Initially, it might sound too good to be true – yet there’s a reason why B2B marketing leaders are spending 38% more on demand generation campaigns than last year. 

In order for demand gen campaigns to be successful, it’s vital to have the right demand generation metrics in place. By doing so, marketers can actively gauge the performance of their funnel strategies, and turn key data into actionable business opportunities. 

Here, we’ll take an in-depth look at the 10 demand generation metrics and KPIs you need to measure. They’re a great starting point when it comes to optimizing your demand gen funnel and powering business growth. 

We’ll go over what they are, explain why they’re a must-track, and discuss the methods and formulas used to accurately track them. 

In a rush? Take a look at our demand generation metrics cheat sheet below:

You’ve had the overview – now let’s take a more detailed look at each metric.

Demand Gen Basics: Measuring Your Leads

1. Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs)

Meaning: Someone likely to convert, but will require more marketing/nurturing in order to do so.

You’ve undoubtedly heard of the first two essential KPIs on this list – MQLs and SQLs. If you’re not tracking these yet, we highly recommend starting straight away. 

Why you need to track it: Imagine MQLs as enthusiastic tourists who’ve stumbled upon your beautiful island (your website). They’ve downloaded a white paper, attended a webinar – meaning they’re intrigued, but perhaps not ready to commit to your services just yet. MQLs are a good first step, but they’ll require nurturing to convert. 

With proper nurturing throughout the sales funnel, the more MQLs going into your funnel, the more conversions coming out. 

How to track it: Unfortunately, potential customers won’t suddenly announce “I am interested, but not ready to buy! However, if you nurture me well enough, I just might!” – although life would be so much easier if they did. 

Instead, you’ll need to use lead intelligence factors to determine your MQLs. Lead intelligence factors are certain first-party metrics used to determine prospect behaviors and intentions, including: 

• Clicks on key web pages
• How many times they’ve visited your site within a certain time period
• Gated content downloads, including whitepapers, webinars, guides, etc.
• Actively looking to hear more from your company – through newsletter sign ups, social media follows, etc.

These actions typically indicate someone is happy to engage with your business, or is interested in the products/solutions you’re offering. However, they’re currently in early stages – meaning you’ll need to give them more reasons to convert. 

2. Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs)

Meaning: Someone who’s been qualified as a good fit for your product/service, and is on the precipice of converting. 

SQLs (often referred to as ‘hot leads’) have been vetted by the marketing team and deemed ready for sales outreach. They’ve engaged with your sales team and are showing buying intent. 

Why you need to track it: MQLs and SQLs are the best demand generation metrics available when it comes to measuring product demand. The more MQLs & SQLs in your pipeline, the more conversions you’ll get. 

In short, SQLs are where the magic happens.

How to track it: Similar to MQLs, SQLs typically display a few key behaviors: 

• Contacting sales
• Frequently visiting your pricing page
• Undertaking a free trial of your product or service

Counting Your Pennies (and Customers)

3. Cost Per Lead (CPL)

Meaning: How much you’re paying for each lead. 

Why you need to track it: This crucial demand generation metric tells you how much you’re shelling out to attract each new lead. Think of it like your travel expenses – you want to reach your destination (MQLs & SQLs) without breaking the bank. 

How to track it: Track your CPL across different marketing channels (social media, email campaigns, etc) to see where you’re getting the most bang for your buck. Then, refine your high-performing channels by doubling-down on what works to reach your entire audience base. 

4. Cost Per Acquisition (CPA)

Meaning: How much you’re paying for each conversion.

Why you need to track it: This one takes CPL a step further. It factors in all your marketing and sales expenses to land a paying customer. A low CPA indicates efficient lead generation, ensuring you’re acquiring customers at a sustainable cost.

How to track it: In order to track your CPA, you’ll need to: 

1. Define your acquisition window – consider all marketing and sales expenses incurred within a specific period (typically a quarter) that ultimately led to conversions during that period. 
2. Identify acquisition costs – gather your marketing costs (PPC, paid social, content creation, event setup fees, etc.) and your sales costs (commissions, sales training costs, enablement tools, etc.)
3. Track customer acquisition – keep track of the total number of new paying customers acquired within your chosen time period. This data can be gathered from CRM systems or sales pipeline reports. 
4. Calculate your CPA – as an example, if your total acquisition cost for a month is $20,000 and you acquire 40 new paying customers, your CPA would be $500 ($20,000 / 40)

5. Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV)

Meaning: A customer’s revenue value compared to predicted customer lifespan.

Why you need to track it: This golden demand gen metric reveals the total revenue a customer brings in over their entire relationship with your company. A high CLTV is an indicator of a healthy and loyal customer base. 

By measuring CLTV, you can identify issues with your product, optimize customer success teams or systems, and boost overall customer loyalty and retention. Therefore, tracking and improving CLTV directly results in more revenue. 

How to track it: Analyze historical data from your CRM and financial systems to multiply average customer value (annual revenue per customer) by average customer lifespan. 

Use this information to identify high-value customers, prioritize resources, and optimize customer success roles to create long-lasting client relationships. 

Optimizing Your Channels

6. Close Rate per Channel

Meaning: The conversion rate (leads to customers) for each marketing channel

Why you need to track it: Not all marketing channels are created equal. Some might be generating a high volume of leads (think social media), while others might be bringing in fewer, but higher qualified leads (think targeted webinars). By tracking close rate per channel, you can tell which marketing channels are ultimately performing the best. 

By analyzing close rates for each channel, you can double-down on the channels which are flying, and refine the underperforming ones. 

How to track it: The formula for measuring close rate per channel is: 

(Customers acquired per channel) / (leads generated per channel) 

Customer data can be gathered from your marketing platforms and website analytics, whereas lead data can be found in your CRM system. 

7. Marketing Sourced Pipeline (MSP)

Meaning: Overall leads generated from ALL your marketing efforts.

Why you need to track it: If you want to track the overall effectiveness of your marketing efforts, tracking MSP is the way to do it. 

It showcases the direct contribution of marketing activities to the sales pipeline, and allows you to demonstrate the tangible impact of your marketing efforts on revenue generation. 

How to track it: Using lead attribution systems that track the source of each lead is the easiest way to track MSP. Additionally, during the sales qualification process, sales reps should record the source of the lead, ensuring alignment with marketing attribution data. 

Note: You should never focus on marketing lead gen at the detriment of the business as a whole. Use it to measure overall marketing effectiveness – not to put marketing and sales teams at odds with each other, or create an internal arms race!

8. Average Deal Size

Meaning: The average amount of revenue generated per customer.

(As demand generation metrics go, this one’s pretty straightforward.)

Why you need to track it: Knowing how many leads you’re generating from each channel is all well and good. But if 100 leads generated from social media are worth $100 each, whereas 5 leads generated from gated webinar content are worth $9000 each… You get the picture. 

When you can attribute a channel to the largest, most profitable deals – rather than simply counting the number of deals – you can start evaluating each channel in more depth, and making more informed decisions about where to invest your time and money.  

How to track it: In order to track average deal size, you’ll need historical sales data from your CRM system – including total revenue generated from each closed deal, and the lead source channel.

Then, track the number of closed deals generated through each marketing channel. This can be gathered from marketing automation platforms or website analytics. 

The formula to calculate average deal size per channel is:

(Total revenue from channel-sourced deals) / (number of channel-sourced closed deals)

Demand Generation Metrics: Engagement and Sentiment

9. Content Engagement

Meaning: How the content you create resonates with your audience.

Why you need to track it: Not all metrics are about cold, hard cash. Tracking content engagement (downloads, shares, views, comments) shows you what kind of content your audience gains value from. 

The more value your audience is gaining from your content, the higher the regard they’ll hold for your brand. The higher they regard your brand, the more likely they are to convert. 

A diverse range of content helps connect you to your audience, and therefore your potential customers. Whitepapers, webinars, blogs, infographics, podcasts, or otherwise – content is a necessary step in most buyer’s journeys. 

By refining your content and doubling-down on what works, you’ll directly provide more value to your audience. 

How to track it: Simply tracking blog pageviews, webinar registrations, whitepaper downloads, and so on is a great place to start. But in order to really take your content to the next level, find SaaS tools that help you gather deeper feedback on the efficacy of your content. 

10. Brand Sentiment

Meaning: The overall feeling that underlies each mention of your company – AKA, how people feel about your brand. 

Why you need to track it: Tracking brand sentiment lets you know if your marketing is striking a chord with your audience. Hopefully, that chord is major – not minor. Either way, tracking brand sentiment helps you find out, and modify your content accordingly. 

If you have good brand sentiment, it generally means your top-of-the-funnel content delivery resonates with your audience. 

How to track it: Similar to content engagement tracking, SaaS services can be your best friend here. Tools such as Brandwatch or Pulsar Platform can help you measure brand sentiment within your target audience. 

Demand Generation Metrics Overview

There’s a whole bunch of demand generation metrics out there, however this guide provides a good starting point in providing the key metrics that every B2B brand should be measuring. 

By incorporating these metrics into your demand generation marketing campaigns, you’ll be able to closely monitor the health of your pipeline, and optimize for greater success at every stage. 

Remember, don’t get bogged down by every single metric. Focus on the ones that align with your overall B2B marketing goals and use them to make data-driven decisions. After all, B2B marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Optimizing Analytics with Lunio

When it comes to demand gen strategy, performance marketers rely on accurate analytics to make informed decisions about their overall business goals. 

Unfortunately, data can be heavily skewed by invalid traffic. Bad data can lead to incorrect metrics, which can ultimately result in making the wrong business decisions. 

According to our Wasted Ad Spend Report, over 42% of performance marketers are concerned about the impact of invalid traffic on their ad spend and analytics data.  

Lunio works to exclude invalid traffic and stop your analytics from being invaded with bad data. That means more ad spend is actually being spent on real leads – not fake bots that’ll never convert – and your analytics data won’t be corrupted by invalid sources. 

With a Lunio 14-day free trial, you can see exactly how invalid traffic is impacting your business – and learn what you can do to prevent it. 

Want a deeper understanding of PMax exclusions to make the most out of your campaigns? Then read on…

PMax offers a powerful, data-driven approach to advertising – yet it’s a bit of a black box for advertisers. 

Creatives go in, conversions come out. How? No idea. Want a quick peek at what the targeting algorithm is prioritizing? Unless you work for Google, not a chance. 

Ok, maybe we’re being slightly hyperbolic, but the point stands – PMax represents a significant shift in advertising. One that leaves us, as marketers, with less direct control over our own campaigns than ever before. 

Yet one key element you still have control over – thank goodness – is PMax exclusions. 

Strategic use of PMax exclusions can significantly improve campaign performance. By focusing your budget on the most relevant placements and audiences, you can see a boost in clicks, conversions, and overall ROAS. 

Here, we’ll discuss the power of PMax exclusions – and share our PMax junk exclusion list to give your PMax campaigns an instant uplift.

PMax Exclusions: The Key to Efficient Ad Spend

In order to maximize ROAS for PMax campaigns, it’s important to use placement exclusions. 

Exclusions stop your ads from showing on irrelevant placements (websites or apps), audiences, content categories, or even specific content you deem to be “junk.” 

In other words, they help you ensure your ads are shown to the right people, in the right place, at the right time. 

Exclusions in Performance Max empower you to:

• Prevent Wasted Spend: PMax casts a wide net, which can occasionally be beneficial. Yet more often than not, it results in your ads being shown to people unlikely to convert. Exclusions help you filter out the noise, focusing your budget on placements with higher conversion potential. 
• Boost Performance: By eliminating junk placements and audiences, you optimize your campaigns for better click-through rates (CTR) and conversion rates. Imagine your ad only appearing in front of highly relevant audiences.
• Protect Your Brand: Not all online spaces are created equal. Exclusions allow you to shield your brand from appearing on websites with content that doesn’t align with your image. Think of it as building a brand safety moat around your castle of reputation.
• Refine Audience Targeting: While PMax offers basic audience targeting options, exclusions take it a step (or three) further. You can exclude specific segments that have historically shown low conversion rates, ensuring your ads reach the right people at the right time.

Our PMax Junk Exclusion List

At Lunio, we analyzed over 100,000 placements that appeared in the PMax campaigns we protect against Invalid Traffic. 

Unbelievably, 41% of them were classified as junk – meaning they resulted in virtually zero valid or valuable conversions.

In other words, that means 41% of PMax placements are completely useless. Not a valid click or conversion in sight.

Marketers shouldn’t have to deal with 41% of their placements being total junk. Therefore, we pulled together a list for anyone to add to their PMax campaigns in order to filter out the junk. 

It’s completely free to download, no strings attached. Hit the button below and add it to your PMax campaigns for an instant performance uplift. 

PMax Placements Lunio Excludes

So how do we decide what placements are ‘junk’? And how can we be sure that we’re not filtering out anything that might lead to conversions? 

We classify a junk placement as any placement that doesn’t drive genuine engagement or results. Junk placements consist of 4 main categories: 

1. Made-for-Advertising (MFA) Websites

These websites are designed solely to generate ad clicks and offer little value to users. Essentially ad fraud to generate money for the publisher, and nothing else. Our PMax exclusion list filters out over 10,000 MFA sites. 

2. Brand Unsafe Placements

Placements that may result in brand risk or damage – illegal, offensive, or dangerous content that you definitely don’t want your ads appearing next to. 

3. Advertising Junk Placements

Think poor user experience, including too many ads above the fold, lots of ad stacking, ad refreshing, and other shady, low-value placements. 

4. Historically Poor ROAS Performance

This includes placements where the ROAS and CPA is at least 10 times worse than the campaign average. This tends to include places where invalid traffic is rampant. Our list filters out over 20,000 placements like this. 

In short, these placements are of no value to PMax campaigns whatsoever. Unless your target audience is bots – and you’re highly allergic to conversions – we’d recommend adding our PMax junk exclusions to a global exclusion list right away. Here’s how: 

How to Implement PMax Exclusions: A Step-by-Step Guide

You’ve got the PMax exclusions – now discover how to implement them in your Google Ads account:

1. Navigate to Your PMax Campaign: Log in to your Google Ads account and head to the “Campaigns” tab. Locate the PMax campaign you want to edit and click on it.
2. Access Settings: Within the campaign menu, find “Settings” and click on it.
3. Unlock the Vault of Exclusions: Under the “Settings” tab, you’ll see an option titled “Additional settings.” Click on this to reveal a treasure trove of advanced features – including exclusions.
4. Add Your Exclusion List: Here, you’ll see options for content exclusions. Simply insert our list of junk exclusions as a global exclusion list, and voilà – you’ve successfully filtered out a huge chunk of low quality traffic. 

The Next Level: Blocking Invalid Traffic

Our PMax exclusions can be a game-changer when it comes to optimizing your PMax campaigns. Download the junk exclusions list for a quick and easy performance uplift that’s effective as soon as it’s implemented. 

If you’re looking to take campaign optimization a step further, consider looking at ways to filter out the invalid traffic your campaigns are receiving. 

Invalid traffic (IVT) is the silent killer of your advertising budget. Our Wasted Ad Spend Report showed that 1 in 12 clicks made online are invalid – meaning they’ll never convert. 

Lunio’s IVT protection system stops IVT in its tracks, meaning your ad campaigns – including PMax campaigns – are protected from bots, fake clicks, and other bad actors. 

See how much invalid traffic is affecting your PPC success (and know exactly how much you can save by eliminating it) with a free, no-obligation traffic audit from Lunio. 

The represents a first-to-market partnership that enables brands to detect invalid traffic (IVT) throughout the entire media buying cycle – from impressions through to clicks and conversions. 

Detecting Invalid Traffic at Every Stage

Fake traffic is more prevalent than ever, with 1 in 12 paid ad clicks being identified as invalid. That translates into almost $205 billion in lost revenue opportunities this year alone.

Source: Lunio’s Wasted Ad Spend Report 2024

By teaming up with IAS, we’re making it easier for customers to protect the entire media buying cycle from IVT and benefit from the most comprehensive IVT protection on the market.  

Our Partnership with IAS

IAS provides industry-leading pre-click fraud measurement and protection, using a three pillar approach:

• Rules-based detection uses automated rule checks to identify ad impression behavioral anomalies 
• AI/Machine Learning uses big data to detect hidden or uncommon patterns in impression delivery, traffic sources, and page interactions and more
• IAS Threat Lab uses malware analysis and reverse engineering to uncover emerging threats before they arise

Combined with Lunio’s best-in-class IVT detection and prevention software, the partnership allows us to stop more bots than ever before, without over-blocking real human clicks. 

In short, Lunio gives performance marketers a competitive advantage in these 3 areas: 

1. Transparency: Deep dive into ad traffic and click data to pinpoint where invalid visits are damaging campaign performance.
   
2. Empowerment: Proactively optimize audience and placement targeting using click data and traffic quality signals you can’t get elsewhere.
   
3. Quality: Prevent invalid traffic from wasting your ad spend and contaminating your data, for laser focused targeting of genuine prospects. 

We’re excited to continue tackling the ever-growing invalid traffic problem head-on, as our partnership with IAS arms marketers with the ability to block IVT at a scale never seen before. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Lunio’s partnership with IAS, and to see our invalid traffic detection in action across your own campaigns, contact us to book a demo. 

Now, thanks to the wonders of technology (and maybe a few mischievous bots), price scraping has become the norm. 

Opinions on price scraping are mixed, however in recent years it’s become apparent that the questionable practice is harmful – even malicious. Effective price scraping allows competitors to manipulate the market and gain an unfair advantage by undercutting legitimate rivals. 

Here, we’ll run you through everything you need to know about price scraping, and the actionable steps you can take to mitigate it. We’ll cover:

• What price scraping is, and how it works
• The rise of price scraping, and why it’s a serious challenge
• Strategies to combat price scraping
• Price scraping FAQs

What is Price Scraping?

Price scraping refers to the automated extraction of pricing data from websites. Fraudsters (often competitors) employ bots or web crawlers to scour the internet, collecting product information (particularly prices) in bulk from online stores. 

This data can then be unpacked and analyzed, allowing the scrapers to adapt their own pricing strategies and precisely undercut competitors. 

Why is Price Scraping a Challenge?

While pricing information is out there and available to anyone, price scrapers cross an ethical line by aggressively undercutting competitors’ pricing and growth strategies. 

This has a ripple effect across all online marketplaces. Market disruption, price wars, and eroded profits follow, which can often result in the downfall of businesses. No marketplace is particularly safe from price scraping, however the most common victims are the marketplaces who don’t have the resources or knowhow to fight back. 

New, emerging marketplaces often turn to price scraping as a shady way to immediately attract price-sensitive customers. They prey on established players, gathering information and crafting the perfect strategy to undermine businesses at every step. 

It doesn’t end there. Price scraping poses a significant challenge for all kinds of marketplaces on multiple fronts:

• Eroded Competitive Advantage: By consistently monitoring competitor pricing, scrapers enable businesses to react swiftly and undercut prices on a dime, diminishing the hard-earned competitive advantage established through pricing strategies.

• Skewed Market Analysis: When price scraping runs rampant, market analytics based on scraped data becomes unreliable. This can lead to inaccurate assessments of market trends and competitor behavior, hindering effective marketing choices and kneecapping strategy.

• Undermined Pricing Strategies: Dynamic pricing strategies, where prices fluctuate based on factors like demand and competitor activity, suddenly become vulnerable and exploitable. By constantly monitoring price changes, scrapers effectively negate the effectiveness of strategies like these.

• Reduced Site Performance: Websites subjected to excessive scraping experience a strain on resources. This can lead to slower loading times, impacting user experience and pushing customers away from your site, leading to revenue loss.

• Disrupted Site Analytics: Aside from slower loading times, price scraping can negatively impact website analytics. Those who regularly fall victim to scrapers see higher bounce rates, cart abandonment rates, and other negative site metrics.  

• Legal and Ethical Concerns: The legitimacy of price scraping can be a legal gray area, depending on the website’s terms of service and local regulations. Additionally, the ethical implications of scraping data without authorization raise concerns.

How Does Price Scraping Work?

Scraper bots are nefarious in their sneakiness. In order to scrape pricing information in bulk, they’ll typically function in the following way:

1. Target Selection: The scraper identifies a target website with desired pricing data. This could be an e-commerce competitor or a general product listing platform.
2. Data Extraction: The bot navigates the website using pre-programmed instructions, often mimicking human behavior to avoid detection.
3. Price Identification: When the bot finds the product page, the scraper locates and extracts the price information using specific algorithms tailored to identify price tags within the website’s code.
4. Data Aggregation: The extracted price data is sorted and stored for further analysis or integration into automated pricing systems.

What are the common techniques used by scrapers?

Scrapers use a variety of methods, from basic to more complex, to extract pricing data from websites. Here’s a breakdown of some common techniques:

• HTML Parsing: This involves sifting through a website’s code to find and extract specific elements containing pricing information. It’s a common, programmatic way to gather data directly from the website’s underlying structure.

• Headless Browsing – A trick for bypassing anti-scraping measures: Special tools can use headless browsers (which act like browsers without a physical window) to mimic a user interacting with a website. This allows the tool to navigate pages and extract pricing information – even if the website has defenses against scraping.

• Proxy Rotation – Staying hidden while scraping: To avoid being blocked or detected based on their IP address, scrapers might use proxy networks. By constantly switching IP addresses, they can mask their scraping activity and gather data more efficiently.

Who is At Risk From Price Scraping?

Price scraping poses a threat to all kinds of businesses, yet some are more at risk than others. Here’s a breakdown of who feels the sting the most:

High-Risk Businesses:

• E-commerce Retailers: Considering everything we’ve just spoken about, you might have already guessed – but e-commerce is the bullseye for price scrapers. Online stores with constantly fluctuating prices or those selling similar products across different retailers are usually the primary targets.
• Ticketing Platforms: Event tickets and concert prices are susceptible to scraping by ticket resellers, who can then exploit price fluctuations.
• Travel and Hospitality Industry: Hotel rates, flight prices, and holiday packages are heavily scraped by competitors and price comparison websites.

Other Vulnerable Businesses:

• Financial Services: Price scraping can affect businesses offering financial products like mortgages, loans, or investment options.
• Subscription Services: Companies offering subscription plans for software, media, or other services can be impacted if competitors use scraped data to undercut their pricing.

Generally, any business that relies heavily on competitive pricing or has a dynamic pricing strategy is at risk from price scraping.

Even businesses that aren’t directly competing on price can be affected. Scraped data can be used to inform competitor marketing strategies or product development decisions, indirectly impacting the market.

How to Combat the Threat of Price Scraping

While completely eliminating price scraping might not be feasible without proper protection, marketers can employ several strategies to mitigate its impact:

• Clear Terms of Service: Clearly define acceptable website usage within the terms of service (TOS). Explicitly prohibit scraping activities and outline consequences for violation. This may go some way to deter some (but not all) scrapers. 
• Advanced Anti-Bot Measures: Use CAPTCHAs, honeypots (fake data traps), and IP address throttling to deter automated bots. These solutions help distinguish human users from sneaky bots – just keep in mind that scraper bots are smarter than ever, and some may get past these blockers. 
• Dynamic Content Delivery: Implement techniques that dynamically generate product pages, making it difficult for bots to consistently locate price information.
• Legal Action: In cases of blatant scraping that violates TOS or local regulations, consider pursuing legal action to protect your intellectual property. Unfortunately, some violators are particularly good at hiding their identity, making this a difficult task. 

Beyond Price Scraping: A Holistic Approach

There’s no getting away from it – scraping is here to stay. There will always be those willing to cross the line and use unethical practices to gain a competitive advantage. 

This highlights the need for a comprehensive approach to online pricing strategies. Consider the following strategies and practices to further combat those cheeky bots:

• Value-Based Pricing: Focus on the value proposition of your products and services. Communicate the unique benefits your offerings provide to justify pricing beyond simply competing on the lowest cost.
• Data-Driven Optimization: Utilize website analytics to understand customer behavior and adjust pricing based on real user data rather than solely relying on scraped competitor information.
• Customer Segmentation: Implement targeted pricing strategies that cater to different customer segments with varying price sensitivities.
• Regular Price Reviews: Evaluate pricing strategies regularly and adapt to market fluctuations and evolving customer needs.

How Lunio Protects Against Price Scrapers

Price scraping is a growing challenge for marketers, but it shouldn’t cripple your pricing strategy. 

Lunio works to protect websites against automated bot scrapers – meaning any scrapers that hit product landing pages are detected and added to an exclusion audience, or automatically IP blocked. 

With 1 in 12 clicks online being fake or fraudulent, Lunio goes a step further in protecting all your ad spend from bots and invalid traffic. This could prevent upwards of 20% of your ad spend falling victim to bots and other sources of invalid traffic.

By using the right invalid traffic prevention software combined with value-driven pricing, businesses can build resilience against scraping and maintain control over their pricing narrative. 

Get a 14-day no-obligation traffic audit with Lunio to see how much ad spend you’re wasting, and discover how we can help you mitigate price scraping.

Price Scraping FAQs

Is price scraping legal?

The legality of price scraping is, unfortunately, a very gray area. Generally speaking, it’s more unethical than illegal – however, it does cross the line and becomes illegal when it directly violates the terms and conditions of a website. 

Additionally, when scraping disrupts website security or performance, it is considered a malicious activity – meaning business are able to take legal action, if they can track down the fraudsters committing price scraping. 

What does price scraping achieve?

Price scraping isn’t just used for getting a list of product prices – it’s also used to uncover a variety of pricing information that can influence strategy and help scrapers undermine competition. This includes:

• MAP (minimum advertised price) monitoring
• Competitive pricing intelligence
• Dynamic pricing
• Pricing strategy optimization
• Pricing trend identification

How does price scraping impact fair competition?

Price scraping inherently gives the scraper an unfair advantage. It’s a bit like a cheat code – with a few clicks, all your competitor pricing is laid out in front of you. This enables scrapers to undermine competitor pricing strategies and undercut them in an instant. 

Typically, scraping impacts smaller businesses the most. Big businesses who use the unethical practice can scour the market, then sell at lower prices whilst maintaining profits. Smaller businesses often struggle to maintain their profit margins trying to keep up. 

The primary goal of Advantage+ shopping campaigns (ASC) is to leverage the power of AI and automation to maximize sales and drive growth for advertisers.

Since its introduction, Advantage+ campaigns have been pushed by Meta reps, agencies, media buyers, etc, and have quickly become the default campaign option in Meta’s ads manager.

In this article, we talk about everything you need to know about Advantage+ shopping campaigns, including:

• The basics 
• Benefits and limitations
• How to set up ASC in Facebook Ads Manager
• How to optimize Advantage+ campaigns

So, let’s dive in.

What Are Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns?

Advantage+ shopping campaigns are a new type of advertising campaign designed for e-commerce businesses, Shopify merchants, and other online store owners.

This campaign addresses the limitations you face when building manual ads for Facebook or Instagram, such as:

• Data privacy issues: With manual ads, you deal with a lot of customer data and control targeting parameters, which raises concerns about data privacy. That’s because you have direct access to and control over user data for targeting purposes.
• Time-consuming: Managing manual ads is time-consuming as you have to set targeting, build ad copy and creatives, and segment the audience based on demographics manually.
• Less efficient targeting: Manual ads don’t utilize advanced machine learning capabilities like Advantage+ shopping campaigns, leading to less precise targeting and potentially lower conversion rates.

With Advantage+, Meta streamlines the advertising process and provides a more integrated and comprehensive approach to campaign management and optimization. 

It aims to leverage machine learning and AI to reinforce marketers with new technology and make workflows more efficient.

Benefits of Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns

In a Bloomberg article, Nicola Mendelsohn said: “Ads running on Meta Platforms Inc.’s apps saw a return on spending increase by an average of 32% with the help of artificial intelligence.”

But this is just the tip of the iceberg – there are several benefits of Advantage+ shopping campaigns:

1. ASCs are efficient

Advantage+ shopping campaigns automate ad creation and optimization processes, reducing the number of manual steps to save time. You don’t need to constantly monitor and make adjustments to the campaigns for better performance – the machine learning capabilities will automatically optimize your ongoing campaigns

2. Reach new audiences, and optimally target existing ones

Here’s what Microsoft says about customers discovering new brands: “We’ve found that 52% of consumers want to find brands and products they haven’t heard about but align with their shopping preferences.”

This is the main reason why Meta launched Advantage+.

Advantage+ campaigns use machine learning to identify customers willing to buy your product, improving ad performance and ROI.

By analyzing user data and behavior, the system accurately predicts which customers are most likely to convert, ensuring your ads are delivered to the right audience at the right time.

3. Creative optimization

ASCs automatically generate multiple ad variations and identify the best-performing ones for your target audience. By testing various combinations of images, text, and calls to actions that you select, the system can determine which creative elements resonate most with the target audience. 

Pro tip: Try to provide Meta with as many creatives as possible so it can show multiple variations of ads to your audience and see which ones perform the best.

4. Lower cost per result

Advantage+ campaigns aim to make advertising more efficient.

Here’s how.

These campaigns automate audience targeting and creative optimization, which helps reduce ad spend wastage and improve cost per acquisition. 

This further results in a lower cost per conversion, maximizing advertisers’ return on investment and making the most of their advertising budget.

Limitations of Advantage+ Shopping Campaigns

• Advantage+ shopping campaigns are more sensitive to changes and have limited targeting options compared to manual campaigns. Advantage+ doesn’t allow for specific demographic targeting, such as age, gender, or interests, and the targeting options are also limited to the country level.
• ASCs don’t let you select or exclude specific ad placements that might sometimes impact brand appearance/safety.
• You can only run a maximum of eight Advantage+ shopping campaigns at a time.
• ASC doesn’t allow you to exclude existing or past customers from the campaign’s target audience. This can lead to ads being shown to customers who have already made a purchase from you, wasting ad spend.

Whilst Advantage+ shopping campaigns are a significant step-up in terms of ad automation, it’s still worth considering whether they’re right for you. Some marketers love the effortless, fire-and-forget functionality of Advantage+, however some prefer the fine-tuning and manual controls that Advantage+ is unable to provide. It’s a similar story to Google’s largely automated PMax campaigns. 

Despite this, the results don’t lie – a well set up ASC campaign can turbocharge your ad spend whilst simultaneously simplifying marketing workflows. Take a look at the guide below to discover how to set up a fully optimized Advantage+ campaign.

How to Set Up an Advantage+ Shopping Campaign

Here’s a step-by-step process for setting up an Advantage+ shopping campaign:

Step 1. Creating Advantage+ Shopping Campaign

Inside your Meta Ads manager, click on the ‘+ Create’ button.

Select your campaign objective – in our case, Sales; and click the ‘Continue’ button you see at the bottom right corner. 

You now get two ad campaign options to choose from: 

• Advantage+ shopping campaign (selected by default)
• Manual sales campaign

Ensure you’ve selected the Advantage+ shopping campaign, then click Continue.

The display of Advantage+ shopping campaigns is a little different from that of manual ad campaigns. 

On the left-hand side, you have two rows – the top one is the campaign, and the one below it is your ad. Advantage+ shopping campaigns don’t show you your Adset right away.

First of all, name your campaign.

Next, come down to the Conversion section.

• Select from Website and Website and app options.
• Set the performance goal.
• Select the Pixel if it’s not already selected by default.

Step 2. Setting Audience Location

After taking care of your conversion settings, it’s time to set your Audience location.

In the Included locations options, click the ‘Edit’ button.

Select a region or country you want to target. 

One important thing to notice here is that you can’t exclude locations for your ads on the Adset level.

To exclude locations, you’d have to set the Advantage+ shopping campaign as a preset in your ad account settings. To do so, follow the next step.

Step 3. Audience Type Breakdown & Budget Cap

The Audience-type breakdown section lets you add custom audiences to your existing customers.

In the Reporting section, under the Audience-type breakdown, click the ‘Go to account setting’ button.

This will open a new page in a new Google tab.

Go to Account controls > Audience controls and select ‘My business can only advertise in specific locations.’

Search for the location you want to exclude and click Review changes. 

In our case, we don’t want to exclude any audience, so we’ll leave it as it is.

Likewise, if you have an age-restricted ad, select ‘My business advertises age-restricted goods or services’ and set a limit on the age.

Next, add your existing customers to the Advantage+ shopping campaign.

Inside the Advantage+ shopping campaigns card, search for your existing customers’ list. 

Click the blue ‘Confirm’ button once you’ve made all the changes.

Go back to your campaign and refresh the page to see the changes you just made to your audience.

Next, go to the Budget & schedule option to set your ad spend.

We’d suggest you check the box – Existing customer budget cap and set a maximum budget percentage to spend on your existing customers.

Go ahead and set your daily budget as well.

Step 4. Suggested Ads & Building Ads

The Suggested Ads section scans your account for all the ads you’ve run and suggests the best ones. You can use them if you want. 

For this campaign, let’s create an ad from scratch.

To build the ad, click on the ad from the left-hand side menu.

This will take you to the ad creation page that looks the same as other campaign ad pages.

Creating an ad for the Advantage+ shopping campaign is the same as creating one for normal ads on Meta.

• Give it a name
• Select the Facebook and Instagram page
• Select the ad format – single image or video, carousel, or collection
• Check or uncheck the Multi-advertiser ads box
• Add your creatives – media, headline, description, call to action

Hit the ‘Publish’ button when everything’s set up.

How to Optimize Meta Advantage+ Campaigns

Here are some Advantage+ shopping campaign best practices you should follow to get the best results.

1. Diversify your creatives

Having a variety of creative options gives Meta the best opportunity to connect the right ads with the right audience.

On Meta, you can add up to 50 images or videos at one time. But uploading and forgetting about them isn’t a good idea. Ensure that you refresh these creatives a few times a month to avoid creative fatigue.

