Google Ads Campaign Essentials

Incrementality testing is crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of marketing campaigns because it helps marketers determine the true impact of their efforts. Without this testing, it's difficult to know whether observed changes in user behavior or sales were actually caused by the marketing campaign or if they would have occurred naturally. By measuring incrementality, marketers can attribute changes in key metrics directly to their campaign actions and optimize future strategies based on concrete data. In this blog written by the data scientist team from Expedia Group, a detailed guide is shared on how to measure marketing campaign incrementality through geo-testing. Geo-testing allows marketers to split regions into control and treatment groups to observe the true impact of a campaign. The guide breaks the process down into three main stages: - The first stage is pre-testing, where the team determines the appropriate geographical granularity—whether to use states, Designated Market Areas (DMAs), or zip codes. They then strategically select a subset of available regions and assign them to control and treatment groups. It's crucial to validate these selections using statistical tests to ensure that the regions are comparable and the split is sound. - The second stage is the test itself, where the marketing intervention is applied to the treatment group. During this phase, the team must closely monitor business performance, collect data, and address any issues that may arise.  - The third stage is post-test analysis. Rather than immediately measuring the campaign's lift, the team recommends waiting for a "cooldown" period to capture any delayed effects. This waiting period also allows for control and treatment groups to converge again, confirming that the campaign's impact has ended and ensuring the model hasn’t decayed. This structure helps calculate Incremental Return on Advertising spending, answering questions like “How do we measure the sales directly driven by our marketing efforts?” and “Where should we allocate future marketing spend?” The blog serves as a valuable reference for those looking for more technical insights, including software tools used in this process. #datascience #marketing #measurement #incrementality #analysis #experimentation – – –  Check out the "Snacks Weekly on Data Science" podcast and subscribe, where I explain in more detail the concepts discussed in this and future posts:    -- Spotify: https://lnkd.in/gKgaMvbh   -- Apple Podcast: https://lnkd.in/gj6aPBBY    -- Youtube: https://lnkd.in/gcwPeBmR https://lnkd.in/gWKzX8X2 

🌟 The Frustrations of Working with Indian Companies on Performance Marketing Ads 🌟 Working with Indian companies on performance marketing ads can be both rewarding and challenging. But one recurring frustration? Founders often expect to see results before they’re willing to increase the budget. 🚨 While it’s natural to want proof of ROI before committing more resources, this approach fundamentally misunderstands how performance marketing works—and it’s holding businesses back. 📉 💡 Here’s why this “results-first” mindset is flawed: Performance marketing isn’t a magic wand. It’s a data-driven process that demands an upfront investment to collect insights, test strategies, and optimize for success. Expecting big results from a tiny budget is like planting a single seed and hoping for a thriving garden—it just doesn’t happen. 🔍 Let’s break it down: A common scenario: a founder allocates a small budget to a campaign, sees modest returns, and decides performance marketing “doesn’t work” for their business. But the truth is, that limited budget crippled the campaign’s potential from the start. Platforms like Google Ads and Facebook Ads rely on algorithms that need data—impressions, clicks, conversions—to optimize effectively. A small budget starves those algorithms, leaving you with insufficient data to make smart decisions. It’s like trying to train a machine learning model with a handful of data points: the results won’t be accurate or impressive. 📈 The right way: Testing and Scaling The best campaigns follow a clear two-step process: Testing phase 🧪: A moderate budget lets you experiment with ad creatives, audiences, and bidding strategies to find what works. Scaling phase 🚀: Once you’ve got data-backed winners, you scale the budget to amplify those successes. Skimp on the testing phase, and you’re gambling with suboptimal results—or worse, missing out entirely. 🏆 Don’t forget the competition In crowded industries, competitors are pouring money into performance marketing. If you’re not willing to match or exceed their spend, you’ll likely get outbid and overshadowed. Digital visibility isn’t just about having a great product; it’s about investing to stand out. 🌍 Cultural context matters This “results-first” mindset isn’t unique to India, but it’s especially common here, often tied to cultural or economic priorities like frugality and immediate ROI. While those instincts make sense, they can clash with the long-term growth performance marketing delivers. 🤝 For founders: Shift your perspective. Investing in performance marketing is investing in your business’s future. Start with a realistic budget for testing and optimization, then scale based on what the data tells you. 📣 For marketers: It’s on us to educate and set expectations. Show clients the process—use examples or case studies to bridge the gap between investment and results. Let’s help them understand that performance marketing is a marathon, not a sprint.

