PPCsurvey.com has just released a new State of PPC Global Report for 2022. It includes input from more than 500 PPC specialists from around the globe.
The findings cover search marketers’ largest concerns, top priorities, spend data, automation insight and a wealth of information about the most pressing trends in paid search.
Here’s a breakdown of some of the largest findings.
High adoption rate of automations in Google Ads. Two eye-opening metrics in the survey:
97% of respondents use Responsive Search Ads.
95% have implemented Smart Bidding (tCPA).
Most surprisingly a whopping 78% of respondents have used Auto-applied Recommendations.
The time has passed when advertisers could compete without adopting automation.
Adoption of automation is high, but marketer satisfaction is mixed. The least satisfying automation, according to respondents, was Auto-applied Recommendations.
83% of respondents reported that they were dissatisfied with the Auto-applied Recommendations feature.
Another surprise came from one of Google’s biggest pushes as of late: The Recommendations Tab. The feelings on Recommendations were 63% negative, according to PPCsurvey.com.
Why so negative? Top complaints about the feature include “the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach and the obvious push for smart bidding, broad match, and budget increases.”
Respondents were more satisfied with other automation.
51% of search marketers reported being satisfied with scripts.
48% said they were satisfied about tROAS Smart Bidding.
47% of respondents were satisfied about tCPA Smart Bidding.
The most pressing priorities for PPC Specialists. What are their clients’ top priorities? Some new concerns appeared this year.
Priority #1: improve goal-setting beyond traditional metrics (e.g., conversions, revenue). This includes the consideration of margin, including new versus traditional customers and Lifetime Value (LTV), with 62% of respondents stating that these were a top priority.
Priority #2: Tracking improvements including cookieless concerns, GA4 and server-side tagging came in second with 56%.
Unsatisfactory scores for Optiscore. Google now requires Google Partners to maintain a 70% Optiscore, PPCsurvey.com took a look at the satisfaction levels for the metric. Respondents could rate from 1-10 and the results were turned into a Net promoter score (NPS) to gauge how many participants would recommend.
Only 15% of respondents value a high Optiscore with 41% of respondents considering a high Optiscore a detractor in an account.
Using NPS methodology, this would give a high Optiscore an overall negative NPS of -26, which is a very undesirable score.
You can download the full report (PDF) here. It includes more information including global yearly ad spends, ad platform adoption, time-consuming activities, the top challenges for agencies and much more.
Why we care. While the adoption of automation is considerable, the satisfaction is a mixed bag. Some standouts include Smart Bidding and scripts, but recommendations racked up high dissatisfaction numbers.
Additionally, practitioners aren’t fans of having a high Optiscore, with more considering it a detractor than a positive. If you rely on these scores and use these metrics as a barometer for account health, you are going against the collective thought of the PPC experts who participated in this survey.
Lastly, advertisers are looking for better performance tracking. Folks are looking outside simple conversions and to more meaningful performance data while also figuring out better tracking options as ad platforms and analytics platforms are changing.
Understanding your competitors can give you tactical insights to help you discover opportunities.
Before competing, athletes spend many hours understanding weaknesses to exploit and finding possible gaps in the playing field.
Your digital marketing should come with the same level of insight and analysis.
Identifying and reviewing your competitors can help you come up with a strong list of potential keywords, find link building opportunities and build your persona profiles.
Starting your competitor analysis
When putting together a competitor analysis, it is important to make sure that your analysis tells you:
What a competitor is doing.
How they are doing it.
What factors they are most excelling at in their SEO strategy.
What are their gaps.
Using this information, it is possible to create strategies at scale that will help you exceed your competitors and get higher rankings.
The first step is to assess the bigger picture of your competitors. You can start by using Google and typing in the main keywords to see what sites show up in the rankings.
Next, you can use tools to help you drill down into your competitor analysis process.
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You can use Semrush to give you a starting point to identify your competitors.
In the Organic Research report, click on the Competitors tab.
You can use this as a starting point to figure out who your main competitors are.
Some of the data points that can help you in this research are:
Competition Level: Analysis of the number of keywords of each domain and the number of the domains’ common keywords. The more keywords the domain share in common, the more likely they are to compete with one another.
