PPCChat | Best Practices in PPC: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly | 31st March 2026

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In this week’s PPCChat, host Julie F. Bacchini asked experts to share their views on PPC best practices, the worst and best advice they’ve heard, and the strategies they personally follow.

Q1: What are your general feelings about “best practices” in PPC – whether from platforms or the industry in general?

KILL THEM WITH FIRE. @Aaronlevy

I have a natural aversion to things like best practices generally…@NeptuneMoon

After teaching this many people about search, I don’t hate a best practice for n00bs where you’re literally showing them the platform for the first time, and what’s a best practice for US and our clients. But from there the specialisation and testing takes over.@JuliaVyse

Especially because in our industry they tend to be not best for all and is many cases not best for any… @NeptuneMoon

Ok whoever the brains are behind “big Best Practice” have to have the best dang PR agency in the world. when we say best practice, we are NOT talking about anything that’s the bestttttt. we are talking about the good ol middle of the bell curve average start point. when I hear a consultant chide someone for doing something that’s “not a best practice” i hear laziness and a lack of in depth thought. @Aaronlevy

There are good rules of thumb if you work in a certain industry. e.g you only take on ecom clients, then there are some things you should always do like make a shopping feed as custom as possible. @duanebrown

It’s so often a way to just get clients and leads to overpromising. @JuliaVyse

I think it speaks to a general problem in our industry where technical lingo is often weaponized and used to sound qualified. @NeptuneMoon

think you make an important point there @NeptuneMoon on the other side, it’s a delicate balance figuring how much we can/should share with clients. Getting too in the weeds can break their brains or confuse/scare them while “best practices” (despite my hatred) can add a sense of comfort and end the convo. @Aaronlevy

I think it’s a scapegoat for not trying to innovate. They can be a crutch for some. Even the name itself is a bit oxymoronic. To practice is to consciously improve over time. How can that process be static? @teabeeshell

The only best practice – do what’s best for the client & account. @alimehdimukadam

As algorithms and machine learning have become more sophisticated, the individuality of each account has increased. Different signals. Different performance. Different goals. Knowing what questions to ask so that you understand where the account is has become a vital skill. Only then can you start applying practices that will help that account specifically. @robert_brady

I too am riddled with rage with the term “best practices” no differently than the rest of you, but I’d tend to believe the majority of us could wrap our heads around the notion that there are certainly some agreeable ‘best practices’ out there. @Ryansappington

Practitioners use Best practices like trying to kids trying to do the shape sorting toys. Yes, they can work if applied right only. And it’s very clear what the actionable next steps are. @MariaCorcoran

Just to poke a very fun hole here and there: turning off individual bid adjustments when you turn on smart bidding is a best practice. That’s probably a competence issue, but when managing a pile of people, rules like that make sense and fit the best practice category. @JuliaVyse

I think having best practices is not inherently bad, but I do think blindly following someone else’s list is questionable. SOPs are in many ways codified best practices for individual organizations. @NeptuneMoon

…speaking as the group’s main holdco brat, we LOVE a process around here @JuliaVyse

the difference in language is the part that always gets me @JuliaVyse in your example I’d call that more of an SOP than a best practice. semantics maybe? BUT I AM MAD AT SEMANTICS @Aaronlevy

@Aaronlevy I do love metaphorically sitting on a porch with you yelling at kids to get off the lawn! @NeptuneMoon

The answer to everything is “It Depends” @revaminkoff

To me, best practices = the starting point. There are certain things in setup, etc., that get a campaign off on the right foot. It’s a jumping-off point for testing and iteration. @beyondthepaid

Look, we all operate off of what we assume or believe to be best practices but what sets ppl apart is being able to tailor that plan to our clients needs at that moment in time against the Algo’s an industry needs. @MariaCorcoran

There are compulsory practices like ensuring correct conversion setting. Then there are recommended practices. There aren’t any best, bester, bestest practices. @alimehdimukadam

