PPCChat | Getting It Wrong in PPC | 26th August 2025

Posted August 27th, 2025 by Amita & filed under PPCChat.

We all make assumptions, and at times, they can go wrong. In the PPC industry, experts make mistakes which still haunt them. Clients might ask something to do, which PPCers know is wrong. All experts need help to understand if the things they are dealing with are right or wrong. Host Julie F Bacchini addressed all these concerns during this week’s PPCChat session.

Q1: We have all made mistakes in our PPC careers. What is one that still haunts you to this day?

Mine is a large overspend from many years ago. We dealt with it and earned back trust but I have been overly cautious for the rest of my days. @JuliaVyse

I had an account overspend significantly – it was the one and only time I did ecomm. Nightmare and cost me thousands of dollars. @NeptuneMoon

A couple:

Not documenting and defining the SOPs and roles for team members when I started by my own. Doesn’t haunt me anymore but it’s more of….I wish I could have done that before hiring.
Expectation & boundary setting with one big client that eventually ended up taking a toll on my health. @alimehdimukadam

Chasing 100% absolute top IS made the campaign spend much more than it could had I tried a different approach first. @Kyryllkhmelkovskyy

A crazy overspend at my first PPC job – made worse by having forgotten to set the geo targeting correctly… and launching on a Friday…@revaminkoff

On the client side – letting a client get pretty behind in payments. Last time I did that. Thankfully, I eventually got paid in full, but it took a very long time. @NeptuneMoon

Company was acquired and the acquiring company wanted to run a test. I set it up and within days could see it wasn’t working. Low CVR and CAC about 25% higher than the control.

I presented my data to superiors and was told we needed to achieve statistical significance before we could end the test. So we waited another four weeks, didn’t see any improvement, and I was finally able to switch back to the control (before achieving statistical significance). @JeffreyHain

I’ve made many, and being head of PPC for a few years, I saw a lot too! So many things to learn from, I think my favourite thing from the mistakes was dig into the data after and see what we learnt from it! @Meriem

Q2: Are there assumptions you hold/held that turned out to be wrong? How did you realize they were not right? And what, if anything, did you do next?

One would be not testing things that you think won’t work. Yes, with experience, you can have a sense of what might work and what might crash out, but sometimes you are just wrong on that. So, being willing to test things that you are pretty sure are going to fail is important. All testing should include language that results are not guaranteed to cover yourself. This holds true for things you expect to do really well too! @NeptuneMoon

We have all had clients or stakeholders insist on things we think are insanely stupid. Sometimes you have to just do it and let the data sort it out. @NeptuneMoon

If the job doesn’t feel right, or the client doesn’t feel right, do not do it. @JuliaVyse

LOADS of assumptions i have are wrong, that’s why we test things and then test them again later incase something has changed LOL… My most recently test was PMax Vs Shopping, and I assumed PMax should be picking up all the shopping traffic…. But it is not so I’m not pausing my basic shopping campaigns, and I may revert into running shopping as normal and not just a catch-all shopping with PMax running along side….. I just started re-testing that literally today! @Meriem

My main wrong assumption was a misconception that you turn on Google Ads and gold begins to flow that same moment. @Kyryllkhmelkovskyy

Proactive communication trumps account performance (good or bad) And the timeless – difference between $500 client vs $5000 client. @alimehdimukadam

In general, it’s setting expectations with higher-ups and clients that new campaigns will skyrocket right away. I’ve seen that adjustments are needed in order to come to a conclusion. @JeffreyHain

Well with the way that things have changed in Google Ads in the last 2 years, it is super important to dispel the notion that you can ramp up from day 1. It doesn’t work that way now. The system needs time to find its footing. @NeptuneMoon

I used to be deathly afraid of losing clients for any reason ever. I have since realized that it’s a necessary part of having a business – and it’s far more powerful when you realize that you and the business will be fine regardless. @revaminkoff

Q3: When a client or stakeholder insists on something that you know is wrong, what do you do?

First, I try to find out why they really want the thing. What is behind the ask/request. Then, if I feel like there are potential issues with it, I will raise my concerns. Sometimes, if it seems bad enough, I will follow up with data to support my position. @NeptuneMoon

This is so tough! It’s happened to me with all kinds of clients, big and small. I like to start with clear comms. Then if I’m not persuasive, curiosity. We’re happy to look into whatever you like. Let’s talk about how we interpret results. And there are unfortunately times when it’s outside a campaign discussion and someone just isn’t going to listen. It does happen. In those moments, try not to give too much energy to a lost cause, and don’t put up with disrespect. @JuliaVyse

Ultimately, though, sometimes we do end up having to do something we very much disagree with. In those cases, document your concerns. @NeptuneMoon

