We Are a Google Partner Specializing in Search Marketing and Search Optimization.
Can your budget be too low for Google Ads? Yes, it can be, based on the market and Google defined minimum bid to appear in the Google Ads auction.
So, what happens when your budget it too low in Google Ads?
You do not get ad impressions.
You get sporadic clicks and typically not during business hours.
You do not spend your daily budget.
You are not getting good click traffic.
Here’s the big catch, if your Google Ads budget is too low to support high click cost keywords (your first page bid), then Google tries so hard to meter out your program through the day that they literally do not deliver even your daily budget.
This continues through the month and accounts that really need a budget and cost per click boost to be competitive may deliver only a few hundred dollars of click activity with a budget of several thousand dollars.
To fix this problem, increase your budget, increase your cost per click and take a very careful look at your keywords (are they too narrow) and your ad serving schedule.
As noted in the announcement, Google rolled out new column sets you can turn on to get a better idea of your new “Average Position” based on their new definition of what Average Position now means to them.
These new items are:
Impr. (Absolute Top) % – the percent of your ad impressions that are shown as the very first ad above the organic search results.
Impr. (Top) % – the percent of your ad impressions that are shown anywhere above the organic search results.
Search (Absolute Top) IS – the impressions you’ve received in the absolute top location (the very first ad above the organic search results) divided by the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive in the top location.
Search (Top) IS – the impressions you’ve received in the top location (anywhere above the organic search results) compared to the estimated number of impressions you were eligible to receive in the top location.
Are you confused yet? The bottom-line is that we have seen many client accounts suddenly have a drop in Average Position in the regular column set now that the definition of what Average Position is according to Google.
The resulting action is that we have had to push up click costs or move to automated bidding algorithms in Google Ads in order to get back to ad positions that allowed for our best number of clicks and conversions.
Obviously clients are not happy about this. It is obvious that Google has adjusted the definition and algorithm for ad placement in order to drive greater profits.
As I manage many top performing accounts across a wide and diverse sector of verticals it is most unusual to see many accounts have the same performance dip in one month and on one specific date when other factors do not come into play.
The bottom-line is that you have to be very sophisticated in approach and management operating in Google Ads at this point in time. This platform is not a place for the inexperienced or do it yourselfer.
I have been a Google Partner and Certified AdWords Professional for years. I have studied and passed numerous certification exams, nearly from the time that Google instituted the AdWords certification program.
This announcement states that people were confused on what Average Position is and that it is not what they had thought. Here is the important quote from the announcement.
Contrary to common perception, average position is not meant to describe where the ad appears on the page. Average position reflects the order that your ad appears versus the other ads in the ad auction. As a result, an ad position of “1” means that your ad shows ahead of all other ads, but it doesn’t mean the ad was at the very top of the page. Sometimes no ads are displayed above the organic search results so the ad with a position of “1” appears at the bottom of the page.
Therefore, we’re rolling out four new metrics over the next several weeks that – unlike average position – provide clear insights on where your ads are appearing on the search results page:
Well, this is a change. All the AdWords test materials and study guides over the years have stated that average position was just that – a statistical average of where your ad appeared on the page to give you an idea of how high or low your position was as a factor of your quality score and bid.
Strangely, now Google has announced that no, we have all been mistaken and that Average Position was not that, but rather a factor of ad rank – which is very, very different.
This is a marked change and one that has impacted numerous client accounts in November. Where accounts were happily chugging along with great click and conversion numbers, November 6th hit and I had many accounts take a sudden nose dive in clicks and conversions. I saw this across several key accounts in very diverse sectors. It appears that Google has restructured the auction algorithm to cater to this new terminology that they have themselves created for Average Position as of this year.
Please visit my post on Wednesday, part two of this series to learn about the new metrics they have rolled out as part of this definition change of Average Position.
We Are a Google Partner Specializing in Search Marketing and Search Optimization.
There are two scenarios I see often in Google Ads – trademark infringement and site suspension. Today I am going to chat about trademark infringement.
For Medical Spa owners one of the biggest issues is getting ads to show using the term Botox. Even if you are a medical doctor who is able to provide Botox injections, you will not be able to advertise with the word Botox without getting an approval.
You will need your rep to pass the form for trademark use approval to the makers/suppliers of Botox at the corporate level. Your rep’s signature will not be enough to get ads to run. Authorization Form
Once a company principle has signed the form – make sure you have supplied your AdWords account number as part of the request process. They will send this online back to Google. Google will then mark your AdWords account as having the ability to show ads with Botox in the ads.
Now Google is pretty picky about the word Botox. They may flag your website and ads as disapproved for use of a Medical term and they may even suspend your website and all advertising for it.
The best thing is to not use the word Botox in your ad text. If you are advertising in the US you may still be able to use Botox in your keyword list, but if you have Botox on your website, you may get a site suspension forcing you to get an approval or remove all content.
If you do use Botox in your keyword list, make sure you do not use dynamic keyword insertion or you will surely run into a shut down issue.
Other words that have similar problems are all facial fillers and injectables like Restylane and Dysport.
If you need savvy help check out our services for Google Ads. We’ll use what we know to try to assist you in getting running again.
