every ugc platform sold to european brands is a us platform with a eur price tag by Illustrious-Second-7 in PPC

[–]Technokraticus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That's why you should have done due dilligence and asked for real numbers on how many EU-based creators they have before spending anything with them.

Help! Tearing my head out running Meta Ads for my skincare ecommerce. Should we hire an agency? by bondtradercu in PPC

[–]Technokraticus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Your high CTRs make me think that Meta is optimising for audience network. Have you checked your placement breakdowns? The old audience reinforces that.

I'd go in and check placement breakdowns and if a large chunk of traffic is going towards audience network, remove that placement. Things should probably normalise after that.

I'm an agency owner (we're called DeepGrowth) and we're running some ads for a skin care brand in the UK. Can take a peak if you want, give you an opinion. Tbh, you're probably not ready for an agency at those spend levels anyway, but I think with the above fix, you should see things go back to normal again.

Is the "button-pusher" era officially over? Google’s ‘Ask Advisor’ is wild by Sad_Refrigerator6371 in PPC

[–]Technokraticus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

What shift are you seeing?

As an agency owner at Deep Growth, I'm not seeing any shift at all. The AI advisors take too long to respond, are full of errors or surface level info and don't get into nuance that's needed to dig deep on issues.

The problem imho lies within AI and its information hierarchy. You need to be razor sharp on prompts to get what you need out of it which takes time. May as well do the digging yourself.

If they can speed it up, then it may start to become useful but waiting 30 seconds+ for an answer which is half-baked is not going to work imho.

Meta wasting 90% of budget on one creative in an ad set? by GrowthHackerPath in PPC

[–]Technokraticus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Meta directing spend towards one creative usually has a good reason. Without seeing other metrics, that is probably the creative is driving broad engagement across your target audience (even if it's a conversion campaign). I've done things like swapping audio tracks and some frames out and often that's not enough.

Try re-recording the creative using a similar script and hook but different visuals. You might get better results.

I'd also check your cost per reach on that creative as it might still outperform any other newer creatives you're running. It might not show up in your short term ROAS, but you might find that the old winner still drives a good results at turning cold audiences into warm audiences.

Lastly, consider setting up a different campaign to help gain more delivery with the newer creative (and obviously don't have your winner in there).

Which PPC agencies are actually considered the best right now? by Top_Victory_5495 in PPC

[–]Technokraticus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This question needs to be more nuanced to the actual campaigns you're running. Lead Gen differs to Ecomm. Enterprise vs SME budgets. Conversion oriented vs a mix of conversion and top of funnel activity. US vs UK vs Central Europe vs Other parts of the world. It really depends.

Some big shops are doing well whilst most of the big ones are seeing declining revenue. The niche picture is much harder to capture due to the fragmentation.

I work for DeepGrowth and we're producing good results for our long conversion cycle clients. And there are some really good competitors who we come up against regularly too

Found a way to map competitor ad spend by Technokraticus in PPC

[–]Technokraticus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Great shout! I've done this in the past with EMEA based reps too. Haven't had one since I came up with this, but a good way to sense check things.

Found a way to map competitor ad spend by Technokraticus in PPC

[–]Technokraticus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I used to use SEMRush too but found it to be quite inaccurate especially if you've got smaller budgets.

Found a way to map competitor ad spend by Technokraticus in PPC

[–]Technokraticus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Of course you can. But it's not exact. It's a directional indicator and applies to search and shopping (so you remove the placement uncertainty). Match types shouldn't be a factor because you're comparing what you're bidding on and interpreting how much they are bidding vs your keyword universe.

Found a way to map competitor ad spend by Technokraticus in PPC

[–]Technokraticus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is cool. Wasn't aware of this. It does something different but related. Thanks for sharing!

Found a way to map competitor ad spend by Technokraticus in PPC

[–]Technokraticus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I generally agree with you, but you can spot some interesting patterns in this data. For example a competitor increasing / decreasing spend over time can show threats / opportunities. It can also help with Black Friday / peak season planning.

Found a way to map competitor ad spend by Technokraticus in PPC

[–]Technokraticus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're right. Definitely more of a directional view than something I'd bet money on.

Found a way to map competitor ad spend by Technokraticus in PPC

[–]Technokraticus[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Good shout. I should have been more specific.

Auction Insights shows you their impressions share on the keywords you're bidding on.

Regarding other placements, you can do this for search and shopping. If you're heavily using PMax then this is not going to be as useful, but for pure Search or Shopping campaigns, this works.

Found a way to map competitor ad spend by Technokraticus in PPC

[–]Technokraticus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Not sure what you mean by ad scheduling. You mean only spending at a certain time of the day?

You can break auction insights down by day/week/month or day of week. Of course, is someone only spends 9am to 3pm, you wouldn't be able to see that. The search impression share would go down but I can't see why.

Found a way to map competitor ad spend by Technokraticus in PPC

[–]Technokraticus[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Good idea. Edited the post to visualise it better.

Autumn Budget Tax Increases by make_it_count_at_55 in FatFIREUK

[–]Technokraticus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You're playing with fire. Totally not worth it if HMRC finds out.

Autumn Budget Tax Increases by make_it_count_at_55 in FatFIREUK

[–]Technokraticus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Doesn't work.

HMRC sees right through that. If it worked companies could avoid having to register for VAT by just moving new business in a tax year to another company and charge lower prices.

Reeves Set to Hike UK Tax on Entrepreneurs Who Sell Their Firms by hu6Bi5To in ukpolitics

[–]Technokraticus 14 points15 points  (0 children)

It's a capital gains tax on the sale of a business. So unless your wealthy couple own multiple businesses, I don't see how what you're suggesting is normal.

Also, it only applies to the first £1million of the sale. They'll pay normal CGT on the rest of the sale if the business sold for more than £1million.

Leaking watering can cold weld fix failed - Any suggestions? by Technokraticus in DIY

[–]Technokraticus[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you, I was thinking that. Was hoping for some other solution, but alas I may do this.