Isaac Rudansky - Google Ads Masterclass - Chapter 2 - Creating and Setting Up Our First Google Ads Account

What is the default bidding option that Google selects for you?

"Maximize Clicks" - at first glance this may not be so bad, but when you think about it - clicks are not indicative of success, you can have a LOT of clicks and zero profit. Google default selecting "Maximize Clicks" is one of the best examples of Google doing something to get you to spend more money inefficiently.

What is the MINIMUM amount of money you should be investing daily in the Google Ads auction?

$10 - anything lower just won't accumulate enough data to be useful.

With a daily ad-spend of $10 - how many keywords can you have in your campaign?

1-2 - any more and you'll be spreading your ad spend too thin over too many keywords. 1-2 keywords enables you to get $5 per keyword a day, and will build up some decent data over time that you can use. Whereas if you used 20 keywords, each keyword would only get $.50 and it would take forever to get decent data.

What are the automated bidding strategies in Google?

1. Target search page location 2. Target CPA (cost per acquisition) 3. Target ROAS (return on ad spend) 4. Target Outranking Share 5. Maximize Clicks 6. Maximize Conversions

What percentage of your ad budget should be ALWAYS spent on experimentation?

20% - this number enables you to keep your regular campaigns running efficiently - whilst also enabling you to continue to experiment and try new things such as A/B testing, different strategies, new keywords, etc. that may skyrocket your KPI's.

When viewing a location/geographic report - what is the difference between a "Physical Location" type, and a "Location of Interest" type?

A "Physical Location" location type means that the customer was actually PHYSICALLY IN the location you targeted. Whereas a "Location of Interest" type means that the customer has expressed interest in the location (for example, a person in the Netherlands may express interest in the USA) - but isn't necessarily actually PHYSICALLY IN the location.

If you target the entire United States - but exclude Arizona, what happens?

Arizona will be excluded NO MATTER WHAT - an exclusion will always over-weigh any inclusion - an exclusion will ALWAYS exclude that location - even if the exclusion is a part of your included location.

When can you modify your geo-targeting?

At ANYTIME - it isn't "hard-set" when you create your campaign - you can always modify/change your location targeting as you compile more data over time.

What MUST you have to be able to use the "Target ROAS" bidding strategy effectively?

At LEAST 15 conversions in the last 30 DAYS - without this, you will not have enough data for the auto-bidding strategy to be effective. You must also have your conversion values configured so Google knows what it should spend to get a specific ROAS.

What is the minimum amount of conversions/data you should have a day for the Target CPA bidding strategy?

At least 2-3 conversions a day - any less and Google will not be able to optimize it's bids to get your desired CPA effectively. The more data you have, the more effective the auto-bidding strategy can be.

Why is it important to not "blanket" target an entire country without breaking up each location into different states, provinces, etc.?

Because certain locations within a country may convert higher, they may have a lower CPC, etc. - as well as areas being unprofitable, etc. If you're going to target an entire country (like the united states) - be sure to target each state/province individually as to ensure that you can read and adjust data depending on the performance of each state. So if 'Florida' is not converting at all - but you didn't have any segmentation in your campaigns to see that, you'd be wasting your money on Florida and it's non-existent conversion rate. Whereas, if you had the segmentation and data to see that it wasn't converting, you could lower or totally cut the location from your targeting.

Besides losing control of your campaigns, why do you not want to select a campaign goal when creating a campaign?

Because it will limit your options down the line when you may need to change the goal of your campaign - if you select "sales" as the goal for your campaign, it will forever stay as "sales" - even if you need to switch your strategy to getting leads or website traffic. You ALWAYS want to maintain maximum control over your campaigns and you should never let Google Ads automate/limit your goals for you.

Why should you not select a "main advertising goal" when creating a new Google Ads account?

Because it will over-simplify the Google Ads interface, and will hinder what you can do with your account and campaigns. It essentially gives you a "dumbed-down" version of Google Ads that doesn't offer enough options to customize and optimize your campaigns. Be sure to "skip" this option when creating a new account as to not limit yourself.

Why is the "Maximize Conversions" bidding strategy not so good?

Because it's maximizing conversions - but NOT at a consistent or even profitable rate - it may be over-spending or just inconsistently spending your ad-spend leading to less profit. You have no control over HOW MUCH (besides a bid limit) it is spending to get those conversions.

