Author: Nils Rooijmans

Ever noticed the ‘Match type’ column in your search term report?

At first, you might think this refers to the keyword match type (exact, phrase, or broad). But it does not. 

It refers to the search term match type!

Here’s what that looks like (note that all the keywords in this screenshot are ‘broad’ keywords):

So, a broad keyword can be triggered based on search terms that matches that keyword exactly, “phrasely“, or broadly…

Here’s how Google explains the matter:

“‘Match type‘ shows how closely the search term that triggered your ad on Google Search is related to your keyword. For example, when someone searches for purple flowers, your broad match keyword, “purple flowers,” triggers your ad. Since this search term matches your keyword exactly, you’ll see “Exact match” in this column.“

More info here: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2472708?ctx=tltp#match_type

Tomorrow I will share some thoughts on how I use this search term match type to monitor the performance of the ever-changing broad match algorithm.

– Nils

PS: Ready to finally get started writing your very own Google Ads Scripts?

Register today for my next “Google Ads Scripting Workshop for Beginners” and get started with your own scripts in no time!

Finally! You can now create a negative keyword list that applies to all search and shopping inventory. 

This includes PMax campaigns (as far as I know).

Google is rolling out this feature in most of my accounts right now:

Here’s what Google has to say:

“When you create your account-level list of negative keywords, it will automatically apply to all search and shopping inventory in relevant campaign types. This allows you to create a single, global, account-level list that applies negative keywords across all relevant inventory in your account.

You can create a single, account-level list of negative keywords in your Google Ads account settings. In your “Account Settings,” you’ll find the “Negative keywords” section. When you click on this section, you can begin creating your negative keywords list.

You can create your list by defining which search terms are considered negative for your brand. You can then enter this all at once in the “Negative keywords” section of your “Account Settings” in your Google Ads account. You can also specify whether you want to exclude these based on broad, exact, or phrase match. A limit of 1,000 negative keywords can be excluded for each account.“

Source: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2453983

– Nils

PS: if you like this post, be sure to check out my Google Ads Script for Negative Keyword Suggestions.

Nothing is as unpredictable as the weather, right?

Except for Google’s Search Partners, maybe…

Next to the Display Network, I haven’t seen any part of the Google Ads platform that delivers such a wide variety in value per click. Not even broad-match keywords! I’m dead serious.

Some days, if you’re lucky, you get ridiculously cheap clicks that actually convert. On other days, it’s like you’re the target in a training exercise for click farm bots.

Not only is the Search Partners network notorious for click fraud,
the “partners” that send you traffic keep changing by the minute!

And these partners attract completely different crowds!

So, here’s my tip for today…

Go segment your traffic, see how Search Partners are impacting your campaigns, and if they are tanking your results -> disable them before you take another breath:

And because these damn partners keep changing every day, you probably want to check this segment every day and get an alert when search partners are hurting your campaigns.

Guess what? There’s a script for that too 🙂

Here’s the link: https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-script-search-partner-alerts/

– Nils

PS: Want to finally start writing your own Google Ads scripts? Register today for my next Google Ads Scripting Workshop for Beginners.

Have you ever managed a project to implement Offline Conversion Tracking with one of your clients? And you are still alive?

If so, high five to you.

Implementing Offline Conversion Tracking nearly kills me every time. It’s a complex process, with many stakeholders and a lóóót of communication back and forth. Error-prone to the max…

I used to spend countless hours in Zoom meetings endlessly explaining the what, why, and how to different PPC specialists, web developers, CRM managers, and analytics maniacs. GCLIDs, hidden form fields, lead scoring, properly-formatted timestamps, FTP uploads… you name it.

Last time, I decided to try something different.

Enter the OCI Helper. It’s Google’s tool to support you with detailed steps, project management guidance, and communication with different stakeholders.

I highly recommend it for your next lead gen client!

Here’s the link: https://ocihelper.withgoogle.com/

– Nils

PS: Want to finally start writing your own Google Ads scripts?

Register today for my next “Google Ads Scripting Workshop for Beginners“.

Unpopular opinion: The best agencies don’t wear a Google badge.

