Google rolled out its “Recommendations” page, formerly known as “Opportunities,” in 2018. The page features an optimization score, which measures how well your Google Ads account is set up to perform. The higher the score, the fewer the recommendations Google has to offer.
It may seem appealing to implement recommendations from Google, given the search giant’s huge swath of search behavior data. But often, these recommendations don’t take into account retailers’ unique business goals. In some cases, the advice could increase costs or disrupt a sophisticated strategy.
My fellow analysts and I audited several recommendations appearing in various retailers’ accounts. Some recommendations, particularly those that point out missing ad components or suggest new keywords, were helpful. Other recommendations that change budgets or promote Google’s automated bidding solutions like target ROAS, can cause serious complications.
Be cautious when applying these recommendations. With a single click, you can significantly disrupt performance and lose ground in a highly competitive channel.
Worse, some recommendations are applied automatically. If you see “Auto Apply” on an ad recommendation, Google will apply the change within 14 days if it isn’t rejected. That means a campaign can shift without your explicit consent, and those changes may not always drive positive performance.
Following are a few Google Ad recommendations we uncovered as well as our assessment of their effectiveness.
Automated bidding recommendations
Google frequently suggests applying a smart bidding solution, like target ROAS, target CPA and maximize conversions. While automated bidding can save time and energy if you don’t have enough bandwidth or expertise to manage campaigns, it limits your ability to set granular bids and learn from bid adjustments. Google provides little transparency into how it sets bids when a smart bidding tool is applied.
target CPA. Losing complete control over bid management nets the retailer one more order. The impact of such a change is minimal, but the strategic cost is high.
In addition, the suggestion provides no explanation of what will happen to traffic if the retailer uses target CPA. If the smart bidding solution sets CPA too low, it could strangle traffic. In a competitive environment like Google Ads, lost opportunity can hamper performance for weeks.
The optimization score gain from this change, 12 percent, is also the highest of any of the recommendations we saw. The high score suggests that implementing smart bidding solutions like target CPA will make the most positive impact on campaigns. This is misleading because smart bidding can have unpredictable outcomes. You may have a negative impact on secondary goals beyond CPA or ROAS. Consider these risks before applying an automated bidding tool.
Ad creative recommendations
Google recommendations are a helpful way to audit paid search ads. Copy improvements that would take a lot of human hours or days to adjust, will take Google a matter of minutes. The search platform can quickly analyze paid search ads and understand if key components of the ad are missing.
higher quality score lowers ad costs.
Although all of that makes a big impact on paid search performance, Google says this particular recommendation only increases the retailer’s optimization score by 0.1 percent. In reality, these tweaks can improve performance significantly.
Google provides a helpful tip here, but its optimization score misleads the retailer about the importance of useful, targeted ad copy.
Keyword recommendations
Similar to ad audits, Google analyzes retailers’ keywords and assesses how much traffic certain terms drive. If particular keywords haven’t delivered traffic, Google will suggest eliminating those terms from the campaign, as it does below.
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About The Author
Sidecar. He analyzes digital marketing performance and strategic direction for large retailers across verticals, focusing on data visualizations and advanced account segmentation. He is responsible for deriving meaning from numbers and determining how to use those insights to drive marketing decision making. Steve is especially close to Google’s new innovations impacting Shopping and paid search. He has a master’s degree in data analytics and contributes to Search Engine Land as well as Sidecar Discover, the publication by Sidecar that covers research and ideas shaping digital marketing in retail.