Google’s primary goal is to encourage advertisers to spend money. While they may have some interest in your campaign’s success, their main objective is to ensure you continue spending. For this reason, it’s important to approach Google’s recommendations with caution, as they are designed to benefit Google first and the advertiser second.
Many settings within Google Ads can lead to inefficient spending if not properly managed. Below are nine key settings you should review to maximize the effectiveness of your ad campaigns and ensure your budget is used wisely.
The list is organized from the most detrimental to the least impactful setting or feature
Use this video here to learn how to apply all these settings and get the most out of your ads.
1. Auto Apply Recommendations
This setting allows Google to automatically apply its recommendations to your account. However, as previously mentioned, Google prioritizes its own interests before yours. One of the most concerning recommendations is the automatic addition of keywords.
This can be detrimental, as Google may add broad-match keywords to your campaigns, which can significantly impact your metrics and quickly exhaust your budget.
2. Optimization Score
The Optimization Score is Google’s assessment of your account’s performance. However, this score is largely irrelevant. It primarily reflects how closely you follow Google’s recommendations, which are designed to benefit Google, not necessarily your campaign. Successful campaigns can have both high and low optimization scores, so the score alone does not indicate performance.
It’s important to focus on the actual results of your campaigns, not on this gamified score.
Ignore it.
3. Display Network
Enabling the Display Network allows Google to show your ads across its partner network, which often leads to wasted ad spend. For search campaigns, this setting should always be disabled. The Display Network includes mobile apps, games, YouTube, and other platforms where user intent is generally low.
Ads served in these environments are unlikely to perform well and will divert budget away from high-intent search results.
4. Search Terms
The default search term setting in Google Ads is broad match. While broad match can be useful in certain cases, it requires careful monitoring and the use of negative keywords.
Without oversight, broad match can trigger your ads for a wide range of irrelevant searches, quickly depleting your budget. It’s critical to regularly review your search terms to ensure your keywords are driving the right kind of traffic.
5. Sitelink Automatically Created in Your Account
Sitelinks, while occasionally effective, can often lead users to irrelevant pages, resulting in wasted clicks. Google offers a setting that automatically creates sitelinks by pulling pages from your site.
This can be problematic, as Google may select inappropriate pages like “About Us” or “Our Team” for sitelinks. It’s best to manually select relevant sitelinks that align with your campaign objectives.
6. Call Ads
Google’s settings can convert a call ad into a website link ad if you input a Final URL. This means that both your website and phone number will be shown, and you’ll be charged for website clicks.
To avoid inefficiency, use only a verification URL in your call ads. Including a website URL results in paying higher call ad prices for standard text ad results, which is a poor use of your ad budget.
7. Search Partners
Enabling Search Partners allows your ads to appear on lesser-known search engines, which typically offer lower-quality traffic. Often, these search partners are internal engines on websites with poor user engagement. Disabling this setting can save up to 10% of your budget and improve your overall campaign performance.
8. Broad Match Keyword Setting
The Broad Match Keyword setting in the campaign settings is a relatively new feature and can be misleading. When enabled, it forces all keywords in the campaign to use broad match, which can lead to inefficiencies and wasted budget. It’s important to carefully manage this setting to avoid unnecessary costs.
9. Location Target
In the advanced campaign settings, there is an option that allows your ads to be shown to users who are searching for information related to a location but are not physically in that location.
For example, your ads could appear to a student in Germany researching cars in the United States. If your target audience is geographically specific, it’s important to disable this setting to avoid irrelevant impressions and wasted spend.
To see how to adjust all these setting check out the video here. And good luck with your campaigns!cras magna vivamus per risus fermentum. Dapibus imperdiet praesent magnis ridiculus congue gravida curabitur sagittis enim magna inceptos sodales parturient.