TPE #15: 100 tips to dominate Google Ads
Oct 31, 2022I recently shared 10 Google Ads tips for 10 days in a row (that's 100 tips in total).
Easy to digest lists with quick tips that you can instantly apply.
10 simple tips on one specific topic per day.
The amount of positive feedback I received was overwhelming and much appreciated.
This all ties together with my bigger mission of uniting and providing insane value to the PPC community.
I only have one note: information without implementation is useless.
Therefore, in this issue of The PPC Edge, I will list out the 10 most impactful tips for you to take action on right away.
Use these tips as inspiration for your own accounts, and check back regularly to find new optimization ideas.
Again: please, implement!
Let's get started with the 10 tips that will be most impactful for your performance.
The 10 most impactful tips to take action on right away
All 100 tips are extremely valuable, but if I had to distill it down into a top 10 it would look like this:
- Get clear on your goals and KPIs (and log them somewhere)
- Set up conversion tracking with the Google Ads Tag
- pMax: exclude branded terms and catch them in a branded standard shopping campaign
- Test a feed-only vs all assets campaign structure
- Use portfolio bid strategies with max CPC limits
- Audience signals: combine first-party data with Google-owned user data
- Make sure your Audience Tag is configured correctly
- Before you create assets, research your competitors
- Test remarketing campaigns on Display, Discovery and YouTube
- Be careful who you work for and say goodbye to toxic clients fast
Let's take a closer look at every tip!
1. Get clear on your goals and KPIs (and log them somewhere)
This may sound obvious but so many businesses still get this wrong. Before you do anything, make sure you know what your goals, targets and KPIs are.
Example goal: profit growth of 40%, revenue growth of 51%, lead growth of 75% etc.
Example targets and KPIs: ROAS/POAS of x% or CPA/CAC of x$
And finally: log these somewhere and remind yourself of these goals and targets daily.
Do not skip this step!
2. Set up conversion tracking with the Google Ads Tag
Let's keep it short. Use the Google Ads Tag for your conversion tracking, because it allows you to measure more conversions.
Read a complete guide on why and how in an earlier issue of The PPC Edge here.
3. pMax: exclude branded terms and catch them in a Branded Standard Shopping campaign
Your Performance Max data is untrustworthy because it's inflated by branded search conversions. On average, we see 10-20% of pMax conversions are from brand. The solution: exclude branded search terms.
Read a complete guide on how to do this here.
4. Test a feed-only vs all assets campaign structure
If your Performance Max results aren't great, consider testing asset groups without any assets except your product feed. This way it basically functions as a Smart Shopping campaign with some additional DSA functionalities. This works great for many of my clients.
5. Use portfolio bid strategies with max CPC limits
This is probably the number 1 cost-saver on Search. Use portfolio bid strategies and set up a max CPC limit to combat extremely high CPCs. Here's an example:
The average CPC is €1,70 but some search terms are getting CPCs of €25-50. To prevent Google from going crazy with CPCs on target ROAS/CPA bid strategies, use portfolios and add a max CPC bid limit (I usually set it to around 5-10X the average CPC).
6. Audience signals: combine first-party data with Google-owned user data
Your audience signals are fully optimize if you combine your own customer data with Google-owned user data (read our full breakdown of how to do this here).
7. Make sure your Audience Tag is configured correctly
Keep an eye on your Audience Tag. If it's not configured correctly, your remarketing campaigns may stop working because the audiences aren't updated with new user data.
Extra tip for ecom clients: make sure ecom_prodid is firing correctly, otherwise you can't do dynamic remarketing.
8. Before you create assets, research your competitors
Don't invest a large amount of money in new videos/images before you've tested various angles with a low budget. Always start off by researching your competitors (tip: use Similarweb, Meta Ad Library and Google's variant for verified advertisers). Don't reinvent the wheel but try to improve what's already working.
9. Test remarketing campaigns on Display, Discovery and YouTube
Performance Max does some remarketing too, but in most cases, I would advise to not rely fully on pMax for your remarketing efforts. Test specific Display, Discovery and YouTube remarketing campaigns, because they give you more control over which audiences you want to remarket to (and with which ads and landing pages).
10. Be careful who you work for and say goodbye to toxic clients fast
Let's end this list with a tip to protect your mental health: be careful who you work for and say goodbye to toxic clients fast. Life is too short to work for people that don't bring you positive energy. Instead, what you want, is to create a portfolio of ideal clients that you vibe with on a personal level.
It just makes everything so much easier and more fun if you connect with someone personally.
If you work at an agency and you have no say over your client portfolio, communicate openly and clearly to your manager whenever someone is costing you too much energy. I've seen way too many dedicated specialists get burnouts because they simply work with toxic people.
Google Ads is fun, but can also be stressful. Don't take it too seriously and protect your mental health at all cost!
So that's it. Below you can find some screenshots of all the 100 tips.
Best of luck using them!
Cheers,
Miles (and Bob)
Recap of all 100 tips
Day 1: 10 tips for Performance Max campaigns
Day 2: 10 tips for better Sitelinks
Day 3: 10 tips for new Google Ads accounts
Day 4: 10 tips to let automation work for you, instead of against
Day 5: 10 tips for better pMax audience signals
Day 6: 10 tips to reduce stress as a Google Ads Specialist
Day 7: 10 tips to improve YouTube Ads performance
Day 8: 10 remarketing tips
Day 9: 10 tips for highly converting Performance Max assets
Day 10: 10 little-known, high impact feed optimization tips