Agreed that many of the best practices and SOPs in the space were made to be broken depending on the specific client scenario. @revaminkoff

@revaminkoff And knowing what it depends upon is what gives PPC practitioners value. @robert_brady

@robert_brady Which is exactly what I hate about the Recommendations tab. Because it assumes the “best practice” is the best practice 100% of the time. And it’s not. @revaminkoff

@revaminkoff the recs tab are total money grabs most of the time from Platforms. Lolol, I’ll rant on those suggestions of best practices any day of the week. @MariaCorcoran

@NeptuneMoon, ironically I am very supportive of kids playing in front of my house. @Aaronlevy

But @MariaCorcoran, how will you get your optimization score to 100 by ignoring recommendations?????? @NeptuneMoon

Agree on best practices as a starting point. To me, the key is grounding in the fundamentals (marketing, communications, finance, etc.). That then allows you to be strategic and creative for each situation while still ensuring there’s a deep understanding of how things work and a level-set on client/stakeholder expectations. @adsliaison

I’d say reframe “best practice” as “rule of thumb” but try to not be too dogmatic about them. I’ve seen accounts kill it that were set up against all so-called best practices, I’ve seen accounts tank bigly that followed everything to the T. @BorisBeceric 

Best Practices from the platforms are usually to serve the platforms interests, though can expose holes that are missed, especially if you are new to a platform. Best practices from the industry are fun to track, and I always appreciate people sharing their perspectives, though take most with much more than a grain of salt. There are different best practices for different scenarios, and it is hard to get too tactical in a general sense, same goes for case studies or benchmarks. @Chriskostecki

Q2: What are some “best practices” in PPC that you think are good advice?

Always double-check your work. Everyone can make a mistake. @duanebrown

Have a list of settings to setup or check that are known problem causers. @NeptuneMoon

Please have tracking set up before you go live with your ads. @revaminkoff

Get your conversion tracking/data in order BEFORE launching stuff. @robert_brady

I think the most overrated task (best practice) is to comb through the Search Query Report on a daily basis (less frequent if lower spend) to find opportunities for negative keywords. It’s singlehandedly the best optimization lever remaining in-platform, and yet, it’s often neglected. @teabeeshell

Ensure that your tracking is tight and that you have a process in place to capture any data issues @robert_brady jinx @MariaCorcoran

Agree on tracking + having a cadence for maintenance tasks such as SQR review, pacing, etc @beyondthepaid

I’ll die on this hill you better be running at least two if not, three versions of your ads in each group @MariaCorcoran

as complete of tracking as possible. wholly agree with having a set of “baseline SOP’s” for campaign structure/settings, but they should be evaluated for each client. @Aaronlevy

Stick to the basics and track your conversions with as many details as possible. Garbage in / Garbage Out. Start slow, start correct, then accelerate. Steer clear from recommendations until you are confident & know what you are applying or agreeing to auto apply, especially if you have a small budget account. Always dig a level deep in the UI to select/deselect platform defaults. @alimehdimukadam

Set up alerts for important things like impressions being 0 or spend being higher than your budget, etc. @NeptuneMoon

Know your goals going in. @revaminkoff

Start with a clear timeline for everyone involved and be sure everyone understands Learning Periods, Attribution Window, and how we’re going to declare success. @JuliaVyse

Expectation setting & communication is more important than algorithm @alimehdimukadam

Be clear on time periods for review – 2 days of weirdness is not something to freak out over and start making changes. @NeptuneMoon

OK, another one that I will die on. SKAGs are dead unless you have a budgetary reason stop it. For the love of everything good. Please do proper due diligence on campaign rationale for structure.  @MariaCorcoran

Running multiple responsive search ads (RSAs) is not necessary, though it is recommended in Google Ads. Anything auto apply is a HARD NO @NeptuneMoon

@NeptuneMoon The time period for review is vital. You can not judge these campaigns after a few weird days. Agreed. @MariaCorcoran

