3 Reasons to Leave Google Ads Management to the Experts

As part of our 2014 Goals, specifically Mike's goal of having each of us step into each other's shoes, I decided to take a crack at being a Paid Search Director.

Let's just say, I have a new found appreciation for letting experts handle certain things, especially when it comes to spending money.

Note that our Search Director, Christian Bullock, held my hand through this experience so everything I did ultimately came out as if he would have done it, it just took me 3x longer.

If you don't have a hand-holder and you value your time, I would highly recommend working with a Search Director for these three main reasons:

1. Google is in the business to make money...

And they have no problem taking advantage of those who don't know what they're doing.

There are three types of search queries:

• Broad Match: If you have a string of keywords like, "meal planning", you will show up in search for anything with meal and/OR planning
• "Phrase Match": Let's use the same example of "meal planning" -- you will show up in search for anything that says "meal planning" or "planning meal"
• [Exact Match]: Your ad will only show when someone searches, "meal planning" exactly**

How does Google take advantage of the unaware?

They default to a type of keyword matching called Broad Match Modifier.

Why is this bad?

Let's take our example of "meal planning." If we show up for anything like meal or planning, we could show up for something completely off topic like "insurance plans". That doesn't have anything to do with what Time for Dinner does, and we would have paid for a ton of clicks if people weren't paying attention.

As a general rule, it's best to always go with the type of keyword matching called Phrase Match Modifier, this way you're not too broad and not too narrow with your keyword search.

2. It takes time...

Lots and lots of time.

On top of fumbling through the set-up process, including the process of linking accounts, implementing Google Tag Manager and dropping in conversion pixels, I have to go into Google Ads every day and tweak. EVERY. DAY.

Some of the daily tweaks included optimizing messaging, looking at time of day statistics, adding negative keywords, upping bids and so on and so forth.

Why is this important?

Once, again, it comes back to money.

Here's an example in regards to negative keywords:

By using Google Analytics, and linking our Google Ads account, we are able to see exactly what a user searched for when they clicked on our ad. And a lot of what people searched for was around diet meal plans. Time for Dinner might help you with diet because it's all about eating healthy, but it's not part of it's core offering. Therefore, we went and added negative keywords around diet and plans so we didn't get wasted clicks off topic or brand.

3. It's soul crushing.

If you have an obsessive data disorder like I do, you can lose your mind as you sit there in Google Ads and jam refresh waiting for the conversions to just roll in.

News flash: This takes days, sometimes weeks (depending on your spend) to dial your campaigns in and start to see results. Patience is a virtue only Search Directors seem to possess.

In conclusion

There's a clear reason why Search Directors exist, particularly our Google Ads genius, Christian Bullock, and I'm going to leave this to his expertise moving forward.