Google Listened: 5 PMax Fixes That Solved the Gaps We Found in 24,702 Campaigns

In 2024, we analyzed 24,702 PMax campaigns. The verdict?

Great promise. Big problems.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ready to close the gaps in your PMax strategy?

Start a fully functional 14-day trial today and take control of your PMax results!

FAQs

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.

Google Ads Keywords Not Converting? How to Diagnose, Fix, or Pause Them

“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.
• For higher-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?

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.

🎥 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,

Optmyzr’s analysis of 9000+ accounts found:

• 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.

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.

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

What to check before you pause

Before you pause a keyword that seems like it’s underdelivering:

• Use the Ad Preview & Diagnosis Tool to view live ad positions.
• 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?

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.

Want to see how it can help? Try our fully-functional 14-day free trial today!

FAQs

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.

How to Optimize Social Media Ads: Catch, Fix, and Scale Before You Waste Budget

If you run Paid Social ad campaigns, you’ve probably seen this before: performance doesn’t crash dramatically, it declines quietly. Sometimes you don’t even realize what’s happening until it’s too late. You check your Meta or LinkedIn ads only to find thousands spent with little to no return.

That slow, silent budget drain? It’s one of the most frustrating parts of managing paid social ads.

And in today’s economic climate, where every dollar has to prove its worth, diagnosing issues late means losing more than just money—it means losing trust, confidence, and time.

Manual cleanup after a crash isn’t the solution either. Toggling between Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, spreadsheets, and internal reports gets exhausting fast. You need a proactive system—one that helps you catch problems early, fix them efficiently, and scale only what works. This is essential when figuring out how to optimize social media ads effectively.

Here’s a straightforward social media advertising framework I like to use: Catch → Fix → Scale.

Catch performance issues early in Paid Social campaigns

1. Use real-time alerts.

Picture this: it’s Monday morning, and you open your ad account to find that one of your campaigns has blown through its weekend budget without bringing in a single conversion. That’s a clear sign that you need smarter systems in place to catch ad fatigue early and reduce social media ad spend waste.

Meta’s Automated Rules let you flag spend spikes or engagement drops so you catch issues before they spiral. Over on LinkedIn, setting up alerts based on budget caps or performance trends can give you a heads-up when something’s off.

If you’re managing multiple accounts, a tool like Optmyzr helps even more. You can set up real-time alerts across platforms for critical metrics like CTR changes, budget pacing, or conversion slowdowns. That way, you’re not stuck playing catch-up; you’re equipped to step in before small problems snowball.

2. Create a centralized performance view.

Simplify how you read your data by avoiding the daily shuffle between Meta, LinkedIn, and a bunch of spreadsheets just to understand performance.

With Optmyzr’s Portfolio Dashboards, everything comes together in one clean view. You can compare performance side-by-side across all your Paid Social campaigns, spot patterns faster, and make quicker decisions.

“The Dashboard view is actually clearer than LinkedIn. I tend to use it to see how much I’m spending on my LinkedIn account. The main thing that I’ve been using is the “Top Elements” and the “Performance Change” cards; I can see the split between the different campaigns that I’ve got running, and it’s much easier to see this information here than on LinkedIn itself.” - Stacey P, Google Ads Specialist, Pledge Consultancy

3. Tighten audience targeting and budget at the start.

Instead of starting broad and hoping something sticks, build off what’s already worked—custom audiences, lookalike audiences, and CRM-based segments that have converted in the past. Knowing how to create custom audiences for Facebook ads gives you a serious edge.

Meta’s Audience Insights and LinkedIn’s precise filters (like job titles, industries, company size, etc.) help you get granular. And when it comes to testing, you don’t need to spend big to start smart. A good rule of thumb is to allocate 5-10% of your overall marketing budget to Paid Social as a starting point.

With Optmyzr, you can handle both audience targeting and budget control in the same place. Create Meta audiences directly from the Social Campaign Manager tool and track their performance. Or, use Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to ensure that campaigns targeting these audiences get more budget if they perform well.

Strategic fixes for underperforming Meta and LinkedIn ads

1. Analyze which ads are draining budget.

Start with your active ad structure. On Meta, break things down by ad set, placement, and creative. This helps you pinpoint whether the issue lies with a specific audience segment, a particular format like Stories vs. Feed, or even a creative that looked good but isn’t actually converting. For example, an ad might be getting tons of clicks on mobile but zero conversions, and it could be due to a poor landing page experience on that device.

LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager gives you similar filters. You might find that a message clicks with job titles but flops with company size targeting. Digging into these layers helps you fix what’s actually broken, instead of scrapping a campaign that only needs a small tweak.

2. Automate fixes with simple rules.

Once you’ve spotted patterns (like ads spending $50+ with no return), act fast. Use Meta’s Automated Rules, or go cross-platform with Optmyzr’s Rule Engine.

Let’s say you notice an ad that’s spent over $50 but hasn’t brought in a single conversion. You don’t want to keep checking that manually. With a rule like “If Spend > $50 AND Conversions = 0, then pause the ad”, you can automate that response. Learning how to pause low-performing social ads automatically saves your budget from being wasted.

3. Fix campaign setup.

Sometimes it’s not the ad—it’s the setup that needs a closer look. If you’re seeing high clicks or views but no conversions, the journey might be broken. Think: landing page issues, form friction, tracking gaps, or even ad fatigue in your Instagram campaigns.

In Meta, try switching your goal from conversions to link clicks, especially if your campaigns aren’t hitting the 50 conversions per week benchmark. It keeps the algorithm learning without stalling.

For LinkedIn, switching from Lead Gen to Website Visits can help you reach more people with less friction, especially if your forms aren’t converting.

And don’t overlook disapproved ads; they can quietly kill performance. Tools like Optmyzr can flag these for you automatically, so you stay ahead without micromanaging.

Scale Paid Social campaigns without losing ROI

1. Scale the budget gradually.

Scaling isn’t about dumping more budget; it’s about doing it smart.

In Meta, for instance, raising your budget by 10-20% at a time lets the system adapt without resetting the learning phase. On LinkedIn, lifetime budgets plus daily caps help you scale at a steady pace.

You can automate that pacing logic in Optmyzr. If one of your campaigns has consistently performed well over the last 7 days, build a rule to increase the budget incrementally. And if things start trending the other way? The system can just as easily bring the spend back down. That way, you’re scaling paid social campaigns without guesswork.

2. Expand reach with lookalikes that convert.

When your current audiences start to plateau, it’s time to expand. Meta’s Lookalike audiences or LinkedIn’s Audience Expansion can help you reach new people who mirror your top converters. It’s a great way to extend your reach without straying too far from what already works.

Audience-level performance data isn’t directly reported, but you can analyze trends at the ad set level to uncover which segments are truly delivering. Use those insights to inform your next targeting moves.

If you’ve got first-party data, like site visitors, lead form entries, or app users, you can use it to create custom audiences right inside Optmyzr. From there, build your lookalikes in Meta with a stronger foundation, grounded in your real results.

3. Refresh creatives and test combinations.

When it comes to creatives, don’t wait until an ad stops working. If you’re noticing that results are starting to dip, even slightly, it’s a good time to test something new. Maybe it’s the same image people have seen for weeks, or a headline that no longer hits as hard.

Meta lets you run A/B tests through Experiments. On LinkedIn, it’s a bit more manual, but still doable—duplicate your top ads and try variations of headlines, visuals, or even CTAs.

Optmyzr’s Ad Analyzer can flag which ads are spending the most without delivering returns. That gives you a clear starting point for which creatives might need refreshing, without any guesswork.

“I think it’s pretty cool that you can see the demographics (like how many impressions are coming from men or women), because it’s not too easy to find out in the Business Manager. It’s also cool that you can set up alerts. I also liked the “Ad Analyzer”; it’s very helpful to see which ads are spending a lot of money, and decide which ads we want to pause.” - Anna P., Junior Online Marketing Manager, Elephant Digital

Best practices to optimize social media ads for long-term ROI

1. Fix infrastructure first.

A lot of wasted ad spend comes from skipping the basics. You could have great targeting, strong creatives, and even decent engagement, but if your landing page takes too long to load or your tracking setup is broken, you’re essentially driving people into a dead end.

Take a step back and make sure your foundation is solid. That means checking if your landing pages are mobile-friendly and fast, your Facebook Pixel or LinkedIn Insight Tag is tracking accurately, and your ads match up with what users find when they click through. Meta’s Events Manager and LinkedIn’s Insight Tag tools can help you spot these gaps before they eat up your budget silently.

2. Don’t micromanage the algorithm.

Once your campaigns are up and running, it can be tempting to keep tweaking budgets, targeting, or creatives, every time you see a small dip. But often, constant changes do more harm than good, especially on Meta, as it can reset the learning phase and make it harder for the algorithm to stabilize.

Instead, give your campaigns time to breathe. Let automation handle the routine stuff: budget adjustments, low-performing ad pauses, pacing, and CPM/CTR checks. That way, you can shift your focus to what really matters—your strategy, your messaging, and finding new angles that resonate with your audience.

3. Get help when scaling gets tricky.

If scaling starts to feel like too much, you don’t have to handle it solo. While native platforms like Meta Ads Manager and LinkedIn Campaign Manager offer some valuable tools, they each live in their own silo. Trying to bring all that data together manually, while keeping up with performance issues and planning your next move, can get overwhelming fast.

That’s where a third-party tool like Optmyzr for Social can help. It centralizes managing your Meta and LinkedIn campaigns, automates key checks, and flags issues before they spiral. And if something’s off, a quick audit can reveal what’s wrong, saving you time and money.

Smarter Paid Social growth starts with proactive optimization

Paid Social doesn’t have to be a constant scramble. When your setup works for you, it becomes much easier to grow sustainably and improve ROI.

The trick is a solid social media advertising strategy: knowing when to catch problems, how to fix them efficiently, and what to scale with confidence.

Start your 14-day free trial of Optmyzr for Social today, with no limits on ad accounts. Get the visibility and control you’ve been missing—without the manual grind.

Introductory pricing starts at just $99/month after the trial.

Frequently asked questions by Paid Social advertisers

1. When should I start scaling Facebook ads?

If your campaigns are delivering consistent results (typically 50 conversions per week), or your ROI has been stable over the past 7-10 days, it’s a good time to consider scaling. These indicators show that the algorithm has learned enough, and your setup is performing predictably.

2. How long should I run Facebook ads before I get conversions?

Usually within 3-7 days, assuming your tracking is correctly set up and your audience size and budget align with your goals. If you’re not seeing results in that window, check that your pixel is firing correctly and that your landing pages are aligned with your ad message.

3. Can I automate pausing bad ads in Meta or LinkedIn?

Yes. Meta allows you to create Automated Rules to pause ads based on specific metrics like CPA, CTR, or conversions. LinkedIn doesn’t support this natively, but with a tool like Optmyzr, you can apply automation across platforms, ensuring bad ads don’t drain budget unnoticed.

4. Which tools help manage Facebook and LinkedIn Ads together?

Several tools help manage social ads across platforms, like Madgicx, AdEspresso, AdRoll, Smartly.io, and Semrush. Each brings its own strengths, from automation to creative testing.

If you’re looking for something flexible and easy to manage, Optmyzr for Social stands out. It brings your Meta and LinkedIn campaigns into one dashboard, helps you stay on top of performance, and lets you automate smart, cross-platform actions without the usual hassle.

Why Most Amazon PPC Campaigns Fail (And How to Structure Yours Right)

Without the right campaign structure, your Amazon ads are flying blind. It becomes difficult to know what’s working well and how efficiently your budget is being spent. Whether it’s lumping too many keywords together or blending match types, small missteps can snowball into inefficiency.

In this blog, we’ll explore how to structure your campaigns for maximum ROI, common mistakes to avoid, and practical tips to control performance and spend.

Why a proper campaign structure is important to drive ROI

A proper campaign structure is key to profitably scaling your ads in a competitive marketplace. Segmenting your campaigns by product lines, match types, and keyword intent gives you complete visibility into what’s working and what’s not. It’s about setting your campaigns up for long-term success.

Having a good campaign structure also helps you:

• Identify top-performing segments easily and allocate budgets efficiently
• Track the performance of your Amazon ads with clear insights into ACoS, ROAS, and TACoS by group
• Adjust bids, scale winners, or pause underperforming campaigns
• Set smarter based on how likely a keyword or audience is to convert
• Optimize product listings more effectively for targeting and ad relevance, so your ads show up in the right searches and convert better

Common mistakes when structuring Amazon campaigns

• Mixing high/low performers (products or keywords) in one campaign: High performers can eat up the budget and mask low performers, giving limited visibility into what’s actually working.
• Overstuffing ad groups with too many SKUs: Grouping too many SKUs in one ad group can dilute impressions. With limited data per SKU, Amazon’s algorithm may struggle to identify and prioritize top-performing products.
• Blending match types in a single ad group: Each match type behaves differently, and blending them makes it harder to know which search terms are coming from which match type, making it tough to optimize bids or add negatives properly.
• Misusing single keyword campaigns (SKAGs) without reason: Although you get more precise control with SKAGs, overusing them without proper intent simply bloats your account structure and makes it difficult to scale.
• Vague naming: If your campaigns, ad groups, or products are not named correctly, reporting becomes very confusing because you lose track of what each campaign is supposed to do.

How to structure Sponsored Product campaigns

Here are a few things to keep in mind when structuring Sponsored Product campaigns.

1. Naming conventions

• Use consistent, easy-to-understand, and descriptive names. You should be able to easily identify the product, campaign type, and targeting strategy.
• Include product/ASIN, campaign type, match type, objectives, and bid adjustments if needed.
• Use delimiters to separate elements.

Your naming structure should look like:

[Product Name]_[ASIN]_[Campaign Type]_[Targeting Type]_[Objective]_[Bid Adjustment]

2. Match type segmentation

Create separate campaigns for different match types for better performance insights, bidding, and budget allocation.

How to implement match type segmentation for your campaigns:

• Pick your keyword or product category. Let’s take Running Shoes.
• Create three different campaigns for each match type
  • Campaign 1: “Running Shoes – Broad”
  • Campaign 2: “Running Shoes – Phrase”
  • Campaign 3: “Running Shoes – Exact”
• Add the same keyword to each campaign, but use the correct match type in each.
  • Broad match: running shoes
  • Phrase match: “running shoes”
  • Exact match: [running shoes]
• Set different bids as needed. For instance, since exact match type is more targeted, it can get a higher bid.

Why this helps:

• You can easily identify which match type works best.
• You get better budget control.
• No overlap between your own keywords.

3. Keyword grouping

Structure campaigns or ad groups so that similar types of keywords are grouped together. You can segment by:

Brand vs Non-brand:

• Separate your keywords that include your brand name (e.g. nike running shoes) from generic terms (e.g. men’s running shoes) since brand terms usually have higher conversion rates.
• Use negative keywords to clearly separate them. For example, you can add your brand as a negative keyword in non-brand campaigns.

High vs Mid intent:

• High-intent keywords signal strong purchase intent, while mid-intent terms come from shoppers still in the consideration phase.
• Compare high-intent vs mid-intent groups on metrics like spend, CTR, ACoS, and ROAS.
• If high-intent terms perform well, increase bids or budget, and expand with similar keywords.
• If mid-intent terms underperform, add negatives, refine copy, or use ASIN targeting to reach more relevant product pages.

Top keywords vs long-tail

• Top keywords are individual words, phrases, or product categories customers use to search for products.
• Long-tail keywords are specific, detailed, lower-volume terms, e.g., “trail running shoes for flat feet”.
• Top keywords give you reach and data, making it important for long-term growth and visibility. Group them into dedicated campaigns with sufficient daily budgets so your highest-impact terms stay active all day.
• Putting long-tail keywords in a separate campaign helps improve ad relevance and uncover ‘hidden gem’ search terms. Since these keywords are detailed but flexible, they trigger related searches. Reviewing your search term report then reveals specific, high-converting terms with low ACoS you might have otherwise missed.

4. ASIN grouping

• Putting too many SKUs in a single ad group may lead them to compete, and your top performers might not get enough visibility. Plus, it becomes harder to adjust bids based on margins or conversion rates of different SKUs.
• If you want to reduce wasted spend, get more actionable data, and set more accurate bids, it’s better to group your SKUs by:
  • Similar price points or margins
  • Product lifecycle (e.g., launch, mature)
  • Performance tier (e.g., hero products vs. support products)

5. Auto campaigns

Auto campaigns can be used as a keyword discovery tool. They allow Amazon’s algorithm to automatically target search queries that are likely to result in conversions.

• Run auto campaigns for a few weeks to get insights into high-performing, high-intent keywords that Amazon finds relevant for your products.
• Once you have a list of such terms, move the top 20% of terms with high conversion rates into manual campaigns for better bidding and targeting control.
• Don’t forget to add negative keywords to auto campaigns to prevent keyword cannibalization and wasted spend.

Also Read: How Optmyzr Users Automate Amazon PPC

Use portfolios for better control

Think of a portfolio as a folder that contains a specific set of campaigns with a shared objective. It brings order and control to your Amazon ads strategy, especially when campaigns scale. It helps you set shared budgets, create reports by portfolio, and track performance at a higher level.

When using portfolios, you can group campaigns by:

• Product line (e.g., skincare, supplements)
• Funnel stage (e.g., brand awareness vs. conversion)
• Ad type (Sponsored Products, Display, Brands)

How to structure other ad types

Here’s a quick overview of how you can structure other ad types in Amazon.

1. Sponsored Brands

• Use Case: Branded keyword coverage, top-of-search visibility
• Structure Tip: Segment campaigns by keyword themes (e.g., branded vs category), and tailor creative by product group or landing page type (Storefront vs Product Collection).

2. Sponsored Display

• Use Case: Retargeting, competitor conquesting, category targeting
• Structure Tip: Separate campaigns by audience type (views, interests, product targeting), and group ASINs by pricing tier or conversion data.

3. Sponsored TV

• Use Case: High-impact, upper-funnel brand awareness
• Structure Tip: Structure around audience personas or lifestyle segments; creative variations should match each segment’s interests and behaviors.

Bidding strategies for profitability

Using the right bidding strategies is key for profitability when advertising on Amazon.

You can start by setting your initial bids based on keyword intent and competition.

• High-intent keywords are likely to get higher conversions, so it makes sense to set higher bids for them.
• On the other hand, it’s better to be cautious when bidding for upper-funnel or broader terms because they are less likely to result in conversions.

Next, you can choose your bidding strategy based on the level of control you need and your goals.

• Fixed bids give you greater control and may be better for testing or when you have a limited budget.
• Dynamic (up/down) bidding allows Amazon’s algorithm to raise or lower bids based on the likelihood of conversions. It can be efficient when optimized correctly.

