Tips For Running Paid Media Campaigns In Highly Regulated Industries via @sejournal, @timothyjjensen

For those of us working within strict industries, managing paid media campaigns involves added layers of work that may not be included in less regulated companies.

Healthcare, finance, and political organizations are potential examples here, although many industries have their own quirks both in internal policies and ad platform restrictions.

According to EMARKETER, in 2023, the financial services industry made up 11.4% of U.S. digital ad spend, while healthcare & pharma entailed 7.3%.

With these highly regulated industries entailing close to 20% of spend together (not counting other categories), that means many paid search marketers have touched or will touch campaigns in these areas at some point in their career.

In order to manage campaigns successfully in these niches, you need to think about both how to efficiently work through processes in your own organization to ensure assets are approved and ready in a timely manner, as well as know what to expect after setting your campaigns live in the platforms.

In this article, I’ll share a few tips to help, applicable both to those in-house at highly regulated organizations and to agency partners managing ads.

Plan Ahead

Work the expected timeline for approvals and edits into your planning for a campaign, and be realistic about how long it could take.

When ad graphics need to be designed and also go through compliance and legal review, you can’t promise to have a campaign active in a week.

Think through all the pieces you need to build out a set of campaigns:

• Ad copy.
• Images (created for all sizes needed).
• Videos.
• Keywords.
• Audience lists.
• Landing page.
• Documentation of targeting criteria, if that needs to be approved.

Then, you can work through a conservative schedule for the creation of each of these items, as well as planning to submit for approval and allowing additional time for edits and final approval.

Additionally, think through other items that may be outside of your immediate control as a paid search manager, such as landing page development and additional approvals needed for that.

Document Ad Formats & Use Consistent Templates

Often, the individuals within your organization reviewing your paid media assets are not at an “in the weeds” level understanding of how ads will display.

You can make the process smoother both for them and for yourself by clearly documenting individual ad formats and explaining nuances such as character limits and responsive ad functionality.

Provide screenshots of possible ways that ads can display and provide links to platform previews where relevant.

Building out an ad without activating it can provide an option to view it in multiple potential formats, especially for ad types like responsive display ads and Google Demand Gen that can appear in many different layouts.

Meta’s Creative Hub is also a useful tool to build out sample ads and grab screenshots.

Set up templates that you can use in the future, including guidelines directly in the documents, as well as formulas to flag issues such as going over character count.

These can be created in Excel documents, shared Google Docs, or proprietary tools within your organization.

Approve Multiple Variants At Once

In organizations where the wheels of internal approvals move slowly, getting multiple text and image variants approved at once can help ease the process of updating ads in the future.

This process may require some extra work upfront but will allow for more efficiency over time.

For instance, you may launch a Meta campaign using one text variant and four image variants.

When you’ve reached significance and are ready to move on to the next test, you can choose the best image and test it with multiple text variants.

Having those text variants approved ahead of time will allow flexibility in being able to roll out this next initiative immediately when the prior test has wrapped up instead of having to wait for additional approval.

Use Pinned Headlines And Descriptions

Often, regulated industries require you to include a precisely worded disclaimer in ad copy. Pinned assets in responsive search ads are your friend here, as you can ensure that they will always show.

Use the first or second headline position or the first description position, as beyond that, assets may be cut off.

To pin an asset in a Google Ads search campaign, click the thumbtack symbol that appears when you mouse over a headline or description field.

You can then select the number position to pin it to (1, 2, etc.). Note that if you pin multiple assets to the same position, Google may pick any of those assets to show.

Screenshot from Google Ads, September 2024

Unfortunately, campaign types such as Performance Max, Demand Gen, and Display don’t allow you to pin headlines, so you’ll need to be more careful in providing copy that contains your desired disclaimers for those formats, or you may decide they are not workable with your requirements.

You can also discuss allowing for a “one-click rule” that doesn’t require a disclaimer in ad copy as long as it appears on the landing page when users click through.

Review Automatic Optimizations & Recommendations

When every word of your ad copy needs to be approved by your organization to run, you need to be particularly careful about features such as Google’s automatically created assets, which can insert text you didn’t want in your ads.

Be sure to turn these off for each campaign, before your boss or client contacts see them applied in the wild.

To do so in bulk, go to the Campaigns section and navigate to Settings. Select all campaigns.

Screenshot from Google Ads, September 2024

Click the Edit dropdown and scroll until you find “Change automatically created assets settings.” You’ll then see the form below, where you can select “Off” and optionally provide a reason to give Google feedback.

Screenshot from Google Ads, September 2024

Additionally, watch for settings that modify images in unexpected ways, such as Meta’s image optimization features, which can result in unapproved graphic variants being out in the wild or even the addition of animation and music.

Look for the Advantage+ Creative section in ad set settings, and you’ll see an option to edit and turn off unwanted variations.

Screenshot from author, September 2024

In general, be mindful that platforms are constantly testing new ways to automatically optimize and add assets. Watch for updated settings and checkboxes that you may not have seen before.

Familiarize Yourself With Industry-Specific Guidelines

Ad platforms often have their own stricter guidelines for sensitive industries, and you’ll need to be aware of what ad content and targeting settings can trigger disapprovals.

For instance, Google does not allow certain demographic targeting for finance or healthcare. Remarketing is also banned for some industries.

On the Meta Ads front, housing, credit, and employment ads are particularly restricted, with limitations on available targeting criteria. Political ads also require a verification process before being approved to run.

You can keep up with these updates in a variety of ways:

• Visit ad platform support pages, where they will provide updates on upcoming policy changes. Here are a few links to current policy resources, each of which outlines technicalities for restricted content:

• If you have platform reps, they can share additional guidance, often with more detailed documentation not publicly available on the web, and can reach out to internal contacts to clarify specific questions you may have.
• While it’s not the ideal path to go, you’ll inevitably learn do’s and don’ts for your industry through trial and error as ads and campaigns are flagged in your accounts. Be sure to make note of disapprovals you’ve encountered and how they were resolved.

Often, ad platforms will provide a notice in the platform showing the specific policy violation or restriction that’s triggered for your ads.

