What Are Google Ads Recommendations?

Google Ads recommendations are personalized suggestions Google provides to its users that they can apply to boost campaign performance. These recommendations are automatic, and they are based on your unique user data. 

When you log into your Google Ads account, you will see recommendations listed in these two areas:

• The left-hand navigation (old design)
• Under ‘Campaigns’ in the left-hand navigation where a new sub-menu column opens up beside it (new design).

Once on this page, you should see the recommendation cards, each containing a suggestion that Google has for your account. Google says these are customized for each account. However, we generally see the same recommendations in most accounts.

Another item you may see is your account’s optimization score, which is located at the top of the page. According to Google, these scores range from 0-100% with 100% meaning your account is performing up to its full potential.

In some of the cards on this page, you will see a plus sign and a percentage. The percentage displayed represents the amount your optimization score can increase, if you apply that recommendation. 

Users have the option to dismiss that recommendation, which will also increase your optimization score by that percentage. This is the action that many of our clients have been told by Google reps is detrimental to their accounts. While some recommendations can be helpful, not all of them are relevant to your goals for the account. Let’s look at some examples.

Recommendations That Don’t Apply

Example 1: Raising Budgets

When taking the Google Ads certification exam, there is one question that has been in the test since the beginning of time (or at least during my many, many years of taking it):

What are the benefits of using Google Ads? 

To answer this question correctly, check all that may apply. One of those benefits should be the ability to control costs. You have a budget that you have to adhere to, and Google realizes that. So, you can set your daily budget to whatever works within your budget. 

If that’s the case, then why does Google deduct a percentage from your optimization score if you can’t raise your budget?

Granted, Google is trying to say in this example that your cost per conversion may go down if you add $140 to your budget each week, but if you don’t have that extra $140  and end up dismissing this recommendation as a result, should that negatively impact your account? No, and it doesn’t. Google will not take one of the ‘benefits’ of using Ads and penalize you because you are using the platform as intended.

Example 2: Conversion Value

A large portion of our clients are focused on getting leads. For some, a phone call is just as valuable of a conversion as a form completion. Both are considered “conversions” and are equal in value to the client. 

For one of these clients, this was the recommendation:

It’s harmless enough, but it doesn’t apply to this client. There is no need to assign values to these conversions because the client sees them as equal. If we view and apply this irrelevant recommendation, Google will raise this client’s optimization score by 6.5 percentage points. We will also receive those points if we dismiss it, which we did.

Other noteworthy Google recommendations include:

• Add broad match keywords. We rarely use the broad match type, as it tends to bring in irrelevant traffic.
• Expand your reach with Google Search Partners. This will drive additional traffic, as the recommendation card says, but this traffic is rarely (really, never) of any quality.
• Adjust your CPA targets. This recommendation always suggests increasing the target CPA (cost per acquisition). If a client knows how much a lead is worth to them, why set a target CPA that is more than that?
• Enable automatically created assets. Applying this gives Google the ability to automatically create site links, callouts, and structured snippets for your account. However, we have seen this go horribly wrong. Would you want a callout in your account that was just ‘Tough Men?’ Yep, we’ve seen it happen.
• Add new keywords. This method sometimes provides good suggestions, but be careful. For example, one chiropractic school received a suggestion for the keyword ‘chiropractic doctor near me.’ They always tend to suggest broad matches for these additional keywords. (see above)

It’s Okay to Dismiss

There are many more, but from the abovementioned, you can see that Google should not penalize you for not applying their suggestions. And, as of now, they don’t. Dismissing these suggestions just tells Google, “Hey, this isn’t for me.”

Now, Google may bring that suggestion back up to you down the road even if you let it know that it doesn’t apply, and at that time, you can decide if it’s for you. If not, you can dismiss it again. 

We understand, Google reps have been taught to live and die by these recommendations. For some, applying them all might be beneficial to your account. But for the times when it’s not, you can tell your Google rep that you don’t think a specific recommendation will help your account and that you will dismiss it. 