That’s where ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) comes in. It tells you how much you’re spending on ads to generate each dollar of revenue. A lower ACoS means more profitable conversions, while a high ACoS may signal wasted spend. Simply put, it’s not just about whether a keyword converts. It’s about whether it converts efficiently.

To act on this, tools like Optmyzr’s Bid Adjustment Optimization let you automatically increase bids for keywords that are performing below your target ACoS (cost-effective), and decrease bids for those above it (inefficient). This removes the guesswork from bid management and ensures your budget is focused on the terms that actually contribute to profitability.

{{< figure src="/forestry/change-bids-based-on-acos-amazon-ads-in-optmyzr.webp" alt=“Change bids based on ACoS - Amazon Ads in Optmyzr” >}}

Bid optimization tips

• For better ROI, make small, incremental changes to your bids (between 5-10%) to test performance over time
• Monitor key indicators like CTR, CPC, ROAS, and TACoS weekly to see whether your bids are delivering expected results. You can easily set up KPI and budget alerts to get notified these metrics shift—so you can act fast or roll back changes.
• Use search term reports to identify irrelevant keywords or high-converting search queries

Take control of your Amazon ads with better structure and smarter tools.

Implementing a proper campaign structure for your Amazon ads ensures you have clear control over your budgets, bids, and performance.

A key part of this is consistently auditing and refining your campaigns so you can accurately identify what’s working and what needs improvement. Optmyzr’s powerful tools streamline these processes by automating bid adjustments, running in-depth audits, and providing actionable insights.

Sign up for Optmyzr’s free 14-day trial and explore how you can optimize your Amazon PPC campaigns for better ROI.

How Optmyzr Users Automate Amazon PPC: Real Strategies from Real Advertisers

Analyzing, monitoring, optimizing, and then reporting - this sounds like four full-time jobs rolled into one when managing an Amazon Ads account. Multiply that effort across multiple accounts, and it becomes overwhelming fast.

Worse yet, most advertisers find themselves stuck in reactive mode, spotting issues only after wasting valuable dollars or missing optimization opportunities.

That’s where Optmyzr’s Rule Engine for Amazon PPC automation comes in. Our customers are using this powerful tool to automate repetitive tasks across campaigns, search terms, placements, keywords, ASINs, and more — saving time and boosting performance.

What you’ll learn in this blog

• Real strategies advertisers use to improve Amazon Ads performance with less effort
• How to automate keyword, ASIN, audience, and placement bid optimizations using rules
• Ways to reduce wasted spend and scale what works — without giving up control

Note: All thresholds and conditions mentioned in the strategies below are placeholders. They are not recommendations from Optmyzr but serve as starting points that you should customize based on your business goals and campaign performance.

What is the Rule Engine?

Rule Engine is a powerful feature within Optmyzr that lets you build optimization strategies using simple “If this, then that” logic. Think of it as your hands-free PPC assistant that identifies trends, optimizes bids, and flags anomalies so you can focus on strategy.

For example, you could tell it: “If a keyword has more than 20 conversions but sales have dropped in the past 14 days, increase its bid by 5%.” And just like that, it’ll do the work for you — either on a schedule or when you choose to apply it.

You can choose how often the rule runs — daily, weekly, or monthly. And you stay in control: you can preview the changes before they’re made or let the system run them automatically.

Amazon has its own built-in automation tools, but they can feel rigid, limited, and hard to trust. You don’t get much control, and customization is minimal.

With Optmyzr, it’s easier. You can build your own rules, use external data like spreadsheets or CRMs, and make changes across your accounts — all from one place.

You decide what happens and when.

With Rule Engine, you can:

• Get alerts for performance changes
• Build custom reports for Amazon Ads optimization
• Automatically increase or decrease bids
• Add high-performing search terms as keywords
• Pause underperforming ASINs or ads
• Work across scopes like campaign, ad group, placement, product target, and more
• Integrate external data to drive decisions

Growth-driven Amazon PPC automation: Boost what works

1. Report of trending search queries

Scope: Ad Group Search Term

This rule helps you find search terms that are gaining popularity week over week. For example, if a query had 100 impressions last week and now has 200, that’s a trend worth noticing.

You can also layer in performance filters like Orders > X, Ad Sales > Y, and ROAS > 200 to narrow it down to terms that are not only trending but also driving sales.

Why do this: Understanding which search terms are becoming more popular helps you know what your shoppers are searching for right now. You can then optimize your ads, keywords, and even product listings to match what they’re looking for.

2. Increase bids for high-converting keywords

Scope: Target → Keyword

Create a rule that looks for keywords that used to perform really well (say, more than 10 conversions in the last 90 days) but haven’t made many sales recently. Then, the rule increases the bid slightly to give that keyword a better chance to show again.

There’s also a reverse version of this strategy: decrease bids on keywords that have a high ACoS (they’re costing you more than they earn) and haven’t converted in a while.

Why do this: This strategy helps you give a gentle push to good keywords that might be losing visibility, and at the same time, avoid wasting money on poor performers.

3. Increase bids for high-converting audience targets

Scope: Target → Audience

Just like with keywords, you can apply the same logic to audience targeting, especially for Sponsored Display campaigns. If certain audiences are converting well, you can increase your bids to reach them more effectively.

Why do this: This ensures that your best-performing audience segments are getting the attention (and budget) they deserve. You don’t want to miss out on people who are most likely to buy.

4. Add converting ASIN search terms as product targets

Scope: Ad Group Search Term

Some search terms include ASINs, which means someone searched for a specific product. If your ad showed up and led to a conversion, you may want to target that ASIN directly.

Create a rule to find these ASIN search terms with good performance (maybe high ROAS or conversions), and add them as product targets.

Why do this: If a specific ASIN search is already converting, it’s smart to create a direct product targeting ad for it. You’re basically doubling down on what’s already working.

Waste-reducing Amazon PPC strategies: Pause what’s not performing

5. Pause non-converting ASINs

Scopes: Ad Group and ASIN

Let’s say you’ve structured your campaigns so that each ASIN has its own ad group. In that case, you can use the Ad Group scope to create a rule that directly pauses the entire ad group when the ASIN it represents isn’t performing well.

If your campaign structure is broader (where multiple ASINs exist within one ad group), use the ASIN scope to generate a report of individual ASINs that are underperforming. This lets you take action manually or explore restructuring if needed.

Why do this: If a product isn’t converting, there’s no point in continuing to spend on it, especially when budgets are limited. This helps you cut waste and focus on products that are bringing in sales.

6. Find incomplete or paused ads

Scope: Ads

Sometimes ads stop running due to issues like budget caps or Amazon policy review. This rule helps you spot those issues before they cost you days of lost visibility.

Set a condition like: If serving status is “Out of Budget”, “Incomplete”, “Paused”, etc. → Include in Report.

Why do this: You don’t want to miss out on traffic just because of a setup issue. This keeps your ads running smoothly.

Precision targeting: Smarter keyword lists & placement bidding

7. Add keywords based on text matches in search terms

Scope: Ad Group Search Term

Let’s say you want to add keywords that contain your brand name or competitor names. You can write a rule that checks for those words in customer search terms and adds them as keywords.

You can also link a spreadsheet with the list of words you want to match and reference it using “External List Data.”

Why do this: This makes your keyword strategy much more flexible and easy to update, especially if you work across multiple brands or categories.

8. Add high-performing search terms as keywords

Scope: Ad Group Search Term

Use this rule to convert successful search terms (those that brought in sales or had great ROAS) into actual keywords. You can use the pre-built strategy, “Add New Keywords“, to get started.

Why do this: High-performing search terms deserve to be tracked and optimized as exact-match keywords. It gives you more control over bidding and performance.

9. Increase bids for ‘Rest of Search’ placement

Scope: Campaign Placement

Not all ad placements are equal. While top-of-search is often seen as the premium spot, the “Rest of Search” can also bring great results at lower costs. You can set a rule to monitor its performance (in terms of sales, clicks, conversions, etc.) and increase bids if it’s doing well.

Why do this: This helps you make the most of every placement opportunity — even the ones other advertisers often ignore.

Start automating Amazon PPC with Optmyzr

You now have nine practical Amazon PPC automation strategies used by actual advertisers that you can try in your own accounts. From bid and keyword optimization to placement targeting, each strategy is designed to reduce manual effort while keeping your performance in check.

In fact, here’s what one customer, Matthieu Tran-Van, had to say:

“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.”

And the best part? You don’t need to build them from scratch. You can start with our pre-built templates, like:

• Expensive Search Queries
• Bid to Target ACoS
• Find Campaigns Limited by Budget

Try them out, tweak the conditions, and set them on automation.

If you’re not an Optmyzr customer yet, start a 14-day free trial and test these strategies in your own account. If you need help, our support team is always available to walk you through the setup.

People also ask

1. What is Optmyzr’s Rule Engine, and how does it help with Amazon Ads?

It’s a tool that helps you build custom rules for managing your Amazon Ads, without needing to write any code. You tell it what to look for and what to do when those conditions are met.

2. Will the Rule Engine make changes automatically without me knowing?

No. The Rule Engine will never make changes to your Amazon Ads account without your explicit approval. By default, all strategies show a preview of suggested changes before anything is applied. You can also configure it to only send notifications, even if automated. Automatic changes only happen if and when you turn it on deliberately.

3. How is this better than Amazon’s built-in automation?

Optmyzr offers more control, custom rules, and the ability to use external data sources. Plus, it works across accounts and has built-in reporting and alerting.

4. Do I need to be technical to set this up?

Not at all. If you know what you want to optimize, the tool helps you build the rule logic step-by-step. Pre-built templates are also available to get you started faster.

How to Optimize Your Amazon Listings to Boost Ad Performance

Many advertisers invest significant time and effort into setting up Amazon ads, refining targeting, and monitoring performance metrics. Despite this, conversions can remain frustratingly low.

Often, the missing piece isn’t the ad strategy itself, but the product listings. While it’s easy to focus on ad optimization, the quality of a product listing plays a critical role in turning ad clicks into actual sales.

Elements like titles, images, bullet points, and A+ content might seem like minor details, but they directly influence click-through rates, relevance scores, and ultimately, conversions.

This article explores why listing quality deserves as much attention as advertising strategy and how strengthening it can drive better performance and more sales.

What you’ll learn in this guide:

• The connection between product listing quality and Amazon Ads performance
• How to craft better product titles, bullet points, and descriptions
• Why keyword research matters (and how to do it effectively)
• How to use A+ Content and images to boost conversion rates
• Tips for syncing listing optimization with campaign structure
• Common pitfalls to avoid (and how to fix them)
• Tools that can help speed up and scale your optimization efforts

The connection between listing quality and ad performance

Amazon’s algorithm evaluates both organic and paid placements as part of the same system.

This means the quality of the product listing affects not just organic search rankings, but also ad placement, CPCs, and ROAS.

Amazon uses a Product Listing Quality Score (PLQS) to rate your listing’s clarity, completeness, and relevance. It’s based on two things:

1. How well listings are optimized
2. How often shoppers view them

Better scores correlate to better visibility of paid and organic results.

Source

How listing elements impact different advertising metrics

Main Image → Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Your main image drives clicks. If it’s blurry, cluttered, or doesn’t stand out, shoppers scroll past. That means you’re paying for impressions that don’t convert to visits.

Gallery Images, Bullets, A+ Content → Conversion Rate

Once shoppers land on your page, your gallery, bullet points, and A+ content need to close the sale. Weak visuals or vague info lead to hesitation and lost conversions (even if your ad targeting was perfect).

Keywords → Relevance Scores

Keywords in your title, bullets, and backend fields help Amazon match your product with the right searches. Stuffing keywords won’t help; relevance and intent alignment matter more.

Where bad listings drain your budget

The account might be bidding and targeting efficiently, but poor listings can still burn through ad spend. Here’s where most sellers lose money without realizing it:

• Paying for clicks that bounce: Even well-placed ads can fail if shoppers land on a confusing or underwhelming product page. Each bounce is a paid visit that goes nowhere
• Attracting the wrong audience: When listings lack precision, especially in keyword usage and messaging, you end up drawing clicks from people who were never a good fit
• Missing chances to build trust: If a brand is enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry but isn’t using Enhanced Brand Content (A+ Content), it’s missing out on the opportunity to add rich visuals, comparison charts, and detailed product storytelling to its listings. This extra content helps differentiate the brand, reduces purchase hesitation, and ultimately boosts conversions
• Lower future ad efficiency: Poor engagement metrics (like bounce rate and low conversion) signal to Amazon that listings underperform, which can increase CPCs over time

Start with competitor analysis

Even if your ads are already running, revisiting your competitors’ listings and ad strategies can highlight gaps in your own.

It’s especially useful if you’re seeing high click volume but poor conversions, signs that your competitors may be doing a better job aligning their listings with search intent.

1. Search top keywords on Amazon

Think like your customer. What exact phrases would they type to find your product? This is your opportunity to see who ranks organically and who’s actively paying for ads.

Note the brand names, keywords they used, and the overall presentation of their main images.

For example, a brand launching a 32L carry-on travel backpack would want to search for terms like ‘32L travel backpack’ or ‘carry-on travel backpack’ on Amazon.

Dive into both organic and sponsored listings to gather insights:

• Top organic results: Established brands like Nomatic, Samsonite, or Venture Pal may often be seen leading the way.

• Top ad results: The Sponsored Product spots may feature newer or lesser-known brands trying to secure the top positions.

2. Check “Customers also viewed” & “Compare with similar items”

Scroll down and check the “Customers Also Viewed” and “Compare with Similar Items” sections.

These sections show what else customers are seriously considering — they’re a shortcut to understanding their decision-making.

For the backpack, competitors like Osprey, Thule, or private-label sellers may appear.

Pay attention to highlighted features like expandable compartments, anti-theft zippers, or USB charging ports; these are likely important to the target audience.

3. See who’s bidding on your keywords

Pay attention to the sponsored ads for your keywords. These are the brands actively paying to get in front of your audience.

Are big brands defending their turf, or are new players trying to break in?

Also, observe how frequently brands appear. Daily visibility may mean solid budget backing. In-and-out appearances might suggest testing or limited spend.

4. Analyze their product listings

Now, dig into the nitty-gritty of competitors’ product pages. Start with their titles. Are they packing in high-ranking keywords like “airline-approved,” “water-resistant,” or “weekender”?

Titles are prime real estate. Make sure yours is packed with the right high-intent terms.

Next, check out their bullet points and descriptions. How do they position the benefits of their products? Are they focusing on comfort, durability, or something else?

This gives you a sense of what their audience values. Additionally, see if they are using A+ content for better visibility.

Check the type of visuals they are using as well. Are they using lifestyle shots (someone at an airport, packing for a trip) or sticking to white-background product photos?

Lastly, don’t skip the reviews. They give you a window into customer priorities, praise, and complaints

5. Monitor their ad activity over time

One search isn’t enough. Revisit your top competitors’ listings regularly (e.g., every few days for 2–3 weeks).

Track how frequently their ads show up and how their placements change. This helps you spot trends:

• Are brands investing long-term?
• Are they testing new creatives?
• Is seasonality playing a role?

Tracking this over time will help you get a sense of who’s really investing and who’s just dipping their toes in the water.

6. Study their video ads (if any)

If your competitors are running video ads, take a close look at them.

Video is a huge opportunity to connect with your audience, so pay attention to the style and pacing. Are they showcasing the product’s features, or are they telling a story?

Clear calls-to-action and real-life visuals usually do the heavy lifting. Think about how you could use these elements to position your product in a way that resonates.

7. Estimate their budget and ACoS

You can’t see your competitors’ exact ad spend, but you can make some pretty solid guesses based on how often their ads show up and what keywords they’re bidding on.

Start by checking the price point of their product. If they’re running lots of ads for a $30 item, their ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) needs to stay fairly low to stay profitable, which might mean they’re optimizing hard or have strong conversion rates.

If a brand keeps appearing for expensive keywords like “carry-on travel backpack” every time you search, chances are they’ve got a healthy budget or they’re laser-focused on dominating that niche.

Over time, tracking how often they show up can give you a decent estimate of who’s really investing in ads (and who might be easier to outbid).

8. Organize your findings in a spreadsheet

All these insights are only helpful if you can keep track of them. Create a simple spreadsheet to compare competitors side-by-side. Here’s what to include:

• Competitor names and ASINs: So you can quickly revisit their listings and track changes over time
• Key products and price points: What are their best-selling or most visible items? How are they priced compared to yours?
• Primary keywords they target: Which search terms consistently trigger their ads or organic placements?
• Unique selling propositions (USPs): What do they emphasize: durability, style, features, eco-friendliness?
• Ad types they use most: Are they relying on Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, or video ads?
• Estimated ad spend: Based on frequency of ads and keyword competition (You won’t get exact numbers, but rough guesses help.)
• Strengths and weaknesses: Where do they shine, and where could you do better? Maybe they have great lifestyle images, but weak bullet points

9. Tips for putting your research into action

Now that you’ve done the research, here’s how to turn it into action:

1. Test before you go all-in: If you spot something clever in a competitor’s ad strategy, don’t blindly copy it. Run a small campaign to see if it actually works for your product and audience.
2. Look for gaps they’re missing: Sometimes the best opportunities are where others aren’t looking. Find keywords that still get searches but don’t have a lot of competition and claim that space.
3. Lean into what makes your product better: Don’t just blend in. If you offer something competitors don’t (better warranty, more durable material, simpler design), make it loud and clear in your ads and listings.
4. Be strategic with your bids: You don’t need to outspend everyone. Just make sure you’re bidding smart on the keywords that matter most for your conversions.
5. Use their weak spots to your advantage: If other listings are vague or missing reviews, make your copy sharp and specific. Highlight trust signals like customer testimonials, guarantees, or certifications.
6. Stay flexible with your budget: If big brands are flooding the space, you may need to invest more to compete or get creative and focus on angles they’re ignoring.

Optimizing titles

Your product title is one of the most important elements Amazon uses to rank and display your listing. It’s also one of the first things shoppers see, so it needs to be both keyword-rich and customer-friendly.

Each category has specific title length limits (typically around 200 characters including spaces, but some are lower). Yet, it’s recommended to keep your title under 80 characters.

