PPCChat | PPC & Other Channel | 10th August 2021

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In this week’s PPCChat session, host Julie F Bacchini focused on open ended questions like are experts facing any issues or concerns with Google ads, what do they think of other channels like LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok etc, In PPC, anything in general they would wish to discuss and more.

Q1: How are things going, generally, in your accounts this week? Anything of particular concern you’d like to discuss?

I have seen generally good performance this week. August tends to tick up from July as people are prepping for back to school and getting back from vacations – at least in the ecom world. @selley2134

Similary to @selley2134, July was slow for a lot of accounts. August is looking better so far and I have noticed more search terms data in Google Ads. So that’s nice. @robert_brady

No major flags this week. Traffic is picking up and I think back to school is in full swing. of particular concern for this week…there are so many plus also, you’ve heard me before. @JuliaVyse

Things are going well this week and August is doing pretty well so far. Getting more clients to wade into the video pool, so pretty excited about that. @lchasse

Most of our accounts are still performing relatively the same. I’ve noticed a slight increase in performance in the few counts but nothing to get super excited about right now. @ameetkhabra

One ecomm account is suffering because we had to remove “fast shipping” from all ad copies because of supply chain issues. @SEMFlem

Nothing earth-shattering happening at the moment for me. In “real life” it seems like everyone in this area is on vacation. @NeptuneMoon

I’m in the travel space, so we’re coming out of our peak season. Traffic and conversions slowing down. To be expected, but always sad to watch. @dan_patterson

Things are going generally well. Great discussion with one of my teammates today discovered that we NEED to look at how we have set up bid strategies. We are seeing lots of limited by budget. Great opportunity and fun thing to fix. @TheMarketingAnu

Google keeps flagging old (paused) ads for some nonsense (drugs, adult content, etc.). It’s annoying because clients get an email “300 ads are disapproved” every time it happens. @Anna_Sorok

I’m seeing things slowly pick back up in Google (B2B). Ecom has been relatively consistent this summer. Nothing noteworthy. Using this lull to test ad copy variations. @timmhalloran

Reporting week is behind me so I’m finally getting stuck into accounts again. So far so good on the whole. @C_J_Ridley

Q2: Let’s talk Google Ads first. What is on your mind relative to Google Ads? Any questions or issues you’re having that we might be able to help with?

Have one account that we tried to test image extensions, they got disapproved, and now it’s no longer available. Tried to contact support to no avail. Any advice? @_RileyDuncan

Hoping sooo much that they open the search query data again! I feel hope… but also trying to be suitably pessimistic lol.  @revaminkoff

Sorry if I’ve jumped the gun on this, but I think the search term visibility news this week is an example of just how much @GinnyMarvin (@adsliaison) listens to the community and acts upon feedback. Long may that continue. @AzeemDigital

I’m wondering what lookback windows on Smart Bidding algorithms. A co-worker said they change their conversion values and moved to Max Conv. Value and the campaigns tanked. @SEMFlem

Yes! I have a client onboarding Google Shopping for the first time and they need assistance with their Merchant Centre. It’s more troubleshooting than I’m capable of, any advice on the Shipping Cost field when the cost changes based on weight/shipping address? @JuliaVyse

I am eagerly awaiting more information after @adsliaison tweeted this week that Google Ads is looking at ways to have more query data be available and people’s reports of seeing more data too. @NeptuneMoon

For me seeing the note about Google showing more of our search terms got me cautiously optimistic. I may have missed where that ended, but I am/was hopeful we could have more of our data again. @lchasse

Is search term visibility really coming back. That’s num 1 on my mind. We have a client that is in container transport and we have a lot of our ads showing against people who are looking to travel! more queries to filter out that audience intent would be great! @TheMarketingAnu

My thought was changing conversion values and keeping the same campaign with the old value data is a bad idea and will screw with the algo’s ability to bid correctly. @SEMFlem

The thing I have seen popping up in accounts & other peoples accounts seems to be terrible ad disapproval. I am having to check ads across accounts almost daily – Not excited to head into this new policy with the amount of stupid disapprovals I’m seeing now. @selley2134

I think it’s cool that we have so many search terms to wade through now… but wowza we have so many search terms to wade through now, not enough hours in the day. Also, it’s more evidence of how poor G’s matching is, imo. @PPCGreg

Trying to figure out a way to tell Google Merchant Center that shipping is free if it’s your first purchase, if you subscribe, or if you create an account, but otherwise shipping is not free. @revaminkoff

As many others have mentioned the potential of search term data coming back. And automation, I’m always thinking about automation. @BrettBodofsky

