PPCChat | External Ad Performance Disruptors | 3rd November 2026

External events can certainly affect ad performance, and election-related advertising is one example. With the US election taking place yesterday, host Julie F. Bacchini discussed several external events and factors that can influence ad performance, how advertisers respond, and how they communicate those impacts to clients.

Q1: What are some examples you’ve seen of an external event or factor that has impacted ad performance? Impact could be positive or negative.

I mean, I would say right now people are distracted and ad cost are gonna be higher @runnerkik

Holidays are easy ones. Impression volume on Halloween made for a very slow Saturday in a couple of my accounts @robert_brady

Dr. Oz citing a product on his show that we happened to carry. or uh, we worked with Peloton during the pandemic. More common though is a complaint or a review from an isolated area going viral. something you don’t expect or comes out of nowhere. @Aaronlevy

QVC brand take over, check out my episode of ppc f ups @Chriskostecki

The results of the last US election made me look like a god to my immigration attorney client. CPAs dropped from around $80/lead to < $30 for a few months. @Pete_Bowen

Government regulations can be big too. For example, when the Dept. of Education changed the classification of several masters degrees to “non-professional”, thus limiting the total amount of loans a student could get, it caused a chilling effect for some grad programs. @robert_brady

Did not impact my clients but the closing of the de minimus shipping loophole in the US took Temu and Shein down for quite a while after they were a juggernaut. I think an ever present one too is the macro economic situation, both in a specific country and globally. High fuel prices and instability right now is impacting EVERYTHING @NeptuneMoon

Interest rate changes have a huge impact on financed purchases. Think home buying, auto loans, remodeling, pools, etc. @robert_brady

And those interest rates also significantly impacted venture capital (VC) backing of DTC brands @NeptuneMoon

I run primarily international so I’m constantly on alert for weather and politics news. Earthquake in Japan, elections in Brazil, etc @rebeccawarne

Dealing with a hacked site. Everything is cleaned up,  search console removed the flag today, ads have been off over a week @Chriskostecki

High fuel cost is hammering a client who owns an RV park. Their biggest long-term guests either drove up from Arizona to get out the heat, or down from Canada. @Pete_Bowen

fuel cost actually has a TON of downfunnel effects, even on loosely related industries. air travel gets hit which means hotels get hit which means restaurants get hit @Aaronlevy

Googles stock goes down and my ad costs go up @Chriskostecki

Those cushions won’t shake themselves @Chriskostecki and stockholders have needs that must be met @NeptuneMoon

“Won’t someone think of the stock holders” @Chriskostecki

@Aaronlevy I feel like maybe we need a chat with the topic of “Enshittification” some time soon @NeptuneMoon

The enshittification of match types @Chriskostecki

Hurricanes in FL affecting boat rentals, cartels near Cabo affecting hotel demand, tariffs/diesel costs for contractors/home improvement/window companies when estimating costs around steel, cement, lumber, changing my CPA goal posts. FCC grant changes affecting telecom client EOY goals, lots of (at first glance) unrelated geo-political, weather, or federal changes definitely have those downstream effects, even in seemingly disconnected industries @timmhalloran

tbh enshittification doesn’t REALLY affect much other than more switching costs and opportunity to capture competitor loyalists. but funding cycles, stock reactions etc. could be fun….. I did a heroconf preso on it like 10 years ago @Aaronlevy

Q2: If you perceive an external factor that might be impacting or may impact performance in your accounts, what do you do?

sort of teased this in answers above, but look at outside economic reports/factors to assess impact before searchy stuff. whatever happens in the world will have a lagging impact on search campaigns. so make a note, set a baseline and get a helmet @Aaronlevy

So this has been hard because I feel like we’ve been trained to never give excuses and performance at all costs… like if I put a report that I acknowledge an external event and blamed that event on our performance being down, it would always get crossed out @runnerkik

I like to discuss it with the client. Often I’ve found that they’re aware of it and quite understanding. Sometimes just listening helps them. @Pete_Bowen

