Category: Google Ads

Some Google Ads campaign managers say that ROAS or CPA targets safeguard your smart bidding campaigns. In my experience, this is only true if your target is very close to past averages.

If a ROAS target is set, say 1.5x or 2x your last_30_days average (or any realistic ROAS altogether), it is likely to stop the campaign from generating any clicks. In the other way around, set it at 70% or even 50% of your last_30_days average, and your campaign will spend like crazy with hardly any extra conversions.

ROAS targets don’t safeguard your campaigns. A decent setup does. 

If your campaign manager says that a ROAS or CPA target is necessary to “safeguard smart bidding,” politely suggest that if they really want to safeguard smart bidding, they should invest some time in a proper setup.

My $0.02. Your ROAS may vary.

– Nils

Starting today, standard shopping campaigns will no longer show on Gmail, Discover, and YouTube. 

However, you can still continue showing your Shopping ads on YouTube Search by opting into the Search Partner Network (SPN); the YouTube Search inventory has been moved to SPN!

If you have already opted into SPN, no action is required; your ads will automatically show on YouTube Search.

If want to exclude YouTube Search, then you need to opt out of SPN entirely.

Here’s the thing: depending on your specific Shopping campaign Networks targeting setting, you might see some drastic changes in the performance of the SPN for your shopping campaigns.

My advice would be to monitor your SPN performance like a hawk next few weeks.

I’m working on a script to do this for us as we speak, and I hope to share this with this list in a few days.

In the past, the search partner network and YouTube, Gmail, and Discover used to be separated:

As of today, not anymore (this is what I see in my accounts):

Yours,

– Nils

One of our friends in the /r/PPC Reddit community just posted this the other day:

“I’ve been at Google’s throat for the last week about weird headlines appearing in fully pinned RSAs. They claimed that they were headlines I’d chosen or pinned, or blamed DSAs etc but I knew this wasn’t the case.

Anyway, finally a helpful Google rep instantly identified the issue properly and showed me the longer headlines automated extension which takes random text from ad copy and puts it in the headline. In this case it was a very janky looking “PotsTotsandDots.com” (not a real url for anonymity) url prepended at the start of all of my brand ads.

For anybody that may have dealt with this issue with little success, go to:

Extensions > automated extensions > more > advanced settings > longer ad headlines > turn off

Hope this helps somebody at some point!“

Here’s the link to the source: https://www.reddit.com/r/PPC/comments/skajx6/today_i_found_out_about_the_longer_ad_headlines/

– Nils

-Nils

Do you want to keep your finger on the pulse of your accounts, with zero effort? If so, this script might be worth your time.

Automatic Report – Anomalies in your campaign spending 

URL:
https://searchengineland.com/find-anomalies-in-your-campaign-spending-with-this-google-ads-script-304853

What it does: 
This script will let you check for unusual behavior in your account by finding campaigns that show significant changes in today’s spending compared to expected spending based on prior performance.

Why you’d care: 
There can be many reasons why campaign behavior changes drastically. Some of them can be due to changes in search behavior. Others can be caused by your competitors’ bidding. Others are caused by our own mistakes. Best be alerted on the spot.

Here’s some good news for those of you who are already familiar with making small changes to scripts: you can add some functions to the script to report anomalies in any of these metrics below. 

• impressions
• clicks
• avg CPC
• conversions
• conversion rate
• conversion value
• CPA
• ROAS

Happy scripting!

– Nils

Due to my elite auditing skills, I figured out how to save 30 PERCENT of ad spend without reducing conversion value.

Want an optimization tip?

End the broad match campaign experiment you added a month ago and forgot about.

– Nils

Simple keyword repetitions in your headlines are boring.

Boring gets skipped.

Conflict creates interest.

Interest gets clicked.

– Nils

“Nils, what are the top scripts we should be using for pacing our budgets?”

Budget management can be annoying as hell, especially when your client is limited by budget.