Here are some more guidelines to optimize your titles:

• Place your primary and most relevant keywords at the beginning of the title
• Avoid creating keyword fluff by repeating primary keywords or their synonyms
• Use numerals instead of spelling out numbers (e.g., pack of 2)
• Avoid adding subjective commentary like bestseller, customer favorite, hot selling, etc.
• Add information related to size and color variants in the child ASIN (not the product ASIN)

For example, here’s a title that breaks all of these rules:

• It repeats similar phrases like “Food Storage Container,” “Food Keeper,” and “Storage Solution”
• It includes hype words like “Bestselling,” “Hot Selling,” and “Must-Have”
• It spells out the number “Three” instead of using “3”
• It mentions “Clear Color,” which should only appear in the child ASIN
• The primary keyword isn’t placed at the front

A better version that follows all the guidelines would be:

• The keyword is placed at the beginning
• No repetition or unnecessary synonyms
• Numerals are used
• No subjective terms
• Variant info, like color, is left for the child ASIN

How to find the right keywords for your titles

Before you even write your title, you need to know which keywords your customers are actually using and, just as importantly, which ones to avoid.

A good starting point is to:

• Look at top-ranking listings for your main product terms and note the keyword patterns they use
• Use tools like Amazon’s Search Term Report (via Sponsored Products) to see what queries are already bringing traffic
• Explore autocomplete suggestions in the Amazon search bar to see real-time popular phrases
• Pay attention to reviews and competitor A+ content to catch recurring language customers use organically

Using bullet points

Bullet points do more than just list out features; they work in two key ways.

First, they help shoppers quickly see what your product offers, which can lead to more sales.

Second, bullet points give you a natural place to work in relevant keywords. When written well, they improve your visibility without feeling forced.

So they’re not just helpful for people, they’re helpful for algorithms too.

To make the most of your bullet points, follow this structure for high-converting results:

• Keep formatting and length consistent: When your bullets are roughly the same length and follow a consistent format, shoppers are more likely to read through them instead of skipping.
• Use all available bullet points: Amazon gives sellers 5 and vendors 10 bullets. Each bullet is an opportunity to add value, address concerns, or highlight use cases that resonate with different types of buyers.
• Lead with benefits, follow with features: Think like a shopper. Instead of saying, “Made with stainless steel,” say, “Rust-resistant and built to last- made with durable stainless steel.” The benefit captures attention; the feature supports it.
• Avoid keyword repetition: Repeating the same phrases wastes space and doesn’t help with ranking. Instead, spread out your keyword targeting by using related terms and phrases across different bullets.

Image optimization

Your product images aren’t just decorative, they directly impact how many people click on your listing in search results and ads.

The critical role of the main image in ad CTR

The main image is the first thing shoppers see when your product appears in search results or Sponsored Product ads. It’s what gets them to slow down, take notice, and click.

A compelling, high-quality main image can significantly improve your click-through rate (CTR), which in turn feeds into your ad performance and organic rankings.

If your image is unclear, too zoomed out, or doesn’t stand out visually, your listing is more likely to be ignored (even if your product is great).

What makes an effective main image?

If you’re wondering whether your main image is doing its job, ask yourself these questions:

👉Is the background pure white?
Amazon requires a true white background (#FFFFFF) to keep listings clean and consistent. This also helps your product stand out in search results.

👉Does the product fill the frame correctly?
Aim for about 85% of the frame; big enough to show detail, but not so large that it gets cropped or looks awkward. Is your product too small or too zoomed in?

👉Are the colors and contrast accurate?
Good lighting should bring out the product’s true color and texture. Is the product clearly visible, or do shadows and low contrast make it look dull?

👉Is there anything extra in the image?
The main image should be clean; no text, logos, badges, or extra props. Those elements can go in your secondary images, where you have more creative flexibility.

Gallery images best practices

Your main image grabs attention, but gallery images help seal the deal. They give shoppers a deeper look at what your product can do and how it fits into their lives.

Here are some simple tips to make your gallery images work harder👇

• Lifestyle images showing use cases: People want to see how your product fits into their daily life. Instead of just showing the product on its own, show it being used in real situations.

  For example, say someone searches for “waterproof earbuds for swimming.” To resonate deeply with the researcher, here’s an image that will work:

Source

• Infographics for key features: Sometimes, words can’t do the product justice. Infographics are great for highlighting standout features quickly and clearly. You can use them to explain things like durability, functionality, or what makes your product unique.
• Size/dimension references: Size is one of the biggest questions shoppers have. A simple image showing your product next to a common item (like a coffee cup or a piece of furniture) or with clear dimensions helps them understand exactly what they’re buying.
• Before/after demonstrations: If your product promises results, like a cleaning product or a beauty tool, before-and-after shots are incredibly powerful. It’s one of the best ways to prove your product works and build trust with potential buyers.
• Text overlays with consistent branding: Gallery images are a great place to add text overlays, but keep them minimal and consistent. Whether it’s highlighting a special feature or reinforcing your brand, make sure your text style and tone match the rest of your listing.

A+ Content

A+ Content goes beyond the basics to tell your product or brand story in a more engaging, visual way.

High-quality visuals and clean layouts grab attention faster than plain text.

You can proactively address common customer concerns and questions through dedicated modules within your A+ content.

Why A+ content sells

Here’s how A+ Content helps you sell more:

• It grabs attention: Bold visuals and clean design stand out more than plain text and keep shoppers engaged.
• It explains your product better: Highlight key features and help shoppers understand how your product solves a problem or fits into their lives.
• It builds trust: Professional, polished content gives your brand credibility and shoppers the confidence to make a purchase.
• It answers common questions: Use your A+ modules to proactively address common hesitations and reduce drop-off.
• It looks great on mobile: A+ Content is built to work on small screens, too, which is important for shoppers browsing and buying through mobile devices
• It tells your story: Don’t just list features; tell people why your brand exists, what makes you different, and why they should choose you.

What makes A+ content really work?

If you want your A+ Content to truly drive conversions, keep these pointers in mind:

👉Stick to a clean, consistent look. Match your brand’s colors, fonts, and tone. Keep the design simple and easy to follow. You don’t want a cluttered layout getting in the way of your message.

👉Use comparison charts. If you have similar products or different models, a side-by-side chart helps shoppers quickly spot the differences. It makes decisions easier and quicker.

👉Add lifestyle photos. Show your product in action. Whether it’s a kitchen gadget in a real kitchen or a beauty product in a daily routine, these images help people picture themselves using it.

👉Highlight real problems (and how you solve them). Think about what pain points your product solves. Show the “before and after.” Make it obvious how your product makes life easier or better.

👉Include subtle social proof. While you can’t repost customer reviews, you can mention awards, recognition, or even use callouts like “trusted by thousands” (as long as it’s true and within Amazon’s guidelines). It helps reassure new buyers that they’re making a smart choice.

Monitoring and optimization

Listings need consistent oversight to maintain strong performance. Here’s how to build a reliable system for monitoring and improving them:

Track changes and their impact

Document all listing updates, including titles, images, descriptions, keywords, and monitor the effect on performance metrics like impressions, clicks, CTR, and conversions.

Run regular audits

You don’t want to wait until something’s broken to look for issues. Set aside time every couple of weeks to run a full audit of your account.

This will help you catch underperforming campaigns or missed opportunities before they add up.

Optmyzr offers a solid set of Amazon audits you can use to dig deep. These audits cover everything from:

• Campaign performance: Are any of your campaigns running below target ROAS, or not spending their full daily budget?
• Ad groups: Check for ad groups that have too many keywords or not enough, so you can optimize targeting.
• Keywords: Identify expensive keywords that aren’t converting, or low-CTR terms that might need tweaking.
• Products: Get visibility into ASINs that aren’t showing up in campaigns or performing poorly.
• Placements and audiences: See which placements and audience targeting are driving the most engagement and conversions.

Running these audits regularly helps you make sure everything’s working together to drive results.

Stay on top of seasonal shifts

Seasonality can have a huge impact on keyword performance. Things like Black Friday, Prime Day, or back-to-school sales can shift how consumers search for products.

Track keyword trends and be ready to adjust your bidding and targeting strategies accordingly.

Keep an eye on competitors

Competitors are constantly adjusting their strategies, too. Take note of their listing updates, like new images or updated keywords, and see how it impacts their performance.

If they’re gaining traction, maybe it’s time to tweak your listings or adjust your ad strategy to stay competitive.

Better listings power better ads

Optimizing your Amazon ads goes far beyond adjusting bids. More often than not, the real issue is what happens after the click. Weak images, vague bullet points, or unclear value props quietly chip away at your conversions and your budget.

That’s why it pays to keep a close eye on your listings, not just your campaign settings.

Optmyzr helps you spot where things are falling through the cracks, like which products are eating up spend without selling, or which keywords bring in traffic but not results.

Want to see how it can help? Sign up for a fully functional 14-day trial today!

Why (And How) Optmyzr’s AI Beats ChatGPT at Managing Google Ads

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.

Watch how Metrik Marketing impressed their clients by adding Optmyzr’s AI-powered summaries to their reports:

{{< youtube id=“S_cDh1-hci4” title=“Metrik Marketing Case Study” >}}

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.

Turn insights into action

Optmyzr doesn’t just surface insights, it helps you act on them instantly. On one platform, you can:

• 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.

Here’s what Deki Hoek, Channel Manager, BBQGuys, had to say about Optmyzr’s AI:

“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.

Beyond the Automation Blackbox: Why Human + Machine Still Wins In Paid Media

Automation and AI are steadily taking center stage in modern advertising. They are deeply integrated across almost every stage of campaign management, including campaign creation, bidding, audience targeting, optimization, and reporting.

While these systems are necessary for scaling efforts and improving efficiency, the catch is that many of these tools start to resemble black boxes. You’ve very little control and visibility into what’s happening. This makes it harder to align performance with real business goals.

The pace of AI innovation in PPC is only going to accelerate, and we need to make sure we layer these systems with human insight, so we’re not just letting the machine take over, but using it to make smarter, more strategic decisions.

In this blog, we’ll explore how the human + machine approach helps you maintain visibility, adapt with confidence, and drive stronger campaign outcomes in an increasingly automated world.

The automation black box

Automation can handle repetitive tasks by following set rules, like adjusting bids or pausing ads. At the same time, AI goes further, learning from patterns in data to make predictions and optimize decisions.

The problem is when marketers rely on these systems alone without human oversight. It leads to missed context and inefficient spend because we’re relying on decisions that prioritize machine logic over actual business goals.

For example, an automated bidding rule might reduce bids in response to a sudden drop in conversions. This makes sense if the drop is due to changes in user behavior or interest.

What if it’s not the full picture?

What if conversion rates dropped not because people aren’t interested in your product anymore, but because of a sudden external factor, like a payment gateway outage or a tracking error?

Even though some AI models can factor in landing page experience over time, they may not be able to distinguish between a temporary glitch and a real shift in user behavior in the moment. As a result, the system reacts to the symptom, not the cause—lowering bids, cutting traffic, and ultimately hurting campaign performance for the wrong reasons.

Meanwhile, the real issue goes unaddressed.

Human context still matters

AI can detect what’s happening, but often lacks the context to explain why it’s happening. That distinction is critical.

Consider Betty, who manages ads for a mortgage lender. She switches to Smart Bidding with a goal to get more leads at a lower cost. Initially, performance improves. Over time, however, she notices that while form submissions have increased, actual mortgage approvals have declined.

The algorithm had been optimized for volume, not lead quality.

Betty and her team review the data to identify the characteristics of high-converting leads. They adjust the system’s inputs to reflect those insights.

Now, Smart Bidding focuses on high-quality leads. Form fills decrease, but closed mortgages go up.

Automation layering makes humans and machines work at scale

Automation delivers the best results when it’s paired with human strategy. That’s how advertising becomes smarter, more adaptable, and truly performance-driven.

That’s where automation layering comes in. It involves placing a layer of business-aware logic over platform automation to guide decisions more effectively.

You can guide these systems using custom rules, data, and signals that reflect real business goals rather than relying solely on generic campaign metrics.

What makes automation layering important?

Automation layering gives you a way to stay in control, even in an increasingly automated, black-box environment. It enables you to:

• Adapt quickly to changes in platform rules and policies
• Regain strategic oversight of automated decisions
• Feed the machine high-quality data and real business signals

Optmyzr’s platform is designed to empower you to work with automation rather than just passively using it. The goal is always to give you more control over how automation decisions are made and to customize at scale.

Here’s a quick look at some of Optmyzr’s key features that give you the flexibility to act as the strategic layer that platforms like Google Ads can’t replicate:

1. Rule-based optimizations

Optmyzr’s Rule Engine is our solution to the question ‘How to automate while still being in control?’.

It keeps your campaigns running smoothly, giving you precise control over your campaigns with automation working like clockwork in the background. You can use simple ‘if-this-then-that’ statements to define custom rules to monitor your campaigns, keywords, ad groups, and more. All with minimal manual intervention from your end.

Our customers in fact, have used Rule Engine in multiple ways to bypass Google Ads limitations. Be it to stay on top of budgets, monitor keyword match types, or adjust ROAS/CPA targets based on the weather.

You can either choose from a list of pre-built strategies to make things easier, or use custom strategies based on your business goals.

{{< figure src="/forestry/rule-based-optimizations.webp" alt=“Rule based optmizations” >}}

{{< youtube id=“2U_5BMvD5eo” title=“How to Harness Rule Engine” >}}

2. Budget automation with seasonal logic

Optmyzr gives you the flexibility to adjust ad spends automatically during periods when your business is likely to see more (or less) activity, like holidays, sales periods, or specific months that typically perform better.

You define rules that:

• Increase your budget during busy seasons (e.g., November–December)
• Pause or limit spending when performance drops
• Shift budgets between campaigns based on real-time results

Once these rules are configured, you simply have to define the right performance triggers and time frames and define what should happen when they are met.

3. Campaign creation powered by your data feed

If you own a business where your product catalog or list of services change quite often— with new items, price drops, or stock updates, Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator can be quite handy.

It can automatically build entire campaigns for you based on your data feed. The best part is that if something changes in your feed, say a product goes out of stock, Campaign Automator will auto-update your ads without manual intervention.

You can tell it to do things like increase bids for discounted items or pause ads for sold-out products, based on rules you set. It takes care of those repetitive, manual parts of campaign management while you focus on the most important part— strategy.

{{< figure src="/forestry/campaign-automator.webp" alt=“Campaign Automator” >}}

4. Custom alerts and scripts

Optmyzr lets you set up custom alerts to stay on top of key changes. For example, Anomaly Alerts notify you automatically when metrics like cost, impressions, or clicks shift unexpectedly, so you can catch issues early without constant manual monitoring.

You also have access to enhanced scripts that can help you automate and streamline tasks. For example, the Check Destination URLs script scans landing pages for errors like 404 or 500, generating a report on problematic links. This helps you quickly fix or remove broken links to ensure a smooth user experience.

Together, these features reinforce the “human + machine” model — enabling you to not just monitor but add meaningful insights and logic to your campaigns, even in an increasingly automated ecosystem.

What to do? Build a smarter, more agile PPC stack

Now is a good time to take a step back and re-evaluate how automation, data, and tools are being used in your PPC workflow. The key question is—are you guiding automation with your strategy, or just letting it run on autopilot?

Whether you’re reassessing your current setup or looking to future-proof your campaign, here’s a simple checklist to guide your next move:

• Think beyond systems that obscure the ‘why’ behind campaign performance. Opt for platforms where every rule, logic, and recommendation is visible and adaptable
• Use business signals and contextual data to infuse human context into automation. For example, feed CRM data and offline conversions back to Google to teach it how to identify ‘real’ conversions
• Review bidding and attribution strategies to see if they are aligned with real profit metrics and to understand what’s actually working

Rebuild smarter. Automate better.

Automation is everywhere and will continue to grow exponentially. The key is in learning how to use it. Not blindly. Not in isolation. But, with a human-first approach that guides and amplifies what machines can do.

And this is precisely why the most successful advertisers are the ones who combine automation with human insight, creativity, and control.

So if you’re looking for a smarter way forward, now’s the time to future-proof your PPC stack — with tools that are transparent, adaptable, and built for how you work.

Ready to experience automation layering in action? Sign up for a free 14 day trial with Optmyzr.

The 2025 Tariff Crisis: What It Means for Advertisers (And How to Survive It)

A sweeping 10% tariff now applies to nearly all imports to the US, with a staggering 125% duty on goods from China (as of this post). While many prices haven’t surged yet, they will soon.

When they do, advertisers will be one of the first to feel the pressure.

Ad budgets will likely get cut, retailers will scramble, clients may panic and as always, marketing will be expected to do more with less.

Thankfully, history and our friends are a wealth of proactive advice!

We’ve dug into previous trade wars and gathered insights from top advertisers, agency leaders, and marketing economists.

In this guide, we’ll break down:

• What history tells us about the impact of tariffs on marketing
• What’s different (and more dangerous) in 2025
• How to protect your budget, prove your value, and keep your strategy sharp — even in a downturn

What does history tell us about tariffs and ad budgets?

This isn’t the first time tariffs have shaken the economy. Here’s what we saw in the past:

“Steel tariffs” (2002–2003)

• U.S. steel prices rose by ~30%
• Auto and appliance industries slashed marketing and hiring
• Ad spend dropped in durable goods and B2B categories

U.S.-China trade war (2018–2020)

• 25% tariffs on $250B in Chinese imports
• Ad spending in retail dropped 5%, and auto ads fell 7%
• Consumer prices rose 1.7% to 7%
• Marketers shifted toward performance channels, cutting broad branding efforts

The common thread here is that when margins get squeezed, advertising is one of the first things on the chopping block. Brands either pull back or shift to lower-cost, more trackable channels.

What makes 2025 different?

According to NRF and Deloitte, 2025’s economic outlook is more fragile than that of prior years:

• Retail growth projections dropped to 2.7–3.7%, down from a previously forecasted 4.5%.
• Ad growth projections were already revised down by Madison & Wall and MAGNA before the full extent of the tariffs was known.
• The IAB reports that 94% of advertisers are worried about cuts, and 60% expect ad budget reductions of 6% to 10%.

Layer on continued inflation, geopolitical tensions, and inventory challenges, and we’re looking at a perfect storm.

What problems could you face, and how could you overcome them?

Here’s what you could be dealing with in the coming months and what today’s top experts suggest doing about it.

Problem 1: Budgets could disappear overnight.

“We had Q2 spend planned and ready — the next day, it was on hold indefinitely.”

— Casey Gill, WebSavvy

“We’re seeing panic responses. Some clients are scaling back before they even run the numbers.”

— Dii Pooler, Pooler Digital

Why this matters:

When headlines trigger panic, budget cuts often happen suddenly — and without warning. If you’re not pacing spend in real time or watching for campaign spikes, you could miss your window to adjust before the budget’s already gone.

What to do:

• Offer weekly pacing + ROI check-ins to give clients a sense of control
• Prepare “what-if” scenarios so you’re not caught scrambling
• Show how even small budgets can still drive performance with the right optimizations

How Optmyzr helps:

Optmyzr’s Budget Pacing feature shows how spend is tracking relative to the ideal pace for the month, adjusting for seasonality, days elapsed, and linear benchmarks. It flags whether you’re underspending or overspending at any point, so you can rebalance before it’s too late.

