Scaling PPC Campaigns Sustainably: Use The SCALE Framework To Move Beyond Actionism

Budget increase, performance drops, budget decrease. Almost every marketer knows that short-sighted game, where decisions are made on a daily basis and campaign performance fluctuates to extremes, without a clear goal.

I’ve seen this pattern destroy more campaigns than I can count. The problem isn’t bad ads or wrong keywords – it’s “actionism.”

That’s when you’re constantly changing things without a plan, reacting to yesterday’s numbers instead of building for tomorrow.

PPC scaling isn’t about doing more. It’s about doing the right things in the right order, which is why I highly recommend a sustainable growth framework to companies working on their long-term goals.

The following framework has consistently delivered three to five times growth while keeping campaigns profitable.

Why Most PPC Scaling Falls Apart

Here’s what I see marketers doing wrong every single day:

• Changing bids daily because yesterday’s numbers looked bad.
• Adding random keywords without thinking about why.
• Swapping ad copy constantly without proper tests.
• Throwing more money at broken campaigns.
• Jumping to new platforms before fixing the current one.
• Increasing or decreasing budgets without a goal.
• Triggering learning phases left and right, not letting the algorithm stabilize.

Sound familiar? These create a mess.

Bad results make you or your leadership panic and change more stuff. More changes mess up your data. Messy data means you can’t tell what’s actually working.

Your campaigns end up stuck between “meh” and “disaster,” never really growing.

The SCALE Framework: A 5-Step System For PPC Growth

Here’s the system I use to scale campaigns without the guesswork:

• S – Stabilize Performance.
• C – Capture Market Intelligence.
• A – Amplify What Works.
• L – Layer New Opportunities.
• E – Evolve And Optimize.

Step 1: Stabilize Performance

You can’t scale chaos. Before adding budget anywhere, fix what you have first.

Start with a reality check. Look at your campaigns and find what’s actually working. Which ad groups bring in customers? Which keywords convert? Which ads get clicked and actually lead to sales?

Write this stuff down – these are your money-makers.

Track your key numbers: How much it costs to get a customer, how much money you make per dollar spent, conversion rates, and average order size. These become your benchmarks for everything else.

Next, cut the dead weight. This sounds backwards, but scaling often starts with doing less. Pause campaigns that have been losing money for X+ days with no signs of life.

Remove ad groups that overlap and compete with each other. Stop throwing good money after bad.

Here’s the key: Take 80% of your budget and put it on your top 20% best performers. This gives you cleaner data and better results faster.

Make everything consistent. Create naming systems that make sense. Set up tracking that actually works. Build templates for ads and landing pages you can copy later.

Most importantly, set rules for when campaigns get more budget, like they need to hit your target cost per customer and keep it there before getting more money.

Analyze deeper. Don’t just look at surface numbers. Watch how your budget gets spent throughout the day.

Those Google Ads notifications about limited budgets? They’re garbage. They show up late, stick around for days after you’ve fixed things, and waste your time.

Instead, build a proper budget monitor. I use Google Ads scripts that loads data into Google Sheets so I can see exactly how fast money is burning in real time.

If you want something quicker to set up, Google has a budget depletion report in Looker Studio that works decently enough to start with.

Step 2: Capture Market Data

Once your campaigns are stable, it’s time to understand what’s happening in your market and where you stand against competitors.

Know your competition. Use auction insights to see who you’re really fighting against. Look at your products manually or use merchant center data to see how your pricing stacks up.

Find out what you’re good at and where you’re getting crushed. Maybe certain product categories just don’t work, or your margins are too thin.

Here’s the thing: Google wants you to dump everything into Performance Max and call it a day. That works for basic campaigns, but in my opinion, it won’t scale.

Real growth comes from understanding why some products sell and others don’t. Sometimes a small tweak fixes everything.

Other times, a product is just dead in the water. You need to know the difference if you want to grow consistently without wild swings in performance.

Track search trends and volume. Google Keyword Planner shows you search volume, plus three-month and year-over-year trends – perfect for spotting seasonal patterns.

Google Trends helps you see what’s hot and what’s dying.

Stay on top of market news by checking Google News regularly. Set up Google Alerts for your brand names and key industry terms so you don’t miss anything important.

If you’re in the EU and work with a CSS partner, ask for CSS Insights reports. They show you market data on clicks, impressions, and how deep other advertisers are bidding.

CSS Insights sample report (Image from author, June 2025)

These insights give you a clear picture of industry click volume, impression volume, and how tough your competition really is.

Always back your decisions with real data. Otherwise, you’re just guessing. But when you have solid data, you can make moves with confidence.

This analysis shows you how much room your current campaigns have to grow and where new opportunities are hiding.

Step 3: Amplify What Works

Now, you take your winners and make them bigger. This isn’t just throwing more money at campaigns. It’s a smart expansion based on what the data tells you.

Scale budgets the right way. For campaigns hitting your targets, increase budgets gradually. I mean gradually – max 20-30% every couple of days. Go faster and you’ll trigger Google’s learning phase or blow through cash before you know what hit you.

Watch your numbers like a hawk when scaling.

If your cost-per-customer jumps more than 20% or your return on ad spend (ROAS) drops below your limit, stop the increases immediately.

Fix what’s broken first. Also, remember that conversions take time. Don’t panic and make changes if performance wobbles for a day or two.

Segment everything by performance. Here’s where most people screw up scaling. They lump all their products together – bestsellers mixed with money burners. That’s a recipe for disaster.

Label your products by profit margins or performance, for example, with data-driven product segmentation.

Create scores or labels that make sense. Then, split your campaigns by these scores so similar products are grouped together. Your top performers get their own campaigns, your problem products get theirs.