Most B2B marketers make the same mistake: They treat Google, LinkedIn, and Meta as separate campaigns instead of a connected system. Here’s the thing → one channel alone can’t carry your whole demand engine. Google gives you intent. LinkedIn gives you qualification. Meta gives you scale. When you connect them, you don’t just generate leads — you build a profitable, self-reinforcing flywheel. Step 1: Capture demand with Google Ads Google is still the undisputed king of intent. Someone searching “enterprise CRM for SaaS” is already in-market. That’s gold. But here’s the reality: Only 2–5% of visitors convert on the first touch. High-intent clicks cost $8–$12+. Most of that traffic bounces and disappears. If you’re just measuring Google by “conversions today,” you’ll either cap out quickly or burn budget. The smarter move? Pay for that in-market traffic, then pipe it into a system that qualifies and retargets. Step 2: Qualify and nurture with LinkedIn This is where most companies fall short. Drop the LinkedIn Insight Tag on your site and suddenly you can segment Google visitors by industry, company size, and seniority. Now you’re not treating every click equally — you’re focusing spend on the ones that match your ICP. And instead of spamming brand ads, run Thought Leader Ads. These are organic-style posts from your CEO or SME, sponsored into the feeds of your best-fit prospects. It builds trust, positions your team as experts, and warms the accounts you actually care about. Bonus: LinkedIn Company Hub shows you exactly which accounts are leaning in. Served 30+ impressions? 3+ ad clicks? That’s your intent list. Step 3: Enrich and scale with Meta At this stage, you’ve captured intent and qualified fit. Now it’s time to scale. Export your engaged LinkedIn accounts, enrich them with decision-maker contact data, and upload that list into Meta. Why? CPMs are 3–4x cheaper than LinkedIn. Enriched data improves match rates. Facebook + Instagram give you unmatched reach. Now you’re retargeting with testimonial videos, case study carousels, or founder explainers — not to cold strangers, but to warm, qualified accounts. The result? Lower CPC overall Warmer leads Higher conversion rates Cleaner attribution More efficient ad spend That’s the power of building a B2B Ad Trifecta instead of siloed channels. If I were starting from zero today, this is exactly where I’d begin: ✅ Capture demand with Google ✅ Qualify and nurture with LinkedIn ✅ Enrich and scale with Meta Control what you can control: your system. Not the algorithm. Worth testing if your funnel is stuck on one channel.

I’ve audited over $10 million in paid media spend across PE-backed companies - and the same five problems keep showing up. None of them are fancy. None of them require new tools. All of them are fixable. Here’s what I keep seeing: 1️⃣ Optimizing for the wrong conversion event Too many teams trigger success at the first click or form fill, not the meaningful one. One shift - moving the conversion from form fill to revenue-weighted pipeline events - saved a client over $100K per month. 2️⃣ Running campaigns on autopilot No structured A/B testing / experiments. No ad copy improvements. Just spending six figures per month hoping the platform’s algorithm figures it out. 3️⃣ Keyword chaos Companies bid on dozens of terms that don’t convert. The real revenue usually comes from a tight core of 5 to 20. The rest? Often expensive noise.  Check the search terms report and you’ll often be shocked at what actual terms are being searched.  It’s death by 1000 papercuts. 4️⃣ Creative and landing page disconnect Your ad promises one thing. Your page delivers another. Even strong campaigns fall apart when the user experience is broken.  Line up the search terms, ad copy, and landing page on a single screen, and I bet something won’t look right. 5️⃣ Celebrating MQLs instead of closed deals A high MQL conversion rate doesn’t matter if sales can’t trace any pipeline back to it. Everyone’s chasing advanced tactics, but in most cases, the biggest wins come from fixing the basics.

