I thought we are facing the issue in India only. Suddenly this year results are died out. Advertisement verification is a pain. And suddenly the performance is not there
I've had little to no success with ads, but a lot of success with SEO with our local photography business. I've been refining our landing pages, copy and blogs to get more exposure. Sitting around a 3% CTR and going up every day. We spend nothing on ads right now and have more than enough leads. Would argue that more people need to network and get in person leads if they are a local business. Sitting on your butt and relying on ads or SEO isn't going to reward you long term. Combination between online, in person, repeat and referrals will make your business prosperous.
@ in person networking at small business groups like chambers, bni etc. Networking with people and selling to them and getting referrals for business to business sales.
@@sanderpinxten9200 I used to get angry when they used to contact my customers, but I started to realize they are actually doing me a favor. By not being on the call when the "terrible advice" is being given by the reps I'm basically excluded from the blame. What I tell my clients is these people are being paid to get you to increase your ad spend, if you choose to take their advice and it doesn't work out don't come to me, I'm here to help you get better results but I can't be liable for bad advice from other peeps.
I’m a small business owner. People are spending less all across the board. There are also alternatives to market on social media for a lower cost or free.
I do digital marketing also and I have told clients that 10% into google ads is all I recommend there are a lot of other options that target the clients you want, like you were saying.
It’s very well said. Instead of complaining about the broader environment, it’s better to stay focused and continuously optimize and test. We cannot change the macro environment, but what we can do is to take care of the small things at present.
This video is dead on! We’ve been seeing absurd increases in CPCs with more drastic fluctuations in results than ever. Many clients are leaving the platform. Thanks for voicing this!
I've literally haven't been given any image ad from Google that wasn't a scam using the logo of a big brand and text about some Gift box lottery with an ai generated image of a box this year. If Google removed those scammers immediately actual advertisers wouldn't get buried as much, but Google is happy to break trademark law in the name of scammers
And funny thing is they Ban small owners all the time for not following policies examples. (No pop ups och year around sales). Well temu does that don't they, literally looks like the most scam site ever
I’m going through this right now, I live in the middle east, and the support team that contact me is from an East Asian country, and they’re super careless, almost 2 months and my account verification process is still not solved.
@@majedmohammad_ Be very aware of the changes they are suggesting. Sometimes they are simply trying to up-sell you. Also make sure you write down each person's name you interact with and what happened during each meeting. That has been the only way to keep some sort of truth. Also be sure to avoid changing things too often. Try and keep a schedule of at least two weeks before changing anything so the system can learn.
Since Novermber, 1st my account is not wasting money or delivering my ads, anybody could share whats is going on? Several publishers are complainig about ir, here in Brazil the situation is a trully caos.
for my ecom clients i noticed a large drop in performance right when everyone was forced to adopt consent banners. Finding a work around to this is key to restoring performance in 2024
is there a list of the floor prices for each niche? it's always been clear that Google didn't give you good traffic until you paid out a certain amount... they are going out of business so they are squeezing their customers harder.
they are pricing alot of sectors out now, sadly im in one of those sectors, ads used to be profitable, i've spend almost 6 figures, and i'm only one person, when you add up everybody they are pricing out, they are most likely losing more than they are gaining by raising prices
5:28, Here it is not recommended to compare MOM YOY data as there are various factors involved such as quality score ad rank auction activity etc.. as these factors are dynamic in nature in the advertising landscape the results may vary MOM YOY..
Well I guess it's good to know that we're not the only ones feeling this. For us, everything went straight to trash immediately after GA4 went into effect
Check out my video on how to Set Up Search Campaigns and make sure you have setup correctly. Hopefully that might help give you some pointers on what to try and test/change.
Thank you so much Austin for this video. One thing I have noticed is that you don’t have any videos about demand gen, I would really love to hear your thoughts, set up, best practises etc.
It really depends on what the competition is like in your area. If not many competitors are running ads then you'll be fine. If there is a lot of competition than it can get tricky. But if you have the marketing budget absolutely try and get Google Ads to work.