Why? Because Google’s algorithm isn’t perfect. It might hit your average return target, but it’s doing it by letting your bestsellers carry the dead weight.

From the outside, everything looks fine, but you’re wasting tons of money on products that will never work while starving your winners of budget.

This is the biggest scaling blocker I see. Everything looks okay at the top level, but dig deeper and you’ll find massive waste.

Separate your winners from your losers, and suddenly you have way more budget to put where it actually makes money.

Step 4: Localize And Expand

Your home market is working. Now, it’s time to take those winning campaigns and spread them to new countries and platforms. But here’s the key: Don’t just copy and paste everything, hoping it works.

Go international the smart way. Start with countries that are similar to your home market. The same language is easiest, but similar buying behavior and economic conditions matter more.

If you’re crushing it in Germany, try Austria or Switzerland before jumping to Brazil.

Check your current data first. Look at your Google Analytics – you’re probably already getting some international traffic.

Start with countries that already convert for you organically. These are your low-hanging fruit.

Set up separate campaigns for each country. Don’t just translate your ads, localize them.

Different countries care about different things. Price might be everything in one market, while quality and service matter more in another.

Your checkout process, shipping costs, and customer service all need to work in the local language and culture.

Start small. Take your best-performing campaign and recreate it for one new country. Get that profitable first, then expand to more markets. Don’t spread yourself thin trying to launch everywhere at once.

Expand to new platforms carefully. Once you’ve maxed out Google Ads in your main markets, look at other platforms. But here’s what most people get wrong: They think Facebook works like Google, or TikTok works like Facebook. They don’t.

Each platform has its own game. Google captures people already looking to buy. Facebook interrupts people scrolling. TikTok is all about entertainment first.

Your ads, targeting, and strategy need to match how people actually use each platform.

Start with one new platform and master it before moving to the next. Take your winning products and test them, but expect to rebuild your ad creative from scratch. What works on Google Search probably won’t work on Facebook Feeds.

The mistake I see all the time? People launch on three platforms simultaneously, spread their budget too thin, and conclude none of them work.

Pick one, give it proper attention and budget, and make it profitable before adding more.

Step 5: Evolve And Optimize

Scaling isn’t a one-time thing. Markets change, competitors adapt, and platforms update their algorithms. You need systems that keep you ahead of the curve and focused on what actually matters, long-term growth.

Think long-term, not daily panic. Here’s where most marketers lose their minds. They check performance every day and freak out over weekly fluctuations. Stop it.

Focus on your North Star metrics, the big picture numbers that actually matter for your business over months and quarters, not days.

Set up proper attribution that shows the real customer journey. People no longer just click an ad and buy.

They see your Google ad, check you out on Facebook, read reviews, and then come back through organic search to purchase.

If you’re only looking at last-click attribution, you’re making decisions with half the story.

Marketing Mix Models (MMMs) help you understand how all your channels work together. They show you the true impact of each platform and how they influence each other. This is crucial when you’re running campaigns across multiple platforms and countries.

Let automation handle the boring stuff. Once you have enough conversion data, smart bidding strategies like Target CPA and Target ROAS can actually work well.

But they need proper setup and constant monitoring. Don’t just turn them on and hope for the best.

Build custom scripts or use third-party tools to automate the routine stuff, bid adjustments, budget pacing, and performance alerts. This frees you up to focus on strategy instead of daily maintenance.

Test everything, but do it right. Create a systematic approach to testing new ad copy, extensions, and landing pages. But only test one thing at a time, or you’ll never know what actually made the difference.

Watch for trouble before it hits. Set up early warning systems that alert you when performance starts shifting before it becomes a real problem.

Track things like impression share drops, quality score changes, and competitive pressure increases.

The goal isn’t to react to every small change, but to spot the big trends early so you can adapt your strategy before your competition does.

Common Pitfalls And How To Avoid Them

• The Patience Problem: Scaling takes time. Resist the urge to accelerate timelines or skip phases. Each phase builds on the previous one, and rushing leads to unstable growth.
• The Complexity Trap: As campaigns grow, complexity increases exponentially. Maintain documentation, standardized processes, and regular audits to prevent campaigns from becoming unmanageable.
• The Attribution Challenge: Multi-platform scaling makes attribution more complex. Invest in proper tracking and attribution modeling early to maintain visibility into performance drivers.

Building Sustainable Growth

Sustainable PPC scaling isn’t about revolutionary tactics or secret strategies. It’s about disciplined execution of proven principles, systematic testing, and patient optimization.

The SCALE framework provides the structure to move beyond actionism toward strategic growth.

By stabilizing performance first, capturing market intelligence, amplifying what works, layering new opportunities systematically, and continuously evolving your approach, you create a foundation for sustained success.

Remember: Scaling PPC campaigns is not about doing everything at once. It’s about doing the right things in the right order, with the discipline to stick to the process even when the temptation to “optimize” everything at once becomes overwhelming.

The companies that achieve sustainable PPC growth aren’t the ones with the most sophisticated tactics. They’re the ones with the most disciplined systems.

Build your system, trust your process, and let compound growth work in your favor.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

Is Your Conversion Data Misleading You? 7 Common Google Ads Tracking Issues

Conversion tracking tends to be one of those things advertisers set up once and then forget about, until something fails – big time.

But in my 16 years of experience running Google Ads, I can confidently say it’s the single most important factor affecting PPC results. Way before campaign failure, when results first start lagging, faulty conversions are almost always to blame.

So, whether you want to improve performance, or save a campaign that’s heading towards collapse, the starting point should be the same. Check your conversion data.

Conversion data will only be useful for you if it’s accurate. Serious missteps can happen if you rely on Google Ads to optimize performance when it has misleading or incomplete conversion tracking.

