What adds to the complexity of digital advertising is the ever-evolving nature of user interfaces (UIs), which change almost as frequently as the underlying algorithms. Staying up-to-date with these changes and the various tasks necessary for optimizing account performance can be quite a challenge. Although some of these factors may be familiar to a few, they often go unnoticed, making them the most prevalent “secret strategies” we encounter during account audits.
Secret Strategy #1: Targeting Competitor Audiences
What drives a person’s quest for a product? Which brands do they naturally gravitate toward when researching, exploring options, or seeking validation? How do these interactions influence their eventual buying decision? One often underestimated treasure in consumer intent is the “competitor audience segment” targeting strategy. Accessible within the audience manager, this tool empowers advertisers to include websites often frequented by their target audience. It’s seamlessly integrated into Performance Max (PMAX) and display campaigns. However, it still needs inclusion in standalone search targeting, which can be disappointing.
You have the liberty to list multiple websites or customer segments. Google then identifies users who have visited or similar sites as prime candidates for your ads. Complement this with a placement exclusion list to ensure your ads don’t appear on undesired pages, be it your site or a direct competitor’s content. You have the flexibility to either exclude or specifically target a competitor.
Unlock the power of ‘Competitor Audience Segments’ – The ultimate strategy to hijack your competitors’ success and win their audience over! The brilliance of this strategy lies in harnessing the marketing efforts and budget of your competitors, redirecting the interest they’ve cultivated, and potentially turning it into profit for your brand.
Secret Strategy #2: Harnessing the Power of Search Term Filters
Over time, the search terms report has seen a decline in effectiveness. Our ability to gain insights from search terms has diminished, making it more challenging to incorporate negative keywords or identify new keyword opportunities, especially for extensive queries. The ability to compare targeted keywords with the actual search terms ensures that you are bidding on the most relevant and productive version of each keyword. As account structures shift towards a stronger focus on audiences than just keywords, the search terms report becomes a crucial tool for prioritizing keywords rather than solely relying on suggestions from the keyword planner.
To leverage this valuable resource:
• Navigate to ‘Attributes’ within your interface.
• Filter by the attribute and the specific search term in question.
• Activate the column that displays the keyword that triggered the search term.
• Additionally, consider incorporating ‘match type’ to gain insights into the frequency of close variants activated by your campaigns.
• Depending on your campaign type and account structure, a surge in close variants may indicate a need for more negative keywords to protect your ad groups.
This diagnostic step is essential to ensure that negative keywords are appropriately implemented at various levels, and it seamlessly leads us to the next overlooked feature, which we’ll explore next.
Secret Strategy #3: Negative Keywords Across All Account Levels
While most experienced PPC professionals inherently recognize the significance of negative keywords, a recent trend shows an alarming number of campaigns either completely lacking negative keywords or implementing them sparingly.
But why is the meticulous use of negative keywords so essential?
Local Variants: Negative keywords shield against regional variants, ensuring the most relevant search terms trigger your ads.
Economical Allocation: Negative keywords play a pivotal role in optimizing your budget. In most cases, you must shift your budget from one campaign or ad group to another.
Without well-defined negative keywords, there’s a genuine risk of overspending on less impactful ideas while overlooking more promising opportunities. While negative keywords may not be groundbreaking, their consistent and thoughtful application can differentiate between a well-optimized campaign and one that squanders valuable resources. So, no matter how fundamental or advanced this feature might seem, revisit and refine your negative keywords regularly.
Secret Strategy #4: Audience and Placement Targets & Exclusions
It could be more disheartening to conduct campaign audits and come across glaring omissions in terms of audience targets, exclusions, or specific placement targets and exclusions. These omissions deprive campaigns of their most potent tool for achieving budget precision and fostering meaningful engagement with the ideal customer.
Let’s break it down:
Audience Targets: By neglecting the inclusion of audience targets, whether through “Target and Observe” or “Observe” settings, you’re essentially casting a wider net into a larger traffic pool. The truth is, only some within that vast pool are your potential customers. The occasional oversight of these settings may stem from the intricate nature of the interface. However, understanding their placement is paramount.
