing high-volume ecommerce campaigns requiring minimal oversight or specialized B2B campaigns where every lead requires careful qualification.
You can dial the degree of control up or down based on factors like conversion volume, business seasonality, and your competitive landscape.
And it’s not just theory, it’s increasingly the go-to strategy for savvy advertisers looking to scale without sacrificing performance.
Four primary ways to layer automation
Google Ads has a wealth of automation options, but these principles are adaptable across other platforms like Microsoft, Meta, or Amazon.
While we’ll focus on Google Ads here, you’ll find that many of the same concepts can be applied wherever you’re managing campaigns.
Google’s built-in tools
These are native to the platform, meaning they don’t require third-party integrations or external platforms, but they do require advertiser input for setup and configuration.
Examples:
Automated rules (e.g., pause a campaign if CPA exceeds $X)
Custom alerts
Seasonality adjustments for Smart Bidding
Conversion value rules
Portfolio bid strategies with constraints
Great for: Simple safeguards or when you want to stay entirely within Google Ads
Imported scripts
Google Ads scripts let you automate using JavaScript, either by writing your own or importing them from an external library. These scripts provide more flexibility and customization compared to the built-in scripts in the Google Ads UI.
Great for: Mid-level customization, fast deployment, and tasks that need daily checks or actions
Third-party tools
Tools like Optmyzr, Skai, and Adalysis offer prebuilt automations, alerts, and optimization features that go beyond what the ad platforms provide.
Examples:
Automate bid adjustments based on your own logic
Run audits and recommendations with change tracking
Optimize negatives, ads, and budgets in bulk with a layer of intelligence
Great for: Advertisers and agencies who want powerful features without writing code
Custom solutions using the Google Ads API
For brands with dev resources or unique use cases, the Google Ads API enables full control.
Examples:
Build your own performance dashboard that triggers budget shifts
Enforce custom campaign naming and labeling rules
Integrate ad spend and ROAS with your internal BI or inventory systems
Great for: Advanced users or large-scale advertisers with unique business logic
What can automation layering help with?
Automation layering gives you the best of both worlds: the speed and scale of Smart Bidding, plus the strategic oversight and customization you need to hit your goals.
Let’s now go through some specific scenarios where automation layering makes a dramatic difference, along with the Optmyzr tools that make these strategies accessible. 👇
Catching performance fluctuations early
Automation layering is a powerful way to stay on top of performance changes and catch fluctuations before they turn into bigger issues.
With the right automation in place, you can get alerts the moment something goes off track.
Signal to watch:
Unusual spikes or drops in Cost, Impressions, or Clicks
Sudden surges in disapproved products (for ecommerce campaigns)
How to layer in control:
Set up automated alerts for core metrics across campaigns.
Native Google Ads tools like custom rules can flag these changes, or third-party solutions like Optmyzr’s Anomaly Alertscan detect and notify you automatically.
You don’t need to manually set them up as they are automatically triggered by the system.
📌Example: A sudden 40% drop in impressions on a top campaign could signal a budget cap, a bidding issue, or ad disapproval. Catching it early can help prevent a bigger revenue dip.
Adjusting targets without disrupting campaigns
When managing smart bidding strategies like Maximum Conversions or Maximum Conversion Value, you can’t manually adjust bids for individual keywords or product groups.
Instead, you optimize your campaigns by tweaking your Target CPA or Target ROAS.
However, it’s crucial to adjust these targets carefully. If you make drastic changes, you risk throwing your campaigns into learning mode, which can disrupt performance and cause delays as the system re-adjusts.
Signals to watch:
Ad groups are performing well, but are limited by impression share
Ad groups exceeding ROAS/CPA targets with room to optimize further
Campaigns stuck in perpetual learning periods
How to layer in control:
When adjusting Target CPA or Target ROAS, make small, incremental changes (5–10%) to avoid sending campaigns back into learning mode.
That’s where tools like Optimize Target CPA and Optimize Target ROAS come in. These tools let you adjust targets at the ad group level without upsetting the balance.
Here’s how it works: If an ad group is converting well but losing impression share due to a low ad rank, the tools will help increase the target CPA or lower the target ROAS.
This allows Google Ads to bid higher, improving ad rank and capturing more impressions.
On the flip side, if an ad group is already performing well, exceeding the target CPA or ROAS, you can gradually reduce the target CPA or increase the target ROAS.
This helps avoid over-allocating the budget and maximizes ROI.
Avoid budget surprises with smart pacing alerts
Budgets don’t usually fail all at once; they quietly drift off course. Maybe you overspend in the first half of the month and scramble to rein things in later.
Or you underspend and leave conversions on the table. Either way, performance takes a hit.
Signals to watch:
Percentage of monthly budget spent vs. percentage of month elapsed
Day-over-day and week-over-week spending velocity changes
Spend-to-conversion ratio shifts
How to layer in control:
Set up automated pacing alerts that track your spending against monthly targets and expected patterns. Configure these alerts to notify relevant team members when spending deviates from the expected pace.
It’s a simple way to keep your campaigns consistent and avoid those end-of-month surprises.
Pausing underperforming keywords
There’s a hidden cost to keeping underperforming keywords active for too long.
They don’t just waste money but dilute your campaign performance, slow down learning, and make it harder for automated bidding to focus on what actually works.
Yet, many accounts still let these keywords run unchecked because manually reviewing them takes time.
This is where automation layering can make a real difference.
Signals to watch:
Keywords with significant clicks but no conversions
High-spend keywords with conversion costs well above account averages
Keywords with declining Quality Scores despite stable landing pages
How to layer in control:
Implement systematic reviews that identify and pause non-converting keywords once they’ve received statistically significant traffic. Use tools like Optmyzr’s Pause Non-Converting Keywords that automatically identify keywords that have received enough traffic but haven’t converted during a selected date range.
Make hyper-specific DSAs doable at scale
Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) are powerful for capturing long-tail traffic, but they can quickly become a mess if everything’s lumped into one ad group. Microsoft Ads supports standalone DSAs, offering advertisers a valuable tool for campaign structure.
That’s why advanced advertisers go granular and create one ad group per product detail page (PDP) to align ad copy, keywords, and landing pages for better relevance and higher conversion rates.
Signals to watch:
Product feed updates and inventory changes
Broad DSA campaigns with mixed performance across product categories
Conversion rate variations between product types
The problem? Doing that manually for thousands of products isn’t practical.
How to layer in control:
With Microsoft Ads, you can still use feed-based automation to build and maintain granular DSA campaigns that mirror your product structure. Tools like Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator can help you build these granular campaigns in under an hour.
It pulls directly from your product feed to create ad groups and ads that reflect the actual product name, price, and promo, so you stay relevant and efficient.
Trigger campaigns based on real-world signals like weather
For seasonal businesses, showing ads at precisely the right moment can dramatically improve performance. Yet standard automation alone can’t respond accurately to external factors like weather conditions.
Signals to watch:
Weather conditions in target markets
Historical performance correlations with specific temperatures
Geographic performance variations that might be weather-related
How to layer in control:
Use weather APIs and geo-targeting rules to activate campaigns only when conditions are ideal for purchases. Combine these environmental triggers with Google’s native automation for maximum impact.
For example, Matthieu Van-Tran, a Google Ads consultant who has managed over $350M in ad spend, shared an interesting approach.
For a premium swimwear brand, he implemented weather-triggered automation that activates Performance Max campaigns only when temperatures reach 27°C or higher in top-converting cities. The system pushes fresh seasonal creative across Google’s network precisely when shoppers are most likely to buy, resulting in more sales.
Matthieu shares plenty of real-world advice on how he uses automation layering for his clients. If you want to learn more, check out the session here.
Excluding irrelevant YouTube placements
Excluding irrelevant YouTube placements is crucial to ensure that your ads only appear in front of the right audience.
Signals to watch:
Placements with high impressions but poor engagement metrics
Content categories consistently underperforming your campaign averages
Channel types misaligned with your target audience (gaming channels for B2B products)
For example, let’s say you’re launching a premium business software campaign, and you’ve allocated a significant portion of your advertising budget to YouTube.
But instead of reaching professionals, your analytics reveal that your ads are appearing on gaming channels, kids’ content, and other irrelevant placements, with minimal conversions to show for it.
How to layer in control:
Create automated rules that analyze placement performance and content categorization to exclude underperforming placements.
Use Google Ads exclusion lists or tools like Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to systematically refine placement quality.
Here’s a simple yet effective rule used by Amy McClain-Ponder, Group Director of Paid Search at Beeby Clark+Meyler (BCM), to deal with irrelevant YouTube placements:
The Rule Logic:
When a placement falls under the “Automatic” category
AND appears on YouTube channels, mobile apps, YouTube videos, websites, or Android apps
AND has received impressions in the last 30 days
AND contains content related to “cn, jp, kids, japan, chinese, china, games, music, sex, sounds, meditation”
AND the placement type contains “YouTube Channel”
The Action:
The rule automatically excludes these placements from your ad group
While still including them in your reporting (for transparency)
💡Optmyzr Tip: Rule Engine also has pre-built strategies to exclude Gaming and Kids placements for PMax campaigns to prevent wasted spend. Check out our full list of pre-built strategies here.
When Smart Bidding isn’t the right fit (yet)
Not every campaign is ready for Smart Bidding out of the gate. Maybe it’s too new. Maybe there’s not enough conversion data.
Or maybe you just want a little more control while things ramp up.
That’s where rule-based bidding can still play a big role, especially if you’re coming from a platform like Marin or have a performance-focused workflow you’re trying to replicate.
When you might need rule-based bidding
Before diving into the specific rule-based moves, let’s set the stage:
New campaigns: If your campaign has fewer than 30 conversions in the last 30 days, Smart Bidding might not have enough data to work its magic. Rule-based bidding can fill this gap
Highly seasonal businesses: If your business experiences seasonal fluctuations, historical data might not be as useful in predicting future performance. Rule-based bidding gives you control as you wait for new trends to emerge
Long sales cycles: If your sales cycle extends beyond the typical attribution window, Smart Bidding might be too slow to respond to real-time data. Rule-based bidding allows you to make adjustments based on more immediate metrics
If any of these sound familiar, rule-based bidding could be the right choice for now, with the flexibility to transition to Smart Bidding as you gather more data and insights.
Smart rule-based moves you can set up in Optmyzr
Now, let’s look at a few powerful rule-based automation strategies that you can create using Optmyzr’s Rule Engine. These rules are pre-built but fully customizable to suit your specific needs.
You can set your own thresholds, so you have the flexibility to refine them as you see fit.
Here’s what you can do:
Modify device bid adjustments at the ad group level
Some devices perform better than others in converting your ad clicks to actual sales or leads.
This rule helps you automatically adjust your bids to push more budget toward the devices that are performing well and away from those that aren’t.
How It Works:
If a device (like a mobile or desktop) is performing well (getting conversions at a lower cost), the rule raises the bid by 10%.
If a device is getting a lot of clicks but no conversions, the rule lowers the bid by 10% to avoid wasting money.
Reduce bids for expensive keywords
Even with all your keyword research and testing, some keywords just end up being budget drains. This rule automatically identifies and reins in keywords that are costing too much compared to their performance.
How It Works:
If a keyword’s cost per conversion is higher than your campaign average, the rule lowers the bid by 10%. This helps control spending on underperforming keywords.
If a keyword has received too many clicks but hasn’t generated a single conversion, the system will reduce its bid by 10% to prevent further waste.
And if you’re seeing similar performance issues at the product group or ad group level, you’re covered there too.
Optmyzr has prebuilt rules for adjusting bids on underperforming product groups and ad groups based on the same logic, whether it’s a high CPA, too many clicks without conversions, or just general inefficiency.
Set audience bid adjustments to target cost/conversion
The cost per conversion can sometimes fluctuate wildly across campaigns. This clever pair of rules helps you automatically keep your bids in check without constant checking.
The more expensive your conversions, the more aggressive the correction.
How It Works:
If the cost per conversion is more than 15% above your target, the rule will lower your bids to bring costs back in line.
If the cost per conversion is below 85% of your target, the rule will raise your bids to capture more of the efficient conversions at a lower cost.
The adjustments only trigger when you have meaningful data (minimum 100 impressions, 10 clicks, and 3 conversions).
And that’s not all! You can create additional tailored rules for gender, age range, household income, and device targeting to refine your approach even further.
Creating these demographic-specific rules helps by allowing you to automatically shift budget toward high-performing segments and away from underperforming ones.
Optimize bids to target ROAS
This clever sequence of rules automatically adjusts your ad group bids to hit your target return on ad spend (ROAS) based on the freshest reliable data available.
What makes this approach so brilliant is the progressive lookback windows.
The system first checks your most recent 7-day performance, then expands to 14 days, 30 days, 60 days, and finally 90 days until it finds enough conversion data to make confident decisions.
How It Works:
The rule looks at your campaign’s performance over different time periods, starting with the most recent 7 days.
If your ROAS is high, the rule raises your bids to capture more conversions.
If your ROAS is low, it lowers your bids to help stay on track.
The rules only trigger when you have at least one conversion in the lookback period and when your campaign uses CPC bidding. This prevents crazy bid adjustments when there’s insufficient data or when you’re using different bidding strategies.
There’s also a similar rule for keywords that works on the same principle.
It lets you set keyword-level bids to help you meet your target return on ad spend, using the same progressive lookback windows.
Optimize bids to Target CPA
This rule automatically sets your ad group bids to achieve your target cost per acquisition (CPA) goals based on reliable performance data.
How It Works:
The rule looks at your campaign’s performance over different periods (starting with 7 days).
If your cost per acquisition is too high, the rule lowers your bids.
If your cost per acquisition is below your target, the rule raises your bids.
And just like with target ROAS, there’s another strategy that lets you set keyword bids to optimize for a target CPA.
Reduce bid gaps in Shopping campaigns
In Shopping campaigns, bid gaps (where your bids are higher than what you’re actually paying) can lead to unexpected cost spikes.
This rule helps close those gaps to keep your bids in line with actual costs, which prevents overspending.
How It Works:
The rule looks for product groups where your bids are 10% higher than your average cost-per-click (CPC).
If it finds a significant gap, it will reduce your bid by 5% to bring it closer to the actual CPC you’re paying.
To make sure the adjustments are based on reliable data, the rule only triggers once a product group has received at least 3 clicks.
Striking the Balance: layering automation with strategic insight
When it comes to PPC, automation is no longer a nice-to-have; it’s essential. But it’s not just about letting the system run on autopilot.
Relying solely on Smart Bidding or any one-size-fits-all automation can leave room for inefficiencies and missed opportunities. The real power comes from combining the ad platforms’ automation with your own strategic insights.
Think of it as finding the balance: automation handles the repetitive tasks while you steer the campaign with your expertise. And with the right tools, you can apply this smarter, more flexible approach no matter the size of your account.
Managing bids across multiple campaigns shouldn’t feel like a daily firefight. But it often does. One campaign burns through the budget overnight. Another gets zero conversions.
Smart bidding helps, but only to a point. Especially when campaigns are isolated and goals aren’t aligned.
That’s where portfolio bidding and campaign groups come in. They help you group campaigns by goal, share data more effectively, and make smarter decisions with less micromanagement.
In this guide, you’ll learn:
When to use them (and when not to)
And most importantly, how to measure whether they’re actually working
Let’s break it down.
What is Portfolio Bidding?
Portfolio bidding is a feature available in both Google Ads and Microsoft Ads that lets you group multiple campaigns, ad groups, or keywords under a single automated bidding strategy, like Target ROAS (tROAS) or Target CPA (tCPA). The platform then uses real-time signals to adjust bids across the portfolio to hit your shared goal.
It’s especially useful for advertisers who want to let Smart Bidding distribute budget and optimize bids across campaigns based on performance potential, instead of managing each one in isolation.
Even if you’re not grouping multiple campaigns, portfolio bidding is how you unlock features like bid caps and bid floors. So it’s common to set up a portfolio strategy for a single campaign just to gain that control.
Here’s what makes it powerful:
It shares performance data across campaigns, which speeds up learning.
It reallocates budget to better-performing campaigns automatically.
It gives you extra levers, like setting Max CPC caps—even while using Smart Bidding (something you can’t do at the individual campaign level).
Example: A B2B advertiser on a tCPA strategy sees CPC spikes up to $25 on low-demand days. By switching to portfolio bidding and adding a Max CPC of $9, they put a “guardrail” in place to prevent budget blowouts, while still giving Smart Bidding enough flexibility to optimize toward their $30 CPA goal.
Is Portfolio Bidding right for any advertiser?
No. Portfolio bidding isn’t for everyone. It’s a smart way to unify and stabilize your bidding if you’re running multiple campaigns with the same conversion or revenue goals, or your campaigns suffer from low data volume.
When to use Portfolio Bidding?
When..
You’ve multiple campaigns aiming for the same performance goal (like a 700% ROAS or $50 CPA).
You want the platform to automatically shift budget and adjust bids across campaigns based on real-time signals.
You want to set bid caps and bid floors—a feature that’s only available when using portfolio bidding, even if it’s just for one campaign.
You need more control over Smart Bidding, like applying a Max CPC cap to avoid spikes or using a bid floor to compete more aggressively.
You’re using a platform like Optmyzr to manage and fine-tune these bid limits automatically, without manually adjusting them every day.
Example: You’re managing five ecommerce campaigns all targeting a ROAS of 700. With portfolio bidding, the platform treats them as a single unit, reallocates budget as needed, and Optmyzr helps you enforce smart guardrails using bid min/max automation.
When not to use Portfolio Bidding?
When..
Campaigns have different goals (e.g., one is brand awareness, another is conversion-driven).
You need manual control over individual campaign bids.
The campaigns are low volume and don’t generate enough conversions to benefit from pooled machine learning.
You want to track performance across campaigns without affecting their bidding behavior.
What are Campaign Groups?
Campaign Groups in Google Ads are a way to organize and evaluate multiple campaigns that share a common business objective. You can think of them as a container that holds campaigns together so you can track their combined performance using shared KPIs like conversions, CPA, or ROAS.
They don’t influence bidding, but they provide a higher-level performance lens and let you define specific targets across all included campaigns.
Example: An ecommerce brand runs a mix of Search and Shopping campaigns to promote its seasonal product lines. They create a campaign group for all campaigns focused on summer inventory and set a performance target of 500 conversions with a target ROAS of 4.5. Within a week, they monitor the group’s performance and spot one campaign with a much lower ROAS. They quickly adjust product targeting and bids, helping the group trend back toward the overall goal.
When to use Campaign Groups?
When…
You want to monitor performance across multiple campaigns that work toward the same business goal, without changing how those campaigns bid.
You want to set shared performance targets like “Get 70 conversions this quarter at a $200 CPA” and track if you’re on pace.
You’re running a multi-channel initiative (e.g., search + video + display) and want a holistic view.
You’re working on seasonal, product, or brand-based initiatives where campaigns are spread across types but share a common goal.
Example: You’re running 6 campaigns for a Mother's Day promo across YouTube, Search, and Display. Use a campaign group to track conversions and CPA from all of them combined.
When not to use Campaign Groups?
When…
You’re looking to automate bidding or optimize budgets (Campaign Groups are strictly for tracking, not optimization)
You need to group campaigns by channel type only (filters in Google Ads already allow this)
You need a campaign to belong to more than one group (a campaign can only be in one group at a time)
How to measure success at the portfolio and group level?
This is where most people get stuck. You’ve turned on tCPA across five campaigns, grouped them under a portfolio… now what?
Here’s how to make sure you’re tracking the right outcomes:
Conversion volume: Are conversions rising across the group?
tCPA or tROAS alignment: Are you within range? Trending better or worse?
Budget allocation: Is the portfolio shifting spend toward the campaigns that actually perform?
Alert conditions: Are there campaigns that are 3x better—or worse—than the group average?
💡 Pro tip: Use Optmyzr to create deviation-based alerts. You can set alerts to flag campaigns that are underperforming the portfolio average by, say, 50%, so you can course-correct quickly.
For campaign groups, Google lets you set performance targets that track your progress over time. You can define conversion goals, CPA ceilings, ROAS floors, and even track by time periods (monthly, quarterly, or custom windows).
Here are some common mistakes to avoid
1. Setting a Max CPC cap that’s too tight
In portfolio bidding, especially with tCPA, setting a Max CPC can be a smart guardrail. But if you set it too low, you’ll end up constraining smart bidding altogether.
Tip: Don’t treat Max CPC like a strict ceiling. Instead, use it as a flexible limit that allows for variation. Setting it at 50–100% above your average CPC gives enough breathing room for algorithms to work effectively without overspending.
2. Combining campaigns with unrelated objectives
When using portfolio bidding or campaign groups, mixing campaigns with different goals (like one focused on visibility and another on sales) can confuse Google’s algorithms and skew your results.
For example, if you group a brand awareness campaign with a performance-driven campaign in a portfolio, you’ll get inconsistent signals that make it harder for Google to optimize toward any one outcome.
Tip: Keep your groups clean. Align on goal type, like all campaigns driving purchases, or all campaigns aiming for a specific ROAS.
3. Optimizing only at the campaign level
One of the biggest missed opportunities with portfolio bidding is continuing to analyze performance campaign by campaign. The whole point of a portfolio strategy is that Google uses cross-campaign insights to optimize toward the shared goal.
If you don’t look at aggregate outcomes, you might mistakenly pause a campaign that’s strategically helping the portfolio overall.
Tip: Regularly review the overall performance of the portfolio (conversion volume, CPA, ROAS, and how budget is distributed). Use tools like Optmyzr’s deviation-based alerts to flag outliers so you can spot issues without losing sight of the bigger picture.
4. Failing to revisit performance targets regularly
Campaign group targets, like conversion or CPA goals, can drift out of alignment if market conditions change. If you’re not updating these benchmarks quarterly or after key campaigns, you could be aiming at the wrong outcome.
Tip: Use historical benchmarking in tools like Optmyzr to compare current performance against past time periods. This gives context to what’s working and what needs adjusting.
How Optmyzr helps you, the way Google Ads doesn’t
While Google Ads gives you the basics, Optmyzr adds advanced control, visibility, and automation to make portfolio bidding and campaign groups easier to manage and scale.
Here’s what you get:
Performance alerts for campaign portfolios based on deviation ratios
Cross-campaign monitoring via dashboards and KPIs
Quick identification of outliers to help make informed decisions on adjusting budgets, targeting, or tactics accordingly
Automated rules and scripts to adjust bids when metrics fall outside target ranges
1. Performance alerts based on deviation ratios
Why it matters:
Optmyzr’s alerts help you catch campaigns that aren’t pulling their weight, like one that’s spending three times more than others but failing to deliver results.
View performance across all your campaigns in one place using the All Accounts Dashboard. It makes it easier to compare trends and track progress without jumping between multiple accounts or spreadsheets.
Use it for:
Ecommerce: Track seasonal performance across Shopping + Search.
Lead gen: Monitor multiple lead magnets and their cost per result.
B2B: Keep tabs on campaigns by funnel stage or industry vertical.
3. Quickly identify outliers to make informed decisions
It’s not just about tracking totals. Benchmarking helps you quickly spot which campaigns in a group are outperforming or falling behind so you can adjust strategy before small issues become big problems.
“Our entire team loved the PPC Investigator tool for its capacity to deliver clear insights into the root causes of changes in campaign performance.”
You can adjust bids automatically based on how your campaigns are performing, so you don’t have to make changes manually every day. The Rule Engine is one of Optmyzr’s most powerful tools that allows for complex and customized bid management strategies.
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“At Anicca Digital, we use Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to manage bids to a target ROAS.”
Max Conversion Value usually delivers the best ROAS, especially in lead gen.
Max Clicks is underrated and works surprisingly well in early-stage accounts.
Manual CPC still has a place—but only when actively managed and paired with strong conversion volume.
So instead of asking “which is best?”, ask: “Do I’ve enough conversions?" “Are my goals realistic?” “Am I giving Google enough to work with?”
That’s when automation (and portfolio bidding) really starts to pay off.
It’s time to get strategic with automation.
Using portfolio bidding and campaign groups isn’t about giving up control. It’s about replacing micromanagement with strategy. These tools help you streamline bidding, share learnings, and prioritize what matters most—business goals.
With the right setup and the right tools (hey, Optmyzr), you can:
Run tighter campaigns
Hit performance goals faster
Spot inefficiencies before they blow your budget
So if you’ve been hesitant to give portfolio strategies a shot, or if you’ve used them but haven’t measured success properly, now’s the time to rethink your approach.
And if you want the best of both worlds — powerful optimization and clear reporting — use Optmyzr to fill the gaps with alerts, rules, and portfolio-level insight you won’t get natively in Google Ads.
Inventory moves fast. If your campaigns can’t keep up, you’re either missing revenue or wasting spend.
In today’s market, PPC teams are facing tighter budgets, shifting consumer demand, and mounting pressure from leadership to justify every dollar spent. With unpredictable costs and cautious spending across industries, there’s little room for error.
If you’re managing products or listings that change often, or juggling multiple accounts, manual campaign creation quickly becomes unsustainable. Rebuilding campaigns every time your inventory updates is a time sink. And if you’re transitioning from an older tech stack that no longer meets your needs, you’re likely searching for something more reliable and scalable.
You need a smarter, more adaptive system: one that responds in real time to changes in your inventory so your ads stay relevant, accurate, and efficient. This guide shows you how to do just that by creating inventory-based campaigns that update themselves using dynamic templates and your live product feed.
You’ll learn how to personalize messaging at scale, stay in control, and stop rebuilding from scratch. Whether you’re promoting cars, clothing, properties, travel packages, or job listings, this approach helps you save time, boost performance, and scale your campaigns without the chaos.
What are inventory-based campaigns?
Inventory-based campaigns are created using a live feed of your products or services. Instead of manually updating every ad, you build a reusable template that pulls in real-time attributes like price, availability, or model. As the feed changes, your ads update automatically.
If your stock changes daily or you manage many campaigns across accounts, manual updates aren’t practical. Automated campaigns built from templates keep your ads accurate, timely, and efficient—perfect for industries like ecommerce, travel, real estate, jobs, and automotive.
Glossary: Key terms in this guide
Inventory-Based Campaigns: Ad campaigns built dynamically using a live feed of your products or listings.
Feed: A structured file that lists your inventory, used to automate ad creation and updates.
Templates: Campaign structures that define how ads, ad groups, and keywords are generated from your feed.
Dynamic Insertion: Placeholders like {Brand}, {Price}, or {Location} are auto-filled from your feed.
Inventory Filters: Rules to control what gets advertised based on stock, discounts, or attributes.
Campaign Automator: Optmyzr’s tool for creating and managing inventory-based campaigns.
Rule Engine: A simple yet powerful tool in Optmyzr that lets you set up rules to automatically make changes to your PPC campaigns based on performance data. Think of it as your assistant that checks how things are going and suggests or applies updates, so your campaigns keep improving without needing constant manual work.
Why templates are the smartest way to scale
Let’s say you manage thousands of SKUs, like sports gear or seasonal products. Manually creating campaigns for every category or product line would take days. One catch-all campaign might be faster, but it gives you zero control.
Templates solve this. You set one campaign structure, define how to pull in key data from your feed, and let automation do the rest. You get targeted ads, organized ad groups, and relevant keywords—without starting from scratch.
You’re not locked into generic messaging. You can create dynamic rules like: “Prices starting from $<min(Price)>” or insert values like {Brand}, {Category}, or {Discount}. That’s flexible, scalable, and personalized automation.
Building campaigns that adapt automatically
Templates are only useful if they stay in sync with your inventory. That’s where Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator comes in:
Set up templates in minutes with AI-powered suggestions that use your feed and website to automatically generate a campaign structure you can customize.
Automatically sync ads, keywords, and ad groups with your live feed
Define the logic once—Campaign Automator handles the rest
Example: Add a new product line to your feed? A new campaign is auto-created with the right structure, ads, and targeting.
Inventory filters: Show what’s relevant
You don’t need to advertise everything. With Inventory Filters, you can:
Exclude out-of-stock items: Stock not equal to “Not Available”
Skip certain brands: Brand not equal to XYZ
Focus on discounted products during a particular season: Discount > 0
This keeps your budget focused on what really matters.
Dynamic ads, assets, and keywords
Templates shine when paired with dynamic content—this means using placeholders in your campaign setup that pull live data from your feed. For example:
Use {Brand} and {Category} in your keywords
Sample ad headline with dynamic insertion: “Limited Time Offer: {Brand} {ProductType} at ${Price}”. This is a dynamic template that automatically inserts product data. For example, if your feed lists “Nike” as the brand, “Trainers” as the product type, and $40 as the price, the generated ad will read: “Limited Time Offer: Nike Trainers at $40”.
Your campaigns stay relevant, even as inventory and pricing evolve.
Automating without losing control
Automation doesn’t mean giving up control. Campaign Automator includes helpful features that let you stay on top of everything:
Preview Mode: See what changes will be made before anything goes live
Paused Campaigns: Set campaigns to launch in a paused state so you can review them first
Fallback Ads: Automatically use a backup ad if one can’t be created properly from the feed (like when a product name is too long)
Scheduled Updates: Choose how often the system checks and updates your campaigns—daily, weekly, or monthly
Labels: Add custom labels to easily organize and track campaigns created through Campaign Automator
Manual Approval Flows: Get notified of changes first and decide if you want to approve them—great for sensitive campaigns or high-budget accounts
Use cases by industry: What this looks like in the real world
Ecommerce
Promote only in-stock or discounted items
Generate price-based messaging
Use {Category} and {Brand} in structure and copy
Automotive
Pause ads for sold-out models
Campaigns by Make, Model, Trim
Include price, mileage, and location in the copy
What our customers achieved:
Bruce Automotive Groupdoubled its click-through rate and cut ad spend by 40% using flexible templates and inventory syncing.
SearchLab Digitalincreased conversions by 42% by switching to a scalable, feed-driven campaign structure.
Constellation Agencyreduced cost per lead by 25% by automating across accounts, without losing control.
These aren’t just improvements—they’re proof that smarter automation leads to bigger wins.
Real estate
Promote new listings dynamically
Pause sold listings automatically
Segment by location and price tier
Travel
Show only available packages
Use dynamic sitelinks for destinations
Insert {Location}, {Duration}, and {Price} into ad text
Campaign Automator is purpose-built to create, manage, and scale inventory-based campaigns without compromise:
Utilizes AI to auto-generate campaign templates based on your feed and website and to suggest sitelinks and callout assets, speeding up setup and reducing manual work.
Uses dynamic insertion in every element—ads, URLs, keywords, etc.
Accepts any source feed: Google Sheets, Merchant Center, XML, etc.
Automates updates on your preferred schedule
Global Templates let you scale one structure across many accounts. Just link the right data, and each account generates tailored campaigns.
All activity is tracked via Optimization History
Campaign Automator is just one part of Optmyzr’s all-in-one PPC platform. That means you don’t need separate tools to build, monitor, or improve your campaigns. You can create search, display, or DSA campaigns from your inventory, track performance trends using built-in reports, and use tools like Rule Engine to analyze what’s working and update your templates to make everything better.
It’s a full loop of creation, optimization, and scale—all in one place, without the chaos. And because everything is trackable and adjustable, you’re not only saving time. You’re also making smarter, more defensible decisions. So when your CFO asks how your ad budget is driving growth, you’ve got clear, data-backed answers.
Next steps: Build it once, evolve it always
Templates aren’t a hack, they’re a strategy. One that supports Optmyzr’s core philosophy: automation layering with PPC insurance. You scale fast, but stay safe.
You’re not stuck with rigid black-box automation or bloated workflows. You get:
Simple templates to get started fast—plus ready-to-use industry examples
Dynamic logic to adapt to your inventory
Controls like preview, filters, and labeling to stay in charge
No more manual rebuilds every time your catalog changes. Just evolving campaigns that do the heavy lifting without losing relevance, performance, or visibility.
Try Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator now
Launch your first dynamic inventory-based campaign in under 30 minutes—no repetitive work, no stress. Campaign Automator turns your product feed into high-performing, real-time ads with zero manual rebuilds.
Start your 14-day free trialand use our plug-and-play templates, designed for common industry verticals, so you can pick what fits and customize it quickly to get started.
Already a customer? Campaign Automator is free for one Google or Microsoft Ads account, and you can easily upgrade to manage more.
1. What is an inventory-based campaign, and how does it work?
A campaign built using your live product or service feed. Templates dynamically update ads based on real-time attributes like price, availability, or product type.
2. How do I create scalable PPC campaigns from a product feed?
Use a tool like Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator to turn your feed into dynamic campaigns using templates, filters, and real-time syncing.
3. What is Campaign Automator, and how much does it cost?
It’s Optmyzr’s tool for automating the creation and update of inventory-based search, display, and DSA campaigns. It’s free for one Google or Microsoft Ads account for existing Optmyzr customers. For non-customers, pricing starts at $89/month.
4. Is Campaign Automator a good fit for managing large or complex inventories?
Yes. It’s built for advertisers managing frequent inventory updates across ecommerce, automotive, real estate, travel, and job verticals.
Analysis plays a critical role in modern PPC advertising. Right now, where there’s less insight into your data and more control being taken away by the ad platforms, it becomes even more important to understand what’s happening in your account.
However, most advertisers struggle with it. Some of them don’t know where to start. Some don’t have the time or the expertise to do it themselves. And some make costly mistakes while performing an analysis.
In this article, you’ll learn:
What PPC analysis is
A framework to analyze PPC reports
Tactics to improve your PPC campaigns + a thorough checklist and
Tools and strategies for a thorough and effective PPC analysis
What is PPC analysis?
PPC analysis is the process of examining and evaluating the performance of your PPC campaigns. It involves tracking and measuring key metrics such as clicks, impressions, click-through rate (CTR), quality score, conversion rate, cost per click (CPC), etc. By analyzing this data, you can identify areas where your campaigns are performing well and where they need to improve.
What is the purpose of PPC analysis?
The purpose of PPC analysis is to:
Set clear goals and objectives: By analyzing historical data and understanding the competitive landscape, you can set realistic and achievable goals for your PPC campaigns.
Plan and execute campaigns: It can help you identify the right keywords to target, create effective ad copy, and set appropriate bids.
Monitor and optimize campaigns: PPC analysis is essential for monitoring the performance of your campaigns and making necessary adjustments to improve results.
Measure and report on results: It can help you track your progress toward your goals and report on the results to your stakeholders.
And how does it help? It helps you prove ROI, track progress and trends, and brief leadership or clients on the performance of your campaigns.
A framework for analyzing PPC reports
The way you present your PPC analysis report can impact the rest of your project.
If your clients don’t understand your analysis, it can lead to more questions for everyone involved, even if you’re doing a great job.
For starters, you’ll need to know where to look and what to look for.
Where to look?
The ad platforms already offer a bunch of reporting tools. But if you need better insight into what’s going on with your account performance, you can use a third-party tool.
What to look for?
During the analysis, look at the key metrics that are relevant to your goals. These metrics will vary depending on your specific business, but some of the most common metrics include:
Clicks: The number of times that your ads were clicked.
Impressions: The number of times that your ads were shown.
Click-through rate (CTR): The percentage of times that your ads were shown that resulted in a click.
Conversion rate: The percentage of clicks that resulted in a desired action, such as a sale or lead generation.
Cost per click (CPC): The average amount you paid for each click.
Cost per conversion (CPA): The average amount you paid for each conversion.
3 tips to cleanly interpret PPC reporting data
1. Segment your data: Segmenting helps you identify specific areas of your campaigns that need more detailed evaluation. For example, you can segment your data by campaign, ad group, or keyword and find where things need to improve.
2. Identify causes for performance swings.
This is where you can flex your PPC expertise. If an important metric sees a rise or a fall, it’s time to find the reason that caused that shift.
Why the Google Ads editor isn’t ideal for PPC analysis
If you run Google Ads, chances are that you use the Google Ads editor to evaluate those shifts. Although it is a decent tool to help you with simpler analysis tasks, it’s not the ideal tool for deeper analysis like pinpointing the exact problems with your campaign performance.
Here’s a video where Juan, our Senior Customer Success Manager explains it in detail.
The data we’ve shown in the video is only from a demo account that only has a few ad groups. Imagine analyzing campaign performance in a bigger account with dozens of campaigns, hundreds of ad groups, and hundreds of keywords. It can be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.
3. Compare your performance to benchmarks: How your campaigns compare relative to your competitors or your industry is an area you can’t overlook. If you need help with this, look no further than Optmyzr’s PPC Vertical Benchmarks dashboard which lets you compare the performance of your account against other accounts in the same industry vertical or across verticals.
Tactics to improve your PPC campaigns + a post-analysis checklist
We reached out to a few experts and daily practitioners to learn what they do to improve their campaigns. Here’s what they suggest.
Amy McClain-Ponder, Group Director - Performance Media at Beeby Clark+Meyler said you should regularly check in on your Search Partners’ performance and exclude low-performing search queries. And speaking about if you should go broad, she said exact match worked wonders for them over broad and phrase match.
Exclude search queries that are low performers or are completely irrelevant to your business. While there are many search queries we can’t see, we do see that Google has gotten better about matching to at least the right realm of our clients’ businesses. But, we still see irrelevant keywords that are close, but still miss the mark – for example, for a homeowners insurance client, we might still see “car insurance” queries come through.
Regularly check in on Search Partners’ performance, especially if you start to see a dip in your lead quality or lower conversion rates for ecommerce. We have seen Search Partners be the culprit of low lead quality many times.
Consolidate your campaigns. Since Google smart bidding emerged, we have found that segmenting campaigns out too strictly - whether by match type, device, or even categories can be detrimental to performance. We’ve done tests where we have consolidated device, match type, and similar themes into one campaign to feed the Google algorithm, and we have seen improvements in CPA and ROAS.
