Google Ads – Page 3 – The Web Authority

September 25, 2023September 23, 2023

McCord Web Services and Google Ads Management

Our mascot Bandit McCord agrees you need McCord Web Services for Google Ads.

Are you struggling to manage your Google Ads account and campaigns? Getting your Google Ads strategy right is crucial for driving traffic and sales, but it can be complicated and time consuming to set up and optimize on your own. That’s where the managed services from McCord Web Services can help.

Even our company mascot Bandit agrees, that you need McCord Web Services for visibility with Google Ads.

McCord Web Services has over 15 years of experience successfully managing Google Ads accounts for businesses across many industries. Their team of Google Ads experts will handle all the heavy lifting for you – allowing you to focus on other important aspects of your business. Here are some of the key benefits of letting McCord Web Services manage your Google Ads campaigns:

1. Strategic Account Setup & Optimization: McCord Web’s team will thoroughly analyze your business, target audience, and goals to build an optimal Google Ads account structure. They’ll set up the right mix of ad groups, keywords, and ads to reach your ideal customers. The account will be closely monitored and optimized regularly to continually improve results.

2. Increased Exposure & Traffic: With the insight of an experienced digital marketing team making ongoing tweaks and updates, your ads and keywords will gain increased exposure and higher click-through rates. More qualified traffic will find your website and service offers.

3. Improved Conversion Rates: Beyond driving more traffic, McCord Web Services will optimize your accounts to convert visitors into leads and customers. From consulting on landing page experience to matching ad messages with intent, and conversions lift with expert management.

4. Saved Time & Improved Efficiency: Managing Google Ads well requires constant attention and effort. McCord Web’s services handle the workload for you, freeing up your schedule for higher value business activities. You gain all the benefits of Google Ads without the full-time commitment and extensive training requirement.

5. Access to Experience & Expertise: Google Ads platforms and best practices change frequently. McCord Web Services stays on top of all the developments. Their experience managing accounts across many industries means proven Google Ads expertise applied directly to growing your business.

Get Started Today with Help from McCord Web Services for Visibility

For businesses who want to maximize their return from Google Ads, McCord Web Services provides the solution. Their managed account services deliver the traffic, leads, and sales your Google Ads campaigns are capable of – without the headaches of tackling it alone. Contact us today to discuss how dedicated Google Ads management can benefit your business.

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.

March 29, 2023

We Are Bullish on Bing.com – Get Your Advertising On Target

It’s time time to review your ad spend on Google Ads and get your advertising on target to generate more leads at a lower cost. Here at McCord Web Services, we are bullish on the use of Microsoft Advertising and ChatGPT is the reason why.

Bing is the second-largest search engine worldwide with a 2.47% market share¹. Bing’s cut of the market has increased by 1.23% since 2019¹. Bing’s market share peaked at 3.63% in 2014¹.

In the desktop search engine market, Bing has a global market share of 6.15%¹. Bing’s share of the desktop search market has grown by 26.8% since 2019, increasing from 4.85%¹. By comparison, when it comes to desktop searches, Google has a market share of 86.82%¹.

Microsoft generated $8.53 billion in search advertising revenue in the 2021 fiscal year¹. Bing is available in 105 languages and 238 countries¹. Bing has a market share of 38.46% among US console users¹.

In summary, Bing’s market share has been growing since 2019 but still lags behind Google’s market share which is currently at 92.13%¹. However, Bing is still generating significant revenue for Microsoft and is available in many languages and countries¹.

With the introduction of the tight integration of Windows 11 and Edge and popularity and news buzz on ChatGPT and integration into Bing’s search bar, Bing’s popularity is not through the roof. Market share and interest continues to grow.

As for our clients, many have started to move into Microsoft Advertising and are getting great results.

Maybe you should be looking at Microsoft Advertising for lower cost conversions than Google Ads. For a number of clients we are seeing conversion costs of under $50 when a conversion in Google is over $100. Visit our website for more information on our Microsoft Advertising services today.

Today’s update using ChatGPT:

As of April 2021, Google holds a whopping **92.18%** share of the global search engine market while Bing ranks second with a market share of **2.27%**².

However, Bing Ads reach **63 million** searchers that aren’t reached with Google AdWords¹. Bing prompts **35% higher** in results than Google Ads³. Bing also has a less competitive playfield which means users do not have much to bid on keywords to secure their search result spot³. Microsoft adds that Bing covers **34%** of desktop-based search engine space³.

Source: Conversation with Bing, 3/29/2023(1) Bing vs Google: 2023 Head to Head Comparison | SerpWatch. https://serpwatch.io/blog/bing-vs-google/ Accessed 3/29/2023.

(2) Bing Ads vs. Google Ads: Which Deserves Your Ad Dollars? – WebFX. https://www.webfx.com/blog/marketing/google-adwords-vs-bing-ads/ Accessed 3/29/2023.

(3) Bing Ads vs. Google Ads: Which Platform is Better in 2023?. https://www.thinkorion.com/blog/bing-ads-vs-google-ads Accessed 3/29/2023.

(4) Global search engine desktop market share 2023 | Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-share-of-search-engines/ Accessed 3/29/2023.

(5) Bing Ads vs. Google Ads: The Pros & Cons of Each Platform – Instapage. https://instapage.com/blog/bing-ads-vs-google-ads Accessed 3/29/2023.

Source: Conversation with Bing, 3/27/2023(1) Microsoft Bing Usage and Revenue Stats (New Data) – Backlinko. https://backlinko.com/bing-users Accessed 3/27/2023.

(2) 46 Critical Bing Statistics: 2023 Market Share Analysis & Data. https://financesonline.com/bing-statistics/ Accessed 3/27/2023.

(3) Global search engine desktop market share 2023 | Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/216573/worldwide-market-share-of-search-engines/ Accessed 3/27/2023.

(4) Microsoft Bing hits 100 million active users in bid to grab share from …. https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/9/23631912/microsoft-bing-100-million-daily-active-users-milestone Accessed 3/27/2023.

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.