Last week, I shared the first issue I saw in three high-stakes audits: companies relying too heavily on Google reps to manage their accounts.
Today, I’m diving into the second issue — keywords. Specifically, obsessing over them.
Issue #2: Obsessing Over Keywords
One audit revealed an account stuffed with keywords. But when I looked at the strategy behind them, there wasn’t one. Just lists of keywords with no real plan for how they mapped to the customer journey.
Why this is not a winning strategy:
Keywords are the most boring part of your account. Keywords are signals and only a tiny part of a modern google ads strategy. If you want to improve performance, especially in a high-spend account, you most likely do not need to add more keywords. In fact, adding too many of essentially the same keywords can have the opposite effect.
Do this instead:
- Obsess about your customers, not your keywords. Map out the customer journey. Think strategically about what type of messaging and landing pages are appropriate for people at various stages. Are you providing customer success stories for those still building trust? Are your forms optimized? Is your brand language aligned across the journey?
Remember, there are no rules! In some circumstances like low volume keywords for example, then absolutely lean into a stand alone keyword strategy. Again, there is not a straight forward path — you just need to understand how the system works. - If you want to compete in AI Overviews and AI Mode, future-proof your accounts now. Broad match, AI Max, and AI-forward campaigns like Performance Max and Demand Gen are top performance drivers when the system is fed with customer and conversion data alongside strong targeting signals.
We are moving to a keywordless world. When you’re working with a high-spending account, adding more keywords is not the solution. You need to get more strategic. Are you mapping keywords to the right messaging? Are they leading to the right landing pages? Can the experience be better?
Next week: I’ll share the final issue — the one that upsets me most. It’s about short-term wins, and why they’re slowly eroding your market position.