PPC Theory

Old dog or master? Mixed messages from Marketing Live.

“It’s like trying to get an old dog to get up off the sofa” That…

Aggregation vs Articulation: Competing Virtues of PPC Management

Three ‘A’s Two concepts have been central to the recent evolution of Google Ads: aggregation…

What the new interface design says about Google Ads

At time of writing, the latest iteration of the Google Ads interface has been around…

Auction Antics. A sad day for Google Ads

The idea that Google’s agenda sometimes diverges from ours as advertisers is not new, or…

PPC and the Curse of Knowledge

How do you judge how ‘obvious’ a particular nugget of knowledge might be? On one…

Google Ads and Chesterton's Fence - A Cautionary Principle

I started managing a new account a few weeks ago. It has a lot going…

Mastering Incremental ROAS for Better PPC Performance

You’ve probably seen this kind of thing before… Google helpfully recommending that we ‘get more…

#3 AI alignment problems in paid search

You might assume that it’s the stuff of science fiction… Runaway robots taking our poorly-specified…

The Relevance Trap in Paid Search (and how to avoid it)

What’s wrong with relevant traffic? (as if we didn’t have enough problems battling irrelevant traffic!)…

My Google Ads Wishlist

Around Halloween, I wrote a post called The Google Ads Graveyard, listing some of the…

The Google Ads Graveyard

I try not to dwell too much on the ‘good old days’ of precision PPC.…

The thing about Responsive Search Ads

RSAs are complicated beasts. No longer is ad creation just a question of what to…

The rise of automation in Google Ads

The algorithms are trying to take the reins... Should we hand them over, or should…

How Google Ads has changed

Google Ads isn’t what it used to be…

5 reasons why Google Ads accounts need constant attention

If you set up a Google Ads account well… with sensible budgets, appropriate bidding, and…

Action, tactics and strategy in Paid Search

Most of the time, Paid Search optimisation tends to be reactive. With a well-seasoned eye…

The second hidden metric for PPC Professionals

I talk (a lot) about how to optimise Google Ads campaigns… What levers to pull…

Likely to click vs likely to convert

How do you choose which observational audiences to apply to your search campaigns? The usual…

Are SKAGs still worth using?

The higher up the PPC game you look, the less difference you’ll find between practitioners.…

RSAs - are they up to the job?

Milkshake, anyone? In the opening of his popular book, Competing Against Luck, Clayton Christensen, tells…

4 PPC Lessons from the Pandemic

The past year has been extraordinary, and hope is now rising that the worst effects…

Gamaleya Theory. Factoring Risk in PPC

Depending on where you're standing, a leap in the dark may be better than staying…

Google Ads Optimisation - Breadth vs Depth

As the options and apparent precision of audience targeting continue to increase, how accurate -…

How Well Does Google Know Us?

As the options and apparent precision of audience targeting continue to increase, how accurate -…

Why You Always Need a Plan in Google Ads

Generic optimisation can take your Google Ads campaigns to a certain level. After that, real…

5 Ways Done is Better than Perfect in Google Ads

“Done is better than perfect” “Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good”…

PPC Beast Mode

To stay ahead of Smart Bidding, you have to exercise smarter bidding. One way of…

Selling iPhones to King Arthur - Knowing Your Audience and Speaking Their Language

To your audience, you may be like an alien. To speak to them, you'll have…

Are The Robots Coming? AI and PPC

Artificial intelligence used to be more artificial than intelligent. Clunky machines could be ridiculed for…

Ad Text and The Principles of Persuasion

A look at the six principles of persuasion from Robert Cialdini's Influence... through the lens…