landing pages and benefits

Quick question: how many persons are involved in B2B buying decisions?

Quick answer: according to Google and ChatGPT, the typical buying group for a complex B2B solution involves 6-10 decision-makers.

10(!) decision makers…

That is a lot of convincing to be done.

If you are selling products or services via your website, that means your landers have some convincing to do.

In fact, this was one of the eye-openers for me from Ed Leake’s Landing Page Checklist Template: include benefits for all the persona / decision-makers involved in the sale process.

Here’s a screenshot of what that checklist looks like:

(click image to enlarge)

– Nils

PS:

If you join God Tier Ads, you will get access to multiple checklists like the one above that will help you set up and manage your Google Ads accounts.

If you want to simplify account management, take back control, and improve results (or get 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

Monitor Google’s automatically-applied changes

This email from Google (with the subject “Google Ads will automatically pause low-activity keywords”) landed in most of our inboxes in the last few days:

“Starting in June 2024, we will begin to automatically pause low-activity keywords. 

Positive keywords in search ads campaigns are considered low-activity if they were created over 13 months ago and have zero impressions over the past 13 months.”

Good/bad?

My take: I am confused.

Initial response: Google, please f#$k off with these automatically-applied changes. Warnings I can easily turn off, yes, please.  Notifications on ways to improve things… all good. Automatically-applied changes without my consent? NO WAY!

Second thought: Not sure this is a bad thing, after all? After all, 13 months of zero impressions… sounds like pretty useless clutter in the account, right? Potentially hurting the mythical account level QS, and complicating account management for sure.

Third thought: I am still thinking… If you have been thinking about this, please do share your thoughts. I would love to learn!

Fourth thought: Even if pausing low-activity keywords turns out to be a good thing (for the average account), here’s the thing: I still want to be in the know when this change happens. (Because it just might not be a good thing for my account.)

Which brings me to…

…my Change History Alerts Script.

URL: https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-script-change-history-alerts/

What it does:
The script checks all the entries in the Google Ads change history of your account, and if there is a change by a user outside of your list of ‘recognized’ users, you will get an alert via email. The alert mail contains the number of changes as well as a link to the Google Sheet that lists all changes by unrecognized users.

Why you care:
It is all too often that people outside your team (or Google) make changes to the Google Ads accounts you manage. You want to make sure these changes are in line with your strategy ASAP. This script ensures you do.

Happy scripting!

– Nils

Do the exact OPPOSITE of what Google recommends

I mostly do the exact OPPOSITE of what Google recommends.

Here are some of my (unpopular?) approaches:

1. I test LOWERING the budget in campaigns that run on smart bidding. Immediately, I see a reduced cost in incremental conversions, making the additional conversions profitable instead of losing money. (Note: the previously unprofitable uplift in conversions is being hidden by the averages we all look at.)

2. I turn off all auto-recommendations. Immediately, I see a huge reduction of wasted ad spend on clicks that don’t convert.

3. I split out ad groups for different keywords, and use exact match and phrase match. Immediately, I see an increase in ad quality, higher rankings, and more clicks at a lower cost per click for the exact search terms.

4. I test REDUCING the number of assets, and pinning my best headlines in Responsive Search Ads. Immediately, I see an increase in conversions AND conversion value per impression.

5. I run standard search and standard shopping campaigns next to Performance Max campaigns. Immediately, I see the overall account performance increase (revenue and ROAS up, cost per conversion down).

Always remember: Google’s recommendations are in Google’s best interest, not necessarily yours.

– Nils

What should a PPC expert measure?

A few people have asked me the same question this month…

“What should a PPC expert measure/report?”

That is the wrong question.

The right question is:

“What does the client/boss measure?”

– Nils

PS: Personally, I take a lot of time to convince my clients that only three numbers truly matter: Google Ads spend, the Return, and my invoice. The specific ‘Return’ differs per client but is almost always either ‘Revenue’ or ‘Profit’.

4 practical tips if you want to change product feed provider

Ever thought about getting rid of some expensive product feed management platforms that do not create that much value?

I am currently in the midst of a process like this.

Luckily, Kirk Williams has some great advice on how to do so without tanking results:

  1. Start the new feed container before you get rid of the old container. (Best to let them run next to each other for a few months before shutting the old one down.)
  2. Don’t migrate all products at once. Start with some middle-of-the-road products that do show significant volume, but aren’t in your top segments.
  3. Make sure the item IDs in the new feed match the IDs from the old feed.
  4. Make as many as possible feed attributes in the new feed match the data in the old feed.