Common Keywords: How many keywords do the domains have in common.
SE Keywords: How many total keywords each site is ranking for.
Traffic: Estimated organic traffic.
Cost: Traffic cost based on CPC data and estimated volume.
Paid Keywords: How many keywords are being paid for via Google Ads.
Backlink profile analysis
Having identified a list of competitors, the next step is to look at their backlink profile.
How many unique referring links do they have pointing to them?
What is the quality of those links?
What is the link velocity of the links they have acquired?
Understanding their link profiles will help you determine how many backlinks you need to acquire before you are capable of competing for specific keywords.
Analyze your site’s backlinks
In Semrush, go to Backlink Analytics and type in your root domain. You can also add up to four competitors to see backlink metrics side by side.
The overview will give you an idea of how your backlink profile looks compared to others vying to rank for the same keywords.
Pay close attention to the number of referring domains you and your competitors have. To drill down, click on Referring Domains at the top of the report and sort the list by Authority Score.
If your site has many referring domains, all with low Authority Score, your site may not have enough power to rank against competitors with better quality inbound links.
The different reports in the Backlink Analytics feature in Semrush will allow you to learn the total number and types of backlinks, whether the majority is followed or nofollowed, and what types of links they are. Analyzing the anchor text will also help you figure out whether link building work has been done and if those links include keywords in the anchor text.
Your backlink analysis data will help you in upcoming research, as it will help you select keywords that you can realistically rank for.
If, for example, your site has an Authority Score of 25, but your competitors average an Authority Score of 45, you will not be likely to outrank them for root terms. You would have to search for keywords with less volume and where the ranking pages have a lower Authority Score.
Keyword data and content decisions should be closely intertwined with your backlink analysis as it will allow you to select “low-hanging fruit” keywords and realistic ranking targets.
Traffic analytics
The Semrush Traffic Analytics tool gives you traffic estimates for competitors. Whereas Google Analytics will show you how your site performs, traffic analytics can give you estimated traffic data for your competitors.
At a glance, you can compare how your competitors match up when it comes to:
Visits
Unique visitors
Pages / visit
Average visit duration
Bounce rate
Additionally, you can see trends over time for each of these categories. You’ll see if competitors have recently lost traffic or have made dramatic progress during a specific time period.
There are a myriad other data points and reports that could help you deepen your understanding of your competitors, such as top pages, traffic sources and traffic journeys.
Keyword research
Keyword Research is one of the oldest and most undervalued skills in SEO. Choosing the right keywords can mean the difference between success and failure in SEO.
Keyword research is not sexy, but it is necessary, foundational work to be done properly. Let’s go over a step-by-step process for keyword research.
Think in terms of “Keyword Sets”
Ideally, you should group your keywords into Keyword Sets. Start with a “seed keyword,” then look for long-tail variants of that keyword.
For example, if your primary keyword is “Real Estate Auction,” some of the sets you could use include:
Then you could move to another keyword set and also get variants for that term.
Examples of other seed sets include:
Online foreclosure auctions
Home auctions
Online property auctions
Once you have these in place, you can go deeper and deeper using secondary keywords, questions, and other variants.
Look for long-tail keywords
You can use Semrush’s Keyword Magic tool to obtain these seed sets. Type in the seed sets you’ve uncovered, and Semrush will give you a list of possible keywords.
You can group these using the match types:
As you find keywords that you would like to rank for and track, use the checkmark and add them to your “Keyword Manager” list.
Assess the competition level
Next, you need to assess the viability of ranking for the keywords you chose. Ranking for your seed keywords can be your end goal, but you have to select keywords that you can realistically rank for based on your site’s current authority score. If you choose keywords that are too competitive, you’ll never see positive results for your SEO efforts.
Most keyword research tools use a metric for Keyword Difficulty. You’ll want to identify keywords that have good volume but low KD. What that level is varies based on your site’s age, structure, backlink profile and much more.
Find keyword gaps
You can expand your keyword list by doing a keyword gap analysis. There might be keywords you never thought about that competitors are ranking for.