If your numbers are wrong, you’ll end up scaling the wrong campaigns, pausing the ones generating a positive return, or having a wrong idea of return on ad spend (ROAS) altogether – and this happens more often than you think.

Here are seven of the most common causes of inaccurate or inconsistent conversion data in Google Ads, and what you can do to fix each one.

1. Conversion Tracking Isn’t Set Up Properly

Conversion tracking is often missing, duplicated, or firing in the wrong place. This is still one of the most common issues, and it can be the most damaging.

For example, you may track a thank-you page where users refresh the screen three times. Your backend will have one sale, but in Google Ads, you’ll see three.

Using reports like Repeat Rate is a great way to catch that error and ensure you fix it sooner rather than later.

When tracking is unreliable, it’s impossible to optimize performance accurately. Campaign decisions are made on incomplete signals, and smart bidding models won’t have the data they need to learn effectively.

Start by ensuring your conversion actions in Google Ads are appropriately defined.

Use Google Tag Manager to centralize tracking across pages and platforms, and confirm accurate tag firing using Google’s Tag Assistant or built-in diagnostics.

2. Tracking Low-Value Or Secondary Conversions

Not all user actions are created equal – at least not when it comes to Google Ads optimization.

Metrics like scroll depth, time on site, or video engagement can be helpful, but they shouldn’t be treated as primary conversion events in your ad account.

These types of interactions are better as supporting metrics (secondary conversions). They can offer insights into how users engage with your landing page or website.

This type of information is valuable, but it does not belong to the core set of conversion actions used to drive bidding decisions in Google Ads.

When Google optimizes towards actions that don’t directly tie to revenue or qualified leads, you risk directing your budget towards activities that look great on a dashboard but don’t move the needle in your business.

Instead, focus on tracking high-intent actions in your Google Ads account, like purchases, form submissions, or phone calls, and use the supporting metrics to help improve the user experience.

3. Data Doesn’t Match Between Google Ads And GA4

Discrepancies between platforms are expected, but that doesn’t mean they should be ignored. It’s common to see Google Ads report one number and Google Analytics 4 report another for the same conversion event.

The root cause typically comes down to attribution model differences, reporting windows, or inconsistent event definitions.

To reduce confusion, first ensure your Google Ads and GA4 accounts are correctly linked. Then, audit the attribution models in both platforms and understand how each system defines and credits conversions.

GA4 uses data-driven attribution by default, whereas Google Ads may still be using last-click or another model (but now defaults to data-driven models for most accounts). Align conversion settings as much as possible to maintain consistency in your reporting.

4. GCLID Is Missing Or Broken

Google Ads can’t attribute conversions to a specific click if the GCLID isn’t passed through correctly, which will cause in-platform results to be lower.

This issue tends to result from redirects, link shorteners, or forms that strip URL parameters.

Fixing it starts with enabling auto-tagging in your account. Then, confirm that the GCLID is retained throughout the user journey, especially when forms span multiple pages or involve third-party integrations.

Customer relationship management (CRM) systems and custom landing pages are often the culprits, so work with your developers to make sure GCLID values persist and aren’t overwritten.

5. Privacy Settings And Consent Mode Are Blocking Data

Unfortunately, privacy compliance has introduced new gaps in attribution. If a user declines consent, Google’s tags may not fire, leaving conversions untracked.

This is particularly relevant in regions governed by GDPR, like the EU, and similar regulations.

Consent Mode helps to bridge the gap. It adjusts how tags behave based on user permissions, allowing for some modeled data even without full cookie acceptance, making it a great solution.

Pair that with first-party data strategies and server-side tagging where appropriate.

Note, modeled conversions may take time to appear and don’t fully restore lost data, especially for smaller datasets or stricter consent regimes. But, it will help fill in the blanks responsibly.

6. Offline Conversions Are Delayed Or Missing

Offline conversions – like phone sales or in-store transactions – can be imported into Google Ads.

But if you’re inconsistent with your upload process or if it lacks the proper identifiers, those conversions won’t map to the original ad click.

Set up a schedule to upload offline conversions regularly, ideally on a daily or weekly basis. Include GCLID information and a timestamp with each entry to preserve click-level attribution.

Once the data is uploaded, monitor for errors inside the Google Ads interface. Minor mismatches in format or missing fields can stop conversions from registering entirely.

7. Tagging Conflicts Or Technical Errors

Even when tracking is conceptually correct, technical issues can block it from functioning.

Conflicting scripts, outdated plugins, or misplaced tags can all prevent conversion events from firing properly. These problems often go undetected until someone audits the data or sees a sudden drop in conversions.

Use Tag Assistant or Google Tag Manager’s Preview Mode to audit your implementation regularly.

Avoid conditional loading unless absolutely necessary, and coordinate with developers when other platforms – like Meta, HubSpot, or Salesforce – are active on the same pages.

Final Thoughts

Conversion tracking doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and it’s your job to make sure it plays well with the rest of your stack.

Incomplete conversion data is a strategic liability. Feeding Google Ads AI the right signals can mean the difference between PPC growth and stagnation.

By consistently auditing your setup and addressing these common issues, you’ll build cleaner data, glean better insights, and track your way to better performance.

More Resources:

Featured Image: TetianaKtv/Shutetrstock

How To Weed Out Less Qualified Audiences From Your PPC Campaigns via @sejournal, @jonkagan

To my fellow marketers, I first wrote this title in the summer of 2020, back when I thought, “Wow, surely things couldn’t get worse.” Needless to say, I was wrong.

Here’s the actual quote I started with last time:

“If you’re reading this, then it is early July, you’ve made it this far in the game of ‘Let’s See What Else Can Happen in 2020’.”

