PPC isn’t cheap. Let’s just start there.
It’s not a magic button that spits out endless leads or sales overnight. It takes time, strategy, testing, and yes—money. But too often, businesses pull the plug on PPC for the wrong reasons, leaving potential revenue on the table and starting from scratch later when they realize organic and social alone won’t cut it.
So why do clients quit PPC? Some reasons are preventable. Others, not so much.
Let’s be real—default settings in Google Ads and Bing Ads aren’t always set up with your best interests in mind. They’re designed to maximize reach (and often spend), not necessarily performance. If you’re not careful, you could be bleeding budget on irrelevant placements, unnecessary bid adjustments, or even audiences you never intended to target.
Checking these settings is the difference between wasting money on low-quality traffic versus investing in the right audience and placements. If you’re serious about saving your clients’ money and driving quality results, this is where you start.
So let’s break it down: here are the sneaky default settings in Google Ads and Bing Ads that you need to fix ASAP.
Let’s talk about something that should be non-negotiable in your PPC campaigns: conversion tracking. If you’re running ads without it, you’re basically throwing money into the void and hoping for the best. And hope is not a strategy.
Conversion tracking is how you measure what happens after someone clicks on your ad. Did they fill out a form? Make a purchase? Call your business? Download your whitepaper? Without tracking, you have no clue whether your campaigns are actually working or just draining your budget.
Setting up a PPC account is like packing for a trip. If you throw everything into a bag without checking the weather, setting a budget, or knowing your destination, you’re setting yourself up for disaster. But don’t worry—I’m here to help you avoid PPC chaos and set you on the path to success. Whether you’re new to PPC or have been running ads since the Stone Age (aka pre-automation), this guide will break things down in a way that makes sense, saves money, and delivers results.
How to Join the Conversation and Make It Your Own
If you’ve been following Duolingo, you know they’re not your average brand. When it comes to marketing, they’ve completely broken the mold. Instead of just talking at their audience, they engage in a way that feels authentic, timely, and fun—no matter the platform.
Take Duolingo’s ability to show up in real-time. When TikTok was banned for 24 hours, they didn’t miss a beat. Instead of sitting back and waiting for things to settle, Duolingo jumped in and created content that had the internet buzzing. Not only did they listen, but they joined the conversation with humor, speed, and relevance.
But it doesn’t stop there. Let’s talk about the Super Bowl. I know you all were watching (who wasn’t?), and sure enough, Duolingo was right there with content that felt like it was made just for that moment. It’s not about just showing up; it’s about engaging in a way that feels natural, fresh, and just a little cheeky.
A breakdown of why relevancy is everything in PPC, with real talk on keywords, audience signals, and how to stop showing up in useless auctions
Let’s be real—just because your ad is showing up doesn’t mean it’s doing its job. You can have the best ad copy in the world, but if it’s showing up in the wrong place, to the wrong people, at the wrong time, it’s about as useful as a sunroof on a submarine.
Relevancy is EVERYTHING in PPC. Your keywords, audience signals, ad copy, and landing pages all need to align like a well-oiled machine. Otherwise, you’re just setting money on fire. So, let’s break down how to ensure your campaigns are as relevant as possible (and stop wasting your budget on clicks that won’t convert).
No-BS guide to diagnosing underperforming campaigns, learning from the data, and pivoting instead of panicking.
So you launched Google Ads campaigns, and they didn’t work out. Maybe you’re spending a ton of money but not seeing results. Maybe you’re getting traffic, but no one is converting. Maybe you’re just staring at your reports wondering what went wrong.
Before you panic and start making random changes, let’s break down why your campaigns might be struggling and how to fix them.
Stop skipping the essentials—because bad targeting, lazy ad copy, and ignoring search intent are still killing campaigns
Let’s talk about PPC—that’s Pay-Per-Click. The concept is simple: you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad. But how much do you pay for each click? That’s where things get interesting. It depends on a few key factors like your industry, the competition, and how well your ad is structured. Think of it like bidding for a spot at the front of the line, except the price is constantly shifting.
Once that click happens, where do people go? To your website, of course. And guess what? You get to control where they land. Whether it’s a landing page or your homepage, the power’s in your hands to decide where you want to direct that click.
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