Hosted by Julie F. Bacchini, this week’s session explored the worst takes on running a PPC business—whether freelancing, consulting, or working in-house. Experts were asked to share the most misguided advice they’ve ever heard in digital advertising. And finally, they examined the unhelpful myths around managing clients and stakeholders in the PPC world.
Q1: What is the dumbest take you’ve heard for paid search advertising (will have a separate social ads question)?
“NO ONE clicks on paid search ads!!” @Liorkrolewicz
I’ll kick off with a classic – that somehow doing search ads impacts your organic results position. @NeptuneMoon
More recently – condense all your campaigns down into one campaign to rule them all… @NeptuneMoon
Please invest more in search than awareness channels, we need LOTS of search traffic. @JuliaVyse
I always scroll past them, and they don’t influence me. ALSO, it’s only demand capture; no one finds anything new on Google. @teabeeshell
That search advertising somehow magically generates demand. Can it come from Google? How about 15% of all searches are brand new? That stat has been trotted out every year for at least 10 years now! @NeptuneMoon
if no one clicks ads… then how did Google grow to be such a Monopoly beasts? @Liorkrolewicz
Really? EVERY SINGLE YEAR 15% of queries are brand new????? @NeptuneMoon
Why doesn’t my ad show up every time I search for it?! @revaminkoff
if you start spelling neighbour correctly, with a u, maybe it’s a ‘new’ search??? @JuliaVyse
RE:15%…. Clearly, people make up shit @Liorkrolewicz
You don’t need negative keywords – that one kills me every time I see it @NeptuneMoon
“I want to show up 100% of the time, no matter what!” @williamhboggs
“Why should I hire you, if Google offers help for free?” @Liorkrolewicz
“I want more leads, but I’m cutting my ads budget” @williamhboggs
12 hours in… why isn’t it working yet?! @revaminkoff
Saw a pretty popular LinkedIn PPC influencer blindly claim that “80% of all PPC campaigns are now PMax” @JeremyKrantz
If Optimization Score = 100%, then Revenue = Rocket @alimehdimukadam
Landing page relevance isn’t really a thing unless you’re bidding on broad… Read that on Reddit recently lol @Meriem
Q2: What is the dumbest take you’ve heard for paid social advertising?
It cannot work for B2B. @NeptuneMoon
Not dumbest, but misconception … Oh Man @NeptuneMoon that’s what I was going to say! 100% yes! @Liorkrolewicz
“If I just run ads, SOMEONE will buy it” –a business with an absolutely trash product. @williamhboggs
I don’t do a ton of social PPC these days. LinkedIn is my most social platform, but the takes I see regularly on advertising on Meta are mind-blowing. And stated with such complete confidence! One of these is some kind of crazy amount of ad variations you need to be posting all the time. Like hundreds. @NeptuneMoon
Every product and service will do GREAT on Meta…@revaminkoff
It’s to expensive – Well what better TOF do you have? @teabeeshell
I just paused all my tof social ads because bof Google has a much higher roas. @heidisturrock
@teabeeshell If I had a dollar for every time a client complains about the CPCs on LinkedIn, I would be retired. AND… yes, these clicks are expensive because it is letting you target exactly who you want to by company, position, etc. @NeptuneMoon
Meta BS …. they just add the word “suggest” and now target whoever they want. maybe not a “take” but surely the dumbest thing I’ve seen here in a while @Liorkrolewicz
It is really interesting watching people post about Meta lately, too, because it is so clear Meta just wants you to enter a couple bits of information and then have you leave them ALONE to do what they want, how they want. Which is WILD. David Herrmann over on Twitter,r is one of my favorite follows for Meta advertising content. @NeptuneMoon
We NEED to be on Meta! it reaches everyone! Here’s a 30-second video. And my favourite, for any platform: can we do a carousel? @JuliaVyse
Clients give 1 square image and think that’s enough for paid social….@Meriem
Q3: What is the dumbest take you’ve heard for running your PPC business/freelancing/consulting or being an in-house PPC team member?
So for running your own thing… that you have to grow it. No, you don’t. It can look like whatever you want or need it to! @NeptuneMoon
Sign up to be a client, don’t answer any of our emails, then in 30 days decide “PPC doesn’t work” #GymMembership. @Liorkrolewicz
The psychological bias of humans to point fingers: It’s always the fault of external factors – agency/freelancer/algorithm/economy, etc. @alimehdimukadam
I will also generally say I get so annoyed when I see anyone pontificating about how there is basically only one “right way” to be a PPCer. Again, NO THERE IS NOT. @NeptuneMoon
Us: “we saw leads come from really good keywords” Client: “Yeah, but we emailed them once and never heard back… so it’s garbage leads” Us: “You mind trying to call one?” Client: “Holy shit!” @Liorkrolewicz
You don’t have enough breadth; trust me, I do. If I’m on my own, I know my stuff! @teabeeshell
In-agency: your strategies are focused on making your own money, they don’t evolve, it’s not quick enough. Also, we will NOT sign off on any new ideas, and we won’t share our 1st party data. @JuliaVyse
Ooohhh… that you have to have full control of client accounts. NO, YOU ABSOLUTELY DO NOT AND SHOULD NOT. EVER. It’s funny to me too. I have been doing my own thing for 26 years now. When I first started, it was very much thought that you had to always project yourself to be bigger than you were. So before I got a PO box for my business, I listed it as my street address and “Second Floor” cause that was where my office was in my townhome and is sounded more businessy. It swung around to then be very open about being a consultant who worked from my home. @NeptuneMoon
And lately seems to be swinging back around to trying to sound like you’re bigger than you are. Being honest and authentic will get you so much farther and have you working with clients who want what you’re selling in the way that you’re selling it! @NeptuneMoon
I think that “trying to sound like you’re bigger than you are” is a big part of the BS of the industry, along with the over-promises. This is why clients are so skeptical nowadays. But check out any of those “big companies” on Glassdoor – they’re falling apart. @Liorkrolewicz
@Liorkrolewicz A lot of what happens in business is at least a little bit BS, which does not help wither. @NeptuneMoon
Freelancers should be cheaper than an agency. @Meriem
Agency should be cheaper than in-house — it’s not necessarily dumb, but there are reasons why it’s also not necessarily true…@revaminkoff
I cut all ad spend because roas was low and now the business is tanking. I need you to get it back to where it was, but the roas needs to be bof results for tof targeting. @heidisturrock
Q4: What is the dumbest take you’ve heard for managing clients or stakeholders?