Under Ad Groups, which two things operate on the same level of the hierarchy?

Both ads and keywords - they operate on the SAME level under ad groups and it is necessary to have both as they feed off each-other.

What do ad groups contain?

Both ads, and the keywords to define where those ads show up.

Whenever you create a Google Ads account, you'll be presented with a "What's your advertising goal?" page full of different options and goals - what must you do to ensure you have maximum control over your Google Ads account?

Click the "skip guided setup" button to go straight to setting up a campaign - you don't want to click any of the options because they will "dumb down" Google Ads for you and reduce your control over your campaigns/ads.

To keep your data clean - what should you do when creating dynamic search ads?

Create a separate campaign from your regular search ads - if you combine both regular search with dynamic search ads, your data will be messy and incomprehensible, leading to inefficiency and loss of profit. ALWAYS create a SEPARATE CAMPAIGN when working with dynamic search ads.

What do you need to run autonomous bidding strategies?

DATA - autonomous bidding strategies work by using previous data to inform the auto-bidding strategy to bid more or less based on data.

What is it important not to do with your keywords relative to your daily ad-spend?

Don't have TOO MANY keywords for your daily budget. Google will try to split your daily budget amongst all of your keywords - so if you've got 2 keywords, and a daily budget of $10 - Google will try to give each Keyword $5 worth of clicks. Whereas if you had 20 keywords on a $10 daily budget - Google would split the $10 over 20 keywords and only spend $.50 a day on each keyword. Which in turn - would take FOREVER for keywords to accumulate enough data to be analyzed/optimized.

If you do not have the data/site to support it, what type of search campaign should you not run?

Dynamic search ads - only run dynamic search ads if you have a large site with lots of things to potentially advertise - so you can see what is working and make manual campaigns to optimize further. Do not use dynamic search ads at the beginning of your campaign, use it once you've already established some campaigns, and once you've got a large site with lots of stuff you could advertise.

When advertising in local markets with lots of competition, what should you be sure to do to ensure you don't have your competition clicking your ads and wasting your ad-spend?

Exclude their physical business location in your geo-targeting. This way, when they're in their office, they won't be able spam your ads and waste your money. Their location won't even be included to show ads to.

What is a scenario in which you may use the "Target Search Page Location" bidding strategy?

For brand awareness purposes - where you may be more interested in visibility, over clicks and conversions. Remember that BRAND AWARENESS is NOT just spending money willy-nilly without any foresight of profit. You should only spend money on ads when you'll either make money now, or down the line.

What is every decision in advertising made with in mind?

Getting and maximizing PROFIT - that is what it ultimately comes down to. If you're not making profit, your campaigns are losing. Always make decisions with PROFIT in mind.

When CPC's go up - what is it typically a sign of?

Good traffic - if people are willing to pay more for those clicks - it is a great sign that there is money to be made, higher CPC's are almost never a bad sign, if anything - it shows the aforementioned trait, that there's money to be made.

What are dynamic search ads?

Google takes the content of your site, it's structure, etc. reads it - and based on the search term a customer enters - it will automatically determine whether or not to show your ad, they'll determine a bid, as well as AUTOMATICALLY WRITE AN AD FOR YOU based off your site. You can use this search type to let Google find new stuff on your site to advertise that you may not have otherwise found/explored. But you shouldn't rely on it entirely - use AT MOST 5% of your monthly budget on this.

How does the "Target Outranking Share" bidding strategy work?

Google tries to outrank a specific URL/domain that you tell it to compete with, you tell it how often - and Google will raise and lower your bids to meet that target. You can set a Max CPC bid limit as to not become unprofitable - so you can be aggressive, but not stupid/unprofitable. It can take up to a week to see results, and if your competitor is also trying to outrank you, the auction will get ridiculously expensive and messy pretty quick.

How does the "Target ROAS" bidding strategy work?

Google will predict which clicks will convert and HOW MUCH those conversions will be worth to you - and bids accordingly to get your Target ROAS. To be able know how much each conversion is worth to you, you need to have your conversion values configured so Google can adjust bids accordingly to get your Target ROAS.

How does the "Target Search Page Location" bidding strategy work?

Google will try to take control over your keyword level bids to try and win as many top of page bids as you can get with your daily budget for the campaign.

In which level of the hierarchy can you modify audience targeting settings?

In both the campaign and ad group level.

