Agencies who hold back expertise in lieu of strategy fee/hourly rates are shortsighted. Your secret sauce ain't secret & execution is worth more than ideas.
We've won so much business from sharing insights on casual, no-cost calls.
Get out there & share expertise!
#ppcchat
@napoleon21st
In Morocco, my private driver took a 2 hour detour to take me to a carpet shop in the middle of the desert, and got upset that I insisted on continuing to Casablanca. Then yelled at me when I didn’t tip.
2023 is barely three weeks old, but so far Microsoft has laid off 10,000, Facebook 11,000, Amazon 18,000, Salesforce 8,000.
Ad/marketing holding companies have been steadily laying off since last year…more recently announced!
We’re not in a recession — everything’s fine.
@Rainmaker1973
Not only that, the US Coast Guard is itself larger than most navies (it would be the 12th largest navy in the world) with 243 cutters and over 40,000 men.
I'm currently 10,000 words into our next book: Digital Marketing for New Business.
(That's less than 20% of the way, btw...might not even be done this year!)
What do most startups & small businesses get wrong about digital marketing?
@chrismanfrank
Definitely did exist - I was homeschooled starting in 1994. Parents didn't like any of the public or private options. Lots of hippies, traditionalists, classicists were doing this way back starting in the 70s/80s.
It's definitely going more mainstream now, though!
Tragedy strikes randomly and easily, but fortune is almost always the result of long, difficult, and calculated decisions.
I don’t have anything else to say, just thought that sounded real smart
This tax year, I rendered unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s.
Based on the amount, pretty sure I also rendered to the Tsar, the Führer, the Khan, the Ayatollah, and a few others as well.
@nim_chimpsky_
He hit an early home run, tried to follow it up with “intellect” masquerading as wisdom, and then became increasingly aggressive when nothing materialized.
When everything is automated, and everything is auto-generated, what sets you apart?
This could apply to online content (ChatGPT), advertising (Google Ads), investing (robo advisors) & countless other things.
At some point, don't you want to break the mold in order to excel?
@flawedaxioms
The downwardly mobile middle/upper class is more tragic than the upwardly mobile lower/middle class. Nothing but esteem for those climbing up, but hard to respect those throwing everything away.
My social media clicks are down and my money is dwindling! I must blame Elon, who I am clearly smarter than! It’s this platform’s fault! He has destroyed my business!
— everybody who can’t afford a blue tick
Hot take: GA4 still sucks. Bad.
Been diving deep into creating custom reports & collections. Data viz is still so limited. Line graphs don't stack, can't customize # of rows, not all metrics are there.
#ppcchat
what's your take? Are we just gonna have to go back to Data Studio?
@ID_AA_Carmack
I am always suspicious of folks who resist open-source tech.
It didn't make sense when it was encryption/cryptography, and it makes even less sense for advanced AI tech. It just means they want to consolidate power.
@ID_AA_Carmack
@esrtweet
I tend against UBI as a concept but this is actually a unique take. Interesting behavioral changes would develop, perhaps for the better.
@SpiritofPines
I was a digital nomad for a few years, heavy into that world. It was fun when I was in my twenties, but in my thirties that constant treading-of-water sounds miserable.
At some point a functional human grows up, gets married, gets busy, and gets a garage to work on stuff.
I was wrong about ChatGPT.
We bought a premium seat with access to GPT4. I'm a contrarian by nature, so I sometimes knee-jerk against the trend. In this case, though, the trend is impressive.
Comparing prompts between GPT4 and Bard is crazy. Hint: Bard is almost always wrong.
@Fire5280
This math only makes sense if you actually do have an equivalent amount of cash sitting in an account, otherwise you’re still paying more than you’d have paid with cash.
Our new client, spending $120,000/mo on Google Ads: "ya'll seem great, I paid the invoice"
Potential leads spending $3k/mo: "can you send over a formal proposal, sign this NDA, take net 60 on your fee, guarantee results or money back & give me a ride to the airport?"
#ppcchat
@esrtweet
I don't think UBI works simply because of inflationary principles: if you give everybody a big diamond, then big diamonds become worthless.
At some point value can't be generated out of thin air, so UBI ultimately becomes a value transfer system (transferred from someone else)
Here’s your 2023 reminder that your purchasing power has decreased by 4% since 2022 (by the most conservative of calculations). It’s even worse if you’re in Canada or EU.
Those in ecommerce must factor this number into all YoY numbers: cpc, cpa, cost of goods, etc.
#ppcchat
@realEstateTrent
This is totally still the case. As someone in the second camp (with an 800+ credit score too!) we were barely able to qualify for a mortgage for an investment property, so we paid cash instead.
@CyberPunkCortes
I visited Chernobyl in 2017. It was incredible: entire roads and parking lots from 1986 were already young forests. You couldn't even see the concrete anymore!
Building A Successful Micro-Agency is OUT!
Everything we've learned over 5 years of starting, scaling, hiring & intentionally not-scaling-any-further.
Because scaling does not necessarily = more profit. And it definitely doesn't = more time.
#ppcchat
This is an email from a Google rep (actual Google, not outsourced).
Perhaps my math is wrong, but I’m not sure $100k for a $91k return is the right move.
#ppcchat
PSA for all enterprising ecommerce folks: dropshipping doesn’t work anymore. 2023 is probably not the best time to launch your Ridge Wallet knockoff shipped straight from AliExpress.
If you're using maximize conversions as a bidding strategy for branded campaigns be careful, because Google is okay with spending as much as it wants.
