Google Ads Management – Page 3

June 21, 2023

The Value of Using a Google Partner for Google Ads Management

Put Google Ads to work for you with new AI tools.

It just makes sense to get more sales from your investment in paying an account manager with experience to manage your Google Ads program.

How So?

Google Partners are companies that have been certified by Google to manage Google Ads campaigns for businesses. They have the latest Google Ads product knowledge to set up and run campaigns effectively so you can stay focused on your business.

Google Partners have built a relationship with Google and harness Google’s ability to drive long-term success. Google Ads offers Partners benefits focused on education, insights, access, support, and recognition.

1. The value of a Google Partner is that a Partner can help you achieve your business goals by providing you with the latest product knowledge and insights.

2. They can optimize your Google Ads campaigns for better performance, as well as provide you with data-driven insights to make informed decisions, and help you stay ahead of your competition.

3. Partners can also help you save time by managing your Google Ads program for you so that you can focus on running your business.

4. They can help you get the most out of your advertising budget by providing you with the latest product knowledge and insights.

McCord Web Services a Performance Marketing Firm

When you are ready to get serious about promoting your business on Google Ads, it makes sense to consider a Google Partner for the best possible results. Find out more about what we do and reach out to us today for a free estimate.

April 20, 2023April 20, 2023

Welcome to the New World of Google Ads Tracking – Trust Me, You Won’t Like It

Google is always evolving, and unfortunately we have to evolve along with them. Here’s the big issue – with the implementation of G4, loss of third party cookie tracking, sunsetting of Google UA Analytics around July 1, we are just now starting to really see the new world of conversion tracking for Google Ads – and it is not pretty.

The Issue is Third Party Cookies

The Chrome browser will be retiring third party cookies use next year. More states in the US have been enacting privacy regulations to allow users visiting your website to choose which cookies to allow; which is in effect getting rid of your ability to fully track users to your website. You will now only be able to track the people who allow your first party cookies.

On one site when we allowed users to opt out of marketing and conversion tracking, the recorded activity dropped nearly 80%. The ability of users being able to choose what you, as a website owner, can track is starting to impact Google Ads conversion reporting as well.

Sunsetting of UA Analytics

G4, the new version of Google Analytics, is not easy or intuitive to use. It is hard to find clear revenue and ad spend figures in G4 that have been derived from Google Ads activity. Add to that, the fact that Google puts Google Ads Performance Max and shopping program results in a new channel category called “cross network” and this channel is not marked as results coming from Google Ads clearly.

Cross Network Tracking

Plus, Google and Google Ads have been slow to enable conversion tracking for cross network use. This important metric is still being enabled slowly account by account in Google Ads. We have only one client who has received notice so far, that this feature has been turned on for their account. Once enabled, cross network conversions will provide a modicum of additional information for conversion reporting and raise the current dismal numbers slightly.

The new world of conversion tracking and reporting in Google Ads is a murky one at this point.

Visitors Are Opting Out Not In

Given an opportunity to opt out of tracking and conversion cookies on a website, visitors are opting out and not in. In G4 Analytics, you must manually add cross network activity to the paid search activity to arrive at a somewhat accurate figure for activity be that traffic or revenue.

I am sure that Google will be addressing these issues in the future, but for now G4 is not easy to use, conversion set up difficult, and validity of the data murky.

A Drop in Reported Conversions and Revenue

We are seeing significantly lower conversion and revenue numbers flowing into Google Ads. As a Google Partner and experienced account manager, it is very important to explain to our client/advertisers that this does not mean that Google Ads is not working for them, but rather that all data can simply not be captured and reported as before.

What to Do?

We feel that having our clients watch overall sales, contact form submissions, and review activity against prior years and periods, in addition to information that we can glean from overall site traffic will be important to review in conjunction with Google Ads activity.

Clients should be apprised, in advance, that Google Ads conversions may drop during this transition period and that these lower reported conversion and revenue numbers will most likely be the new reality.

As account managers, we will now have to look at the total sales/leads, if clients will share the data with us, and review actions back on the website, if we have access to their G4 accounts, to get a fuller picture of Google Ads marketing efforts to continue to communicate the value of Google Ads as an investment in our clients’ business growth.

Welcome to the Future

Welcome to the new world of conversion tracking and reporting for Google Ads! However, we are up to the challenge to help you get the most activity possible on Google Ads, even in light of some of these adversities. With more than 15 years of experience on the platform, McCord Web Services is a Google Partner and expert in Google Ads account management.

For more information about our services, we invite you to visit our Google Ads services section and our white label agency services section.

