Google Ads Services – The Web Authority

December 3, 2024

Google Ads Shows Year Over Year Click Cost Increases

Search Engine Land, one of the pay per click industry’s top online magazines, has just published its statistical data analysis for Google Ads performance. Read the full article online.

They identified the following information for 2023 vs. 2024.

Search campaigns:
ROAS up 2% YoY
CPA down 3% YoY
CPC up 22% YoY
Conversion rate up 21% YoY

Performance Max campaigns:
ROAS: Up 1% YoY, from 609.77% in Q3 2023 to 616.36% in Q3 2024
CPA: Up 8% YoY, from $13.92 in Q3 2023 to $15.15 in Q3 2024
CPC: Up 6% YoY, from $0.50 in Q3 2023 to $0.53 in Q3 2024
Conversion Rate: Down 3% YoY, from 3.56% in Q3 2023 to 3.47% in Q3 2024

Shopping campaigns with PMax:
ROAS up 4% YoY
CPA down 15% YoY
CPC down 10% YoY
Conversion rate up 5% YoY

What we find is that while most of our advertisers saw modest year-over-year gains in return on ad spend (ROAS) and conversion rates, the rising cost per click cost cut into those improvements.

For some clients knowing that the cost per click has increased 22% from 2023 to 2024 is not news to them, but to others, seeing the actual data broken down my campaign type may be illuminating.

Although no one likes to have to increase their Google Ads spend budget just to stay competitive, the data points out that ad spend budgets should be reviewed regularly to keep your business competitive in the Google Ads auction.

For existing clients, we are offering a free analysis in December to plan a 2025 Google Ads spend budget by month; allowing you to compete effectively in this changing landscape. Please let us know to add you to our 2025 budget planning session by December 10th and receive a free Google Ads budget plan by month.

If you are not a client yet, you can get a two year analysis and a 2025 Google Ads spend budget by month for $250. Please contact us by December 15th with payment.

September 27, 2023September 27, 2023

Strike… Google Institutes Penalties for Not Following the Rules

It’s called three strikes you’re out – Google has instituted new penalties to get advertisers’ attention to policy violations.

Our concern is the number of false positives that we routinely see and the difficulty in resolving these issues due to the inability to just pick up the phone and chat to a Googler. Since Covid, Google now has an “ask for a call” option. It appears that support is now based in India. Many times the return calls we get are marked as No Mo Robo calls and are blocked by Verizon after one ring.

Management of this new program will be problematic. Here’s just one example – a client sells trailer hitches. Images are frequently marked as violations as Google thinks the image of the trailer hitch looks like a gun.

Here’s the full release that Google has sent to advertisers and account managers.

Dear Advertiser,

In September 2021, Google will introduce a new strike-based system to enforce against advertisers who repeatedly violate Google Ads policies. We will begin implementing the strike-based system on Sep 21, 2021, with a gradual ramp up over a period of 3 months, for the following policies: Enabling dishonest behavior, Unapproved substances, Guns, gun parts and related products, Explosives, Other Weapons, and Tobacco. The policy coverage of the strike-based system will be expanded to add additional policies in phases over time and advertisers will be notified each time new policies are brought within scope of the strike-based system.

Please note that this update does not impact the account suspension procedures for egregious Google Ads policy violations.

What’s changing:

To help ensure a safe and positive experience for users, Google requires advertisers to comply with Google Ads policies. As a part of the Google Ads enforcement system, Google will begin issuing strikes to advertisers, which will be accompanied by email notifications and in-account notifications to encourage compliance and deter repeat violations of our policies.

An advertiser’s first policy violation will only result in a warning. But advertisers will earn their first strike if we detect continued violation of our policies. Advertisers will be able to receive a maximum of three strikes, and the penalties applied with each strike will progressively increase. Temporary account holds will be applied for the first and second strikes (for 3 and 7 days respectively), while the third strike will result in an account suspension.

An advertiser placed on a temporary account hold will be required to remedy the violations in question and to submit an acknowledgement form to resume serving ads. Following this acknowledgement, their account will be released from the temporary account hold state either 3 days after the first strike was issued, or after 7 days for a second strike. Advertisers can also appeal a strike decision if they believe it was issued in error. Ads will resume serving immediately after successfully appealing the strike. Accounts will remain on temporary hold if no action is taken by the advertiser to either acknowledge or appeal a strike. Strikes will remain on the Google Ads account for 90 days unless they’re successfully appealed.

Accounts suspended following a third strike will not be able to run any ads or create new content unless the suspension is successfully appealed. Learn more about suspended accounts.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Sincerely,

The Google Ads Team

To our blog readers, at McCord Web Services for visibility, we are just now starting to see the strike notices appear in the accounts. Remember three strikes means your account is suspended for 90 days and sometimes depending on the violations, forever.

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.