Last year, almost no Google Ads. We have a seasonal photography business, and last Christmas, we spent a boat load, and sales were still down. Fall sessions naturally we are booked solid without adsz but this year a fair amount invested and reasonable bookings and we are ok with it, but i personally believe people have run out of disposal income ot it is very tight and photography, makes sense to say no to this investment. But I am really happy you mentioned getting off our ass and improving our website, copy, and reviews. This we have slowly been working on, and it is paying off a bit. I personally believe we need to have a better formula in our home and landing pages and update with more current improved images as we improve every photoshoot ... and yes, the ads are sneaky, giving themselves a little extra cha-ching here and there. Unfortunately, it is corrupted, but it is sadly a needed product. Great job on the video, i think, personally to drive home on this type of issue as a topic and get it ironed out a bit for your agency, and I/we appreciate the awkward discussion you are presenting. Cheers!
This right here. Great work! ----> "But I am really happy you mentioned getting off our ass and improving our website, copy, and reviews. This we have slowly been working on, and it is paying off a bit."
Depends on company and industry but I do try and push all clients to work on brand and content - and that isn't something I even sell as a service I just know how important is. My richest clients dominate not because they have they best Google Ads campaigns - they dominate because they killing it at all things within their business and have become well known in their space.
Thanks for the video! Now, did you already made a video about "limited by bid strategy" issue? Otherwise maybe you can help me out. I have a issue with my campaign i launched yesterday. It says, "limited by bid strategy" and its not doing anything. What should i do? On the internet i see people saying i should use automated bidding. Thanks in advance!
The same for the Meta’s “marketing specialists” calling every now and then. They are nothing else than sales personnel with the goal to increase your spendings. I just cut them off when they are calling.
There was a time when Google Ad(words) price was actually based partly on the ctr of your pages. Those were the times... Now it is just a jungle of sh*t ... no wonder AI is picking up so fast
Great video . Quick question , about users that visit from IOS devices and have ad blockers , for example If you are using call rail it blocks the script and also tracking parameters from google ads when they land on the landing page . What would you do in that case ? Is there’s any solution around that you can explain ? Thank you
@@Vineeta1007 I’m not . I have just noticed that many people specially with updated iOS & iPhone 15 and all that safari privacy crap land on the website thru ads but using the ad blocker or private mode completely removes the tracking parameters , CallRail script and in general third party cookies . So I have discrepancy with conversion reporting and my tcpa goes up . Half of them are high paying customers btw so why not .
@@Vineeta1007because some of them are high paying clients . It’s not that they are using ad blockers on purpose , mostly safari privacy mode and specially with new ios updates and users with iPhone 15 that land on the website , the tracking url parameters and third party cookies are being blocked automatically . My target cpa goes up and I have discrepancy in conversion reporting .
Interesting that Google performance is going to s#&% across the board. I hear so many SEOs complain about organic traffic, users complaining about unhelpful SERPs, and now also ad performance is tanking. No wonder Bing is gaining market share.
No rant brother, you are hyper-objective and analytic, thanks a million for the great info you provided, you opened my eyes. Aloha from Athens, Alexis Valiakas.
Totally agree with you that everyone is a sales person ..even the SME support onbarding teams which are outsourced. And yes TH-cam was the theme of every single meeting a couple of years ago...they all got the memo. I am sitting on a workshop today with Google and they are trying to push further up the funnel even though there is zero value for us (we are medical company and not allowed to retarget) but they are pushing this in all presentations today. Total jokers
I actually really liked Bing Ads years ago. You basically just took what worked on Google and mirrored it on Bing. However, Bing is even worse than Google today when it comes to junk traffic and they make it really hard to exclude it all. It is still worth testing and if you can make money from it just do it, but in no way is it a real competitor to Google Ads.
They all get greedy. This is why AI disruption is a good thing. It has put Google on their toes again. They need to get back to innovating and not just squeezing their golden goose (Ads). Otherwise advertisers are agnostic to a platform - we just follow the money.
