Google has rolled out their new Performance-Max AI Generation Tools in Beta. In this article I'll review and rate the new features and let you know whether these are valuable editions to your creative toolbox. What are the new tools? Tools for creating headlines and descriptions build upon what Google was already doing with automatically generated ad copies. Instead of just suggesting ad copy from a list of seed types, Google now allows you to interact with the AI by [...]

Google recently launched "brand lists" for Google Ads. In this article, I'll explain why they did this, how to use them, and whether it's worthwhile even to bother. Why Did Google Introduce Brand Lists? Over several years, Google has slowly but surely relaxed query-matching rules for all keyword match types. Heck, they completely eliminated phrase match, disguising it as eliminating modified broad match. Add to that Google's very hard push to move advertisers to broad match keywords, add-in P-Max, and you've [...]

In this continuing series for specific industries, I'm covering Google Ads for automotive products sellers in this post. This includes companies that sell replacement or aftermarket products and equipment to consumers or businesses. As with the other niches I'm writing about, we have a solid presence in this market space. Before going any further, here are a few words about the scope and constraints of this post. Scope & Constraints The strategies and tactics outlined broadly apply to most advertisers [...]

Among a long list of rarely used powerful Google Ads features sits Google's text insertion tools. The triad of tools includes keyword insertion, location insertion, and countdown. Indeed, these tools can both boost ad performance and simplify account structure - Hagakure. In this article, I'll review each tool, explain the benefit/use case, and how to implement it. Importantly, these tools currently work with Responsive Search Ads (RSAs). I'll also highlight some pitfalls with implementation and how to avoid them. Note [...]

Google Ads budget overruns are virtually inevitable. What's important is keeping them within a reasonable tolerance and/or balancing them out by underspending elsewhere. Avoiding massive short-term, out-of-control spending sprees is paramount to keeping your client or your job! In this article, and this video, I'll explain how my agency mitigates budget overruns. As such, we rarely run into these issues, although we did have an oopsie recently. The last time we had a large overrun was 6-years ago, which is [...]