How do you check hourly/daily performance of your ads and adjust them?

In the vertical navigation menu when you've already selected a campaign - you'll see a "Ad Schedule" option, that, when clicked - will enable you to see the daily/hourly performance of your ads - and will also enable you to adjust them accordingly.

Why is the "Maximize Clicks" bidding strategy bad?

It focuses on a metric that is not indicative/correlated to the true goal of advertising, which is PROFIT. Clicks have a distant relationship with profit, sure, they're necessary to have to get profit, but they're not the end-all be-all. CLICKS should not be your key indicator to measure for success. You should always measure PROFIT.

What happens to Google's physical location targeting as you get more narrow and precise with your targeting?

It gets less accurate. So if you target the entire state of Michigan - it will for sure show ads to people you've geo-targeted in Michigan. Whereas if you narrow down to a SPECIFIC postal code or neighborhood - Google's tracking of people on Google Maps will be less accurate and may misplace some people on the map. It may only get a couple of the people in the neighborhood, or it may even miss them entirely if their location data is slightly off. Just look at Google Maps on your phone - it is likely slightly off from your actual physical location - but it is still 100% in your city, but maybe not your exact postal code (depending on where the customer actually is)

What does it mean to have an "exact match" keyword?

It means that you only want your ad to "trigger" when the search term is EXACTLY the same as your keyword. For example: If your exact match keyword is "car rental" - your ad will NOT show up if the search term the customer enters is "car rentals in new york". Whereas if the customer looked up the exact keyword: "car rental" - your ad will then be shown.

What is the objective of the "Target ROAS" bidding strategy?

It will bid to "make back" a specified ROAS. Essentially, you're basically saying to Google, "I'm spending this much, I want THIS MUCH back for each dollar I spend". Assuming you have the data - this is a great way to bid.

Why is it a good idea to use accelerated ad delivery in the beginning of a new campaign/keyword test?

It will enable you to see the TRUE volume and potential of the keywords you're testing MUCH quicker - to formulate how much you could really end up spending on that keyword. So if you were to use standard delivery - you may not even know that the clicks go absolutely crazy at 9am. Whereas if you used accelerated ad delivery - all of your ads daily budget would be spent at 9am during that high click period. And you could assess from that data, that the keyword is high volume, and that it may be worth investing more into if the traffic is high quality. It is good to use accelerated early on to determine the volume/quality of the keyword - and then SWITCH over to standard delivery to see how the keyword may perform over the course of the day.

Is CTR (click-through-rate) lower or higher on the search partner network?

It's LOWER - and way lower quality/less likely to convert.

What is the Google Search Network?

It's a collection of websites that uses Google's search engine functionality - but they don't belong directly to Google. So it could be sites like Ask.com, Yahoo, random blogs, etc. Search Network ads are still shown on Search Network websites when a customer enters a search term that contains your keywords - BUT, the traffic typically doesn't convert as well/isn't as valuable. Also, Search Network ads don't tell you where the traffic is coming from, so you don't know if your traffic is coming from Yahoo, or a random blog somewhere.

After you've selected "create a campaign without a goal" - you'll see a "Select the results you want to get from this campaign" menu with options such as "Website visits", "Phone calls", "App downloads". Is it okay to select any/all of these options? What will Google do if you decide to tick the boxes?

It's okay, and may even be a good thing to tick these boxes as they DO NOT LIMIT YOU - all these options will do is auto-suggest keywords, etc. based on your website. If anything, it's worth ticking the "website visits" option at the very least to get some keyword suggestions that may be worth checking out. These options will NOT limit your Google Ads account, all they are, are supplemental things to enhance your ads experience.

What are you dealing with on the "campaign" level of the Google Ads account hierarchy?

Location targeting, delivery time, device targeting, etc. - basically things that deal with "when" and "where" the ads are going to show up in a broad sense - not in a specific, keyword sense.

What locations have higher volumes, but potentially more expensive clicks?

Major cities - but keep in mind the REASON for there being more expensive clicks. If the current competitive landscape is paying higher per click - it tells you that those areas are potentially more valuable, they may convert better, have a higher avg. order value, etc. PEOPLE DON'T PAY EXTRA FOR CLICKS THAT ARE NOT VALUABLE.

When you run ads on the search partner network - can you tell what sites your clicks came from?

