Hosted by Julie F Bacchini, this week’s PPCChat session focused on experts’ favorite lesser-known or hidden gems of Google Ads, LinkedIn, Microsoft Ads, Facebook, etc, and if they would like to talk about a hidden gem platform which they have found.
Q1: What are your favorite lesser known or hidden gems in Google Ads?
A few of them: Video labs for true A/B video tests, detailed demographics, and website call tracking. @JonKagan
More from an audit standpoint, one of my favorite settings to check (which I’ve found a lot don’t know about) is Targeting Expansion at the ad group level. Disabling means remarketing campaigns will *only* be to the list you’ve targeted. Otherwise, data gets muddy. @akaEmmaLouise
I think the Reporting UI is something I don’t hear people of using too much, but it’s pretty exhaustive in what it can do. @PPCKirk
Exclusions on any kind, I don’t think this is a hidden gem but people forget about them ALL the time. @andreacruz92
Dunno if it’s a hidden gem, but I do love Conv Rate by Impr as a general health metric. @ferkungamaboobo
Sadly, my favorite hidden gem on Google Ads used to be dynamic search ads (DSA) because it gave you insight into how Google views your site and also query data (but that is no more…) @NeptuneMoon
2 And they keep adding more things in and visually updating the UI as well. @PPCKirk
Custom Intent audiences for display. Priority settings and inventory filters for shopping. Promotion extensions for Search. @selley2134
Placement & combo report for YouTube ads. Tons of audience research on those who convert or watch for an extended period of time. @coryhenke
2 – Along similar lines, adding intent (or other) audiences to search campaigns for observation to better understand your segment and their behaviors. @akaEmmaLouise
Call Bid Adjustments “please show my call extension, I’m willing to pay double if it gets clicked”. @PPCGreg
Custom columns. I think they are awesome and helps a lot to optimise the campaigns on the UI. @AlbertRoig
Probably the Google Ads API. Love that thing – and there are still some cool bits of data that can be accessed via the API that aren’t always available elsewhere (though there are some that have started to go away, like App/Display placements). @DigitalSamIAm
Not so much hidden but audience insights can be great for figuring out the competition and then “spying” on them for new ideas. @AllisonMiriani
Not really a hidden gem, but the paid and organic report is super helpful to see how the two channels perform with and without each other. @davisbaker
3 – Not specific to Google Ads, but Google Trends is also v. helpful to assess search behavior over time. I think it’s also partly what the new Insights tab in Google Ads is based on. @akaEmmaLouise
1: If you want to know what Google thinks your CTR should be, you can check in the Keyword Planner too. @NeptuneMoon
Not hidden, but all about that use case – Reporting. Beneficial for large eCommerce accounts. When auditing accounts, I love custom reports to see if products are spending in more than one campaign due to a missing “everything else” exclusion or poor priority rules. @cjsoldwisch
It’s a bit nerdy and not always helpful but the expanded QS columns (LP Exp, Exp CTR, Ad Rel) are great starting points for diagnosing performance issues from Google’s perspective. @AndrewCMiller
I think people sleep on the built in experiments function of google ads. AB ad copy tests are one thing, but you can test so much more if you commit to using the draft -> experiment. And scripts, natch. @armondhammer
I recently ran A display test for custom audiences. 3 ad groups 3 different audiences. 1. competitor urls as search terms 2. competitor names as search terms 3. competitor urls as urls. urls as search terms won. I’m still testing it. but I was amazed. @jord_stark
Rules, you can set up rules to pause keywords, ads, campaigns when they exceed cost per click or cost per conversion or when page duration session is less than 5 seconds. @PlanBNewsletter
I don’t know how lesser known it is at this point but I’m still a big fan of custom audiences and more specifically – generating lists based on influencer urls, competitors, non-branded keywords. @harrison_addi
Q2: What are your favorite lesser known or hidden gems in Facebook?