I am always paying attention to things that I think could impact clients. If I read or see something that I think could impact them, I will make them aware so we can discuss and potentially shift our strategies proactively rather than strictly reactively. @NeptuneMoon

Especially if it’s a political reason, I probably would just pretend like it’s not happening and “Google Ads harder” @runnerkik

@Pete_Bowen sometimes you’re delivering news to them as well, OR citing an impact they know about but don’t think it’ll have an effect @Aaronlevy

But secretly, I would know. @runnerkik

If I have the flexibility, I’ll head down the funnel as a stop gap, especially if my audience or market sizes allow it. HHI bid mods, stricter audience signals, zip code exclusions, or just removing middling performance Non-Brand as a short term tactic while riding it out. Same goes for VC/PE funding rounds and helping my client look like costs are down and performance is up, even if it’s not sustainable for longer than a quarter or 2. @timmhalloran

Obviously, that’s a collaborative decision that they’d be made aware of and understood the ramifications. @timmhalloran

I like to have a section that is basically “things we are monitoring” in reporting and monthly discussions too, so we can share info both ways on external factors (and any internal ones that I might need to know too!). @NeptuneMoon

This leads into the next question, but adding to what. @runnerkik said –  brands often do cut off discussion of external factors. And it is maddening. @NeptuneMoon

First thing is to investigate! The biggest thing for me is to remind people not to jump in and making changes to the account when the issue might not actually be the ads! @Meriem

Q3: How do you communicate to clients/stakeholders when you perceive an external factor that might be impacting or may impact performance in your accounts? Are you proactive generally? And what might you say to them? How do you position this type of information?

Proactive but polite. hey, we saw this, here’s what we expect the impact will be, here’s what we’re doing to try and mitigate that impact. re: brands shutting down on external factors. i always liked to be a little and predict the future for them @Aaronlevy

I always try to be proactive on this front. I want clients to know/feel like I am watching out for their interests. @NeptuneMoon

If it’s uh, something company did negative (e.g. a pest control client accidentally killed someone in puerto rico…..) be calm, neutral and know they’re fighting fights in a LOT of places. i’ll give them a “here’s my recommendation. if i don’t hear from you in 2 days i’ll do ABC, but will wait for your approval on DEF” @Aaronlevy

As for how or when I do it, it depends. If it is major, get in touch right away and tell them what I know and what I think impact might be and if we should do anything right now or monitor. If it is not that urgent, I might hold that info until the next scheduled reporting or check in time.@NeptuneMoon

@Aaronlevy there must be a backstory to the pest control client. @Pete_Bowen

So at one agency I worked for their new product caught fire on video at the home and garden show unveiling the product LFMAO TikTok communicated for us @runnerkik

@Pete_Bowen VERY large national brand that you’ve all heard of. i actually think it was Caribbean? but they used a chemical that was banned in most countries, but not banned there where they were operating. it tragically took out a family. there was a LOT of pr management and a LOT of query monitoring/sculpting @Aaronlevy

@Aaronlevy Epic @runnerkik

If they are really stubborn about not wanting to hear anything from me outside of platform performance, we probably won’t last long together. I don’t use external factors as excuses, but they are real and any business that wants to pretend they are magically not impacted is not someone I want to deal with, because they are living in a false reality where performance can’t match their (usually unrealistic) expectations into infinity. @NeptuneMoon

Managed peloton during the “hostage” ad time (NO WE DIDNT MAKE IT). that was fun too @Aaronlevy

Email @Chriskostecki

I would also say it depends on my nature of what the external factor is sometimes the interface and Google trends will pick up data when queries are picking up for something. Other times it’s macro and that’s a different approach… so something like saying people are distracted…It’s back to school feels light…and less provable but it’s true. @runnerkik

I like to be proactive, depending on what it is, for example if it’s things which are coming up, i’ll make sure i flag it before hand, e.g. Prime day we usually see things go a little quiet…However, it’s important to give context rather than just saying performance is up or down. So I’ll explain what’s happening, why it might be having an impact and what we’re doing about it (if anything!). @Meriem

Good thing we have ChatGPT now to dump all of our thoughts into and ask it to say it in a certain way @runnerkik