I still think there is a case for SKAGs in extremely limited circumstances.. but it still depends. @revaminkoff

We kind of veered into the bad advice area here, which is my next question, so save those for Q3. I do think the recommendation about having well-themed campaigns makes sense. Though that one seems to be getting stretched lately…@NeptuneMoon

Fair, good advice, setting expectations clearly upfront about how long results will take. Other best practice clearly outline your testing plans for the quarter because you don’t want to run multiple variants at once without realizing it. @MariaCorcoran

Here’s one: I like a manual pacing sheet. Not for every metric under the sun, and I LOVE my automated dashboards, but tools break, platforms get weird, and I like to know someone is accountable on a weekly basis (min) for logging optimizations. more of a process than best practice, I guess but…@JuliaVyse

Simple ones: Cut and paste URLs. Test your forms. @InquisitiveMarketer

Check your foundations. Tracking, intent, search term – ad – landing page. Follow the data, less is more. @BorisBeceric 

It takes data to react. Always track spend to the dollar. Always double check…twice. @Chriskostecki

Q3: What are some “best practices” in PPC that you think are terrible advice?

MOAR BUDGET NOW SPEND DOLLARS FEED MONEY INTO BUDGET MAW @JuliaVyse

I’ll take a slightly different approach here – best practices yielding resistance to change. I experienced this in my own career and held on to “my way of doing things” for wayyyyy too long because I am very smart and know everything and am infallible. @Aaronlevy

Running display and search in the same campaign. No, thank you. @NeptuneMoon

that’s like one item I don’t love, just spend extra when there’s a problem…@JuliaVyse

“Optimize to the final sale” really only works if you have volume for it. It’s not the best fit for most despite being a “data best practice” and often times proxy values yield better results.  @Aaronlevy

Ai max, dsa and pmax for a site that has miltiple lines of business all tied to different P&L where you had to drive specific results vs all company. They can work but not for this purpose. @MariaCorcoran

Pmax working equally well for all kinds of businesses. It doesn’t and that’s ok. @NeptuneMoon

listening to Google reps (caveats to this of course, and i do feel bad for them since they’re judged by how much we opt in to the recommendation of the month, but overall, ugh) @Janinemonico

Use PMax instead of Standard Shopping… It’s massively improved since its arrival, but your inevitably undeserving Shopping inventory if it runs solo. @teabeeshell

Just trust Broad That’s all I’m out. @MariaCorcoran

Most of Google’s AI Max / Dynamic stuff for B2B lead gen, where there isn’t a catalog of stuff for it to pull from. It comes up with weird things. @InquisitiveMarketer

I will reiterate my auto-applied anything comment here. It is always a hard no for me. @NeptuneMoon

Using long-tail keywords; especially with low budget campaigns. @williamhboggs

Optimize the optimization score (do it by dismissing the recommendation if it’s not a fit – don’t apply the score still increases) @alimehdimukadam

@JuliaVyse here’s XYZ incremental go spend it and get 6x return. No don’t worry about algo changes as you flood it with money. Spend it now. @MariaCorcoran

Broad match only recommendation. It is not a one size fits all option. For some it can work great. For others it is a budget disaster. @NeptuneMoon

“Always be testing”. I agree you should test if you can, but so often businesses don’t have enough budget to properly test small changes like different colors or phrasing. Most businesses would be better off testing different angles or pain points rather than tiny creative changes @williamhboggs

I’ll give a controversial one maybe. Using all 15 headlines is not always the best. Testing copy elements? Good luck @MariaCorcoran

Expanding campaign types just to have them in your account. Exhaust the bottom of funnel first. Then expand if you have budget. But don’t take budget when there are still sales/leads to be captured from existing demand! @NeptuneMoon

Some things that used to be best practice no longer are. For example, single-focus landing pages with minimal navigation. Used to be the recommendation, but now those pages are frowned upon and honestly, pages with more options often perform better @beyondthepaid