I think there’s a lot of opportunity to create custom metrics. Now, it’s not going to be super beneficial as attribution is getting muddier, but @iamshackelford has great dashboards for measuring efficiency between video/static ads that have been gamechangers for me. @RyBen3
1 – LTV for custom audiences is one that I took a long time to adopt, even though I knew it was a thing. Mostly it was because I was doing lead gen and didn’t have revenue data. But I found creating value scores for different levels of engagement can be a great proxy. @akaEmmaLouise
Facebook Ad Library to “spy” on competitors. Many people are still not familiar with this tool. @leo_pinon09
Promoting posts with a product tag inside the Facebook ads UI. This allows for another engagement opp. for users while also leading them to a shopping experience (IG/FB shop product page). @coryhenke
2 – Creative Hub was also a huge asset when I was agency-side. Lets you draft ads and share with clients for approval/revision before building in the account (saves a lot of clutter and don’t have to worry about drafts disappearing or accidentally publishing). @akaEmmaLouise
Again, this answer is not going to be the same going forward, but I worked on an account that was just using FB to learn about their audiences. It was fascinating. It was all testing and then seeing who liked/responded to what more. @NeptuneMoon
I the event manager is actually pretty cool. @jord_stark
Automated Rules (I prefer to use through revealbot) and Creative Reporting at account level. @AlbertRoig
3 – Test & Learn is an awesome element of Facebook Ads as well. It’s v. similar to campaign experiments in Google Ads, but I like that there are different types of tests/metrics you can select from (not just CPL/conv). @akaEmmaLouise
4 – I’ve also found video view campaigns for building audiences to be great. Prospect with video then retarget viewers in conversion campaign. Cheaper (in total) way to find/nurture/convert audiences. @akaEmmaLouise
Similarly, Facebook’s Audience Network reporting can be useful. You can see the list of all publishers or just ones where your ads are showing and exclude what you don’t want (disclosure: it’s been over a year since I used this, so idk if it’s been removed since) @akaEmmaLouise
I don’t remember seeing this brought up, so I just have to plug Asset Customization before the chat ends. Lets you edit your creative by placement so you can leverage increased delivery/machine learning without sacrificing user experience. @akaEmmaLouise
Q3: What are your favorite lesser known or hidden gems in Microsoft Ads?
Can I repeat my answer 1? Exclusions all the way through. @andreacruz92
LinkedIn profile targeting is amazing! A huge differentiator from Google Ads and even though reach is low, it is a great way to layer in audiences that nobody else has. @AndrewCMiller
I like the way I can import their merchant center from Google, just like regular campaigns. But my most favorite is how I can still separate the partner network/search syndication network from O&O. Because @GoogleAds elected to stop that ability some years back. @JonKagan
LinkedIn audiences! Great for layering on + bid adjustments. @timothyjjensen
MSAN Display campaigns – basically the microsoft equivalent to Dynamic remarketing. Also I wish it was more robust but the Linkedin integration. @selley2134
Obligatory “search terms reports” response. @AndrewCMiller
UH, SEARCH TERMS. Only a hidden gem thanks to the big G. Too soon? @cjsoldwisch
Echoing others here. A lot of my favorite parts of Google Ads also apply to MS Ads now. But also, the LinkedIn targeting capabilities are awesome! @akaEmmaLouise
The publisher website report is very interesting. You can use it to find poor placements and exclude them by visiting the “website exclusion lists” line within the shared library. @BrettBodofsky
2 – This applies to both MS Ads Editor and Google Ads Editor but I love that both will let you download statistics so you can see best/worst performers while working in bulk/offline rather than going back and forth from the interface and/or excel. @akaEmmaLouise
Q4: What are your favorite lesser known or hidden gems in LinkedIn?
@wilcoxaj is the hidden gem of LinkedIn. @PPCKirk
Skillsss I love them – People ARE missing out if they are not using them. @andreacruz92
The way it emboldens absolutely terrible vendor sales people to make the most awkward and terrible pitches ever…@JonKagan
Echoing Andrea, skills targeting can be really interesting. I have a cross platform answer here too – I love targeting on LI and then retargeting on FB. @NeptuneMoon
Custom fields are AWESOME for lead gen forms if you are not getting qualified leads. @andreacruz92
Account targeting is a pretty great feature. @timothyjjensen
1 – AND/OR targeting! A lot more flexibility in creating target audiences. Also, pro-tip from @wilcoxaj to exclude large company size instead of targeting small ones (keeps the unknowns in the target segment). @akaEmmaLouise
3 – Because ABM: the integration of LinkedIn Campaign Manager with Sales Navigator is also lovely. Super easy to align our marketing support with the sales team’s activity and priorities. @akaEmmaLouise
Q5: What are your favorite lesser known or hidden gems in YouTube?