What was the niche if you don't mind me asking and was it not worth pivoting away from ads to SEO, organic social media, short form videos and a newsletter instead?
@@davidholgate123 mini splits, I tried SEO but with the google update it also went to hell. I’m done with Ecom after 7 years. Moved to a new business, tired of depending on platforms that can fuck your business overnight.
@@davidholgate123mini splits, I left the Ecom game after 7 years because I’m sick of depending on platforms that can fuck your business overnight. I tried SEO but with all the new google updates it went nowhere.
Totally true story, 2024 is totally decreased in performance, there is a big amount of money taken for non working keywords 😂 really hectic, google if you need money just say IT
Thank you for the good content. But this isn't really advice. No matter how much you optimize your business, Google will still squeeze you with rising costs. Yes, improving your business is always a good idea, but it's not the solution to this problem. You should be optimizing your business whether Google Ads prices go up or down. What's really needed in response to rising Google Ads prices is to explore alternative acquisition channels.
They walkways come to something. Google is the worst platform to do advertising take too long and they just keep taking money. Facebook works 100 % faster and better
Hey Grow , awesome video! Your unique style really stands out. I'm a video editing specialist focused on TH-cam growth, and I can help enhance your content with high-quality edits and engaging thumbnails. If you're ever open to exploring new ideas or strategies that can boost your channel further, I'd love to connect and see how we can collaborate. Let me know your thoughts!
Google needs a class action from advertisers. $34.00-$99.00 per click in certain categories. That's bloody criminal! How are we suppose to beat that??
I thought we are facing the issue in India only. Suddenly this year results are died out. Advertisement verification is a pain. And suddenly the performance is not there
I've had little to no success with ads, but a lot of success with SEO with our local photography business. I've been refining our landing pages, copy and blogs to get more exposure. Sitting around a 3% CTR and going up every day. We spend nothing on ads right now and have more than enough leads. Would argue that more people need to network and get in person leads if they are a local business. Sitting on your butt and relying on ads or SEO isn't going to reward you long term. Combination between online, in person, repeat and referrals will make your business prosperous.
Same here.😊
Wdym online and in person?
@ in person networking at small business groups like chambers, bni etc. Networking with people and selling to them and getting referrals for business to business sales.
Real talk! I've successfully avoided Google ad reps for 5 years now.
I've come across a few good ones but they don't normally last as Google reps then lol
@@growmyads lol yeah I think when they don't hit their target, the target being convert everyone on earth to PMAX, Google shows them the door.
@@NeptuneDesignwhat do you do when they start calling your customers directly?
@@sanderpinxten9200 I used to get angry when they used to contact my customers, but I started to realize they are actually doing me a favor. By not being on the call when the "terrible advice" is being given by the reps I'm basically excluded from the blame. What I tell my clients is these people are being paid to get you to increase your ad spend, if you choose to take their advice and it doesn't work out don't come to me, I'm here to help you get better results but I can't be liable for bad advice from other peeps.
I'm learning Google Ads by taking their free online course right now. It's a bit discouraging to hear the info in this video, but necessary I suppose.
I’m a small business owner. People are spending less all across the board. There are also alternatives to market on social media for a lower cost or free.
You mean running paid ads on social media?
I can help you optimize and audit your running ads campaign
I do digital marketing also and I have told clients that 10% into google ads is all I recommend there are a lot of other options that target the clients you want, like you were saying.
Great video. You forgot that Google wants to put ad agencies out of business because that’s where Google sees revenue growth.
One of the best videos I’ve seen and very relevant to what I’m seeing
I have been running an agency for nearly 20 years and everything you said was spot on.
🙏
Wow! This is a man all business people need to listen to - including the execs at Google.
It’s very well said. Instead of complaining about the broader environment, it’s better to stay focused and continuously optimize and test. We cannot change the macro environment, but what we can do is to take care of the small things at present.
🙌
Decent content but dang this video should’ve been a fourth the length
2x the speed and it only needs to be half the length
This video is dead on! We’ve been seeing absurd increases in CPCs with more drastic fluctuations in results than ever. Many clients are leaving the platform. Thanks for voicing this!