“On a day-to-day basis, make sure all your efforts are approved. Any disapprovals should be addressed and fixed immediately. Analyze the search term report to ensure that your keywords match with relevant searches and the correct search intent.
Exclude all that are irrelevant and add them to your negative keyword list. And checking notifications for disapprovals and other issues allows you to make fixes as soon as they come up.” - Benjamin Sulka, Cleveland Clinic
He also listed several other tips below:
Make sure your conversion actions are tracking properly.
Check budget pacing regularly.
Know your competition and how your PPC efforts stack up with theirs. Look over the auction insights report for individual campaigns and ad groups. Focus on how these numbers change over time.
Add “Search Lost IS (impression share) due to rank”, “Search Lost IS due to budget”, and “Search Impr Share” to your reports and compare how these metrics change over time. This will give you an idea of how you can make adjustments to regain impression share in competitive auctions.
Check the Content report and look at performance for “Where Ads Showed”. For display campaigns, look at all of your placements regularly and exclude anything irrelevant.
Consider device performance and make sure your landing pages are mobile-optimized. Especially if most of your traffic is from mobile.
Compare performance over different date ranges as much as you possibly can.
Look at keyword quality scores. Low scores imply poor messaging in your ads and landing pages. This has implications for your CPC as well.
Consider your business’s seasonality when making changes or decisions within your account. If there is a certain time when your company tends to sell more, it might make sense to put an extra budget into that period.
After consolidating all these tips, here’s a daily, weekly, and monthly PPC analysis checklist for you.
Daily PPC analysis checklist
Check Ad Spend: Review your daily budget to ensure you’re not overspending. Monitor for any unexpected spikes in spending.
Monitor CTR: Monitor your CTR daily to catch any sudden drops or spikes in click performance.
Keep an eye on search query performance: Keep an eye on the performance of your high-value or high-cost keywords to prevent overspending or identify opportunities for bid adjustments.
Check Ad Position: Check your ad positions to ensure they remain within your target range. Adjust bids as needed to maintain position.
Review Search Term Report: Regularly review search term reports to identify irrelevant or costly search terms. Add negative keywords to filter out unwanted traffic.
Review Negative Keywords: Review your negative keyword list and add any new negative keywords based on the week’s search term report.
Review Ad Extensions: Check the performance of ad extensions, such as site links and callout extensions. Optimize or pause underperforming extensions.
Adjust bids: Make real-time bid adjustments based on performance data. Increase bids for top-performing keywords or decrease bids for low-performing ones.
Weekly PPC analysis checklist
Conduct a performance review: Assess the overall weekly performance of your campaigns. Look for trends and changes that need further investigation.
Review A/B tests: Review the results of any A/B tests you’re running, such as ad copy, landing pages, or bidding strategies. Make adjustments based on your findings.
Check Quality Score: Check Quality Scores for your keywords. Identify keywords with low scores and work on improving ad relevance and landing page quality.
Review ad copy performance: Evaluate the performance of different ad copies and test new variations based on the data.
Monitor competitors: Monitor competitors’ ads and strategies to stay competitive. Identify new competitors or changes in ad copy.
Monitor budget allocation: Ensure your budget is being allocated efficiently. Shift the budget to campaigns or ad groups that are performing well.
Review geographical performance: Analyze how different regions are performing and adjust geo-targeting settings as needed.
Review device performance: Check how your ads perform on various devices (desktop, mobile, tablet). Adjust bids and ad copy for each device based on performance.
Monthly PPC analysis checklist
Conduct a comprehensive monthly performance review: Conduct a comprehensive review of your monthly performance comparing it to previous months and assessing progress toward your goals.
Conduct ROI Analysis: Calculate the ROI for your campaigns to ensure they align with your business objectives.
Analyze your conversion funnel: Review the customer conversion journey and identify potential areas for improvement in the funnel.
Check your audience segments: Analyze audience data and create or refine custom audience segments for more targeted advertising.
Review all landing pages: Evaluate the performance of your landing pages. Make any necessary improvements to enhance user experience and conversions.
Plan budgets: Plan your budget allocation for the upcoming month based on the performance data and goals.
Adjust ad schedules: Review ad scheduling performance. Adjust the timing of your ads as needed based on monthly insights.
Review ad messaging: Refresh your ad copy and messaging to keep it relevant and engaging.
Easily identify performance changes in your PPC account using the PPC Investigator and PPC Policy & Audits
PPC Investigator
The PPC Investigator is an insights tool that’ll help you find exactly which element in a given account caused a metric to increase or decrease, and whether it’s a keyword, placement, or an entire network that caused the changes.
It has two components:
Cause Chart
Root Cause Analysis
Cause Chart
The Cause Chart is based on the fact that the performance of every metric depends on the performance of other underlying metrics. It uses the relationships between different metrics to show potential causality.
Root Cause Analysis
After identifying which metric needs to be worked on, the Root Cause Analysis goes a step further and highlights the exact Campaigns/Ad groups/Product partition/Keywords, etc. that were responsible for the change in an account.
It shows top movers who are significant contributors to the change in the account when compared across the two date ranges. You can view the top three positive and negative movers for a particular account.
Here’s an example of how you can use the PPC Investigator. You can ask, “Why did my clicks change during this quarter as compared to the previous quarter?”
Or, if you want to be specific about the date range, you can construct a question like, “Why did my Cost per conversion change during Aug. 10, 2023, and Aug. 15, 2023, compared to July 5, 2023, to July 10, 2023?”
And then wait for the tool to give you a visual answer.
You can see in the image above how the tool starts with one question or one ‘Why’ from you and then charts out the reasons by asking multiple whys in the process automatically.
Or if you’d like to know how your traffic from mobile devices has changed over say the last 30 days, this tool can figure out the root causes for the improved performance on mobile devices. This insight will help you plan future strategies for different devices.
Now, you need not necessarily use this tool only to identify problems in performance. You’d also want to know why something was working for you. For example, in the same image above, the display impression share has actually increased, which helps you understand what you are doing right.
The PPC Investigator is a favorite among our users and we don’t doubt why. If you’re serious about learning how your campaign performance has changed, you should give this tool a try.
PPC Policy and Audits
The PPC Policy and Audits is a tool to audit your accounts, specifying the parameters to be considered, and receiving an overall average performance grade to see how everything is doing.
The tool lets you find if you have the right number of ads and keywords based on the latest best practices and suggests fixes if there are any issues. It can also detect missing RSAs, duplicate keywords, conflicting keywords, and more.
A way toward effective PPC performance analysis
Analyzing your campaigns is an ongoing process. It requires continuous evaluation, strategic thinking, and a commitment to adapt and refine campaigns based on changing market conditions and business goals.
However, many advertisers still neglect it, either because they don’t have the time or expertise to do it themselves, or they haven’t found an effective tool that can make it easier for them, or because they don’t see the value in it.
We would advise this: Start small. Focus on the most important metrics that matter to your bottom line. Don’t try to analyze every aspect of your campaigns at once.
And if you need help, make use of the Optmyzr tools mentioned in this article.
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world 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.
Coke vs. Pepsi, ketchup vs. mustard, caring about Quality Score vs. ignoring it – some debates are as old as time itself.
With more advertisers relying on first- and third-party automation to deliver great performance with less hassle, everybody has access to the same bid management tools. The assumption is that ad rank is impacted solely by bids and so the effort that goes into raising Quality Score (QS) is less important or rewarding.
Now, before going into the details, let’s back up a bit and understand what quality score actually is and the factors that contribute to it.
Quality Score is an estimate of the quality of your ads, keywords, and landing pages. Higher quality ads can lead to lower prices and better ad positions.
How is Quality Score calculated?
Image courtesy Instapage.com
Factors affecting Quality Score
Advertisers tend to depend largely on bidding strategies to gain a winning position in the ad auction, but overlooking Quality Score can actually harm your position. That’s because the things that improve your QS also make your ad more appealing to search users:
1. Ad Relevance
This component looks at how close your ad is to the search query. Google is looking at how closely the message in your ad matches the search term and its intent. This component is something you can manage more easily than the others on this list.
2. Expected Click-Through Rate (CTR)
This component is based on the historical performance of your keywords and ads. Google estimates how likely your ad is to be clicked based on things like ad text relevance, ad creativity, keyword relevance, and historical performance.
3. Landing Page Experience
Are your customers happy with what they see after clicking on your ad? Google is looking at how relevant your landing page is to the keyword and ad. But it also takes into account factors like transparency, ease of navigation, original content, and page load times, as they affect the overall user experience.
Google compiles these three factors to assign a score of 1 through 10 to every keyword. What this means is that this number is only a representation of the aggregate relevance of the keyword across auctions. It is not used to rank ads as a whole.
Since your ad rank is recalculated each time your ad is eligible to appear, your ad position can fluctuate each time. This makes auction time QS more granular than a 1-10 number.
It depends on several other factors, which not only fluctuate all the time but are also different for every single search that happens on Google. These contextual elements include:
User location
Day and time of day
Search term intent and proximity to keyword
Competing ads (if any)
Your Quality Score at that moment
Many other targeting factors
Because QS is so granular and volatile, ignoring your ads (even ones that started out with a great score) can harm your performance over time. But what it also means is that you can always improve your ads and revitalize your low QS. All you have to do is keep optimizing your ads.
Essentially, Google’s machine learning algorithms monitor how and what users interact with on the SERP to make predictions about future interactions. User behavior is constantly changing, so what may be relevant today may not seem so in the next few months. In other words, a history of not caring about your ad relevance and putting all your eggs in the bid basket will count against you.
Keep an eye on how relevant your ads are to users, how closely they relate to what people search for, and their experience after the click.
Why is Quality Score still worth your time?
Here are 3 reasons why you should still care about Quality Score:
Quality Score was and continues to be the key way to understand what Google thinks of the quality and relevance of your ads.
Automation backed by machine learning delivers good results, but it can’t do much about relevance problems, so focusing on relevant ads will improve your performance further.
A better Quality Score always has and always will help you save money.
The finer points of Quality Score calculation might seem complex, but that shouldn’t discourage you. Quality Score still plays a significant part in ad rank calculation. Unless your brand has bottomless pockets and can afford to bid crazy amounts to rank first, neglect Quality Score at your own risk.
Max Bid x Quality Score = Ad Rank
The above formula is a simplified version of the actual calculation, but the core principle behind it is still valid, and Ad Rank is still based on these two components – Quality Score and Maximum Bid – so a low Quality Score can hurt your position as much as a low bid. Of course, the upside is that paying attention to Quality Score can bring down your CPC.
That’s because the ad in the highest position generally needs to bid less for a click than the ads below it. Advertisers with an excellent Quality Score get a discount that’s something of an open secret in PPC Land.
Want proof? Our customerZeller Mediamanaged to achieve a Quality Score of over 9.0, lower CPCs by 18%, and save $36,000 a month by using our Quality Score Tracker.
Not only does Optmyzr’s Quality Score Tracker show you the data that Google Ads gives you for quality score, but it goes above and beyond with great visuals while also aggregating account, campaign, and ad group quality score data.
It’s simple (if not easy) to get a high Quality Score: make your ads more relevant, target the right keywords, build a track record of ads with high CTR, and improve your landing page experience.
Improving keyword quality is probably the most crucial. If historical data shows that a keyword has a low CTR, that’s an indication to Google that users haven’t found your ad relevant to that search. This calls for more specific keywords and improved account structure.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again (and again and again, until the heat death of the universe) – never stop optimizing your ads. Use Quality Score as an indicator, not the end result. You know what’s best for your account, so don’t be afraid to deviate from our advice if your particular situation demands it.
Ultimately, all advertisers are looking to deliver the best possible performance within their available budget. So it’s almost a no-brainer to do things that can get you more clicks within the same budget. If you end up making the search and purchase experiences better for users along the way, all the better!
And if you need help with improving your Quality Score and reducing your CPCs, take our 14-day free trial today.
Ever looked at past PPC performance and wished you could tweak reality just a little? Now you can! Introducing Optmyzr RetroEdit™—the world’s first campaign-editing tool powered by quantum PPC technology and advanced time-travel algorithms.
How RetroEdit™ Works
Pick a Past Campaign: Choose any historical campaign.
Select Your Metrics: Want more conversions? Higher revenue? Lower CPC? Adjust any metric you like.
Edit the Results: Type in your desired number and hit “Apply Retroactively.”
Instantly, RetroEdit™ rewrites history to reflect your changes, updating metrics, financial reports, and even your actual bank balance!
Important (and slightly concerning) Warnings
Increasing Revenue: May lead to unexpected bonuses, spontaneous celebrations, or confused accountants.
Decreasing Metrics: Be cautious—reducing conversion values might lead to negative bank balances and awkward calls from finance.
“User Testimonials” from Alternative Timelines
“I boosted my conversions last quarter from 50 to 500. Now I’m employee of the decade and nobody seems to question it!”
— Marty McFly, Flux Capacitor Marketing
“Reduced CPC by 99% retroactively and started receiving random refund checks from Google. Thanks, RetroEdit™!”
— Doc Emmett, Founder, TimeTravel PPC Agency
Reality Check!
Of course, RetroEdit™ isn’t actually real—Happy April Fool’s Day!
While altering history isn’t possible (yet!), Optmyzr helps you optimize your PPC campaigns for real-world success with genuine insights and powerful tools.
Enjoy the laugh, and when you’re ready for real results (in this timeline), Optmyzr is here to help! Sign up for a14-day free trialtoday.
The biggest threat to your PPC performance isn’t competition; it’s outdated thinking. Advertisers have built their strategies around control for years: aggressively blocking “bad” traffic, over-segmenting campaigns, and setting safe ROAS targets.
But PPC has evolved, and if you’re still managing campaigns like it’s 2023, you’re already behind. So we sat down with Andrew Lolk and Julie Bacchini on our PPC Town Hall podcast to discuss the biggest mistakes advertisers are making today; and what’s actually working in 2025.
While some takeaways apply to other industries, this discussion is rooted in ecommerce. Some of what we found might confirm your suspicions. Some of it might challenge what you thought was a best practice. But one thing is clear: the advertisers winning this year aren’t the ones playing it safe.
You can watch the full Town Hall below:
The PPC strategies that no longer work
Here are some strategies that might have worked in the past but are now holding you back:
Mistake #1: Overusing negative keywords
Negative keywords are supposed to protect your budget by blocking bad traffic. However, too many advertisers go overboard, cutting off traffic that Smart Bidding could have optimized into profitable conversions.
Why it’s a problem: Negative keywords don’t just stop irrelevant clicks. They also block Smart Bidding from learning, forcing the system to work with less data and fewer opportunities. This leads to higher CPCs, fewer conversions, and campaigns that never scale.
In our recent PPC Town Hall, Andrew Lolk put it bluntly:
“People are trying to outsmart Google too much. Smart Bidding needs data to learn, and by being overly aggressive with negatives, you’re starving the system.”
But this isn’t a one-size-fits-all issue. Julie Bacchini highlighted that the right negative keyword strategy depends on the advertiser’s budget and conversion volume:
“If you have a lot of budget and plenty of runway to let the algorithms do their thing, you have more flexibility in how you approach negative keywords. If you’re more budget-limited or if your conversions take longer, you might need to be more precise in your strategy when deciding what to eliminate and what to experiment with.”
The takeaway? Advertisers with high-volume ecommerce accounts can afford to test loosening negative keyword restrictions, while lower-budget or long-sales-cycle accounts may need to be more selective.
📌Example: An ecommerce brand selling high-end running shoes might have added “cheap” as an account-level negative keyword years ago to keep out bargain hunters.
It made sense at the time: why pay for clicks from shoppers unlikely to convert?
Fast-forward to today, and they’ve launched a more affordable shoe line. But that old negative keyword? Still there. Still blocking traffic. So now, people actually looking for their budget-friendly shoes aren’t even seeing the ads.
The worst part? No one even realized it was happening. That one keyword, added years ago and never revisited, was quietly cutting them off from the exact audience they were trying to reach.
Andrew put this to the test with a bold experiment: he removed every negative keyword from an account. Most advertisers would expect this to open the floodgates to low-quality traffic and wasted spend. But that’s not what happened.
Instead of performance tanking, revenue skyrocketed 5.5x.
The reason was simple: the blocked traffic wasn’t bad. Smart Bidding just never had the chance to optimize it. And since this was an ecommerce account with plenty of data, Google’s algorithms had what they needed to adjust bids and find profitable conversions.
Now, we’re not saying you should remove every negative keyword overnight. Andrew’s case was an extreme test to prove a point. But his results highlight something critical: most advertisers are too aggressive with negatives and are limiting Smart Bidding’s ability to optimize.
A better move? Be open to testing
Instead of assuming old negatives are still necessary, test selectively removing a few and monitor the impact. If you have a high-volume ecommerce account, Smart Bidding may be able to optimize some of the traffic you previously blocked.
But if your budget is tighter or conversions take longer, you may need to take a more cautious approach. Either way, blindly keeping negatives from years ago isn’t a strategy; it’s just a habit. It’s time to review, test, and refine.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Not all negatives are bad but not all of them are helping, either. Before making changes, sanity check your list. Are these negatives still blocking wasted spend, or could Smart Bidding turn some of that traffic into conversions?
It also matters where you apply negatives:
Account-level negatives can be too broad, especially if your business has evolved
Campaign-level negatives help steer traffic between different campaign types
Ad group-level negatives can direct budget toward priority search terms by preventing overlap between ad groups, ensuring each one focuses on the right queries.
Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder makes this process easy by analyzing your search terms and performance data. It helps you identify overly broad negatives and spot underperforming keywords, so you can make informed decisions—blocking only what truly isn’t relevant.
And if you’re working through a long list of search terms, AI can also help speed things up. We tested how ChatGPT can rank search terms by relevance, making it easier to spot low-value queries to consider as negatives.
See how we did it in this video:
Mistake #2 – Splitting too many Performance Max campaigns
Splitting Performance Max campaigns excessively is a critical error many advertisers make.
When you fragment your PMax campaigns, each individual segment needs to reach a minimum conversion threshold to be effective—about 30 conversions monthly just to function, but closer to 300 for genuine optimization.
There’s no data sharing between these split campaigns. Your conversions aren’t pooled, you can’t implement shared budgets, and you can’t consolidate data in a bidding strategy.
You’re essentially forcing each campaign to learn from scratch with insufficient data.
Consider an advertiser selling apparel who creates separate PMax campaigns for t-shirts, jeans, jackets, and accessories—all targeting a 400% ROAS. While this organization seems logical, they’re actually handicapping Google’s algorithm by restricting each campaign’s data.
Now you might argue “But my product categories genuinely require different ROAS targets based on their margins and competition. Consolidation would sacrifice this precision.”
This is the only legitimate reason to split campaigns: when you have significantly different ROAS targets. If your jeans can sustain a 500% ROAS while shoes need a 300% target, separation makes sense.
But be honest: are your targets truly that different?
Andrew observes that in 80% of accounts, the ROAS targets vary negligibly (like 700%, 725%, and 715%)—differences that only hurt performance while providing no strategic benefit. Unless your margin structures demand dramatically different targets, consolidation will almost always outperform fragmentation by giving the algorithm the comprehensive data it needs to truly optimize.
He further says that, if you’re doing this today, it might be the one case where you should “blow your account up” and rebuild with a consolidated approach.
But this challenge isn’t limited to ecommerce. Julie further pointed out that lead generation advertisers often struggle even more with split PMax campaigns because they don’t generate enough conversion volume for Smart Bidding to work efficiently.
“Performance Max on the lead gen side can be a little tricky, right? Because for a lot of lead gen accounts, that threshold Andrew was talking about with conversions really comes into play. Lead gen accounts often don’t reach a point where the machine learning and smart bidding hit the level of efficiency they can on a high-volume ecommerce account.”
That’s why consolidation matters even more for lead gen.
If your campaigns aren’t getting enough conversions, Smart Bidding won’t have the data it needs to optimize. Instead of breaking things down too much, it’s better to group similar conversions together so the system has a real chance to learn and improve performance.
🔍Dig deeper: We analyzed 9,199 accounts and 24,702 PMax campaigns to find out what’s actually driving ROI. Spoiler: there’s no one-size-fits-all approach.
Our findings show that ecommerce and lead gen campaigns perform differently in PMax and the best results often come from running multiple campaigns, each with a single asset group.
Want to see what else we found? Check out the full analysis here.
Mistake #3: Holding on to SKAGs (Single Keyword Ad Groups)
Single Keyword Ad Groups (SKAGs) had their moment, but that moment is long gone. What used to be a go-to strategy for tight control over search campaigns is now outdated, inefficient, and actively working against automation.
Why it’s a problem: Back when exact match actually meant exact match, SKAGs made sense. They helped advertisers control which ads showed for specific queries. But today? Google’s matching system has changed. Phrase and broad match are smarter, and Smart Bidding is designed to adjust for relevance in ways SKAGs simply don’t support.
Julie made her stance clear:
“The single keyword ad group’s time has come and gone, people. No more.”
She explained that over-segmentation can limit the system’s ability to optimize efficiently across intent signals and can lead to unnecessary complexity.
Instead of trying to fight Google’s automation with rigid structures, the smarter move is to group keywords by intent rather than forcing a one-keyword-per-ad-group rule.
She further adds, “The platforms are trying to get us to be broader and broader in everything that we’re doing.” Instead of resisting, advertisers need to adapt their structure to give Smart Bidding enough data while keeping control where it matters.
📌 Example: An advertiser running a campaign for men’s running shoes might have historically set up SKAGs like this:
Ad Group 1: "men’s running shoes"
Ad Group 2: "buy men’s running shoes"
Ad Group 3: "best men’s running shoes"
Each with its own ad and exact match targeting. But with Google’s close variants, intent-based matching, and automation, these SKAGs will likely end up competing against each other and over-segmentation could reduce optimization efficiency.
Julie highlighted why keeping some separation still makes sense, but not at the SKAG level:
“I prefer to try to, even if it’s just for my thought processes and managing things, sometimes, for budget allocations, I’m a fan of the stack, the single theme, trying to keep things a little bit separated.”
This is where Single-Theme Ad Groups (STAGs) come in. Instead of isolating individual keywords, STAGs group keywords by intent while still allowing for control over ad messaging and landing pages.
A better move? Shift to STAGs and let automation work for you
Instead of clinging to SKAGs, shift to Single-Theme Ad Groups (STAGs). This keeps keywords logically grouped while still giving Google enough data to optimize effectively.
Julie summed it up perfectly:
“You have more flexibility in the language that you’re using in your ad copy. You could be sending to different landing pages depending on how sophisticated you are on that side of things.”
That flexibility is key to making automation work in your favor rather than fighting against it.
Mistake #4: Relying on last-click attribution
If you’re still using last-click attribution in 2025, you’re making bid decisions on incomplete data. It might feel familiar, but it’s fundamentally flawed as it credits 100% of a conversion to the last interaction while ignoring every touchpoint that led up to it.
Think about your own behavior. Do you ever see a single ad, click, and purchase instantly? Probably not. You research, compare, and interact with multiple touchpoints before making a decision. Last-click ignores this entirely.
It gives all the credit to the final click while ignoring SEO, social, email, upper-funnel ads, and remarketing—all of which play a role in driving conversions.
Andrew shares that: “Last-click attribution is absolutely dead. It should never be used for anyone outside the baby stage of an account.” He goes even further, calling it “100% wrong” – and this is coming from someone who manages millions in ad spend.
Julie goes even further calling attribution “a bit of fairy dust and wishes rather than hard data.” And with privacy restrictions making tracking more fragmented than ever, traditional attribution models are becoming even less reliable.
“We sold it as a strong, reliable factor—this is why you should do digital advertising instead of other types. But I think that’s starting to unravel as we move from 2024 into 2025. So, I think we’ll need to change the way we talk about attribution; more as a weighting or contributing factor rather than some absolute piece of data.”
How last-click distorts reality
Let’s say a customer:
Finds your product through a Google Search ad
Sees your remarketing ad while browsing news
Clicks a promotional email a week later
Finally converts after clicking a social ad
Last-click would give 100% credit to social, completely ignoring the critical role each previous interaction played. Advertisers then mistakenly shift budgets away from channels that actually contribute to conversions; just because last-click says they don’t.
What should you do instead?
First, align attribution with your bidding strategy. As our CEO, Frederick Vallaeys suggests, “If you’re going to trust your bidding to these systems, it probably makes sense to have a similarly run system to assign value.”
Data-driven attribution (DDA) is your best option here, even with its limitations. It distributes credit across the customer journey instead of rewarding only the last touchpoint.
Second, change how you think about attribution. It’s not absolute truth; it’s a directional signal. Instead of chasing a “perfect” model, look for patterns in the data and optimize accordingly.
Finally, go beyond attribution altogether.
Metrics like the Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER) provide a more holistic view by measuring overall revenue impact rather than assigning credit to individual channels.
The bottom line? If you’re still using last-click in 2025, you’re making decisions with one eye closed. Your competitors who’ve moved beyond it are seeing the full picture – and taking full advantage of it.
Mistake #5: “Set and forget” ROAS targets
Many advertisers fall into the trap of setting a Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) target and treating it as an unchangeable rule. While establishing a baseline ROAS is essential, rigidly adhering to it can stifle growth by overlooking valuable scaling opportunities. Market shifts, competitive pressures, and seasonal fluctuations necessitate a more dynamic approach.
The pitfall of a fixed ROAS
Take an ecommerce brand selling high-end electronics. They’ve set a 500% ROAS target across all campaigns. At first, things look great. But over time, they notice impressions drop, conversion volume stalls, and competitors start gaining traction.
Instead of adjusting their target, they hold firm without realizing that lowering ROAS slightly might actually drive more conversions at a profitable scale.
Andrew sees this resistance all the time:
“Most advertisers treat ROAS like a hard rule instead of a flexible lever. But if you’re never adjusting, you’re never discovering opportunities to scale.”
A good rule of thumb is to start by lowering or raising your ROAS target by 10-20% in a controlled test. This helps you understand if a small tweak can lead to additional conversions without drastically increasing costs.
Instead of reacting on assumptions, you’ll have real performance data to guide future decisions. Julie further adds:
“Many advertisers fear lowering their ROAS targets because they assume it will tank profitability. But sometimes, easing up on ROAS actually increases total revenue and profit because you’re allowing Smart Bidding to compete in more auctions.”
It’s understandable: tight margins make strict ROAS targets feel necessary.
But look beyond ROAS and focus on actual business impact. Many advertisers chase high ROAS numbers without realizing that a slightly lower ROAS can drive more total revenue and profit.
A 500% ROAS might sound great, but if a 400% target leads to double the conversions at a strong margin, which one is really better for your business?
For instance, a high ROAS with low conversion volume can mean you’re not reaching a wide enough audience even though your campaign is cost-effective. Similarly, a high ROAS with high spend means you’re not generating additional revenue. It may be a good idea to think of ways to make your campaign more sustainable.
Start analyzing blended metrics that provide a comprehensive view of your campaigns like:
Profit per Conversion: This metric reveals the actual profit generated by each conversion, offering a clearer picture of profitability
Lifetime Value (LTV): Understanding the long-term value of a customer helps you make informed decisions about acceptable acquisition costs
Marketing Efficiency Ratio (MER): This measures the overall effectiveness of your marketing spend, providing a broader perspective than ROAS alone
Another hesitation advertisers have is whether adjusting ROAS will confuse Smart Bidding. In reality, small, controlled shifts (10-20%) won’t disrupt learning but just help you see if you’re losing out.
Mistake #6 Neglecting video as a marketing channel
AI has made writing too easy. Every brand can churn out ad copy and blog posts in seconds. This leads to a flood of generic, soulless content that all sounds the same. If you want to grab attention, video isn’t optional anymore; it’s your best shot at actually standing out.
Yet, most PPC advertisers are completely failing to take advantage of it.
“YouTube is the best ad channel, the best ad inventory in the world, and yet, most advertisers completely ignore it.”
—Andrew Lolk
Let that sink in. The biggest untapped goldmine in PPC is sitting right in front of you, and you’re still prioritizing static search ads?
Even worse, many advertisers still believe YouTube is just a branding play.
The brands winning right now are using video to drive direct conversions, crush their remarketing, and influence branded search behavior.
And it’s not just about ads as video is changing how businesses communicate.
Andrew’s agency stopped sending long email reports and switched to quick Loom videos. Clients actually paid attention to performance updates instead of skimming over walls of text.
Still think video isn’t for you? That mindset won’t cut it anymore.
“For brands, if we’re talking about the people we work with, the time for simply saying, ‘No, we don’t do video,’ is probably not going to be sustainable much longer. So, if you’re not already doing it, at the very least, you need to be talking about it, putting resources in place, and planning for it.”
—Julie Bacchini
The excuses for avoiding video are dead. You don’t need Hollywood-level production. Simple screen recordings, casual smartphone clips, or short-form videos will put you ahead of 90% of advertisers still stuck in 2019.
Case study: how one simple video ad took Dr. Squatch from unknown to $100M
Take Dr. Squatch, a brand selling natural soap for men. They weren’t a household name until they ran a low-budget, personality-driven video ad on YouTube.
What they did: Instead of a polished, high-production video, they shot a simple, direct-response ad featuring a charismatic spokesperson walking through the benefits of their soap with humor and energy.
The video was raw, fun, and felt real. Here are the results they achieved:
12M+ views in just four months (122.3M as of today)
They didn’t have a massive budget. They didn’t use fancy effects. They just leveraged video in a way that static ads never could.
Evolve your strategy and dominate PPC in 2025
If this list made you rethink how you run your campaigns, that’s a good thing. The worst mistake you can make in PPC isn’t bidding too high or picking the wrong keyword; it’s refusing to evolve.
So take a step back, audit your approach, and ask yourself: Are you running PPC for the way it worked in the past, or the way it works today?
Need help making that shift? Optmyzr helps you stay ahead of the curve with powerful automation, smarter insights, and tools designed for how PPC actually works in 2025.
Start your 14-day trial today and see the difference.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
⚠️ Disclaimer: Opinions and suggestions shared by experts in this article are their own and do not reflect those of Optmyzr.
Whether you’re looking to drive more traffic, raise brand awareness, or boost conversions using Google Ads, your bid management strategy can make or break your results.
Choosing the right bidding strategy and scaling it properly can make a huge difference in getting the best results from your campaigns.
However, with so many bidding strategies to choose from, constant updates, and the delicate balance between automation and manual tweaks, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
In this article, we discuss the different bid strategies in Google ads and provide tips on choosing the best one for your business and scaling it for the best results.
A step-by-step guide to setting up bid strategies
We’re starting with a guide on how you can access and configure bid strategies in your Google Ads account. Feel free to skip ahead if you’re already familiar with the setup.
Sign in to your Google Ads Account.
Choose ‘Campaigns’ from the menu on the left.
Choose the campaign you want to modify, hover your mouse over the campaign name, and click on the gear icon. Alternatively, you can also click the campaign and access the settings at the top.
In the menu that opens up, click on ‘Bidding’.
Click on ‘Change Bidding Strategy’.
In the dropdown menu that appears, you’ll be able to choose between Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversion Values.
6. There are also some hidden bidding strategies. To opt for these, click on ‘Select Bid Strategy Directly’.
7. Here you will be able to choose from Maximize Clicks, Target Impression Share, and Manual CPC.
To make the best out of your Google Ads budget, it’s always best to understand how these bidding strategies work for different campaign types. And that’s what we’ll cover below.
Examples of bidding strategies for different campaign types
Google offers various types of bidding strategies based on different campaign types and business goals. Choosing the right strategy is highly dependent on whether you want to increase brand awareness, maximize conversions, drive traffic, or achieve a specific ROAS (return on ad spend).
Here are some practical examples to illustrate this:
1. Search campaigns
A B2B SaaS company wants businesses to sign up for a free demo. Since each demo could be a potential customer, the company would want to bring in as many sign-ups as possible within a defined budget.
Opting for tCPA (target cost per acquisition) is telling Google to strive for a target CPA while getting as many conversions as possible. You get the most sign-ups without exceeding your cost per lead.
If your campaigns don’t have enough conversion data (~30 conversions in the past 30 days), our latest study on bidding strategies finds it effective to start with Maximize Clicks with a bid cap (so you don’t spend too much per click) to gather the initial conversion data. You can figure out what your traffic costs and if it fits within your budget.
When setting a bid cap, ensure it’s not more than 10% of your daily budget or you’ll risk not getting enough clicks. Also, since Maximize Clicks focuses more on volume of clicks, ensure you’re only running Google search, opting out of search partners and display expansion.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Configure Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to adjust keyword bids based on campaign-level CPA. For example, if a keyword’s CPA is 50% higher than the campaign average, lower its bid by 20%.
2. Shopping campaigns
An online ecommerce store selling gadgets has an inventory in which some products have higher profit margins than others. Their aim is to sell enough of the right products to maximize revenue without sacrificing profitability.
Setting a tROAS (target return on ad spend) translates to Google trying to bid higher for products or users that are likely to generate high-value transactions. Instead of simply prioritizing more sales, tROAS optimizes for more revenue.
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use the Smart Product Labeler to segment your products based on their performance — targeting top sellers with higher bids and lowering bids for others. This ensures budgets are allocated according to product potential, increasing the overall ROAS.
3. Display campaigns
A company selling an online course on its website wants to retarget users who’ve started enrolling but did not complete it. Since these users have shown a high level of interest in the course, the company uses a display retargeting campaign for two reasons.
A user who has abandoned the enrollment is just a few steps away from converting. Visual ads with clear USPs might be more effective in nudging such users to complete their enrollment than text ads.
Display campaigns can re-engage qualified users and remind them to complete the enrollment by reaching them across websites, apps, and even YouTube even if they’re not searching
Since a successful enrollment counts as a conversion, the company calculates it can afford $100 per conversion. Based on this, they choose Target CPA bidding, allowing Google to optimize bids at $100 or lower for placements most likely to drive enrollments.
Ensure Google tracks the right conversions. In this case, completed enrollments would count as the primary goal, while actions like clicking “Enroll Now” or viewing the course page count as secondary conversions. This helps the algorithm optimize for actual enrollments and not other website interactions.
It is also important to secure user consent according to regulations like GDPR before using cookies and other tracking technologies for retargeting and other remarketing audience types such as video RLSA.
4. Video campaigns
A business just launched a new product and they use a video ad to create brand awareness. Since people are not aware of the product and not actively searching for it, the aim is to push the video ad to a large audience for maximum visibility.
Using tCPM (target cost per thousand impressions) maximizes the number of people who see your ad within the budget you’ve defined. It increases visibility and is good for brand recall but may not result in immediate clicks or engagement.
💡Pro Tip: Layering tCPM with YouTube remarketing audiences can be useful in converting viewers to customers. Link your YouTube channel to your Google Ads account and create data segments based on different actions like viewing a specific video. Use these lists in your Google Ads campaigns to target them with relevant ads.
5. Performance Max campaigns
A custom home decor brand wants to maximize profitability by reaching potential customers across various Google platforms like Search, YouTube, and Display.
Since they want to maximize ad efficiency across these channels with minimum manual intervention, the seller considers running PMax campaigns to automate ad placements according to their revenue goals.
Opting for Maximize Conversion Value in this case allocates budgets across channels so as to prioritize high-value sales and increase revenue. Bids are optimized more aggressively on customers who are more likely to indulge in high-value purchases.
To enhance this strategy it is important to connect your CRM with Google Ads. This helps in tracking actual customer conversions and their revenue, allowing Google to optimize bids based on real sales value rather than low-value actions.
How to make the most of Google’s Smart Bidding strategies?
Smart bidding is a subset of automated bidding that focuses on conversions. Also known as auction-time bidding, it optimizes bids based on real-time auction insights.
Bids are optimized based on 60+ signals exclusive to Google’s smart bidding, including:
Contextual signals like browser, operating system, language, and others in addition to device, location, and time of day.
Search query-level data
Predicted conversions
Target budgets
Smart bidding uses these signals to adjust bids in real time to optimize ad spend. This means that the algorithm might increase bids if a user is more likely to convert. Conversely, it can also lower bids in cases where the likelihood of a conversion is low.
This is why advertisers switching from manual (where they have more control over individual bids) to smart bidding may see fluctuations in their CPC.
Now if you want some degree of control, smart bidding allows you to set bid floors and ceilings (min and max bid limits) through portfolio bidding so you avoid overspending without sacrificing profitability and visibility.
When to use smart bidding for maximum results
1. When you have enough conversion data Since smart bidding utilizes machine learning and historical data, you need to have sufficient data to optimize conversions. Google recommends at least 15 conversions over a month or longer for every campaign for target ROAS. But, we found that most advertisers clear 50+ conversions in a 30-day period and see better performance compared to accounts with fewer conversions.
This is because smart bidding strategies need extensive historical data to identify the patterns and signals that correlate to conversions. Our study shows that campaigns with more conversion data and stable performance give better results with smart bidding.
If you don’t have enough conversions, start with simpler strategies like Maximize Clicks to collect initial conversion data and then switch.
2. When you have a relatively stable ad spend Smart bidding strategies require something called a ‘learning period’ which is the time it takes for Google’s algorithm to adjust to changes in your campaign.
If your campaigns have predictable patterns in spends, it becomes easier for the algorithm to identify what works and adjust bids in response. This is especially important for Target ROAS or Target CPA where consistent spending is key to predicting the likelihood of conversions.
On the other hand, inconsistent ad spend results in longer learning periods, delaying bid optimizations.
Our studies indicate that the sweet spot for ad spend when it comes to smart bidding seems to be between $10K-$50K.
3. When you want to maximize revenue and not just conversions If your primary business goal is to grow your revenue rather than simply increasing the volume of conversions, smart bidding is a good strategy since it can optimize for both conversion count and value.
Accurately tracking conversion values will give you a clear picture of the revenue generated by your ad campaigns. This is key to testing out different strategies to figure out how to strike a balance between profit and volume.
