Google Search Ads Certification Study Guide 2023
Value definition
a conversion's worth 3 categories - actual (realized at time of conv.) - Proxy (general value at time of conversion) - predicative (calculated at the time of conversion based on signals captured)
Value-centric measurement (VCM)
a framework to define conversion values and import them into google breaks down into value definition and value ingestion
Seller Rating Assets
account-level automated assets lets consumers know if you're highly rated can be from Google Customer Reviews (GCR) and other 3rd party sites
Performance Planner Best Practices
plan 18 months ahead check in on a monthly or quarterly basis
App Assets
promote app downloads serve on generic and brand keywords
What is the value of search campaigns?
1. allow business to be there at the moment someone searches 2. enables business to appear to the users that are researching via Google Search 3. allow business to show up on search results with businesses that are close to yours
Ad Quality Factors
1. expected CTR 2. ad landing page experience 3. ad relevance
RSA Customizers
1. location insertion 2. countdown customizers 3. business data customizers - add customer attributes like style and color 4. keyword insertion
What determines your ad position?
1. maximum bid 2. ad rank - meet min qual thresholds 3. context - match search term and signals 4. asset impact - if sitelinks, images, & other ad extensions are included 5. auction-time ad quality - how relevant useful the ad and links are to the person 6. competition - increased ad rank will rank first
Optimize RSAs
1. optimization score 2. ad builder (or Search Ads 360) 3. Google Ads Editor 4. Auto-created assets
Smart Bidding best practices
1. target and budget setting 2. conversion volume - measure performance of 50 Conversions or more from a month or longer 3. conversion delays - delay in time it takes user to convert or to upload data to Google 4. learning period- leave out first 4-7 days of data
Steps to Switch to Broad Match
1. test with a standard testing solution (run for 30 conv in 30-day period) 2. manually upgrade keywords 3. organize ads by a common theme 4. scale broad match by applying broad match recommendations
Benefits of Smart Bidding
1. uses Google AI to algorithmically set bid 2. time saved from manually setting bids 3. auction-time bidding 4. depth of signals used and cross-analysis
Responsive Search Ads (RSAs)
15 headlines and 4 descriptions that can be used interchangeably in an ad. (up to 3 headlines and 2 descriptions show). helps increase ad strength
How to Drive better results with AI-powered Performance Max
Use the full power of Google's AI to help you multiply conversions across Google Ads inventory. Find untapped growth opportunities from new search queries and channels to drive better results toward your goals.
Optimization Score
- 0-100 with 100 being the best - uses statistical models, simulations, & machine learning to identify optimization uplift potential - will show for active search, display, shopping, videos action, app, and P max campaigns - potential score uplift can be written in the recommendations page Your optimization score is an estimate of how well your account is set to perform and how much headroom you have to improve. It comes with recommendations that suggest the right product solutions for your business and focus on measurement, budgets, Smart Bidding, creatives, and reach methods like keywords, DSA, and audiences.
Search Ad Best Practices
- 10 or more headlines, 3 or more descriptions - at least 3 popular keywords in headlines - call-to-actions - descriptions highlight addition info - highlights unique selling points - assets make sense individually and in combos - good or excellent ad strength - limit 3 RSAs per ad group - at least 1 RSA per ad group
How does Value-based bidding work?
- It uses billions of combinations of signals to predict the conversion value, letting you better qualify the conversions your campaign budget is driving.
Your client's business is focused on growing online sales, but your client wants to do so at an efficient cost-per-action. What three optimization strategies can help achieve this marketing objective?
- Reaching an audience of previous visitors who didn't convert - Applying a target CPA bid strategy to campaigns - Using Smart Bidding simulators to identify how a budget and cost-per-action will improve performance
Best Practices for setting Target CPA
- account for conv. delay when analyzing last 30 days of performance - target CPA should be set close to the current CPA to start, in order to maintain similar volume - review the Google Ads recommendation for the target CPA, which is based on historical conversion data - If you're switching to a new conversion action, make sure you review the average CPA of the relevant conversion action to set targets
Types of recommendations
- ads and extensions: Improve existing ads and ad groups , and show your best ads most often. - Keywords and targeting - bids and budgets: Find the right bid strategy to meet your business goals.
Value-based bidding best practices
- bid on what matters with conv. data - align bid strategies with goals - use optimization score and Recommendations page - analyze performance with bid strategy report - optimize based on changing biz goals (can use target simulator)
How to optimize bid strategies
- bid strategy report: analyze key metrics and top signals - account for conv. delay - simulate campaign performance with Smart Bidding Simulator - avoid limited budgets - optimization score
Why do assets matter?
- help you stand out - drive efficiencies - boost conversions
Best ways to test broad match
- implement it through the Recommendation Page - One-click experiment Be sure to: - run for at least 4 weeks - run with smart bidding and conversion based - open budget - exclude the ramp-up/learning period
Why might Max conversions bidding be a fit for your business?
- max conversion bidding is good for advertisers who want to maximize the # of conversions for a campaign within a set budget - max conversions bidding is good for advertisers who don't want to optimize toward a target CPA target just yet.
