Kind of a dramatic title, but I want you to be mindful. I got an email yesterday from someone whom I respect as an expert in the field (hence me being on their email list). The email was talking about how they got their first client. They used a technique similar to something I've used and it was a smart technique. There were enough differences that I believe their approach should be less efficient in that it would take more work, but require less time on the phone, which most want to avoid (myself included). The method was not the problem, though. The problem I had was the next part where he talked about getting one client and never having to do outreach again. All of the rest of the clients came from inbound leads. I can't even begin to tell you how atypical this is. There are millions of marketing agencies in the world that want this outcome and don't get it. I want to point out that this guy is not a bad guy. He's doing great work and helping a ton of people. I just think he didn't realize how damaging his story could be to new (and even seasoned) marketers. When reading his story, there were a lot of elements that would not be relevant to almost anyone else. His first PPC job was in one of the biggest marketing agencies in his country. He worked on accounts spending multiple millions of dollars (something rarely done by even seasoned PPC vets). His first freelance account paid enough to replace his day job. He got a client from sending 10 emails. None of these things is normal. I have a lot of people reaching out to me to ask how to get experience or to get a job with a marketing agency. Most of these people have never worked in a marketing agency or have only worked in one small agency for a brief time. Most do not have sales experience and have not studied the masters of sales and marketing to learn email marketing, cold calling techniques, web or landing page design, social strategy, or inbound strategies. Many have difficulty thinking of connections they may have within their network that either own a business or could introduce them to a business owner.

In Google Ads management, there are a few warning signs that can let you know when to make changes. Some of them indicate a big problem that requires major changes, while others just act as a nudge in the right direction for regular optimization work. Let's take a look at some of them here, in no particular order: - No Impressions This is a frustrating issue that you don't always catch right away. If you don't have impressions in the first week of launching a new ad group, you'll want to check for: 1. Policy violations - You may need to change your keywords, ad copy, landing page, etc 2. Keyword search volume (if search) - You may need to try Broad match, DSA, or different keywords 3. Image quality issues (if display) - You may need to try new images with higher resolution. 4. Bidding strategy (the tricky one!) - You may need to change or remove CPC, CPA, or ROAS targets. 5. Audiences (if GDN) - You may need to remove certain restrictions or add more audience signals. - Low CTR (5% or lower for high volume searches, 10% or lower for mid volume) A lot of people say that you shouldn't optimize for CTR, and they're right. However, it is still important and a low CTR can warn you of a few possible issues: 1. Your ad copy is not resonating with searchers. - If people search for "Holistic Medicine" and your ad says "Acupuncture Clinic", you may be giving some of them what they want, but missing the majority of them. Understand what your market wants from each search and try to speak to that with your ad copy. 2. Your keywords are pulling in irrelevant search terms - Sometimes the ad copy is fine, but the keywords are being matched to too many different search terms. Spend some time going through the search terms report and adding negatives. If you find that you can't keep up with the negatives, consider pausing some keywords. 3. Low top Impression Share - If your ads are losing significant amounts of impression share due to budget or rank, you may see your CTR drop. You're still getting impressions, but you're not showing in the top 3 results. Abs. top IS Lost (rank) is a big one, as serving ads in the #1 position will net you more clicks from those who click the top result without reading, or upon seeing that it's relevant. If the above 2 are dialed, consider increasing bids.

Hi @everyone Have you every been in charge of an account only to find a new account manager has been given access. At first everything seems fine and then all of a sudden all of the campaigns and ads are changed. Not just change but replaced with new ones meaning all of the work you done for the last 12 months is gone! But waot there's more... you find out the conversions you set up are gone as well. Replaced with their own which points to their own google analytics and tag manager accounts. Anyone got any horrr stories, give some examples below and if you were able to turn things around. What did you do and how did you overcome it? Or what if you had to lock the business owner out of the google ads to stop them from breaking stuff? How did you go about it and what problems did you over come?

So if you've been on the internet in the last few months and stumbled across anyone talking about Google Ads, you've probably heard one of two things: 1. Auto-applied recommendations (AAR) are awful (they are) 2. Broad match keywords are getting better (a bit more complicated) We're not going to talk about AAR. Very few of them are worth turning on. We are going to talk about Broad Match keywords, though. On one hand, we can safely say that Broad Match keywords are a viable option now. Google has done a lot of work to improve its algorithm and has also ruined Phrase Match and Exact Match keywords by seeking to match by search intent (not something computers get right every time). This means that Phrase Match keywords act much more like Broad Match used to act, and Exact Match is closer to what Phrase Match used to be. So yes, Broad Match is now worth testing. I've seen and heard reports of lower cost-per-click prices and more conversions from Broad Match keywords than from the same keyword's Phrase or Exact Match variants. When matching search terms to keywords, if you have the same keyword with multiple match type variants, Google will match the search term to the keyword that has the highest ad rank (quality score, bid, etc). Google has been choosing Broad Match more However, you'll need to be careful about how you test them, as has always been the case. Here are some things to think about regarding Broad Match keywords: 1. It's still Broad Match. Watch the Search Terms Report closely. When you turn on one or more Broad Match keywords, check the Search Terms Report frequently to make sure Google isn't completely missing the mark. Add Negative Keywords liberally, opting for Phrase Match negatives as the default Negative Keyword Match Type. 2. Err on the side of specificity. Broad Match keywords, as with most of Google Ads now, is heavily affected by machine learning. Thus, the more data you give it, the more likely it is to do what you want (e.g. perform well). Add to that the fact that people are searching with more specificity these days and it makes sense to use long tail keywords, especially with Broad Match. If you want to use 1-2 word keywords, you may want to stick with Phrase Match.

If you're charging less than your management rate to advise someone on how to manage their own Google Ads account, you should stop. You should be charging more. Here's why: The work that goes into managing an ad account is not the valuable part of ad management services. The valuable part of ad management services is the intangible part: The platform knowledge. The market knowledge. The experience. The skills. The efficiency. The mindset. The strategy. The countless lessons learned over years of working on accounts from innumerable industries. If someone is paying you to tell them how to manage their own Google Ads account, you're not only giving them the most valuable part of management... You're also training and coaching them. Teaching them how to do the job that took you years to learn and saving them years of wasted time and money. They're not only getting the benefit of a skilled ad manager... They're also getting the benefit of a teacher and coach. If you have a client that is paying you to teach them ad management, you should be charging them MORE than your full management rate. You should be charging them for the value of ad management and for the value of training & coaching. Just a thought I wanted to share.