4. When you have clearly defined and properly valued conversion actions Some advertisers think that smart bidding works only for higher ad spends. However, this is not entirely true. Smart bidding can be used effectively even if you have lower budgets if your conversion tracking is set up accurately.
For instance, you can consider including micro-conversions in your conversion tracking if you have limited data to work with. But each action needs to be assigned an appropriate value so Google allocates budgets to actions that matter most.
Bid smarter, not harder: Solutions to common bidding issues
Effective bid management can be a useful tool to maximize the ROI of your PPC campaigns. However, when bids are not optimized correctly, they can lead to wasted spend, missed opportunities, and poor campaign performance.
In such instances, you need to first identify your underperforming bids.
Signs your bids are underperforming
Low impressions: A low search impression share indicates that your ads are not showing up too often in search results. This can happen if your bids are too low in comparison to your competitors.
High CPCs: If you notice your cost-per-click keeps increasing without any improvement in conversions or ROAS, there’s a chance you’re overbidding.
Low CTR: A declining click-through-rate despite stable search volume could mean your ads are appearing lower on the page if your bids are too low.
Low conversion volume: If your conversion volume is low despite stable budgets, your ads are attracting less relevant people possibly due to lower bids.
Fixing overbidding and wasted ad spend
Overbidding your ads can deplete your budgets too quickly and reduce profit margins. It can even result in your ads showing up for loosely related searches, attracting low or mismatched-intent audiences. To fix this:
Review your search terms and implement negative keywords as much as possible to avoid irrelevant searches from triggering your ads.
Optimize bids for profitability using target CPA or target ROAS if you have enough conversion data.
Instead of bidding higher through the entire day or week, consider increasing bids during high-converting periods. Optmyzr’s Hour of the Week Bidder allows you to identify the most profitable times and set bid adjustments for them. It helps set up your ad schedules so that you get the flexibility to show your ads on a particular day or time of the week.
Improve ad copy and landing page relevance since it boosts your Quality Score and ad rank, allowing you to compete even with lower bids.
If you’re using ROAS-oriented bidding strategies, consider implementing bid caps so you can control ad spend.
Identify underperforming segments and lower bids on them
💡Optmyzr Tip: Use geo-bid adjustments in Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to identify locations that have higher CPA or no conversions at all and reduce bid adjustments on them to reduce wasted ad spends.
Solving underbidding and lost opportunities
Keeping your bids too low your ads may not show up at all or have reduced visibility in high-traffic areas. This results in lower CTR, reduced conversions, and put you at a disadvantage if your competitors are bidding higher for valuable ad placements.To counter this you can:
Use Auction Insights in Google Ads to see how your bids stand relative to competitors. Consider gradual bid increases for valuable keywords.
Identify high-value, high-intent keywords that are driving conversions and increase bids on them.
Use ad extensions to improve the relevance and visibility of your ads. They make your ad more engaging and informative, improving the likelihood of conversions even if you’re working with low to moderate bids in comparison to your competitors.
If you’re using smart bidding strategies, make sure to periodically review your settings so that they are aligned with your current business objectives. This ensures you’re not underbidding for the right kind of conversions. For example, an e-commerce seller previously prioritizing sales volume to establish their product line might want a higher ROAS in the upcoming months to increase profitability. In this case the seller may want to switch from Maximize Conversions to Target ROAS to avoid underbidding for profitability and efficiency.
When to use automated vs manual bidding in Google Ads?
As an advertiser, it’s easy to be confused between choosing automated or manual bidding for your campaigns. The key is to understand your goals and the type of campaign you want to run. Here’s a quick overview of both approaches to help you choose the right bid management strategy for your ads.
Criteria
Automated Bidding
Manual Bidding
Control
Less granular control, more automation
Full control over each bid
Efficiency
More efficient for large-scale campaigns
Requires constant monitoring and adjustments
Data dependency
Needs sufficient historical conversion data
Doesn’t rely on a lot of data
Adaptability
Highly adaptive to changes in auction dynamics
Less adaptive to real-time changes
Complexity
Simplifies bid management
More complex since it requires manual adjustments
Best for
Large campaigns, goal-based objectives, businesses with consistent data
Niche campaigns, specific keywords, small budgets
Automated bidding
Pros:
Highly efficient and time-saving
Adapts quickly to changes in factors like seasonality, competitor bids, etc.
Optimizes bids for your campaign goals without requiring manual intervention
Cons:
Heavily dependent on data
Can lead to overbidding if goals are poorly defined or there’s not enough conversion data
Advertisers do not have much control over individual bids
Manual bidding
Pros:
Advertisers have full control over bids
Budgets can be tweaked at a very granular level so costs can be managed
Complete visibility into what’s happening with every keyword
Cons:
Needs frequent monitoring and adjustments for optimal campaign performance
Not very adaptive to changes in auction environment
Higher chances of missing optimization opportunities
When to use automated or smart bidding for ads
Automated bidding: Best when you have clear goals like maximizing revenue, sufficient conversion data, and a large enough budget. It improves efficiency and makes it easier to scale campaigns.
Manual bidding: Ideal if you’re working with tighter budgets or targeting very specific keywords and need total control but limited conversion data (like in the case of a new campaign). It also gives room for experimentation since you can test out different bid amounts, keyword variations, and strategies.
Best practices for scaling bids based on campaign performance
Scaling bids too quickly can exhaust your budgets while doing it too slow can make it difficult to reach your campaign goals. The key is to make gradual, informed decisions that drive growth without overspending. Here’s how you can do it.
1. Leverage performance data
Identify strengths and weaknesses in your campaigns by tracking metrics like CTR, CPC, ROAS, and CPA. Regularly tracking these metrics can give you insights into trends or patterns that can inform bid adjustments.
If you individual campaigns don’t have enough data to make informed data, Optmyzr’s bid management capabilities allow you to pull up data for similar campaigns so you can study them. It puts data into easy-to-visualize formats like charts or graphs so its easier to understand and spot opportunities.
Tip: Segment performance data based on factors like device, audience, and location to identify where the highest value conversions occur and refine bid adjustments
2. Use incremental bid increases
Scaling your bids too fast can push you into expensive auctions and spike your costs. It’s always best to increase your bids gradually (e.g. 10-15%) and then monitor the impact of changes for a few days before adjusting it even further.
Optmyzr customers can use if-then statements in Rule Engine to automate bid increases. For instance, if a campaign achieves a 10% increase in ROAS, then raise bids by 10%.
Tip: Instead of making bid adjustments across several campaigns at once, try running tests on a subset of ad groups or keywords to minimize risks. It also gives you a glimpse into what works before you implement the changes at scale.
3. Prioritize high-converting segments
If you find that certain keywords or audience segments are giving you consistent conversions at a lower cost, you may want to consider increasing bids for these high-converting segments. Even a slight increase in bids can capture more clicks, conversions, and impressions and scale without losing profitability.
Tip: Use audience bid adjustments to increase or decrease bids based on conversion data. For instance, you can increase bids for users who have visited your site or fall into the demographic profile of high-converting audience segments.
4. A/B test bid adjustments
Run experiments to find out which bidding strategies are the most effective for you (e.g. manual vs smart bidding). For instance, you can target ROAS in smart bidding against manual bidding to see which one delivers better ROI.
Similarly, if you find that retargeting audiences are converting well, you might want to try increasing bids for them first before doing it for a broader segment.
Tip: For an effective A/B test, choose a campaign with consistent traffic and conversion volume—this ensures you use statistically meaningful results when comparing smart bidding vs manual bidding strategies.
Maximize your Google Ads performance with effective bid management
Effective bid management in Google Ads is a blend of strategic planning, continuous optimization, and leveraging automation where appropriate.
Whether you’re opting for manual, automated, or smart bidding, the key is to make careful, data-driven adjustments, balancing automation with manual control so your campaigns stay agile and you’re getting the most out of your ad spend.
Try Optmyzr’s bid management tools to streamline your Google Ads strategy. Sign up for a 14-day free trial today!
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
Every time you advertise online, you’re entering an auction. And like any auction, winning or losing comes down to your bidding strategy.
As platforms like Google, Microsoft, and Meta advance, we’re at a fascinating crossroads between human intuition and machine learning. Some campaigns thrive on smart automation that processes thousands of signals in real time. Others benefit from a more hands-on approach to strategy.
So, how do you manage bids in a way that drives results? When does manual bidding make sense, and when should you let automation take over? Let’s break down what goes into a winning bid strategy.
What is PPC bid management?
PPC bid management is the process of strategically setting and adjusting bids for your ads in platforms like Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, etc. The goal is to maximize ad visibility while controlling costs, ensuring you get the best ROI for every click.
And bids matter—they help determine both where your ad shows up and how much you’ll actually pay when someone clicks. The challenge is that bidding is dynamic. What works today might be too expensive tomorrow or too low to keep your ad visible.
Effective bid management means staying ahead of these shifts, using automation wisely, and making data-driven adjustments to ensure your campaigns deliver results.
Types of bid management
There are three primary approaches to managing bids, each offering different levels of control and automation. The right choice depends on your campaign goals, available data, and how much hands-on management you prefer.
1. Manual bidding
Manual bidding gives you complete control over your bids. You set and adjust your bids at the keyword, ad group/ad set, or campaign level based on your own analysis.
This is ideal for advanced advertisers who know their bids should be and are comfortable adjusting bids based on market conditions. You can layer in bid adjustments, such as for device type or location, but it requires ongoing monitoring and frequent tweaks.
The strategy requires time and expertise, but that doesn’t mean you must do everything by hand. Many advertisers build their own automated bidding systems using scripts and rules. Optmyzr makes this even easier with ready-to-use strategies that help you stay on top of shifting factors like seasonality, competitor activity, and user behavior.
2. Automated bidding
Automated bidding simplifies bid adjustments by using predefined strategies to optimize for specific goals, such as increasing traffic or maintaining ad visibility. Instead of manually setting bids, advertisers choose a strategy that aligns with their objectives, and the system automatically adjusts bids based on performance signals.
Unlike Smart Bidding, which focuses on getting conversions, automated bidding is more about hitting broader goals. You choose a strategy that fits your goal, whether it’s getting more clicks, showing your ads more often, or staying within a budget, and the system adjusts your bids accordingly.
Different platforms offer a variety of automated bidding strategies. Here’s the breakdown:
📌Google Ads: Options like Maximize Clicks (aims to get the most clicks within budget) and Target Impression Share (adjusts bids to maintain ad visibility in a specific position) help advertisers optimize for reach and traffic
📌Amazon Ads: Features like Dynamic Bidding – Up and Down automatically increase bids when an ad is more likely to convert and decrease them when it’s less likely. This approach helps sellers compete for high-intent traffic while controlling cost
📌Meta Ads (Facebook & Instagram): You can use Lowest Cost Bidding (bids are set to get the most results at the lowest cost) or Bid Cap (sets a maximum bid to maintain cost control). These strategies focus on balancing reach, engagement, and cost efficiency
📌Other Platforms (LinkedIn, TikTok, Microsoft Ads, etc.): Each platform has variations of automated bidding, often with options to maximize clicks, impressions, or engagement based on advertiser goals
Choosing the right automated bidding strategy for your goals
Want more traffic? → Use Maximize Clicks (Google), Lowest Cost Bidding (Meta), or Dynamic Bidding – Up and Down (Amazon)
Want to keep costs in check → Use Bid Cap (Meta) or Fixed Bidding (Amazon) to control maximum bids. In Google Ads, Smart Bidding strategies like Maximize Conversions with a Target CPA aim to hit a specific cost per acquisition
Focusing on visibility? → Use Target Impression Share (Google), Reach & Frequency Buying (Meta), or Sponsored Brands (Amazon)
3. Smart bidding (conversion-driven)
Smart Bidding is all about helping you get more conversions, like sales or sign-ups, by automatically adjusting your bids in real-time. Instead of manually setting bids, it uses machine learning to figure out the best bid for each situation based on the chances of a conversion happening.
It looks at things like user behavior and auction data to make sure your ads are shown to the right people at the right time. This makes it a great choice if your main goal is to drive more valuable actions from your ads.
📌Example: You're running an eCommerce campaign for a seasonal sale on winter jackets. With Smart Bidding, the system can analyze data such as whether someone is using a mobile device or desktop, their location (are they in a cold area?), and even the time of day.
If it's a chilly evening and someone is searching for jackets on their phone, Smart Bidding can increase your bid for that specific user, maximizing the chances of conversion.
While Smart Bidding can be highly effective, many advertisers default to it without checking if they have enough data. Our research revealed that smart bidding works best with at least 50+ conversions per month. Without this, performance can be volatile and unpredictable.
It also revealed that many advertisers start with one strategy and then transition to the other as their campaign picks up. This approach allows them to maintain control early on and switch once they have enough data for automation to work effectively.
If you’re considering Smart Bidding, here are the key strategies to know:
📌Maximize Conversions (with optional Target CPA): This strategy automatically adjusts your bids to get the most conversions (sales, sign-ups, leads) possible within your budget. It’s a good option if you are focused on driving volume and have a consistent budget.
While it aims to maximize conversions, it’s often beneficial to pair this strategy with a Target CPA. This tells Google the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for each conversion, and it will try to get you as many conversions as possible at that cost.
The combination is ideal when you have a specific CPA goal in mind and want to maximize conversions within that cost constraint.
📌 Maximize Conversion Value (with optional Target ROAS): Instead of just increasing the number of conversions, this strategy focuses on driving the highest total revenue from your ad spend. It’s ideal if you have different conversion values (e.g. different purchase amounts) and want to prioritize higher-value conversions.
It’s often recommended to use this strategy with a Target ROAS. Target ROAS lets you set a specific return you want to achieve on your ad spend (e.g., a 300% ROAS). Smart Bidding will then optimize your bids to maximize conversion value while trying to hit your target ROAS.
This combination is best when you have a specified ROAS target and want to maximize the overall value of your conversions.
Conversion-focused bidding strategies on other platforms
While Google Ads offers Smart Bidding, other advertising platforms also provide automated bidding strategies designed to help you achieve similar conversion-focused goals. Here’s a look at what some other platforms offer:
📌Meta ads (Facebook and Instagram): If your goal is to drive conversions or maximize the conversion value of Facebook and Instagram, Meta Ads offers several relevant bidding strategies. Highest Value Bidding optimizes your bids to target users most likely to make high-value purchases.
This is particularly useful for eCommerce businesses with varying product prices. Meta also offers other conversion-focused strategies like Lowest Cost and Value Bidding.
📌Amazon ads: For sellers on Amazon, Dynamic Bidding can help optimize conversions. The Up and Down variation automatically adjusts your bids on the likelihood of a conversion, increasing them when a sale is highly probable and decreasing them when it’s less so. This allows you to compete effectively for high-intent shoppers.
📌LinkedIn ads: If your focus is on lead generation or other B2B conversions, LinkedIn’s Bid for Conversions is designed to optimize your campaigns for specific actions, such as form submissions, sign-ups, or website visits.
📌Microsoft ads: Microsoft ads offer a similar suite of conversion-focused bidding strategies. Target CPA, Target ROAS, Maximize Conversions, and Maximize Conversions Value function much like their Google Ads counterparts, allowing you to optimize for specific cost or return targets.
Choosing the right conversion-focused bidding strategy for your goals
Increase overall conversion volume within a set budget→ Maximize Conversion (Google Ads), Lowest Cost (Meta ads), Maximize Conversion (Microsoft ads)
Maximize the value of conversions from online sales→ Maximize Conversion Value (Google ads), Highest Value (Meta ads), Maximize Conversion Value (Microsoft ads), Dynamic Bidding- Up and Down (Amazon ads)
Achieve a specific CPA for lead generation campaigns→ Target CPA (Google ads), Cost Cap (Meta ads)
Achieve a specific ROAS for shopping campaigns→ Target ROAS (Google ads), ROAS targeting (Meta ads)
Drive conversions while prioritizing high-value customers who spend $A or more per purchase→Value Bidding (Meta ads), Target ROAS (Google ads), Maximize Conversion Value (Microsoft ads)
Maximize conversions for product sales on Amazon with a specific ACoS target→Dynamic Bidding- Up and Down
Drive a specific number of conversions (e.g. 500 sales) within a timeframe of X days/weeks/months→Maximize Conversions (Google Ads)- requires careful monitoring and budget adjustments. Consider adding a Target CPA after enough conversion data is gathered
💡Pro Tip: Use express optimization suggestions in Optmyzr to test smart bidding strategies like Maximize Conversion Value, Target CPA, or Target ROAS before fully committing to a strategy. It reviews Google’s recommendations and lets you run trial campaigns to measure performance before making full-scale changes.
Manual Bidding vs. Automated Bidding vs. Smart Bidding: When should you choose which?
Choosing between manual, automated, and Smart Bidding depends on your goals, experience, and the level of control you need.
When to use manual bidding?
Manual bidding can be suitable in the following instances:
📌Limited data availability: Smart Bidding relies on conversion data to optimize bids. When there’s not enough data, bids may be set too high or too low based on incomplete signals. In such scenarios, manual bidding gives you control to align bids with actual auction conditions rather than relying on uncertain automation
📌Targeting brand keywords: For campaigns targeting brand-specific keywords, manual bidding can offer tighter control over bids, ensuring optimal positioning without over-reliance on automated systems.
📌Resetting data: When there’s a need to reset or clear historical data, manual bidding can be employed temporarily to establish a new performance baseline before transitioning back to automated strategies.
📌Ensuring specific ad positions: If maintaining a particular ad position is crucial, manual bidding provides the control necessary to achieve and hold desired placements.
📌Managing low-performing segments: In scenarios where certain segments underperform, manual bidding allows for targeted adjustments to improve efficiency and performance.
Shawn Walker of Symphonic Digital suggests manual bidding can be especially valuable when you’re just starting with a new campaign: * *
“A lot of the time if we’re starting a brand new campaign where there’s not much background and the client doesn’t know exactly who the audience is, we will start with manual bidding… just to get some volume out there.”
When to use automated bidding?
Automated bidding is ideal when you want to optimize for clicks or visibility without constant manual adjustments. It’s a great fit:
📌 When your goal is traffic or visibility (brand awareness campaigns) – Strategies like Maximize Clicks and Target ImpressionShare prioritize getting the most clicks within your budget or securing a specific ad placement. However, remember that more clicks don’t always equal more conversions. These strategies are less focused on direct conversions and more on expanding reach.
📌 When you don’t have enough conversion data – If you lack sufficient conversion data to leverage Smart Bidding, automated bidding can be a good starting point. It allows you to optimize for clicks or impressions while you gather more conversion data. However, note that these strategies do not optimize for conversions. They are a stepping stone towards conversion-focused bidding once you have enough data.
📌 When you’re managing large-scale campaigns – If you’re running campaigns with a lot of keywords and ad groups, it can be overwhelming to adjust bids manually. Automated bidding can help by adjusting bids across all your campaigns to save you time. However, if you have enough conversion data, Smart Bidding can take it a step further and optimize specifically for conversions, helping you meet your goals more effectively.
📌When competition and costs keep changing: In industries where CPCs are constantly shifting, automated bidding can help you stay on top of things by adjusting bids quickly. One big advantage is the ability to set bid caps, which let you control the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for a click. This helps prevent overspending while still keeping your bids competitive.
That said, if the market is really volatile, you’ll still want to check in regularly to make sure your strategy is working.
When to use smart bidding?
Smart Bidding works best when:
📌 You have enough conversion data – While the minimum threshold can vary, more conversion data generally leads to better performance. Aim for a significant number of conversions (e.g. 50-100+ per month per conversion action) for more reliable optimization. The more data, the better Smart Bidding can understand patterns and predict future conversions.
📌 Your tracking is accurate – Smart bidding works best with precise conversion tracking. Make sure your setup is correct across all platforms.
Google Ads: Use the Google tag (gtag.js) or Google Tag Manager (GTM) for flexibility. GTM’s new form tracking feature allows codeless conversion tracking.
Microsoft Ads: Relies on Universal Event Tracking (UET) for conversion measurement.
Meta Ads: Uses the Meta Pixel to track and optimize conversions.
Each platform has its own tracking system. Check their documentation to ensure accurate data collection. The better your tracking, the smarter your bids.
📌 You’re optimizing for revenue, not just trafficvolume– If your goal is to maximize the value of your conversions, Smart Bidding strategy like Maximize Conversion Value is the way to go. It focuses on getting the highest value for each conversion, even if that means you get fewer conversions overall.
On the other hand, Max Conversions aims to drive as many conversions as possible, so it’s important to make sure that those conversions (and the leads they generate) are actually profitable.
📌 You’re in a competitive market – Smart Bidding’s real-time adjustments are especially useful in competitive markets with fluctuating CPCs. While automated bidding adjusts based on general trends and manual bidding relies on constant manual adjustments or scripts, Smart Bidding makes real-time adjustments using auction-time signals.
This makes Smart Bidding particularly effective when your goal is to drive conversions or revenue, not just clicks or visibility. It adapts quickly to market changes and targets high-value actions, making it ideal for competitive environments.
Still, it’s important to monitor performance, particularly during major market changes.
💡 Pro Tip: Smart Bidding helps automate your bids, but it’s not always perfect. Sometimes, your best ad groups don’t show up as often as they should. Since Smart Bidding controls bids, you can’t change them directly, but you can adjust the targets to guide it in the right direction.
Lowering Target ROAS or raising Target CPA can increase volume, while stricter targets improve efficiency but may limit traffic. Since Smart Bidding factors in signals not available in manual bidding device, location, and time of day, adjusting targets for these variables can improve results.
Optmyzr’sRule Engine helps by identifying when your targets need adjusting and providing data-backed suggestions, so you can keep your campaigns performing at their best.
How to choose the right bid strategy?
When it comes to selecting a bid strategy, it’s essential to choose one that aligns with your campaign goals. Below are some of the most common bid strategies, each tailored to different objectives.
Maximize Clicks
Ideal for: brand awareness campaigns, new campaigns where you want to drive early traffic, and building an audience list for future retargeting
The Maximize Clicks strategy is designed to drive as much traffic to your site as possible within your budget. It’s useful for:
✔️ Growing an audience list for future retargeting ✔️ Driving early traffic before optimizing for conversions ✔️ Understanding auction dynamics and keyword costs
However, not all clicks turn into conversions, so monitor engagement metrics like bounce rate and time on site.
📌Example: If you’re launching a new campaign and need to attract a broad audience, Maximize Clicks will help you generate traffic to your site, gathering valuable data before shifting to a more conversion-focused approach.
When to switch: Once you’ve gathered enough data (typically a few weeks or a certain number of clicks/impressions) and have a clearer understanding of your target audience and keyword performance, it’s time to consider switching to a more conversion-focused strategy. Look for patterns in which keywords or audiences are driving the most engaged traffic, even if it’s not the most traffic.
Conversions (CPA/ROAS - Cost Per Acquisition/Return On Ad Spend)
Conversion-focused bidding strategies including Target CPA (Cost per Acquisition) and Maximize Conversions, are ideal when your primary objective is to drive specific measurable actions on your website or app.
These strategies empower the ad platforms to automatically optimize bids for maximum conversions within your budget or at your desired cost. They are particularly well suited for businesses with clear conversion goals and accurate tracking.
📌Example: For an online course platform, you could use CPA bidding to pay only when a user registers and completes a course purchase. This ensures that your ad spend is focused on actual conversions, not just clicks.
When to switch: Begin with Maximize Conversions/Value when you have sufficient conversion data, well-defined goals, and accurate tracking. Refine this strategy by adding a Target CPA/ROAS constraint when you want to:
➡️Stabilize spending: If your cost per acquisition or return on ad spend is too volatile, a target constraint will create more predictable spending
➡️Increase efficiency: If you’re achieving a good volume of conversions but believe you can do so more cost-effectively, a target constraint will optimize your budget
➡️Meet profitability goals: If you need to maintain a specific profit margin, a target constraint allows you to directly manage customer acquisition cost
You’re not necessarily switching strategies; you’re enhancing Maximize Conversions/Value with a target constraint to balance conversion volume with cost control. Later, you can adjust or remove the constraint if you want to prioritize volume growth.
Brand Awareness (CPM - Cost Per Thousand Impressions)
Ideal for: New product launches, entering a new market, building brand recognition, reputation management, programmatic display ads
Brand awareness campaigns have a different objective than direct response campaigns focused on conversions. They’re about getting your name, product, or message in front of a broad audience to increase familiarity and recognition.
With CPM bidding, you’re paying for impressions rather than clicks or conversions. This approach is ideal when your focus is on maximizing visibility, ensuring your ads reach as many people as possible rather than driving direct interactions.
📌Example: A streaming service launching a new show could run CPM ads on YouTube, Instagram Stories, and connected TV platforms (Roku, Hulu) to build hype. They’d prioritize high-impact placements, such as homepage takeovers or in-feed video ads.
When to switch: Brand awareness campaigns are often ongoing. However, you might consider switching to a different strategy for specific campaigns focused on driving direct response or conversions, such as limited-time promotion. You may also switch to a different awareness-focused strategy like CPV if you’re shifting to a video-centric approach.
Views (CPV - Cost Per View)
Ideal for: YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram Reels, in-stream video ads
CPV is an ideal bidding strategy for video campaigns, where your goal is to drive views and engagement with your video content. You only pay when a user watches your video or engages with it (such as liking, commenting, or sharing).
This strategy is particularly valuable for campaigns focused on building engagement with video ads rather than driving immediate conversions.
📌Example: A fitness brand launching a new workout app could run CPV ads on YouTube, paying only when users watch 30+ seconds. To boost engagement, they might A/B test different video hooks and CTA placements.
When to switch: If your video campaign objective shifts from views to conversions (e.g. app installs or website visits), you’ll want to switch to a conversion-focused bidding strategy like CPA or ROAS. If you find your CPV is too high, you might want to experiment with different video creatives or targeting options.
Goal
Clicks (CPC)
Conversions (CPA)
Brand Awareness (CPM)
Views (CPV)
Increase Website Traffic
✅
❌
❌
❌
Drive Sales or Conversions
❌
✅
❌
❌
Boost Brand Visibility
❌
❌
✅
❌
Maximize Video Engagement
❌
❌
❌
✅
Poor bid management can cost you dearly
Bid management isn’t just about adjusting numbers—it’s the difference between a profitable campaign and one that drains your budget. Without the right strategy, you risk:
❌ Overpaying for low-quality clicks that don’t convert ❌ Losing valuable traffic because your best keywords aren’t getting the bids they deserve ❌ Wasting time on manual adjustments that never quite hit the mark
That’s where Optmyzr can help by putting your bids on autopilot—without losing control. Instead of manually adjusting bids and hoping for the best, it helps you automate the process based on your specific goals, so you don’t have to worry about missing the mark.
Here’s how:
Automated bid adjustments: Optimize for your specific goals (like hitting a target CPA or maximizing ROAS) without constant tweaking
Custom rules: Create custom rules that fit your unique campaign needs. If a keyword or campaign is underperforming, you can set it to lower the bid automatically
Data-driven insights: Get to the root cause of performance issues with our PPC investigator tool and see exactly what’s driving performance and adjust bids with confidence
Efficient budget allocation: Ensure your best-performing areas get the investment they need
Choose the bid strategy that works for your goals
The right bid strategy really comes down to what you’re aiming for and how much control you want. If you’re an experienced advertiser, manual bidding gives you total control to adjust bids based on things like device, location, and time.
Automated bidding is perfect if you want to drive traffic without worrying too much about conversions. And if your main goal is to drive conversions, Smart Bidding is the way to go.
Still unsure which bidding strategy truly delivers: manual, auto, or smart?
Stay tuned for our next article, where we’ll walk you through the best strategies for each campaign goal and share valuable insights from analyzing over 14,000 accounts to help you choose the winning approach.
Or, skip the wait and try Optmyzr free for 14 days. Test different bidding strategies, optimize faster, and see what works (before competitors do).
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
When ad platforms provide guidance, it is often taken as absolute truth. The expectation is that their help documentation and support channels offer accurate, actionable advice.
However, despite providing clear guidance after reviewing the findings from Optmyzr’s experiment, Google spent months telling advertisers PMax exclusions would not be respected if they came from the API.
Here’s Google’s previous documentation:
Here’s Google’s answer in their AI overviews:
The same was shared in their communications with advertisers.
This post outlines an experiment conducted to determine if API placement exclusions work for PMax campaigns, contrary to Google’s previous claims.
It’s worth noting that as a result of this experiment, Google did some digging into their own systems and came up with the following response:
As the screenshot shows, this is how to think about placement exclusions:
We’ll also explore what this means for advertisers and how to navigate support discrepancies moving forward.
What we uncovered from our experiment
Details of the experiment
Optmyzr conducted a controlled experiment to test whether placements excluded via the API would be respected for PMax campaigns. Here’s what we did:
1. Setting up the campaign
We launched a brand new PMax campaign in our brand’s ad account on December 30th 2024. We gave the campaign till Jan 13, 2025 to accrue clicks, impressions, and placements.
2. Applying exclusions
Identifying placements we wanted to exclude, we implemented these exclusions through our API connection. The exclusions appeared at the account level, despite Google’s documentation stating that placement exclusions must be done through the UI. We applied these exclusions on Jan 13, 2025.
3. Monitoring the results
No ad spend occurred on the excluded placements as of Jan 21, 2025, proving the API exclusions were effective. The example placement we chose to follow was “Mobile App: Vita Mahjong (iTunes App Store), by VITA STUDIO PTE. LTD.”
This experiment’s results reveal a stark contrast between Google’s official guidance and the platform’s actual functionality.
What are the implications for advertisers?
1. Documentation vs. reality
This finding underscores the importance of questioning and testing platform limitations. While help documentation serves as a baseline, advertisers can no longer treat it as definitive. PMax, as an evolving ad type, requires a proactive approach to testing features and functionalities.
2. Efficiency through the API
Excluding placements via the API is significantly more efficient than using the UI. The UI process involves cumbersome formatting and limitations, which can deter advertisers from making necessary exclusions.
The API’s effectiveness, as demonstrated in our experiment, offers a faster, more scalable alternative.
The miscommunication around how placement exclusions are respected came from the very real issue all SAAS faces: innovation happens faster than support documentation can keep up.
What advertisers should do next
1. Embrace testing
Treat every rule or limitation as an opportunity to test. The findings from this experiment reinforce the need to verify functionality instead of relying solely on documentation.
2. Leverage tools and expertise
If you’re an Optmyzr customer, rest assured that our rule engine and smart exclusions protect your accounts effectively. For non-customers, consider engaging with experts like Nils Rooijmans and Mike Rhodes, who offer many scripting solutions and insights.
3. Active account management
Ensure your accounts are actively monitored. Automated rules are valuable but should not replace ongoing oversight. Regular checks are critical to adapting to platform changes and discrepancies.
A balanced perspective
Despite these challenges, Google remains a meaningful channel for advertisers. Properly applied exclusions and strategic management can yield exceptional results. Optmyzr customers can use our Smart Exclusion tool to quickly identify and exclude wasteful exclusions. We also encourage testing alternatives like Microsoft’s PMax and exploring other platforms.
At Optmyzr, our mission is to safeguard your ad investments. By staying informed and proactive, you can navigate the complexities of digital advertising and adapt to the fast-changing industry
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Now’s the best time to sign up for a full functionality 14-day free trial.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
Managing small Google Ads accounts isn’t easy—it’s like trying to juggle while walking a tightrope. With tight budgets, fewer clicks to work with, and AI taking over more and more of the process, keeping your campaigns under control can feel like a real uphill battle.
In one of the recent episodes of our video series, Automation Layering Masterclass, Amy McClain-Ponder, Group Director of Paid Search at Beeby Clark+Meyler (BCM), shared 9 powerful automations her team uses to handle these challenges.
Anomaly alerts for quick issue detection
Automated budget pacing alerts
Pausing underperforming keywords
Managing search queries
High CTR alerts
Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) for discovery
Monitoring declining keywords
YouTube placement exclusions
AI-generated insights for reporting
Watch the following video where Amy explains these automations in detail:
1. Get notified of unusual performance shifts.
Amy’s team sets alerts that notify them of unusual performance shifts, such as campaigns underspending or overspending.
Overspending: Identifying potential errors, like an incorrectly entered budget
Her team uses Optmyzr’s Anomaly Alerts, also called Auto Alerts, which are generated automatically by the Optmyzr system for any Google Ads, Microsoft Ads, or Facebook Ads account linked.
You can find these anomaly alerts listed under the Alert Settings page by default.
💡Optmyzr tip: Customize thresholds for different metrics (e.g., clicks, conversions, or spend) to avoid overloading your inbox.
Effective budget pacing makes sure your campaigns stay on track throughout the month. BCM uses automated alerts to track monthly budgets across Google and Microsoft Ads combined, allowing for seamless cross-platform management.
In Optmyzr, these pacing alerts get automatically added on the Alert Settings page, where you can manage some more advanced options like notifying multiple users.
You can edit the Cycle Date or Monthly Budget target, and any update will get automatically reflected on the All Portfolio Dashboard.
For example: Monitoring spend by the 15th of the month to ensure campaigns hit 50-60% of their budget.
Why it matters: This prevents wild budget swings and makes sure the performance stays consistent.
“I always emphasize the importance of showing my clients how their budget is being utilized. The Budget Pacing tool has made this process so much easier for me, helping my team and me understand what to expect for the rest of the month and figure out where to invest the next advertising dollar for my clients.”
- Mike Rhodes, Founder, WebSavvy
3. Pause underperforming keywords automatically.
BCM uses codified rules to pause keywords that fail to meet performance benchmarks.
For example: Keywords with no conversions in 60 days and a spend exceeding 3x the CPA goal are paused automatically.
You can try Optmyzr’s Pause Non-Converting Keywords tool for this use case. It helps you find keywords that have received enough traffic but have not converted during a selected date range.
Key benefit: Saves manual effort and ensures that budgets aren’t wasted on non-converting keywords.
4. Negate irrelevant search queries.
Search queries that drain budgets without driving conversions are automatically negated and added to a curated list for review.
Example Rule: Negate queries with ad spend exceeding $400 and no conversions in 30 days.
Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder is one such tool that, as the name suggests, identifies search terms in your Google and Microsoft accounts that are non-converting or not performing well.
💡Optmyzr tip: Periodically revisit these lists to identify opportunities for retesting under new campaign strategies.
5. Flag high CTR queries for review.
CTR spikes can signal relevance—or irrelevance. BCM uses alerts to flag high-CTR queries for manual review to determine if they align with client goals.
Amy’s team uses Optmyzr’s Rule Engine automation for this use case. In one example (shown below), she says her team reports queries that generate a high CTR to check for their relevance.
Action step: Investigate whether the query represents a valuable opportunity or irrelevant traffic.
“What Optmyzr allows us to do through custom-built automations in its Rule Engine typically takes a team of PPC managers to manage. It’s a HUGE time saver and far more reliable than humans.”
- Lesley Van De Mortel, Co-founder & CDO, APAS® Cloud
6. Discover opportunities with dynamic search ads.
Dynamic Search Ads remain a valuable discovery tool, even in Performance Max-dominated accounts. BCM identifies high-performing queries from DSA campaigns and evaluates them for broader adoption.
7. Identify and address declining keyword performance.
Keywords that perform well but later decline in conversions require special attention. Here’s a Rule Engine automation that Amy’s team uses to catch low-performing keywords.
Example rule: Flag keywords with no conversions in 30 days but past conversions in 90 days. This ensures you can address root causes like landing page changes or increased competition.
8. Exclude irrelevant YouTube placements.
Managing YouTube placements can be a brand safety minefield. BCM automates exclusions for:
Irrelevant placements (e.g., children’s content).
Low-performing placements with low view rates or CTRs.
Once again, the Rule Engine comes to the rescue. Here’s an example.
Why it’s critical: Protects brand reputation and ensures ad spend is directed toward the right audience.
9. Generate insights with AI-powered reporting.
Manual reporting is time-consuming. BCM leverages Optmyzr’s AI-powered reports to generate insights that highlight performance trends, helping their team and clients focus on the bigger picture.
“I am in love with not just the reporting capabilities of this tool but the superpowers it gives me & my team by being able to analyze deeper than other individual tools.”
- Kita Eserve, CEO, Metrik Marketing Inc.
Take back control of your ad campaigns.
These days, it feels like ad platforms like Google Ads want to run everything for us. But let’s be real—nobody knows your campaigns better than you do. You can take back the reins by setting up automations you control, like tracking KPIs, catching anomalies, and sticking to your strategies.
A tool like Optmyzr makes it easy to layer these automations so you stay in charge while saving time and boosting ROI. It’s all about making automation work for you—not the other way around.
For years, Cyber Monday has held the title of the biggest online shopping day, and recent reports like Adobe’s 2024 study confirm this with $13.3 billion in total e-commerce sales, compared to Black Friday’s $10.8 billion.
But here’s where things get interesting: when we narrow the focus to Google Ads-driven sales, the narrative flips. Optmyzr’s analysis of 11,423 accounts found that Black Friday consistently outperforms Cyber Monday in ad-driven conversion value.
Does this mean advertisers may be focused on the wrong day to drive most of their sales? Let’s dig into the findings and see what they mean for marketers.
The data that flips the script
From Optmyzr’s perspective based on a subset of accounts:
Black Friday 2024 (Nov 29) drove $94.62 million in Google Ads-attributed conversion value, eclipsing Cyber Monday’s $64.07 million.
The average value per conversion on Black Friday was $85.09, significantly higher than Cyber Monday’s $74.82.
These findings reveal that for advertisers leveraging paid media, Black Friday is the clear leader—not Cyber Monday.
