Do you think you know everything about Google Ads? not so sure. Google Ads is becoming more complex from year to year, some features go unnoticed, others do not work in principle. Here are 7 little-known things about how Google Ads works…
1. Google may charge a maximum of two ad clicks
Google can count two clicks on the same impression of a Google Ads ad. We haven’t discovered anything, Google clearly indicates this in a formulation that is definitely their own: “Note that with Google Ads, you pay a maximum of two clicks per impression”. We feel a favor (“only two clicks”) while we can logically expect to be able to pay only one maximum click per impression.
Through ad extensions (clickable extensions: site links, calls, locations, prices, promotions), an advertiser can actually pay for up to two clicks if the same Internet user is placed on an ad at the same time and on an extension. Clicks on the title. Or even on two extensions.
We assure you: the chances of two clicks on the same ad by the same internet user are slim. In fact, this assumes that the Internet user right-clicks (or cmd/ctrl+click on computer or even a long click on mobile) to open the destination page in a new tab and then clicks on an element again. Clicking to returns to the initial tab. of advertisement. Another scenario: Two clicks can also be counted if the Internet user goes back to the browser after the first click. The ad appears again (it’s not a new search, but so is the same impression) and the Internet user can click a second time.
Have you ever seen more than 100% CTR? Now you know why.
2. No more random ad rotation!
Even though Google Ads now recommends having one responsive ad (RSA) per ad group, there is the possibility of choosing between two options for delivering different potential ads within the same ad group: random delivery or best performance displaying ads. The random distribution option can be very useful when you want to test the AB, manually and without methodological bias, on two different ADs.
Keep in mind that selecting the “random ad rotation” parameter – which would mean that if an ad group has for example two ads, each representing about 50% of the total impressions of the ad group – it has no effect on the distribution. Advertising does not affect, the system nevertheless favors the most efficient advertising.
3. The best performing ads don’t always show the most
If the Google Ads algorithm is forced to display ads that are primarily the best performing ones, it turns out that it may display more poorly performing ads.
Below is an example with two ads in an ad group for a “Maximize conversions” campaign.
We have two responsive ads, which are algorithmically judged as “good” and “excellent” respectively.
“Good” advertising is actually less efficient (low CTR, higher CPC, lower conversion rate), but it is almost twice as popular as the best performing ad.
We invite you not to always rely on the algorithm and closely inspect its options to force it to be perfect.
4. Bid Adjustment in Smart Bidding
The automatic bidding strategy (or smart bidding) has (almost) no bid adjustments.
On campaigns with manual CPC or max clicks, it is possible to adjust the CPC down or up (for example + 10% or – 25%) depending on the device (mobile / PC / tablet), geographic region and day of the day. Week.
In an automated bid strategy, you have the possibility to use bid adjustments to prevent the delivery of your ads by applying a -100% adjustment to only one or more devices.
One important exception to be aware of: With a target CPA bid strategy, you have the ability to apply adjustments at the equipment level (and only the equipment), which are treated as target CPA adjustments. If your campaign-level CPA goal is $5 and there is a -20% adjustment on mobile, the algorithm will not exceed a CPA of $4 on mobile.
5. Google Ads may render extensions automatically
In addition to extensions that can be set manually, Google Ads may automatically display extensions dynamically based on elements on the advertiser’s site. There are three main types of these automatic extensions: sitelinks, excerpts, and teasers.
The system can also distribute vendor review extensions automatically, but these are automatically distributed only if certain criteria are met, they cannot be set manually.
Primary extensions are elements whose content advertisers should be able to control, in which case automatic extensions should be disabled one by one. Automatic extensions are enabled by default, follow this step-by-step to disable them.
6. You can advertise with titles longer than 30 characters
Ad titles in search campaigns are limited to 30 characters. Sometimes what you want to appear in your ads is 30 and a few characters long, for example “One Loop Apple Watch Strap” which is 34 characters. In this example, we can clearly see that it is impossible to find an option that has only 30 characters. There is a solution: Ad Optimizer.
Ad optimizers allow you to optimize the content of an ad based on various target elements: campaigns, ad groups, keywords. You can configure the distribution of the title in the customizer to use our example, the keyword “Single Loop Apple Watch Bracelet”. It’s not official by any means, but Google Ads tolerates titles longer than 30 characters in titles in the ad customizer. You can go up to 35 characters, like in this example where Title 2 is 34 characters long.
7. Negative Keywords Are Always Exact Keywords
With Google Ads, words sometimes lose their meaning. For example, the type of match (in square brackets) called exact keywords, which will display your ads when an Internet user types the exact keywords, will also make your ads appear on close variations of the keyword.
Take keyword example [maintenance informatique], Your ads may be broadcast if the Internet user’s search has a spelling error (computer maintenance), if the search has a similar syntax (computer maintenance), semantics that the algorithm considers close (computer support, computer troubleshooting, computer support) , Etcetera) .
On the other hand, in the case of negative keywords, which make it possible for an Internet user not to broadcast their ads when a word or expression is present in the search, the algorithm no longer covers any variants and sticks to the exact negative. bar keyword.
If, to return to our example, an advertiser bidding on computer maintenance wants to exclude any query on computer repair (which is semantically close to Google Ads, but which are two very different activities and search), the advertiser must exclude the words – the following keys: troubleshooting (of course), troubleshooting (without pronunciation), troubleshooting (with a mistake), troubleshooting (in the plural), and variants thereof. All possible combinations of, for example troubleshooting (with a mistake, without pronunciation and in the plural). To the exclusion, the list of negative keywords can be very long.
Do you know about these 7 subtleties of working of Google Ads? In any case, now yes!
About the Author
Olivier Croce (Google Ads Specialist): Founder of the 100% Google Ads Adflow Agency, we design devices to drive and convert traffic to Google Ads.