To perform keyword gap analysis, go to the Keyword Gap report, type the top competitors into the top bar, and click on compare:
There is a list of keywords that you and your competitors are ranking for in the table below. You’ll see which keywords are shared between all competitors, which ones they are ranking for but your site isn’t, which keywords you rank for but not at the top, and more.
Review these keywords, and if there are keywords that seem relevant, you can add them to your keyword manager list.
Compile your final keyword list
The final step is to collect all of your keyword data into the Keyword Manager. You can segment your lists or create one large list with all of your keywords.
By adding keywords from the keyword magic research, keyword gap analysis, competitor research and baseline assessment, you’ll have a comprehensive list of keywords to work with.
Make sure you click on the “Update Metrics” to get current, accurate data on the volume, competitiveness, and Keyword Difficulty of each of the terms on your list.
Using competitor data to craft your strategy
At this stage, you’ll have a comprehensive understanding of who you’re up against in the SERPs. You’ll know which competitors have the strongest link profiles, what keywords you can target and have various data points about potential opportunities that your competitors have overlooked.
The data you have accumulated can help you build your final target keyword list and prepare you for the next stage, which includes understanding your target audience and building persona profiles.
Customer Match lists will be leveraged more within Google Ads, according to an email sent to advertisers this week.
These lists will soon be eligible to be used within an account to help aid Smart Bidding and/or Optimized Targeting.
This is a shift from how Customer Match lists are applied today. Advertisers currently need to manually apply these to a campaign.
Customer Match lists won’t be used with manual bidding strategies. However, advertisers may still use bid modifiers manually to adjust bids.
When this is happening. Starting in Q2. The tentative timelines for the rollout of Customer Match lists in smart bidding are:
Advertisers can opt out. If you don’t want Customer Match lists to be applied to Smart Bidding or Optimized Targeting, you’ll have the ability to opt out at the ad account level. To opt out, go to Account settings then choose Customer Match and uncheck the Use all Customer Match lists in Smart Bidding or Optimized Targeting box.
You may also remove lists that you don’t want to include in this targeting.
Note: Google Ads Managers can’t opt out of all campaigns. This must be done at the individual account level.
Why we care. More signals for automation is a good thing. The ability to curate what lists are or aren’t utilized should be a boon for advertisers. Because you will need to opt out, make sure to take time for each account to ensure that the proper Customer Match lists are in play.
Google blocked or removed 3.4 billion ads in 2021, according to its annual Ads Safety Report, which was released today. Google also tripled the number of account-level suspensions for advertisers in the last year.
3.4 billion ads blocked or removed. The top three categories of bad ads were abusing the ad network (652 million); adult content (287 million); and trademark (137 million). Here’s the full chart from Google:
Earlier this year, Microsoft reported it had removed more than 3 billion ads in 2021. That means Google and Microsoft combined to remove nearly 6.5 billion ads last year.
5.7 billion ads restricted. Certain ads can’t be shown to every searcher in every location. These ads all fell into the category of either legally or culturally sensitive. By the numbers:
Trademarks: 1.4 billion
Other restricted businesses: 511.4 million
Financial services: 223 million
Healthcare and medicines: 219.3 million
Alcohol: 128.5 million
Adult content: 126.1 million
Gambling and games: 108.1 million
Legal requirements: 105.7 million
Copyrights: 68.6 million
5.6 million advertiser accounts suspended. Google reported that bad actors operated “with more sophistication and at a greater scale, using a variety of tactics to evade our detection.”
One challenging example: bad actors created thousands of accounts simultaneously and used techniques like cloaking and text manipulation to show Google’s reviewers and systems different ad content than what a user would see.
Publisher enforcement. Google also blocked or restricted ads from serving on 1.7 billion publisher pages, and took broader site-level enforcement action on about 63,000 publisher sites in 2021.
The top three categories Google took action: sexual content, dangerous or derogatory, and weapons promotion and sales. Here’s a chart:
Ongoing fight against COVID misinformation and abuse. Google blocked ads from running on more than 500,000 pages for violating its policies against harmful health claims related to COVID-19.
This included claims related to vaccines and testing, as well as price-gouging on critical supplies (e.g., masks).
Google has blocked more than 106 million COVID-related ads since the pandemic began.