Here’s what YouTube PPC expert Dara Denney thinks about diversifying ad creatives: 

“I encourage rapid format testing into popular performance creative formats. This goes beyond just testing into carousels, videos, and images. What I mean is you must test into tried-and-true performance creatives like UGC, before-and-after, reviews, tutorials, etc.”

2. Select bidding options

Meta suggests selecting the lowest cost bid type and not adding a bid cap for best results,

Why?

When you set a budget cap, it’s good to control your costs – but remember that it also limits the number of audiences you can reach.

One major reason why you might be running Advantage+ campaigns is that you want to find the right fit for your ads.

Advantage+ app campaigns typically receive more results and spend their entire budget when using the lowest cost without a bid cap.

3. Avoid overlapping audiences with manual ads

One thing to avoid when running ASC is audience overlap with manual ads.

When multiple campaigns target the same type of audience, Meta can get confused which can lead to your ads getting deprioritized. You might want to avoid running manual ads and Advantage+ campaigns for the same audience simultaneously.

To see if Advantage+ shopping campaigns are the right fit for your advertisement ideas, we suggest you first properly A/B test your ideas by running both manual and Advantage+ campaigns with no audience overlap.

If ASC performs better, double down on it and stop your manual campaigns.

FAQs 

What is the Advantage+ shopping campaign?

Advantage+ shopping campaigns are a new type of advertising campaign designed for e-commerce businesses, Shopify merchants, and other online store owners.

What is the difference between Advantage+ campaigns and manual sales campaigns?

The difference between Advantage+ campaigns and manual sales campaigns lies in the level of automation and control. Advantage+ automates the majority of your ad-creating and publishing process with AI and machine learning, while there’s no such thing built for manual ad campaigns.

How many ASC ads can you run simultaneously?

You can run a maximum of eight Advantage+ shopping campaigns at a time.

Wrapping Up

Automated campaign types such as Advantage+ have changed the PPC landscape forever. AI and machine learning has successfully automated a lot of previously manual processes, and marketing workflows have never been simpler.

Yet, the question remains – is leaving so much of your marketing in the hands of AI truly a good thing? Opinions are mixed. Some marketers appreciate the simplicity of campaigns such as Advantage+ and PMax, however many aren’t sold on relinquishing so much control over their campaigns and still opt for a manual approach. 

Then there’s the biggest issue – invalid traffic (IVT). 

Automated campaigns such as these aren’t immune to the rising tide of invalid traffic eating away at our PPC budgets – in fact, they may be making the problem worse. 

Limited control over targeting and less visibility in analytics means a thicker fog over exactly who – or what – is clicking on your ads. 

Find out exactly how invalid traffic affects your website with a free, no-obligation 14-day free trial and discover how to optimize your ad spend with Lunio.

With such a gigantic user base, it’s no surprise that ads on the platform are becoming an increasingly important aspect of marketing strategy for all kinds of businesses. 

In recent years, YouTube Video Action campaigns have become a powerful tool for driving conversions on the world’s largest video platform. But constant updates and evolving audience behaviors can make it hard to stay ahead of the curve. 

Here, we’ll equip you with the strategies and know-how required to master YouTube Video Action campaigns, and discuss the impact of recent changes to the campaign type. You can expect: 

• A rundown of what YouTube Video Action campaigns are 
• A look into how they work
• Why you’d use Video Action campaigns (+ key benefits over other ad formats)
• Scenarios where you wouldn’t use them
• Key changes that were recently made to the format
• Requirements and setup steps
• How to build a YouTube Video Action campaign that converts

A Quick Rundown of YouTube Video Action Campaigns

In Google’s own words, YouTube Video Action campaigns are a “simple and cost-effective way to drive more conversions on and off YouTube, all in a single automated campaign.”

If you’re an old, wise veteran of the ad game (aka you’ve been here since at least 2021), you may remember TrueView for Action ads. These consisted of the classic ‘skip after 5 seconds’ in-stream video ads that appear before, during, or after videos on YouTube. 

In 2021, Google sunsetted the TrueView for Action campaign format, and all existing campaigns were automatically upgraded to Video Action campaigns shortly after. 

How YouTube Video Action Campaigns Work 

YouTube Video Action campaigns expand on the previous TrueView campaigns, combining skippable in-stream ads with in-feed video ad formats. In theory, this allows for a comprehensive campaign that hits multiple touch points across the platform. 

• In-stream ads promote content before, during, or after videos on YouTube that channel creators have flagged for monetization. After 5 seconds, the user has the option to skip the ad – however non-skippable in-stream ads are now available. These are 30 second ads that make users watch the entire ad message without skipping.

• In-feed video ads are used to promote video content in a discovery placement – typically at the top of a YouTube search results page. The user will see your video ad thumbnail, the title of the video, and a brief description of what the video is. In-feed video ads work similarly to standard paid search results on Google.

With Video Action campaigns, users can also add vertical video assets for their ads to appear in YouTube Shorts – YouTube’s TikTok-rivaling short-form content platform. This is particularly useful for improving campaign engagement with mobile viewers. 

Similar to a Performance Max campaign, YouTube Video action campaigns take your video creatives, and shows them to the viewers most likely to convert based on your targeting choices. You can choose to target various demographics, interests, and people who have interacted with your brand in the past. 

It’s not just YouTube where your ads will appear, however. Publisher sites that Google deem ‘high-quality’ will become Google Video Partners (GVPs) – meaning your ads also get served across all video partner sites. 

These can be sports, games, entertainment, or news sites to name a few examples. The benefit here is that your ads can be shown to hyper-relevant audiences – for example, ads promoting a sportswear brand are likely to be pushed on a sports news website. 

Google recently removed the ability to opt out of ads displaying on GVP sites, which – despite the potential benefits of ads being shown on GVPs – isn’t great for everyone. 

Traffic quality from Google Video Partner sites is often lower quality than YouTube traffic, and suffers from high amounts of invalid traffic (documented in our Wasted Ad Spend Report). Without any kind of invalid traffic protection, ads shown on GVP sites may be far less likely to generate conversions. 

When to Use YouTube Video Action Campaigns: Key Benefits

• Drive Conversions: Hyper-relevant ads that are shown on videos and publisher websites relating to your product are proven to maximize the chances of conversion. 
• Greater Potential Audience Reach: By combining YouTube with other video partners, you tap into a larger pool of customers who have a greater chance of converting, giving campaigns a performance boost.
• Easy Scaling: Video Action campaigns allow you to run ads across various devices (mobile, desktop, TV) within a single campaign – eliminating the need to manage separate bids and budgets for each platform.
• Cost-Effective Video Advertising: According to Google, Video Action campaigns drive 20% more conversions per dollar than the previous TrueView campaigns. 

Scenarios where Video Action campaigns excel over other formats:

• You’re focusing on lead generation: Want to capture leads directly through your ads? Video action campaigns allow you to include lead forms within the ad itself, simplifying the process for potential customers.
• You want high-intent site visitors: Compared to image-based discovery ads, video ads have the potential to grab user attention and quickly convey information, leading to more qualified website visitors.
• You’re promoting specific actions: Video is a powerful storytelling tool. If your goal is to get viewers to take a specific action (sign up for a service, download an app), video ads can quickly explain the benefits and nudge viewers towards that action.

YouTube video action campaigns are ideal when you want to go beyond brand awareness and drive concrete actions from viewers, while reaching a large audience on an optimized budget. 

Scenarios where you won’t want to use Video Action campaigns: 

YouTube video action campaigns are a powerful tool, but there are a few situations where they might not be the best fit for your goals. Here are a few cases where you might want to consider investing your ad spend into other ad formats: 

• Brand awareness campaigns: Video action campaigns are primarily focused on conversions, like website visits or sales. If your primary goal is to build brand awareness, you might be better off with a different campaign type. 
• Limited control over ad placement: By showing your ads across YouTube and Google video partners, you’re inherently reaching a wider audience. But it also means you’re relying on Google to decide where (and on what videos) your ads are shown. If you’re concerned about your brand appearing next to irrelevant or inappropriate content, consider a different ad format that allows for more precise control. 
• Precise audience targeting: Video action campaigns use automated bidding to optimize for conversions. This can be great for driving a high volume of conversions, but it may not be the best option if you need to target a very specific audience.

YouTube Video Action Campaigns: Key Changes and What They Mean

In recent years, Google has made some significant developments for YouTube Video Action Campaigns. Here’s a breakdown of the most crucial updates:

• Expanded inventory: Video Action campaigns now show ads on the YouTube home feed and watch pages, meaning ads can reach a wider audience across YouTube. 

• Less control: Following a recent update, users can no longer opt out of showing ads on the Google Video Partners network. This means your video ads will also display on sites that aren’t YouTube – whether you want them to or not. Many marketers aren’t happy about this change – GVPs can lead to increased brand risk, and they unfortunately provide much higher rates of invalid traffic for video ads. 

• Content targeting removal: With the rise (and for the most part, success) of automated ad campaign types such as PMax, automation is inevitable across other ad campaign formats. Google recently removed the option to target videos based on content, meaning you can’t choose which channels or videos your ads appear on. Instead, you’ll have to rely on Google’s machine learning algorithms to decide where your video ads appear. 

• Rise of Responsive Video Ads: Responsive Video Ads (RVA) are the new standard. This format automatically adapts your video assets (images, headlines, calls to action) to different screen sizes and placements, maximizing reach and engagement. Video Action campaigns have embraced this, meaning in theory you won’t have to add as many video size options to your Video Actions campaigns. Despite this, we still recommend giving Google a variety of options to work with – including video creatives in landscape/portrait along with different video sizes and lengths. 

Unfortunately, most of these changes have ultimately resulted in less direct control over Video Action campaigns. This won’t affect anyone looking for a minimal-effort, high-effectiveness video marketing campaign setup, but it is detrimental for those who prefer a more hands-on approach. 

Still, there’s no denying the effectiveness of YouTube Video Action campaigns. Research shows that the average user remembers 95% of a message when watched, compared to just 10% when it’s read. With over 1 billion hours of video watched on YouTube each day, it’s no surprise that Video Action campaigns are a highly effective method of reaching your target audience and effectively getting a message across to them – automation or not.

How to Set Up YouTube Video Action Campaigns

Now we’ve explored the landscape of Video Action campaigns, let’s take a look at the steps needed to set one up: 

1. Log into Google Ads. On the left menu, select ‘new campaign’.
2. Select the objective and name of your campaign. 
3. Define budget type in the “Budget and dates” section.
4. Select languages and locations to choose where your ads are displayed. 
5. Add site link extensions, specific device targeting, or product feed options (best practices on these later).
6. Enter the ad group name and select the right demographics you want to target.
7. Create the ad with the editor, and choose a companion banner. 
8. Enter the ad name and click ‘create’

And just like that, you’ve got your very own Video Action campaign. If you’d prefer a video walkthrough, take a look at the official Google tutorial video below:  

Building a High-Converting YouTube Video Action Campaign

Setting up YouTube Video Action campaigns is the easy part. The real challenge lies with the enhancement, optimization, and targeting that follows. 

With that said, let’s delve into the beginning-to-end best practices when creating a high-performing Video Action campaign:

1. Define Your Campaign Goals:

As with any ad campaign, start by clarifying your objectives. Are you aiming for:

• Website Conversions: Driving traffic and encouraging actions like purchases or sign-ups.
• App Installs: Promoting app downloads.
• Lead Generation: Capturing leads through form submissions.

A clear goal will guide your targeting, budget allocation, and video content.

2. Craft Engaging Video Ads

Your video creatives form the heart of your campaign. Here are some tips for creating impactful content that translates into conversions: 

• Hook viewers in the first 5 seconds: Grab attention quickly with a strong opening. Be unique, interesting, and compel your audience to watch more in that all-important 5 second window. 
• Focus on benefits, not features: Highlight how your product or service solves viewers’ problems or enhances their lives. 
• Keep it concise: Aim for a video length that aligns with your goals (typically shorter for brand awareness, longer for detailed product explanations).
• Optimize for sound-off viewing: Use strong visuals, text overlays, and captions to deliver your message effectively – even without sound.
• Include a clear call to action (CTA): Tell viewers exactly what you want them to do next, whether it’s visiting your website, downloading your app, signing up for a free trial, etc.

3. Leverage Responsive Video Ads (RVA)

Take advantage of RVAs to maximize your ad’s reach and performance across various devices and placements. Here’s how:

• Provide multiple video assets: Upload different video lengths, aspect ratios, and headlines to create a flexible ad format. Providing video creatives in both landscape and portrait formats allows you to serve ads across both traditional videos and YouTube shorts. 
• Test and refine your assets: Google Ads allows A/B testing of different combinations within your RVA. Use this feature to identify the elements that resonate best with your target audience.

4. Targeting Strategies in a Limited Setting

Whilst Google has reduced user control over targeting options, effective audience selection remains crucial. Here’s what you can still do:

• Leverage Google’s Audience Insights: Use Google Ads’ built-in audience insights tool to understand your target audience’s demographics, interests, and online behavior.
• Make use of Customer Match Audiences: Upload email lists of your current customers to target audiences with similar traits and characteristics 
• In-Market and Affinity Audiences: Consider Google’s pre-built audience segments based on purchase intent and brand affinity.

5. Conversion Tracking: The Cornerstone of Success

Conversion tracking is just as essential for Video Action campaigns as it is for any other type of ad campaign. Set up conversion tracking in Google Ads to measure specific actions users take after viewing your ad – such as website visits, purchases, or app downloads.

6. Bidding Strategies and Budget Allocation

With limited control over placements, bidding strategies become all the more important. Carefully consider each option and decide what fits with your campaign goals: 

• Maximize Conversions: This strategy automatically sets bids to acquire the most conversions within your budget.
• Target CPA: Set a target cost per acquisition (CPA) that aligns with your campaign goals, margins, and budget.

For budget allocation, consider starting with a smaller budget and gradually increasing it as you gather data and further optimize your campaign.

7. Network and Device Controls (Where Applicable)

Whilst some control over placements were removed, you may still have the option to exclude specific YouTube channels or Display Network partners. Use this if there are placements that don’t align with your brand or target audience, and think about potential content that you might not want to put your ads in front of. 

Similarly, you may adjust targeting for different devices (desktop, mobile, tablet) based on your audience’s browsing behavior. Use every ounce of first-party data at your disposal to optimize, optimize, optimize. 

8. Use Sitelink Extensions

Sitelink extensions allow you to add additional links to your video ad, directing users to specific landing pages relevant to your campaign goals. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Create clear, concise headlines: Use headlines that accurately reflect the content of each link.
• Highlight key benefits: Emphasize the value proposition of each linked page within the character limit.
• Align video & page content: Ensure the sitelink extensions complement the message conveyed in your video ad to enhance brand identity and avoid confusing user journeys. 

9. Analyze and Optimize for Continuous Improvement

Campaign optimization is an ongoing process – anyone with a ‘set and forget’ mentality will see performance drops over time. Stay ahead of the curve in order to maximize performance and out-perform competitors: 

• Monitor Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Track metrics like impressions, clicks, conversions, and cost-per-acquisition (CPA) to measure overall campaign performance.
• Make Use of Google Ads’ Reporting Features: Google Ads offers comprehensive reporting tools to analyze campaign performance across the metrics most important to your goals.
• Make Data-Driven Decisions: Use campaign data to identify areas for improvement. Test different video ad variations, targeting options, and bidding strategies to enhance the performance of your Video Action campaigns.
• Test Different Creatives: A/B testing allows you to compare different video ad versions and identify the ones that resonate best with your audience.

10. Content Suitability Settings: Maintaining Brand Alignment

While YouTube offers a vast audience, it’s important to ensure your video ads are displayed alongside content that aligns with your brand. Use Google Ads’ content suitability settings to exclude placements that might not be appropriate or relevant for your message.

Conclusion: Mastering YouTube Video Action Campaigns

Remember, creating engaging video content, targeting the right audience, and optimizing your campaign based on data are key ingredients for success.

Google, and thus YouTube, may be moving towards machine learning and AI at an increasing rate – but that doesn’t mean you should rely on it to fully understand your first party data, targeting information, and content proposition. 

In order to get the most out of Video Action campaigns, input every ounce of information you have in order to help the algorithms serve your content to the most relevant users. 

Bonus Tip: Stay Updated with Industry Trends

YouTube Video Action campaigns are constantly being updated with new features and changes. That’s why it’s important to stay ahead of the curve in order to keep your campaigns optimal. 

We recommend keeping an eye on Google Ads’ official Video Action campaign resource page to stay informed about new features and functionalities. 

Improve Your Video Ad ROI With Lunio

YouTube Video Action campaigns give you more opportunities to reach your target audience.

But like other ad types, video ads are affected by invalid traffic (IVT) from bots, scripts, and a multitude of other sources that will never lead to a conversion. 

In fact, Video Action campaigns on Google Video Partner sites are particularly susceptible to IVT (find out more here). In total, $1.32 billion in ad spend was wasted on YouTube last year thanks to IVT.

Lunio removes invalid traffic to ensure only genuine users click your video ads. This can boost conversions, reduce wasted ad spend, and decrease spam leads. 

For a free traffic audit and two-week trial, book a no-obligation demo to see how much of your ad spend is being wasted. 

Key Stats 

• 10.9% increase in conversion rate 
• 14.9% decrease in bounce rate 
• £704k saved by blocking clicks from invalid sources

Sykes Cottages is the UK’s leading independent holiday cottage rental agency, with over 30 year’s experience in the industry. They represent more than 22,500 holiday homes across the UK, Ireland, and New Zealand – from cosy cottages to larger properties sleeping 20 or more.

Sykes operates both B2C and B2B paid media campaigns, serving two different kinds of customers. On the B2C side, Sykes drives bookings from holidaymakers searching for their perfect getaway accommodation. And on the B2B side, they advertise to holiday home owners who want a hassle-free way to fill up their rental calendar with bookings, by having their property listed on Sykes website.  

Paul Oates, Head of Performance Media, is responsible for ensuring Sykes digital ad budget is used to drive both property bookings and leads from property owners as efficiently as possible.

In his previous role, Paul had implemented Lunio and was impressed with the results. He had seen first-hand evidence of how reducing levels of invalid traffic (IVT) helped to improve conversion rates over time. So when he joined Sykes in January 2023, he saw huge potential in tackling IVT, especially given the scale of the business. 

Why Sykes Chose Lunio 

Paul and his team went through a procurement process, with Lunio being compared against another invalid traffic prevention solution for an initial trial period. Lunio was selected based on easier usability, more helpful data-driven insights, and higher-quality support. 

Eliminating Source of Wasted Ad Spend 

Invalid traffic rates coming from Google Ads were reduced significantly within the first four months, falling 43%, from an average of 5.1% to 2.9%. This uplift in traffic quality led Sykes to expand Lunio to other key acquisition channels in July 2023, including Bing, Meta, and TikTok. 

The benefits of having greater visibility and insights into traffic sources quickly became clear. Notably, Paul and his team noticed a lot of paid traffic was coming from their head office IP, showing current employees were clicking on ads.

The B2B arm of business saw an outsized benefit from having Lunio in place. Property owners are able to apply for holiday let mortgages through Sykes website via financial services partners they work with. And this inevitably results in a higher level of fraudulent bot activity.

“Lunio acts as an extra barrier protecting us from bad actors, which has led to a significant increase in lead quality” said Paul.

The Results 

Comparing paid search data from October 2023 to March 2024 YoY, the downstream benefits of blocking invalid traffic are reflected in improvements across Sykes key performance metrics. With Lunio supporting them as they continued to optimise their ads, targeting, and campaigns they saw:

• 10.9% increase in conversion rate 
• 14.9% decrease in bounce rate 
• 11.3% increase in average session duration 
• More than 82,000 IPs automatically excluded 
• £704k saved by blocking clicks from invalid sources 

The overall increase in paid media efficiency has helped Sykes deliver better results across both the B2C and B2B arms of the business. And the roll out of multiplatform protection to cover all of Sykes key acquisition channels has given them valuable insight into the risk profile associated with each platform at any given time. 

“Occasionally we’ll see traffic spikes in our analytics that look like bot activity, and we want to find out whether it has come from paid channels. The Lunio dashboard makes it really easy to quickly assess the health of each channel, to either diagnose where the problem is coming from, or rule out paid media as the source of the spike”  said Paul.

After a successful first year, Paul and the paid media team at Sykes are now set to scale investment on important growth channels such as TikTok, confident in the knowledge that their increased spend is effectively protected against zero-value clicks. 

If you’re anything like us, you’re probably feeling a bit ‘Ben Affleck’ after hearing this:

(Credit to Mike Ryan from Smarter Ecommerce for that one)

You’re probably also wondering how this new campaign type will affleck affect us as marketers. 

Here, we’ll discuss everything you need to know about Performance Max for Marketplaces, including:

• What it is and how it works
• What marketers are saying about PMax for Marketplaces
• Why we should care about this new campaign type
• When (and how) to use PMax for Marketplaces

What is Performance Max for Marketplaces?

In late 2021, Google introduced Performance Max campaigns – a game-changer for marketers seeking an automated, all-encompassing approach to online advertising. 

Now, Google has taken things a step further with the release of Performance Max for Marketplaces – a campaign type specifically designed for sellers who use established online marketplaces, like eBay or Amazon. 

Traditionally, Google Ads relied on Merchant Center feeds and dedicated landing pages to power advertising campaigns. PMax for Marketplaces disrupts this model by allowing sellers to advertise their existing marketplace product listings directly. 

This means users can use Google Ads to reach new customers and drive sales – with no need for a separate website or Merchant Center setup.

Here’s how it works:

1. Connect Accounts: The user links their Google Ads account with a supported marketplace platform.
   
2. Campaign Creation: Once connected, they can create PMax campaigns specifically designed for their marketplace products.
   
3. Leveraging Existing Data: PMax for Marketplaces automatically integrates with existing marketplace product data – including descriptions, images, and pricing, to generate compelling ad creatives.
   
4. Automated Optimization: As you’d expect, PMax for Marketplaces is very similar to regular PMax campaigns, meaning AI and machine learning take center stage. It takes campaign goals, budget, and audience targeting into account to deliver ads across various Google Ads networks – including Shopping, Search, YouTube, Display, Maps, and Gmail. The automation optimizes ad delivery in real-time based on user intent and behavior, attempting to maximize reach and conversion potential.
   
5. Seamless Reporting: Campaign performance is tracked and reported within the Google Ads interface, providing detailed insights into clicks, impressions, and conversions generated through marketplace product listings.

You might be expecting PMax for Marketplaces to work in the exact same way as regular PMax campaigns – but for, well, marketplaces. This is largely true, however PMax for Marketplaces is currently missing a few features that standard Performance Max campaigns benefit from: 

• No cross-account conversion tracking
• No URL expansion
• No video assets
• No new customer acquisition modeling
• No data segments for audience reporting

It’s worth noting that as of right now, PMax for Marketplaces is still very much in beta. Key marketplaces – such as Amazon, eBay, etc have yet to announce whether they will integrate with Google for this campaign type.

If all goes well, we can expect the major marketplace players to adopt PMax for Marketplaces in due course. For now, however, we can only speculate about the impact of the new campaign type. 

What Marketers Are Saying About PMax for Marketplaces: 

In Google’s own words:

“Performance Max for Marketplaces helps you reach more customers and drive more sales of your products using a marketplace. After you connect your Google Ads account to the marketplace, you can create Performance Max campaigns that send shoppers to your products there.”

But what do marketers think about PMax for Marketplaces?

Mike Ryan, Head of Ecommerce Insights at Smarter Ecommerce (and renowned meme creator) spoke about the implications of PMax for Marketplaces in a LinkedIn post. He talked about how the campaign type could contribute to the ongoing CPC wars already putting the strain on advertisers, and mentions the importance of data input and output optimization. 

Commenting on the post, Joann Stecca (freelance Paid Media Strategist) questioned the viability of merchants having to pay 15% commission for Amazon as well as paid search acquisition. Mike responded, agreeing that the platforms (Google and Amazon) are the real winners here.

Navah Hopkins, Brand Evangelist at Optmyzr, mentions the ongoing US v. Google Antitrust hearings, which contextually makes the introduction of PMax Marketplace campaigns a questionable decision on Google’s part.

Many marketers are hesitant to comment on the implications of the new campaign type, as Google is yet to release any sort of list detailing which marketplaces are approved and ready for PMax for Marketplaces. 

Google has mentioned that they are currently “working to add more marketplace platforms”, leaving us curious about how impactful this new campaign type will be. Web Marketer Dario Zannoni mentions that Singapore-born marketplace Shopee is one of the few marketplaces currently supporting PMax for Marketplace campaigns. 

Why Should Marketers Care About PMax for Marketplaces?

This is Google clearly recognising the ever-growing importance of online marketplaces, such as Amazon.

It’s still early days, but for marketers with established marketplace sales, PMax for Marketplaces is likely to play a big part in their Google Ads strategy going forward – providing all goes according to Google’s plan. 

Since there’s no need for an expensive site or merchant center, there’s a massive opportunity for small businesses here – as well as those with a limited budget. 

Yet PMax for Marketplaces has the potential to offer some key benefits that businesses of any size can take advantage of:

• Budget-friendly: PMax for Marketplaces eliminates the need for a separate website and Merchant Center setup, simplifying campaign management and saving on costs.
  
• Enhanced Reach: The sheer reach of Google’s advertising network is incredibly valuable – PMax takes advantage of this by targeting potential customers across various touch points throughout their buying journey, wherever they may be.
  
• Auto-Optimized Performance: Just like regular PMax campaigns, PMax for Marketplaces leverages Google’s machine learning expertise to optimize ad delivery and maximize conversions based on real-time insights.
  
• Data-Driven Decisions: Gain accurate performance data within the familiar Google Ads interface, allowing for data-driven decision making and campaign refinement.
  
• Accessibility for Smaller Sellers: In theory, PMax for Marketplaces can empower smaller businesses without a dedicated website to compete in the e-commerce landscape.
  
• Uncover New Demand: With access to your entire marketplace catalog, PMax can identify and target previously undiscovered customer segments, expanding your reach and customer base.
  

When to Use Performance Max for Marketplaces Campaigns

As with standard PMax campaigns, PMax for Marketplaces sound great on paper – but they’re not right for everyone. 

Those looking for a precision control of their campaigns certainly won’t find it here – you can’t choose specific keywords or placements, which is not ideal for marketplaces with very specific audiences. 

Alongside this, there are a few other scenarios where PMax for Marketplaces should be avoided at all costs: 

• Campaign Goals: If your primary focus is driving sales directly through your marketplace listings, PMax for Marketplaces could work well. However, if brand awareness or website traffic is your goal, PMax for Marketplaces won’t get you very far.
  
• Product Catalog Size: PMax thrives on a robust product catalog. If your marketplace listings are limited, Google’s machine learning system might not have enough data to optimize effectively.
  
• Comfort with Automation: PMax relies heavily on Google’s machine learning/AI for optimization. Whilst it’s proven to be incredibly effective, it doesn’t always get it right – especially if you’re targeting a niche audience. If you prefer more granular control over ad placements, PMax for Marketplaces probably isn’t for you.

Getting Started with PMax for Marketplaces

Think Performance Max for Marketplaces is the right campaign type for you? Here are the initial steps to get set up.

Keep in mind that, at the time of writing, the beta is currently only available in a select few regions – so don’t worry if you can’t see it just yet!

1. Check Compatibility: As mentioned, Google hasn’t exactly been forthcoming about which marketplaces are/aren’t supported. You’ll need to get in touch with your marketplace of choice to find out whether they support PMax for Marketplaces.
   
2. Connect Your Accounts: Link your Google Ads account with your supported marketplace platform.
   
3. Campaign Setup: As with any other PMax campaign, define your campaign goals, budget, and target audience within the Google Ads interface.
   
4. Creative Assets: While PMax uses existing product data, consider providing high-quality images and standout ad copy to improve performance.
   
5. Optimize, Optimize, Optimize: Regularly monitor campaign performance within Google Ads and make adjustments as needed. Remember, the beauty of PMax lies in its ongoing optimization, so give the AI some time to learn and refine its delivery strategy. 

Quick tip: Keep in mind that your products and ads will need to comply with all Shopping ads / Google ads policies.

Final Thoughts

With Google still “working to add more marketplace platforms”, the overall impact of Performance Max for Marketplaces largely depends on adoption by key marketplaces. 

Once major players such as Amazon, eBay, Walmart, etc. are on board, this campaign type has the potential to become the new norm, and shift the marketing landscape entirely for marketplace sellers. 

Combat Fake Clicks with Lunio

Fake clicks are becoming increasingly problematic for marketers. Invalid traffic (IVT) wastes more of your ad spend than you think – with 1 in 12 online clicks being invalid. 

Nobody is truly protected – IVT affects every ad campaign out there, and will likely impact PMax for Marketplaces, too. Google’s own invalid traffic protection and refunding system has proven to be inadequate in the face of the growing IVT concern. 

Lunio works to protect your campaign budgets and prevent invalid traffic, and ensures your ads are only seen by real customers – not bots who have absolutely zero chance of converting. 

See how much invalid traffic is affecting your PPC success (and how much you can save by eliminating it) with Lunio’s free, no-obligation traffic audit.

The feature was dropped with surprisingly little fanfare, yet Ad Intents could be somewhat of a breakthrough for many websites using Auto ads.

Here’s why we think marketers should be paying attention to Ad Intents:

• It provides privacy-conscious targeting that doesn’t rely on third-party cookies (!)
• It increases user ad relevance (meaning higher CTRs)
• Increased revenue potential

Let’s delve deeper into Ad Intents and what their introduction means for marketers and AdSense publishers alike.

What are Ad Intents?

Google AdSense’s Auto ads program is hugely popular across all kinds of websites. It makes it easy for anyone to monetize their content – all AdSense publishers need to do is insert one piece of code onto their pages, and Auto ads will automatically scan their site and place hyperlinks ads where they’re most likely to perform well. 

Previously, whenever a user clicked on said hyperlink, they were directed to a separate landing page. This often worked against the site’s user journey, and in some cases discouraged sites from using Auto ads. 

Fortunately, Google recently introduced Ad Intents, which aims to revamp the user experience – providing greater benefit to the user, the site owner, and marketers alike. With Ad Intents turned on, Auto ads will dynamically place contextual text links and anchors on a site in a way that works with page content – not against it. 

Ad Intents works much differently to traditional Auto ads. When a user clicks on a hyperlink or anchor, an overlay appears on the screen (without them leaving the page they’re browsing). The overlay displays paid search ads, followed by organic search results, that are hyper-relevant to the link they’ve clicked on. 

What Are Marketers Saying About Ad Intents?

Google is calling Ad Intents an “intent-driven format” for a cookieless, privacy-focused world. It’s still early days, but so far marketers are largely on board with Google’s vision for this. 

It’s not surprising – marketers have been crying out for intent-driven alternatives to third-party cookies since the initial announcement of their removal. 

Ali Mustafa, Paid Media Lead at Intelling, thinks Ad Intents could be a gamechanger for publishers as it’s a far more natural way to serve ads. 

Like most marketers, Tomasz Sledz, Lead Media Buyer at Grip, is eager to get more fleshed-out alternatives to third-party cookies that use intent to improve earnings. 

It’s not all sunshine and roses, however. X user @darth_na stated the following concern about Google ‘stealing’ site visitors and directing them back to Google:

Responding to the post, Google Ads Liaison Ginny Marvin wrote the following: 

What’s The Benefit of Ad Intents?

Ad Intent ads essentially work like an on-page Google search, meaning all results and ads have a significant inclination towards what the user is searching for. There are several key benefits to this approach: 

Ad Relevance 

By leveraging advanced machine learning algorithms to analyze site content and user behavior, Ad Intents surfaces extremely relevant ads that directly connect with user intent. 

With Ad Intents, each link is an opportunity. A more intent-targeted approach can lead to a significant increase in CTRs for both organic and paid search results displayed within the dialogue box. 

Seamless User Experience

Gone are the days of hyperlinks throwing users around the web so quickly they get whiplash. 

The dialogue box triggered by clicking an Ad Intent link keeps users within a website’s ecosystem – removing the disruption associated with traditional ad clicks that redirect users to entirely separate landing pages. 

Privacy-Conscious Targeting 

Third-party cookie depreciation is finally upon us – and most marketers are currently scratching their heads and wondering what to do about it. 

Fortunately, Ad Intents operate without relying on third-party cookies and the privacy concerns that surround them. They’re also a key factor in Google’s broader strategy of developing privacy-centric advertising solutions that appeal to users, whilst remaining highly relevant.

Increased Revenue Potential

Ad Intents offers a new avenue for revenue generation for advertisers and publishers alike. The contextual nature of these ads will likely lead to a more engaged, proactive audience – translating to higher CTRs, greater ad revenue, and users who are more likely to convert. 

Ad Intents Implementation and Considerations

Ad intents are an opt-in feature within the Google AdSense platform, meaning publishers can decide whether or not Ad Intents are right for them. They will continue to exist alongside existing Auto ads formats, such as overlay and in-page ads. 

It’s likely that due to the improved user experience and ad relevance Ad Intents provides, it’ll see a high adoption rate – with many publishers already testing the feature.

Yet, the new format comes with a few potential downsides that might put some publishers off using them:

Traffic Share

Hyper-relevant hyperlinks may sound hyper-beneficial for everyone involved, however it’s a bit of a double-edged sword for publishers. 

An on-page SERP might sound better than a static hyperlink that sends users to completely separate landing pages. However, some publishers are worried about users spending more time looking at search results than their actual site content. 