However, particularly in sensitive niches, there are cases where ads may not run or be limited from running without clear notice.

In these cases, it’s helpful both to be as familiar with policies as possible when negotiating with support, as well as working directly with a platform rep if possible.

Use The Ad Platform Appeal Process

If you’ve complied with ad platform policy for your industry but are still facing disapproval issues, you can generally appeal for support.

The Google Ads Policy Center (Tools > Troubleshooting > Policy Manager) offers a hub where you can track the status of appeals, and other major platforms also offer options to monitor the status of appeals.

This is also an area where reps can sometimes be helpful in pushing through ad reviews or providing feedback that’s not showing in the ad platform interface.

Start Adapting Your Approach

If you’re managing PPC campaigns for a highly regulated industry, think through these tips to see where they can help improve your processes.

Do you have the internal steps for campaign planning, approval, and execution documented?

Are you fully familiar with how the ad platforms approach your industry?

Take the steps to meet with your team or client and determine how you can apply these tips.

More resources:

Featured Image: VideoFlow/Shutterstock

Fuel Your Lead Goals: How To Optimize Value-Based Bidding For Maximum ROI via @sejournal, @adsliaison

This is it, the final chapter in our journey to mastering value-based bidding!

We have covered a lot of ground, from determining whether value-based bidding is a fit for your business, to understanding what data you’ll need, to assigning the right values, and choosing the right bid strategy.

After you have executed your value-based bidding strategy in your campaigns, it’s important to understand how and when to measure performance and how to optimize for your goals.

Check out the last two-minute video in our series on value-based bidding, and then we’ll go deeper into the details of optimizing value-based bidding.

When To Start Analyzing

To get a clear picture of how your campaigns are performing, you need enough data to work with.

Aim for at least 50 conversions or a full month of data, whichever comes first.

Remember to exclude the initial ramp-up period when your campaigns are still learning and gathering data. This ensures you’re analyzing stable and representative performance.

Evaluating Performance: Focus On The Value Metrics

In value-based bidding, we’re primarily concerned with two key metrics:

• Conversion Value: This represents the total value generated from conversions driven by your ads. It’s the monetary worth of the actions users take after clicking on your ad, whether it’s a purchase, a sign-up, or a subscription.
• Average Target Return On Ad Spend (ROAS): This is the traffic-weighted average ROAS that your bid strategy optimized for over a given time period. If you don’t see this metric in your performance table, be sure to add it from the column icon at the top of your Campaigns table. It’s available for both standard and portfolio bid strategies.

Optimization: Balancing Efficiency And Growth

If you think of your value-based bidding campaign as a car, your target ROAS and budget are your controls to adjust its speed and efficiency. To take this analogy further:

Target ROAS: This is like setting your cruise control. Adjusting your target ROAS influences how aggressively your bids compete in auctions.

• A higher target ROAS means your bids will be more conservative, and you’ll likely compete in fewer auctions. Set a higher target ROAS if you want to prioritize efficiency.
• Setting a lower target ROAS allows for more aggressive bidding. You’ll likely compete in more auctions and reach more customers. Set a lower target If you want to prioritize growth.

Budget: This is your gas tank. The amount of gas you put in depends in part on the bidding strategy you’ve chosen.

• If you’ve set a target ROAS, ensure your budget aligns with your target ROAS and allows the system enough room to optimize effectively. You want to always have plenty of gas in the tank.
• With a Maximize Conversion Value bidding strategy (without a target ROAS), the system aims to use all the gas you give it each day. It prioritizes driving the highest possible value within a specific allocated budget.

Understanding The Relationship Between Your Controls

Just like in a car, how you use the controls affects your overall performance.

Bid Limits – Don’t Limit Your Speed

You might be tempted to set limits on how much you pay per click (like setting a maximum speed limit) by setting bid limits. However, they can actually constrain the system and hinder performance.

It’s like trying to win a race while keeping your car below a certain speed. In value-based bidding, it’s best to let the system automatically adjust your bids based on the potential value of each click.

• You may opt to set bid limits when you’re getting started or are in a highly competitive sector, but keep these tradeoffs in mind as you evaluate performance.
• Note that bid limits are only used in Search Network auctions and only available for portfolio bid strategies.

Budget Constraints – Ensure Enough Fuel

If you’re using a target ROAS, make sure your budget isn’t constrained. Otherwise, it’s like trying to drive a long distance with very little gas. You won’t get very far.

• A restrictive budget can limit the system’s ability to participate in valuable auctions and achieve your desired return. The system needs a sufficient budget to effectively optimize for your target ROAS.

More Optimization Tools

Use these additional tools to help you optimize your value-based bidding campaigns:

Bid Simulators

These simulators allow you to experiment with different ROAS targets and see the estimated impact on key metrics like conversions and cost when adjusting your targets.

Bid Strategy Report

This report provides insights into your campaign performance over time. It helps you understand how your bids are performing, diagnose any unusual fluctuations, and identify areas for improvement.

• The conversion value delay shows how long it takes for customers to convert. This amount of time is the recent period to exclude when evaluating performance, as some conversions may still be reported later.
• This also is where you’ll find the “Actual ROAS” metric, which represents the actual ROAS that this strategy was able to achieve. Keep in mind that small fluctuations in performance are normal.

Performance Planner

Forecast target and budget scenarios across your campaigns.

• Performance Planner simulates relevant ad auctions over the last seven to 10 days, including variables like seasonality, competitor activity, and landing page.
• It also includes conversion delay estimates for Search and Performance Max impact estimates.

Portfolio Bidding & Shared Budgets

These features enable you to allocate spend across a group of campaigns. They can be especially useful when using a target ROAS since a shared budget will automatically reallocate any underused budget to budget-capped campaigns.

• Only apply shared budgets to campaigns that share the same goal (e.g., don’t have campaigns with different targets or bidding strategies sharing a budget).
• Also, note that shared budgets can’t be applied to campaigns that are part of an experiment.

Embracing The Journey

Optimization is an ongoing process.

As your business evolves and your understanding of your customers deepens, revisit your conversion values to ensure they still accurately reflect the worth of each lead.