Optmyzr’s study about Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday
Ad Spend
Conversion Value
Value per Conversion
ROAS
2024
Black Friday
$15,321,664
$94,624,043
$85.09
617.58%
Cyber Monday
$14,121,621
$64,070,399
$74.82
453.70%
Ad Spend
Conversion Value
Value per Conversion
ROAS
2023
Black Friday
$13,990,189
$101,574,600
$78.37
726.04%
Cyber Monday
$13,250,633
$71,587,342
$69.88
540.26%
This Optmyzr data is as of Dec 7, 2024 for 11,423 accounts that advertised on Google Ads on Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year and last year. Note that conversion values are self-reported by advertisers, and that the 2024 conversion value numbers are likely going to be higher than what is shown here due to conversion delays.
Why Cyber Monday isn’t always the clear winner for ecommerce
So, why does Adobe’s data crown Cyber Monday the overall e-commerce champion, while Optmyzr’s data gives the edge to Black Friday? The answer lies in segmentation and shopping behavior:
1. Broader ecommerce vs. paid media attribution
Adobe tracks all e-commerce sales, regardless of traffic source. Cyber Monday’s strength comes from organic and direct channels like email marketing, bookmarked deals, and returning visitors. Optmyzr focuses specifically on sales attributed to Google Ads, where Black Friday’s urgency and high-ticket deals drive stronger ad-driven performance.
2. The role of urgency in Black Friday ads
Black Friday is a high-advertising day, with retailers flooding paid media with aggressive promotions for big-ticket items. Shoppers are primed to click and convert, leading to higher ad-attributed sales.
3. Cyber Monday’s organic advantage
By the time Cyber Monday arrives, many shoppers have bookmarked deals or received email reminders, reducing reliance on ads. The day’s strength lies in smaller, follow-up purchases driven by organic and direct traffic.
Why should you care
For advertisers, understanding the segmentation between total e-commerce sales and ad-driven performance isn’t just an exercise in analytics—it’s the key to making smarter budget decisions. If you rely on Google Ads to drive your holiday sales, the conventional wisdom that Cyber Monday is the biggest online shopping day might lead you to misallocate resources.
Optmyzr’s data shows that Black Friday drives more value for paid media campaigns, suggesting that ad budgets and strategies should align with the day’s urgency and consumer behavior. Recognizing these nuances enables advertisers to optimize their campaigns for maximum return, standing out in a crowded holiday marketplace.
What you should take away
Advertisers should rethink how they approach Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2025 in their holiday strategies. Here’s how to act on these insights:
1. Double down on Black Friday ads
If you’re running Google Ads, Black Friday offers unparalleled opportunities for high-value conversions. Allocate larger budgets to capture the wave of motivated shoppers and focus on premium products and bundled deals.
2. Leverage Cyber Monday’s organic strength
Cyber Monday remains vital, but its strength lies outside of paid channels. Use retargeting and email campaigns to re-engage shoppers who browsed during Black Friday.
3. Reevaluate attribution models
The segmentation between total sales and ad-attributed sales underscores the importance of understanding your channel performance. A broader e-commerce win for Cyber Monday doesn’t diminish the fact that Black Friday delivers better results for paid media campaigns.
Tailor your campaigns based on data
The holiday shopping narrative has long been dominated by Cyber Monday’s total sales supremacy. But Optmyzr’s data suggests that for advertisers using paid media, Black Friday is the real champion.
This insight challenges conventional wisdom and opens up new possibilities for advertisers looking to make the most of their holiday budgets. By recognizing the strengths of both days and tailoring campaigns accordingly, you can drive performance that outpaces competitors who stick to the old playbook.
And after what you read here, if you think Optmyzr is the tool for you to drive higher performance, sign up for a 14-day free trial today.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.
Value-based bidding and smart bidding are two powerful tools that have evolved considerably since their introduction. These bidding strategies allow Google to set the bids in each auction with the goal of achieving a desired business outcome.
For example, if you were using TROAS, which is a value-based bid strategy, you would set the desired return on ad spend, and Google would try to achieve that number over a 30-day period.
In this video, Taylor Mathauer and I share how we used Value-Based Bidding to generate higher-quality leads for our 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
Let’s understand the state of Smart Bidding for a minute.
Some marketers make the mistake of viewing smart bidding as a quick fix or hack to improve the performance of underperforming campaigns. The truth is that smart bidding is most effective when implemented on campaigns that are already performing well.
It can help take those campaigns from good to great by optimizing bids and targeting more precisely.
One challenge with smart bidding is that it requires a solid understanding of the underlying data and the algorithms driving the bidding process. Achieving success with smart bidding requires striking a balance between automation and human expertise.
The best results are often obtained through a combination of data-driven bidding strategies and human insights.
4 limitations of value-based bidding
Limitation #1: Micro conversions often fail to drive meaningful downstream actions.
Micro conversions have been explored as a way to increase the quality of traffic from Google Ads when there is not enough conversion volume to switch to a value-based bidding model. By focusing on engagement conversion actions that signal high intent from users, it was hoped that the downstream conversion actions such as form fills, MQLs, and SQLs would increase.
However, the results showed that while engagement conversion actions increased, there was no corresponding increase in downstream conversion actions.
Limitation #2: Limited conversion data makes value-based bidding less reliable.
Working with limited conversion data can be challenging when implementing value-based bidding. This is because unlike max conversions and tCPA, where Google only has to calculate the likelihood of a user converting at the time of query, tROAS requires an additional calculation of the conversion’s value.
Therefore, it is important to have sufficient conversion data to implement this strategy successfully.
Limitation #3: Large portfolios with diverse geographies and keywords create signal inconsistencies.
Working in large portfolios with vastly different geographies and keywords can pose challenges for bid strategies. Google uses many contextual signals to determine bids for each auction, and if the geographies and keywords vary greatly within a portfolio, the signals used by Google to determine bids may differ between campaigns.
This can lead to poor performance of the portfolio and should be taken into consideration when implementing portfolio bidding.
Limitation #4: Frequent adjustments to bid strategies can disrupt performance.
It is important to give bid strategies time to adjust to new performance goals, and not to adjust them too frequently or aggressively. Shifting to a value-based bid strategy or smart bid strategy can result in fluctuations in performance, and patience is needed to see the best results.
What are the requirements for using value-based bidding?
GCLID needs to be passed into CRM and down to each milestone in the CRM or you need to have enhanced conversions setup. So that the data being passed from the CRM into Google Ads can be linked to the specific ad click.
Typically, to use value-based bidding, we like to have 45 conversions over the last 30 days for the specific conversion action that we are optimizing towards at the level we will be setting the bid strategy at. It is necessary to have more data than when using tCPA or Max Conversions to ensure that Google has sufficient data to optimize bids effectively.
How to track success with value-based bidding?
Value-based bidding effectively maximizes revenue and increases efficiency for clients. To achieve this, focus on improving the targeted conversion action, whether it’s an MQL or SQL. Discuss expectations and goals extensively with the client before switching to a value-based bidding approach.
Although lead volume may decrease initially, the quality of leads should improve, driving more revenue for the client. By filtering out unprofitable leads, you ensure marketing efforts generate higher revenue and deliver better results.
Shift your campaign conversion actions
When it comes to switching from Pixel-based tracked conversions to imported CRM conversion actions, it’s important to take a staged approach. At WebMechanix, we typically take a step-by-step approach when transitioning to value-based bidding that looks like this:
Standard Form Fill conversion tracked via Pixel.
Qualified Form Fill conversion tracked via Pixel.
MQL conversion from CRM import.
SQL conversion from CRM import.
Closed Deal conversion from CRM import.
The funnel stage you can actually optimize towards will depend on the volume of the particular conversion action and the time it takes for the conversion to happen. It’s important to note that Google’s maximum conversion window is 90 days. Therefore, if your client has an extended sales cycle, you can only optimize toward a conversion action that occurs within 90 days from the ad click.
When setting up your new conversion actions it is essential that you add them as secondary conversion actions. If you set them as primary conversion actions Google will start including them in your conversions column and in your smart bidding strategies. This is an issue because it can lead to overcounting conversions and throwing off the bid strategies that are already in use.
If you were already tracking form fills then added a conversion action for MQL and SQL and had a user make it to each stage Google would count 3 conversions for that one user.
Maintain and improve campaigns while using value-based bidding
Once value-based bidding is implemented, there is still a need to optimize campaigns to meet clients’ expectations. They not only desire enhanced efficiency but also a steady increase in volume on a monthly and quarterly basis. To achieve this, it remains crucial for us to concentrate on improving front-end metrics such as click-through rate, average cost per click, and form fill rates.
By continuously refining these key indicators, you can ensure that your campaigns are not only efficient but also deliver the desired growth in results.
During client onboarding, I’ve encountered a situations where value-based bidding had been implemented successfully, but the client expressed dissatisfaction with the volume of results. In this particular case, the previous agency had adopted VBB and focused solely on marketing qualified leads as the primary conversion action, neglecting to monitor the form fill rate.
Fortunately, we swiftly improved performance by establishing custom columns and conducting conversion rate optimization tests to enhance the form fill rate. These actions allowed us to address the client’s concerns effectively and achieve better outcomes.
When implementing value-based bidding, one common issue that arises is a noticeable spike in the average cost per click. This is to be expected since VBB involves paying more to display ads on queries where users are more likely to convert into the down funnel action you are optimizing towards.
While an increase in Avg. CPC is typical while using a VBB strategy, I have also been successful in reducing it while using VBB. The cost per click and ad rank for each auction are determined by two factors: the bid and the quality score. Since we relinquish control over setting specific bids, we can bring down the average cost per click by improving the quality score.
By focusing on enhancing the quality score, you can optimize the cost-effectiveness of VBB and achieve more favorable results.
Optmyzr can make value-based bidding work for you
Optmyzr’s tools have been built to help advertisers like yourself find success with value-based bidding.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
Managing multiple Google Ads accounts can feel like spinning plates. Add in the ever-changing ecommerce trends and seasonal demands, and it’s no wonder burnout is a common struggle for paid search marketers.
In one of the recent episodes of our video series, Automation Layering Masterclass, Matthieu Tran-Van, a Google Ads specialist who has managed over $350 million in ad spend shared seven simple yet powerful automations that transformed his clients’ results and gave him back his sanity.
Shopping campaign automations
Dynamic Search Ad (DSA) automations
Seasonality-based automations
Automated bidding automations
Keyword automations
Performance Max (PMax) automations
Responsive Search Ad (RSA) automations
Watch the following video where Matthieu explains these strategies in detail:
1. Set up the foundation using Shopping campaign automations.
“Shopping campaigns are the bread and butter for many ecommerce advertisers,” Matthieu explained.
However, the success of your campaign depends on the product feed. If your feed has missing attributes or vague product titles, no amount of optimization can save your campaign.
Matthieu uses Optmyzr’s Shopping Feed Audits, a tool that performs a one-click audit of your Merchant Center feed. It highlights issues like missing product identifiers, pricing errors, or unoptimized descriptions.
For example, if a product title is too vague (e.g., “Blue Dress”), the audit might recommend something more descriptive, like “Women’s Blue Summer Dress – Cotton Blend.”
💡Optmyzr tip: Set a schedule to audit your feeds monthly. Ecommerce inventory changes frequently, and regular audits ensure you stay ahead of issues.
Matthieu also uses supplemental feeds to tweak problematic data without disrupting the client’s main feed.
“I’ve been using Optmyzr for nearly 6 years now and they are always making things better, smarter, and faster. We started getting more ecommerce accounts and with the help of Optmyzr, we’re able to create a more granular shopping campaign that allows us to get a much higher ROAS for our clients.”
- David Johnson, VP of Paid Media, Constellation Agency
2. Go granular with Dynamic Search Ad (DSA) automations.
Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs) are great for scaling campaigns, but Matthieu takes them a step further. He creates one ad group for every product detail page (PDP).
Why?
Because this setup aligns the ad copy, keywords, and landing page clearly, increasing ad relevance and boosting conversions.
Using Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator, Matthieu builds these campaigns in under an hour—even for catalogs with thousands of products. The tool pulls data directly from the product feed, creating hyper-specific ads matching search queries with product names, prices, and promotions.
💡Optmyzr tip: Test this strategy for your top-selling products. Start small, track performance, and scale from there.
3. Leverage seasonality-based automations based on seasons and weather patterns.
For clients in highly seasonal industries, like swimwear, timing is everything. Matthieu shares a smart automation that uses weather data to turn campaigns on and off based on temperature.
For example, his campaigns targeting top-performing cities go live when it’s sunny and 27°C or warmer.
This automation, built into Optmyzr, combines Performance Max campaigns with geo-targeting and contextual triggers. When the temperature hits the sweet spot, ads showcasing new collections and lifestyle imagery are pushed across Google’s networks, from YouTube to Display.
💡Optmyzr tip: Think beyond weather-related changes. Other contextual triggers, like stock market trends or traffic data, can also inform your campaigns. Discuss ideas with your clients—they’ll appreciate the extra effort.
4. Train Google’s algorithms using automated bidding.
Automated bidding is great, but it’s not a “set it and forget it” solution.
Matthieu uses a step-by-step approach to train Google’s algorithms using automated bidding. For instance, if a client wants a ROAS of 500%, he doesn’t jump straight to that target. Instead, he starts at a lower goal (say, 300%), then gradually increases it by a few percentage points each week.
With Optmyzr’s Rule Engine, this process runs on autopilot. If the ROAS target is met, the rule nudges the goal higher. If not, the tool lowers bids slightly. This incremental adjustment avoids wild swings in performance and keeps campaigns stable.
💡Optmyzr tip: Be patient. Automations are like training wheels for smart bidding—they need time to learn and adapt to your goals.
“The best part of Optymzr is the Rule Engine with advanced optimizations and the Projected Spend report!”
5. Add and exclude search terms smartly using keyword automations.
Managing keywords can feel like a never-ending game of whack-a-mole. Matthieu automates this with rules that automatically add profitable search terms as exact-match keywords.
For instance, if a search term generates 100 clicks and has a low CPA, it instantly gets added to the ad group. On the flip side, any non-performing terms are excluded as negative keywords.
For Dynamic Search Ads, non-relevant search terms are added to a shared negative keyword list daily, keeping campaigns focused.
💡Optmyzr tip: Regularly review your keyword automations to ensure they align with client goals. It’s not a “set it and forget it” strategy—automation still needs oversight.
6. Steer Performance Max in the right direction using the search terms script.
PMax campaigns can feel like a black box, but Matthieu flips the script by using scripts to extract search term data. This data reveals what’s working and what’s not, giving him more control over optimizations.
For example, if PMax identifies a high-performing search term, he adds it to a search campaign for even more control over messaging and bidding. Conversely, underperforming terms are excluded.
💡Optmyzr tip: Use PMax insights to uncover new audience segments or product opportunities you hadn’t considered.
7. Find winners using Responsive Search Ad (RSA) automations.
Testing RSA performance can be tricky. Matthieu developed a checklist to flag ads that need improvement based on metrics like CTR, conversion rates, and Google’s ad strength score.
Using Optmyzr’s Rule Engine, he automated this process, so a list of underperforming RSAs lands in his inbox every week.
This approach allows him to focus on writing better ads instead of wasting time hunting for problem areas. He also experiments with different templates to see what resonates most with audiences.
💡Optmyzr tip: Don’t get stuck in analysis paralysis. Let automation handle the grunt work, so you can spend time on creative solutions.
Bonus: Save hours every month using reporting automations.
We all know reporting can be a time-sink. Matthieu uses Optmyzr’s Report Designer to create tailored, automated reports for his clients.
The best part? If a report shows a sudden drop in performance (like missing conversions due to tracking issues), it’s sent to him for review instead of the client.
💡Optmyzr tip: Customize reports to highlight what matters most to each client. One-size-fits-all templates rarely deliver the insights clients care about.
“I searched high and low for a tool that could help me provide beautiful reports that could connect multiple tools into an appealing report that didn’t just look like a data dump.
I am in love with not just Optmyzr’s reporting capabilities but the superpowers it gives me & my team by being able to analyze deeper than other individual tools.”
- Kita Eserve, CEO, Metric Marketing
Simplify, Optimize, and Scale.
Matthieu’s strategies are a testament to how automation can simplify complex PPC management. By leveraging Optmyzr’s tools, he has achieved remarkable results while avoiding burnout.
The idea is simple: different products perform differently, and therefore, they should be treated differently.
By dividing products into performance-based categories, you can assign unique bids and budgets to each segment.
For example, products that deliver high returns can receive higher bids, while underperforming products can either be placed in a different campaign or targeted with lower budgets until their performance improves.
However, product segmentation can quickly become labor-intensive if done manually, especially for large product catalogs.
Of course, there are always Google Ads scripts. But if you don’t have coding knowledge, scripts may seem to be quite intimidating at first. Also, editing an existing script can result in more mistakes. And, before you implement any script, you have to first test it extensively.
Product segmentation made easy with Optmyzr’s Smart Product Labeler
What is the Smart Product Labeler?
The Smart Product Labeler tool lets you build a strategy to easily label products based on performance metrics or feed attributes, creating a supplemental feed with minimal effort.
It also automatically updates labels as performance changes, enabling you to use the performance-based approach for campaigns without exceeding Google Ads limits.
You can find the tool under Manage & Optimize -> Shopping & PMax Retail -> Smart Product Labeler.
There are three steps to building a strategy using the Smart Product Labeler.
Select the Merchant Center Account
Build rules based on performance metrics and feed attributes
Upload as a supplemental data source to the Merchant Center
Why use this strategy to group products by performance?
Segmenting products into different performance tiers and creating targeted campaigns for each is a tried-and-true strategy. Here’s why:
1. It helps you optimize campaigns based on performance.
As we’ve said in the introduction, different products in an inventory perform at different levels. Some products generate high returns, while others underperform.
Grouping products by performance metrics—such as impressions, clicks, or conversions—enables you to manage budgets, bids, and strategies more effectively for each performance group.
2. It helps increase ROAS.
By targeting high-performing products with higher bids or budgets, you can improve the chances of increasing their exposure and revenue.
On the other hand, lower-performing products can be assigned lower bids to optimize spend. This increases the overall ROAS for the campaign by making sure that budget allocation matches product potential.
3. It allows scalable segmentation.
With the Smart Product Labeler, you can automatically segment products into performance-based buckets such as “hero products,” “learning products,” or “poor performers.” This automation is especially valuable for large accounts, where managing thousands of products manually would be highly inefficient.
4. It’s flexible across campaign types.
With Smart Product Labeler, the same set of rules can be used across both Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns. This allows you to create campaigns for top-tier products using PMax, while simultaneously using Standard Shopping for products that need more granular optimization and budget management.
When should you use this strategy?
1. When you’ve got a high product volume
If you’re managing a large inventory of products, manually adjusting bids and campaigns for each product is not feasible. Automating the segmentation of products with the Smart Product Labeler allows you to efficiently handle large volumes of data without sacrificing accuracy.
2. When specific product grouping adds value
If you have products that behave differently (e.g., high-selling products with low margins and low-selling products with high margins), it makes sense to group them into separate campaigns with tailored strategies for each. Segmenting by performance helps to implement this kind of differentiation easily.
3. When you need granular control
This strategy helps you gain more granular control over your shopping campaigns. By dividing products into performance-based categories, you gain the ability to target them with tailored bidding strategies, specific ad copy, or even varying budgets.
When should you not use this strategy?
While grouping products by performance can be an effective strategy, it’s not always the best approach in every situation. Here are some scenarios where it may not be ideal:
1. When you lack adequate data
For new accounts or campaigns with insufficient performance data, segmenting products by performance may not be beneficial. The Smart Product Labeler relies on historical performance metrics to create the rules, so it works best when there is enough data to draw meaningful insights.
If your campaign is still in the early stages, waiting until sufficient data is collected will yield better results.
2. When you have highly niche product lines
For smaller, niche product lines with few items in the catalog, segmenting by performance may not yield substantial value. In such cases, a more holistic approach to the campaign—focusing on general optimizations rather than product segmentation—might be more efficient.
3. When you don’t want to overcomplicate simple campaigns
If your product catalog is limited in size or you’ve got a straightforward campaign structure, complex segmentation strategies may add unnecessary layers of management. Sometimes, sticking with a simpler approach can be just as effective and easier to manage.
For example, let’s say you have a few brands in your inventory, and each performs differently. In such a case, you can allocate budgets and bids based on their performance rather than treating them equally.
In another instance, for ‘Product Type’, consider someone selling t-shirts, shorts, and denim jeans. If the ROI varies across these categories, creating separate campaigns for each category would simplify management while optimizing performance.
How does Smart Product Labeler make segmentation easier?
1. It helps you set up performance-based rules.
You can create rules based on performance metrics such as impressions, clicks, cost, conversions, conversion value, cost/conv., or ROAS. Products are automatically labeled based on these criteria, which can then be used to segment those products into different performance tiers.
2. It also helps you create feed attribute-based rules.
In addition to performance metrics, feed attributes can also be used for labeling products. For example, you could create labels based on product categories, price points, or brand information.
3. It automatically updates your supplemental feed.
The Smart Product Labeler automates the process of updating product labels in the Google Merchant Center. As product performance changes, the tool keeps updating the supplemental feed, making sure that your segmentation strategy stays current without requiring manual intervention.
4. It allows for unified campaign management.
The tool allows you to create a unified rule set that can be applied to both Performance Max and Standard Shopping campaigns, making it easier to manage multiple campaign types with consistent strategies.
You can use the Shopping Campaign Management tool to quickly create these campaigns and automatically update them in Google Ads as needed. This ensures that if your campaign structure changes over time, the updates will be applied without manual intervention, saving you time and reducing errors.
“Managing a massive product catalog of nearly 30,000 SKUs used to be a time-consuming challenge. Previously, with native Google Ads and Microsoft Ads tools, team members would spend 8-12 hours each week simply managing product churn. Optmyzr’s specialized tool for managing Shopping and Performance Max products slashed this time in half, freeing up 4-6 hours per week.”
-Deki Hoek, Channel Manager, BBQGuys
Save time on product segmentation with the Smart Product Labeler
If you’re looking to streamline your product segmentation and improve your shopping campaign performance, the Smart Product Labeler is a tool worth exploring. It’s available (right now in beta) to Optmyzr Pro plan users and above.
At the height of the Roman Empire, pepper was so highly prized that spice traders’ wealth grew faster than they could spend it. And nowhere was it more available and expensive than in Italia province where Rome stood – and where the average income was higher than that of the entire empire.
In a way, Roman traders were the progenitors of value-based bidding by putting their most profitable merchandise in front of those likeliest to pay the most for it.
Today, it’s a Google Ads’ methodology to help advertisers maximize the conversion value of their ad spend, and one of several cards you can play to unlevel a playing field where every advertiser is using the same automation.
But things have changed a little bit since the Romans were in charge, and there’s more to value-based bidding than starting a price war over spices.
In 2021, around 80% of Alphabet’s $257 billion in revenue came from Google’s advertising channels including search, shopping, and YouTube – that’s a huge ecosystem of people searching for products and information.
With it, Google has acquired a staggeringly large data set rich with consumer intent to inform its decisions. This is paired with world-class AI and machine learning that helps advertisers make the right decisions for their clients and businesses.
But that data is incomplete; it doesn’t account for account-specific information like who bought from you via a Google advertisement but later returned their purchase, or how one customer from geo 1 may have 10x the value of a customer from geo 2.
Value-based bidding closes that information gap by telling Google what your business considers to be the most and least valuable sources of traffic.
On our video podcast, PPC Town Hall, Google explained to us everything about Value-Based Bidding: how it works, best practices to follow, and common pitfalls to avoid.
Get actionable PPC tips, strategies, and tactics from industry experts twice a month.
Bidding to value happens when you tell Google things that Smart Bidding can’t measure, such as:
How much a customer is worth to your business, revenue stream, and profitability
Which conversions turned out to be money in the bank and which ones didn’t
The steps a lead took online or offline after converting via Google that resulted in revenue, and how much you value each of these conversion action steps
This graph is a hypothetical example of how value-based bidding helps you maximize your conversion value; it’s not how value-based bidding works in all cases. It’s possible to generate a higher volume of lower conversion value customers as well. The goal is to maximize conversion value, not the number of conversions.
Traditional conversion-based bidding methods don’t account for this level of nuance. With value-based strategies, you spend more of your budget acquiring customers most likely to create profit for your business.
In short:
Differentiate your customers. It’s likely you already segment customers based on their value to your business, but Google doesn’t have this information.
Bid on what matters. With a value-based bid strategy, Google learns which potential customers are most valuable to you.
Drive increased performance. Bidding higher on more valuable customers delivers incremental revenue lift and profitability.
Remember that different Google channels have different prerequisites and settings to enable value-based bidding. With Smart Shopping migrated to Performance Max, the only option is bidding to value. Search and Standard Shopping give you a choice between conversion-based or value-based strategies.
There are two broad ways to share data with Google.
Online Conversions
Global Site Tag and Google Tag Manager help you pass back online data points with additional tag parameters at the time of conversion, to help Google understand a conversion’s value.
Conversion data makes or breaks your success with value-based bidding. Be sure to set up and track more accurate conversions that match your business goals.
Some advertisers still use pageviews and other low-touch actions as conversions. We suggest something more indicative of interest, such as a form submission or purchase.
Offline Conversions
Offline Conversion Imports let you directly import conversions that took place offline, which you can pass back to Google via tools like Zapier, direct CRM integrations with Salesforce and HubSpot, or by uploading formatted spreadsheets. Anyone who clicks on your ad gets assigned a Google Click ID (GCLID). Use this anonymous identifier to report back on their conversion path while keeping customer data private.
For an advertiser who sells cosmetic products using an omnichannel strategy, using Offline Conversion Imports can tell Google data associated with different GCLIDs. For example:
True transaction value after a customer makes a full or partial return
Different values for first-time vs. repeat customers
The purchase value of a transaction in-store, with or without clicking on a digital ad
Offline Conversion Imports applies data up to 90 days old to the bidding algorithm (anything outside is used for reporting purposes only). You can either share the information daily and use conversion adjustments later on (Google-recommended best practice), or delay uploading conversions until you know more as long as it meets this threshold.
You can also use the Offline Conversions API in Google Marketing Platform to upload offline actions into Campaign Manager, Search Ads 360, and Display & Video 360 keyed to a DoubleClick User ID, GCLID, Device ID, or Match ID to view offline conversions.
We’ve talked about the importance of using conversion values, but how do you decide what numbers to use? Consider these elements the next time you set them up for an account.
Estimated Value: This is your most educated guess as to how much money a conversion has or will generate. Depending on your needs, you could consider immediate top-line (revenue), bottom-line (profit and margin), forecasted profit, or customer lifetime value.
Implementation: With conversion tracking enabled, different conversions can have different values. You can also choose to assign the same value to all conversions if your business model demands it. Three ways to assign values include:
Ecommerce Transaction Value: For online stores with shopping carts, your conversion values can vary based on the item. One conversion could be worth $25, while another could be worth many multiples.
Profit Margin: If your average order value (AOV) is $3,000 with a 45% profit margin, and your CRM shows that 20% of leads become customers, your conversion value would be (3,000 x .45 x .20) $270.
Lifetime Value: For the same AOV but using LTV modeling, you find that customers spend an additional $5,000 on average over their lifetime. At the same profit margin, your profit per customer is $3,600 ($3,000 + $5,000)*(.45). With a 20% conversion rate, your conversion value is $720.
Frequency: Pass value data back to Google as quickly and consistently as possible, ideally daily. This allows your account to get as close as possible to real-time optimization – especially necessary for ecommerce and verticals where inventory is limited.
Remember not to get caught up with exact figures – it’s fine to use estimates. Ensuring the values closely represent your business objectives is the most important part of this strategy.
Conversion Value Rules is a Google Ads feature that lets you tell their system more about how you value traffic based on three conditions:
Location
Audience (including first-party and Google Audience lists)
Device
Value Rules are applied at the account or cross-account level on top of your base conversion value. This makes it critical that you work with your clients or other teams to understand the hierarchy of audiences, locations, and devices for your business.
Software businesses that generate leads can use Value Rules to share business insights with Google such as:
Users in the United States are 3x more valuable (LTV or transaction value) than the average conversion (location)
Users who signed up for their newsletter are 20% more valuable (audience)
Users who browse on a desktop are 50% less valuable (device)
You should only create Conversion Value Rules that can’t be observed by or shared with Google through other means. For example, the profit margin isn’t known to Google; customer LTV per lead can only be inferred from your CRM database.
If you already share ecommerce transaction value through Google Shopping, for example, then Google already knows the differential in transaction value for consumers in geos and will take this into account within the Smart Bidding algorithm. So no Conversion Value Rules are needed in this case.
Outside of Value Rules, you can also use these other techniques to adjust conversion values:
Conversion adjustments to retract and restate previously reported conversions reported online or through Offline Conversion Import.
Data exclusions tell Smart Bidding to ignore all data from a particular date range when conversion tracking data was inactive or broken. This tool does not adjust for fluctuations in conversions.
Pre-import adjustments allow you to modify the value based on a variety of factors that you control. This will help guide Smart Bidding to achieve your value objectives.
Maximize Conversion Value (with or without a target ROAS) is the definitive Smart Bidding strategy for businesses with varied products or customers with different values.
Maximize Conversions isn’t recommended unless you only sell a single product variant, or have no information to differentiate the value of one type of lead vs. another. When using this bid strategy, Google will optimize for conversion number and will not consider differences in conversion values.
The addition of a target ROAS simply tells Smart Bidding to maximize your conversion value within a certain spend threshold. But remember that too high a target can limit conversions, and too low a target can eat into profits. Be sure to experiment with your ROAS target to find the sweet spot.
The Impact Of Value-Based Bidding On PPC Performance
The numbers speak for themselves – Google’s internal data from 2021 shows clear gains from bidding to value using Maximize Conversion Value with a target ROAS. Search campaigns enjoy a 14% lift in conversion value at a similar ROAS, while Standard Shopping campaigns with tROAS can see a lift upwards of 30%.
Aside from the tangibles, value-based bidding offers operational and strategic advantages for any agency or brand.
Closer Alignment With Google
Bidding to value – and setting up the systems that make it possible – allows Google to focus on the quality and total conversion value of people who see your ads. This allows you to optimize campaigns to match your true business goals, better reflect your business’ observable data, and optimize to what matters – like revenue, profit, or customer lifetime value.
Better Post-Conversion Optimization
With better traffic comes a more manageable post-conversion process. If your business engages with customers extensively between online conversion and sale, you can optimize for customer LTVs rather than lead volume. What’s most important is that you report conversions (with values) back to Google to better align bidding with business outcomes and marketing objectives.
Showcase Strategic Value
It’s easier to make a case for how your agency or team adds value to the marketing landscape with value-based bidding. This will become increasingly important as Google automates more of its platform and uses Smart Bidding to help advertising capture the most business value with your Google campaigns.
Simply optimizing keywords and optimizing manual campaigns is no longer a viable role. With real-time optimization, you can account for nuances in value when using target ROAS and Maximize Conversion Value.
You can help to translate the performance of Google Marketing campaigns to be directly aligned with ultimate business goals for your client and bring first-party data in to assert your competitive advantage.
Implementing Your Value-Based Bid Strategy: A Checklist
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
Most advertisers have now made the transition from manual to automated bidding, but that’s not where the road to PPC optimization should end. There are many forms of automated bidding, some more powerful than others.
Value-based bidding is the current state-of-the-art in bid management for Google Ads, but it relies on advertisers assigning a value to conversions so Google’s algorithms can prioritize more lucrative conversions.
Bidding to value works for a wide variety of advertising goals, but because it uses a target ROAS, it’s sometimes incorrectly assumed that it’s only for ecommerce.
Even lead-gen advertisers can use value-based bidding because they also get different values from different types of leads. The trick is simply in how to communicate these different values to the automated bidding systems.
This next part is the guide that will help you be successful as you transition your campaigns to a value-based optimization methodology. Like the rest of this article, it was put together in collaboration with Google, the company that created many of the systems advertisers use to implement value-based bidding.
Optmyzr took the theory behind these tools, analyzed what real advertisers did, and distilled it down into this guide. Read on to get the best advice from both the creators of the tools and the advertisers who use those tools to deliver winning outcomes.
We’ve split this up into the four key parts of doing value-based bidding the right way. They’re all equally important, but we’ve listed them here in the order that most closely follows the implementation timeline. So start from the top and work your way down as you deploy a value-based bidding strategy for your account.
Value-Based Bidding Best Practices You Should Follow
Conversion Tracking and Assigning Value
For any optimization strategy to work well (manual or automated), advertisers must collect the right data to help make smart decisions.
Google takes care of reporting accurate data about impressions, clicks, costs, etc. But it’s up to advertisers to ensure they get accurate data about results-driven by these clicks. This means setting up conversion tracking correctly.
Most accounts already have conversion tracking set up. In lead gen, a conversion might be when someone fills out the lead-gen form on a landing page. In ecommerce, it might be when the consumer checks out and pays for their cart.
Here are some considerations related to conversion tracking:
Create multiple conversion actions to reflect the multiple stages of a conversion. This can include micro-conversions (good things that happen before the conversion) or additional macro-conversions (good things that happen after the initial conversion) e.g. when a lead becomes a sales qualified lead, and when a lead turns into a customer. In ecommerce, additional conversions could happen when a new customer exhibits signals they will become a high-LTV customer.
Create reasonable values for the different conversion actions. Not every action should carry the same weight. For example, a sales-qualified lead is probably worth more than a lead, and a sale is worth more than a sales-qualified lead. In ecommerce, a user who returns half their purchase should be valued lower than if they’d kept all their items.
When using relative rather than exact values for different conversions, ensure these values are at a similar scale as the cost of clicks. For example, if an average click costs $10, don’t report that a lead is worth ‘1’ and a sale is worth ‘2’, because then every click will look like it was a money-loser and automated bidding will scale back your ads. Instead, scale up the relative values, for example, value a lead at 100 and a sale at 200. That way, when 8 clicks lead to 1 lead, the ROAS will look much healthier and your ads won’t be throttled.
Consider which conversion actions should be used for bidding optimization and whether you may be stacking the values too high. For example, if you have 3 conversion actions related to leads – a lead ($10), a sales qualified lead ($20), and a sale ($50) – and each is a primary action, then their values will get added. So a sale, which presumably started as a lead and then became a sales-qualified lead before turning into a sale will get a value of $10 + $20 + $50 = $80.
Make sure this makes sense as you consider the next section of guidelines about targets. If you haven’t heard of primary and secondary conversion actions, these are Google’s new way of asking advertisers what to count towards bidding optimization. It used to be a checkbox “include in conversions”, but now they call it primary conversion actions (which are used by automation) and secondary conversion actions which are merely used for observation and reporting, but won’t influence the behavior of automated bidding.
As an ecommerce advertiser, consider setting a conversion value based on a sale’s profitability rather than its revenue, to account for varying margins for different products. Aligning the values you report with the KPIs your business cares about can simplify a lot of things – for example, choosing the right target ROAS.
If some of your conversion value increases or decreases based on things that happen offline, use one of the offline conversion tracking tools described earlier in this article.
If you report conversions to Google after they happened, or you restate values later on, try to do this at least daily so the machine learning gets fresh data all the time.
When using Conversion Value Rules, only communicate to Google things that may not be observable through Smart Bidding e.g. profit margin, customer lifetime value, upsell opportunities, etc.
Use one of these key product features from Google to adjust values:
Structure and Targets
Account structure and targets go hand-in-hand because which targets you can set depends on how your account is structured. If you need to have different targets for different parts of your business, you should maintain at least one campaign for each.
While many advertisers may have heard Google’s call for a simpler account structure, bear in mind they’re asking advertisers to remove unnecessary complexity. So don’t maintain multiple campaigns for the sake of having the same keywords in different match types. But do maintain separate campaigns if you sell seasonal products that will have different targets as the seasons change.
Decide at what level your conversion actions make sense. You can set them cross-account, at the account level, or by campaign or groups of campaigns. When Google’s algorithm predicts conversion rates, it uses all data associated with a conversion action’s scope. This means you can have a single conversion action at the MCC level that guides all bid decisions across multiple accounts for the same company. Or if you have a campaign with a unique one-off goal where you don’t want other campaigns to impact its predictions, set it up with a campaign-level conversion action.
Maintaining a minimum conversion volume is becoming less important as Google’s machine learning improves and is able to draw inferences from system-wide data. That said, most advertisers we talk to find automation performs better with campaigns that have more conversions. Target at least 30-50 conversions per month before enabling automated bids. Before then, use Enhanced CPC bidding or Maximize Conversion Value (with no tROAS) to build up data. And consider adding micro-conversions if you find yourself struggling to meet the conversion threshold when relying solely on your primary conversion action.
When testing value-based bidding with Google’s Experiments framework, you need double the number of conversions. So building on the previous point, aim for 30-50 conversions per month for both the control and experiment groups. Otherwise, you may need to expand your testing period beyond 1-2 months to reach conclusive results.
If you followed the advice from the previous section and are reporting profits rather than revenue, you can now set targets based on true goals. Before reporting profits in conversion tracking, some advertisers use the tROAS to emulate profits. For example, in a campaign where the typical product has a 50% margin (the cost of the goods sold is half the price charged for the item), an advertiser can set a 200% tROAS knowing that if they hit that ROAS exactly, they will break even. Instead, when they report profits, they can now set a tROAS of 100% to achieve the same thing and avoid confusion about why they have a 200% tROAS when they would have been happy with 100%.
Set the initial target ROAS based on historical performance. The simple math is conversion value (such as revenue) divided by ad cost, for at least the past 30 days. Setting it too aggressively may severely limit volume.
Use profitability as a guide for setting the right budgets & ROAS targets with Performance Planner.
When you expect a sudden fluctuation in user behavior that will impact conversions, consider setting a seasonality adjustment or modifying the tROAS. The benefit of a seasonality adjustment is that you can set an end date and machine learning will ignore data from the seasonality event for its future predictions.
