PPCChat | Stopping Wasted Spend - Can It Still Be Done?

Posted November 13th, 2024 by Amita & filed under PPCChat.

In this week’s PPCChat session, host Julie F Bacchini asked experts how they identify wasted spend in their accounts, what actions PPC professionals are taking to reduce it, what platforms could do to help address wasted spend, and more.

Q1: What do you consider to be “wasted spend” and does it vary by platform?

I would define wasted spend certainly as any spend that is clearly outside of what I am targeting – be that ridiculous keywords or crazy geography as two examples. @NeptuneMoon

Location settings – People in or regularly in – biggest source of wasted spend in Google Search campaigns. For Display – most of .xyz domains. Any placement that has crazy high CTR YouTube – Nursery Rhymes – Vlad & Nikita & others @alimehdimukadam

I would also add that I think we are conditioned to accept more “wasted spend” in platforms that have been more automated from the start (like Meta) versus say Google Ads. @NeptuneMoon

I find ridiculous keywords happening even when my target keywords are exact match. @KevinHawke

Broad Match!!! Regularly check your search query report. @TheMarketingAnu

Ah yes, @KevinHawke all match types are some level of broad match these days. It’s awful. Wasted spend can also be an issue of the client not being focused on the right things too. The question is kind of geared toward platforms, but wasted spend can be due to poor targeting, bad messaging, etc. too. @NeptuneMoon

Any budget allocated just to spend coz need to consume before month end/quarter end/year endUnnecessarily testing campaigns simply to show we are trying something new
(there is a lot of value in testing)Taking the campaigns live without conversion tracking in place. @alimehdimukadam

I’m in a big ~~fight~~ robust conversation with Google right now over ‘wastage’ in their GMP platform. I don’t share their optimism shall we say. @JuliaVyse

Exclusions, both keyword and audience-based, are really important here. Google’s expanded targeting in Display is a huge money waster @robert_brady

Q2: How do you detect wasted spend in your accounts (if you look for it)? Where do you find it most often? Does it vary by platform?

When I take on a new account the first thing I do is look for wasted or poorly allocated spend! Biggest culprits / most frequent places I find wasted spend are: @NeptuneMoon

geographic targeting settings – defaults are broader than most want/need
keyword targeting – again often too broad
negative keywords – are there any being used
conversion tracking – is it set up and firing and is it tracking actual conversion actions
broken URLs

1. User Location Report – Geography 2. Landing Page Report 3. Automated extensions report (sitelinks, etc.). Search Terms – if we are lucky to see any. @alimehdimukadam

Sitelinks is a great one to check @alimehdimukadam because you might be sending traffic to places that are not designed to convert and/or missing resulting conversions. If you are doing Display in Google Ads I will also check placement report and for placement exclusions. TONS of wasted spend on the good old GDN. @NeptuneMoon

Automatic URL expansion & Auto-Apply for creating site links are found more often than not during audits. @alimehdimukadam

For any platform, I also like to check for any sneaky default settings. Like auto-applied anything or target or audience expansion, etc. And double check that all settings get properly copied over if you duplicate a campaign or its settings. It happens more than you might think for settings you have tightened down to go broader in a duplicated campaign or when you pull in settings from an existing campaign. Always double-check! @NeptuneMoon

Placement Report is a gold mine. Actually a coal mine, you do end up finding some diamonds. @alimehdimukadam

Oh, category exclusions for Display on Google. If you are not using them, fix that! @NeptuneMoon

Audience expansion – very important one! @alimehdimukadam

Hour of Day – especially in Non-Brand campaigns that are a bit conversion-deprived. They still deserve guardrails of an ad schedule. YT video View campaigns are total rubbish for prospecting. @EricLouisConsulting

Ad schedule is a great one @EricLouisConsulting – especially if you are looking for phone calls. Running ads way outside your call-accepting hours can be a big waste. @NeptuneMoon

LinkedIn Audience Network = hot garbageMost mobile apps on Google = kids playing games on parents’ phoneFacebook audience network = not great Search partners on Google & Microsoft = highly questionable quality. @robert_brady

Q3: Are you seeing an uptick in wasted spend in your accounts? If so, does it differ by platform?

I feel like keyword matching in Google Ads get looser by the month. @NeptuneMoon

Fuzzy keywords. That’s the only one – everything match. Though I did receive “extra budget” to spend before year end so there’s that. @alimehdimukadam

How about what I will call “inefficient spend” that we have to deal with for learning periods? It is not wasted but it sure isn’t what clients are used to on the search side…@NeptuneMoon

My latest fear is – AI bots clicking on ads & we won’t know and or can’t do anything about it. @alimehdimukadam

@alimehdimukadam that’s a great point. @KevinHawke

I think we are going to have less and less insight into what is actually happening in our accounts too. Between automation and AI infecting everything, it does not feel like transparency is a high priority for the platforms. @NeptuneMoon

Especially with computer use now available. Very easy to program the AI to open browser – search – click
Clear cookies. Repeat every hour. @alimehdimukadam

IS bidding. Don’t get me wrong, it has it’s place (very narrow and specific place) but I just don’t see the benefit of a low-spend account bothering with it. @JuliaVyse

