In the world we live in with constant notifications for everything from new emails and texts to news updates and more, we are constantly triggered into action or worry by the latest icon that pops up on our phones. Google adds to the digital stress with regular updates on your optimization score. I’ve written before about not optimizing your account to what Google wants, but to your own success, but I think it is worth touching on again. I get the question or comment from clients quite regularly that they got a notification about their Google Ads optimization score. Either they are worried by it or they are impressed by it. I told one client that having too high of an optimization score is actually likely a bad sign when they told me early on with a new campaign that they were impressed with how high the optimization score is. It isn’t that we don’t want a high optimization score. It is just that it is irrelevant because you have your own goals and they don’t always align with Google.
Google Optimization Suggestions
It is worth looking at the “suggestions” from Google to improve optimization but not blindly follow them. It takes thought. In general, we are always trying to narrow in on the best performing keywords (despite Google removing more and more granular data), and often Google suggestions are to be broader and capture more keyword traffic, which of course you are paying for. Their optimized tactic is to spend a lot of money figuring out the best terms and keep spending a lot in case new ones come up. Small business owners with a limited budget that needs to perform need to be more careful than that.
Just last week we had a major drop in our return on ad spend for a client of mine, despite making no changes to the account. ROAS dropped from well over 2 to closer to one. Meaning we were earning more than double in sales on our spend one day and then just breaking even the next day with no change to the account. This is because too much dependence on broad matches, which I don’t recommend unless you have a lot of money to spend on research, leaves you open to huge fluctuations in keyword demand that can literally kill your profitability in 24 hours.
Optimize for Your Own Measured Goals
So it comes down to optimizing for yourself and not for Google. I know it seems simple but I see it all the time. I’ve seen business owners with highly performing campaigns get worried that their Google Ads optimization score dropped even as their return on ad spend was improving. Don’t get too caught up in Google suggestions. Consider them and whether they make sense to your own goals. You should definitely have your own metrics that are important to you like cost per conversion and return on ad spend and you should be measuring conversions and connecting them to your campaigns. Always be tracking what is important on your end because Google is slowly but surely removing as much control from the advertisers as they can get away with. We want to be able to control the dials and knobs that we can as long as we can and optimize for your own business success and not for Google’s success.
If you need someone to manage your Google Ads campaigns and stay ahead of all of this, please give us a call.
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