Youtube Video builder. For clients with smaller budgets or no real video team its a great way to make a clean looking video efficiently. @selley2134
YouTube Shopping hands down. @JonKagan
Customer match targeting and video view retargeting. Video sequencing is a fun one too if clients have the right assets for this. @timothyjjensen
From @coryhenke on Clubhouse: “Earned Video view is one of my favorite top remarketing lists to build out from YouTube. @PPCKirk
One great tip i’ve heard from the awesome head of @ammarketing – Amy is that there is soo much free views you can get before you start paying. am i right in saying that for people who use @YouTube more…i.e. not me! @TheMarketingAnu
One thing that was brought up on clubhouse in regards to hidden gems on YouTube, is that you can use video viewer audiences throughout other campaign types such as search. @BrettBodofsky
Excluding Ryan’s World… impressions black hole. #ppcchat does anyone use top content bid adjustments? @PPCGreg
Overlooked I’d bet, but Watch Time. We don’t do a lot of brand awareness at CN, but the few times I have & ran YouTube, I converted seconds watched into hours. Usually, an impressive number that gets folks excited. Though feels a bit traditional advertising-y. @cjsoldwisch
I’m helping out a client right now and we are taking in a lot of the analytics that are in the ad platform to measure video dropoff by placement. Targeting their competitors YouTube DIY channels has been huge for us. @RyBen3
I have good luck promoting influencer videos. You can promote their videos even if they don’t live on your brand’s YouTube channel. @FindingAmanda
Q6: What are your favorite lesser known or hidden gems in Twitter, Snapchat, Quora, Pinterest or TikTok?
Been playing with Pinterest actalike audiences for a client and was pleasantly surprised with performance. @timothyjjensen
Upload a list of your top customers and see if there’s a match – that means the right audience is present in the platform. @andreacruz92
As @duanebrown also likes to preach – add the pixels to your site and see if your “audience is there” because sometimes your assumptions about which platforms your people use are wrong! @NeptuneMoon
1 – For Quora, phrasing headlines as questions the user would ask (i.e. how do I solve this problem, what’s the value of this solution?) rather than the typical question headlines we use in search (i.e. looking for this product?) @akaEmmaLouise
Not meant to be a plug but can’t help but bring up this blog our Biddable lead put together about TikTok placements that work for your brand. brainlabsdigital.com/blog/how-to-ma… Hope it gives you a few hacks! @TheMarketingAnu
2 – Hashtagify.me is a great tool for Twitter (and other socials as well, I imagine). Shows what language and terms your audience is using – helpful for both targeting and creative. @akaEmmaLouise
Q7: Is there a hidden gem platform that you’ve found that you’d like to tell us all about?
Taboola allows account list targeting & syncs with some pretty detailed 3rd party data (for B2B, some pretty specific industry/job role segments) @timothyjjensen
Has anyone tested concert.io I feel like there are tons of gems there but haven’t tested yet. @coryhenke
I HAVE ONE IN GOOGLE SHOPPING!!!! Just got pinged on this, literally this AM: linkedin.com/feed/update/ur…) Possible way of seeing (some?) channels in Smart Shopping campaigns. @PPCKirk
For video creation, I’ve had a good experience with Storyblocks. Very simple maker tool that even a non-designer like me can put together an effective ad in a short amount of time. @akaEmmaLouise
2 – I don’t think this was mentioned earlier, so also giving a shout out to Spotify Ads. It’s been over a year since I last ran a campaign, but the interface is user-friendly and I’ve heard the targeting has improved quite a bit, too. @akaEmmaLouise
A discussion point i started on Clubhouse – Slack?? Could it be used as a platform? Or will #salesforce use it for data collection/audience segmenting. @TheMarketingAnu
PPCChat Participants
- Jon Kagan @JonKagan
- Emma Franks @akaEmmaLouise
- Kirk Williams @PPCKirk
- Andrea Cruz @andreacruz92
- Doug R Thomas, Esq. @ferkungamaboobo
- Julie F Bacchini @NeptuneMoon
- Shaun Elley @selley2134
- Cory Henke @coryhenke
- Greg @PPCGreg
- Albert Roig @AlbertRoig
- Sam @DigitalSamIAm
- Allison Mirian, CEDS @AllisonMiriani
- Davis Baker @davisbaker
- Cole Soldwisch @cjsoldwisch
- Andrew Miller @AndrewCMiller
- Steve Hammer @armondhammer
- Jordan Stark @jord_stark
- Harrison Phillips @harrison_addi
- Ryan Bennion @RyBen3
- Leo Pinon @leo_pinon09
- Taleb Kabbara @PlanBNewsletter
- Brett Bodofsky @BrettBodofsky
- Tim Jensen @timothyjjensen
- Anu Adegbola @TheMarketingAnu
- Amanda of Baumer Marketing @FindingAmanda
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