Yes, you or your PPC agency have the ability to reject recommendations from Google, because, in the end, it’s your account. If they respond and say that dismissing will hurt your account, we suggest asking, “How?”

That’ll stump them.

The post The Truth About Google Ads Recommendations appeared first on DAGMAR.

When Google Analytics 4 (GA4) was released out of beta in October of 2020, I don’t know of a single marketer who jumped up and said “I’m going to make the change to that right now.” As digital marketing agencies and in-house teams, we had gotten used to and mastered Universal Analytics (UA) and were comfortable with it. Being on the paid search side, we had learned the ins and outs of how UA and Google Ads worked together, and they did work together quite well. Why wouldn’t they? They are both Google products, getting data from the same place, and are linked through the Google system. They are like siblings who should know each other so well. 

Then came GA4.

Preparing for GA4 Migration

Dagmar was ready when the UA doomsday clock showed up. Our team had been collecting data in GA4 for our clients and had completed setup for them well before the deadline. Everything was tested and ready to go for July 1st. For the paid search team, we had imported conversions into Google Ads from GA4 and had been comparing the UA data to GA4 data for a couple of months before we were going to flip the switch and make those GA4 conversions ‘primary’ in the account. We determined that this would be the time to work out the kinks, and any issues would be cleared up by July 1st.

Little did we know…

The Battle of GA4 and Google Ads Begins

We saw discrepancies between conversion data being attributed to paid search in GA4 and what was being imported into Google Ads right away. These weren’t the small discrepancies we saw before with UA due to the day the conversion was credited or attribution. These were sometimes 50% discrepancies for decent size conversion numbers.

Our first call with Google Tech Support, we were told that it was a latency issue. Data was taking longer to get from GA4 to Google Ads, and it could take up to 72 hours for data to show. Despite having plenty of examples during time periods prior to that, we waited.

On the second call with Google Tech Support, we were told that it was because we had not yet turned on Google Signals in GA4 (mind you, each call we went through the process of making sure that GA4 and Google Ads were properly linked.) We weren’t doing remarketing for that client, which we thought was the primary role for Google Signals, but we clicked the toggle to turn them on any way. While we had turned on Google Signals for other clients seeing discrepancies, we did this and waited.

Still seeing discrepancies, we saw a yellow banner at the top of one of our client’s Google Ads account offering a call with a GA4 specialist. 

We thought that maybe we had been talking to the wrong people, since the Google Tech Support people we had spoken to previously were a third party working on behalf of Google. We clicked the banner, which took us to a page to request the call. When we selected my client’s Customer ID number, it said that the account wasn’t eligible for the call. This is the same account in which we saw the banner offer.

For call number three, we were told that it was because we had chosen ‘paid and organic channels’ in this admin section in GA4 under Attribution Settings and that it needed to be Google paid channels only:

We switched it, but still wasn’t sure how the previous setting would hinder conversions credited to google / cpc in GA4 from being imported into Google Ads. With fingers crossed, we did this and waited.

On call number four, the discrepancies were due to us removing a conversion action in Google Ads and then adding it back. They even sent a screenshot of when “we” did that. Trouble is, this change was made by the Google Ads system, which is the backend system making automated bidding changes and such. It wasn’t us.

Where It Stands

As of this writing, we are still seeing large discrepancies, and we have another call scheduled with Google Tech Support. GA4 is definitely collecting the data and is working fine. The conversions listed in there for paid search match up with what our clients are seeing on their end. That data is just not making its way into the Google Ads platform. This is for form fills for some clients, call tracking for others. There is no rhyme or reason, but we promise to get to the bottom of it and will update this if/when it all gets resolved.

Or, like in true Google fashion, ‘poof!’ One day it is just all fixed. 😉

The post Google Ads & Google Analytics 4 (GA4): Still Not Playing Nice Together appeared first on DAGMAR.

PPC Statistics

Curious about PPC? If you’ve been wondering how pay-per-click advertisements work and if these ads would be a good idea for your business, there are a few things you should know.

For starters, PPC can be a valuable asset to your team, or it can be a major setback if you aren’t quite aware of the power they have.  