On top of that, the Anomaly Detector script alerts you when key metrics (like cost, conversions, or impressions) suddenly deviate from expected levels, even down to the hour. That way, if a campaign starts to underperform or overspend before leadership cuts the budget, you already know, and you’re already acting.

“The Budget Pacing tool is a team favorite. It allows us to show visually where the money is going and helps us figure out where best to invest the budget for clients.”

— Mike Rhodes, WebSavvy

Problem 2: You’re optimizing for margins that no longer exist.

“Clients are still optimizing based on pre-tariff product costs. That’s a trap.”

— Duane Brown, CEO, Take Some Risk

“Some brands are upside down on containers they already sold. They’ll lose money on every order once tariffs hit.”

— Sam Tomlinson, EVP, Warschwaski

Why this matters:

If your campaigns are still built around old pricing models, you’re likely overbidding, overexposing, and over-promising. With tariffs pushing up COGS, even previously “profitable” SKUs may now be selling at a loss.

You need to realign your bids and targeting around current product profitability, not pre-tariff assumptions.

What to do:

• Help clients recalculate post-tariff margins and rebuild campaign targets accordingly
• Segment and prioritize products based on actual margin, availability, and pricing competitiveness
• Replace aggressive discounts with value-based messaging (e.g. bundles, eco causes, loyalty perks)

How Optmyzr helps:

Optmyzr makes it easier to respond to shifting margins with tools that give you granular visibility and control over your product-level campaigns.

With the Shopping Feed Audit, you can catch issues like overlapping products, disapproved listings, missing data, or overpriced SKUs — all before they waste spend.

The Product Group widget helps you split large product groups into tighter segments, so you’re not bidding the same on high-margin and low-margin SKUs.

The Custom Label widget lets you tag products dynamically based on margin, stock level, or pricing competitiveness so your campaigns always stay aligned with your business goals.

“Optmyzr’s monitoring, alerting system, and shopping feed audit were incredibly helpful in keeping campaigns and product feeds optimized. The reporting features generate qualitative reports with one click, which is invaluable during high-demand periods.”

— Matthieu Tran-Van, Consultant

Problem 3: Global messaging needs to shift fast.

“We’re softening our U.S. brand voice when advertising in Canada.”

— Julia Vyse, Digital Director, Dentsu Digital

“Messaging that leans on ‘Made in America’ is landing differently across regions — sometimes not at all.”

— Marilois Snowman, CEO, Mediastruction

Why this matters:

Tariffs aren’t just an economic issue — they’re an emotional one. In times of global tension, how you talk can matter just as much as what you sell.

Messaging that worked three months ago might now feel tone-deaf or even offensive, depending on the market. Geo-sensitive campaigns are no longer optional; they’re essential.

What to do:

• Run structured A/B tests across markets to learn what tone, phrasing, or offer resonates best
• Experiment with angles like:
  “Inventory landed before tariff hikes.”
  “Local quality, global delivery”
• Reassess ad copy weekly based on geo-specific performance

How Optmyzr helps:

Optmyzr gives you everything you need to adapt messaging and targeting by geography without guesswork.

• The Geo Heatmap helps you spot which locations are driving ROI, and which ones are costing you without converting. You can visualize this data using a heatmap segmented by city, region, or country.

• Geo Bid Adjustments lets you automatically raise or lower bids based on a location’s past performance, even if that region wasn’t previously targeted.
• And if you’re managing multiple ad accounts, the Ad Analyzer helps you scan campaigns to find winning creatives and flag poor performers across locations, including Meta Ads placements.

Problem 4: Ad spend is being reallocated across channels.

“Search is still seen as gold in volatile times.”

— Ewan McIntyre, Gartner VP & Analyst

“Microsoft Ads is a smart play right now. Low competition, solid returns.”

— Casey Gill, WebSavvy

Why this matters:

When uncertainty hits, advertisers stop experimenting and go back to what works. Search, Shopping, and email/SMS retention tend to hold strong, while CPM-heavy or top-funnel channels often take the first hit.

The challenge is that many advertisers still have their budgets locked into legacy structures — channels that are now too expensive, or product groups that are no longer profitable.

What to do:

• Rebalance toward ROI-driven channels like search + shopping
• Test platforms with lower CPMs (Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit)
• Double down on email + SMS for retention

How Optmyzr helps:

Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management tool gives you the flexibility and control needed to confidently shift spend where it performs best, especially during volatility.

• Launch Google Shopping, Performance Max Retail, or Optmyzr Smart Campaigns (with Target ROAS baked in) all in just a few clicks
• Use feed-based rules to filter which products go into each campaign based on performance or custom attributes like margin or price sensitivity
• Restructure existing Shopping or PMax campaigns, even those created outside of Optmyzr, by splitting product groups or redefining ad group hierarchies
• Reallocate budget dynamically across campaigns and ad groups using advanced bidding and targeting settings
• Sync campaigns with real-time feed changes from your Merchant Center — keeping your product ads up-to-date, without constant manual intervention

Problem 5: Inventory gaps will tank your ROI.

“You can’t run ads on products that are out of stock. That kills trust.”

— Andrew Dimitriou, Global Marketing Strategist

“We’ve got brands promoting SKUs they literally don’t have anymore. That’s wasted spend.”

— Sam Tomlinson

“Inventory unpredictability is back, just like COVID. If your messaging doesn’t match your shelf, you’re in trouble.”

— Julie Friedman Bacchini, Founder, Neptune Moon

Why this matters:

Tariffs are already disrupting global supply chains, and as delays and stockouts increase, you risk spending real dollars promoting products that simply aren’t available.

This kind of misalignment doesn’t just waste budget. It confuses customers and erodes trust.

What to do:

• Sync campaigns with real-time inventory feeds or Merchant Center updates
• Prioritize products with healthy stock levels and solid margins
• Monitor campaign performance weekly to catch unexpected drops tied to inventory or feed issues

How Optmyzr helps:

Optmyzr helps you stay ahead of inventory-related issues by surfacing exactly what’s causing your campaign performance to slip, so you can take quick, focused action.

• The PPC Investigator analyzes your account’s data and pinpoints the root cause of performance changes, like a drop in conversions or ROAS. Whether it’s a paused product group, an out-of-stock SKU, or a feed issue, you’ll know exactly what’s driving the problem and where to fix it.

• With the Cause Chart and Root Cause Analysis, you can drill down by campaign, keyword, product type, or placement to get full visibility on performance volatility, especially helpful when your feed or inventory status is in flux.
• Pair this with the Shopping Feed Audit, which flags missing data, disapprovals, and products that have vanished from your campaigns before they create real revenue leaks.

What will smart marketers do differently?

The smartest advertisers right now are:

• Running margin-aware campaigns
• Shifting spend toward search, shopping, and retention
• Offering preemptive messaging around pricing
• Helping clients renegotiate SaaS and agency contracts
• Automating what can be automated to buy back time

As Jasmine Enberg from eMarketer put it:

“This is a new era of uncertainty, and marketers are already playing defense.”

You don’t need to panic. But you do need to plan.

Tariffs may be outside your control. But how you respond is where leadership lives.

If you only do 3 things after this:

• Re-calculate your margins and rebuild bids around profitability
• Pivot your messaging to match shifting inventory and customer sentiment
• Double down on automation to stretch your time and team further

And if you believe 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 can help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.

Ecommerce PPC Experts Reveal the Biggest Mistakes Holding You Back in 2025

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.

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’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.

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.

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)
• Revenue skyrocketed from $5M to over $100M in just two years

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.

9 Powerful Automations to Manage Small Google Ads Accounts

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.

1. Anomaly alerts for quick issue detection
2. Automated budget pacing alerts
3. Pausing underperforming keywords
4. Managing search queries
5. High CTR alerts
6. Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) for discovery
7. Monitoring declining keywords
8. YouTube placement exclusions
9. 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.

For example:

• Underspending: Detecting campaigns performing below-expected spend levels (e.g., 82% lower than average)
• 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.

📈Optmyzr’s strategic alerts trim Morefire’s workload by 15% per account.

2. Track budgets with automated pacing alerts.

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.

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.

7 PPC Automations That Save You From Burnout

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.

1. Shopping campaign automations
2. Dynamic Search Ad (DSA) automations
3. Seasonality-based automations
4. Automated bidding automations
5. Keyword automations
6. Performance Max (PMax) automations
7. 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.

📈 Campaign Automator helped SearchLab Digital boost its client’s conversion rate by 42% since March 2022.

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!”

 

- Andreas L., Head of Paid Search, OMC Transact

Read more: 6 Rule Engine Strategies: How Optmyzr Customers Bypass Google Ads Limitations

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.

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.

Why Aren't My Google Ads Campaigns Getting Conversions?

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

1. Utilize conversion data from previous campaigns to speed up the initial learning period.
2. 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

1. Improve your keyword targeting by adding trending search terms to your keyword lists and excluding less relevant queries as negative keywords.
2. 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

1. 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.
2. 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

1. Keep your message on the landing page short, sweet, and directly related to what you’re offering.
2. 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.

How Optmyzr can be your ally

Feeling overwhelmed by these challenges? Optmyzr is aligned with your goals and objectives, ready to make managing Google Ads campaigns faster and simple. Here’s how it simplifies the process:

• 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.

12 Best Practices to Optimize Google Shopping Campaigns

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’s Shopping Feed Audits tool.

Try the tool now

3. Optimize Product Images and Videos.

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.

Read more: Optimizations for Automated Bidding

5. Leverage Google Merchant Center.

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.

Read more: Shopping Campaign Refresher 2.0

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.

More on that here

7. Use Negative Keywords.

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.

PPC Reporting: Goals, Tips, and Mistakes to Avoid While Creating Great Reports

You don’t need superpowers to create PPC reports that look good and keep your clients happy.

But creating good PPC reports without help is no cakewalk. They’re time-consuming, tedious, and ineffective when done poorly.

The reality is that reporting often gets lower priority for busy PPC pros. And when client budgets get slashed or expectations rise, advertisers are put to the test delivering reports that provide a solid enough snapshot to keep clients happy.

Beyond that, PPC reports build better client relationships and promote agency expansion. For that, a static monthly PDF of tables and charts is no longer enough. Your reports need to inform as well as excite your clients and convince them to keep doing business with you.

What are the most important goals for a PPC report?

To determine your specific PPC reporting goals, it’s essential to ask yourself the fundamental question: “What does success look like for my account?” Defining your ultimate objectives provides a clear sense of direction for all your PPC reporting efforts.

For some businesses, success might revolve around demonstrating consistent improvements in overall ROI. This implies that their primary focus is on the financial performance of their campaigns. 

Meanwhile, others may prioritize showcasing the progressive work they’ve done, emphasizing the tactics and strategies employed to achieve results. Additionally, high-level trends in the PPC data may be the focal point for businesses aiming to adapt and optimize their campaigns based on market dynamics.

Before creating your PPC report, it is crucial to establish clear and meaningful goals that will guide your reporting efforts.

The goals you set for your PPC reporting can vary significantly depending on your specific situation, whether you are managing a client’s account as an agency or an in-house team. Here is a breakdown of some key considerations and examples of PPC reporting goals:

1. Summarize key metrics clearly.

Use case: For high-level stakeholders who require a quick understanding of campaign performance without delving into granular details.

If you want to get text explanations of changes that happened to your ads account across two different time periods, check out the PPC Narrator Widget.

The widget can either highlight the areas of improvement or let you know about the positive account changes.

2. Showcase how your efforts are delivering a positive ROI.

Use Case: For a business aiming to justify its advertising spend and ensure it is generating profitable results.

3. Highlight the value you bring to the PPC campaigns.

Use Case: For agencies seeking to impress clients and build trust by showcasing the impact of their expertise.

4. Monitor and evaluate PPC performance.

Use Case: For ongoing campaigns to ensure they are on track to meet objectives and identify areas for improvement.

To compare your campaign performance against other accounts in your industry vertical or across verticals, check out our PPC Vertical Benchmarks.

The tool lets you compare how key metrics like Average CPC, Conversion Rate, CPA, CTR, and ROAS for your account compare to others in your industry vertical.

5. Identify patterns and draw insights.

Use Case: For adapting PPC strategies based on changing market dynamics and consumer behavior.

Check out Optmyzr’s Sidekick: your AI-based PPC assistant. It’ll help you jumpstart your account analysis process by asking a few important questions on the Account Dashboard.

You can quickly get useful insights into your account like a performance summary, month-on-month changes in key metrics, top optimization opportunities, etc.

How to build a great PPC report?

A good report begins with a high-level overview of account performance, works its way down to granular data that support your results, and should provide clear next steps.

Building a strong PPC report is a lot like telling a good story. Be truthful without embellishment, go into as much detail as possible, and make the account the hero. If you can nail this, your reports will provide great leverage when you have that discussion to extend or renew your contract.

Here are six tips to help you create great PPC reports.

1. Go beyond the numbers.

PPC reports are more than numbers on a page; they provide the right context to those numbers. After all, data in isolation is just noise. Pairing it with insights into your customers or how the numbers support business goals shows your clients that you understand them.

Rather than pulling all types of data together, first, understand what’s most important to your client. It’s good to revisit overall business objectives before building your next report to fine-tune what you should be reporting.

2. Pick metrics that matter to the business.

Once you have a clear understanding of what your client’s goals are, find out what parameters support these goals, and what a good result looks like. Treat your reports as a way to understand what you can do to take your accounts to the next level — better conversions, lower CPCs, more revenue, etc.

Reports can also highlight areas that need more attention, as well as showcase where the business is doing well. So be mindful of the metrics you pick.

Some of the most common metrics that advertisers use in their reports are:

• Return On Investment (ROI)
• Click-Through Rate (CTR)
• Cost Per Click (CPC)
• Conversion Rate
• Keyword Performance
• Customer Actions

3. Segment by intent.

If you focus just on conversions, you might make the account performance look poorer. After all, not all campaigns are about driving conversions.

Segment your report based on the different stages of the customer journey, according to intent or awareness. Not only does that tell you what works and when, but it can build credit for initiatives that help your lower-funnel campaigns convert.

Take this opportunity to experiment with different attribution models to understand which channels support different types of campaigns. This is an essential insight that can be the difference between simply regurgitating data and actually being a strategic asset to your client.

Watch this episode of PPC Town Hall on attribution modeling for ideas on how to approach attribution.

4. Look for truly helpful reporting tools.

Some PPC advertisers still use Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel to create their weekly and monthly reports. While there’s nothing wrong with the classics, they are time-consuming and can get frustrating if you’re not a data geek or have to work with really large data sets.

This is where the magic of automation truly shines. There are plenty of reporting tools that can save you time and produce outstanding reports, many with pre-built templates to make your job even easier. While Google Analytics and Looker Studio remain favorites, many PPC pros turn to advanced tools for more automated and integrated reports.

Optmyzr also does reports quite well, if we say so. You can build new templates or customize one of ours, including widgets for virtually any metric and level you need to show, and automate delivery to your client’s inbox. They’ll get a link to an interactive report rather than a static PDF, allowing them to hover over charts and data to get deeper insights.

5. Include visuals.

Steve Hammer, president at RankHammer, said about the importance of data visualization in PPC reports:

“I like to assume that I have 2 minutes of somebody’s time when I’m showing a PPC report. I like to present everything in a one-pager and make it as simple as possible.”

Visuals help your clients understand data faster and in a simpler format. Crucial information on performance, successes, and failures is easier to process visually. This is the key to showcasing more information in less space, while still making it easy to consume at a glance.

But the ocean of data visualization is vast and deep, so make sure to find out what formats your clients respond to best. They may have a preference for line graphs when all you’ve been serving is pie.

If you want to get detailed insights visually and find exactly which element in your account caused a metric to increase or decrease, whether it’s a keyword, placement, or an entire network that caused the changes, take a look at Optmyzr’s PPC Investigator.

6. Add your own insights and recommendations.

You don’t need an advertising or analytical mind to pull data and create reports from a template. It’s making sense of that data and helping clients understand the lay of the land that makes you a valuable partner to them.

Draw on your experience with similar accounts and campaigns to add your own insights to those reports. Explain how the numbers correlate with business goals, where you’ve seen good things go bad (like complacency), and what you think should be the next course of action.

But be fully transparent and tell the entire story. Some advertisers compensate for sliding numbers by exaggerating good results to keep clients in their favor. Give your clients the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And then get ready to answer questions and discuss their suggestions.

Google Analytics 4 reporting made simple for PPC

1. Report on any valid combination of dimensions or metrics conveniently.

Google presents the dashboards as themes on GA4. So it could be difficult to navigate and find reports that you want to check.

Optmyzr’s GA4 reporting tools have all the dimensions and metrics available together for you to choose from and easily report your account performance.

2. Identify trends and patterns in detail.

The charts can also help you understand trends and patterns, and compare KPI changes across time periods.

Plus, you can easily analyze the type of audience that you’re attracting, their demographics, and locations they come from.

3. Get a quick overview of metrics that matter to you.

The KPI widget gives a clear representation of metrics that matter to your business along with performance changes at the property level.

4. Present all your PPC and other marketing data together in one report.

With multi-account reports, you can track analytics performance along with that of all the different ad platforms like Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon where you’re running your campaigns all in a single report. This can help you relate your PPC KPIs with analytics KPIs and measure the overall impact of your ad campaigns on site traffic.

If you’re an existing Optmyzr user and want to migrate your reports from UA to GA4, follow this guide.

6 Common PPC reporting mistakes to avoid

Our Co-founder & CEO, Frederick Vallaeys listed down 6 reporting mistakes PPC marketers make in this article.

Here’s a TL;DR.

1. Reports sent too soon that always undervalue PPC.

2. Your visuals tell the wrong story.

3. Improperly segmented reports are useless.

4. Too much data + PPC newbie = disaster.

5. Don’t take it personally when your report is ignored.

6. When you spend too much time on reports, your account management hours suffer.

Great PPC reporting provides context and analysis

The best PPC reporting strives to provide context and analysis, delve into the reasons behind wins or losses, and incorporate current trends and industry best practices. Ultimately, a great PPC report serves as a source of meaningful data and insights, empowering stakeholders to make informed decisions and optimizing the overall effectiveness of PPC campaigns.

By leveraging the right reporting tool, you can create PPC reports that not only inform but also satisfy your clients, fostering trust and confidence in your services. And if you need help, Optmyzr makes it easier to showcase the value of your campaigns.

Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world use Optmyzr 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.

Google Listened: 5 PMax Fixes That Solved the Gaps We Found in 24,702 Campaigns

In 2024, we analyzed 24,702 PMax campaigns. The verdict?

