OliFarmiloe
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I love Google Ads. You know what I don't love? Google Ad reps! Google Ad Reps suck. Those call centre calls we get every week from some random new rep cluelessly following their scripts to trick us into throwing money down the drain are very annoying.
Part of my job is auditing accounts and it is the most common pattern I see is a business owner new to Google Ads getting things set up and then Google reps from an outsourced company gets in touch with ‘helpful advice’.
The steps they take are not only unhelpful but downright destructive. It hurts me to see this as someone that invests such work into building efficient, effective and scaled campaigns to drive as many sales as possible at as low a cost as possible.
So I thought I'd do a quick post sharing 3 pieces of ‘advice’ that the Google reps love to give, why they’re stupid and I've learnt to do instead ⬇️
Google Recommendation #1 - Broad Keywords
"You should switch your keywords to broad match as it will open up more great searches for Google to bid on for you to find even more conversions!!"
The Truth:
Broad keywords are more often too broad. There are broad, phrase and exact match keywords. Broad allows for the ‘broadest’ version of searches related to the keyword you’ve set. Exact is the other end of the spectrum.
Google likes to recommend broad as it allows them to bid on the most auctions and so spend the most money. Often though this allows too many bad searches to go through as Google goes too wide with the kinds of searches to appear on.
What I do instead:
Most companies are limited by budget, not search volume. So generally speaking you should use tighter keywords and just put some more work in to find more of those tight keywords with full search intent in each to get the volume.
For each of these keywords, use phrase match primarily for 80%+, some exact and the occasional broad.
Google Recommendation #2 - Automated Bidding Strategies
"You want conversions so you should switch to a maximize conversions focused bidding strategy or target CPA (Cost per acquisition)"
The Truth:
While conversion-focused bidding strategies are the best in the long term, they do require enough data to get started.
If you’re starting out you often may only be seeing a handful of conversions a month. This lack of data means Google will fail to find enough searches that it knows can convert to bid on and so it fails to achieve your goal of conversions or a particular CPA. The account stalls and you’re left with the worst of all worlds.
What I do instead:
Most of the time if you’re new to Google Ads and just starting out, maximize clicks is the best bet. This helps just get as many people as possible to your site for the cheapest cost.
Then once you start seeing approximately 30+ conversions in a month you can look to switch to a conversion-focused bidding strategy.
Google Recommendation #3 - Search/Display Network
"Just tick these two extra buttons for the Search and Display Networks in the campaign settings and go out to a great additional network and get floods more conversions!"
The Truth:
Anyone who creates campaigns in Google Ads knows this is one of the settings Google pushes on you the hardest. Even when you click to untick them, Google reticks them and warns you away from unticking.
These are additional networks that Google is connected into like advertising across the internet on those side ads when you’re reading a news article.
I've found they convert drastically less.
What I do instead:
Make sure to untick both boxes and make sure they stay unticked when setting up any campaign.
Simple fix but one that Google loves to auto undo. Make sure to turn off auto recommendations to avoid this.
I hope that's helpful!
Part of my job is auditing accounts and it is the most common pattern I see is a business owner new to Google Ads getting things set up and then Google reps from an outsourced company gets in touch with ‘helpful advice’.
The steps they take are not only unhelpful but downright destructive. It hurts me to see this as someone that invests such work into building efficient, effective and scaled campaigns to drive as many sales as possible at as low a cost as possible.
So I thought I'd do a quick post sharing 3 pieces of ‘advice’ that the Google reps love to give, why they’re stupid and I've learnt to do instead ⬇️
Google Recommendation #1 - Broad Keywords
"You should switch your keywords to broad match as it will open up more great searches for Google to bid on for you to find even more conversions!!"
The Truth:
Broad keywords are more often too broad. There are broad, phrase and exact match keywords. Broad allows for the ‘broadest’ version of searches related to the keyword you’ve set. Exact is the other end of the spectrum.
Google likes to recommend broad as it allows them to bid on the most auctions and so spend the most money. Often though this allows too many bad searches to go through as Google goes too wide with the kinds of searches to appear on.
What I do instead:
Most companies are limited by budget, not search volume. So generally speaking you should use tighter keywords and just put some more work in to find more of those tight keywords with full search intent in each to get the volume.
For each of these keywords, use phrase match primarily for 80%+, some exact and the occasional broad.
Google Recommendation #2 - Automated Bidding Strategies
"You want conversions so you should switch to a maximize conversions focused bidding strategy or target CPA (Cost per acquisition)"
The Truth:
While conversion-focused bidding strategies are the best in the long term, they do require enough data to get started.
If you’re starting out you often may only be seeing a handful of conversions a month. This lack of data means Google will fail to find enough searches that it knows can convert to bid on and so it fails to achieve your goal of conversions or a particular CPA. The account stalls and you’re left with the worst of all worlds.
What I do instead:
Most of the time if you’re new to Google Ads and just starting out, maximize clicks is the best bet. This helps just get as many people as possible to your site for the cheapest cost.
Then once you start seeing approximately 30+ conversions in a month you can look to switch to a conversion-focused bidding strategy.
Google Recommendation #3 - Search/Display Network
"Just tick these two extra buttons for the Search and Display Networks in the campaign settings and go out to a great additional network and get floods more conversions!"
The Truth:
Anyone who creates campaigns in Google Ads knows this is one of the settings Google pushes on you the hardest. Even when you click to untick them, Google reticks them and warns you away from unticking.
These are additional networks that Google is connected into like advertising across the internet on those side ads when you’re reading a news article.
I've found they convert drastically less.
What I do instead:
Make sure to untick both boxes and make sure they stay unticked when setting up any campaign.
Simple fix but one that Google loves to auto undo. Make sure to turn off auto recommendations to avoid this.
I hope that's helpful!
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