Episode Transcript
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Danny Gavin (00:05):
Welcome to the
Digital Marketing Mentor.
I'm your host, danny Gavin, and, together with industry leaders
and marketing experts, we'llexplore the meeting point of
mentorship and marketing.
We'll discover how theseconnections have affected
(00:36):
careers, marketing strategiesand lives.
Now get ready to get human.
Get ready to get human.
Today we are diving back intopaid search, this time looking
at red flags with Google Ads,how to spot and address them.
These insights will help yousave money, improve performance
and avoid common pitfalls whenit comes to Google Ads.
Brianna, how are you doing?
Brianna Deboever (00:53):
I'm good
Staying warm on a chilly morning
.
Danny Gavin (01:01):
I know, and it's
great, because when people watch
the podcast sometimes they seeme like in a long-sleeved shirt,
short-sleeved.
So this is getting back to ouroriginal episodes which are more
like wintry episodes.
Yeah, let's talk about poorcampaign settings and structure.
So what are the most commonissues in campaign settings that
can lead to underperformance inGoogle Ads?
Brianna Deboever (01:14):
Yeah, so we've
looked at a lot of campaigns
right.
So we've seen a lot ofdifferent ways of doing things
and we've tested a lot ofdifferent ways of doing things.
So a couple of the most commonthings we've seen that cause
issues are ad groups that arejust too big.
You have too many keywordswithin an ad group and what that
can cause is, first, you don'thave data segmented in a way
(01:34):
where you can really optimize.
If you have all your data inone ad group, it's kind of like
a big murky pit and it's a lotto weed through.
It's hard to make goodoptimization decisions.
But also, if you have a huge adgroup with a ton of different
keywords, there's no way all ofthose keywords are perfectly
relevant to the ad that's beingserved by having more tightly
(01:55):
grouped keywords within reason,not single keyword ad groups.
But if you have more tightlygrouped by theme ad groups, then
you can serve really targetedcopy to those keywords.
So that's a really common thingI see within the structure it's
also match type can be a reallycommon issue, especially if
you're overusing broad match.
(02:16):
In a lot of new accounts,google's really pushing broad
match and it's really hard tomake broad match work well
unless you have a ton of data inan account, if you really know
how to use it.
Make broad match work wellunless you have a ton of data in
an account if you really knowhow to use it and test it
effectively and you have a tonof negative keywords in there to
make sure you're not gettinglots of irrelevant terms.
The overuse of broad match, Ithink, is another really common
(02:37):
thing we see and keep an eye outfor and you want to make sure
your match types are a littlebit tighter, especially when
you're first starting out.
Within the campaign settingsthemselves, a really common one
I see is within Google'slocation settings you can select
presence or presence orinterest if they're in the
location or interested in thelocation, and the default
(02:59):
setting if you don't go in andswitch it is you can show an ad
to your targeted location ifsomebody is there or is
interested in that location, andthat can really open up a can
of worms.
So we've seen a lot of spamappear as a result of that
setting.
If you're say, you're justtargeting the United States or
just New York State, you can getpeople international searchers
(03:21):
that you really don't want toserve your ads to.
So making sure that setting isset to presence is really
effective and a really easy win.
I think another big problem thatpeople can run into is bid
strategy.
Google is also pushingautomated bid strategies and,
depending on the phase of thelifecycle that your campaigns
(03:41):
are in, different bid strategiesmake sense and so with
automated bidding, you reallyneed data in the account to make
it work.
You really need to have a lotof conversion volume and then
moving to automated bidding canwork really really well.
But if you start out withautomated bidding or you move to
it too early, that can totallykill campaigns.
The algorithm can totally getoff track.
(04:01):
Just being careful, what welike to do is we start with
manual bidding and we slowlyscale to automated bidding.
The other thing with biddingstrategies that you can run into
is not using the right one thatmakes sense, that's aligned
with your the goal of yourcampaign.
So if you want to generateleads, you know max conversions
or a target CPA probably makesmore sense.
But if you are looking forsales or you want to maximize,
like the, the, if you havedifferent tiers of leads, you
(04:25):
know a max conversion valuewould make more sense and
getting to these places is hardand you have to use a tiered
approach, but making sure yourbid strategy is aligned with
your goal is really important.
