Author: Nils Rooijmans

A long-time member of the list, Kevin (name shared with permission), wrote in with a frequently asked question today:

Hey Nils,

[…]

do you still use SKAGS (I do), or are you organizing your keywords differently these days? 

thanks for all the knowledge you share, you’re a great sport.

Kev

Thanks, Kev! The answer is short and easy: these days, I like to group my keywords around ads and landers that respond to a single search intent (or theme, if you will), not single keywords. 

So, STAGs (Single Themed Ad Groups) all the way.

SKAGs used to be really powerful when match types were (sort of) reliable and we had things like Standard Text Ads and ETAs. These days, with RSAs, fuzzy match types, and smart bidding, my default is STAGs.

The only two exceptions I can think of where I still use SKAGs are Brand campaigns and situations where one search term is responsible for let’s say >50% of clicks and conversions in the account (e.g., “car insurance”). In the latter case, I would create an exact match SKAG for that keyword and fine-tune my audiences, ad copy, extensions, landing page, and negative keywords to perfection.

Another scenario that comes to mind is B2B searches with relatively low volume but high order value. Sometimes, it makes sense to use SKAGs for these searches (especially if conversion tracking does not clearly communicate the high order value). But even then, there’s a big chance I will be adding keywords with similar intent to the same ad group later on.

– Nils

PS: I love receiving and answering questions like these, so if you have any you are willing to share with the list, please send them over. I can’t promise I will answer all of them, but I will surely try!

Every time Google announces something new that has the smell of reducing transparency and control, I Rebel Yell: “My money, my clicks, my data!”

The next minute, I find myself digging in the report editor and running GAQL queries against the API until my CPU burns a hole in my laptop. I shout at my table duck as if she quacks Googlish, and I pull my last hairs out just to get those numbers.

This time is no exception.

Last week, October 3, Google announced “Ads in AI Overviews: now live.”

“…you can show ads in these experiences with your existing AI-powered Search ads, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns. There’s no additional action required. As we evolve the consumer Search experience, we’re also building advancements into our ads solutions, allowing you to automatically connect with customers as they search in new ways.“

Source: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-lens-ai-overviews-ads-marketers/

“…automatically connect with customers as they search in new ways.”

Right.

My current understanding is that Google will not allow us to target or segment these clicks from AI overviews, not by click type or network. So again, little transparency and less control.

But… maybe, just maybe, there might be some insight in the gad_source URL parameter.

If you’re not familiar with this parameter, read this: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/13327296?hl=en

The support article explains:

“…the gad_source URL parameter is used to identify the source of ads URLs and improve the accuracy of ads conversion measurement.”

Great, so we can learn more about the source of the ads URLs (and hopefully, even if that source is AI Overviews).

However, the article doesn’t explain the meaning of the different values for this parameter (and I couldn’t find it anywhere online).

So, let’s find out together, shall we?

Here’s what I’ve learned so far (work in progress):

You can check these URL parameters in your Google Ads account.

To do so, here’s how:

1. Go to the All Campaigns view, Insights and reports, Landing pages, and Expanded landing pages.
2. Add the campaign column and filter using ‘Expanded landing page contains gads_source=X’
3. Segment by Click type, Network, or some other segment.

Or, when you see an ad in AI Overviews in the wild, check the lander URL.

Please let me know what you find. I plan to share our findings next week.

Thanks a ton,

– Nils

Fellow subscriber Cezar Keller wrote in to share his experience with the premium version of my Change History Alert script
(shared with permission, slightly edited for clarity):

Hi Nils,

I just implemented your Change History Alert script and it works like a charm!

The script even flagged automated changes coming from “Internal Tool” with an user “low activity system bulk change”.

Those are the changes that Google announced in the beginning of the year for low activity campaigns and ad groups.

Thanks a ton and have a great week.

Best regards

Cezar

Success stories like this always make my day 🙂

Thanks to Cezar for sharing, and I hope it inspires others to install the script and get alerted when Google makes (unwanted) changes to the account.

Here’s the link to the free version of the script: https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-script-change-history-alerts/

– Nils

There are many ways to win a client or a job, but there’s one surefire way to lose it: to run out of trust.

There is a Dutch saying that intends to remind people that trust takes time to build, but it can be lost quickly.

Vertrouwen komt te voet en gaat te paard.
(Trust comes on foot and leaves on horseback.)