The potential loss of control over user journeys can be worrying – however the jury is still out on whether this is a positive or negative for site user journeys as a whole. 

Content Relevance

The overall success of Ad Intents largely depends on the contextual relevance of the generated links and anchors. 

Publishers will need to ensure their content provides a strong enough foundation for Google’s algorithms to accurately identify user intent and place highly relevant ad links on site content. 

User Experience Optimization

The whole point of Ad Intents is to create a much smoother user experience. Yet, the additional dialogue box triggered by a hyperlink click could disrupt the intended user flow. 

What’s more, a cluttered presentation with excessive information (both organic and paid results) could overwhelm users and discourage them from engaging with the displayed content. 

The Future of Ad Intents

The outcome largely remains to be seen, but Ad Intents represent a significant step forward for Google Auto ads. 

In theory, the new format could be a win-win scenario for both publishers and advertisers alike. Publishers gain access to a new, content-relevant revenue stream – whilst advertisers are likely to benefit from highly targeted ad placements in a contextually relevant environment. 

Going forward, we can expect further refinements to Ad Intents and the machine learning algorithm that powers the program. However, it remains to be seen whether the on-page SERP functionality will help or hinder the overall user journey on publisher sites. 

Optimize Ad Spend with Lunio

Marketers looking to optimize their ad spend need to consider the rising impact of Invalid Traffic.

Our 2024 Wasted Ad Spend report showed that 1 in every 12 clicks your ads are getting are invalid – meaning they have absolutely 0 chance of converting. 

Lunio works to eliminate invalid traffic by blocking bots and fake clicks at the source. 

Request a demo and get a free 14-day traffic audit, which reveals exactly how much ad spend you’re wasting.

Yet data shows that the staggering growth of e-commerce does not equal the demise of in-store shopping. According to a 2021 study published by Frontiers in Psychology, a staggering 84% of global sales still occur in physical stores – and 46% of consumers prefer it that way. 

Brick-and-mortar stores aren’t going anywhere – and Google, in their infinite wisdom, is aware of this. That’s why they introduced Google Ads store visits and store visit conversions – giving businesses the ability to understand exactly how much in-store foot traffic their ad campaigns were driving. 

Here, we’ll take a deep dive into Google Ads store visits, and equip you with the knowledge to leverage this feature and maximize your in-store conversion rates. We’ll explore: 

• What Google Ads store visits are
• The benefits of using them
• How Google tracks and measures in-store visits and conversions
• Eligibility requirements and getting started
• Optimizing campaigns for in-store visits
• Advanced campaign strategies to further increase foot traffic
• Using in-store metrics to drive conversions

What Are Google Ads Store Visits?

In the past, tracking in-store visits from online ads was a real Homo neanderthalensis in the world of advertising, and a completely dark area for marketers looking to prove in-store ROI from online ad campaigns. 

Fortunately, Google Ads introduced store visits in late 2014, and they’ve been busy improving and optimizing them ever since. 

Using Google’s sophisticated web of user analytics and location data, Google Ads store visits estimate the number of people who clicked on your ad and subsequently visited your physical store within a designated period (typically 30 days). 

This provides a crucial missing piece in the marketing puzzle, allowing businesses to see beyond online conversions and gather a much clearer picture of the real-world impact of their ad campaigns. 

How Does Google Track Store Visit Conversions?

In order to fully understand and optimize your store visit conversions, it’s important to know how they’re tracked. 

In order to make store conversions “99 percent accurate” (according to Google), Google Ads works synergistically with Google Maps. 

Google Maps knows the exact location for over 2 million businesses across the globe. Google Ads can then combine and compare this information with its user tracking data, ultimately providing us with in-store conversion tracking. 

Of course, the reality is slightly more complicated than that. Google employs a hybrid approach with a wide range of signals in order to measure visits accurately. These include: 

• User location history
• GPS location signals 
• In-store Wi-Fi connections and signal strength 
• Bluetooth beacons 
• Google Maps and Google Earth street view data 
• The exact coordinates of millions of physical stores worldwide
• Machine learning and modeling 
• Google opinion rewards surveys (real users getting paid to verify and calibrate location data) 

The Benefits of Using Google Ads Store Visits

Now you know the how, let’s look at the why. 

By making Google Ads store visits an integral part of your marketing strategy, you will: 

• Measure the true customer journey – Store visit metrics let you paint a holistic picture of your customer journey, allowing you to understand how your online efforts translate into real-world customer behavior. This gives you valuable insights into the effectiveness of your overall marketing efforts and lets you pin-point weaknesses in your user journeys and marketing funnels. 

• Boost overall ROI – Identify which campaigns, devices, ad formats, and keywords drive the most in-store conversions with store visit metrics. You can use this data to optimize your ad spend for maximum impact and conversions, ensuring you’re spending your budget on the strategies generating the most revenue for your business. 

• Support smart bidding strategies – By factoring in store visit data, Google’s smart bidding strategies can prioritize campaigns and adjust bids in real time to attract the customers most likely to visit your store. This can significantly boost ROI for certain campaign types, and is one of the most effective strategies for increasing in-store footfall. 

• Gain a competitive edge – By understanding the offline impact of your online advertising efforts, you’ll immediately gain a significant advantage over your competitors who solely rely on online conversion metrics. By gathering both online and offline metrics, you can refine your strategy and gain a stronger foothold in your industry.

Getting Started with Google Ads Store Visit Conversions

Before you start leveraging the power of Google Ads store visits, you’ll need to meet a few key eligibility requirements:

Eligibility Requirements

1. Industry – A tad obvious perhaps, but your business category will need to be eligible for store visit conversions. In other words, you’ll need to operate in an industry where businesses typically have a physical store presence.

2. Location – Your business location(s) need to be fully verified on Google My Business. GMB lets you choose your exact store locations and ensures a seamless integration with Google Maps.

3. Google Account – Once you’ve verified your business location on GMB, you’ll need to link your Google Ads account to your Google My Business profile. This facilitates the connection between online ads and physical stores. 

And just like that, you’re now ready to measure and optimize your online ad campaigns for in-store visits and conversions. 

Optimizing Campaigns for Google Ads Store Visits

Now you’re eligible to measure store visit conversions, let’s talk about some practical strategies you can use to optimize ad campaigns for in-store performance: 

• Location targeting – Target your ads to users near your physical stores to get more people through the doors and significantly increase awareness for nearby users. To do this, go into your Google Ads account and define specific high-value geographic targeting areas around your store. Google Ads will then serve your ads to the users based in those locations who are most likely to visit. 

• Location assets – Google Ads has a feature called ‘location assets’ – use this to showcase your store address, phone number, or other information within your ad itself. This is a great way to provide users with all the information they need to visit your store. It also prevents potential customers from having to manually search for your store address or contact information after viewing your ad.

• Call extensions – By including call extensions within your ads, you’re directly opening a line of communication between you and potential customers. Allow them to directly contact your store for directions, product availability or information, and other enquiries. This can be a powerful tool for gaining customers and driving immediate store visits. 

• Mobile optimization – Even the most dedicated internet users tend not to use their laptop (or drag their desktop PC around with them) when they’re on-the-go. Your local store ads should reflect this by being optimized towards mobile devices and mobile search. Responsive design and ultra-clear CTAs are vital for driving store visits on mobile.

• In-store promotional offers – Tempt your customers by highlighting exclusive in-store deals or promotions within your ads. The right promotion will be a key driver for immediate in-store visits, so take the time to perform thorough customer research and offer them an irresistible deal. 

• Optimized landing pages – Unless you run a local escape room, your customers won’t appreciate an Indiana Jones-style treasure hunt in order to locate your store. Seamlessly convert ad clicks into store visits by providing clear directions to your store location, include map integration, and highlight your store address and contact information on your landing pages.

Advanced Strategies to Increase Foot Traffic

Already optimized your campaigns? Looking for some more advanced strategies to unlock even greater performance from Google Ads store visits? Then let’s get into the technical stuff.  

These strategies may require a greater deal of coordination and communication between online and offline segments of your business – but can pay dividends with a coherent user experience that drives in-store traffic. 

• Customer match audiences – Customer match audience targeting allows you to reach existing site visitors or customers who have interacted with your brand online. Re-engage high-value users with targeted ad campaigns specifically designed to drive in-store visits by leveraging Google’s customer match audience targeting. 

• Omnichannel marketing integration – By integrating your Google Ads store visit strategy with your broader omnichannel marketing, you can create a cohesive end-to-end customer journey that ultimately leads to physical store visits. Use social media campaigns, email marketing, and in-store signage to reinforce online messaging and create a straightforward user journey that remains consistent at every touchpoint. 

• Highlight in-store services – By showcasing unique in-store services or experiences online, you’re immediately differentiating yourself from online-only competitors. Think personalized demonstrations, consultations, or in-store events. By highlighting unique in-store offerings, you can drive users to your physical stores. 

Using In-Store Metrics to Drive Conversions

Like most marketing efforts, simply implementing these strategies isn’t the ‘final step’ towards greater in-store traffic. 

Monitoring the progress and effectiveness of your ad campaigns, then making tweaks and changes based on the data you’re getting, is crucial for campaigns that continue to tempt new and existing customers into your stores.

Let’s look at the key methods of measuring success and leveraging the insights you get from in-store metrics:

Track key metrics

Let’s go obvious early. In order to get more people through your doors, it’s vital to monitor all your KPIs closely. This doesn’t mean taking a glance at your number of store visits every now and then – it means taking a deep-dive into all your in-store metrics to see exactly how online activity correlates with offline conversions. 

Key KPIs for in-store visits include: 

• Number of store visits
• Cost-per-store visit
• Average value of each store visit
• Return on ad spend (ROAS)

Consider the cost associated with each store visit to understand the overall effectiveness and profitability of your campaigns. 

Embrace attribution modeling 

Use attribution modeling within Google Ads to understand the multi-touch attribution of store visits. 

You can use attribution modeling to determine the touchpoints in your marketing funnel that play the biggest role in generating in-store conversions. 

This is why it’s important to understand the synergy between both marketing channels, and know exactly how they influence the customer journey. This lets you optimize your budget allocation, ensuring you invest in the channels that have the greatest impact on driving in-store traffic through Google Ads.

A/B Testing

Similar to e-commerce campaigns, you’ll want to compare and contrast every campaign element you can in order to identify the most effective elements that drive users through your doors. 

Here’s a handy A/B testing checklist you can use for store visit conversion campaigns:

• Visuals
• Headlines
• Ad copy
• CTAs
• Landing page designs
• Promotional offers
• Targeting strategies

Final Thoughts

By implementing the strategies mentioned above, and by closely measuring their effectiveness, you can gain a deeper understanding of your entire customer journey, optimize your ads for in-store conversions, and ultimately get far more use out of your shop doors. 

By taking an approach that bridges the gap between online and offline experiences, you’re well on your way towards optimizing the whole buying process for your customers – making it easy for them to transact with your business. 

However, no matter how well-optimized your ad campaigns are for driving in-store conversions, you’re still going to fall prey to fake clicks and other sources of invalid traffic. In fact, our Wasted Ad Spend Report showed that 1 in 12 clicks are fake.

Makes you wonder – what’s the point in optimizing your ad campaigns to meet your goals, if such a large percentage of clicks and views aren’t going to lead anywhere?

Fortunately, invalid traffic protection is the not-so-secret weapon being used by well over 60,000 brands to protect their ad spend and gain far greater control and visibility over who (or what) is clicking on your campaigns.

Get a free, no obligation traffic audit with Lunio to discover exactly how much invalid traffic is costing you. 

So now the data is in, what are the proven best practices and strategies to maximize Demand Gen ROAS? 

As the replacement for Google’s previous Discovery Ads, Demand Gen campaigns intend to help advertisers reach shoppers on platforms outside Google Search – including YouTube, Gmail, and Discover feeds. So in theory, they’re perfect for putting products and services in front of people who aren’t already actively searching for them. But as with any new campaign type, there are now some emerging best practices to follow and common pitfalls to avoid. 

To dive deep into all things Demand Gen, we spoke to Thomas Eccel, Senior Performance Marketing Manager and Google Ads Expert. Thomas also recently founded the Top PPC Updates Newsletter, which already has more than 10,000 subscribers. 

Over the past six months, Thomas has carefully documented and shared his own Demand Gen insights and discoveries, making him one of the leading independent experts on the topic. And as a former Performance Marketing Consultant for Cognizant & Google, Thomas profitably managed more than €10M on Google Ads, working with clients like Nike, eBay, BMW, HelloFresh, and more. 

Google Demand Gen Campaign Performance Webinar

Webinar Timestamps

• 0:00 – Intro
• 12:10 – What are Google Demand Gen campaigns?
• 14:00 – Demand Gen vs Discovery campaigns
• 20:08 – Common pitfalls to avoid with Demand Gen campaigns
• 23:05 – How to optimize First-Party, Lookalike, and Custom audiences
• 32:15 – How to choose the right Demand Gen bidding strategy
• 36:48 – The crossover between Meta campaigns and Demand Gen
• 41:10 – Ad placements on the Youtube Home Feed
• 42:51 – Best practices for excluding placements and YouTube channels
• 46:25 – How to boost CTRs by adding sitelinks to campaigns
• 47:55 – Average invalid traffic rates for Demand Gen campaigns 
• 51:16 – How to troubleshoot underperforming Demand Gen campaigns
• 54:40 – Q&A With Thomas

TL;DR – Key Takeaways

Don’t have time to watch the full webinar? We’ve compiled a list of all the key takeaways and actionable tips below, segmented by topic.

Need a quick refresher on Google Demand Gen campaigns before we dive into the details? Take a look at the slide below:

Common pitfalls to avoid with Demand Gen campaigns

Not sticking to a single campaign structure: 

• Don’t run multiple Demand Gen campaigns – instead, run a single consolidated one. This is why Google provided location and language targeting at an ad group level – consolidated Demand Gen campaigns are far more effective.
• One exception to this is when you have multiple different campaign objectives.

Stagnating audiences:

• Don’t rely on automation alone to help you capture your target audience. 
• Demand Gen campaigns provide some valuable insights into audience segments, so be sure to test different audience segments. 

Ignoring Demand Gen campaigns once they’re set up: 

• Even though Demand Gen campaigns are largely automated, there is still a lot of room for optimization. 
• Don’t set up Demand Gen campaigns with the intention of never touching them again. Be hands-on with testing and optimization to ensure peak performance.
• Rotate different creatives to optimize your campaign and discover what resonates with your audience.

How to optimize First-Party, Lookalike, and Custom audiences

Google provides lookalike audiences (audiences that share similar characteristics and behaviors similar to your first-party audience) to enhance your Demand Gen campaigns. 

You can also select other first-party segments (remarketing) and third-party data lists for your Ad Group (e.g in-market segments or custom segments)

Google recommends using a combination of first-party, lookalike, and custom audience segments for optimal results. 

First-Party, Lookalike, and Custom audience tips:

• Demand Gen models learn and optimize at ad group level – so combine relevant first-party, and custom audience segments together during campaign setup. This will allow Google to target the most relevant users with lookalike segments. 

• You can analyze and compare your audience segments by going into your Demand Gen campaign and clicking on ‘audiences’. Here, you’ll want to click ‘show table’ – this is where you can see the performance statistics of your first-party, lookalike, and custom audiences. You can use this data to get a good understanding of how well each segment is performing, including the CTR and other key metrics for your lookalike audience.

• If an audience segment is underperforming, remove or change it in the audience section. For optimal performance, you’ll want to ensure each segment is performing well. (Take a look at Thomas’ in-depth LinkedIn post for more information).

How to choose the right Demand Gen bidding strategy

There are four different Demand Gen bidding strategies available for marketers:

Maximize Clicks

• Made for advertisers who, due to the nature of their business, cannot track sales or leads.  
• Do not use this if you track conversions.

Target ROAS (tROAS) 

• Target ROAS is ideal if you know the margins of your product or service. 
• Targeted at the lower end of the funnel.
• Cannot not be used at the beginning of your campaign, as Google needs additional data to optimize tROAS. You’ll need at least 50 conversions to switch to a tROAS bidding strategy.

Target CPA (tCPA) 

• Recommended for use at the start of a lead gen campaign.
• You’ll need to pay attention to your daily budget when using this bidding strategy – Google recommends setting your daily budget around 10-15 times higher than your CPA, however it can work with less (although no less than 5 times higher than your CPA).

Maximize Conversions

• Easiest option for first-time users testing Demand Gen campaigns, or those with no specific goals in mind.

Note: After switching your bidding strategy, wait at least 1-2 weeks before evaluating your campaign performance. 

Best practices for excluding placements and YouTube channels

• Shopping feed ads being placed on the YouTube home feed are a unique benefit of Demand Gen campaigns. This provides a very brand-safe environment for your ads with a clean, easily visible placement. It also means you don’t have to worry about your ads appearing in front of any sketchy, potentially damaging videos on the site. 

• Thomas has created a specific workaround for excluding specific ad placements on YouTube:

• This allows you to filter out low-performing, unhelpful, or damaging ad placements on YouTube.

How to boost CTRs by adding sitelinks to campaigns

• Adding sitelinks to your Demand Gen campaigns can boost CTRs and improve ad quality. This is important, as the higher your CTR, the more Google will push your ad. 

• Sitelinks for Demand Gen campaigns can show in the skippable in-stream ad format on mobile devices.

• Google can show up to four sitelinks on this YouTube format. 

How to troubleshoot underperforming Demand Gen campaigns

• Check you’re using the right bidding strategy – Target CPA can be increased, and target ROAS can be lowered in order to better optimize these bidding strategies. In some cases, it may be worth swapping bidding strategies entirely to ensure you’re getting the best performance.

• Is your daily budget limiting performance? – If you’re not getting conversions, take a look at your daily budget to ensure you’re not limiting campaign performance. You can also check your attribution report to see if your Demand Gen campaigns are ‘secretly working’ – are they assisting other campaigns?

• Are you using a consolidated campaign structure? – For the best results, use one consolidated campaign instead of multiple single campaigns. 

• Check your audiences – Make sure you know which of your audience segments are working, and which aren’t. Swap out ineffective audience segments to get the best results from your Demand Gen campaigns. 

• Check your creatives – Creatives are the key drivers for your campaigns. Optimize what works and remove what doesn’t work in order to resonate with your target audience.

Average invalid traffic rates for Demand Gen campaigns 

• The average invalid traffic rate across all Demand Gen campaigns currently protected by Lunio was 4.65%.

• There was significant variability – some campaigns saw IVT rates of around 0.5%, whereas others saw IVT rates of over 13%. 

• Lunio works to optimize Demand Gen campaigns by eliminating fake clicks at the source. Request a free demo to see how badly IVT is affecting your ad spend. 

Useful Links & Free Resources

Lunio’s 2024 Wasted Ad Spend Report 

Thomas Eccel – Top PPC Updates Newsletter 

Lunio’s 100k Display Campaign Exclusion List 

Google Demand Gen Campaigns: Specs, Examples, & Tips

YouTube Shorts Ads: Everything Marketers Need to Know 

Google Introduces Generative AI Tools For Demand Gen

Differences between Demand Gen & Discovery campaigns 

How to use Lookalike segments to grow your audience

How to exclude YouTube channels from Demand Gen 

How to use Custom Columns to correct Demand Gen click reporting 

How to Use Sitelink Extensions in Google Ads [Video]

Fortunately for everyone mentioned bar marketers, we’re specifically referring to third-party cookie depreciation here. After several delays and multiple deadline pushbacks, it’s finally happening – Google is officially phasing out third-party cookies on Chrome in early 2025. 

Websites and advertisers have been using third-party cookies for years to track site visitors, serve them relevant ads, and improve the overall user experience. They also give marketers more information about what customers are looking at outside of their website, and provide useful information about audience demographics, brand overlap, and customer pain points to name a few.

So, with third-party cookies continuing to depreciate in value until their eventual phase-out for most users in 2025, how can marketers stay ahead of the curve? And what, if anything, will be replacing them?

Let’s talk about all that and more, including: 

• Why third-party cookies being phased out
• What marketers are saying about the changes
• Alternative strategies & approaches for marketers to consider
• Actionable steps to ensure PPC marketing is uninterrupted

Why Are Third-Party Cookies Being Phased Out?

Whilst providing a significant amount of insight to marketers, third-party cookies have been raising eyebrows amongst consumers as we move closer towards a privacy-focused browsing experience. These privacy concerns, along with a number of recent browser changes, have diminished the value of third-party cookies over the past few years, with some browsers already blocking third-party cookies by default. 

Privacy concerns

Consumers are increasingly aware of third-party cookies, and routinely go to the effort of declining or disabling them on the sites they visit. 

In fact, 76% of internet users in the US know how to clear cookies and disable them, despite the fact that less than half (46%) of users from the same study aren’t entirely sure what cookies do. 

The idea of being ‘tracked’ across every website you visit on the internet is not an appealing thought for the majority of consumers. Privacy laws such as GDPR have been modified to give users increased agency over their data, and web browsers are moving to enact a privacy-first approach in order to accommodate. 

Browser changes

The online privacy landscape has changed over the years, and browsers that adopt a privacy-first policy are growing in popularity.

Major browsers such as Safari and Firefox already block third-party cookies by default, however Google Chrome has historically stood firm as one of the main browsers to allow (and even encourage) the use of third-party cookies. 

However, following Chrome’s privacy sandbox update, it too will be joining the club and blocking third-party cookies by default. 

Note: Google’s privacy sandbox is an initiative designed to give users complete peace of mind when they browse online, by reducing cross-site and cross-app tracking. 

Google has been testing the removal of third-party cookies for 1% of Chrome users since January 2024, with the initial plan to push this out to all Chrome users by the end of 2024. However, this has been pushed back to “early 2025” due to feedback from the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

With Google being… well, Google (and with government authorities not exactly known for their speed) – we can anticipate these goalposts to be moved once again depending on Google’s plans and subsequent approval from the CMA. 

One thing remains abundantly clear, though – the death of the third-party cookie is approaching, and marketers who rely on them need to look for alternative approaches. 

Does Third-Party Cookie Depreciation Mean The End of All Cookies?

No, some forms of cookies aren’t going anywhere. Yes, third-party cookies are soon becoming a thing of the past – but if you think all of your cookie-powered marketing efforts will soon be rendered obsolete, you can take a sigh of relief. 

Unlike third-party cookies, which are essentially tracking codes placed on a site visitor’s computer that tracks their movement around the internet, first-party cookies are generated and stored on your site visitor’s computer by default when they visit a site – and they aren’t going anywhere. In short: 

• First-party cookies = consensual cookies that store basic user data, and remember things such as logins and site preferences.

• Third-party cookies = cookies from other companies that track user movement across the web. Users are largely unaware of the tracking systems they are interacting with in third-party cookies.

Google has previously stated that first-party relationships are “vital”, so it looks like any first-party data you get from your site visitors will remain intact across all browsers. 

What Marketers Are Saying (And Doing) About Third-Party Cookie Depreciation

Whilst 60% of marketers recently said they were accelerating their readiness for a cookieless future, the truth is that three in four still heavily rely on third-party cookies for their online advertising strategies.

The truth is, many advertisers still feel unprepared for the full impact of a cookieless landscape and the implications that come with it. Paul Stringer, WARC’s managing editor, stated that “2024 will be a year defined by disruption, uncertainty, and experimentation”. 

Let’s look at what marketers think about third-party cookie depreciation, and how they’re preparing for cookieless ad strategies going forward: 

• Elodie Huston, Senior Product Marketing Manager at Attentive, is focused on the growing importance of phone numbers as identity markers, and how first-party data can feed into generative AI to create hyper-personalized user experiences. 

• Jimmi Koefoed Morensen, CPO & Partner at Profound North, mentions the importance of transitioning to first-party data. He mentions the delay on third-party cookie depreciation from 2024 to 2025 gives marketers more time to enable a smoother transition between data sources.

• Andrea Piga, Senior Marketing Specialist at Callisto, remains positive about the changes and mentions the benefits of controlling and refining our own data in a consumer-centric market.

• Michael Cross, Co-founder of Media.Monks, highlights the troubling fact that the majority of marketers remain unprepared for third-party cookie depreciation. He goes on to champion some key areas to focus on – namely cookieless attribution, the importance of a single source of truth, first-party data strategy, CRM/CDP consolidation, and GA4 consent mode.

What Comes After Third-Party Cookies?

For decades, the third-party cookie has held different elements of the advertising ecosystem together. When it disappears, so will the historical basis for understanding audience behavior online. 

For online advertising to survive (and thrive), marketers need to rethink ways to reach and measure audiences. 

Third-party cookie depreciation has put a renewed focus on first-party data and the efficacy of other marketing channels in order to understand and access an audience that’s relevant to your business. There’s also ‘enhanced conversions’, which many marketers are hailing as an effective replacement for third-party data. 

Let’s take a look: 

Utilizing first-party data

First-party data is the customer data you’ve gathered yourself, rather than via third-party sources. Third-party cookie depreciation has put a renewed focus on how marketers are collecting, storing, and using that data effectively. 

By engaging directly with your customer base, marketers can get a better understanding of their audience – along with their habits, trends, and pain points. This data can be gathered from a range of different sources, however questionnaires, quizzes, and surveys are the most obvious choice for first-party data gathering. 

There’s little point in throwing out a random email asking your audience to complete a quiz whenever you feel like it, as this is likely to do more harm than good. Marketers must remain tactful in order to get valuable first-party information from their customer base, and find natural opportunities to gain insightful information from their audience. 

Analyzing other marketing channels

The death of the third-party cookies may shake the foundations of paid marketing campaigns, however other marketing channels will remain largely unaffected. 

Marketers who have become overly reliant on paid campaigns will see the largest drop in ROI, as their campaigns will no longer be as accurate or targeted. Without other channels to fall back on, their campaigns will become less effective due to the lack of third-party data. 

Marketers who aren’t reliant on one particular channel will be able to gain data from other sources, and diversify their marketing efforts to ensure their customers are being served at every touch point.

The shift away from third-party data gives marketers a chance to take a step back and look for opportunities across the entirety of their marketing channels, and potentially look to strengthen other areas. 

Understand Enhanced Conversions

Google defines ‘Enhanced Conversions’ as “a feature that can improve the accuracy of your conversion measurement to unlock more powerful bidding”. 

It’s designed to supplement existing conversion tags by sending first-party conversion data from your site to Google in a privacy-first, secure way.

How is this secure? Well, Google uses something called SHA256 – a one-way hashing algorithm that is placed on first-party data (such as email addresses) before they are sent to Google. 

Here’s the Enhanced Conversion process: 

1. A user who’s signed in on Google views an ad – e.g. a YouTube ad.
2. The user lands on your website and converts.
3. The conversion tag captures a pre-determined field (e.g. email address), hashes the data, and sends it to Google.
4. The hashed data is matched against Google’s hashed user data, and a conversion is reported in your ads account. 

As the first-party data is hashed, it can be matched with Google user data – even if cookies are blocked. This lets marketers attribute conversions to specific ads, providing actionable insights into their advertising efforts in a cookieless world. 

Google has created an article outlining how to set up Enhanced Conversions through GTM – a must-do for marketers looking to drastically improve their PPC data going forward, and to prevent current Google Ads bidding strategies from crumbling. 

How to Prepare For Third-Party Cookie Depreciation

Now you know what comes next, it’s important to prepare so your paid media campaigns don’t suffer without cookies. Let’s take a look at a few actionable steps you can take right now to minimize the impact:

• Understand and implement ‘Enhanced Conversions’ (see above!)
• Find out exactly what third-party cookies your website uses, and look for alternative API programs to replace them if necessary (use a cookie scanner tool such as Termly to find out if you need to!)
• Get comfortable with modeled data (creating mathematical or statistical representations of marketing data with the goal of uncovering patterns, relationships, and trends) to replace data gained from third-party sources

Chris Nightingale, Marketing Lead at AO.com, added a few more steps for marketers to consider in an article over at PPClive: 

“We must consider a few things to see what’s coming down the road –

• You need to invest in multiple technologies to provide both durability and comprehensives of your conversion data
• You must be agile and ready to experiment & adapt as new solutions are brought to market.
• And as much as it pains me, the future of advertising is swinging more towards conversion modeling and predictions rather than a view that is 100% accurate.”

FAQs

Do websites still require consent without third-party cookies?

Yes – the end of third-party cookies does not mean the end of requirements for user consent, as third-party cookies are not the only way to determine a user’s intentions and identity across the web. 

Unless the major web browsers remove support for all types of website tracking technologies, the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and other data protection laws across the world will mean websites will have to request consent in order to comply with the law. (You can learn more about the updates to consent and what consent mode v2 means for marketers in our guide).

When will third-party cookies be gone?

Google Chrome plans to entirely phase out third-party cookies by Q1 2025 – however this is subject to change based on approval from the CMA. 

What’s the difference between first-party and third-party cookies?

In short, first-party cookies come from the website you visit, whereas third-party cookies track your activity across different websites.

How will third-party cookie depreciation affect online advertising?

Targeting and ad measurement will undoubtedly become more difficult with the removal of third-party cookies. However, new technologies are being developed to counteract their removal, and marketers who embrace them will still see strong performance in their targeted ad campaigns. 

What is replacing third-party cookies?

Google’s Privacy Sandbox initiative is working on several APIs, and a few other measures such as Enhanced Conversions, to replace third-party cookies and make the transition from third-party cookies smoother. Contextual targeting, privacy-first conversion measurement, and encrypted tokens are all being developed to replace third-party cookies. 

Final Thoughts

As ad budgets tighten and shareholder expectations continue to grow, third-party cookie depreciation can be disheartening for advertisers looking to maximize their ROI through precise and effective ad targeting. 

Yet, for those willing to embrace new methods – be it Enhanced Conversions, investing in modeled data, or creating an effective strategy to capture first-party data – the removal of third-party cookies presents the unique opportunity to create a future-proofed targeting and data acquisition strategy that stands the test of time (or at least until Google next decides to change everything!)

For those who are searching for ways to take control of their ad spend and optimize their paid marketing efforts, one pressing issue to be aware of is invalid traffic (IVT). IVT affects every paid online marketing campaign, with 1 in 12 clicks being attributed to bots or other sources of fake traffic. 

IVT vastly reduces the effectiveness of your ad campaigns – and by removing invalid traffic at the source, you can save up to 20% on your marketing budget. 

Get a free 14-day trial (no obligation) with Lunio to see exactly how much invalid traffic is affecting your PPC success – and get the full picture on how much you could save by eliminating it. Book a demo to get started today. 

Fortunately, LinkedIn conversation ads (or conversation starter ads) were introduced a few years ago, and marketers have been quick to adopt them as a staple outreach method in the B2B space. 

So, what are LinkedIn conversation ads, how do they work, and what separates a good conversation ad from a great one? More importantly, are they worth your time?

Let’s talk about it.

(We’ll also give you a step-by-step guide for creating effective LinkedIn conversation ads that drive conversions!)

What Are LinkedIn Conversation Ads? 

Unique, personable, and highly effective – LinkedIn conversation ads allow marketers to create an entire chat experience through the messages section within LinkedIn that can appeal directly to your target audience. 

Unlike message ads, LinkedIn conversation ads allow organizations to start conversations with their targeted audience, and provide unique value thanks to their choose-your-own-path experience. 

Conversation ads let you build a conversation flow with your audience, allowing you to tailor your messages and create specific response options for recipients to learn more about your offering. 

What’s the Benefit of LinkedIn Conversation Ads? 

Personalization

You can personalize your messaging to suit the exact audience you want to target. Want to reach out directly to CMOs? Great – tailor your message to directly hit the pain points CMOs face, and offer services or resources that are directly relevant to them. 

Conversation ads allow you to be creative, unique, and relevant when talking directly to your target audience, giving your organization the opportunity to really stand out. 

Expanding the Engagement

Build a conversational flow and create specific response options tailored to the potential wants and needs of your target audience. Carry out a two-way conversation through your outreach and discover the requirements of your prospects. Conversation ads let you create value-driven CTAs for targeted leads at every stage of the buying process. 

Increased Conversion Rates

The personalized nature of conversation ads typically results in higher conversion rates than most other ad formats. Guide prospects through a series of tailored messages and prompts to nurture your target audience, and provide them with resources that are directly tailored to them. By engaging in a valuable two-way conversation, you’re likely to see more demo requests, more webinar sign-ups, and more content downloads than with other ad types. 

How to Set Up LinkedIn Conversation Ads

Have conversation ads piqued your interest yet? Let’s dive into a step-by-step guide on how to set up a successful conversation ad campaign. 

Note: Already know the basics of setting up conversation ad campaigns and want to dive deeper into optimization and best practices? Skip straight to step 4! 

1. Create a new campaign:

Similar to any other LinkedIn campaign, the first step is to go to LinkedIn Campaign Manager and click ‘create’ at the top left. 

Once you’ve clicked create, rename your campaign and make sure you’ve selected ‘advanced’ rather than ‘quick’, and click next. 

2. Target your campaign

Next, set your campaign objective. This can be whatever you need, however LinkedIn conversation ads are best at two things – driving traffic to a website, or sending users to a lead gen form. In this example, we’re going with a lead gen form. 

Quick tip: Lead generation form CTAs typically result in the highest conversion rates for LinkedIn conversation ads.

Once you’ve selected your campaign objective, you’ll see an audience section where you can set location preferences, location exclusions, and so on. Set these so you’re only targeting prospects in locations where your product/service is relevant. 

You’ll also see more detailed information about the type of prospect you want to target – job titles, industries, company lists, etc – set these preferences as you would on any other LinkedIn campaign. 

Note: At the bottom of the audience section, you’ll see a tick box for ‘Enable Audience Expansion’. We highly recommend that you don’t click this, as it may end up serving your conversation ads to irrelevant prospects. 

