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Showerthought: I used to throw money at Google Ads without checking the search terms report
Honestly, for like the first year of running my own side hustle, I just set up a campaign and let Google do its thing. I figured their smart bidding and broad match keywords would just work. Then I looked at my search terms report last March and found my ad was showing for 'free dental cleaning how to do at home' which had nothing to do with my actual service. I was paying for clicks from people who wanted DIY tutorials not actual appointments. Now I run a negative keyword list every single week and it cut my wasted spend by about 40 percent. The thing that really got me was when a client told me 'I only clicked your ad by accident' and that's when I knew I had to change my whole approach. Has anyone else had a similar wake up call with their PPC campaigns?
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the_max11d ago
Wait, someone clicked your ad by accident and actually told you that? That's brutal, but honestly kinda funny in a terrible way.
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charles_young9211d ago
Honestly that "I clicked by accident" line is rough but yeah I had a buddy who ran a local dog walking service and he was all excited about his first click through one time. Turns out some kid was just mashing buttons on their dad's phone looking at YouTube videos and ended up on his landing page. He spent like three weeks optimizing for that one accidental visitor thinking it was a real lead before he even checked if the person actually needed a dog walker. That's the kind of stuff that makes you realize you're basically paying for people who have zero interest in what you do unless you watch those search terms like a hawk.
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