Brand Bidding in Google Ads: The Real Reason Experts Can’t Seem to Agree

Brand bidding in Google Ads is one of those topics where nobody seems to agree. About a year ago, I got tired of the dogma. I was tired of people telling me I was “religious” about my brand bidding framework, followed by the usual absolutist claims that it’s always good or always a waste of […]

Brand Bidding in Google Ads: The Real Reason Experts Can’t Seem to Agree Read More »

Profit-Based Bidding: The Hidden Drawbacks Nobody Talks About

Here’s the case for not doing profit-based bidding in Google Ads, despite what everyone says. I see agencies, in-house teams, and freelancers all making the same mistake: they recommend it to everyone, without exception. On paper, profit-based bidding sounds like a no-brainer. You simply import your actual profit from a transaction—revenue minus COGS, taxes, shipping,

Profit-Based Bidding: The Hidden Drawbacks Nobody Talks About Read More »

Target ROAS vs. Max Conversion Value: Why One Scales and The Other Stalls

Most of the chatter around Google Ads bidding focuses on Target CPA vs. Maximize Conversions. But for e-commerce, that’s the wrong conversation. The real debate, the one that’s almost never had, is Target ROAS vs. Maximize Conversion Value. On one hand, you have Maximize Conversion Value. You give Smart Bidding a budget, and it tries

Target ROAS vs. Max Conversion Value: Why One Scales and The Other Stalls Read More »

Margin-Based Campaigns Are Killing Your Profits (And What to Do Instead)

Margin-based campaigns are still being recommended by people in the Google Ads space, and it constantly surprises me. It’s a broken strategy. The entire foundation for that campaign structure is full of holes, yet agencies and freelancers continue to build accounts on top of it. I’m here to tell you why they don’t work and

Margin-Based Campaigns Are Killing Your Profits (And What to Do Instead) Read More »

Smart Bidding Exploration vs. Lowering ROAS: What’s The Difference?

When a Google product manager showed me Smart Bidding Exploration in Mountain View, she called it the biggest smart bidding update ever. And honestly, I think she might be right. I was invited by Ginny Marvin as part of a small group of PPC practitioners to sit down with product managers and discuss new features,

Smart Bidding Exploration vs. Lowering ROAS: What’s The Difference? Read More »

Why Negative Keywords Can Hurt Your Google Ads Performance

I’m going to say something controversial: Smart Bidding has made negative keywords mostly irrelevant. For the last couple of years, some of our biggest performance gains haven’t come from adding negative keywords, but from removing them. Yep, I said removing. The reason is simple. Most advertisers are stuck in a 2018 mindset, over-using a tool

Why Negative Keywords Can Hurt Your Google Ads Performance Read More »

Brand_bidding_google_ads

The Real Reason Nobody Agrees on Brand Bidding in Google Ads (incl. P-Max)

Intro Just like YouTube Ads shouldn’t defacto be run by your Google Ads agency (unless they know what they’re doing), it’s equally wrong to classify branded and non-brand keywords as the same. Just because they’re both within a Google Ads account does not mean they should be treated the same. In this article, I explain

The Real Reason Nobody Agrees on Brand Bidding in Google Ads (incl. P-Max) Read More »