Here’s my PPC tip for the day: continuously invest in building trust. Here’s how you can do this:

1. Show results (KPIs + numbers)
2. If the numbers aren’t that good, explain your efforts to improve them.

That’s it.

– Nils

PS: Wonder how I show results? Read this: https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-monthly-reporting-script-my-very-basic-version/

Two days ago, I wrote about newsletter ideas based on your trending search terms. (A link to that will be provided below for your convenience).

In the email, I posed a challenge to you:

“…you can automate the ChatGPT part Caterina described as well. Simply extend the script with some code to feed the prompt and trending search terms to the ChatGPT API, and have the script send the email with the 10 newsletter ideas.”

Guess what?

Fellow script fanatic and PPC legend Frederick Vallaeys (Optmyzr) took on the challenge and created the automation for us!

“Blog Ideas from Trending Search Terms in Google Ads”

From the script comments:

/*
* The script finds search terms that have at least a minimum number of impressions
* in the past 7 days and have either increased by a specified multiplier compared to
* the previous 7 days or have gone from zero to meeting the minimum impression threshold.
* For the top 5 highest-volume trending search terms, it uses the OpenAI GPT API to
* generate blog post ideas.
* The script then compiles these ideas into an email and sends it to your specified
* email address.
*/

Here’s the link to the script: https://gist.github.com/siliconvallaeys/0527249a7aee382db6360e50e4d7487a

Happy scripting!

– Nils

P.S. As promised, here’s a link to part 1: https://nilsrooijmans.com/daily/newsletter-ideas-based-on-your-trending-search-terms

Here’s a harsh truth for PPC-ers in lead gen:

Ultimately, your success depends heavily on the client’s sales skills.

You can generate all the high-quality leads in the world, but if the client can’t convert leads into sales, you might as well target ads for tanning salons in the tropics.

For converting leads into sales, the landing page matters a lot. However, the speed and sales skills of the person contacting the lead are what really make the difference.

Be sure to measure and optimize.

Measure:
1. The response rate (are all the leads followed up within 5 minutes?)
2. The quality of the lead (spam, irrelevant, or MQL?)
3. How good is the lead-to-sales funnel (are conversion rates what is to be expected based on the quality of the lead?)

Optimize all of the above. 

– Nils

A fellow member of the list, Caterina Mariani (name shared with permission), posted an interesting use case for one of my scripts last week.

I’ll let her explain below:

…

I absolutely LOVE reading this because it is THE reason I am sharing these scripts: to empower the PPC community and stimulate others to build something more powerful on top.

Great work and thanks for sharing, Caterina!

Now, in case you are wondering… you can automate the ChatGPT part Caterina described as well. Simply extend the script with some code to feed the prompt and trending search terms to the ChatGPT API, and have the script send the email with the 10 newsletter ideas. 🙂

Here are the scripts to get you started:

• https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-script-trending-search-terms/
• https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-script-pmax-trending-search-categories/

Happy scripting!

– Nils

Once upon a time, there was a PPC freelancer who knew more about the Google Ads platform than all Google Reps combined.

Uhh, wait. Sorry, I meant she knew more than all PPC specialists combined.

Yes. That sounds better.

Every day, she would tinker with all the details in the platform and test each and every setting, as if her life depended on it.

Her nickname was “PPC-pedia.” Every PPC boy knew where to find her if they had any questions on Google Ads.

Her real name was Shadira.

One day, Shadira inherited a Google Ads account which had been managed for 5 years by a decent PPC professional.

His name was Bob.

Bob was good.

Good, but not “PPC-pedia”-level.

Not Shadira. 

Now, it was Shadira’s job to grow the number of leads per month, at a sort-of-similar CPL.

“No problem,” she thought.

Her, being the uber-platform-specialist she is.

And so she went:

1. N-gramming her way through the SQRs to negate the wasted spend away
2. Up-QS-ing the top keywords that generated 80% of the clicks
3. “Enhancing” those conversions to get more data in
4. A/B-testing ad copy to the point where even David Ogilvy could not come up with better headlines
5. Ramping up new audiences to target ever more specific and high-converting niches

But still, progress looked like a 90s dial-up connection trying to load the Google Ads UI.

Shadira could not get the account to grow. Not in a profitable manner.

That is, until finally it hit her:

(The numbers are fictional, but the ratios are factual.)

