I recently hopped on a follow-up Google Ads coaching call with Ramzi, a business owner who was, to put it mildly, stressed out. It was our third call, and he said he needed an outside opinion before he did "anything crazy" with his Google Ads account.
Last time we spoke, I recommended that Ramzi use Target CPA bidding before increasing his budget. Well, he had ramped up his main campaigns' daily budget to $5000/day (a massive increase). However, at the same time, Ramzi cut the Target CPA from $130 to $90. His goal was simultaneously more volume and greater efficiency.
If you've been managing Google Ads for some time, you can probably guess what happened next. Ad spend slowed to a crawl, barely any new customers appeared, and the company's lead-to-subscriber conversion rate plummeted from 10% to 2-3%. In a panic, Ramzi started adjusting the Target CPA back up: from $90 to $110 to $120 to $135 - all in the course of a week.
Ramzi said it best when he reflected: "We probably broke something."
Because this wasn't our first meeting, and I had some rapport with Ramzi, I felt comfortable enough to pair my next advice with a gentle teaspoon of teasing...
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I said to Ramzi, "You need to take your hands...
bring them off the keyboard...
and sit on them."
I explained that Ramzi was treating Google Ads like a speedboat, when in reality, it’s a cruise ship. Changing the Target CPA every day and jacking up the budget all at once is like a captain telling his crew to double the speed of the ship, and then saying, "Let's go to the Bahamas!"
[two minutes later]
"Wait, no, this is an Alaskan cruise!
[three minutes later]
"Actually, let's take this baby to Europe!
[one minute later]
"Stop no no no, let's go to the Bahamas after all!"
While I've never worked on a cruise ship, I would imagine that the constant direction changes at high speed would cause the boat to tip over, or the crew (and passengers) would throw the captain overboard in mutiny!
Joking aside, automation needs time to learn and adjust. The decisions and optimizations you make today will affect performance a week or two from now.
I told Ramzi that the path to success in Google Ads is built on gradual, data-backed changes. Budgets and targets should be adjusted in 10-20% increments. You need to wait until at least another 10-20 conversions have come through before deciding to adjust budgets and targets further.
Ramzi walked away with a clear plan and a major mindset shift. He had another call booked with me for two weeks later, and I'm pleased to report that he keeps pushing the call back (with sufficient notice, of course!) because he doesn't need to meet with me yet. He's letting the cruise ship keep chugging along toward the destination.
If you've recently made a big budget or bidding change, like Ramzi, and you're also worried that you broke something, here's what to do:
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Stop Making Changes: Giving your campaign different directions every day means it will never reach your destination... because it doesn't have a destination! Take a deep breath, close your Google Ads tab, and come back in 7 days. Then, you'll have some actual data to look at and use for optimization.
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Adjust Incrementally: When you do make changes, make them gradually. Instead of doubling the budget, increase it by 20%, wait a week to see what happens to your reach and efficiency metrics, then consider increasing by another 20%. Similarly, if you want to lower your Target CPA, lower it by 10-15%, wait a week to see how it impacts your reach, and then determine if you're able to lower it even more.
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Pick One Goal: Decide if you are optimizing for more reach or more efficiency. For Ramzi, he needed to choose whether the goal was more sales or lower CPA. I'm not saying you can't eventually achieve both, but you can't optimize both at the same time. For example, more reach means increasing the Target CPA, while more efficiency means decreasing the Target CPA. You can't increase and decrease the Target CPA at the same time!
Does the thought of stepping away from your ads give you anxiety? Book a call with me and we'll put together a stable, long-term plan to get you the Google Ads results you need.