It's not ok for Google to charge $148.11 for a brand name click when the average CPC for the brand is closer to $3.
#ppcchat
@dvdaltizer
@michaelmiraflor
Nonfiction is great. Fiction is great because (good) fiction surfaces ideas in subtle but more powerful ways.
But more importantly than anything, I think reading itself is a dying art with massive benefits. Lots of folks can’t pay attention long enough to read any more.
@asmartbear
I'm surprised Reddit stayed around as long as it has, which is a testament to its really great core idea: a forum for everyone.
However, it's been so terribly managed, and the mod system is so corrupt/dysfunctional, that it's only a matter of time until it decays.
One of our Google Ads accounts spent $643k in the last year. It’s purely branding/awareness. No online sales, no real conversion tracking, no lead generation.
Company revenue last year was $1.5 billion.
Do you think smaller companies should learn from this approach?
#ppcchat
@alz_zyd_
I've wondered the same thing. It's definitely cultural, and I think it's connected to how Americans tend to do business relationally rather than transactionally. Europeans often take a more formal, regulated approach while American business is more trust-based.
@coltonh615
@napoleon21st
Yeah the rug peddler was super aggressive. I kept insisting I didn’t want a $2000 rug, and he kept saying I was dishonoring his shop. So scammy.
I have a PMax conspiracy.
What if the reason why Google doesn't like to show PMax data is because of how they got it in the first place?
What if conversions come from data scraped from private messages, Gmail, Chrome, et al?
I have reasons for this idea...
#ppcchat
One of our team members, Cristina, just found this feature when you go to create a new RSA inside the Google Ads interface.
Google Bard integration into Google Ads? Is this new
@adsliaison
@rustybrick
?
Google Ads is forcing advertisers from credit card payments to monthly invoicing. Unfortunately our reps aren't admitting it's to save on card fees, instead copy/pasting about "high levels of service + support". Our clients are upset, since this is an instant ~2-5% cost increase
With some valuable input from
@AnyaGildner
I just published an article called Feeding the Google Ads Robot: The Future of Ads Management.
Hint: the future is data based, much like this cupcake-eating pink robot Anya generated with Midjourney.
#ppcchat
@__colematt
@Rainmaker1973
In all seriousness, a GAO audit found that one office of the NIH (National Institute of Health) owns 1,061 pistols, 12 revolvers, two rifles, one shotgun, 194 "fully automatic firearms," and 929,461 rounds of ammunition…
Performance Max’s search term insights report has massively improved over the past few months. Lots of actionable data, which allows much more insight into possible campaign expansion.
Thanks
@adsliaison
and whoever else at Google, for listening and spearheading this!
#ppcchat
@iangcarroll
@samwcyo
This is brilliant and depressing at the same time. That's the sort of grade school SQL injection loophole that makes you assume TSA security is all performative, anyway.
@_kylepeters
I’ve been trying to figure this out with my wife for years.
The griddle is hot. The pancakes are poured within seconds of each other. The first always looks like I drove over it with a lawnmower.
@meetmikehiggins
Sounds about right but I wouldn’t consider top 20% to be upper class. Feels like top 5% or even 1% would be a better threshold, although it varies so much by geography.
@cremieuxrecueil
Although it pains me ideologically to say it, Lee Kuan Yew.
I believe some nations/societies simply have to go through a phase of forced development, a bit like a kid having to undergo curfew & strict rules before they're allowed to live on their own.
Anya and I are back from an absolutely fantastic week in the Bay Area. Started with some meetings at Google with
@PPCKirk
(thanks
@adsliaison
for helping us put this together!) great tapas in Mountain View with
@siliconvallaeys
, and then a weekend in Napa where we perhaps sampled
I just learned that posting snark and hot takes earned me a place in the Top 50 Most Influential PPC Experts of 2024.
It’s actually quite an honor as this list has been running for years. I’m calling my mother to ask if she’s finally proud of me.
Digital marketing has some sort of toxic mass that exerts a gravitational pull on seedy characters, serial liars, con men, and hype artists.
If everything someone says is what you want to hear, there’s probably something wrong.
@gregisenberg
This is provably false.
There are 68 million Gen Z in the US alone, so that would be ((Z*0.41)*10,870)*2.4 which is $727,333,440,000.
Since the entire global watch market is only $390 billion at the most liberal estimate, these numbers are mathematically impossible.
Despite Google Ads folks saying that PMax can’t be used for lead gen or brick & mortar locations, they’re wrong. We’ve been using “Power Pair” for a while now, and we’ve seen some incredible results with the primary goal of increasing store visits.
@realEstateTrent
Not just limited to real estate, but in almost any industry. Too many folks in many industries want a get-rich-quick approach. It works sometimes, but it usually entails a lot of risk with limited reward.
Why you MUST run brand campaigns: a Google Ads thread I didn't expect to write about bidding on your own brand name.
Attached to this tweet are two screenshots. One is a real ecommerce brand, another is a duplicate. Which one is real?
#ppcchat
@PromoteJunkie
Columbia is just as good if not better quality than Patagonia.
However, the real quality starts with stuff like Fjallraven, Norrona, Helly Hansen, Outdoor Research, etc.
7 years ago today, we started Discosloth. Seems like yesterday/an eternity ago.
All we wanted to do is not work at our silly corporate jobs and have some independence & freedom. If you'd asked me on March 18, 2017 how that was gonna happen, I'd have no idea, but here we are!
My favorite part about giving PPC advice online is when I say “your campaign’s not set up properly, here’s why” and someone retorts “no my campaign is fine” and then I’m like “ok then”
#ppcchat