Search marketers agree: automation is the least popular part of PPC

Whether you love it or hate it, PPC is a part of digital marketing that won’t go away any time soon. I have been working at PPC for over 10 years and I have seen it all. ETA, RSA, touch price? (I’m watching you, Apple), broad match modifiers (RIPs) and annotation, to name just a few.

Earlier this month, we asked you, “What’s your least favorite part of PPC?”

We’ve received a huge amount of responses ranging from Google support to agencies (no offense) to customers with unrealistic expectations. But one answer fell out: Google Automation.

Let’s dive in.

Automation can be your best friend or a nightmare. Learning to navigate and finding a balance between machine learning and manual control has been on the minds of many marketers lately. (But you caught Brad Geddes central word on day 2 of SMX Advanced?)

Here’s what you said:

• “Google’s movement towards artificial intelligence and machine learning, which ultimately deprives advertisers of decision-making and control. While it may make sense for some advertisers to have more automation, for others who have the desire, knowledge, and resources, the strong argument is to continue with manual orchestration and bill submission. The studies we conducted have already shown less desirable results with match type updates and the introduction of RSA. It really seems like these Google initiatives are driven by their plan to increase advertiser spending. “
• “We constantly have control over what we do, taken away by automation.”
• “Everything is becoming more automated, broad targeting, less data insight, and generally less control over your campaigns.”
• “Gradual loss of control over targeting over the years. Search engines that introduce changes that will obviously hurt performance, but sell them to advertisers as “upgrades.”
• “Giving Google full control with smart offers, dynamic ads and a lack of reporting, while prices are rising year by year!”
• “Google is forcing automation on those of us who don’t want it.”
• “My biggest frustration is the constant pressure to let go of platform control by adding automation features and expanding our targeting.
• “I believe in the algorithms I work on. But the idea that we should start new campaigns with broad-matched keywords, an automatic bidding strategy, a copy of an ad made by a robot, and just believing it will work is stupid and obviously wrong given even a limited amount information about the search terms you get. This makes it really hard to trust everything that Google publishes, and especially hard to trust representatives who are clearly rewarded based on the levels of acceptance of automation features. Our job is to feed system data, make sure it’s real data, and then allow algorithms to discover added value that we can’t see based on what we say is valuable to us.
• “Automatic bidding is all or nothing – I want to turn off specific targeting and use automatic bidding at the same time. But I can’t and the SA360 hasn’t learned when the targeting option in my account is really very successful. I know when that is, and I should be able to turn off devices or choose DOW targeting and let it work from there, instead of switching to manual bidding. “
• “Today, my least favorite part of PPC is forced automation. It is designed for large accounts, especially e-commerce, and simply does not work the same for low-conversion accounts. It is really frustrating that there are fewer and fewer opportunities to successfully manage such accounts. Reduced access to data, which is part of automation, is also frustrating. The platforms show us less and expect us to “just trust machine learning”. Well, I’ve seen query reports (with data we can still see!) And I don’t trust much machine learning based on what I see there. “
• “Continuous efforts to automate by Google and Bing representatives. I understand their job is to increase revenue for Google and Microsoft. We used automatic bidding and it works for some products… until he starts eating himself and we have to go back to manual bidding to fix performance. ”
• “Google enforces their automation on every account. Some are good, while others simply don’t work in certain circumstances and are clearly a generator of money for them. “
• “Continued efforts to promote automatic bidding. I only work with local companies to gain leads and recommendations are rarely important. This has to do with bypassing the agency to talk to a client who doesn’t understand, so it’s constantly undermining me. “

Google support. Many of the responses we received explicitly mentioned Google’s support as deficient when it comes to providing assistance. No matter how hard they try, most of the time they miss the target.