Here’s why: The Google Partner badge comes with a set of requirements. One of those requirements is to have a minimum optimization score of 70%. That optimization score requires the agencies to apply Google’s recommendations in your account. (*) However, those recommendations are rarely in the best interests of the advertiser (you!).

The best PPC professionals don’t care what Google recommends.

They cut through Google’s BS, test all potential opportunities, and use what works for the advertiser instead of what works for Google.

– Nils

(*) Note: Google has removed this requirement from the program by allowing advertisers to dismiss recommendations while still keeping their optimization score. However, the fact that it was a requirement in the first place, along with Google still pushing these harmful recommendations in order to keep the optimization score, proves my point.

– Nils

Did you know you can easily compare product clicks from PMax vs Standard Shopping? You can do so in only 2 minutes!

Here’s how:
1. Open Google Ads UI
2. Navigate to Reports
3. Click ‘Custom’ to create a custom report
4. Add ‘MC ID’ (merchant center ID) to Row data
5. Add ‘Campaign type’ to Row data
6. Add metrics as Columns 

Here’s what this report will look like (click image to enlarge):

NOTE: Not all product clicks from PMax campaigns are clicks from Google Shopping Product Listing Ads. PMax may also show your products in dynamic remarketing or other exotic locations it is hiding from us.

– Nils

Here’s a truth in computer science: garbage in, garbage out.

Let me rephrase that in the Google Ads Smart Bidding context: incorrect or poor-quality conversion tracking will produce faulty bids.

Faulty bids tank results. Not good. Yet, this is what happened to one of my accounts recently. The number of tracked conversions was artificially inflated.

Here’s what happened:

1. We forgot to add unique transaction IDs to the tracking.
2. For some reason unknown to us, a large portion of people who finished the purchase visited the thank you page a second time.
3. So, the same transaction was being tracked twice.
4. The result: a repeat rate of 1.50 for transactions that in reality only happened once.

“Repeat rate” is the average number of conversions you receive based on interactions that led to at least one conversion. This is reported in the Conversion view in the Google Ads UI (note that you may need to add the ‘repeat rate’ column):

To avoid over-counting, add an order ID to your conversion tag.

Here’s more info on how to minimize duplicate conversions:
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6386790

– Nils

PS: A track I’m currently listening to, to point myself in the right direction for 2023: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kkZ_vKWF8e8

Fellow list member Albert Roig Martin invited me to his PPC podcast to share my thoughts on “PPC in the new year.”

Here’s a transcript of my thoughts:

“As we’ve seen, Google has been pushing AI automation a lot further in 2022. Examples include the complete switch to RSAs, the push for Performance Max, and for instance dynamic asset creation with Google automatically adding images from your landing page as an ad extension.

In 2023, Google is going to continue on this road with more automations coming our way, and less strict targeting capabilities for us. The reason Google is doing this is it wants to see more advertisers competing for inventory that is more “up in the funnel.” 

Traditionally, Google Ads advertisers have been competing for high-intent clicks in the bottom of the funnel; clicks from the search result page for keywords with high intent.

Most advertisers were reluctant to spend significant budget more up in the funnel because more up in the funnel it is much more difficult to discriminate between clicks that convert and those that do not. If we were to do so, the short term returns would be much lower and that kept us from expanding the Google budget.

Now, Google is training its AI to learn what upper funnel clicks will convert, and thus allow many advertisers to start spending budget on inventory that it couldn’t monetize in the past. 

I think that’s the main reason for Google to move to more automation in 2023 and less control for us — because it allows the Google AI to learn what works and what doesn’t. For many advertisers, this is a good thing… after _a while_ the machine has learned to discriminate between clicks with high probability to convert and clicks with low conversion probability.

However, machine learning goes by trial and error. And Google is making the advertiser pay for the errors. This is where the role of us PPC experts comes into play, and this role is only going to be more important in 2023.

I think savvy advertisers will increase automations, and layer them on top of Google’s AI to make sure the AI stays within the boundaries of what we as advertisers accept. Concrete examples of this would include: 

– proactively negating search terms and excluding display placements before they’ve accrued a lot of unnecessary ad spend
– using scripts to regain control over the exploration versus exploitation balance that dictates the speed of learning and the fee we are willing to pay for the algorithms to learn
– using scripts to alert us if Google is making any unwanted automated changes in our account (remember the move to DDA in 2022?)