We have largely left the world of all-day Netflix and sourdough, and moved on to more pressing things like understanding the impact of tariffs on a brand’s willingness to run digital, and wondering how, five years later, my NY Jets are still so terrible.

With those changes has come a shifting dynamic in search, once called “PPC” (I have always disliked that term), more recently referred to as search engine marketing (SEM) and paid search, which is now simply “paid media.”

With this shift in ad types, ad placements, and management comes a shift in how we target audiences for our ads.

Why? Ad technologies change, ad units change, and thus, targeting changes. Not to mention, a shift in “what is demand?” affects more people than those who are actually qualified to see your ads.

I didn’t see economy-driven searches overtaking COVID-19 in my future (Screenshot from Google Trends, June 2025)

And once again, there are caveats:

Consumer sentiment is in flux as the economy rocks back and forth from concerning to good.

Google’s look-alike audiences (similar audiences) sunsetted (except for Demand Generation).

Audience targeting can easily be mixed up with various forms of AI targeting (i.e., Meta Advantage+).

Cookie deprecation started and then stopped, but first-party and modeled audience data became worth as much as gold.

The concept of the keyword match type (or even the keyword itself) is continuing to erode away.

Who Is Worthy To See Your Ads?

Not everyone who views your ad is truly qualified. Whether it is in-market, demographic, geographic, behavioral, etc., not everyone should see your ad.

To put it bluntly (and I am trying my best not to sound rude), some individuals are not worth spending ad dollars on for a specific ad.

For high price point items:

Income often correlates with CVR based on category (Image from author, June 2025)

For more age-specific items:

Age is often a deciding factor as well (Image from author, June 2025)

With times being as uncertain as they are, brands must tighten their purse strings and become more selective in their prospecting efforts to help the bottom line.

One would think that this concept, focusing ads on a particular audience, would always be the case, but the reality is, mid to larger brands will still often do the “spray and pray” approach, with just small audience adjustments.

Why?

Tighter audiences help with return on investment and efficiency, but they can wreak havoc on volume and total revenue when done too excessively.

This leaves the advertiser with a decision to make: What is the best approach?

• Improve ROI but at a lower return volume, and then open up the floodgates later with a looser audience target.
• Keep a looser audience and focus on return volume to build a better audience profile, and then tighten during your peak season to improve profitability.
• A hybrid, where you lean toward return volume, cast a wider net – the ROI won’t be amazing, but you won’t go bankrupt, all by controlling somewhat focused audiences, and scaling bid strategy controls.

The most important (and first) step: Identify who your ideal customer is.

Important disclaimer: Identify who your ideal customer is/has been, not who you think it is going to be/should be.

Be sure to pore over your analytics and conversion data to decipher this. Otherwise, any future steps are pointless.

Learn exactly who your converter is (Image from author, June 2025)

Previously, to weed out the less qualified and still feed the top of the funnel and prospect, you would need to lean heavily into audience exclusion and audience targeting. That is still true, to a degree, and more specifically in the case of paid search.

However, for more modern concepts, such as Performance Max, Demand Generation, LinkedIn, or Meta, we are leaning more toward the target, as the exclusion may not be as readily or easily available for use.

Audience targeting vs. exclusion: Yes, they are similar, but different. Here’s a quick refresher:

Targeting Vs. Excluding

Targeting: The direct targeting of a specific group of consumers who fall within a certain characteristic(s), enabling everyone who meets it to see the ad.

For example: “I am selling a luxury car with a high price point, so I am only showing the ad to those whose household income is in the top 10%.”

Note: This is still valid in most scenarios. However, certain platforms and verticals do have limitations or restrictions.

Excluding: Indirectly targeting an audience by minimizing the ad units’ reach, based on consumers’ characteristics, by intentionally preventing ads from showing to those individuals.

For example: “I am excluding homeowners, so they are not served my apartment rental ads.”

Not doing one or both is as good for you as trusting a truthful outcome from Theranos.

How does one use these targets and exclusions to tighten one’s belt?

Audience Targeting

This is not rocket science, and more importantly, it doesn’t need to be applied account-wide, just high (sometimes mid) funnel initiatives.

Particularly in search, the more specific the query (often mid- to long-tail searches), the higher the qualification, the higher the likelihood of conversion.

But those are often few and far between (terrible for prospecting in terms of feeding the top of the funnel).

So, audience targeting becomes a necessity for high-volume search keywords. Otherwise, you’re spending your already limited budget on everyone (not ideal).

We break audience targeting into two types: actualized behavior and user traits.

The most common form (and easiest to use) of actualized behavior is retargeting.

Cart abandoners are the lowest-hanging fruit. It is a simple setup and deployment (I am a huge advocate of it via Google Analytics 4):

As much as I dislike GA4 UI vs. GA UA, they make audience creation fairly simple. (Image from author, June 2025)

But keep in mind: If you’re still getting those queries off a top-of-funnel query (generic, short-tail), then the qualification is already lower to start off with.

Frequently, we separate out retargeting past shoppers, retargeting site/cart abandoners, and prospecting (brand new visitors) from one another. Thus, controlling spend, creative, and user experience for each category.

At the same time, these lists can be used as exclusionary, ensuring there is no overlap, and a consumer receives an experience they were not intended for, which works well for prospecting audiences.

When thinking about user traits, these can be tied to platform-predicted behavior (i.e., affinity or in-market), or even self-identified characteristics (i.e., age, gender, income, etc.).

User traits are great at isolating targeting to your most qualified/relevant audience.

For example, anyone can eat at one of my fast-casual restaurant locations across the major cities of Connecticut.

But suppose I want to maximize the cost-per-customer efficiency for the “kids eat free” special. In that case, I will target parents of children under 12, not in the top 25% of the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI), but who have some disposable income, who enjoy eating, and are within a five-mile radius of one of our locations.