Great promise. Big problems.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ready to close the gaps in your PMax strategy?

Start a fully functional 14-day trial today and take control of your PMax results!

FAQs

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.

Google Ads Keywords Not Converting? How to Diagnose, Fix, or Pause Them

“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.
• For higher-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?

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.

🎥 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,

Optmyzr’s analysis of 9000+ accounts found:

• 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.

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.

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

What to check before you pause

Before you pause a keyword that seems like it’s underdelivering:

• Use the Ad Preview & Diagnosis Tool to view live ad positions.
• 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?

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.

Want to see how it can help? Try our fully-functional 14-day free trial today!

FAQs

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.

How to Optimize Social Media Ads: Catch, Fix, and Scale Before You Waste Budget

If you run Paid Social ad campaigns, you’ve probably seen this before: performance doesn’t crash dramatically, it declines quietly. Sometimes you don’t even realize what’s happening until it’s too late. You check your Meta or LinkedIn ads only to find thousands spent with little to no return.

That slow, silent budget drain? It’s one of the most frustrating parts of managing paid social ads.

And in today’s economic climate, where every dollar has to prove its worth, diagnosing issues late means losing more than just money—it means losing trust, confidence, and time.

Manual cleanup after a crash isn’t the solution either. Toggling between Meta Ads Manager, LinkedIn Campaign Manager, spreadsheets, and internal reports gets exhausting fast. You need a proactive system—one that helps you catch problems early, fix them efficiently, and scale only what works. This is essential when figuring out how to optimize social media ads effectively.

Here’s a straightforward social media advertising framework I like to use: Catch → Fix → Scale.

Catch performance issues early in Paid Social campaigns

1. Use real-time alerts.

Picture this: it’s Monday morning, and you open your ad account to find that one of your campaigns has blown through its weekend budget without bringing in a single conversion. That’s a clear sign that you need smarter systems in place to catch ad fatigue early and reduce social media ad spend waste.

Meta’s Automated Rules let you flag spend spikes or engagement drops so you catch issues before they spiral. Over on LinkedIn, setting up alerts based on budget caps or performance trends can give you a heads-up when something’s off.

If you’re managing multiple accounts, a tool like Optmyzr helps even more. You can set up real-time alerts across platforms for critical metrics like CTR changes, budget pacing, or conversion slowdowns. That way, you’re not stuck playing catch-up; you’re equipped to step in before small problems snowball.

2. Create a centralized performance view.

Simplify how you read your data by avoiding the daily shuffle between Meta, LinkedIn, and a bunch of spreadsheets just to understand performance.

With Optmyzr’s Portfolio Dashboards, everything comes together in one clean view. You can compare performance side-by-side across all your Paid Social campaigns, spot patterns faster, and make quicker decisions.

“The Dashboard view is actually clearer than LinkedIn. I tend to use it to see how much I’m spending on my LinkedIn account. The main thing that I’ve been using is the “Top Elements” and the “Performance Change” cards; I can see the split between the different campaigns that I’ve got running, and it’s much easier to see this information here than on LinkedIn itself.” - Stacey P, Google Ads Specialist, Pledge Consultancy

3. Tighten audience targeting and budget at the start.

Instead of starting broad and hoping something sticks, build off what’s already worked—custom audiences, lookalike audiences, and CRM-based segments that have converted in the past. Knowing how to create custom audiences for Facebook ads gives you a serious edge.

Meta’s Audience Insights and LinkedIn’s precise filters (like job titles, industries, company size, etc.) help you get granular. And when it comes to testing, you don’t need to spend big to start smart. A good rule of thumb is to allocate 5-10% of your overall marketing budget to Paid Social as a starting point.

With Optmyzr, you can handle both audience targeting and budget control in the same place. Create Meta audiences directly from the Social Campaign Manager tool and track their performance. Or, use Optmyzr’s Rule Engine to ensure that campaigns targeting these audiences get more budget if they perform well.

Strategic fixes for underperforming Meta and LinkedIn ads

1. Analyze which ads are draining budget.

Start with your active ad structure. On Meta, break things down by ad set, placement, and creative. This helps you pinpoint whether the issue lies with a specific audience segment, a particular format like Stories vs. Feed, or even a creative that looked good but isn’t actually converting. For example, an ad might be getting tons of clicks on mobile but zero conversions, and it could be due to a poor landing page experience on that device.

LinkedIn’s Campaign Manager gives you similar filters. You might find that a message clicks with job titles but flops with company size targeting. Digging into these layers helps you fix what’s actually broken, instead of scrapping a campaign that only needs a small tweak.

2. Automate fixes with simple rules.

Once you’ve spotted patterns (like ads spending $50+ with no return), act fast. Use Meta’s Automated Rules, or go cross-platform with Optmyzr’s Rule Engine.

Let’s say you notice an ad that’s spent over $50 but hasn’t brought in a single conversion. You don’t want to keep checking that manually. With a rule like “If Spend > $50 AND Conversions = 0, then pause the ad”, you can automate that response. Learning how to pause low-performing social ads automatically saves your budget from being wasted.

3. Fix campaign setup.

Sometimes it’s not the ad—it’s the setup that needs a closer look. If you’re seeing high clicks or views but no conversions, the journey might be broken. Think: landing page issues, form friction, tracking gaps, or even ad fatigue in your Instagram campaigns.

In Meta, try switching your goal from conversions to link clicks, especially if your campaigns aren’t hitting the 50 conversions per week benchmark. It keeps the algorithm learning without stalling.

For LinkedIn, switching from Lead Gen to Website Visits can help you reach more people with less friction, especially if your forms aren’t converting.

And don’t overlook disapproved ads; they can quietly kill performance. Tools like Optmyzr can flag these for you automatically, so you stay ahead without micromanaging.

Scale Paid Social campaigns without losing ROI

1. Scale the budget gradually.

Scaling isn’t about dumping more budget; it’s about doing it smart.

In Meta, for instance, raising your budget by 10-20% at a time lets the system adapt without resetting the learning phase. On LinkedIn, lifetime budgets plus daily caps help you scale at a steady pace.

You can automate that pacing logic in Optmyzr. If one of your campaigns has consistently performed well over the last 7 days, build a rule to increase the budget incrementally. And if things start trending the other way? The system can just as easily bring the spend back down. That way, you’re scaling paid social campaigns without guesswork.

2. Expand reach with lookalikes that convert.

When your current audiences start to plateau, it’s time to expand. Meta’s Lookalike audiences or LinkedIn’s Audience Expansion can help you reach new people who mirror your top converters. It’s a great way to extend your reach without straying too far from what already works.

Audience-level performance data isn’t directly reported, but you can analyze trends at the ad set level to uncover which segments are truly delivering. Use those insights to inform your next targeting moves.

If you’ve got first-party data, like site visitors, lead form entries, or app users, you can use it to create custom audiences right inside Optmyzr. From there, build your lookalikes in Meta with a stronger foundation, grounded in your real results.

3. Refresh creatives and test combinations.

When it comes to creatives, don’t wait until an ad stops working. If you’re noticing that results are starting to dip, even slightly, it’s a good time to test something new. Maybe it’s the same image people have seen for weeks, or a headline that no longer hits as hard.

Meta lets you run A/B tests through Experiments. On LinkedIn, it’s a bit more manual, but still doable—duplicate your top ads and try variations of headlines, visuals, or even CTAs.

Optmyzr’s Ad Analyzer can flag which ads are spending the most without delivering returns. That gives you a clear starting point for which creatives might need refreshing, without any guesswork.

“I think it’s pretty cool that you can see the demographics (like how many impressions are coming from men or women), because it’s not too easy to find out in the Business Manager. It’s also cool that you can set up alerts. I also liked the “Ad Analyzer”; it’s very helpful to see which ads are spending a lot of money, and decide which ads we want to pause.” - Anna P., Junior Online Marketing Manager, Elephant Digital

Best practices to optimize social media ads for long-term ROI

1. Fix infrastructure first.

A lot of wasted ad spend comes from skipping the basics. You could have great targeting, strong creatives, and even decent engagement, but if your landing page takes too long to load or your tracking setup is broken, you’re essentially driving people into a dead end.

Take a step back and make sure your foundation is solid. That means checking if your landing pages are mobile-friendly and fast, your Facebook Pixel or LinkedIn Insight Tag is tracking accurately, and your ads match up with what users find when they click through. Meta’s Events Manager and LinkedIn’s Insight Tag tools can help you spot these gaps before they eat up your budget silently.

2. Don’t micromanage the algorithm.

Once your campaigns are up and running, it can be tempting to keep tweaking budgets, targeting, or creatives, every time you see a small dip. But often, constant changes do more harm than good, especially on Meta, as it can reset the learning phase and make it harder for the algorithm to stabilize.

Instead, give your campaigns time to breathe. Let automation handle the routine stuff: budget adjustments, low-performing ad pauses, pacing, and CPM/CTR checks. That way, you can shift your focus to what really matters—your strategy, your messaging, and finding new angles that resonate with your audience.

3. Get help when scaling gets tricky.

If scaling starts to feel like too much, you don’t have to handle it solo. While native platforms like Meta Ads Manager and LinkedIn Campaign Manager offer some valuable tools, they each live in their own silo. Trying to bring all that data together manually, while keeping up with performance issues and planning your next move, can get overwhelming fast.

That’s where a third-party tool like Optmyzr for Social can help. It centralizes managing your Meta and LinkedIn campaigns, automates key checks, and flags issues before they spiral. And if something’s off, a quick audit can reveal what’s wrong, saving you time and money.

Smarter Paid Social growth starts with proactive optimization

Paid Social doesn’t have to be a constant scramble. When your setup works for you, it becomes much easier to grow sustainably and improve ROI.

The trick is a solid social media advertising strategy: knowing when to catch problems, how to fix them efficiently, and what to scale with confidence.

Start your 14-day free trial of Optmyzr for Social today, with no limits on ad accounts. Get the visibility and control you’ve been missing—without the manual grind.

Introductory pricing starts at just $99/month after the trial.

Frequently asked questions by Paid Social advertisers

1. When should I start scaling Facebook ads?

If your campaigns are delivering consistent results (typically 50 conversions per week), or your ROI has been stable over the past 7-10 days, it’s a good time to consider scaling. These indicators show that the algorithm has learned enough, and your setup is performing predictably.

2. How long should I run Facebook ads before I get conversions?

Usually within 3-7 days, assuming your tracking is correctly set up and your audience size and budget align with your goals. If you’re not seeing results in that window, check that your pixel is firing correctly and that your landing pages are aligned with your ad message.

3. Can I automate pausing bad ads in Meta or LinkedIn?

Yes. Meta allows you to create Automated Rules to pause ads based on specific metrics like CPA, CTR, or conversions. LinkedIn doesn’t support this natively, but with a tool like Optmyzr, you can apply automation across platforms, ensuring bad ads don’t drain budget unnoticed.

4. Which tools help manage Facebook and LinkedIn Ads together?

Several tools help manage social ads across platforms, like Madgicx, AdEspresso, AdRoll, Smartly.io, and Semrush. Each brings its own strengths, from automation to creative testing.

If you’re looking for something flexible and easy to manage, Optmyzr for Social stands out. It brings your Meta and LinkedIn campaigns into one dashboard, helps you stay on top of performance, and lets you automate smart, cross-platform actions without the usual hassle.

Why Most Amazon PPC Campaigns Fail (And How to Structure Yours Right)

Without the right campaign structure, your Amazon ads are flying blind. It becomes difficult to know what’s working well and how efficiently your budget is being spent. Whether it’s lumping too many keywords together or blending match types, small missteps can snowball into inefficiency.

In this blog, we’ll explore how to structure your campaigns for maximum ROI, common mistakes to avoid, and practical tips to control performance and spend.

Why a proper campaign structure is important to drive ROI

A proper campaign structure is key to profitably scaling your ads in a competitive marketplace. Segmenting your campaigns by product lines, match types, and keyword intent gives you complete visibility into what’s working and what’s not. It’s about setting your campaigns up for long-term success.

Having a good campaign structure also helps you:

• Identify top-performing segments easily and allocate budgets efficiently
• Track the performance of your Amazon ads with clear insights into ACoS, ROAS, and TACoS by group
• Adjust bids, scale winners, or pause underperforming campaigns
• Set smarter based on how likely a keyword or audience is to convert
• Optimize product listings more effectively for targeting and ad relevance, so your ads show up in the right searches and convert better

Common mistakes when structuring Amazon campaigns

• Mixing high/low performers (products or keywords) in one campaign: High performers can eat up the budget and mask low performers, giving limited visibility into what’s actually working.
• Overstuffing ad groups with too many SKUs: Grouping too many SKUs in one ad group can dilute impressions. With limited data per SKU, Amazon’s algorithm may struggle to identify and prioritize top-performing products.
• Blending match types in a single ad group: Each match type behaves differently, and blending them makes it harder to know which search terms are coming from which match type, making it tough to optimize bids or add negatives properly.
• Misusing single keyword campaigns (SKAGs) without reason: Although you get more precise control with SKAGs, overusing them without proper intent simply bloats your account structure and makes it difficult to scale.
• Vague naming: If your campaigns, ad groups, or products are not named correctly, reporting becomes very confusing because you lose track of what each campaign is supposed to do.

How to structure Sponsored Product campaigns

Here are a few things to keep in mind when structuring Sponsored Product campaigns.

1. Naming conventions

• Use consistent, easy-to-understand, and descriptive names. You should be able to easily identify the product, campaign type, and targeting strategy.
• Include product/ASIN, campaign type, match type, objectives, and bid adjustments if needed.
• Use delimiters to separate elements.

Your naming structure should look like:

[Product Name]_[ASIN]_[Campaign Type]_[Targeting Type]_[Objective]_[Bid Adjustment]

2. Match type segmentation

Create separate campaigns for different match types for better performance insights, bidding, and budget allocation.

How to implement match type segmentation for your campaigns:

• Pick your keyword or product category. Let’s take Running Shoes.
• Create three different campaigns for each match type
  • Campaign 1: “Running Shoes – Broad”
  • Campaign 2: “Running Shoes – Phrase”
  • Campaign 3: “Running Shoes – Exact”
• Add the same keyword to each campaign, but use the correct match type in each.
  • Broad match: running shoes
  • Phrase match: “running shoes”
  • Exact match: [running shoes]
• Set different bids as needed. For instance, since exact match type is more targeted, it can get a higher bid.

Why this helps:

• You can easily identify which match type works best.
• You get better budget control.
• No overlap between your own keywords.

3. Keyword grouping

Structure campaigns or ad groups so that similar types of keywords are grouped together. You can segment by:

Brand vs Non-brand:

• Separate your keywords that include your brand name (e.g. nike running shoes) from generic terms (e.g. men’s running shoes) since brand terms usually have higher conversion rates.
• Use negative keywords to clearly separate them. For example, you can add your brand as a negative keyword in non-brand campaigns.

High vs Mid intent:

• High-intent keywords signal strong purchase intent, while mid-intent terms come from shoppers still in the consideration phase.
• Compare high-intent vs mid-intent groups on metrics like spend, CTR, ACoS, and ROAS.
• If high-intent terms perform well, increase bids or budget, and expand with similar keywords.
• If mid-intent terms underperform, add negatives, refine copy, or use ASIN targeting to reach more relevant product pages.

Top keywords vs long-tail

• Top keywords are individual words, phrases, or product categories customers use to search for products.
• Long-tail keywords are specific, detailed, lower-volume terms, e.g., “trail running shoes for flat feet”.
• Top keywords give you reach and data, making it important for long-term growth and visibility. Group them into dedicated campaigns with sufficient daily budgets so your highest-impact terms stay active all day.
• Putting long-tail keywords in a separate campaign helps improve ad relevance and uncover ‘hidden gem’ search terms. Since these keywords are detailed but flexible, they trigger related searches. Reviewing your search term report then reveals specific, high-converting terms with low ACoS you might have otherwise missed.

4. ASIN grouping

• Putting too many SKUs in a single ad group may lead them to compete, and your top performers might not get enough visibility. Plus, it becomes harder to adjust bids based on margins or conversion rates of different SKUs.
• If you want to reduce wasted spend, get more actionable data, and set more accurate bids, it’s better to group your SKUs by:
  • Similar price points or margins
  • Product lifecycle (e.g., launch, mature)
  • Performance tier (e.g., hero products vs. support products)

5. Auto campaigns

Auto campaigns can be used as a keyword discovery tool. They allow Amazon’s algorithm to automatically target search queries that are likely to result in conversions.

• Run auto campaigns for a few weeks to get insights into high-performing, high-intent keywords that Amazon finds relevant for your products.
• Once you have a list of such terms, move the top 20% of terms with high conversion rates into manual campaigns for better bidding and targeting control.
• Don’t forget to add negative keywords to auto campaigns to prevent keyword cannibalization and wasted spend.

Also Read: How Optmyzr Users Automate Amazon PPC

Use portfolios for better control

Think of a portfolio as a folder that contains a specific set of campaigns with a shared objective. It brings order and control to your Amazon ads strategy, especially when campaigns scale. It helps you set shared budgets, create reports by portfolio, and track performance at a higher level.

When using portfolios, you can group campaigns by:

• Product line (e.g., skincare, supplements)
• Funnel stage (e.g., brand awareness vs. conversion)
• Ad type (Sponsored Products, Display, Brands)

How to structure other ad types

Here’s a quick overview of how you can structure other ad types in Amazon.

1. Sponsored Brands

• Use Case: Branded keyword coverage, top-of-search visibility
• Structure Tip: Segment campaigns by keyword themes (e.g., branded vs category), and tailor creative by product group or landing page type (Storefront vs Product Collection).

2. Sponsored Display

• Use Case: Retargeting, competitor conquesting, category targeting
• Structure Tip: Separate campaigns by audience type (views, interests, product targeting), and group ASINs by pricing tier or conversion data.

3. Sponsored TV

• Use Case: High-impact, upper-funnel brand awareness
• Structure Tip: Structure around audience personas or lifestyle segments; creative variations should match each segment’s interests and behaviors.

Bidding strategies for profitability

Using the right bidding strategies is key for profitability when advertising on Amazon.

You can start by setting your initial bids based on keyword intent and competition.

• High-intent keywords are likely to get higher conversions, so it makes sense to set higher bids for them.
• On the other hand, it’s better to be cautious when bidding for upper-funnel or broader terms because they are less likely to result in conversions.

Next, you can choose your bidding strategy based on the level of control you need and your goals.

• Fixed bids give you greater control and may be better for testing or when you have a limited budget.
• Dynamic (up/down) bidding allows Amazon’s algorithm to raise or lower bids based on the likelihood of conversions. It can be efficient when optimized correctly.