3. Select ad format, budget, & conversion tracking

Under the audience section, you’ll be able to select your ad format. Unsurprisingly, you’ll want to select the ‘Conversation ad’ format. 

Next, you’ll see budget & schedule options. What you decide to do with your budget is situational and largely up to you, however we recommend starting your campaign with a slightly higher daily budget than usual for best results. 

Currently, LinkedIn conversation ads operate using a CPC model. This means you’ll be bidding on your conversation ad appearing in front of the users you’ve targeted. The maximum bid is currently $300 USD – however, it’s very unlikely you’ll ever need to bid that highly. 

Quick tip: Each LinkedIn user can get a maximum of one conversation ad every 22 days. To ensure your ad gets the right eyes on it (and in a timely manner), it’s usually worth bidding high early on. 

You’ll then want to select any relevant conversion tracking for your campaign in the last section. 

Once this is complete, hit ‘next’, then ‘save’ in the pop-up. By now, you’ll be looking at a screen saying ‘Create an ad for your campaign’. You’ll want to do just that, and click ‘create new ad’. 

Now that the basics of your campaign are in place, the real fun begins…

4. Selecting your campaign sender

The first thing you’ll want to do is pick a sender. This is who the ad is going to come from – a person, not a company. 

Pick a sender with a title closely related to the persona you’re targeting. For example, if you’re primarily targeting Marketing Directors, your sender could be a VP of marketing, or something similar. Keep it in the same department, if you can. 

The exception here would be if you’re marketing to salespeople. Senders with sales titles are ‌not the best for conversation ads, as your audience will probably dismiss anyone with ‘sales’ in their job title creeping around in their inbox. 

It’ll help your campaign if your sender regularly creates and shares valuable content, is commenting on industry news and updates, and already has a decent following. An engaged sender that your target audience may already be familiar with is definitely a boon for your campaign. 

The ultimate goal when choosing your campaign sender is to create familiarity, understanding, and establish trust between you and your target audience.

Once you’ve picked the perfect sender, you can add a custom banner creative or a custom footer if you so choose. Take a look at the cheat-sheet below for the ideal banner size, text length, and CTA button info:

5. Creating Conversation Copy 

Next up, we’ll be adding the ‘conversation’ part of the conversation ads. 

You’ll want to think about conversation ad copy similar to email copy – it’s incredibly important to get your subject line and preheader right, as half the battle is getting your recipient to open the conversation in the first place. 

Quick tip: Stuck? Try adding a compelling offer or incentive to your subject – a limited-time deal, a hyper-relevant content download, or anything else that may be of interest or value to the prospects you’re targeting. 

Once you’ve created an interesting opening message, you may want to create text and CTAs for two to five layers afterwards, in order to keep the conversation going and learn more about your target audience. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and provide tangible CTA options for leads at every stage of the buying process. 

We’ll take a look at some overall LinkedIn conversation ad best practices later on, but for now, let’s focus on some key tips for high-converting conversation copy:

• Write like you’re talking to a friend. Nobody likes to be sold to, and the strength of conversation ads is the personable, relatable value. 

• Use macros to add personalisation. Use LinkedIn macros to pull profile data for each prospect you message. You can do this for their first/last names, job title, industry, or company name to add a touch of friendliness and authenticity to your outreach. 

• Keep it short. Your prospects won’t engage with drawn-out essays about your proposition. Keep your copy simple and valuable. 

• Ask questions. Open a two-way conversation to learn more about the struggles your audience face, and gain key insights into how you can better serve them.

• Be casual. Remember, you’re talking to a person. Keep the tone casual – but avoid slang and jargon. 

6. CTA buttons

Once you’ve got your copy sorted, add in some CTA buttons. Two buttons usually provide the best results – one for completion (‘I’m in, sign me up’) and one for those who aren’t sold and need more information (‘Tell me more’, ‘View the case study’, etc.)

Quick tip: A common mistake we see is adding flat-out negative buttons – e.g. ‘not interested’, ‘not useful’, and so on – if a customer doesn’t want to interact with your ad, they’ll likely just ignore it, anyway. Instead, try linking to additional resources (case studies, social proof, informative landing pages) that provide additional context and value to your product/service. 

If you’re creating a lead generation form, you can add a ‘thank you’ message once the user has signed up. This can include further CTAs – book a demo, view our resources, visit the website, etc. 

Once your copy is complete and you’ve added your CTAs, you’re ready to go. Before you launch, take a look at the LinkedIn conversation ad best practices below to ensure your campaign is in top shape.

LinkedIn Conversation Ad Best Practices

Aside from ensuring your first message and CTA buttons are spot-on, there’s a few more steps you can take to ensure you’re getting the most out of your conversation ads: 

1. Include an offer in the preheader. Free vouchers for booking demos are commonplace across top-performing conversation ads. Enticing offers virtually guarantees increased CTRs.

2. Qualify your contacts. You want to be sure you’re targeting the right people – especially if you’re offering them vouchers and other incentives. Take the time to ensure your audience targeting is fully optimized, and do your audience research to make sure you’re messaging the right people. 

3. Stay focused. Mixed messaging or too many CTAs on one message can confuse your prospects. Stick to specific, value-driven messages with a single purpose in mind – don’t give them a whole choose-your-own-adventure-book’s worth of CTA buttons. We recommend 2-3 focused CTAs on each message. 

4. Don’t be too pushy. Naturally, some people will be hesitant to book a demo, sign up to your webinar, or engage with your product straight away. Instead of being pushy, create a flow that encourages hesitant leads to engage with your company by downloading a relevant whitepaper, or viewing valuable case study content. 

5. Optimize, optimize, optimize. When it comes to testing and optimizing your ads, you can never do too much. Find out what gives you the best results for every variable – offers, message copy, senders, subject lines, banner images… You name it. The more you test now, the better your ads will be in the future. 

FAQs

How does reporting work for LinkedIn conversation ads?

Reporting for conversation ads works identically to any other LinkedIn ads campaign, however LinkedIn features some additional reporting metrics that are exclusive to conversation ads. 

Conversation ads reporting allows you to view how users are interacting with your messages, your lead gen forms, and conversions generated from your campaign – all within the LinkedIn Ads platform. 

How much do LinkedIn conversation ads cost?

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this, as costs vary depending on campaign objectives, targeting parameters, and more. However, the average cost per 1000 impressions is between $5.01-$8 as of 2024.

Can conversation ad senders be external?

Yes – anyone you have a 1st-degree connection with can be a sender for your conversation ad campaigns. 

How do I invite an external sender to my conversation ad campaigns?

When selecting your campaign sender in LinkedIn Ads, you can choose to invite any of your connections to be a sender. 

Make sure they see the copy and are on board with the messaging, so everyone’s happy. 

Do campaign senders need access to your LinkedIn Ads account?

No – senders will automatically gain access to the associated campaign account once you’ve sent them a sender invite. 

Can sender accounts view conversation campaigns/sent messages? 

Yes – any sender can view the messaging and creatives for ad campaigns where they’re the sender. 

Optimize Paid Ad Spend With Lunio

The introduction of LinkedIn conversation ads has allowed organizations to connect with and provide value to their leads like never before. 

Yet despite these highly effective new marketing tools, many businesses are seeing their paid marketing efforts stagnate or decline – largely because of increases in invalid traffic. 

In fact, our 2024 wasted ad spend report showcased just how problematic invalid traffic is – especially on LinkedIn. Take a look at the graph below: 

That’s nearly a quarter of all LinkedIn traffic – in other words, 24.64% of your LinkedIn ad spend is likely being wasted on bot views and other invalid sources. 

LinkedIn is rife with bot activity, and since CPCs/CPMs are much more expensive on LinkedIn compared to other platforms, wasted ad spend adds up far quicker. 

Find out exactly how much of your ad spend is being wasted with our free 14-day, no-obligation trial. 

Aiming to replicate Google’s success for the Microsoft network, Microsoft recently announced their own version of Performance Max campaigns. The beta launched on July 5th 2023, and is was rolled out globally on 5th March 2024.

Microsoft hasn’t exactly been creative here, using the same name as Google for their Performance Max campaigns. Microsoft’s version of Performance Max comes a full three years after Google’s Performance Max was first made available in beta.

Marketers aiming to make the most out of their ad spend will need to understand the key differences between the Google and Microsoft versions of Performance Max, and optimize their campaigns for each platform.

Here, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about Microsoft Performance Max, including: 

• The basics of Microsoft Performance Max
• How Microsoft Performance Max compares with Google Performance Max
• How to set up a Microsoft PMax campaign

What is Microsoft Performance Max? 

According to Microsoft, “Performance Max is an asset-focused campaign type that allows you to easily create and manage your campaigns, optimize ads to reach the right audience at the right time, and drive performance to meet advertising goals—across the entire Microsoft Advertising Network. Rather than manually creating ads one by one, you can save time by adding assets, such as text and images, to your asset groups and let us take care of the rest.”

The primary goal of Microsoft Performance Max campaigns are to find and convert more customers across the entire Microsoft network. It does so by pairing the right creative assets with the right targeting parameters in real time.

Performance Max campaigns use Microsoft AI to optimize and manage ads across various channels and formats within the Microsoft Advertising Network.

When Should You Use Microsoft Performance Max?

According to Microsoft’s documentation, Microsoft PMax is the best option to use when you want to:

• Meet specific performance goals, such as increasing sales and driving potential customers to your website. Do so by leveraging machine learning and AI to optimize ad delivery across channels.
• Enhance your return on ad spend and maximize reach across the entire Microsoft Advertising Network. PMax helps utilize audience targeting to deliver ads to the most relevant audiences at the right time across different platforms.
• Display your ads across the entire Microsoft Advertising Network with a single campaign. When you run a PMax campaign, Microsoft shows your ads across all channels – Bing, Yahoo, and Microsoft Audience Network partner sites.
• Expand your ad reach and increase conversion value by serving search, audience, and product ads.

Key Benefits of Microsoft Performance Max 

There are four key benefits of Microsoft PMax:

1. Run Ads Across All Microsoft Channels

The best part about Microsoft PMax campaigns is that you can run ads across the entire Microsoft Network from a single campaign. This is perfect for businesses with small ad budgets who don’t have an in-house team to set up every individual channel for their ad campaigns.

2. Save Time

Performance Max campaigns save marketers time by allowing them to create a single campaign that targets multiple ads and channels, streamlining the workflow for marketers.. 

Those who use PMax campaigns won’t have to manage multiple ad campaigns simultaneously. Instead, promote products via a singular campaign, and PMax’s automation serves your creatives to the right audience, on the right platform, at the right time.

3. Use AI and Automation to Maximize ROAS

Performance Max campaigns leverage AI and automation to keep up with customer trends, selecting the best possible asset combination for your ads. The AI updates these ads in real time to boost conversion value and achieve campaign objectives.

4. Complement Search Campaigns

Performance Max is designed to complement your keyword-based search campaigns. It helps you find more converting customers across all of Microsoft’s channels rather than relying solely on a keyword-based approach.

This can futureproof your campaigns as Microsoft follows Google on the move towards a keywordless future. 

Microsoft Performance Max vs Google Performance Max 

It’s no secret that Microsoft Performance Max is inspired by Google’s PMax version. Both share the same goal – to help marketers optimize campaigns,maximize performance, and streamline workflows

Despite the similarities, there are some differences between the two:

Apart from the differences above, one major difference between MS PMax and Google PMax is the division of products into asset groups.

In Google PMax campaigns, each asset group can accommodate a maximum of 998 products. Whereas for Microsoft PMax campaigns, each asset group can accommodate a maximum of 19,998 products.

Microsoft Performance Max: Specifications & Requirements 

There are three parts where specifications and requirements in the Microsoft PMax campaigns matter the most.

1. Images

If you want to try Microsoft Performance Max campaigns, you must meet the following requirements:

• Set conversion goals via your Universal Event Track (UET) tag and/or offline conversion tracking
• Enable revenue tracking in order to use the Max Conversion Value bid strategy 
• Provide creatives with at least the following image dimensions:
  • 1.91:1 – Minimum: 703 x 368
  • 1:1 – 300 x 300 

Microsoft Performance Max lets you select images from the current collection in your asset library, website images, stock images, or upload images.

The maximum number of pictures you can incorporate into a single ad campaign is 20. But, when uploading then, remember these two things:

1. Upload at least one image with a resolution – 1.91:1
2. Upload at least one image with a 1:1 aspect ratio

Lastly, always opt for high-resolution images in .JPG or .PNG format, and before uploading, ensure your images adhere to all guidelines.

2. Headline

With Microsoft PMax, you have the option to input a maximum of 15 short headlines and up to 5 long headlines. 

We recommend providing as many headlines as possible; it increases display visibility. 

Note: Short headlines should not exceed 30 characters, while long headlines should not exceed 90 characters.

3. Description

Enter up to five 90-character descriptions. Descriptions are the most visible text of your ad and allow for more character space to engage with potential customers.

Now that you know what Microsoft Performance Max campaigns are all about, let’s compare its specifications and requirements with Google’s PMax.

How to Set Up a Microsoft Performance Max Campaign

Before setting up a Microsoft Performance Max campaign, you must  set up conversion tracking.

“Since Performance Max relies heavily on automation, it needs conversion signals to have any chance to improve ad performance with automation.” – Joe Martinez

After you have the conversion tracking set up, follow the steps below:

Step 1. Create a New Campaign

Click the ‘+Create’ button on your Microsoft campaign viewer to start a new campaign.

Step 2. Select Campaign Objective

There are a variety of campaign objectives to choose from, but remember – Performance Max isn’t available for all objectives.

For example, video views won’t give you an option to run a Performance Max campaign, whereas campaign objectives like Selling products from your catalog will have Performance Max. 

For this example, we are going to select the Visit to My Website objective as it has performance max enabled.

Choose Performance Max and click ‘Next.’

The maximum number of pictures you can incorporate into a single ad campaign is 20. But, when uploading then, remember these two things:

1. Upload at least one image with a resolution – 1.91:1
2. Upload at least one image with a 1:1 aspect ratio

Finally, always opt for high-resolution images in .JPG or .PNG format, and before uploading, ensure your images adhere to all guidelines.

Step 3. Campaign Details

Enter the details of your campaign:

• Name
• Budget & bid strategy
• Location
• Language
• Conversions
• Shopping settings
• Ad schedule
• Final URL expansion
• Campaign URL options

After filling in all the details, click the ‘Save & go to the next step’ button.

Step 4. Ad Copy Creation

The next step is all about your ad copy, image, headline, and CTA.

First, go ahead and paste the URL you want ad viewers to land on.

Add images according to the specifications and requirements we talked about earlier. As you add images, you can see how your ad will look in the preview window on the right-hand side.

If you need to edit the aspect ratio of any image, in the preview window, click the ‘Edit aspect ratio’ button and crop it accordingly.

Next, add your logo:

Now for the main part – your ad copy:

Add up to 15 short headlines, 5 long headings, and 5 descriptions.

Step 5. Adding Audience Signals

“Although setting up audience signals part is optional, I highly recommend you give Microsoft some signals of who you actually want to reach.” – Joe Martinez.

Either create a new audience signal or browse from existing options.

Let’s first see how to create a new one.Click ‘Create.’

Name your audience signal.

The Interests tab lets you add Microsoft in-market audiences to your asset group. 

Add the audience you want to target and save it by clicking the Save button.

As this is a remarketing campaign, we will use first-party data to retarget people who previously interacted with my website. 

Next, go to ‘Your first-part data.’ Click the ‘+ Add audience list.’

This option will let you choose from any existing audience you have created within Microsoft ads.

The last section is Demographics, where you can choose the range of ages and genders you want to target.

Once everything is finalized, click Save.

Choose the start and end date, and click Save to save your asset group.

Note: After your ad has been reviewed and approved by Microsoft, you’ll still have to wait a while for your campaign to go live. That’s because Performance Max campaigns have a learning phase – It could take up to two weeks for your PMax campaign to run optimized ads.

Step 6. Adding Extensions

From the left side menu, click the Extensions option.

Click ‘View: Sitelink Extension’ and select the Sitelink from the existing ones.

How to Optimize Microsoft Performance Max Campaigns

Once everything is up and running, view the status and track campaigns as you do with your regular campaigns.

Pro tip: Click the Segment dropdown and sort ads by Network. This will help you break things down and see how your PMax campaign is performing on different Microsoft Ads networks.

Here are some tips to optimize Microsoft Performance Max campaigns:

• Performance Max optimizes based on the types of conversions that you indicate are worth most to your business, so ensure you’re pointing Microsoft in the right direction.
• Provide as many high-quality text and images as possible to Microsoft so it can create the most relevant ads.
• Setting up audience signals is optional in Microsoft PMax, but we suggest you give Microsoft information about your audience – it can help speed up the learning and optimization process of your campaign.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the learning phase for Microsoft Performance Max campaigns?

The learning phase of the Microsoft Performance Max campaign is where it uses machine learning and AI to optimize ad campaigns. 

Performance max campaigns should go live in about ten days after you set them up. The average learning period after optimizations and adding new assets should be one to two weeks.

Is it necessary to generate keywords for my Performance Max campaigns?

No, you don’t need to maintain a keyword list for Microsoft PMax campaigns. Performance Max campaigns use keywordless AI technology to analyze your landing page content, assets, and product feed (if you have one) to find new converting queries and generate relevant text ads that match a user’s search.

Are there any Microsoft guides I can go through to know more about PMax campaigns?

Visit Microsoft Advertising Learning Lab to read more about Performance Max.

Wrapping Up

The digital marketing landscape is currently undergoing some major changes, with giants like Google and now Microsoft continuously innovating with the help of AI and machine learning. 

Microsoft Performance Max campaigns bring a lot of unique strengths to the table, and by understanding your target audience and business objectives, you can leverage the platform to drive outstanding results and maximise ROAS. 

Ensure you continue to test, optimize, and refine your Microsoft PMax campaign strategies for the best outcome.

Combat Fake Clicks with Lunio

Fake clicks are becoming increasingly problematic in the digital world. Invalid traffic wastes more of your ad spend than you think, with 1 in 12 clicks being invalid. 

Lunio works to protect your campaign budgets and prevent invalid traffic, ensuring your ads are only seen by real customers. 

See how much invalid traffic is affecting your PPC success (and how much you can save by eliminating it) with a free traffic audit.

The move will play a key role in accelerating our efforts to stop invalid traffic in Germany – one of Europe’s biggest markets when it comes to digital ad spend, second only to the UK.

Regaining Control & Transparency

Our partnership comes at a time when advertisers are increasingly losing control and visibility over their ad spend, due to the rise of smart bidding and fully automated campaign types such as Google’s Performance Max. 

With audience targeting decisions increasingly determined by algorithms – and an estimated 10 – 25% of paid media budgets being routinely wasted on fake ad engagement – our collaboration will play an important role in ensuring data fed into automated systems comes from real users with genuine conversion potential.

Preventing Wasted Ad Spend

Our shared vision with Digitl was recently showcased at the SMX conference in Munich, where we partnered at our stand to help raise awareness about the growing problem of fake and invalid traffic. 

Our 2024 Wasted Ad Spend Report found that globally, advertisers are set to waste more than €69bn (£59bn) this year on traffic from bots, automated scripts, and other invalid users. And the financial costs stack up even further when you consider the lost revenue opportunities, had those fake clicks converted at typical rates. 

Here’s what Marco Schierhorn, Managing Director of Digitl had to say: 

And our own CEO, Neil Andrew, added: 

We’re excited to expand into the German market and we’re looking forward to tackling the ever-growing invalid traffic problem head-on in new regions! 

In an effort to align metrics on Google Analytics with Google Ads, Google has renamed conversions as key events across the two platforms.

The change is rolling out gradually, with all Google Analytics properties due to receive this change within the next few weeks. 

With that in mind, it’s important to understand what key events are, how to set them up, and what this means for our Analytics & Ads properties going forward. 

Here, we’ll run you through everything you need to know about key events in GA4, including:

• What key events are
• What the change means for marketers
• Why the change has been implemented
• How to set up key events
• What marketers (and Google themselves) are saying about the change

What Are Key Events?

Previously, in order to create an event that was important to you or your business (a purchase, form submission, etc) you had to mark it as a conversion in Google Analytics. It was as simple as looking at your list of events and marking the important ones as conversions. 

Going forward, conversions such as these will be called key events. Similar to conversions, you can mark any event you like as a key event – first visits, form submissions, etc. – and it’ll be tracked the same way a conversion was previously.

Associated conversion metric names have also changed. For example, ‘session conversion rate’ will now be called ‘session key event rate’. Whilst it doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, Google is hoping the term ‘key event’ is more representative and broadly-applicable than ‘conversions’, which many customers and clients equate with sales. 

GA4 Key Events and Google Ads Conversions

Fortunately for marketers, the functionality of key events doesn’t differ much from legacy conversions in GA4. 

However, you’ll be able to import key events from GA4 as conversions in Google Ads. These conversions will appear in the Advertising section of GA4. 

In short, if an event is important to you, you can mark it as a key event in GA4. Then, if the key event is important for ad campaign optimization and performance measuring, you can create a conversion in Google Ads from the key event you’ve marked in Analytics.                      

All this can be a little confusing, so we’ve shortened the official Google definition of both GA4 key events and Google Ads conversions to help make things clearer:

Key Events 

A key event is any user action that you deem to be important. When someone performs the action, they will trigger the event and it will be recorded in GA4. 

Conversions

A conversion is created in Google Ads from a GA4 key event. The aim is to help you improve your marketing strategy with consistent conversion counts across both platforms. 

Why Google is Changing Conversions to Key Events in GA4:

Aside from being a more broadly representative term, Google has called out a few other key reasons for the name change. Namely, to unify reporting across ads & analytics platforms, and to allow for greater flexibility going forward. 

Single Source of Truth

Differences in conversion measurement between Google Analytics and Google Ads has caused countless headaches amongst marketers for years now. 

Historically, problems such as differing counting methods, attribution models, and lookback window settings affected the conversion metrics between Google Ads and Google Analytics, leading to two different conversion figures for each platform. 

By changing conversions to key events, marketers can define their own conversion data, streamlining the reporting process and ensuring accurate analysis. 

“With an aligned definition of ‘conversion’ across Google Ads and Analytics, you can now, for the first time, view consistent conversion-based performance metrics in both Google Ads and Analytics reports.” – Google

Enhanced Flexibility

Google states that because of the increased unification between Ads and Analytics, creating conversions will be a quicker process than before. 

It’s highly likely that off the back of this change, we’ll soon be able to create Google Ads conversions directly from GA4 – making the overall workflow simpler and providing increased flexibility for marketers. 

How to Mark Events as Key Events in GA4

Prior to the changes, creating conversions meant going into your list of events and marking conversions as such.

Fortunately, the workflow hasn’t changed much. Marking events as key events in GA4 is virtually identical to marking events as conversions previously. 

1. Set up an event as you normally would, then head to the admin section. From there, click ‘Events’ under ‘Data display’.
2. You’ll then get a list of your current events. To mark one as a key event, simply toggle the button on the right-hand column. It’ll then show up in your reports as a key event, similar to how conversions did in the past.

What Marketers Are Saying: 

Initial feedback from marketers is mixed. Some are happy about the change and the attempt to create a single source of truth across Ads and Analytics – however many aren’t happy with the change, stating it’s confusing and unnecessary.

Julius Fedorovicius, Founder of Analytics Mania, stated the following in his LinkedIn post following a previous limited trial of the change to key events, which received a lot of negativity from marketers:

Commenters were quick to add that changing long-standing industry terminology is confusing and unnecessary:

Yet despite the initial doubt from many marketers, some are positive about the upcoming changes:

Nate Tower, President at Perril, said the following in a LinkedIn post:

What Google Are Saying:

Kamal Janardhan, Senior Director of Product Management at Google, said in a statement:

Despite the attempt to align Ads and Analytics metrics, concerns remain about clarity and consistency. 

Ginny Marvin, Ads Product Liaison at Google, was active on her LinkedIn post responding to those who remain unsure about the switch to key events:

GA4 Key Events FAQs

Do I need to do anything to switch to key events?

No – legacy conversions will convert to key events automatically. Conversions shared with Google Ads will be identified as such and are reported on within the Advertising section.

Are key events calculated differently to legacy conversions?

There is no change to how key events are calculated and the functionality remains the same. 

Does the switch to key events affect engaged sessions?

Reporting on engaged sessions (and other behavioral metrics) won’t change, however any legacy conversions are being renamed as key events. 

This means the definition of an engaged session will be updated to ‘a session that lasts longer than 10 seconds, contains a key event, or has at least two pageviews or screenviews’.

Can an event be a key event and a conversion simultaneously?

Yes. Events can be marked as key events in GA4, and will be reported on as such. They can also be imported to Google Ads as a conversion, and will be reported on in conversion performance reports. 

Why can’t I see this change in my account?

The change to key events is a gradual rollout. You can expect the change to be fully rolled out globally by the end of Q2 2024.

Do I need to update Google Tag Manager or Analytics Tracking Code?

No. Legacy GTM setups and tracking codes will work as normal with the switch to key events. 

Looking Ahead

Whilst the jury is still out on whether the change to key events is good or bad, it’s at least somewhat reassuring to know that Google is attempting to lessen the Ads/Analytics divide as GA4 continues to develop. 

Unfortunately however, GA4 is still lacking vital control and transparency over your data. 

Invalid traffic can still skew analytics data, making it difficult for marketers to understand what’s really going on with your site traffic. 

By using invalid traffic protection, you can have greater control and visibility over the traffic hitting your site, and prevent wasted ad spend across your paid ads. Get a free traffic audit and see how much invalid traffic you’re getting. 

The new restriction is intended to streamline location targeting workflows, and prevent marketers from using a blanket-exclusion approach when it comes to geo-targeting. Instead, Google is promoting a positive-targeting first approach, stating that this should not impact campaign performance. 

Google Ads is currently available in 195 countries, and before the change marketers could exclude as many of these countries as they deemed necessary.

Going forward, any new campaigns with more than 120 country-level exclusions will receive the following warning notification if this limit is exceeded:

So what does this mean for marketers? As ad budgets are tightened and expectations grow, should we now be concerned about the potential for unwanted geographic audiences to view ads and waste ad spend?

Here, you’ll find everything you need to know about country location exclusions and the new 120-country limit, including: 

• A quick recap of country location exclusions
• Why country location exclusions are vital for most ad campaigns
• A discussion around the impact these changes could have going forward
• Actionable steps you can take to help negate any impact from this change, and maximize the efficacy of your geotargeting. 

What Are Country Location Exclusions?

In order to sell your product or service effectively, it’s important to set parameters on where your ads are shown. Yet Google’s own ad guidelines state that it’s just as important to set parameters on where your ads aren’t shown. 

Country location exclusions can be set on each campaign you run, and a carefully selected list of countries to exclude from Google Ads can prevent your ads from appearing in regions you don’t want them to.

Why Country Location Exclusions Are Important 

In short, country location exclusions are designed to prevent you from wasting ad spend on locations where your product or service isn’t available, relevant, or required. 

Even if your product or service is globally available, you may want to use country location exclusions to:

• Run a campaign targeting countries that are more likely to convert
• Run a brand or product awareness campaign in new markets
• Act as a ‘safety net’ to help prevent ads being shown outside of your geo-targeting areas

What Do the Country Location Exclusion Changes Mean for Marketers

Marketers have always used country location exclusions to prevent their ads from appearing in certain locations. As such, marketers might have pre-existing country location exclusion lists containing all countries except the one they’re targeting, which are no longer usable in new ad campaigns. 

A 120-country limit on location exclusions means that going forward, marketers are going to have to restructure their campaigns to ensure their products are appearing in the right places. Those with extensive exclusion lists will find themselves needing to prioritize certain country exclusions over others in the coming months.

What Marketers Are Saying

Of course, 120 is still a substantial number, so we’re not expecting a tsunami of issues or complete campaign overhauls to come rolling in off the back of this change. Country level exclusions will continue to exist – and according to Google, positive geo-targeting is just as effective as negative geo-targeting. 

However, the change does have some marketers concerned about potential implications for the future, with many being skeptical about the idea of having further control over their ad campaigns taken away from them. 

What Google Are Saying

Despite the initial skepticism from marketers, Google remains firm in their approach and reinforces the idea that positive targeting provides a better workflow for advertisers – without any performance drawbacks. 

When initially questioned about the aforementioned error notification that appeared upon exceeding 120 country location exclusions, Ginny Marvin (Ads Product Liaison at Google) said the following: 

Ginny went on to reassure marketers that the limitation has been implemented to promote a positive targeting-first approach, and that location exclusions won’t be going away anytime soon:

Furthermore, Google’s geolocation exclusion guide article states that country location exclusion isn’t required when you’re using positive geographic targeting:

There’s no need to exclude areas that you haven’t already targeted — your ads won’t be shown in places unless you explicitly target them.

Positive Geographic Targeting 

Whilst the new limit affects the amount of places you can’t target, there’s no changes to positive geographic targeting – or in other words, exclusively targeting the places where your product or service is relevant, rather than excluding places where it isn’t. 

The intent of positive geographic targeting (or ‘geo-targeting’) is to exclusively target people in locations where they’re most likely to convert. 

With Google pushing positive geographic targeting as the de-facto method of ad geo-targeting going forward, it’s worth ensuring your knowledge of geo-targeting is fully up to scratch. 

Google is constantly working to make geo-targeting as accurate as possible, so ad campaigns that actively target a country shouldn’t perform much differently from similar campaigns that exclude a large list of countries. 

Despite this, it’s worth keeping an extra-close eye on your campaigns over the coming weeks to ensure your campaigns aren’t appearing in locations you’re not actively targeting. 

Actionable Steps for Marketers 

With the limitations to country exclusions potentially adding a spanner to the works for ad campaigns with extensive exclusion lists, we recommend a couple of quick actions to ensure you’re on top of everything going forward:

1. Set up reports to know if previously excluded locations start getting impressions

If you plan on trimming your country exclusion list to ensure it’s below 120, you want to be sure you’re making the right cuts.

Following this change, make sure you run regular reports across each of your campaigns and stay vigilant about what you’re showing, when, and where. 

There’s a range of PPC management software available that helps marketers optimize their campaigns. If you use this, you may be able to leverage certain reporting rules to ensure your campaigns aren’t showing up where they shouldn’t be. 

Optmyzr has come up with some simple reporting logic to get feedback on your campaigns, and discover if your previous geo exclusions start gaining impressions.

2. Set your location options to ‘presence’ only

By default, your location options are set to ‘presence or interest’ – in other words, people who live in your target area as well as people who’ve merely shown an interest in the area.

Whilst this can be useful in certain scenarios, most ad campaigns will want to select ‘Presence’ only. This means only those who are in, or are regularly in your targeted locations will see your ads. 

No matter what type of product or service you offer, it’s important to never overlook these location options, as they’ll have a large impact on your ad spend efficiency. 

Looking Ahead

The new 120 country exclusion limit underlines the importance of adaptability in paid advertising. Changes have, and will continue to be made without prior warning, which affect campaign strategies and overall ROAS. In this case, marketers who don’t adapt to a positive geo-targeting approach may start getting impressions from outside their target locations on new ad campaigns. 

Google reinforces the idea that marketers who continue to implement optimal positive geo-targeting strategies shouldn’t be impacted by this change. Yet, some would argue that country location exclusions are vital for ensuring ads aren’t seen where they’re not supposed to be. 

For those with a long list of country exclusions, take the time to make sure your exclusion list is fully optimal, and ensure you’re using positive geo-targeting best practices. 

Optimize Ad Spend with Lunio

Staying on top of your country-level exclusions and making sure you’re using optimal positive geo-targeting is important to maximize the efficiency of your ad campaigns. Without that, your ads will be shown to people outside of your target audience, resulting in wasted ad spend.

Yet chances are, a significant proportion of your ad spend is already being wasted on invalid traffic.

Discover how Lunio works to protect your ad spend, and prevent bots from impacting your campaigns. Request a demo and get a free 14-day traffic audit, which reveals exactly how much of your ad traffic is currently invalid. 

With a wealth of experience in the martech industry, Nick is in an ideal position to advise the Lunio team on strategy, board governance, and strategic partnerships over the coming years. So we’re delighted and proud to have him on board! 

Our VP of Marketing, Gemma Robaczynski, sat down with Nick to ask him about his career to date, ad fraud, the current state of performance marketing, and the growth opportunities he sees on the horizon for Lunio. 

Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your career so far? 

I’ve been leading the international arm of US-based martech businesses since 2006. The past 18 years have whizzed by and I’ve been blessed to lead go-to-market efforts at trail blazing companies like Efficient Frontier, Adobe, and Integral Ad Science. I’ve worked with some great operators and investors and learnt from all of them.   

After graduating, I was very fortunate to get my first sales job at Inktomi. At the time, Inktomi was the world’s largest search engine before the arrival of paid search and digital advertising as we know it today. At Inktomi, I remember seeing the roll out of the first digital banners and Overture’s PPC model, and that’s what got me involved in advertising – the space I’m still in today.

What led you to want to become a Board Chair of Lunio? 

My top three reasons for taking on the role relate to the product, place, and people at Lunio. 

Firstly, the product. What motivates me most is working with companies building best-in-class tech that solves real-world pain at scale. And that’s exactly what Lunio does. By automatically blocking fraudulent and invalid clicks coming from key marketing channels such as Google, Meta, Bing, LinkedIn, and more, Lunio empowers businesses to maximise their return on ad spend and make better campaign optimisations with validated traffic data. 

