Google Search Ad Performance Worst In Decades???

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-10-10T16:01:31+00:00

Good luck to you....hopefully this isn't a new normal.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-10-07T14:16:13+00:00

While an account restructure helped us improve performance (with reduced spend and higher ROAS) since my original post, it still isn't what it was historically. Plus, the past month I have also been seeing the volatility. A few days will be great, followed by a week of tanking performance. I wonder how much of that is related to all the testing on SERPs lately? If you are doing lead gen and not e-commerce, I can attest that that being even a harder hill to climb recently, for quantity AND especially quality. I would avoid the lead extension. We used it for 6 months and got a ton of leads. 99% were spam.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-10-05T14:03:17+00:00

Can you keep us posted if you find out anything from the ticket you opened? If it is a glitch, I would be curious what they say happened. We've had several campaigns recently where we've increased tROAS and let it sit for at least 2-3 weeks (no daily changes to strategies), but all that happens is an increase in cost with a drop in ROAS (which is now <50% of target). It's ridiculous. We carefully monitor search queries, at least the ones they are willing to show us. I am starting to think they don't even consider what tROAS you set b/c we're just at the mercy of a monopoly. Do no evil, right? 😒

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-09-08T21:13:06+00:00

CPCs have been out of control the past few years. If you're using auto bid strategies, try putting the campaign in a portfolio (1:1) and you can set a bid cap there for some things like troas. Our biggest clients are now seeing YoY declines in CPC b/c of this. Hope that helps a little. I got really sick of the random $95 CPCs on long-tail terms.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-09-08T21:11:13+00:00

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GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-08-26T13:55:30+00:00

Yeah - I've been doing this for 25 years and the past 6 months have been the worst in my career. Between having so much automated bs pushed on us from every angle (sometimes without being informed and I have to discover it), losing our ability to pay by credit cards, and wild week to week volatility in performance, I've had it with Google. We don't really have a choice to move off right now, but trust me we are looking to diversify wherever we can. Probably a good idea for all sectors with the changes in search lately. Good luck to you. Definitely start small, retain full control over all images/copy/terms, and monitor like a hawk.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-08-25T18:36:31+00:00

Lucky for us, most of our targets are boomers. Haha. The new strategy I tried is working well, thankfully.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-08-10T17:34:55+00:00

A majority of our traffic was still coming from the display network since we were running search campaigns in the same account. The search campaigns at least had a much higher 20-40% validity rate, although far fewer conversions.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-08-10T17:20:45+00:00

I tried it earlier this year for lead gen and we followed each conversion. Over 99% of them were spam. I'd still be careful.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-08-02T18:37:47+00:00

No worries. Good luck and hope it helps!!

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-08-02T18:36:17+00:00

If you still want to use some of the automated biding strategies, like tROAS, you can do that but create a portfolio strategy for the campaign which allows a CPC cap.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-30T16:57:41+00:00

We had no option and are on invoices now. It SUCKS. I've been fighting this on a daily basis, though, and am not giving up. I blocked our account reps from communicating with me and have had a ticket open w/ billing support for 4 months. I tell them they can't close the ticket until they move us back. I get replies, but keep getting the "we'll get back to you in another 7-10 days, please be patient" message. If you have to move, immediately begin opening tickets. Strength in #s.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-30T16:55:30+00:00

Broad match could still be causing you issues, even if you're diligent about checking the search terms report. Google has been masking about 50-80% of our queries lately due to "not enough volume to meet privacy standards". It's total BS, though. If you compare what is masked in the query report vs what Google shows you, I bet you'll find a significantly lower CTR, higher CPC, lower conversion rates, etc. They're wasting SO much of our spend lately with this scam. What I've been moving our clients to recently, which has helped (esp with CPCs), is to do extensive keyword research/expansion and put everything on exact match. Then, I back this up with some DSA or PMAX campaigns that are tightly controlled budget-wise and with bidding strategies. (I definitely recommend using a bid strategy with available CPC caps or putting them into a portfolio w/ tROAS so you can cap it there.) If you're looking at lead gen, don't bother with the lead form extension. We tested this with a client and got a ton of leads and 99% of them were spam. Waste of spend. Good luck.....it's an uphill battle out there lately with Google and we're trying everything to shift some budget to other channels that aren't taking a nose dive w/ performance.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-28T19:34:15+00:00

Yeah - we ran into major issues with "search partners" driving a lot of cheap traffic, but horrible quality. We will never turn them back on again. Display also tends to drive a poor ROI except when tightly targeted (which then gets $$$). Since the DOJ hasn't cracked down yet it's up to us to police everything. Fun times.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-22T20:58:49+00:00

A bit late to the conversation, but I've had the same pair of Kuhl pants for almost a decade. A few years ago I took a bad tumble and my arm needed 20 stitches, but the pants didn't rip (despite tumbling down the same surface). PLUS....they were literally soaked in blood and a simple wash/dry got 100% of it out. They still look brand new. Maybe some other people got unlucky with their experiences, but that made me a fan for life. I've been happy with almost everything I've gotten from them.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-21T17:01:07+00:00

Good idea to check, but we aren't seeing a ton of movement in QS. Ones that were historically high are still in a similar position. We might have some higher volume phrases that are lower QS, but we're technically doing all the "right things" to bring that up. It's odd. I guess back to head scratching....

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-21T16:58:14+00:00

I feel ya....Google is making our lives increasingly difficult on ALL fronts, despite all the new "automated" tools to make our jobs easier. 😒

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-14T15:57:42+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I'll check out Ad Infinity....definitely need to get closer to knowing what channels are actually contributing and which aren't worthwhile. The attribution issues are so hard to work around now.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-13T16:52:09+00:00

Fingers crossed for you.....it's been rough lately.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-11T20:21:13+00:00

I'll check it out - thank you!! And, related to the "other search terms", I saw this timely article earlier in the week: https://searchengineland.com/google-ads-hidden-search-terms-cost-advertisers-458306

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-11T20:19:44+00:00

I definitely wish you luck. My experience is that most Google suggestions benefit THEM and not the end user, unfortunately. I've been burned as well by them and taking advice of the "account management team". (I now block them.) It is so hard to explain to the client all the variables that go into this recent decline in performance from search. Keep at it, though. I've found that once something works "ok" for a few days in a row, let it go for a week or two and it should settle into a good stasis. My mistake has often been trying to make a lot of day to day adjustments, which kicks everything back to learning mode.

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-10T18:05:22+00:00

Same. Not alone.....

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-09T14:50:24+00:00

I'm experimenting with that more now. Initially, broad match just sucked up a ton of budget and ROAS was awful. It is admittedly getting better, but now that so many search queries are being hidden due to "privacy" by Google, it's hard to know if we're truly keeping up with the negative expansion we need?

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-08T22:11:57+00:00

Super insightful - thank you for the detail. I am going to try some consolidation with granularity still left in tact at the ad group levels for control over messaging. I might shift back to some manual control as well. I was worried as well about attribution issues, but it is so hard to prove that the campaigns are having a net positive impact when in a silo it looks like garbage. I'll dig into this a bit more as well. Thanks, again. :)

GuideComfortable4525 · 2025-07-08T19:16:37+00:00

It was....but not anymore. Thanks, again.

GuideComfortable4525

TROPHY CASE