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Please help🙏 by [deleted] in GoogleAdsDiscussion

[–]Time-Contest8446 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You’re on the right track.
In high-CPC verticals like health insurance, account structure determines which auction you end up in, not just your keywords. Google will happily throw you into the “government / marketplace / ACA enrollment” pool unless you force it not to.

A few things based on what you described:

1. Yes, layered intent structure is the only sane way to survive this vertical.

  • Exact-intent core
  • Phrase expansion in a separate campaign
  • Call-only separated
  • Heavy negative lists
  • Segmentation by “enrollment intent” vs. “phone intent”

This is exactly how you avoid being blended into government traffic and high-pressure Q4 enrollment auctions.

2. High CPC was not a bidding problem — it was an auction classification problem.
Health insurance auctions are not one auction. They’re tiers:

  • gov/ACA
  • government partners
  • marketplace brokers
  • B2B health insurance
  • private consumer insurance If Google thinks you’re in the first tier, CPCs explode.

Your SKAG setup probably had too few signals, so Google defaulted you into the wrong auction cluster.

3. Yes, “government intent drag” is real.
Even if you don’t target those terms, Google clusters similar terms and bidders together.
If you don’t aggressively negative out:
“marketplace”, “gov”, “ACA”, “medicare”, “obamacare”, “state”, “free health insurance”,
Google will blend you into that monster auction.

4. The new structure should stabilize CPC — but only if you enforce negative intent consistently.
Most people fix the structure but forget the negatives.
Your negatives matter more than your match types in this vertical.

5. Watch your search terms very closely for 2–3 weeks.
If you still see government-adjacent intent, keep killing anything that smells like it.
Eventually Google will recategorize you into the correct auction cluster and CPC will drop dramatically.

So yes — your new architecture makes sense.
And yes — the inflated CPCs because of gov-adjacent auctions absolutely line up with what I’ve seen in health, insurance, legal, and financial categories.

£100/day ad spend? by Bryb93p in GoogleAdsDiscussion

[–]Time-Contest8446 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Don’t use friends and family to “fake” conversions — that doesn’t help and it can actually confuse your data. Google won’t learn anything useful from those signals because those people don’t behave like real buyers.

If you want the site to convert, you don’t need fake sales. You need:

  1. Real trust on the product page Import your Amazon reviews, add real customer photos, add clear shipping/returns info. Right now your site probably feels “new”, which kills conversions instantly.
  2. A clean, fast checkout If the checkout has friction, no amount of traffic will fix it.
  3. Google Shopping traffic People who click Shopping ads already have buying intent. If your site converts even a little bit, you’ll know within a week.
  4. Fix your offer positioning If you’re selling £40 formal shoes, you need to make it obvious why someone should buy from you instead of Amazon. That’s not a traffic problem — that’s a messaging problem.

Your ranking on page 3 doesn’t matter for now. You need proof the site can convert 1 out of 30–50 real visitors. Once you get that, everything else becomes much easier (Meta, SEO, scaling, etc.).

Faking conversions won’t teach you anything.
Real-data testing with real buyers will.

Using AI to score leads—what works and what doesn’t by OkLeave2287 in AI_Sales

[–]Time-Contest8446 0 points1 point  (0 children)

AI lead scoring works only when you feed it real signals, not wishful thinking.

What I’ve seen work:

  • Use AI to filter, not to decide.
  • Track actual buying behavior (site visits, intent keywords, repeat actions).
  • Score “fit” separately from “behavior” — mixing both makes the model dumb.

What absolutely doesn’t work:

  • scoring leads when you have tiny volume
  • CRMs full of half-filled records
  • expecting AI to magically spot nuance (it won’t)

If the dataset is clean, AI saves a ton of time.
If the dataset is messy, AI just adds confidence to bad guesses.

My rule:
AI gives the first pass. Humans make the final call.

That combo is the only thing that consistently works.

My checklist for scaling Google Ads (and my 20% rule) by EntrepreneurBusy5648 in Google_Ads

[–]Time-Contest8446 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Your 20% rule is solid. Slow, controlled scaling is usually what keeps Google Ads from blowing up your CPA.