Compare your ad account to someone else when it comes to ads and landing pages within your industry & try to replicate it. What works for them at 50k ad spend. Might not work for you at 5k ad spend. @alimehdimukadam

Another one I hear a lot that I disagree with is “do the opposite of what Google reps tell you.” That is definitely sometimes true, but we’ve also gotten great advice from reps and ideas for tests that have done really well. Don’t automatically dismiss what they say @beyondthepaid

@beyondthepaid I love your LP comment. Truly a relic of the past – potential buyers don’t want to be gated, they want to explore!@Aaronlevy

Search and display should never be in the same campaign. Some of the budget minimums are way too high. @revaminkoff

Uploading first-party data is also a big one. ALL the platforms want that data! But it’s not so simple to just upload it. Risks must be managed when it comes to data, and the “just upload your customer list” like it’s nothing bugs me. Cause you also check a little box that essentially says you absolve the platform of any data responsibilities and take that on yourself. If you do this, have the client do the upload, or at least have language in your contracts that you are NOT responsible for what happens to their data if uploaded to an ad platform! @NeptuneMoon

I agree on landing pages @beyondthepaid and @Aaronlevy, but I will add this – we lose what I like to call that through line of thought >> query >> resonating with an ad & clicking it >> finding what they expect on a landing page when we go too general. That feeling of resonance and recognition is a very powerful one that we sometimes unintentionally dilute with our landing page choices. @NeptuneMoon

I hear you @NeptuneMoon I was referring more to keeping navigation rather than landing on general pages. So page content is still specific, but we give the full nav so people can look around if the LP isn’t exactly what they were looking for @beyondthepaid

gated landing pages = inviting someone into your store and making them stay in the vestibule. a solid entry point is crucial, but so is room to roam @Aaronlevy

Also adding onto my “always be testing” point, as we say in the south: “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.” If your campaign is doing well, leave it alone. This is especially true for agencies  — “value” isn’t touching a client’s account 5 days a week, it’s how much $$$ you drive for them. If a campaign is driving sales with a good return and getting good results, leave it alone @williamhboggs

Whenever I hear someone say you should run at least 2 ads in an ad group, I tell people to run. Totally agreed @MariaCorcoran ! It’s a matter of how many impressions you have in your ad group – 300 / month? Good lukc waiting until all combinations have been tested. @williamhboggs

Q4: If there was one “best practice” in PPC that you remove from existence, what would it be and why?

Trust the algorithm. No, first trust yourself and what you see from your own eyes before trusting the algorithm Coz if you blindly trust the algorithm, your cushions will shake & their margins will bake @alimehdimukadam

That more budget will equal more sales/leads. Sometimes it will. Sometimes it won’t. But it is almost always pushed in platform to raise a budget if a campaign is showing results. @NeptuneMoon

Also, to follow your competition. Should you always be aware of your competition and how they are presenting themselves and their offers? Absolutely. Should you copy what they are doing? Not necessarily. Because you have no idea how well it is working for them, only that they are running it. And we have all worked on accounts where things were not working well, right? So don’t be drawn in by the idea that if others are doing it it must work/you should automatically do/test it. @NeptuneMoon

i’d nuke old school ad best practices. do you still need a call to action? probably not. keyword and ad match? ehhhh, directional is good. ads should be focused on value props and standing out, not repeating the same as everyone else @Aaronlevy

I don’t know if it’s a best practice but that Google Ads 90 day attribution window is sometimes too short in B2B lead gen. I guess the related best practice would be ad -> landing page -> form fill -> conversion! Because sometimes you need them to hang out and get to know you for a while @InquisitiveMarketer

Let Broad Match and/or AI Max “cook.” These setups need more attention, not less. If they’re not aggressively steered, they risk wasting serious money. @teabeeshell