Make the audience that meets your typical customer (Image from author, June 2025)

But a nice little function these days is that Google and Meta are learning from current activity to help build out in-market audiences on a rolling basis.

It is great for all of Meta, PMax, YouTube, Demand Gen, etc.

Google is finally being helpful without a sales rep (Image from author, June 2025)

Using these tools, we have taken a step to prequalify the audience we’re prospecting. If they don’t convert at first (but do engage with the page), at least they’re pulled into our remarketing lists as a higher degree of qualification for later.

Net-net: These consumers are deemed worthy of seeing our ads.

Audience Exclusion

To put it bluntly, exclusion is a vastly underrated, yet wildly glorified version of a search negative keyword list.

But rather than saying we don’t want to show if someone searches for XYZ, we say, we don’t want to show for you.

When we apply exclusions in any channel, we are saying, “I am open to anyone seeing my ads, provided they aren’t [fill in the blank].”

I know it sounds harsh, but it is highly effective and important.

Remember, not everyone is right for your brand, but they may still try and find a way to see the ads.

Exclusions can be simple, such as geography or time of day, or they can be much more specific.

One of the key times I see this needed is for YouTube and Google Display Network (GDN).

You want to capture a wide audience, but you know not everyone is right.

I should note, though, that certain verticals (those falling under Housing, Employment, and Credit or HEC policies in Google and anti-discriminatory policies in Meta) limit what can be excluded.

In addition, the rapidly growing share of wallet ad unit, Performance Max, in both Google and Bing (I still refuse to call it Microsoft), you cannot exclude audiences (yet), but you can exclude keywords (Google only beta) and brands.

Some day… (Image from author, June 2025)

It is a glorified negative keyword (Image from author, June 2025)

Takeaway

You’ll get fewer visitors, but a more qualified audience. You also maintain control of who you’re spending ad dollars on.

We are in the early stages of exiting the world of keywords and focusing on the audience. At the same time, platforms continue to reduce control and transparency of who/what/when/why/how your ad is served. That hurts your wallet and your bottom line.

When you can’t use first-party audiences, learn your typical customer’s profile, and build audiences for it.

By ensuring you target the right audience and exclude the wrong ones, you can make sure your operation continues to thrive another day.

More Resources:

Featured Image: ICONMAN66/Shutterstock

What Are Good Google Ads Benchmarks In 2025? [STUDY] via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson

Keeping up-to-date on industry Google Ads benchmarks is crucial to help answer questions you might get from clients or exec such as:

• “Is this a good CTR?”
• “Why is our CPA so high?”
• “What’s a good conversion rate, anyway?”

Questions like these come up all the time, especially when budgets are tight and performance dips even slightly.

But unless you’ve got fresh benchmark data on hand, these conversations are usually filled with guesswork, vague assurances, or worse, outdated reports that no longer reflect how competitive today’s ad landscape really is.

Wordstream by LocaliQ recently updated its Search Advertising benchmarks for 2025, compiling real data from thousands of Google and Microsoft Ads campaigns across 20 verticals.

The data consists of data points from thousands of campaigns in both Google and Microsoft Ads for some of the top industries. Some of the top industries include:

• Arts & Entertainment.
• Automotive.
• Education.
• Finance & Insurance.
• Health & Fitness.
• Home Improvement.
• Shopping & Retail.
• Travel.

While these benchmarks are a starting point, it’s important to note that many factors go into setting benchmarks that are attainable for your business.

We hope this data is useful for you to help level-set expectations and goals for your business, and get a sense of how you stack up to the competition.

In this report, you’ll find benchmarks for Search campaigns in Google & Microsoft Ads for:

• Click-through rate (CTR).
• Average cost-per-click (CPC).
• Conversion rate (CVR).
• Cost per lead (CPL).

Let’s dig into the data.

Average Click-Through Rate In Google & Microsoft Ads By Industry

Data from LocaliQ benchmark report, June 2025

The average click-through rate for Google & Microsoft Ads across all industries averaged out to 6.66% over the last 12 months.

Compared to when the company first started gathering data in 2015, the average CTR for search ads was minimal at 1.35%.

The business category that boasted the highest CTR was Arts & Entertainment, with an astounding 13.10% CTR.

At the other end of the spectrum was Dentists and Dental Services at a 5.44% CTR.

The CTR metric should be analyzed as only one indicator of performance, not the end-all-be-all when trying to determine if your ads are doing well.

The widespread in CTR performance is influenced by:

• Your competition (Is the SERP saturated?).
• Your bidding strategy.
• Your position on the results page.
• Your ad copy relevancy.
• Your audience targeting.

High CTR doesn’t always mean high performance, though. Sometimes it just means your ad is click-worthy, not necessarily that it’s converting. That’s why CTR should be viewed as one piece of the puzzle, not the whole picture.

If your CTR is low compared to your industry average, tools like Google’s Quality Score can help pinpoint the problem areas, from poor ad relevance to weak expected click-through rate.

Average Cost-Per-Click In Google & Microsoft Ads By Industry

Data from LocaliQ benchmark report, June 2025

The average cost-per-click for Google and Microsoft Ads across all industries over the past 12 months averaged $5.26.

While the Attorneys and Legal Services showcased one of the lowest CTR categories, it also boasted the highest average CPC. In 2025, the average CPC for this industry came in at $8.58.

This average is unsurprising, given the higher-than-average cost of acquiring a customer.

On the lower end of the spectrum, the Arts & Entertainment industry had the lowest average CPC at $1.60.

Similar to analyzing the CTR metric, average CPC is just one performance indicator.

For example, your ads may show a low average CPC and a low CTR. This could mean your bids aren’t high enough to be competitive in the market, and you may want to consider raising bids.

