Hey friends, in today's email we will be discussing:
Self-Care: It's okay to be sick, listen to your body and recharge.
Performance Max: Don't just blindly follow the herd. Check where your conversions are coming from.
Self-Care Isn't Selfish
You might have noticed that you didn’t receive anything from me last week. It was the first time that I didn’t send an email since I started this email journey. The reason: I was sick.
It’s okay to be sick from time to time and give your body the energy it needs to recharge. I was out for a whole week. I slept terribly (fevers all night) and during the day I wasn’t able to focus. I didn’t go to work either, as I needed to focus on myself and on getting better. Besides that, I don’t want to go to work and get other people sick.
So I took the time to get better. I slept in and give myself permission to not send an email out.
It’s okay to drop things and take care of ourselves. Most people feel that they can’t drop anything. They don’t allow themselves to be sick, as this is a weakness (it’s not though). They can’t take a sick day from work.
Listen to your body. It will tell you when it needs time to recharge.
My body was tired and fighting a virus. So I tried to help my body by eating well and getting a ton of rest. It mentally helped me to calm down as well, as I was able to fully relax. I couldn’t do any work either, so I was able to unwind.
I hope that your way of thinking about being sick changed after the pandemic of 2020. Before the pandemic, I was always told to go to work unless you’re really sick. If you have a cold, just go to work, have the flu, well if you can do your work, go. I am very happy that this perception changes a little bit since the pandemic. You’re now being encouraged to stay home when you’re not feeling well and take a sick day when you’re sick.
And it’s okay to do so. There is nothing wrong with being sick from time to time. Instead of trying to push through, give your body some extra attention and use the energy to get better instead.
I hope that you will take your time when you’re sick. Don’t tell yourself that you can’t be sick. Help your body instead of fighting against it.
Performance Max Campaigns: A Reality Check!
Ever heard of Performance Max? Probably! It’s Google’s favourite campaign type that they want you to use. There is nothing wrong with the campaign and what it does, however, keep in mind that the performance might not be as good as you thought it was.
Google launched Performance Max a couple of years ago. The main idea behind Performance Max was that you as an advertiser can give Google copy options, images, URLs, and videos, and they will do the rest. No more keyword research, just give them the assets and run the campaign.
Nothing wrong with that, right? Well, you might want to check the performance of your campaigns. The idea behind Performance Max is great (from a Google perspective). If more people opt into this campaign, they can generate more sales for you, which will make you spend more.
Great! That is all that we want, more revenue!
Especially smaller companies can benefit from this campaign type, as you don’t need to have all the knowledge of an SEM specialist to run a campaign. Hook up your wallet and let’s start running ads. The ROAS (return over ad spend) looks amazing too!
As you don’t have a specialist at your disposal, you’ll miss some key information. And even if you do have the specialists at your disposal, make sure to talk to them. Google is pushing this feature to higher-ups in any company. Use cases also look amazing. People get high ROAS on their campaigns! It must be good, right? RIGHT?!
Well, guess what: it’s too good to be true. Sure, Performance Max campaigns can get you great results. The ROAS is high, so that means it can find the right users to click on our ads. Yes, this is partially true. However, most of the conversion that you’re getting from this campaign type, are from people who search for your brand. The so-called branded keywords. This is very low in the funnel of course.
Because Performance Max does it all (display, YouTube, and search), it can spend more money in one area vs another. What I’ve seen happen, is that the conversions are coming from people who are searching for the brand. This of course gets you a high ROAS (low cost per click, high conversion ratio). But because the ROAS is that high, it now has money to spend on display ads or YouTube (where you won’t see any conversions).
There is nothing wrong with this approach of course, because you might want to spend more money higher up in the funnel. It’s just not fair to say that the campaign is getting great results when it’s technically getting this from branded terms. It raises the question if you’d gotten these conversions regardless of your ads.
The main problem with this is that some Google account managers will sell this to people higher up in the organization as the holy grail. When these people have no idea about what is happening in this campaign, they might take the bait and push for Performance Max.
Make sure to educate people around you (including higher-ups). You would want to make sure that no one is committing to something that isn’t worth the spend.
Oh and do know that you can exclude branded search terms from your Performance Max campaign. Talk about it with your account manager. Trust me, the campaign performance will change.
Podcast episode(s) you'd love
- Think Fast, Talk Smart: Best of: How to Handle a Skeptical Audience | Think Fast, Talk Smart: Communication Techniques. Learn how to handle a skeptical audience with tips from experts. Learn how to reframe responses, acknowledge input, and stay credible.
Found any interesting articles yourself? Please share it with me, as I am always interested in learning something new.
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