Adding “value” to your advertising strategies will allow you to go beyond customer (or lead) acquisition costs, focusing on driving return in your campaigns.

You’re now equipped with the knowledge and tools to bid to value.

By focusing your budget on finding the leads that align with your goals, you can drive meaningful results for your business.

Watch The Other Videos In This Series:

More resources: 

Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

How To Choose The Right Bid Strategy For Lead Generation Campaigns via @sejournal, @adsliaison

Welcome back to our series on getting started with value-based bidding for lead gen marketers!

We’ve discussed evaluating whether it makes sense for your business, setting your data strategy, and assigning the right values for your conversions.

Now, we’re going to cover the final step before activating your value-based bidding strategy: choosing the right bid strategy for your lead generation campaigns.

The big benefit of value-based bidding is that it allows you to prioritize conversions that are most likely to drive higher revenue or achieve your specific business goals, such as sales, profit margins, or customer lifetime value.

By assigning different values to different conversion actions, you gain greater control over your bidding strategy and optimize for conversions that deliver the most significant impact.

Whether it’s a purchase, a lead, or a specific action on your website, value-based bidding ensures that your bids reflect the true worth of each conversion, enabling you to maximize your return on investment (ROI).

The bidding strategy you select to optimize for value depends on a few factors. Check out this two-minute video for a quick overview, and then keep reading to dive deeper.

Which Value-Based Bidding Strategy Should You Choose?

With value-based bidding, Smart Bidding predicts the value of a potential conversion with each auction.

• If the bid strategy determines that an impression is likely to generate a conversion with high value, it will place a higher bid.
• If this bid strategy determines that the impression isn’t likely to generate a high-value conversion, it’ll place a lower bid.

Value-based bidding can use data from all of your campaigns, including the conversion values you are reporting, to optimize performance.

It also uses real-time signals, such as device, browser, location, and time of day, and can adjust bids based on whether or not someone is on one of your remarketing lists.

To start bidding for value, ensure the following:

• Measure at least two unique conversion values optimized for your business.
• Have at least 15 conversions at the account level in the past 30 days. (Note: Demand Gen should have at least 50 conversions in the past 35 days, with at least 10 in the last seven days or 100 conversions in the past 35 days.)

You’ve got two bidding strategy options to tell Google how you want to optimize for value:

• Maximize conversion value.
• Maximize conversion value with a target ROAS.

Here’s a quick way to think about each before we dig in further:

Maximize Conversion Value

This option focuses on maximizing conversion value within a defined budget.

It’s suited for advertisers who prioritize driving the highest possible value within a specific allocated budget.

Advertisers often start with this before moving to a target ROAS strategy.

Maximize Conversion Value At A Target ROAS

This option allows you to set a specific target return on ad spend (ROAS) and instructs Google Ads to optimize your bids to achieve that target while maximizing conversion value.

Target ROAS: Why Your Budget Should Be Uncapped

When bidding with a target ROAS, your campaign budget should not be limited or capped.

That may sound scary at first, but let me reassure you that it doesn’t mean you don’t have control over your campaign spend!

Your ROAS target is the lever that manages your spend.

With a target ROAS, you’re telling Google to optimize for value at that specific target rather than find as much value within a specific budget.

So, when your budget is limited, it potentially prevents the system from having the flexibility to find the next conversion at your target.

Setting Your ROAS Targets

You can choose whether to use a recommended target ROAS or set your own.

When setting ROAS targets, use the last 30 days’ return on ad spend as a benchmark.

Google’s target ROAS recommendations are calculated based on your actual ROAS over the last few weeks.

This recommendation excludes performance from the last few days to account for conversions that may take more than a day to complete following an ad click or interaction (such as an engaged view).

You can find more details on target ROAS here.

Get Started With An Experiment

While you can launch value-based bidding directly, you may want to start with a small test using a campaign experiment. This allows you to compare the performance of value-based bidding against your existing bidding strategy and make data-driven decisions.

You have two options to create a campaign experiment:

One-Click Experiment From Recommendations Page

You may see suggestions on implementing value-based bidding on your Recommendations page.

The recommendation to “Bid more efficiently with Maximize conversion value” will show if our simulations identify that your account is measuring two or more unique conversion values and will likely benefit from this strategy.

From this recommendation, you can create a one-click experiment to test the impact of value-based bidding on a specific campaign.

Custom Experiment

You also have the option to create a more tailored experiment to test value-based bidding in your campaign.

Be sure to choose a campaign that receives sufficient traffic and conversions to generate statistically significant results.

Configure the experiment to use value-based bidding, while the original campaign continues to use your existing bidding strategy.

See the instructions here to set up a custom experiment.

How To Jumpstart Value-Based Bidding

You can employ strategies to jumpstart the system, such as initially setting a low ROAS target or starting with Maximize conversion value without a ROAS target.

If you opt to start with Maximize conversion value without a target, be sure that your budgets are aligned with your daily spend goals.

Allow A Ramp-Up Period Before You Optimize

Once you’ve launched value-based bidding, give the system a ramp-up period of two weeks or three conversion cycles. This allows Google Ads to learn and optimize your bids effectively.

When measuring performance, be sure to exclude this initial period from your analysis to obtain accurate insights.

We’ve now covered all the basics for getting started with value-based bidding.

In our last segment, we’ll discuss monitoring and optimizing your performance to drive value for your business.

More resources:

Featured Image: Sammby/Shutterstock

Assigning The Right Conversion Values To Make Value-Based Bidding Work For Lead Gen via @sejournal, @adsliaison

Last week, we tackled setting your data strategy for value-based bidding.

The next key is to assign the right values for the conversion actions that are important to your business.

We know this step is often seen as trickier for lead gen-focused businesses than, say, ecommerce businesses.

How much is a whitepaper download, newsletter signup, or online quote request worth to your business? While you may not have exact figures, that’s OK. What you do know is they aren’t all valued equally.

Check out the quick 2-minute video in our series below, and then keep reading as we dive deeper into assigning conversion values to optimize your value-based bidding strategy.

Understanding Conversion Values

First, let’s get on the same page about what “conversion value” means.