On the other hand, if you have a higher-than-average CPC, you’ll want to monitor these more closely to ensure you can prove your return on ad spend/investment.

Average Conversion Rates In Google & Microsoft Ads By Industry

Data from LocaliQ benchmark report, June 2025

The average conversion rate across all industries for Google and Microsoft Ads in the last twelve months was 7.52%.

The average conversion rate is calculated from the number of leads/sales you get divided by the number of clicks from your ad.

When looking at the data from 2025, the average conversion rate varied highly across industries.

On the high end of performance, Automotive had the highest conversion rate at 14.67%, followed by Animals and Pets at 13.07%.

The industries that had the lowest conversion rate included:

• Finance & Insurance: 2.55%
• Furniture: 2.73%
• Real Estate: 3.28%

When looking at these industries and the products they sell, these conversion rates make sense.

Furniture is a high-ticket item for many customers. Users do a lot of research online before making a purchase. Not only that, but because of the price tag, many customers end up purchasing in stores instead of online.

While the conversion rate may be low in this particular industry, it’s more important than ever to be able to measure offline conversions, such as in-store visits or purchases.

In the apparel industry, new brands seem to pop up every day.

If you do a simple search for Nike sneakers, the number of sellers and resellers for these types of products has skyrocketed in recent years.

The amount of competition can directly contribute to a low (or high) conversion rate.

Average Cost Per Lead In Google & Microsoft Ads By Industry

Data from LocaliQ benchmark report, June 2025

The average cost per lead across all industries for Google and Microsoft Ads in the last twelve months was $70.11.

The average cost per lead is a core KPI that advertisers should keep a pulse on when analyzing performance.

It remains one of the most scrutinized metrics by marketing and finance teams alike.

It’s no surprise that certain industries have a much higher CPL compared to other industries. Some of the factors that can influence CPL include:

• Average CPC.
• Average CTR (this influences your CPC).
• Audience targeting.
• Conversion rate.
• The type of product/service you’re selling.

On average, the CPL across all industries reported was $70.11.

The Attorneys and Legal Services industry had the highest CPL out of all industries at a whopping $131.63.

However, while the CPL may be high, many businesses in that industry find that well worth the investment, considering their return on each individual they represent.

Those industries with lower-priced products and services likely have a lower CPL goal.

The industries that showed the lowest CPL in 2025 were Automotive Repair, Services & Parts at $28.50, followed by Arts & Entertainment and Restaurants & Food at $30.27.

Compared to last year’s data, 13 out of the 23 industries reported an increase in CPL.

Data from LocaliQ benchmark report, June 2025

While the last few years have seen such a large fluctuation in CPL due to the record inflation and economic instability, the year-over-year changes in CPL have mellowed out a bit.

Summary

Benchmark reports are exactly that: benchmarks. They’re not scorecards, and they don’t account for your specific brand, audience, goals, or tech stack.

So, if your numbers don’t perfectly align with the averages, it doesn’t mean you’re underperforming.

If you’re looking to make progress in the second half of the year, try following the tips below:

• Make sure your goals are aligned with your industry’s actual buying journey.
• Explore alternative platforms like Microsoft Ads to diversify CPC risk.
• Prioritize ad relevance and landing page experience.
• Improve tracking for offline conversions where applicable.
• Don’t forget to test (and retest) your keyword and bidding strategy.
• Don’t forget about the mobile experience!

Make sure to check out Wordstream by LocaliQ’s full report on benchmarks and tips to improve your campaigns.

More Resources:

Featured Image: Roman Samborskyi/Shutterstock

An In-Depth Guide To Apple Search Ads via @sejournal, @brookeosmundson

As paid media marketers, we often default to the “big” platforms: Google, Meta, and increasingly, TikTok.

However, there’s a quiet powerhouse in the app marketing world that too many advertisers overlook: Apple Search Ads (ASA).

If you work with apps or even if your business uses an app as a secondary conversion point, ASA is one of the most intent-driven ad platforms you can leverage.

Unlike other platforms where discovery can feel like throwing spaghetti at the wall, ASA puts you directly in front of users already searching for what you offer.

That’s not just high intent. That’s purchase-ready behavior.

So, why aren’t more marketers fully embracing Apple Search Ads? Usually, it’s because they either assume it’s only for app developers or they’re intimidated by yet another ad platform to learn.

With a bit of strategic setup and a clear understanding of how ASA differs from other platforms, you can unlock a high-performing new channel.

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know.

What Is Apple Search Ads And Why Should You Care?

Apple Search Ads is Apple’s proprietary platform that lets advertisers promote apps directly inside the Apple App Store.

It operates similarly to paid search platforms: Advertisers bid on keywords and pay when users tap their ads.

Instead of driving traffic to websites or landing pages, ASA drives users directly to your App Store product page. From there, users can immediately download or purchase the app.

So, why should that matter to marketers?

• App discovery still happens in the App Store. Despite the rise of social and influencer-driven app marketing, the App Store remains the No. 1 source of app discovery.
• Intent is extremely high. Unlike display or social placements, users are actively searching for solutions when they encounter Apple Search Ads.
• ASA can help boost organic rankings. High ad-driven downloads can influence your organic App Store ranking, creating a halo effect for long-term growth.

If you’re investing in user acquisition or app engagement, Apple Search Ads deserves to be part of the conversation.

Where Do Apple Search Ads Show Up?

If you think that ASA placements are strictly within the App Store search results, think again.

Currently, your ads can appear in four key placements.

1. Search Results

This is the most coveted placement. Ads appear at the very top when a user searches for a keyword. This is where intent is at its peak.