Here’s the thing: no matter how perfectly structured your account is, how well-chosen your keywords and audiences are, and how convincing your ads are, a poorly-designed landing page will cripple your ability to scale the business.

– Nils

Here’s what I like to do for KWR in High CPC niches (e.g., lead gen) to grow my accounts:

A) Generate a list of the top 10 converting search terms (ideally, SQL/true Sales)

B) Download SQR report for the last X months (make sure the download represents enough data for the currently enabled keywords in your account)

C) Feed A and B to ChatGPT, and ask it to come up with 10 new keyword ideas for which the suggested keyword is not already listed in B

This will give you completely new keywords that aren’t targeted (yet) with your existing keywords.

If you like the approach, here’s how you can automate it: https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-script-automated-gpt-keyword-suggestions/

– Nils

Quick question: what exactly does Performance Max maximize?

I’ll let you go first.

You: “Performance Max maximizes my profits.”
Me: “No.”

You: “Ah, I see. I am tracking revenue, not profit. So Performance Max maximizes my revenue.”
Me: “Nope.”

You: “Uhh, OK, then it must be conversions.”
Me: “No, again.”

You: “What? What else is there? Clicks then?”
Me: “No, no, no!”

You: “WTF?!”
Me: “It’s spend. Ad spend. Performance Max maximizes your ad spend, as long as you let it.”

If you are 100% convinced the last statement is complete BS, you can stop reading now and open the next mail in your inbox.

If, however, you are like me and you think it’s an interesting hypothesis worth testing and letting the data speak for itself, then my column on Search Engine Land might be of interest to you.

If you are already convinced it is true, this is your lucky day because we’ve got some interesting scripts to help you stop Performance Max from wasting your money.

Here’s the link again:
https://searchengineland.com/mastering-performance-max-using-scripts-446736

– Nils

Here’s a new feature from Google: you can now disable automatically created video assets in PMax campaigns.

It’s a great move by Google, giving us back some more control.

NOTE: It’s not fully live, some accounts don’t show this yet.

If that is you, here’s a nice HACK to prevent PMax from creating videos for you and wasting money on YT: create a video that gets disapproved.

Just use a screenshot of the type of video you only watch in private settings (you know what I am talking about), or create an image that contains the word F#$K (without hiding the letters U and C).

Video gets disapproved, but stays in the asset group -> no more automatically generated video asset 🙂

Many of us have been asking for the option to exclude videos from PMax for a long time.

Let me end this note by thanking Google for finally acting upon feedback from the PPC community.

Here’s another thing we’ve been asking for for a long time: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/nilsrooijmans_googleads-pmax-activity-7242790287285059584-RjnI

Let’s hope this trend continues.

– Nils

Here’s a question that popped up in Ed Leake’s GTA community the other day:

“I have a client that has a small local remodeling business. He wants to be on the map ads and I don’t blame him, but the quality of the leads are horrendous.

I’m not just talking about folks that are looking for jobs; we’re getting leads from New Jersey and California BUT the business is in Atlanta, GA.

Is there a way to force PMAX to behave?“

Here’s what I responded with:

“1. Have you set location targeting to ‘Presence: People in or regularly in your included locations’?  

2. Be sure to create a report via Report Editor that shows the ‘User location’ (different from the Matched locations in the UI that don’t show the real location of users). See details: https://nilsrooijmans.com/daily/matched-location-user-location

3. Next, exclude NJ and CA (and other irrelevant locations) from your PMax campaigns via locations exclusions. (Yes, you can exclude locations in PMax.)“

Ed agreed, and added this:

“It is ridiculous that you have to exclude EVERY country, but we often do it just to be safe.”

I couldn’t agree more…

– Nils

PS: It is this kind of knowledge exchange inside the community that makes GTA punch above its weight and deliver a great return on your investment!

If you want to simplify account management, take back control and improve results (or your money back) -> sign up for Ed’s God Tier Ads.

Use my discount code “NILS100” at checkout for $100 off. Pay once, get lifetime access to everything.

I’d still share these tips without the kickback… Ed’s pro tips have made me way more money than I’ll ever see from commissions, but a few extra bucks is nice!

Here’s the link again: https://app.godtierads.com/gta-bonus-bundle/apnnu

Last week, I was in Berlin for the SMX Advanced event.

Nadine Maier and I shared a presentation titled “Google Ads Hacks.”

