Andy's AdWords Posts

[luniac]

I've been reading some of your adwords stuff and got the general gist of "find what people want and sell it to them"
As an app developer i often get ideas that seem good in my head but in reality i don't have a clue if it will go viral.

Even though i focus on creating a minimal viable product and see that as testing the market, im wondering if some adwords keyword kungfu would help me decide which idea among several to pursue.

Let's say i want to create an app related to instagram, i wonder if playing around with the keyword "instagram", i can find common pain points that people google for and maybe find one that can be solved with an external app!

 

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[Andy Black]

I've been reading some of your adwords stuff and got the general gist of "find what people want and sell it to them"
As an app developer i often get ideas that seem good in my head but in reality i don't have a clue if it will go viral.

Even though i focus on creating a minimal viable product and see that as testing the market, im wondering if some adwords keyword kungfu would help me decide which idea among several to pursue.

Let's say i want to create an app related to instagram, i wonder if playing around with the keyword "instagram", i can find common pain points that people google for and maybe find one that can be solved with an external app!

You mean like this?

 

[luniac]

You mean like this?

View attachment 15193

more like this


WAIT A MINUTE WHY DOES YOUR WINDOW LOOK DIFFERENT FROM MY WINDOW!!!

 

[letter9]

Andy hi,

I've learnt a lot from your posts and videos. Your ideas and directions gave a great boost to my PPC results. I know i've mentioned that several times, just wanted to pay tribute one more time

I've looked through your posts and on youtube channel and do not see automation topic covered (maybe i've missed it)
Did you covered it in any of your posts/videos?
Do you recommend using Automated Bid Management, Automated Rules or Adwords Scripts?

At the moment i am using 0 automation. And i have feeling that i am loosing some efficiency by doing that.

What made me research on automation is idea to bid to position.
In my niche I would like to hold second position for main KWs.(there is one big player I can not compete with)
Often some of smaller players increase their bid and can take 2nd position from me. Obviously i can't check my postion all the time manually

After digging a little i realized that automating is very big topic.

 

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[Andy Black]

Andy hi,

I've learnt a lot from your posts and videos. Your ideas and directions gave a great boost to my PPC results. I know i've mentioned that several times, just wanted to pay tribute one more time

I've looked through your posts and on youtube channel and do not see automation topic covered (maybe i've missed it)
Did you covered it in any of your posts/videos?
Do you recommend using Automated Bid Management, Automated Rules or Adwords Scripts?

At the moment i am using 0 automation. And i have feeling that i am loosing some efficiency by doing that.

What made me research on automation is idea to bid to position.
In my niche I would like to hold second position for main KWs.(there is one big player I can not compete with)
Often some of smaller players increase their bid and can take 2nd position from me. Obviously i can't check my postion all the time manually

After digging a little i realized that automating is very big topic.

We don't do any automation. We don't bid to a position, but to as high as we can go with our CPCs.

 

[letter9]

We don't do any automation. We don't bid to a position, but to as high as we can go with our CPCs.

I see,

Do you use automation for reporting, identifying potential problems, etc?

Are there things in your opinion that should be automated?

 

[bpampillon]

Hi @andyblack !
This is really great stuff. Very detailed and quite easy to follow even for the beginneers on this matter. I haven't managed to read all that you have posted in the links, but getting into it. It's going to take sometime to work on this, but it would be worth it.
Thank you so much for sharing!

Great to see Irish in this forum. It brings up nice memories of my time living there.

 

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[Andy Black]

Hi @andyblack !
This is really great stuff. Very detailed and quite easy to follow even for the beginneers on this matter. I haven't managed to read all that you have posted in the links, but getting into it. It's going to take sometime to work on this, but it would be worth it.
Thank you so much for sharing!

Great to see Irish in this forum. It brings up nice memories of my time living there.

You're welcome. Let me know how long it takes you!

Yeah, I love Ireland but you'll quickly spot I'm not Irish.

 

[JustWalkinAround]

Hi Andy,

Thanks so much for all your contributions on this forum about ad words, very much appreciated.

I am working with an ecommerce shop whose campaigns are all set to maximise conversions. Overall, their main search campaign wins 20% impression share, losing almost 70% to rank.

I looked at the keyword level and there are many on 9/10 and 10/10 quality score but still losing upwards of 70% impression share due to rank.

A quick Google search says that impression share rank is won based on Quality Score * Max CPC. Unfortunately you cannot manually configure Max CPC when the campaign goal is maximise conversions.

I have 2 question:

1- How can I increase rank impression share if the keyword is already 10/10 QS without changing away from maximise conversions?

2- If I were to go down the route of testing a new bidding strategy, what's the best practice for that? Do I edit the existing campaign or create a new one and run them side by side etc?

3- If I ran the 2 campaigns side by side, how does that work when it comes to each campaign bidding for the same keyword? Or would I pause the ones I want to test from the original campaign and only include them in the new campaign?

Many thanks in advance!

 

[Andy Black]

Hi Andy,

Thanks so much for all your contributions on this forum about ad words, very much appreciated.