Do you guys help with like the tracking part of ads? That’s the most complicated part IMO
We do it for our clients but haven't offered it as a separate service.
@@growmyadsok dope 😎
I've literally haven't been given any image ad from Google that wasn't a scam using the logo of a big brand and text about some Gift box lottery with an ai generated image of a box this year.
If Google removed those scammers immediately actual advertisers wouldn't get buried as much, but Google is happy to break trademark law in the name of scammers
And funny thing is they Ban small owners all the time for not following policies examples. (No pop ups och year around sales). Well temu does that don't they, literally looks like the most scam site ever
11:29 you’re right on point with their “support team”
I have had the worst experiences imaginable with their support team. They send you from person to person, fixing nothing, until you give up.
I’m going through this right now, I live in the middle east, and the support team that contact me is from an East Asian country, and they’re super careless, almost 2 months and my account verification process is still not solved.
@@majedmohammad_ Be very aware of the changes they are suggesting. Sometimes they are simply trying to up-sell you. Also make sure you write down each person's name you interact with and what happened during each meeting. That has been the only way to keep some sort of truth. Also be sure to avoid changing things too often. Try and keep a schedule of at least two weeks before changing anything so the system can learn.
Since Novermber, 1st my account is not wasting money or delivering my ads, anybody could share whats is going on? Several publishers are complainig about ir, here in Brazil the situation is a trully caos.
for my ecom clients i noticed a large drop in performance right when everyone was forced to adopt consent banners. Finding a work around to this is key to restoring performance in 2024
is there a list of the floor prices for each niche? it's always been clear that Google didn't give you good traffic until you paid out a certain amount... they are going out of business so they are squeezing their customers harder.
I don’t know how it’s so popular because it’s so complicated to set up and so complicated to track.
We headed over to Amazon and we’re selling more at a lower cost than advertising on Google. We’re still on Google but we’ve reduced our budget
don't you then end up spending the same/more on Amazon fees and extra on adverts on Amazon as well?
As someone who launched my first TH-cam ad for a client today, this is a very insightful video
Forgot one little action SEO
they are pricing alot of sectors out now, sadly im in one of those sectors, ads used to be profitable, i've spend almost 6 figures, and i'm only one person, when you add up everybody they are pricing out, they are most likely losing more than they are gaining by raising prices
Thank you for sharing! We all know that we are not alone!
5:28, Here it is not recommended to compare MOM YOY data as there are various factors involved such as quality score ad rank auction activity etc.. as these factors are dynamic in nature in the advertising landscape the results may vary MOM YOY..
Well I guess it's good to know that we're not the only ones feeling this. For us, everything went straight to trash immediately after GA4 went into effect
I just launched my first ad for my service business and the impressions so low! :(
Check out my video on how to Set Up Search Campaigns and make sure you have setup correctly. Hopefully that might help give you some pointers on what to try and test/change.
Im in it for a while but aint getting any conversions for a month +
Thank you so much.
Thank you so much Austin for this video. One thing I have noticed is that you don’t have any videos about demand gen, I would really love to hear your thoughts, set up, best practises etc.
Mainly because I hate demand gen lol. I don't utilize it much. One day maybe I'll get something on it tho.
I’ve just went live a few weeks ago and I’m wondering what your thoughts are on Tires and Wheels . Do you have any clients doing that ?
It really depends on what the competition is like in your area. If not many competitors are running ads then you'll be fine. If there is a lot of competition than it can get tricky. But if you have the marketing budget absolutely try and get Google Ads to work.
@ it’s going to be the United States lower 48 . Drop shipping
A lot of competition
Last year, almost no Google Ads. We have a seasonal photography business, and last Christmas, we spent a boat load, and sales were still down. Fall sessions naturally we are booked solid without adsz but this year a fair amount invested and reasonable bookings and we are ok with it, but i personally believe people have run out of disposal income ot it is very tight and photography, makes sense to say no to this investment.