Explain
Listen
Try to push back
Do it with warnings/disclaimers and care
Present data hopefully fast enough to stop if it’s turning bad. @Kyryllkhmelkovskyy

Also, it is worth saying that if you turn out to be right and the thing the client wanted was a terrible idea, be gracious. Tell them something concrete that you were able to learn from the test. @NeptuneMoon

I try to strike a bargain and reach a middle ground and do two things: what the client wants and what I wanted to do, and then review it together. There have been times when what I wanted to do didn’t work out and what client wanted did, vice versa and sometimes both didn’t. @alimehdimukadam

If you have been doing this work long enough, you will definitely have cases where something you were CERTAIN would not work just does. And vice versa. It is humbling but also a good reminder that sometimes things don’t follow a logic. @NeptuneMoon

Q4: What is a belief in the PPC industry that you think is just wrong?

Clicks/Traffic = Revenue @alimehdimukadam

That LLM’s are going to take over our roles. These bots are super! and also very stupid. @JuliaVyse

ROAS is not ROI @alimehdimukadam

That control is inherently better than automation/automation is inherently better than control. Every account has a unique set of needs. @navahhopkins

That metrics are everything. Profit needs to be in that conversation and calculations! @NeptuneMoon

This is not just ppc, but in particular ppc: that you can print money with these tools. @JuliaVyse

That endless scaling is possible. Every market has a saturation point. @NeptuneMoon

There is a whole another world beyond Google, Bing, Meta when it comes to PPC. Most aren’t even aware of..@alimehdimukadam

We should really have a whole chat about ROAS one of these weeks…How about the fundamental assumption that businesses have a clue about their target markets and what their margins are and what an actual, reasonable cost per acquisition is/should be… We spend so much time optimizing for this stuff, and it is so often based on the business’ vibes and feelings and not real data. @NeptuneMoon

More often than not solution to the problems is not in the campaign or with the platform but outside it. @alimehdimukadam

Agreed @alimehdimukadam – lots of times a PPC performance problem is actually a client/business/product problem. Like if I send you great leads and you take 4 days to follow up, that isn’t not on the PPC…@NeptuneMoon

Thinking about client perspectives, some of them really do think marketing and ads can fix a bad/unsellable product. nope.@JuliaVyse

That great PPC strategy can keep the leads or conversions increasing month over month over month forever and ever, amen. @NeptuneMoon

…that we can make Google do what we’d like Google to do. Oh the wand I would wave…@JuliaVyse

I’ll echo the above. The belief that improving paid lead quality will improve the product. @Kyryllkhmelkovskyy

A best practice is always a best practice… / Follow all best practices — to Navah’s point, every client is different and has different needs and needs to be looked at individually. @revaminkoff

That NON-Google Search traffic sources are always “bad quality”. Former CMO altered my mindset on that a bit, stating that they’re actually just further away from pulling the trigger on the purchase…further up funnel. @Ryansappington

Q5: Is there something you’re dealing with right now that you’re not sure if it is wrong or not? Maybe we can help!

hmm. trying to think of something corp compliant I can share. I think, just know that we all run into things that don’t work the way we expect or wish. Clients big and small, spends broad and targeted. This community is filled with generous, intelligent problem solvers. Please ask for help when you need it, and have confidence in your skills. @JuliaVyse

I know this one is wrong… but when a client wants to insist that their product/service is not impacted by the general economic conditions. And it is most definitely a want not need thing. Or that the patterns of life impact their leads/sales. If you sell to families, back-to-school time is awesome for some things and a black hole for others…@NeptuneMoon

Turning off ad groups to gain higher IS. Thought process is high IS in one relevant ad group may be better than low(-er) IS in multiple in terms of results. @Kyryllkhmelkovskyy

And I will echo what @JuliaVyse said – there are absolutely no dumb questions in PPC. The people here are so wonderful about answering questions at all levels. @NeptuneMoon

In the past, seasonality. Year after year, leads for a financial services firm fell off in November & December, and picked up in January. They needed to keep the sales team busy, so we spent more to get fewer leads. It was like leadership had amnesia about what happened the previous year(s). @JeffreyHain

I’m sitting over here perplexed by the PMax channel reporting right now. That stuff is not intuitive and seems like the data is fishy. @NeptuneMoon

Exec amnesia is REAL @JuliaVyse

@JeffreyHain The “no we don’t have any seasonality with our business” when you can look at their YoY data and see that they very clearly do. @NeptuneMoon

Is it wrong to consume the budget coz the clients want to even when you know that it’s going to be waste or paying more than required….a conundrum I face frequently. @alimehdimukadam

PPCChat Participants