Also, if they have it, go look at seasonal data. Almost all businesses have some degree of seasonality and they often think the don’t because they are not in an obvious seasonal business. @NeptuneMoon

@NeptuneMoon My ChatGPT was for you @runnerkik

There are less obvious ones too – like are their primary customers all at a trade show this week? Well then traffic might be down…@NeptuneMoon

I don’t harp on it, but I occasionally refresh my big US client on high-context cultures and how a sensitive topic or messaging hiccup here can take longer to recover from in Japan or Korea. If something shifts, particularly in one of those markets, I call it out right away and give my best estimate of how long it may take to see performance stabilize @rebeccawarne

@rebeccawarne SO MANY CLIENTS forget that the rest of the world uh, isn’t like US. @Aaronlevy

I like to subscribe to both client competitors’ newsletters and their industry ones too to stay in the loop on what’s happening in their spaces specifically. @NeptuneMoon

@NeptuneMoon Ooh that’s a tasty tip, @rebeccawarne

100% @NeptuneMoon Then you can be like your competitor ran a 25% off all the weekend.. when they email on the Monday kicking off about performance LOL @Meriem

@rebeccawarne and @Aaronlevy Wait, you mean you can’t just use a translate app and go about your business all around the world. It is wild how those tools act like you totally can @NeptuneMoon

the number of times (BACK IN THE DAY I’M SMARTER NOW) that i accidentally offended someone….. phew. actually a really random one that was a success story – we found a direct correlation between oil prices and luxury retail….. built a script that would open budgets in UAE/Middle East when conditions were favorable and shrink them back down when they weren’t. that was a fun project, and made the client look good internally @Aaronlevy

@NeptuneMoon you can always translate the exact same ad copy from English to another language and see how it goes. in my experience, most  clients won’t pay for transcreation until you prove to them that the bad translation is costing them money @rebeccawarne

Q4: Do you regularly talk with clients/stakeholders about any external events or factors they might be aware of that could impact ad performance? Are there any specific things you ask them about? Or ask them to pay attention to?

YES! I want to know what is going on in their industry/space at large generally and definitely from their perspective. Because, they can have very particular views about things that may be accurate or may be biased and it is important to know that…@NeptuneMoon

This can be tough if your POC isn’t savvy or plugged into the industry enough to know these things. I love when clients already are paying attention and you just need to ask the right questions to get the discussion going. @robert_brady

Legislation and regulation is a big one that I want them telling me about. @NeptuneMoon

Absolutely, i liked opening some calls with “what’s on your mind that’s not ppc” and seeing where they went @Aaronlevy

Major events like trade shows too for them and their customers @NeptuneMoon

I sometimes try to approach it in my content if that makes sense because at the end of the day, all clients have similar problems and when things are down and they don’t necessarily know why so being able to write those things down like “I’ve seen an examples where clients have XYZ” helps prime future clients to understand external factors @runnerkik

Sometimes it’s a big external factor sometimes it’s drama in the customer service center bc of a donut dispute @Aaronlevy

YES! It comes up a lot… ideally we want to be partners with them such that we know about what’s going on throughout their business and then we can keep an eye out for things they might need to know about. @revaminkoff

I don’t want to bring on a client unwilling to see full picture @runnerkik

As much as I work to familiarize myself with the industry, competitors, etc. they are living there all day every day and should be able to provide that expertise and intuition. @robert_brady

Also, I’ll shamelessly plug the last @Aaronlevy Optmyzr study industry data is very helpful @runnerkik

I worked with a client in the travel space, luxury at that, last year who WOULD NOT allow any mention of fuel prices or any economic factor to be talked about. It was awful because it was absolutely a factor in their business overall being down. It was down in the ENTIRE SECTOR.@NeptuneMoon

I got into it with the CEO. I was not on the account much longer after that…@NeptuneMoon

@NeptuneMoon Seems like some luxury advertisers don’t realize that even their wealthy audience might be feeling the economic pinch @rebeccawarne

Thank you @runnerkik check is in the mail (KIDDING!) but seriously if there are industries y’all want us to take a look at, say my name 3 times in the mirror and spin around and i’ll appear. or just slack or linkedin me – we want data studies to actually help. @Aaronlevy

My big boss uses Gemini to summarize industry news and talking points for the projects he’s actively working on. He’s always pressed for time so it seems to help him stay up to date without getting into the weeds @rebeccawarne

Google Alerts back in the day were great for staying on top of things @NeptuneMoon

Q5: What external factors do you wish you had a crystal ball or some type of live dashboard for?