Here’s the link to Kirk’s video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eitlnnP0_fc

Be sure to check out some of his earlier vids too, all great stuff!

– Nils

Mapping search terms to landers

Are you sending traffic to the best landing pages?

To answer this question, I like to periodically review the mapping between search terms and the “post-ad-click” landing pages.

The easiest way to do this is by creating a Google Ads custom report that shows a table like the one below:

Here’s how to do this in less than 3 minutes:

1. Go to Reports (upper right corner)
2. Create a custom report
3. Add as row: ‘search term’, ‘ad group’, and ‘ad final url’
4. Add as column: ‘clicks’, ‘conversions’, and ‘conv rate’

To analyze the data:

5. Download as Excel CSV file
6. Create table, sort by clicks, and then sort by search term

This way, you can easily find search terms that generate clicks to more than one lander, and decide on which lander is best.

Pausing keywords in ad groups and/or adding negative keywords will help you direct traffic to the optimal lander.

PRO TIP: Share this report with your client every once and a while to see if they know of any better landing pages for the top 100 search terms. This is especially valuable for retailers with lots of different product category pages and product detail pages. 

EXTRA PRO TIP: You can use a tool like easylanding.io to easily edit any text or images on your landing page in a WYSIWYG editor.

– Nils

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

[PPC Productivity] DEDDAL

Here’s my 6-stage cycle you can use to increase your PPC productivity and freedom without wasting a lot of time and money:

1. Define your PPC goals 
Be concrete, be specific, and don’t be shy about the numbers.

2. Eliminate
Remove all the tasks that don’t significantly move the needles for what you defined in the previous step. Be relentless; remove more than what feels comfortable. You should also apply this at the PPC account level — remove campaigns, ad groups, and keywords that only bring complexity but little results.

3. Document
Create a written Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for anything you do more than once. Think negative keyword management, tinkering with budgets, smart bidding targets, feed optimization, and ad copy testing. Start with the easy stuff — this allows you to prove the value of SOPs to yourself (and your team). Don’t try to document everything at once. Take small incremental steps. Improve the SOP every time you use it.

4. Delegate 
Bring in one or more contractors to run your SOPs for you. Make sure that they know they are allowed to improve the SOP as long as they update the SOP to reflect their changes and ask you for feedback.

5. Automate
Set up software automations to replace your contractors. This could be as simple as using automated rules, plugging systems together with no-code solutions like Zapier for reporting, or hiring a developer to write a Google Ads script for you.

6. Liberate
The ultimate goal is freedom — both geographical and from the traditional 9-to-5 structure. Work from anywhere, anytime you want. This flexibility allows you to focus on what’s really meaningful for your account, for your client, for your business, for you, and for your loved ones.

This brings me to Brian Dyson, the former CEO of Coca-Cola, who once said:

“Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling some five balls in the air. You name them work, family, health, friends, and spirit, and you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls — family, health, friends, and spirit — are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered.” 

– Nils

how to scale smart bidding

Here’s a question I get a lot:

“I’ve been running my shopping campaigns (or PMax) for some time now. How do I scale?” 

Multiple answers here, but Ed Leake summed it up pretty nicely:

(click image to enlarge)

– Nils

PS:

This diagram is part of the God Tier Ads framework. If you join God Tier Ads, you will also become part of an online community of PPC enthusiasts like Ed and me, where all members help you answer questions like the one above. If you want to simplify account management, take back control, and improve results (or get 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

[PPC Productivity] Change case with a single click

We PPC-ers sure love to fiddle with text cases, don’t we?

Title Case for Headlines.
Sentence case for descriptions.
lowercase for keywords.
UPPERCASE for crazy experiments.

Imagine how many hours of your creative genius have been squandered over the years, pressing Shift and all that.

What a waste!

Here’s a Chrome extension that will save you a ton of clicks and keyboard strokes. It easily lets you select text and change its case.

Simply Select That Headline In The Google Ads UI And Change It To Title Case With A Single Click.

Go check it out:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/change-case/lpakoahdokkkonadfppfgmednkknpgbm?hl=en

– Nils

PS: Here’s a screenshot of what it will look like when you use it.

Thanks to your support, I made it to the Top 10 Most Influential PPC Experts

Last week, the folks behind PPCSurvey.com released the list of Most Influential PPC Experts 2024.

Guess what? I made it to the Top 10!

A big thank you to all of you who expressed their confidence in me. 

And a big thank you too to the team behind the survey, and to all the others on the list who care to share!