These examples are especially relevant with respect to the upcoming recession, because it allows PPC professionals to weather the storm by regaining some control and rebalance short term profitability over long term growth.“

Here’s a link to the podcast episode, with my segment starting at 01:16:40 (initially in Spanish): https://ppccast.com/podcast/126-repasamos-2022-y-pensamos-en-2023-con-la-comunidad/

Want more thoughts on 2023? Let me know.

– Nils

Happy New Year!

I hope you had a great 2022 and are excited for an even better 2023  🙂

Thanks for welcoming me into your inbox every day — I sincerely appreciate it.

This year, we celebrated New Year’s Eve at the famous “pontjesbrug” in Curaçao.

It’s a great place to meet a lot of interesting people.

A fellow entrepreneur in the digital marketing space asked me a question.

Him: “Got any resolutions for the new year?” 
Me: “Yep.”
Me: “To buy 23% less clicks for my clients.” 

Cheers to a year of improved returns!

– Nils

Communicating with a Google Rep is like using broad match keywords.

The meaning of your keyword might be unambiguous to you, but it is going to be interpreted differently if the other side matches it to different words. 

– Nils

Here’s a fact: over 40% of people don’t buy what (shopping ad) they click.

Don’t believe me? As per retail guru Andreas Reiffen’s research: “only 34 percent (of conversions) bought the product that was clicked.” (More info at: https://searchengineland.com/can-manage-inventory-google-shopping-247541)

Here’s a quick way to see similar data for yourself in your Analytics data:

Step 1: Go to Conversions > Ecommerce > Product Performance
Step 2: Add Secondary dimension ‘Campaign’
Step 3: Add filter to only show a shopping campaign that targets a specific (set of) product(s)
Step 4: Have a look at the products that are actually bought after the click

In most of my Ecommerce accounts, a huge chunk of the products sold are products that are not targeted in the filtered campaigns.

You can use this Analytics view to see what products are bought via your PMax campaigns as well. Just filter on your PMax campaign.

Go ahead, it only takes 5 minutes.

So, what products does your audience buy after they click your product listing ad?

What do you think this report tells you about ROAS targets?

– Nils

I’m not really sure what to think of this script, so I’m curious to learn your thoughts.

Background: When you don’t provide your own video in a PMax Asset Group, Google will automatically create one for you. This allows Google to show ads on YouTube for your PMax campaigns.

Problem: These auto-generated videos are mostly of soul-destroying quality and/or generate clicks with little value. Also, some of us don’t want to run ads on YouTube at all. Unfortunately, PMax does not currently provide a way to opt-out of video ads.

Solution: Last week, long-time list member and Google Ads Scripts fan Lyubomir Popov shared a script for removing auto-generated videos from your PMax campaigns.

Here’s the link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/11EnTsOHNlctimmD5HUPiFBr-2GOzlvBwiWD-5xVAtiM/view

The script basically checks for automatically-created YouTube videos and removes them. That’s it. 

Is it really that easy, though? Won’t Google simply regenerate new ones after you’ve deleted them?

I like the idea behind the script because it is a great example of how we can leverage the power of scripts to regain some control in the era of automation. At the same time, I am not sure this is the best way we could be fighting the machine.

What are your thoughts on this? I’d love to learn about them, and you can share them with me via email at nils@nilsrooijmans.com.

– Nils

Here’s a quick thought for the weekend:

“Don’t mistake activity for achievement.”

John Wooden

Remember John the next time you open up the Google Ads UI.

– Nils

Here’s a scenario you might recognize. Google Ads script in the old script environment: works like a charm. Same script in the new environment: throwing errors all over the place, and/or simply timing out.

In these cases, there’s a big chance the issue is caused by some old AWQL queries that need to be migrated to the new GAQL format.

Migrating these queries takes some trial and error, and testing GAQL queries from within your code might just feel too cumbersome.

If you recognize what I am talking about, you might want to check out this (free) tool by our PPC friends at TrueClicks: https://gaql.app/

The tool allows you to perform GAQL queries on live Google Ads accounts that you have access to. Within seconds, you’ll see a table with the results of your query, which you can also export as an Excel file.

