On August 17th, Smart Bidding changes how it works with campaigns that are limited by budget, and the industry is up in arms. Some believe it’s another sign of Google being evil, while others are just shrugging their shoulders. I have never entertained the “Google is evil” mentality. I think it’s a loser mentality, one […]

Most advertisers think the question they need to answer is “how often should I change my Smart Bidding targets?” That’s the wrong question. The real question is “will Smart Bidding even notice this change—and if it does, will it overreact?” Smart Bidding thrives on stable signals it can use to course-correct. The more frequently you

One of my more popular LinkedIn posts this year was about the results of a max bid limit test we’d done. Based on the response, I figured it was worth breaking down in more detail, along with another test we’ve run since. It’s my belief that one of the main reasons our clients don’t experience

I see the same Smart Bidding mistakes in almost every Google Ads account I audit. It doesn’t matter if it’s a small e-commerce account or a massive brand spending millions a month; these issues are universal. Some are blindingly obvious. Others are more insidious, masquerading as best practices while quietly sabotaging your performance. And let’s

When it comes to Google’s Smart Bidding, most account managers fall into one of two camps. The first camp blindly trusts the algorithm. They set a target, walk away, and just hope for the best. The second camp micromanages it to death, constantly tweaking targets and adding bid adjustments, never letting the algorithm breathe. The

Most of you don’t want to admit this, but if you really look at your process, you’re guessing what seasonal bid adjustments (SBAs) to run during Black Week. You set them based on gut feel or a vague memory of what you think worked last year. You have no real idea if you underspent or

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,

What if I told you that most DTC brands are paying 10 times more than they need to for branded search clicks? Clicks you were probably going to get anyway. It sounds like an exaggeration, but I see it constantly. Before I break down the why, let me show you what I mean. Here’s a