No - you can only see how many clicks your campaign got from the search partner network as a WHOLE - you won't know exactly what site(s) your ads actually showed up on.

Does Google Auto-Translate your ads or keyword for different language targets?

No - you must write ad copy/copy in the selected language you're targeting. So if you're targeting Spanish speaking people - you NEED to write your keywords and ad copy in Spanish - because if you write them in English, Google will not auto-translate your English text. So your English ads would show to Spanish speaking people. How you write your ads is how they're going appear.

What is ALWAYS the key indicator of success for a campaign?

Profit, conversion rate, and ROAS. Remember that the whole goal of advertising is profit. So that is the only thing you should be using to measure your campaigns success. Having tons of clicks, impressions, etc. is not indicative of a successful campaign, only profit, conversion rate, and ROAS is.

What is ROAS - how is it different from ROI?

ROAS is basically just "how much" you got back for each dollar you spent on advertising - without accounting for other costs of running the business. The formula for ROAS is: Revenue / Cost of Ads ROAS is different from ROI because it doesn't account for the costs of running the business - it is JUST how much revenue you made back for each dollar you spent on your ads.

What is ROI?

Return on investment - it is calculated by your revenue, minus the cost it took to get that revenue - and then divided by the cost to get a percentage. The formula for calculating ROI is: (Rev - Cost) / Cost ROI is different from ROAS because it accounts for ALL costs, not just the cost of ads.

In what position are "campaigns" in the Google Ads account hierarchy?

Right below the "account" itself - but above everything else like Ad Groups, keywords, etc. Campaigns are the second highest in the hierarchy and control most of the ads in the account. Everything in the account like ad groups, keywords, etc. - are created under campaigns.

When you're creating your account or a new campaign, you'll see a "Select a campaign type" option - what should you do here?

Select a campaign type - this part isn't Google trying to get you to spend more money - selecting a campaign type is essential to define "how" you want to start advertising on Google.

What should you do with your bidding strategy at first when creating a campaign?

Set it to "Manual CPC" - this will enable you to have maximum control over your bids and potential profitability. BUT, after you build a bit of data with your campaign, you'll likely want to try out certain autonomous bidding strategies.

What is the difference between standard and accelerated ad delivery?

Standard ad delivery will spread out showing your ads throughout the entire course of the day. Whereas Accelerated ad delivery will get Google to get you AS MANY clicks as you can, and as FAST as possible. Even if it ends up spending your entire budget before noon.

What is the BEST automated bidding strategy to use?

Target CPA - throughout hundreds of campaigns managed by Isaac's company - he's noticed that Target CPA performs leaps and bounds above most other automated bidding strategy - and is the best automated bidding strategy by far.

When you set a daily budget for a campaign - what is important to remember?

That it will set it ONLY for that campaign - and your daily budget for that campaign will be split amongst the different ad groups you have in the campaign. So you can have multiple campaigns in one account all with different daily budgets. Bids are NOT set at the account level - they're set on a campaign-by-campaign basis.

What does a high CPC typically mean?

That people are competing to get those clicks aggressively - and the reason they're doing it because those clicks are MORE VALUABLE. You wouldn't bid higher to secure those clicks if they weren't valuable. So a high CPC is typically a GOOD sign, because it means there's money to be made - and because of that, it's worth it to double-down, get more involved, and start optimizing your website/campaigns.

When selecting a language for your campaign - what is it important to understand?

That selecting a specific language such as Spanish - will only show ads to people with their GOOGLE DEFAULT LANGUAGE SETTING set to Spanish. So if a customer is searching in Spanish (and you're targeting Spanish customers), but their Google default language is English - your ad will not show, EVEN THOUGH they're searching in Spanish keywords - because their default Google language is not set to Spanish.

What has Isaac found happens when you select "Maximize Clicks" as your bidding strategy?

That the average amount spent per click is way higher than if you manually controlled your bids. If you're spending more per click, without any regard for how high quality a click may be - you're going to end up wasting a lot more money. Maximize Clicks is the equivalent to just setting a "blanket" bid and hoping for the best - it sucks.

When configuring location settings/targeting for your campaign - what is it important to know?

That there is no "blanket" answer to determining your location targeting - your location targeting (especially for local businesses) will be determined by you. Depending on who you're advertising for, a certain business may only serve customers within a 50 mile radius of their physical location. Whereas if you're advertising for an e-com store, you may be targeting certain states, countries, etc. Location targeting will always be different for different types of businesses/services - it needs to be determined on a case by case basis.

