Lunio

"I have accounts where even the exact match keywords are getting into borderline broad match territory" ⚠️ If you've noticed exact match keywords becoming 'looser' in recent years, you're not alone. 9 months ago, Scott Carruthers predicted that we could see the death of exact match keywords entirely in 2024 (link to his full post in the comments). And he might be right - a recent Opteo study showed that whilst the feature still exists, the functionality of exact match has significantly worsened in recent years. The study showed that the percentage of search terms matching to exact match keywords, that DON'T contain the target keyword, is almost at 50% 💀 Due to the prevalence of automated campaign types that routinely favour broad match (looking at you, PMax), exact match is very unlikely to improve anytime soon. As such, marketers will need to adapt to less accurate matching, and embrace the era of exclusions. Our latest blog explains how marketers can use N-Gram analysis to consistently stay on top of their exclusions, and maintain a fully-optimized negative keyword list to ensure poor performing search terms don't hamstring PMax campaigns. Learn more in the comments 👇

Do you know where your money goes in PMax? PMax is a powerful tool, but it needs keeping an eye on... When budgets increase or targets drop, there’s a high chance of expanding into Display and Video, reducing the share of Shopping. Not understanding how it works can lead to performance losses and missed opportunities, especially during peak season. The latest changes in auction prioritisation between standard Shopping and PMax add even more questions. Lunio and Opteo are hosting a free event on optimizing PMax, with market experts Lucy Smith and Thomas Eccel. They'll be discussing how to: - Spot common mistakes that waste ad spend. - Understand the real costs of inefficient campaigns. - Discover expert strategies for optimizing Performance Max campaigns. - Find tools to help you take control and maximize campaign results. Register via the link in the comments and learn how to plug the drain in PMax!

Big news - we've officially partnered with Opteo! 🚀 The partnership brings new ways for performance marketers to improve campaign performance and eliminate ad waste. As a first step, we've integrated Opteo's N-Gram Finder for PMax directly into the Lunio platform, giving Lunio users instant insights into low-value keywords and phrases to exclude from PMax campaigns. 🎉 With automated campaign types (such as Performance Max) becoming more prominent, optimization through precise exclusions is key to ensuring optimal ad efficiency. The integration is just the first step of our partnership with Opteo. We're actively exploring additional opportunities to combine our technologies to further enhance ad optimization for our customers! Read the full announcement in the comments below! 👇

🎯 Competitor keyword bidding: A double-edged sword in B2B SaaS? For underdogs, it can be a fast track to reach the right audience. Yet it has the potential to put an unwanted target on your back. Violeta Balbae, B2B & B2C Lead Gen Specialist, shared insights on the controversial tactic in our latest webinar. We spoke to Violeta about the pros and cons of competitor bidding, and she ran us through the key tips & tricks for those using the tactic. Watch the clip for her rundown. Missed the webinar? Catch up via the link in the comments 👇 #B2BMarketing #PPC #CompetitorBidding #LeadGeneration

Join us at PPC Live tomorrow! PPC experts Emma Welland, Inderpaul Rai & Serge Nguele will be sharing their expertise on: • Not losing your passion in PPC • When it’s right to send Google Ads the WRONG data • Is Quality Score dead? Get your ticket here 👇

“...the court reaches the following conclusion: Google is a monopolist, and it has acted as one to maintain its monopoly.” Here’s what marketers can expect following the biggest tech antitrust trial since the 1990s: • Lower ad costs: During the trial, one Google executive revealed that Google manipulated its ad auction process in a way that potentially increased costs by 5-10% for advertisers. One of the best (and most likely) outcomes from the trial is lower advertising costs, due to stricter compliance from Google and greater competition. • Increased competition: It's likely that browsers and smartphones will need to offer a wider range of search engines to users, and educate them about Google alternatives. This will enable and empower other search engine providers, meaning proper diversification of ad spend will become more important than ever. • AdTech innovation: If Google is split up following the DOJ's ruling, competitors and new upstarts will have greater leverage to get their foot in the door. We're already experiencing the momentous impact of AI in marketing - this momentum, combined with additional competitive opportunities in the market, is likely to bring about rapid innovation and new capabilities in the AdTech space. Advertisers will need to stay on their toes, and rapidly adapt to new developments. One thing's for certain - the DOJ's ruling will be a game-changer for the advertising industry. We'll be keeping a close eye on developments going forward 👀 What do you think this will mean for marketers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments! #google #antitrust #lawsuit #monopoly