I am working with an ecommerce shop whose campaigns are all set to maximise conversions. Overall, their main search campaign wins 20% impression share, losing almost 70% to rank.

I looked at the keyword level and there are many on 9/10 and 10/10 quality score but still losing upwards of 70% impression share due to rank.

A quick Google search says that impression share rank is won based on Quality Score * Max CPC. Unfortunately you cannot manually configure Max CPC when the campaign goal is maximise conversions.

I have 2 question:

1- How can I increase rank impression share if the keyword is already 10/10 QS without changing away from maximise conversions?

2- If I were to go down the route of testing a new bidding strategy, what's the best practice for that? Do I edit the existing campaign or create a new one and run them side by side etc?

3- If I ran the 2 campaigns side by side, how does that work when it comes to each campaign bidding for the same keyword? Or would I pause the ones I want to test from the original campaign and only include them in the new campaign?

Many thanks in advance!

It’s maximising conversions for your budget so that’s why you’re not showing as losing impression share due to budget, but you are losing impression share due to budget. Google is reducing your CPC to try and maximise your conversions for your budget ... and it’s showing as lost Impression Share due to rank. Try slowly increasing the budget and see what happens.

It can be tricky making changes with automated bidding. It’s like the algorithm has figured out how to run with the current setup. I’ve seen it where changing the budget adversely affected campaigns set with an automated bidding strategy - and we couldn’t revert back to the previous performance when we changed the budgets back (or not immediately anyway). Because of this I’d be more inclined to clone the campaigns and make changes to the clone (if you’re going to change the bidding type). Pause the old campaigns while you run the new campaigns so you can revert back easily by enabling them again. Bear in mind that campaigns that are paused then enabled may also not restart with quite the same performance, presumably because they have to force their way back into the auctions.

PS: These are just my opinions from observations in campaigns I’ve managed. I’ve not read this in official Google documentation.

 

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[JustWalkinAround]

Thanks for the reply.

It's so crap how inflexible Google is but I guess the main reason is really just how mammoth the operation behind the scenes is. I guess it's easy for me to think 'why can't I just flick between campaign goals.'

This thread is interesting:

https://www.reddit.com/r/PPC/comments/8jdw7o View: https://www.reddit.com/r/PPC/comments/8jdw7o/switching_a_campaign_from_manual_bidding_to/

 

[JustWalkinAround]

Hi Andy,

What is your process when doing a biweekly ad account update?

I have started working at an agency and I feel like what I've been taught is not enough. I don't feel confident at all.

If conversions are steady or improving then everything is all smiles and I can happily tell the client. If conversions slow down then I have no idea what to do.

What they taught me is go into the keywords page, see which ones are performing poorly and turn them off.

Then they taught me to go into Google Analytics and break it down by channel, device etc. but it's all meaningless to me. E.g. ok traffic from paid search is down. So why is it down? I know to go check the impressions. Ok, impressions are trending down... then what?

Our monthly updates for clients are so weak... e.g. for the Google Ads section, our insights are of this calibre:

1. this keyword brought in $2000 which is a ROAS of 5 which is good.
2. this keyword that brought in 5 sales, and that keyword brought in 3 sales.
3. bounce rate dropped by 3% so that's good.

Sorry this is becoming a bit of a rant but I am very frustrated. I'm don't know much yet I'm being put in charge of thousands of dollars of ad spend. There is 0 documentation in this company and I haven't been able to learn many advanced concepts from my team. They mostly set up campaigns and let it run. Oh and they check for poor performing keywords and pause them from time to time. To be honest I don't think the campaigns are done properly. All of our campaigns for clients are either maximise clicks or maximise conversions, both of which I understand to be crap.

TLDR: I am managing thousands of dollars of ad spend and I need to give performance updates and I don't know what to do. Furthermore, optimisations as I've been taught is just check the keywords that have low ROAS and turn them off.

Would you be able to outline your process if you were to check the performance of an account? We work for ecommerce clients, I'm not sure if that changes things. Maybe a rough breakdown of how you would spend your time would be very helpful too,

e.g. 20% checking overall health (impressions, ctr, etc.) 60% checking search term report, 20% keyword expansion. I don't even know what check the search term report and keyword expansion means, just made it up lol.

 

[Andy Black]

Hi Andy,

What is your process when doing a biweekly ad account update?

I have started working at an agency and I feel like what I've been taught is not enough. I don't feel confident at all.

If conversions are steady or improving then everything is all smiles and I can happily tell the client. If conversions slow down then I have no idea what to do.

What they taught me is go into the keywords page, see which ones are performing poorly and turn them off.

Then they taught me to go into Google Analytics and break it down by channel, device etc. but it's all meaningless to me. E.g. ok traffic from paid search is down. So why is it down? I know to go check the impressions. Ok, impressions are trending down... then what?

Our monthly updates for clients are so weak... e.g. for the Google Ads section, our insights are of this calibre:

1. this keyword brought in $2000 which is a ROAS of 5 which is good.
2. this keyword that brought in 5 sales, and that keyword brought in 3 sales.
3. bounce rate dropped by 3% so that's good.