A conversion refers to a desired action taken by a user, such as filling out a lead form, making a purchase, or signing up for a newsletter.

Conversion value is simply a numerical representation of how much each of these conversions is worth to your business.

Estimating The Value Of Each Conversion

Ideally, you’d have a precise understanding of how much revenue each conversion generates.

However, we understand that this is not always feasible.

In such cases, it’s perfectly acceptable to use “proxy values” – estimations that align with your business priorities.

The important thing is to ensure that these proxy values reflect the relative importance of different conversions to your business.

For example, a whitepaper download may indicate less “value” than a product demo registration based on what you understand about your past customer acquisition efforts.

Establishing Proxy Values

Let’s explore some scenarios to illustrate how you might establish proxy values.

Take the event florist example mentioned in the video. You’ve seen that clients who provide larger guest counts or budgets in their online quote requests tend to result in more lucrative events.

Knowing this, you can assign higher proxy values to these leads compared to those with smaller guest counts or budgets.

Similarly, if you’re an auto insurance advertiser, you might leverage your existing lead scoring system as a basis for proxy values. Leads with higher scores, indicating a greater likelihood of a sale, would naturally be assigned higher values.

You don’t need to have exact value figures to make value-based bidding effective. Work with your sales and finance teams to help identify the key factors that influence lead quality and value.

This will help you understand which conversion actions indicate a higher likelihood of becoming a customer – and even which actions indicate the likelihood of becoming a higher-value customer for your business.

Sharing Conversion Values With Google Ads

Once you’ve determined the proxy values for your conversion actions, you’ll need to share that information with Google Ads. This enables the system to prioritize actions that drive the most value for your business.

To do this, go to the Summary tab on the Conversions page (under the Goals icon) in your account. From there, you can edit your conversion actions settings to input the value for each. More here.

As I noted in the last episode, strive for daily uploads of your conversion data, if possible, to ensure Google Ads has the most up-to-date information by connecting your sources via Google Ads Data Manager or the Google Ads API.

Fine-Tuning With Conversion Value Rules

To add another layer of precision, you can utilize conversion value rules.

Conversion value rules allow you to adjust the value assigned to a conversion based on specific attributes or conditions that aren’t already indicated in your account. For example, you may have different margins for different types of customers.

Instead of every lead form submission having the same static value you’ve assigned, you can tell Google Ads which leads are more valuable to your business based on three factors:

• Location: You might adjust conversion values based on the geographical location of the user. For example, if users in a particular region tend to convert at a higher rate or generate more revenue.
• Audience: You can tailor conversion values based on specific audience segments, such as first-party data or Google audience lists.
• Device: Consider adjusting conversion values based on the device the user is using. Perhaps users on mobile devices convert at a higher rate – you could increase their conversion value to reflect that.

When implementing these rules, your value-based bidding strategies (maximize conversion value with an optional target ROAS) will take them into account and optimize accordingly.

Conversion value rules can be set at the account or campaign levels. They are supported in Search, Shopping, Display, and Performance Max campaigns.

Google Ads will prioritize showing your ads to users predicted to be more likely to generate those leads you value more.

Conversion Value Rules And Reporting

These rules also impact how you report conversion value in your account.

For example, you may value a lead at $5, but know that these leads from Californian users are typically worth twice as much. With conversion value rules, you could specify this, and Google Ads would multiply values for users from California by two and report that accordingly in the conversion volume column in your account.

Additionally, you can segment your conversion value rules in Campaigns reporting to see the impact by selecting Conversions, then Value rule adjustment.

There are three segment options:

• Original value (rule applied): Total original value of conversions, which then had a value rule applied.
• Original value (no rule applied): Total recorded value of conversions that did not have a value rule applied.
• Audience, Location, Device, or No Condition: The net adjustment when value rules were applied.

You can add the conversion value rules column to your reporting as well. These columns are called “All value adjustment” and “Value adjustment.”

Also note that reporting for conversion value rules applies to all conversions, not just the ones in the ‘conversions’ column.

Conversion Value Rule Considerations

You can also create more complex rules by combining conditions.

For example, if you observe that users from Texas who have also subscribed to your newsletter are exceptionally valuable, you could create a rule that increases their conversion value even further.

When using conversion value rules, keep in mind:

• Start Simple: Begin by implementing a few basic conversion value rules based on your most critical lead attributes.
• Additive Nature of Rules: Conversion value rules are additive. If multiple rules apply to the same user, their effects will be combined.
• Impact on Reporting: The same adjusted value that’s determined at bidding time is also used for reporting.
• Regular Review for Adjustment: As your business evolves and you gather more data, revisit your conversion values and rules to ensure they remain aligned with your goals.

Putting The Pieces Together

Assigning the right values to your conversions is a crucial step in maximizing the effectiveness of your value-based bidding strategies.

By providing Google Ads with accurate and nuanced conversion data, you empower the system to make smarter decisions, optimize your bids, and ultimately drive more valuable outcomes for your business.

Up next, we’ll talk about determining which bid strategy is right for you. Stay tuned!

More resources: 

Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

How To Set A Winning Data Strategy For Value-Based Bidding via @sejournal, @adsliaison

Value-based bidding is only as successful as the inputs you provide. It’s not just about having data; it’s about having the right data.

In last week’s article of this value-based bidding series, we looked at how to determine whether this strategy will be a good fit for your business.

Now, we’re going to dig into the steps needed to ensure you’ve got the right data foundation for value-based bidding to be effective in this second video of our series.

Once you’ve got your data foundation established, the other key piece is telling Google what your goals are. You need to set clear goals so that Google’s AI knows what to aim for.

It may sound a bit daunting at first, but with a few steps, you can ensure your value-based bidding campaigns are firing on all cylinders.

Step 1: Tighten Up Your Tracking

The first order of business is to make sure your Google Tag or Google Tag Manager is properly installed and configured across your website.

This little snippet of code is responsible for measuring crucial information about user interactions, particularly those important lead form submissions to be used as your initial conversion action.

Step 2: Share Offline Conversion Data

Not all valuable customer interactions happen online.

Phone calls and other offline conversion events are often just as important in your lead generation efforts.