That's something to keep an eyeout on in your campaigns.
Sometimes budget just wherebudget is allocated doesn't make
sense.
Sometimes a lot of people justput everything in one campaign,
(04:46):
for example, like we weretalking about one ad group, and
what that can do is like okay,the budget is spread across.
Everything, doesn't matter ifit's high performing, low
performing.
So you have data, you knowwhat's working.
You can push more budget to thetop performing keywords and
areas and put less budget to thethings that aren't working as
(05:14):
well but that you still want totest.
Danny Gavin (05:16):
Sometimes people
think that if I have this large
budget in one campaign, thatthis budget is going to be
spread out equally towards allthe keywords and all
opportunities.
But what people don't realizeis that whatever's hot at the
moment is going to take up mostof it and you may not get enough
budget to share with everythingelse.
So it's important to, dependingon what's happening and what's
(05:36):
working, but separating thatbudget over multiple campaigns
can really be helpful.
Brianna Deboever (05:41):
Yeah, and
that's why it's important.
That's why our jobs are soimportant.
The algorithm can go in thewrong direction and it's
important to have a human inthere to say hold on.
We need to coach you in theright direction and and into uh
and spend on what we want you tospend on.
Danny Gavin (05:55):
So mentioning about
, you know, ad groups with lots
of keywords.
Let's dig in there a little bitmore.
How can poorly structured adgroups and keyword lists lead to
inefficiencies, and what stepsshould be taken to fix this?
Brianna Deboever (06:06):
So I think the
most important thing with
inefficiency that we shouldstart with is negative keywords.
Negatives are so important.
No matter what match type youare using, the algorithm will
show for things you don't wantto show for.
You know, we primarily usephrase match, which gives Google
a little bit of room to go outand say you know, okay, if
(06:26):
you're bidding on this term,we're going to bid for something
similar and relevant but notexact.
And still having negatives inthere is so important for making
sure you're showing for thingsthat are relevant and you're not
showing for things you don'twant to spend money on.
So that's where your budget canget really inefficient really
(06:47):
fast.
If you're not checking yoursearch terms and you're not
adding negatives on a consistentbasis, google will be sending
your money willy-nilly.
So that's really important withmaking sure your budget is
efficient.
Making sure you have IPexclusions in there.
We frequently use One.
You want to exclude your ownIPs.
So if you have people workingon it, you want to exclude your
(07:08):
IP addresses so you're notcharged for those ads.
Another thing you need to reuseconsistently is Clixys, which
is a nice third-party softwarethat you can add to your ad
account that, based on certaincriteria that you set, blocks
IPs that are bot-like.
It kind of detects bot-likebehavior and blocks those IPs
from your ad account, whichreally saves costs from not
(07:31):
getting those clicks.
I think another thing is if youhave a demographic that you
know you really don't want toshow to, so making sure you're
excluding those.
For example, if you have aproduct or a service that is
more tailored to women, makesure you're excluding men.
If you know that the incomelevels make you know like your
product isn't necessarilytailored to somebody in like a
(07:54):
super high income bracket, thenmaking sure you're excluding
those things can help make sureyou're just showing to the right
audience right off the bat.
Danny Gavin (08:00):
So we talk about
negative keywords and how
important they are.
Obviously there's like the lifecycle, right, when you first
start off a campaign, you'regoing to get a lot of queries
that don't match.
You know, over time things getbetter, but doesn't mean it's
never over.
So what do you recommend peopleto do when it comes to
analyzing that search queryreport and looking over for
negatives?
Is there a certain cadence?
(08:21):
How would you recommend it?
And then you can get?
Brianna Deboever (08:23):
on a bi-weekly
basis and then once things get
really clean like once you have,I have accounts that get like
(08:46):
thousands and thousands ofnegative keywords in there.
Once you get to that point youcan look once a month like you
can rest assured your things arepretty clean.
You're still going to catchthings even if you have
thousands and thousands ofnegatives in the account.
So you still have to do it.
But in the beginning it'simportant to catch things right
off the bat, especially with newaccounts.
