Hey there, Benjamin from Loves Data here! Today we're talking about optimizing campaigns in Google
Ads. Now, when it comes to optimization, there are lots of different techniques you can apply.
You can test your ads. You can review the search terms to adjust your keywords. You can
restructure ad groups. Change your bids. Change your budget. Adjust your targeting. And more.
But what about automatic optimization? Instead of trying to do all of those things ourselves, what
if we used Google's optimization score and applied Google's recommendations to our account? Well,
that's exactly what we will look at. I wanted to see what would happen if I applied all of Google's
automatic optimization recommendations for a week. Would it improve my optimization score? And more
importantly, would it improve the results of my campaign? In this video, you're going to find out!
We're going to start by traveling back in time to see my original campaign in Google Ads...
Okay, so we're looking at my demo account and at the top, we can see that Google Ads is telling
us that our optimization score has dropped. That doesn't sound good, so I'm going to select this...
And we can see that the optimization score is 56.4%. Google says that our optimization score is
an estimate of how well our account can perform. So if we can increase our score to 100%, then
our account can perform at its full potential. Scrolling down we can see there are different
recommendations. And each recommendation we apply will boost our optimization score. Okay, before
I start applying Google's recommendations, let me give you a quick overview of the campaign...
The campaign has a budget of $1 a day. It's a search campaign. It has one ad group. It
has a small selection of keywords and it promotes my Google Analytics Glossary.
You will notice it has an optimization score of 56.4%, an average click-through rate of 9.07%
and an average cost per click of 92 cents. The main objective for the campaign is to send traffic
to my blog post, but some people do provide their details to download a PDF copy of my glossary.
So we can see for the date range there are five conversions, a conversion rate of 15.63%,
and an average cost per conversion of $5.91. Okay, now let's head back to 'Recommendations'...
The first recommendation is to change our bidding strategy. I'm using a manual bidding strategy,
but to increase our optimization score, we can see Google Ads is recommending that we change this
to the 'Maximize Conversions' bidding strategy. So let's go ahead and apply this recommendation...
Great! Our optimization score is now over 70%.
The next recommendation is to add new keywords to the campaign. Let's view them...
We can see there are three recommended keywords to add. They're not keywords I would choose myself,
but since this will boost my optimization score further, I'm going to add these...
The next recommendation is to create a customer match list. Customer match lets you upload details
for your existing contacts like their email addresses so that you can target them with
remarketing ads and to let Google Ads create similar audiences. I'm going to skip this for
now. So let's look at the recommendation to add a callout extension for our ads...
There are four automatic recommendations... So I could add these... Or I can click 'New Callout
Extension' to create my own... So I'm going to enter my own callouts to display with my ads...
Now I'm going to click 'Apply'... The next recommendation is to change the targeting of
my campaign... I set the campaign to only show ads on Google Search, so this recommendation is
to also show our ads on Google Search Partner sites... Let's apply the recommendation...
Next, is the recommendation to add structured snippets...
Let's view this recommendation... And I'm going to select a header for the structured snippet...
And I'm going to enter some values for the header...
I'm going to click 'Apply'... The next recommendation is to improve
my responsive search ad, so let's view this recommendation... We can see Google
Ads telling me that the ad strength is 'Good', but it says I should add more headlines and I
should make my headlines more unique. So I'm going to go ahead and add more headlines...
And it now says the ad is 'Excellent'... Let's apply these changes...
The next recommendation is to add two audience segments as
observations to my campaign. So I'm going to click 'Apply' for the recommendation...
We can see my optimization score is now 94%, so I've improved my score by almost 38%.
The next recommendation is to use customer match... So I'm going to click 'Get Started'...
And I'm going to upload some contact details... Now that I'm using customer match, let's head back
to see the final recommendation... The final recommendation is to change my ad rotation
setting to 'optimized ad rotation'... I have this set to 'do not optimize', so let's click apply...
We can now see my optimization score is 94%. Once the contact details I've uploaded are matched,
the customer match recommendation will disappear and I will have an optimization score of 100%.
The next day there were three recommendations that I applied. The daily budget was increased
to $1.70, the bidding strategy set a maximum cost per acquisition of $7, and the campaign opted in
to show ads on the Google Display Network. Now let's jump forward another day... We can see
that my optimization score has dropped to 91.9%... Let's head to 'Recommendations' to take a look...