Each stage of the offline sales cycle – lead, marketing qualified lead, sales qualified lead, closed deal, etc. – has a certain value for your business.

Sharing this offline conversion event data back into your campaigns helps drive your value-based bidding strategy to find more of the conversions you value most.

Enhanced Conversions for Leads: Now, let’s dive a bit deeper. The most durable method for sharing offline sales conversion data is enhanced conversions for leads.

Enhanced conversions for leads allows you to attribute offline conversions back to your Google Ads campaigns. When a user submits a form on your site, it sends back hashed lead information that you specify, such as an email address.

You then store that lead in your CRM or database, and when that lead converts or completes a further action, you upload that hashed lead information for Google to match it back to the ad that drove the lead (auto-tagging is required).

If you’re currently using offline conversion import (OCI) to bring in your offline data, we recommend transitioning to enhanced conversions for leads for several reasons: It’s privacy-safe and can provide more accurate measurement, supports cross-device conversions and engaged-view conversions, and is easier to implement because you don’t need to make any modifications to your lead forms or CRM systems to receive a GCLID.

You can implement enhanced conversions for lead using the Google tag or with Google Tag Manager – more on making this switch here.

Google Ads Data Manager: Google Ads Data Manager is designed to make it easier to import and activate your offline conversion and first party-data in one central location.

You’ll find “Data manager” under the Tools icon in your Google Ads account. This is where you can connect your first-party data sources, such as BigQuery, Google Cloud, HTTPS, HubSpot, Snowflake, Google Sheets and more via a direct partner connection or Zapier.

Note, if you don’t see your preferred data source listed among the featured products, be sure to click “Search all” to find more options.

Configure your data sources to ensure that all your conversion data, regardless of where it originates, is feeding into Google’s AI.

You can also access and configure your Google tag from Data Manager.

Step 3: Use Data-Driven Attribution

As you know, the customer journey is rarely linear. People might visit your website several times from various sources and interact with your brand on multiple channels before finally submitting a lead, signing up for your newsletter, or becoming a customer.

A data-driven attribution model takes all of these touchpoints into account, assigning credit to each interaction based on its actual contribution to the conversion.

It looks at conversions from your website and Google Analytics from Search, Shopping, YouTube, Display and Demand Gen ads, and determines which keywords, ads and campaigns have the most impact on your goals.

The benefit of this approach to attribution, especially when using value-based bidding strategies, is that it gives Google’s AI a more nuanced understanding of what’s driving results than a last-click or other static attribution model.

This means the system can make better-informed decisions about where and how to allocate your ad spend to find more conversion value based on your goals.

Setting The Right Goals

Now that you’ve got the right data flowing in, it’s time to tell Google’s AI what to focus on.

While you can – and should – track a variety of actions within Google Ads, when it comes to bid optimization, it’s important to choose a single, primary goal and focus on one single stage of the customer journey.

Ideally, your primary goal should be the action that’s closest to the end of the customer journey where you have sufficient conversion volume.

You’ll want to make sure this action occurs at least 15 times per month at the account level so that Google’s AI has enough data to work with.

Additionally, the shorter the conversion delay (the time between an ad click and the conversion), the better.

That doesn’t mean that if you have a long sales cycle and relatively low closed-deal conversion volume you can’t use value-based bidding.

You’ll just need to look at other actions your potential customers take that have more volume and a shorter conversion delay. This could be a lead form submission, a product demo request, a free trial sign-up, etc.

Keep The Data Fresh

Lastly, you want to be sure to upload your conversion data to Google Ads frequently, preferably on a daily basis.

This ensures that Google AI always has the most up-to-date information, allowing it to make the most accurate predictions and optimizations.

Again, you can upload this data by connecting your sources in Data Manager or the Google Ads API.

What’s Next

We’ve covered a lot of ground, from ensuring you’re capturing the right data to setting clear goals for Google’s AI.

Next week, we’ll get into actually assigning values to your conversions, a crucial step in maximizing the return on your ad spend and bidding to value.

More resources: 

Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

Is Value-Based Bidding Your Ticket To Higher Quality Leads? via @sejournal, @adsliaison

For lead gen marketers, we know it’s not just about generating leads; it’s about attracting the right leads – those that are most likely to convert into valuable customers.

Value-based bidding is a strategic approach that allows businesses to focus on optimizing campaigns for conversions that truly matter.

We’ve seen value-based bidding work for online sales and brick-and-mortar businesses as well, but here we’re going to focus on using it for driving higher quality leads.

This is the first of five articles I’ll be sharing weekly to delve in deeper and build on each episode of our new video series on value-based bidding for lead generation.

As you’ll see in this first video below, each is short enough to take in over a quick coffee break.

We’ll start from the beginning and cover what it is and whether value-based bidding could be the right strategy to elevate your lead generation efforts in Google Ads.

The Power Of Quality Leads

Not every customer brings the same value to your business. High-quality leads are more likely to engage with your brand, convert into paying customers, and contribute to long-term business growth.

Value-based bidding is particularly beneficial for businesses that typically need to nurture relationships with customers between an initial online conversion and a final sale.

By focusing on quality leads, you can streamline your sales funnel, improve conversion rates, and ultimately boost your bottom line.

So how can you do that with value-based bidding?

Bidding To Value

Value-based bidding allows you to prioritize specific value goals that align with your business goals.

These goals could encompass sales, revenue, profit margins, or even the lifetime value of a customer.

With this strategy, Google’s AI uses billions of combinations of signals along with your first party data to identify conversions that are most likely to deliver on your defined value objectives.

It then optimizes bids to focus your ad spend on reaching those higher value customers.

The Basic Mechanics Of Value-Based Bidding

Value-based bidding offers two primary pathways to optimize your campaigns by bringing values into Smart Bidding:

• Maximize conversion value: If you’re working with a fixed budget, this option focuses on extracting the maximum lead conversion value from your campaign within the constraints of your budget.
• Set a ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) target: This option enables you to optimize for conversion value at a specific target ROAS to help ensure your ad spend generates a desired level of return. When you set a ROAS target, the system will optimize to find as much value as possible on average at your target. There are data thresholds to using target ROAS which we will cover later in this series, but this is the preferred strategy when you want to achieve specific ROAS goals and be able to respond dynamically to shifts in demand. Target ROAS is available for single campaigns or a portfolio strategy applied to multiple campaigns.