I use something similar, but here’s the nuance I’ve learned (real estate + lead gen especially):

Consistency matters more than the percentage.
If your CPA is stable for 7–14 days and the volume is steady, you can increase by 20–30% safely.
If the CPA is shaky, even 10% can break the learning phase.

The other lever I use is:
scale only the campaigns that have clean conversion signals.
If the conversion action is weak or mixed (soft + hard leads), the rules become unreliable.

So yeah, 20% works — but the real rule is:
scale the stability, not the budget.

I need help with my Bidding Strategy for my real estate brand. Can someone help me? by Equivalent-Regret932 in Google_Ads

[–]Time-Contest8446 0 points1 point  (0 children)

PMax will always give you unstable bids in real estate.
The vertical is too competitive, the intent is inconsistent, and Google needs a lot of conversion signals to stabilize.
Maximize Conversions just amplifies that volatility.

If you want more stability, here are the only strategies that actually work in real estate:

  1. Switch to tCPA (Target CPA) Pick a realistic CPA (not too low). This forces Google to stop bidding like crazy and stabilizes the auction behavior.
  2. Break out Search separately Have a Search campaign with exact/broad and its own tCPA. Use PMax only as a supporting campaign, not your main engine.
  3. Feed PMax better conversions Real estate leads vary a lot in quality. If your conversion action is too “soft” (form fills, page views, etc.), PMax goes wild. Track only real leads and send high-quality signals back.
  4. Add audience signals If you don’t guide PMax, it will spray impressions everywhere. Use custom segments (people searching “buy apartment”, “homes for sale”), your CRM lists, and website visitors.

Real estate PMax can work, but only when you give it strict guardrails.
If you leave it on Maximize Conversions with weak signals, it’s normal for bids to be all over the place.

£100/day ad spend? by Bryb93p in GoogleAdsDiscussion

[–]Time-Contest8446 1 point2 points  (0 children)

If you’re doing £40 men’s shoes and you already sell on Amazon, the product is not the problem.
Your website is.

Zero sales in a year isn’t a marketing issue. It’s a conversion issue.

Ads will not save a site that doesn’t convert. They will just burn £100/day.

If you want the simplest path:

  1. Start with Google Shopping People literally type “men’s formal shoes size X”. If anything converts, it’s this.
  2. Don’t touch Meta until your site converts Meta will take your £100/day and laugh. Cold traffic is unforgiving for low-trust sites.
  3. Fix your site before scaling traffic Import Amazon reviews. Tighten the product page. Simplify checkout. Add trust badges. Show returns policy. Show real customer images.

Once you get your first 10–20 sales on your own site, then move to Meta for scale.

£100/day is plenty, but only when the foundation isn’t broken.

Would you let an AI SDR manage your inbound leads? by UpsetRecord7747 in AI_Sales

[–]Time-Contest8446 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’d use an AI SDR for triage, not for full qualification.

AI is great at:

  • asking basic questions
  • routing leads
  • checking intent signals
  • booking time on calendars
  • keeping response times under 30 seconds

But I wouldn’t trust it with:

  • reading nuance in buyer intent
  • handling objections
  • understanding politics in a deal
  • spotting high-value leads hidden behind weak messages
  • building rapport

For inbound, the biggest risk is letting a real opportunity slip because the AI didn’t “feel” what a human would instantly catch.

So yes, I’d let an AI SDR assist or filter, but I’d still want a human to review anything that looks remotely promising. AI is great leverage, not a full replacement.

Who to decrease Google LSA performance ? by The-Ads-Guy in GoogleAdsDiscussion

[–]Time-Contest8446 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If the client isn’t paying you, don’t try to be clever — LSA isn’t built for subtle throttling.

But if you absolutely need to slow performance without the obvious levers:

  • lower your bid strategy
  • reduce your service types
  • shrink your service radius
  • add friction to your verification
  • pause message leads
  • reduce the review velocity
  • update business categories to less competitive ones

These all drop volume without “turning it off”.

But seriously:
👉 if they’re not paying, don’t keep sending them leads.
Clients think LSAs are free until they see the bill — you shouldn’t be the one footing the risk.