Exclusions for Visual Content: To ensure the necessary exclusions rather than relying on defaults, it’s essential to toggle between topics, placements, and content keywords. Additionally, the “Where and When Ad Served” report, which is still in open beta for some users, offers valuable insights into which placements to target or exclude.
For PMAX Campaigns: Audience signals are paramount in the early stages of a PMAX campaign but tend to diminish in impact over time. To fine-tune these signals, navigate to the Asset Group section and click the pencil icon on the right. Once inside, you’ll have the capability to edit your audience signals. While the layout may not be as intuitive as in other campaign types, becoming familiar with it is crucial for optimizing Performance Max campaigns. Remember, combining your data with Google’s signals based on various audience settings can significantly enhance the impact of your campaign.
Audience Library & Manager: This serves as your portal for creating custom audiences. With this tool, you can integrate interest targets and even upload conversions, paving the way to generate audiences from previous converters.
While these functionalities may not be entirely “secreted,” their full potential is often underestimated. Delving deep into their usage and employing them judiciously can be the difference between a campaign that merely runs and one that genuinely resonates.
Secret Strategy #5: Platform-Wide Settings – Ad Group vs. Campaign Level
Managing ad settings can be a daunting task, particularly when you’re juggling between different ad networks. Each network boasts its unique hierarchy of campaign and ad group settings, making it easy to overlook critical configuration options.
Let’s explore this often-underestimated aspect by dissecting the intricacies across popular advertising platforms:
• Google Ads: Campaign-Focused
Google primarily emphasizes campaign-level settings for scheduling, budgeting, location targeting, and negative keywords. Typically, you’ll set up multiple campaigns with distinct budgets for different objectives. Keep the number of ad groups per campaign relatively low, usually from five to seven, depending on your target volume.
• Microsoft Ads: A Blend of Both
Microsoft Ads shares similarities with Google Ads but offers more ad group-level flexibility. You can override settings for locations, schedules, and specific ad placements. This flexibility empowers you to craft a more customized advertising strategy.
• Facebook (Meta) Ads: Flexible Objectives
Facebook doesn’t confine you to specific campaign or ad group settings. You can opt for Campaign Budget Optimizer, which functions similarly to Google Ads or allocate budgets per individual ads and targets. Your approach significantly impacts your spending, offering you the flexibility to support general objectives or conduct extensive creative testing. However, be prepared for varying budgetary implications.
• LinkedIn Ads: Ad Set-Centric
LinkedIn strongly emphasizes ad set settings, allowing you to make most decisions at this level. Campaigns typically determine the association of assets. When advertising on LinkedIn, you should be prepared to create a robust ad group structure that caters to each significant aspect of your business.
• Amazon Ads: Product-Centric Budgeting
Amazon’s approach revolves around the products you intend to promote rather than focusing on campaign or ad group settings. While you may have limitations regarding location targeting, Amazon excels in providing a robust first-party audience network. Your product selection drives your budget allocation.
Irrespective of the specific ad network you’re utilizing, it’s crucial to have a solid grasp of these underlying structures for more effective campaign planning and budget allocation. Understanding these so-called ‘hidden’ settings can significantly affect the efficiency and effectiveness of your advertising endeavours.
Secret Strategy #6: Leveraging Segments for In-Depth Analysis
Segments allow you to delve deeper into your campaign data and investigate various aspects such as Network, Conversion Data, Time, Location and Device. These segments serve as invaluable tools to identify any anomalies in the averages. For instance, if you notice a low click-through rate (CTR) or cost per click (CPC) and have Search Partners with Display Expansion enabled, these numbers are influenced unexpectedly. By effectively applying segments, you’ll gain a more precise and accurate understanding of your account’s performance, enabling you to implement more informed and impactful optimizations.