About PPC Advertisements

Pay-per-click (PPC) is an advertising model that enables businesses to promote their company, products, or services online and pay only once an ad has been interacted with. This methodology has been proven to be advantageous to businesses like yours in a variety of ways.    

Benefits of PPC Ads

45 percent of businesses have implemented PPC ads into their digital marketing strategy and there are several reasons why. Some of the most common benefits a company can receive from PPC ads are:

How effective are PPC ads?

• 33 percent of online users click a PPC ad because it answers a question, 26 percent click an a because it mentions a familiar brand, and 26 percent of users click on PPC ads because they are listed before other results (Clutch)
• The average click-through rate for PPC ads is about 2 percent (WordStream)
• 20 percent of businesses believe PPC ads offer the highest ROI out of any digital marketing strategy (Statista)

How much does PPC cost?

• The average PPC campaign can range from $1,000 to $10,000 per month for small to mid-sized companies (WordStream)
• Large companies can expect to pay anywhere from $10,000 per month to upwards of $50,000 per month (CostOwl.com)
• PPC advertising returns $2 for every $1 spent – a 200 percent ROI (WordLead)

Display Ads

What are display ads?

Display ads, also referred to as banner ads, are visually enticing digital advertisements used to promote your brand online. These ads can appear on social media platforms, applications and even on a website you visit. It is easy to determine which advertisements are display ads because they generally contain an image and copy.

How effective are display ads?

• 43 percent of PPC marketers say display ads are their least effective channel – yet 84 percent of marketers still invest in display ads (Hanapin Marketing)
• A 59 percent average lift in conversions can occur when users conduct a search related to a display ad (LinkedIn)
• Display ads appear across the entire Google Display Network, reaching over 90 percent of online users (Google)

Search Ads

What are search ads?

Search ads are a form of online advertising that can promote a product, service, or company using text advertisements. This is one of the most popular forms of PPC advertising. Search ads are found both above and below the organic search results. These ads are easy to spot because they are made exclusively with text and they are marked with the word “Ad” next to them.    

How much do search ads cost?

• Advertisers have spent an estimated $59.22 billion on paid search ads (Semrush)
• The average cost-per-conversion across Google Ads is $56.11 (WordStream)
• The average cost-per-click (CPC) for Google search ads is under $2.69 (WordStream)

How effective are search ads?

• 89 percent of the traffic generated by search ads cannot be replaced by organic clicks when ads are paused (Google)
• 3 out of 4 online users (75 percent) believe paid search ads make it easier to find the information they are searching for (PR Newswire)
• 84 percent of respondents who use paid search are currently using or planning to use Google’s new responsive search ads (Search Engine Journal)

Social Ads

What are social ads?

Social ads consist of advertisements placed onto social media platforms that aim to connect with a desired audience. Facebook ads are the most popular form of social ads.  

How much do social ads cost?

• Facebook video ads have a low CPC at $0.55 (Social Insider)
• The average Instagram cost-per-click (CPC) is $1.23 in the US (Sprout Social)
• 5 percent of revenue should be allocated to your social advertising budget for steady growth and 12 percent should be allocated for aggressive growth (Social Media Examiner)

How effective are social ads?

• Facebook ads provide the highest return on investment (ROI) among all paid advertising channels (HubSpot)
• Social media advertising is the second biggest market in digital ads and it is expected to grow to over $252 billion in 2026 (Hootsuite)
• Google (38.6 percent) and Facebook (19.9 percent) hold the largest share of total U.S. digital ad spend (eMarketer)

Google Local Services Ads

What are Google Local Services Ads?

Google Local Services Ads are designed to attract local prospects to your business. These ads typically appear above the list of organic results, at the top of the search results page, and in areas where traditional Google Ads are generally displayed in search engines.

While LSAs are a form of paid advertisements, there are some differences between their pay-per-lead model and traditional pay-per-click. For starters, a business is only required to pay a fee per qualified lead, instead of paying each time an advertisement is clicked.  

