Have you visited the Google Ads control panel lately? Even if you feel you are accomplished in your job, you may find the Google Ads interface complex and intimidating.
Add to this that many of the recommendations in the Opportunities tab really need a skilled professional to review in regards to account impact before enacting. You can easily kill your Google Ads activity through ignorance of the system.
You have options for managing your Google Ads effectively before you throw in the towel and try to go it alone.
For our small business owners we offer paid by the hour review, account optimizations and three month oversight to assure all is well and then quarterly tune-ups.
As complex as Google Ads now is, it pays to have a professional and experience account manager directing your Google Ads marketing efforts.
We’d be glad to chat with you about your individual needs. Just contact us today.
McCord Web Services is a Google Partner and a Certified Google Ads Professional
Updated on 5-29-19.
Google Ads is cracking down again on dermatologists, plastic surgeons and other doctors that mention name brand drugs that they supply in office for treatments. Ads are market limited with a policy violation when brand names are listed or ads are flagged with one or multiple violations.
The Google required pharmacy registration, to show terms like BOTOX, is relatively costly and does not really apply to this market. These physicians are not selling these medications online, nor are they filling prescriptions. They just want to advertise that they are doing BOTOX injections or using other facial injectables on their website for in-office services.
Google is not not only searching terms on the landing pages, but now the entire website. So, removing the offending drug names from the landing page simply does not solve the ad issue.
From Google sponsored help forums I am seeing posts like this:
In the past we were able to contact someone at Google, show them it’s a hospital and that we weren’t advertising for any drug and the problem was gone. Now as of around Jan 20, this no longer seems possible so if something has changed (and let’s face it, Google is not 100% transparent about anything), then I would like to know what it is.
Well, these days this is the sole aim/goal the Policy enforcement team is focused on. You should also recognize that the policy is dynamic and changes continuously. We have no influence on the Policy team. I can only say – based on my wide experience with Policy issues – that Google is very strict with health-care issues (regulator scrutinize, Google was heavily fined in the past by regulators…). No waivers are granted.
So for medical professionals this new update from Google means absolutely no mention of name brand drugs on the entire website. They may not even be eligible for the medical/pharmacy registration that Google links to in their help notice pages for site and policy violations.
I called Google Partner support and got this clarification from staff on this issue this past week. For now, Google is showing ads but only in countries where there is not a policy issue and when they do show ads they are only showing to users 18 years and older.
Google staff recommended the full removal of all drug names from the entire website in order for the ads to no longer be flagged. They agreed that the $1,400 yearly fee and $495 application fee to get a pharmacy approval from one of Google’s two recommended vendor simply did not apply to these doctors, but that there was no work around.
Remember when you show ads on Google.com you have to play the way Google says and this new change means – know your ads will be flagged, your ad serving will be limited to adults only, and that the policy may change in the future.
Google is mobile focused to the max as are these new ad products.
A new campaign type called Discovery Ads is coming to Google Ads later this year. It has been in beta for select advertisers but will be rolled out to all users later in 2019.
Discovery Ads will show on Google Discover, Gmail, YouTube and other Google properties. They consist of a swipeable photo carousel that renders ads by platform and artificial intelligence. They are supposed to anticipate consumer needs. Users so far have claimed 25% lower cost per lead.
In addition to Discovery Ads look for a new ad format for search called Gallery Ads. These photo heavy ads will allow 4 to 8 images with a 70 character tag line. Beta users claim 25% more interactions.
Both of these new items from Google are focused on products and cater to shoppers. You won’t be using either of these formats for services – just retail selling.
Be on target with deciding what conversions to let the Google AI base bidding on.
Deciding what to measure on Google Ads as a conversion has significant impact for your account performance. This is especially true when it comes to automated bidding.
For example, if you include page views in your conversions, you may skew results for any bidding algorithms you may use in the future.
When I manage an account, I look to include sales, completed web forms, and website phone calls as conversions. Other items that I may consider important depending on the client and what they are selling may be page views, whitepaper downloads, opening of the chat form. Typically I will consider those lower value actions in the “all conversion” category but not in the “conversion” category.
Doing so allows me to tell the bidding AI what conversions I really consider of value. Although I can add both sets of conversions to my reports, most decisions as to strategy should be based only on the high value conversions.
If you are not sure which and what you are tracking, click the wrench at the top right of your Google Ads account, then go to conversions. Take a look to see what data you are considering important and click on those specific actions to add or remove them from your reports.
You do not lose any data, it is simply whether those actions will be shown in the conversions column or the all conversions column.
Help Google bid smarter for you by only including “conversions” to give you better performance.
