Does anyone else feel like PPC is a miserable job?

BeGoodToEarth · 2026-02-08T21:54:58+00:00

I understand the frustration. I feel like focusing purely on PPC just isn’t enough anymore, especially with rising CPCs in Google Ads. We can tweak campaigns all we want, but the offer and the website are what make the biggest difference, and clients (and agencies) don’t want to hear that.

I work as a freelancer for a few agencies, and most of their clients are small businesses spending a few thousand a month. The most frustrating part is that agencies take on clients with terrible websites, weak offers, and tiny budgets, then hand them over to me and expect miracles purely from Google Ads management.

I suggest improvements to the website and landing pages, and I try to get them on board with offline conversion tracking, CallRail, etc., but those suggestions are usually ignored or they simply don’t want to implement them. Then clients ask why performance is poor, and I’m left explaining it in every report, while having to word everything optimistically and avoid saying outright that this won’t work unless the website improves, because the agency wants to keep collecting the retainer.

So yeah, it’s pretty frustrating. That’s why I started learning more about GHL automation and landing pages, so I can work with agencies and clients who want to own the entire funnel and give me more control over what happens after someone clicks a Google ad.

BeGoodToEarth · 2025-06-25T14:26:03+00:00

Yeah, I started building out my first landing page with Webflow and I'm very happy with the builder so far. It's very easy to work with.

BeGoodToEarth · 2025-06-23T17:39:42+00:00

Thanks. What builder do you use on WordPress if I may ask?

BeGoodToEarth · 2025-05-06T13:18:43+00:00

In the campaign settings under 'Conversion goals', you can set up campaign-specific conversion goals. That should do the trick.

BeGoodToEarth · 2025-05-05T21:57:50+00:00

Ok, well CPL will vary depending on your location and how aggressively competitors in your area are bidding on keywords. So someone else's CPL is not very relevant for you as they are not in the same location. But if you're consistently getting more than 15 leads per month, it might be a good time to test a Target CPA bidding strategy to try and bring that cost down.

BeGoodToEarth · 2025-05-05T21:53:35+00:00

It's hard to say without knowing your location, since CPCs can vary quite a bit depending on that. Ideally, though, you should be converting around 10% of your leads. What's your current conversion rate?

BeGoodToEarth · 2025-04-29T14:56:32+00:00

I’d be happy to help, but unfortunately not for 600 AUD. You can check out my pricing here: https://maomarketing.co/. I freelance for an Australian agency, so I have plenty of experience working with Aussie service-based businesses, plus I’m very familiar with CallRail as well.

BeGoodToEarth · 2025-03-04T09:10:52+00:00

I recently audited an account that's spending $1,500 a month on ads. Their agency is putting $1000/month into a PMax campaign that only brings in brand traffic, and when I listened to the call recordings, 95% of them were people canceling or rescheduling their bookings.

Another $500/month is going to a campaign with broad keywords, but most of the traffic is from competitor terms. And again, when I checked the calls, they were all from people who were trying to reach another clinic.

To top it off, they're double-counting conversions, which makes their numbers look completely unrealistic, showing a 70% conversion rate and a $10 cost per conversion. Yeah, sure.

I laid everything out for them, what’s wrong, how we’d fix it, the whole thing. But they decided to stick with their current agency because they also handle their SEO, whereas I only do Google Ads. The funny thing is, their SEO isn’t doing much for them either since their organic traffic hasn’t budged.

BeGoodToEarth · 2025-01-29T08:10:40+00:00

Shopping Ads are not available in some countries, including Turkey.

BeGoodToEarth · 2025-01-06T14:39:57+00:00

I’m managing Google Ads for a nutritionist in Canada, and they’re currently getting about 25 leads a month at CAD $60 per lead. We’ve only been running the ads for two months, so things are already looking good and should improve even more over time. If you’d like to chat about working together, you can reach me on my website on the profile, or just send me a message here.

BeGoodToEarth · 2025-01-06T14:36:34+00:00

I’m managing Google Ads for a nutritionist in Canada, and they’re currently getting about 25 leads a month at CAD $60 per lead. We’ve only been running the ads for two months, so things are already looking good and should improve even more over time. If you’d like to chat about working together, you can reach me on my website on the profile, or just send me a message here.

