Google recommends something, and we all know why. Actually, not all of us! You could be starting out as a beginner on your own company’s Google Ads account, or starting your first agency job. This is for you, to help you spend money when it’s good for YOU, and not when it’s only good for Google.
Your Optimization Score
One of the first tabs you see in Google Ads is about Recommendations, or your Optimization Score. It’s important enough for Google to feature even offline in the Google Ads Editor. Here you will find requests and suggestions from Google that will improve performance of your campaigns. They will range from bid strategies to product updates and from keyword suggestions to ad copy improvements. The most important thing to remember is that these recommendations will help Google 100% of the time, and help you <100% of the time. You will want to review each recommendation to see if it works for your business.
There are some cases where Google will absolutely profit from the recommendation, but you will likely not see any favorable results. My favorite example of Google’s recommendation helping Google, and not my client, is their suggestion that we add “attorney lawyer” as a keyword. Our client has a very specific practice, and anyone advertising for law terms knows that CPC’s can run north of $50. This recommendation will absolutely increase Google’s revenue and will absolutely give my client the broadest of conversions. The searcher of “attorney lawyer” could be looking for many different law practices and will likely result in an unconverted click in the account.
Always Suggesting, Mostly Helpful
There are going to be suggestions that will help your account (while still helping Google, of course!), so it is very important to review all suggestions. Google will advise of new products, like Image Ad Extensions, or will advise to remove redundant keywords. If you haven’t added enough headline or description line assets to responsive display ads, you will be able to add additional ad copy right from the recommendation.
As you continue to review Google Recommendations, you’ll start to see suggestions that might not align with your KPIs. Don’t be afraid to dismiss those recommendations! When you dismiss a suggestion, Google asks for a reason. We’re hoping these reasons will help refine the recommendation process. While it’s refining, definitely take the recommendations with a large grain of salt.