That’s where ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sales) comes in. It tells you how much you’re spending on ads to generate each dollar of revenue. A lower ACoS means more profitable conversions, while a high ACoS may signal wasted spend. Simply put, it’s not just about whether a keyword converts. It’s about whether it converts efficiently.

To act on this, tools like Optmyzr’s Bid Adjustment Optimization let you automatically increase bids for keywords that are performing below your target ACoS (cost-effective), and decrease bids for those above it (inefficient). This removes the guesswork from bid management and ensures your budget is focused on the terms that actually contribute to profitability.

{{< figure src="/forestry/change-bids-based-on-acos-amazon-ads-in-optmyzr.webp" alt=“Change bids based on ACoS - Amazon Ads in Optmyzr” >}}

Bid optimization tips

• For better ROI, make small, incremental changes to your bids (between 5-10%) to test performance over time
• Monitor key indicators like CTR, CPC, ROAS, and TACoS weekly to see whether your bids are delivering expected results. You can easily set up KPI and budget alerts to get notified these metrics shift—so you can act fast or roll back changes.
• Use search term reports to identify irrelevant keywords or high-converting search queries

Take control of your Amazon ads with better structure and smarter tools.

Implementing a proper campaign structure for your Amazon ads ensures you have clear control over your budgets, bids, and performance.

A key part of this is consistently auditing and refining your campaigns so you can accurately identify what’s working and what needs improvement. Optmyzr’s powerful tools streamline these processes by automating bid adjustments, running in-depth audits, and providing actionable insights.

Sign up for Optmyzr’s free 14-day trial and explore how you can optimize your Amazon PPC campaigns for better ROI.

How Optmyzr Users Automate Amazon PPC: Real Strategies from Real Advertisers

Analyzing, monitoring, optimizing, and then reporting - this sounds like four full-time jobs rolled into one when managing an Amazon Ads account. Multiply that effort across multiple accounts, and it becomes overwhelming fast.

Worse yet, most advertisers find themselves stuck in reactive mode, spotting issues only after wasting valuable dollars or missing optimization opportunities.

That’s where Optmyzr’s Rule Engine for Amazon PPC automation comes in. Our customers are using this powerful tool to automate repetitive tasks across campaigns, search terms, placements, keywords, ASINs, and more — saving time and boosting performance.

What you’ll learn in this blog

• Real strategies advertisers use to improve Amazon Ads performance with less effort
• How to automate keyword, ASIN, audience, and placement bid optimizations using rules
• Ways to reduce wasted spend and scale what works — without giving up control

Note: All thresholds and conditions mentioned in the strategies below are placeholders. They are not recommendations from Optmyzr but serve as starting points that you should customize based on your business goals and campaign performance.

What is the Rule Engine?

Rule Engine is a powerful feature within Optmyzr that lets you build optimization strategies using simple “If this, then that” logic. Think of it as your hands-free PPC assistant that identifies trends, optimizes bids, and flags anomalies so you can focus on strategy.

For example, you could tell it: “If a keyword has more than 20 conversions but sales have dropped in the past 14 days, increase its bid by 5%.” And just like that, it’ll do the work for you — either on a schedule or when you choose to apply it.

You can choose how often the rule runs — daily, weekly, or monthly. And you stay in control: you can preview the changes before they’re made or let the system run them automatically.

Amazon has its own built-in automation tools, but they can feel rigid, limited, and hard to trust. You don’t get much control, and customization is minimal.

With Optmyzr, it’s easier. You can build your own rules, use external data like spreadsheets or CRMs, and make changes across your accounts — all from one place.

You decide what happens and when.

With Rule Engine, you can:

• Get alerts for performance changes
• Build custom reports for Amazon Ads optimization
• Automatically increase or decrease bids
• Add high-performing search terms as keywords
• Pause underperforming ASINs or ads
• Work across scopes like campaign, ad group, placement, product target, and more
• Integrate external data to drive decisions

Growth-driven Amazon PPC automation: Boost what works

1. Report of trending search queries

Scope: Ad Group Search Term

This rule helps you find search terms that are gaining popularity week over week. For example, if a query had 100 impressions last week and now has 200, that’s a trend worth noticing.

You can also layer in performance filters like Orders > X, Ad Sales > Y, and ROAS > 200 to narrow it down to terms that are not only trending but also driving sales.

Why do this: Understanding which search terms are becoming more popular helps you know what your shoppers are searching for right now. You can then optimize your ads, keywords, and even product listings to match what they’re looking for.

2. Increase bids for high-converting keywords

Scope: Target → Keyword

Create a rule that looks for keywords that used to perform really well (say, more than 10 conversions in the last 90 days) but haven’t made many sales recently. Then, the rule increases the bid slightly to give that keyword a better chance to show again.

There’s also a reverse version of this strategy: decrease bids on keywords that have a high ACoS (they’re costing you more than they earn) and haven’t converted in a while.

Why do this: This strategy helps you give a gentle push to good keywords that might be losing visibility, and at the same time, avoid wasting money on poor performers.

3. Increase bids for high-converting audience targets

Scope: Target → Audience

Just like with keywords, you can apply the same logic to audience targeting, especially for Sponsored Display campaigns. If certain audiences are converting well, you can increase your bids to reach them more effectively.

Why do this: This ensures that your best-performing audience segments are getting the attention (and budget) they deserve. You don’t want to miss out on people who are most likely to buy.

4. Add converting ASIN search terms as product targets

Scope: Ad Group Search Term

Some search terms include ASINs, which means someone searched for a specific product. If your ad showed up and led to a conversion, you may want to target that ASIN directly.

Create a rule to find these ASIN search terms with good performance (maybe high ROAS or conversions), and add them as product targets.

Why do this: If a specific ASIN search is already converting, it’s smart to create a direct product targeting ad for it. You’re basically doubling down on what’s already working.

Waste-reducing Amazon PPC strategies: Pause what’s not performing

5. Pause non-converting ASINs

Scopes: Ad Group and ASIN

Let’s say you’ve structured your campaigns so that each ASIN has its own ad group. In that case, you can use the Ad Group scope to create a rule that directly pauses the entire ad group when the ASIN it represents isn’t performing well.

If your campaign structure is broader (where multiple ASINs exist within one ad group), use the ASIN scope to generate a report of individual ASINs that are underperforming. This lets you take action manually or explore restructuring if needed.

Why do this: If a product isn’t converting, there’s no point in continuing to spend on it, especially when budgets are limited. This helps you cut waste and focus on products that are bringing in sales.

6. Find incomplete or paused ads

Scope: Ads

Sometimes ads stop running due to issues like budget caps or Amazon policy review. This rule helps you spot those issues before they cost you days of lost visibility.

Set a condition like: If serving status is “Out of Budget”, “Incomplete”, “Paused”, etc. → Include in Report.

Why do this: You don’t want to miss out on traffic just because of a setup issue. This keeps your ads running smoothly.

Precision targeting: Smarter keyword lists & placement bidding

7. Add keywords based on text matches in search terms

Scope: Ad Group Search Term

Let’s say you want to add keywords that contain your brand name or competitor names. You can write a rule that checks for those words in customer search terms and adds them as keywords.

You can also link a spreadsheet with the list of words you want to match and reference it using “External List Data.”

Why do this: This makes your keyword strategy much more flexible and easy to update, especially if you work across multiple brands or categories.

8. Add high-performing search terms as keywords

Scope: Ad Group Search Term

Use this rule to convert successful search terms (those that brought in sales or had great ROAS) into actual keywords. You can use the pre-built strategy, “Add New Keywords“, to get started.

Why do this: High-performing search terms deserve to be tracked and optimized as exact-match keywords. It gives you more control over bidding and performance.

9. Increase bids for ‘Rest of Search’ placement

Scope: Campaign Placement

Not all ad placements are equal. While top-of-search is often seen as the premium spot, the “Rest of Search” can also bring great results at lower costs. You can set a rule to monitor its performance (in terms of sales, clicks, conversions, etc.) and increase bids if it’s doing well.

Why do this: This helps you make the most of every placement opportunity — even the ones other advertisers often ignore.

Start automating Amazon PPC with Optmyzr

You now have nine practical Amazon PPC automation strategies used by actual advertisers that you can try in your own accounts. From bid and keyword optimization to placement targeting, each strategy is designed to reduce manual effort while keeping your performance in check.

In fact, here’s what one customer, Matthieu Tran-Van, had to say:

“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.”

And the best part? You don’t need to build them from scratch. You can start with our pre-built templates, like:

• Expensive Search Queries
• Bid to Target ACoS
• Find Campaigns Limited by Budget

Try them out, tweak the conditions, and set them on automation.

If you’re not an Optmyzr customer yet, start a 14-day free trial and test these strategies in your own account. If you need help, our support team is always available to walk you through the setup.

People also ask

1. What is Optmyzr’s Rule Engine, and how does it help with Amazon Ads?

It’s a tool that helps you build custom rules for managing your Amazon Ads, without needing to write any code. You tell it what to look for and what to do when those conditions are met.

2. Will the Rule Engine make changes automatically without me knowing?

No. The Rule Engine will never make changes to your Amazon Ads account without your explicit approval. By default, all strategies show a preview of suggested changes before anything is applied. You can also configure it to only send notifications, even if automated. Automatic changes only happen if and when you turn it on deliberately.

3. How is this better than Amazon’s built-in automation?

Optmyzr offers more control, custom rules, and the ability to use external data sources. Plus, it works across accounts and has built-in reporting and alerting.

4. Do I need to be technical to set this up?

Not at all. If you know what you want to optimize, the tool helps you build the rule logic step-by-step. Pre-built templates are also available to get you started faster.

How to Optimize Your Amazon Listings to Boost Ad Performance

Many advertisers invest significant time and effort into setting up Amazon ads, refining targeting, and monitoring performance metrics. Despite this, conversions can remain frustratingly low.

Often, the missing piece isn’t the ad strategy itself, but the product listings. While it’s easy to focus on ad optimization, the quality of a product listing plays a critical role in turning ad clicks into actual sales.

Elements like titles, images, bullet points, and A+ content might seem like minor details, but they directly influence click-through rates, relevance scores, and ultimately, conversions.

This article explores why listing quality deserves as much attention as advertising strategy and how strengthening it can drive better performance and more sales.

What you’ll learn in this guide:

• The connection between product listing quality and Amazon Ads performance
• How to craft better product titles, bullet points, and descriptions
• Why keyword research matters (and how to do it effectively)
• How to use A+ Content and images to boost conversion rates
• Tips for syncing listing optimization with campaign structure
• Common pitfalls to avoid (and how to fix them)
• Tools that can help speed up and scale your optimization efforts

The connection between listing quality and ad performance

Amazon’s algorithm evaluates both organic and paid placements as part of the same system.

This means the quality of the product listing affects not just organic search rankings, but also ad placement, CPCs, and ROAS.

Amazon uses a Product Listing Quality Score (PLQS) to rate your listing’s clarity, completeness, and relevance. It’s based on two things:

1. How well listings are optimized
2. How often shoppers view them

Better scores correlate to better visibility of paid and organic results.

Source

How listing elements impact different advertising metrics

Main Image → Click-Through Rate (CTR)

Your main image drives clicks. If it’s blurry, cluttered, or doesn’t stand out, shoppers scroll past. That means you’re paying for impressions that don’t convert to visits.

Gallery Images, Bullets, A+ Content → Conversion Rate

Once shoppers land on your page, your gallery, bullet points, and A+ content need to close the sale. Weak visuals or vague info lead to hesitation and lost conversions (even if your ad targeting was perfect).

Keywords → Relevance Scores

Keywords in your title, bullets, and backend fields help Amazon match your product with the right searches. Stuffing keywords won’t help; relevance and intent alignment matter more.

Where bad listings drain your budget

The account might be bidding and targeting efficiently, but poor listings can still burn through ad spend. Here’s where most sellers lose money without realizing it:

• Paying for clicks that bounce: Even well-placed ads can fail if shoppers land on a confusing or underwhelming product page. Each bounce is a paid visit that goes nowhere
• Attracting the wrong audience: When listings lack precision, especially in keyword usage and messaging, you end up drawing clicks from people who were never a good fit
• Missing chances to build trust: If a brand is enrolled in Amazon Brand Registry but isn’t using Enhanced Brand Content (A+ Content), it’s missing out on the opportunity to add rich visuals, comparison charts, and detailed product storytelling to its listings. This extra content helps differentiate the brand, reduces purchase hesitation, and ultimately boosts conversions
• Lower future ad efficiency: Poor engagement metrics (like bounce rate and low conversion) signal to Amazon that listings underperform, which can increase CPCs over time

Start with competitor analysis

Even if your ads are already running, revisiting your competitors’ listings and ad strategies can highlight gaps in your own.

It’s especially useful if you’re seeing high click volume but poor conversions, signs that your competitors may be doing a better job aligning their listings with search intent.

1. Search top keywords on Amazon

Think like your customer. What exact phrases would they type to find your product? This is your opportunity to see who ranks organically and who’s actively paying for ads.

Note the brand names, keywords they used, and the overall presentation of their main images.

For example, a brand launching a 32L carry-on travel backpack would want to search for terms like ‘32L travel backpack’ or ‘carry-on travel backpack’ on Amazon.

Dive into both organic and sponsored listings to gather insights:

• Top organic results: Established brands like Nomatic, Samsonite, or Venture Pal may often be seen leading the way.

• Top ad results: The Sponsored Product spots may feature newer or lesser-known brands trying to secure the top positions.

2. Check “Customers also viewed” & “Compare with similar items”

Scroll down and check the “Customers Also Viewed” and “Compare with Similar Items” sections.

These sections show what else customers are seriously considering — they’re a shortcut to understanding their decision-making.

For the backpack, competitors like Osprey, Thule, or private-label sellers may appear.

Pay attention to highlighted features like expandable compartments, anti-theft zippers, or USB charging ports; these are likely important to the target audience.

3. See who’s bidding on your keywords

Pay attention to the sponsored ads for your keywords. These are the brands actively paying to get in front of your audience.

Are big brands defending their turf, or are new players trying to break in?

Also, observe how frequently brands appear. Daily visibility may mean solid budget backing. In-and-out appearances might suggest testing or limited spend.

4. Analyze their product listings

Now, dig into the nitty-gritty of competitors’ product pages. Start with their titles. Are they packing in high-ranking keywords like “airline-approved,” “water-resistant,” or “weekender”?

Titles are prime real estate. Make sure yours is packed with the right high-intent terms.

Next, check out their bullet points and descriptions. How do they position the benefits of their products? Are they focusing on comfort, durability, or something else?

This gives you a sense of what their audience values. Additionally, see if they are using A+ content for better visibility.

Check the type of visuals they are using as well. Are they using lifestyle shots (someone at an airport, packing for a trip) or sticking to white-background product photos?

Lastly, don’t skip the reviews. They give you a window into customer priorities, praise, and complaints

5. Monitor their ad activity over time

One search isn’t enough. Revisit your top competitors’ listings regularly (e.g., every few days for 2–3 weeks).

Track how frequently their ads show up and how their placements change. This helps you spot trends:

• Are brands investing long-term?
• Are they testing new creatives?
• Is seasonality playing a role?

Tracking this over time will help you get a sense of who’s really investing and who’s just dipping their toes in the water.

6. Study their video ads (if any)

If your competitors are running video ads, take a close look at them.

Video is a huge opportunity to connect with your audience, so pay attention to the style and pacing. Are they showcasing the product’s features, or are they telling a story?

Clear calls-to-action and real-life visuals usually do the heavy lifting. Think about how you could use these elements to position your product in a way that resonates.

7. Estimate their budget and ACoS

You can’t see your competitors’ exact ad spend, but you can make some pretty solid guesses based on how often their ads show up and what keywords they’re bidding on.

Start by checking the price point of their product. If they’re running lots of ads for a $30 item, their ACoS (Advertising Cost of Sale) needs to stay fairly low to stay profitable, which might mean they’re optimizing hard or have strong conversion rates.

If a brand keeps appearing for expensive keywords like “carry-on travel backpack” every time you search, chances are they’ve got a healthy budget or they’re laser-focused on dominating that niche.

Over time, tracking how often they show up can give you a decent estimate of who’s really investing in ads (and who might be easier to outbid).

8. Organize your findings in a spreadsheet

All these insights are only helpful if you can keep track of them. Create a simple spreadsheet to compare competitors side-by-side. Here’s what to include:

• Competitor names and ASINs: So you can quickly revisit their listings and track changes over time
• Key products and price points: What are their best-selling or most visible items? How are they priced compared to yours?
• Primary keywords they target: Which search terms consistently trigger their ads or organic placements?
• Unique selling propositions (USPs): What do they emphasize: durability, style, features, eco-friendliness?
• Ad types they use most: Are they relying on Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, or video ads?
• Estimated ad spend: Based on frequency of ads and keyword competition (You won’t get exact numbers, but rough guesses help.)
• Strengths and weaknesses: Where do they shine, and where could you do better? Maybe they have great lifestyle images, but weak bullet points

9. Tips for putting your research into action

Now that you’ve done the research, here’s how to turn it into action:

1. Test before you go all-in: If you spot something clever in a competitor’s ad strategy, don’t blindly copy it. Run a small campaign to see if it actually works for your product and audience.
2. Look for gaps they’re missing: Sometimes the best opportunities are where others aren’t looking. Find keywords that still get searches but don’t have a lot of competition and claim that space.
3. Lean into what makes your product better: Don’t just blend in. If you offer something competitors don’t (better warranty, more durable material, simpler design), make it loud and clear in your ads and listings.
4. Be strategic with your bids: You don’t need to outspend everyone. Just make sure you’re bidding smart on the keywords that matter most for your conversions.
5. Use their weak spots to your advantage: If other listings are vague or missing reviews, make your copy sharp and specific. Highlight trust signals like customer testimonials, guarantees, or certifications.
6. Stay flexible with your budget: If big brands are flooding the space, you may need to invest more to compete or get creative and focus on angles they’re ignoring.

Optimizing titles

Your product title is one of the most important elements Amazon uses to rank and display your listing. It’s also one of the first things shoppers see, so it needs to be both keyword-rich and customer-friendly.

Each category has specific title length limits (typically around 200 characters including spaces, but some are lower). Yet, it’s recommended to keep your title under 80 characters.

