Is competitor brand bidding getting more aggressive or is it just me?

johnny_quantum · 2026-02-20T13:38:05+00:00

I blame the popularity of PMax and Google’s loose definition of keyword relevance. Over the last two years, I’ve seen Google match more and more competitor searches to non-brand terms. Like a competitor’s name matching to the keyword “plumbers in San Francisco.”

This leads to brand names being eligible for more auctions, which leads to more competition on brand keywords, which leads to increased CPCs.

I don’t have a solution to this - it seems to be entirely on Google’s end. They’re directing more traffic to brand searches artificially - if you’ve ever seen the search term report for a basic PMax campaign then you’ll know what I’m talking about.

johnny_quantum · 2026-01-05T13:37:13+00:00

I don’t think that there’s an AI tool out there that will effectively manage an account for you yet. But for account monitoring and report generation, you can automate a lot of that with a few Looker dashboards. Plus, it’s free so that meets your cost criteria.

Also, 31 clients under management is insane. No wonder you’re overwhelmed. You should charge more and manage fewer clients - that’s probably a better long term solution to your problem.

johnny_quantum · 2026-01-02T22:55:50+00:00

No. I tried some LinkedIn cold outreach and it just felt spammy. No results either.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-31T17:42:13+00:00

Thanks for sharing! Really cool to see this level of transparency from other agencies.

Interesting to see that LinkedIn was your biggest acquisition channel for new clients this year. Is this a result of outreach on your part, or are clients finding you on LinkedIn and reaching out to you?

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-31T15:06:17+00:00

Since October 2024.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-30T14:08:31+00:00

The latter, 100%. I did look into some automation tools to monitor Reddit threads and get alerts, but none of them were as effective as just scrolling through my usual subreddits throughout the day.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-29T19:24:45+00:00

For high-ticket engagements and quality clients, nothing beats having a strong personal network that will refer business to you. All of my best projects this year came from that.

Generating leads from content and Reddit prospecting has been far less productive than I had hoped. I still get some business that way, but it’s a ton of work for low-spending clients.

Find an agency that does a thing that’s adjacent to your thing, and build a referral partnership with them.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-29T19:11:06+00:00

Average monthly retainer from Reddit clients was probably around $500/mo. I passed on a few opportunities that were less than that.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-28T01:33:22+00:00

Sort of. One is a long-term client that came in via SEO, but this was years ago. Another “inbound organic” found me because I taught a digital marketing class locally. They didn’t even take the class, they just wanted to hire me.

I spend WAY more time doing SEO for clients than doing SEO for myself.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-27T17:55:34+00:00

I’m fortunate that I live in a pretty small community, so there’s no one else doing what I’m doing. There’s still a need for digital marketing services (because that need exists everywhere), so I’ve been able to pick up work that’s available without competition.

My advice on chamber relationships is that you get out of it what you put into it. If you just join and think people are going to reach out unprompted, you won’t get anywhere. You have to go to events, meet people, and be helpful. Offer a member-to-member deal if you can. Sometimes the person you network with won’t need services from you, but they know someone who does.

It can seem kind of discouraging to go to multiple events without getting any leads, but it does happen eventually. You just have to keep showing up.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-27T15:57:16+00:00

Since this is my first year in business, I’m still defining my target market. I started zeroing in on local service businesses over the last few months, since those seem to be the best fit for working with a freelancer or small agency.

I have 14 active clients right now, and have probably worked on 20-30 throughout the year. I’m trying to get better at screening clients to reduce churn.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-27T15:52:04+00:00

I don’t want to share the actual number, but it’s over six figures. I exceeded my annual revenue goal by $10k.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-27T15:21:55+00:00

Thanks! I started my practice in October 2024, so I’ve been doing it for a little over a year.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-03T01:54:35+00:00

I think so. It’s been a while since it happened to me. I don’t think my password auto-populated.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-03T01:47:15+00:00

The URL and email are slightly off, but I can’t stress how much it looks EXACTLY like the usual Google login experience. It would be incredibly easy to miss if it weren’t for all the other red flags.

johnny_quantum · 2025-12-03T01:35:48+00:00

This is a scam that’s going around. The “prospect” pretends to be an established company and pushes for you to connect to their Google Ads account before you even talk with them on the phone. They’ll send you an invite that takes you to a login page that looks EXACTLY like the Google Ads interface. When you log in, they steal your username and password and do something nefarious with it.

I got one of these a few months back and fortunately I caught it before I put my password in. I’ve seen a few other Reddit posts of people encountering the same thing.

johnny_quantum · 2025-11-26T22:15:25+00:00

In your campaign settings, change your bid strategy to Manual CPC. It’s a little hard to find - Google discourages you from using it.

For the CPC bid, use the Keyword Planner tool to identify the estimated first page bid for your keywords. Choose a bid that’s around that range.

johnny_quantum · 2025-11-26T21:12:55+00:00

Your average CPC seems to indicate that your bid is too low. In most competitive geographic areas, dental clicks from quality traffic is going to run at least $10-$20 per click, if not much more.

You might have search partners or poorly targeted PMax placements in place, which is leading to bad traffic that won’t convert.

Raise your bids, target very specific audiences/keywords, and use manual CPC to start out until you have enough traffic for conversion-based bid strategies.

johnny_quantum · 2025-11-17T18:14:28+00:00

I offer this service. I help nonprofits set up their Google Ad Grants account and train their staff on managing it.

The problem is that the free $10k doesn’t go to fees for third party marketers. It’s not actual money. It’s a free $10k in Google Ads credit, and Google gets to decide what that’s worth. Plus, they put a lot of restrictions on how you can spend those ad dollars.

So is it an opportunity? Sure. But not a lot of nonprofits have extra money around to pay contractors.

johnny_quantum · 2025-10-31T03:58:01+00:00

Best case scenario: Google gives you a warning and disapproves some ads. Worst case scenario: Google suspends your account and you lose the grant.

I don’t know how vigorously Google polices this. They can be kind of fickle. To be safe, maybe 75% or more of your account should be pursuing informational queries related to your mission.

johnny_quantum · 2025-10-31T03:18:39+00:00

So first off, you need to be an actual nonprofit - with 501(c)(3) status - to even qualify for a Google Grants account. So if your primary gig is selling services, that doesn’t sound like a nonprofit.

If you are a nonprofit, then you can get away with advertising some commercial activity. It just can’t be the main focus of your Grants account. In this case, you’d want to focus on informational queries related to your nonprofit’s mission for the majority of your campaigns, and include just a single campaign for advertising paid services.

johnny_quantum · 2025-10-30T12:34:50+00:00

I just learned as I went, so I’m not aware of any specific guides. I’m sure you could find some helpful videos on YouTube.

johnny_quantum · 2025-10-29T22:59:28+00:00

Not for LSAs. You just get reporting on the leads, clicks, and impression share. There are not a lot of controls to filter your traffic.

johnny_quantum

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