The only recommendation today is to adjust our daily budget. So my current daily budget is $1.70
a day, and we can see Google Ads is recommending that I increase this to $4.40 a day. So I'm
going to apply this recommendation... And my optimization score is 100%...
I noticed my optimization score dropped again and there's a new recommendation. So let's head back
to my account to take a look... We can see my optimization score has dropped by almost 9%...
And Google Ads is recommending that I change the keyword targeting for my campaign.
It's suggesting that by changing my keyword match types to broad match I will receive
more conversions at a similar cost. Sounds good to me, so I'm going to click 'Apply'...
And my optimization score is back up to 100%... There were no recommendations for a while,
but then I saw this notification pop up on my phone saying that my ads stopped running,
so so we're jumping forward three days... We can see my optimization score has dropped to below
90%... And Google Ads is now recommending that I increase my daily budget from $4.40 a day
to $22 a day. It's a bit of a jump, but Google Ads is saying that increasing my budget it will help
ensure my ads are displayed as often as possible. So I'm going to apply the recommendation...
And I'm back to 100%... We're jumping forward another day... And heading back to my account...
My optimization score has dropped again... And I have another recommendation to increase my daily
budget. Google Ads is suggesting I increase it from $22 a day to $43 a day. So I'm going
to apply this recommendation... Again, I'm back to an optimization score of 100%...
Another notification popped up on my phone. It says my optimization score has dropped by 8%,
so let's head back to my account one last time to take a look...
I can see the same message at the top of my account, so I'm going to select this...
We can see that Google Ads is recommending that I improve the headlines and descriptions
in my responsive search ad. It wants me to add more headlines and more descriptions...
Let's head to my campaign and take a look at the ads that are already running in the campaign...
Okay, so we can see I have three ads. I have a responsive search ad at the top,
then an expanded text ad, and then another responsive search ad at the bottom...
And we can see that the ad at the bottom has a poor ad strength. This is because I
created a responsive search ad that mimics an expanded text ad for my video last week.
Google Ads prefers us to include lots of headlines and descriptions in our responsive search ads.
Even though the initial click-through rate looks stronger than the other ads,
it still wants us to make changes. Okay, I think it's time to stop my experiment with Google's
automatic optimization. We're going to jump forward one more day. Let's review the results
and talk about the changes that have been made to my campaign. Let's navigate to 'All Campaigns'...
And I'm going to select 'Campaigns'... We can see my campaign now has a budget of $43 a day.
We can see the overall click-through rate is 2.65%, my average cost per click is 99 cents
and the campaign has spent just over $64 during my experiment. There were four conversions,
a conversion rate of 6.15% and an average cost per conversion of $16.12. Let's compare these
metrics to performance before my experiment. Let's select the date range... And enable the 'Compare'
option... And then 'Apply'... We can now see the percentage changes between the date ranges...
So clicks increased by 550%... My advertising cost increased by 648%...
My conversions increased by 100%... But my conversion rate decreased and my average
cost per conversion increased... So what worked and what didn't work? Well, the recommendations
to add callout extensions and structured snippets were good. They will help improve the performance
of ads by increasing their relevance as people are searching. The suggestion to use customer match
was good, but then there were no recommendations to apply and use the feature with my campaign.
The two things that really didn't work were the keyword suggestions and the recommendation to
change the keyword targeting to broad match. These might work with a larger-scale campaign
that has a bigger budget, but for a smaller-scale campaign like mine, it meant my budget was spent
on a number of less relevant keywords. My feeling is that without these two changes,
the increases to the daily budget would have provided better results.
So let's head back to my account one last time for my final tip... If there's a recommendation
that isn't appropriate for your campaign, then select 'Dismiss'... Select a reason...
And confirm your choice... You'll then see you're optimization score
update for recommendations you haven't dismissed...
The critical takeaway is to remember that you're in control of your account and campaigns. You know
what the objectives are, and you can apply additional context that automation can't.
One of the best examples of this was the automatic keyword suggestions that I was given. They just
weren't as good as the keywords I already had in the campaign. So take the time to make sure
that any automated recommendations to optimize your campaigns aligns with your objectives. Are
you going to use the automated recommendations in Google Ads to optimize your campaigns? I'd
love to know! Let me know in the comments below. And if you found this video helpful, then please
like it so I know to make more videos like this one. I'll see you in the next video!