Well, war and conflicts would be one I wish we had more insight into, because it is generally reactive only to those types of issues/situations. Sentiment of non chronically online consumers would be great too@NeptuneMoon

I wanna know what the heck Google is even doing and what’s going on with all of search  @runnerkik

Yes – let’s see that roadmap! @NeptuneMoon

So just hand me the algorithm in a way that I can understand  @runnerkik

@runnerkik nails it. None of the discussion so far has been on platform as an external factor. It is, and it’s huge. @Pete_Bowen

It is super interesting that Google is back pedaling on shoving AI Overviews front and center now too. @NeptuneMoon

TikTok content for users aged 35-64 in my target markets. I won’t use the app so I have no idea what’s going on there and by the time it finds me in my corner of the internet, it’s old news @rebeccawarne

I mean.. is this for PPC or in general??? LOL. SO many things i’d like a crystal ball for lol @Meriem

Random acts of Google (or other platforms) absolutely impact our ability to do our jobs effectively. And we only sometimes know what is coming…@NeptuneMoon

Ok real answer, I want your pr, tv and influencer calendars. @Aaronlevy

The challenge is.. we get a little tiny bit of information sometimes, but not the full story and then left with all those questions like the video stuff I messaged you about @NeptuneMoon and so sometimes having a crystal ball doesn’t help when the source hasn’t really likely thought about it fully?! @Meriem

And DEFINITELY real acts of Google dashboard. They’ve gotten twitchy of late @Aaronlevy

Very true @Meriem Google is not announcing everything any more, but just updating documentation on things @NeptuneMoon

1. Market Saturation – how much of your local market has already purchased your product (especially one-time purchase services/products)
2. Demand for product/service
3. I wish Google’s Keyword Planner could pull numbers for smaller areas
4. Newsjacking opportunities
5. Macro/Micro Economic factors
6. What actually causes metrics to randomly have massive fluctuations even if I didn’t touch anything in the account
7. How shifts in spend allocation to different segments affect results (eg: campaign spent more on women than men, how did this affect results?). This can be crunched but is time consuming. Trying to build this currently. @williamhboggs

Sometimes big things @NeptuneMoon

I found this tool from a LinkedIn user that publishes product updates to Google Ads and other tools. I check it when I’m having a “Where did that button/feature go..?” moment https://gadschangehistory.com/ @rebeccawarne

A crystal ball into clients’ honest sales process and business performance. It blows my mind how many business owners are just completely clueless about how their business is running. @williamhboggs

For leads based businesses, true insight into their sales people’s behavior, follow up timelines and skills. Because so much of how “successful” my work feels depends on this. And I generally have little to no insight into it. Hell the company often doesn’t either, which is WILD. @NeptuneMoon

The Don’t Panic PPC community has a platform change google sheet… which I update monthly… it doesn’t have EVERYTHING but it really does help when i’m reviewing data (Not just Google but Meta and stuff too!) @Meriem

I was surprised that Google admitted AIOs were causing fewer paid clicks in their earnings call. I knew they’d play up the search volume increase, but it didn’t take a PhD to see that AIO use has less actionable intent than vanilla search @robert_brady

PPCChat Participants

• Julie F Bacchini @NeptuneMoon
• Peter Bowen @Pete_Bowen
• Sarah Stemen @runnerkik
• Robert Brady @robert_brady
• Aaron Levy @Aaronlevy
• Chris Kostecki @Chriskostecki
• Rebecca Warne @rebeccawarne
• Tim Halloran @timmhalloran
• Boggs @williamhboggs
• Meriem @Meriem

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