You know Google can say, oh,this is a great query for you
(09:10):
and spend a ton of money on itwithout you knowing.
Danny Gavin (09:12):
Do you have any
opinion on adding a lot of
negatives before you even starta campaign or potentially
waiting and seeing what comesthrough and then adding the
negatives?
Brianna Deboever (09:19):
Absolutely
Start with some negatives.
So the way I like to start isfirst of all, there's usually
the client, or you as a businessowner know we don't want to
show for certain things, so makesure those things are negative.
The second thing I do is whenI'm doing keyword research,
you'll see a lot of queries thatGoogle might show if you're
(09:40):
bidding on a similar term, andso I always, as I'm doing
keyword research for what I wantto bid on, I'm also looking at
oh, those are things that Idon't want to show for, and I
start a little negative listthere.
Also always make sure tonegative brand from your
non-brand campaign.
So making sure those aresegmented.
That way you don't get brandalso in the mix and you can
(10:00):
really see how your non-brandedterms are working.
That's where I like to start,and then I use a pretty heavy
hand as things get going.
Danny Gavin (10:08):
And I think it
would be a good time to talk
about this, because we just hadthis with a client yesterday.
But what if sometimes someonecan go into an account and say,
oh my gosh, there's a negativekeyword for my main product.
That's really, really bad, butthey forgot to check about where
is that negative keyword?
Because you can actually put anegative keyword at the ad group
level or at the campaign level.
Do you want to talk about thata little bit?
Brianna Deboever (10:29):
Yeah.
So, like I said at thebeginning, ad groups it's
important to have segmented adgroups so that you can serve
really targeted ad cop based onthe theme of the search queries.
And what you can do in order tomake that traffic sculpted
appropriately is you add adgroup level negatives for the
keywords that you're actuallybidding on in another ad group,
(10:50):
and what that does is it reallypushes the appropriate traffic
to each ad group.
Because when you're bidding ina phrase match capacity,
sometimes even an exact matchcapacity the same keywords can
show under two differentkeywords that you're bidding on,
or the same search terms canshow under the two different
keywords you're bidding on.
So, to be really clean and havethe data be very segmented so
(11:11):
you can make appropriatedecisions, you add ad group
level negatives and so it is.
You have to be careful.
You know this is part of clienteducation.
If a client goes in there it'slike why is my one of my top
keywords?
It's negative?
Well, it's because we're justpushing that term to another ad
group and what that allows us todo is say, okay, all the terms
under this type of query spentthis much and performed this
(11:34):
well, okay, as a result, we'regoing to do X, y, z.
If you have other types ofterms murking the waters, you're
not going to be able to make areally good decision.
That's why I definitely alsostart with ad group level
negatives, because we're goingto have nice ad groups and
sculpt that data as best you can, and then that's also a
consistent thing you have towatch.
Danny Gavin (11:56):
Cool, so let's
pivot over to low quality.
Why is a poor quality score asignificant red flag and what
factors contribute to this issue?
Brianna Deboever (12:04):
Quality score
has a few components.
It's the relevance of your adto your keyword and to your
landing page.
It also involves the experienceon the landing page.
So you know if the page isloading well, google kind of
assesses if it's a goodexperience for the user or not
and expected click-through rate.
(12:24):
So you know Google can kind ofestimate okay, is your ad strong
enough You're going to get ahigh click-through rate.
So all of those thingsinfluence the quality score.
When you're getting a lowquality score, you know, the
first thing I'll say issometimes it's hard to get a
perfect quality score across theboard without doing, you know,
like single keyword ad groupsand a different landing page for
(12:47):
every single keyword, whichisn't efficient for your time
and not necessary.
But having a solid qualityscore and 75% across your
campaigns is important, makingsure your ad copy is really
relevant to the keywords you'rebidding on.
What can help is having supersegmented ad groups, making sure
the keywords that you'rebidding on are within the ad
copy that you're serving.
(13:08):
That can bump up your ad score.
You really want to make sureyour ad scores are at excellent.
It's pretty easy to make surethose are at excellent.
So that will influence thequality score Landing page.
So your landing page also needsto include the keywords that you
are bidding on.