What is a thing that Google has turned on by default that is a waste of money if you're not deliberately using it?

The Google Display Network - the display network is not targeted and shows amongst a boatload of websites to random, unqualified/uninterested buyers. The display network lacks focus/targeting, and will show ads to EVERYONE visiting display network sites - it will waste your money by having tons of uninterested, not even-in-the-funnel customers click on your ads. Be sure to de-select the Google Display network when creating a campaign because it will sink your money into unprofitable clicks.

What tool can you use to see where your competitors are bidding?

The Google Keyword Planner.

What is at the top of the Google Ads account hierarchy?

The account itself - the account determines and creates literally EVERYTHING below it.

What are "ads" in an ad group?

The actual "ad" that shows up in the SERP - it may be a text ad, a shopping ad, etc.

What are "keywords" in an ad group?

The factor that determines when the ads in the ad groups are shown/triggered. The keywords act as components in a search term that defines when an ad will show.

When you're creating a new campaign, what will Google try to do to in order to get you to spend more money?

They'll try to get you to select a goal like "sales", "leads", "website traffic", etc. Do NOT select these goals as they will limit/automate Google Ads for you and you'll lose control/sophistication over your campaigns - as well as lose money. To maintain full control and maximum profitability over your campaigns, select the "Create a campaign without a goal's guidance" button.

What do you deal with on the "account" level of the Google Ads account hierarchy?

Things such as your email, time-zone, billing settings, and general account things.

What is important to keep in mind when adjusting your bids based on factors such as location, gender, etc.?

To adjust your bid profitably - make sure you use the adwords profitability calculator to determine what your max CPC bid can be according to your conversion rate, etc.

What is the objective for the "Target Search Page Location" bidding strategy?

To increase your brand awareness by having you ads be shown higher in the SERP (search engine results page). This bidding strategy also increases CTR. So this strategy will try to get you to the page position that you select.

What is the main objective of the "Enhanced CPC" (ECPC) bidding strategy?

To maintain tight control of your individual keyword bids - whilst also putting some trust in Google's algorithms to bid higher or lower to optimize CPC's for more conversions.

What is the objective of the "Target Outranking Share" bidding strategy?

To wipe the floor with your competition - this bidding strategy enables you to specify a competitor that is outranking you - and it will try to outrank them based on your settings.

What is NOT the key indicator of success for a location/campaign?

Traffic - remember that advertising is all about making PROFIT efficiently - you could have TONS of traffic, but that doesn't necessarily mean TONS of profit. The key indicator of success for any campaign is ALWAYS profit and conversion rate.

Where are Ad Groups positioned on the Google Ads hierarchy?

Under campaigns - there may be a large number of ad groups in each campaign.

What is a search term?

What the client actually types into the search engine - it's not keywords, but the entire term they type in. Keywords target specific words in the search term and may trigger an ad based on whether or not a keyword in a search term is present.

When should you NOT use autonomous bidding strategies?

When you don't have any DATA for it to work off of. Autonomous bidding strategies run off of pre-existing data, and if you don't have any data for it to use, autonomous bidding strategies will be ineffective/inefficient.

When you run a campaign on the display network, can you tell which sites your ads showed on?

Yes - it will give you stats on which sites your display ads were shown.

How do you determine how much you should spend monthly on Google Ads?

You can determine it after you've gathered a bit of data, but you will be able to determine it based on how much you can spend to be profitable. Remember that selling PROFITABLY is ALL THAT MATTERS.

What can you do with your bids based on what you have geo-targeted?

You can increase or decrease bids depending on whether or not a location's clicks are worth paying more for (aka more valuable, higher converting, etc.)

What tools can you use to determine whether or not it may be worth it to include a specific location in your campaign?

Your CRM, boss/co-workers knowledge, Google Trends (you can look at how certain keywords, etc. are doing in each state and adjust accordingly), and your intuition.

What will your monthly ad spend NEVER EXCEED?

Your daily ad budget times 30. Your daily ad budget may be doubled on occasion by Google - but you will NEVER spend more than your daily ad budget times the number of days in the month (30). Google may spend double your daily ad spend on some days, it might spend a little over, it may spend double for a few days in a row - but it will NEVER exceed your daily budget times the number of days in the month.