Testing and Hygiene
With conversion tracking reporting the right thing and targets set to achieve actual business goals, advertisers are ready to start experimenting with value-based bidding. But just like with any test, here are a few considerations to keep in mind:
Build up enough conversion history before starting a test. At least 3 conversion cycles or 4 weeks is recommended, whichever is longer. That means that if your typical conversion takes 15 days, you should wait 45 days before turning on your target ROAS. Use the Path Metrics report in the Attribution section in Google Ads to learn what your typical conversion delay is.
If you have a tROAS, uncap your budgets so that the system can find incremental conversions within your target. If you do not have a tROAS, use Maximum Conversion Value as the bid strategy and keep your budget cap in line with your expected daily spend goals.
Google recommends not changing targets more than 20% or more frequently than every 2 weeks. These are guidelines and it’s okay if you don’t follow them. Your business objectives should take priority. Keep in mind that a big change in your target can bump Smart Bidding into its learning phase, but that does not mean Google’s machine learning forgot everything from the past. It simply means that a large swing in your target is making your ads eligible for a significantly different set of queries for which Google may not know much about your expected performance. For the same queries you’ve had before, it’ll be business as usual. For the new queries, performance may fluctuate and that may make your averages look a little strange for a while, but you didn’t break machine learning.
A best practice of gathering conversion value at observation mode first (without setting bids) for Offline Conversion Imports is 2-4 weeks.
If something goes wrong and conversion data is broken – for example, if your website goes down – use a data exclusion to let machine learning know that it should ignore data from that period for making future predictions.
As with any test, minimize big changes. For example, changing the landing page or your offer could dramatically impact conversion rates and Google’s algorithms won’t necessarily know if the change was due to this or something within its own control like bids or broad matches. If you have to make changes to your campaigns during the test period, make the same change to both the control and experimental groups.
Keep in mind when switching to value-based bidding:
Evaluating Performance
Finally, with tests underway, it’s important to understand how to evaluate performance the right way so you avoid making incorrect decisions.
Machine learning needs a bit of time to learn; it’s called machine learning after all! So give it 1-2 weeks to get through the ramp-up period and then ONLY consider data from that point forward when deciding what’s the winner and what’s the loser. Optmyzr’s [Campaign Experiments](Campaign Experiments by Optmyzr: Google Ads Experiments Made Easy) tool will help you see all experiments in one place and accounts for the ramp-up period.
Experiments shouldn’t be terminated too soon; 4-8 weeks is generally the right amount of time to let an experiment accrue enough data that isn’t biased by time factors. Of course, the exact amount of time depends on the volume of the campaigns so be sure to look for statistically significant results.
When automating value-based bids, your metrics for deciding winners and losers should focus on revenue maximization or conversion value maximization, so don’t pick a winner based on an unrelated metric like CTR for example.
Keep in mind that most campaigns have conversion lag. So when analyzing performance, ignore the most recent days where conversion reporting is likely still incomplete. You can use Google’s attribution reports to find the typical conversion lag for each of your campaigns.
Google’s Bid Strategy Report already does a lot of the performance analysis for you. Use tools like Optmyzr to delve deeper into the numbers and produce additional reports your clients or boss might be asking for.
Common Pitfalls (As Identified by Technical Specialists)
Besides using the above best practices for starting with value-based bidding in your account, beware of some of the most common pitfalls we’ve seen.
1. Your ROAS goal should not be too aggressive
It would be nice if automation was a magic bullet that could instantly quadruple your performance, but chances are this won’t work. It’s better to start with the recommended tROAS based on historical performance so that the system gets a good baseline. From there, you can slowly change the tROAS and periodically review if these small tweaks are getting you closer to where you’d like to be. The Optmyzr Rule Engine is a great tool that can automate these periodic small tweaks to your targets.
2. Don’t analyze performance during the learning period
We said it in the guidelines but we’ll say it again because too many advertisers can’t wait to see results so they jump the gun and make decisions too quickly. The system takes time to calibrate and settle in, so give it the required 1-2 weeks to do this before you start analyzing results.
3. Don’t forget about conversion delays
We said this one before too but it’s another all-too-common mistake to judge a campaign by the most recent performance we have access to. And while Google Ads will report clicks/cost/etc. in a matter of minutes for most campaigns, conversions take time because people take time to make up their minds. If you judge a campaign on this partial data, you’re bound to make bad decisions. Said another way, remember that Google Ads data is click-centric. If a click today leads to a conversion in 5 days, that conversion will show up in the report for today’s data after 5 days. The data you look at may not tell you the complete and final picture. So be sure to exclude performance during the conversion delay period.
4. Don’t look at the wrong metrics
For better or for worse, Google has really trained advertisers to care about click-through rate, conversion rate, and yes, even ROAS. But don’t lose sight of how those metrics relate to your business goals. We once talked to an advertiser who told their agency they had to get a 400% ROAS to keep the business. They dutifully met that target until one day they asked the client why they insisted on a ROAS that was actually decreasing profits. The client sheepishly admitted they got 300% ROAS from the last agency and thought 400% would be better.
5. Not assigning value to conversions that matter
The whole premise of value-based bidding is to help machine learning understand the true value of conversions to your business. So don’t skip assigning values to all your conversion actions. But also don’t get stuck on setting the exact right amount. It’s fine to estimate, measure and iterate.
6. Poor campaign structure
Old campaign structures can really hamper results. For example, you should not separate campaigns by keyword match type, or by device type. The former is almost always unnecessary, the latter likely is less necessary than it once was. Your account structure should be as simple as possible while still enabling you to set different goals based on your business needs.
What A Successful Value-Based Bid Strategy Looks Like
The transition from a conversion-based mindset to value-based bidding can be rewarding, but only when done right. That starts with understanding how Smart Bidding makes decisions in order to meet it halfway.
Advertisers around the world have made mistakes like jumping into Smart Bidding without taking prerequisite measures, evaluating performance too early when testing a new bid strategy, and not realizing that Smart Bidding already takes into account observable conversion data from all your campaigns.
Value-based bidding is the next level of account optimization after you’ve run the course with a conversion-based methodology. The guidelines we’ve covered in this article will help you see better results more quickly by avoiding some of the most common pitfalls we’ve seen advertisers fall for when deploying the tools from Google.
Be the advertiser who succeeds by having a plan, sets things up to succeed from the outset, understands the limitations of Google’s decision-making algorithms, and feeds updated and relevant data to align the algorithm with your business goals.
In March of 2024, Google fixed a glitch that blocked Search terms from showing in the PMax scripts that would pull search categories. This means that you can see the categories PMax matched your budget with, as well as the specific Search terms.
Just like in traditional search campaigns, understanding what your users are searching for helps you bid more effectively, and know which negatives to add to eliminate waste. However, this still requires a script—meaning that you need to have knowledge of applying scripts, or your own API tokens, or use a tool like Optmyzr.
Optmyzr customers have access to our PMax search terms report and a number of other tools. But, in this article, we’re going to focus primarily on solutions for advertisers who don’t have access to Optmyzr’s solutions for PMax because it’s important to us that everyone has access to budget-saving resources.
Before we dive into analysis and optimization we need to know what we’re working with. So, let’s quickly define a few important terms.
What Are Search Categories, Search Terms, Search Keywords, & Search Themes?
A search category is specific to PMax. It groups similar search terms giving you an eagle-eye insight into what is going on in your account. It’ll also give you a sense of the main themes for searches.
It’s important to note that the categories do not spill over into placements, so you shouldn’t take the categories you get for search as an indication of your placements. Understanding the places you’re serving for requires different tools.
A search term is the actual thing—a word or a group of words—a user searches for. Typically, you will see something related to the keyword (which we’ll go over in a bit in the search term) but sometimes due to the nature of close variants, the words in the search term will actually be completely different. This can happen due to broad match or the way that PMax matches.
Part of the reason that search terms are so important to audit is that you can sometimes get cheaper ways of searching off of those search terms. You also can get insights into potential ideas for negatives.
A search keyword is the thing that you bid on in traditional search campaigns. It has different match types and uses different signals to match user queries. In PMax you don’t actually bid on keywords. Instead, you use something called search themes.
Search themes, behave sort of like broad keywords. However, they have interesting ranking rules. If you have a keyword in your traditional search campaigns that is an exact match, there’s a very high likelihood that that keyword will win for other match types.
It’s much more likely that the search theme will win out, especially if the user semantically searches exactly the way that the PMax search theme is written. Understanding the difference between keywords and themes will help create the best strategies for your account going forward.
What Can You Do With The Data From The PMax Reports?
Now that we have a basic understanding of all the pieces in play, we can dive into what to do with the data available through our PMax search term and search category reports.
You start with an audit of your PMax search themes, confirming that you’ve got the right ones in place. If you see a lot of search terms that are the same as your search themes and keywords in your traditional search campaigns, you may want to switch out your search themes. This is because you are setting yourself up to cannibalize your search budget with your PMax campaign.
A better way to go about it is to pick exact match keyword concepts that you want for your traditional search and test new potential candidates in PMax. In this way, you can get that incremental traffic by testing new ideas without having the repercussions of limiting your search campaigns that may need more data to ramp up.
The other really important point is around negative keywords. PMax doesn’t behave like a traditional campaign. It requires you to send a list of “normal” negatives through a form to Google support reps, and brand terms that you want as negatives.
This can apply to both your brand and your competitors.
While you can only eliminate waste, you can’t necessarily direct traffic. This is an important mechanic because many will treat asset groups like ad groups and the lack of ability to have asset group level negatives means you can’t do this without hurting your account.
You will likely have asset groups that don’t perform and may have parts of your business that don’t get access to budgets.
Finally, having a sense of how much of your budget is going to search in general is useful. If you see that the auction prices in your PMax campaign are drastically cheaper than your traditional search, especially for search categories that are important to you, that could be a sign that your PMax campaign isn’t budgeting enough for what you’re going after, and the lion’s share of your budget is being soaked up by visual content.
Visual content isn’t inherently bad, but it can create false positives in terms of how much keyword concepts cost.
How to Audit Your PMax Search Terms?
We talked quite a bit about the analysis. Here are the main action items that you’ll want to do in relation to PMax and auditing your search themes, categories, and terms.
Make sure that there is minimal overlap between the search themes and your traditional search keywords. If you have a lot of overlap, consider swapping out your search themes.
Don’t forget negatives! Also, remember asset groups do not allow for negatives. You have to make the choice at the campaign level through the form or at the account level and just eliminate waste.
Remember that different channels have different auction prices. If you’re seeing a high level of spend that’s cheaper than your traditional search, consider reworking your structure so that PMax either can get a little bit more budget, or be mindful that you probably don’t have the budget for PMax to hit the minimum 60 conversions in a 30-day period and Google is doing the best it can with the limited resources.
As a reminder, Optmyzr customers have access to the PMax Search term script and can use our other suite of tools including Rule Engine, Campaign Automator, and many other resources to build out account structures that serve them best.
If you’re not an Optmyzr customer, our co-founder Fred Valleays released a free version of the script which you can test out in your own accounts. And if you’d like to explore becoming a customer, you can click this link for a free full-functionality 14-day trial.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year.
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.
If you use Google Ads primarily as a growth tool, it stands to reason that you would dedicate your budget in part or in whole to acquiring new customers.
While there are certainly strong use cases to drive repeat business through search advertising, you have other arguably better (and certainly less expensive) ways to engage existing customers once you’ve met their initial demand – like email and SMS marketing.
Whether you’re running lead generation campaigns or ecommerce in Google Ads, the cost of advertising is high enough that it makes sense to focus on those users who haven’t bought from you before.
New Customer Acquisition is a functionality in Performance Max and Search that allows you to exclude users who have done business with you using a customer list. Accurate data is essential if you want to use this setting to ensure good results.
Why New Customer Acquisition Is Important
If you have New Customer Acquisition activated without having a good handle on your data, there’s a good chance that your ROAS is lower than it appears to be.
If you do not properly define existing customers or the value of new customers, this can result in your account overpaying for existing customers, thus distorting ROAS.
Each of the columns in the image above adds context to how your New Customer Acquisition is performing:
Conversions: The total number of conversions, as defined by the primary conversion action of the campaign
New customers: How many of the conversions stem from customers who are not present on your customer list
Conv. value: The total value of all conversions, including any extra conversion value attributed to new customers
New customer lifetime value: How much of the conversion value is attributed as incremental value from new customers
Two Strategies for New Customer Acquisition Explained
Google Ads does a good job of allowing advertisers who know how to set up ad accounts to do so in a way that makes financial sense of their investment.
One of the ways this shows up is in how New Customer Acquisition offers two approaches to optimize bids for new customers. Both of these approaches are viable with the right data, so choose the one that makes sense for your account’s campaign and business goals.
1. Bidding Exclusively On New Customers
If your sole focus is to reach people who have never done business with you, you can tell Google to only serve your ads to new customers and ignore those who have converted in the past.
In this approach, you only need to define existing customers when you set up audience segments in the campaign. This way, Google knows which customers are existing ones and can therefore focus on others who are searching for what you offer.
2. Bidding Higher On New Customers Than Existing Customers
At other times, you may still wish to show your ad to people who have done business with you in the past – but they may be less valuable and therefore take a lower priority.
For this second approach, in addition to defining existing customers, you must also define a value attributed to the conversion of new customers. This provides a signal to Smart Bidding that this customer type is more valuable, so that it can begin to bid higher on similar signals.
How to Succeed with New Customer Acquisition in Google Ads
If you do not properly define your existing customers and the value of new customers, it can result in overpaying for existing customers and thus distorting ROAS.
Take these steps to prepare your campaign ahead of prospecting for new business:
Ensure that you can create a detailed audience segment with existing customers. You will need at least 1,000 active customers on the list. Not every business and account will be able to do this, and they should refrain from using Customer Acquisition to avoid overpaying for existing customers and distorting ROAS.
Assess whether you can assign an additional value to new customers. You can use considerations like buying patterns, fee structures, and other financial details to arrive at a value. Keep in mind, this value is attributed the same regardless of the conversion’s original value, so even a small extra value can significantly enhance your ROAS and Smart Bidding.
If testing New Customer Acquisition, include the “New customers” and “New customer lifetime value” columns in your campaign overview. This allows you to monitor conversions from new customers and the total additional value attributed to them, letting you better assess the impact on your overall ROAS.
The difference between Google Shopping Ads and traditional Search Ads
The types of Google Shopping Ads, and when and how to use them
The requirements for setting up Google Shopping Ads and how to set them up
Optymzr capabilities to help you set up and manage Shopping Ads easily
What are Google Shopping Ads?
Remember the last time you turned to Google to search for a product — let’s say, “Air Jordans.” You would have come across something like this:
This is Google Shopping Ads at work. The product listings you see on the top of Google search results and the Google Shopping tab are all Google Shopping Ads.
When customers search for a product online, these ads display relevant products from ecommerce businesses, along with their prices, images, and merchant information.
The purpose of Shopping ads, like all other ad formats, is to connect users with a purchase intent to relevant products and deals from retailers. And for ecommerce businesses, shopping ads are a way to get their products in front of people searching for what they sell.
How Much Do Google Shopping Ads Cost?
Figuring out the cost of Google Shopping ads can be tricky since there is no one-size-fits-all answer. But here are some factors that can give you an idea of how much they might cost you:
Your industry: Competitive industries like legal services tend to have higher costs per click ($9.21), while less competitive industries like arts and entertainment have lower CPC ($1.55). Here are the search advertising benchmarks for 2023:
Customer lifecycle stage: Acquiring new customers for new products or services may require higher costs, while more established brands with existing demand can have lower CPCs.
Current trends: CPCs fluctuate based on factors like seasonality, economic conditions, and current events. For example, CPCs in the apparel industry dropped during the peak of COVID.
Account optimization: Better optimized accounts through strategies like bidding adjustments and landing page testing can lead to higher returns and lower CPCs. Poorly managed accounts end up wasting budgets.
While it’s impossible to predict an exact cost-per-click, understanding these key factors provides a better sense of what to expect and allows you to allocate a budget for your Google Shopping campaigns accordingly. Apart from these factors, closely monitoring performance and making data-driven decisions is also crucial to maximizing ROI.
How Do Shopping Ads Differ From Traditional Search or Text Ads?
While both are PPC ad formats served by Google, Shopping ads have some key differences from regular text-based search ads:
Feature
Google Shopping Ads
Google Standard Text Ads
Ad Type
Product-based
Text-based
Primary Use
Promoting specific products and their features. Ideal for ecommerce sites looking to promote and sell products directly
Promoting a website or service through text. Ideal for businesses aiming to increase site visits, calls, or spread awareness
Ad Visuals
Includes product images, title, price, store name
No images, only text
Placement
Google Shopping tab, Google Search results, Google Display Network, YouTube, and Gmail
Google Search results, Google Network sites
Targeting
Based on product data submitted through Google Merchant Center
Based on keywords chosen by the advertiser
Pricing Model
Cost-Per-Click (CPC)
Cost-Per-Click (CPC), others depending on campaign settings
Campaign Management
Managed through Google Merchant Center and Google Ads
Managed through Google Ads
Ad Creation
Generated automatically from the product data in Google Merchant Center
Created by the advertiser
Required Account(s)
Google Merchant Center account is required in addition to Google Ads account
Only a Google Ads account is required
Audience Targeting
Based on user searches, product categories, and more detailed product attributes
Based on keywords, user interests, demographics, etc.
Optimization & Bidding Strategies
Focuses on product groups, feed optimization, and bidding strategies specific to product categories
Focuses on keyword selection, match types, and ad copy effectiveness
When to Use Shopping Ads?
For ecommerce advertisers, Shopping ads have several benefits over other ad formats. The comparison between shopping ads and search ads often boils down to competitiveness and cost-effectiveness. Shopping ads tend to be more competitive and pricier in terms of cost-per-click (CPC). However, they often result in higher conversion rates, making them a worthwhile investment despite the higher CPCs.
On the other hand, search ads can sometimes be overlooked as a tool for ecommerce brands. While they generally come at a lower cost compared to shopping ads, they may not always attract as much attention from searchers. This is because searchers are more inclined to click on shopping ads, potentially overshadowing search ads in terms of visibility and click-through rates.
Shopping ads allow multiple product ads in search results, giving more real estate.
Most ecommerce verticals are price and impression-sensitive, and they might benefit from Shopping ads more than text ads. For example, if you’re selling shoes, people are more likely to click on a picture of a nice pair of shoes rather than an ad that says “Comfortable sports shoes.”
Ultimately, the choice between shopping ads and search ads depends on various factors, including budget, target audience, and campaign objectives. Finding the right balance between the two can lead to a comprehensive advertising strategy that maximizes ROI and drives sales effectively in the competitive digital landscape.
You can also split your budget between Shopping and Search Campaigns to drive traffic to your site. Shopping and text ads can also appear together, doubling your visibility.
Types of Google Shopping Campaigns
You can create two types of Google Shopping Campaigns: Standard Shopping Campaigns and Performance Max Campaigns. Let’s discuss more about these two in detail:
1. Standard Shopping Campaigns
Standard Shopping campaigns have been a part of Google Advertising for a long time now. You organize ad groups in a campaign, each group bundling similar products with matching settings like location and language. Inside these ad groups, you can showcase ads for individual items.
To use Standard Shopping campaigns, you set up a Merchant Center account and submit your product data feed. Then, within your shopping campaign, you can create ad groups and add products to them from your feed. This approach allows granular control over your campaigns and ad group settings.
2. Performance Max Campaigns
Performance Max is Google’s automated campaign type that accesses all of a user’s advertising inventory from one campaign.
It uses advanced automation and machine learning to optimize bids, ad placement, budget allocation, and other factors to maximize ROI. It also shifts spending to better-performing ads and products to drive results.
The key difference between Standard Shopping and Performance Max is that, in the latter, Google handles targeting and optimization for you. You provide assets such as ads and landing pages, while Google’s AI decides how the ad is served.
Both Standard and Performance Max Shopping campaigns can be effective. While Standard campaigns give more control over the ads, Performance Max takes a broader cross-channel approach with automation.
We’ll take a broader look at the differences between the two types of Shopping Ads in the following section.
Differences Between Performance Max and Standard Shopping Campaigns
Here are some key differences between Standard Shopping campaigns and Performance Max campaigns:
Aspect
Performance Max Campaigns
Standard Shopping Campaigns
Setup Process
Moderately complex setup process. You will have to create a campaign in Google Ads, set campaign objectives, and configure bidding strategy, integrate with Merchant Center and other Google services. You will also have to set up ad creatives and assets
Relatively straightforward. You will have to create a campaign in Google Ads, link your Merchant Center account, define campaign settings, create product groups, and set bids and negative keywords
Level of Automation
Almost full automation using Google's AI
Full manual control over campaigns, along with the option to run with automated bidding
Ad Placement
Ads are displayed across the Google network- Search, Display, YouTube, etc.
Limited to Google Images, Shopping tab, and Search
Optimization
Relies fully on Google's automation for optimizations
Manual control allows granular adjustments and optimizations
Reporting
Limited reporting information is currently available
Detailed reports available on search queries and performance
Negative Keywords
Can add negative keywords only at the account level
Can add negative keywords at the ad group, campaign, and account level
Targeting Accuracy
Potentially less accurate unless relevant audiences are added
Highly accurate, product-based targeting
Bid Adjustments
Not possible to make manual bid adjustments
Full control to make bid adjustments as and when needed
Should You Run Standard Shopping and Performance Max Together?
Dhiraj, our in-house Shopping expert at Optmyzr says, “Technically speaking, if the same products are being advertised through both campaign types, Standard Shopping is likely to not get anything.
The debate is that if you’re using products from the same Merchant Center, will Performance Max cannibalize standard shopping even though they advertise on different products?
It’s possible, especially if the final URL expansion is ON. But even if it is not, there is a possibility that with the way Performance Max works, it can broadly match with other products too. If the final URL expansion is OFF, you can use Performance Max and Standard Shopping for different sets of products and it should ideally work better.”
If you run a Performance Max campaign concurrently with a Standard campaign for the same set of products, Google’s algorithm kicks into action to ensure your advertising investments produce the best output for you. This means that ad prioritization is likely to favor the Performance Max campaign and is most likely to take precedence over the Standard one.
So should you run Standard Shopping and Performance Max together? It really depends on your specific goals and strategies.
Ryan Wilton from The Co-operative Group says, “We run standard shopping alongside Performance Max in all of our accounts. They get traffic if the Performance Max budget is exhausted or for whatever reason don’t trigger in the auction. (Running them simultaneously can also come) handy to get some search term data too.”
Running these campaigns together can help you maximize exposure and use Google’s advanced algorithms for ad prioritization. However, it is important to monitor and optimize your campaigns regularly to make the most of this combination.
Advertisers have seen some advantages of running Performance Max campaigns with brand negatives and then running Standard campaigns with exact-match brand keywords.
Nibha Gupta from Digital Champ says, “I have always run Performance Max with shopping ads as that setup has helped me limit Performance Max to only non-brand keywords. Once I solely ran a Performance Max campaign with brand negatives and another Performance Max campaign without any, I saw that the overall ROAS I got from this setup was lower than when I had a shopping brand campaign.”
Requirements for Setting up Google Shopping Ads
There are a few requirements you’ll need to meet to be able to set up Shopping Campaigns using the Merchant Center feed:
1. Merchant Center Setup
Product Data: Ensure your product data is accurate and up-to-date according to Google’s product data specification guidelines. This includes details like titles, descriptions, images, prices, and availability.
Policy Compliance: Verify that your business type, products, promotions, and website comply with Google’s Shopping ads policies to avoid disapproval or suspension.
You can read more about the policies and guidelines here.
What is Google Merchant Center?
Simply put, the Google Merchant Center account, allows you to upload and manage your product data so that your products appear across Google Search, Maps, YouTube, and more.
How to Set up a Google Merchant Center Account?
You can find a quick walkthrough of how to set up your Merchant Center Account in this video.
For further assistance and details regarding the Merchant Center, you can refer to this article.
Merchant Center Next Is Replacing Merchant Center
Google unveiled a more simplified version of the Merchant Center at the Google Marketing Live 2023. Apart from a simpler look and easier navigation, Merchant Center Next also allows you to populate products on the campaign directly from your website.
You can read more about what to expect from Merchant Center Next in this article.
How to Create a Google Shopping Campaign?
Using Google Ads
You can create and manage Shopping campaigns, including updating campaign settings and product groups directly in your Google Ads account.
1. Start a New Campaign:
In your Google Ads account, click the plus button, then select “New campaign.”
Choose your campaign objective: Sales, Leads, Website traffic, Local store visits, and promotions, or Create a campaign without a goal’s guidance.
Select “Shopping” as your campaign type.
2. Connect Merchant Center:
Choose the Merchant Center account with the products you want to advertise. If needed, link your Merchant Center and Google Ads accounts first.
3. (Optional) Select Feeds:
Pick feeds by feed label or Country of Sale to specify which products to advertise in this campaign.
4. Choose Campaign Settings:
Select “Standard Shopping campaign” as your campaign subtype.
Customize advertising preferences such as campaign name, inventory filter, local products, URL options, bidding, daily budget, campaign priority, networks, devices, locations, and local inventory ads.
5. Click “Save and continue” to proceed.
6. Create Ad Group:
Enter ad group details including name and bid.
Click “Save.”
7. Manage Product Groups:
Navigate to the product groups page where you can view and manage all products in the campaign.
Utilize subdivisions to make bidding as specific as needed.
You can find a quick video walkthrough of the steps here:
Using Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Builder
The Optmyzr Shopping Campaign Management tool simplifies the creation and oversight of Shopping and Performance Max Retail campaigns. By integrating it with your Merchant Center, you can streamline repetitive tasks and free up your time for more meaningful tasks
Here’s how you can do it:
Creating a Shopping Campaign with Optmyzr takes significantly less time compared to using Google Ads. This means less hassle and more opportunity to focus on refining your campaign strategies.
Automation from Performance Max and Merchant Center Next has made running ads accessible and convenient to more advertisers than ever before.
And Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management Tool gives you the ability to create your own automations that you can control and security over your ad spend, bidding, and targeting, instead of relying on those created by Google’s platform.
A strategic approach to Shopping Campaigns is what can set you apart from PPC novices who depend on system automations, and help you unlevel the playing field yet again.
How to Sync Your Shopping Campaigns With the Merchant Center Feed?
Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management Tool offers customizable automations that complement Google Ads’ existing platform features.
You can refresh product groups and listing groups manually or schedule automatic syncs using the tool. Refreshing or syncing your campaigns/campaign groups will allow you to
Update your already existing product groups and listing groups
Create new ad groups and even entire campaigns in accordance with the structure and feed changes.
The Automatic Sync Schedule option allows you to set up automated sync at intervals of your choice. You can also use the tool to see if a sync schedule has been set up, and when it’s scheduled to run if no automation has been set up, or if the automation has been paused.
Google Ads has become very competitive over the years. But it’s still a tremendous channel for high growth if you do it right. Combine automation layering with that and you will be able to run campaigns where you hold the control.
And if you need help with that, try using Optmyzr’s toolkit. You can sign up for a 14-day free trial here.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.
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.
Have you ever wondered how many products you have overlapping or present in your various shopping (Standard or Performance Max) campaigns?
In Optmyzr, we have a set of tools that provide rich insights at different levels, to not only solve the question about overlapping but also help you make better decisions on your campaigns.
Here’s a 3-step process to help you compare your products’ performance across those campaigns.
Step 1: Get an Audit of the Products and Campaigns.
In Shopping Feed Audits, you can get among other relevant audits from your merchant feed, a list of products active in various campaigns in the same ads account; just make sure to enable this individual audit before you run the preview mode:
In the full audit report, you will find this audit in the Product level section, along with the full list of item IDs, number of repetitions (campaigns), and the campaign names. You can download this audit individually as well:
For the next step, we recommend creating a Google Sheet with the information on the product IDs.
Step 2: Load Your Results in Rule Engine.
With the help of our solution for custom optimizations and automation - Rule Engine, you can create a strategy and report your products from shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
Under Rule Engine, create a new strategy at the Shopping/PMax Product scope:
If you have a Google Sheet ready with the information from the previous audit, you can connect it to the Rule Engine strategy with the help of External List Data and use the column containing the item IDs:
This attribute will help us report the products with the same IDs from the audit results.
In your first rule, you can create a condition in the form of “Item ID (aggregated by Account) in (ignore case) list (column from the Google Sheet)”:
Once this is ready, you are free to add more conditions in the rule with performance metrics at the product level, such as impressions, clicks, ROAS, cost, etc, and the thresholds you prefer (for example >= 0).
Something worth mentioning is that products with no impressions during the selected date range will be excluded from the analysis. Plus, it’s important to consider a date range similar to the audit to have consistency in the analysis.
Step 3: Compare the Products’ Performance Across the Campaigns.
Finally, on the View Suggestions page, you can visualize all the matching results.
Here we recommend clicking on the “Product Item ID” header so the sorting groups the same IDs in the list:
Based on this view you can easily identify in which campaigns the products performed better and then apply the adjustments or decisions you prefer.
So, those are 3 simple steps that’ll help you compare your products’ performance across your Standard Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.
If this looks like something you’re interested, go ahead and try it out in Rule Engine. And if you have any questions, or if you’d like us to have a look at your recipe before you start running it just email us at support@optmyzr.com – we’ll be glad to help you.
In the ever-evolving world of paid search advertising, understanding the intricacies of platforms like Google and Microsoft is critical for campaign success. While these platforms are similar in many aspects, there are a range of distinct features that can significantly impact your advertising outcomes.
This article tells you what those differences are and how you can take advantage of them for maximum account performance.
Campaign Level Settings
At the campaign level, both Google and Microsoft provide a suite of settings designed to tailor your advertising efforts to your specific needs. Both allow for the following campaign-level settings:
Budget
Location
Ad schedule
Bidding strategies
Placements outside the “core” channel (search partners, display expansion, etc.)
Google
Google allows advertisers to set a daily budget of $20 for a local bakery looking to target customers within a 30-mile radius. This bakery can also schedule ads to run only during business hours, ensuring the ads are seen by potential customers when the bakery is open. The Google advertiser could include image assets to enhance their search with display select campaigns and would need to make that choice at the campaign level.
Microsoft
Conversely, Microsoft takes it a step further by allowing ad scheduling and location targeting at the ad group level. This means our local bakery could create one ad group targeting morning commuters with breakfast offerings from 6-9 AM and another targeting the lunch crowd from 11 AM-2 PM, each within specific areas known for high commuter traffic. While Google advertisers could do this, they’d need a campaign per schedule. Additionally, they’d be able to pick and choose which ad groups get added to search partners including Duck Duck Go and Baidu.
Keywords and Negatives
The approach to keywords in Google and Microsoft can make or break a campaign. Targeting keywords helps advertisers reach prospective customers, while negative keywords block wasteful/irrelevant traffic.
Google
Three distinct targeting match types (broad, phrase, and exact), and three distinct negative match types exist. Targeting keywords allow for close variants, while negative keywords do not. As a reminder, broad match negative means the words as they are spelled can be anywhere in the query to block traffic.
Microsoft
Three distinct targeting keywords, but only phrase and exact match negatives exist. I personally tend to just include phrase match negatives for single words I want to exclude so I can use the same lists for both networks.
Bidding
The bidding strategies offered by Google and Microsoft are critical for managing how your budget is spent and how your ads are positioned.
Google
Smart bidding can be turned on at any conversion threshold (though it’s not recommended under 30-50 conversions in a 30-day period), devices can be completely excluded, and portfolio bidding with bid caps. Google allows for impression share and max clicks bidding to help advertisers ramp up while they wait for conversions.
Microsoft
For the most part, things are the same in Microsoft. However, the minimum bid is $0.05, Smart Bidding is still “Target ___”, and no turning on Smart Bidding till you have at least 15 conversions. Note that Microsoft still supports Smart Shopping (though portfolio bids are not compatible with it).
Audience Targeting
Effective audience targeting is essential for reaching potential customers who are most likely to convert.
Google
First-party lists must have at least 1000 people and at least one new person added every week. There should be a minimum spend of $50K and at least 90 days of data to use. Additionally, Google serves ads in the time zone of the account. And YouTube audiences (who interacted with your video/channel) can be leveraged for targeting or observation.
Microsoft
While Microsoft requires 1000 people in the first-party lists, it does not require the same spend. Audiences can include LinkedIn data (company/job title). Note that Microsoft serves ads in the time zone of the user.
Performance Max Campaigns
Performance Max campaigns offer a holistic approach to PPC, blending various ad formats and platforms.
Google
The originator of the campaign type. This campaign type covers text, image, and video ads across search, shopping, display, YouTube, discover, Gmail, and local ads (not to be confused with local service ads). They can have up to 100 asset groups and 25 search themes per asset group.
Microsoft
Almost every mechanic is the same save for requiring a video component. This is because the Audience Network (which includes Duck Duck Go and Baidu) is image and text-heavy. Additionally (as of this post’s publication date), Microsoft does not have search themes.
In sum, while Google and Microsoft share foundational similarities in their PPC offerings, the nuanced differences between them can greatly influence the effectiveness of your advertising efforts. By delving into specific settings and examples, as we’ve done here, you can gain a deeper understanding of how to navigate and take advantage of these nuances, crafting campaigns that are not only more targeted and relevant but also more cost-efficient and successful.
At Optmyzr, our goal is to empower advertisers to fully harness the capabilities of both platforms, ensuring that your PPC campaigns are primed for success in the dynamic digital advertising landscape. By embracing the unique features and opportunities presented by Google and Microsoft, you can achieve unparalleled results, driving growth and maximizing ROI in your digital marketing endeavors.
Not advertising on Microsoft yet? Take advantage of the auto-import functionality and account creation within Optmyzr.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — worldwide use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. Plus, if you want to know how Optmyzr’s various features help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.
Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) are text ads that allow PPC marketers to create multiple headlines and descriptions that are tested over time by Google’s machine learning and turned into relevant ads customized for the end-user based on their search query.
They were introduced in 2018 as a way to help advertisers find the winning combination of headlines and descriptions for effective text ads.
You create a bunch of different text components (a maximum of 15 headlines and 4 descriptions) and Google finds the best combination and serves ads to the end-users that lead to the highest CTR and best conversion rates.
The more headlines and descriptions you provide, the more combinations it can generate.
Responsive Search Ads Examples
Here’s an example of a Responsive Search Ad. On the left, there are 10 headline variations and 3 different descriptions. On the right, you see a couple of possible ad combinations.
**Source**: Google
Keep in mind that headlines and descriptions may appear in any order.
Initially, there’s a learning period for any new RSA, which means performance may not be what you’re used to right away. But once Google finds the best combination, you can see great results.
At Optmyzr, we carried out a study in 2022 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?
We’ve presented the results by category so you can quickly find what’s most relevant to your goals.
One of our observations was we found that RSAs drive 4x of the impressions of a typical Expanded Text Ad (ETA).
This means that even with a slightly lower conversion rate, this 400% lift in impressions nets a lot of incremental conversions that should make advertisers very happy.
In August 2021, Google announced that starting from July 2022, Responsive Search Ads (RSAs) will be the only search ad type in standard search campaigns.
Starting June 30, 2022, responsive search ads will be the only Search ad type that can be created or edited in standard Search campaigns. (Existing expanded text ads will still serve.)
The official announcement, posted by Sylvanus Bent, Product Manager at Google Ads, added, “However, your existing Expanded Text Ads will continue to serve alongside Responsive Search Ads, and you’ll still see reports on their performance going forward. Additionally, you’ll be able to pause and resume your Expanded Text Ads or remove them if needed. You’ll also still be able to create and edit Call Ads and Dynamic Search Ads.”
This is a pretty big shift in how PPC marketers approach text ads. To know more about this, we spoke to Mark Irvine and Julie Bacchini, in June 2022 on our 58th episode of PPC Town Hall to learn how to make the most out of your RSAs moving forward.
Watch the full episode below:
Get actionable PPC tips, strategies, and tactics from industry experts twice a month.
What does this mean for PPC Marketers who still use Expanded Text Ads?
Expanded Text Ads are comfortable, and reliable, and offer you more control over what messages get shown and when. On the other hand, Responsive Search Ads can improve performance when combined with human optimization and creativity.
But since none of us can force Google to roll back its announcement, the best thing to do is adapt to RSAs.
As with any other updates from Google, what we can do is unlearn, relearn, and adapt. Here are a few things to keep in mind as you get started with the transition from ETAs to RSAs:
1. Decide whether to pin headlines and descriptions.
Pinning headlines or descriptions to specific positions in your Responsive Search Ads is one way to show certain messages that always need to be visible. But be warned – pinning may affect ad strength, visibility, and performance.
**Source**: Optmyzr’s RSA study 2022
Verticals like pharmaceuticals (which require specific information in ads) and legal services (which require approval of each ad variant) might need to pin specific pieces of text, such as disclaimers and warnings in their ads. Google is yet to announce whether these industries with obligations will be assessed differently, or if there will be a workaround.
But should you be really pinning your assets? Here’s a clip from one of our Town Halls where Julie, Mark, and Fred discuss pinning.
As our CEO, Frederick Vallaeys says in this Search Engine Land article, unless you’re working in a field that absolutely requires certain information to be displayed, try not to pin components and instead put in the work to craft great RSAs.
2. Test your ad copy.
Create and test different versions of your ad assets at scale, and review their performance across multiple campaigns.
Yes, this means putting more effort than usual into high-quality ad copy that can work across combinations and permutations. But the payoff is rewarding when you have RSAs (up to 3 per ad group) that Google’s machine learning can test to find the best variants.
Repurposing high-performing content from your Expanded Text Ads
Evaluating the success of your ads based on incremental absolute metrics – impressions, clicks, and conversions
Let the machines learn!