Secret Strategy #7: Unveiling the Power of Conversion Tracking
Comprehending and fine-tuning conversion settings is pivotal to ensuring the data you rely on is accurate and actionable.
• The Significance of Reliable Data
In a landscape where tracking is modeled, confidence in the data you gather is supreme. An often-overlooked aspect is the default 30-second window for phone call conversions, which may need to be more practical for most businesses. A more reasonable threshold would be around two to three minutes or even longer in specific sectors. If this setting is adjusted, it can result in the inflow of accurate data, affecting both your bidding strategy and reporting.
• Steering Primary and Secondary Conversion Settings
Google automatically categorizes conversion actions as primary. While some of these primary actions can’t be altered, others should be adjusted to align with your business requirements. Primary conversions hold sway over the algorithm and are visible in reports. Secondary conversions are tracked in the ‘all conversions’ category but don’t influence the algorithm or primary reporting metrics.
• Configuring Primary and Secondary Settings
Contrary to what one might assume, these settings are modified at the ‘goal level,’ not at the ‘conversion action level.’ Once you’ve identified your desired conversion actions (whether imported from GA4 or utilizing native actions), select ‘Edit goal’ and switch between primary and secondary settings for each conversion action based on your preferences. Properly configured conversion settings ensure you measure what genuinely matters to your business. By filtering by conversion action, you can discern the number and cost of the conversions that hold value for your goals.
Secret Strategy #8: Unearthing Concealed Reports
Google Ads owes much of its success to the valuable data it provides advertisers. However, in recent years, some of these reports have either been deprecated or consolidated, making them more challenging to utilize effectively. Although not all these reports are brand new or heavily modified, they represent a source of untapped potential:
• Change History Report
The Change History report meticulously documents every change made within an account, including details about the person responsible for each alteration. It also differentiates between manual adjustments and automatic suggestions from Google. For advertisers, an abundance of auto-recommendations may prompt a decision to either disable or embrace them based on performance results. This report can also shed light on the significance of the changes. For example, if you observe a high volume of IP exclusions without corresponding negative keyword additions or targeting adjustments, it might indicate reliance on fraud-filtering tools but limited attention to the overall campaign strategy. However, it’s always advisable to consult with your team or vendor before jumping to conclusions, as there may be valid reasons for limited manual intervention.
• Call Extension Report
The Call Extension report delves into the specifics of calls, including the option to listen to recorded calls (if this feature is enabled) and assesses call durations. For those needing call tracking, this report provides a valuable window into evaluating the effectiveness of phone calls. Located within ‘extensions reports,’ this report often elicits a positive reaction when discovered. It can be a helpful tool for dispelling performance concerns with concrete data.
• Insight Section & The Search Term Report
Google Ads recently underwent a redesign that separated core functions from insights. Consequently, the search term report is now situated under the “insights” section. This change has not been mirrored in Microsoft Ads. The search term report remains a cornerstone for comprehending search behaviours and aligning campaign strategies. Another noteworthy report within this category is the “where and when ads showed,” which proves particularly valuable for PMAX (Performance Max) campaigns by providing a break from the typical ‘black-box’ reporting structure.
Secret Strategy #9: Attaching Shopping Attributes in the Merchant Center
Google Merchant Center frequently introduces new attributes for feed customization. A monthly check-in routine can ensure that your feed remains up-to-date, giving you a competitive edge. Consistently enhancing and customizing your feeds with additional attributes can substantially impact the efficiency of your campaign targeting and ultimately improve your return on ad spend (ROAS).
Key Insights to Remember
Becoming proficient in every aspect of ad networks can appear overwhelming. Nevertheless, these platforms typically prioritize decisions driven by user data. Ad networks focus on implementing substantial changes that have a meaningful impact rather than inundating users with minor adjustments. Prominent shifts, such as the transition from dynamic search ads to Performance Max, indicate the network’s commitment to providing users with a smooth transition period. If you value a specific feature in ad management, continue to utilize it consistently and express your feedback. Doing so may be sufficient to retain its usefulness.