Value-based bidding will maximize the conversion value based on budget constraints and ROAS targets where applicable, so higher value customers will be prioritized over volume alone.

Keep this in mind when comparing target CPA performance, which optimizes for conversion volume irrespective of value.

While the emphasis will be on attracting high-value customers, it’s important to note that you might still see some medium to low-value customers depending on the dynamics of the ad auction.

When using ROAS targets, the higher your target, the fewer auctions your ads are likely to enter. In other words, ROAS targets are your lever to make your ads more or less likely to enter the auction.

Is Value-Based Bidding The Right Fit For Your Business?

Value-based bidding has seen success across a spectrum of industries, but whether it’s the right fit for you depends on your specific business needs and capabilities.

Before embracing this strategy, you’ll need to address these key questions:

Can You Assign Meaningful Values To Your Conversion Actions?

You are likely already differentiating your customers’ value in some facet, formally or informally.

You’ll need to set a concrete value to each conversion, whether through static proxy values like lead scores or dynamic economic values such as total profit. (We’ll cover proxy values more in the third article in this series.)

Do You Need To Strike A Balance Between Volume And Value Goals?

Bidding to value means your campaigns likely will not generate the same volume of conversions as they would using Maximize conversions with an optional target CPA bid strategy. This strategy is designed to return a higher total value of conversions. Bid simulators can help you to understand this tradeoff.

If you want to maintain a certain level of traffic, use the Smart Bidding bid simulator to help you gauge the optimal ROAS target that will yield your desired volume of leads while maintaining a focus on quality.

Lowering your target ROAS will increase your reach, and raising your target ROAS will decrease reach while seeking out higher value conversions.

Are You Able To Measure And Connect Your Value Data To Google Ads?

Access to accurate and comprehensive value data is a must for implementing value-based bidding effectively. To start, this means having proper site tagging to track conversions.

Feeding the right first-party data values into Google Ads is key to training the system to identify and differentiate predicted customer value for each auction.

If your value objective is sales value, for example, you’ll need to be able to measure and connect that data back to your Google Ads account. We’ll cover how to do that later in this series.

Reaping The Rewards Of Value-Based Bidding

The initial setup of value-based bidding typically requires some effort up front, but don’t let that intimidate you.

You can start with a more basic set up and adopt more sophisticated approaches that have more technical requirements, such as optimizing for margin or lifetime values for example, later if you wish.

Value-based Smart Bidding gives the system the flexibility to set each bid based on the predicted value of the conversion and target higher value conversions. Over time, it learns which users are more likely to be higher value and more profitable, then bids accordingly.

Bidding to find the most valuable customers can deliver incremental revenue uplift and profitability. Businesses that have found success with this strategy report a marked improvement in lead quality.

On average, advertisers that switch their bid strategy from a target CPA to target ROAS can see 14% more conversion value at a similar return on ad spend.¹

Beyond The Basics

While we’ve covered the foundational aspects of value-based bidding, we’re just getting started.

In the upcoming articles in this series, we’ll dive deeper into this strategy, including how to identify and leverage the right data and values for your business, and how to share your value information with Google Ads.

By aligning your campaigns with the conversions that truly matter most to your business objectives, you can optimize your ad spend, maximize your return on investment, and achieve sustainable business growth.

Up next week, we’ll talk about figuring out the right data and values.

SOURCE: Google Internal Data, Global, March 2021

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Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock

A Guide To Keyword Prioritization & The Newest Query Matching Controls In Google Ads via @sejournal, @adsliaison

There are often times when more than one keyword (and/or search theme) in your account will be eligible to match for a search term. Yet only one will be selected to compete in each auction.

So, how does Google choose which of your keywords to put forward?

There’s a prioritization framework for that!

We’ve also recently launched several updates to query matching controls, including the new brand inclusions and brand exclusions, to help you steer traffic where you want it.

While the keyword and search theme prioritization framework for query matching isn’t entirely new, it’s evolved in meaningful ways with recent AI advancements.

Now is a good time to dive into the mechanics of keyword prioritization and query matching controls. This will give you a better foundation for organizing your campaigns and ad groups, building keyword lists (positive and negative), selecting keyword match types, and using search themes to drive performance.

We’ll cover various scenarios and what to keep in mind for each prioritization rule – as well as what you need to know about the latest in query matching controls.

Why Keyword Prioritization Matters

Keyword prioritization rules help ensure keyword-to-query relevance to deliver better user experiences and advertiser outcomes.

But another big benefit of keyword prioritization rules is that they help address the reasons why advertisers resorted to using “keyword sculpting” techniques that entailed complex account and bid structures in order to route traffic where they wanted.

How Keyword Prioritization Works In Google Ads

I think of the four priority levels, or rules, shown above in two batches:

• Priority rules 1 & 2 apply to scenarios when you have a keyword or search theme that’s identical to the search term or spell-corrected search term.
• Priority rules 3 & 4 apply to scenarios when you don’t have an identical keyword or search theme and have multiple matches that could enter the auction.

Top Priority: Identical Exact Match Keywords

If you have an eligible exact match keyword that is identical to the search term or spell-corrected search term, that keyword will be prioritized to enter the auction over all other keywords in the account.

This prioritization rule means:

• The exact match keyword [skydiving license] will match to the identical query “skydiving license”.
• The identical exact match keyword [skydiving license] will also be prioritized over the same keyword duplicated in phrase or broad match – whether in the same or a different ad group.
• It will be prioritized over Performance Max for Search text ads.
• And it will be prioritized over any other relevant phrase or broad match keyword that could otherwise match to the query, such as “skydiving certification” or “skydiving licensing.”
• Also important to note, if you have the broad match campaign setting enabled, those keywords will be treated as if both a broad match and an exact match version of the keyword were enabled.

