Keeping an Eye on Google’s AIGreat Day Event 2019

Nils Rooijmans

Key Elements of a healthy Business Relationship

Sundar Pichai, CEO Google

2017

Sergey Brin, Founder Google

AI Driven

An AI optimizes towards the goals you provide,

based on the input (data) you provide.

Google’s goals?

How to keep everybody happy?End usersBusiness partners

(including advertisers)EmployeesShareholdersPPC experts??

Long run VS Short term?

An AI optimizes towards the goals you provide,

based on the input (data) you provide.

Google’s data?

How many signals in Smart Bidding?

18 signals of Smart BiddingSEARCH & DISPLAY & SHOPPING• device• physical location (at city level)• location intent in user query• weekday and time of day • remarketing lists• ad characteristics• interface language• browser• OS• user activity on your site

SEARCH & DISPLAY only• demographics

SEARCH & SHOPPING only• user query

SEARCH only• search partner network

DISPLAY only• placement

SHOPPING only• product attributes in feed

FUTURE SIGNALS• Mobile app ratings• Seasonality• Price competitiveness

(Shopping)

HIDDEN SIGNALS?• Traffic info?• Search history?• Surfer behavior?

Is ‘Smart’ AI really smarter?

Or just using more data then we are allowed to use?

“We’ve got some new AI stuff for you!”

Let’s see what the data tells us.

#1Enhanced CPC

June 2017 – Google removes bid cap on Enhanced CPC

Let’s run some experiments…

How often does this happen in your account?

Oh, and when you create a new campaign…

#2Close Variant Match

Sep 2018: Google expands ‘exact’ match…again

In theory it works great

“Powered by Google’s machine learning, exact match will now match with the intent of a search, instead of just the specific words.”

In practice it might do wonders!

Match user query to rebranded company name keyword[new brand keyword] matches old brand search term

In practice it might do wonders!

SOURCE: Wordstream

Purse != Handbag

In practice it might also…

In practice it might also…[new home construction near me] matches new homes near me

Let’s monitor the performance using scripts

• For all Exact keywords• Aggregate stats on its Close Variant search terms• Compare to the performance of the real exact match search term

SCRIPT: https://nilsrooijmans.com/effortlessly-monitor-close-variants-with-this-google-ads-script/

Aggregated Exact Match keywords performance

And there’s more to come…

#3Dynamic Search Ads (DSA)

Real life DSA behavior can be….surprising.

Let’s monitor the performance using scripts• For all DSA campaigns

• Monitor daily impressions and clicks• Log in Google Sheet• Send email alert when significant increase/decrease happens

SCRIPT: https://nilsrooijmans.com/request-script

#4Daily budget overdelivery

Google: “Let’s squeeze out every penny”

2017 2019

Definitely not ideal for every advertiser

Short-term test and promotional campaigns that don’t run a full month

Results may vary…

So let’s monitor using scripts

•Monitor daily overdeliveries

SCRIPT: https://nilsrooijmans.com/daily-budget-overdelivery-alerts-script/

•Observation: most overdeliveries occur at the start and end of month•Research idea: compare performance of days with overdeliveries

versus days without overdeliveries.

Wait, you said: “Two times?!?”

#5Ad Suggestions

Automatically applied Ad Suggestions

•Google creates ads for you•Gives you 14 days to approve or reject the ad• If there is no rejection, then the ad is automatically added live in your

account

Good or Bad?

Higher CTR means more $ for big G, not necessarily for the advertiser!

#6Responsive Search Ads

Let Google do all ad copy optimization for you

Good or bad?

“If you are focused on getting converting traffic from your keywords, then ETAs generally win.” - Brad Geddes

What is the RSA AI optimizing for?

#7“Smart” Display / Shopping

Set it, forget it

Smart display campaigns use the power of Google’s machine learning to automatically:

Connect your business to prospective customers who may be interested in your products

Create beautiful image, native and text ads that fit anywhere across the GDN

Set the right bids to meet your performance goals

Remember those affiliates?

How about those placements?

Do you really want the traffic from these TLDs?

.tk

.download

.fm

.info

.live

.ru

.sale

NB: Conversion might not mean $

The push towards AI

AI is Automatically applied in your account

With opt-out option•Ad suggestions• Smart bidding•GDN automated targeting•Ad rotation setting (AB testing)•Responsive Ads

Without opt-out option•Close variant matching•Overdeliveries•Cross device conversion tracking

Google Reps are pushing Google reps calling advertisers like crazy -> SWITCH TO SMART BIDDING NOW!

PPC specialist: “It doesn’t work for me. Stop calling.”

