Google Ads Consultant Archives | Page 2 of 22

April 20, 2023April 20, 2023

Welcome to the New World of Google Ads Tracking – Trust Me, You Won’t Like It

Google is always evolving, and unfortunately we have to evolve along with them. Here’s the big issue – with the implementation of G4, loss of third party cookie tracking, sunsetting of Google UA Analytics around July 1, we are just now starting to really see the new world of conversion tracking for Google Ads – and it is not pretty.

The Issue is Third Party Cookies

The Chrome browser will be retiring third party cookies use next year. More states in the US have been enacting privacy regulations to allow users visiting your website to choose which cookies to allow; which is in effect getting rid of your ability to fully track users to your website. You will now only be able to track the people who allow your first party cookies.

On one site when we allowed users to opt out of marketing and conversion tracking, the recorded activity dropped nearly 80%. The ability of users being able to choose what you, as a website owner, can track is starting to impact Google Ads conversion reporting as well.

Sunsetting of UA Analytics

G4, the new version of Google Analytics, is not easy or intuitive to use. It is hard to find clear revenue and ad spend figures in G4 that have been derived from Google Ads activity. Add to that, the fact that Google puts Google Ads Performance Max and shopping program results in a new channel category called “cross network” and this channel is not marked as results coming from Google Ads clearly.

Cross Network Tracking

Plus, Google and Google Ads have been slow to enable conversion tracking for cross network use. This important metric is still being enabled slowly account by account in Google Ads. We have only one client who has received notice so far, that this feature has been turned on for their account. Once enabled, cross network conversions will provide a modicum of additional information for conversion reporting and raise the current dismal numbers slightly.

The new world of conversion tracking and reporting in Google Ads is a murky one at this point.

Visitors Are Opting Out Not In

Given an opportunity to opt out of tracking and conversion cookies on a website, visitors are opting out and not in. In G4 Analytics, you must manually add cross network activity to the paid search activity to arrive at a somewhat accurate figure for activity be that traffic or revenue.

I am sure that Google will be addressing these issues in the future, but for now G4 is not easy to use, conversion set up difficult, and validity of the data murky.

A Drop in Reported Conversions and Revenue

We are seeing significantly lower conversion and revenue numbers flowing into Google Ads. As a Google Partner and experienced account manager, it is very important to explain to our client/advertisers that this does not mean that Google Ads is not working for them, but rather that all data can simply not be captured and reported as before.

What to Do?

We feel that having our clients watch overall sales, contact form submissions, and review activity against prior years and periods, in addition to information that we can glean from overall site traffic will be important to review in conjunction with Google Ads activity.

Clients should be apprised, in advance, that Google Ads conversions may drop during this transition period and that these lower reported conversion and revenue numbers will most likely be the new reality.

As account managers, we will now have to look at the total sales/leads, if clients will share the data with us, and review actions back on the website, if we have access to their G4 accounts, to get a fuller picture of Google Ads marketing efforts to continue to communicate the value of Google Ads as an investment in our clients’ business growth.

Welcome to the Future

Welcome to the new world of conversion tracking and reporting for Google Ads! However, we are up to the challenge to help you get the most activity possible on Google Ads, even in light of some of these adversities. With more than 15 years of experience on the platform, McCord Web Services is a Google Partner and expert in Google Ads account management.

For more information about our services, we invite you to visit our Google Ads services section and our white label agency services section.

About the Author, Nancy McCord

Nancy McCord is the CEO and Founder of McCord Web Services LLC. She started the firm in 2001 and has been a professional Google Ads account manager for more than 15 years. She is considered to be an expert in Google Ads, Microsoft Advertising, and Search Engine Optimization.

January 18, 2023

January Google Ads Conversions Dip

This month, we are seeing a trend across nearly all managed Google Ads accounts and wanted to share the issue with you and how we are working to improve account performance.

In January 2023, we are seeing a dip in conversion activity in Google Ads across a broad sector of verticals. B2B and B2C are impacted as well as ecommerce accounts.

We are seeing good upward movement in clicks and impressions but conversions are lagging compared to the prior month and last 30 day figures by 13% to as much as over 50%.

With a full review of all account metrics, we are not looking carefully at the use of broad match keywords in client accounts and are either moving out of broad match entirely and into phrase match and/or adding to our negative keyword list.

Of concern to us as experienced Google Ads account managers is the continued push by Google and Google Reps to fully embrace a broad match only keyword strategy. But, we find that broad match does not always meet our clients’ needs.

It is important to monitor closely the search queries that are triggering ads. Google has continued to erode the line between broad match and phrase match much to our concern. This change in client account activity may be an impact of Google continuing to blur the line between phrase match and broad match keywords.

We’ll keep you posted as we evaluate further and continue to react to the changing environment driven by the auction in Google Ads.

June 9, 2022June 8, 2022

What Your Google Ads Manager Wants You to Know About the Cookieless Future

Be Prepared for the Sunset of Google Analytics in 7/2023

July 2023 is coming sooner than you think. Do not be unprepared for the important changes that are coming in how Google Ads tracks conversions. Failure to take this seriously will impact your advertising, costs, the ability to measure the successes from your Google Ads advertising investment and may even cause a decline in sales.

Cookies are changing in July 2023. Google will be sunsetting Universal Analytics (UA), removing third party cookie access from the Chrome browser, and Google Ads will not record conversions in your advertising account from third party cookies after that date.

What Happens to Conversions in this New World in Google Ads?