Exciting news - we’re sponsoring PPC Live this year 🎉 Join us on October 23rd (a week today!) for an evening of insightful talks, networking, and pizza (of course) 🍕 Emma Welland, Inderpaul Rai & Serge Nguele will be sharing their expertise on: • Not losing your passion in PPC • When it’s right to send Google Ads the WRONG data • Is Quality Score dead? Don’t miss out! Registration link is in the comments. P.s - attending SMX London the next day? We’ll see you there!

Almost 25% of Google Video Partners traffic is invalid — that's crazy. 😳 Here's a quick hack to fix your YouTube campaigns: Last year, we hosted a guest workshop in The PPC Hub with Lunio about the problems caused by invalid traffic. I thought the biggest source of invalid traffic would be Google Display Network... But turns out it's actually LinkedIn and Google Video Partners. Some dodgy stuff going on around there... Quick tip: Are you running Video Action Campaigns (YouTube)? Then you’re automatically showing ads on Google Video Partners. (Which you can’t exclude). However, there is a workaround... Add the following placement exclusion: 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗴𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘀𝗲_𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵𝗼𝘂𝘁_𝘆𝗼𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗯𝗲[.]𝗰𝗼𝗺 (remove the brackets) As a result, you will no longer show ads on GVP :). 𝘐 𝘥𝘰𝘯’𝘵 𝘳𝘦𝘮𝘦𝘮𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘪𝘱 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘰 𝘐’𝘮 𝘴𝘰𝘳𝘳𝘺 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯’𝘵 𝘨𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘥𝘪𝘵𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘦. How to verify you’re not spending on GVP: 1. Go to video campaigns 2. Clicks "segment" 3. Click "network (with search partners) If you see “Google Display Network”, you're showing ads on Google Video Partners. After adding the exclusion, you should only see "YouTube". Boom, huge source of invalid traffic fixed. Now, before you go and blindly apply this... Double check your performance: is Google Display Network performing well? Then don't exclude. But in my experience, it doesn't perform great. Good luck! 𝘿𝙖𝙩𝙖 𝙨𝙤𝙪𝙧𝙘𝙚: 𝙒𝙖𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙙 𝘼𝙙 𝙎𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙 𝙍𝙚𝙥𝙤𝙧𝙩 2024: 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙂𝙡𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙡 𝙄𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙘𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙄𝙣𝙫𝙖𝙡𝙞𝙙 𝙏𝙧𝙖𝙛𝙛𝙞𝙘 𝙗𝙮 𝙇𝙪𝙣𝙞𝙤 ↓ If you enjoy these small pieces of advice, consider subscribing to my weekly newsletter. I share practical Google Ads tips to help you scale your accounts. → Join 20.000+ PPC experts here: https://bit.ly/ppcedge2

⚠️ Performance Max is now rolling out to Google Ad Grant users! ⚠️ But before all the nonprofits out there get too excited, PMax for Ad Grants is currently just a slightly enhanced version of dynamic search ads. It does mean nonprofit users don't have to target individual keywords, but it's a long shot from the full PMax experience. It'll be interesting to see whether this is the first step towards nonprofits getting the full PMax experience in the future, as marketing for nonprofits is currently far from 'easy'. Even getting the $10,000/month Google Ads grant in the first place can be challenging, with many nonprofits failing to meet the requirements - or simply not knowing the grant is available to them (Google doesn't exactly advertise it). Then there's the flawed perception that nonprofit campaigns are easy to manage, which Sean Littman's comment below sums up well. Even the new 'PMax-lite' features are limited to search-only placements. To help nonprofits secure their grants, make the most of the $10,000-per-month grant available to them, and get the full picture on the PMax for Ad Grants - we've created a comprehensive guide covering everything nonprofits need to know about Google Ad Grants. (Feel free to share it with any nonprofits looking to boost their advertising efforts!) 🚀 Big thanks to Google Ads professionals 🛰️ Yoann Ferrand, Janie Talerico, Sean Littman, Jenny Williams, and Jimmy King for their insights, discussion, and opinions on PMax for Ad Grants. View their expert takes and our full Google Ad Grant guide via the link in the comments👇