Secondly, the place. Lunio is a Manchester-based business. And as a proud Welshman (now Hampshire yokel), I’m a firm believer in the regional potential of the UK. It’s been refreshing these past few weeks to escape the London tech / media bubble and spend time embedded in the flourishing North West tech scene. In fact, Manchester’s £5bn digital ecosystem recently led to it being named the UK’s top digital tech city by CBRE.

And last but by no means least, the people.  I love working with highly motivated, low-ego teams with endless potential. And Lunio has already built an enviable senior leadership team. So I’m grateful to play a small part in helping its talented leaders and wider team reach new heights.

Why do you think Lunio’s solution is so important right now? 

The scale and impact of the problems created by fraudulent and invalid traffic vary depending on who you listen to. Some self-serving sources would lead you to believe that the problem isn’t that big, has already been solved, or will be solved imminently. 

But if you seek out impartial and quantitative analysis, you’ll find the problem is pervasive across every major ad platform, collectively costing advertisers billions of dollars every year. 

For example, Statista estimates the global costs related to digital ad fraud are set to more than double between 2023 and 2028, from $88bn to $172bn.  Furthermore, The 2023 Imperva Bad Bot Report found that in 2022, nearly half (47.4%) of all internet traffic came from bots, a 5.1% increase over the previous year.

This isn’t to say ad platforms aren’t doing anything to address the problem. They certainly are. But it’s simply impossible for them to eradicate it completely. That’s why it’s so important to have independent arbiters of truth when it comes to verifying paid traffic. And Lunio is one of those businesses. 

How does Lunio complement other well-established ad verification tools?  

Lunio is uniquely placed to offer a complementary performance media verification service not currently offered by the largest platforms in the space. Many ad verification tools work at the pre-bid level to optimise programmatic media buys by maximising viewability, minimising fraud, and ensuring brand safety. In essence, they maximise engagement rates for every ad served before any clicks even occur.  

On the other hand, performance media verification tools such as Lunio analyse post-click data and on-site behaviour to detect and exclude fraudulent and invalid traffic at a level not possible with viewability data only. 

By pairing pre-bid and post-click data, it gives complete insight into the whole ad journey, from impression through to clicks to conversions. And because of that, I see huge potential in the growth of the performance media verification industry.

What technology changes do you see coming within the marketing space over the next few years? And what role will Lunio play in helping marketers adapt? 

The rise of automation and AI is already transforming performance media. Algorithmically driven “black box” campaign types such as Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+ make it easier than ever before to achieve target outcomes with your advertising budget. But that simplicity and convenience comes at the cost of control and transparency. 

Previously, it was much easier to measure performance on a very granular level across all channels. That data could be extracted and put into the hands of very clever people within your business, and their expertise would help guide decision making on how to best spend your budget across those channels. Things are different now. In many cases, granular campaign data isn’t accessible. And it’s increasingly down to ad platform algorithms to decide where and how money is spent. 

The more performance marketing moves towards a “black box” model, the greater the need for independent arbiters of truth within that ecosystem. And that’s where Lunio and other ad protection solutions fit in. It’s vital to verify and check the traffic being sold by ad platforms is worth the money you’re paying for it. Advertisers who understand the potential risks of giving up control for ease should be open-minded when it comes to independently verifying that their ad spend is getting the right level of return.

Why do you feel it’s important to support growing UK tech businesses outside of the London bubble? 

Science and tech based industries are absolutely critical for the British economy. We are already world leaders and to truly reach our national potential we need to tap into and unleash the enormous regional talent pool. The USA and Germany are great examples of nations with dispersed economies and there’s every reason to believe the UK can emulate that.  

One obvious benefit of establishing a business in a city like Manchester is that it can be cheaper than London. But a more powerful benefit lies in the quality of the talent pool, which continues to grow every year. Ultimately, you need talent to build a business. And London retains an advantage in that aspect. But the more investment that flows into the regions, the more reasons you create for talented people to stay. So over time, the growth of cities like Manchester becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. 

What are you most excited about getting stuck into in your new role as Board Chair?

Lots, but if I had to name one, it would be helping Neil build an incredible talent bench in the North West and London initially, then overseas as Lunio expands and grows internationally. 

There is so much talent there already, and with multiple new appointments at the leadership level, there’s a lot of headroom for growth within the business.   Helping others fulfil their personal potential, and in that process helping them to drive the business forward is what I’m most looking forward to. 

What one piece of advice would you give to Paid Media Leaders interested in maximising the efficiency of their ad spend? 

As automation and AI become the new norm in performance marketing, it’s important to retain as much control and transparency over your ad spend as you can. Some areas, such as landing page optimisation, are entirely under your control, so it often makes sense to double down on your efforts and investments there. 

But in other areas where you’re more dependent on ad platform algorithms to drive results, you should ensure you’re feeding automated bidding and targeting systems the best possible data. When it comes to AI, the principle of “garbage in, garbage out” always applies. So by getting rid of invalid and fraudulent traffic, you can help steer campaigns in the right direction, minimise wasted ad spend, and ultimately reach desired outcomes faster. 

With the ultimate goal of increased transparency, LinkedIn has opened the LinkedIn Ads Library, a searchable collection of all ads running on the platform.

The LinkedIn Ads Library can be used to study and analyze competitor ads, allowing you to make informed decisions based on competitor experience, and see what’s worked and what hasn’t when it comes to driving traffic through LinkedIn ads. 

In this article, we’ll talk about what LinkedIn Ads Library is, how to access it, and the process of analyzing competitor ads.

What is LinkedIn Ads Library?

According to LinkedIn:

“LinkedIn Ads Library is a publicly available database that gives you information about ads that have run on LinkedIn.”

The Library lets you search ads based on advertiser name, keyword, country, and date range.

With this Ads Library, LinkedIn’s primary purpose is to create a safe and trusted ad experience. It allows anyone to see a range of information about ads that have previously ran, and the following ad information is available:

• Preview
• Format 
• Advertiser name 
• Payer name 
• Ad restriction information

LinkedIn Ads Library gives you the ability to analyze competitors’ advertising strategies. What’s more, the Library gives you information about ad formats, advertiser identities, and even the payer’s name. 

EU Compliant Features

To comply with EU law, LinkedIn provides a range of extra information for the ads targeted to people living in Europe. This extra information includes information about ad impressions, ad targeting, and the dates the ad ran.

How Long Are Ads Kept In the Library?

The Ads Library contains all ads that ran on LinkedIn after June 1, 2023. These ads remain in the Library for one year after their last impression on Linkedin. 

Generally, the ads will appear in the Library within 24 to 48 hours from the time they get their first impression. Any changes or updates made to an ad are typically reflected within the same time frame.

The Advantages of Using LinkedIn Ads Library 

LinkedIn Ads Library offers a wide range of advantages for marketers. Here are some of the prominent ones:

1. Competitive Analysis

With LinkedIn Ads Library, you get a complete overview of the ads that your competitors run. By studying these, you get insights into your competitors’ messaging, creative assets, call-to-actions, and more.

Surfside PPC gives great insights into how LinkedIn Ads Library can help with competitive analysis:

“Using LinkedIn Ads Library can give you a ton of information about what your competitors are doing. If you’re starting a new business or ad campaign, the library also gives you insights into what your competitors’ landing pages look like and what the goals they’re trying to accomplish are. ”

2. Identify Successful Ad Elements that Resonate with Your Target Audience

By analyzing your competitor’s top-performing ads from the Library, you know about specific elements that seem to resonate best with your target audience – be it a specific type of copy, graphic, offer, or something else. You can then incorporate these working elements into your ads and A/B test accordingly.

3. Discover and Address Potential Gaps in Your Own Ad and Content Strategies 

Reviewing multiple ads in your space reveals common themes, offers, or messaging that your own ads lack. Identifying these gaps can lead to ideas for new, out-of-the-box creative ads and copy that improves performance.

4. Gain Insight into the Latest Industry Trends 

Competitive analysis keeps you on top of the latest LinkedIn ad tactics and trends in your industry. You can see rising trends like video adoption, interactive content, emoji usage, and more. 

How to Access LinkedIn Ads Library 

There are two ways you can access LinkedIn’s Ads Library:

1. Direct Access

Step 1. Open Google and type ‘LinkedIn Ads Library,’ it should be the first organic result you see on the screen. Alternatively, use the following link: http://linkedin.com/ad-library/home.  

Step 2. Scroll down the page till you see a CTA that says, ‘Go to LinkedIn Ads Library.’ Click on it to open the Library.

2. Access Via LinkedIn Company Page

Let’s assume you want to know about all the LinkedIn ads a specific competitor (e.g. Shopify) is running. The alternative method below is an easy way to do that. Step 1. In LinkedIn’s search bar, type the name of your competitor’s company page and open the company page.

Step 2. Go to the page’s Posts section.

Step 3. Click on the Ads tab you see in the top menu of the Posts section. LinkedIn will display all the ads Shopify has been running. You can see the ad copy, who ran the ad (company page or a company employee), and CTA.

How to Analyze Top-Performing Competitor LinkedIn Ads 

When analyzing competitor ads, always look for the top-performing ads in the Library. Once you’ve found the posts with the highest engagement, analyze the type of ad, ad copy, tone, graphics, and CTA, and build your ad strategy based on what works best. Learn from the past – building upon what’s worked well and avoiding what hasn’t. 

Discover the Types of LinkedIn Ads Your Competitors Run

Start by looking at the different ad formats your competitors use. These are the three main formats you might come across:

1. Single Image Ads

Single-image ads are generally great for taking ad-viewers to your website or product page. These appear in between LinkedIn feeds and look similar to all the organic results your target audience sees, thus increasing the overall CTR of the campaign.

2. Carousel Ads

Carousel ads are a great way to spread awareness for your product. Like single-image ads, they also appear in between LinkedIn feeds. 

This format can allow for greater creativity with ads as they have multiple pages. It’s the best way to communicate your brand story to your target audience.

3. Video Ads

Want to grab your audience’s attention in seconds? Leverage LinkedIn’s video ads to do so. Video ads are growing in popularity every year as brands find them a great way to increase brand awareness and drive social engagement.

But when it comes to driving traffic from your LinkedIn to your website or app, video ads should not be your ideal choice as they have low CTR compared to the other two types we discussed above.

Analyze Competitor’s Ads Copy

Start by analyzing the headline your competitors use in their ad copy. 

An ideal headline would be short and scannable (50 characters or less), as short headlines have a higher CTR for LinkedIn ads. It should also use terms like ‘you’ and ‘your’ to speak directly to the target audience.

Pro tip: Keep A/B testing headlines for your ads and see which one gets you more clicks.

Check Competitor’s Introductory Text

The introductory text is the content you see at the top of the image graphic ads use. It should focus on delivering key benefits and value propositions for your target audience and address their needs and interests directly. 

For those of you who aren’t aware, the introductory test is not completely visible to your audience unless they click the ‘see more’ button. Your first line of the copy must be crisp, concise, and tempt readers to read ahead.

Check the Copy’s Tone and Overall Structure

Analyzing the tone of LinkedIn ads can be a little tricky. The tone depends on the type of ad you run on the platform.

As a general rule of thumb, keep the tone professional but approachable – avoid being too casual or too formal. Make the copy conversational and speak directly to your audience in a way they understand. 

Emojis can make your ad copy more eye-catching and vibrant. When used sparingly, they can grab your audience’s attention. What’s more, emojis can make your messaging and brand appear more modern, friendly, and approachable to certain demographics. 

But keep in mind that LinkedIn is inherently more professional and career-focused than other social networks, so overusing emojis in some ads can backfire.

Do a thorough competitor analysis, see what (and if) emojis are working for your competitors, and only then add them to your advertising campaign.

Analyze Visuals Your Competitors Use

Analyzing competitor images will give you the best results when you observe multiple ads from the same brand. 

Why?

That’s because each ad from a brand will have a different type of image, and when you look at multiple advertisements from the same company, you’ll know which graphic worked for them and which didn’t.

As a general practice, use high-quality images that are relevant to the copy you write for the ad – and stay away from generic stock images.

Look for the CTA In the Ad

Here are some best practices to look for when analyzing competitor’s LinkedIn ad CTA:

• The CTA must be clear and action-oriented, telling the viewers exactly what action to take (for example, ‘sign up now,’ ‘get a free trial,’ ‘download the ebook.’).
• Check if the CTA matches the overall ad messaging. Does the CTA seem like a logical and expected next step based on what the ad is communicating?
• Click on the CTA and see where it leads. Is it a relevant landing page that continues the conversation? Does the landing page make it easy to convert and complete the desired action? 
• Consider the action requested in the CTA. Is it easy and low-commitment (download an ebook) or more demanding (schedule a demo)?

LinkedIn Ads Library Examples & Analysis 

Based on the parameters discussed above, let’s analyze a couple of LinkedIn Ads from the Library and discover what makes a good LinkedIn ad.

1. Salesforce Single Image Ad

• The introductory text is a question that tempts viewers to ‘see more.’
• The CTA is clear – take viewers to the Salesforce Admin’s Guide to TrailblazerDX 2024 page.
• The graphic is designed specifically for the ad and draws the eye with bold visuals.
• Clicking on the graphic or the link in the copy takes you to the blog page as promised. 

2. Calendly Video Ad

Risks & Pitfalls with LinkedIn Ads Library

When used the right way, LinkedIn Ads Library can be significantly beneficial, but there are some risks and pitfalls you must avoid at all costs.

1. Copying Competitors’ Ads Directly without Many Changes 

Simply copying and pasting what’s worked well for competitors’ ads without adding anything unique is a surefire path to mediocrity. Instead of copying everything word-for-word, graphic-for-graphic, and so on – champion your USP and highlight what makes you stand out from the competition. 

You want your ads to showcase what makes your company, product, and service stand out. 

The best approach to avoid getting lost in the noise is to take inspiration from your competitors, analyze the pain points they address, and then create an ad campaign of your own that represents your brand and has your brand’s unique voice and style.

2. Coming to Conclusion Solely on Ad Data

The ad performance data you see for competitors on LinkedIn Ads Library only tells part of the story. Just because an ad achieved a high click-through or conversion rate for a competitor does not guarantee you will see the same results. 

There are many variables at play – the competitor’s brand equity, the quality of their landing pages, the relevance of their targeting, and so on. 

Rather than assuming or hoping things will work, aggressively test any assumptions you have in mind for your ad campaigns with thorough A/B testing and CTA optimisation. 

3. LinkedIn Ads Library is Limited

If you’re looking for the number of ad impressions, demographics, and similar in-depth factors for an ad campaign, bear in mind that the LinkedIn Ads Library only shows this data for ads run for the EU audience. 

This makes it harder for you to gain useful insights about audience targeting if your customers are outside Europe.

LinkedIn Ads Library FAQs 

1. Do I need a LinkedIn account to use the Ads Library?

Anyone can explore the Ads Library, with or without a LinkedIn account.

2. How does LinkedIn Ads Library compare to tools like Facebook Ads Library or Google Ads?

LinkedIn Ads Library focuses on professional and business-oriented content, whereas Facebook and Google Ads Library cover a broader range of ad networks. This makes LinkedIn Ads Library ideal for brands whose target audience is in the B2B sector.

3. How to Use LinkedIn Ads Library to research ad types used by competitors?

Just type the brand’s name in the ‘Search by company or advertiser name’ box and ad type (single image, carousel, video, etc.) in the ‘Search by keyword’ box of the LinkedIn Ads Library page and press search to see what type of ads your competitors run.

4. Is accessing the LinkedIn Ads Library free?

Yes, the LinkedIn Ads Library is a free tool – much like the ad libraries offered by Google and Facebook. The platform currently has no paid plan.

5. Can you search for specific ad campaigns on LinkedIn Ads Library? 

Yes, you can. With the search bar present at the top of the library, you can look for specific ad campaigns. You can search using keywords, company names, or other relevant terms to find specific campaigns, making it easier to conduct targeted research.

6. Can I see the exact URL or site where the ad was launched in the LinkedIn Ads Library?

No, you can’t see the exact URL or website where the ad was launched. However, it does show the ad content as it appears on LinkedIn to give you a better idea about ad performance.

7. How far back can I search ads?

The Ads Library allows users to search ads that were created on or after June 1, 2023.

Conclusion

LinkedIn Ads Library is an invaluable tool to ethically ‘spy’ on your competitors’ ads and use their learnings to boost the performance of your own ad campaigns. It allows you to analyze ad creatives, copy, CTA, landing page, and certain ad analytics to predict your competitor’s next move, and enhance your own advertising effectiveness.

Whilst the LinkedIn Ads Library is an extremely useful feature, the main problem surrounding LinkedIn ads still remains.

LinkedIn has a record high level of invalid traffic, as found in Lunio’s 2024 Wasted Ad Spend Report. In fact, it has one of the highest invalid traffic rates across all social media channels. 

The average cost-per-click on LinkedIn can range between $10- $50. This is much higher than the average Meta benchmark, which sits at around $5 for B2B brands. As a result, financial losses due to fake ad engagement adds up far quicker on LinkedIn than on other channels.

In short, marketers are highly unlikely to get the performance they’d expect out of LinkedIn campaigns without an IVT prevention system in place.

Lunio works to protect your LinkedIn ads from bot clicks and other invalid traffic. With a 14-day free trial, you’ll get an idea of how much LinkedIn’s invalid traffic is eating into your ad spend, and discover ways to make your ad spend go further. 

In light of all the changes, Google made significant updates to its PMax documentation in January 2024 to help advertisers build more effective campaigns. And while no doubt useful, especially for those launching PMax campaigns for the first time, the new guide doesn’t explore the more advanced strategies and approaches currently used by cutting-edge PPC pros. 

So to dive deep into PMax, we spoke to Adriaan Dekker, PPC Expert and founder of the Google Ads Newsletter, which has more than 28,000 subscribers on LinkedIn. The conversation was hosted by Lunio’s Content Manager, James Deeney.

Adriaan has years of hands-on PPC experience, profitably managing campaigns across 100+ accounts. And since launching his newsletter in November 2022 he’s carefully documented every single minor and major change to the Google Ads platform, making him one of the most recognised and respected voices within the PPC community. 

Performance Max in 2024 Webinar 

Webinar Timestamps 

• 00:00 – Intro 
• 05:45 – Microsoft’s Performance Max launch 
• 08:15 – Agenda 
• 10:25 – Gemini generative AI models for PMax
• 16:25 – PMax’s new “Search Term Insights” 
• 19:20 – Using “Search Themes” for PMax 
• 22:48 – Using Performance Planner for PMax 
• 26:00 – Controlling landing pages with URL rules 
• 29:45 – How to exclude any keyword, topic, or placement from PMax 
• 32:50 – How to manage PMax brand exclusions 
• 35:00 – Top 5 PMax scripts Adriaan uses on a daily basis 
• 40:20 – Protecting PMax campaigns from fake clicks & leads 
• 48:45 – How to troubleshoot underperforming PMax campaigns  
• 51:25 – Q&A with Adriaan 

TL;DR – Key Takeaways

Don’t have time to watch the webinar? Check out the full recap of all the key takeaways and actionable tips below, segmented by topic. 

Gemini AI Models for PMax 

• Gemini is Google’s long-promised, next-gen General AI model family, developed by Google’s AI research lab DeepMind. All Gemini models were trained to be “natively multimodal” – in other words, able to work with and use more than just words. They were pre-trained on a variety of audio, images and videos, a large set of codebases and text in different languages.

• In November last year, Google announced the launch of AI-powered asset generation and image editing within PMax for the US market. And they will soon be expanding these capabilities with Gemini, meaning PMax can write longer headlines, with sitelink generation set to be rolled out soon as well. 

• Google is also soon updating its image generation models to Imagen 2. With this update in PMax, you will be able to create lifestyle images showing people in action. You can also use image editing to add backgrounds with non-identifiable people. And, if you have images that work well already, you will be able to generate more options to scale your creative even further.

•  Google stressed that advertisers remain in full control and will be able to review all images suggested for their campaigns. 

• Gemini models won’t allow the generation of images of named people, including celebrities and public figures.

• Google also announced an expansion of their partnership with Canva to help support the rollout of new image generation models – this means if you start your design or creative process in Canva, an upcoming Canva integration app will make it easier to publish images directly into your Performance Max campaign.

• When it comes to working with auto-generated assets, Adriaan recommends focusing most of your time and energy on mastering prompt writing. Rather than giving 1 or 2 sentences, provide the Gemini models with as much information as you can e.g. who are your audience? what are their interests? who are your competitors? which tone should the output use? 

New PMax Search Term Insights

• In February 2024, advertisers were finally able to see search terms within PMax. Google rolled out new insights which allow advertisers to see search categories and search terms for each campaign. 

• Follow the steps below to access PMax search term data:
  • Click on a PMax campaign
  • Go to the “Insights” tab 
  • Scroll down to search terms insights 
  • Click on “View detailed report” 
  • Expand categories to see search terms 

• You can also use a script from Mike Rhodes to automatically pull all your PMax search terms into a spreadsheet. 

• Adriaan highlighted that this feature is super useful when it comes to looking for branded search terms within PMax campaigns. If they are present, more work is needed to fully exclude them by adding them as exact match keywords to a standard search campaign. 

Using “Search Themes” for PMax

• Search Themes provide marketers a new way to provide additional signals in PMax and expand your ad reach.

• Performance Max uses information from your assets, feeds, and landing pages to inform its ad placement decisions. That means it has the lion’s share of control over your ad targeting. But with Search Themes, you can input your own keywords to fill the gaps in your campaign reach.

• There are two main uses cases for Search Themes:
  
  • 1. There isn’t enough content on your website or landing page to give Google all the information it needs about the search queries you want to be found for.
  • 2. You want to optimise PMax campaign performance more quickly.

• It’s also important to note that Search Themes don’t work like the traditional keyword targeting. They’re simply signals that the PMax algorithm can learn from (or disregard) as it sees fit.
  
• Adriaan highlighted that Search Themes can be used to accelerate performance when adding new products or services to your PMax campaign, which is much easier than adding them as a custom segment. 

• For more information on how to minimise the risk of cannibalization when using Search Themes, check out our previous blog.

Using Performance Planner for PMax 

• In September 2023, Performance Planner was updated so you can use it with all campaign types including PMax campaigns and Demand Gen as well. 

• Performance Planner basically allows you to see what you can expect in return for your ad spend, and also help you identify the point of diminishing returns whereby increasing your ad spend will start to have a negative impact on ROAS.

• There are two basic requirements for using Performance Planner for PMax: 
  
  • 1. Your PMax campaign must be currently active, or have been paused fewer than 7 days
  • 2. You must not have changed the PMax bid strategy in the past 7 days 

• Adriaan recommends using Performance Planner shortly after launching your campaigns, and taking a screenshot of the estimated returns. You can then refer back to this at a later date and compare it against the actual campaign performance. 

• Adriaan also highlighted that one important prerequisite for using Performance Planner is having steady, consistent data. If you have big fluctuations in metrics such as conversion volume from week to week, it makes the predictions very unreliable. 

Controlling Landing Pages with URL Rules 

• In September 2023, Google added “URL Contains” targeting functionality to Performance Max. This feature was already available within Dynamic Search Ads, and it functions the same way within PMax.
  
• The feature provides marketers with more control over how their ads are served as you manually get to choose which URLs to include to send visitors to the most relevant commercial parts of your site. 

• Since a PMax campaign with the Final Url expansion turned on can basically redirect users to every URL possible on your site, non-monetizable pages such as your blogs, and about us page should be excluded. Now, with the new URL rules, you can tell PMax to only redirect users to pages that include commercially relevant URL tokens e.g. /shop

• Typically Adriaan prefers to use the Page Feed tool within PMax rather than URL rules, because it crawls faster than URL rules, meaning key information about sales and discounts etc are shown to potential customers asap. 

• When you provide a Page Feed for your PMax landing pages, it helps Google Ads check that all relevant pages are indexed, determine when to show your ads, and where to direct people on your website.

How to Exclude Any Keyword, Topic, or Placement from PMax

• You can use the Performance Max Campaign Modification Request Form to manually exclude any keyword, topic, or placement from PMax. 

• You can also use the PMax Placement Cleaner script by Dmytro Tonkikh to automatically get rid of undesirable placements. 

• Adriaan commented that he only uses the Campaign Modification Request form in very specific cases. Instead, he prefers to give the algorithms as much data as possible to work with, to help drive better informed optimizations. 

How to Manage PMax Brand Exclusions

• People searching your brand will have outrageously good conversion rates compared to almost any other traffic. So if PMax is allowed to cannibalise on branded keywords within your Search campaigns, it’s a big problem. 

• It will take credit for those conversions and make it look like your PMax performance is very good, without actually doing anything new.

• You want to ensure you’re distinguishing your bidding and ad creative between prospects still in the awareness stages of the funnel with those who are simply clicking through to purchase, already decided.

• So you should exclude branded terms from PMax and manage them uniquely in Search brand campaigns and in a query-filtered standard Shopping campaign.

• Adriaan mentioned that failing to exclude brand from PMax is an issue he encounters with many of the clients he works with – leading many to overestimate the strength of their campaign. 

Adriaan’s Top 5 PMax Scripts 

• Here are the scripts Adriaan regularly uses to optimise PMax campaigns:
  
• PMax Spend Allocation Script by Mike Rhodes – This creates graphs and tables that visualise PMax spend across Shopping, Video, Display, and Search.

• PMax Search Term Insights Script by Mike Rhodes – This exports search terms from your PMax campaigns into a Google Sheet. 

• Brand Traffic Analyzer Script by Mike Ryan – This lets you see brand and non-brand volumes – impressions, clicks, revenue, and conversions across PMax campaigns. Ideal for seeing if brand exclusions are working. 

• Flowboost Labelizer by Floris de Schrijver – This segments your products into different categories based on performance data. You can then adjust your strategy for each individual category. 

• Producthero PMax Labelizer (Paid)  – This script is similar to the Flowboost Labeliser, by splitting products into different categories. 

Protecting PMax Campaigns From Invalid Traffic

• Lunio’s 2024 Wasted Ad Spend Report was based on a dataset of 2.6 billion paid ad clicks from more than 60,000 ad accounts. When clicks were segmented by channel, PMax had an average invalid traffic rate of 5.96%, compared to 4.72% for standard search and shopping campaigns. 

• PMax’s average IVT rate is higher than standard search for two reasons:
  
  • 1. PMax forces the use of Display ads, which inevitably results in a higher volume of invalid clicks.
    
  • 2. Invalid clicks and fake leads are generally cheaper than legitimate ones. And because PMax is algorithmically driven, this can create a negative feedback loop whereby the campaign continues to seek out more and more junk clicks and conversions which never translate into revenue, simply because the acquisition costs are lower.

• While the average IVT rate for PMax was 5.96%, on the low end, we see PMax campaigns with IVT rates around 1.5%. And on the high end, Lunio has detected PMax campaigns with IVT rates around 18%.

• PMax campaigns with high IVT rates of 10% or more tend to come from B2B lead gen activity – where spam lead submissions are common. 

• It’s no secret that PMax for lead gen is often plagued by low-quality traffic and spam lead submissions. And for brands that were experiencing those issues, Lunio has played a key role in driving up their lead quality via PMax by significantly reducing that IVT rate over time. 

• If you’re interested in finding out how much IVT your PMax campaigns are currently bringing in, you can requests a free 2 week traffic audit – where Lunio will monitor and analyse all your clicks coming through Google Ads.

How to Troubleshoot PMax Campaigns 

• First, analyse your account and try to understand what’s going on – Is it a campaign-specific issue? A macro issue affecting all campaigns? Is your conversion tracking still working properly? Is there anything out of the ordinary going on inside your account? Dig around and try to get a handle on the situation before attempting a fix.

• Use Mike Rhodes PMax Spend Allocation split to get further insight into which channels most of your budget is going towards. Spend mostly skews very heavily (90%+) towards Search, Shopping, or Video.

• If the issue seems to be PMax itself, then work on further optimising your assets. Improving the quality of your assets is the thing that’s likely to have the biggest impact on your overall campaign performance.

• Consider your campaign structure. Are your products grouped together correctly? Do certain products have very low conversion-rates relative to others? If so, investigate those further to see if you can understand what might account for the difference.

• Try pausing specific products that don’t seem to be converting and see what happens.

• If all else fails, consider whether reverting back dedicated Search, Shopping, and Dynamic Remarketing campaigns makes sense for your brand. Or for lead gen, consider reverting back to a granular Search campaign structure. 

Useful Links & Free Resources 

Lunio’s 2024 Wasted Ad Spend Report 

Adriaan’s Google Ads Newsletter (LinkedIn)

Lunio’s 100k Display Campaign Exclusion List 

Gemini models are coming to Performance Max

Performance Max Search Themes: How to Fill Gaps In Campaigns

How to use Google Performance Planner 

Performance Max Campaign Modification Request Form

PMax Spend Allocation Script by Mike Rhodes 

PMax Search Term Insights Script by Mike Rhodes 

Brand Traffic Analyzer Script by Mike Ryan 

Flowboost Labelizer by Floris de Schrijver

Producthero PMax Labelizer (Paid)  

Advanced pMax for Lead Gen: the Fire & Ice Structure 

Traffic bots already outnumber human internet users. And according to Imperva’s Bad Bot Report 2023, the human online traffic share dropped by 5.1% from 2021 to 2022:

The increasing number of sophisticated traffic bots that can successfully simulate human behaviour is a cause for concern. Bad traffic bots generate spam leads, drain your ad budget, and damage your PPC advertising performance. But there are ways to block traffic bots from your site, ensuring accurate data and genuine leads.

Here, you’ll learn everything you need to know about traffic bots: what they are, why you need to distinguish between good and bad bots, and how to stop traffic bots disrupting your digital marketing strategy.

What Are Traffic Bots?

Traffic bots are automated programs created to perform specific online functions. Bots can be helpful (e.g. SEO crawler bots that help your pages rank in search results) or harmful (e.g. bots that click your ads with zero chance of conversion). Either way, traffic bots can inflate site visitor numbers, skew your metrics, and waste your ad spend.

Traffic bots are a type of invalid traffic (IVT). Here’s how Google defines invalid activity:

“Invalid traffic includes any clicks or impressions that may artificially inflate an advertiser’s costs or a publisher’s earnings. Invalid traffic covers intentionally fraudulent traffic as well as accidental clicks.”

All bot traffic is invalid, but not all invalid traffic comes from bots. Invalid traffic includes accidental clicks from real human users as well as bot traffic. In this article, we’ll focus exclusively on non-human IVT and how it impacts marketers.

“Good” Traffic Bots

Some bots are essential. They help your site (and the rest of the internet) run smoothly. SEO crawler bots, for example, scan billions of web pages so search engines like Google can index and rank them in their search engine results pages (SERPs).

Other types of good traffic bots include:

• Analytics bots — Bots that monitor website metrics like site visitor volume, page load speeds, and unique page visits. These give you useful insights into your digital marketing performance.
• Aggregation bots — A type of authorised scraper bot, aggregation bots collect information from your website and display it elsewhere. These are widely used in the travel industry to collate information about flight and hotel availability.
• Copyright bots — Bots that identify copyright infringement and content theft from your website or other online assets.

Good bot traffic is usually classed as general invalid traffic (GIVT). GIVT is relatively easy for ad platforms to detect and block, so they’re less likely to damage your marketing efforts than bad bots.

“Bad” Traffic Bots

Bad traffic bots are a much bigger problem for marketers. Left unchecked, bad bot traffic can disrupt sales, waste your ad spend, steal and sell your content or data, and erode customer trust in your brand.

Types of bad traffic bots include:

• Ad fraud bots — These bots click paid ads to intentionally drain your ad budget. In 2022, this cost businesses $12.35 billion on Google alone. According to our Wasted Ad Spend Report 2024, this is estimated to rise to $16.59 billion in 2024.
• DDoS bots — Bots that attack your website and overload your server so your site is unavailable for genuine users. Around half of DDoS attacks lead to noticeable service disruption, with 24% causing complete denial of service.
• Scraper bots — Bots that steal information from your website without authorisation. This may include contact details, content, or other valuable data.
• Lead gen/spam bots — Bots that complete forms on your website, leading to an increase in fake leads and lead gen fraud. Almost 70% of businesses have experienced spam leads, draining their sales resources.

Bad bots are classed as sophisticated invalid traffic (SIVT). They closely mimic human behaviour, conducting low-and-slow attacks that are much harder to detect than good bot activity. Leo Pizarro, former Head of Demand Generation at Lunio, explains more:

The Business Cost of Traffic Bots

Traffic bots cost businesses billions in wasted ad spend, lost time, and missed revenue opportunities every year.

Our Wasted Ad Spend Report 2024 predicts advertisers will lose around $16.59 billion to IVT on Google ad channels in 2024, which is substantially less than the forecasted wasted ad spend across social media. It’s estimated that advertisers will lose around $54.78 billion on non-Google advertising channels like Facebook, TikTok, and LinkedIn in 2024.

In total, this represents a 33.1% increase in wasted ad spend between 2022 and 2024:

As well as the immediate costs of wasted ad budget, traffic bots drain your sales team’s resources. They’ll lose time and money checking data and chasing fake leads rather than nurturing real prospects, which also means you’re missing out on valuable revenue opportunities. Businesses stand to lose out on $204.83 billion in lost revenue opportunities in 2024.

You may also be using inaccurate data to inform spending and budgeting decisions, leading to even more wastage. Even good bots can skew your analytics, leading to unreliable data and dubious decisions.