Responsive Search Ads are right in the sweet spot of machine learning within PPC. But for the machines to learn, you must give them a little time and space to explore.
Resist the urge to pin ad components when you don’t have to. And allow time for a test. It’s essential to feed the machine the appropriate ad components.
The machines are not coming up with new ad text on their own. They use the elements YOU provide, which means the machines can only be as successful as you’ve set them up to be.
It sort of goes without saying, but deploying the proven winners across your ads gives you a better chance at success.
If you’ve already created some Responsive Search Ads in your account but they’re underperforming, here’s how you can fix them:
At the heart of every successful Google Ads campaign lies a well-structured and meticulously managed budget. It’s the lifeblood of your campaign, dictating its reach, visibility, and effectiveness.
However, advertisers often struggle to manage their Google Ads budgets due to a combination of factors — some of which are in their control, and some that aren’t: campaigns overspending and underspending, lack of budget monitoring, seasonal fluctuations, a changing competitive landscape, and Google manipulating ad prices.
In this article, you’ll learn:
How Google Ads budgets work
How to manage your Google Ads budget
The common problems while managing budgets (and how to fix them) and
The best practices while managing Google Ads budgets
Google Ads budgets: What they do and how they work
What is a Google Ads budget?
A Google Ads budget is the maximum amount you’re willing to spend on a campaign per day. However, your actual daily spending may vary depending on how well your ads perform. Some days, Google might spend less than your daily budget, and on others, you might spend up to twice as much.
How do Google Ads budgets work?
After you set a budget and start running your campaign, Google “paces” your budget spending throughout the day or month. This means that it’ll try to spend your budget evenly over the selected period of time. However, there may be days when you spend more or less than your daily budget, depending on factors such as competition and consumer demand.
Google Ads has two spending limits:
Daily spending limit: This is the maximum amount you can be billed for a campaign on a given day. It’s calculated as 2 times your average daily budget.
Monthly spending limit: This is the maximum amount you can be billed for a campaign in a given month. It’s calculated as 30.4 times your average daily budget.
Google Ads’ daily spending limits (Source: Google Ads Help)
How to set a Google Ads budget?
Before setting your budget, there are 3 things you need to consider:
Your business goals: Be clear about what you want to achieve with your Google Ads campaigns. Do you want to increase brand awareness, generate leads, or drive sales? Your budget should be aligned with your business goals.
Your target audience: The next thing to consider is your audience. Who are you trying to reach with your ads? How competitive is the market for your keywords? The more competitive the market, the higher your budget will need to be.
Your budget: And, lastly, the budget. How much money can you afford to spend on Google Ads each day or month? It’s important to set a budget that you’re comfortable with but that won’t break the bank.
Here’s how to set a Google Ads budget:
Determine your budget type: Google Ads offers two primary budget types: daily budgets and shared budgets. Daily budgets control your spending on individual campaigns or ad groups each day, while shared budgets allow you to allocate a single budget across multiple campaigns. Choose the budget type that aligns with your campaign structure and objectives.
Set a competitive budget: Research your industry and competition to determine what a competitive budget might be. What are other advertisers in your space spending? While you don’t need to match their budgets, understanding the competitive landscape can tell you what number you should set.
Set a daily limit: Decide how much you want to set as a daily budget for your campaign.
Set a bid strategy: Choose a bidding strategy that aligns with your goals. Whether it’s maximizing clicks, optimizing for conversions, or targeting a specific return on ad spend (ROAS), your bidding strategy influences how much budget is utilized.
How are budgets applied at the campaign level?
At the campaign level: Google Ads uses a hierarchical structure, with campaigns being the top-level entities. Each campaign has its own budget. You allocate a budget to a specific campaign when you create it.
At the ad group level: Within each campaign, you can further structure your budgeting by creating ad groups. Ad group budgets are optional and allow you to allocate a portion of the campaign’s budget to specific sets of ads and keywords.
Distribution of budgets: Your daily or monthly budget is distributed evenly over the selected time frame by default. However, as we told you earlier, Google Ads may spend more on high-performing days and less on slower days, as long as it doesn’t exceed the budget cap for the entire time frame.
4 tips to efficiently manage your Google Ads budget
1. Use historical data to predict future ad spend.
Why is historical data important?
When you know how much money you have spent on Google Ads in the past, you get a better idea of running a campaign and hence can set a budget that is realistic and achievable. Historical data can help you to identify trends and patterns in your ad spend.
For example, you may notice that your ad spend tends to increase during the holiday season or that certain keywords are more expensive than others. This information can help you make more informed decisions about your future ad spend.
It can also help you track your progress better over time.
How to predict your future ad spend?
1. Gather all your historical data: This includes your daily or monthly ad spend, clicks, conversions, and other relevant metrics. You can export this data from your Google Ads account.
2. Analyze your data: Look for trends and patterns in your historical data. For example, do you spend more money on advertising during certain months of the year? Do certain campaigns or keywords consistently drive more clicks and conversions?
3. Use a forecasting tool: There are a number of tools available that can help you forecast your future ad spend based on your historical data. These tools typically take into account factors such as seasonality, trends, and competition.
Or, you can try this script to forecast your ad performance.
4. Adjust your budget as needed: Once you have a forecast for your future ad spend, you can adjust your budget accordingly. You may need to increase your budget if you are planning to launch a new campaign or expand into new markets.
2. Allocate your budget efficiently for better performance.
Efficient budget allocation is important for various reasons: to reduce costs, improve performance, and maximize ROI. Here are some tips:
If you ran ad campaigns in the past, look at that historical data to identify which campaigns and keywords drove the best results. It should give you a fair idea of how much to set aside for your current keywords and campaigns.
Look at industry benchmarks for Google Ads spending and ROI. That gives you a general idea of how much other businesses in your industry are spending on similar campaigns.
Set aside the majority of your budget for the campaigns and keywords that are driving you the best results.
You can find more tips in the best practices section below.
3. Identify and fix lost impression share.
Lost impression share is the percentage of impressions that your ads were eligible to receive but didn’t receive. A few reasons why you could be losing impression share are lower budget, lower ad rank, and higher competition.
While it may seem like simply increasing your budget and ad rank while targeting lesser competitive keywords is enough to counter that, it’s not that straightforward.
Some PPC experts suggest you do the following:
Identify the campaigns and ad groups with the highest lost impression share and fix them first. This is a priority.
Then, look at your search terms report to find the irrelevant search queries that you are wasting money on and add them as negative keywords to your campaigns and ad groups.
In addition, use the Google Ads keyword planner to find search queries relevant to your business and add them as keywords to your campaigns and ad groups.
4. Automate budgeting for more effective management.
Considering how powerful Google Ads’ machine learning has become, it’s a no-brainer to make use of it to run almost any campaign for any kind of use case these days.
Here’s one: if yours is a business that sees a higher demand for your product or service during certain days of the week or times of the day, you can use Google Ads automation to set higher budgets during those periods.
If you’ve got a similar use case, you should check out this really powerful script by Andrea Atzori.
Common Google Ads budget problems (and how to fix them)
Let’s break down some common problems advertisers face while managing budgets with possible causes and solutions.
Problem #1: Your campaigns are frequently overspending.
Cause #1: You’re not monitoring your broad match keywords.
How to fix it?
Utilize all relevant ad extensions to reach a wider audience and provide valuable information.
Diversify your messaging in ad extensions to avoid repetition and convey differentiating messages.
Cause #2: You’re bidding on too many or irrelevant search terms.
How to fix it?
Regularly review the search terms report to identify irrelevant or non-converting keywords and add them as negative keywords.
Ensure your keywords align with your product or service to improve targeting and budget efficiency.
Cause #3: You’re not using relevant or any ad extensions.
How to fix it?
Utilize all relevant ad extensions to reach a wider audience and provide valuable information.
Diversify your messaging in ad extensions to avoid repetition and convey differentiating messages.
Cause #4: Your post-click user experience needs work.
How to fix it?
Ensure that the post-click experience matches the user’s expectations set by the ad.
Conduct thorough testing to identify and rectify issues such as incorrect landing pages, slow-loading pages, or message mismatches.
Cause #5: Your campaign has conversion tracking issues.
How to fix it?
Review and streamline your conversion tracking to focus on meaningful metrics.
Avoid excessive tracking of micro-conversions and prioritize tracking sales or primary goals.
Cause #6: It’s not you, it’s Google.
How to fix it?
Don’t blindly follow all of Google’s recommendations. Test them and only implement those that make sense for you.
Check your Change History tool for any strange occurrences in your account. Sometimes Google Ads faces glitches or runs experiments that can waste your budget.
Problem #2: Your campaigns are frequently underspending.
Cause #1: You’re overemphasizing saving costs rather than growing returns.
How to fix it?
Experiment with increasing bids.
Strike a balance between reducing costs and achieving a healthy ROI.
Cause #2: You added too few keywords or those with low search volume.
How to fix it?
Add more relevant keywords that give you more room to spend.
Remove keywords that are not working for you, those that are yielding little to no impressions.
Cause #3: Your CTR is too low.
How to fix it?
Make your offer more relevant to the searcher’s intent.
Test the ads with a more compelling ad copy or creative.
Cause #4: Your target location is not broad enough or incorrect.
How to fix it?
Check your location settings and fix any issues regarding limitations.
Cause #5: You’re running the ads during inactive hours or for a very short time.
How to fix it?
Schedule your ads for peak activity hours or during the period that tends to get a higher CTR.
Expand your ad schedule to make your ads run for a longer time period.
Problem #3: Your daily ad spend is constantly fluctuating.
Cause #1: You may have set up scheduled bid adjustments.
How to fix it?
Unless the fluctuations are really big, there’s nothing much you can do as Google typically adjusts your daily budget for you depending on the supply and demand for that period.
If the fluctuations seem abnormal, make adjustments by putting more budget on keywords that are generating conversions and do the opposite on keywords that are generating less.
Cause #2: Google is optimizing your ad spend based on your goals.
How to fix it?
This is a frequent case of smart bidding. People’s search and shopping behavior changes every day so Google will adjust your daily bids and budgets if it thinks it can deliver the results you’re looking for. You can keep track of any abnormal deviations with the help of scripts or a good monitoring tool.
Scott Ostermiller, a PPC consultant based in Utah shared his experience regarding such fluctuations.
“One thing I generally do is anticipate my budgets to spend somewhat wildly on the 1st (and sometimes 2nd) of every month because Google likes to “test” things out and use its leeway to spend up to double your daily budget.
I combat this by gradually trimming my budget down in the last 7-10 days of the month so that we come in at around 70-80% of our average daily budget. And then I start to gradually ramp up to around 120% of the daily average by the middle of the month. Then the trimming starts again. Imagine a bell curve.
The trick is to ramp/trim budgets in such a way that it doesn’t throw the campaign back into learning mode (which shouldn’t happen if your changes are less than 10% difference).”
Google Ads budget benchmarks + answers to FAQs
Whether you’re just starting out in Google Ads or are a seasoned veteran, it helps to know how the trends are shaping up and where the industry stands today. Granted, the budget benchmarks vary depending on the industry, business size, and marketing goals.
But it can give you a general idea of what to expect in terms of advertising costs in your industry. Speaking of which, Databox conducted a Google Ads survey across 15 industries and we thought it’d be a good idea to answer some questions you may have below.
What does the average business spend on Google Ads?
Across all industries, the monthly median business spend on Google Ads is $2,266.7.
Source: Databox
How much should I spend on Google Ads?
While there’s no minimum spend on Google Ads, you can’t go too low and expect to see any practical results with $2 or $5 as your daily budget. However, for beginners, several PPC practitioners suggest spending anywhere from $10 to $50 per day at least considering factors such as your client’s business, industry, objectives, location, etc. On a monthly basis, they suggest increasing it to $5,000 with regular monitoring.
What does it cost to run Google Ads?
If you’re just starting out and want to see a tangible ROI, it’s better to get some expert help. So, taking into account their service fee plus your Google Ads budget, it should cost you anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 at least per month.
Does Google Ads work for small businesses?
Like most other answers in PPC, the answer to this question too is: it depends. You need to realize that Google Ads follows a cycle of “test, learn, iterate, and repeat”. So you can’t guarantee which search queries or ads leading to which landing pages will bring you good results. It’s a process where you constantly learn from experience.
With that said, don’t spend too much or spread your budget too thin in the initial stages. Experts suggest testing a larger budget for a shorter period of time to
Make Google’s automated systems learn what works for your business as quickly as possible and
Give yourself the experience you need as soon as possible to manage future campaigns.
For example, spend $5000 each month for 3 months instead of spending $2000 each month for 12 months.
Maximize ROI and boost performance with these Google Ads budget best practices
1. Set clear goals for your campaigns.
As cliched as this may sound before you dive into budget management, define your advertising objectives. Whether it’s increasing website traffic, generating leads, or driving sales, clear objectives will guide your budget allocation.
2. Choose the right keywords.
Keywords are still the major signals that direct your campaigns in the right direction. Choose relevant keywords that can drive growth and use negatives to cut through the noise.
3. Start with a test budget.
If you’re new to Google Ads or launching a new campaign, start with a modest test budget to assess performance and refine your strategy before committing to a larger budget.
4. Allocate ad spend strategically.
Allocate your budget strategically across your campaigns and ad groups. Prioritize higher-performing campaigns that drive the most value, but don’t ignore lower-performing ones that have the potential to improve with optimization.
5. Understand your (or your client’s) sales cycle.
This is more of a general piece of advice, but clearly understanding the length of your sales cycle really helps you allocate budgets better. For businesses with longer sales cycles, be prepared to allocate budget over a more extended period to capture leads at various stages.
6. Use Google Ads Smart Bidding.
Make use of Google’s Smart Bidding strategies (e.g., Target CPA, Target ROAS) to automate bid adjustments based on your performance goals. Smart Bidding can help you optimize your budget by bidding more efficiently.
7. Adjust budgets for seasonality.
Be prepared to increase or decrease your budget based on seasonal trends in your industry. For instance, retail businesses may need to allocate more budget during this upcoming holiday season.
8. Make performance-based adjustments.
Increase budgets for high-performing campaigns when they are limited by budget. You don’t want to cap the success of a campaign that’s delivering a strong ROI. Similarly, decrease or pause budgets for underperforming campaigns.
9. Optimize your Quality Score and make use of ad extensions.
Invest in ad extensions and ensure that your ad copy and landing pages are optimized. Relevant, higher-quality ads earn a higher quality score which means better ad placements and less budget to maintain visibility.
10. Use budget alerts.
Set up budget alerts to notify you when your spending reaches a certain threshold.
When to increase your budgets
You are seeing a good ROI from your campaigns.
You want to expand your reach and generate more leads and sales.
You are launching new products or services.
You are entering new markets.
When to decrease your budgets
You are not seeing a good ROI from your campaigns.
You need to reduce your marketing costs.
You are experiencing seasonal fluctuations in traffic and sales.
Manage Google Ads budgets using Optmyzr.
1. Monitor budgets and project future spend.
With Optmyzr’s Spend Projection tool, you can analyze your recent and historical performance and trends, and calculate a projected spend range. This way, you can monitor your spending throughout the month, proactively identify potential overspending or underspending, and ensure that you stay within your desired budget limits.
Screenshot: Spend Projection Tool
You can also share a projection by scheduling a report to the appropriate people at the right time.
Screenshot: Performance Reports
2. Avoid overspending and underspending.
With the Optimize Budgets tools, you can avoid common budgeting issues like over and underspending.
Let’s take a couple of examples:
Example 1: Avoid overspending.
In the below example, it becomes evident that the account is at risk of exceeding the allocated monthly budget of $11,000. To address this issue and effectively manage costs, you have the option to select specific performance metrics for analysis and experiment with different daily budgets. This enables you to observe the changes in the Projected Spend column and make necessary adjustments to ensure optimal budget allocation.
Screenshot: Optimize Budgets - Avoid Overspending
To optimize costs without compromising conversions, consider reducing the daily budget for the Retail Campaign, which has lower potential and average daily spend compared to the budget amount. Meanwhile, note that the Non-Brand Pri campaign is currently the highest spender. By prioritizing budget reductions on the Retail Campaign, you can effectively control costs while minimizing the impact on conversions.
Example 2: Avoid underspending.
In our second example, we have clicked on the ‘Get Optimization Suggestions’ button, which provides us with various spending scenarios to consider. By analyzing these scenarios, you can evaluate the impact of reallocating budgets on campaign performance. Use this feature to explore different budget allocations and assess how they would influence KPIs.
In this scenario, the budget group is unlikely to reach the $1,500 monthly target. To optimize budget allocation and maximize conversions, you must identify campaigns where excess budget can be effectively utilized. By selecting the second row, you can explore suggestions for new daily budgets in specific campaigns that can potentially generate 110 additional conversions by month-end. Implementing these suggestions would increase overall spend by 27% and bring you closer to your monthly target.
3. Find and fix lost impression share.
The Fix Impression Share Lost Due To Budget - Campaign Budget express optimization focuses on boosting the budget for campaigns experiencing impression share loss due to budget constraints. By increasing the budget, you can capture a greater number of impressions and improve visibility. The tool provides initial suggestions and allows for further adjustments, giving you flexibility in optimizing your campaign’s budget allocation.
Screenshot: Fix Lost Impression Share tool
4. Manage budgets using automation that’s in your control.
Flexible Budgets is an Enhanced Script™ for Google Ads that provides automation for budget management. If you’ve been spending time manually checking budgets on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis to make sure you’re not overshooting the target, this script will automatically do this for you every single hour.
By setting up this script, you can automate the process of pausing campaigns, ad groups, and keywords and labeling them when the cost exceeds the specified maximum. You can also have the script re-enable the same entities when your budget resets.
Let’s take an example: Pause campaigns when the weekly spend cap is reached.
Here’s how you’d set this one up to prevent an account from spending significantly more than $5,000 per week:
Screenshot: Pause Campaigns When Weekly Spend Cap Is Reached
This script can be copied and pasted into Google Ads (either at the Manager/MCC or individual account level) and scheduled to run automatically every hour.
5. Allocate different budgets for different days of the week.
With the Rule Engine, you have the power to tailor your daily budgets to align with performance metrics and even external factors like the day of the week.
Imagine having the ability to fine-tune your budget allocation with precision. The Rule Engine empowers you to do just that; you can set logical rules that automatically adjust your daily budgets based on specific criteria and schedule your strategies to run on partial or full automation.
Here’s an example: Lower budget for weekends and holidays.
Depending on your business, you may see lower conversion rates or potential customer activity on specific days - e.g. on public holidays or certain days of the week.
Screenshot: Lower Budget For Weekends And Holidays
To maintain a consistent ad presence throughout the week while prioritizing higher budgets for weekdays, you can easily implement a rule similar to the example provided above: “Allocate a daily budget of $100 if today is Saturday or Sunday. For all other days, set the daily budget to $120.”
By employing this rule, you gain precise control over your budget allocation, tailoring it to specific days of the week. This approach enables you to maintain visibility and engagement over the weekend while strategically allocating higher budgets to weekdays.
Managing budgets in Google Ads isn’t just about numbers and figures. It’s a process that involves strategic thinking, continuous monitoring, and timely adjustments.
That’s why it’s very important you learn the critical aspects of Google Ads budgets, including setting budgets, avoiding overspending, and preventing underspending and common issues advertisers face along with possible causes and fixes.
With these best practices and the Optmyzr tools mentioned here, you now have the superpowers to effectively manage Google Ads budgets in your hands.
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world 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.
Imagine this scenario: Your Google Ads campaigns are operating at peak performance, delivering a torrent of conversions and captivating your target audience. The twist? You’re not grappling with the complexities of optimizing them manually for each account. Instead, you’re navigating the Google Ads landscape with grace and ease, all thanks to Optmyzr Express.
This remarkable tool streamlines your advertising efforts, making optimization feel like a walk in the park. Whether you’re managing one account or many, Optmyzr Express revolutionizes your approach. It’s akin to having a dedicated optimization expert at your service, offering valuable insights and actionable suggestions. In this article, we’ll delve into the wealth of optimization categories and techniques Optmyzr Express provides. We’ll illustrate how it enhances the efficiency and effectiveness of your Google Ads PPC campaigns, ultimately boosting your ROI and giving you a competitive edge. Prepare to optimize your way to digital marketing triumph!
Ad Suggestions
1. Add Missing Ads (RSA)
Optmyzr Express kicks off by identifying ad groups without active responsive search ads (RSAs). Don’t let these ad groups sit idle when you can craft new RSAs with high-performing components in them from existing Expanded Text Ads (ETAs). With the help of Open AI’s suggestions in Optmyzr, you can create compelling ads that resonate with your audience, all with a single click.
2. Fix Ads with Issues (RSA)
For those underperforming RSAs, Optmyzr Express offers an array of suggestions to revamp them. Fine-tune your RSA assets using recommendations from existing ads and suggestions from Open AI. The tool also reveals top-performing keywords and search queries to help you craft relevant ads.
3. Pause Low-Performing RSAs
Don’t let underperforming RSAs drag down your ad group’s overall effectiveness. Optmyzr Express provides proactive suggestions to identify and pause low-performing RSAs, ensuring that high-performing RSAs receive more traffic. It’s a simple yet effective way to optimize your ad groups and improve results.
4. Add Missing Sitelink Assets
Enhance the relevance and click-through rate of your ads by adding sitelink assets. Optmyzr Express identifies campaigns lacking sitelinks and allows you to quickly add multiple assets, hence helping you boost your ad’s appeal and improve user experience.
PMax Asset Groups with no Audience Signal
Optmyzr Express helps you maximize your audience targeting efforts for PMax campaigns by identifying asset groups without any audience signals. You can add existing audience signals from your account or create new ones. Customize your audience segments based on interests, purchase intentions, or top-performing search queries.
Create Experiments to Test Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, and Target ROAS Bidding Strategies
For campaigns currently running on manual bidding, Optmyzr Express suggests creating experiments to test automated bidding strategies like Maximize Conversions, Target CPA, and Target ROAS. By comparing the performance of the new strategy with the current manual bidding approach, you can determine which strategy works best for your goals.
Bid Suggestions - Manual Bidding Campaigns
1. Gender Bid Adjustments
Gain valuable insights into how different genders perform in your ad groups and set bid adjustments accordingly. Optmyzr Express identifies significant differences in click-through rates (CTR) among genders and provides bid adjustment recommendations. Customize these adjustments to fine-tune your campaign targeting.
2. Age Range Bid Adjustments
Similar to gender bid adjustments, Optmyzr Express helps you optimize bids based on age ranges. Identify age groups with varying CTRs and adjust your bids accordingly. This fine-grained control can enhance your campaign’s performance and ROI.
3. More Traffic for Converting Keywords
Boost the impression share of converting keywords that are losing impressions due to low bids. Optmyzr Express recommends bid increases for these keywords, providing them with more opportunities to drive conversions.
4. Push Keywords to First Page
Ensure your keywords make it to the coveted first page of search results. Optmyzr Express suggests bid increases for keywords with a good Quality Score, helping you achieve better visibility and click-through rates.
Shopping Campaign Suggestions
1. More Traffic for Converting Products
Apply bid adjustments to converting product groups that are losing impression share due to their current bids. This optimization allows you to increase your bids strategically and maximize your product visibility to potential customers.
2. Simplify Merchant Feed Optimization with Optmyzr Express
Optmyzr Express identifies products with missing essential attributes like Title, Description, Price, Link, Image Link, and Brand and helps you add these attributes through the tool.
What’s even better is that you don’t have to laboriously set up rules for every single product with missing attributes, just input the changes through a Supplemental Feed. Optmyzr Express lets you focus on improving just five products at a time, making the process manageable and efficient.
Budget Suggestions
1. Budget Suggestions from Google
Optmyzr Express works seamlessly with Google’s budget recommendations and analyzes them to give you the best set of suggestions for Google Ads budget optimization. It shows predicted changes in cost, conversions, and cost per conversion, and helps you make informed decisions about budget adjustments to enhance your campaign’s performance.
2. Fix Impression Share Lost Due to Budget - Campaign Budget and Shared Budget
Identify campaigns that are losing impression share due to budget constraints, even though they bring in conversions. Optmyzr Express empowers you to modify campaign budgets strategically, ensuring you capture more impressions and conversions. The tool provides suggestions for both campaigns with individual budgets and campaigns belonging to shared budgets.
Keyword Suggestions
1. Add New Keywords
Expand your keyword arsenal by adding relevant queries as keywords to your Google Ads account. Optmyzr Express identifies well-performing search terms that are absent from your keywords. Quickly add them and manage their bids and ad copies for optimal results.
2. Enable Converting Keywords
Revive dormant converting keywords that have been removed from your campaigns. Optmyzr Express highlights keywords that have generated conversions in the past 120 days but are currently inactive. Re-enable relevant ones (that may have been paused by Google’s auto-apply recommendations) to capitalize on their performance.
3. Fix Conflicting Negative Keywords
Eliminate conflicts between negative and positive keywords that may reduce ad impressions. Optmyzr Express provides a curated list of conflicting negative keywords, allowing you to resolve conflicts by pausing positive or negative keywords strategically.
4. Keyword Suggestions by Google
Leverage Google’s keyword recommendations within Optmyzr Express. The tool offers an extra layer of analysis on top of Google’s recommendations to present you with valuable and relevant keyword ideas.
5. Use Broad Match Keywords
Turbocharge your keyword strategy by identifying low-traffic keywords in exact and phrase matches and converting them to broad match if you prefer. Optmyzr Express goes the extra mile by analyzing Google’s recommendations and presenting you with the most relevant keyword suggestions in the tool. It’s all about expanding your reach and targeting a broader audience, effortlessly.
Trim wasted ad spend by identifying and excluding low-performing placements from your campaigns. Optmyzr Express helps you pinpoint placements that drain your budget without delivering conversions. Exclude placements on websites, mobile applications, YouTube videos, and YouTube channels to boost your ROI.
2. Exclude Low-Performing Placements for Performance Max - Account Level
Extend the power of placement exclusions to Performance Max campaigns at the account level. Eliminate unproductive placements across websites, mobile applications, YouTube videos, and YouTube channels to optimize your advertising spend effectively.
Expand Your Reach with Search Partners
Optmyzr Express takes the guesswork out of expanding your Google Ads reach. It identifies campaigns with untapped budget potential and strategically suggests opting them into the search partner network. By analyzing Google’s recommendations, Optmyzr Express ensures that your Google Ads budget is distributed well, connecting with audiences who share relevant interests on partner sites.
In Conclusion
Optmyzr Express is a powerhouse of optimization techniques designed to elevate your Google Ads campaigns. Whether you’re fine-tuning ad creatives, experimenting with bidding strategies, or expanding your keyword and placement reach, this tool streamlines the process and helps you achieve better results in less time. The suggestions are data-driven and can be applied with a single click, making optimization effortless. Make Optmyzr Express a part of your daily workflow, and watch your accounts’ performance soar. Your path to PPC success starts here!
Note: Optmyzr Express is part of Optmyzr Core. If you’re not an Optmyzr customer yet, sign up for a free trial now and experience the power of quick, effective Google Ads optimizations.
If you’ve ever felt that sinking disappointment as you watch your Google Ads campaigns struggle to convert, take a deep breath. You’re not alone.
The frustration of not knowing where to start optimizing or what’s causing your conversions to plummet is definitely real. But here’s the good news: In most cases, there’s hope on the horizon.
By optimizing landing pages, refining your targeting, and being patient while the machine learning algorithm finds new buyers or leads, you can turn the tide and start seeing those conversions you’ve been longing for. In this article, we’ll explore eight common reasons your Google Ads campaigns might be faltering and present potential fixes.
Why your Google Ads campaigns aren’t converting and how to fix them
1. Not allowing enough time
Your Google Ads campaigns, particularly Performance Max campaigns and those running on automated bidding, may struggle to convert due to insufficient time allocated for learning and optimization. Machine learning algorithms require data to calibrate towards your business goals. The learning period depends on the number of conversions and the duration of your conversion cycles.
Solutions
Utilize conversion data from previous campaigns to speed up the initial learning period.
Simplify your account structure by avoiding excessive granularity. Google often optimizes ad groups and campaigns with higher impressions, clicks, and conversions more effectively.
2. Failing to set up conversion tracking
The importance of conversion tracking cannot be overstated when it comes to understanding your campaign’s performance. Its absence can create the illusion of non-converting campaigns.
Solution
Prioritize the correct setup of conversion tracking. Google offers valuable free tools to monitor customer interactions, so be sure to maximize their benefits for your campaigns.
3. Ineffective targeting and audience settings
If your campaigns are underperforming, it could be due to targeting issues. Choosing the wrong keywords can hamper your success, so it’s crucial to research popular topics and phrases in your niche.
Solutions
Improve your keyword targeting by adding trending search terms to your keyword lists and excluding less relevant queries as negative keywords.
Concentrate on audience targeting that matches both intent and location. Keep in mind that campaigns targeting more intent-driven audiences tend to yield better conversion rates.
Ever found yourself wondering which match type to pick for your keywords? Well, here’s a little insider tip that can help you decide. Optmyzr Evangelist Navah Hopkins took a deep dive into different keyword match types to find out which one delivers the most conversions. The results are pretty eye-opening. So, if you’re curious to see which match type got the maximum conversions, check out her study!
4. Seasonal factors
If you’re running new campaigns and they’re not generating immediate conversions, it’s worth considering the impact of seasonality. The demand for your product can ebb and flow, so it might take some time before it aligns with specific seasons. In such cases, patience is not just a virtue but a necessity. It’s crucial to adapt your campaigns to synchronize with the periods when your product is in high demand.
Solutions
To tackle seasonality effectively, it’s recommended to review your seasonal KPI drops on a quarterly basis. This practice aids in predicting the budget you’ll need to allocate to your campaigns during seasons with moderate performance.
Conversely, it’s equally important to be prepared for sudden traffic spikes that might occur ahead of peak seasons, potentially consuming (and wasting) your budget. You might also encounter increased CPCs, thereby elevating your Cost Per Acquisition (CPA) and reducing your Return on Ad Spend (ROAS).
5. Budget matters
Your budget plays a critical role in the success of your Google Ads campaigns. If your bids are too low, Google might have trouble finding the right auctions where your ads can shine. This can reduce your impression share, limiting the opportunities to showcase your ads to potential customers.
Conversely, if your bids are high, but your budget is too low, Google could either halt your advertising once the budget limit is reached or lower your bids to meet the budget. In both cases, it’s not an ideal situation.
Solution
Consider optimizing your budget allocation across your campaigns. By doing this, you can redirect any unspent budget to the campaigns that need it the most, boosting their impression share and increasing your chances of success.
6. Landing page pitfalls
Your landing page plays a critical role in converting visitors into customers. If it’s not well-designed, it can actually drive potential customers away. To fix this, make sure that your landing page perfectly matches what your ad promised. Also, include a clear call to action, like ‘Buy Now’ or ‘Learn More,’ to guide your visitors. Adding social proof, such as customer reviews and testimonials, can boost their confidence.
Solutions
Keep your message on the landing page short, sweet, and directly related to what you’re offering.
Ensure that your landing page aligns seamlessly with the intent of your ad, creating a consistent experience for your visitors.
7. Outmatched by competition
In fiercely competitive industries, achieving conversions can be an uphill battle. If you find that your competition is investing more heavily than you are, it’s time to take action. You can boost your chances of success by either increasing your budget or making your ads more appealing with elements like sitelinks and callout extensions. These additions can help your ads stand out in a crowded field, even if you’re not the biggest spender.
8. Macroeconomic factors
External economic factors can significantly influence your campaign’s conversion rates. These conditions are often beyond your control and can vary based on your industry. To set realistic expectations, it’s important to consider industry-specific benchmarks. Keep in mind that some industries inherently have lower conversion rates, and this can be influenced by broader economic trends.
Effortless PPC Audits: Optmyzr’s PPC Policy and Audits tool helps you quickly troubleshoot issues with your campaigns, unveiling opportunities to enhance your conversions.
Landing page quality monitoring: Receive automated reports on landing page quality, including error codes and issues like “Not found” and “Out of stock.” Optmyzr can also temporarily pause keywords, ads, and asset groups associated with problematic landing pages and reactivate them once issues are resolved.
Real-time monitoring and investigation: Keep an eye on key metrics and swiftly uncover ad groups, keywords, or audience segments that are affecting your conversions negatively using PPC Investigator.
Keyword and placement management: Easily manage non-converting keywords, listing groups, placements, and more using Optmyzr’s Rule Engine. The tool offers automated options to pause or exclude them, safeguarding your ad budget.
In the world of digital advertising, it’s typical to encounter challenges with your Google Ads campaigns. The good news is that most of these issues can be resolved. By fine-tuning your landing pages, optimizing your targeting, and managing your budget and competition wisely, you can improve your conversion rates. Remember, it’s crucial to troubleshoot the dip in conversions systematically.
If you’re in search of expert guidance and effective tools to remedy your conversion challenges, browse our library of panel discussions with digital marketing experts: PPC Town Hall.
You can also try Optmyzr for free with a 14-day trial. With the right strategies and tools at your disposal, you can steer your campaigns toward achieving the conversions you desire.
Google Ads Conversion FAQs
Why do my Google Ads campaigns get clicks but not conversions?
If you’re getting clicks on your Google Ads campaign but no one’s taking the desired actions, it can be due to a few reasons.
Your website’s landing page might not be as attractive as it should be
Your ad wording may not be convincing enough
You could be showing your ads to the wrong people
You might need to allocate more budget to your campaign, or
Your competitors could be spending more.
What is conversion tracking in Google Ads?
Conversion tracking is an invaluable feature, offered for free, which offers a comprehensive look into the actions customers take after engaging with your ads. It enables you to track whether they’ve made a purchase, registered for your newsletter, reached out to your business, or downloaded your app. Employing conversion tracking helps you gain insights into the effectiveness of your campaigns and empowers you to make data-driven adjustments for improved ad performance. You can also explore Enhanced Conversions to make the adoption of conversion tracking even easier!
How can I fix Google Ads conversion tracking errors?
If you’re experiencing issues with tracking conversions in your Google Ads, don’t worry. You can follow Google’s step-by-step guide to diagnose and repair common conversion tracking problems. Regularly check your tracking setup and stick to Google’s instructions to ensure your conversion tracking is accurate.
“This is your Google Ads rep speaking. Please fasten your seatbelt—it’s about to get reeeeeal bumpy.”
No, that’s not a real message anyone’s ever received from their ad rep. But after reading some of the news headlines and PPC practitioner stories in recent months, you can’t fault them for expecting a message like this next.
Between dubious advice and pushing automated recommendations that prioritize Google’s bottom line over account performance, it’s understandable that many agencies and practitioners have grown wary of speaking to ad reps.
But it wasn’t always like this, especially before ad revenue saw a few consecutive quarters of decline.
I’ve heard firsthand accounts of reps taking agency owners out to dinner, getting them into beta tests and events, and of course conducting deep strategy sessions with agency and client goals at their heart.
Unfortunately, those new to paid search missed that “golden age” of Google Ad reps and only know the sales-aligned approach.
What exactly does a Google Ads rep do?
When a Google Partner agency reaches a certain threshold of managed spend, they gain a degree of importance. Given how much revenue contribution they influence (and how much more they could), it’s no surprise that Google would want to stay in their good graces.
Part of this process included assigning a dedicated product expert—someone with a deep understanding of the Google Ads product as well as marketing objectives—to manage the relationship with an agency and keep the money flowing (and growing).
Critically, these reps’ goals aligned with those of the agency.
Clients who got great results with Google Ads would be happy to keep spending (or spend more) instead of diverting any budget to new platforms. And this would keep agencies invested, since many of them would bill based on the amount of ad spend managed.
But somewhere along the way, Google Search and its adjoining ad products became too important to revenue generation and too big to ignore. With the balance of power now in the ad engine’s favor, everything became about tech adoption and revenue maximization.
The difference between in-house and third-party reps
Today, ad reps are split between those employed full-time by Google and those who work for third parties contracted by Google to manage client relationships.
Paid search specialists and agency owners report a stark difference in approach between the two types of reps, with the latter typically focused on increasing spend and hitting adoption metrics with little concern for what best benefits the account.
This prioritization of “quota attainment” over a product-centric one is the source of agencies’ frustration, along with some unprofessional responses when practitioners choose not to align with their goals.
Unfortunately, Google measures the reps based on the OptiScore in their book of business. They have no choice but to push it. 😢 (It's only one of many KPIs, to my understanding)
To truly understand the two reps’ difference in approach and knowledge, you have to first understand what motivates someone employed by one of the companies to which Google outsources this function.
When a vendor is told that they will be measured on certain numbers and targets, that’s what they’ll put first and get their people to prioritize as well. One independent Google Ads expert’s foray into that world reveals more.
How third-party reps are incentivized
Boris Beceric is a freelance Google Ads consultant. Like several of his colleagues, he faced issues with Teleperformance, one EU-based company that handles partner agency relationships on behalf of Google.
Being the mad scientist he is, Boris decided the best way to get to the bottom of why Teleperformance does what they do was to interview with them and get a job offer.
Sounds reasonable.
I’ll let you go through this Twitter thread from Boris explaining what he discovered.
Most complaints about ad reps these days center on them being pushy or unaware of the Google Ads product. Sometimes, reps will go further and disrespect the sanctity of the business relationships that have existed in advertising for decades.
They push too hard on communication
The PPC practitioners and agency owners I know are busy folks, managing multiple accounts and servicing those clients on a daily basis.
It’s unrealistic for them to get on calls that don’t actively move those goals forward—and unwise when those calls are aimed at achieving adoption and increasing ad spend with no consideration for whether those are the right actions for the account.