But I am really happy you mentioned getting off our ass and improving our website, copy, and reviews. This we have slowly been working on, and it is paying off a bit.
I personally believe we need to have a better formula in our home and landing pages and update with more current improved images as we improve every photoshoot
... and yes, the ads are sneaky, giving themselves a little extra cha-ching here and there.
Unfortunately, it is corrupted, but it is sadly a needed product.
Great job on the video, i think, personally to drive home on this type of issue as a topic and get it ironed out a bit for your agency, and I/we appreciate the awkward discussion you are presenting.
Cheers!
This right here. Great work! ----> "But I am really happy you mentioned getting off our ass and improving our website, copy, and reviews. This we have slowly been working on, and it is paying off a bit."
I bet ya OpenAI will end this by bringing "AI Best recommendation Ads"
Preach, i thought I was going crazy
Awesome video!
What would you recommend instead of google ads, what kind of marketing ways?
Depends on company and industry but I do try and push all clients to work on brand and content - and that isn't something I even sell as a service I just know how important is. My richest clients dominate not because they have they best Google Ads campaigns - they dominate because they killing it at all things within their business and have become well known in their space.
Thanks for the video! Now, did you already made a video about "limited by bid strategy" issue? Otherwise maybe you can help me out. I have a issue with my campaign i launched yesterday. It says, "limited by bid strategy" and its not doing anything. What should i do? On the internet i see people saying i should use automated bidding.
Thanks in advance!
I'd recommend checking out my Bidding Masterclass video: th-cam.com/video/IKLR3z0dtgs/w-d-xo.html
My ROAS dropped from a consistent 6 - 7 in 2021/2022 to 3 - 4 in 2023 now it's 2 - 3 in 2024, wtf
The same for the Meta’s “marketing specialists” calling every now and then. They are nothing else than sales personnel with the goal to increase your spendings. I just cut them off when they are calling.
I make consistent result
Appreciate you! Thanks for this video.
Appreciate the kind words! Glad you got value.
There was a time when Google Ad(words) price was actually based partly on the ctr of your pages. Those were the times... Now it is just a jungle of sh*t ... no wonder AI is picking up so fast
it grows because competitors also get smarter better marketing more budget in order to win, in Mexico since competition is low is a breeze
Nice. Yea I've done some consulting in other markets overseas and there are some untapped areas out there.
Great video . Quick question , about users that visit from IOS devices and have ad blockers , for example
If you are using call rail it blocks the script and also tracking parameters from google ads when they land on the landing page . What would you do in that case ? Is there’s any solution around that you can explain ? Thank you
Why do you wanna show ads to people who don't want to see the ads? They're most likely to ignore your ads anyway.
Not sure there is a work around to this. Maybe CallRail support has info on this but I haven't seen anything myself.
@@Vineeta1007 I’m not . I have just noticed that many people specially with updated iOS & iPhone 15 and all that safari privacy crap land on the website thru ads but using the ad blocker or private mode completely removes the tracking parameters , CallRail script and in general third party cookies . So I have discrepancy with conversion reporting and my tcpa goes up . Half of them are high paying customers btw so why not .
@@Vineeta1007because some of them are high paying clients . It’s not that they are using ad blockers on purpose , mostly safari privacy mode and specially with new ios updates and users with iPhone 15 that land on the website , the tracking url parameters and third party cookies are being blocked automatically . My target cpa goes up and I have discrepancy in conversion reporting .
Thanks for the video!)
Could you please mix in a couple mentions of the full name when using acronyms and abbreviations. Thanks
I 100% agree. Hopefully with the antitrust suit against google we will see lower costs! Great video!
Thanks!
Interesting that Google performance is going to s#&% across the board. I hear so many SEOs complain about organic traffic, users complaining about unhelpful SERPs, and now also ad performance is tanking. No wonder Bing is gaining market share.
Great content, appreciate it.
Thanks!
No rant brother, you are hyper-objective and analytic, thanks a million for the great info you provided, you opened my eyes. Aloha from Athens, Alexis Valiakas.
I appreciate that!
