Are you making Google Ads decisions with the right evidence?

This article is part of a series on how I find high-leverage opportunities to make Google Ads more profitable..

The final part of Phase 1 maps how Google Ads decisions are made.

I’m interested in decisions that work out best when the person making the decision knows what happens to leads after they arrive.

These include things like:

• Increasing or reducing the total Google Ads budget.
• Moving budget between campaigns, services or locations.
• Choosing which kinds of customers to chase.
• Changing ads or landing pages to discourage certain leads.
• Deciding which conversions Google should optimise for.

Why mapping decision making is important

A business can collect useful data about Google Ads leads and not use it.

Imagine that one campaign generates leads for $50 and another generates them for $100. Based on cost per lead, the first campaign looks much better.

But what if only 10% of its leads qualify, while 60% of the more expensive leads qualify?

Unless the person who allocates budget between campaigns knows this, the cheaper campaign is likely to get more money.

Having the evidence is not enough. It has to reach the right person, be understood and be used.

The questions in my audit template

Here are the questions I ask about decision making.

• Who makes Google Ads decisions?
• How often are decisions reviewed?
• What decisions are typically made?
• What metrics are used to judge performance?
• What business data is available to the decision-maker?
• What business data is actually used?
• How does feedback from sales and the business reach the decision-maker?
• How are decisions and their rationale recorded?
• How are the results of changes evaluated?

What I’ve found

These questions help me find out three things:

• Is there clear responsibility for important decisions?
• Does the person making the decision have access to the data they need to support it?
• Do we have a feedback loop that improves decisions?

A common problem is that the person managing Google Ads only has access to the data in the ad account. Based on what they can see - clicks, leads, conversions - the ads look good.

But, the sales team has a different opinion. Some of the leads never answer the phone, others are a poor fit for the business and so on. From their perspective the ads aren't great.

Mapping the decision-making process helps spot these gaps.

In the next part of the profitability review looks at how I decide what to do first.

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