• “Google representatives who just tell you to use everything from the Recommendations tab and offer no additional insight or guidance. I don’t need a call to be told to look at the Recommendations tab, and I’ll use the appropriate recommendations, not just to improve the nonsensical estimate of the bill. “
• “Google’s lack of transparency and their account managers are chasing me to increase my daily budgets!”
• “My least favorite part of PPC is Google representatives, who are constantly calling you even in the middle of the night. Although sometimes their advice makes sense, most of the time they will just drain your budget. To be fair, they are very annoying. I get more meaningful recommendations on Facebook groups than their representatives. “
• “Constant calls from Google representatives offering solutions that keep my campaign performance from deteriorating. Calls and emails are continuous. It’s borderline harassment, and even though I’m in Europe so I can usually take advantage of privacy laws to prevent things like that, Google seems to be above those laws and continues to do so even when I ask them to stop.
• »Representatives of Google Ads. Bad advice. ”
• “Google representatives are harassing the use of automated recommendations.”
• “Talk to Google representatives who are more concerned with increasing your Google score than your results.”

This is where we begin to notice the trend.

However, Google is not the only infringer when it comes to paid advertising. Facebook and Microsoft he also makes a cameo.

• “Facebook Ads has become frustratingly difficult to implement with too many problems, policies, and useless pathetic chat support.”
• “The fact that we have almost nothing about this in the future. Google, Facebook, Microsoft, etc. al. Somehow they do what they want, with many changes coming along plans that are more like the ways these companies make more money by taking control from our hands. “
• “Strange changes made by Facebook. Explain the ever-changing landscape to potential customers who seem simply unable to realize that online advertising is not a cheap alternative. ”
• “Facebook suddenly disapproves of ads I’ve played a million times and rejects them. I complain and get them back, but seriously, what happened? “
• “Interface changes are too frequent, Google is messing with match types, and Facebook is changing its targeting options, making it impossible to develop long-term methods.”

What about customers? Agencies come together when it comes to managing customer expectations.

• Explain to every customer how Google works when it comes to “learning mode” – every customer seems so concerned about week-to-week performance when everyone knows it’s not a good real benchmark, especially if you do major changes in the account. And explaining the way you learn is a waste of time to customers. They don’t understand, no matter how you keep quiet. “
• “Customers who don’t understand how marketing works. Requiring Google Brand Search to show “brand awareness” and running a remarketing campaign with a “maximum impressions” strategy.
• “Small budgets! Often, the smaller the budget, the more valuable the dollars are to the client, which in turn means the need for results that can rarely be achieved. Especially for industries with high CPCs, searching for $ 500 doesn’t go far, even if $ 500 is a lot of money for a small business. The options ultimately feel like (1) miracles, (2) disappointment, or (3) rejection of small budget options. “
• “Client.” (LOL)
• “I work for an agency. My least favorite part of PPC is telling clients that they can’t get 100 HVAC clients with a monthly budget of $ 2000 when the weather is mild. They can complain all day and that still won’t change the fact that they’re asking for a miracle and cheap … sorry, not sorry. ”
• “Most of my customers are great, but the constant flow of email / calls is exhausting and takes so much time away from the work I actually love to do – testing and optimization.”

Several least popular. Although these didn’t quite fit any category, we felt they deserved an honorable mention.

• “Lack of B2B targeting options. This applies to all platforms except LinkedIn. There are countless niche targeting options for B2C and few for B2B – and those that apply to B2B are so general that they don’t work well. Matching rates for the first audience are also appalling – in some cases 10-15%. So using first-person data is not really the answer. “
• “Aggregate data to determine how successful the ads are and make adjustments. I have yet to come across a platform that would be intuitive or even easy to use. The second least popular (related) issue is conversion tracking, which also seems much more complicated than it should be. “
• “My least favorite part of PPC is attribution. Everyone who works at PPC has or has had to prove the value of what we do, and it is becoming increasingly difficult to do so without being able to attribute their work to general goals. “
• “There are several things, but my least favorite part is the human factor from customers to developers. Another option is conversion tracking, because neither GTM nor Google’s consent method is GDPR compliant in its current form.
• “It’s just not cost-effective.”
• “I try to explain to customers that PPC is a cross-channel approach. PPC campaigns contribute to online sales as well as offline sales.
• “Theft by bots and competitors.”

Why we care. It’s nice to know we’re not alone when we’re disappointed with a job. Whether we work for agencies or internal marketing teams, we all face similar problems and concerns. In marketing, it’s important (now more than ever) to adapt to change, but that doesn’t make them any less angry.