Sorry this is becoming a bit of a rant but I am very frustrated. I'm don't know much yet I'm being put in charge of thousands of dollars of ad spend. There is 0 documentation in this company and I haven't been able to learn many advanced concepts from my team. They mostly set up campaigns and let it run. Oh and they check for poor performing keywords and pause them from time to time. To be honest I don't think the campaigns are done properly. All of our campaigns for clients are either maximise clicks or maximise conversions, both of which I understand to be crap.

TLDR: I am managing thousands of dollars of ad spend and I need to give performance updates and I don't know what to do. Furthermore, optimisations as I've been taught is just check the keywords that have low ROAS and turn them off.

Would you be able to outline your process if you were to check the performance of an account? We work for ecommerce clients, I'm not sure if that changes things. Maybe a rough breakdown of how you would spend your time would be very helpful too,

e.g. 20% checking overall health (impressions, ctr, etc.) 60% checking search term report, 20% keyword expansion. I don't even know what check the search term report and keyword expansion means, just made it up lol.

Do you have trading sheets like the one in this video:
> Creating a Simple Dashboard Using Google Sheets

 

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[door123]

Hi @Andy Black
I am running some call-only ads for a long distance moving company. Why doesn't my phone call metric not equal my "calls from ads" conversion metric? I am confused between the phone call metric & conversions. My conversions(calls from ads) are recorded when the call reaches 15 sec duration, but isn't that the limit for the phone call metric also 15 sec duration?

Google support is useless for this topic.

 

[Andy Black]

Hi @Andy Black
I am running some call-only ads for a long distance moving company. Why doesn't my phone call metric not equal my "calls from ads" conversion metric? I am confused between the phone call metric & conversions. My conversions(calls from ads) are recorded when the call reaches 15 sec duration, but isn't that the limit for the phone call metric also 15 sec duration?

Google support is useless for this topic.

Interesting, I never look at that column. Are people able to make calls from website and does Google Ads track those?

 

[door123]

Interesting, I never look at that column. Are people able to make calls from website and does Google Ads track those?

Google is only able to track mobile click to call links on the website, not desktop calls. When someone on a mobile device clicks the phone number button.

 

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[Andy Black]

Google is only able to track mobile click to call links on the website, not desktop calls. When someone on a mobile device clicks the phone number button.

How many actual calls are you getting from Google Ads (vs what the interface says you’re getting)?

 

[door123]

How many actual calls are you getting from Google Ads (vs what the interface says you’re getting)?

For example, yesterday, it was a total of 11 calls in reality while google says 15. For onsite calls, I'm are tracking mobile call button clicks not call duration to count as a conversion.

 

[BizyDad]

Hi @Andy Black
I am running some call-only ads for a long distance moving company. Why doesn't my phone call metric not equal my "calls from ads" conversion metric? I am confused between the phone call metric & conversions. My conversions(calls from ads) are recorded when the call reaches 15 sec duration, but isn't that the limit for the phone call metric also 15 sec duration?

Google support is useless for this topic.

Phone calls vs. phone call conversions​

It is important to remember that there are differences between a click that results in a call to your business and that call being considered a conversion.

A phone call conversion is defined by the duration of the call, which you determine in your account. A phone call has no duration requirements which means that your reporting will be expected to have more calls than call conversions. For example, if you set call conversions to 30 seconds and have a call last for 26 seconds, Google Ads will report 1 phone call and 0 phone call conversions. Learn more about phone call conversion tracking.

Note: Phone calls are reported on the date they occur, but phone call conversions are reported on the date of the ad click, this means the reporting dates may be different. For example, a customer sees a call-only ad on August 5 and writes down the Google Forwarding Number (GFN). On August 7 they call the GFN and the duration meets your conversion requirements. Google Ads will show 1 phone call on August 7, and a phone call conversion for August 5.

Analyze call reporting data - Google Ads Help

Call reporting allows you to track the performance of your call extensions, location extensions, and

support.google.com

 

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[door123]

Phone calls vs. phone call conversions​

It is important to remember that there are differences between a click that results in a call to your business and that call being considered a conversion.

A phone call conversion is defined by the duration of the call, which you determine in your account. A phone call has no duration requirements which means that your reporting will be expected to have more calls than call conversions. For example, if you set call conversions to 30 seconds and have a call last for 26 seconds, Google Ads will report 1 phone call and 0 phone call conversions. Learn more about phone call conversion tracking.

Note: Phone calls are reported on the date they occur, but phone call conversions are reported on the date of the ad click, this means the reporting dates may be different. For example, a customer sees a call-only ad on August 5 and writes down the Google Forwarding Number (GFN). On August 7 they call the GFN and the duration meets your conversion requirements. Google Ads will show 1 phone call on August 7, and a phone call conversion for August 5.

Analyze call reporting data - Google Ads Help

Call reporting allows you to track the performance of your call extensions, location extensions, and

support.google.com

Thanks for the explanation. I also pulled up the predefined call report in Google Ads & that explained the discrepancy.