A landing page relevance notonly means like a nice
experience, it's a nice page, itloads well, but also okay.
Are you speaking immediately towhat the person is searching
(13:31):
for and the person's need?
And then expected click-throughrate is also.
You know that's related to adcopy that is highly relevant to
the keyword that somebodysearched for and it's enticing,
you know.
So part of ad copy is also areyou highlighting the benefits?
Why does somebody want to clickthrough?
Making sure those things arefront and center and then, if
those things are good, you knowyou'll have a high quality score
(13:54):
and Google will also favor youin the algorithm.
Danny Gavin (13:57):
So, brianna, it
seems a little bit of a
dichotomy, because on one handwe don't want to have single
keyword ad groups that meansjust an ad group with one
keyword but on the other hand weneed to have an ad group that's
tight enough that the keywordsin there generally show up in
the ads are on the landing page.
So how do you know what's toobig, what's too small when it
(14:17):
comes to an ad group?
Brianna Deboever (14:18):
So I think the
sweet spot is like three to
seven keywords in an ad group.
Now, that's not a hard and fastrule.
There are always exceptions andyou always make exceptions
based on the data.
So if the data is telling youyou know, I really think these
two keywords should be alone intheir ad group, or these
keywords are doing way betterwhen we have 10 keywords in an
(14:41):
ad group.
That's using the data to leadyou to those decisions is okay.
But in general, like I find thesweet spot is three to seven
keywords is about how many willlead to a tightly related and
just making sure that you don'twant to have single keyword ad
groups, because Google is doingbetter these days with more data
consolidation.
Having more keywords in thereactually gives Google more data
(15:04):
points to be successful.
Danny Gavin (15:06):
So when moving to
more broad match, especially
when you're moving to moreautomated bidding, would you say
that then there's room to addmore keywords to a group, or
does it really not make adifference?
Brianna Deboever (15:16):
Yes, and it
just depends.
So it depends on how yourcampaigns are performing.
So I have one account right nowthat is performing well and we
want to start testing broadmatch and there are a couple of
different ways you can do it,but we've decided you know the
keywords really do well in moreof a consolidated approach.
So we're going to add thosebroad match keywords within the
(15:36):
ad groups.
That's how we're going to starttesting broad match.
Another way you can do it islike having a total broad match
campaign and that way you'rekind of leading broad match on
its own and you're keeping yourmore tightly packed campaign to
the side and not touching thatand making sure things are
segmented, and then you're kindof using broad match as a
testing ground.
(15:57):
I think the best way and whatGoogle would tell you and I
think it's important to listento what Google will tell you
sometimes is you shouldconsolidate them all together
and that can broaden the numberof keywords in your ad group.
So I really think starting inmore of a three to seven
approach and then growing fromthere is totally fine and some
accounts don't do well toosegmented like that.
(16:19):
So you have to test and tryknowing what you know about ad
copy and keywords and all thatstuff.
Danny Gavin (16:26):
So, with regards to
ad copy, any opinion on pinning
headlines, not pinning, andwhat that basically means is
every ad you have multipleheadlines that can show up and
ideally you want to let Googlefigure out which headlines to
show.
But you also have the abilityto pin a certain headline either
to the first, second or thirdposition.
So any opinion on that, Brianna?
Brianna Deboever (16:47):
I'm not a big
user of pinning.
I don't really think it works.
It is a nice feature if youhave something that if you want
to say you know like I reallyneed this to show on the first
headline, that's totally fine.
But pinning almost alwaysautomatically decreases your ad
score and I think Google willfigure it out anyways, and there
(17:08):
are different ways to coach thealgorithm to use the copy you
want it to use.
There are also different waysto make sure your ad score is
better.
So like using dynamic keyword orlocation insertion really bumps
up that quality score of yourad.
And there are different ways tomake sure you're pinning or
making sure your certainheadlines are showing in certain
(17:28):
areas so you can decrease thenumber of headlines you're using
, which automatically tellsGoogle okay, this is the subset
I have to use.
It gives them less of a pool topick from.
You also can, once you'vestarted testing, you could test
a big responsive search ad andthen see what's working and
what's not, and then you couldbuild a new ad off of those
(17:51):
headlines and stick to a reallysimilar theme which will kind of
automatically say, okay,google's going to be using this
and not really able to stray.