2022 Ukraine ad removals. Although this report covered 2021, Google provided an update on how many ads related to the war in Ukraine have been blocked so far in 2022: 8 million.
The company added that it has removed ads from more than 60 state-funded media sites from its platforms.
Why we care. These “bad actors” are bad for searchers, advertisers and publishers. This big picture view is a great (and also somewhat shocking) reminder of how many threats there are for legitimate advertisers who want to reach their target audience. This also provides more context to why Google is pushing hard for advertiser verification and instituting things like its three-strikes policy.
Google Ads Scripts, AdWords API and the Google Ads API all were impacted by a but that may have caused reporting issues between April 25th 2:32 PM PT and April 26th 12:24 PM PT. If you the Google Ads Scripts, AdWords API and the Google Ads API for bringing down data for your tools or reports, you may want to annotate the issue or rerun the reports.
Google’s statement. Google posted a statement about the issue over here saying:
Between April 25th 2:32 PM PT and April 26th 12:24 PM PT, there was an issue which may have impacted some read report requests across Google Ads scripts, the AdWords API, and the Google Ads API. If you were using these products to request reporting data for your accounts, then a small percentage of report downloads may have been missing rows or may have had incorrect data in a given row. This issue has been resolved. As a precaution, we recommend running again any reports that you have executed during this period as the missing data has been restored.
What should you do. It would make sense to rerun those date ranges to validate the numbers you pulled in originally were accurate. If not, you should replace the data with the revised data. Google said it recommends “running again any reports that you have executed during this period as the missing data has been restored.”
Why we care. If you have reported to your clients or stakeholders any data pulled from these sources, Google Ads Scripts, AdWords API and the Google Ads API, for the date range of April 25th 2:32 PM PT and April 26th 12:24 PM PT – your reports may be incorrect. You will want to pull revised data, compare the old reports to see if the data was accurate or not. If the data was not accurate, you should update the reports and send revised reports to your clients or stakeholders.
Starting June 30, advertisers will no longer be able to create or edit ETAs in Google Ads.
However, existing ETAs will still be able to run alongside RSAs moving forward.
Advertisers will still have the ability to pause and resume these ads based on guidance from the reporting that Google Ads will continue to provide.
What are RSAs?
RSAs are responsive search ads. Advertisers upload multiple headlines and descriptions, then let Google’s machine learning optimize the ad versions in real-time. The goal is to increase engagement (click-through rate).
Google allows up to 15 different headlines and up to four different descriptions to be considered when creating the ad combinations shown in the search results.
Think of all the possibilities for Google’s machine learning to optimize ad messages. There are more than 43,000 different variations available to keep your messages fresh and keep the ad engagement on an uphill trajectory.
Over time, the system will customize the ad versions based on the user’s search behavior, device preferences and other signals to serve the right version at the right time. The result looks exactly like the ETAs and includes up to three headlines, two descriptions and a display URL.
Google initially introduced RSAs in beta in 2018 and continued to expose advertisers to the change.
Alerts throughout the Google Ads platform have appeared over the past several months. These alerts are typically shown while creating new or editing existing ads.
Yes, there are some drawbacks to this transition. For example, advertisers have less control over the ad combinations and low visibility into which combinations performed the best.
However, there are also reasons to get excited. Here are three big benefits:
You will save time. After the initial planning of the RSA, you will save the many hours of creation, testing and analysis that previously went into new versions of ETAs.
Performance will improve. Advertisers are already seeing improved click-through rates associated with RSAs. As the system optimizes and learns, click-through rates will increase, and the best-performing versions will be prioritized.
Optimization will happen in real-time. As the learning progresses, the system gets smarter at delivering top performers. This ensures ads will be more engaging to consumers and become more optimized as time goes on.
How does the transition affect search ad strategy?
Use the knowledge about what worked best from your ETAs and carry it over to RSAs.
All the work and testing you have done will pay off with this update.
You may believe that your best-performing ETAs will stop performing and you should pause them immediately. Not true.
Instead, you should continue running the best ETAs. Analyze their performance against RSAs in each ad group.
Now is the time to start thinking about all the headlines and descriptions you want to use in your RSAs. With Google doing the heavy lifting when it comes to combination optimization and testing, we need to give Google our most effective marketing messages.