Google’s overdelivery algorithm, allowing it to spend 2x your daily budget, doesn’t really make life easier, does it?

Here’s a very basic script to help you out:

Limit AdWords Overdelivery to Any Amount You Want

URL: http://www.freeadwordsscripts.com/2017/10/limit-adwords-overdelivery-to-any.html

What it does: 
The script fetches every active campaign’s daily budget and accrued cost for the day. If the cost exceeds the daily budget plus the allowed percentage of overdelivery, it will label that campaign and pause it.

Why you’d care: 
Back in 2017, Google introduced a feature that allows it to spend up to 2x your daily budgets. This overdelivery mechanism makes it harder to limit spend to the amount you want, unless you use this script.

Unfortunately, this script has its limitations as it cannot work with shared budgets. Modifications are also needed to make it work with shopping or video campaigns. And for re-enabling paused campaigns, setting up an additional rule or script (in addition to this script) is a must. All these are possible, just not with the standard version of the script.

If you’re interested in any of the advanced options for this script, contact me for details on how I can help you. My email address is nils@nilsrooijmans.com.

– Nils

PS: Here are some more ideas for your inspiration and to get a feel of what is possible with scripts: https://nilsrooijmans.com/top-5-google-ads-scripts-for-budget-management/

What would you think about someone who wanted to become a world-class surfer BUT without ever having an epic wipeout that beats all air out of their lungs?

That’d be unrealistic, right?

Part of the deal with becoming a world-class surfer is that you’re absolutely definitely for sure going to massively wipeout.

Repeatedly.

I myself have sort of been unrealistic the last few weeks.

Trying to maneuver my foil like a pro while wing foiling WITHOUT having my board crush my skull, my wing ripping my tendons is beyond reasonable.

Here’s what I’m aiming for: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJUlf0588Xk

Wish me luck 😉

So, I learned the hard way… crashing and getting all parts of my body hurt is part of the deal.

Expecting otherwise would be foolish.

Here’s the thing: if you want to be at the top of your PPC game or make a difference to your client or really matter much at all, you DEFINITELY ARE going to wipeout.

Repeatedly.

There’s no reason to worry that it MIGHT happen once you realize that it MUST happen for you to get to where you want to go (beat competition, make more profits).

Sure, you’re going to make mistakes.

Yes, it’s going to hurt.

Even worse: your boss or client might temporarily hate you for it.

But that’s part of the deal.

Expecting otherwise would be foolish.

– Nils

Google Rep business logic:

“Never spend $500 today on 10 leads that you can contact tomorrow, if you can spend $10000 this week to let the machine learn how you can contact 50 leads next week.”

– Nils

Do you want to know where your ads show in Performance Max campaigns?

As you are probably already aware, Performance Max is a new campaign type that shows your ads on all of Google’s networks: Google Search, Google Shopping, Google Display Network (GDN), Google Discover (Newsfeed), YouTube, Gmail, and Maps. 

I am still experimenting with this new campaign type, but here’s an early lesson I think is worth sharing:

You can create placement reports for your Performance Max campaigns that show where your ads are shown!

SOURCE: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/11465047?hl=en

In theory, you could use that information to exclude BAD placements at the account level (like we do with Smart Shopping) to prevent wasted ad spend on sites like parked domains.

The great PPC Kirk shows us just how to do this here: https://zatomarketing.com/blog/how-to-exclude-placements-in-google-smart-shopping-campaigns

Let’s test if this works for your Performance Max campaigns?

– Nils

PS: If you are experimenting with Perf Max campaigns, please let me know. I would like to create a small community of PPC freaks that are on the fringe of testing this new campaign type.

“Man, you’ve got so many scripts in your list. Please tell me, which ones are must-have scripts for any Google Ads account?“

long time list member Karl

This is a question that pops up in my inbox like wayside lodgings on route 66.

So, let’s create a list of must-have scripts together, shall we?