How effective are Google Local Services Ads (LSAs)?

• Local Services ads by Google receive 13.8 percent of local SERP clicks (BrightLocal)
• According to Google, a 900 percent increase in the use of “near me/close by” searches (Think with Google)
• 76 percent of online users that search for something nearby on a smartphone typically visit a brick-and-mortar business within one day (Google)

What ranking factors are considered for Local Services Ads?

• 4 in 5 consumers want search ads to be customized to their city, zip code, or immediate surrounding (Think with Google)
• Google Local Services Ads ranking factors are determined by business hours, location, reviews, responsiveness, and the overall amount of complaints a business receives (Google)
• Local Services Ads (LSAs) require at least one Google My Business review on your profile before they can go live (Google)

How much do Google Local Services Ads cost?

• Google Local Services Ads cost around $6-$30 per lead (WordStream)
• The average monthly budget for a Google Local Services Ads campaign is $5,000 (Search Engine Journal)
• The Google Guarantee Program associated with Local Services Ads costs $50 a month (TechRadar)

Retargeting Ads

What are retargeting ads?

Retargeting ads enable businesses to circle back and market to online users that have interacted with their website, but have not yet taken the appropriate action to qualify as a conversion.

How effective are retargeting ads?

• Retargeting ads can lift engagement rates up to 400 percent (SharpSpring)
• 30 percent of consumers have a “positive” or “very positive” opinion of retargeted ads (LinkedIn)
• Customers are 70 percent more likely to purchase a product when a company utilizes retargeting (TechJury)

References

The post Important PPC Statistics You Should Know (2023) appeared first on DAGMAR.

Google did provide a follow up statement that does very little to provide additional information on what the change will involve:

“In order to maintain our standards of privacy and strengthen our protections around user data, we have made changes to our Search Terms Report to only include terms that a significant number of users searched for. We’re continuing to invest in new and efficient ways to share insights that enable advertisers to make critical business decisions.” – Google statement 

Citing privacy reasons, advertisers no longer have full visibility into all the searches for which their ads appear in Google search results.

How Did Google Change The Search Terms Report?

Well, on September 1st, 2020, Google announced that later that month, the report would only now contain search terms that had a “significant” number of users search. This created a loss of visibility & loss of control.

Loss of Visibility & Control

The initial reaction I had to this was skepticism and frustration as I felt this would negatively impact clients that have high CPC’s such as personal injury lawyers. This made me feel as if I no longer had somewhat control over my client’s campaigns. Afterall, Google’s change to make exact match not exactly “exact match” anymore led to endless frustration on my end.

Given the recent changes to keyword match types, it’s likely that many advertisers will find some of these searches irrelevant to their business and would rather not target those terms. For example, I have a fumigation ad group running separately than an extermination ad group. I am seeing exterminator search terms for exact match fumigation keywords showing up as “close variants” and I have 6 search terms I have no search query data on.

Last year, Google’s Search business was hit pretty hard by advertisers cutting back on their spend due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, as we can see in the last quarter, Google saw a huge uptick in revenue. I’d like to think this wasn’t Google’s way of making up for lost revenue, but in my opinion, it’s kind of impossible for me not to think Google is trying to make up for the loss in Q2.

Recommendations To Navigate Google Ads Search Terms Report Change

There still remains a lot of unanswered questions around the change to the Google Ads search terms report. What exactly defines “significant?” How will this affect the paid search trends overall? We will stay on top of any new updates that may further help you figure out the best way to proceed moving forward. In the meantime, try out the recommendations we’ve outlined in this post:

• Continue optimizing your PPC Campaigns
• Utilize the Bing search query report
• Create Dynamic Search Ads to find new keywords
• Try Smart Bidding to optimize for “hidden” search terms
• Broaden your PPC skillset

For more information about Google’s Search Term update, visit Google Ads Help , or subscribe to DAGMAR Marketing’s newsletter.

The post Google Limits Visibility in their Search Terms Reporting Citing Privacy: Everything You Need To Know appeared first on DAGMAR.