Keep in mind:

• Misspelled/spell-corrected search terms are considered “identical,” but plurals or synonyms are not.
  • So [skydoiving license] would be considered identical to [skydiving license], but [skydiving licenses] or [freefall license] would not.
• The keyword has to be eligible to serve in order to match – this is true across all prioritization rules.
  • For example, if the campaign is limited by budget the keyword won’t always be able to trigger an ad.
  • Or if the targeting doesn’t align, the creatives or landing pages in the ad group are all disapproved, or the keyword has low search volume status, you may see traffic go to other keywords or Performance Max.

2nd Priority: Phrase, Broad Match, Or Search Themes That Are Identical To The Query

Next up, if you don’t have the identical exact match keyword, the system will look to see if there’s a phrase or broad match keyword, or Performance Max search theme that’s identical to the query or spell-corrected query.

This prioritization rule means:

• A Search keyword that’s identical to the query will be prioritized over Performance Max, regardless of match type – exact (as covered by the first priority), phrase or broad.
  • This is worth reiterating because I often see it misunderstood: If you have an identical Search keyword to the query of any match type, Performance Max will not be considered for selection. With one exception . . .
• If you have duplicate search themes and phrase or broad match keywords that are identical to the query, priority will be based on Ad Rank.
  • For example, if you have both the search theme and phrase match keyword “skydiving license” and that’s the query, the ad with the highest Ad Rank will be selected for the auction.
  • That’s because Performance Max search themes have the same prioritization as phrase and broad match keywords.
• If you have the identical search theme to the query in Performance Max but not an identical keyword in Search, the search theme will be prioritized.

Keep in mind:

• Misspelled/spell-corrected search terms are considered “identical,” but plurals or synonyms are not. So [skydoiving license] would be considered identical to [skydiving license], but [skydiving licenses] or [freefall license] would not.
• There is no performance benefit from repeating the same keyword in multiple match types in a campaign.
  • Because the system prioritizes eligible keywords that are identical to the search term, you will have the identical keyword covered with any single match type.
• Further, there’s a misconception that exact match keywords are “cheaper” than their phrase or broad match types.
  • If the factors are equal (ad, landing page, bid strategy), the cost for the same broad or phrase match keyword to pick up the identical exact match traffic will be equivalent. More on keyword matching options here.
  • If you are using phrase and/or broad match keywords and have duplicate keywords across match types within your ad groups, you can dedupe and remove the redundant keywords in the most restricted match types.
• We recommend using search themes to fill gaps, rather than duplicate your keywords, in order to help steer the AI in Performance Max. More on search themes here.

Alright, now for the scenarios when you don’t have the identical match to the query in your account, we’re moving on to the next two rules of prioritization . . .

3rd Priority: Relevance (AI-Based Keyword Prioritization)

This is the new(ish) kid on the prioritization block – and the biggest recent advancement in keyword selection for Search campaigns.

AI-based keyword prioritization introduces relevance signals to identify the best keywords from the most relevant ad groups when multiple ad groups are eligible to match to a query.

This prioritization rule means:

• Relevance is determined by looking at:
  • The meaning of the search term.
  • The meaning of all the keywords in the ad group.
  • The landing pages within the ad group.
• Keywords with a lower Ad Rank but higher relevance can be selected over keywords with lower relevance.
• AI-based prioritization currently works on keyword-based Search campaigns only (e.g. it does not work on Dynamic Search Ads).
• It is used when your keywords aren’t identical to the search term.

Keep in mind:

• A big benefit of AI-based keyword prioritization is that it reduces the need to create granular campaign structures to route traffic manually while still giving you control over which keyword matches to a query using thoughtful ad group theming.
• To that end, AI-based prioritization only works as well, as it can infer relevance. This is why ad group theming is so important, particularly when using broad match.
• Grouping your keywords into similar themes with relevant assets and landing pages makes it easier for Google to understand the intent of your keywords and landing pages and select the best match for the intent of the user’s search.

For example: Looking closer at the example outlined in the Help Center, a search for “skydiving certifications near me” could match to the ad groups “Skydiving License” and “Advanced Skydiving Courses.”

Both ad groups have related intent to the query, but the “Skydiving License” ad group has keywords and a landing page specific to licensing. Whereas the “Advanced Skydiving Courses” ad group has keywords and a landing page focused on advanced courses.

Because ‘license’ (included in both the keywords and landing page) + ‘certifications’ (included in the search term) are seen as significantly more related than ‘courses’ + ‘certifications’ to a search for “skydiving certifications,” the “Skydiving License” ad group is selected.

(Having worked on many education and certification campaigns over the years, I particularly appreciate this example!)

4th And Final: Ad Rank

Ad Rank is the final prioritization rule used to determine which keyword (or search theme) in your account will be selected to enter the auction. We’ve already covered some of the scenarios in which Ad Rank is used when the other rule criteria aren’t met.

Ad Rank considers a number of factors, including ad quality components, in real-time with every auction to determine which, if, and where your ads are shown relative to other advertisers. More on Ad Rank here.

This prioritization rule means:

• If you have the identical keyword to the query repeated in both phrase and broad match, priority will be based on Ad Rank. The ad with the highest Ad Rank will be prioritized.
• If you have the identical search theme in Performance Max and phrase or broad match keyword in Search, priority will be based on Ad Rank.
• If there are multiple highly relevant phrase and/or broad match keywords eligible after being considered by AI-based keyword prioritization, Ad Rank is then used to make the final selection to enter the auction.

Keep in mind:

• Ad Rank also considers other factors, such as your bid, the expected impact of assets and ad formats (e.g., sitelinks, location assets, etc.), and the context of the person’s search.
• When you run Performance Max and Search campaigns and don’t have an identical keyword to the search query, the campaign or ad with the highest Ad Rank will be selected.
• And a quick note on Quality Score: Quality Score is based on historical impressions for identical searches of your keyword, which means the match type you use doesn’t impact Quality Score – nor does changing match types.
  • For example, if all else is equal (bid, ad, etc.), the broad match keyword running shoes and exact match keyword [running shoes] will have the same Quality Score.
  • If your broad match keyword running shoes matches to the search “shoes for running”, that doesn’t factor into Quality Score.