Right now, most Google Ads conversions are tracked via third party cookies. That means if you have not embraced first party data and G4 Analytics, your Google Ads account may not show all conversions that are being generated from Google Ads. You still will get conversions, but you just won’t know where the conversion came from. For some clients, they will erroneously feel that Google Ads is not working for them, and cut ad spend budgets in error. For many this will create a loss in sales and may even drive some companies out of business.

The Impact of the Cookie Change for Google Ads Account Management is Significant

Google Ads advanced bidding algorithms all use cookies to record conversions. Without valid conversion data the bidding algorithms will have trouble setting appropriate bids and Google Ads will not be able to deliver targeted results. This will most certainly lead to fewer and more expensive conversions when actions are only partially recorded.

Conversions are not going away with this new cookieless world, but the ability to see which conversions are driven by Google Ads will be gone if you do not move to first party data and cookieless conversion tracking by July 2023.

Google Ads has stated that using G4 and Google Ads first party data in website codes will generate data that it will combine with AI to extrapolate conversion data points that it will use for the advanced bidding algorithm and conversion reporting metrics.

From the Google Ads Manager Perspective

Many clients are simply not aware of how automation is used in their Google Ads account. Bidding from the keyword level and even ad text inclusion by viewer is all driven by conversion results. Without strong and valid conversion data to base these decisions on, we return to manual bidding which drops conversion numbers and in many cases does not let an account be competitively placed in the Google Ads auction. And, the bidding algorithm drives up costs and escalates the cost per conversion as it has no idea what to bid based on no data or flawed data. The responsive ad engine does not understand which pieces of ad text generate a return and so does not create compelling ads that generate sales.

Performance drops and clients start to think that Google Ads is not a good investment. They stop advertising and their phone stops ringing, sales drop, and then suddenly everything becomes a crisis.

Without the first party data which powers the Google Ads advanced bidding algorithm and Google’s ability to fill-in conversion data using AI, Google Ads stops working for an account.

But, your competitors are moving forward and continuing to leverage their first party data in Google Ads to get results. What happens is those that did not embrace first party data, G4, and early preparation simply get left behind and lose business to others that could have been theirs.

Our Recommendations Is to Be Prepared

We recommend using the first party data of Google Ads tracking code to track conversions on your website and using G4 Analytics for a deeper insight into your website traffic.

Don’t wait and get caught in a spiral of confusion and lack of important decision making data. Plan ahead and actively work to assure your website and Google Ads conversion code is transitioned and ready for the cookieless future before the deadline.

For more information on this important topic we recommend this article at Search Engine Land.

For help with Google Ads optimization and how you should move forward with implementing first party data, please contact us from our website.

March 21, 2022

What to Know About the Future of Web Cookies

The future of the Worldwide Web is cookie-less. Google has announced that the Chrome browser, which has a market share of 66.6% (as of December 2021) will drop third-party cookies in 2023. Most other browsers already allow you to block third-party cookies, but we expect all browsers to follow suit with total blocks of third-party cookies in 2023 or earlier.

So what? You may say, but for the world of online advertising, this change is and a really big deal. How so? By blocking third-party cookies, conversion and reporting data will be less accurate and may even impact how willing businesses are to spend cash on paid advertising.

Here are just a few ways that third-party cookies are used:

Google Analytics uses third-party cookies to track user behavior and return the website traffic stats that we all love to use. With 55.2% of all websites using Google Analytics this loss of data may impact marketing decisions and lower the accuracy of results reported in Google Analytics.

Google Ads remarketing programs use third-party cookies to serve ads and track activity. The loss of relevant data and the inaccurate recording of conversion activity may lower the realized relevance of Google Ads and Microsoft Advertising programs as businesses struggle to make a case for high ad spend budgets with lower reported results.

Google Ads uses third-party cookies for conversion tracking data in Google Ads. Without strong conversion metrics, some advertisers may search for alternative opportunities to generate website activity and lower their footprint in paid search advertising.

Facebook uses third-party cookies to deliver ads in based on your online activity. With the changes that Apple made in late 2021 to require users to approve cookies set on their device, Facebook advertisers are reporting a drop in conversions and higher conversion costs.

What is Being Done to Help Advertisers with Cookie-Less Reporting Issues?

Google has been very proactive in seeking solutions for third-party cookie retirement, but with minimal industry participation. This past year most mainstream browsers refused to join Google’s initiative called FLoC. This was Google’s program to solve the third-party cookie program, but getting all browsers to work together to create audience groupings. Due to the lack of interest, Google actually abandoned their program and pushed the self-imposed deadline of dropping third-party cookies back one year.

Google has still not announced a clear resolution that is embraced by browsers on how to solve this issue.

For now, we see Google pushing users into the new G4 Analytics by announcing the dropping of UA Universal Analytics later this year. Google stats that G4 will be able to use cookie-less data and then extrapolate based on trends and machine learning to fill in the gaps in activity. Clearly this is why there is such a push to get websites and advertisers to embrace G4 quickly.

Google is also pushing the use of Customer Match lists in Google Ads. As these lists are first-party data, Google is hedging bets that it will be able to record the conversions and activity from these data sets to boost reporting performance.

At issue for us with Customer Match, is the difficulty for some businesses to map data from their CRM into Google’s data fields. But most of all once the list is loaded, Google sometimes has such a woefully low match to mapping these users to users it knows of that customer match lists becomes meaningless.

For example one of our clients sent us a 10,000 member list to load and Google was able to only map 400 members. You need 1,000 members on the list to use the list in search ads which renders the time and exercise to clean up a customer match list a waste of time.

As this is a difficult problem without a clear path to a resolution, this topic is one you will want to watch this year as Google and Facebook seek cookie alternatives.