I had the privilege of moderating a panel at SMX Advanced on structuring PPC advertising campaigns.
I had an enlightening discussion with Andrea Cruz, Director of Client Strategy at Tinuiti, and Greg Kohler, Director of Digital Marketing at ServiceMaster Brands. Here is a summary of the session.
Is maximum performance the only way forward for campaign structure?
Performance Max is geared towards e-commerce, not B2B or lead gen. Not enough direct control and targeting. Kohler said they have tried Performance Max with no success.
Cruz believes that for B2B lead generation, Performance Max works here and there for volume, but struggles with quality. For e-commerce, the story is different, as Performance Max helps marketers find new audiences.
I’ve found that Performance Max hasn’t given B2B advertisers what we need for lead generation.
How will AI affect campaign structure?
AI won’t affect structure, but it will be useful for small or new advertisers (not seasoned marketers), Cruz believes. AI helps you know if you’ve covered all your settings correctly.
It will also be great for new advertisers and business owners who want to launch a campaign quickly, according to Kohler. AI acts as a checklist for creating campaigns.
The concern is that it is full of traps. For example, choosing search and display partners and targeting mobile applications. AI will love this for generating impressions, but new advertisers may not know that you shouldn’t start with this.
Mike Ryan highlights this in his LinkedIn publication AI is a fast learning intern, but you have yet to check out his work.
Are keywords disappearing?
In the past, we’ve seen campaigns organized by keywords, match types, etc. Are keywords and match types important anymore?
Cruz believes that Google’s best practice of following website structure is good. Focus on categories, products, or problems you’re trying to solve if you’re B2B.
Meanwhile, Kohler notes that as SKAGs and ultra-targeting disappear, we need to think about where we’re driving people on the site and ad group topic.
With the advent of RSAs, you want to get as much data on each holder as possible. Consider condensing your ad groups to get more data for Google to optimize. You no longer need 200 ad groups for a single topic.
I pointed out that it is about giving data to the machine. Granular ad groups don’t provide enough data for the machine to learn and optimize.
What about match types?
Kohler hopes we don’t lose the types of matches we have. He would be surprised if Google removes them because advertisers use them strategically. Maybe the sentence could disappear.
Exact match and broad match have value combined with smart bidding: broad helps find targeted searchers. But he doesn’t think party types will disappear.
Back to the question of whether keywords are going away: If Google were to move away from keywords, it would be one of their biggest mistakes because keywords are so powerful. You are bidding on someone looking for your exact service.
Keywords and the intent they provide are why people spend so much money advertising on Google. If that goes away, it blurs the line between Google and other advertiser platforms.
I agree. Getting rid of keywords turns search into a paid social network by removing intent, which is search’s big selling point.
However, Cruz believes party types are disappearing whether we like it or not. Here’s what we’ve seen historically: the lines blur between match types.
None of the new ad formats and features are keyword-based: peak performance, DSA, etc. While paid search is the only place we drive intent through keywords, Cruz still believes keywords will disappear. He thought it would happen at this Google Marketing Live, but they didn’t pull the plug.
Also, he learned early in his career that there is always the issue of “milk chocolate” and “milk chocolate.” How do we make the algorithm understand these differences?
Keywords can also disappear and be replaced by signals. Privacy has caused Google to slow down a bit.
DSA: Do you use them?
Cruz has tested them and they work well for a few accounts. Dynamic Search Ads (DSA) are a great way to dig into data, find queries we might have missed, and understand Google’s interpretation of landing pages.
Kohler doesn’t actively use them, but in general the best practice is to use DSAs to find queries and create a campaign with those specific queries.
Kohler believes there has been a keyword shift in the local service space. Local service announcements refer to signs. Choose your vertical, location and budget. Then Google does the rest. You cannot choose negative or negative keywords.
So there’s a way away from keywords when we look at it that way. Will Google continue to move away from keywords or allow us to continue bidding on specific keywords?
How are you approaching local service campaign organization today?
Kohler says they keep it simple and condensed. They don’t break things too much.
Don’t try to limit yourself to the specific users you think you want to show. Keep it more open and see how things go.
Look at demographics and geos, then narrow it down based on what works. A big mistake is assuming you know your perfect customer. This will limit your impressions too much and you will have no reach.
Also, how accurate is Google’s data on this? It’s best to keep things open for users looking for your service as long as they’re in the right local area.
I noticed that many people treat search as a broadcast. Diffusion tactics don’t work well for search. Don’t limit it.
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What are the nuances for organizing B2B campaigns?
Cruz divides B2B advertisers into two sub-segments based on spend.
For advertisers spending less than $100,000 per month, the challenge is to generate as many leads as possible and cover the entire website.
But to get the best results, we need to give as many signals as possible, which means we’re too spread out at this budget level.
Instead, focus on areas where you have volume and good content to send people to. This prevents advertisers from having many small campaigns spending $20 per day. Group spending and intent to outperform.
With big advertisers spending over $200,000 a month, you can really try something new. You can use broad matching because you have enough data to feed the algorithm.
Use your own data! Tell Google that this person is worth 10 times more than any opportunity. B2B is expensive because everyone wants to talk to the big business, so lots of people are competing with the same keywords.
Own audiences and privacy
Google told Google Marketing Live that we’ll have better data connections and easier ways to enter your own data. So how does privacy and personal data come into play?
Cruz says either the customer is very privacy-minded and has all the data, or people are very scared. Nobody wants to be fined.
Google has not adequately addressed the concerns. Cruz would like to see Google watch out for the privacy of small businesses or have Google-approved lawyers who can recommend compliance. She doesn’t think Google actually does that, but it would be nice to see.
Kohler does not use much proprietary data for targeting or segmentation. It’s important to talk to your lawyers first because Google has made it clear that privacy is your responsibility
Kohler would like to see documentation of best practices from Google on privacy policy writing, etc. But then Google is responsible, so it probably won’t.
For Kohler, the risk isn’t worth it at this point. They can do other things to target their audience.
Also, how much do you want to tell Google about your specific customers? Are market audiences only being built from other people’s customer data?
This is a bit of a “conspiracy theory”, but we’re giving Google data to help build audiences for competitors.
I think for B2B, native audiences are amazing because it’s hard to find B2B buyers. But then you have privacy issues as well as giving away your data.
The privacy angle gets lost with automation and smart bidding, but it’s important to remember.
Does Smart Bidding influence campaign organization?
Cruz does not create campaigns based on Smart Bidding, but focuses on the campaign objective and the best bid strategy.
Focus on your goal/goals first, then build your campaigns.
What’s your best tip overall for streamlining campaign management?
Kohler says figure out your weekly and monthly to-dos and stick to them. You need a to-do list or you’ll be skipping and forgetting things.
Have a ClickUp checklist or other task manager so you know you’ve done them.
Use custom rules and actions in Google Ads Editor. If you find a bug or cheat, create a rule to flag them in the future.
For example, you can check if search partners are enabled, check location targeting, etc. Copy and paste the rule into each account. Then you won’t have this problem again. Rules and scripts are underused!
Cruz wants advertisers to forget SKAGs ever existed! We don’t need these.
Consolidate instead of exploding. Is the theme of this campaign or ad group correct? This is the key.
In terms of buyer journey, Cruz still segments by buyer journey. Early stage campaigns should be separate from late stages. The intention is different.
Kohler says you need to think about where campaigns fall in the customer funnel. By breaking it down, you can focus on where your money is being spent and bid more on lower-funnel campaigns.
I want to thank Andrea Cruz and Greg Kohler for participating in this engaging panel! Advertisers offered many useful tips for organizing the campaign.
The views expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.
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