It drives me nuts seeing people pushing reporting that makes them look good but is not really showing the client what’s truly happening. If you get this advice, it is terrible. @NeptuneMoon
Don’t focus on the negative. ya’ll, if the client doesn’t feel good about what’s happening, that’s the focus of the conversation. You are welcome to point out wins, or context to allay fear, but if things aren’t good, they aren’t good. @JuliaVyse
Also, it is ok to say “I’m not sure” or “I don’t know the answer to that off hand” rather than bluffing it! @NeptuneMoon
For me, it’s managing stakeholders who (still) rely on vanity metrics. Branded ≠ success. PMax ≠ success. Google Ads relies upon a comprehensive approach to TOF and demand capture efforts. @teabeeshell
YES – Reports. Big part of why I dont like working with BIG companies. I was working with a non-profit that had Spielberg on it… but they wanted a report “like the last agency gave us” Main points included: 5,000,000 impressions | 1 click | etc… I told them it was useless, and offered to create real insights – I got fired. lol @Liorkrolewicz
Oooff @Liorkrolewicz Sometimes you can’t help a client that doesn’t really want help or to know what is truly going on with their account and business. @NeptuneMoon
@JuliaVyse I agree. I tell my team that “We’re doing well” = 1) We see it in our data AND 2) Client says we’re doing well. We have to have BOTH to say that @Liorkrolewicz
I can’t not share something that I believe is obviously wrong in my opinion, and is gonna cost time, money, energy from all. Truth offends sometimes and sugarcoating for the sake of keeping business/placating egos only to then get the blame later on if things don’t work coz of the bias or office politics or whatever is what I find dumb. @alimehdimukadam
On that point, as part of a big giant corp – your clients all have different needs. The brand lead at your client will not care about the same things the performance lead does. It is okay to have lots of perspectives and needs. @JuliaVyse
Over my many years doing this type of work, I have found that if clients or stakeholders “don’t want to hear it” it is really hard to do good and fulfilling work for them. @NeptuneMoon
SO my boss’s boss read something on the internet and now we have to pivot our whole strategy on it. @heidisturrock
Q5: Have you ever had what you later realized was a dumb take on something in PPC? Did you retract it or pretend it never happened?
I am certain I have had a dumb take or 12…@NeptuneMoon
omgd, too many to mention! I’ve been doing this since 2008-ish, and there’s no math you can do where I was always right in that span of time. I’ve worked for different orgs, different types of clients, different teams, and while we have some foundational knowledge, nothing is 100% right anywhere. @JuliaVyse
This business changes and shifts at such a fast pace. It is easy to be wrong or no longer right about things without even fully knowing it. The key is being open to hearing that! @NeptuneMoon
Yes! Be confident in what you do know, and be open to feedback or corrections. @JuliaVyse
I am working on YouTube campaigns for the first time in a while and let me tell you, I felt like an idiot until I reached out to a few industry friends to have them fill me in on how it all changed since I last ran YT ads! I hope you are all not afraid to ask any question in this community! That is why we are here – to help each other and share knowledge. @NeptuneMoon
More often than not and that’s what keeps us humble & engaged, I believe. There’s a lot of truth behind ‘it depends’. @alimehdimukadam
Probably sooooo many things, can’t even remember all of the tactics, opinions, strategies I’ve changed since 2012. First 5 years in PPC I was probably too insecure to admit when I decided to change an opinion. The last 5 years I’ve probably been to busy to remember when I need to retract something. I do think one thing I do well – especially when I’m telling other people to listen to something I’m saying is I caveat that it worked for me in X [industry] [ad spend level] [time of year] etc. Not because I’m not confident I’m correct in my view – but because, we all know there are conditions that make certain tactics work differently for different brands. So it’s good to be down-to-earth and keep the ego at the door. @timmhalloran
@timmhalloran Yes on the context PLEASE. @NeptuneMoon
If I find my team makes a mistake in a Client’s account (or missed opportunity to do much better), I tell them to now over-index the other way and optimize deeper to “make it up to the Client”. This is usually behind the scenes. If it’s a bit bigger, I offer to extend the client’s “month service” an extra 1-2 weeks for free because I think we could have done better @Liorkrolewicz
I will say, I try not to pretend it never happened. When something doesn’t go great, own it, fix it, learn from it. @JuliaVyse
Yes, if we are talking about a bad take or mistake with a client, definitely own it outright, take responsibility for it and fix what you can! @NeptuneMoon
PPCChat Participants
- Lior Krolewicz @Liorkrolewicz
- Julie F Bacchini @NeptuneMoon
- Reva Minkoff @revaminkoff
- Ali Mehdi Mukadam @alimehdimukadam
- Tim Halloran @timmhalloran
- Julia Vyse @JuliaVyse
- Travis @teabeeshell
- Boggs @williamhboggs
- Jeremy Krantz @JeremyKrantz
- Meriem @Meriem
- Heidi Sturrock @heidisturrock
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