Image credit: ads.apple.com, May 2025

2. Search Tab (Suggested Apps)

Ads appear before a user types in a search term. This is a great placement for brand awareness and introducing your app to broader audiences.

Image credit: ads.apple.com, May 2025

3. Today Tab

These ads show up on the App Store’s homepage, which is the first thing users see when they open the App Store. It’s ideal for major launches or branding campaigns.

Image credit: ads.apple.com, May 2025

4. Product Pages (While Browsing)

Ads appear when users scroll through other app product pages. These placements capture users who are in browsing mode, often comparing similar apps.

Image credit: ads.apple.com, May 2025

Each placement serves a different purpose, from brand awareness to high-intent acquisition.

Apple Search Ads Basic Vs. Advanced: Which One To Choose?

At first glance, Apple’s two solutions, “Basic” and “Advanced,” might seem like they serve similar purposes. They don’t.

Apple Search Ads Basic

This solution is designed for small app developers or businesses without dedicated marketing teams.

It’s entirely automated: You enter a monthly budget (up to $10,000), and Apple does the rest. It handles targeting, bidding, and ad delivery.

You get very limited reporting and zero visibility into which keywords or placements are driving installs. There’s no ability to control cost-per-tap, and optimization is virtually non-existent.

Apple Search Ads Advanced

This solution, on the other hand, is a fully-featured platform that gives you control over every element of the campaign: keywords, audience targeting, bidding, scheduling, and performance measurement. It’s what any performance marketer should be using.

If you care about scalability, performance optimization, or insight into where your spend is going, the decision is easy.

Advanced is the only real option. Basic may work for small developers, but if you’re reading this guide, it’s probably not for you.

Navigating The Apple Search Ads Platform

If you’re coming from a Google Ads or Meta Ads background, ASA will feel both familiar and refreshingly simple, but it wouldn’t be a proper ad platform without its own quirks.

Here’s a quick walkthrough of what to expect when navigating the platform:

• Dashboard Simplicity: ASA’s dashboard prioritizes campaign overviews with fewer tabs and less complexity than Google Ads or Meta.
• Campaign Setup: You’ll name your campaign, set your daily budget, choose your app, and select the countries or regions where you want to advertise.
• Ad Groups: Within each campaign, you create ad groups where you set targeting, keywords, audience refinements, and bids.
• Reporting: Apple provides performance metrics such as impressions, taps (clicks), cost per tap (CPT), conversions, and cost per acquisition (CPA). For deeper insights, you’ll need to integrate with Apple’s SKAdNetwork or third-party Mobile Measurement Partners (MMPs) like Adjust or AppsFlyer.

There is one key difference between this platform and the Google Ads platform, and that comes in the form of ad creatives.

You won’t create ads in the traditional sense like other platforms. Apple Search Ads automatically pulls your app’s name, icon, screenshots, and description from your App Store listing.

While this limits creative flexibility, it ensures that ads align perfectly within the app’s branding.

For more custom creatives, there is the option to create custom product pages within Apple App Store Connect, but we’ll cover that later in this guide.

Understanding Keyword Targeting And Match Types

Keyword targeting is at the heart of Apple Search Ads, and while it borrows concepts from Google Ads, there are some critical differences.

ASA offers two main match types: exact and broad.

Exact match is exactly what it sounds like. Your ad will only appear when the user’s search matches your keyword or a very close variation.

Broad match is more flexible, allowing your ad to appear for related terms, synonyms, and phrases. Broad match is helpful for keyword discovery, but can sometimes cast too wide a net if not monitored closely.

You can also opt into Search Match, which lets Apple automatically match your app to relevant search terms.

It uses metadata from your app listing (like your title, keywords, and category) to decide where your ad should show.

While it can be helpful in discovery campaigns, you’ll want to keep a close eye on what it’s actually matching to, as it often surfaces low-quality or irrelevant terms.
Now, here’s the kicker: Apple does allow negative keywords, but managing them is far more frustrating than it should be.

Unlike Google Ads, you can’t easily apply negatives across multiple campaigns in bulk or through a shared library.

There’s also no built-in keyword suggestion tool to help you filter or negate irrelevant terms based on live data. If you want to block poor-performing keywords, you have to manually upload them one by one into the ad group or campaign.

There is another option to copy/paste them into the interface, but I’ve found that you have to build them out in Excel by match type, then use a Notepad (or something similar) to format it the way Apple can ingest it.

You can’t paste a linear list like most platforms can. You’ll need to format negative keywords something like this:

[exact negative keyword A],[exact negative keyword B],[exact negative keyword C]

This makes proactive negative keyword management a bit of a time suck.

Keyword management is doable, but it’s not frictionless. You’ll need a spreadsheet handy and some patience, especially if you’re working across multiple campaigns.

Read More: AI-Enhanced Keyword Selection In PPC

How To Structure Your Apple Search Ads Campaigns

The structure of your Apple Search Ads campaigns is one of the biggest levers you can pull for performance and efficiency.

It helps you control budgets, isolate performance by keyword type, and make smarter bid decisions.

In my experience, the most successful campaign structure includes four campaign types/categories:

• Brand campaign.
• Competitor campaign.
• Category campaign.
• Discovery campaign.

Brand Campaign

Your brand campaign captures people already searching for your app by name.

It usually delivers the cheapest installs and highest conversion rates, making it a reliable foundation.

Competitor Campaign

This campaign targets searches for other apps in your space.

For example, you’re marketing a personal budgeting app. If someone searches for “Mint” or “YNAB” (which stands for You Need A Budget), you can show up as an alternative.

These campaigns are competitive, so expect higher CPTs.

Category Campaign

This campaign focuses on generic terms like “budget app” or “meal tracker.”

These users are high intent but still evaluating their options. It’s a great area for differentiation.