Marketing budgets are being squeezed more than ever. Our Wasted Ad Spend report shows that 40% of marketing teams are being hit with reduced budgets — so eliminating bot traffic from your site is essential to maximising your revenue. Neil Andrew, Lunio’s founder and CEO, explains more:

Traffic Bots for Hire

Hiring traffic bots is a malicious practice that creates the illusion of a high-traffic website. This site is one of the top-ranking pages when you search for “traffic bots” in Google:

But the claims made by this site (and other similar traffic generator sites) are spurious at best. For example:

It’s well-established that buying site traffic and clicks is a black hat SEO practice that will ultimately damage your SEO efforts. It can even get you banned from Google AdSense:

“Clicks on Google ads must result from genuine user interest. Any method that artificially generates clicks or impressions on your Google ads is strictly prohibited. These prohibited methods include, but are not limited to, repeated manual clicks or impressions, automated click and impression-generating tools and the use of robots or deceptive software.”

Additionally, the site claims that their traffic “looks like real human traffic.” However, unlike humans, bots aren’t going to make purchases. So you’ll probably see a downturn in conversions, ultimately making your advertising KPIs look worse.

Google claims to be clamping down on this activity. But both sponsored and organic links to this site are prominently displayed on the first SERP page. In addition, lots of other sites promise the same thing, and don’t seem to be penalised for flouting Google’s terms of service.

There’s clearly a high demand for traffic generation. People are increasingly turning to them to boost their ad revenue, search rankings, and social media engagement. So advertisers can expect the number of traffic bots to rise in the near future.

The Increasing Prevalence of Traffic Bots

According to Imperva’s Bad Bot Report 2023, 47.4% of all internet traffic came from bots in 2022 — a 5.1% increase on the previous year. Given that computing power is growing more quickly than the population, it’s likely that the increasing traffic bot trend will continue:

Imperva’s deep-dive into bot types reveals a more worrying pattern. While simple bad bots remain at similar levels to previous years (accounting for around a third of bad bot traffic), advanced sophisticated bots are becoming more prevalent at the expense of moderately sophisticated bots. Advanced bots are more likely to evade traditional bot blocking methods.

Ad platforms are already struggling to cope with traffic bots. And the advent of tools like ChatGPT have also made it easier for individual bad actors to create bots with very limited coding knowledge. So in future it’s going to get even harder for marketers to dodge bad bots.

How Do Ad Platforms Deal With Bot Traffic? 

The growing threat of bad traffic bots is worrying for advertisers. So you might expect ad platforms to clamp down on this activity. But unfortunately this doesn’t seem to be the case.

While most ad platforms seem able to cope with GIVT, they’re much less reliable when it comes to detecting and filtering out sophisticated bots. We found substantial rates of invalid traffic across all ad platforms, with LinkedIn, X, and Meta among the worst affected:

Google is leading the way when it comes to dealing with bot traffic. As well as having some of the lowest rates of IVT, they also have a refund system where advertisers can request their money back if they notice invalid activity. This system isn’t the most user-friendly, but it’s more than any other platform currently offers.

Leo explains why Google has taken a more proactive approach to dealing with bot traffic than other platforms:

How to Identify Bot Traffic 

Google Analytics is a key tool to help you identify bot traffic. Look out for these four key signs of bot traffic:

• High bounce rate — The average bounce rate is 50-70%, so a 70%+ bounce rate may indicate bot activity. That’s because bots don’t tend to stick around to browse your website after their first page visit.
• Low session duration — Bots won’t spend a lot of time on your site. Check how long users spend on your landing page before they return to the SERP. Low session duration (less than 30 seconds) may indicate traffic bots.
• Traffic peaks with low conversions — If your site traffic suddenly spikes (without a similar spike in conversions) this can suggest a high volume of bot traffic on your site. Custom alerts can help you spot these suspicious peaks.
• Repeated suspicious traffic patterns — Bots often run on a schedule, so seeing the same peaks and troughs over and over again may indicate bots. 

Ways to Block Traffic Bots

So how can you deal with a traffic bot problem? Manual monitoring isn’t the most efficient method, but it can help you reduce the impact of bot traffic. Here are four ways to block traffic bots.

1. Understand Your Traffic

Familiarise yourself with your normal traffic patterns so you can identify suspicious activity more easily. Look at your analytics data to find out more about your typical audience, including:

• Which referral sites they come from.
• When your site traffic usually peaks.
• Users’ typical session duration.

This data can help you understand how your ads drive traffic to your site. You can then optimise your PPC campaigns to remove traffic generated by irrelevant search terms, and pause or adjust campaigns that are affected by high levels of IVT.

2. Set Up IP Exclusions

Exclude IP addresses that generate fake traffic within Google Ads. Not displaying ads to specific IP addresses should stop them sending bots to your site. However, bear in mind that sophisticated bots easily switch between IP addresses, so this isn’t a foolproof bot blocking method.

Here’s how to set up IP exclusions in Google Ads:

1. Log into your account and navigate to the relevant campaign.
2. Click Settings.
3. Scroll down and select Additional Settings.
4. Scroll to IP exclusions and paste the fraudulent IP address into the box. 
5. Click Save.

3. Use reCAPTCHA

Lead forms, contact forms, and other data capture fields on your site should be protected by reCAPTCHA. Some advanced bots can bypass reCAPTCHA forms, but including them will eliminate many simple or moderately complex bots and prevent them from submitting spam leads on your site.

Find out how to install reCAPTCHA on your site.

4. Exclude Specific Countries/Regions

If you’re being targeted by bots from a specific region or country, you can block bot traffic coming from that geographical area. This is a quicker way to tackle bots than adding individual IP address exclusions every time a new one crops up.

However, it’s easy to block real human users using this method. Be wary of excluding regions you might want to expand into, or where you already have customers.

How Lunio Detects Bot Traffic Ad Platforms Don’t Catch

Lunio analyses every click on your paid ads in real-time to determine if they’re a real user. If Lunio detects a user that meets any of the following criteria, they’ll be blocked from accessing your ads:

• Comes from a known blacklisted IP address.
• Shows obvious signs of automated behaviour.
• Fills out a form more quickly than a human could.
• Bounces from the page in less than one second.

But not all bots display such obvious signs of non-human activity, especially in a single interaction. That’s where Lunio categorises traffic as “suspicious.” Instead of immediately blocking the user, Lunio automatically checks hundreds of other data points to assess the user’s validity. It can then accurately categorise the click as legitimate or invalid.

This approach weeds out bots from real users, ensuring genuine users are never blocked by our software. There’s no need for any manual monitoring (although you’ll be able to see all your data in our dashboards on-demand) and invalid visits are stopped at the source. This blocks bot traffic from your site, so you can improve your ad spend efficiency and overall profitability.

See How Much of Your Paid Traffic is Invalid

Lunio’s 14-day free trial includes a full traffic audit, which shows you exactly how much invalid traffic is affecting your PPC success (and how much you could save by eliminating it).

There’s no obligation to buy when the trial period ends; getting a clear picture of your traffic health can help you decide on the best way to fix invalid traffic on your site. Book a demo to get started with Lunio today.

According to Lunio’s Wasted Ad Spend report, $16.59 billion is forecasted to be wasted on Google Ads in 2024 due to the impact of invalid traffic and click fraud. Another $54.78 billion is set to be lost on non-Google channels such as Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, and X. And that equates to a huge lost revenue opportunity for marketers and brands across the globe.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. By better understanding click fraud and putting the right click fraud prevention measures in place, you can stop your marketing budget going to waste. Here, you’ll learn all you need to know about click fraud, including:

• What click fraud is (and how it differs from invalid traffic)
• Types of click fraud (and who’s behind it)
• How click fraud affects businesses
• How ad networks are tackling click fraud (and why click fraud is going up)
• Why click fraud is so profitable for bad actors
• How to detect and stop click fraud

What is Click Fraud?

Click fraud is the malicious practice of generating clicks on digital ads without any intent to buy or take conversion action with the advertiser. This can be done by people, automated scripts, or bots. 

In 2024, the vast majority of click fraud is carried out by bots: automated programs that rapidly click your ads and drain your budget.

Neil Andrew, Lunio’s founder and CEO, defines click fraud:

Click fraud always has malicious intent behind it. But there are other more benign types of non-converting traffic you should also be aware of.

Invalid Traffic vs Click Fraud

Invalid traffic (IVT) is a broader term that encompasses all kinds of invalid user activity affecting your site. As well as bad bots and fake users, it includes good bots (such as SEO crawlers and web scrapers), accidental clicks from real humans, clicks from VPNs and IP proxies, and clicks from current employees or jobseekers. Essentially, it includes any ad click that has no chance of conversion, regardless of whether the source is malicious.

Click fraud is a subset of invalid traffic. It refers to invalid clicks generated with malicious intent by bad actors, and is also known as sophisticated invalid traffic. Click fraud may be used to:

• Deplete your ad budget without generating revenue
• Diminish your campaign performance by reducing your reach to genuine prospects
• Create financial gain for scammers
• Generate fake likes and upvotes on social media

So in short – IVT is any click that would never lead to a conversion, whereas click fraud always has malicious intent behind it. Those who commit click fraud are likely doing it for illegal profit, or a black-hat advantage over their competition. 

Who Commits Click Fraud?

The term ‘click fraud’ brings to mind images of hackers, fraudsters, and competitors sitting in a dark room commanding legions of bots to waste your ad spend and ruin your analytics. 

This isn’t always the case. Click fraud can come from a range of sources, each with their own duplicitous goals in mind. The most common click fraud culprits include: 

• Advertisers are the most common type of click fraudster. They use click fraud to inflate their own CTRs and improve their ad rankings. They may also commit click fraud in order to artificially increase the number of impressions for their ads – which can result in higher ad revenue.
• Competitors may commit click fraud in order to waste an advertiser’s budget, or to lower their ad ranking. 
• Affiliates may engage in click fraud to earn greater affiliate fees from those they’ve partnered with. This type of fraud is usually done using automated scripts that generate fake clicks on ads.
• Publishers falsely inflate their numbers by clicking on ads themselves to generate more revenue. They make money by inflating the number of page views on a website or by generating fake clicks on ads.

Types of Click Fraud

There are several types of click fraud marketers need to be aware of. Let’s take a look at each type of click fraud in more detail.

Bot Networks

Bots are programmed to perform specific actions automatically. More than 47% of the world’s online traffic consists of bots. But we can expect this proportion to grow, thanks to Moore’s Law. In our webinar on the true cost of invalid traffic, David Triger, Lunio’s CTO, explains:

Bot networks (also known as botnets) are partly to blame for the rise of bot traffic. Made up of a series of malware-infected computers controlled by a single malicious party, botnets can conduct click fraud on a massive scale. 

The success of bot-driven click fraud relies on their ability to mimic human behaviour. Because botnets consist of compromised computers, they usually have legitimate IP addresses belonging to real human users. This makes it much easier to avoid detection.

Ad Publisher Click Fraud

Ad publishers take a percentage of the revenue generated by each click on their site. So it’s easy to see how click fraud could enable abuse of this system for financial gain.

Some rogue ad publishers commit click fraud by clicking ads in their own ad inventory, boosting their revenue. In addition, higher click volumes (even if they’re artificially inflated) can make ad space more appealing to advertisers.

These fraudulent money-making tactics are much more likely on low-quality websites. So advertisers should ensure they know where their ads will be shown before signing up with less established ad publishers.

Note: To avoid placements on low-quality sites while running Google Display campaigns, download and use Lunio’s free 100k+ exclusion list which features junk domains, mobile app inventory, and irrelevant YouTube channels.

Fake Users on Social Media

Platforms like LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter), Meta, and TikTok have massive volumes of bot users. Our research shows levels of invalid traffic across social platforms ranging from almost 10-25% of all paid traffic:

The impact of fake users on important global events like elections has been widely reported. But they can also affect your advertising efforts.

More fake social media users means there’s a much higher chance of bots clicking your social ads. This drains your social media ad budget and skews your performance marketing results.

Competitor Clicks

Once thought to be commonplace among small businesses, our Wasted Ad Spend report shows click fraud conducted by competitors isn’t actually a huge problem. Companies with less than 50 employees see an average IVT rate of 7.58%, compared with 17.58% at companies with 10,000+ employees. So you’re much more likely to be affected by sophisticated bot networks and fake user profiles than competitor clicks.

But competitor clicks do still exist, especially in highly competitive industries. Competitors purposely clicking your ads can deplete your PPC budget, so you’re unable to reach actual potential customers. Competitors may hire click farms to conduct this type of click fraud on their behalf.

How Does Click Fraud Affect Businesses?

Click fraud affects businesses in three major ways:

1. Wasted ad spend and reduced return on ad spend (ROAS)
2. Wasted time and effort monitoring fake users and chasing fake leads
3. Skewed data and analytics

Let’s take a deeper look at these click fraud-related issues.

1. Wasted Ad Spend

Click fraud wastes your PPC budget on worthless bot clicks. This reduces your return on ad spend, so you’re getting less from your marketing campaigns than you could be.

Some marketers chalk these losses up to the cost of doing business, as long as they’re still getting reasonable ROAS rates. But with $71.37 billion in ad spend expected to be lost to click fraud in 2024, advertisers can’t afford to be passive in their approach. Our CEO Neil says:

You don’t have to (and shouldn’t) accept this level of inefficiency. In fact, in today’s tough economic climate, it’s important to wring as much revenue from your budget as you can, so you can hit your revenue targets and advertising KPIs.

2. Wasted Time, Effort, & Resources

It costs a lot to manually monitor your site traffic for signs of click fraud, both financially and mentally. To block bots most effectively, you’ll need 24/7 monitoring, which means members of your team need to proactively watch your site analytics for signs of invalid traffic. This not only costs money, but takes staff away from more valuable tasks that contribute to business growth.

In addition, high levels of click fraud can lead to an increase in spam or fake leads. This eats into your sales team’s resources, as they’ll spend time chasing fake leads with zero chance of conversion. So click fraud doesn’t just directly drain your ad spend — it also impacts business growth and puts revenue opportunities at risk.

3. Data Distortion

Click fraud can seriously compromise your campaign performance metrics. In fact, all types of invalid traffic will skew your site analytics, making it harder to get an accurate picture of your PPC success.

Without clean data, it’s much harder to make informed decisions around campaign and budget optimisation. This often leads to a drop in performance and ad revenue, as well as further wasted ad spend and stifled growth opportunities. So it’s important that you filter out fraudulent clicks from your data.

What Are Ad Networks Doing About Click Fraud?

Click fraud is a big problem in digital advertising. So what are ad networks doing to tackle click fraud?

Unfortunately the answer is: not very much. 

While Google and other ad networks are reasonably good at detecting and eliminating general IVT (GIVT) from your traffic and site data, they have a much harder time with sophisticated IVT (SIVT). Leo Pizarro, Lunio’s former head of demand generation, explains:

Google offers refunds if you can prove your ads have been affected by click fraud. This isn’t an ideal system, but it’s more than any other network currently offers. Meta is clear that they take no responsibility for click fraud or IVT and its impact on your PPC campaigns:

“Facebook shall have no liability for click fraud or other improper actions, or for invalid clicks or other technological issues, each of which may affect the cost of advertising.”

There’s not much financial incentive for ad networks to clamp down on click fraud. Analysing real-time traffic is expensive, and costs are going up as sophisticated bots become harder to detect. So it’s unlikely we’ll see any big policy changes in the near future.

The Increasing Prevalence of Click Fraud 

Click fraud is on the rise. In 2023, PPC ad fraud is estimated to have risen by almost 10% over two years, from 19.3% in 2021 to 28.7% in 2023. This is largely due to increases in computer power, AI tools like ChatGPT and Gemini, and the low risk, high reward nature of click fraud.

A 2016 Hewlett Packard report shows ad fraud as the only entry in the ‘low risk, high reward’ category of hacking attractiveness, based on financial gain vs effort:

Click fraud is relatively easy for scammers to perform without detection, unlike certain other criminal online activities. As AI makes bots easier to program and unleash, we don’t expect to see a downturn in click fraud any time soon.

How Much Money Can Bad Actors Make From Click Fraud?

Click fraud is a very lucrative business for those who can get away with it. Individual scammers committing ad fraud can make millions of dollars every year — but fully-fledged ad fraud corporations can make many times this.

In one of the best known cases of click fraud — the Methbot scam — Aleksandr Zhukov was sentenced to ten years in prison after generating more than $3 million a day from click fraud.

At the height of Methbot operations, this fraud ring hosted video ads from more than 250,000 URLs, resulting in 300 million ad views each day. Approximately 570,000 bots (most of which were part of botnets) were used to mimic real human behaviour, enabling Zhukov and other bad actors to evade detection.

Methbot isn’t the only highly profitable click fraud scam. Other well-known click fraud operations include:

• 3ve — Infected more than 1.7m computers and generated more than $30m in profit over five years.
• HyphBot — Generated up to 1.5 billion fake ad requests a day, resulting in $500,000 profit each day.

Click Fraud vs Law 

Unfortunately, Methbot and other click fraud organizations aren’t the only ones committing click fraud on a large scale. It’ll come as no surprise that click fraud is illegal in many jurisdictions around the world, and can be punished by both civil and criminal penalties. However, the perpetrators are often based in countries where the laws are not as strict – making it difficult to prosecute them. 

In addition, most advertising networks do not have a mechanism in place for reporting or tracking click fraud. This makes it difficult to prove that fraud has actually occurred, which further complicates things from a legal standpoint. 

Despite the challenges, there have been a few notable cases of click fraud that have resulted in legal battles:

• In 2006, Lane’s Gifts and Collectibles sued Google for click fraud, claiming the company had not done enough to prevent invalid clicks on ads. Google settled the case for $90 million.
• In 2018, a small business Investor Village filed a lawsuit against Facebook claiming that the social media company was inflating metrics to boost ad revenue. 62% of small business owners in the U.S. believed that Facebook ads they bought were missing their targets, according to Pennsylvania television station YourErie.
• In 2020, Motogolf sued Top Shelf for repeatedly clicking their ads and running up their PPC expenses. Although some charges were dropped, the judge still ruled that Top Shelf interfered with the plaintiff’s business relations through wrongful means.

Automated Campaign Types & Click Fraud 

While all performance marketing campaigns are at risk from click fraud, automated campaign types like Google’s Performance Max and Meta’s Advantage+ have seen particular problems over the last few months.

Click fraud is just one of many known issues with PPC automation. Limited control over targeting and less visibility in analytics has made it harder for advertisers to detect and mitigate click fraud, leading to more fake lead submissions and wasted ad spend.

Some advertisers are even avoiding Performance Max altogether until automated campaigns get better at weeding out spam leads:

Advertisers using Meta’s Advantage+ have run into similar problems. In fact, Leo reports the results of a lead generation experiment run on Advantage+:

Even a low cost-per-lead is expensive if every lead is fake. In addition, cheap low-quality leads can create a negative feedback loop within your campaigns, causing the algorithm to seek out more junk conversions to reduce acquisition costs, without generating any revenue.

How to Detect & Stop Click Fraud

Detecting and stopping click fraud can be hard, especially if you’re relying on manual methods. But there are certain steps you can take to stop click fraud affecting your PPC campaigns.

1. Get to Know Your Site Traffic & Costs

When you know what normal traffic patterns look like on your site, it’s easier to spot and eliminate anomalies. Patterns to look for include:

• Which referral sites visitors usually come from.
• When you can expect normal traffic peaks and troughs.
• How long most people spend on your site.

Keep a close eye on your costs. If you notice a sudden increase in ad costs, without a corresponding increase in conversions, it could be an indication that you’re experiencing click fraud.

2. Avoid Ad Networks You Don’t Trust

Lesser-known ad networks are more likely to resort to shady tactics to boost their own revenue. While Google Ads and mainstream social platforms are vulnerable to click fraud, most do offer some protective anti-fraud policies. So it’s best to stick with known entities when it comes to ad networks.

3. Don’t Pay For Site Traffic

Services that claim to send more traffic to your site almost always use bots to make up the numbers they’ve promised. Even if these bots target your organic content and don’t directly affect your PPC campaigns, they will skew your figures and make reporting unreliable. So avoid paying for site traffic, as it won’t help you in the long run.

4. Exclude IP Addresses

Block specific IP addresses and ISP networks to stop suspected IVT clicking your ads. You can block up to 500 IP addresses per campaign in your Google Ads account, which may be useful if you notice a lot of suspicious activity coming from the same IP.

Blocking IP addresses can impact real users, so be careful when adopting this method of click fraud prevention. It’s also a manual method that uses a lot of time and resources.

Note: Use AbuseIPDB.com to help with the exclusion of fraudulent IP addresses in Google Ads. It crowdsources IP addresses that have been associated with malicious activity online and provides a central blacklist to cross reference against. 

5. Blacklist Suspicious Domains and URLs

In Google Analytics 4, use the “List Unwanted Referrals” feature to exclude suspicious domains from your GA4 data. Find this feature under Data Streams in the Property column of the Admin section. 

If necessary, you can block specific URLs that don’t send valuable traffic to your website to minimise the risk of click fraud from these sites. Alternatively, take the opposite approach and whitelist sites you trust, so your ads are only shown on legitimate sites.

Like IP blocking, domain blacklisting and whitelisting can take a lot of time to set up and maintain. But if you stay on top of it, this can help you eliminate a certain level of click fraud.

How Lunio Detects Click Fraud Ad Platforms Don’t Catch

The manual methods above will go some way to tackling click fraud. But you’ll need to invest significant resources into implementing and monitoring these — and there are much more efficient ways to eliminate click fraud.

Lunio automatically detects and blocks click fraud affecting your ad campaigns quickly and effectively. Our software assesses the validity of every traffic source hitting your website in real-time. Clicks that come from known blacklisted IPs or show several signs of automated behaviour are immediately marked as invalid, and blocked from interacting with your ads again. 

If a click is deemed suspicious (but not automatically invalid), Lunio investigates further. After a few additional clicks from the same source, Lunio assesses hundreds of data points until it has enough information to accurately categorise it as invalid or legitimate. This process virtually eliminates the risk of flagging real interactions as invalid, and leads to more efficient spending and higher profitability across all your campaigns.

Click Fraud FAQs

How common are fraudulent clicks in paid search advertising?

Fraudulent clicks are a major problem in paid search advertising. In fact, it’s estimated that as much as 25-50% of all clicks on paid ads are fraudulently generated. This means that businesses are losing billions of dollars every year to click fraud. 

How can I tell if I’m being targeted by click fraud?

There are a few signs that you may be being targeted by click fraud. For example, if you notice a sudden or unexplained spike in website traffic, it could be a sign that your ads are being clicked on by a botnet. If you’re receiving a high number of clicks from a single IP address, it’s worth investigating that further too. 

What is the difference between click fraud and click bombing?

Click fraud is when someone artificially inflates website traffic numbers by clicking on ads without any intention of engaging with the ad. Click bombing is when someone repeatedly clicks on an ad in order to cause it to be removed from an advertising platform. Both activities are illegal and can lead to fines and jail time.

How much does click fraud cost businesses?

Click fraud is a major problem for businesses that rely on paid advertising to generate traffic. It’s estimated that businesses lose $120 billion each year to click fraud. This money could be used to improve products and services or to hire more staff. Instead, it’s being wasted on fraudulent clicks. 

Where do click farms operate?

Most click farms are located in developing countries where labour is cheap, for example in China and India.

Do malicious actors click their own ads?

Yes, malicious actors will often click their own ads in order to generate revenue. This is known as “ad fraud” and it’s a major problem for businesses that rely on paid advertising. 

Do legitimate users do anything that could be considered invalid clicks?

There are a few legitimate reasons why a user might click on an ad without intending to engage with it. For example, if they accidentally click on an ad while trying to scroll past it, this doesn’t mean that they’re trying to commit fraud. 

Additionally, some users may click on an ad out of curiosity, even if they have no intention of purchasing the product or service. While this isn’t ideal from a business perspective, it’s not necessarily indicative of fraud. 

Is it possible to eliminate click fraud completely?

Unfortunately, it’s not possible to eliminate click fraud completely. However, there are steps that businesses can take to minimise the risk of being targeted by criminals. Apart from manually checking clicks for signs of fraud, businesses can also use professional click fraud prevention solutions. These solutions work by analysing click data and identifying patterns that are typical of click fraud. By using a click fraud prevention solution like Lunio, businesses can significantly reduce the amount of money they lose to click fraud.

If I accidentally click on a pay-per-click ad without malicious intent, am I committing fraud? 

No. If you click on an ad by accident, you’re not committing fraud. However, businesses have to pay for every click, whether or not it’s from a real person. So, even if you’re a legitimate visitor, accidental clicks can still waste their advertising budget.

What happens when click fraud skews user data?

Businesses may make bad decisions based on fraudulent data, such as investing in ads that aren’t getting clicked on by real people. Additionally, ad networks may charge higher rates for advertising space if they believe that there’s a high demand for it. However, if that demand is based on fraudulent clicks, businesses will end up paying more than they need to.

Do search engine algorithms factor in click fraud?

The algorithms used by search engines are constantly evolving, and it’s difficult to say definitively whether they take click fraud into account. However, it’s likely that they do consider it to some extent. After all, if a large number of clicks on a particular ad are coming from bots or click farms, it’s not a genuine indication of interest. As such, it’s possible that search engine algorithms could penalise ads that are being targeted by malicious invalid traffic.

Does click fraud affect your conversion rates?

Yes, click fraud can affect your conversion rates. This is because, if numerous clicks on your ad are coming from bots, it’s likely that few of those clicks will result in actual sales or leads. As such, your conversion rate will be lower than it would be if you were getting genuine clicks from legitimate visitors.

Can a high number of suspicious clicks affect your search rankings?

Repeated clicks from the same computer or from different computers with suspicious user profiles can certainly affect your search rankings.

Click fraud is a problem for search engines and websites alike and can greatly reduce the quality of the user experience. Some webmasters resort to shady tactics like hiring click fraudsters to generate fake traffic and boost their page rankings artificially – a technique known as black hat SEO, which usually only works short-term. 

How can you stop bot clicks on your own websites?

There are a few things you can do to stop bot clicks on ads displayed on your websites. For example, you can use CAPTCHAs to verify that users are human. Additionally, you can monitor user behaviour and block IP addresses that seem suspicious. Finally, you can use a business-grade click fraud prevention solution to filter out invalid clicks automatically, which is often the most effective and pragmatic option.

How can fraudulent clicks affect your advertising budget?

Fraudulent clicks can affect your advertising budget in a few ways. First, you’ll have to pay for the clicks even though they’re not coming from real people. Additionally, if your conversion rates are lower than expected because of fraudulent clicks, you’ll end up spending more money on ads than you would if those clicks were legitimate. Finally, if your click-through rate is artificially inflated by bots, you may end up paying more for advertising space than you would if the number of clicks was accurate.

Get A Free Click Fraud Audit With Lunio

Want to know how much invalid traffic is affecting your ads? Get a free two-week traffic audit with Lunio. We’ll monitor your site for 14 days and determine if your site is at risk of click fraud. There’s no obligation to buy after your free trial, but if you decide to go ahead, you’ll get protection across all your ad platforms with our click fraud prevention tool.

It’s the year when Google rolled out Demand Gen Campaigns. The year when Apple introduced link tracking protection on iOS17 to enhance user privacy. And the year when reduced and flat marketing budgets put a strain on paid media teams across the globe.

Persistent demands to “do more with less” throughout 2023 required creativity and fresh strategies to try and reach revenue goals. Pumping more and more money into ad platforms until targets are hit simply isn’t an option. So in 2024, paid media efficiency matters more than ever.

With that in mind what processes, practices, and technologies can you put in place to deliver maximum value with your ad budget this year? 

To help you refine your strategy for Q1 and beyond, we reached out to 24 PPC specialists and asked them a series of questions about their wins, challenges, and lessons learned from 2022: 

• What paid media strategy worked so well for you in 2023 that you’re planning to double down on it in 2024?
• What was your biggest paid media challenge in 2023?
• What emerging paid media trends will you be paying attention to in 2024?
• The responses to each question are categorised under the 4 subheadings below.

Use the contents table on the left hand side to skip to the sections you’re most interested in and start making notes that will help you maximise your return on ad spend in 2024. 

What paid media strategy worked so well for you in 2023 that you’re planning to double down on it in 2024?

Specific tactics may change with every new update from Google and the social platforms, but general overarching strategies tend to have a longer shelf-life. Here are the approaches that worked well for our experts last year.

What was your biggest paid media challenge in 2023?

Extracting important insights from poorer performing months and failed experiments can stop you falling prey to the same PPC pitfalls in the future. Here are the things our experts worked to overcome last year:

What emerging paid media trends will you be paying attention to in 2024?

Meta Advantage+ campaigns are rapidly increasing in popularity. Google Consent Mode V2 is about to become mandatory for any brand advertising to audiences in Europe. And Google are (finally) set to deprecate third-party cookies in H2 2024 which will cause conversion tracking chaos for some. With such significant changes on the horizon, what things were on the forefront of our experts minds as they look to the future?

2024 PPC: Making Your Budget Go Further

In a recent webinar, we spoke to Abraham Moreno-Riano, Paid Media Manager at DeVry University, about maximising performance marketing efficiency. You can watch the recording of the session below.

Over the course of 2023, Abraham and his team achieved a 13% increase in conversion rate, 11% decrease in CPA, and a 7% decrease in cost per lead. In the session, he outlines the tools and approaches that helped deliver these results. Expect to learn:

• Tips for landing page and conversion rate optimisation
• A/B testing best practices
• How to enhance your exclusion targeting criteria
• How to cut LinkedIn CPCs in half
• How to allocate your budget for maximum ROAS
• And more

If you’d prefer to read a written version of the webinar, check out the blog below, complete with a TL;DR section of key takeaways if you’re short on time.

PPC Budgeting Guide 2024: Stop Wasted Ad Spend [Webinar]

According to Gartner’s CMO Spend and Strategy 2023 Survey, 86% of surveyed senior marketers agree their organisation must undergo significant changes in how they work to achieve their goals next year. Gone are the days of pumping more budget into ad platforms until revenue targets are hit. 

Brands that find creative ways to tighten their belts will surf through this ongoing wave of disruption, while those that don’t will struggle to stay afloat. So what processes, practices, and technologies can you put in place to deliver maximum value with your 2024 PPC budget? 

We set out to answer this question and more in our recent webinar. Speakers included Abraham Moreno-Riano, Paid Media Manager at DeVry University, and Jasmine Collins, Customer Success Manager at Lunio who works closely with DeVry. The conversation was hosted by Lunio’s Content Manager, James Deeney.

As well as answering questions on PPC budgeting for 2024, Abraham also shared insights on how DeVry achieved the following results in 2023 by blocking fake clicks and invalid traffic: 

• 13% increase in on-page conversion rate 
• 11% decrease in CPA 
• 7% decrease in cost per lead 
• 75k+ invalid IPs excluded from campaigns 

You can check out the full context on how this was achieved via the link below: 

Lunio Helps DeVry University Elevate Conversion Rates

PPC Budgeting Guide 2024 Webinar

Webinar Timestamps 

• 00:00 – Intro 
• 04:45 – Google Consent Mode V2 
• 06:29 – Agenda 
• 07:40 – PPC Budgeting: Doubling Down on What Works 
• 15:00 – Setting Aside Budget for Testing 
• 18:30 – Landing Page & Conversion Rate Optimisation  
• 22:48 – A/B Testing Best Practices 
• 25:35 – Enhancing Your Exclusion Targeting Criteria 
• 28:50 – Eliminating Wasted Ad Spend on Fake Traffic
• 40:20 – How to Reduce CPCs on LinkedIn 
• 45:00 – 2 Key Google Ads Trends for 2024  
• 48:00 – Q&A with Abraham 

TL;DR – Key Takeaways

Don’t have time to watch the webinar? Check out the full recap of all the key takeaways and actionable tips below, segmented by topic. 

PPC Budgeting: Doubling Down on What Works 

• The starting point for making your 2024 PPC budget work harder is diving into your historical performance data. The more accurate and cleaner that data is, the more effective you’ll be. But even if your past performance data isn’t perfect and has some holes in it, you can still get a lot of valuable insight from it by interrogating it closely. 

• You essentially want to work out where your PPC budget has previously delivered and where it hasn’t. Going ahead without a clear grasp on this is like swimming in the dark.

• Specifically you want to dive into channel and campaign level data on metrics such as profitability, revenue, average order value, cost per lead / cost per sale.

• Once you’ve got a handle on these metrics, then ask – what does PPC need to succeed in 2024? Is it a specific number of new customers? Is it a profit margin? Is it a revenue number? Is it a certain cost per cost per sale or cost per lead target?  You should know what your north star is in terms of the metric goals you’re working towards.

• Don’t cut spend on harder-to-attribute activity because it might look like it’s underperforming at first glance. Take a more holistic view. For example, if you stop investing in brand activity on social and SEO you can obviously save money in the short term. But you’ll likely see a dip in PPC performance three to six months down the line. 

• Each channel has its own performance forecasting tool to help you gauge a rough estimate of what you might get in return for a specific budget (e.g. Google Performance Planner). Use these tools to estimate what’s possible with your 2024 budget. 

• Be mindful of the law of diminishing returns in PPC. After a certain point of investment, your campaign performance will plateau and eventually drop i.e. the extra sales you generate will be worth less than the ad spend you invested to achieve them. This is called reaching the “demand ceiling” for a particular product or service. 

• The early warning sign that you are approaching the “demand ceiling” or point of diminishing returns in PPC is rising CPCs. This indicates the market is highly competitive and there is a limited number of clicks that you can meaningfully compete for. 

• In response to reaching the “demand ceiling” for a particular product or service you should explore new channels and campaign types to invest in. The PPC landscape is evolving all the time and you need to find where your growth areas are.

