For the last four weeks, I revamped my Google Ad strategy and here is my experience.

First, this was my first real attempt in mastering GA. My company has been using GA since 2021 and during the past 24 months, we spent $11K on GA and genrated around $180K in revenue. Although the numbers may appear impressive -we are a very small consutling company- they are not. My review of the data, all data from the last two years, indicates that we were not using GA correctly nor did we understand some of its functionallity. Prior to 2023, the account was managed by a markging coordinator; although the person did a fantastic job in keeping things up, the person did not have deep analytical chops to deal with GA's array of reports and data.

My Review included everything: From top to bottom. I downloaded all data associated with my account, clicks, key words, search words, dates, costs, ad performance, leads, conversations, dates, and ad types. All the information was summarized, analyzed, compare to key metrics, and meticuasly reviewed to identify best key word patterns, negative key words, etc, etc.

My Takeaways

If I had used negative words properly, it would have saved me about 50% of my total annual cost.

I had two compaigns, and I was always under the impression that campaign A was getting me the leads and $$; however, that was not the case. Campaign B was far more likely the source for viable leads. I didn't have lead conversations turned on, so, moving forward, I will be able to identfy viable leads and $$ to an ad.

I mistakenly trusted Google Forecaster to set budgets, clicks, etc. When I actually turned on the ad, the projected cost for the ad is about 30% higher than expected. I may have to turn down my costs if conversations don't pan out.

Unless you work in an ad agency, good luck with GA. The sheer amount of data requires a significant mastery in the data sciences, stats, analysis, etc. Those who lack quantatitive skills should get help - not necessary from an ad agency, from a marketing analyst who can organize data outside of GA's console.

So, the goal for the next four week is to improve our click to impression rate from 2.3% to 4% and generate one contract every other week. Wish me luck.