Google Rep: “OK, I will call you again tomorrow.”

PPC specialist: “Are you incentivized to get advertisers to switch bidding strategies? Is that why you are pushing this?”

Google Rep: “Yes, switching to automated bidding is one of the factors for my compensation”

Recommendations automatically applied ?!?

Google’s AI cannot fully be trusted

Google AI goals might not always align with our goals

Yet Google is pushing it’s AI upon us…

Solution

TEST , TEST, TESTUse Campaign EXPs when you can(NB: have the original control campaign run the smart bidding you want to test)

Split test using locations if D&E is not an option (ie Shopping)

Implement manual checks

Check account and campaign settings on a regular basisSee checklist: https://nilsrooijmans.com/automated-google-ads-settings-to-check

Check to make sure your PPC team is aware of what Google is doing

Implement scripts to monitor and control

Push back

“ UAC's have been a black box since the beginning. Interestingly though, Google are moving increasingly to more insights here, largely due to a lot of advertiser pushback” (quote from Reddit)

Enhanced CPC

CHECK and TEST

•Manually check Enhanced CPC setting (on/off)•Test turning eCPC bidding on, use campaign experiments ,

split test 50-50•Check single click CPC outliers

• Go to Search terms report• Segment by day/week• Filter on clicks = 1• Sort by CPC desc• PRO TIP: automate this check using scripts

SCRIPT: https://nilsrooijmans.com/request-script

Some of my learnings on Enhanced CPC

Do test when• You still have manual bids on your Shopping

campaigns (split test using different locations)

• You have many top-of-funnel keywords in your campaign

• You have many clicks from broad keywords

Do NOT use when• Conversion tracking is not working properly

• You have little click or conversion data per campaign (minimum of 1000 clicks and 30 conversions per month)

• It takes a long time for your users to convert• You just started a new campaign

(wait for at least one month and 30 conversions)

• You do not have the option to test for at least one month

Note: ECPC does not take device into account. You may still want to use device bid adjustments.

Close Variant match

Simply make exact match exact again

Automatically exclude all close variants using scripts

SCRIPT: https://www.brainlabsdigital.com/adwords-scripts-reversing-the-exact-match-changes-from-google/

Closely watch damn close variants

•Monitor Close Variants’ performance•Negate bad performing CVs•Add high volume CVs as separate KW

Use scripts to facilitate the process

SCRIPT: https://nilsrooijmans.com/effortlessly-monitor-close-variants-with-this-google-ads-script/

Dynamic Search Ads

DSA’s do need active management… and scripts can make it work•Automatically add all positive keywords in your account as a negative

in your DSA campaignSCRIPT: https://remkovanderzwaag.nl/blog/updated-adwords-script-auto-add-negative-keywords-dsa

•Receive alerts on sudden increases in Impressions, clicks and conversionsSCRIPT: https://nilsrooijmans.com/request-script

Closely watch incoming search terms

• Monitor DSA search terms’ performance• Negate bad performing search terms and ngrams• Add high volume search terms as new keywords to your

non-DSA campaigns

SCRIPT: https://nilsrooijmans.com/request-script

Ad Suggestions

Turn of, or be Warned!

•Opt out of Ad suggestions:

All Campaigns > Settings > Account Settings tab -> Ad suggestions

Turn of, or be Warned!

•Automatically pause ‘Added by AdWords’ ads and receive email alerts to go check them out.

SCRIPTS:https://www.impression.co.uk/blog/6003/auto-pause-added-by-adwords-ads/ https://www.optmyzr.com/blog/is-your-account-showing-automatic-ads/

Daily Budget Overdeliveries

Use scripts to pause campaigns when they hit certain daily spend

Limit AdWords Overdelivery to Any Amount You WantSCRIPT: http://www.freeadwordsscripts.com/2017/10/limit-adwords-overdelivery-to-any.html

(Smart) Display Campaigns

Disable automated targeting in GDN

Hidden targeting setting at Ad group level:

Use scripts to monitor placements

For Smart Display: Exclude bad placements at the account level SCRIPT: https://nilsrooijmans.com/request-script

SummaryGoogle will keep pushing it’s AI

The interface probably will continue to be simplified (less data and options for us)

Make sure you monitor the AI performance and provide the right data

TEST TEST TEST

Use scripts to safeguard your campaigns and keep you on track

Resources

A list of the scripts and checklists can be found at:https://nilsrooijmans.com/greatday

https://nilsrooijmans.com/request-scriptUse code: GDE19SCRIPTS

Contact me: nils@nilsrooijmans.com