I understand their frustration with third-party ad reps whose own performance is measured by how many calls they book, how many automated recommendations they enable, and how much additional ad spend they influence—conversions be damned.
From an actual Google rep - Email subject line "Let's Chat and 10X the Results On Your Google Ads Account".
Really? lol.
Of course results more than likely mean spend, impressions and poor conversion performance, but hey it makes a great email subject line. #PPCChat
With ad engines obscuring more data than they show, it’s understandable that agencies and the advertisers they represent don’t want to provide them with any more information than is absolutely necessary.
But even in the best of times, asking for client data that has no bearing on campaign performance or account security is a dubious request. That goes double when the ask comes from a third party acting on behalf of the ad engine, and even more so when they already have read-only access to what they need to see.
Got my first Google Ads outsourced rep call from Accenture...asking for CIDs of our accounts so they can add to their support roster? 🤨 #ppcchat
They disregard the relationship between agency and client
So the partner agency says “no” to calls and “no” to requests for client data. What’s the right thing to do here?
If you said “back off”, you won’t make it as a third-party ad rep.
Truly unfortunate PPC practitioners like Jonni Lomax have to deal with reps who break the sanctity of the client/agency relationship, choosing to bypass the service provider and go straight to the folks who pay the advertising bill.
It’s a bold move, Cotton, but one that’s sure to tarnish an ad engine’s reputation.
How top Google Ads practitioners work with ad reps
As much as it surely bugs them to have to fight this fire on top of the many others raging in PPC land, the best practitioners know that it’s a battle they must face. More importantly, they have a process to address issues and maintain client trust.
But not all of it is bad. Several practitioners have good stories and praise for their reps, even if there are conditions and limitations attached.
“Everything we do had better relate to our goals”
If ad reps are going over our head, we often don’t hear about it. When I get emails from a rep, I often don’t reply. I let the client know the first few times and tell them why I won’t be talking with them. I’ve never had an issue in seven years of running the agency.
A few Facebook reps went directly to the client. One client met a few more times with the rep last year, but I’m unsure what happened after. Another met them a couple of times and then stopped as they found it to be a waste of time.
Regardless of where the rep works, if they want to have our clients’ best interests in mind, having us in the loop is key. When you are managing 10-20 clients and each client is on three or four platforms, it can be hard to do two hours of calls a month with reps. I think that is the part each platform does not take into account.
If I do meet with a rep, I state our goals, why they are what they are, and what our focus is. Everything we do from that point had better relate to our goals; I won’t accept anything less. If reps have an issue emailing ideas, I won’t talk with them either. No one has the time to do two hours of calls a month per client, and that doesn’t even take into account all the reps from ad platforms who want our business.
Since our clients trust us and we have shown what we can do, we don’t have an issue with them letting us lead. We don’t take on clients who want to micromanage or have ad platforms call the shots; there would be no reason to have us.
We do work with a few members of Google’s growth team who have helped with industry reports, getting access to betas, and sometimes coming up with campaign ideas for brands. Even Google’s support team has moved fast to add a client’s GMC to our agency MCA when onboarding a client.
I want to offer praise for our Google Ads rep, who has worked hard to try to resolve an issue that we’ve been having with remarketing campaigns serving to expanded audiences despite that setting being turned off.
#ppcchat I've kept quiet about this @GoogleAds issue I've been having, but the latest reply from support has me seething. 1/8
From the beginning of our relationship with this rep, prior to the expanded audience issue, he’s been helpful and valuable. Stories abound of Google reps who just want to push auto-apply recommendations and higher budgets, but ours has focused on our client’s goals and offered useful recommendations to achieve them. He’s been a great partner in working with us to get results for the client.
When the expanded audience issue cropped up, the rep jumped in and escalated the support ticket immediately. He’s followed the issue all the way to a (less than ideal) resolution, and has continued to fight for us to get a refund despite the official word from Google support saying we are not due one.
All in all, we’ve been extremely happy with our Google Ads rep!
Melissa Mackey, Director of Paid Search, Compound Growth Marketing
“The higher the budget, the more experienced the rep”
When getting in touch with Google reps, I’ve had both positive and negative experiences.
In one scenario, a representative caused issues between the marketing agency I worked at and their client. Without ever getting in touch with the PPC specialist, this rep directly emailed the client stating that they found very important issues in the account that need to be resolved as soon as possible: “Poor ad strength”, “Poor ad rank” and “Selected features that are impacting the performance of the campaign”.
Obviously, the client got very upset and emailed the agency demanding answers.
An email that’s been signed by “Google” has stronger authority of expertise over a PPC specialist, and it’s easy to harm the client/agency relationship this way—especially if it happens in the early stages of the relationship, as it was in this case.
But I’ve also dealt with an ad rep who was knowledgeable and provided recommendations relevant to the business. A few months ago, I had a discussion with a Google representative who took the time to understand the client’s business and main goals.
Based on the discussion, the representative suggested relevant optimizations that could be implemented in the account, while also mentioning that things like Broad Match keywords (recommended in every other instance by every other rep I’ve talked to) should be avoided in this specific account considering the niche terms that were required.
Even when going through the Recommendations tab, there was no pressure to select all of them. Instead, they explained each of the options while insisting that I should avoid most of them.
I should note, though, that this client has a significant budget. I’ve learned that the more spend a Google Ads account has, the more experienced its allocated representative.
If you have been in paid search as long as I have you, you likely remember Google actively assisting agencies with tasks like campaign uploads and account restructuring, relieving us of significant workloads, particularly during periods of substantial account expansion.
During a frenzied Black Friday and Cyber Monday, our strategist went above and beyond, offering unwavering support, budget reports, and projections related to search volume. This exceptional dedication helped our advertiser navigate the peak demands of the ecommerce season.
Acknowledging the natural skepticism within the paid search community regarding this partnership, it’s essential to emphasize that successful collaboration can indeed thrive. In this case, the balance struck between strategists and advertisers—combining support and sales—proved not only effective but helpful for our collective success.
Dealing with pushy ad reps can be frustrating for agencies, but open communication with clients and firm boundaries can reduce some of the stress. And in the instance that you stumble upon a rep with your genuine interests at heart, do everything in your power to hold on to them.
Because when you add in the black box nature of auctions and the motives that drive Google Ads as a product, it can feel like it’s you against the world’s biggest ad network.
After all, there’s a fundamental clash of business priorities.
If you’ve ever wished you had a buffer, consider managing your campaigns via a third-party platform like Optmyzr. Not only will you save time on investigations and apply custom strategies at scale, but you’ll get a partner with an outstanding reputation for support; one whose growth goals align with your own.
PPC Optimization, or Pay-Per-Click Optimization, is a continuous process of analyzing and improving your ad campaigns to maximize their effectiveness and achieve specific business objectives.
Types of PPC Optimizations
PPC Optimization can involve a range of activities like:
Improving Ad Relevance: Ensuring that the ad copy, keywords, and landing pages are closely aligned with the user’s search intent or interests. Advertisers strive to create compelling and engaging ads that are highly relevant to their target audience.
Managing bids: Adjusting the bid amounts to control ad placement and maximize the return on investment (ROI). This includes setting bids to secure top positions for high-value keywords or lowering bids for less profitable ones.
A/B Testing: Conducting A/B tests and experimenting with different ad creatives, headlines, descriptions, and call-to-action elements to determine which versions perform best.
Let’s break it down and learn how to optimize each of these elements.
Optimize keywords
1. Get high-performing keyword suggestions with Keyword Lasso.
Since its launch, this has been one of our customers’ favorite tools for search term management.
The Keyword Lasso offers you a clean list of great keywords that do not yet exist in your account. It also lets you get suggestions from the Google Ads Keyword Planner as well. This means you can now see how some search terms you don’t yet have as keywords have performed compared to the competition and the average monthly searches they receive.
Pro tip: Use turbo mode with custom filters to identify new themes and even get negative keyword ideas.
2. Identify non-performing keywords easily with the Negative Keyword Finder.
This tool has helped some of our customers save thousands of dollars every month.
As the name suggests, the Negative Keyword Finder helps you quickly find negative keywords out of search terms that have not been performing well for the entire account over the past few days and are inefficiently spending your budget.
3. Get the right traffic by adding exact match negatives using the Traffic Sculptor.
If you’re using any broad or phrase match keywords, it is likely that some search queries will match less relevant keywords and show a less relevant ad.
The Traffic Sculptor analyzes search terms and keyword data and suggests adding some search terms as exact match negative keywords at the ad group level so that the right ads show for each search query in your account.
4. Find duplicate keywords within the same campaign or across campaigns using the Keyword De-Duper.
Duplicate keywords that are present more than once in the same account end up competing against each other and thus dividing the traffic.
The Keyword De-Duper finds absolute duplicate keywords in your Google Ads account, both within and across campaigns. The system analyzes the data and then suggests the best-performing duplicate keyword to keep.
1. Identify keywords with a high Quality Score that missed Google’s first page with the First Page Bridger.
The First Page Bridger analyzes the performance data for each keyword and gathers the ones with a high Quality Score but with a bid that’s slightly below the first-page bid (up to 20% lower).
It’ll then display the list of keywords that would have the largest impact through a minimum bid increase. By doing so, you’ll increase their chances of appearing on the first page of search results, which ultimately results in more traffic and sales.
Some tips for using the First Page Bridger
We suggest segmenting keywords into three sections based on impact and the required bid increase to meet the first page requirements:
Minimum increase - maximum impact: Keywords with high QS (7 -10) (bid increase 10 - 20%).
Medium increase - high impact: Keywords with QS between 5-6 (bid increase 20 - 40%).
Maximum increase - least impact: Keywords with a QS lower than 5 (bid increase 40% +).
Because the bid increase can take some time to affect the account performance, we recommend running the optimization every 7-14 days. Keep in mind that the lower the Quality Score, the higher the required bid to get a good ad rank.
2. Get more conversions using the Conversion Grabber.
The Conversion Grabber looks for keywords in your Google Ads account that have had conversions, but which are currently losing impression share due to ad rank. It’ll then recommend selective bid increases for the keywords that would have the most positive impact on conversions.
The analysis looks at data for the last 30 days. You can change the date range to look at a different period as well.
We recommend running this optimization every two weeks.
3. Reduce bids of expensive keywords with the Find Expensive Keywords tool.
We created this optimization using the Rule Engine to help you find expensive keywords and reduce their bids.
The keywords suggested are ones with a higher CPA than a keyword would typically have in the campaign, or keywords without conversions but which have still undergone more clicks than normally required to get at least 1 conversion.
4. Adjust bids by the hour based on performance with the Hour of Week Bidder.
The Hour of the Week Bidder recommends time-based bid adjustments based on the performance of KPIs.
Unlike Google Ads where you have to create time slots first, and then set bid adjustments one by one, this optimization recommends and lets you set bid adjustments with a single click. You can also create custom time slots to analyze performance and create ad schedules.
Important note for Microsoft Ads accounts: As you may know, unlike with Google Ads, in Microsoft Ads each campaign can have a different time zone. In the Hour of Week tool, this translates into the following:
The system fetches data for the selected campaigns irrespective of each campaign’s time zone, which means that if a campaign accrues, for example, 5 impressions from 12:00 AM to 4:00 AM, the data will be fetched properly for that hour range, no matter what the time zone is. This also works when selecting multiple campaigns.
5. Set bid adjustments to a geolocation using the Geo Bid Adjustment tool.
The Geo Bid Adjustment tool makes recommendations for bid adjustments on locations based on performance. It analyzes the performance for each location your ads show in and makes recommendations at a campaign level.
Even if you’re not directly targeting a location, you can analyze the performance and the tool will add it as a target, and set the bid adjustment. You can set bid adjustments at country, region, city, and zip code/pin code level.
When your campaigns have automated bidding strategies set up in Google Ads, it is not possible to manually edit the bids for keywords (except Enhanced CPC). The way to optimize the campaign’s performance is by modifying the target Cost-per-Acquisition (CPA) or Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) values at the ad group or campaign level for the strategies Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value.
You can also teach Google more about how you value conversions from different segments when your campaigns run on value-based bidding.
For this purpose, we have created 6 optimizations using the Rule Engine to help you manage and optimize your campaigns on automated bidding: Optimize Target ROAS for Ad Groups and Campaigns, Optimize Target CPA for Ad Groups and Campaigns, Non-Converting Queries (Search), and Non-Converting Queries (Shopping).
Add non-converting queries with zero conversions, high cost, and low CTR as negative keywords.
You can find these optimizations under the Optimizations tab > For Automated Bidding.
We built these strategies using the Rule Engine. Read morehereto see how you can get started creating your own custom strategies. If you need any help on how the Rule Engine works, feel free to reach out to our support team or at support@optmyzr.com, and we’ll be more than happy to help!
2. Bonus tools for automated bidding
Score segments of your audience based on how valuable they are to your business with the Segment Scorer.
The Segment Scorer provides you with the Analytics data that could be assessed while scoring a segment. It serves to consider other important business aspects like Customer Long Term Value or Expected Contract Value while making value adjustments.
It’s not just the usual machine data that is already observable by Google, but your own knowledge and understanding that’s put into work.
Adjust conversion values using Optimize Value Rules.
The ‘Optimize Value Rules’ tool suggests conversion value rules that you can set up in your Google Ads account. It gives you these suggestions by using the data from the segments you scored in Segment Scorer. You can read more about how it works here.
Optimize ad text
1. Fix underperforming RSAs with the Ad Text Optimization tool.
This optimization tool helps you identify the high-performing ad text components in your account. Sort by metric to see what’s working and what isn’t, modify or edit text in bulk, and create new ads while pausing the old ones.
2. Pause underperforming ads and create and A/B test new ads with the A/B testing tool.
Once you make changes to ad text, visit the A/B Testing for Ads tool to see ads by performance breakdown. Here you can filter by ad type to see only Responsive Search Ads and create new ads. Modify headlines and descriptions, then run more tests.
1. Optimize Budgets for a single account (Google Ads or Microsoft Ads)
The Optimize Budgets - Single Account tool lets you optimize budgets for Google Ads and Microsoft Ads by translating them from monthly to daily budgets. This can be done to achieve a target or allocate more budget to campaigns that are driving more leads/sales.
If you want help with managing your campaigns for this Q4 holiday season, watch the video below:
For more tips on managing your Performance Max campaigns, implementing seasonality bid adjustments, and more, watch this video.
Other optimizations
1. Breeze through multiple optimization tasks in minutes with the Optmyzr Express.
Going through Optmyzr Express is like going through your email inbox every morning. It shows you optimization suggestions across accounts. It is designed to work as a to-do list for your Google Ads, Amazon Ads, Microsoft Ads, and Yahoo Japan Ads accounts.
This tool enables you to target or exclude locations and even pause/enable your campaigns based on the weather conditions of the specified locations, whether they are directly targeted in your campaigns or not.
Finally, it’s important to regularly analyze the performance of your campaigns and exclude any placements that are not performing well. This will ensure that your campaigns are optimized for performance and that your budget is being spent on the most valuable products.
Mobile Apps Exclusion
This optimization allows you to exclude all the low-performing mobile app placements that are costing you money but not resulting in any conversion.
The tool will list out all your mobile app placements with exactly 0 conversions in the last 30 days and with costs greater than zero.
You can exclude both types of automatic placements; for IOS and Android apps at the ad-group level in bulk.
You can access the tool here and the detailed user guide here.
Display Placements Exclusion
With the Display Placements Exclusion optimization, you can find placements that are resulting in wasted spend and exclude them based on a business goal – Branding, Traffic, or Conversions. This tool also makes it possible to see sites that are part of search partners and exclude them.
You can access the tool here and the detailed user guide here.
Account-Level Placement Exclusions
Excluding placements from an account helps prevent your ads from showing up on certain placements on the Display network or YouTube, overriding any campaign-level placement targeting.
For some cases, as with Smart Shopping and Smart Display campaigns, account-level placement exclusions are a great solution, as Google doesn’t support excluding placements through a negative list or by excluding them at the ad group level.
You can access the tool here and the detailed user guide here.
Execute, measure, and optimize
Optimizing ad campaigns is an ongoing process. It requires experimentation, continuous testing, data analysis, strategic thinking, and a commitment to adapt and refine campaigns based on changing market conditions and business goals.
And if you need help, make use of these tools.
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world 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.
In light of recent antitrust lawsuits and scrutiny over its ad business practices, advertisers are becoming more concerned that Google may be wasting their ad budgets in subtle ways. While Google provides a powerful platform for targeting customers, savvy advertisers need to be vigilant to ensure they are getting true value from their ad spend.
With Google controlling the auction dynamics and having full access to advertisers’ account data, it has the means and potential incentive to make advertisers spend more than required.
Advertisers should be aware of areas where Google Ads may subtly lead to inflated spending and take steps to optimize their accounts accordingly. Here are seven causes of inflated ad spend and ways to address the issue.
How Google May Lead Advertisers to Overspend
There are several ways Google encourages advertisers to spend more than intended or extract higher revenues from accounts, such as:
1. Using Broad Match Without Negative Keywords
One of the most powerful targeting capabilities of Google Ads is the ability to use Broad Match keywords. This allows your ad to show up for a wide range of searches related to your keywords, even if the query doesn’t contain the exact keyword.
However, some of these searches could be for more competitive terms that result in much higher cost-per-click (CPC) than expected. Other search terms may be less relevant and while costing less per click, may return poor ROAS due to lower conversion rates.
The solution is to set up a robust list of negative keywords to exclude any searches that are not highly relevant or fail to convert at justified CPCs. Otherwise, a Broad Match keyword that normally costs $1 per click could trigger ads for $5 clicks, quickly inflating your costs.
Optmyzr’s Keyword Lasso, Negative Keyword Finder, and its many prebuilt strategies for Rule Engine can all help advertisers more effectively manage keyword targeting.
When employing a Broad Match approach, it’s best practice to enable Smart Bidding strategies like Target CPA or Target ROAS. With Broad Match, an ad can appear for a wide range of searches with different expected conversion rates. Smart Bidding leverages Google’s machine learning to determine the optimal bid for each variation based on your targets.
For example, it may bid $5 for a commercial query that’s more likely to convert, versus $0.50 for a low-intent query seeking only information. This automatically adjusts bids based on the search to help control CPCs to keep CPA and ROAS within your targets.
By pairing Broad Match and Smart Bidding, advertisers can capitalize on Google’s reach while controlling spending. The combination provides expanded exposure at optimized CPCs tailored to each search query.
3. Changing Budgets Too Frequently
Google will cap your total monthly ad spend based on the daily budgets you set multiplied by the average number of days in a month. If you frequently change your daily budgets, the system will add up all those temporary budget levels over the month.
Google may also overdeliver on any day because it expects traffic on other days to be lower.
There are good reasons why advertisers may change budgets frequently — for example, in response to short-term offers, or changes in inventory and the accompanying changes in spend prioritization.
This means your actual monthly spend could far exceed the level you intended. And knowing how much you may be on the hook for can get very confusing when you change budgets throughout the month.
It is recommended that advertisers use automated tools like Optmyzr’s budget management features to ensure that Google doesn’t exceed your true budget. For example, by optimizing budgets throughout the month, while resting assured that campaigns will be paused for the remainder of a budget period when your ad budget has been exhausted.
Tools like Optmyzr even allow you to deploy flighted budgets that are not bound to the first and last days of a calendar month.
4. Ignoring Quality Score
Your ad’s Quality Score is a major factor that Google uses in determining your cost-per-click in the auction. Quality Score is influenced by expected click-through rate, ad relevance, landing page experience, and other factors. The higher your Quality Score, the lower your CPC for the same ad position.
Optimizing factors like landing page speed, ad copy, keywords, and extensions can improve Quality Score. But if you ignore it, CPCs will be higher than necessary to maintain your position, needlessly inflating your costs.
Optmyzr’s Quality Score tool helps you monitor for changes and identify opportunities for improvement by breaking out low-Quality Score keywords into new ad groups, where you can add a more relevant ad and landing page.
5. Turning On Auto-Applied Recommendations
Google Ads offers optimizations called auto-apply recommendations that it can apply automatically to your account (with your consent). These are based on its analysis of potential “headroom” to increase conversions. However, Google’s algorithm may not have a full understanding of your true conversion value.
For example, if you run a B2B lead gen campaign but only track form submissions as conversions, the system does not know the downstream value of a lead. Google may ramp up spend while chasing unqualified leads.
Advertisers should connect Google to their CRM data and review recommendations from Google manually to focus on true conversion value.
Optmyzr’s Rule Engine can connect your PPC campaigns to your business data and a variety of different conversion goals, so that you’re always in charge of determining what should be automatically changed and when.
The majority of Optmyzr’s optimization suggestions are calculated using our own algorithms that prioritize advertiser results over Google profits. But we also use a handful of Google’s optimization suggestions as the basis for further analysis.
For example, where Google recommends raising a budget to capture more conversions, Optmyzr applies an additional layer of logic to predict the incremental cost of those new conversions. Only if that cost is reasonable do our tools recommend increasing the budget.
6. Not Tracking High-Value Conversions
Similarly, if you do not properly track high-value conversions beyond simple form submissions, Google will optimize purely for form submissions. The system bases spend on whichever conversion you specify, so you need to make sure it reflects your actual desired outcome.
For a B2B company, that may require tracking CRM data on closed sales attached to converted leads. For ecommerce, connect your back-end order data.
This focuses Google’s algorithms on your real goals versus whatever limited conversion you happened to initially set up tracking for in your account.
When you use an independent third-party PPC tool like Optmyzr, you can connect your business data without that data flowing to Google. Use Optmyzr to create rules and logic with your business data, and then send only the resulting Target ROAS and Target CPA to guide Google in how it treats your ads in its auctions.
7. Using the Display Network, Performance Max, and YouTube Without Excluding Placements
A major mistake advertisers make is not proactively excluding unwanted placements in the Google Display Network, which has long faced quality control concerns from more advanced practitioners.
By default, your Display ads can run across millions of websites, videos, and apps that Google partners with for its Display network. However, many of these sites may be irrelevant to your offer or have very poor conversion rates.
Savvy advertisers will use placement exclusions to restrict Display ads only to highly relevant sites that have been proven to generate conversions. Otherwise, your budget gets wasted as Google serves your ads across its vast Display network to meet your daily budget.
How to Optimize Spending With Google Ads
Given Google’s incentives and control, PPC advertisers must take smart steps to ensure their budgets drive true value and performance. Some of these solutions include:
1. Use Independent Optimization Tools
Google Ads and the Google Ads Editor let you do a lot to optimize your ads, but they still have a number of issues related to convenience, sharing of data, and managing large numbers of accounts in little time.
Consider PPC management software like Optmyzr that can connect to your Google Ads accounts, but also integrate broader business data. This allows you to optimize bid strategies based on profitability metrics and other data, without fully exposing it to Google.
Advertisers get the benefit of Google’s targeting power but use independent tools to set optimal bids and targets based on their confidential business data. Google sees the optimal bids and targets — not your proprietary data driving it.
Third-party tools (particularly Optmyzr) also provide a high degree of support that advertisers typically crave then they regularly deal with long waits for Google’s support tickets and pushy reps.
2. Refine Tracking for True Conversions
As discussed above, advertisers need to look beyond basic form submissions and make sure they’re tracking true conversion KPIs in their accounts. This may require linking CRM data on lead quality or closed deals back to clicks and conversions.
Ecommerce advertisers can adjust conversion values to exclude returns or account for bundles/subscriptions to offer Google a more complete picture of the value they get from ads.
3. Actively Manage Quality Score
Don’t just set it and forget it when it comes to Quality Score. Actively monitor scores for keywords, ads, and landing pages. Test changes to copy, headlines, ad extensions, site speed, etc. to maintain optimal scores that minimize CPCs.
Quality Scores can suffer without ongoing optimization, so you end up paying more for the same results. So think of Quality Score management as a constant optimization loop.
Conclusion
In today’s complex digital advertising ecosystem, maximizing return on ad spend ultimately comes down to the advertiser’s savvy. While Google provides incredibly powerful targeting capabilities, its incentives may not fully align with advertisers’ need to get the highest value from their budgets.
By understanding areas where Google may cause advertisers to overspend, focusing optimization on true conversion metrics, using independent tools like Optmyzr, and constantly honing quality, advertisers can fulfill the promise of pay-per-click advertising.
With the right optimization approach, Google Ads can deliver phenomenal ROI. But it requires an expert human touch to ensure subtle factors don’t lead to wasted spend.
Online shopping has changed how people search for items they need and want. A simple search yields hundreds of thousands of results in a second.
It can be overwhelming for a customer. It can be downright damaging to a business not named Nike, Home Depot, or Target. This is because big companies have the resources to invest in large SEO campaigns and PPC advertising.
For smaller businesses, this is where Google Shopping campaigns come in. They can help your products get found. Google Ads make up around 76% of retail ad spend. That results in over 85% of all clicks on Google Shopping campaigns.
But deciding to invest in Google Shopping campaigns is not enough though. You and your team need to take the time to optimize these campaigns otherwise it is simply money down the proverbial drain.
In this article, we’ll go through 12 best practices to optimize your Google Shopping Campaigns.
If you need help with managing and optimizing your shopping campaigns this upcoming season, watch the following video.
12 Best Practices to Optimize Your Google Shopping Campaigns
1. Conduct Product Research.
Your Google Shopping campaign will only be as successful as your product research. Before even crafting your campaign, you must dive deep into understanding your target audience and their preferences.
Product research involves exploring market trends, analyzing competitors, and identifying gaps in the market that your products can fill.
Begin by delving into demographic data to find the age, gender, location, and interests of your potential customers. This information is your campaign’s “north star.” Next, analyze your competitors’ products and strategies. Examine their strengths and weaknesses, identifying opportunities to position your offerings advantageously.
Then look into consumer behavior. Uncover their pain points and motivations driving purchasing decisions. By understanding what triggers conversions, you can tailor your product listings to directly address these factors.
Use tools like Google Trends, keyword research platforms, and social media insights to view current market demand. These insights will help refine your product offerings, craft compelling descriptions, and optimize your titles for the greatest visibility.
2. Craft Compelling Product Titles and Descriptions.
With your insights from product research, the next step in optimizing your Google Shopping campaign is to craft compelling product titles and descriptions. These elements are the virtual shopfront of your offerings. It’s what makes your products enticing to the consumer.
For product titles, strike a balance between being concise and descriptive. Incorporate key attributes like brand, size, color, and unique features. This captures users’ attention and aligns your titles with their search queries.
Descriptions should go beyond mere functionality. Highlight your product’s benefits. Address the customer’s pain points and showcase its value. Inject persuasive language while maintaining accuracy to evoke emotions that drive conversions.
As always, use relevant keywords. Consumers often look for keywords in a product title. A recent study showed that one or more search keywords were present on an ad’s product title 94% of the time. Keywords should fit within titles and descriptions. These keywords also improve how easily your products are found in Google searches.
Find opportunities to improve the quality of your Google Merchant Center feed using Optmyzr’sShopping Feed Auditstool.
The visual appeal of your products holds immense power. Upload high-quality product images that vividly depict your offerings from various angles.
Images must be at least 250x250 pixels and have an alt text.
Consider incorporating engaging videos that showcase your products in real-life scenarios. Images should spotlight intricate details and unique features. Videos should provide an immersive experience that images can’t replicate.
You may want to give A/B testing a try on product images. In one ad, use a stock image, while another uses a lifestyle image. Over time, you’ll discover which images perform better.
For example, if your company sells Apple Watches, from your research you’ll discover that almost every image looks the same on the Google Shopping page. How can you optimize and stand out from the crowd?
A/B testing different images whether that is different angles, colors, or maybe even a more eye-catching Apple watch band could help you figure out what is giving you the best results on your Google shopping campaigns.
4. Set Competitive Bids and Budgets.
We’ll just briefly scratch the surface of setting your Google shopping campaign bids here. Bidding is a big topic that can feel overwhelming.
Begin by evaluating your product margins and conversion rates to determine a bidding strategy that aligns with your goals. Use smart bidding: it has vastly improved in recent years.
But it’s worth noting that while Smart Bidding can be highly effective, it still requires careful monitoring and management to ensure it’s working to help you achieve your specific business goals and objectives.
The Google Merchant Center is a powerhouse for enhancing the effectiveness of your Google Shopping campaigns. It’s also free. This platform helps you manage your product data, ensuring accuracy and relevance. Begin by organizing your product feed, including essential attributes such as titles, descriptions, prices, and availability.
Use structured data markup to provide search engines with deeper insights into your products, improving your Google search rankings.
Remember: if your data feed doesn’t match your website’s products, Google doesn’t show your product ads. So it’s vital to keep this info up-to-date and in sync with your website. Use Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Refresher 2.0 to sync your campaigns with your merchant feed.
Be proactive rather than reactive when it comes to optimizing shopping ads. You can use the Feed Audit tool to:
Identify missing values and fields
Find disapproved products with reasons
Get suggestions to improve feed quality
The audit examines all of GMC’s parameters, so you can make the necessary adjustments before the problem arises.
6. Advertise Your Best-Selling Products.
Of all the products in your inventory, focus on your best-selling items. These are products that have already demonstrated their appeal to customers. By featuring them prominently in your Google Shopping campaigns, you capitalize on their popularity and increase the chances of conversions.
Highlight these products with compelling titles, vivid images, and informative descriptions. Consider using a significant part of your budget for these high-performing items.
You can also use the aforementioned Feed audit tool to find opportunities to improve your product title, descriptions, and other relevant information.
In Google Shopping campaigns, refining your targeting is as crucial as pinpointing your audience. Implementing negative keywords empowers you to filter out irrelevant searches and avoid wasting your budget on clicks that won’t convert.
Regularly review search terms to identify keywords that trigger your ads but don’t align with your offerings. Strategically add these terms to your negative keyword list to prevent your ads from appearing for unrelated searches.
Use Optmyzr’s Negative Keyword Finder - Shopping tool to direct traffic for search queries to the most profitable ad groups in your campaigns. This is like an A/B test for search queries.
For example, a good negative keyword for a business like Drake Injury Lawyers could be “jobs” or “employment.” Using these negative keywords helps prevent your ads from showing up in searches related to job opportunities within the legal field. Now your ads will be directed towards someone seeking legal representation, not an attorney job.
8. Use Ad Extensions.
Ad extensions enhance the visibility and relevance of your ads. These snippets give users more reasons to click on your listings, increasing the chances of conversions.
Here are a few examples:
“Price Extensions” showcase product prices directly in your ads
“Promotion Extensions” highlight special offers and discounts
“Location Extensions” to provide physical store information
The goal is to offer more information to users within search results. These extensions establish credibility, boost confidence, and entice customers to click through.
9. Track and Analyze Performance.
Regularly review key performance metrics to obtain insights into what’s working and where adjustments are needed. This is where reporting your results is absolutely essential.
Treat your reports as a way to understand what you can do to take your campaigns to the next level — better conversions, lower CPCs, more revenue, etc.
What should you pay attention to? Here are some important metrics to track:
Return On Investment (ROI)
Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Cost Per Click (CPC)
Conversion Rate
Keyword Performance
Customer Actions
Check out PPC Investigator to get insights that’ll help you find exactly which element in a given account caused a metric to increase or decrease, and whether it’s a keyword, placement, or an entire network that caused the changes.
With this data in hand, identify top-performing products, as well as underperforming ones that may need refinements. Then refine your bidding strategies, budgets, and targeting parameters. (See tactic #12 for more on this.)
10. Refine Targeting and Segmentation.
Precision in targeting is pivotal to Google Shopping campaign success. You take the data from the previous tactic and refine your approach with advanced segmentation techniques. Segment your campaigns based on demographics, geographic locations, device types, etc.
The goal is to tailor your product listings to each segment to enhance relevance.
Analyze data to identify high-performing segments and divide resources as necessary. Once again, adjust bids and budgets to maximize visibility where it matters most.
Review and adjust your targeting parameters to align with evolving consumer behavior and market trends. This approach ensures that your campaign resonates with specific audience segments, increasing the potential for meaningful engagement and conversions.
11. Implement Seasonal and Promotional Strategies.
Seasonal and special promotions can amplify your Google Shopping campaign’s impact. Your strategies should align with peak shopping periods, holidays, and events.
Craft engaging promotions that entice users, such as limited-time offers, discounts, and bundles. Update your product titles and descriptions to reflect the special nature of these deals.
You can create a seasonality adjustment to help inform Google’s Smart Bidding when you expect changes in conversion rates.
Capitalizing on seasonal trends and offering compelling promotions creates a sense of urgency that drives conversions.
12. Make Adjustments.
The culmination of effective Google Shopping campaign optimization involves continuous analysis and agile adjustments. We’ve mentioned this several times already. Let’s focus on some elements:
Take time to review the results of your strategies, pinpointing what’s driving success and what needs improvement.
Leverage A/B testing to experiment with different approaches, from product titles to visuals.
Use performance data to inform your decisions, focusing on elements that resonate best with your audience.
Stay informed about industry trends, algorithm updates, and shifts in consumer behavior.
Be prepared to adapt your strategies, ensuring your campaign remains aligned with the ever-evolving consumer behavior trends.
Wrapping it Up
Make sure your shopping campaigns are in the best shape possible with these 12 tactics. Over time, you’ll notice increased ROI, qualified leads, and higher conversion rates.
And if you need help, Optmyzr makes it easier to showcase the value of your campaigns.
It is hard to change a strategic perspective. We form our ideas on the world based on data and inferring causation and correlation. Acknowledging that an outcome is no longer viable means that either the circumstances changed or the logic wasn’t sound. Both are uncomfortable.
We’re going to dive into a lot of data in this post and I’m also going to outline my old perspective and how I got there.
An important disclaimer: Just because this post looks at a lot of data and there is a high probability that one path is correct, it does not mean that the other path is outright incorrect.
It simply means that there is a significantly lower probability that you will see the profit and victory your brand deserves going with the “loser” in the data.
Our conclusion, up front
This is a really long post. So, for the sake of time, here’s a TL;DR of the study we conducted.
We analyzed 2637 accounts, conducting a study to explore the effectiveness of Broad Match vs. Exact Match. Due to how closely tied Smart Bidding and Broad Match are, we also analyzed Maximize Conversions and Maximize Conversion Value (1334 accounts). Key findings include:
Broad vs. Exact Match
Exact Match outperformed Broad Match in terms of CPC, CTR, CPA, ROAS, and conversion rate for the majority of accounts.
Conversion-oriented metrics like CPA and ROAS favored Exact Match.
Both conversion volume and click volume were better with Exact Match. Conversion value was flat between both match types.
The data suggests not making drastic changes if Broad Match is already performing well but considering testing for potential benefits.
Maximize Conversions vs. Maximize Conversion Value
Maximize Conversion Value performed better in terms of CPC, CTR, CPA, and ROAS for most accounts.
Max Conversion Value had cheaper CPC, possibly due to bid caps and practical ROAS goals.
CPA was generally better with Max Conversion Value, challenging the belief that higher CPA can lead to higher-value customers.
The data also recommends using Max Conversion Value and determining conversion value based on customer value and channel conversion rates.
Takeaways:
Test your assumptions and don’t take conventional wisdom for granted.
Keep evaluating your accounts and bidding strategies to optimize costs and performance.
Only test Broad if you go in with protections in place and have budgeted for data acquisition.
My original point of view
I strongly supported Broad Match for a long time and would defend the match type in posts that attacked it. I did this for the following reasons:
The pragmatist in me could see that match types as a mechanic were not really as powerful as they had been (or so I thought). Rather than fighting the current, it made more sense to just make the best with Broad Match.
Broad Match would often provide Phrase and Exact Match “matched by” in the search terms report, so there was no reason to pay the perceived premium for Exact Match if we could get it with Broad Match.
Broad Match was enhanced to include audiences that otherwise would not be included unless Smart Bidding was selected.
I strongly favored Max Conversion Value because it leans in to how ad channel algorithms function. However, I would often recommend Max Conversions because setting ROAS goals and customer values represented a struggle for lead generation accounts.
I hate DKI (dynamic keyword insertion) because the syntax ends up being weird and was a strong believer in pinning creative.
DKI would force keywords into ads regardless of whether it would sound “correct”.
DKI often gets paired with formulaic ads that don’t speak to the prospect in a meaningful way.
The Details of The Study
We wanted to make sure the data would be as clean as possible so set some pretty strict criteria for accounts we would include in the study.
We went through four different versions of the data and questioned the outcomes to make sure we could confidently stand behind the data.
Here are the considerations we factored in:
Accounts had to have both things we were comparing (Broad and Exact, Max Conversions and Max Conversion Value).
Accounts had to have at least 90 days of spend data at the start point of the analysis (we looked at Q1 of 2023).
Accounts could be any vertical and any spend level. However, outliers (accounts spending more than $5 million per month and accounts that had periods of no spend) were excluded from the study.
Data looks at the following: which thing had more accounts that did better with the mechanic in question, as well as what was the improvement over the other mechanic.
In the Broad vs. Exact Match study, we had 2637 accounts that met the criteria. These accounts come from all over the globe and vary in vertical and spend; 1402 accounts exceeded $10K per month. Additionally, 1235 accounts had less than $10K per month in spend.
When examining Max Conversions vs. Max Conversion Value, we had 1334 accounts that met the criteria. They were a mix of including and not including goals for tCPA and tROAS.
We first wanted to look at overall performance and performance gains. It’s important to note that Optmyzr customers tend to be more advanced than the average advertiser, which means we are taking it as a given that the accounts on the whole will have healthy account structures.
We do not enforce a particular structure on our customers, so there will be a mix of all account structures in the data set. All comparisons are looking at how Broad compared to Exact within the same account.
Overall Data
For Cost Per Click (CPC):
56.55% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 77.96%.
27.34% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 36.96%.
For Click-Through Rate (CTR):
85.65% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 84%.
13.88% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 36%.
