If you’re reading this and you advertise on Google Ads, I have no doubt that by now you will have...
Every time I ask Chris (the Lead PPC Marketer at Digital 22) how it's hanging in the PPC world, I feel like he's ready to throw hands with whoever is in charge of running Google Ads. That's how much things change and frustrates PPC marketers. All they can do is adapt and follow the new guidelines.
Google tends to move the goalposts quite a lot when it comes to advertising. If you're in the same boat, then this brand new podcast is for you.
Chris and Christian sat down in the first episode of the Paid Media Podcast to run through Google's everchanging goalposts
Changes to Google match types
The first frustration the guys let out is the changes to Google match types. If you've ever worked in PPC, have run ads or your organisation has run ads for you, you'll understand what match types are. These include things like broad phrases and exact, for example.
But the big one Google made a huge fuss about years ago was the broad match modifier which made it easier for companies to do keyword mining but keep some sort of control with it.
But that's changed now, and the guys aren't too happy.
Google has changed this to phrase match or exact match which seems like they're taking all the control away from the advertisers. In all honesty, it feels like a bit of a kick in the teeth to people who spent years creating their accounts and have a finely tuned list.
With Google condensing this, it's going to be a lot trickier for PPC marketers and take more time to find what they need.
Smart campaigns
The other thing which irritates the guys is smart campaigns. Seriously, it winds them up more than you'd think.
Chris questions why when someone who just sets up Google Ads, they're a new company, they're diving into PPC and have a budget and Google doesn't create any ads but just scrapes a few keywords.
No discovery calls. No weekly updates. No ads. No research. No testing. No landing page. No conversion points. All of this just makes life difficult.
If we take over a smart campaign from someone working on PPC in-house, with the expertise our team has, we make sure we improve performance by 20% with all of the testing and rotation not everyone has the time to do. With smart campaigns, this is impossible and in reality, smart campaigns might not provide you with the ROI you think anyway.
What else?
This episode is filled with golden nuggets of information, ranging from how good HubSpot is for PPC, the SEO impact and much more. If you're in the same boat and sympathise with Chris and Christian, make sure you hit the play button to catch their insights.
See what other podcasts we have on offer
The podcasts we're producing at Digital 22 show no signs of slowing down. Starting with just an inbound marketing podcast, we now have shows ranging from content and project management to SEO and design. There's something for everyone so don't miss out.
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