You can find the slides and some new scripts here:

https://nilsrooijmans.com/smx-advanced-berlin-2024

Oh, and Hack Zero is of course to add the word “Hacks” to everything that needs attention, i.e., email subjects 😉

– Nils

Automating Google Ads reports is like teaching a philosopher to code.

Suddenly, you have more time to ponder the bigger questions, like the true ROE (Reason Of Existence) of your Google Ads account.

You can ask yourself questions that (really?) matter, such as:

• “Why does this audience dance more gracefully with my main KPI than that other group of ad-clicking-tire-kickers?”
• “What is it that makes this group of best-selling products so special?”
• “What seasonal trends do I see upcoming in the near future, that I can act upon today?”

Questions that impact your account’s performance far beyond the mere act of compiling reports.

If you agree, meet Swydo.

Swydo is like a Zen garden, automating Google Ads reports and cultivating peace in your workday.

It allows you to contemplate the profound instead of getting lost in the data-gathering and number-crunching weeds.

I’ve found Swydo to offer me huge time savings when it comes to automated reporting:

• It aggregates data from all the major platforms.
• It has a very small learning curve (and is easier to implement than Looker Studio).
• It offers a free plan with a great onboarding service. You can get your specific report running in 20 minutes.
• It allows for copy-paste templates you can use for each new client.
• It’s the cheapest solution out there unless you want to spend a lot of time on the plumbing and client setups.
• It is reliable and robust. Reports go out on time, every time.

Again, their support is amazing; just book a support call via Calendly, and skilled professionals will help you create any report you need.

Yes, my firsthand experience with Swydo support took me by surprise, after numerous calls with other “platform professionals”. (*) 

– Nils

(*): Interested to learn how I handle all the endless calls from Google Reps? If so, hit reply.

PS: If you want a reliable and affordable solution to automate your performance reporting -> sign up for a free trial at: https://www.swydo.com/

When you are happy with the tool and ready to upgrade, mention “NilsRooijmans” during the upgrade to get a $100 discount.

I’d still share these tips without the kickback, but a few extra bucks is nice! Here’s the link again: https://www.swydo.com/

Here’s a little-known Google Ads feature that is actually quite useful: campaign-level headlines and descriptions.

Google says:

“Campaign-level headlines and descriptions can be scheduled if you have assets that you want to show during a specific time period. 

Additionally, these assets can be pinned to certain positions if you want to ensure they show“

I absolutely love this feature, because:

1. You can easily schedule assets to show across all ad groups inside a campaign. Think: promotional messaging that has a specific start and end date, you can schedule them in advance!

2. It is great for headlines and descriptions that need frequent updating across RSAs. No more manually editing many ads in multiple ad groups when you enable/disable promotions!

Here’s a 9-minute video by our PPC friends from Paid Media Pros that clearly explains this great feature and how to use it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m35xGQjTFpE (play at double the speed)

If you haven’t used them thus far, I highly recommend checking them out. It only takes 10 minutes and I am sure you will benefit from using them in the near future.

– Nils

Here’s a quick and easy productivity win for you:

If you service multiple clients in different industries, group similar clients in your workweek.

For instance: 

• Monday is the lead-gen day, when I service my lead-gen clients.
• Tuesday is e-comm fashion day, when I service my B2C fashion clients.
• Wednesday is coaching day, when I service my coaching clients.

Client batching works because it allows your brain to focus on one type of client strategy and the type of work involved at a time.

No need to let the mind wander off in supplemental feeds when you are working on lead gen clients. Skip the e-comm blog post that popped up in your notifications, etc.

And if you are lucky, coming up with an idea for client A immediately translates into an almost copy-paste strategy for client B that is already open in a second window.

– Nils

Do you ask yourself any of these questions?

“Is my account in optimal shape?”

“Am I wasting budget on parts that don’t convert?”

“Are all my settings set to the best, and still in place?”

“Am I missing opportunities for significant growth?”

If so, come join me in my SMX Advanced workshop:

Google Ads Auditing (partly automated via scripts)

In this hands-on workshop, we will go over some of the more advanced auditing techniques for Google Ads, that you will immediately check in your account.

We will also automate some of the checks and analyses via scripts. Don’t worry if you don’t have any scripting skills; the scripts will be readily available for you to copy-paste during the workshop.

After the workshop, you’ll be able to impress your potential clients, colleagues, and your boss with unique insights to improve almost any Google Ads account!

Curious?