About the Author, Nancy McCord

Nancy McCord is the CEO and Founder of McCord Web Services LLC. She started the firm in 2001 and has been a professional Google Ads account manager for more than 15 years. She is considered to be an expert in Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Search Engine Optimization.

January 18, 2023

January Google Ads Conversions Dip

This month, we are seeing a trend across nearly all managed Google Ads accounts and wanted to share the issue with you and how we are working to improve account performance.

In January 2023, we are seeing a dip in conversion activity in Google Ads across a broad sector of verticals. B2B and B2C are impacted as well as ecommerce accounts.

We are seeing good upward movement in clicks and impressions but conversions are lagging compared to the prior month and last 30 day figures by 13% to as much as over 50%.

With a full review of all account metrics, we are not looking carefully at the use of broad match keywords in client accounts and are either moving out of broad match entirely and into phrase match and/or adding to our negative keyword list.

Of concern to us as experienced Google Ads account managers is the continued push by Google and Google Reps to fully embrace a broad match only keyword strategy. But, we find that broad match does not always meet our clients’ needs.

It is important to monitor closely the search queries that are triggering ads. Google has continued to erode the line between broad match and phrase match much to our concern. This change in client account activity may be an impact of Google continuing to blur the line between phrase match and broad match keywords.

We’ll keep you posted as we evaluate further and continue to react to the changing environment driven by the auction in Google Ads.

June 9, 2022June 8, 2022

What Your Google Ads Manager Wants You to Know About the Cookieless Future

Be Prepared for the Sunset of Google Analytics in 7/2023

July 2023 is coming sooner than you think. Do not be unprepared for the important changes that are coming in how Google Ads tracks conversions. Failure to take this seriously will impact your advertising, costs, the ability to measure the successes from your Google Ads advertising investment and may even cause a decline in sales.

Cookies are changing in July 2023. Google will be sunsetting Universal Analytics (UA), removing third party cookie access from the Chrome browser, and Google Ads will not record conversions in your advertising account from third party cookies after that date.

What Happens to Conversions in this New World in Google Ads?

Right now, most Google Ads conversions are tracked via third party cookies. That means if you have not embraced first party data and G4 Analytics, your Google Ads account may not show all conversions that are being generated from Google Ads. You still will get conversions, but you just won’t know where the conversion came from. For some clients, they will erroneously feel that Google Ads is not working for them, and cut ad spend budgets in error. For many this will create a loss in sales and may even drive some companies out of business.

The Impact of the Cookie Change for Google Ads Account Management is Significant

Google Ads advanced bidding algorithms all use cookies to record conversions. Without valid conversion data the bidding algorithms will have trouble setting appropriate bids and Google Ads will not be able to deliver targeted results. This will most certainly lead to fewer and more expensive conversions when actions are only partially recorded.

Conversions are not going away with this new cookieless world, but the ability to see which conversions are driven by Google Ads will be gone if you do not move to first party data and cookieless conversion tracking by July 2023.

Google Ads has stated that using G4 and Google Ads first party data in website codes will generate data that it will combine with AI to extrapolate conversion data points that it will use for the advanced bidding algorithm and conversion reporting metrics.

From the Google Ads Manager Perspective

Many clients are simply not aware of how automation is used in their Google Ads account. Bidding from the keyword level and even ad text inclusion by viewer is all driven by conversion results. Without strong and valid conversion data to base these decisions on, we return to manual bidding which drops conversion numbers and in many cases does not let an account be competitively placed in the Google Ads auction. And, the bidding algorithm drives up costs and escalates the cost per conversion as it has no idea what to bid based on no data or flawed data. The responsive ad engine does not understand which pieces of ad text generate a return and so does not create compelling ads that generate sales.

Performance drops and clients start to think that Google Ads is not a good investment. They stop advertising and their phone stops ringing, sales drop, and then suddenly everything becomes a crisis.

Without the first party data which powers the Google Ads advanced bidding algorithm and Google’s ability to fill-in conversion data using AI, Google Ads stops working for an account.

But, your competitors are moving forward and continuing to leverage their first party data in Google Ads to get results. What happens is those that did not embrace first party data, G4, and early preparation simply get left behind and lose business to others that could have been theirs.

Our Recommendations Is to Be Prepared

We recommend using the first party data of Google Ads tracking code to track conversions on your website and using G4 Analytics for a deeper insight into your website traffic.

Don’t wait and get caught in a spiral of confusion and lack of important decision making data. Plan ahead and actively work to assure your website and Google Ads conversion code is transitioned and ready for the cookieless future before the deadline.

For more information on this important topic we recommend this article at Search Engine Land.

For help with Google Ads optimization and how you should move forward with implementing first party data, please contact us from our website.