I remembered Anthony Higman – those CPC’s on law firm keywords. @alimehdimukadam

@JuliaVyse That’s a good one. @NeptuneMoon Yes, it is gonna be a crazier 2025. I find solace in Amazon Ads. Feels like running proper search campaign – full visibility – all control. @alimehdimukadam

Yes – we’ve gotten over 25% of our ad spend back for one client so far this month in invalid activity credits from Google – if that doesn’t say waste, nothing does! @revaminkoff

weeeeeeell, speaking as someone who does search and other stuff with Amazon, the grey area is HUGE @JuliaVyse

The DSP can be grey. Sponsored Products within platform – I doubt. Plus I love their brand analytics. They share pretty much everything there is @alimehdimukadam

Yeah. and the Amazon Prime CTV placement is GOLD. @JuliaVyse

The fact that learning periods happen every single time, but the learning periods don’t get learned any faster or more efficiently, seems to defy logic. Most clients have a fairly consistent target audience and it seems ludicrous that learning periods start at zero each time. @robert_brady

Q4: Are you doing anything to try to combat wasted spend in your accounts? If so, does it differ by platform? And how effective is it?

Starting at 10,000 feet: discuss with your client what wasted means to them. Do they LOVE low-volume, long-tail searches? Do they worry about cross-platform freq management? Do they just want to get sales? All these attitudes will lay the foundation for your program. @JuliaVyse

Some things very much feel like whack a mole, but are worth doing, such as: @NeptuneMoon

monitoring queries and adding negatives
keeping an eye on the locations where your ads are being shown/seen
reviewing placements if running any display
triple checking we did not get opted into some new auto-applied nonsense

Weekly checklist of the basics – reports automatically generated with some scripts, rules running. @alimehdimukadam

Now closer to the ground: get aggressive on placements, I’d say even more than on negative keywords. If you’re an opti-score person, check your locations every time you run through your dismissals. And monitor launches! If you have Spotify ads running, look at when your searches spike. Those people had a x2 freq (search + spot) but it’s to your benefit, and not a waste. @JuliaVyse

Today I told a client – they are not ready & should not spend at scale yet just because they raised a round of investment. Fix your website issues first. @alimehdimukadam

I would add to this discussion looking at what is worth targeting too. Often times the strategy is pretty broad and that can work but can also waste a lot of spend. @NeptuneMoon

Saved wasted spend & a lot of time that would have been wasted in preparing reports & explaining why ads didn’t work. @alimehdimukadam

Like clients want strategy to be essentially “let’s not miss anyone who might become a customer” and that is almost never the right goal in PPC, especially not in today’s more costly and competitive environment. @NeptuneMoon

Everyone listen to Julie. That note applies even to my fast food client. which is the very definition of a broad audience. @JuliaVyse

Monitoring for large performance deviations has been a big help. Once I see those I know where to go and investigate/clean up. @robert_brady

Oh, part of the question was “And how effective is it” I have to say I don’t know. I can make an educated guess on how much we would have spent if we hadn’t caught things, but it’s getting harder and harder to evaluate. @JuliaVyse

Even when you add a negative keyword, if its phrase matched you could be preventing any further waste on the queries you see and maybe 50% more on the queries you don’t see (but if Google is indeed hiding the more sus queries, that could be higher) @robert_brady

I think it is important for our clients and stakeholders to know that we are doing our best to make sure that their funds are spent as effectively and efficiently as possible. And that the “as possible” is constantly shifting. @NeptuneMoon

Only if all would understand, I have to defend my decision to not spend at times which saves them money & actually costs me if the deal is % of spend. @alimehdimukadam

Q5: What could the platforms do to help combat wasted spend? (Because we can dream right????)

Police their search partner and display networks more thoroughly. @robert_brady

Stop shady default opt ins to settings like location, audience expansion, etc. @alimehdimukadam

It won’t happen, but provide better transparency on keywords. Bring back reporting that showed actual physical locations of searchers. @NeptuneMoon

If their algorithms are so amazing at determining which people are likely to convert, should they be just as amazing at spotting spam/abuse? @robert_brady

Give us feedback mechanisms for terrible keyword matches to teach the machines (I have been asking for this forever). @NeptuneMoon

SO. MUCH. I think a big win is combating MFA (made for advertising) fraud sites that don’t show your message to eyeballs and just encourage bot traffic. I know it’s not easy, but if anyone has the resources to do this, it surely is Google and Amazon. @JuliaVyse

Google could clean up the GDN – I am laughing as I type that because they would never. @NeptuneMoon

Yea – niche blog sites became a collateral coz Google fumbled that with HCU & MFAs still exist while some really good ones had to shut shop. And it looks like they don’t or can’t press ctrl z to whatever that update was. @alimehdimukadam

And don’t get me started on Meta. There so-called reach planner is filled with bots and lies. Their engagement metrics are super weird and they are just not transparent about the challenges on their platform. @JuliaVyse

Audience Network for the win! @alimehdimukadam

I wish platforms would realize that if they were more honest with us we could sell their platforms to clients better. We could talk up what is good, truly and keep clients from doing stuff that is less good for them. And keep them happier and spending. @NeptuneMoon

How can I call you with growth strategies that end up increasing shareholder value. @alimehdimukadam

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