Be sure to check out all the other PPC Pros on the list; the content they share is worth every byte in gold.

Here’s the link: https://www.ppcsurvey.com/top-50-most-influential-ppc-experts-2024

– Nils

Why your assets (extensions) won’t show, if you don’t rank

When thinking about your assets (formerly known as ‘ad extensions’), did you know:

“The Google Ads system generally won’t allow ads in lower positions to get more incremental clicks from assets than the incremental clicks they’d get from moving up to a higher position. 

To show ads in higher positions, generally you need to increase your ad quality, bid, or both.

AND

You will not be able to get a combination of assets which gives more expected click-through-rate (CTR) than the expected CTR of a higher ad position.

SOURCE: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7331111?hl=en

Here’s the thing: you can improve the quality of your assets as much as you want, but if your ad position isn’t high enough, it won’t bring you much.

I guess we’ll have to “pay to play” when it comes to showing what we’ve got?

– Nils

[Webinar] Google Ads Scripts Inspiration

Do you want to increase control and efficiency in your accounts?

If so, please join Daniel Alvarado (CEO of White Shark Media) and me on Thursday, April 25, at 11 AM EDT.

Discover how to regain control and improve your efficiency by strategically implementing Google Ads scripts.

This session is for you if you want to get inspired by many examples of the scripts I use in my accounts, or if you are a complete beginner and want to know how to get started with Google Ads scripts.

This session is NOT for you if you already are familiar with scripts, have them running in your account, and already have seen many examples (e.g., the ones in my list with over 400 scripts).

SIGN UP HERE -> Registration Link

– Nils

Automatically Remove Underperforming Age Segments

Let’s talk e-bikes.

For some, it’s the way to feel the wind in their hair without turning every ride into the Tour de Sweat.

For others, they’re the urban equivalent of raging bulls, but with less sound and fewer apologies.

For the young, e-bikes are the express lane to freedom, adventure, and the occasional humble brag on social media.

For the old, it’s just a way to get that extra push to keep moving.

Different audiences.

Different needs.

Here’s the thing: for the same search terms, your product might show completely different conversion rates for different age segments.

You might be making tons of money on pensionados, while at the same time wasting buckets of (bit)coins on millennials.  

If that’s happening in your account, you want to be in the know and take action.

Here’s an easy way to automatically cut spend on age segments that don’t convert: create an automated rule

PPC automation FTW!

– Nils

State of PPC Global Report 2024

Interested to learn how 1,135 PPC specialists and their managers feel about their work, the ad platforms, priorities, campaign types, budget expectations, generative AI, tooling, and much more?

If so, check this out: https://www.ppcsurvey.com/

It offers 60+ pages of free, detailed insider information that you won’t find anywhere else

Released last week.

Here’s my favorite graph:

Any surprises for you in this list?

– Nils

a simple thing (part 2)

Today has been a lot of fun, mostly because of all the crazy responses I got to yesterday’s email (provided below for your convenience).

Many of you responded with some interesting quotes from people I’ve never heard of. 

Some of you asked ChatGPT or some other LLM for the answer.  This (surprisingly?) has proven to be a task that is still outside of LLMs’ league — none got it right.

And then, there were a few of you who got it right. Congrats to Ignasi Thio, Gabriel Bradly, Gideon Robert , Martin Mayer, and Lee Duncan for getting it right!

Johan Cruijf had famously said:

“Voetbal is een simpel spelletje, maar simpel voetballen blijkt erg moeilijk”

Just to show you an example of what I was talking about in the Google Ads context: what about automatically pausing your campaigns when your website is down? Simple task, right?

At least, it should be simple. However, how to actually do this within Google Ads isn’t that simple at all.

Seriously… how do you do it?

Here’s my solution: https://nilsrooijmans.com/daily/free-script-to-pause-campaigns-automatically-when-a-site-is-down

– Nils

PS: As promised, here’s a link to yesterday’s email –> https://nilsrooijmans.com/daily/a-simple-thing

a simple thing

“Google Ads is simple. Yet, playing the Google Ads game simply often turns out to be a very difficult thing.”

The first three (non-Dutch) responders who know the origin of this quote will get a free copy of the PRO version of my latest script: https://nilsrooijmans.com/google-ads-script-automated-gpt-keyword-suggestions/

For this, you can email me at nils@nilsrooijmans.com. 🙂

– Nils

PS: For all Dutch responders, I’ve got something even better — free drinks at the next SEA Borrel (11 April, Amsterdam). Sign up here: https://seaborrel.nl