• As well as doubling down on what works, it’s also important to set aside a certain portion of your PPC 2024 budget for testing new channels and campaign types where it’s harder to predict outcomes – and this needs to be factored in from the outset. 

Landing Page & Conversion Rate Optimisation 

• Avoid the trap of spending all your attention and budget on Google Ads while neglecting your landing pages and conversion rate optimisation (CRO). Not spending enough on CRO causes you to waste a significant portion or your PPC budget through inefficiency i.e. you end up paying for lots more clicks that don’t convert. 

• For optimal results in terms of conversion rates and CPA, you should aim to devote 25 – 30% of your PPC budget to landing page optimisation and CRO. 

• Think very carefully about the contextual relevance of your landing pages. Is this what the user expects to see when they search for a particular term? If your landing page isn’t a perfect fit for the initial search intent, your conversions will suffer. Your copy needs to speak to a very narrowly defined group of people, showing how your product / service solves a very particular problem they experience. 

• Avoid vague, generic statements. And don’t try to speak to multiple different audiences via one landing page. The more granular you can be, the better. 

• Place special emphasis on A/B testing copy and visuals that appear “above the fold” on your landing pages. This is crucial for reducing bounce rates. 

• Helpful tools to optimise landing pages include Crazy Egg and VWO. These allow you to see what’s resonating with users by analysing their on-page behaviour.  

Enhancing Your Exclusion Targeting Criteria 

• The more thought and effort you put into your audience exclusion criteria on each channel, the less ad spend you’ll waste.

• To save thousands in ad spend, exclude poor performing cities from your Google Ads campaigns. To do this: open up your locations in Google Ads Filter by city > Sort by spend > Check any cities that have 0 conversions with high spend or high cpa > Exclude and monitor. 

• You should also exclude audiences that are unlikely to convert. This includes current employees, job seekers, current customers, fake users profiles, and more. We’ve created a comprehensive guide on how to exclude 11 different types of non-converting audiences to Google Ads and Meta campaigns. 

• Use Lunio’s 100K exclusion list for Google Display campaigns to eliminate thousands of low-quality websites, irrelevant YouTube channels, and junk mobile app placements that simply aren’t worth spending money on. 

• Use AbuseIPDB.com to help with the exclusion of fraudulent IP addresses in Google Ads. It crowdsources IP addresses that have been associated with malicious activity online and provides a central blacklist to cross reference against. 

Eliminating Wasted Ad Spend on Fake Traffic

• Invalid traffic is defined as website visits that don’t come from a real person with genuine interest. It can include bots (both good and bad), fake users, misattributed accidental clicks, malicious clicks from competing advertisers, and otherwise invalid visitors that have zero chance of converting to customers.

• The main signs of invalid traffic marketers should be mindful of when looking at campaign analytics include high bounce rates, spikes in traffic with significantly lower than average conversion rates, fake lead submissions, and unexpectedly high CPAs. 

• If you commonly experience 90%+ bounce rates with an average session duration of <5 seconds, it warrants further investigation to determine how much invalid traffic is hitting your landing page.

• The advent of tools like ChatGPT has made it much easier for individual bad actors to create bots with very limited coding / technical ability. This is a contributing factor leading to increased prevalence of invalid activity online. 

• Fake and invalid clicks are generally cheaper than legitimate ones. This can create a negative feedback loop whereby automated campaign types (e.g. Performance Max) continue to seek out more and more junk conversions which never translate into revenue, simply because the acquisition costs are lower. 

• At DeVry invalid traffic rates came down sharply across paid search within the first four months of using Lunio, decreasing from 8.42% to 1.05% (shown below). Over time the downstream benefits of this were reflected in DeVry’s key performance metrics, including a 13% increase in conversion rate and a 7% decrease in cost per lead. 

• Over the course of 2023, the amount of money DeVry spent on clicks from invalid sources each month decreased by 536%. 

• Download a free copy of Lunio’s 2024 Wasted Ad Spend Report (no form fill required) for more information about average IVT rates across all major marketing channels including Google Ads, Meta, LinkedIn, TikTok, and more. The report also constraints average IVT rates broken down by industry and region. 

How to Reduce CPCs on LinkedIn 

• For LinkedIn website-visit based campaigns with a click-through-rate (CTR) of greater than 1% you can reduce your CPCs by up to 50% by switching to impression-based bidding. 

• The higher your CTR is above 1% on your website-visit based campaign, the better this tactic performs. If your CTR is 1.1% – 1.2% then you’ll need to carefully monitor performance to ensure your click volume doesn’t drop. 

• We’ve recently experimented with this at Lunio as well and found it to be effective in reducing advertising costs on LinkedIn. On the campaigns we tested it on this cut our average CPC from $4 to $2 which was a great result. 

• LinkedIn also has a very high average invalid traffic rate of 24.64% (it was the worst performing channel in our 2024 Wasted Ad Spend Report). So running campaigns without IVT protection in place will result in significant amounts of wasted ad spend. 

• The average cost-per-click on LinkedIn can range between $10- $50. This is much higher than the average Meta benchmark, which sits at around $5 for B2B brands. As a result, financial losses due to fake ad engagement add up far quicker on LinkedIn compared to other channels.

• In addition to fake sales profiles, scrapers and engagement bots also contribute to the high levels of invalid activity on LinkedIn. Scrapers take all available information from profiles including name, job, company, education, contact data and more. Engagement bots are typically used to perform actions like connecting with users, liking posts, leaving comments, and other spammy activities in an effort to promote products and services.

2 Key Google Ads Trends for 2024  

• Google has been encouraging advertisers to use broad match more now than they ever have. The reason behind this is their confidence in smart bidding and AI’s ability to learn and optimise for results over time. However, uncautious use of broad match can result in significant amounts of wasted as spend. 

• One area where broad match can be useful is in query mining i.e. discovering new relevant keywords that are valuable to your business. 

• For example, a broad match for “conveyancing manchester” could make your ad eligible to show for “conveyancing stockport” and “conveyancing oldham”, both of which might generate valuable leads. You can then add them to your campaign as exact match keywords to reduce overall campaign costs. 

• However, broad match could also display your ad for “conveyancing training courses in manchester” or “what is conveyancing”, neither of which are likely to add much value. Keep a close eye on your spend to keep the costs of your chosen broad match keywords under control. 

• Google has begun rolling out Tracking Protection, a new feature that limits the use of cross-site tracking by deprecating third-party cookies by default. Part of Google’s broader Privacy Sandbox initiative, this change already affects 1% of Chrome users globally — about 30 million people. 

• Google’s progress toward cookie deprecation redoubles the requirement for privacy-minded marketing strategies that ensure that customer data is ethically sourced and used. Maintaining the status quo is not an option. If you haven’t already, now is the time to start testing new approaches and get your first-party data strategy in order.

• Whoever has the best first-party data will win out in the post-cookie PPC landscape. 

Useful Links & Further Reading 

Download Lunio’s Wasted Ad Spend Report 2024 

Lunio’s 100k Display placement exclusion list

AbuseIPDB – IP address abuse reports 

Excluding Poor Performing Geographic Regions (Google Ads) 

How to Prepare For Google Consent Mode V2

How to Use Google Performance Planner 

How to Reduce LinkedIn CPCs with Impression-Based Bidding 

Invalid Traffic Explained: 2024 Marketers’ Guide [Webinar]

Google’s Invalid Traffic knowledge base 

Google Commits To Third-Party Cookies Deprecation In 2024

Download Lunio’s Performance Marketing Efficiency Playbook 

The DMA makes advertising platforms like Google and Meta responsible for collecting user consent. To comply with this new regulation, Google is making Google Consent Mode V2 mandatory for advertisers targeting users in the European Economic Area (EEA), so they know whether a user has consented to online cookie tracking.

If you’re not prepared, you’re likely to see a pretty seismic impact on your advertising when Consent Mode V2 comes into play. Google Consent Mode V2 can cause your conversion tracking to break, affecting your ad optimisation, conversions, and revenue. So you need to know how Google Consent Mode V2 works, and how to minimise its effect on your marketing.

Let’s dive into what you need to do today to futureproof your campaign performance in 2024.

What if a Website Doesn’t Have Consent Mode V2 Implemented?

If you don’t send consent information via Google Consent Mode V2 from 6th March 2024, Google will block you from capturing new EEA user data in your Google audiences. You won’t be able to store new user data in your Google Analytics 4 audience lists, or share it with Google Ads. This could have a massive impact on your ability to convert new customers.

Google’s algorithms rely on clean, accurate data to effectively target potential customers. So if your site doesn’t have Google Consent Mode V2 activated and you’re unable to collect user data:

• You won’t be able to remarket to new site visitors.
• Your Google Ads performance will take a hit due to low quality data.
• Google’s algorithm won’t be able to predict or track your conversions effectively.
• Your ad spend will become less efficient, meaning higher spend with worse results.

The Transition to a Privacy-First Web

User privacy is a key concern for governments and individuals alike right now. People are increasingly aware of the risks of sharing sensitive information online, causing governments to implement new laws and regulations that force tech companies like Google to update their services. Consent Mode v2 is Google’s response to the Digital Markets Act, which is designed to help protect user data.

This isn’t the only change you can expect as we transition to a privacy-first web. Google has already announced that third party cookies will be fully phased out by the end of 2024. 1% of Google Chrome users are already testing this cookieless approach in January 2024.

The removal of third party cookies will have additional implications for marketers, so it’s important to start preparing for a cookieless future. Our guide to retargeting without third party cookies is a great place to start, especially if you rely on remarketing in your PPC campaigns.

What Are Marketers Saying About Consent Mode V2?

Google Ads expert Miles McNair has been vocal on social media about the impact of Google Consent Mode V2. And plenty of other marketers have weighed in with their opinions, too. Let’s take a look at what marketers are saying about Consent Mode V2 and the impact on their operations.

Some marketers are ahead of the curve and excited to see how their robust privacy-focused preparations will hold up as Consent Mode V2 comes into play:

Many have also recognised the importance of collecting clean first party data and implementing strong conversion tracking measures (such as server-side tagging and enhanced conversions) for using Consent Mode V2 effectively:

Note: Check out our conversion tracking best practices for guidance on upgrading your conversion tracking system.

For other marketers, there are still a lot of questions about how exactly we can prepare for these changes (and whether it’s really necessary):

It’s generally accepted that privacy protection laws are only going to become more widespread. So putting off adoption of Consent Mode V2 because you’re based in the US is very short-term thinking. As Miles points out in his comment above, the deprecation of 3rd party cookies will be universal in H2 2024, so it’s only a matter of time before Consent Mode V2 is required for other countries as well.

The Digital Markets Act (DMA) 

The Digital Markets Act is the whole reason behind the introduction of Consent Mode V2. So let’s get familiar with what the DMA actually is. According to the European Commission:

“Some large online platforms act as “gatekeepers” in digital markets. The Digital Markets Act aims to ensure that these platforms behave in a fair way online.”

Gatekeepers here refer to companies like Google, Apple, and Meta. These companies are now expected to collect and safeguard personal data more carefully, and actively seek out user consent for data collection, storage, and use. Importantly, they also need user content to share data between their core services (for example, between Google Analytics and Google Ads).

New Parameters in Consent Mode V2

To comply with the Digital Markets Act, Google has added two new parameters to Consent Mode V2 in addition to its existing parameters (analytics_storage and ad_storage):

• Ad_user_data — This parameter controls whether user data can be sent to Google for advertising purposes.
• Ad_personalization — This parameter controls whether advertisers have permission to use user data for personalised marketing campaigns (such as remarketing).

These parameters are designed to enhance user privacy and control whether data can be shared between Google services (such as Google Ads, Google Shopping, and Google Play).

Implementation Options for Consent Mode V2

Now you know why Consent Mode V2 is important, let’s turn to how you can implement this on your site.

There are two modes to choose from: Basic Consent Mode V2 and Advanced Consent Mode V2. In general, it’s recommended that you use the Advanced implementation, as this will help you recover and retain more data.

Let’s take a look at the differences between Basic and Advanced Consent Mode setup.

Basic Consent Mode V2 implementation

With the Basic setup, if a user consents to cookies, your website will collect user data as normal. But if the user rejects cookie consent, your site won’t collect any data from them. This ensures complete compliance with the DMA, but means you won’t benefit from this user’s site visit in any way (unless they hand over their data via a form).

To implement Basic Consent Mode V2, you’ll need a consent management platform (CMP)  to set up a cookie banner and manage user consent. Ideally, use a Google-certified CMP to ensure it works with Consent Mode V2. Then update your website so Google Analytics 4 tags (and other data collection/tracking tags) aren’t fired if a user rejects cookies.

Here’s a visual map of what happens when a user visits a site with Basic Consent Mode V2:

Advanced Consent Mode V2 Implementation

Advanced Consent Mode V2 gives you a little more control over what happens when a user doesn’t consent to cookies.

With Advanced mode, even if a user doesn’t consent to data collection, your site will fire tracking tags before the user interacts with your cookie banner. When the user accepts or rejects cookie tracking, any tags will be updated based on the parameters above, in line with the user’s consent choices. This means Google can collect anonymous, cookieless information from your site while staying compliant.

Google can then use this information to model scenarios, allowing you to recover a limited amount of data while remaining compliant with user privacy regulations. 

There are three ways to set up Consent Mode V2, the easiest of which is to configure Consent Mode in a consent management platform. Find a list of Google-certified CMPs here.

You can also set up Consent Mode V2 via Google Tag Manager (GTM), or your own customised setup. These approaches require more advanced technical knowledge, so if you’re looking for fast implementation, it’s best to stick with a CMP. 

Watch this video from Google to learn how to set up Google Consent Mode V2 in GA4:

How do the Different Implementation Options Influence the New Parameters?

Regardless of which implementation option you choose, you’ll still need active consent from your users before you can collect their data. Using Advanced Consent Mode doesn’t make it more likely that users will agree to this.

But it’s still worth using the advanced version of Google Consent Mode. This provides valuable modelling data that you won’t be able to access with the basic version alone.

This diagram shows the difference in tracking for each parameter in Basic and Advanced Consent Mode V2:

Consent Mode Conversion Modelling

When the Digital Markets Act comes into play, it’s likely that you’ll lose data from anyone who doesn’t consent to cookie usage — including conversion data. Without this valuable info, your campaign optimisation will suffer, and you won’t be able to find new high-converting audiences.

But it’s not all doom and gloom. Google Consent Mode V2 uses machine learning algorithms to accurately model data, filling in the gaps left by non-consenting users.

Google Ads conversion modelling is available with both Basic and Advanced implementation, but Google Analytics 4 modelling only works with Advanced Consent Mode. So if you rely on this data, it’s important to use the Advanced option and understand how it works.

Advanced Consent Mode Modelling

Google has a massive dataset (not to mention powerful AI) at its fingertips. By combining these resources, Google’s algorithms can use data from consenting users to model conversion and behaviour patterns for non-consenting users.

Google will also use other signals to improve modelling accuracy, including device type, conversion type, location, and time. The table below compares the conversion data you can see without Consent Mode, with Basic Consent Mode, and Advanced Consent Mode:

For example, here’s how your campaign results might look if you’re using Advanced Consent Mode:

With this data, you can:

• Determine the number of users who declined to give consent.
• See a modelled prediction for how many non-consenting users have converted.
• Inform campaign budgets and predict campaign success.

With Basic Consent Mode, more data is estimated, making your overall conclusions less reliable:

Google recommends using Advanced Consent Mode to get the most accurate data and protect your campaign success. While this requires a little more setup, it’s well worth it to get the most from your Google Ads campaigns.

What Marketers Need to Do

So what’s the upshot? Here’s what you need to do before Google Consent Mode V2 comes into play in March 2024:

1. Check whether you have EEA traffic to your website.
2. If you do have EEA traffic, implement a consent management platform to collect user consent for users in Europe. (If you’re already using a CMP, double check it’s configured to capture user consent.)
3. Set up your chosen version of Consent Mode V2 to share collected consent signals with Google. (We strongly advise using Advanced Consent Mode for the most accurate data.)
4. Add consent signals for any offline data you’re sending to Google via an API.

Taking these steps will make sure you’re compliant with data regulations while also minimising the fallout for your marketing campaigns. It’s the best way to reduce data loss from non-consenting users and build new European audiences within Google Ads.

Debugging Consent Mode V2 Issues in GA4 

Having problems with Consent Mode V2? Google recently updated the Consent tab within Google Tag Assistant to make debugging Google Consent Mode slightly easier:

This updated feature now shows you the default page setting, on-page update, and current consent state for each parameter (including new colour coding to make it even clearer). The Current State column allows for users to change their consent status after the first event.

Google Consent Mode V2 FAQs

Learn more about implementing Google Consent Mode V2 in these frequently asked questions.

I’m Already Using Google Consent Mode V1. Do I Need to Update to Consent Mode V2?

In a word, yes. Unlike Consent Mode V1, Consent Mode V2 is purpose-built to comply with the Digital Markets Act. So to remain compliant with privacy regulations, you’ll need to upgrade to V2. In addition, Consent Mode V2 helps advertisers recover lost or limited data. So it’s best to use this version for your own campaign performance and conversion tracking, too.

Does Consent Mode V2 Replace the Need for a Cookie Banner?

No — you’ll need a cookie banner to use Consent Mode V2. Any consent management platform can help you add a cookie banner to your site if you don’t already have one. A CMP is essential, as this automatically tells Google whether a user has consented to the collection and/or use of their personal data.

Do I Need to Use Google Consent Mode V2 if I Use Server-Side Tagging?

Yes. Regardless of whether you use server- or browser-side tagging, you should use Google Consent Mode V2. Using server-side tagging doesn’t exempt you from needing user consent under GDPR or the Digital Markets Act.

Enhance Conversion Tracking With Lunio

As tracking conversions becomes trickier, it’s important that you use all the help you can get to improve data accuracy and campaign performance. Lunio helps you further enhance your conversion tracking and retargeting efforts by automatically excluding invalid clicks and fake users from your PPC campaigns.

Removing invalid traffic cleans up your performance data and stops fake users distorting your analytics data. So you have accurate data you can rely on to make good decisions about your ad budget and performance.

Get a free invalid traffic audit when you request a Lunio demo. We’ll track your traffic for two weeks to reveal the impact and cost on your performance marketing.

Key Stats 

• 13% improvement in on-page conversion rate 
• 7% decrease in cost per lead 

Founded in 1931, DeVry University’s legacy is rooted in innovation. Offering 125+ programs and specializations to choose from, the university remains deeply committed to student success and preparing them to thrive in careers shaped by continuous technological change. 

With a wide array of hands-on technology, business, and health programs, DeVry creates opportunities for learners to succeed in an evolving digitized economy. It offers a tech-centered program mix across different degree levels, specializations and certificates. Moreover, DeVry was named one of America’s Top Online Colleges by Newsweek in 2023. 

In 2022, DeVry’s marketing team noticed challenges with the quality of traffic and quickly needed to search for a partner to provide deeper insights into the issue. They were looking to understand how impactful the invalid traffic (IVT) was and stop it from affecting the university’s marketing efforts. 

Why DeVry University Selected Lunio 

DeVry evaluated several other invalid traffic solutions before selecting Lunio. The university wanted to find a partner that could help build a data-driven business case to get buy-in from senior stakeholders.

The IVT partner search, spearheaded by DeVry’s paid media manager Abraham Moreno-Riano, aimed to ensure digital ad spending was utilized efficiently. DeVry ultimately chose Lunio based on competitive pricing, flexible contract terms and previous success with higher education institutions. 

During Lunio’s pilot program, all paid traffic coming from Google Ads and Microsoft Ads was analyzed to establish a baseline rate of invalid activity. DeVry then got a data-backed estimate of the savings they could expect based on current ad spend. 

Rolling Out Multi-Channel Protection 

With Lunio protecting paid search traffic across Google and Bing, it revealed insights that surprised the paid media team. Notably, the average IVT rate on branded campaigns was significantly higher than non-brand, leading to suboptimal performance on commercially important keywords. 

Invalid traffic rates came down sharply across paid search within the first four months, decreasing by 7.4%. This significant uplift in traffic quality led DeVry to expand Lunio to other key acquisition channels in Feb. 2023, including Meta, YouTube and LinkedIn.

The benefits of multi-channel protection were brought into focus last Sept. when a sudden spike in IVT was visibly noted on YouTube. Between 40% – 50% of traffic was invalid, something that would have been undetectable without Lunio. 

In response, DeVry’s paid media team was able to quickly exclude offending IPs, while changing the bid strategy from Maximize Clicks to Maximize Conversions. As Lunio data suggested, the spike was fueled by a Google algorithm that optimized for bots that were consistently clicking through DeVry’s landing pages. These two optimizations reduced IVT back to 3% within a couple of weeks. 

The Results 

Comparing data year-to-year, from Oct. 2022 to Oct. 2023, the downstream benefits of blocking invalid traffic were reflected in improvements across DeVry’s key performance metrics. With Lunio, the university continued to optimize its digital marketing campaigns:

• More than 75,000 IPs automatically excluded 
• 13% increase in on-page conversion rate 
• 7% decrease in cost per lead 
• 11% decrease in cost per enrollment 

The increase in overall enrollment efficiency also contributed to DeVry’s Mission to close the opportunity gap in tech. Its Women + Tech and NextGen Hispanic Scholars programs provide access to educational, community, mentorship and career development opportunities that prepare diverse learners to thrive in tech careers. 

“DeVry, in collaboration with Lunio, helped give more students the ability to learn about education programs and pathways available to them. We are extremely excited about the partnership we’ve built.” added Moreno-Riano.

After a successful first year, the paid media team at DeVry is now looking into the future. They are already working with Lunio’s Customer Success and Product teams to trial new features and integrations, which are currently in beta. 

According to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, YouTube Shorts now generate more than 70 billion views every day — 20 billion more than in January 2023. YouTube has been incentivising creators to make more short videos by promising them wider reach, more exposure, and greater visibility on the platform.

So far, the financial returns haven’t been as good as for long-form videos. But with YouTube now saying they’ll pay creators 45% of the net revenue from Shorts videos, this format offers a genuine short video-based revenue stream for the first time. This feature is in beta for the time being, but will soon be available to everyone.

Here, you’ll learn everything you need to know about YouTube Shorts Ads, including ad specs, setup, costs, and how to get the most conversions from this new format.

What Are YouTube Shorts Ads?

YouTube Shorts Ads are vertical video ads that appear in the YouTube Shorts Feed. They follow the same format as other YouTube Shorts; each ad lasts up to 60 seconds and can be skipped/scrolled past. Here’s how Google defines YouTube Shorts Ads:

“Ads on Shorts are skippable video or image ads that show up between Shorts in the Shorts Feed. The Shorts Monetisation Module allows your channel to get shared revenue from these ads.”

Shorts Ads have been around since 2022, but YouTube is working to give marketers more options when it comes to video advertising. A Google spokesperson said:

“YouTube is a dynamic platform, so advertisers are encouraged to take advantage of the solutions that allow them to achieve their goals fluidly across formats. The new YouTube Select lineups are Shorts-specific. And with the evolution of Video reach campaigns, advertisers can opt in to just Shorts or other surfaces, should they choose.”

When the beta is fully rolled out, all advertisers will be able to run Shorts Ads as standalone ad campaigns (i.e. without running in-stream or in-feed ads at the same time).

YouTube Shorts Ads Specs

YouTube Shorts Ads can be square or vertical, but each ad must follow a specific format. The table below shows all the specs you need for your Shorts Ads:

Uploading a video asset that meets these specs will automatically categorise it as a Short.

How Much Do YouTube Shorts Ads Cost?

YouTube Shorts Ads cost a similar amount to other YouTube Ads. This is approximately $0.05 to $0.30, depending on your industry, keyword competition, and other factors.

YouTube Shorts Ads are charged per view. This is known as a cost-per-view pricing model, and it means the advertiser pays whenever a viewer engages with their ad. Engagements are counted if the viewer:

• Watches at least 30 seconds of the ad
• Watches the full ad (if it’s less than 30 seconds long); or
• Clicks a link in your video ad.

The Benefits of YouTube Shorts Ads 

Shorts Ads are a good way to expand your video advertising reach. Here are five reasons to use YouTube Shorts Ads as part of your PPC efforts:

• Increase brand awareness — With more than 70 billion views every day, advertising via YouTube Shorts is a great way to get your name out there among your target users.

• Control your ad placement — Because you can now deselect in-feed and in-stream placements, you have more control over where your Shorts Ads show up.

• Control your ad spend — Improved targeting and control over ad placements may help you manage your video advertising budget better.

• Expand your target market — YouTube Shorts can be targeted at a similar audience to TikTok. But as YouTube is a well-established video platform, it’s also popular with older audiences. So you may reach new markets with YouTube Shorts Ads.

• Less invalid traffic — According to our Wasted Ad Spend Report 2024, YouTube has less invalid traffic than all other major ad platforms. So your ads are less likely to be affected by bots and other fake users.

How to Set Up YouTube Shorts Ads 

Follow this step-by-step guide to set up a Shorts-only ad in your Google Ads account:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account and create a new campaign (without a goal’s guidance).

2. Select Video for your campaign type.

3. Select Efficient Reach as your campaign subtype.

4. Under Multi-format Ads, tick “Reach more unique users with multi-format video ads.” Then deselect In-Stream Ads and In-Feed Ads so only Shorts Ads are allowed.

5. Adjust the rest of your campaign settings and upload your video asset(s), then click Create Campaign.

Targeting & Functionality for Shorts Ads 

Audience targeting for Shorts Ads is similar to other Google Ads formats. You can target via user demographics (age, location, gender, income, and parental status) or custom audience segments.

You can also target Shorts Ads based on content category, using keywords, topics, and placements to refine your targeting options. Targeting based on similar channels isn’t available yet, but may arrive in future.

In terms of other functionality, you’ll be able to see the reach, frequency, and view-through rates of your ads. While you won’t be charged unless a viewer watches at least 30 seconds of your ad, you’ll receive an impression if they watch just 10 seconds.

You can also protect your brand safety by using third-party providers like Integral Ad Science. Learn more about brand-safe targeting for video ads.

What Are Marketers Saying?

Drawing on information from PPC Specialist Kristian Maltzahn, Senior Paid Search Consultant Yoann Ferrand highlighted the launch of YouTube Shorts Ads in his weekly LinkedIn newsletter, PPC News:

Kristian has explained why the Shorts format is important in modern advertising:

“The Shorts format opens up for a whole new way of approaching YouTube Ads. YouTube ads have for a long time been a platform for TV-quality advertising, which is of course really interesting and still very relevant. However I think the demand from consumers is changing, which we have seen with ads on platforms like TikTok and Instagram Reels.”

Many other marketers are also looking forward to the opportunities YouTube Shorts Ads will bring for advertising and content monetisation:

(TikTok splits revenue 50/50 with approved creators — those who have more than 100,000 followers — while there’s currently no subscriber limit with YouTube Shorts.)

Most marketers seem to be excited about the potential for YouTube Shorts Ads (especially as it gives you more options, unlike many of Google’s recent releases which have actually taken back control from marketers). But there are some who have reservations around user experience and recommendations like the three commenters below:

Best Practices for YouTube Shorts Ads

Ultimately, using short-form ads doesn’t guarantee you success in your video ad campaigns. You need to know how to get the most from them to give your video advertising a genuine boost and see a better return on ad spend. Use these best practices to run effective (and lucrative) YouTube Shorts Ads.

1. Find the Right Hook

Good short videos catch the viewer’s attention within just a few seconds. So you need a hook that will keep them watching. HubSpot’s Jamal Meneide explains what makes an effective hook:

2. Include a Clear Call-To-Action

Make sure viewers know how to act on your ad. This Shorts Ad from Cadbury has a simple, clear, compelling CTA in this Christmas campaign:

3. Don’t Waste Time

Short-form video viewers want instant gratification. So avoid slow intros and use sharp, snappy images and audio that compels viewers to stop scrolling. This includes selecting a strong cover image for your ad. As Jamal suggests:

4. Choose The Right Soundtrack

Lots of songs and audio snippets go viral thanks to TikTok. Jumping onto these trends before they disappear can help you connect with viewers, so consider using trending songs to soundtrack your Shorts Ad.

5. Keep It Short

Although your ad can technically last up to 60 seconds, video marketing statistics show that shorter ads tend to work best for short-form videos. TikTok researchers found that 50% of a TikTok ad’s impact happens within the first two seconds. The first six seconds account for 90% of ad recall and 80% of awareness.

6. Compare With Other Video Ad Results

If you’re already running other types of video ads (either in YouTube or on other platforms like TikTok and Instagram) it’s important to check you’re using the most efficient ad channels.

After running your Shorts Ads for a few weeks, compare conversions and other advertising KPIs with your other video campaigns to see if it’s worth investing more in this ad format and platform.

If there’s room for improvement, check out our tips for boosting conversions with video ads.

Improve Your Video Ad ROI With Lunio

YouTube Shorts Ads give you more opportunities to reach your target audience, especially if you’ve already had success with TikTok advertising and other short-form video ads. With shorts-only placements, you can reel in your ad spend and ensure your Shorts Ads are only seen by YouTube Shorts viewers.

But like long-form video ads, YouTube Shorts Ads can be affected by invalid traffic (IVT). Bots and other fake users can click your ads, draining your ad spend without giving you any return. And while YouTube has lower rates of IVT than other platforms, there’s still a good chance you’re wasting money on fake users.

Lunio removes invalid traffic to ensure only genuine users click your video ads. This can boost conversions, reduce wasted ad spend, and decrease spam leads. For a free traffic audit and two-week trial, book a demo to see Lunio in action.

Google Ads Auction Insights show you how your campaigns, ad groups, and keywords are performing versus competing advertisers. If you’re not yet sure who your competitors are, the Auction Insights tool can also show you who’s bidding on the same keywords as you.

Here, you’ll learn how to effectively use the Google Ads Auction Insights to improve your ad rank, adjust your bids, and reach more leads.

What Are Auction Insights for Google Ads?

Auction Insights compare your Google Ads performance against other advertisers in the same auctions. If you’re both bidding for the same keywords, chances are they’ll appear in your Auction Insights report.

Here’s how Google defines its Auction Insights tool:

“The auction insights report lets you compare your performance with other advertisers who are participating in the same auctions that you are. This information can help you make strategic decisions about bidding and budgeting by showing you where you’re succeeding and where you may be missing opportunities for improved performance. The auction insights report is available for Search, Shopping and Performance Max campaigns.”

Although Google highlights how Auction Insights can help you make bid and budgeting decisions, you can also use this data to improve your performance without increasing your ad spend.

How to Find the Auction Insights Report in Google Ads

Here’s how to find the Auction Insights report in your Google Ads account.

1. On the new Google Ads interface, click the Insights and Reports tab in the panel on the left. Then click Auction Insights for an account-level view of this data.

2. To see Auction Insights for specific campaign types (Search, Shopping, or Performance Max) or individual campaigns, use the filters at the top of the page.

Alternatively, navigate to Campaigns, Ad Groups, or Search Keywords in the panel on the left, then use the checkboxes to select the information you want to include in your Auction Insights report.

3. Click Auction Insights in the blue bar to see a performance comparison report for your selected items. Note that keyword-level data isn’t available for Performance Max campaigns.

4. Set the dates you want your insights to show for using the date filter.

Note: If you can’t see any data in the Auction Insights report, you might not have met the minimum activity threshold. For example, if your Search impression share is less than 10% in the selected date range, you won’t see results. Expand your date range or allow your campaigns to run for longer before checking the Auction Insights report.

Metrics Available for the Auction Insights Report

Six metrics are available within the Auction Insights report, each of which can be toggled on/off under Columns:

• Impression share
• Overlap rate
• Outranking share
• Position above rate (Search campaigns only)
• Top-of-page rate (Search campaigns only)
• Absolute top-of-page rate (Search campaigns only)

Impression Share

Impression share is calculated by dividing the actual number of impressions you received by the estimated impressions you were eligible for. If you were eligible for 5,000 impressions and received 1,000, your impression share is 20%.

You’ll only see impression share for auctions both you and the competing site were eligible for. If their targeting is broader or narrower than yours, they’ll see a different figure. Joe Martinez at Paid Media Pros explains:

Impression share helps you see how competitors shape up against your specific targets. If other advertisers start to gain a greater impression share at your expense, you could consider:

• Optimising your ads and landing pages to improve your Quality Score. This helps boost your impression share without increasing your bids.
• Broadening your reach. Expanding your targeting can boost your impression share (though try not stray too far from your ideal audience).
• Update your device targeting and scheduling to show your ads to the right people at the right time.

Overlap Rate 

Overlap rate shows you how often a competing advertiser received an impression at the same time as you. (This metric will be blank for your account.)

Say your top competitor has an overlap rate of 30%. That means your ads are displayed in the same auction 30 out of 100 times.

Overlap rate shows which competitors are bidding in the same auctions as you. If the same advertiser overlaps your campaigns multiple times, check out their ads and make sure yours are more compelling:

• Analyse their messaging and market positioning. If necessary, tweak your ad copy to hit the right notes with your target audience (A/B testing will be useful here).
• Evaluate their target audience. If it’s the same as yours, test new ad copy to see if you can boost performance. If it’s different, check your targeting settings.
• Consider increasing your bids to give your ads a greater chance of outranking your competitors.

Outranking Share 

See how often your competitors outrank you in the same auctions with the outranking share metric. Again, you won’t see this for your own account.

If your competitor has an outranking share of 15%, that means they outrank you 15 times in every 100 times your ads appear together (or their ad appears and yours doesn’t).