Lack of control of the combinations requires some strategic planning and attention to what is possible.
How to write effective RSAs
Google gives some helpful advice on how to create effective search ads. All these suggestions should be considered when writing your RSAs.
Here’s what is most important when writing effective RSAs.
Headlines are your bread and butter
Headlines make your ads stand out and entice potential customers to click through on your ad versus your competitor’s ad. They also have a significant impact on how Google ranks the quality of the ad.
Keep your headline unique. Google will not display headlines that are too similar. Redundant headlines will limit the number of combinations that Google can serve.
Include keywords in at least five headlines. To maximize your ad quality score, Google offers dynamic keyword insertion to insert your keywords directly into your headlines.
Include three headlines that do not have campaign keywords. These headlines can include specific calls to action exclusive discount offers when available.
Have a combination of short and long headlines. Headlines can have up to 30 characters.
Aim to deliver at least 10 headlines for Google to optimize.
Create attention-grabbing descriptions
Use your descriptions to let potential customers know why you are the best option. Don’t make them guess. Get your marketing message across by thinking about the following:
Highlight something unique in each description. Think about the different combinations that may be put together and if they make sense in any order. This is important. One description should not be dependent on another.
Tell the audience what you want them to do. Whether it be “Download a Newsletter” or “Purchase Today,” strong, clear calls to action are a must.
Use pinning to control combinations only when necessary
Google allows you to pin headlines and descriptions, so they show up in a specific position. This is an excellent feature that can help you regain a bit of the control you may feel you have lost.
Use pinning only when necessary. Google is a learning machine. Pinning one headline reduces the testing and learning Google can do by over 75%. The percentage increases as the number of pins go up.
Take advantage of Google’s ad strength score
We love the fact Google gives us a peek into how our ads can be improved. Take this seriously.
Many times, we feel our ads encompass all needed elements, but Google may not agree. The ad strength meter measures quantity, relevance and diversity in the provided headlines and descriptions.
Use this information to improve the ads until Google sees them as “Good” or even “Excellent.” Google provides an option to view ideas that may help expand your ads and make them more relevant.
Google Ads RSA preparation checklist
Continue learning: Take advantage of the next two months. Keep testing new versions of your ETAs to identify what works and move those messages over to your RSAs.
Create one RSA per ad group: Make sure each ad group has one active RSA. Use the recommendations above and from Google to write effective RSAs.
Use ad extensions: Implement at least four ad extensions for each group. Ad extensions can be applied at multiple levels, including account, campaign and ad group. Apply extensions at the ad group level so the extensions are relevant. A higher number of extensions increases the amount of information the searcher must evaluate before clicking on your ad.
Google is giving users the option to see three more types of ads less often:
Pregnancy and parenting.
Dating.
Weight loss.
The company today announced a global expansion of user controls that were introduced in 2020, which limited alcohol and gambling ads.
YouTube and Google Display ads. Initially, users could only limit alcohol and gambling ads on YouTube. With today’s announcement, users can now also limit these ads on Display. Users can also choose to limit the three new ad categories on both YouTube and Display.
Fewer, not zero. There’s an important distinction here: Google only limits these types of ads. That doesn’t mean a user will never, at some point, see a weight loss or gambling ad. It simply means they will see “fewer” of them.
As we noted in 2020, short of an ad ban, it’s nearly impossible to guarantee that a user who opts out will never see an ad in one of these categories.
Given the sensitive nature of these categories, there may be additional restrictions, depending on your country.
How users opt-out. This feature can be found in users’ Ad Settings, under the Google Account dashboard. Here’s what it looks like:
More to come? Google seems to be considering expanding this feature further. According to Karin Hennessy, Group Product Manager for Ads Privacy:
“People want more control over their ads experience, including blocking ads or categories they prefer not to see. Providing transparency and control has always been a priority for us so we’re expanding our tools, enabling the choice to see fewer pregnancy & parenting, dating, and weight loss ads. We’ll continue to listen to user feedback and study which categories to expand this feature to in the future.”
