Ever take over a new Google Ads account and struggle to get good performance, only to find they had put really dumb settings in place? I took over an account recently and started to set things up on a Friday. I fixed their conversion tracking issues (always step 1), set up a brand campaign and set up a general search campaign with their top keywords (a cross between volume and buying intent). I had paused every other campaign and left only mine running, so I thought everything would be fine for the weekend. I came back Monday and saw that traffic spiked, which was good. Until I looked at the search terms report... There was a ton of stuff coming from keywords I never added! I checked the target keywords and someone had added a bunch of Broad match keywords, including a one-word, super generic keyword that could have ANY intent! I knew that the owner, the marketing manager, my client (an agency owner), and possibly their sales manager had access to the account, so I went to the change history to see who had "tried to help". Turns out, it was Google! They added 165 BROAD MATCH KEYWORDS to one ad group!!!! The source was "Auto-applied Recommendations", which I never checked because I never turn them on. ALL OF THEM WERE ON!!!! I quickly turned them off and posted on LinkedIn about it, making the offhand commend that I would "add it to my checklist" (I don't have an actual checklist, which is why my dumb brain got into this problem). Someone apparently called my bluff and asked for the checklist, so I had to actually get organized and make one. I thought you might benefit from having it as well. I just went with everything I could think of off the top of my head that I would normally check when taking over a new account (bonus: it can be used to check new accounts after you set them up, as well). Because I created this with you in mind, I made it public and gave you commenting permissions. Please feel free to point out anything I may have missed while my brain was shutting down after a long day of reporting.

Hey all, thanks for joining! I want to make this community a helpful place, but I'm relying on you to make that happen. Here are a few ways we can start increasing the value received from this group: 1. Introduce yourself! If we get to know each other, we can start to build trust and recognize each other when we post. 2. Ask a question or share some insight! Engaging with each other will provide value and make the group helpful and interesting for everyone. Curious about something you saw in Google Ads? Drop a question in the "Account Questions" category. Have you found something cool that you think others would find useful? Share it in the "Insights" category! Frustrated by Google being ridiculous? Share your experience in the "WTF Google?!?" category! This is a safe place with people going through similar experiences. Let's support each other! 3. Invite other ad managers! The more members this group has, the more we can learn and grow together! None of us knows everything and we can all help each other navigate the wild frontier that is Google Ads if we band together, ask questions, and share what we're learning. 4. Tell me what you want to see! I am a firm believer in giving the market what they want. You're the founding members of this community, and have dibs on all requests to shape the content as you see fit! Let me know what you want to see, what would be valuable, and how I could improve the experience here and I'll do my best to make it happen for you. This category (Feedback/Recommendations) is here for you to voice your thoughts, requests, and opinions. Lastly... There's no shame here! Asking questions is not a sign of inferiority. I'll be personally ejecting any member that bashes someone for asking a question, so we can all feel safe to engage and utilize the power of this community. Thank you all so much for joining. I look forward to engaging with you in this group and becoming ad masters together! -Ryan Baker