What made a good campaign go bad?

Something’s changed. But what? You can see the symptoms but you’re at a loss to figure it out.

• Fewer impressions.
• CTR has dropped.
• Conversions have plummeted.
• Average cost per click is up.
• Impression share is down.
• Quality scores of 2s, 3s and 4s.

Is it seasonal? Has Google changed some policy or setting? Is it something simple that you’ve overlooked or this campaign cursed?

Your business (or job) depends on you coming up with a concrete diagnosis. And, after that, a solid plan to get Google Ads performance back.

You’re alone

Most of us don’t have a group of PPC comrades we can turn to. We’re the only Google Ads person at our jobs. We’re advertising for our own business. We’re at an agency that doesn’t employ a bunch of experienced PPC specialists ask for advice.

Asking on r/ppc, Quora or the official Google Ads Community isn’t the answer. A stranger who’s never seen your Google Ads account can't offer more than general suggestions like "Have you tried resubmitting your ads for approval" or "Make sure you’ve got enhanced cpc enabled".

If it was that simple you’d have fixed it.Whatever the problem, you have to fix it and you’re flying solo.

Asking Google is a joke

You might get some useful answers if you’re spending enough to warrant a dedicated account rep. Otherwise you’re stuck with whoever answers the live chat, email or phone.

Your business is floundering, or the boss is asking hard questions or the client is about to defect to another agency, and you get promised an answer in 3 working days!

If you’re "lucky" and get a human on the phone, 99% of the time their English is unintelligible. Some of them have less Google Ads experience than you do. They sound like they’re following a script. Their answer for everything: "Spend more".

Managing Google Ads is bliss when you’re certain that you can spot (and fix) performance-hurting issues. But if you can’t, you’re left scrabbling for a plausible way to explain why the flow of leads dried up. It’s a terrible conversation to have with a boss or a client.

It’s even worse if you’re spending your own money.

Discover the source of Google Ads problems

What if you could tell the difference between a blip you can ignore, a seasonal effect and a disaster that needs urgent attention?

What if you had the knowledge and skills to get to the heart of the problem? And once you’re there, to plan the next steps to fix it? Pronto!

Riding out campaign fluctuations is a breeze when you're confident that you know why they happened. Your campaigns would be smoking hot. You’d get more impressions, clicks and conversions than ever before. CTR would be decent and QS would be up in the 9s and 10s across all your keywords.

What if you knew you could fix all future problems?

• That you’d know what to do if your CTR was 0.5% even though your top impression share was high.
• That you’d know where to start if you got the same number of clicks but half the conversions.
• That you can claw back impression share.
• That you could solve it if you got 0 impressions even though your daily budget was high enough.
• That if you got 8 conversions today instead of the usual 35-50 you’d be able to detect if it was a problem.

There is a self-assuredness that comes when you're fluent at the process of finding the right answer.

Rescue your Google Ads from the death spiral

The longer you leave a struggling campaign the worse it gets. Lower CTR leads to lower QS. That leads to higher costs, fewer impressions and worse position on the page.

Google Ads is an important source of traffic to your site. When it works you get a dependable flow of impressions, clicks and enquiries. But when something goes wrong you must be able to fix it.

You can’t flail about changing ads, pausing keywords, adding negatives, raising or lowering bids hoping that it’ll fix itself. This could drag on for months.

Instead, you’ll nail the root cause of poor Google Ads performance. You'll correct it and sit back and watch the leads start to flow again.

Master Google Ads diagnosis

Get to the root of the problem by following the methodical process in this 67 page ebook.

Narrow down possible causes. Home in on the exact source. Eliminate hit-or-miss guesswork and be assured that you know what went wrong and how to fix it.

It is a great resource to turn to when things are not going the way you expect. Other than the valuable information provided I think the two main things that I can pass on to my partner that are confirmed in your writings are: Don't judge a campaign's performance on just a few days if you have confirmed the basics are correct. Data will point to the problems so be prepared to wait for it.
- Keith Millington

Invest in your skills now.

You'll learn how to find and fix Google Ads performance issues.

• Discover exactly why you’re getting fewer leads from Google Ads than before.
• Identify the real reason for the fall in impressions, clicks or conversions.
• Plan remedial action based on data, not guesses.
• Feel upbeat about Google Ads again.