Danny Gavin (17:59):
Would you run those
two responsive ads up against
each other, or do you like tokeep one responsive ad live at a
time?
Brianna Deboever (18:06):
I think using
multiple RSAs is really hard
because you have to have a lotof data and traffic coming in to
really get a statisticalsignificance and enough traffic
on each to make a decision onwhat's working.
I think it makes sense to testone RSA at a time unless you're
trying to test landing pages.
It is a tactic to test landingpages by having multiple
(18:28):
responsive search ads andsplitting the traffic and seeing
what does better in thatrespect.
But in general I would test oneat a time and then use your
findings to create new ads andpause the old one.
Danny Gavin (18:38):
So, moving over to
the next topic, which is really
the most important, because youcould be having an awesome
campaign, lots of clicks, but ifyou have no idea who's actually
converting is an issue.
So what are the risks ofrunning campaigns without proper
conversion tracking and how canthis issue be addressed?
Brianna Deboever (18:55):
Oh, what
aren't the risks?
It's like you're spending moneyand you have no idea what it's
actually getting you and youcould be on the back end.
You know being like, wow, likeI'm getting more calls or I'm
getting more sales, but there'sno way to actually tie that
stuff back to your campaignunless you have appropriate
conversion tracking.
Without conversion tracking,you also have almost no way to
(19:16):
like effectively optimize acampaign.
So you don't know what keywords, ad groups, ads are performing
and what aren't, so you're goingto be kind of flailing in there
when deciding what to do.
It's kind of the most importantthing.
We won't run campaigns withoutit.
Danny Gavin (19:31):
So have you seen
accounts that have no
conversions at all?
Brianna Deboever (19:33):
Yes, I've also
seen accounts with conversion
tracking is set up incorrectlyand they don't realize that's
usually the more common issue.
So they think they've set it upbut it's actually tracking the
wrong thing or it's not aneffective conversion.
To track A page visit usuallyisn't an effective conversion,
but a form fill is A buttonclick usually isn't.
(19:55):
Or an email button click but aphone call is A phone call.
That's at least 60 seconds.
So I think that's the morecommon pitfall.
People usually know to set upconversions and they have some
way to figure that out, but it'sharder to make sure they are
the right conversions.
Danny Gavin (20:12):
So what are the
steps that people can take to
set up accurate conversiontracking?
Brianna Deboever (20:16):
Conversion
tracking is complex, but making
sure you have a tag manageraccount can make it really
simple.
Google will walk you through it.
If you're in Google Ads, googlewill help walk you through it,
and you can install it in avariety of ways, and using Tag
Manager is really how werecommend doing it.
Google also has a tag team.
That's not available toeveryone, but if you're spending
(20:37):
a certain amount of money andyou have a Google rep, you can
get help from the Google tagteam to set that up.
It's a toughie, but there areresources out there and this is
where OptiG's expertise reallycomes in handy.
Danny Gavin (20:48):
So you have two
options when it comes to
conversion tracking.
You can either use Google'stags or you could set up the
conversion or goal in GoogleAnalytics 4 and then import it
in.
Do you have any opinion on that, on which one is better or
using both?
Brianna Deboever (21:03):
Now that we're
fully transitioned over to
Google Analytics 4, both workwell.
For a long time, while thetransition to the new Google
Analytics was in progress or notfully vetted, we stuck to
Google Tag Manager and now bothwork well.
A great thing you can do is setup both, set one as primary,
(21:24):
set one as secondary and comparethem to see that, if they're
pretty much aligned, you're goodto use either.
Or you can compare each to youractual sales or leads and see
which one is more accurate.
But I think both are quiteaccurate now.
Danny Gavin (21:40):
Cool, and I think
what's important is, like you
said, you don't want to set bothof those as primary, because
then you're basically doublecounting, but having a backup as
a secondary shouldn't cause anyissues.
So, because conversions are soimportant, it sounds like it'd
be important to regularly auditand make sure that tracking is
working.
So tell me a little bit aboutthat.
