organized: PPC campaign structure in an ever-changing world

I was privileged to moderate a panel on PPC ad campaigns at SMX Advance.

I had a very enlightening conversation with Andrea Cruz. She is the Director of Client Strategy for Tinuiti. Greg Kohler is the Digital Marketing Manager at ServiceMaster Brands. This is a summary of the session.

Is Performance Max your only option for campaign structure?

PerformanceMax is designed for ecommerce and not Business to Business, or Lead Gen. It’s too much segmentation and direct control. Kohler says they tried Performance Max but didn’t have success.

Cruz believes that Performance Max is good for lead generation in B2B, but it struggles to deliver quality. Performance Max is a great tool for ecommerce. It helps marketers reach new audiences.

Performance Max does not provide the lead generation that B2B advertisers need.

What will AI mean for campaign structure?

Cruz is of the opinion that AI will not affect structure, but it may be useful for new or small advertisers (not marketers with experience), Cruz says. AI lets you know whether you have covered all of your settings correctly.

Kohler says it will be a great tool for business owners and new advertisers who are looking to launch campaigns quickly. AI is a checklist to help with campaign building.

It’s full to bursting with pitfalls. You can opt in to display and search partners, and target mobile apps. AI will love it to drive impressions but new advertisers might not be aware that you shouldn’t begin with this.

Mike Ryan highlights it in his LinkedInpost. AI is an intern that learns quickly, but it’s still important to review their work.

What will happen to keywords?

We’ve organized campaigns in the past by keyword, match type, etc. Does it even matter what keywords and match types are?

Cruz thinks that Google’s best practice to follow website structure is a good one. Focus on products, categories or problems if your business is B2B.

Kohler also points out that SKAGs, and ultra-segmentation have been eliminated, so we need to think about the theme of the ad groups and where the people are being directed on the website.

You want as much information as possible on each headline with the advent of RSAs. Condensing your ad group will give you more data to help Google optimize. There is no need for 200 ad groupings to cover a single topic.

I said that the key is to give up data. Granular ad group data is not enough for the machine learn and optimize.

What about the match types?

Kohler is hoping that we won’t lose our match types. He would be surprised if Google removed them, because advertisers use these match types strategically. Perhaps phrase will disappear.

Broad and exact match both have their value when combined with smart bidding. Broad helps to find one-off users. He doesn’t believe match types will disappear.

Keywords are powerful. If Google decided to stop using them, they would make a huge mistake. You are bidding for someone who is looking for exactly what you offer.

Keywords and the intent that they convey are the reason people spend so much on Google advertising. This blurs the lines between Google and other advertising platforms if it disappears.

I agree. By removing keywords, search becomes paid social. This is because it removes the intent that makes search so valuable.

Cruz believes that match types will disappear whether we like them or not. We’ve seen this historically: the lines between match types are blurred.

Performance Max, DSA and other new features do not use keywords. Cruz believes that keywords will disappear, even though paid search is where we can get intent through keywords. Cruz thought that Google Marketing Live would be the place to pull the plug, but it wasn’t.

She learned very early on in her career, that the issue of “milk chocolate” versus “chocolate” milk is never resolved. How can we make this algorithm recognize these differences?

Keywords may also be replaced by signals. Google has slowed down a little because of privacy concerns.

Use DSAs?

Cruz has tested these ads and found that they are effective for some accounts. Dynamic Search Ads are an excellent way to collect data, identify queries that we may have missed and better understand Google’s interpretations of landing pages.

Kohler does not actively use DSAs, but it is generally a good idea to use DSAs in order to identify queries, and then build a campaign around these queries.

Kohler believes that there has been an evolution away from keywords within the local services space. Local service ads revolve around signals. Choose your vertical, budget, and location. Google will do the rest. It’s not possible to select keywords or negatives.

When we think about it in this way, there is a way away from keywords. Will Google continue pushing away from keywords, or will it let us bid on specific keywords in the future?

