PPCChat | What's On Your Mind in PPC? | 31st January 2023

Posted February 1st, 2023 by Amita & filed under PPCChat.

Greetings Readers! This changing PPC industry and how to help clients with their questions is always on experts mind and this week’s PPCChat discussion was based on the same. Here is the screencap of the entire session which was hosted by Julie F Bacchini.

Q1: What is on your mind this week in PPC?

I’m interested in finding out more about adding negative keywords in Smart Campaigns. @BRAVOMedia1

I’m grateful for a great performance in January, and I’m curious if a recession will come or not and have an impact on the performance. @DianaAlinaAldea

I know we just talked about it 2 chats ago, but the amount of AI talk in general and specific to PPC seems inescapable right now. @NeptuneMoon

Why are Pmax negatives at account only? It prevents me from doing a viable non-brand search test on Pmax. Also, why does GA4 suck so much? @JonKagan

I am not currently running any PMax campaigns in Google Ads, but their whole “we have solved brand terms” solution – letting you add account-level brand negatives is laughable. It neither addresses the issue advertisers have nor solves it. @NeptuneMoon

Hey gang! Can’t believe I’m typing this but this week I’ve had a re-birth when it comes to Bing. Genuinely found it simple to use and like the LinkedIn interest layering. @PPC_Fraser

Kind of hard to put into words. I’m onboarding a new member of our team, so focused on that honestly. Going through our programs point by point to explain to a new person is a very good exercise to work through your thinking! @JuliaVyse

My next @ppcliveuk happening on Thursday, and how I need to keep having faith in myself the way my community are!! any Londoners going to be around, feel free…bit.ly/ppcliveukfeb23 2 of our resident #ppcchat folks will be speaking. @TheMarketingAnu

Lots of responding to clients and prospects, trying to stay warm, and wondering how GA4 is still around! @gilgildner

The role of an agency in 2023. How creative & landing page optimization are key capabilities, given how much targeting is now automated. I’m thinking about this a LOT. @jyllsaskingales

Improving conversion tracking and understanding attribution across all channels. @dylanppc

A lot actually. Recently I am getting project with both variety and industry of #ppc tactics. So, I think, I am zoning out on strategies a lot instead of execution. But I will try to create a balance. Also, not getting much time to get updates on PPC. I will read. @1tagupta

Keeping clients in check while making sure we meet their needs. Had one go rogue this month by opting into all GAds Recommendations w/o telling us. Also trying to keep newer clients on track with our project plans but they keep getting ahead of themselves. @adclarke10

Will we get deeper into a recession? Waiting to see if the Americans raises interest rates even more. Canada doing 0.25bps last week was less than I thought… they could still raise it more. @duanebrown

I need a deeper understanding of GMP at this point. two main clients are moving onto it, so time to brush up on the new products and how they run in this platform. @JuliaVyse

What reporting for January is going to look like. A few accounts saw a strange decline and I’ve been trying to piece it together. @adwordsgirl

GA4: adding goals and conversions. I honestly can’t figure out the definitions of events, custom events, event parameters, conversion event, etc. Went in circles for a while when I was helping my brother with his carpentry biz’s analytics setup. @timmhalloran

Also, TikTok Ads. Recommendations on creative for clients that have in-house short-form video capabilities versus outsourcing production, storyboarding. And pricing for it correctly if our agency handles it. @timmhalloran

I am working on scaling a project with PMax and Shopping. So, excited to see how it goes. @1tagupta

Honestly, not a whole lot. I feel that everyone tends to be pretty quiet this time of the year. @adwordsgirl

Q2: What have your clients or stakeholders been asking you about this month?

Lots of folks asking about PMax. But even more are surprisingly planning on scaling up & doubling down on ads this year. Very pleased as this is a healthy approach to ads in an unsure economic environment! @gilgildner

I feel like there is lots of uncertainty out there about where the economy is headed. So the questions are “How should we approach this?” @robert_brady

It’s Q4 for my public sector pals, so a lot of what they’re asking for consists of asap launches and also well-thought-out plans for next year. it’s a bit of a gear shift. @JuliaVyse

Clients have just been seeing a lot of changes in the digital space and are keen to understand what’s going on. @dylanppc

If I can predict what will happen this year? I did too good of job of laying out what I think will happen the last two years. I was not always right… just right enough times to shock them. Also clients want my advice on how to make their ad creative better. @duanebrown

Top of my head: GA4 stuff, using ABM to reach X’s audience, wanting to add Google reviews to Shopping products, is Twitter cheaper right now, value of YT subs versus actual sales, integrating AMZ revenue into Power BI cross-channel report, adding a new CC. @timmhalloran

I second that – everyone from small business owners to advanced practitioners wants to talk about PMax. @jyllsaskingales

I find that second one (ad creative) isn’t what people are asking ME about, but what I’m doing a lot of telling THEM about. @jyllsaskingales

Literally the same thing I head every year: “Do we really need brand keywords? @JonKagan

GA4 is causing headaches (migraines) with clients and folks are concerned about the economy and how it is impacting sales. @lchasse

Q3: Is there something you need help with or help figuring out? Let’s help each other solve some problems!

Nothing specific but I just wanted to say I appreciate the #ppcchat community and the willingness of everyone here to jump in and help folks with questions, whether basic or advanced! Thanks for hosting constantly @NeptuneMoon! @gilgildner

I’m helping a client implement Offline Conversion tracking to help feed back the lead quality to Google Ads so that our campaigns can better optimise for the right conversions and become more consistent. Any tips? Anything to look out for? @dylanppc

Nothing is coming to mind but I would like to echo what @gilgildner said about the community. Very grateful to have a group of such smart folks that are always willing to help. @adwordsgirl

I am horribly struggling with pulling the most simplistic reports in GA4, likely due to data sample thresholds. Anyone got a work around? @JonKagan

PPCChat Participants