I 2nd your “the amount of crap websites I still see in 2024” comment. So true. CRO more important than ever. Got to make every click count!!
Thanks for the insight stories.
Absolutely!
Spam leads are at all time high for us
If you have high ticket B2B clients, we have a lead generation system that could be a very valuable complement to those clients.
In simple terms, its just back to fundamentals, what else we can do.
Great info bro
Appreciate it!
They are not organic leads .. they are clicks stripped of gclid.
Do you also offer courses or can i get on a paid call with you? need some help for my agency! 🙏
Courses coming stay tuned...For now I'd go join our free group and then you can DM me: www.skool.com/ppc
Greeeed!, google wants a bigger piece of the cake.
💰
Bill Hicks has a great video on marketing you should all watch
Totally agree with you that everyone is a sales person ..even the SME support onbarding teams which are outsourced. And yes TH-cam was the theme of every single meeting a couple of years ago...they all got the memo. I am sitting on a workshop today with Google and they are trying to push further up the funnel even though there is zero value for us (we are medical company and not allowed to retarget) but they are pushing this in all presentations today. Total jokers
lol yea I love when they push something you can't even do due to Google's own restrictions.
With Edge browser gaining decent market share over the past few years do you think Bing Ads are a good play?
I actually really liked Bing Ads years ago. You basically just took what worked on Google and mirrored it on Bing. However, Bing is even worse than Google today when it comes to junk traffic and they make it really hard to exclude it all. It is still worth testing and if you can make money from it just do it, but in no way is it a real competitor to Google Ads.
Seems like Google is getting greedy. Sad times
They all get greedy. This is why AI disruption is a good thing. It has put Google on their toes again. They need to get back to innovating and not just squeezing their golden goose (Ads). Otherwise advertisers are agnostic to a platform - we just follow the money.
@@growmyads Very true!
Nope. Continuing to scale our clients accounts
Google Ads is rubbish the same as Facebook.
Facebook ads with funnels and retargeting is an absolute goldmine for me!
Great Video! Love from Pakistan.
Learn, adapt, do better.
No other way.
*I wonder how this will impact digital marketing in the future.*
Well hopefully Google doesn't have as much power in the future but time will tell.
Great video
Thanks!
Ain’t no end google always gon b #1
I gave up on my e-commerce store that made me millions in sales before because of that.
Sorry to hear that. This is why I push my clients who have a high % of their sales coming from just Google Ads to work other channels.
@@growmyads I tried bing too, it was garbage, there is not much left after that. My products can't be sold on Facebook, they are way too expensive.
What was the niche if you don't mind me asking and was it not worth pivoting away from ads to SEO, organic social media, short form videos and a newsletter instead?
@@davidholgate123 mini splits, I tried SEO but with the google update it also went to hell. I’m done with Ecom after 7 years. Moved to a new business, tired of depending on platforms that can fuck your business overnight.
@@davidholgate123mini splits, I left the Ecom game after 7 years because I’m sick of depending on platforms that can fuck your business overnight. I tried SEO but with all the new google updates it went nowhere.
Totally true story, 2024 is totally decreased in performance, there is a big amount of money taken for non working keywords 😂 really hectic, google if you need money just say IT
Ppc takes your profits 📈
can I edit your TH-cam Videos?
They need money for ai
Thank you for the good content. But this isn't really advice. No matter how much you optimize your business, Google will still squeeze you with rising costs. Yes, improving your business is always a good idea, but it's not the solution to this problem. You should be optimizing your business whether Google Ads prices go up or down. What's really needed in response to rising Google Ads prices is to explore alternative acquisition channels.
Yahoo and Reddit people
They walkways come to something. Google is the worst platform to do advertising take too long and they just keep taking money. Facebook works 100 % faster and better
Hey Grow , awesome video! Your unique style really stands out. I'm a video editing specialist focused on TH-cam growth, and I can help enhance your content with high-quality edits and engaging thumbnails. If you're ever open to exploring new ideas or strategies that can boost your channel further, I'd love to connect and see how we can collaborate. Let me know your thoughts!