{"id":1200,"date":"2023-10-27T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-27T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherylroll.com\/google-ads-best-practices-good-bad-balancing-act-433821\/"},"modified":"2023-10-27T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-27T13:00:00","slug":"google-ads-best-practices-good-bad-balancing-act-433821","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherylroll.com\/google-ads-best-practices-good-bad-balancing-act-433821\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Ads best practices: The good, the bad and the balancing act"},"content":{"rendered":"
PPC<\/a> best practices come from a variety of places. Some of those sources are:<\/p>\n However, depending on those sources, you could end up with highly different answers. So, how do you know when to apply or be critical of a “best practice”?<\/p>\n Many PPC professionals can relate: You see “Google” on your caller ID, and you momentarily feel a boost in ego. <\/p>\n But reality sets in when you realize it’s often a junior Google representative or even a third-party service who needs to tick some boxes to meet quarterly goals, not necessarily tailored to your account’s context. This conflict of interest makes whatever “best practice” they recommend risky.<\/p>\n In the end, you hang up and realize our role as advertisers is to make sure we deliver the highest results with the smallest budget possible. And Google Ads’ role (or any other ad network) is to get you to spend more. <\/p>\n So naturally, our relationship with Google Ads’ best practices has to be balanced. Let’s explore the most common pitfalls and also recognize when Google Ads does a fantastic job.<\/p>\n There are probably just a few people left who can still successfully run manual CPC campaigns – and that’s a good thing. Look, I know the PPC community is angry at Google for raising ad prices,<\/a> and some even go as far as saying that automated bidding strategies are only meant for having advertisers spend more. <\/p>\n But still, anyone who ran proper A\/B tests back in the day knows that correctly set up automated bidding strategies outperform manual bidding 99% of the time.<\/p>\n I’m happy Google Ads rolled them out and made a great tool almost 10 years ago. It’s a best practice you can apply almost every time.<\/p>\n Why do I say “almost” though? If Google Ads could clarify optimal setups (conversion density, latency, frequency, etc.), it would be perfect. Right now, the only thing we have is:<\/p>\n So if you feel like your automated bid strategy doesn’t quite perform as you’d like to, review the above parameters, but otherwise, you most probably should move away from manual CPC.<\/p>\n Just like automated bidding, automated targeting (that’s pretty much what broad match is these days) is getting really good. As such, I believe Google Ads is right to push those broad match types harder. <\/p>\n There are plenty of studies<\/a> showing how broad match keywords outperform phrase match keywords. It certainly helps speed up PPC staff training and streamline campaign maintenance with lighter campaign structures. So what’s not to like?<\/p>\n Similar to automated bidding, though, I would still caution against using such a match type blindly. For example, I strongly advise against turning on:<\/p>\n Why is that? Because just like automated bidding, Google Ads hasn’t shared details on optimal setups. <\/p>\n By experience, you want to fuel your bid strategy with some initial down funnel data (purchases) before trusting Google’s AI. Otherwise, just like any AI, it will produce superficial results because it will not see past the top-of-funnel KPIs (pageviews, etc.).<\/p>\n Another recurring theme is the progressive removal of information. As usual, these days, citing privacy allowed Google to limit search term reporting<\/a>. <\/p>\n While performance is definitely getting better with broad match keywords, visibility isn’t. A shame since search term reports helped better inform holistic marketing decisions.<\/p>\n Growing with broad match keywords is an interesting best practice. But you should be aware of its limitations.<\/p>\n Get the daily newsletter search marketers rely on.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n
Leverage automated bidding<\/h2>\n
Grow with broad match keywords<\/h2>\n
\n