Contextual advertising on Google, it would seem that it might be easier for the person who has just learned how to configure it ?! But experienced professionals who follow Google news can say with confidence that when setting up contextual advertising there are always pitfalls that Google itself systematically leaves behind.
Perhaps your advertising campaigns have been set up for a long time and work like clockwork, you have not opened your advertising account for a long time and have refused the advertising services, since it has already been set up. But beware, there is a possibility that everything will go to dust and it’s not the agencies that set up your PPC campaign that will be to blame, but His Majesty Google himself.
How does this happen?
1. When the daily budget of a campaign is not really a daily budget
Google ads let you set your campaign’s maximum daily budget.
A reasonable person will consider that this means that as soon as you spend your maximum budget for a day, ads will not be shown.
But a reasonable person is wrong.
In October 2017, Google ads changed their rules so your campaigns can spend twice the average daily budget.
The "maximum daily budget" is now calculated and applied during the month, and not every day.
In other words, Google calculates your monthly payment limit, which is the average number of days in a month multiplied by your average daily budget. And then they promise not to exceed this budget within a month.
However, in the end, you can open your campaign in the middle of the month and find that you have already spent your entire monthly budget. (Of course, we do not recommend waiting for the middle of the month to look into your account. You should monitor it daily. But if you try to manage your PPC accounts yourself, this can happen).
This can be an unpleasant surprise if you don’t know how the “daily campaign budget” works.
It’s especially unpleasant if you decide to suspend your campaign in the middle of the month and find that you have already spent your entire monthly budget.
As a workaround, you might be tempted to cut your budget by half. You don’t want to take risks and spend $ 100 a day when you want to spend only $ 50, so you set a daily campaign budget of $ 25. But this is also not the best solution.
You can understand Google in this situation. Campaigns naturally experience spikes and lulls in everyday activities, so flexibility in budget application sounds good.
But we are not sure that this approach is the best solution, especially when it is misleading.
Perhaps it would be better to set the maximum budget for the entire campaign. But for now, this feature is limited to video campaigns with specific stop and start dates.
However, rules and opportunities remain fluid. Just the other day it was noticed that it was possible to set a monthly budget for search campaigns - an option that was previously unavailable.
2. When an exact keyword match is not really an exact match
Once upon a time, “exact match” in the keyword matching options in Google Ads was just that — exact match.
The compliance should have included the specified keywords, in one order.
Thus, the keywords “women's sports shoes” would not appear for “women's sports shoes”.
But times have changed.
Google updated its exact match rules some time ago to allow close variations. These variations allowed changes in word order or small spelling changes.
But since September 2018, an exact match can now allow keyword variations that have the same meaning.
Today, ads with the keywords sports shoes for women may appear for the following searches:
• Women's sports shoes (different word order)
• Sports shoes for women (includes "for")
• Women's sports shoes (similar value)
• Women's sneakers (similar value)
If you used exact match as a way to minimize unnecessary clicks on ads, you have a problem.
You can compensate for this by adding to your list of negative keywords.
3. When good advice is not good at all
This is true: you cannot always rely on the recommendations you receive from Google Ads representatives.
85% of Google representatives do not have the proper experience. Various PPC forums often discuss this topic and the problems encountered by PPC newbies after the “good” advice from Google.
Fortunately, Futureinapps are professionals who test any advice for viability.
Unfortunately, not everyone has such an internal expertise. Therefore, it is worth knowing that the advice you get from Google may not be the advice you need to follow.
Summary
Do not let the calm waters of the PPC fool you.
Everything can change quickly. Problems can develop quickly under the surface of the water. Therefore, be on the alert and always hold the helm in your hands.