NOTE: The tool does require access to your account data.

Happy querying!

– Nils

Remember that agency/freelancer who did an audit on your account a year ago? 

That person just might still be able to access your data.

Annual reminder: Go check on all the people who have access to your Google Ads account(s)!

Here’s your how-to guide:
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6372672?hl=en#:~:text=Sign%20in%20to%20your%20Google,then%20enter%20their%20email%20address

PRO TIP: Schedule this task as as a yearly “Custom recurrence” event in your calendar.

– Nils

Last January, we talked about what happens to your monthly spend when you change your daily budget. (Link provided below for your convenience.)

Today, I came across an excellent post on LinkedIn by Google Ads legend Mike Rhodes. He shares a great little trick to prevent Google from overspending/wasting budget that is ‘left on the table’:

Link to post: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/websavvy_googleads-ppc-adwords-activity-7004553961143775232-Up2m

– Nils

PS: Here’s the link to what I wrote earlier this year, as promised: https://nilsrooijmans.com/daily/what-happens-when-you-change-your-daily-budget

– Nils

To miss the forest for the trees is a problem.

However, it’s just as problematic to miss the trees for the forest.

Being stuck in one mode or the other reflects a rigidity of focus.

If you don’t zoom in and out periodically to maintain an accurate perspective on your account(s), your thinking will be either:

1. too small to make a meaningful impact (i.e., tinkering with headlines for ads that get little impressions), or
2. too abstract to be effective in the real world (i.e., dumping all your products with different margins in a single asset group PMax campaign).

To my analytical, detail-oriented friends: maybe devote one day a month to zooming out by imagining the impact you’d like to have on the bigger marketing picture or what new audiences you could potentially reach with different campaign (types).

And to my big thinking, corner-cutting friends: maybe devote one day a month to zooming in by quietly listening to the nitty-gritty data folks who disagree with your approach in hopes of understanding the nuances of their insights.

Whichever one you need to do, I’d be willing to bet that doing so would make you more effective at reaching bigger goals, better ROIs.

– Nils

Do you want to track Performance Max clicks at the Asset group level?

Fellow list member Felipe Martins sent in this question (shared with permission, slightly edited for clarity):

“Since I’ve started with PMax campaigns I need to track more properly, since we are using auto-tagging and seeing NULL values in the utm_content for these campaigns.

Do you know anything about ValueTrack and Asset Groups? I mean, if you know any kind of template we could use to track “asset group name” or “asset group id”?“

Great question.

I’ve tested ValueTrack parameters in my PMax campaigns by adding the following Tracking template to multiple campaigns:

'{lpurl}?matchtype={matchtype}&extensionid={extensionid}&targetid={targetid}&network={network}&gsn={ifsearch:1}&gdn={ifcontent:1}&keyword={keyword}&placement={placement}&adposition={adposition}' 

Unfortunately, NONE, of the parameters get any value assigned. There’s an occasional exception for the network parameter; sometimes the value for ‘network’ is set to ‘x’. I think ‘x’ stands for ‘crossnetwork’, not sure why this happens only occasionally.

The same happens when you add the tracking parameters as Final URL Suffix; no values are assigned.

What you can do though, is add your Custom parameters at the PMax campaign level: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/6325879?ctx=tltp. You can do this manually, or use a script to automatically set the parameters for you.

Another thing you can do is adding some tracking variables to your Asset groups!

As far as I know, Google does not allow you to add a tracking template or custom parameters at the asset group level.

What you can do, is use a script to automatically set the Final URL of your PMax asset groups to contain your custom parameters.
That is, you can add the Name and Id of the asset group by hardcoding them in your Final URL:

'?utm_source='google'&utm_medium='cpc'&utm_campaign={PmaxCampaignName}&utm_content={PmaxAssetGroupName}&utm_id={PmaxAssetGroupId}'

Here are two links to help you get started:

• https://developers.google.com/google-ads/scripts/docs/reference/adsapp/adsapp_campaignurls
• https://developers.google.com/google-ads/scripts/docs/reference/adsapp/adsapp_assetgroupurls

Happy scripting!

– Nils

PS: If you want me to create the script for you, send me an email at nils@nilsrooijmans.com.