What is your current campaign strategy for local services?

Kohler claims to keep things simple and concise. They don’t separate things too much.

Keep it open and see what happens. Let’s keep it open and see what happens.

Consider demographics and geography, and then focus on what works. You can make a huge mistake by assuming that you already know who your ideal customer is. You will be limiting your impressions and not have the reach you need.

How accurate is Google’s information? Keep your services open to users who are in the right locality.

I noticed that many people treat search as if it were broadcast. Search doesn’t benefit from broadcast tactics. Don’t limit it.

What are the key nuances of B2B campaign management?

Cruz divides B2B advertisers based on their spend into two sub-segments.

Advertisers spending less than $100,000 per month are challenged to generate as many leads and cover the entire website as possible.

To get the best possible results, we must send as many signals to our customers as we can. This means that we are too spread out at this level of budget.

Focus on areas with high traffic and quality content. It prevents advertisers spending $20 per day on many small campaigns. Spending in groups and with a clear intent can improve performance.

You can test new things with advertisers who spend more than $200 per month. You can use broad matching because you have enough data for the algorithm.

Utilize first-party data Tell Google that this person is worth 10x as much as any lead. B2B costs a lot because so many people want to reach out to large enterprises.

Privacy and first-party audiences

Google Marketing Live teased that there will be better data connections, and easier ways of bringing in first-party data. How do privacy and data from first parties play a role?

Cruz claims that either clients are extremely concerned about privacy and have all of the data or they’re very afraid. Nobody wants to be fined.

Google hasn’t addressed concerns adequately. Cruz would like to see Google vetting small businesses on privacy, or having Google-approved lawyers who can recommend compliance. She does not believe Google will do this but she thinks it would be nice to see.

Kohler does not use a large amount of first-party information for segmentation or targeting. You should first consult your lawyer because Google clarified that you are responsible for privacy.

Kohler would like to see Google provide a document on best practices for privacy policy language, etc. Google would be liable for this, so it’s unlikely they will do it.

Kohler has decided that the risk at this time is not worth it. They could do other things to reach their audience.

How much information do you want Google to know about your customers? In-market audiences are built using other people’s data.

It’s a little “conspiracy theorist” stuff, but we give Google data so that they can build audiences for their competitors.

First-party audiences for B2B are great because it is hard to find buyers. You also have to worry about privacy and you are giving your data away.

It’s easy to forget about privacy when you automate and use smart bidding, but it is important.

How important is smart bidding to campaign organization?

Cruz does not create campaigns using smart bidding. Instead, she focuses her attention on the campaign goal and the best bid strategies.

First, focus on your campaign objectives/goals.

What is your best tip to streamline campaign management?

Kohler suggests that you make a list of your weekly and monthly tasks and then stick to it. If you don’t have a list of things to do, you will forget them and jump around.

Use a ClickUp checklist or another task manager to ensure you have completed the tasks.

Google Ads Editor allows you to create custom rules and actions. Create a rule that will flag any mistakes or pitfalls you may encounter in the future.

You can, for example, check if the search partners have been enabled or if location targeting is available. The rule should be copied and pasted into each account. You won’t experience this issue again. The rules and scripts are not used enough!

Cruz wants the advertisers to forget about SKAGs! These are unnecessary.

Instead of splitting up, consolidate. The theme of the campaign or group of ads is it accurate? This is key.

Cruz continues to segment by buyer journey. Early-stage campaigns and late-stage campaigns need to be separated. The intent is different.

Kohler suggests that you consider where campaigns fit in the funnel of the customer. You can then focus your efforts on the lower funnel campaigns and spend more money on them.

Thank you to Andrea Cruz and Greg Kohler who participated in this stimulating panel! The panelists provided many useful tips to help advertisers organize their campaigns.

The post Get Organized: PPC Ad Campaign Structure in a Changing World first appeared on Search Engineland.