Here’s my first:

Script to Check If Account Is Offline

URL: https://bitbucket.org/snippets/fvallaeys/nLEoj/check-if-account-is-offline

What it does: 
Checks whether a Google Ads account has gone offline, possibly due to a declined credit card, or accidentally pausing all campaigns, or suspensions, or…

Why you’d care: 
Accounts go offline for many reasons. Billing issues are a well-known problem in managing Google Ads accounts, especially for advertisers with smaller budgets. When this happens, you want to be alerted straight away so your client does not unnecessarily miss any leads and/or revenue.

What scripts do you think should be on the list? Share by hitting reply.

– Nils

PS: The list mentioned by Karl is the list of all freely-available scripts I have found. You can find it here. If you’re already subscribed to the list and enjoy some of the scripts in the sheet, please consider sharing this link with some of your colleagues:  https://nilsrooijmans.com/free-google-ads-scripts-the-ultimate-list/

Do you know how much Google can charge you when you make changes to your daily budget setting?

I had to look up the exact details myself today, so I might as well share the answers with you 🙂

First, some definitions and theory.

Your average daily budget:
The average budget amount that you set for each ad campaign on a per-day basis. It specifies how much you are roughly comfortable spending each day over the course of the month.

Your daily spending limit:
The max amount you pay on an individual day.

Your monthly spending limit:
The max amount you pay for the given month.

Your daily spending limit is 2x your average daily budget, because of Google’s disputable over-delivery feature. Your monthly spending limit is 30.4 times your average daily budget (because 30.4 is the average number of days in a month).

Now… what happens when, today, you make a change in the daily budget setting?

The impact on your daily spending limit:
On the day you make a change (or more than one change) to your average daily budget, your daily spending limit will be based on the highest average daily budget that you chose for that day. So, let’s say you have a campaign with an average daily budget of US$100. On the same day, you first increase your budget to $150, and then lower it to $75. The daily spending limit for the day is going to be the highest of your average daily budgets multiplied by 2, therefore $150 * 2 = $300.

The impact on your monthly spending limit:
When you change your budget, your spend for the rest of the month won’t exceed your new average daily budget multiplied by the remaining days in the month. Let’s look at a hypothetical monthly spending limit for this month Jan 2022, which spans from Jan 1 to Jan 31. On Jan 1, you set an average daily budget of $500, for a monthly spending limit of $15200 ($500 * 30.4). Then assume that today, Jan 13, you’ve only spent $5000 and you decide to increase your average daily budget for the remaining days of the month. You then change your average daily budget to $600. The maximum you’ll be charged for the month of January will be: $5000 spent so far + ($600/day * 19 days remaining in January) = $16400 monthly spending limit.

As you can see, pacing budgets via the daily budget setting is far from easy but also no rocket science. 

This is also something that highly benefits from automation, so be sure to check out these scripts to help you manage your budgets:

https://nilsrooijmans.com/daily-budget-overdelivery-alerts-script/

https://nilsrooijmans.com/top-5-google-ads-scripts-for-budget-management/

– Nils

Thanks to /u/theytakemydragons for the drawings and inspiration for this cartoon.

– Nils

Yesterday, we talked about Google’s Search Partner network and how its performance changed dramatically since November 17, 2021. 

The mail generated a lot of responses — thanks for that!

Many of you saw sort of similar results: a drastic increase in clicks without corresponding increase in conversions –> higher CPAs.

I also received quite a few questions on “how to check the performance of your search partners for Q4 2021.”

Luckily for us, Google made it very easy in the interface. It’s less than 30-second work.

Simply go to your campaign (or ad group) view and then:
1. Click ‘Segment’
2. Click ‘Network (with search partner)’
3. Change the metric to impressions (or click) to see a nice graph that shows the impact of the November 17 change

Here’s an example of one of my ad groups (click image to enlarge):

Also, while you’re at it — why not explore some more segments to see how your impressions and clicks are distributed?

– Nils

Yesterday, we talked about leads. 

Not all leads are equal. 

