Once again, the year rolls around to Thanksgiving.
And, as has become our tradition, my team and I like to mark the occasion by expressing gratitude for the paid search functions and tools that help us get great results for our clients—and make our lives a little bit easier in the process.
As with previous years, our list is filled with practical hands-on tools that bring efficiency, insights and precision to the work we do.
And this year, we were also reminded to give thanks for our esteemed paid search colleagues.
Thankful for Our Clients, Team—and Colleagues
As always, I’m deeply grateful for the continuing partnerships we’ve had with our clients as we continue to navigate these crazy times.
It’s been a journey—and we’re glad to be part of it and thrilled to contribute to your ongoing success.
I’m also extra thankful this year for my team, who continue to hit it out of the park with their smarts, dedication and grit.
I’m humbled and amazed every single day that I get to work with such an amazing group of strong, incredible women.
This year I’d also like to shoutout the women in our industry who helped me persuade Microsoft to add “woman-owned” as an attribute to their Marketing with a Purpose initiative.
It feels wonderful to be surrounded by colleagues who are committed to diversity and inclusion—and aren’t afraid to call out omissions when they see them!
(In case you missed it, you can read about Microsoft Advertising attributes here.)
Change History
When it comes to the tools we use day-in and day-out in PPC management, Ashley Bingham is particularly thankful for Google Ads’ change history report.
She uses it to review changes made when managing budgets, researching performance shifts, and reviewing automated scripts or rules updates.
Having the ability to “undo” changes and revert back to the original (rather than manually reverting each change one-by-one) is a huge timesaver.
More than once, the change history report revealed unintentional changes made by the client that negatively impacted performance.
Lori Iwanchuk agrees with Ashley. She also finds change history useful, particularly when multiple people are working on an account.
Google Ads Editor
On the topic of account changes, Trudy Constantineau is grateful for Google Ads Editor. Not only does Google Ads Editor allow her to work offline and leverage bulk editing tools, she can also review changes BEFORE they go live. She finds it super helpful for learning without the risk of things going wrong.
Plus, the bulk upload capability of Google Ads Editor saves her a ton of time. Rather than having to enter headlines and descriptions one at a time, she can upload them all at once.
Google Ads Recommendations
Chelsea Tryon is thankful for the Recommendations tool in Google Ads.
While Google’s recommendations can sometimes undermine your goals, Chelsea still finds they’re a useful way to stimulate creative thinking.
So while Chelsea may not implement all (or any) of Google Ads’ recommendations, they do spark ideas about other PPC strategies she can test.
Google Graph Notes
Lori Iwanchuk loves having the ability to add notes to graphs in the live Google Ads interface. She finds they’re a quick and efficient way to document changes at any point in time.
When she reviews Google performance graphs days, weeks, months or even years later, she doesn’t have to rely on her memory as to what might have caused a change in performance at that point in time.
Data Studio
Once again, Data Studio remains a firm favorite with our team as a way to quickly and easily prepare and present data to our clients in an intuitive, visually appealing way.
Beyond presenting to clients, Jennie Elser also uses Data Studio for her own analytical purposes. She finds it’s an easy way to look at data over longer dates ranges and compare data over different time periods.
Insights Tab
Amy Sheehan has been an avid adoptee of the Insights tab in Google Ads, which was rolled out late in 2020.
She uses it to examine competitor activity for multiple campaigns and identify which competitors to focus on.
Wishing You a Very Happy Thanksgiving
On behalf of all of us at Group Twenty Seven, we wish you a very happy Thanksgiving holiday!