Some of our accounts are seeing a lot of disapprovals and ads but for ads that are paused which is a little weird and annoying. Also, I missed the news about Search terms which I’m super duper excited about now! @ameetkhabra

Google now pushing the auto apply recommendations feature – yet, it asks to increase budget, change match types, change messaging… lots of things that require eyes and management. @revaminkoff

Sounds like a rule you might write in excel and inject into the feed. With a developer, subject to level of complexity. @beyondcontent

Opti score and AAR are on my mind lately… I think the Opti score will have more weight and potentially act as the quality score…(?) We started to play with some AAR but Google is pushing for more @Anna_Sorok

For me it’s Google Shopping. A relatively new channel for me so any tips for it or good articles to read through – particularly in regards to optimising product feeds – would be super. @C_J_Ridley

Q3: How about Facebook Ads – what is on your mind relative to Facebook Ads? Any questions or issues you’re having that we might be able to help with?

Does anyone get any actual support from Facebook? If you don’t have a rep, you are basically screwed. At least they used to have the chat/messenger option, but that has gone away. @NeptuneMoon

This tweet for sure. Unable to access a clients page due to people leaving and literally *nobody* at facebook to talk to. Just endless (useless) help articles. Is their live chat / support function gone now? twitter.com/AzeemDigital/s… @AzeemDigital

The setup for clients to give access to manage ads in FB seems like it is more difficult for brands than it should be. Every new client feels like a challenge just to get up and running. @lchasse

It’s really hard to trust the data coming out of their interface at the moment. I feel like I’ve gotten on my feet after iOS 14.5 but it’s become much more difficult to analyze performance effectively. @hamboy_PPC

When FB will stop being dumb. The number of clients who would be killing it if not for absurdly high CPMs is….substantial. I’m hoping this evens out before the holidays, b/c $400 Christmas CPMs are possible at the current rate. @DigitalSamIAm

Replicating successful CAPI installs. I feel like it’s a manual non-replicable process (except for clients w/ shopify). Many times the help info doesn’t have the answer I’m looking for. @timmhalloran

@lchasse already said it but the process to get account access is much harder than necessary. Also, the attribution issues with Facebook are getting to me a little bit. @ameetkhabra

I also want to hear more from fb advertisers who are having success with branded content & are using the collab manager (case studies, blog posts). Dabbling more in that lately & there’s a lot of opp. @timmhalloran

Finding consistency and being able to scale has been incredibly difficult!! Will have a few good days, try to scale, and CPOs begin to sky rocket! @Lrizz729

Q4: What about other channels – Microsoft Ads, Twitter, LinkedIn, Snapchat, Pinterest, Quora, TikTok? Any questions or issues you’re having that we might be able to help with?

I think it was around this time last year that @duanebrown mentioned Snap CPMs are low. Wondered if he’s seeing the same trends this year? Might be worth considering as a longer term play if so. @AzeemDigital

MSFT always kills it with brand campaigns. I’m super careful with anything related to syndicated partner network. I’ve had issues with junk traffic & overspending. But we’ve come to an understanding. @timmhalloran

Did anyone see a massive spike in CPM from July 21 to July 24th on linkedin. I’m trying to figure out if it’s just something that happened in the account or if it happened across the board. @ameetkhabra

Microsoft has been a real pain for me recently. Insane matching, the worst preview diagnosis tool I have ever used, having to bid insanely high to see any impressions. It’s getting harder and harder for me to recommend to clients. the value has tanked @selley2134

I have spoken with some clients about testing in TikTok. Still a lot of hesitancy in some of the other social platforms, but there is opportunity also. Microsoft, working on the new extensions for clients. Microsoft is hit or miss on what is working. @lchasse

Nothing major to ask, but a warning: the TikTok ad platform is VERY new. even the reps aren’t fully versed in it. And when a promoted Tweet is re-tweeted, all your targeting is elminated. So brace yourself for ‘why am I getting this ad’ replies. @JuliaVyse

I’ve said Pinterest is the dark horse in paid social for ecomm. Brands that do good organic & social mash-ups kill it on that channel (usually). Lately, I’ve seen that with Twitter & B2B. If u find your audience, it can be a cheap high quality TOF channel. @timmhalloran

MS ads close variant matching is often terrible… The client’s brand name (jewelry brand) phrase match keyword was matching to p.c. richard. Look through your MS ads search term reports and get your refunds! @Anna_Sorok

Q5: Anything on your mind more generally in PPC that you’d like to throw out there for discussion?

I’d love more discussion/content around programmatic, OTT, audio ads, & alternative ecom channels like AMZ & Walmart. The deeper I dive into self-serve programmatic (like adelphic or brandzooka) the more I realize this is another world of digital marketing. @timmhalloran

PPCChat Participants

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