Here’s a sneak peek of one of the things we’ll cover (based on a post from /r/PPC):

“I have on multiple occasions turned off the Google search partners option, but the next day somehow the option keeps turning back on. Eating up my entire budget with useless leads. Any ideas on why this might be happening and how I can fix it?”

Turns out, it was an auto-apply recommendation setting…

Easy fix: check the recommendations tab and the auto-apply settings.

But here’s the thing: you CANNOT sit back and simply trust Google to apply automations that will benefit your objectives.

Don’t trust, verify!

Verify by testing.

Use scripts to continuously monitor the test data for you.

Here’s one of my favorite examples:

[Google Ads Script] Search Partner Performance Alerts

This script compares the performance of the Search Partners to the Google Search Network.

In case of a significant difference in CPA/ROAS performance, the issue is logged in a sheet and an alert is sent via email. That way you’ll know when Search Partners aren’t performing, and you can opt out of the Search Partner network for these campaigns.

Interested in more info like this?

Sign up for the workshop 🙂

Click here to apply »
https://smxadvanced.eu/workshop/hands-on-google-audit/

(Use discount code ATFPPCP24 to get 20% off the workshop and the rest of the event.) 

Seats are limited. It’s not too late, but it will be soon.

I hope to see you there!

– Nils

Are you interested in some advanced PPC Hacks to optimize your Google Ads account?

If so, join me and the talented Nadine Maier at SMX Advanced in Berlin.

Here’s a sneaky sneak peek: we’ll be talking all things from budgets to bidding, from audiences to creatives, and from feeds to reporting.

Hack #13:

In the past, we used to run all of my competitor campaigns(*) on manual bidding with a CPC bid to ensure we ranked at the top of the page.

We noticed that it was hard to make these kinds of campaigns profitable because Quality Scores, CTRs, and Conversion Rates tend to be very low compared to the generic keywords in our accounts. This resulted in CPAs that were mostly too high.

Not anymore.

A few months ago, we started testing smart bidding on competitor campaigns and the results are very convincing.

Here’s the data from one of the latest experiments:

Note that the only difference between the original and the experiment is the bidding strategy. Moreover, search term analyses did not show a significant difference in the types of searches our ads showed for.

What this tells me is that Google’s target CPA bidding learned how to discriminate between clicks from people who are open to an alternative, versus the people who really are looking to buy from the competitor.

Great job Google, smart bidding FTW!

(*) Note: competitor campaigns are campaigns that only contain competitor brand names as keywords.

Want to see more “hacks” like these and learn much more from other PPC professionals?

 –> Get access to SMX Advanced Berlin (10-11 Sep, 2024) !

– Nils

P.S. I’ll also present a Google Ads Audit workshop at SMX Advanced. In this hands-on workshop, we will go over some of the more advanced auditing techniques for Google Ads, which you will immediately check in your own account. We will also automate some of the checks and analyses via scripts.

If you’d like to attend, you can apply below:

Click here to apply »
https://smxadvanced.eu/workshop/hands-on-google-audit/

(Use discount code ATFPPCP24 to get 20% off the workshop and the rest of the event.) 

Seats are limited. It’s not too late, but it will be soon.

I hope to see you there!

Have you ever wanted to create multiple site links for a single landing page?

I did. Today.

Today was about all about onboarding a new client for me.

The client (lead gen) offers a single service, on a single landing page.

The problem: Google Ads requires unique URLs for each site link (sometimes, using the same URL gets them disapproved).

The solution? This simple hack from our PPC friend Mykyta Soima: 

PRO TIP: use different UTM parameters to easily track the clicks on the various site links in GA4 and make the URLs unique at the same time.

NOTE: technically, it is against Google’s policy to use site links with the same page content. In practice, I never ran into problems. Use the trick, while we can 🙂

– Nils

P.S. Exactly two weeks from now, I’m presenting a Google Ads Audit workshop at SMX Advanced.

In this hands-on workshop, we will go over some of the more advanced auditing techniques for Google Ads, which you will immediately check in your account. We will also automate some of the checks and analyses via scripts.

If you’d like to attend, you can apply below:

Click here to apply »
https://smxadvanced.eu/workshop/hands-on-google-audit/

(Use discount code ATFPPCP24 to get 20% off the workshop and the rest of the event.) 

Seats are limited. It’s not too late, but it will be soon.

I hope to see you there!