That’s why smart marketeers score leads based on their likelihood to convert into a sale. This likelihood changes based on interactions with the lead; some turn into serious high-value prospects, others are labeled “worthless tire kickers.”

When a person moves through your lead funnel, the predicted value of that lead changes.

Here’s the good news:

We can communicate the updated value of a lead to Google, so that Google can make the distinction between high-value prospects and the leads that go nowhere!

That way, the Smart Bidding algorithms can learn to increase the number of leads that turn into high-value prospects and reduce the number of people who are just there for the free stuff.

The feature is called “conversion adjustments” and it allows you to adjust the value of a conversion after it’s reported in Google Ads.

More details here: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7686447?hl=en

Score those leads!

– Nils

Leads are like drinks.

They come in all shapes and sizes.

You don’t REALLY want just any lead any more than you REALLY want just any drink.

What you REALLY want is the thing they bring you.

Here’s the thing: unless you tell the Smart Bidding machine what you REALLY want (leads that convert into sales), it will bring you just about any lead (such as cheap conversions that bring the tire kickers in your funnel).

– Nils

One of the perks of running a remote PPC business is you get to work from any location at any time you want.

Currently, I am in the Caribbean, escaping Europe’s lockdowns.

Every morning, I go swimming in the turquoise blue water of the sea in front of the house.

While swimming, I like to watch the fish and think about how I can improve the performance of my Google Ads accounts. (Jeez, is that really me?! Yep, I am afraid so…)

When I have an idea, I’ll memorize it using this memory trick.

Many of the best optimizations in my Google Ads accounts have come from this habit of thinking about my accounts.

Here’s the thing: no one will ever know your Google Ads accounts as well as you yourself know the ones you set up yourself and manage every day/week.

Outside advisors and tools (like a consultant or an audit tool) can provide some new insights, but you, dear reader, are the person who best knows your accounts.

And because you’re the person who best knows your account, it’s good to spend time thinking about your account (as opposed to be working in your account):

• What went well in 2021?
• What would you change?
• What will you do differently this new year?

I like to think about questions like these while swimming. And I’ll do breaststroke. And think. And breaststroke some more.

And when I have an idea, I’ll memorize it using the memory trick.

And then I’ll swim some more, think some more, and ask myself questions: 

1. Where am I leaving money on the table for my clients?
2. What is the one change that would reduce 10% of wasted ad spend?
3. How can I increase conversions by at least 30% over the next three months?
4. What experiment can I come up with to test one of the latest features in the Google Ads platform?

When I get out of the water, I’ll write down the ideas as I have them. Some will be great and some will be terrible. That’s fine. What’s important is spending time thinking about my accounts (instead of working in my accounts).

And the good news: you don’t need to be swimming in the Caribs to do this. 

You can block out 30 minutes on your calendar to really think about your Google Ads account (without interruption) and write down ideas as they come to mind. That’s a highly productive activity!

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m late for my swim.

– Nils

This question landed in my inbox the other day:

“If a user is on two audience lists, do both bid adjustments get applied to compute the final bid? And what audience gets the conversion if no bid adjustments are used?”

Good questions, and I had to look up the details on the second one myself.

1) The final bid

When you set more than one bid adjustment in your campaign (e.g., device, location, and gender), those adjustments are typically multiplied together to determine how much your bid will increase or decrease. 

However, for audiences it works somewhat differently: if a user is part of multiple audience lists that have been targeted in a campaign, the highest adjustment among the matching audience lists is used.

SOURCES:
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/2732132?hl=en
https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/9244122?hl=en

2) The attribution

Attribution credit can only be given to one audience type.

If a user is on multiple audience lists in the same ad group, the audience with the highest bid adjustment will get impression, click, cost, and conversion attribution.

If a user is on multiple lists which are tied for the highest bid adjustment, then impression, click, cost, and conversions attribution will be distributed according to a defined hierarchy:

More details here: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/10562924?hl=en

So, now we know 🙂

Keep sending in those questions!

– Nils