Here are some more guidelines to optimize your titles:

• Place your primary and most relevant keywords at the beginning of the title
• Avoid creating keyword fluff by repeating primary keywords or their synonyms
• Use numerals instead of spelling out numbers (e.g., pack of 2)
• Avoid adding subjective commentary like bestseller, customer favorite, hot selling, etc.
• Add information related to size and color variants in the child ASIN (not the product ASIN)

For example, here’s a title that breaks all of these rules:

• It repeats similar phrases like “Food Storage Container,” “Food Keeper,” and “Storage Solution”
• It includes hype words like “Bestselling,” “Hot Selling,” and “Must-Have”
• It spells out the number “Three” instead of using “3”
• It mentions “Clear Color,” which should only appear in the child ASIN
• The primary keyword isn’t placed at the front

A better version that follows all the guidelines would be:

• The keyword is placed at the beginning
• No repetition or unnecessary synonyms
• Numerals are used
• No subjective terms
• Variant info, like color, is left for the child ASIN

How to find the right keywords for your titles

Before you even write your title, you need to know which keywords your customers are actually using and, just as importantly, which ones to avoid.

A good starting point is to:

• Look at top-ranking listings for your main product terms and note the keyword patterns they use
• Use tools like Amazon’s Search Term Report (via Sponsored Products) to see what queries are already bringing traffic
• Explore autocomplete suggestions in the Amazon search bar to see real-time popular phrases
• Pay attention to reviews and competitor A+ content to catch recurring language customers use organically

Using bullet points

Bullet points do more than just list out features; they work in two key ways.

First, they help shoppers quickly see what your product offers, which can lead to more sales.

Second, bullet points give you a natural place to work in relevant keywords. When written well, they improve your visibility without feeling forced.

So they’re not just helpful for people, they’re helpful for algorithms too.

To make the most of your bullet points, follow this structure for high-converting results:

• Keep formatting and length consistent: When your bullets are roughly the same length and follow a consistent format, shoppers are more likely to read through them instead of skipping.
• Use all available bullet points: Amazon gives sellers 5 and vendors 10 bullets. Each bullet is an opportunity to add value, address concerns, or highlight use cases that resonate with different types of buyers.
• Lead with benefits, follow with features: Think like a shopper. Instead of saying, “Made with stainless steel,” say, “Rust-resistant and built to last- made with durable stainless steel.” The benefit captures attention; the feature supports it.
• Avoid keyword repetition: Repeating the same phrases wastes space and doesn’t help with ranking. Instead, spread out your keyword targeting by using related terms and phrases across different bullets.

Image optimization

Your product images aren’t just decorative, they directly impact how many people click on your listing in search results and ads.

The critical role of the main image in ad CTR

The main image is the first thing shoppers see when your product appears in search results or Sponsored Product ads. It’s what gets them to slow down, take notice, and click.

A compelling, high-quality main image can significantly improve your click-through rate (CTR), which in turn feeds into your ad performance and organic rankings.

If your image is unclear, too zoomed out, or doesn’t stand out visually, your listing is more likely to be ignored (even if your product is great).

What makes an effective main image?

If you’re wondering whether your main image is doing its job, ask yourself these questions:

👉Is the background pure white?
Amazon requires a true white background (#FFFFFF) to keep listings clean and consistent. This also helps your product stand out in search results.

👉Does the product fill the frame correctly?
Aim for about 85% of the frame; big enough to show detail, but not so large that it gets cropped or looks awkward. Is your product too small or too zoomed in?

👉Are the colors and contrast accurate?
Good lighting should bring out the product’s true color and texture. Is the product clearly visible, or do shadows and low contrast make it look dull?

👉Is there anything extra in the image?
The main image should be clean; no text, logos, badges, or extra props. Those elements can go in your secondary images, where you have more creative flexibility.

Gallery images best practices

Your main image grabs attention, but gallery images help seal the deal. They give shoppers a deeper look at what your product can do and how it fits into their lives.

Here are some simple tips to make your gallery images work harder👇

• Lifestyle images showing use cases: People want to see how your product fits into their daily life. Instead of just showing the product on its own, show it being used in real situations.

  For example, say someone searches for “waterproof earbuds for swimming.” To resonate deeply with the researcher, here’s an image that will work:

Source

• Infographics for key features: Sometimes, words can’t do the product justice. Infographics are great for highlighting standout features quickly and clearly. You can use them to explain things like durability, functionality, or what makes your product unique.
• Size/dimension references: Size is one of the biggest questions shoppers have. A simple image showing your product next to a common item (like a coffee cup or a piece of furniture) or with clear dimensions helps them understand exactly what they’re buying.
• Before/after demonstrations: If your product promises results, like a cleaning product or a beauty tool, before-and-after shots are incredibly powerful. It’s one of the best ways to prove your product works and build trust with potential buyers.
• Text overlays with consistent branding: Gallery images are a great place to add text overlays, but keep them minimal and consistent. Whether it’s highlighting a special feature or reinforcing your brand, make sure your text style and tone match the rest of your listing.

A+ Content

A+ Content goes beyond the basics to tell your product or brand story in a more engaging, visual way.

High-quality visuals and clean layouts grab attention faster than plain text.

You can proactively address common customer concerns and questions through dedicated modules within your A+ content.

Why A+ content sells

Here’s how A+ Content helps you sell more:

• It grabs attention: Bold visuals and clean design stand out more than plain text and keep shoppers engaged.
• It explains your product better: Highlight key features and help shoppers understand how your product solves a problem or fits into their lives.
• It builds trust: Professional, polished content gives your brand credibility and shoppers the confidence to make a purchase.
• It answers common questions: Use your A+ modules to proactively address common hesitations and reduce drop-off.
• It looks great on mobile: A+ Content is built to work on small screens, too, which is important for shoppers browsing and buying through mobile devices
• It tells your story: Don’t just list features; tell people why your brand exists, what makes you different, and why they should choose you.

What makes A+ content really work?

If you want your A+ Content to truly drive conversions, keep these pointers in mind:

👉Stick to a clean, consistent look. Match your brand’s colors, fonts, and tone. Keep the design simple and easy to follow. You don’t want a cluttered layout getting in the way of your message.

👉Use comparison charts. If you have similar products or different models, a side-by-side chart helps shoppers quickly spot the differences. It makes decisions easier and quicker.

👉Add lifestyle photos. Show your product in action. Whether it’s a kitchen gadget in a real kitchen or a beauty product in a daily routine, these images help people picture themselves using it.

👉Highlight real problems (and how you solve them). Think about what pain points your product solves. Show the “before and after.” Make it obvious how your product makes life easier or better.

👉Include subtle social proof. While you can’t repost customer reviews, you can mention awards, recognition, or even use callouts like “trusted by thousands” (as long as it’s true and within Amazon’s guidelines). It helps reassure new buyers that they’re making a smart choice.

Monitoring and optimization

Listings need consistent oversight to maintain strong performance. Here’s how to build a reliable system for monitoring and improving them:

Track changes and their impact

Document all listing updates, including titles, images, descriptions, keywords, and monitor the effect on performance metrics like impressions, clicks, CTR, and conversions.

Run regular audits

You don’t want to wait until something’s broken to look for issues. Set aside time every couple of weeks to run a full audit of your account.

This will help you catch underperforming campaigns or missed opportunities before they add up.

Optmyzr offers a solid set of Amazon audits you can use to dig deep. These audits cover everything from:

• Campaign performance: Are any of your campaigns running below target ROAS, or not spending their full daily budget?
• Ad groups: Check for ad groups that have too many keywords or not enough, so you can optimize targeting.
• Keywords: Identify expensive keywords that aren’t converting, or low-CTR terms that might need tweaking.
• Products: Get visibility into ASINs that aren’t showing up in campaigns or performing poorly.
• Placements and audiences: See which placements and audience targeting are driving the most engagement and conversions.

Running these audits regularly helps you make sure everything’s working together to drive results.

Stay on top of seasonal shifts

Seasonality can have a huge impact on keyword performance. Things like Black Friday, Prime Day, or back-to-school sales can shift how consumers search for products.

Track keyword trends and be ready to adjust your bidding and targeting strategies accordingly.

Keep an eye on competitors

Competitors are constantly adjusting their strategies, too. Take note of their listing updates, like new images or updated keywords, and see how it impacts their performance.

If they’re gaining traction, maybe it’s time to tweak your listings or adjust your ad strategy to stay competitive.

Better listings power better ads

Optimizing your Amazon ads goes far beyond adjusting bids. More often than not, the real issue is what happens after the click. Weak images, vague bullet points, or unclear value props quietly chip away at your conversions and your budget.

That’s why it pays to keep a close eye on your listings, not just your campaign settings.

Optmyzr helps you spot where things are falling through the cracks, like which products are eating up spend without selling, or which keywords bring in traffic but not results.

Want to see how it can help? Sign up for a fully functional 14-day trial today!

Why (And How) Optmyzr’s AI Beats ChatGPT at Managing Google Ads

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.

Watch how Metrik Marketing impressed their clients by adding Optmyzr’s AI-powered summaries to their reports:

{{< youtube id=“S_cDh1-hci4” title=“Metrik Marketing Case Study” >}}

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.

Turn insights into action

Optmyzr doesn’t just surface insights, it helps you act on them instantly. On one platform, you can:

• 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.

Here’s what Deki Hoek, Channel Manager, BBQGuys, had to say about Optmyzr’s AI:

“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.

Beyond the Automation Blackbox: Why Human + Machine Still Wins In Paid Media

Automation and AI are steadily taking center stage in modern advertising. They are deeply integrated across almost every stage of campaign management, including campaign creation, bidding, audience targeting, optimization, and reporting.

While these systems are necessary for scaling efforts and improving efficiency, the catch is that many of these tools start to resemble black boxes. You’ve very little control and visibility into what’s happening. This makes it harder to align performance with real business goals.

The pace of AI innovation in PPC is only going to accelerate, and we need to make sure we layer these systems with human insight, so we’re not just letting the machine take over, but using it to make smarter, more strategic decisions.

In this blog, we’ll explore how the human + machine approach helps you maintain visibility, adapt with confidence, and drive stronger campaign outcomes in an increasingly automated world.

The automation black box

Automation can handle repetitive tasks by following set rules, like adjusting bids or pausing ads. At the same time, AI goes further, learning from patterns in data to make predictions and optimize decisions.

The problem is when marketers rely on these systems alone without human oversight. It leads to missed context and inefficient spend because we’re relying on decisions that prioritize machine logic over actual business goals.

For example, an automated bidding rule might reduce bids in response to a sudden drop in conversions. This makes sense if the drop is due to changes in user behavior or interest.

What if it’s not the full picture?

What if conversion rates dropped not because people aren’t interested in your product anymore, but because of a sudden external factor, like a payment gateway outage or a tracking error?

Even though some AI models can factor in landing page experience over time, they may not be able to distinguish between a temporary glitch and a real shift in user behavior in the moment. As a result, the system reacts to the symptom, not the cause—lowering bids, cutting traffic, and ultimately hurting campaign performance for the wrong reasons.

Meanwhile, the real issue goes unaddressed.

Human context still matters

AI can detect what’s happening, but often lacks the context to explain why it’s happening. That distinction is critical.

Consider Betty, who manages ads for a mortgage lender. She switches to Smart Bidding with a goal to get more leads at a lower cost. Initially, performance improves. Over time, however, she notices that while form submissions have increased, actual mortgage approvals have declined.

The algorithm had been optimized for volume, not lead quality.

Betty and her team review the data to identify the characteristics of high-converting leads. They adjust the system’s inputs to reflect those insights.

Now, Smart Bidding focuses on high-quality leads. Form fills decrease, but closed mortgages go up.

Automation layering makes humans and machines work at scale

Automation delivers the best results when it’s paired with human strategy. That’s how advertising becomes smarter, more adaptable, and truly performance-driven.

That’s where automation layering comes in. It involves placing a layer of business-aware logic over platform automation to guide decisions more effectively.

You can guide these systems using custom rules, data, and signals that reflect real business goals rather than relying solely on generic campaign metrics.

What makes automation layering important?

Automation layering gives you a way to stay in control, even in an increasingly automated, black-box environment. It enables you to:

• Adapt quickly to changes in platform rules and policies
• Regain strategic oversight of automated decisions
• Feed the machine high-quality data and real business signals

Optmyzr’s platform is designed to empower you to work with automation rather than just passively using it. The goal is always to give you more control over how automation decisions are made and to customize at scale.

Here’s a quick look at some of Optmyzr’s key features that give you the flexibility to act as the strategic layer that platforms like Google Ads can’t replicate:

1. Rule-based optimizations

Optmyzr’s Rule Engine is our solution to the question ‘How to automate while still being in control?’.

It keeps your campaigns running smoothly, giving you precise control over your campaigns with automation working like clockwork in the background. You can use simple ‘if-this-then-that’ statements to define custom rules to monitor your campaigns, keywords, ad groups, and more. All with minimal manual intervention from your end.

Our customers in fact, have used Rule Engine in multiple ways to bypass Google Ads limitations. Be it to stay on top of budgets, monitor keyword match types, or adjust ROAS/CPA targets based on the weather.

You can either choose from a list of pre-built strategies to make things easier, or use custom strategies based on your business goals.

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2. Budget automation with seasonal logic

Optmyzr gives you the flexibility to adjust ad spends automatically during periods when your business is likely to see more (or less) activity, like holidays, sales periods, or specific months that typically perform better.

You define rules that:

• Increase your budget during busy seasons (e.g., November–December)
• Pause or limit spending when performance drops
• Shift budgets between campaigns based on real-time results

Once these rules are configured, you simply have to define the right performance triggers and time frames and define what should happen when they are met.

3. Campaign creation powered by your data feed

If you own a business where your product catalog or list of services change quite often— with new items, price drops, or stock updates, Optmyzr’s Campaign Automator can be quite handy.

It can automatically build entire campaigns for you based on your data feed. The best part is that if something changes in your feed, say a product goes out of stock, Campaign Automator will auto-update your ads without manual intervention.

You can tell it to do things like increase bids for discounted items or pause ads for sold-out products, based on rules you set. It takes care of those repetitive, manual parts of campaign management while you focus on the most important part— strategy.

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4. Custom alerts and scripts

Optmyzr lets you set up custom alerts to stay on top of key changes. For example, Anomaly Alerts notify you automatically when metrics like cost, impressions, or clicks shift unexpectedly, so you can catch issues early without constant manual monitoring.

You also have access to enhanced scripts that can help you automate and streamline tasks. For example, the Check Destination URLs script scans landing pages for errors like 404 or 500, generating a report on problematic links. This helps you quickly fix or remove broken links to ensure a smooth user experience.

Together, these features reinforce the “human + machine” model — enabling you to not just monitor but add meaningful insights and logic to your campaigns, even in an increasingly automated ecosystem.

What to do? Build a smarter, more agile PPC stack

Now is a good time to take a step back and re-evaluate how automation, data, and tools are being used in your PPC workflow. The key question is—are you guiding automation with your strategy, or just letting it run on autopilot?

Whether you’re reassessing your current setup or looking to future-proof your campaign, here’s a simple checklist to guide your next move:

• Think beyond systems that obscure the ‘why’ behind campaign performance. Opt for platforms where every rule, logic, and recommendation is visible and adaptable
• Use business signals and contextual data to infuse human context into automation. For example, feed CRM data and offline conversions back to Google to teach it how to identify ‘real’ conversions
• Review bidding and attribution strategies to see if they are aligned with real profit metrics and to understand what’s actually working

Rebuild smarter. Automate better.

Automation is everywhere and will continue to grow exponentially. The key is in learning how to use it. Not blindly. Not in isolation. But, with a human-first approach that guides and amplifies what machines can do.

And this is precisely why the most successful advertisers are the ones who combine automation with human insight, creativity, and control.

So if you’re looking for a smarter way forward, now’s the time to future-proof your PPC stack — with tools that are transparent, adaptable, and built for how you work.

Ready to experience automation layering in action? Sign up for a free 14 day trial with Optmyzr.

The 2025 Tariff Crisis: What It Means for Advertisers (And How to Survive It)

A sweeping 10% tariff now applies to nearly all imports to the US, with a staggering 125% duty on goods from China (as of this post). While many prices haven’t surged yet, they will soon.

When they do, advertisers will be one of the first to feel the pressure.

Ad budgets will likely get cut, retailers will scramble, clients may panic and as always, marketing will be expected to do more with less.

Thankfully, history and our friends are a wealth of proactive advice!

We’ve dug into previous trade wars and gathered insights from top advertisers, agency leaders, and marketing economists.

In this guide, we’ll break down:

• What history tells us about the impact of tariffs on marketing
• What’s different (and more dangerous) in 2025
• How to protect your budget, prove your value, and keep your strategy sharp — even in a downturn

What does history tell us about tariffs and ad budgets?

This isn’t the first time tariffs have shaken the economy. Here’s what we saw in the past:

“Steel tariffs” (2002–2003)

• U.S. steel prices rose by ~30%
• Auto and appliance industries slashed marketing and hiring
• Ad spend dropped in durable goods and B2B categories

U.S.-China trade war (2018–2020)

• 25% tariffs on $250B in Chinese imports
• Ad spending in retail dropped 5%, and auto ads fell 7%
• Consumer prices rose 1.7% to 7%
• Marketers shifted toward performance channels, cutting broad branding efforts

The common thread here is that when margins get squeezed, advertising is one of the first things on the chopping block. Brands either pull back or shift to lower-cost, more trackable channels.

What makes 2025 different?

According to NRF and Deloitte, 2025’s economic outlook is more fragile than that of prior years:

• Retail growth projections dropped to 2.7–3.7%, down from a previously forecasted 4.5%.
• Ad growth projections were already revised down by Madison & Wall and MAGNA before the full extent of the tariffs was known.
• The IAB reports that 94% of advertisers are worried about cuts, and 60% expect ad budget reductions of 6% to 10%.

Layer on continued inflation, geopolitical tensions, and inventory challenges, and we’re looking at a perfect storm.

What problems could you face, and how could you overcome them?

Here’s what you could be dealing with in the coming months and what today’s top experts suggest doing about it.

Problem 1: Budgets could disappear overnight.

“We had Q2 spend planned and ready — the next day, it was on hold indefinitely.”

— Casey Gill, WebSavvy

“We’re seeing panic responses. Some clients are scaling back before they even run the numbers.”

— Dii Pooler, Pooler Digital

Why this matters:

When headlines trigger panic, budget cuts often happen suddenly — and without warning. If you’re not pacing spend in real time or watching for campaign spikes, you could miss your window to adjust before the budget’s already gone.

What to do:

• Offer weekly pacing + ROI check-ins to give clients a sense of control
• Prepare “what-if” scenarios so you’re not caught scrambling
• Show how even small budgets can still drive performance with the right optimizations

How Optmyzr helps:

Optmyzr’s Budget Pacing feature shows how spend is tracking relative to the ideal pace for the month, adjusting for seasonality, days elapsed, and linear benchmarks. It flags whether you’re underspending or overspending at any point, so you can rebalance before it’s too late.