Why we care. This is a good move on Google’s part to allow users to limit the types of ads they see in sensitive categories. Because it’s opt-in, people need to know about the option and take the time to do it. I’ve asked Google how many people use the ad limitation feature and will update the article if/when I hear back.
The impact on marketers should be minimal. At worst, these controls may actually result in better ad targeting, as it should prevent people who are highly unlikely to convert from seeing your ads.
Search advertising revenue grew in the most recent quarter for both Google and Microsoft. Last night, Alphabet released its Q1 2022 report, while Microsoft released its Q3 earnings report.
Strong year-on-year growth for Google. Overall, Alphabet reported revenue of $68 billion, up from $55.3 billion in Q1 2021. Zooming in on Google search, which accounted for 58% of Alphabet’s revenues, here are the key numbers for Q1 of 2022 (compared to Q1 of 2021):
Total Google advertising revenue: $54.7 billion (up 22% from $44.7 billion)
Google Search & other: $39.6 billion (a 24% vs. $31.9 billion)
Google Network: $8.2 billion (up 20% vs. $6.8 billion)
YouTube: $6.9 billion (up 14% vs. $6 billion)
Interesting stat. Google said that Maps searches for [shopping near me] were up 100% globally year-over-year. Noted Google: “People want to buy from brands that provide a seamless experience wherever and whenever they prefer to shop. For local businesses and big-box retailers alike, this remains a big opportunity.”
Strong year-on-year growth for Microsoft Bing. Overall, Microsoft reported revenue of $49.4 billion, up 18% from $41.7 billion in Q3 2021. The company combines search and news advertising together. That revenue was $2.9 billion in Q3 2022 vs. $2.4 billion in Q3 2021.
LinkedIn revenue grew to $3.4 billion, up 34% from $2.6 billion a year ago.
Why we care. After the earnings were reported, there was some discussion that this was evidence of some sort of slowdown. But most of that conclusion seemed to be drawn from YouTube and by comparing Q1 2022 vs. Q4 2021, which is a ridiculous comparison due to the holiday season falling in Q4, when advertisers are dumping money into Google and Microsoft ads. Though a slowdown could come at any point, search advertising was strong in 2021 and brands plan to invest more in PPC this year.
Google’s most automated campaign type, Performance Max, is getting a new optimization feature aimed at driving new business. The addition comes in the form of a new customer acquisition goal that will allow advertisers to optimize to those who are not previous customers. Additional changes have also been announced to help advertisers identify high-level insights and make the transition to Performance Max easier.
Announced back in 2020, Google’s Performance Max campaigns (nicknamed PMax) have seen intense scrutiny over the lack of control that advertisers have. These campaigns do not contain traditional keywords, audiences, placements or other guardrails for targeting. Instead advertisers input asset groups, location/time of day targeting and audience signals to attempt to drive a qualified click. This new customer acquisition goal is another lever that advertisers can pull to try and drive quality traffic with these campaigns where options and data are at a premium.
New customer acquisition goals. The largest change to PMax campaigns is the ability to use your data to help Google identify (and serve to) new customers. Advertisers have a few options to choose from when identifying new customers including:
Customer Match lists. These lists use first party data including email, phone, first name, last name, country and zip code. When uploaded Google will provide a match rate that shows how many of your customers have a matching Google account that can be used in targeting.
Note: While this PII information is currently being used by Google this is to be used for first-party data only. Once support for third-party cookies are phased out, Customer Match will no longer be supported in third party contexts but Google will continue to allow Customer Match in first-party contexts, when a publisher has a direct relationship with a customer.
Conversion tags. Pixels are still alive and well in Google Ads and the use of conversion tags for purchases can help these new PMax goals exclude folks that are not new.
Google’s autodetection method. This autodetection method is similar to what was used in Smart Shopping campaigns called “Google detected” but also adds some new flair. According to a Google spokesperson, the new autodetection in Performance Max includes the Google detected purchase conversion tracking previously seen in Smart Shopping, plus they “have also built new machine learning modeling to predict how likely a user is to be a new vs. existing customer for an advertiser to make up for low match rates”.
What does this mean? Google can take 1st party signals, Google Ads conversion data and their internal auto-detection to try to figure out who is not a previous customer and target them. This does not guarantee that you won’t be doing remarketing (you likely will), instead Google will just work to find users that are not customers.