Outranking share is a great way to keep an eye on your bids and ad quality versus your competitors’. That’s not to say you should ramp up all your bids as soon as you see a high outranking share. But tracking this metric will help you strategise and stay among the top-ranking ads.

Auction Insights Stats for Shopping Campaigns

Unlike the next three metrics, which are only available for Search, the metrics above are available for both Search and Shopping campaigns. 

Even though these metrics are displayed for Shopping campaigns, the Auction Insights report will only show you data from the paid search component of your Shopping campaigns. Insights from YouTube and other parts of the Google Ads network won’t be displayed.

Position Above Rate (Search Campaigns)

Discover how often a competitor’s ads appeared above yours in the SERP with the position above rate metric. A competitor’s position above rate of 40% means their ad appears above yours in four out of ten auctions (when both ads were shown).

According to Google, ad rank is based on the following factors:

• Bid amount.
• Ad quality (based on expected click-through rate, ad relevance, and landing page experience).
• Auction competition.
• Search context (including location, device, and time).
• Expected asset impact.

To improve your chances of appearing above your competitors, optimise your landing page experience, ad relevance, scheduling settings, and assets. You can also increase your bids or adjust your bid strategy.

Top of Page Rate (Search Campaigns)

Top of page rate shows how often each advertiser’s ads reach the top paid search positions in the SERP. A top of page rate of 30% means your ads appear above the organic search results three times out of ten.

Focus on improving the factors that influence ad rank to boost your top of page rate. Compare your ads to competitors with high top of page rates and see if you can improve your ad copy, targeting, and landing page experience to reach the higher ranking positions.

Absolute Top of Page Rate (Search Campaigns)

Absolute top of page rate is similar to top of page rate, except it only shows you how often you (and your competitors) appeared in the very first position at the top of the SERP.

An ad displayed in position #1 five times out of 100 would have an absolute top of page rate of 5%.

This metric helps you understand more about the effectiveness of your ad based on its position in the SERP. If you don’t see a jump in quality leads or site visitors despite boosting your bids to appear in the top position, consider whether the bid increase is a worthwhile investment.

Auction Insights for Performance Max 

Auction Insights are also available for Performance Max, Google’s automated campaign type. Performance Max Auction Insights are segmented by Search and Shopping campaigns, and are only available at account and campaign level. The type of campaign will determine which metrics you can see. You can also access Performance Max Auction Insights data via the report editor.

Besides this, Auction Insights for Performance Max work in a similar way to Search and Shopping campaigns. Use them to get competitor insights, optimise your bids, adjust your ad copy, and maximise your automated PPC performance.

Note: Download our expert guide to Performance Max to learn more about optimising PMax campaigns.

Adding Filters & Segments to Auction Insights 

Filtering and segmenting your Auction Insights lets you delve deeper into your data. To get started, click Add Filter above your Auction Insight results to see the available filters.

To segment your Auction Insights data, click Segment, then choose how you want to split your data: by date, time, or device.

One of the best ways to use these features is to see which competitors are actively bidding on your brand name. By filtering out non-branded campaigns and segmenting your insights effectively, you can learn more about competitor strategies. Joe Martinez explains more:

How to Get the Most From Auction Insights Data (Suggested Analyses)

Auction Insights data can be used for more than just bid and scheduling adjustments. Here are five ways to get the most from your Auction Insights data.

1. Keyword Insight Analysis

Use the Auction Insights report to bid on the right keywords that give you the most chance of reaching your target audience. As Joe explains:

2. Collect a List of Competitors at Campaign, Ad Group, & Keyword Levels

Auction Insights show you who’s bidding on similar keywords to you — so you can start collecting a database of information about who they are, what they sell, and who they’re targeting. This is very valuable information when used the right way. Joe elaborates:

3. Find Opportunities With Low Competition

Auction Insights help when you’re mining for new keyword ideas. See which competitors are consistently ranking highly for new keywords you’re considering targeting. 

If your top competitors aren’t currently ranking for these keywords, it may give you an opportunity to get ahead and bid on them while competition (and bid cost) is low.

4. Discover Competitor Priorities

Segmenting by time and device can help you find out when and where your competitors are getting the most value from their ads. You can then use this information to inform your own ad scheduling and placement strategy.

5. See When Competitors Are Scaling up Their PPC Efforts

Tracking Auction Insights over time will reveal patterns in your competitors’ PPC behaviour. If they’ve suddenly leapt to the top of the leaderboard, they could be increasing their budgets or running additional campaigns.

Analyse this data to discover how, why, and where their PPC campaigns are growing, and adjust your own campaigns accordingly to avoid a drop in performance.

Protect Search, Shopping, & PMax Campaigns With Lunio 

Auction Insights give you masses of information about your PPC competitors. But there’s one thing you can’t learn from these insights: how invalid users are disrupting your Google Ads campaigns and draining your ad budget.

While Google offers limited insights into invalid traffic (IVT) on your dashboard, you’re probably not seeing the full picture. To see how IVT is really impacting your PPC performance, you need a third party tool like Lunio.

Lunio shows the amount of IVT affecting your campaigns and keywords, and blocks more IVT than Google’s filters alone. This helps you get more from your PPC budget without increasing your bids.

Find out how much invalid traffic is affecting your PPC campaigns (and how much of your ad spend you could save) with a 14-day free trial of Lunio.

Google Ads scripts automate many reporting, optimisation, and performance tasks in Google Ads, saving you masses of time. They’ve been around for a while; back in 2021, we published our first list of 102 Google Ads scripts to boost PPC performance.

But not all these scripts are relevant or useful in 2024. The PPC world is rapidly changing, especially with the introduction of Performance Max and other automated campaign types.

With thousands of scripts available, it’s not always easy to know which ones are genuinely useful. So we’ve handpicked a list of 28 essential Google Ads scripts for campaign management in 2024 and beyond.

But before we start, let’s cover the basics: what are Google Ads Scripts, and how can they benefit performance marketers? Let’s dive in.

What Are Google Ads Scripts?

Google Ads scripts are snippets of JavaScript code that run specific Google Ads tasks automatically. You can customise them to return the exact information or perform the specific task you need.

Scripts can be used in all sorts of ways. You can create ad groups, update your bid strategy, retrieve campaign stats, and set ad schedules, all via Google Ads scripts.

This example script is designed to show you all the keywords currently in a specific ad group:

Google Ads scripts can also interact with other programs to give you more PPC automation flexibility. Bulk upload campaigns from a spreadsheet or Google Drive, export reports to a spreadsheet, and even run multi-channel reports with data from Google Analytics.

Basically, if there’s a task you want to perform in Google Ads, there’s probably a script that can do it for you.

Despite their appearance, you don’t need to be a coding expert to use Google Ads scripts. While they look very technical, they’re pretty easy to use once you get the hang of them. You won’t need to develop your own script — many codes are freely available and work straight out of the box.

The Benefits of Google Ads Scripts 

If you’re not yet using Google Ads scripts in your campaigns, here are four ways they can benefit performance marketers:

• Save time — Scripts can save you hours in manual work every week. Rather than scouring through campaigns one-by-one, a few lines of code will do the work for you.
• Spot errors — It’s easy to make mistakes, especially if you’re working with several campaigns or clients at once. Scripts can pick up errors and notify you, so you can find a quick resolution.
• Increase efficiency — Use scripts to make sure only the highest performing campaigns are running, reducing wasted budget and improving efficiency. 
• Boost campaign performance — Quickly deploy new campaigns without spending hours on setup, and get regular performance reports for continual optimisation. 

How to Add Scripts to Your Google Ads Account

Here’s a step-by-step guide to installing Google Ads scripts in your account.

1. In your Google Ads account, click Tools in the left-hand panel. Navigate to Bulk Actions, then Scripts.

2. Click the + icon to add a new script.

3. Paste the script code into the editor box and make any necessary amendments. When complete, click Authorize to give the script permission to access your campaigns.

4. Click Preview in the bottom right corner to run the script. See potential changes and results in the Changes/Logs panel.

5. When you’re happy with your results, click Run.

Now that you know what Google Ads Scripts are and how to add them to your account, let’s run through our list of 28 favourites from around the web, handpicked for 2024. 

High-Impact Google Ads Scripts for 2024

Let’s start with the Google Ads scripts that are likely to offer the most value for PPC specialists in 2024. Originally compiled by Google Ads experts Miles McNair and Bob Meijer, the eight Google Ads scripts below are highly relevant to almost all brands and advertisers.

Bob and Miles have worked for more than 200 clients, and profitably spent over €100M on Google Ads. They manage Google Ads campaigns every day, and all their insights are based on real, practical experience.

Note: At Lunio, we often partner with Bob and Miles to create industry-leading content focused on paid media. Check out our Profitable Performance Max webinar with Miles, and download our Expert Guide to Performance Max for more insights. Plus, sign up to Bob and Miles’s newsletter The PPC Edge to stay up to date with the latest developments and trends.

1. Performance Max Spend Allocation Script by Mike Rhodes 

One of the biggest downsides of PMax is you can’t see how your budget is being split across Search, Display, Discovery, YouTube and Shopping. And that’s a huge missing piece.

Thankfully, Mike Rhodes from AgencySavvy has built an amazing script that creates graphs and tables that visualise PMax spend across Shopping, Video, Display, and Search.

Image Credit: Miles McNair

After setting up the script in your account you should analyse the data at least once a week to quickly take action on any new insights it gives you.

2. Labelizer Script by Flowboost

Flowboost’s Labelizer script is designed to segment your PMax performance data based on performance. Configure the script with your target performance metrics and a date range, and the script will filter your products into four categories:

• Index — Products that perform on target.
• Over-index — Products that overperform.
• Near-index — Products that perform near their target.
• Under-index — Products that underperform.

Image Credit: Miles McNair

You can then create labelled charts based on product performance. This is a fantastic way to visualise and compare PMax results while reporting capabilities in PMax itself are limited.

3. Change History Alert Script by Nils Rooijmans

Get notified whenever someone makes a change in your Google Ads account. This is helpful if you’re working with clients or colleagues with edit access, or ad recommendations are applied automatically.

When you run the script, you’ll receive a list of changes. Check this against your expected actions and determine whether these changes are beneficial.

4. Quality Score Tracker Script by Martin Roettgerding

This useful Google Ads script lets you see how your Google Ads Quality Scores have changed over time. The script saves the data in a spreadsheet, so you can check the history whenever you like.

Martin at PPC Epiphany recommends that you run this script daily to collect consistent data.

5. Zero Impressions Script by Tibbe Van Asten

If you’re managing several accounts and don’t have time to check them all every day, this script is a great way to get alerts for accounts or campaigns that might need particular attention. You’ll be notified if a campaign you’re running received zero impressions the previous day.

6. Standard Deviation Anomaly Detector by Bas Baudoin

Like the Zero Impressions script above, this anomaly detector script is ideal if you’re managing lots of different accounts. If the script detects unusual campaign performance, you’ll receive an alert so you can check out any discrepancies.

Google offers its own anomaly detection script, but this enhanced version takes general account volatility into account, reducing the number of red herring alerts you’ll receive.

7. Link Checker Script by Tibbe Van Asten 

The cost of broken links can quickly add up when you’re running a Google Ads campaign. If a landing page link breaks — even temporarily — this script will notify you immediately. This reduces wasted ad spend and minimises the risk of irritated potential customers. 

All sites throw up 404 errors occasionally, so every Google Ads account can benefit from running this link checker script.

8. N-Gram Script by Brainlabs

Nils Rooijmans optimised this script, so he’s well-placed to explain what n-grams are:

“An n-gram is a phrase made of n words: a 1-gram is a single word, a 2-gram is a phrase made of two words, and so on. For example, “this four word phrase” contains three 2-grams (“this four,” “four word,” “word phrase”) and two 3-grams (“this four word” and “four word phrase”).”

This script mines for specific n-grams and shows you the clicks, impressions, costs, and conversions of each query containing it. It also calculates click-through rate, cost-per-click, conversion rate, cost-per-acquisition and value/cost to give you a true picture of the impact of each n-gram.

With this information, you can find new keyword and ad group ideas, as well as adding any relevant negatives to your campaign.

Now we’ve highlighted the eight highest impact scripts, let’s dive into some other script categories which can save time and boost performance.

Bid Management Scripts 

Looking for a faster way to optimise your bids? These scripts are excellent bid management tools for keeping you on budget.

9. 24/7 Bidding Script by Tibbe Van Asten 

Google’s ad scheduling tool offers six different default bidding time periods. If you want to schedule your bids at more specific times, use this 24/7 bidding script to adjust your bids by the hour.

10. Pause Overspending Locations Script by Optmyzr

Curb excess spending in specific locations with this script that allows you to automatically pause ads in certain areas. Set your spend limit for each location to ensure the right users are seeing your ads.

11. Bid Adjustment Script by KlientBoost

Use one of these two bid adjustment scripts to either increase or decrease your bids automatically. This allows you to constantly finetune your bids for ultimate optimisation, ensuring maximum performance for minimum spend.

View the increased bid adjustment script and the decreased bid adjustment script.

12. Bid Testing Script by Google

Google creates its own scripts that you can customise as needed. With this bid testing script, you can experiment with different bid levels to see which works best for your chosen keywords.

This script uses specific multipliers to automatically adjust your keyword bids, then records the results so you can decide which bids to apply.

Reporting Scripts

Accurate reporting is essential for optimising PPC campaigns. Generate reports rapidly with these Google Ads reporting scripts for 2024.

13. Ad Performance Report Script by Google

Compare the performance of your existing ad headlines or display URLs based on click-through rate. Use this data to optimise your ad copy for a higher CTR.

14. Ad Spend Report Script by Remko van der Zwaag

As marketing budgets continue to be squeezed, it’s important to keep a close eye on your ad spend. This script will send you regular updates detailing ad spend, cost-per-acquisition, conversion, and recommended daily spend.

15. Search Query Report Script by Google

Need some help finding negative (or target) keywords for your campaigns? This search query script compares search term performance to create keywords lists you can add or remove from your campaigns.

16. Declining Ad Groups Report Script by Google

Monitor performance of your ad groups with Google’s declining ad groups report script. This report notifies you if an enabled ad group within an enabled campaign has a CTR that’s been decreasing for three (or more) consecutive weeks.

17. Heatmap Creation Tool by Brainlabs

If you prefer visual data over spreadsheets and lists, this heatmap creation tool will be invaluable. The script converts your Google Ads data into a Google Sheets heatmap, and uses it to suggest bid adjustments.

18. Advanced Google Ads Forecasting Script by Wesley Parker

Forecasting is essential in marketing, especially when the spotlight is on your ad spend. Save time on PPC forecasting with this excellent script, which uses your existing data to create a forecast for the year ahead.

Analysis Scripts

Put your data to better use with these analysis scripts for Google Ads. These scripts are designed to keep your account data clean and ensure your campaigns run efficiently.

19. Pause Suspicious Ads by hoofay

According to our Wasted Ad Spend Report 2024, invalid traffic (IVT) is the third biggest problem for PPC marketers. If your campaigns are being affected by high volumes of invalid traffic, this script can automatically pause ads with a high amount of suspicious activity.

20. Advanced Broken URL Checker by Dmytro Tonkikh

Check for broken URLs in landing page links and sitelink extensions to avoid wasting money on clicks that don’t result in page views. Running this script will check all the links in your Google Ads account to alert you to any broken links.

21. Fix Capitalization Errors by Russ Savage

Capitalisation is important when setting up your ads, and errors can impact ad performance. Run this script to identify and fix capitalisation problems across your campaigns.

22. Delete Disapproved Ads by Russ Savage

Tackling disapproved ads can be time consuming, especially if you run multiple Google Ads accounts. If you’d rather remove disapproved ads from your accounts, run this script to delete them in just one click.

23. Correct Date and Time Zone by Nathan Byloff

Discrepancies can occur if your account is in a different time zone to the data centre where the script is running. This script will coordinate your other scripts so they’re all running in the same time zone as your account.

Alerts Scripts

Alerts scripts ensure you get urgent notifications about suspicious activity in your Google Ads account, so you can take action to rectify any issues.

24. High CPC Bid Alert Script by Nils Rooijmans

Google Ads costs can fluctuate dramatically. Certain industries have sky-high cost-per-click rates, so watch your bids to make sure your campaign remains profitable. With this script, you’ll be alerted of any CPC bids that are particularly high.

25. Daily Overdelivery Alerts by Nils Rooijmans

Did you know Google Ads can spend up to twice your average daily budget? Rein in Google’s tendency to overspend with daily overdelivery alerts. You’ll be notified if Google’s latest daily budget change will cause Google to overspend.

Display Network Scripts 

Google Display Network (GDN) isn’t always the most profitable channel. But with these scripts, you can keep a tight handle on your display campaigns and run them more efficiently.

26. Google Display Network Placement Analysis by Derek Martin

Find out more about the performance of your GDN ad placements with this customisable script. By default, you can check the placement of ads that meet any of the following criteria:

• Ads converting at less than $40.
• Placements that have cost more than $50 but have zero conversions.
• Placements with <5,000 impressions and <0.1% CTR.

27. Automatic Placement Exclusion by Google

Want to remove a specific GDN placement for your ads? This script will allow you to identify and remove underperforming placements, so you’re no longer spending money on them.

28. GDN Placement Cleaner by artakulov

GDN doesn’t always place your ads on the highest quality sites. Run this script to prevent your ads being shown on sites related to games and other irrelevant content.

Optimise Your Google Ads Performance With Lunio

Google Ads scripts help all PPC marketers save time and improve efficiency. But there are still lots of challenges to contend with, including wasting your budget on invalid traffic.

Certain scripts — such as the Pause Suspicious Ads script (#19) — can help you avoid wasting some of your ad spend on IVT. But by pausing your ads, you’re also missing out on any genuine users that might convert. So it’s not exactly a flawless system.

Lunio removes IVT from your Google Ads campaigns without you needing to pause or adjust them. It identifies and eliminates suspicious traffic before the click, helping you maximise conversions and boost PPC revenue. Using Lunio, the University of Miami reports IVT click reduction of more than 19%, leading to $107,500 in ad spend savings per month.

In this article, you’ll learn how to use GA4 Calculated Metrics for your business, including how to set them up, their current limitations, and how to report on and interpret your Calculated Metrics data.

What Are GA4 Calculated Metrics?

Calculated Metrics combine existing metrics within your GA4 property to give you better visibility and easier access to the data at your fingertips. According to Google:

“Calculated metrics are metrics that combine one or more existing or custom metrics within a mathematical formula to produce a new and potentially more valuable metric. With calculated metrics, you can adjust any metric to fit your business needs or logic. You can weight or discount existing metrics and create new metrics by combining standard and/or custom metrics.”

For example, you could use GA4 Calculated Metrics to determine:

• Shipping costs as a percentage of purchase revenue.
• Number of active or inactive users on your website.
• Estimated profit based on total revenue.

What’s the Difference Between Custom Metrics and Calculated Metrics?

In GA4, your Calculated Metrics will often appear under Custom Metrics tabs and headings. Both Custom and Calculate Metrics allow you to create bespoke datasets, but they use different properties. Compare the differences in the table below:

Custom Metrics allow you to store data that’s not automatically collected in GA4 (such as phone enquiries) and to organise your GA4 data in a way that’s useful for you. Calculated Metrics, meanwhile, combine or manipulate existing metrics and information to generate new valuable data you can use to reach your advertising KPIs.

Unlike Custom Metrics, Calculated Metrics depend on the values of other metrics. While you can use Custom Metrics to create a Calculated Metric, you can’t use Calculated Metrics within other Calculated Metrics.

How to Create Calculated Metrics in GA4

Here’s a step-by-step guide to creating Calculated Metrics in Google Analytics 4.

1. Select your GA4 property and navigate to Admin. Then select Custom Dimensions in the Property column.

2. Click on the Calculated Metrics tab to see existing metrics, or create a new one.

3. To create a new Calculated Metric, you’ll need Administrator or Editor access to your GA4 property. Once you have the right permissions, click the Create Calculated Metric button to get started.

4. Add a suitable name for your metric based on what you’re calculating. In this example, we’ll create a Calculated Metric to measure the number of inactive users on the site.

When you add the name, the API name will be automatically populated. You don’t need to make any changes to this field.

5. Add a relevant description to provide any useful additional information.

6. Add the formula. You’ll need to know which standard or custom metrics are required to give you the information you need. For this example, we’ll subtract Active Users from Total Users to give us the number of inactive users.

To create your formula, use the same mathematical symbols you would use in Excel or other spreadsheet programs. You can also use numbers to work out specific percentages or counts.

1. Select your unit of measurement. GA4 offers several options here, including Standard, Currency, and Distance. Choose the unit that’s most appropriate for the metric you’re creating.

2. Click Save to create your Calculated Metric and return to the Custom Definitions page. You’ll see your newly created metric in the list.

3. You can edit, archive, or copy your Calculated Metric at any time by clicking the three dots menu next to it.

Watch the video below for a walkthrough of how to create Calculated Metrics in GA4:

Examples of Calculated Metrics

We’ve looked at a few ways you can use GA4 Calculated Metrics already, but let’s explore a few more popular use cases for this feature. In the table below, you’ll find nine examples of Calculated Metrics, including formulas and measurement units you need.

Note: The number in the formula reflects the current exchange rate from GBP to USD. It will fluctuate from day to day, but can give you a general idea of your revenue in USD. You can replace this number with the exchange rate for any chosen currency.

There are limitless opportunities for using GA4 Calculated Metrics in your performance marketing efforts. So how do you know which Calculated Metrics are most useful for your business?

Conversion optimisation and revenue growth specialist Natasha Vorompiova says:

Limitations of GA4 Calculated Metrics

While Calculated Metrics can be invaluable for performance marketers, there are some limitations to note:

1. You can only create up to five Calculated Metrics in standard GA4 properties. So consider which metrics are going to bring you the most value. Google Analytics 360 users can create up to 50 Calculated Metrics.

2. There are some known bugs in GA4 which can affect results. Using certain metrics in your calculations can throw up some issues, so you may need to find a workaround if your results don’t look as you expected.

3. Google restricts certain metric combinations. Some metrics can’t be used in formulas with specific other metrics, which limits some of the calculations you can make. Benjamin Mangold, co-founder at Loves Data, says:

4. Not all Custom Metrics and standard metrics are available for selection. Certain metrics, like Exits, can’t yet be used to generate Calculated Metrics.

5. Only Admins and Editors can create GA4 Calculated Metrics. You may need to adjust your permissions settings accordingly.

6. You can’t use other Calculated Metrics to create new Calculated Metrics. Only standard and custom metrics can be incorporated into your Calculated Metric formula.

7. Formulas are limited to 1024 characters. While most basic formulas won’t need this many characters, you may need to use other tools for more advanced calculations.

8. Calculated Metrics round up amounts into whole numbers. It’s not currently possible to change the number of decimal places you see in your reports, so your data might not be as accurate as you’d like.

Most of these limitations won’t stop you using Calculated Metrics to their full potential. Just make sure to monitor your results closely so you can identify anything that doesn’t look right. You can change your formulas at any time to ensure you’re seeing accurate data in your reports.

Adding Calculated Metrics to Reports

There are two ways to add Calculated Metrics to your GA4 reports. First, you can add them to your standard reports.

To do this, navigate to the report you want to change and click the Customise Report pencil icon. Select Metrics, then find your chosen Calculated Metric in the Add Metrics field:

Alternatively, create a new report in the Explore section of GA4. Create a blank report, name it, then click the + icon next to Metrics. This will bring up a list of all available metrics.

Under Custom, select your chosen Calculated Metrics (plus any other relevant metrics) and click Import.

This will add the metrics to your list. Click on them in the left hand panel to bring them into your report.

You can now see the data being generated by your Calculated Metrics to check its accuracy. If it seems right, you can start using this information to inform current and future campaigns.

If there are any anomalies, head back to the Admin page to adjust your formulas until you have accurate, reliable data.

Interpreting Calculated Metrics Data

Calculated Metrics data can be very useful in its own right. But when you combine it with other data from your GA4 property, you can get even more useful insights. Let’s take a look at how to effectively interpret your Calculated Metrics data.

To get the most from your Calculated Metrics, combine it with relevant dimensions. For example, the Page Path + Query String dimension shows you the metric values for each page on your website:

In this example, you can see which pages have a lower percentage of active users. You may want to use this data to improve the user experience on pages with lower active users, or redirect them to more engaging pages. Natasha says:

That’s why it’s important to know how you’ll use your Calculated Metrics data before you set up your reports. Look to generate data that will allow you to improve your performance marketing, so you can get the most value from this new GA4 tool. 

Keep Your GA4 Data Clean & Reliable With Lunio

Many performance marketers rely on Google Analytics 4 to give them clean, accurate data they can use to make informed decisions about current and future campaigns.

But your GA4 data can easily be skewed if you have an invalid traffic problem. According to our Wasted Ad Spend Report 2024, more than 42% of performance marketers are worried about the impact of invalid traffic on their ad spend and analytics data. 

Excluding invalid traffic stops GA4 being infiltrated by bad data. It reduces the number of fake lead submissions and stops you wasting ad spend on fake users or bots, so you can focus 100% of your budget on reaching the most promising potential customers.

See how much invalid traffic is affecting your analytics platform with Lunio’s free two-week-trial. Request a demo to get started.

Performance Max uses information from your assets, feeds, and landing pages to inform its ad placement decisions. That means it has the lion’s share of control over your ad targeting. But with Search Themes, you can input your own keywords to fill the gaps in your campaign reach.

So how do Performance Max Search Themes work, and when can you use them? In this marketer’s guide to Search Themes, you’ll learn everything you need to know about setting up and monitoring Search Themes in your PMax campaigns.

What Are PMax Search Themes & How Do They Work?

Google’s release notes explain what Search Themes are and how they’re intended to help marketers:

“A new beta called “search themes” in Performance Max provides you with an easy way to guide Performance Max to serve on placements that you may not be reaching yet.

“Performance Max currently looks at your assets, feeds, and landing pages to predict which placements, including search queries, will perform well for your campaign. Now with the search themes beta, you can fill in gaps by adding information about your business that you expect to perform well. By combining your expertise with Google AI you’ll be able to expand your reach on all channels, including Search.”

Search Themes allow marketers to provide more signals to Google about which search queries are likely to be relevant to your product, service, or business. This adds more depth to PMax’s knowledge of your brand, so it can put your ads in front of more relevant audiences.

However, marketers must remember that Search Themes don’t work like the traditional keyword targeting in standard Search campaigns. They’re simply signals the PMax algorithm can learn from (or disregard) as it sees fit.

When to Use Search Themes

Google offers some useful examples of when Search Themes can be used effectively:

• Your landing page doesn’t have complete details or the latest updates about the products and services you offer.
• You’ve just expanded into a new market or launched a new product or service where your campaigns don’t have extensive performance history.
• You are launching a new promotion or sale for the holiday season where you don’t have extensive performance history.
• You want to expand your reach within Performance Max—including on Search inventory in Performance Max—and ensure you have comprehensive coverage on important business themes.
• You want to provide important information to help your campaign ramp up and optimise performance faster.

Ultimately, these break down into two main reasons to use Search Themes:

1. There isn’t enough content on your website or landing page to give Google all the information it needs about the search queries you want to be found for.
2. You want to optimise PMax campaign performance more quickly.

Michelle Morgan at Paid Media Pros explains why your landing page(s) might not have enough information for Google to effectively reach new audiences:

What Marketers Are Saying About Search Themes

Like with many aspects of Performance Max, Search Themes are proving controversial among marketers.

In a recent edition of his LinkedIn PPC News newsletter, PPC consultant Yoann Ferrand provided a round-up of Search Themes analysis from Thomas Eccel, Navah Hopkins, and Alex van de Pol. Here, we take a look at the reaction from other marketers on both sides of the fence.

Some are excited about Search Themes and other PMax developments, suggesting Google is restoring some control to advertisers, following claims that Google has reduced advertiser control over ad spend:

Others have even discussed how this signalling solution could replace traditional keyword targeting in future, as it gives more people scope to succeed with PPC (which is PMax’s purported goal in the first place):

Other marketers, however, are less convinced. Some suggest that, rather than giving inexperienced advertisers another string to their bow, Search Themes could actually be dangerous if used incorrectly:

Others have experienced an increase in PMax cannibalisation since the launch of Search Themes (we’ll talk more about why this happens shortly):

The increasing dependence on AI in PPC automation has also divided marketers. Some suggest Google is cynically using it as a sales tool that actually increases the workload for PPC specialists, while others believe Google’s AI is often capable of filling in campaign gaps by itself:

As with many new features, there are pros and cons to Performance Max Search Themes. That’s why it’s best to test Search Themes on your own campaigns and see the impact for yourself. Let’s find out how you can add Search Themes to your Performance Max campaigns.

How to Add Search Themes to PMax Campaigns 

Here’s a step-by-step guide to adding Search Themes to your PMax campaign:

1. Sign in to your Performance Max account. Navigate to the campaign and asset group you want to add Search Themes for.

2. Click Search Themes in the panel on the left to bring up the Signals page.

3. Enter a Search Theme that’s relevant to your campaign and press enter to add this to your asset group.

4. Add up to 25 Search Themes per asset group.

Search Themes & Cannibalisation 

It’s really important to be aware of the risk of campaign cannibalisation when using Search Themes. This is due to the level of prioritisation Google has assigned Search Themes versus standard Search campaigns:

“On Search inventory specifically, Search Themes in Performance Max campaigns will have the same prioritisation as your phrase match and broad match keywords in Search campaigns. Exact match keywords that are identical to the search queries will continue to be prioritised over search themes and other keywords.”

This means exact match keywords in your Search campaigns take precedence over all other targeting types. But PMax Search Themes have been given the same priority level as close variant phrase and broad match keyword targeting in Search.

Phrase and broad match keywords that exactly match the search term will be prioritised over Search Themes. But PMax Search Themes can still show for very close variants such as changes to word order or misspellings – meaning cannabalisation is still at play. Ultimately, Ad Rank is the tie breaker between Search Themes and close variant phrase and broad match keywords, so it’s important to stay mindful of it’s impact in this regard.

If all your Search campaign keywords are phrase or broad match, there’s a high risk of PMax cannabalising some of them. The only way to prioritise traffic to Search rather than PMax is to use exact match keywords in your Search campaigns.

If you want to see performance for specific keywords through your existing Search campaigns rather than PMax, make sure they’re added as exact match keywords in your existing campaigns.

Tracking Search Themes Performance 

Unfortunately Google hasn’t (yet) provided much functionality for tracking the performance of your Search Themes. As with PMax audience signals, once Search Themes are set up, you won’t get any insights into how each theme is performing. You can’t even see how Search Themes compare with audience signal performance. 

Currently, the only way to track Search Theme performance is to see how well your campaigns perform with and without Search Themes added. Michelle explains how to do this:

This isn’t a perfect system for analysing results, as it’s not an entirely fair test. But it will give you an idea of how your chosen Search Themes might affect the overall performance of your PMax campaigns.

To find out more about optimising advertising efficiency in PMax, download our Performance Max Playbook.

Brand Exclusions & Account-Level Negative Keywords 

If you’ve already set brand exclusions and account-level negative keywords in your Google Ads account, Google has confirmed that Search Themes will respect these. So you don’t need to worry about your ads appearing for unwanted search terms if these have already been excluded from your campaigns. 

Search Themes Reporting 

Search Themes have limited reporting functionality, at least for now. Google states:

“You’ll be able to see the search categories that your ads matched to in your search terms insights at both the campaign and account levels, and associated conversion performance. You can now view search term insights for custom date ranges, download your data, and access it via the API.”

So you won’t be able to see performance of each Search Theme within your campaign. But you can use search terms insights to view the search categories Google has used based on your applied Search Themes.

Google has noted that improved search terms insights will be available from early 2024, so hopefully we’ll see more useful reporting features for Search Themes in future.

Search Themes & PMax Custom Segments 

Search Themes are set to replace custom segments based on search activity from 2024. Google will automatically update your PMax account to reflect this, meaning you’ll no longer be able to add or edit custom audience segments based on past search activity. If you currently rely on these, it’s a good idea to get used to Search Themes now.

Custom segments based on interests, affinities, apps, and competitor URLs will still be available to add and edit after this update.

Best Practices For Setting Up Search Themes 

Bob Meijer and Miles McNair at PPC Mastery have compiled a list of 11 best practices you should use when setting up Search Themes in your PMax account. Here’s their list in full:

• Use broad Search Themes
• Don’t use duplicates or close variants
• Don’t expect massive changes in the beginning
• Align Search Themes with assets and messaging
• Use Search Themes to ramp up (new) pMax campaigns
• Analyse by checking the search term insights of your pMax campaigns
• Monitor your pMax spend allocation script: review impact on Search campaigns
• Search Themes will respect Brand Exclusions and account-level negatives
• You can add up to 25 Search Themes per asset group, but it’s ok to use fewer
• Understand that traffic from Search Themes go to landing pages from Final URL Expansion, Page Feeds, and “URL Contains” settings.
• Understand that Search themes will have the same prioritisation as your phrase match and broad match keywords in your Search campaigns. AdRank plays a huge role here.

Watch our profitable Performance Max strategies webinar with Miles for more tips, then check out our best practices for Performance Max to improve your campaign results.

Protect Your PMax Campaigns With Lunio

Search Themes may give advertisers a little more control over their PMax campaigns. But these automated campaigns are still vulnerable to invalid traffic that skews ad performance and drains ad spend, ultimately eating into your profit margin. 

Lunio protects your PMax campaigns by stopping invalid traffic from clicking your ads, so more of your budget can be spent driving genuine users to your site. One of our enterprise retail clients reduced their costs by 25% and drove a 48% increase in direct sale conversions after just one month.