Discovery Campaign

Lastly, your discovery campaign should use broad match and search match to find new terms.

Keep bids lower here and treat it as a research engine.

Once you build out this structure, you’ll be able to track which intent tiers are performing, allocate budget accordingly, and avoid muddy data from mixed-match types.

It’s the first step toward scale and clarity.

Lastly, once you’ve mastered the basics of Search campaigns in Apple, I’d recommend branching out to the broader campaign types (Search Tab, Product Page, Today Tab).

Additional Targeting Options In Apple Search Ads

While Apple Search Ads is primarily keyword-driven, there are a few targeting levers you can pull to refine who sees your ads.

They’re not as deep as what you’d get on Meta or TikTok, but they’re still useful.

You can refine your audience by:

• Device type, choosing to target users on iPhone or iPad. This is especially useful if your app performs better on one format.
• Customer type, allowing you to target new users, returning users, or users of your other apps. This comes in handy for re-engagement or cross-promotion strategies.
• Demographics, including age ranges and gender, although these are more directional than precise.
• Location, which supports geographic segmentation down to the region or country level.

While these refinements are helpful, they don’t work like standard audience building in Google Ads or Meta Ads. You won’t be building layered lookalike audiences or behavior-based segments.

ASA targeting leans more on keyword intent, with these settings helping you narrow the lens.

Used thoughtfully, these refinements help stretch your budget further and ensure you’re reaching the right slice of users without completely overhauling your campaign structure.

Make The Most Of Your Apple Search Ads Bids

Apple Search Ads operates on a cost-per-tap bidding model. You set the maximum amount you’re willing to pay for a tap (essentially a click), and Apple runs an auction to determine whether your ad gets shown.

What makes ASA different is that the auction isn’t just about who bids the most.

Apple weighs relevance, meaning that apps with higher conversion rates and better alignment to the search query can win placements with lower bids.

That means throwing money at ASA doesn’t guarantee success. Smart bidding is about segmenting intent and adjusting bids based on performance.

Here’s how to frame your approach to bidding:

• For brand keywords, your relevance score is naturally high. These campaigns usually perform well with low bids.
• Competitor keywords are more competitive and less relevant, so you’ll need moderate-to-high bids to be visible.
• Category terms tend to be broad and competitive. They’ll require higher bids and careful tracking of CPA to avoid wasted spend.
• In discovery campaigns, you’re exploring unknowns. Start with low bids until you identify what works, then break the winners into new ad groups.

You’ll also want to make frequent bid adjustments. Unlike Google Ads, ASA doesn’t offer much in the way of automated bidding or budget pacing.

This means manual optimization matters a lot more, and performance can shift quickly based on ranking changes or user behavior.

The takeaway? Stay active. Set up a regular cadence to adjust bids and keep your spend aligned with what’s driving installs.

Custom Product Pages In Apple Search Ads

If you’ve worked with Apple Search Ads in the past, you might remember Creative Sets. That’s the old name of this feature.

Today, you create ad variations using Apple’s Custom Product Pages.
These are alternate versions of your App Store product page with different screenshots, app previews, and promotional text. When paired with specific ad groups or keywords in ASA, they allow you to show different visuals depending on the search intent.

Creating custom product pages requires a few things:

• You must design and upload a new set of screenshots and app previews through App Store Connect.
• Each custom product page needs unique metadata, which could be different calls to action, seasonal themes, or value props.
• You can create up to 35 custom product pages per app, but you’ll want to be intentional about what each one highlights.
• Once approved by Apple, these pages can be assigned to specific ad groups or keywords inside your ASA campaign.

For example, if you’re running a meditation app, you might build one page emphasizing sleep content and another emphasizing stress relief.

Then, when a user searches [meditation for sleep], your ASA campaign can direct them to the custom page showing your sleep-focused content.

These variations not only improve relevance, but they can meaningfully lift conversion rates when executed properly.

Since ASA doesn’t allow you to change much else about your ad creative, this is one of the few levers you can pull to align creative with user intent.

Common Mistakes That Can Derail Performance

Even seasoned marketers trip over Apple Search Ads’ simplicity. It’s not a complicated platform, but it is easy to get wrong if you treat it like something it’s not.

1. Too Much Search Match

One of the most common missteps is relying too heavily on search match. It sounds like a time-saver, but it often matches your app to irrelevant or low-converting keywords.

If you do use it, pair it with a discovery campaign and monitor the search terms closely.

2. Not Using Custom Product Pages

Another pitfall is ignoring custom product pages. Most advertisers just run with the default App Store listing, missing an easy opportunity to align visuals with user intent.

It’s a mistake that can silently eat away at your conversion rate.

3. Bid Stagnation

Then, there’s bid stagnation. ASA doesn’t come with automated bid rules, which means if you’re not manually adjusting CPTs, your performance will erode over time.

4. Forgetting Negative Keywords

Finally, many marketers forget to actively review negative keyword opportunities. If you’re not trimming irrelevant traffic, you’re probably paying for taps that will never convert.

The good news? Most of these mistakes are fixable once you know what to look for and take the time to make deliberate optimizations.

The Bottom Line: Is Apple Search Ads Worth It?

If you market an app, or even plan to in the future, Apple Search Ads is absolutely worth testing.

It puts your brand in front of users with the highest purchase intent available in the app ecosystem.

While it lacks some of the advanced audience targeting of other ad platforms, it compensates with simplicity, clear keyword intent, and an ecosystem designed for conversions, not just clicks.

Like any paid media channel, success comes from thoughtful campaign structure, active management, and the willingness to iterate.

If you’ve been putting Apple Search Ads on the back burner, now’s the time to give it the attention it deserves.

More Resources:

Featured Image: GamePixel/Shutterstock