These are the BIGGEST mistakes for Google Ads in 2023
May 22, 2023If you're currently running Google Ads, you're probably making some common mistakes.
In my 10x Google Ads Community group coaching sessions, I often encounter questions from individuals seeking to validate or debunk various claims they've heard about Google Ads.
So in this article, I want to take you through 3 of the top questions that I get asked, along with real examples that break these myths.
So let’s get straight into the first Google Ads mistake & myth that I want to de-bunk.
This one relates to Performance Max assets groups, so it is a newer one. But a common myth I have been getting is that you:
- Don’t have multiple asset groups for small eCommerce stores.
I kind of understand where this one comes from, BUT it is just taken too far.
The mistake here is that people have made an assumption that if you have a small store of fewer than 100 products or even under 20 products, you should have more than 1 asset group; otherwise, you are over-segmenting your campaign.
I agree that you should not over-segment your product feed so that you are allowing Google to display the best products or variations, BUT it is not true that if you have a small store of under 10, 20, 50 or even 100 products, you should only have 1 x asset group.
And to avoid a needless argument, let’s look at the facts as I show you 2 stores that have a small number of products with multiple asset groups.
- Don’t pause your campaigns - instead, lower your budgets so Google keeps listening.
This is an older one that has been around for around 5 years now, and I have never understood this one.
The reasoning is that rather than pausing your campaign, you should just lower the budget to like $1 so that Google keeps “listening to your traffic signals”
There are 2 core problems with this:
- Firstly: Google’s data goes back around 90 days for conversion metrics - now the last 30 days are more important, but Google can reach back campaign data for 90 days or around 3 months.
- Secondly: what this strategy completely forgets is that your budget is one of the core factors of your campaign's success.
Think of it like this if you have 2 campaigns and they are exactly the same in every way - so same keywords, same ads, same products, same website metrics, same bidding strategy, with the only difference being that one campaign has a budget of $100 a day and the other has a budget of $500 a day those campaigns will function differently.
The reason is that Google has a different amount of budget to achieve the required results.
So if you have a budget that is spending $50 a day and you then reduce the budget to $1 a day to “listen for traffic signals”, it's the same as pausing the campaign because the campaign is now looking for conversions on the new spending budget.
Now I am not saying to pause your campaign often, and I don’t recommend pausing your campaign unless it is required for a holiday season when your business is closed or if you are doing a major website revamp/ pausing your campaign for 1 - 3 weeks will not be an issue.
Now this brings me to the last biggest lie or myth, and that is that:
- Google Ads is a scam, and it does not work.
The fact is that Google Ads does work, and the reason why I know is that I have now been running profitable campaigns for my own businesses and countless other businesses since 2010.
In fact, I am unashamed to say that Google Ads has totally changed my life this is because Google Ads allowed me to start and scale my first business.
I do understand that, unfortunately, many people have had a bad experience with Google Ads, but this comes down to one of 3 reasons - NOT Google Ads, and these are:
- Your Google Ads campaigns were not set up or optimised correctly
- Your website or landing page does not convert
- Your offer or pricing is not set correctly
For Google Ads to work, you need all 3 of these items working.
If you are having trouble with your Google Ads landing pages, I want to give you access to an extended landing page session I ran in my 10x Google Ads community which was with a User Testing expert who has run over 10,000 real-life users tests. This session gives you the 5 things you need for a high-converting landing page.
In conclusion, by debunking these common myths and clarifying misconceptions, you can optimize your Google Ads campaigns and achieve better results. Don't let these myths hold you back from harnessing the true potential of Google Ads for your business.