Note: This will leverage the above signals but will not weed out searchers that are looking for your brand using branded terms. In order to block those searches, an advertiser will need to find a Google account rep that can manually insert negative terms into campaigns. A change may be coming soon as according as a Google Spokesperson confirmed they “are working on a tool for controlling negative keywords at the account level for brand safety purposes”.
Similar to other Performance Max campaigns, Google still recommends “waiting 4-6 weeks after activating a Performance Max campaign to evaluate results”. So it is still imperative to give these new customer acquisition campaigns the time and patience required to succeed.
Additional new Performance Max insights. Those advertisers that are looking for more intelligence on campaign performance will be pleased as Google is giving us a little more information. There will be two new additions to the insights page within a PMax campaign:
Asset Audience insights These insights will help advertisers see how text, images and video assets “resonate with specific customer segments”. There is no additional information on the format of how these insights will look, but it would be safe to expect it to resemble other automated reporting such as RSA insights. Of course even with data on which assets resonate there is no way to target a specific customer segment using PMax, advertisers can only deploy audience signals.
Diagnostic insights Advertisers will be able to use this to surface the setup issues that may be hindering performance. These insights will show advertisers why ads are not showing as well as suggestions on how to fix. Given the lack of information and data provided by Performance Max campaigns, the addition of diagnostic insights is welcomed warmly.
One-click upgrade tool is rolling out. Smart Shopping and Local campaigns are being sunset and replaced by Performance Max. Google announced that the much awaited one-click upgrade into Performance Max will begin rolling out “over the coming weeks”.
When this tool is available in an account a notification will show to advertisers. This can additionally be found in the recommendations page and the campaigns page. When an upgrade has happened with this tool, a new Performance Max campaign will be generated that keeps the learnings from previous campaigns. According to Google, these learnings brought over to the new PMax campaign will “maintain consistent performance”.
Why we care. Love it or hate it, Performance Max is here to stay. The ability to target new users may help cut down on errant spend, and let advertisers find a more scalable audience. While this won’t remove previous site visitors or those searching for your brand, it should be more efficient for new customer acquisition than standard PMax campaigns. The additional insights may help troubleshoot setup issues and may help guide advertisers on what creative is resonating with specific customer segments, albeit there is not a way to target that audience within a campaign. Lastly, the new one-click migration should be a big upgrade over a manual rebuild as the learnings will be brought over into the new PMax campaign.
Google has added nine new policies to its three-strikes system that punishes advertisers who don’t follow the rules.
The three-strikes system was announced in July. Testing then began in September.
When the program was announced, Google said they planned to include more policy types to avoid. Now they have announced nine additional policies.
When this change takes effect. It starts June 21. Google said it will then gradually ramp up over a three-month period.
The nine new policies. Running advertisements on any of the following could earn your account a strike:
Compensated sexual acts
Mail-order brides
Clickbait
Misleading ad design
Bail bond services
Call Directories, forwarding services
Credit repair services
Binary options
Personal loans
What else to avoid. Google Ads has three main buckets for ads that earn violations, none of which are new. If you need a refresher, you can find them all here:
Strikes and punishments. If your account receives a warning or strike, you will be notified via email and in your account. As a reminder, here’s what happens if your ads get flagged.
Warning
Trigger: First time an ad violates one of Google’s policies.
Penalty: Ad is removed.
First Strike
Trigger: Violating the same policy, for which you received a warning, within 90 days.
Penalty: Account is placed on a three-day hold and no ads are eligible to run.
Second strike
Trigger: Violating the same policy, for which you received a first strike, within 90 days.
Penalty: Account is placed on a seven-day hold and no ads are eligible to run.
If you have received a first or second strike, but don’t violate Google Ads policies for 90 days, the strikes will expire.
Third strike
Trigger: Violating the same policy, for which you received a second strike, within 90 days.
Penalty: Account suspension.
Why we care. Anytime Google updates its Ads policy, it’s important to know what’s changing. Knowing what the Google Ads policies should help keep your account safe and avoid earning any warnings, strikes or an account suspension.