On top of that, the Anomaly Detector script alerts you when key metrics (like cost, conversions, or impressions) suddenly deviate from expected levels, even down to the hour. That way, if a campaign starts to underperform or overspend before leadership cuts the budget, you already know, and you’re already acting.

“The Budget Pacing tool is a team favorite. It allows us to show visually where the money is going and helps us figure out where best to invest the budget for clients.”

— Mike Rhodes, WebSavvy

Problem 2: You’re optimizing for margins that no longer exist.

“Clients are still optimizing based on pre-tariff product costs. That’s a trap.”

— Duane Brown, CEO, Take Some Risk

“Some brands are upside down on containers they already sold. They’ll lose money on every order once tariffs hit.”

— Sam Tomlinson, EVP, Warschwaski

Why this matters:

If your campaigns are still built around old pricing models, you’re likely overbidding, overexposing, and over-promising. With tariffs pushing up COGS, even previously “profitable” SKUs may now be selling at a loss.

You need to realign your bids and targeting around current product profitability, not pre-tariff assumptions.

What to do:

• Help clients recalculate post-tariff margins and rebuild campaign targets accordingly
• Segment and prioritize products based on actual margin, availability, and pricing competitiveness
• Replace aggressive discounts with value-based messaging (e.g. bundles, eco causes, loyalty perks)

How Optmyzr helps:

Optmyzr makes it easier to respond to shifting margins with tools that give you granular visibility and control over your product-level campaigns.

With the Shopping Feed Audit, you can catch issues like overlapping products, disapproved listings, missing data, or overpriced SKUs — all before they waste spend.

The Product Group widget helps you split large product groups into tighter segments, so you’re not bidding the same on high-margin and low-margin SKUs.

The Custom Label widget lets you tag products dynamically based on margin, stock level, or pricing competitiveness so your campaigns always stay aligned with your business goals.

“Optmyzr’s monitoring, alerting system, and shopping feed audit were incredibly helpful in keeping campaigns and product feeds optimized. The reporting features generate qualitative reports with one click, which is invaluable during high-demand periods.”

— Matthieu Tran-Van, Consultant

Problem 3: Global messaging needs to shift fast.

“We’re softening our U.S. brand voice when advertising in Canada.”

— Julia Vyse, Digital Director, Dentsu Digital

“Messaging that leans on ‘Made in America’ is landing differently across regions — sometimes not at all.”

— Marilois Snowman, CEO, Mediastruction

Why this matters:

Tariffs aren’t just an economic issue — they’re an emotional one. In times of global tension, how you talk can matter just as much as what you sell.

Messaging that worked three months ago might now feel tone-deaf or even offensive, depending on the market. Geo-sensitive campaigns are no longer optional; they’re essential.

What to do:

• Run structured A/B tests across markets to learn what tone, phrasing, or offer resonates best
• Experiment with angles like:
  “Inventory landed before tariff hikes.”
  “Local quality, global delivery”
• Reassess ad copy weekly based on geo-specific performance

How Optmyzr helps:

Optmyzr gives you everything you need to adapt messaging and targeting by geography without guesswork.

• The Geo Heatmap helps you spot which locations are driving ROI, and which ones are costing you without converting. You can visualize this data using a heatmap segmented by city, region, or country.

• Geo Bid Adjustments lets you automatically raise or lower bids based on a location’s past performance, even if that region wasn’t previously targeted.
• And if you’re managing multiple ad accounts, the Ad Analyzer helps you scan campaigns to find winning creatives and flag poor performers across locations, including Meta Ads placements.

Problem 4: Ad spend is being reallocated across channels.

“Search is still seen as gold in volatile times.”

— Ewan McIntyre, Gartner VP & Analyst

“Microsoft Ads is a smart play right now. Low competition, solid returns.”

— Casey Gill, WebSavvy

Why this matters:

When uncertainty hits, advertisers stop experimenting and go back to what works. Search, Shopping, and email/SMS retention tend to hold strong, while CPM-heavy or top-funnel channels often take the first hit.

The challenge is that many advertisers still have their budgets locked into legacy structures — channels that are now too expensive, or product groups that are no longer profitable.

What to do:

• Rebalance toward ROI-driven channels like search + shopping
• Test platforms with lower CPMs (Microsoft, Pinterest, Reddit)
• Double down on email + SMS for retention

How Optmyzr helps:

Optmyzr’s Shopping Campaign Management tool gives you the flexibility and control needed to confidently shift spend where it performs best, especially during volatility.

• Launch Google Shopping, Performance Max Retail, or Optmyzr Smart Campaigns (with Target ROAS baked in) all in just a few clicks
• Use feed-based rules to filter which products go into each campaign based on performance or custom attributes like margin or price sensitivity
• Restructure existing Shopping or PMax campaigns, even those created outside of Optmyzr, by splitting product groups or redefining ad group hierarchies
• Reallocate budget dynamically across campaigns and ad groups using advanced bidding and targeting settings
• Sync campaigns with real-time feed changes from your Merchant Center — keeping your product ads up-to-date, without constant manual intervention

Problem 5: Inventory gaps will tank your ROI.

“You can’t run ads on products that are out of stock. That kills trust.”

— Andrew Dimitriou, Global Marketing Strategist

“We’ve got brands promoting SKUs they literally don’t have anymore. That’s wasted spend.”

— Sam Tomlinson

“Inventory unpredictability is back, just like COVID. If your messaging doesn’t match your shelf, you’re in trouble.”

— Julie Friedman Bacchini, Founder, Neptune Moon

Why this matters:

Tariffs are already disrupting global supply chains, and as delays and stockouts increase, you risk spending real dollars promoting products that simply aren’t available.

This kind of misalignment doesn’t just waste budget. It confuses customers and erodes trust.

What to do:

• Sync campaigns with real-time inventory feeds or Merchant Center updates
• Prioritize products with healthy stock levels and solid margins
• Monitor campaign performance weekly to catch unexpected drops tied to inventory or feed issues

How Optmyzr helps:

Optmyzr helps you stay ahead of inventory-related issues by surfacing exactly what’s causing your campaign performance to slip, so you can take quick, focused action.

• The PPC Investigator analyzes your account’s data and pinpoints the root cause of performance changes, like a drop in conversions or ROAS. Whether it’s a paused product group, an out-of-stock SKU, or a feed issue, you’ll know exactly what’s driving the problem and where to fix it.

• With the Cause Chart and Root Cause Analysis, you can drill down by campaign, keyword, product type, or placement to get full visibility on performance volatility, especially helpful when your feed or inventory status is in flux.
• Pair this with the Shopping Feed Audit, which flags missing data, disapprovals, and products that have vanished from your campaigns before they create real revenue leaks.

What will smart marketers do differently?

The smartest advertisers right now are:

• Running margin-aware campaigns
• Shifting spend toward search, shopping, and retention
• Offering preemptive messaging around pricing
• Helping clients renegotiate SaaS and agency contracts
• Automating what can be automated to buy back time

As Jasmine Enberg from eMarketer put it:

“This is a new era of uncertainty, and marketers are already playing defense.”

You don’t need to panic. But you do need to plan.

Tariffs may be outside your control. But how you respond is where leadership lives.

If you only do 3 things after this:

• Re-calculate your margins and rebuild bids around profitability
• Pivot your messaging to match shifting inventory and customer sentiment
• Double down on automation to stretch your time and team further

And if you believe 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 can help you in detail, talk to one of our experts today for a consultation call.

Ecommerce PPC Experts Reveal the Biggest Mistakes Holding You Back in 2025

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.

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’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.

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.

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)
• Revenue skyrocketed from $5M to over $100M in just two years

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.

9 Powerful Automations to Manage Small Google Ads Accounts

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.

1. Anomaly alerts for quick issue detection
2. Automated budget pacing alerts
3. Pausing underperforming keywords
4. Managing search queries
5. High CTR alerts
6. Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) for discovery
7. Monitoring declining keywords
8. YouTube placement exclusions
9. 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.

For example:

• Underspending: Detecting campaigns performing below-expected spend levels (e.g., 82% lower than average)
• 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.

📈Optmyzr’s strategic alerts trim Morefire’s workload by 15% per account.

2. Track budgets with automated pacing alerts.

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.

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.

7 PPC Automations That Save You From Burnout

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.

1. Shopping campaign automations
2. Dynamic Search Ad (DSA) automations
3. Seasonality-based automations
4. Automated bidding automations
5. Keyword automations
6. Performance Max (PMax) automations
7. 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.

📈 Campaign Automator helped SearchLab Digital boost its client’s conversion rate by 42% since March 2022.

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!”

 

- Andreas L., Head of Paid Search, OMC Transact

Read more: 6 Rule Engine Strategies: How Optmyzr Customers Bypass Google Ads Limitations

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.

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.

Why Aren't My Google Ads Campaigns Getting Conversions?

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

1. Utilize conversion data from previous campaigns to speed up the initial learning period.
2. 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

1. Improve your keyword targeting by adding trending search terms to your keyword lists and excluding less relevant queries as negative keywords.
2. 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

1. 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.
2. 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

1. Keep your message on the landing page short, sweet, and directly related to what you’re offering.
2. 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.

How Optmyzr can be your ally

Feeling overwhelmed by these challenges? Optmyzr is aligned with your goals and objectives, ready to make managing Google Ads campaigns faster and simple. Here’s how it simplifies the process:

• 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.

12 Best Practices to Optimize Google Shopping Campaigns

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’s Shopping Feed Audits tool.

Try the tool now

3. Optimize Product Images and Videos.

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.

Read more: Optimizations for Automated Bidding

5. Leverage Google Merchant Center.

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.

Read more: Shopping Campaign Refresher 2.0

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.

More on that here

7. Use Negative Keywords.

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.

PPC Reporting: Goals, Tips, and Mistakes to Avoid While Creating Great Reports

You don’t need superpowers to create PPC reports that look good and keep your clients happy.

But creating good PPC reports without help is no cakewalk. They’re time-consuming, tedious, and ineffective when done poorly.

The reality is that reporting often gets lower priority for busy PPC pros. And when client budgets get slashed or expectations rise, advertisers are put to the test delivering reports that provide a solid enough snapshot to keep clients happy.

Beyond that, PPC reports build better client relationships and promote agency expansion. For that, a static monthly PDF of tables and charts is no longer enough. Your reports need to inform as well as excite your clients and convince them to keep doing business with you.

What are the most important goals for a PPC report?

To determine your specific PPC reporting goals, it’s essential to ask yourself the fundamental question: “What does success look like for my account?” Defining your ultimate objectives provides a clear sense of direction for all your PPC reporting efforts.

For some businesses, success might revolve around demonstrating consistent improvements in overall ROI. This implies that their primary focus is on the financial performance of their campaigns. 

Meanwhile, others may prioritize showcasing the progressive work they’ve done, emphasizing the tactics and strategies employed to achieve results. Additionally, high-level trends in the PPC data may be the focal point for businesses aiming to adapt and optimize their campaigns based on market dynamics.

Before creating your PPC report, it is crucial to establish clear and meaningful goals that will guide your reporting efforts.

The goals you set for your PPC reporting can vary significantly depending on your specific situation, whether you are managing a client’s account as an agency or an in-house team. Here is a breakdown of some key considerations and examples of PPC reporting goals:

1. Summarize key metrics clearly.

Use case: For high-level stakeholders who require a quick understanding of campaign performance without delving into granular details.

If you want to get text explanations of changes that happened to your ads account across two different time periods, check out the PPC Narrator Widget.

The widget can either highlight the areas of improvement or let you know about the positive account changes.

2. Showcase how your efforts are delivering a positive ROI.

Use Case: For a business aiming to justify its advertising spend and ensure it is generating profitable results.

3. Highlight the value you bring to the PPC campaigns.

Use Case: For agencies seeking to impress clients and build trust by showcasing the impact of their expertise.

4. Monitor and evaluate PPC performance.

Use Case: For ongoing campaigns to ensure they are on track to meet objectives and identify areas for improvement.

To compare your campaign performance against other accounts in your industry vertical or across verticals, check out our PPC Vertical Benchmarks.

The tool lets you compare how key metrics like Average CPC, Conversion Rate, CPA, CTR, and ROAS for your account compare to others in your industry vertical.

5. Identify patterns and draw insights.

Use Case: For adapting PPC strategies based on changing market dynamics and consumer behavior.

Check out Optmyzr’s Sidekick: your AI-based PPC assistant. It’ll help you jumpstart your account analysis process by asking a few important questions on the Account Dashboard.

You can quickly get useful insights into your account like a performance summary, month-on-month changes in key metrics, top optimization opportunities, etc.

How to build a great PPC report?

A good report begins with a high-level overview of account performance, works its way down to granular data that support your results, and should provide clear next steps.

Building a strong PPC report is a lot like telling a good story. Be truthful without embellishment, go into as much detail as possible, and make the account the hero. If you can nail this, your reports will provide great leverage when you have that discussion to extend or renew your contract.

Here are six tips to help you create great PPC reports.

1. Go beyond the numbers.

PPC reports are more than numbers on a page; they provide the right context to those numbers. After all, data in isolation is just noise. Pairing it with insights into your customers or how the numbers support business goals shows your clients that you understand them.

Rather than pulling all types of data together, first, understand what’s most important to your client. It’s good to revisit overall business objectives before building your next report to fine-tune what you should be reporting.

2. Pick metrics that matter to the business.

Once you have a clear understanding of what your client’s goals are, find out what parameters support these goals, and what a good result looks like. Treat your reports as a way to understand what you can do to take your accounts to the next level — better conversions, lower CPCs, more revenue, etc.

Reports can also highlight areas that need more attention, as well as showcase where the business is doing well. So be mindful of the metrics you pick.

Some of the most common metrics that advertisers use in their reports are:

• Return On Investment (ROI)
• Click-Through Rate (CTR)
• Cost Per Click (CPC)
• Conversion Rate
• Keyword Performance
• Customer Actions

3. Segment by intent.

If you focus just on conversions, you might make the account performance look poorer. After all, not all campaigns are about driving conversions.

Segment your report based on the different stages of the customer journey, according to intent or awareness. Not only does that tell you what works and when, but it can build credit for initiatives that help your lower-funnel campaigns convert.

Take this opportunity to experiment with different attribution models to understand which channels support different types of campaigns. This is an essential insight that can be the difference between simply regurgitating data and actually being a strategic asset to your client.

Watch this episode of PPC Town Hall on attribution modeling for ideas on how to approach attribution.

4. Look for truly helpful reporting tools.

Some PPC advertisers still use Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel to create their weekly and monthly reports. While there’s nothing wrong with the classics, they are time-consuming and can get frustrating if you’re not a data geek or have to work with really large data sets.

This is where the magic of automation truly shines. There are plenty of reporting tools that can save you time and produce outstanding reports, many with pre-built templates to make your job even easier. While Google Analytics and Looker Studio remain favorites, many PPC pros turn to advanced tools for more automated and integrated reports.

Optmyzr also does reports quite well, if we say so. You can build new templates or customize one of ours, including widgets for virtually any metric and level you need to show, and automate delivery to your client’s inbox. They’ll get a link to an interactive report rather than a static PDF, allowing them to hover over charts and data to get deeper insights.

5. Include visuals.

Steve Hammer, president at RankHammer, said about the importance of data visualization in PPC reports:

“I like to assume that I have 2 minutes of somebody’s time when I’m showing a PPC report. I like to present everything in a one-pager and make it as simple as possible.”

Visuals help your clients understand data faster and in a simpler format. Crucial information on performance, successes, and failures is easier to process visually. This is the key to showcasing more information in less space, while still making it easy to consume at a glance.

But the ocean of data visualization is vast and deep, so make sure to find out what formats your clients respond to best. They may have a preference for line graphs when all you’ve been serving is pie.

If you want to get detailed insights visually and find exactly which element in your account caused a metric to increase or decrease, whether it’s a keyword, placement, or an entire network that caused the changes, take a look at Optmyzr’s PPC Investigator.

6. Add your own insights and recommendations.

You don’t need an advertising or analytical mind to pull data and create reports from a template. It’s making sense of that data and helping clients understand the lay of the land that makes you a valuable partner to them.

Draw on your experience with similar accounts and campaigns to add your own insights to those reports. Explain how the numbers correlate with business goals, where you’ve seen good things go bad (like complacency), and what you think should be the next course of action.

But be fully transparent and tell the entire story. Some advertisers compensate for sliding numbers by exaggerating good results to keep clients in their favor. Give your clients the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. And then get ready to answer questions and discuss their suggestions.

Google Analytics 4 reporting made simple for PPC

1. Report on any valid combination of dimensions or metrics conveniently.

Google presents the dashboards as themes on GA4. So it could be difficult to navigate and find reports that you want to check.

Optmyzr’s GA4 reporting tools have all the dimensions and metrics available together for you to choose from and easily report your account performance.

2. Identify trends and patterns in detail.

The charts can also help you understand trends and patterns, and compare KPI changes across time periods.

Plus, you can easily analyze the type of audience that you’re attracting, their demographics, and locations they come from.

3. Get a quick overview of metrics that matter to you.

The KPI widget gives a clear representation of metrics that matter to your business along with performance changes at the property level.

4. Present all your PPC and other marketing data together in one report.

With multi-account reports, you can track analytics performance along with that of all the different ad platforms like Google, Microsoft, Meta and Amazon where you’re running your campaigns all in a single report. This can help you relate your PPC KPIs with analytics KPIs and measure the overall impact of your ad campaigns on site traffic.

If you’re an existing Optmyzr user and want to migrate your reports from UA to GA4, follow this guide.

6 Common PPC reporting mistakes to avoid

Our Co-founder & CEO, Frederick Vallaeys listed down 6 reporting mistakes PPC marketers make in this article.

Here’s a TL;DR.

1. Reports sent too soon that always undervalue PPC.

2. Your visuals tell the wrong story.

3. Improperly segmented reports are useless.

4. Too much data + PPC newbie = disaster.

5. Don’t take it personally when your report is ignored.

6. When you spend too much time on reports, your account management hours suffer.

Great PPC reporting provides context and analysis

The best PPC reporting strives to provide context and analysis, delve into the reasons behind wins or losses, and incorporate current trends and industry best practices. Ultimately, a great PPC report serves as a source of meaningful data and insights, empowering stakeholders to make informed decisions and optimizing the overall effectiveness of PPC campaigns.

By leveraging the right reporting tool, you can create PPC reports that not only inform but also satisfy your clients, fostering trust and confidence in your services. And if you need help, Optmyzr makes it easier to showcase the value of your campaigns.

Not an Optmyzr customer yet? Thousands of advertisers — from small agencies to big brands — around the world use Optmyzr 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.