One best practice that will come down the line more often. Just do what ChatGPT says. Remove it before it comes into existence (In some cases it might help, but don’t follow blindly) @alimehdimukadam

“Always be testing” bwah…why run the risk of destroying a great performing campaign? @BorisBeceric 

Please make auto apply go away! Agreed re: do not copy your competition. Knowing what they’re doing is fine, but just because it worked for them doesn’t mean it will work for you. @revaminkoff

I am still struggling with the AI push. I am seeing a lot of slop being sold to local businesses disguised as the next wave of digital marketing. They are going to get burned. @Chriskostecki

Q5: Do you have any personal PPC “best practices” that you’d like to share?

Use geographic exclusions liberally. I always exclude all countries I am not targeting. And if a campaign is not national, I will exclude all states not being targeted and if only a very small area other towns and postal codes not being targeted. It doesn’t take that long to do, but it can save a slow drip of wasted spend, even if you have the tightest geo setting in place. @NeptuneMoon

Campaign targeting = presence, not presence & interest @beyondthepaid

Optimize for signal quality, not just raw conversions. Also, landing pages are the biggest blind spot still. @BorisBeceric 

For the love of all that is holy, get your clients full marketing plan to understand what else they’re doing. Google is not a funnel, it’s a part of it. clearer alignment between other marketing efforts (and customer retention) yields better results for all channels. I’ll also add that PPC is WAY under-used for cross-selling, retention and reactivation. We have allllllll this customer data (or should), and we don’t use it very well. client coming up on a renewal period? have a new product launch? trying to reactivate a customer who hasn’t bought in a year? ALLLL great places for a broadience campaign. @Aaronlevy

If you’re going to run PMax, run Shopping below it and Demand Gen above. I realize this is not feasible for all, buget-wise. But it creates a layered approach that forces PMax into the most efficient, yet still exploratory inventory. Also, opt out of Display within Demand Gen. @teabeeshell

Also, if you are B2B – SET UP OFFLINE CONVERSIONS. This data is game-changing. @beyondthepaid

If you have low conversion volumes (under 50 per month) and want to use conversions that are steps toward your actual conversion goal, use values for all the pieces. It doesn’t have to be “real” values, only relative values so that machines don’t think all the actions are equally valuable to you and optimize for step 2 of 4 when step 4 is what you actually want to happen! @NeptuneMoon

Add audiences observationally @revaminkoff

Make sure you can fit at least 10 clicks in your day. If the Average CPC is more than 10% of your daily budget, you’re setting yourself up for bad math @navahhopkins

In B2B lead gen, don’t be scared of doing things manually at first. E.g. offline conversions uploaded in a Google Sheet until we set up the CRM automation. But in the meantime, don’t wait. @InquisitiveMarketer

Yes @navahhopkins I always like to show clients or prospects the implications of low budget – so (given assumed average CPC and CVR) how long it is going to take them to generate x Leads and actual sales. Quite the eye opener most of the time.  @BorisBeceric 

Conversion Tracking – absolute must and track as much as possible including data passback & user journey that updates. S2S is a bonus. Landing Page Optimization & CRO best practices – use clarity for a few days to see how actual users behave on the page. Everything else is downstream from here Campaign settings – location – presence in. Deselect auto writing & optimization for at least a while. Track search terms religiously. Have negative keywords. Congruence is key. Search Term – Keyword – Landing Page – Messaging/Offer CTA. Communication is key. Placements need to be tracked as religiously as search terms. Discover & YouTube and some parts of GDN are still underrated. Search only captures demand. There are other channels to manufacture demand. In platform attribution is not gospel of truth. Look at overall marketing efficiency.  @alimehdimukadam

Have I told you about the 4S strategy today. Otherwise, amplify the client’s strengths. Understand their market position and scale off of what works.
One last tactical one is do not forget the Google campaign goals setting. It is not available in editor, but seems to send a strong signal to the type of demand to prioritize. @Chriskostecki

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