GOOGLE ADS SANDWICH Most people try to improve Google Ads by changing bids, testing headlines, or adding more keywords… But results usually stall because the account is weak in one of the core layers that actually drive performance. That’s why I think about Google Ads like a sandwich: You need the full stack working together 👇 Top layer: Business Goal ✅ clear objective (leads / sales) ✅ defined ICP + intent ✅ break-even CPA / ROAS clarity ✅ funnel stage alignment Middle layers: Execution ✅ account structure built by intent ✅ keywords focused on relevance, not just volume ✅ ad copy that mirrors the search ✅ landing pages that match the promise ✅ bidding + budgets aligned with data maturity Bottom layers: Foundation ✅ accurate conversion tracking ✅ enhanced conversions enabled ✅ search term reviews happening weekly ✅ automation used with guardrails ✅ measurement driving decisions, not guesswork Because great Google Ads performance usually doesn’t come from one “hack.” It comes from having the right system, in the right order. Miss one layer, and the whole thing gets unstable. Follow Brian Lasonde for more Google Ads insights.

𝟱 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗚𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝟭𝟬𝟬+ 𝗤𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘀 𝗠𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗵𝗹𝘆 𝗨𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗮𝗶𝗱 𝗔𝗱𝘀! Most people waste money on ads. But not you—because you're about to learn how to turn ads into lead-generating machines. Here’s my step-by-step playbook for generating 100+ quality leads every month with paid ads.👇 1️⃣ 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗔𝘂𝗱𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗟𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗕𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱 Most people target everyone. But when you speak to everyone, you speak to no one. → Take time to define your ideal customer: ✔️What are their pain points? ✔️What are they actively searching for? ✔️How do they talk about their problem? 💡 Example: A real estate agent may target “home sellers in Houston” instead of “everyone interested in real estate.” The more specific, the better your results. 2️⃣ 𝗖𝗿𝗮𝗳𝘁 𝗮𝗻 𝗜𝗿𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗿 People don’t want ads—they want solutions. Your offer needs to scream: “This is EXACTLY what I need.” → Examples of irresistible offers: ✔️Free eBooks: "The Ultimate Guide to Selling Your Home in 30 Days" ✔️Webinars: "How to Build Passive Income Streams with Real Estate" Your offer should address their problem, not yours. 3️⃣ 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗧𝗵𝘂𝗺𝗯-𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗔𝗱 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 If they don’t stop scrolling, your ad dies. Use high-quality images, relatable videos, or bold text. → Visual hacks that work: ✔️Use contrast to make your ad pop Include testimonials or stats ✔️Keep it mobile-friendly Pro tip: Test different formats to see what works best. 🧪 4️⃣ 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗮𝗴𝗲 Your ad may get clicks, but your landing page gets leads. Here’s what works: ✔️A clear headline that matches the ad. ✔️No distractions—remove unnecessary links. ✔️Add testimonials for credibility. 💡 Example: A real estate ad should lead to a form offering a free home valuation, not a generic website. 5️⃣ 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸, 𝗧𝗲𝘀𝘁, 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗸 (𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗮𝘁!) Paid ads are not “set and forget.” Keep an eye on: ✔️Cost per click (CPC) ✔️Cost per lead (CPL) ✔️Conversion rates → What to do: Double down on what works. Stop spending on what doesn’t. 💡 Pro tip: A/B test one thing at a time—like headlines or call-to-action buttons. 🔑 Takeaways: ✅ Understand your audience deeply. ✅ Offer real solutions. ✅ Use visuals to grab attention. ✅ Optimize every step of the funnel. ✅ Always test and improve. Want to generate 100+ leads this month? 👉 Follow these steps and let me know which one you’ll implement first. Tag someone who needs this, or DM me if you want personalized advice on making your paid ads work. 💬 Let’s talk! #LeadGeneration #PaidAds #DigitalMarketingTips #SocialMediaMarketing #BusinessGrowth

𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗥𝗢𝗔𝗦 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝗽, 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘂𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗹𝗮𝘁. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗔𝗱𝘀 𝗱𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗯𝗼𝗮𝗿𝗱𝘀 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗹𝘆𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝘆𝗼𝘂. One of the most common mistakes I see, even at large brands and seasoned agencies, is focusing too much on ROAS without asking the real question: 👉 How many of those conversions are truly incremental? 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗣𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻 𝗜 𝗦𝗲𝗲 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲: ✅ Facebook Dashboard: "Conversions up 37%!" ✅ Google Ads: "ROAS through the roof!" ✅ GA4: “+15% conversion lift from Performance Marketing” ✅ Agency Report: "Best performance ever!" ❌ Your CFO: "Why is revenue flat?" It looks like you're scaling profitably, but actual business growth is not keeping up. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗛𝗮𝗽𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴:  • Your ads are targeting your own employees who already use company discounts  • You’re retargeting existing customers again and again  • You're mixing new user acquisition and remarketing into the same campaign  • Paid performance looks strong, but it's cannibalising organic and direct channels  • CRM and revenue metrics remain flat because paid is simply taking credit for demand that already existed You are not actually acquiring new customers. You are just recycling your warmest audience. 𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 "𝗥𝗢𝗔𝗦 𝗢𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗶𝘇𝗲𝗱" 𝗖𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗶𝗴𝗻𝘀 𝗔𝗿𝗲 𝗔𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗬𝗼𝘂:  • Automated campaigns are the worst offenders: PMax and ASC will absolutely target your warmest audience if you don't set up the campaign correctly.  • Algorithms take the easy path: Why find new customers when your employees and loyal Cx convert at 5x conversion rates?  • Platform incentives ≠ Your incentives: They make money when you spend more, not on actual business growth.  • Vanity metrics feel good: A ROAS of 5 sounds better than "₹312 cost per truly new customer" 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝘁𝗼 𝗙𝗶𝘅 𝗜𝘁: 1. Run an Exclusion Audit  • Exclude employees and dealers using Customer Match  • Block internal IP addresses  • Build audience rules (for example: 20+ visits with no purchase likely means internal traffic) 2. Fix Your Campaign Structure  • Always separate acquisition campaigns from remarketing campaigns  • Avoid letting PMax or ASC optimise without oversight  • Use custom conversion events that trigger only for completely new users 3. Track the Right Metrics  • Monitor new user growth using CRM data instead of relying only on ad platforms  • Focus on measuring incremental lift, not just what platforms attribute  • Track customer acquisition cost (CAC) specifically for new users, not the blended number It is easy to chase ROAS that looks impressive on a dashboard. It is harder, but far more meaningful, to drive incremental business growth. Curious if others are seeing similar patterns, let me know in the comments.

“We’re getting traffic but the phone isn’t ringing…” I hear this one all the time. On paper, the ads look fine: ➡ Impressions ✅ ➡ Clicks ✅ ➡ Cost per click in line ✅ But if the leads aren’t coming through, something’s off further down the chain. Common culprits: ❌ Ad promise doesn’t match the landing page experience ❌ Users don’t know the next step - too much friction, no clear CTA ❌ Keywords attract browsers, not buyers ❌ Page feels untrustworthy - no proof, no clarity, no reason to stay ❌ Tracking misfires - leads are happening but not being counted How to turn clicks into real pipeline: ✅ Audit search terms - double down on buyer intent ✅ Tighten message match - keep ad, page, and offer aligned ✅ Simplify the conversion path - one goal, one clear CTA ✅ Add trust signals - reviews, guarantees, clear contact details ✅ Test your tracking - never assume it’s right Clicks pay Google. Leads pay you. #GoogleAds #PaidSearch #PPC