For Google Ads conversions, you may implement at least one of the following options based on your business objectives:
- online sales: deploy conversion tags with values. - lead generation: enhanced conversions for leads - offline conversions: store sales measurement - other offline conversions: offline conversion measurement, import offline conversions from ad clicks
Broad Match best practices
- organize ad group by theme - follow creative best practices (make sure responsive and relevant) - cognizant of negative targeting consider brand restrictions
Asset Best Practices
- prioritize ad groups with high impressions - use at least 4 images per ad group - opt for dynamic imagery
Remember these factors when assessing performance.
- ramp up/learning phase: Leave the first two to three conversion cycles of data out of evaluation - conversions delay (wait a minimum of four weeks after a goal's been made biddable before switching the bid strategy - test thru experiments - measure performance over longer time periods that have 50 conversions, such as a month or longer.
Benefits of auto-applying recommendations
- scale best practices - improve performance - boost efficiency - visibility and control of whether or not to apply select recommendations automatically - no increase to budget
Tips for applying keyword recommendations automatically
- select a set of recs from bundles - mix and match from bundles
Universal Assets
- sitelinks - structure snippets - callouts - call assets - location assets - app assets - seller rating assets
Best practices for Keyword strategy
- think like your audience - organize keywords by theme - look at search terms report - use negative keywords to eliminate unnecessary traffic - use search term report to identify keyword performance
Exact Match Keywords
Allows your ad to show for searches that match the exact phrase exclusively, reaches fewest people of match types [keyword]
Boost Conversions Thru
Broad Match, Responsive Search Ads, & Value-Based Bidding
Smart Bidding Performance Measurement Best Practices
1. align smart bidding with marketing objectives 2. adjust your target to capture more volume 3. avoid limited budgets 4. account for conversion delay
Location Assets
Address, phone number, and map market serves thru GMB account bid aggressively for nearby users
Dynamic Image Assets
Automated asset that curates relevant images from ad's landing page
Target CPA Bidding
Automatically sets bid to get as many conversions as possible at target cpa you set. Does not operate within a set budget. increases sales, profits, and qualified leads Smart Bidding conversion and value-based bid strategies
Benefits of upgrading from DSA to Performance Max
Better Performance: average increase of over 15% in conversions/conversion value at a similar CPA/ROAS Better technology: uses advertiser-provided assets as a signal for finding queries likely to convert. Adaptive creatives: beyond DSA headline generation technology by using assets to create highly relevant ads for Search queries
What is Smart Bidding?
Bids are tailored to each query in real time. It uses predictive AI that learns from signals like time of day and device.
Third-party tracking and privacy tips
Do you use another platform as your source of truth for conversion tracking? If so, consider tracking those conversions in Google Ads so the data used for optimization is aligned with your source of truth. As you improve your value data, you should also build a solid privacy-centric measurement foundation. This makes sure your reported business goals and optimization strategies remain privacy-safe and durable while prioritizing user privacy.
True or false? With Performance Max, it's no longer necessary to focus on AI-powered Search campaigns.
False
What are three ways in which regular budget planning can help boost campaign performance?
Forecast the impact of different budgets to understand how performance can change. Plan for seasonality and periods of increased sales or leads. Identify opportunities to grow incremental conversions.
How a business might approach value-based bidding: Subscription-based businesses
If your advertiser is only tracking a single conversion event, such as a subscription sign-up, consider how different consumers are bringing value to their business. For example, an advertiser may try differentiating consumers by a subscription model selected by the consumer or other variables available to the business. They can then assign values to those conversions and use value-based bid strategies to optimize accordingly.
How can opting-in to automatically apply recommendations help improve account performance?
It regularly implements best practices on the account without automatically increasing the budget.
Google Ads account structure
Manager - can have consolidated billing btw business assets Account - collection of campaigns Campaigns - collection of ad groups Ad groups - contain ads and keywords
Can I activate recommendations automatically applied at the campaign level?
No. Automatically applied recommendations are activated at the account and manager levels. This feature is turned on for all campaigns within an activated account.
Will all recommendations that surface in my account be applied automatically?
No. When enabling automatically applied recommendations, you'll choose the recommendations for which you'd like to opt-in to from a menu. Only the recommendations you select will be eligible to be applied automatically.
Will recommendations automatically applied increase my account spend?
No. While any account changes, including those made by applying recommendations automatically, could result in an increase or decrease in ad spend, these changes will never exceed your chosen budget. This feature is meant to help you get the most clicks, calls, and sales from your account while leaving you in control of your overall budget.
Features of Optimization Score on Recommendations Page
Optimization headroom Filter for specific recs Potential Uplift Score Apply All button Automatically apply recommendations
Tools to optimize targets and budgets
Performance Planner Optimization Score Simulators Portfolio bidding and shared budgets
Ad Strength
Provides automated feedback on ad variations. Ad strength looks at the relevance, quality and number of headings and descriptions included in responsive search ads. Strength is reported as: - Incomplete - Poor - Average - Good - Excellent
How a business might approach value-based bidding: An online retail or lead generation business
Rather than driving volume only, focus on bidding higher for users who make higher-value purchases. Bidding toward cart size or predicted value can be the first step in effectively segmenting consumers. Value-based bidding will maximize the value from online sales or leads within an advertiser's budget or ROAS target. More advanced businesses can also bid to profit, margin, or consumer lifetime value.