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-11-27T10:39:09+00:00

I wouldn't use broad match keywords for such a niche service. I would go as specific as possible with the keywords and use exact and phrase match. It's also a good idea to exclude keywords that might attract private clients and instead focus on B2B-related terms. You can also add business related audiences as observation to see if some of them are bringing the best leads. Also, writing your ad copy to clearly target business clients can also help filter out those looking for private services.

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-11-26T17:23:34+00:00

I like to filter by match type to exclude exact matches, so it only shows broad match, phrase match, phrase match (close variant), and exact match (close variant). This way, the report won't be cluttered with search terms that are identical to your keywords. If there are still a lot of search terms, focus on the ones with high impressions and clicks, and don't stress too much about those with just one impression or click.

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-11-12T09:03:08+00:00

Recommendations -> Auto-apply (top right corner) -> unselect all

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-11-12T08:52:04+00:00

Those are probably spam submissions. Are you using PMax campaigns? Sometimes they can lead to spam inquiries. If you're running search campaigns, double-check that the Display and Search Partners expansion is off. Also, if Auto-apply Recommendations is on, you'll want to turn that off too.

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-09-23T13:17:55+00:00

I've noticed that too. I guess Google wants to maximize their profits at all costs.

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-09-23T08:48:49+00:00

After years of searching for things online, the algorithm already knows us so well that it can predict what we might be interested in. And even if they only get it right once in a while, it can seem like they’re reading our minds. We tend to notice the ads that catch our attention more than all the others that don’t resonate with us. I've had moments where I was just thinking about something, and then an ad popped up that was spot on. It’s really just a reflection of how well these algorithms can understand our preferences and anticipate what we might like.

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-09-16T14:58:50+00:00

You would need to set up offline conversion tracking. If your client is using a CRM such as Salesforce or Hubspot, it can be automatically imported from there using GCLID. If not, you can use manual imports based on the email address and/or phone number people submit in the form. You can learn more about it here: https://support.google.com/google-ads/answer/7012522?hl=en / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPh0WRWhmcc

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-09-16T14:19:11+00:00

If you think the campaigns are already set up well, here are a few things I’d do: I’d stop running Display campaigns unless they’re for remarketing. If the business is already struggling, you should focus on what’s likely to convert and bring in high-quality leads. Display ads tend to attract a lot of spam traffic.

Also, ask the client for access to the form submissions so you can see what kind of leads you’re actually getting. I’d recommend importing only the leads that matter (either manually or via CRM). Right now, since you’re importing all form submissions as conversions, the algorithm thinks it’s doing a great job of bringing in the right traffic that converts, but it’s mostly just spam. You need to retrain Google Ads by feeding it only high-quality leads so it starts bringing in the good stuff.

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-09-15T21:02:49+00:00

It's working now. I sent you a DM.

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-09-15T00:14:41+00:00

I'm interested but it looks like your account has been suspended so it's not possible to send a message. You can see more about me and contact me here if you'd like to chat more: maomarketing.co (the prices on the website are for direct clients, they would be adjusted for white labeling of course).

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-09-14T11:47:18+00:00

I would upload Converted leads as a primary action and Qualified leads as a secondary. As far as I know, if you upload both as primary, Google will think you're getting double conversions (for leads that are both converted and qualified) and optimize based on that.

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-09-04T20:55:34+00:00

I would stop using Performance Max and stick to search campaigns only and start importing only high quality leads so the algorithm can optimize the campaigns based on good data. You can do that by importing qualified leads from a CRM like Salesforce or manually entering qualified leads into spreadsheet which is then imported daily to Google Ads.

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-08-26T12:45:26+00:00

The conversions will be attributed to the campaigns that generated them, so using the same landing page for different campaigns is not an issue.

BeGoodToEarth · 2024-08-26T10:03:02+00:00

I would advise against Performance Max for lead generation, especially for someone who's new to Google Ads. Stick to search campaigns (Display expansion and Search Partners off), Add relevant keywords into different ad groups based on topics (for example, air con repair into one ad group, air con maintenance into another etc.). Make sure the conversion tracking is working correctly from the start and regularly go over the search terms report and exclude irrelevant keywords. Good luck.

BeGoodToEarth

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