In the last 60 days, we spent $290,000 on ads. The result? Only $100,000 in bookings. Ouch! Here are the 4 biggest mistakes I made (and how we’re fixing them): 1. Expecting ad spend in historically high-performing channels was scalable We were maximizing our budgets on our highest-performing campaigns in an effort to maximize leads before the holiday lull, and we ended up blowing past the limit of what our campaigns could produce efficiently. The Fix: We are going to scale spend a little each day (instead of all at once) so we can find our point of diminishing marginal returns on our campaigns without waste. This way, we will be more informed about how much spend a specific campaign can take and still be efficient for us. 2. Spending time and money where there wasn’t value While volume was improving and initial traction was made, we found that we had just spent lots of money in places that weren’t entirely driving up-market leads for our sales team. The Fix: we are regularly checking the quality leads that each campaign is getting over a certain time frame. If it is driving quality efficiently, we will give it more love. If not, we need to refactor and it has to earn the budget back in the future. 3. Not aligning on a clear testing framework. We went all-in on a few new campaigns as an experiment and didn’t give ourselves a testing framework. Tens of thousands of dollars were wasted because we didn’t treat this as a proper experiment. The Fix: Now any new channel or campaign will have a testing framework, complete with a hypothesis, execution plan, time frame, and definition of success. 4. Making ad copy with a short shelf life. We used to have ad copy with messaging around “hit your Q3 goals,” or seasonal trends which then would inherently need to be updated every 3 months (sometimes sooner), or else there’s no way it would convert. The Fix: We have shifted to making our copy have a longer shelf life. That way, we can focus on ad delivery metrics to determine ad fatigue, rather than writing ads with a predetermined expiration date. TAKEAWAY: We weren’t being proactive in our paid media planning and spending. We let the urgency of the moment make us reactive, which is a bad place to be as a marketer. Don’t let urgent work get in the way of more important things, particularly with forecasting, analyzing, and testing. P.S. Shout out to 🏔️ Sam Calhoun and Evan Fehler who fixed these issues for us.

I've run 1,000+ marketing audits. Here are the 3 mistakes I see in almost every one. I have run over 1,000 marketing audits in the last 6 years. When I started running audits, I assumed each business would have unique problems. Turns out the problems are nearly identical. The symptoms just look different. Mistake 1: Optimising for the wrong metric. This is the most common and most expensive error I see. The business is tracking cost per lead, celebrating that the number is falling, and wondering why revenue is flat. The leads are cheap because they are unqualified. The real metric is cost per qualified opportunity. When I reframe the reporting around this single number, the entire strategy changes. Campaigns that looked profitable become an obvious waste. Campaigns that were about to be killed turn out to be the highest performers. Mistake 2: No conversion infrastructure between traffic and sales. This one surprises people because it feels so basic. But most businesses send paid traffic to their homepage, a generic services page, or a contact form with no qualification. There is no dedicated landing page. Mistake 3: No speed-to-lead system. A lead fills in a form. Then nothing happens for 24 to 48 hours. Sometimes longer. By the time sales reach out, the prospect has already spoken to two competitors or lost interest entirely. The data on this is brutal. Response within 5 minutes is 21 times more likely to result in a conversation than a response after 30 minutes. The pattern underneath all three mistakes is the same. The machinery between "someone clicks" and "someone buys" is either broken, slow, or missing entirely. The 3-Point Audit Fix: 1. Reframe reporting around cost per qualified opportunity. 2. Build single-outcome landing pages with form-level qualification. 3. Install a speed-to-lead response system under 4 hours. These three fixes take less than 30 days to implement. They cost almost nothing relative to the ad spend they protect. If you could fix only one of these three in your business right now, which would make the biggest difference