New Controls For Query Matching

In June, we announced several updates for query matching and brand controls. I’ll explain a bit more about each update and answer some of the questions I’ve received about them.

Brand Inclusions For Broad Match Campaigns

This feature (initially called brand restrictions) ensures your ads match only to queries related to your brand name in broad match campaigns.

To use brand inclusions, you’ll need to turn the broad match keywords setting on in your campaign. This will automatically set or change your keywords in the campaign to broad match.

After you create a brand list at the account level, you can apply it to the campaign.

It’s first important to note that there are ongoing, continuous improvements in broad match, and AI advancements are helping to accelerate progress.

For example, in the recent six months, broad match performance improved by 10% for advertisers using Smart Bidding due to AI-powered improvements to quality, relevance, and language understanding¹.

And, in addition to using Smart Bidding, there are key controls for steering broad match. We have already touched on the importance of ad group theming, for example.

Brand inclusions is a new control that enables advertisers to use broad match effectively in their branded campaigns.

This means:

• You can focus traffic only on queries that include your brand while also using the additional signals available to broad match, including landing pages, keywords in your ad group, previous searches, and more.
• You may also now see recommendations to switch your brand-focused campaigns to broad match and apply brand inclusions.

Keep in mind:

• Brands are not the same as keywords. Unlike keywords, brands are treated like individual entities.
• We use logos, websites, and trademarks to determine the right brand and related products.
• There’s no need to include misspellings, variants, or versions in other languages in your brand lists.
• If there is a strong correlation between the query and brand entity, your brand products will be associated with the brand.

Brand Exclusions For Search

Already available for Performance Max, brand exclusions will be rolling out for Search in the coming months.

Brand exclusions offer a streamlined solution to prevent traffic from queries associated with certain brand names and misspellings.

As with brand inclusions, you create brand lists at the account level. Then apply them for exclusion to your Search and/or Performance Max campaigns.

This means:

• You can exclude matches to searches for competitor brands, for example.
• Brand exclusions for Search apply to all match types and Dynamic Search Ads.
• You can also use brand exclusions to prevent matches to other brands mentioned alongside the brand you’ve specified.
  • For example, if you want traffic for “google” but want to avoid comparisons like “google vs samsung phone.”
• Or you can prevent traffic on sub-brand queries. For example, you may want traffic for “google” but not “google maps.”
• You will be able to apply brand lists for exclusion to multiple Search and/or Performance Max campaigns.

Keep in mind:

• Brands are not the same as keywords. Unlike keywords, brands are treated like individual entities.
• We use logos, websites, and trademarks to determine the right brand and related products.
• There’s no need to include misspellings, variants, or versions in other languages in your brand lists.
• If there is a strong correlation between the query and brand entity, the brand’s products will be associated with the brand.
• The simplest variant will typically capture all variants when multiple variants of a brand have at least one common word, such as “Google” and “Google LLC.”
  • For example, “Google” will capture all variants of search queries that include “Google.” You don’t need to add the other variants to your list.
• However, when multiple variants of a brand don’t have common words, such as “Google”, “YouTube”, and “Alphabet”, you’ll need to create a list that includes all of the variants.
  • Otherwise, the more general brand will often, but not always, capture all traffic related to all brands. (More here.)
• Brands vs. keywords: You can still add brands as negative keywords, but since negative keywords are limited in that they don’t exclude brand variants, we recommend only using negative keywords for blocking traffic that’s undesired, regardless of performance.

Negative Keywords Block Misspellings

Negative keywords are a valuable control to prevent traffic from unwanted search terms.

And this is a very welcomed update. Negative keywords now prevent matching to misspelled queries. Below are examples of scenarios I’ve been asked about.

This means:

• Now, instead of having to monitor your search terms or think of possible ways people might misspell your keywords, you just have to enter the correct spelling.
• Misspellings as negatives won’t block correctly spelled queries, but correct spellings as negatives will block their misspelled queries. See examples below.
• It will block misspellings but not synonyms, singular or plural versions, and other close variations.
• You’ll still need to add those if you want to exclude them. (e.g., YT would be a variant of YouTube, and the misspelling would be yiotube.) See examples below.
• You can likely do some negative keyword list culling to remove misspellings and streamline things in your account.

Keep in mind:

• This update applies to campaign-level and account-level keywords. More on negative keywords here.
• Misspellings will apply to all negative keywords, regardless of match type.
• Wondering if a word will be considered a misspelling of your keyword? A good way to check is to search on Google to see if it returns “These are results for” the spell-corrected query.

Will Pausing Low Volume Keywords And/or Ad Groups Impact Query Matching And Performance?

Lastly, another recent change raised some questions that I want to touch on.

Earlier this year, we notified advertisers that we would be automatically pausing Search ad groups and keywords that haven’t received an impression within the previous 13 months.

Clutter happens and idle ad groups and keywords that hadn’t been contributing to performance for some time can add up.

We don’t expect pausing ad groups or keywords that haven’t had an impression for more than a year to have a noticeable impact on your Search campaign traffic or to change the traffic mix between your Search and Performance Max campaigns.

You can continue to review and unpause any keywords or ad groups you think are still needed…however, this brings us back to account structure and ad group theming for relevance.

If you think these paused ad groups or keywords should have been matching to queries and generating impressions, consider before simply re-enabling them:

• Check the keyword status for potential issues.
• Look at whether these ad groups/keywords will be additive or if other keywords or ad groups are already covering this traffic.
• Consider expanding the match type of these keywords to capture more queries.
• Then, take a broader look at your ad groups’ creative theming, keeping the relevance signals that AI-based prioritization looks at in mind, including the other keywords and landing pages in the ad group.

Key Takeaway

Now that you have a deeper understanding of how these keyword prioritization rules and query matching controls work, take a fresh look at your account.

You may find opportunities to reorganize and consolidate your campaigns and focus on making your ad groups more tightly themed.

These efforts will help you streamline your account (e.g., simplify management) while also ensuring you are matching relevant queries with your most relevant ads to drive results.

Notes

¹Google Internal Data, Oct 2023 – Mar 2024. Performance refers to conversions/conversion value at constant ROI.

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Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock