PPC Blog

Recently, a client wanted to remove qualifying elements from their text ads on the Search Network. We had been using terms in their ad copy, such as “for corporate groups” and “for 50+ people” to help make our target audience clear.

However, the client started to feel that those qualifiers had become unnecessary. They wondered if we couldn’t make better use of that ad text space.

It’s true, we had been using those qualifiers for a long time—but for good reason. We felt that they were a critical part of turning away irrelevant ad clicks.

But the client wanted to test whether those qualifiers were still necessary, so we agreed.

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I recently received a call from a prospective client who was looking for temporary assistance with their PPC program. Their in-house marketing manager had resigned and, so far, they had been unable to find a suitable replacement. In the meantime, the CMO was covering the position.

They didn’t want to make a rushed hiring decision just to resolve the issue. But they desperately needed some help.

So they asked if my agency might step in temporarily to bridge the gap — this in spite of the company having a strict “no agency” policy due to past bad experiences. Because my agency doesn’t require long-term contracts, we agreed.

But when we opened the account, we uncovered many issues.

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While we’re always happy to take on new clients, we’ve learned over the years that even the most brilliant PPC campaign can be scuttled when certain conditions aren’t met.

Fortunately, fixing these problems is within reach of most clients with a few resources and the right mindset.

But until then, proceed with caution. As a PPC agency, we don’t want to waste your time or budget. Which is why we sometimes decline to work with clients when these conditions aren’t met.

What are these problem areas you ask? The most common ones are as follows:

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Most PPC pros recognize the importance of landing pages in their post-click paid search strategy. But the question still arises about how targeted these pages need to be.

When is the time and effort of creating dozens — or even hundreds — of ultra-targeted landing pages worth the trouble and expense?

Admittedly, the answer will differ for every AdWords campaign.

But recently, we walked this path with a client in a big way, and we discovered that sometimes the trouble and expense of creating ultra-targeted landing pages is more than justified.

In this article, I’m going to present our findings to you as a mini-case study. And our experience may encourage you to create landing pages that are much more targeted than ever before.

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In April 2018, Google started implementing ad suggestions. Basically, these are ads that Google generates and “suggests” that you use.

The ads are developed using machine learning. They pull from prior campaigns for content, including ad headlines, descriptions, extensions and landing pages

Advertisers can review, edit and/or dismiss the ad suggestions. But if they don’t act within 14 days, the ads will be applied to their accounts automatically.

So if you’re not paying attention, you may find that ads you’ve never seen before are now live in your account!

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One of the joys (and challenges) of a career in paid search is the constant state of learning and change. It’s a theme that runs through many of my articles.

But in the busy-ness of our day-to-day PPC activities, it’s easy to simply move from one thing to the next without pausing to learn from what’s in front of us.

What lessons can we draw from our experiences? How can we apply these lessons more broadly?

In that spirit, I will recount some of my team’s top PPC takeaways from the past few months:

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Like most other PPC pros, we’re continuing to test and experiment with the GDN as we come to grips with changes, such as the elimination of standard text ads and the roll out of responsive ads.

Some of these tests are planned. But some emerge organically as our clients put forth new ideas or new challenges arise.

This happened recently when one of our clients developed a new set of GDN display ads.

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The new attribution model for AdWords was the talk of the town when it was first announced in 2016. But since then, it hasn’t received as much attention.

Even so, I was surprised recently when a colleague in the pay-per-click industry confessed that he wasn’t aware of it.

I can understand how he missed it. After all, it’s one of those AdWords settings that you can easily overlook if you don’t know it’s there.

Therefore, in this article, I’m going to recap what attribution settings are and reveal what you can expect if you start using the new models.

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It’s not uncommon for people new to paid search to get overly focused on certain PPC metrics.

While I applaud their interest, I often find that those metrics—in isolation—aren’t terribly useful.

At the same time, I can understand the fascination with certain numbers. After all, it’s easier to focus on one or two highly visible numbers than more complex metrics that are harder to nail down.

And, sometimes, I think these metrics become a way to avoid taking a broader perspective and asking tougher questions.

Therefore, I’m going to use this post to describe a few metrics that get more attention than they deserve—and what you might want to focus on instead.

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Last December, Google communicated forthcoming changes for its Google Ad Grants program. The changes were scheduled to be implemented on January 1. However, it appears that Google is giving account owners some time to make necessary adjustments.

The program provides up to $10,000 USD in AdWords advertising to eligible nonprofits, with some restrictions.

Some of the program changes are good (such as the removal of the $2 bid limit).

But other changes may create new challenges. In particular, the new 5% CTR rule might create some difficulties, especially if your nonprofit operates in a highly competitive market.

In my latest column in Search Engine Land, I take a closer look at these Google Ad Grants program changes and describe how nonprofits can work with—and around—the new rules.