How a business might approach value-based bidding: Highly seasonal businesses
Smart Bidding is built for volatility and dynamic periods, as it considers shifts in search trends and historical demand and can handle frequent or sudden changes in demand. Advertisers can adjust Smart Bidding levers, like targets or budgets, based on their changing business goals. In cases where an advertiser expects short-term spikes in conversion rate ahead of time (e.g., a planned flash sale), they can inform Smart Bidding by using seasonality adjustments.
Value-based bidding
Smart Bidding strategy that uses machine learning to maximize conversion value, bidding for conversions that drive business objectives.
What are considered "close variants" of keywords?
misspellings, plurals, stemmings, abbreviations, accents
How to Drive better results with AI-powered Search
Use broad match, Smart Bidding, and responsive search ads to maximize conversations on relevant queries.
Google AI is your marketing multiplier
multiply your customer connections multiply your results multiply your expertise
How do Smart bidding and broad match work together?
They help understand the searcher's intent to find you more of the right customers
Broad Match Keywords
This is the default option. It is query-level matching using a variety of signals. It uses language models to increase ad's reach to help you spend less time on keyword lists. Drives most visitors. works best with automated bidding. If your ad group contained the keyword 'tennis shoes,' your ad would be eligible to appear when a user's search query contained either or both words ('tennis' and 'shoes') in any order, and possibly along with other terms. Your ads could also show for singular/plural forms, synonyms, and other relevant variations.
Target Impression Share Bidding
To show your ad on the absolute top of the page, on the top of the page, or anywhere on the page of Google search results. increase awareness / visibility Awareness-based bid strategies
Which three of the following are important use cases for Performance Planner?
Understand opportunities in future seasonal periods. Manage budgets allocated across accounts and campaigns. Explore forecasted performance outcomes by adjusting campaign settings.
If you're looking to drive additional revenue, why is value-based bidding right for you?
Value-based bidding uses AI to maximize value within the budget and target ROAS
Account-Level Automated Assets
When an asset is predicted to increase performance, Google Ads creates and displays it below the ads
Can you find dismissed recommendations after you've dismissed them?
Yes, you can see dismissed recommendations by selecting the Dismissed filter and choosing the option to un-dismiss.
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Phrase Match Keyword
allows you to show your ads on searches that include the meaning of your keyword "keyword"
Call Assets
click to call must enable call conversion in account settings
Sitelinks
deep-link users to specific website pages can be dynamic asset benefits: - increase avg ad CTR - decreases steps to conversions best practices: - 8-10 ideal - at least 2 sitelinks - available at account, campaign, and ad group levels
Why is Value-based bidding important?
enables you to bid on most valuable customers suited to privacy-centric future allows precise and meaningful optimization
Performance Planner
forecast target and budget scenarios across campaigns up to 18 months ahead
Maximize Clicks Bidding
get the most clicks from your budget increase clicks/traffic Awareness-based bid strategies
Maximize Conversions Bidding
gets you as many conversions as possible within a fixed budget increases transactions and leads. Smart Bidding conversion and value-based bid strategies
Defining a customer's value can...
help you prioritize the auctions that matter most and generate the most conversion value for your business
Dynamic Search Ads (DSA)
helps capture more conversions from relevant search queries through scaled landing page-based targeting and creative generation for Search ads.
Maximize Conversion Value Bidding
highest conversion value possible within a fixed budget increases website visitors Smart Bidding conversion and value-based bid strategies
Structured Snippets
highlight product/service in structured format based on available headers benefit: - qualify leads best practices: - useful and attractive to users - dynamic account-level and campaign-level options
Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) Bidding
increases conversion value within a ROAS increases awareness Smart Bidding conversion and value-based bid strategies
Google's Marketing objectives
leads - encourage people to take action sales - in-app, online, phone, in-person sales web traffic - get the right people to visit the site
Callouts
relevant and impactful selling points about product/services benefits: - highlight value-adding attributes - boost engagement and CTR best practices: - keep it short - use at least 6 - can be implemented at account, campaign, ad group levels - dynamic at the account level
Manual Bidding
set max CPC via ad group, keywords, placements
Which assets types are automatic?
structured snippets sitelinks callouts
Auto-created Assets
tailored to match the query campaign-level reduces manual work
What are the 3 campaign components?
targeting - audience and keyword targeting ad formats - get in front of customers with your assets bid strategies - (particularly smart bidding strategies)
Image Assets
upload relevant images to complement existing text ads
Campaign Budget Simulator
use to understand forecasted performance at a different CPA and budget levels
Automated Bidding
uses Google AI to set bids for your ads based on that ad's likelihood to result in a click or conversion
Value ingestion
ways to ingest or integrate value in Google systems 3 ways: - global site tag - import - google tracked
Performance Max
you can get more conversions at the same cost through other channels in addition to search. Upgrading from DSA to Performance Max gives you the ability to run fully automated campaigns like DSA more easily through one buying door.