For Cost Per Action (CPA):
70.79% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 100.71%.
27.48% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 52.52%.
For Conversion Value/Cost:
64.12% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 122.40%.
19.91% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 79.87%.
For Return On Ad Spend (ROAS):
72.52% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 113.47%.
26.47% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 64.71%.
For Conversion Rate (CVR):
56.73% of accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 68.63%.
22.72% of accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 50.12%.
We can see that the majority of the accounts perform better with Exact Match, and the median percentage difference is also better for those users that performed better with Exact Match.
For accounts spending over $10,000:
There were a total of 1402 accounts.
76.03% of the accounts present had better ROAS with EXACT match. 22.54% had better ROAS with BROAD match. 1.43% had no difference.
74.61% of the accounts had better CPA with EXACT match. 24.54% had better CPA with BROAD match. 0.86% had no difference.
57.49% of the accounts had better CPC with EXACT match. 29.24% had better CPC with BROAD match. 13.27% had no difference.
88.23% of the accounts had better CTR with EXACT match. 11.34% had better CTR with BROAD match. 0.43% had no difference.
66.98% of the accounts had better Conversion Value/Cost with EXACT match. 16.98% had better Conversion Value/Cost with BROAD match. 16.05% had no difference.
57.20% of the accounts had better Conversion Rate with EXACT match. 17.76% had better ROAS with BROAD match. 25.04% had no difference.
For accounts spending less than $10,000:
There were a total of 1235 accounts.
69.07% of the accounts present had better ROAS with EXACT match. 30.36% had better ROAS with BROAD match. 0.57% had no difference.
67.21% of the accounts had better CPA with EXACT match. 30.04% had better CPA with BROAD match. 2.75% had no difference.
55.71% of the accounts had better CPC with EXACT match. 24.45% had better CPC with BROAD match. 19.84% had no difference.
83.00% of the accounts had better CTR with EXACT match. 16.44% had better CTR with BROAD match. 0.57% had no difference.
61.78% of the accounts had better Conversion Value/Cost with EXACT match. 23.00% had better Conversion Value/Cost with BROAD match. 15.22% had no difference.
56.36% of the accounts had better Conversion Rate with EXACT match. 27.53% had better ROAS with BROAD match. 16.11% had no difference.
The number of accounts using Exact Match wins irrespective of whether or not their spend is over $10,000. But we can see a slight drop in percentages of accounts that had better metrics with Exact Match for those who spend below $10,000.
Spend may not be the biggest factor at play here, but it does affect the numbers slightly.
Does the data translate over to the volume of conversions or other KPIs?
While we can’t show the average volume of the individual metrics (because of the amount of variables in each account), we can show which account had a higher percentage of the volume within the same account.
For Clicks:
51.28% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 113.36%.
48.56% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 115.06%.
For Conversions:
50.32% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 131.82%.
47.26% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 130.37%.
For Conversion Value:
52.09% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 158.10%.
47.29% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 161.27%.
For Cost:
49.30% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 99.37%.
50.36% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 104.31%.
For Interactions:
51.28% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 113.16%.
48.56% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 115.06%.
For Impressions:
47.11% of the accounts performed better with EXACT, and the median percentage difference is 111.38%.
52.89% of the accounts performed better with BROAD, and the median percentage difference is 103.46%.
Broad performs a hair better than exact in terms of cost and impressions. Exact performs in every other metric. However, the difference doesn’t seem to be too large. In terms of magnitude, Broad is better in every case except impressions and conversions.
Breaking down each metric and its respective findings
Average CPC
I was genuinely surprised that Broad Match lost to Exact in terms of auction price. There are a few reasons for this:
An assumption is that Google would give Broad Match preferential treatment in the auction and therefore discounted rates. While this ended up being incorrect, it is worth noting that this category was one of the closer ones between Broad and Exact. As such, I’m not surprised that some advertisers will still see better CPCs on Broad than on Exact.
Broad Match tends to have an assumption about it that it will be lower quality, so I thought the human element of bidding down would come into play.
What I didn’t think about until the data came in was how many accounts would be on manual bidding vs. Smart Bidding. Ironically, the enhancements to Broad (e.g. improved audiences) may have made the algorithm bid more than it should have on Broad, while Exact picked up the cheaper rates. This is pure speculation and I would have no way of proving it, but it is an interesting idea.
Average CPC tends to be higher for higher quality leads (or so we’ve been conditioned to believe).
The revelation that Google had been raising the CPC floor by 5%-10% is just enough to bridge the gap between what savings we would expect from Broad vs. Exact. It’s possible if we had run this study a few years ago, the difference in CPC would have been much wider.
The big takeaway from this data point (especially looking at how close low and high spending accounts are) is that you can’t use Broad Match for discounted clicks anymore.
If you use it, you’re using it to gather data on what you should be investing in (and potentially which terms to add as negatives to your account).
CTR (Click-Through Rate)
I don’t think anyone was surprised to see Broad Match had a worse CTR than Exact Match. Broad Match by its very nature is going to expose itself to more queries and therefore be predisposed to lower CTR.
CPA (Cost Per Action)
This is another “not that surprised” category. However, there’s a bit more to dig into here than CTR.
One of the assumptions I and the Optmyzr data team made when we were going through the data is that anything conversion-oriented would be flawed. This was a big reason we only looked at performance in relation to individual accounts and aggregated those results.
However what I was surprised by is how Exact Match did 100% better than Broad when it was the winner, yet Broad Match did 50% better than Exact.
I have a few thoughts on why this might be:
The sophistication of advertisers can mean they know to set more realistic CPA goals as well as budgets to help the campaigns achieve those goals. This likely contributes to why Broad Match advertisers who did well, saw the respectable average of 50% improvement over Exact.
CPA is tied to which conversion actions are considered primary and secondary. While this data set looks at Q1 2023 (before the summer 2023 glitch where advertisers saw new conversion actions being created in their accounts in the migration away from UA), it still is in the sphere of influence. As advertisers were migrating to GA4, it is 100% possible that extra conversion actions could have been factored in.
Because we looked at performance within the accounts, these potential errors/glitches would have been baked in and accounted for. This is more in reference to why the numbers aren’t completely one-sided.
ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
Similarly to CPA, there is a certain degree of human error baked into anything conversion-related. However, unlike CPA, this metric is very one-sided favoring Exact (even in accounts with less than $10,000 in ad spend).
I was not expecting this to be true due to the perceived hesitation to adopt customer values and value-based bidding. I was expecting this to lead to reduced ROAS adoption.
If anything, this is a great testament to the value of ROAS and value-based bidding because Exact Match would be operating from a perceived point of weakness (lacking the enhancements of Broad Match).
CVR (Conversion Rate)
While this metric feels like CTR, it’s a little less obvious that Exact would win over Broad. There are a few reasons for that:
Given how much audiences factor into Broad match, there’s an assumption that the conversion rates would have been closer. Additionally, since Exact match got more clicks/interactions than Broad on average, it’s reasonable to expect the conversion rate would be lower because of more leads in the pool.
Conversion rates are very much dependent on the ad copy and the landing page. I would have expected both match types to struggle or be closer if ad copy/landing pages were a problem, however Exact clearly won.
Match-Type Action Plan
This is not the time to make drastic changes in accounts if things are working for you. If your account is currently running Broad Match and doing well, do not feel you need to pause those winning keywords.
However, if you’ve been considering “upgrading” to Broad, it’s worthwhile to take a pause and consider whether your account will benefit from the test.
If you do decide to test, make sure you pause your existing keywords and add the Broad Match variants manually. If you remove a keyword, you can’t get it back and you’ll likely want to have the ability to backtrack if you don’t like how broad behaved.
Optmyzr does not have a single “recommended” account structure as we see our customers succeed with different strategies. However, one fairly universal theme is that if you run match-type campaigns/ad groups you will likely get hit with impression share lost due to rank and budget.
Consider consolidating these so that you can have fewer but stronger ad groups and campaigns. Again, there is no conclusive “winning” structure. However, if you’re struggling with impression share, that’s a way to mitigate it.
Finally, there is no data to suggest (quite the opposite) that Performance Max is bad. I’d strongly recommend reallocating any paused Broad Match budget into Performance Max. Absolutely use the search themes in Performance Max to help focus those campaigns.
Which does better: Maximize Conversions or Maximize Conversion Value?
We did not include manual bidding in this analysis. However, it is worth noting that 12% of Optmyzr customers currently use manual bidding, while 66% use some form of Smart Bidding (Max Conversions or Max Conversion Value). We attribute this in large part to the heavy adoption of Performance Max, as well as the average size of Optmyzr customers (we tend to focus on $10,000 or higher monthly ad spend).
Overall Data
For CPC:
44.98% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion Value, and the median percentage difference is 64.30%.
36.73% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion, and the median percentage difference is 60.61%.
For CTR:
52.02% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion Value, and the median percentage difference is 62.43%.
46.48 accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion, and the median percentage difference is 51.15%.
For CPA:
52.55% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion Value, and the median percentage difference is 86.29%.
46.40% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion, and the median percentage difference is 81.04%.
For ROAS:
60.19% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion Value, and the median percentage difference is 107%.
39.58% of accounts performed better with Maximize Conversion Value, and the median percentage difference is 91.31%.
When we compared all the accounts the majority performed better with Maximize Conversion Value and the median percentage gains were better as well.
The 645 accounts with over $10,000 spend in Search
For CPC:
46.67% of accounts had better CPC with Maximize Conversion Value, 36.9% had better CPC with Maximize Conversion
For CTR:
52.09% of accounts had better CTR with Maximize Conversion Value, and 45.74% had better CTR with Maximize Conversion
For CPA:
53.18% of accounts had better CPA with Maximize Conversion Value, 46% had better CPA with Maximize Conversion
For ROAS:
63.26% of accounts had better ROAS with Maximize Conversion Value, 36.4% had better ROAS with Maximize Conversion
The 662 accounts with under $10,000 spend in Search campaigns
For CPC:
43.50% of accounts had better CPC with Maximize Conversion Value, 36.86% had better CPC with Maximize Conversion
For CTR:
52.57% of accounts had better CTR with Maximize Conversion Value, and 46.53% had better CTR with Maximize Conversion
For CPA:
51.81% of accounts had better CPA with Maximize Conversion Value, 46.83% had better CPA with Maximize Conversion
For ROAS:
57.4% of accounts had better ROAS with Maximize Conversion Value, 42.45% had better ROAS with Maximize Conversion
Spend did not impact Max Conversion Value winning and there was very little change in performance looking at accounts that had over $10,000 vs. less than $10,000 in monthly ad spend.
Breaking Down Each Metric
Average CPC
The biggest surprise for me was that Max Conversion Value had the better (cheaper) CPC because it runs counter to what we know of how the algorithm bids. Traditionally we’d expect the algorithm to bid more aggressively for a lead that would have a higher probability of meeting the objective (conversion value goal).
That Max Conversion Value had the cheaper CPC implies the following:
The ROAS goals were more practical than I tend to give folks credit for, so the algorithm didn’t spike bids as much as they might have otherwise. This speaks to the data source and the higher probability that Optmyzr customers will manage their accounts at a higher level.
Bid floors are leveling the playing field so those who are using value-based bidding are getting access to a “smarter” algorithm.
The main takeaway here is that advertisers should not default to thinking cheaper is inherently worse, however getting discounts on clicks is much more about giving data to the algorithm than having a perfect quality score.
CTR
I was not terribly surprised that CTR would be better with conversion value because if an advertiser takes the time to put in conversion values, they likely will put more effort into message mapping creative.
That said, both were close, which implies that it’s more on the human running the campaigns as opposed to the bidding strategy directly influencing the CTR.
CPA
To be honest, I was expecting Max Conversion Value to have a worse CPA because we’ve been trained to believe that CPA can be higher to get higher value customers. However that it had the cheaper CPA overall is more of a wake-up call than anything not to get complacent on CPAs.
It is worth noting higher spending accounts did slightly better with CPA than lower spending accounts (but ultimately it was negligible).
If you’re struggling with your CPA, consider whether you’re asking your budget to do too many things or if the campaign can get enough clicks in the day to lead to conversions. Both those mechanics can influence CPAs being artificially high.
ROAS
It should not come as a surprise that the majority of Max Conversion Value campaigns did better than Max Conversions on ROAS. What is interesting is that there were accounts that saw better ROAS using Max Conversions.
I have a few theories on this:
Some brands are not allowed to use conventional conversions and it’s possible that in those accounts max conversions can do better than ROAS simply because users will represent more than one conversion (and the advertiser intends this).
Max Conversions might have been in older campaigns which would be predisposed to do well.
It’s important to note that we did not include conversion rate in the data because it was essentially the same.
Bidding Strategy Action Plan
There is no good reason not to use Max Conversion Value. Hiding behind a lack of clear customer value is just giving your competitors the chance to overtake you.
When determining your conversion value the best way to do it is to consider your average customer value against the conversion rate of each channel. If you’re unsure what the average would be, you can start with a minimum SQL (sales-qualified lead) or minimum subscription price. While this won’t be perfectly accurate, it will give you a place to start.
My new outlook
The biggest takeaway from looking at the data is not taking anything for granted. Just because we’re told something is true, it’s important to test and prove whether it’s viable in our accounts before committing to it or discarding it.
Additionally, given that the conventional wisdom—that Exact Match and Max Conversion Values are more expensive because they provide more value—didn’t play out at scale, it’s worth doing a deep dive into your accounts if they are driving up your costs.
Consider being more aggressive with negatives and exclusions, as well as owning whether you have the budget to go after desired transactional traffic or if you’d be better served leveraging your budgets on cheaper networks (Microsoft) or top of the funnel (Performance Max, social, video).
We’re very grateful to our customers for allowing us to enable them on the path to profit and victory and it means a lot to get to continue to empower them through automation and freedom of structure.
And if you aren’t an Optmyzr customer, but need help with running more profitable campaigns, sign up for our 14-day free trial today to give our tools a try.
Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world use Optmyzr to manage over $5 billion in ad spend every year. 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.
Google is currently on trial for antitrust allegations from the US Justice Department, and Google employees have acknowledged what we’ve long known about how the ad auction works: Google controls the pricing — and sometimes raises auction minimums.
Here’s a rundown of just how Google controls auction pricing and what advertisers can do to protect their own interests.
Antitrust Trial: How Google Controls Advertising Costs
The trial has focused on Google allegedly using exclusionary tactics to maintain its dominance as the world’s leading search engine. But the US Justice Department is also making the case that Google has monopolistic power over search advertising as a specific industry.
Search ads make up the bulk of Google’s massive revenue, so how Google runs these auctions has become a point of scrutiny.
Ads May Be Promoted Out of Order to Boost Revenue
During the trial, a Google executive shared that the company frequently tweaks its ad auctions in ways that can raise prices for advertisers. One method is out-of-order ad promotion, where a lower-ranked ad gets promoted above a higher-ranked ad. This allows Google to generate more revenue by showing ads in locations with higher minimum prices.
In the ad auction, Google ranks all the eligible ads competing for each ad position on the search engine results page (SERP). The highest-ranked ad usually occupies the most prominent top position.
However, sometimes the top-ranked ad may be ineligible to show in that top spot due to certain rules Google has, even though it won the top rank. For example, Google may require ads in the top position to meet certain editorial or relevance standards that the top ad does not fulfill.
In this case, rather than leave the top spot empty, Google will do an out-of-order promotion. This means they will take the next highest-ranking eligible ad and promote it out of order above the ineligible top ad.
So if ad one ranks highest in the auction but cannot show in the top position, ad two (which ranked second) may get promoted to the top spot ahead of ad one. This allows Google to still show a relevant ad in the most visible placement, while adhering to their eligibility rules.
The key takeaway is that out-of-order promotion allows lower-ranked ads to jump ahead of higher-ranked ads when those top ads break rules about where they can appear on the SERP. It ensures Google can serve ads on premium real estate while enforcing editorial or relevance guidelines.
This helps Google make more money and is beneficial to advertisers because lower-ranked ads aren’t artificially held back by editorial or other issues with higher ranked ads.
Google Ads Auction Has Reserve Prices and Thresholds
The other technique Google deploys to improve its revenue is changing auction thresholds and reserve minimum pricing. Over time, this can increase the cost for advertisers to maintain an ad’s position.
The auction minimum CPM is the lowest amount an advertiser must pay to have their ad shown in a particular ad slot. The corresponding minimum CPC bid is determined by a combination of the auction reserve price and the Quality Score of each ad. Quality Score itself is based on factors like expected clickthrough rate and ad relevance.
Remember that Ad Rank is effectively the equivalent of CPM because in simple terms, Ad Rank is predicted CTR multiplied by CPC, which is predicted CPM.
When Google asks for a minimum CPM to show an ad in a particular location, and that ad’s predicted CTR is a static value determined by AI, the only lever the advertiser can control is their bid. So long as there is headroom with their maximum CPC, Google can raise the effective CPC to meet the new CPM threshold.
How Reserve Prices Raise Auction Prices
If Google increases an auction’s minimum bid, it raises the floor price to get into the auction. Advertisers who previously met the minimum bid at lower CPCs now have to bid higher just to participate and have a chance to show their ads.
So when the auction floor is raised, the only variable that can instantly change is the effective CPC. And so long as that effective CPC is below the maximum CPC, the automated auction can collect a higher cost for the click.
This not only increases costs for advertisers who were bidding near the floor price, but it can also raise costs across the board. Even advertisers who were bidding well above the minimum previously may see their costs go up.
Here’s why: In the auction, the top ad position goes to the highest bidder. When the minimum bid goes up, advertisers bidding near that level must increase their bids to participate. This then bumps up the amounts that slightly higher bidders need to pay to maintain their ad positions. Essentially it has a cascading effect across all bids.
So while the advertisers most impacted are those near the auction minimum, an increase to the minimum bid lifts the overall cost of entry and makes the auction more expensive for everyone. It raises the bar across the board in terms of the bids required to capture various ad positions on the page.
How to Safeguard Against Google’s Black Box of CPC Inflation
As we learned from testimony at the trial, these tactics are sometimes implemented to help Google meet financial targets. More importantly, Google does not notify advertisers when these pricing changes occur.
This may leave advertisers believing their optimizations were counterproductive and led to increased costs, when it was an external factor outside of advertisers’ control that caused the change in price.
Luckily, there are steps advertisers can take to manage this uncertainty.
Quality Score Remains an Important Cost Optimization Lever in PPC
The fundamentals of optimizing for quality score and predicted click-through rate remain essential. Focusing on these factors will help minimize what you pay in ad auctions, even as Google changes minimum price thresholds.
Google’s Quality Score algorithm is complex, but essentially it boils down to predicting clickthrough rate (CTR). The higher a keyword’s Quality Score, the more relevant Google thinks your ad will be for searches on that keyword.
This relevance translates into a better Ad Rank, and when your Ad Rank is higher, you pay less per click to maintain it.
Quality Score is calculated in part based on historical CTR data for your keywords and ads. But many other contextual factors are considered each time your ad enters the auction – like query intent, location, time of day, and more.
So Quality Score is very granular and constantly fluctuating.
The core factors that make up Quality Score are ad relevance to the search query, expected CTR, and landing page experience. When these elements are strong, your Quality Score improves, boosting Ad Rank and leading to lower average CPC.
So time invested in improving Quality Score by enhancing relevance has a clear payoff – maintained visibility at a lower cost.
Monitoring and Alerts Are Critical to Detect CPC Changes
PPC monitoring is critical to get alerts on price changes, and automated rules can pause campaigns if extreme anomalies are detected.
PPC management tools like Optmyzr provide (among other things) automated alerts when metrics deviate from goals. You can get notifications for changes in KPIs, budget pacing, or hitting targets. This allows you to address issues before they become larger problems.
Optmyzr also has customizable rules to tell campaigns what actions to take, like pausing or adding keywords to a report. And when a major performance shift occurs— both positive and negative—PPC Investigator can help analyze its root cause.
With Optmyzr’s robust PPC monitoring capabilities, you ensure the prices of your search ads don’t skyrocket out of control. It’s like insurance for your PPC account. This level of monitoring and automation is now table stakes, and imperative for any modern advertiser who wishes to stay on top of volatile auction dynamics.
Use Vertical Benchmarks to Know Whether CPC Increases Are Your Doing
PPC Vertical Benchmarks in Optmyzr helps advertisers understand the performance of their account relative to that of similar advertisers.
Comparing your metrics to vertical-specific benchmarks lets you assess whether a price increase is an industry-wide trend or unique to your account. This context helps determine the best optimization approach:
If your CPC went up but others’ CPCs increased by more, you’re probably on the right path.
If your CPC increased more than those of your industry peers, it may be time to enable additional optimizations – deploying more negative keywords, adjusting target CPA and target ROAS, and rewriting your responsive search ads to be more relevant.
Watch the Trial – And Your Google Ads Accounts
Google’s antitrust trial is still ongoing and may reveal more about the tech giant’s ad practices. If Google is found to be a monopoly, structural changes to auctions could follow.
As the situation evolves, advertisers need the flexibility and control to respond swiftly. The core principles of automation, vigilance, and relying on data hold true to navigate an ever-changing auction landscape.
Conversion tracking is one of the most important tools in a PPC marketer’s toolkit. By tracking post-click actions that indicate value - like lead submissions, purchases, or registrations - you can understand the true ROI of your keywords, ads, and targeting parameters. This enables you to optimize bids and budgets to drive more of the conversions that impact your bottom line.
However, implementing conversion tracking has never been easy. Traditionally, it requires adding code snippets on your site to track conversions and/or integrating your CRM data with your Google Ads account through their API. For many advertisers, this involves engineering resources or dependency on other teams to execute the technical integration. Even for experienced PPC experts, this process can be time-intensive and risky to implement.
That’s why Google’s new Enhanced Conversions for Leads is a potential game-changer. By streamlining the implementation entirely within Google Ads, this new tracking method can help more advertisers unlock the benefits of conversion data in their campaigns. In this post, we’ll cover what Enhanced Conversions offers, how you can benefit, and best practices for getting started.
What are Enhanced Conversions for leads?
Enhanced Conversions provides an alternative way to enable offline conversion tracking without modifications to your existing CRM or analytics systems. Here’s an overview of how it works:
When a potential customer fills out a lead form on your site, that data including their email address, name, and contact details is captured by your site’s form handler or CRM. With Enhanced Conversions, that first-party lead data can be hashed and sent directly to Google Ads to match it with any corresponding ad clicks.
Later, when that lead converts into a sale or other goal, you upload the hashed lead information to Google. They match that lead to the original ad click, closing the loop on the conversion process. This gives Google a more complete picture of the customer journey and lead quality when optimizing your bids and ad placements.
The key difference from traditional methods is that this integration happens entirely within your Google Ads account, instead of via an API or manual uploads. You don’t need engineering resources to modify your CRM and can leverage the lead data you already have on hand.
Why do existing conversion tracking methods fall short?
To understand why Enhanced Conversions is an exciting update, it helps to know why existing conversion tracking has not been widely adopted.
Advertisers are used to being able to control most elements of their campaigns through self-service tools. But those same marketers usually don’t control the CRM systems where this valuable offline conversion data lives inside their organization. This dependency on other teams and sometimes even engineering significantly reduces the adoption of conversion tracking.
Modifying underlying CRM or analytics systems requires technical expertise that is beyond the access of most marketing teams. Even for those with engineering resources, it can be time-consuming and risky to build out a conversion data pipeline securely and accurately. Testing and troubleshooting errors add further delays.
As a result, many PPC marketers have simply avoided the hassle of offline conversion tracking. But that means missing out on critically valuable data to optimize bids and drive ROI.
Benefits of the New Enhanced Conversions
By removing the dependency on engineering resources, Enhanced Conversions makes this kind of conversion tracking far more accessible. PPC experts can enable it directly within their Google Ads interface in a simpler process.
More importantly, activating this deeper conversion data can significantly improve campaign performance:
Gain a more complete view of the customer journey.
What first touchpoints drive the most valuable leads? Enhanced Conversions connects those initial ad clicks all the way through the conversion process.
Optimize bids for quality over quantity.
Focus ad spend on conversions that impact ROI rather than vanity metrics like clicks. Value-based bidding leverages enhanced conversion data.
Eliminate wasted spend.
Identify low-quality leads that don’t convert and avoid bidding on them. Enhanced Conversions provides that feedback loop.
Improve targeting.
Conversion data reveals your best-performing audience segments, placement types, ad formats, and other factors to refine targeting.
Calculate true ROAS.
Without conversions, ROI metrics are only guesses. Enhanced Conversions provides real data on your return from ad spend.
The bottom line is that this richer conversion data powers more efficient spending and better quality leads. For savvy PPC marketers, it’s essential insights for driving campaigns to the next level.
Best practices for implementing Enhanced Conversion Tracking
Here are some best practices to follow as you enable it in your accounts:
Choose the Right Conversion Action.
Your first step is deciding what conversion or goal you want to track. A few key pointers:
Don’t start by tracking final conversions only.
Look for meaningful mid-funnel steps first like lead submissions, demo sign-ups, or email registrations.
Consider volume.
If you track final conversions and they occur infrequently, the system won’t have enough data to optimize well.
Factor in time to conversion.
Longer time lags make optimizations slower. Shorter time-to-convert metrics are better.
Don’t merge all conversions together.
Isolate specific actions to avoid “junk” conversions skewing data.
Thoughtfully Estimate Conversion Value.
Next, think carefully about assigning monetary values to your conversion actions. Some tips:
Leverage data from your CRM on customer LTV or average order value to estimate downstream revenue.
If exact values aren’t known, use reasonable ranges or tiers for each conversion type. Just avoid only 2-3 wide buckets.
Values don’t have to be precise! Relative differences between your conversion types are what matters most.
Manage the Transition to New Conversion Tracking.
Once you’ve decided on conversion actions and values, you can enable Enhanced Conversions in your accounts. But take care with the transition:
Add the new conversion tracking but don’t change your bid strategy at the same time. Let the data accumulate first.
Allow for an adjustment period of at least 1-2 weeks before optimizing bids based on the data. Avoid major changes in short periods.
Watch performance metrics closely and pause aggressive changes if you see volatility or a decline in conversions.
Implement in smaller campaigns first before rolling out more widely. This minimizes risk.
While proper setup takes patience, taking the time to do it right will pay dividends through improved performance.
Looking Ahead with Enhanced Conversions
Now that Enhanced Conversions removes major barriers to implementation, PPC marketers have an opportunity to more fully realize the benefits of offline conversion tracking.
As this method gains adoption, we should see more granular data-driven bidding, spent aimed squarely at profitable outcomes, and continuously improving performance as the system learns. When conversion tracking is democratized beyond just the most sophisticated enterprises, it raises the bar for sophistication across the whole industry.
And that’s greatly accelerated by inventory-level bidding technologies like smart bidding. The combination of conversion data and automated optimization makes PPC campaigns smarter and more efficient than ever.
For savvy PPC experts, staying ahead of these curves by implementing Enhanced Conversions today means you can outperform competitors who fail to level up their conversion tracking capabilities. That advantage will only compound over time as conversion data accumulation enables greater optimizations.
The opportunity is now yours. Get started with Enhanced Conversions and watch your ad spend get smarter.
And if you need help, Optmyzr makes it easier to protect your account!
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? 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.
Ad platform giants like Google Ads and Meta Ads are always testing new features and functionalities. And, these tests require real-world data, which comes from ad accounts like yours.
Sometimes the platforms inform you’re part of a test group when they run their experiments. But most of the time, you’re not given a heads-up. As a result, you may observe varying results in your campaigns—sometimes they perform better, and sometimes they don’t.
However, it’s unusual for a test to go totally wrong, so wrong that it costs your brand real money. This is precisely what happened to Melissa Mackey, Director of Paid Search at Compound Growth Marketing.
What exactly happened?
Expanded targeting is a feature that grants Google permission to reach people beyond your specified target audience if it believes there’s a high likelihood of conversion. While most platforms have this feature enabled by default nowadays, in Google Ads, you can choose to disable it.
Melissa said she contacted Google Ads support, they apologized, told her it was a bug, and they’d refund her.
Client's ads started showing in "expanded targeting" despite being opted out of that setting. 2/8
But then, it happened again. Even though she’d turned it off, Google opted her clients’ ads back into expanded targeting.
She reached out to Google Ads support once again, and they told her:
Now we're being told "From time to time the Google Ads team runs incremental experiments on campaigns to test the impact of a proposed change... Team confirmed that for this issue we might not provide any credit or refund." 5/8
Google’s Ad Liaison, Ginny Marvin, assured her that she would investigate the matter.
While it is not clear if this is a widespread issue, such glitches aren’t necessarily new. Earlier this year, Chelsea So, Founder of Leadocity, discovered that Google Ads was ignoring placement exclusions for her client.
But it happened in one specific instance: for video campaigns with Optimized Targeting enabled.
A workaround—while far from ideal—does exist. Watch the video below to listen to Chelsea’s story and how Leadocity fixed things for their client.
And recently, Odi Caspi, Founder of UK-based agency, EffectiveMarketing said this on X (formerly Twitter).
#ppcchat It looks like Google is going into account and enabling GA4 conversion as primary. This specific account has a Google ads conversion and as a result has been double counting conversion. @adsliaison how could Google possibly do such a think under our noses? pic.twitter.com/ohBjWRAl8D
Here’s one more: this happened to us back in January of this year. Watch the video below where our CEO, Frederick Vallaeys explains what happened in detail.
TL;DR, 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.
But we caught it in time with our PPC Investigator and Rule Engine tools in Optmyzr before it could cause too much damage (more on them below).
All these instances are a clear reminder that you can never “set it and forget it” in PPC. 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 can you protect your account from Google Ads glitches?
Our evangelist, Navah Hopkins, shares a few ways in this video about how Optmyzr can help you proactively protect your account from any accidental or automated additions to your campaign targeting.
1. Set up alerts.
One way to stay informed about such unexpected changes made to your campaigns is by setting up alerts for your budget spend.
This will help you to stay informed about the status of your campaigns and make sure you don’t waste unnecessary ad spend. This is particularly important if you have lots of automated rules and scripts running (especially budget pacing rules).
However, Optmyzr can automatically look for anomalies or deviations for you without you setting them up yourself using anomaly alerts.
You can also generate them for Microsoft Ads or Facebook Ads, not just for Google Ads.
2. Protect your account from showing your ads on low-quality placements.
Optmyzr’s Smart Placement Exclusions can proactively find bad ad placements for you. Instead of waiting for these placements to spend money on wasted clicks and then excluding them, the tool proactively excludes them.
If you want to exclude placements for your Display Campaigns, you can use the Display Placements Exclusion tool.
Or, if you want to exclude placements at the account level, you can use Optmyzr’s Rule Engine.
3. Track performance changes using the Change History widget.
The Change History widget allows you to report on status changes for the account, ads, audience, budgets, keywords, network, placements, and targeting, on an individual basis.
Here are some insights you can get 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.
4. Get a detailed view of your account performance using the PPC Investigator.
The PPC Investigator is an insights tool that’ll help you find exactly which element in a given account caused a metric to increase or decrease, and whether it’s a keyword, placement, or an entire network that caused the changes.
It has two components:
Cause Chart
Root Cause Analysis
Cause Chart
The Cause Chart is based on the fact that the performance of every metric depends on the performance of other underlying metrics. It uses the relationships between different metrics to show potential causality.
Root Cause Analysis
After identifying which metric needs to be worked on, the Root Cause Analysis goes a step further and highlights the exact Campaigns/Ad groups/Product partition/Keywords, etc. that were responsible for the change in an account.
It shows top movers who are significant contributors to the change in the account when compared across the two date ranges. You can view the top three positive and negative movers for a particular account.
The video below explains how you can use this tool for PPC analysis.
Run your campaigns with confidence and peace of mind
As Navah said in her video above, we want to reiterate that we truly do not believe these glitches are intentional, rather they are accidents made by Google Ads’s automated system. This is why it’s critical that you’re always documenting what actions you take and why in account management. And if you need help, Optmyzr makes it easier to protect your account!
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? 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.
Considering how important and chaotic the Q4 shopping season can be for advertisers, it’s never too late to start setting up your campaigns. Buyer behavior trends have changed over the years during Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and December holidays and now we’re seeing consumers shopping earlier than before.
One thing is for sure: billions of dollars will be up for grabs.
With all that said, let’s see how you can prepare in advance and make this 2023 shopping season a profitable one for your business.
On that note, our CEO, Frederick Vallaeys recently spoke to Marcel Smal of Roots Network on PPC Town Hall. Marcel shared how his agency is gearing up for Q4 and how he recommends you set up your Performance Max and other campaigns.
Watch the full episode below.
This article is a collection of tips shared by Marcel during that conversation.
5 Tips to Get Started With Setting up Your Campaigns
1. Start early.
Initiate preparations well in advance. Briefings for creatives, alignment, budgets, etc. take time. Allocate sufficient time for planning.
2. Set efficiency targets.
Set aggressive efficiency targets before promotional days. Use seasonality adjustments during promotions. Use negative seasonality adjustments afterwards, or conversion exclusion events.
Note: Seasonality adjustments don’t work for Video and App campaigns.
3. Try Discovery ads.
Use a ramp-up period before promotion. Allow time for the campaign to gain traction. It can take a few days to a week to start seeing some volume.
4. Build a pre and post-Black Friday strategy.
For instance, during pre-Black Friday, you can focus on lead generation, app downloads, and audience building. Push those goals during the promotion days.
And post-Black Friday, plan to promote follow-up products (e.g. accessories for products your audiences have bought, refills, etc.).
5. Don’t ignore ad extensions and customizers.
For retail campaigns, add promotions to your Merchant Center. Use site links and ad customizers.
Performance Max tips for 2023 Q4 Shopping
Marcel suggests the following tips for Performance Max.
1. Align your goals with your business objectives.
Make sure your measurement and reporting are aligned with your business objectives: revenue, profit, CLV, etc. If new customers are worth more to you than existing customers, then use ‘New Customer Acquisition’ as your goal.
2. Give Performance Max time to learn.
Performance Max campaigns look promising and Google is pretty active in adding more features to improve it. I suggest Pmax be included in your setup, but don’t make them your top priority over other campaign types. And don’t create too many Pmax campaigns.
If you see an uplift of +30%, analyze where that uplift came from. Is that traffic from existing customers? Or from branded traffic? Also, check which interactions drove the conversions.
4. Make use of Mike Rhodes’s PMax script.
It’s clear that insights and reporting in PMax campaigns are limited. So Marcel suggests taking the help of Mike Rhodes’s (of WebSavvy) PMax script which allows you to see the performance per platform.
5. Don’t create too many asset groups.
Creating too many asset groups can take quite a bit of manual work to optimize and make adjustments. Again, use the script by Mike Rhodes to find out which asset groups get the most volume.
You can use these insights to decide if it is necessary to split up your asset groups further. And, based on the volume, you can check if it is worthwhile to create or refresh new assets.
Also, add your own video assets. And check with Google if its automatically-created videos can be turned off.
6. Set up good targeting settings.
Take your time to set up targeting. Prepare an extensive list for custom intent audiences, competitor websites, competitor apps, brand websites, etc.
Bonus tips
1. Bidding
tROAS or tCPA? If your conversions have different values (retail, travel, leads with different values), then you can choose tROAS bidding. If you are a lead-gen advertiser with multiple types of leads and multiple CPA targets, then assign that CPA value to the different conversion actions.
And if you then let a tROAS bid strategy optimize towards a ROAS of 1.0, you will work towards your original CPA targets.
Should you prioritize revenue or profit? If profit is your bottom line KPI, and this information is available, then always optimize towards profit. Implement this in your measurement if possible so that you can actively steer towards profit instead of revenue.
Make sure you measure everything that adds value to your company. If you have physical stores, measure store visits and store sales. If people can also buy via telephone, track phone calls. If you run app campaigns, track app downloads and assign a value. If account sign-ups have a value, track them too and assign a value.
Try to measure as close to the business objectives as possible.
Conversions -> Revenue -> Profit -> CLV
The Bottom Line
As we near the end of Q3, last-minute preparations for Q4 are in full swing. Search marketing has changed, and we need to be watchful of these changes as they affect data analytics and audience behaviors.
At Optmyzr, we’ve seen a massive shift across industries as more and more marketers and agencies are starting to trust machine learning, automation, and data-driven optimizations.
But in order to thrive with automation, you need to look for powerful search systems and highly effective management tools.
Not an Optmyzr customer yet? 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.
How often have you landed on a broken landing page, or a page with a ‘product not found or out of stock’ message after clicking on an ad?
The experience is the same as visiting a store after seeing the promotion of a product only to discover it is not available. It is a very bad user experience and you’ll probably think twice before visiting that store or website again.
Consequences of broken landing pages
1. You will lose money.
As an advertiser, you lose money by paying for a click on an ad that leads to a broken landing page.
When an ad is created as part of the approval process, Google checks if your ad leads to a functioning landing page. However, it only checks if the page is working and not if the ad leads to a ‘product out of stock’ page.
2. You will lose customers.
Once an ad is approved by Google, even if the landing page stops working, Google will still continue to show the ad.
Your potential customers will land on a broken page and as a result, may never visit your site again.
This means the person who is at the purchase decision stage will leave your website and most likely visit a competitor page and buy from them, costing you a customer.
Finding broken landing pages
Finding broken landing pages is a common problem, especially for large shopping and ticketing sites.
Due to the size of the accounts, it is not possible for you to manually check the landing page of each and every ad. That is when we decided to build the URL Checker Tool.
It automatically checks the landing pages of all the active ads in your Google Ads account and pauses ads leading to errors or out-of-stock pages. It also re-checks these ads and resumes them when their landing pages start working.
Visit this page to learn more about the URL Checker Tool.
The more headlines and descriptions you provide, the more combinations it can generate.