Brianna Deboever (21:57):
Yes, this is
part of monitoring.
An account is monitoring.
Do my conversions make sensewhen you're looking at a monthly
report, pulling in all the data, pulling in all the leads or
sales?
Okay, does this make sense?
Does this align with what I'mseeing on the CRM, which is
where all the leads or sales arefunneling?
(22:18):
So does this make sense withwhat I'm seeing on the back end,
in the real side of thebusiness?
So I think it's making sure thatyou are having like checking
constantly the CRM and makingsure you have a good sense of
how much is usually coming in,doing a monthly report and
looking at those numberscritically every month at least,
and then you know when you'rein an account.
(22:39):
You also will start getting asense of this is how many
conversions I typically get, andif that starts getting hot,
super high or super low youmight, it should flag in your
head like, hey, I need to lookinto this.
Is this set up correctly?
It can be a tricky thing tofind and spot, but it takes you
know, knowing your account andbeing in there in a consistent
(22:59):
basis to catch it.
Danny Gavin (23:01):
And then obviously,
bigger agencies or agencies
potentially could have a teamwho, like all they do is monthly
or quarterly check theseconversions just to make sure
they're okay.
But I think, like you said, ifyou are in your account and you
really know what's going on andyou're checking the CRM, or if
it's e-commerce your e-commercestore, and you're able to, you
know you can feel when somethingis off because, like you said,
(23:22):
the numbers are either too highor too low.
Brianna Deboever (23:24):
Yeah, and and
having really good dialogue with
the client.
Every meeting you're talkingabout.
Okay, talk to me about theleads or the sales.
How are you feeling about thevolume?
And it's important for clientsto also say hey, I'm feeling
like this might be a little bitlower or higher than usual, why?
And that also helps spot issues.
So that's why the discussionand the partnership with the
client is also important,because that can help you catch
(23:45):
things.
Danny Gavin (23:46):
All right On to our
last topic, which is
conflicting goals with smartbidding.
What issues can arise fromhaving multiple primary
conversion goals when usingsmart bidding and Google Ads?
Brianna Deboever (23:55):
This is a
tough one.
This is speaking to a campaignthat's in a more mature phase,
tested a lot.
You're getting a lot ofconversions and you have
multiple types of conversions inyour account and what that can
mean is, for example, I have anaccount that we have form fills,
which are leads, and we havewebinar downloads and we have
phone calls, and all of thoseare set as primary conversions
(24:18):
and what that's telling thealgorithm is okay, I want you to
optimize to find theseconversions, but any of these
conversions, they're all kind ofequal and what you want to do
is, as you start to assess whichconversions are more valuable,
is assigning values to those.
Then, as you get further downthe road, the best thing to do
would be get to a maximizedconversion value bit strategy.
(24:40):
What can happen is when you'rejust on, like if you have
multiple primary conversions andyou're on like a max
conversions or a target ROASexcuse me like TCPA bid strategy
, google's just saying, okay,all of these conversions are
equal.
I don't know which one isbetter or worse and really in
this example, so, like, a formfill or a five-minute phone call
(25:03):
is much more valuable and morelikely to be a really solid lead
compared to a webinar download,which was effective in the
beginning for helping ramp upperformance and giving Google
data points to catch on to andthen try to get more valuable
leads.
But at some point you have tomove away from that and just
hone in on the highest valueleads, and then you have to make
(25:24):
sure your bid strategy reflectsthat goal.
Danny Gavin (25:27):
Brianna.
So what would you say are theaction steps businesses can
start taking today?
What would be the first thingthat you would do if you jumped
into an account and said, oh,someone's saying there's
problems.
What would we do?
Brianna Deboever (25:38):
Look at your
search terms report.
Pull it for a long time.
If you haven't ever looked atit, pull it for a long time.
It'll take a while to siftthrough.
But sorting by cost andnegativing anything that is
irrelevant in a phrase matchcapacity is like the highest
value optimization you can maketoday.
Danny Gavin (25:56):
Love it and it's
crazy how many people don't look
at it.
All right.
Well, Brianna, thank you somuch for being a guest again on
the Digital Marketing Mentor andthank you for tuning into the
Digital Marketing Mentor.
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