Google Ads Recommendations: Ignore, Use, or Evaluate

Google Ads is a powerful platform for reaching your target audience, but navigating its recommendations can be tricky. While Google Ads offers automated suggestions to help you optimize your campaigns, not all recommendations are created equal. Some are worth using, others should be evaluated carefully, and a few are best ignored altogether.

Here’s a breakdown of which Google Ads recommendations you should always ignore, use, or evaluate before applying.

Recommendations You Should Always Ignore

• Increase Your Budget Without Justification
  Google often suggests increasing your budget to capture “missed opportunities.” While this may seem tempting, don’t blindly follow this advice. Increasing your budget without analyzing the ROI of your current campaigns could lead to wasted ad spend.
• Broad Match Keywords
  Broad-match keywords are often recommended to expand your reach, but they can bring irrelevant traffic. Unless you have a highly refined negative keyword list, broad-match keywords can drain your budget with low-quality clicks.
• Enable Search Partners Without Analysis
  Google may suggest enabling Search Partners to expand your reach. However, traffic from Search Partners is often less qualified and can dilute your campaign performance. Unless you have clear data showing it benefits your business, it’s best to skip this recommendation.
• Turn On Automated Recommendations
  Automated changes might seem convenient, but they can cause your campaigns to drift away from your original goals. It’s better to maintain manual control over key decisions.

Recommendations You Should Always Use

• Fixing Tracking and Conversion Settings
  Google will flag if your conversion tracking isn’t properly set up. This is critical for measuring your campaign’s success, so always address these recommendations promptly.

• Adding Negative Keywords
  Negative keywords help you avoid irrelevant clicks and save money. When Google identifies irrelevant searches triggering your ads, take their advice and add those as negative keywords.

• Ad Extensions
  Recommendations to add ad extensions like site links, callouts, or structured snippets should always be implemented. These extensions improve ad visibility, provide additional context, and increase click-through rates.

• Optimize Responsive Search Ads (RSAs)
  Suggestions to add more headlines or descriptions to your RSAs are worth following. A well-optimized RSA ensures that Google has more combinations to test, helping you find the best-performing ad variations.

Recommendations You Should Evaluate

• Switching to Target ROAS or Target CPA
  Automated bidding strategies like Target ROAS (Return on Ad Spend) or Target CPA (Cost Per Acquisition) can be highly effective, but they require enough historical data to work well. Evaluate if your campaigns have enough conversion data before applying this recommendation.

• Adding New Keywords
  Google often suggests adding keywords, but not all of them will align with your business goals. Evaluate each keyword to ensure it’s relevant and won’t trigger unnecessary clicks.

• Pausing Low-Performing Keywords or Ads
  Google might recommend pausing keywords or ads that don’t meet certain thresholds. However, some low-performing elements could still be valuable for niche audiences or long-term goals. Assess the context before pausing anything.

• Bid Adjustments for Devices or Locations
  Adjusting bids for specific devices or locations can be helpful, but only if you have enough data to back it up. Analyze your campaign’s performance metrics before making changes.

• Enable Dynamic Search Ads (DSAs)
  Dynamic Search Ads can work well for certain industries, but they require monitoring to ensure they aren’t triggering irrelevant queries. Test DSAs cautiously and monitor results closely.

How to Approach Google Ads Recommendations

• Analyze Your Data First: Don’t apply recommendations blindly. Always look at your campaign performance metrics before making changes.
• Stay Aligned with Your Goals: Only apply recommendations that support your campaign objectives, whether it’s generating leads, increasing sales, or driving traffic.
• Test Before Scaling: For recommendations you’re unsure about, run small tests before implementing changes on a larger scale.

Tags:

You may also like